First Day Back in Front of the Students

This morning was my first day back in front of my students after Summer vacation's end. Many students were in school last week but there were no English classes because of certain other pre-established commiments. I had my grade one's and two's today. Nothing particularly special happened except I think most of the kids seemed to have forgotten all their English words - but I am not concerned. I explained my trip to Sapporo, Fukushima-ken, and Tokyo to them and showed them the kendama I bought at Tokyu Hands in Shibuya. I asked them if they had any questions about my trip but they all seemed more interested in my Kendama; where did I learn to use it? Can I do such-and-such a trick? I wasn't expecting the lesson to go that direction but it was still funny. We were learning jobs with the grade two's and I had flashcard of a guy behind a desk. The kids had a lot of trouble figuring out what the card represented. ("Office worker" was written on the card but that is far above for their level.) Their answers (in Japanese) ranged from student to librarian to professor, a couple of students became fixated on the idea that he was just studying and repeated that several times to the teacher's amusement. I wasn't sure where this brainstorming session was going so I had to put them back on track.

Also, this is my final baseball update; Hokkaido lost 4-3. They gave a Herculean effort in the second last inning but Tokyo's pitching was just too solid. I only watched the last three innings. All of the office watched in silence. There is a very interesting tradition that goes back some fifty years that the losing team's players always return with a little of Hanshin stadium's "hallowed" dirt. I had read about it before but seeing the tradition in practice this week, I must say, the students take a lot of dirt. I thought maybe it was just a pocketful or something but they all had large specially made velvet dirt bags with fancy embroidery. No kidding. Just let that image sink in for a bit.