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Broadcasting to an audience of three (and a goldfish)...
Comment, ramblings and musings... life through the eyes of a Japanologist...
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Monday, November 25, 2002 |
 Photographs
I put the photos from Uchiko and Matsuyama (along with a few taken in Kure on the way to Shikoku, on Saturday morning) on the internet. They're here...
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Went to Izumi after work, more than anything to get the Beaujolais Nouveau I ordered the other week. Although I didn't really need food, though, I ended up buying everything from ramen to yuzu miso. This is the danger inherent in going to Izumi, and in fact it's one reason why I decided I didn't need a car! The easier it is to get to Izumi, the easier it is to buy completely random items of food! At least on my bike I get exercise biking there and back...
The Beaujolais Nouveau had looked promising, and it lived up to its promise when I opened it. I drank half; I have the rest to look forward to tomorrow.
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You can always tell when there are warships in the bay, as there are today. The centre of town, normally quiet on a Tuesday evening, was bustling as I left work, full of people who, even in civilian clothes, could only be naval people. More than anything, the haircut is almost always a dead giveaway.
It was good to see the town centre busy and lively, though, and also strangely nostalgic; it reminded me of the friends who graduated in March last year.
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The mystery of the bicycle key has been solved. The editor of the town magazine came to tell me that he'd been on duty when Takedomi-kun had brought my bike key, and that he'd put it safely in the duty room's key box. So we went down to the duty room together... no key box. We tried the General Affairs Section next, where we found a key box... but no bicycle key. It was only then that the Head of the General Affairs Section mentioned that the key box for the duty room wasn't, in fact, the key box we'd been rummaging through. He handed us the correct box, and sure enough, there was the key: problem solved. I did feel a little awkward, though, when the man who'd taken care of my key apologised for having caused me so much trouble, when he'd been kind enough not only to take care of the key in the first place, but then to come and find me to tell me where it was, and then to go and find it with me...
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Two lessons in Ozu Elementary School in the afternoon. In the first lesson, with the second- to fourth-years, we started looking at a simple English skit the children are going to perform at the Ozu community festival in the middle of January. It basically centres around the children introducing what they do at school during the week, with a couple of English songs. I wrote it to include as much English as possible that the children already know, and so we were able to practice about half of it in the 45 minutes. It's not as interesting as the plays the children did last year and the year before, but I think that something of this level is perhaps more suited to the lower years' ability. Hopefully the children will practice somewhat before my next lesson- one of the advantages of having such small classes is that the teachers seem to have the freedom to allow time for practices, etc.- so we'll be able to look at the rest of the skit next time. After all, it's not long until January...
In fact, the fifth- and sixth-years are also supposed to be doing a play- they chose 'Momotaro', and we worked out a script together the last time I visited. However, the teacher forgot to send it to me, so I couldn't translate it into English for today's lesson. This means that the children only have at the most three lessons to learn the whole play before the community festival. I think this might be pushing it just a little...
In any case, we have plenty of things to do connected to the link with Dartmouth Primary School, so in fact, not being able to do the play this lesson wasn't a bad thing. I explained to the children that we were going to do a poster exchange (with the posters to be displayed in the Manabi no Yakata), which they seemed enthusiastic about, and then we spent the rest of the lesson working on photo emails. I got the children to think about what aspects of Ozu, and life in Ozu, they wanted to introduce to the children in England, and then we split into three groups, and went out to take digital photos. I went with the two boys in the 'town' group, and the two Japanese teachers went off with the 'sea' and 'mountain' groups. I let my group decide themselves where they wanted to go and what they wanted to photograph, and just added a suggestion every now and again. I think it's difficult to know what the children in England will find interesting when you don't really know what life is like in the U.K. For example, I suggested they take a picture of a jido-hanbaiki- a vending machine- and they were surprised to hear that such machines aren't all that common in Britain, and certainly not in a back street of a tiny little rural community! But nevertheless, my children came up with some interesting photographs.
Afterwards, we downloaded the photographs to the computers, and I got the children to write a few sentences of explanation before sending the email to me, in the office (I have to translate the Japanese before sending the email to Dartmouth). This is where the children still lack imagination somewhat; for example, I got an email with the message, 'This is a bonsai. There are lots of them in Ozu.' Yes- but what is a bonsai, exactly? The children here know, I know- but will the children in Dartmouth know?
Anyway, it was an enjoyable lesson, and, I think, overall a productive one. It's useful to get the children to think themselves about how to introduce their town- and their culture, for that matter- and it was good to take the children out of the classroom and allow them to chatter away to me, as if I were a friend, rather than their teacher. That they feel able to do this, I think, is a measure of just how used to me the children have become (they simply no longer regard me as a foreigner), which is something of which I'm very proud.
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In the end, Sir Winston Churchill won the BBC's Great Britons poll, according to a report in the Electronic Telegraph. I suppose it's not surprising, really; there may have been Britons whose contribution to British life, British history, etc., was ultimately more significant than Churchill's, but there are surely none as popularly well known, as entrenched in the public consciousness, as Churchill, who also, I'm sure, is not disadvantaged by being a relatively recent figure. Anyway, it's not a bad result- certainly better than having Diana as the Greatest Briton...
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I remembered halfway through the morning that I needed to check whether my bike was outside. It was- but where the key is is anyone's guess. It's not on my desk or in my drawer, and as far as I can see, it's not in the little room for the people on duty either. I'll have to investigate further...
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Talk about history repeating itself. I don't remember the winter of discontent at the end of the previous Labour Government, but I've read enough about it to know that it bears a striking similarity to the current state of affairs under the present Labour Government. This article, and this one, from the Electronic Telegraph today, paint a very depressing picture of the United Kingdom under Blair... Hopefully, though, all of this mess will provide a springboard for some sort of Conservative recovery.
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Spent part of the morning looking for information about Nigeria, for my lesson in Koyo tomorrow. I decided on a quiz, and then a game (running around activities always get the children's vote!).
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Next week is December! It doesn't seem like ten minutes since the Breakfast Show started broadcasting, back in March... where has this year gone?
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© Copyright 2003 Nathan Duckworth.
Updated: 8/1/03; 8:57:10 pm.
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