Monday, February 10, 2003

What I did today Today, I... Got a mysterious request for an article for the 'people graduating', but nowhere on the request itself or on the envelope was there any clue to who'd sent it; Went to Kikuya for lunch; Got a shock when a police car pulled out right behind me just after I'd passed the Police Station doing 55 km/h despite the 40 km/h speed limit; Went to Tsukumo Elementary School (went extremely slowly to Tsukumo Elementary School, because having seen the police car behind me when I popped home to Washibe, I saw a very similar police car by the office when I was on my way to school, so I assumed (of course) that I was a wanted man, and therefore kept strictly to the speed limit all the way through Miyanohara); Cancelled the International Club meeting, because there wasn't that much to discuss, and because we still hadn't heard finally from the International Club in Kubokawa; Started updating the Breakfast Show with a new design; Finally got round to making dinner (a great cheese risotto, if I do say so myself) at 10 p.m.; Added GeoURL to the Breakfast Show.

Went to Tsukumo Elementary School this afternoon. With the lower three years, we played colour bingo. It went well, and the children seemed to enjoy themselves at least moderately. There's not much more to say (I mean, it's bingo), although I do think that the first years need to learn how to listen a little more. It wasn't that they didn't remember the colours in English- after all, 'colours' and 'animal names' are all that the teachers in Tsukumo ever request- but they hadn't listened to the instructions, so they didn't understand that in the second game we played, they had to fill in their squares in order. With the upper years, we talked about schools in Britain, the first time we'd done anything international-understanding-related like this for a long, long, time. I started the lesson by asking the children what they knew about British schools... silence. I got the conversation going finally, though, and a few children volunteered ideas, from which I explained holidays, homework, uniforms, the 2-4-7-years system of schooling (Japan is 6-3-3), and so on. I'd also taken along my Oxford gown and mortar board, and I let three of the taller children try it on, which livened things up. I also introduced the 'ear-twisting' punishment, and tried it on Seiya-kun, to everyone's amusement, and then the 'standing-in-the-corner' punishment, for which Yohei-kun was the 'volunteer'- he got his ear twisted too, for good measure! Yohei-kun was amusing, though, because although I'd explained that the punishment was to stand in the corner until the end of the lesson, after about three seconds he wandered back to his seat, and proceeded to ignore completely my joking instructions to go back to the corner! Finally, I took questions, and quite a few children put their hands up to ask things- certainly a better response than at the beginning of the lesson. All in all, not a bad 45 minutes.

Another interesting article in the Chugoku Shimbun today about the gappei of the four towns. Ogaki, Okimi and Etajima are apparently going to continue the group planning the gappei with three members, even if Nomi withdraws. Whether this will lead to gappei of the three towns without the participation of Nomi is anyone's guess, but somehow I suspect not, not least because with only three towns the population won't be high enough for us to become a city. So I'd say that the balance of probabilities is that things will stay just as they are, mired in indecision. Personally- and I think other people share my view- I wish they'd just get on and decide one way or the other. Abandoning the scheme never seems to be discussed, but realistically, given all that's happened and the way things are now, it's hard to see any other realistic option ultimately.

Word of the week mikakunin hikobutai Literally, this is translated as 'unconfirmed flying thing'; or, in more common terms, an 'unidentified flying object'- a UFO. In fact, the word 'yufo' is also commonly used nowadays.