Prayer boobs

Goodness gracious!  Just too much fun stuff has been happening for me to sit down and write a blog.  Therefore….I’m very behind!

I’ll start with last Monday (not like this week….but the previous one.)  Since we didn’t get in and go to bed until very, very early Monday morning after getting back from Osaka, we slept in until about 10:30 on Monday since it was a holiday, and we were tired.  We got a slow start to our day and finally had breakfast/lunch at noon.  After that, Ian had to finish up some work, so I took Margaret on a tour of Yunomae.  I started off with the highlights—town hall, the recycling center behind it, my BOE, the train station, post office, dental office, the one conbini in town, cycling trail, then over to Mizukami, Ichifusa dam and reservoir, trail head and waterfall of Ichifusa, back to Yunomae, our swimming hole, the town’s Buddhist temple, my nursery schools, Green Palace, and finally to Yurari onsen.  I took her across the suspension bridge and down to the fertility shrine.  I explained to her a little about the religion of Shinto and what the fertility shrine was about.  I don’t remember seeing them there the last time I visited there, but hanging at the altar were several round, white, pillow-ish balls with nipples at the tips and kanji written on them.  They were prayer boobs!  Yunomae is known for its fertility, so many women come to that shrine to pray to get pregnant, to have a healthy pregnancy, and for a safe delivery and first couple of months with a newborn.  We had seen the prayer boobs at the gift shop in Yurari, and I explained to Margaret what they were, but to see them actually hanging up in the shrine was pretty darn funny!    We even saw a pregnant lady walking down to the shrine to hang up two prayer boobs on our way back up to Yurari.  (Side note…another great find in the gift shop was an “Oppai matsuri” (Boob festival) t-shirt that my town hosts every year.  That’s right….my town hosts a boob festival every year!  I debated to buy one or not and decided to wait until later to get it. )

Last Tuesday morning I went to my nursery schools just like normal.  I showed up at the first nursery school only to find all of the teachers and kids outside playing at a sports festival!  I was shocked!  I found the teacher who I normally work with, and as soon as she saw me, she had that “oops-I-forgot-to-tell-the-foreigner” reaction.  I know that had she remembered to say something to my supervisor, that nursery school time probably would have been canceled.  However, she immediately pulled a chair out of one of the classrooms and sat me down right next to the kids.  I got to play with the kids, cheer them on as they raced one another around the track, and watch the tiniest kids waddle around the track.    Too cute!! 

On Tuesday at my JHS, I started practicing for the annual Kuma-gun speech contest held at the end of October.  Last year, for two or three weeks before the contest, I had to stay after school for an hour EVERYDAY to help the kids.  This year, Mr. Fujiwara told me that we’d be practicing during break time after lunch….and only during that time.    Yay for me!  I don’t have to worry about staying after school!  Last week I worked with my 2nd graders, this week it’s 3rd graders, and next week will be 1st graders.  Practicing this year is SOOOOOO much different from last year.  Last year, Ms. Fuchita wanted emotions, gestures, and EVERY word to be annunciated.  This year, Mr. Fujiwara is happy to have the kids read over it two or three times and then call it a day.    Last year, I did tongue twisters and warm-ups with the kids to help them combat the dreaded “th” and “b vs. v” sounds.  This year, when I try to ask the kids what is difficult and what they want to go over more or any other warm-up stuff, they shake their heads and tell me that they just want to read it and have me correct them because that’s what Mr. Fujiwara has told them to do.  

Last Wednesday at my ES was a wonderful, wonderful day!  It was the first day that I was back since the Halloween flyers about my Halloween party for the kids went out.  I cannot tell you how many kids I had running up to me telling me that they were coming to my party and what their costumes were.  It was precious!!    I got all of the permission slips back, and I have a grand total of eighty-nine kids coming to the party.  HURRAY!  All of the kids are super excited about it, and even my 4th grade teacher (who speaks English) said that the kids are very “aggressive” about it.  lol….I think he meant “excited”….maybe they’re so excited that they’re aggressive about it? 

In my fifth grade class, one of the girls had a band aid on her knee.  She pointed it out to me, and I gave her the usual “Awwwww…” sympathy.  It was actually a quite cute band aid because it had Kuma-mon on it!    I smiled and said “Kuma-mon!”  She pulled out of her pocket another Kuma-mon band aid and offered it to me.  How cute!  ………then she proceeded to pull back the band aid and show me the disgusting fresh wound.    Sweetness lost. 

I played oni (tag) with the kids as usual at recess, and I think it’s absolutely hilarious when the kids start to change the rules to keep me being it.  For example, instead of the normal touch-and-you’re-it tag, they played in which they took off their caps and threw them at one another.  If the cap touched someone, then that made that person it.  Since all of the kids have hats, and I was the only one without a hat, I was automatically made it.    Since I didn’t have a hat to throw, I just ran and tagged kids.  That worked for a while until the ring leader, a 4th grade girl who I love, decided to start changing the rules.  I was closing in on her and about only a foot away from tagging her when she yelled “Stop!” and told the kids……something.  Even though she was that close to being it, since she yelled “Stop!” before I tagged her and then changed the rules, guess who continued to be it?  ME!!  That happened about three other times.  Then, the rules changed AGAIN.  I had to run hand-in-hand with two 1st grade girls (who happened to be the slowest runners out of all of us.)  We were this amoeba shaped blob bouncing around the playground.  I was basically dragging the two first graders behind me in an effort to tag someone (pretty sure I even clothes-lined one girl on accident, but she just laughed)….anyone….but everyone was just too quick for our little blob.  Luckily time ran out soon after we started playing this way.  However, those little munchkins are starting to gang up on me to keep me it!!! 

My vice principal at my ES is a hoot.  I’m not sure if he’s half crazy or just really, really goofy and funny.  He always tries to speak to me in broken English, which is fine, but sometimes I feel like he feels like I’m his cool American friend.  If I approve something or call him a “cool guy,” he is utterly thrilled.  He constantly shows me his new trinkets…..Fossil watch, Ray-ban glasses, cute little pine cone bear he made, etc.  I always say “Wow!” or “Cool!” or some other exclamation, and he becomes tickled pink.  Last Wednesday, he talked to me for about an hour.  I really just wanted to write a blog, but he kept going on and on and on…….  It was fun because he talked about his band and how he lives forty-five minutes away but practices singing on the way to and from school.  He also invited me to a music festival/talent show at the school on November 23rd.  I honestly have no idea where our conversations are going to go when he starts talking, but the guy is a real hoot! 

Okay.  From here, I am exactly one week behind on the ole blog.  Hopefully tomorrow I can completely catch up!  Here’s to hoping!