Normal

This post signals the return to a more normal update routine. I had wanted to do a large photo post but this week is turning out to be too busy.

Upon entering the staff room at Urimaku Junior High School today after fourth period it was hard not to notice the crowd of teachers surrounding the TV. This was very uncharacteristic. As it turns out, one of the student's mother was making an appearance on a Japanese variety show. The family is well known in the area for having nine (9) children. I teach four with the rest going to high school. A couple of years ago before I came, NHK, the national broadcaster, did an hour long documentary on the family. I have never seen the documentary in question, but know the style well. Take a boring, everyday subject and make it serious with the use of a dramatic announcer and foreboding music. Today's variety show is very popular in its lunchtime time-slot. Nothing really happens; famous people stop in, talk to this guy who always wears sunglasses, and everyone tries far too hard to be funny. I'm not really a fan. Today, there were two teams of four stars each. The famous people are a mixture of really famous people and people that use to be famous but now make a living going from variety show to variety show that choke the Japanese TV dial. Anyways, the mother, whom I think should be called a super-mother for rising nine great kids, was a part of a game where the teams guessed how many kids they had. At the end, a picture was shown of the family and I saw my students on national TV. This is the family's second brush with fame, but the kids are very well grounded. I had been teaching her son just moments before the show went live.