I Want To Be Jean Reno When I Grow Up
As I write this a woman on TV is stroking a carp (Koi) somewhere in Niigata. Three years ago there was a big earthquake in the north-west of Japan and many Koi farms were damaged. Also, Natsumi is snorring on the couch oblvious to the world. It is funny how she sleeps with the heart-shaped cushion balanced on her elbow.
The earthquake programme, like many Japanese TV programmes is designed to pull at your heart strings and cause a flood of tears. The amount of crying in public in Japan shocked me when I first arrived back in 2004. We were lead to believe that Japan was a stoic and restrained society. Yes it is but not for crying. Well, speaking of heart-strings there is an advert on now. Jean Reno, a wonderful French actor, is playing puppets with Mina Suvari (American Beauty). His film, Wasabi, is a must see; as are most of his films. Speaking of films. I learnt today, with much jealousy, that Tom has seen Sukiyaki Western: Django, Takeshi Miike's new flick. It is a Western, set in Japan, about warring samurai families speaking English with Quentin Tarrantino having a cameo.
Work involved only mild molestation. We taught two classes today for the First Year Students. Our theme was to consolodate their knowledge of "Whose" then move on to the Environment. It was nice because for the first time in a long time I was able to give the kind of mini-speech with hand-drawn diagrams on the blackboard that the students don't normally get. We discussed Clean Energy in the UK including Cirencester's eco-street lamps which charge up during the day using wind-power and solar-power. We also talked about car-sharing, carbon neutralising companies (planting trees), wave farms and wind farms. It was nice to see some of the students taking an interest and actually understanding my explainations.
After the classes academia finished early. The students then set-up the gymnasium for the Chorus Contest. I found out about this yesterday. As always the KEPT IN THE DARK syndrome that afflicts a foreigner's life in Japan grated. I would have loved to have been able to help them practice, help them set up the gym and become an active member of the team. But, as usual I was forgotten and excluded. The mantra being "If we do not know how to deal with it. We wont deal with it."
But, this was no time to be bitter. After eating my lunch and reading the paper it was time to go to the Gym. Each of the 9 classes spread over the 3 year-groups sang two songs. From each class 2 students conducted and 2 played the piano (one each for each song). The first years excelled and I was proud. The winners, Class 3 were obvious from the start, but the others tried hard and Class 2 came close. Mr. Goto, the Form Tutor for Class 1 was inconsolable in his grief (not that it was a surprise his class would come last).
While the 2nd years did ok. The third years shocked me and gave me a new found sense of respect for them. My contact with them has been minimal. We've done only 3 classes together and those weren't so hot because of a racist student (personally I think of it more as "Excusionist", he uses any excuse to mock someone).
However, the girls got together and pulled off a really difficult song which included sudden pace changes, and complicated word combinations. Next up the boys struggled with their song. When the 3 classes then lined up for the contest songs I was not expecting much. However, each class performed really well and the final class (maybe Class-3) excelled the most and won the contest. Before each performance the class at hand would huddle together then the leading boy would shout a challenge and the others would rise to it. Their performance was succeeded by a 3rd Year Ensemble Encore performance.
Sadly I did not know any of the songs because they were all in Japanese. But they seemed really good and made me realise once again that such achievements as these contests could never have succeeded in my comprahensive secondary school in England.
Dinner was a lovely combination of roast potatoes and home made burgers. Sadly, I managed to put the microwave on instead of defrost when trying to thaw out the mince-meat and inadvertantly cooked most of it. This made the burger making rather hard. But we managed with some egg, cabbage and near raw onion. Maybe should have friend that onion first. Either way, mistakes aside, the meal was delicious.
Writing: Luckily the colander falling on my head during the washing up did not prevent me from tying together some news articles i've read lately about rape victims. The resulting article The Girl Of Qatif seems to have gone well. It is a sickening subject to write about. At school I was also able to write a few paragraphs of my novel. A small scene where Tortrym meets a messenger from his brother, Cafgar. Home | Blog |