Returning to Japan: First Week Back to School

About Myself

A creative writer by nature, this is my first foray into the world of blogging. I’ve been keeping a journal since I first arrived in japan, and figured now would be a good time to start since I wont have to spend so much time preparing lessons this time around. I’m from Los Angeles and Minnesota, and a graduate of University of Minnesota Twin Cities with an English major and Asian studies minor,, and I’ve been studying Japanese about nine years now (wow! Has it really been so long?). It seems like yesterday I traveled to Japan for the first time, when in reality it was six years ago! It was only a ten day trip, but I such an amazing time I knew I had to come back. During my time there my host family in Kobe showed me warm hospitality and introduced me to okonomiyaki and purikura, now two of my most favorite things. I saw Kyoto and Hiroshima as well, but it wasn’t enough – only enough to whet my appetite for more! And thus here I am, starting my second year living in Ibaraki prefecture.

Merissa no Meritto

I’ve titled my blog “Melissa no Meritto” (meritto meaning merit in Japanese). There’s a shampoo in Japan called メリット, only one character different from my nameメリッサ, which I thought was funny enough I had to buy, and I’ve been using it ever since. So basically it means the merits of being Melissa – or Melissa’s Merit shampoo. Whichever.

Returning to Japan: First Week Back to School

This year, I come prepared. I hit up the dollar store for handy teaching items, stocked up on stickers, and scored on these signs:

 to ensure a much more controlled atmosphere in the classroom – meaning less screaming and chaos, more listening. I’ve raised my voice too many times last year. This time I’m gonna have well trained kids. Thus I started the class setting up some rules and going over important classroom English. I got some funny guesses for the signs – someone guessed “eyes on me” meant “don’t wear glasses!”, “please wear glasses!”, “don’t eat an apple!.” “Line up here” was admittedly the most difficult, the bus part really threw them off: “ride on the bus here!” Why  that would come in handy inside the school I don’t know, but it was sure funny seeing how serious they were with their guesses. I also ran though a basic glimpse into my life with a PowerPoint presentation I filled up with all the pictures I took while home on spring break for the sole purpose of making this PowerPoint presentation. For me, home is LA and Minnesota. The kids got really excited over the Mall of America and Spongebob, all the pictures of food – they want to try fried mac and cheese and cupcakes, but California rolls stumped them a little. Cinnamon rolls were also enticing. Basically they wanted to eat everything. They were also amazed at the size of everything in America, from 6 lane freeways to the houses – imagine having a three car garage or a swimming pool at your house!

Then there was junior high, which starts off my weeks. Well, it sure was something. The good part was seeing many of my former sixth graders now first years at junior high. That’s the good thing about your second year: you’ve already built up a whole year of connection with your students that pays off,  and seeing them grow up makes you proud and also a little sad.

The bad part…Well, you may assume all Japanese children are well-behaved, polite, quiet little angels. Well, you're wrong. I too was under this delusion before I came here that they couldn’t possibly be noisy, rude, or rambunctious, but truth is they're just like other kids. Unfortunately there was one second year boy (the equivalent of 8^th grade in America) who behaved extremely obnoxious toward me, as well as a few other boys giving me a hard time that I had to deal with this week. It certainly isn’t easy being a foreign woman in Japan in a town off the beating track from Tokyo, for a variety of reasons I’ll probably end up getting into in a later post. Anyway, it was a looong and eventful week. Luckily in only two more weeks it'll be Golden Week here, which means a five day weekend!

Springtime in Japan: New School Year, New Beginnings

Sakura – light pink cherry blossoms clothing Japan in color after a long dreary winter, their delicate petals drifting in the breeze as their short-lived, usually two week, life span winds down until the next year. School children in their yellow caps and red randoseru on their backs walking to school, recent graduates flocking in their black suits to their workplaces as full-fledged members of society. A time of change and transition. While Americans are still relishing their spring breaks and looking forward to summer vacation, for Japanese the school year is just starting. The school system here is broken down into three trimesters – the first from April through the third week of July, with a five week summer break (the kids here are always so amazed and envious when I tell them American kids get almost three months off!) resuming in September, ending in December for winter break and usually having school all the way up to on on the day of Christmas, and the last spanning from January to mid March. A two week spring break is all that is allotted between school years, coinciding with the perfect amount of time in which one can enjoy the ephemeral cherry blossoms. I visited my town’s local sakura matsuri early this week (the day after I returned to Japan no less. But I was worried they might not still be around if I waited till the weekend, so I pushed through the jet lag). Apparently it had snowed the weekend before, unusually, so I was grateful for the warmth, sunshine, and beautiful blossoms that welcomed me back to Japan with open arms.

For teachers, however, this is a somewhat scary time, as they get rotated to different schools every certain amount of years, and may be in charge of teaching different grade levels, but won’t know too far in advance. Needless to say there’s a bit of anxiety in the air. As for myself I was also waiting on finding out my schools for this year, hoping I would get my favorite elementary again. Thankfully I did, plus only one other school, a junior high also a mere five minute bike ride from my tiny Leopalace apartment (more on those later). When I arrived at school I found out many teachers had been moved, and many new teachers had come to replace them. One of my favorite sixth grade teachers is no longer here, which makes me sad! But there are two more people at my elementary school who speak English, so that’s a plus. With elementary schools there’s usually one person who can speak English but they’re always busy teaching, so you pretty much have to fend for yourself. Good thing I’ve been studying Japanese as long as I have. I’m used to it now, but it was pretty tiring the first few months. Japanese people’s English ability is generally pretty low, as the curriculum here is focused more on test taking and memorization than speaking, so any amount of an effort at English is appreciated.

What I’m Looking Forward to in my Second Year in Japan:

Now that I’ve had a whole year’s experience under my belt, I’m excited how much smoothly things will go and how much more I can enjoy life here. Communication will flow easier, I’m more savvy with travel, and I know what events not to miss out on. Plus I’ve got Hiroshima, Kyushu, Okinawa, and Australia on my bucket list. Can’t wait for what this year has in store!

If you have any questions, topics you’d like to hear about, or anything that I mentioned that you’d like to know more about, feel free to let me know!