Feeling happy right now for some reason. Usu was just fine today- I've gotten over my shock at how awful the students actually behave and have begun my counterstrike. For the third years, who can't be bothered to try, I tried to be as obnoxious as possible to get them to talk to me, if only to get me to keep going. It worked really well actually. The first time I said, "Are you ready?" there was no response but the main teacher chipperly responding on behalf of all of the zoned out students, but when I wouldn't move on or give the answers, there was a stirring of life. As the questions were repeated after each excersize, "Are you ready for the answers? Are you ready?" more and more, "Yes!" popped up. There was even a request to read it once more. Oh sure it wasn't awesome, but it was a good deal better than last time. Being a pain in the ass may be the right strategy for this group. I was sure to simplify their listening excersize as well- I actually used the thrown together conversation I was going to give the first graders. I botched the last part which made things hard but otherwise they got it. They're smart kids, I think they've just been bored and spoiled into the floorboards. In the break after class, one of the boys was sitting on another boy and so I said, "Oh, he is a chair." The boys, insistent on never hearing anything properly, then started saying, "He is a bear, bear. He's a bear."
Which of course made my inner bara reader just die laughing. They can never know. I do have my fun.
Anyway, first graders were good as always, and just as disruptive and silly. After a flurry of textbook listening quizzes, I gave them the reading exercise that had been prepared for the Nagawa first years and they handled it swimmingly. I only had to stand them up and spin them around once and they focused just fine through the whole ordeal. In the last leg of class one boy snuck the word "condom" into our dictionary search game, but everyone was happy and paying attention so I don't see it as a problem. I kind of doubt they know what they are at this point, and if they do, all the better- maybe they'll use them if they start getting any crazy ideas. Okay maybe I shouldn't be a teacher with an attitude like that. When class was over one of the first year boys (I gotta start coming up with nicknames ala Gaijin Smash) started drawing something, so I drew myself and then a bear wearing a top hat with a flower. One of the other boys came in and scribbled a while, and then the first boy drew my bear taking a poop, I thanked him for making it better, everything got erased and class ended.
I caught a ride back with the vice principal, the guy who egged the others to have me taste umeboshi for the first time, and he was listening to a Paul McCartney cd I hadn't ever heard before (Flaming Pie). The weather was bitchin, it was good music.
Oh yeah I should mention last night. After work I picked up some sushi, expecting to wash the dishes and my clothes and tidy the place up for my onigiri party with Yuki on Thursdsay. Instead I pulled up to my house and my stomach about crashed through the gravel underfoot when Megumi was there waiting for me. Totally spaced our meeting. Since she doesn't posess that Japanese hypersensitivity that will make a person completely call off an arrangement at the slightest sign of discomfort, even though I hemmed and hawed I knew ultimately I'd be going with her. So I spent about a minute and a half in my house, face to face with Hatim, reprogramming my thoughts. No I didn't want to go with her and be preached to, I had too many things to do at home, I was tired and wanted to do my own things, she's so awkward. But I flipped it and felt better. I'd be getting a free meal in someone's home (my favorite thing!), we'd sing and play piano, and I could ask to go home early. It would be ok.
And it was. It was a great time. We had hamburg steak (which I have discovered my body hates- i feel terrible whenever i eat it), apples, corn, soup, and the sushi I brought over, and then, stuffed silly, Megumi showed me her extensive collections of American folk music. It was pretty amazing actually. And she knows tons and tons of music just by ear. She wanted to sing the harmony part on the songs, so I sang the melody and her parents ended up listening. Her choice was Scarburough Fair, my request was The Sound of Silence, which was awesome, and her father's favorite song turns out to be Shenandoah (go figure), so I sang that one twice. We all sang Take me Home Country Road together, and Eidelwiess, and though I think her poor mom felt left out (the only true Japanese person in the room, it seemed) the three of us weren't too shabby. It felt so nice just to be in that warm family atmosphere, making music for the fun of it. It was just a good time. Afterwards her father went up and found his harmonica and they showed me around their house.
I have no reservations about calling them America otaku. It was pretty much a Montana household to the max- they'd obviously taken a lot of time and effort collecting their paraphenalia. It was so familiar it was actually a little hard to think of as being strange until I realized we were in Date. Megumi also has western clothes including a cowboy hat, boots, a huge belt buckle, and even spurs. Realizing what I suspected, that she is a full blown otaku, has helped me warm up to her a bit. I know this type. I know it well. Anyway her father also was a big fan of Laputa and Porco Rosso, and had built by hand models of the aircraft from both movies, as well as a small wooden windmill thats blades turned when you blew in it. Really impressively handy with wood. Apparently also plays banjo and Megumi plays guitar. I do feel sorry for her poor Japanese mother (who regailed me in gifts- beautiful chopsticks, a bag of four or five big apples, and a towel with traditional Japanese imagery).
After I was showed around she gave me a bible and pamphlet and we sat on her bed and she read the pamphlet to me. It's hard for me not to just jump in for the kill, to sit and listen and be reasonable, but it is good practice. Not every word from that pamphlet is crazy or wrong. There are fundamental flaws, but I have to keep myself from rebelling just to be rebellious. I did start asking Megumi some questions and I will continue to do so. Next time we talk I want to read the story of the Good Samaritan together, followed by Jesus' discussion of sorting the lambs from goats, followed by Matthew telling a guy to take the plank out of his eye before he takes the splinter out of someone else's. I can do this biblical warfare. It's weird, but I can play by these rules to make my point. And when it's said and done, I can leave the book behind.
But in any case I didn't get any cleaning or laundry done and had awful pain from eating the hamburg but it was still a fine night and I look forward to going back again next week. I knew there was a reason I told myself to be patient and tolerant. Good things can come from accepting people you don't want to.
Speaking of which, tonight I'll have dinner with the Kawanishis again for the first time since my hyperventalation fits at the Yosakoi Soran. I don't really plan on hitting them up that often, but it seems in bad taste to sever the connection. Just enough to keep it alive should be fine.
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