Meeting the kids
An aspect of Japan that I love - the food. I love to cook Japanese and Chinese food, but Japanese ingredients (and even Chinese) are not readily available in my part of the UK, so now, being able to nip down to the supermarket to buy ‘choi sam’, ‘pak choi’ (types of vegetable - but I don’t know the Japanese names) and ‘tofu’ for example - is a real treat and one of the things I will definitely miss when I leave Japan.
Today I briefly met all the schools I am going to teach - chugakko, shogakko and hoikuen (junior high, elementary and kindergarten). It is the summer holiday now so it was just a “hello, I’m going to be your new ALT” visit - not a formal speech-type affair, which will come later when school starts. The kindergarten kids were great. We visited during their taiko drumming practise, so I watched for a little while. As we walked out of the school after the visit, all the children came running out, following in our wake - totally silent - mouths gawping and eyes beaming at the new gaijin toy that they would soon get to meet and play with every week. Our visit concluded with lots of ‘bai bai Jon-sensei’. Really cute.
I didn’t get to meet any elementary school children as they were not at the school, but I have a feeling that some of the kids I have been saying hello to on the way to work are my shogakko students. The chugakko students were at school despite it being summer holiday - doing sports activities. The girls giggled and babbled in their high-pitched vernacular, and the boys were inquisitive, but quieter. Slowly but surely, the village is getting to know the new gaijin.
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