bunka sai

I had bunka sai- school festival yesterday and today.
I enjoyed it more than last year, much of it was similar, but had different elements; which I think is an encouraging prospect that my 2nd year here won't exactly mirror the last year in terms of the school calendar.
On Fri, we were in the taiko kan- gym all day long, for music performances (brass band, student guitar bands, student gangster type music& street/ break dancing dancing), more dancing, a drama club theatre production, transvestite competition! & not to forget the teachers' punk rock band, which I introduced (my only role in the entire festival & the same as last year).

Today was mainly outside - 3rd years, like year 13s (the oldest students), cooked and sold food- typical of the sort found in japanese festival food stalls. I ate kakigori -a sickly snow cone; a frankfurter; fried stick (fried crust of bread with chocolate and sugar coating- tasty but unhealthy!) and anmitsu - anko (sweet been paste), canned fruit and dango (rice made into a sweet). It was good! After that & after chatting to students, I went inside to visit the cultural club activites' displays. Last year I couldn't get over the fact they have a flower arranging club, as well as homemaking club!! But I got sidetracked in the science club room. Some of my students from my 3rd year English conversation class were in there & together we made 'slime' and a few other things. I hadn't realised how much time had flown when the announcement came that the festival was over! I still had 3 rooms yet to visit, but quickly made it to/ poked my head in at flower arrangement, art and calligraphy. No time for tea ceremony!



In the afternoon I had a worthwhile conversation in passing wtih a biology teacher, who i knew from the moment he arrived at our school in April, that i dunno, he could be one to watch/ could be one of those teachers who likes talking to the ALT. Anyway, turns out at the school in neighbouring Shiogama he worked at 5 years ago, the ALT there was a British guy who studied at D??????, where Harry Potter?????? . Anyway, turns out I and this other guy went to the same university, so he was impressed by my credentials (I mean, who wouldn't be with dunelm initials after my name?! only joking!) and interested in British English... or something. I agreed that around the time i finished work that day I'd go along to his classroom. And I'm glad I did.-

Well in fact, just before 4pm, some girls I didn't recognise came and found me in the staff room. They said something about ~sensei and I twigged that he'd sent them. Anyway, one of these students has some sort of uni entrance interview next week & she needed a bit of English practice. So for a couple of hours (almost) after school, we relaxed in the science teachers' room, ate snacks, drank tea, conversed in English (& japanese), were entertained by this teacher- who produced a guitar out of no where and randomly started singing during 'tea time'! and did a practice interview. Well worth it. I partly think that's what I'm there for at school - to give students chances to practise English- it's just that often i don't get many chances like that offered to me on a plate. I hope this kind of thing continues! (But realise I prob have to start instigating this kind of thing, rather than waiting for enthusiastic teachers to utilise me.)

One other small interesting thing that came up in conversation, during the common, 'Do you like Japan?' question, was KAMIKAZE. Kami meaning god(s) and kaze -wind. Japan definitely has an island nation mentality... belived to be protected because the gods caused strong winds to blow when Chinese and Korean ships tried to come across many years ago. Hmm. On a previous conversation whilst on holiday, we thought maybe the Japanese are so (sometimes) xenophobic because they were never colonized. I know Britain is also an island, but I somehow think we're a bit more in touch with the wider world than Japan is!!

Oh, and when a student was trying to sell me some yakitori earlier, he translated it as 'firebird'. Actually, 'fried or grilled chicken' comes a lot closer!!