Toya Day 54: A Very Cultural Festival

It was an early start for a change at the weekend because we were going to attend what we’d building up to for several weeks – the Nursery Culture Festival! We actually made an extra effort to get up for this – not only because we had no bikes, but also because we actually wanted this to succeed.

We arrived at Toya Nursery to find it packed to the rafters with parents of the children, with more coming in to boot! After several introductions, we were ushered to a designated seating area for performers.

Everything began from the bottom – the absolutely adorable youngest set of children doing their songs and dances – and, aside from a few minor tears, it went down well! They did a good job, especially to say that they’re only three!

This was followed by Sakura’s first performance, the Rock and Roll song and dance section that they’d practiced, and they nailed it, with one kid in particular standing out. Again, they’ve obviously worked really hard at this!

A few more performances followed – a play by the Toya Nursery, a Samurai-themed song & dance section, and a small segment of Flamenco Dancing from the oldest girls. Then, it was time for mine and Brendan’s debut – the Taiko Drum! Oh, the Principal was there too, and we suspected that he had connections in EMI, so this was important!

Rather more impressive than our attempt at the Taiko Drums!

Our very brief matinee went without a hit, I’m glad to say 🙂 The kids performed their part admirably, too – a dance based on Taiko drums.

Everything ended with the whole group singing Kira Kira Hikaru and I Met a Bear – the prior of which went great but the latter of which got a bit messy when they handed us microphones and put us off a tad 😉 I don’t think the Principal is going to come at us with a record deal 😦

No record deal for us 😦

So, Shiro was going to come later, but there was still time to burn so I headed to the Onsen (Brendan didn’t want to come, so I went alone). I chose the Ikkonoie, my preferred one, and I was amazed by how good the view is in the daytime! One can see all of Nakajima and Lake Toya from the Onsen – a very beautiful view!

Shiro then picked us up, and we went to do that most stereotypical of Japanese things to do – Karaoke! We had a booth in a Karaoke club in Date, and we performed hits such as ‘Zankoku na Tenshi no Teze’ from Evangelion, ‘Yellow Submarine’ from the Beatles, ‘Ring a Bell’ by Bonnie Pink, and, best of all, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by Queen! We also did ‘Tragedy’ by the Bee Gees, to the destruction of our voices, and, of course, that most Karaoke of Karaoke songs, ‘Don’t Stop Believing’. It was very fun, and Shiro has a great singing voice 😉

Then, it was time  for a Shiro-dinner. It had been a while, and only that morning we were discussing how Shiro is a man of impeccable taste, so these dinners are always the best – and this was no different! He took us to a great Iizakaya in Date, where highlights included spicy chicken, beef donburi, half a chicken deep-fried, genghiskhan (Japanese lamb) and, of course, more amazing Japanese beer! For dessert, I had soymilk bread, which fell somewhere between doughnuts and fried bread. It was very tasty!

Another thing that happened was that one of the previous entries’ Mystery Ladies invited us to go to Hakodate in the morning, which we gladly accepted 🙂 So with that, we went to bed, albeit quite late!

Toya Day 53: Finally, Back in the Elementary School!

It’s been a while since we worked in Toya Elementary School – one of our favourite places to work – because they were doing their culture festival. That’s all over now, though, and we’re back!

We arrived at the school and said goodbye to our bicycles for a few days, because the Principal of all people is going to do some maintenance on them (he’s going to change the tyres and tune up the brakes). He seems an unusual choice, but apparently it’s his hobby and it’s cool of him to do so 🙂

We began with the Fifth Grade class, in which we were teaching the Alphabet – which is simple enough until you reach the letter ‘V’. It doesn’t exist within the Japanese language, so everyone struggles to make the sound, pronouncing it more like ‘Ui’ than ‘Vee’. The rest was simple enough – it was reinforced through a game where you had to find the letter hidden within a picture. It was a lively class, and it was good to back!

Next up was the Sixth Grade, and the kid who calls me Kara-age Sensei was still there 😉 The class here was on shapes, and we did some drilling to get the students to remember it. To help them with Square – the one that they had the most difficulty with – I told them to think of Square Enix, the Final Fantasy publisher! So thank you, gaming, once more 🙂

Thankyou, Final Fantasy, for helping me teach English!

Third Grade with Itto-sensei. First, we played Follow the Leader (the game in which one person does an action that others have to copy, and then the person in the middle tries to find the originator) – which was enjoyable – and then Brendan told them about Ireland for a bit. I was going to tell them about Yorkshire too, but we ran out of time so I’m doing it next time 🙂 We then ate lunch.

Lunch was actually fairly pleasant – Miso Soup, rice with sweet potato (genuinely, my first time eating the stuff as far as I can recall, and it’s really quite pleasant, literally tasting like a sweet potato) and a piece of Saba, a kind of mackerel. I have no idea why the lunches in the Elementary School are so much better, but they just are. They’ve yet to let me down.

Our lunch looked nothing like this, but this is a Saba fish – tasty!

In the afternoon, we headed into the First Grade which, aside from a brief PE lesson, we were new to. It served largely as a Q&A session from the students, although we also taught numbers one to seven through a wee bit of song and dance 🙂 I genuinely have nothing but praise for this entire establishment – in many ways it’s the perfect school, and I love working there.

After a brief trip to the Sogo Centre to pick up a spot of mail, we headed to the After School Club in Toya, which was, again, awesome. We played with the Lego some more, and we played a spot of dodgeball again. Towards the end, everyone was handed a snack, and I shared the Chewits I’d gotten in the post with the kids. The Japanese like English sweets, which are quite different to their own.

The food of gods. Gods!

We then had a largely uneventful curry making session, and we prepared ourselves for Yosakoi. We’d be doing Yosakoi in partial costume tonight – a waistband, a blue cloth, a jacket and the clackers. It was awesome, although still challenging! We’re also adding bits to it, like changes to positioning mid-dance and mixing up timings between rows – there is a lot to remember! We then briefly tried out two more dances, and happily, they were rather simpler – one was very fast but t used the same movements a lot, so once learned it should be simple – the other could practically be copied from the person in front of you, and was a big line with assorted dance movements. Both were very fun 🙂

Then, a man gave us a lift home and we spent the evening anticipating the Culture Festival in the morning.