Back to School.
The last month, every weekend has been crazy busy. Weekends were not a time of rest. I have been surprising successful in finding things to do in Toyama (and once at a skifield in Nagano- of the '98 olympic). This is good, but I felt I might be starting to burn out when I spent a friday afternoon at school where my eyes were blinking longer than I could keep them open. Being awake is often not needed as an ALT, but it is relatively low on the professionalism scale.
This weekend, I went back to visit my host families above Tokyo again. It's a long, expensive and stressful trip, whether you choose to go by night bus or by train. It didn't help how I chose to attend basketball practice before leaving. The bus leaves at 11pm, and arrived in central Tokyo at 5:25, well before the first trains. The wise option was to go to an internet cafe. In Japan, this is usually a place where people go to get a terrible sleep after a night's drinking. I wasn't drinking, but I wanted a few hours of terrible sleep.
My host family is like an oasis. It could feel my body repairing itself. The month of post- Shanghai unrest melted away. It sounds stupid, but I travelled all this way to do absolutely nothing. It was great.
The next day I went to visit another host family that I hadn't seen since I left their place 3 1/2 years ago. They are the nicest people. Whereas my real family (in NZ) took just a few weeks to tear apart and redocrate my bedroom, coming back to this host family reminded me how nice it is to know some things don't change. Everything about them, my old town, my old home... The sun had just gone around the earth a few times, is all.
Today, Monday.
This was a big day for me. If i thought yesterday was a day for reminiscing... well (-please insert some witty remark yourself). I should have done this a long time ago... Go back to my old high school in Japan. I requested a paid holiday for today, so i could go to my old school to talk to the students and join their classes. I know, it sounds stupid in retrospect. "isn't that what you usually do?". It also meant I would miss out on my lucrative English Conversation class on Monday nights. Still, felt I owed it to my old School. This was truly, a trip with the Ghost of Christmas Past.
I used to always go to school with my host brother. This time, my younger host sister is at the school. Nothing had changed. Only the faces in the uniforms I, and my friends used to wear were different. The same buses. Same driver. Same route. Same everything... Suddenly it appeared before me... the school I left behind just over 3 years ago. It was hard to accept that I was 3 years older.
A lot of the same teachers were there also. A few I still knew by name, a few others needed reintroducing. One of my favourite teachers, my old home economics teacer, Mrs. Big Tree (大木) walked into the room, saw me, and stopped short. She looked like she had seena ghost. (I'm not that white, i thought). Her reaction was priceless. She just couldn't place me. I guess, that is understandable. Most years, this school has taken in an Exchange student, and I am the first to have come back.
Since 3 full years had passed, none of the students were at the school when I was, but all 1600 of them had seen me before. This is a shameful secret I will share with you all... When I was here, I was a model for the school prospectus. It is a private school, loaded with cash, so no expense was spared. A spent a whole 2 days with a professional photographer, goin all over the town for ideal locations. Eventually, it was decided that i would pose infront of an artificial romanesque cornice. The other photo made the cover, and these prospecuses were dispersed all throught the region. Apparently, the same photos were used for the next three prospectuses.
Throughout the day, I was frequently called "pamplet boy", once they realised where they'd seen me before.
I clearly remember the day I left. There was a meeting/byebye/sayonara party for me. I was asked to do a speech. I really didnt know what to say. It was a complicated time. The only thing that truly made sense to me then, was cards. If you are unaware, I am an amateur magician. I won't go into it now, but I have the ability to make people look like they have seen a ghost, or swear that they will never play against me in a game of poker. I wanted to have a memorable goodbye, so I decided to brink out my A-game. A card trick people would remember. To cut the story short, and to save me the torture or recalling every detail, it ended up completely wrong... I basically played a game of "pick up 52" by myself to an audience of 100 people. Memorable for the wrong reasons.
Today was an opportunity to remedy this. I joined some classes with my old ALT teacher, with my host sister, and one of my old English teachers. The highschool level of English is much easier to be able to talk to them. I guess, apart from being an unfortunate celebrity, I am very interesting to them. There are no foriegn students here currently. I was then asked to show a few card tricks... It was like confronting the bully who haunted your childhood. I called up a volunteer. She nervously picked her card. I nervously shuffled. She asked if she could shuffle. What kind of magicial would I be if i said no? I could start to feel the wedgie, and me losing my lunch money... But you have to stand up to your bullies... It was almost slow motion, as I threw the entire deck into the air. Several students screamed in fright (the front 3 rows will get wet!), yet I was calm. As the cards settled and fluttered to the ground, I was standing strong with a single card in my hand... It was a dirct match.
I did various other performances throughout the day. A very special day. I know I was duped into taking a paid days leave, and i missed my weekly extra income, but it was well worthwhile. But I needed to get home. It wasn't worthwhile catching the night bus home. That would mean I need to sleep on the bus, and go directly to work... The bullet train, and limited express train would get me home on time to get a good night sleep, and I could still catch my favourite program on TV. However, when I tried to buy my ticket, I discovered the trains were cancelled for the rest of the night... (This was the same line when I was delayed going to Tokyo and someone threw themselves infront of our train)
Question: What was on the tracks to stop all trains from passing?
A) Bears, out from hibernation unseasonably early due to the warm winter.
B) Wind, from across the Japan sea.
C) A colony of protected seabirds.
D) Incompetent Japan Railway employees repairing a section of the line.
All seem pretty ridiculous to me. The answer, was B) wind. It still doesnt make much sense to me. But that is what it was. My options were limited. I could go the really long way around the Japanese Alps, costing twice as much. I could take another day of paid leave, sleep at an internet cafe and go home in the morning. Or I could train the 2 hours back into tokyo and hope there is still a seat on that damn night bus. That is what I decided. It turns out, no. there was no seats left. There were seats to the neighbouring prefecture. I'm now in an internet cafe waiting for that bus. Now, I will need to train to my town, including a stopover. I will most likely arrive to school late, and completley exhausted... The cycle of tiredness continues. This weekend of rest was wasted... because of wind... However, the flooding of re-memories will remain for a long long time.
The last month, every weekend has been crazy busy. Weekends were not a time of rest. I have been surprising successful in finding things to do in Toyama (and once at a skifield in Nagano- of the '98 olympic). This is good, but I felt I might be starting to burn out when I spent a friday afternoon at school where my eyes were blinking longer than I could keep them open. Being awake is often not needed as an ALT, but it is relatively low on the professionalism scale.
This weekend, I went back to visit my host families above Tokyo again. It's a long, expensive and stressful trip, whether you choose to go by night bus or by train. It didn't help how I chose to attend basketball practice before leaving. The bus leaves at 11pm, and arrived in central Tokyo at 5:25, well before the first trains. The wise option was to go to an internet cafe. In Japan, this is usually a place where people go to get a terrible sleep after a night's drinking. I wasn't drinking, but I wanted a few hours of terrible sleep.
My host family is like an oasis. It could feel my body repairing itself. The month of post- Shanghai unrest melted away. It sounds stupid, but I travelled all this way to do absolutely nothing. It was great.
The next day I went to visit another host family that I hadn't seen since I left their place 3 1/2 years ago. They are the nicest people. Whereas my real family (in NZ) took just a few weeks to tear apart and redocrate my bedroom, coming back to this host family reminded me how nice it is to know some things don't change. Everything about them, my old town, my old home... The sun had just gone around the earth a few times, is all.
Today, Monday.
This was a big day for me. If i thought yesterday was a day for reminiscing... well (-please insert some witty remark yourself). I should have done this a long time ago... Go back to my old high school in Japan. I requested a paid holiday for today, so i could go to my old school to talk to the students and join their classes. I know, it sounds stupid in retrospect. "isn't that what you usually do?". It also meant I would miss out on my lucrative English Conversation class on Monday nights. Still, felt I owed it to my old School. This was truly, a trip with the Ghost of Christmas Past.
I used to always go to school with my host brother. This time, my younger host sister is at the school. Nothing had changed. Only the faces in the uniforms I, and my friends used to wear were different. The same buses. Same driver. Same route. Same everything... Suddenly it appeared before me... the school I left behind just over 3 years ago. It was hard to accept that I was 3 years older.
A lot of the same teachers were there also. A few I still knew by name, a few others needed reintroducing. One of my favourite teachers, my old home economics teacer, Mrs. Big Tree (大木) walked into the room, saw me, and stopped short. She looked like she had seena ghost. (I'm not that white, i thought). Her reaction was priceless. She just couldn't place me. I guess, that is understandable. Most years, this school has taken in an Exchange student, and I am the first to have come back.
Since 3 full years had passed, none of the students were at the school when I was, but all 1600 of them had seen me before. This is a shameful secret I will share with you all... When I was here, I was a model for the school prospectus. It is a private school, loaded with cash, so no expense was spared. A spent a whole 2 days with a professional photographer, goin all over the town for ideal locations. Eventually, it was decided that i would pose infront of an artificial romanesque cornice. The other photo made the cover, and these prospecuses were dispersed all throught the region. Apparently, the same photos were used for the next three prospectuses.
Throughout the day, I was frequently called "pamplet boy", once they realised where they'd seen me before.
I clearly remember the day I left. There was a meeting/byebye/sayonara party for me. I was asked to do a speech. I really didnt know what to say. It was a complicated time. The only thing that truly made sense to me then, was cards. If you are unaware, I am an amateur magician. I won't go into it now, but I have the ability to make people look like they have seen a ghost, or swear that they will never play against me in a game of poker. I wanted to have a memorable goodbye, so I decided to brink out my A-game. A card trick people would remember. To cut the story short, and to save me the torture or recalling every detail, it ended up completely wrong... I basically played a game of "pick up 52" by myself to an audience of 100 people. Memorable for the wrong reasons.
Today was an opportunity to remedy this. I joined some classes with my old ALT teacher, with my host sister, and one of my old English teachers. The highschool level of English is much easier to be able to talk to them. I guess, apart from being an unfortunate celebrity, I am very interesting to them. There are no foriegn students here currently. I was then asked to show a few card tricks... It was like confronting the bully who haunted your childhood. I called up a volunteer. She nervously picked her card. I nervously shuffled. She asked if she could shuffle. What kind of magicial would I be if i said no? I could start to feel the wedgie, and me losing my lunch money... But you have to stand up to your bullies... It was almost slow motion, as I threw the entire deck into the air. Several students screamed in fright (the front 3 rows will get wet!), yet I was calm. As the cards settled and fluttered to the ground, I was standing strong with a single card in my hand... It was a dirct match.
I did various other performances throughout the day. A very special day. I know I was duped into taking a paid days leave, and i missed my weekly extra income, but it was well worthwhile. But I needed to get home. It wasn't worthwhile catching the night bus home. That would mean I need to sleep on the bus, and go directly to work... The bullet train, and limited express train would get me home on time to get a good night sleep, and I could still catch my favourite program on TV. However, when I tried to buy my ticket, I discovered the trains were cancelled for the rest of the night... (This was the same line when I was delayed going to Tokyo and someone threw themselves infront of our train)
Question: What was on the tracks to stop all trains from passing?
A) Bears, out from hibernation unseasonably early due to the warm winter.
B) Wind, from across the Japan sea.
C) A colony of protected seabirds.
D) Incompetent Japan Railway employees repairing a section of the line.
All seem pretty ridiculous to me. The answer, was B) wind. It still doesnt make much sense to me. But that is what it was. My options were limited. I could go the really long way around the Japanese Alps, costing twice as much. I could take another day of paid leave, sleep at an internet cafe and go home in the morning. Or I could train the 2 hours back into tokyo and hope there is still a seat on that damn night bus. That is what I decided. It turns out, no. there was no seats left. There were seats to the neighbouring prefecture. I'm now in an internet cafe waiting for that bus. Now, I will need to train to my town, including a stopover. I will most likely arrive to school late, and completley exhausted... The cycle of tiredness continues. This weekend of rest was wasted... because of wind... However, the flooding of re-memories will remain for a long long time.
No comments:
Post a Comment