Going over a new game I tried with the 6th years, OK but needs tinkering.
A couple of my students were having dinner at the same place as us.
Me about to get my lovely card from the yochien (kindergarten).

It has been an good past few days although a little sad. For you other ALTs who read my BLOG this may be a little boring seeing as you probably just went through a similar experience but for my readers not in Japan it may be interesting.
On Thursday I was visited on my little island by Kelly and her friend Amy. As they were visiting on a Thursday, being my day at the elementry school, I invited them to join me for some lessons. The ferry only comes in at 11.30 so the only had time to have lunch with my yochien and then do my afternoon lesson (6th years). But what a lunch it was! My yochien are a riot and were not shy of Kelly and Amy in the slightest. They even made Kelly and amy say; 'rice please,' 'soup please,' 'orange please,' for each item of the school lunch as it was dished out. I had tought them please-thankyou-your welcome a while back. They were soon busy molesting kelly and amy as they are wont to do. The girl I sat next to was particularly genki that day. I got her (and some other kids) several times with 'oh whats that!' or 'Look over there!' and then saying 'haha you looked' when she did. She never got me once! Hah! They tried really hard telling me various people were behind me but I was far too cunning. I also got her with the tapping shoulder thing. I rock. She got me back though. She had a big milk mustashe so I said 'haha you have a milk beard,' she only shrugged and went 'unnnnn' -japanese for yes/uhuuh-. So I told her 'ewww dirty,' she just laughed and wiped her milk covered hands all over my sweater. Fair enough. Then after lunch is over a pupil comes to the front and the teacher motions for me to go to the front too, apparently the lesson that morning had been my last lesson with them as yochien! I hadn't known! They presented me with a lovely card thing (more a board) with pictures of me and the yochien stuck on it and messages and things, very cute! As it was the last lesson I gave the boys (and tough girls) last boosts up, I literaly throw them up and give them air time. At the teachers request we then played one last animal evolution game and then it was time for me to go as the after lunch class was starting shortly. I will have the yochien as 1st year elementry school but I only have them once a month, currently I have the yochien everyweek! I upped the classes from once a month to everyweek at the teachers request. I hope they get a good teacher as that really effects the classes personality. The class with the 6th years turned out to be the last one too, luckily I had my guests to make it a special lesson. It had been scheduled for next week but I guess the schedule changed so I didn't have a special lesson planned. I am looking forward to seeing the 6th years as junior high kids, hopefully alot of them sign up for my english conversation classes. I will have them for the period before the hormones kick in. Kelly and Amy really enjoyed my yochien although Kelly was a little grossed out by the boy who was doing something vigous with his hands in his pants for quite some time, hands not down his pants but all the way up the legs. They both of them got out the ethanol hand sanitising gel immediately after wards. I really enjoyed your visit Kelly and Amy sorry the weather was a bit poo! It was worth cleaning my house up for!

Today was graduation at the Junoir High school but that BLOG will have to wait until tommorrow or later.

Take care

Craig

This will be a post mostly of pictures;

And just to make things interesting the pictures are not in chronological order...sorry it will be a tad disjointed.

In Brief, this saturday I went to my first Okinawan wedding, much fun. I also failed in my endeavour get much study done due to one thing or another! Oh yes, I also had my last english conversation club lesson...sniff :(.
Me in my wedding get-up.

The Bride and Groom in their final costumes. The Bride, Arisa Teachaa is from my school.

So here I am with my English conversation club kids. I decided to fast forward Easter and have an Easter lesson, mainly because I though it would be fun and I had some rather delish Easter eggs I had bought on base I wanted to use. We painted eggs, had an egg hunt outside and rolled eggs. Much fun was had by one and all.



Yeah, looking good! I had plans of getting a sly one hour of study in on the ferry back to Izena but this cool cat had other ideas.

He had accomplices too, I didn't stand a chance, look at the evil intent on their faces! They had been to run some race on the main island and decided I was going to be their antidote to the boredom of the ferry ride.

Moshi moshi! This kid really liked to pretend to talk on my phone.
I and my fellow teachers after the wedding and before heading to the nijikanme (2nd party). As you can see we are all clutching identical bags, an unlikely accessory matching disaster!? No, at Japanese weddings guests pay the Bride and Groom ichi man (50 quid) and then recieve a present of about equal value! Wicked! I got two for some reason, I didn't take two! I was GIVEN two! But then I went ahead and thought I would just leave them BOTH in the pub....luckily Big Ben (whose house I stayed at) was a wee darlin' and popped down and picked them up for me.
Rocking out to the music on my shuffle. Yeah baby!
The eggs my kids painted, pretty good ne!

So yah, the wedding eh. An Okinawan wedding is a little more fun and lavish then a mainland wedding I am told. At an okinawan wedding approx. 400 people come while the best the mainland Japanese can do is a meagre 100. There are also many performances by friends, family and work colleagues of the Bride and Groom. As a work colleague of the Bride (Arisa 先生) I and the other teachers performed a silly dance dressed up as construction workers. We wore white helmets, long-johns and painted out faces in the most ridiculous manner conceivable! The Bride and Groom wore three different costumes the finest of which was the first; splendiferous white wedding kimonos but I was too excited and forgot to take a picture. There was also a professional announcer/singer (yes one person did both)! It was Nancy in case any of you know her, does radio I believe. One assumes she must REALLY like the sound of her own voice. So the wedding was fun, highlights were doing my first BANZAI! Very excited I got to do that, I will cherish the memory along with when I got my first GOKOROSAMA. Another personal highlight was getting a string of paper flags. Allow me to elaborate, after we banzai-ed the happy couple (after they came and lit a candle on our table) we were wildly out of control and let of party crackers willy-nilly. One cracker emitted a coloured string of paper flags, all the flags of the world! For some reason it stuck me that I should very much like to have those flags but I dismissed the thought as silly. About ten minutes later I hear genki 'KUREIGU SENSEI' (Craig teacher in japanese) down to my side, I look down and there is the little daughter of the cleaning lady presenting those very flags to me! I was touched! 'Oh thankyou, Arigato!' I cried, (cried as in said it loudly, not cried tears! Suggest otherwise and I will punch you). I had just had a conversation with her and asked her to kindly look forward to studying english with me when he becomes a yochien (kindergarten-er) later this year. Must have made an impression or just got plain lucky, that or she is a very perceptive and cunning child, her or her mother. Anyway I was happy. After the wedding we went to J's bar and much fun was had. My teachers all left earlyish but a bunch of mainland Japanese came to keep me company. They were very nice and good company. It was after 2am before I left! My impressions of mainland Japanese are that they have been very nice and friendly. Although it is oft said how much warmer the okinawans are. This is the conventional knowledge but I am not convinced, not that okinawans are unfriendly, far from it! However all the Japanese I have met have been extraordinarily nice. I had not yet met as many friendly and helpful people as I did in Nara. I felt like saying well if Okinawans are so much friendlier how comes it's your guys who are here talking with me (and extolling the virtues of the Okinawans none the less). They did tell me that in mainland Japan the Groom cannot invite ANY females to his wedding, not even work colleagues as a relationship would be suspected! The same applies to the Bride. That is a bit crazy. I pursued the point a little and got the impression that perhaps if you are really in culture then the okinawan culture is kinder but for someone who is still a guest in this country it doesn't make a huge difference. It is a commonly noted aspect of general Japanese culture that they are very welcoming and accommodating toward guests. On Sunday I met some friends of BBs from mainland Japan who were visiting him. The family of a previous student of his. They were also nice and funny and didn't mind at all that a random (me) accompanied them to the pineapple park. Ah ok that's all, oh no, Takeru is back. One of the first friends I made on the island. He left to get a job on the mainland ages ago but he is back for a few months, nice. Those who came to my island all those moons ago he was the guy with the afro (sadly lacking now).