Tiny Taiyaki

Dude, Nick!

So people have been bugging me to post more stuff about Kashiwa. Apparently, no one really cares about my misadventures in Tokyo. Even my grandfather’s been complaining! But I really don’t have anything to share about Kashiwa because my experience of Kashiwa, so far, covers the narrow streets between Ichikashi High School, Kitakashiwa, and Megalos gym.

But the humidity has finally dropped—and dramatically so since Sunday. The weather has certainly turned for the best, and I can only hope it’s turned for the season. It’s almost as if the typhoons have swept up the humidity and dumped it all into down the drain and into the sea. I’ll try to take advantage of the great weather to do some more exploration of the Kitakashiwa area this weekend. Definitely look around for more cheap places to eat: Ken recommends I spin my wheels East towards Abiko, in search of food.

As it stands, I’ve really only found a cheap karaage place within walking distance from my apartment, but I’ve been really fortunate in that it’s really delicious as well as really cheap (¥$4.50 for a plate of 5 pieces of chicken karaage, rice and the standard assortment of pickles).


I really do like it a lot

¹ Which is especially important since I’ve resigned to eating there three times in the last five days.

¹.

Yeah, yeah, yeah: I know what they really want to see are pictures of my apartment. I’ve tried a couple of times only to come up with four or five moderately disappointing shots. I’ll try to come up with something better this weekend. But, really, what you want and what you need are two different things. You may want to see photos of my apartment, but what you need to see is this:


Yes, it’s TINY TAIYAKI! And it’s DELICIOUS. And you get 16 for ¥$5.25. It comes in I think 6 different flavors: no-filling, azuki, custard, chocolate, apple-custard, and two other flavors that I don’t remember or care much for.

Anyway, school is in full swing and I’m still struggling to remember names and feel my way through the “first classes.” For the most part, we oversee all levels of the third-years (their seniors, who are ranked by proficiency and clubs then divided into groups A-D) for writing, and the second-year international students—who are going to go to North High for the student exchange—for communication.

Lesson planning is starting to make sense now that I’ve seen just about every class at least once. There isn’t a ton of space for academic experimentation, as the curriculum is pretty well structured and the emphasis is on straight “writing.”

But this week is the start of our weird schedule: English Camp for the first-years (sophomore age) this week, preparation for the Bunkasai next week (Friday and Saturday), then Monday after that is “Respect for the Aged” day (敬老の日), a make up day off for the Saturday Bunkasai on Tuesday, then Sports Day on Thursday, while that Friday is the Autumnal Equinox.

Well, I won’t bore you with that stuff yet. I’ll figure some way to not spend either extended weekend in the apartment. I’ve already arranged to travel to Kashima (three hours away) to hang out with Cary for one of those weeks. Instead, let’s talk about English Camp.

English Camp is a two-day event where we take the year-one kids off campus and place them in an environment in which they are supposed to experience a primarily English environment. This, really, is the bulk of our interaction with the first-year students, and so while our interactions are cursory and on fleeting topics such as “practicing randomly assigned recitation exercises for 50 minutes!” it feels like an important opportunity to build relational foundations.

I’m not terribly worried about the practicalities of making them play “hot seat”

² Where, like taboo, they have to use English to describe a secret noun to a teammate.

¹ or ingrain into them the importance of practicing the pronunciation of compound consonant clusters or the variation of long and short diphthongs... yet… But really get them comfortable using English. Especially using English around me.

In a way it’s like church camp: where my job is to create an atmosphere in which our attempts at expression are authentic and respected, if not eventually refined and corrected. In the same way, groups end up being a lot like camp too: varying in their interaction, effort, or capacity, and often times silent, awkward, and uncertain. And, also, where 75% of my energy is spent trying to remember names. Made even more difficult by the fact that Ichikashi wears uniforms and everyone’s name is super-Japanese.

So, my job is to help them learn English. My mission is to help create a space for them where they can feel comfortable to practice dialog and exchange through personal authenticity and relational interest. The pipe dream is that with that space, they will begin to explore ideas and concepts that will challenge and help them grow. But that is not exactly here nor there, yet.

Did I mention that I’ve been watching a lot of One Piece? Well, if I didn’t, I am. And I am going to go watch some right now.

A-dios.

Bonus photo of the Matsumoto Kiyoshi Drugstore down the street. They sell the good oolong for half the price as everyone else. They also have good deals on trash bags. The are also one of the few places in Japan that sells Pepsi.