Toya Day 71: A Trip to the School Nurse

So, we’d be working in the High School today, as is the case with every Tuesday, but there was something of an issue with this which I’ll come on to in a minute.

Unusually, we only had one class today, which would turn out to be a godsend in light of my ‘circumstances’. My voice had completely betrayed me – left, presumably enjoying Wakkanai over the weekend it had gone there again, leaving me almost completely unable to speak. I’m not exaggerating – I genuinely couldn’t talk. Not good when you’re supposed to be an ALT!

So, yes, we entered the Second-Year High School Class, and antics ensued. Kamada, with his understanding nature, excused me the embarrassment of trying to help with the vocab exercises, and after assessing the student’s reading ability, we moved on to our activity.

Not being much other use, I was essentially Brendan’s scribe. Kamada wanted us to teach them some sentence structure for their Winter assignment – what they want to do over the Winter holiday. It was simple stuff – ‘I want to visit…’, ‘I want to see…’ et cetera, and they all got it pretty easily. Thankfully, after Kamada explained what was wrong with me, the students were all understanding of my ailment and didn’t laugh at and take advantage as I’m sure my compatriots in the West would have done had an ALT been in a similar awkward position 😉

It was at this point – at the end of the lesson – that Kamada remembered to give me the throat lozenges that Erica had left for me…

Not my photograph, but the same type I had. They tasted fairly decent, actually.

Another …interesting… High School lunch later, Kamada said that we could leave early because there were no more classes. We headed back to the Sogo Centre, where one of the more unexpected events of my time here occurred – a major power cut! The Office became abuzz with activity as everyone tried to clarify the situation. People were dispatched to the local schools, and the phones were ringing off the hooks as people tried to find out what was happening.

In Toya, it’s not as simple as losing your television and your kettle if the power is out. The real issue is keeping people warm. I should probably note at this point the cause of the power outage – the enormous blizzard that had been blowing all day. It had set five inches of snow in a single morning, and while it thinned out towards the end of the afternoon, the final snowfall depth was about eight inches.

This doesn’t seem to be an option, either. The only place that sells candles is the Aeon supermarket in Date, and even then they’re expensive.

Toya, thankfully, had its power restored in only a few hours. But I pity the people in Noboribetsu and Muroran who have been hit even harder and are spending the night without warmth.

My throat, sadly, did not improve with the power supply. Erica took me back to the High School to see the Nurse, who examined it. It’s nothing major – it’s not even a cold – it’s just some swelling, although I don’t know the cause. She gave me some painkillers and Erica also gave me some medicine. She also prescribed the Onsen, so I was more than happy to go!

It was a bit like this 😉

Yosakoi was off tonight, anyway, so there was no harm in an Onsen visit. Matsubara-sensei was also there, and I tried my best in spite of my voice to have a chat with him. Apparently, the blizzard had been seriously damaging – the road to Sobetsu was closed, and a trip to Date took 90 minutes by car (it normally doesn’t even take half of that).

If Japan was this bad in a blizzard, I can only imagine the ensuing disaster had it come to Britain!

Toya Day 70: When One Becomes Literally Speechless ;)

I arose from my slumber for jam on toast, and my voice was rather raspy. This was only the cornerstone of my speechlessness!

We went to Toya Nursery, and we proceeded to engage in the modelling putty again. The kids were making ‘food’ out of it, so naturally I joined in as well – I made some damn fine modelling putty sushi! Even one of the assistants complimented by artistry – I may not be able to draw, paint or pursue any other form of artistry, but damn it, I can mould modelling putty!

After this, it was time for some good old-fashioned Nursery warm-up exercises. However, you could tell that everyone was itching to get out into the snow – the younger kids were already there, the male instructor was throwing snowballs around, and it just looked awesome!

It was practice – really it was!

We joined them fairly quickly, and more Yukigassen ‘Practice’ began! It became a protracted battle between three sides – us, the other staff, and about five of the Nursery girls. And I’d like to say we won – we certainly obliterated the male teacher with an awesome double-team, but those girls were damn persistent!

Things continued, and eventually, we went for lunch and then left the Nursery for the day.

After the Nursery, we went to the Sogo Centre where, again, very little actually happened. I’m sorry about the rather dull nature of this blog post! That is, except, for me beginning to go into a steady, disheartening spiral of voice loss. By the late afternoon, my voice was very hoarse, and I couldn’t form a coherent sentence with my voice. I think it was the dry air of the room that worsened it, but I can’t be sure.

Creepy, yes. But also the best visual metaphor I can find for losing my voice!

Regardless, we ploughed on through the day. Dinner came and went, and then we went to Kendo. Things got a little different this time – we started learning the Kotei strike, which is a strike to the wrist. It seems in principal similar to the Men strike but with the swing ending much lower – at hip level rather than shoulder level as with the Men strike. Progress! It was a private, Matsubara-only lesson today – no Taka, so communication was difficult and we therefore weren’t very good at the Kotei strike 😉 Of course, we’ll probably improve over time.

Kendo in general is very different to my experience of Taekwondo. Taekwondo required you to learn a lot of different techniques including kicks, punches and elbow strikes. It also required many different stances and blocks. Kendo doesn’t – it only has one stance and five strikes, and thus the minutiae become much more important – those strikes have to be done to perfection. The timing of the strike, the fumikomi and the shout at once is the most difficult part, I think. And then you need to remember it has to be done fast, and to a certain level of power, with the shinai lifted to a certain height above your head, with your arm at shoulder level when the strike is over. Individually, these aren’t difficult to do – it’s doing them all at once and at speed which is the hard part.

These are the Kotei which you’d hit in a Kotei strike.

Still, we’re improving. We’re certainly better than we were just a few weeks ago, and hopefully that Sho-dan exam is within our reach 🙂

Maybe I should end by saying something really cheesy like ‘This Blog is my voice!’