Suicide Blond

Called Jimiko today for the long blonde wig I was wearing on gate duty, which was very amusing. A lad who thinks he's Pele got pinged in the ear playing footy in the yard (oops!) & a lack of bladder control later in the day added up to a fair pegging back of his rather large opinion of his short self, and a pegging-back of his Alpha male status. Have I been watching too many Animal Planet documentaries?!

No interaction during Fski's; film in the hall. No Jim Time either, which leaves me thoroughly dissatisfied & feeling my time has been wasted being here today. Twattish boy calling me "unko" (turd) & presuming to boss me around eg fetch that ball. I really don't think so - but how to get that message across without lending him a thick ear? I do not know how to do these things in L1, let alone L2...what training course would that be on? PGCE?

Made a bird in class with the children, lending the less dexterous/attentive a hand doing the origami; had to get onigiri (rice ball) from Lawson's (needed the walk to calm down) and ate in the yard with all the children picnicking (a no school lunch day).

A phone call from a friend about a very close friend's recent suicide casts a cloud which I find hard to shrug off.

Rainy season arrived, buggers up the move we are in the midst of with the school. Last 3 nights I've put in 4am finishes, painting & decorating. Last night = unmasked downstairs & cleaned up, nearly finished the toilet.

Tonight = gallop to pack materials for a Cambridge examination in Nagoya tomorrow, as well as the smart clothes I'll need, teach x3 classes  in between & make the last train.

Sugar Rush Fairy - day trip to MisDo

Looking for an expert

Lunch box stress again! This time we are going to have a picnic in the park, after an excursion around town...will my sandwiches be too big? Will I be the only one without a chilled drink (but a bottle of coffee milk I bought a few days ago?

Seemed very odd to be driving back into town on a trip, which was exactly the same way I'd cycled out to the school less than an hour before. I had seen, but not really grasped the significance of, a couple of pictures on the classroom walls the last few days. These were the treasure items in our tresure hunt. A statue of a cow, and a frog, amongst other items. We waited on a bridge for a 'sensei' to find us & act like she was on a national TV variety show for her 3 minute ham-acting slot, then toddled off to count froggery - models, pictures, statues etc of frogs. My cohorts gave up after they got to 60 or so a minute and fifteen seconds later! That the street is nick-named "Frog Street" should be a clue!

We pulled into a shrine & all was a bit dull - I grabbed some bird seed and sat in the middle of my gang. Pigeons mobbed us and the photographer on stringing duty filled her socks. I later noticed 8'x10's of the day going for Y1,400, which I think is a bit rude! Check out my flickr feed!

The children had been briefed on the "ask a policeman" solution to being lost, and our kindy snake found its way to the nearest "Koban" - police box - where an utterly disinterested jobsworth copper failed to engage with anyone at all, and basically just pointed across the road & round the corner to where we could find our lost minibus. Useless plod! Kids love the whole uniform thing, and this was your moment to dazzle the children with the voice of authority, warm reassurance and a bit of ceremony. Plop. Underwhelmderment.

Seen any frogs around here?

Around the park we then walked, a bit like a cat looking for a comfy place to lie down; unfortunately a bunch of other schools had had the same idea and already had their priceless leisure mats in situ. Thankfully, everyone was really hungry, so my convenience store old sangers were not really noticed. Annoyed again that my playing with the early finishers = money in the bank for the photographer as we larked around the lake.

The coup de grace was practicing how to use money & buy something in a shop. I am sure older generations would be spinning in their graves that Mister Donuts was the chosen establishment to drill this financial interaction - everyone bought a donut to complete the sugar rush, before the ride back to school.

If you want to know anything, don't ask a Japanese policeman.

Now, this was a much better thought out trip than a high school trip I'd helped out back in July - dumped with a foreigner & then expected to explain downtown in  English with a full 2 hour commentary - but there was nevertheless plenty of room for a slice more English than me high-5ing donut buyers.

https://itunes.apple.com/jp/podcast/matsumoto-welcomes-you!/id528138759?l=en&mt=2 will find you a free one-hour walking tour of the town!

And only one kid puked his donut guts when allowed to choff his goody bag before hometime...