Sports Day at Isurugi Elementary, Oyabe City

Last week was sports day (undo kai) at Isurgi Elementary. If I recall correctly our sports day was on the back lawn of Brampton Abbotts village hall, about 60 kids in total, all lining up to compete in egg & spoon, three legged and the sack race. Mum?

Boy, this couldn’t be more different. Parents, grandparents , aunties & uncles arrive in hoards armed with picnic hampers, blankets, umbrellas for the shade and their professional Nikon D60’s (come on, they’re Japanese!)

The day (yes an entire day devoted to the event) kicks off at 9am with 500 kids in total dancing with military precision to a welcome tune on the gigantic sand racing track in front of the school. This is followed by singing the school anthem whilst flags representing Japan, Oyabe City and the school logo are hoisted up. The important people of Oyabe (I’m presuming) all line up and a lot of bowing goes on. All so formal! See piccie above.

Races ranged from the run of the mill 100m, tug of war (Japan name), obstacle courses to this battle game (Japanese name) where 3 pupils carry a 4th pupil (I’ll call him the king) on their shoulders.



The aim of the battle was to knock the cap off the opponent king and cross the line. It was hilarious to watch and by far the most exciting thing I watched all day.




Pupils' pre-exercise warm up video


The whole day was orchestrated to perfection. How? Because they’ve been rehearsing the songs, marches, races, flag hoisting for weeks on end. When I was arriving at school at 8am, they’re already all out there on the track. Poor little mites!! It seems to be the done thing here in Japan. At 6.30am when I’m walking to the train station I pass little elementary kids on their way to school, yes THAT early. No wonder all the high school kids fall asleep on the train and in the classroom. Their schedules are intensive, early starts, after school clubs or juku (cram schools to learn English) and more clubs at the weekend. Hard, long days.

Anyway, I’m digressing. Great day out. I was even involved in one of the obstacle races, having to play janken (scissors, paper, stone) with the 2nd graders. Fun, fun, fun and took me back..!
Me playing Janken in video below (with my really poor "Saisho wa guu jankenpon" Japanese lingo)

ALT Teaching: My first lesson

OK here I am in my first lesson to my cute little 2nd graders at Isurugi Elementary. I'd done this lesson so many times that I asked my assistant to film it. The other adult in the room is the homeroom teacher.
I start off with a drill of Hello/Goodbye, Yes/No and High/Low. I split the class up, one half had to stand up and say hello, the other half had to say goodbye with gestures. We then did it to the Beatles song “Hello” (with a lot of help from me!) The kids seemed to enjoy it. Good bit of exercise for Jessie too!



After passing a beach ball about the class asking “what’s your name” and the catcher responding “My name is”… I put the class into teams. The first person in each line had to run up to me and say their name, run back to their line and the next person did the same thing until everyone in the line had introduced themselves. You can see some of the game in the video below. Tip: you might want to wash your hands after shaking 40 very sweaty, snotty fingered ones...



They are really genki (upbeat, fun) at this age and seem to soak up the language better than my 6th graders!
I have done this class to 1st-6th graders making small adjustments (i.e making it easier for the younger ones) In one 4th grade class, I was demonstrating the game with one of the lines. One little girl comes up to me and I say “Hello, what’s your name?” She didn’t really answer back so I said again (and a bit louder) to her and gesturing to the class “What’s your name?” Again she didn’t respond. I then said “I can’t hear you” with a hand to my ear gesture. At this point the teacher runs over and says no shaking her head, she’s deaf, she can’t speak. As you can imagine I was mortified!!

ALT Lesson Plans: Lesson 4, Human Alphabet

For anyone who is following the EIGO note curriculum you will, like me, have realised that 8 hours spent on upper and lowercase alphabet is overkill for the little mites so one of the lessons I decided to have a bit of fun in the gym with the pupils.

We kicked off the game playing the Harry Potter game suggested on Genki English for practicing our “How are you’s” which the kids absolutely loved. (of course they all wanted to be Voldemorts) My co-ordinator at school is keen for me to drill them practice dates, weather and how are yous as well as Eigo Note so sometimes a lot to cram into a 45 min lesson!
I then put them into groups with both upper and lowercase alphabet cards mixed up. The first group to finish putting them in order won. They seemed to do this with ease.


I then had them in groups of 4 to do the Human Alphabet. Ahh so much fun! And easy for me, I just shouted out a letter and they had to get into the shape of that letter. I actually had them spell out HELLO so I can print the pictures and stick them on our English board.


Here's our first attempt at a HELLO message:

Bianco: Gyōza (Chinese Dumplings) Restaurant in Kanazawa

Last night I met Kari for a good old Friday night "bitch and moan about work" catch up. We plumped for a cute looking gyōza restaurant behind Kohrinbo 109, exact location is here.


The restaurant is more like a cafe; bar stools for diners on their own and an informal seating area, only two tables as far as I can remember. The restaurant was run by a mother and daughter team who were both absolutely lovely. Faced with yet another daunting no picture, all Hiragana/Kanji menu the daughter came over and kindly translated the entire menu (and specials board) for us. The main menu gyoza, Chinese dumplings which you could have either fried or steamed with a choice of fillings including cheese, spinach, veggies and meat. A small plate of about 6 dumplings was around Y400. A slightly schizophrenic menu, other dishes including potato gratin, Chawanmushi (a steamed egg custard), stir fried veggies and an array of salads.





















We opted for fried cheese dumplings, steamed meat dumplings, a garlic stir fry broccoli and chawanmushi (which despite looking pretty grim actually tasted great).
Everything was cooked by the mum behind the bar so all freshly cooked and delicious.

Guzzling some fantastic Italian red wine (ok yes I know I should be on the sake!) we lost track of time and didn't realise that the poor owners were itching to lock up (10:30 is closing time and it was past then) Of course in true politeness customary in Japan they didn't tell us but had just been waiting for us to finish our yapping.

Despite the no picture menu, I'd definitely recommend Bianco for the extremely welcoming and helpful (oh and patient!) mother/daughter team.



Bianco, Kanazawa exact location:


View Bianco: Gyōza (Chinese Dumplings) Restaurant in Kanazawa in a larger map

Ichiban: Yakitori Restaurant in Kanazawa

Thanks to Dustin and the rest of my Japanese class I’m now sampling the delightful (and somewhat hidden) izakayas (small cheap Japanese eatieries) near Rifare and Kanazawa train station. After Japanese class last night we all ventured off to another izikaya in the area, the place is called Ichiban (meaning: first) For exact location see below. This place has a fantastic atmosphere, tiny inside (aren't they all?!), low lighting and an open kitchen where the sizzling cooking of meat on the charcoal grill just draws you in.
Yakitori, for those not sure, is basically bite sized pieces of meat skewered on a bamboo skewer and barbecued. The food is usually cheap and cheerful.




At Ichiban the yakitori sticks ranged from Y150 to Y350 (around £1 to £2.50). The menu was certainly interesting serving chicken instestines on a stick to sparrow, yes SPARROW the bird, chicken cartlige and chicken heart.

I played safe and chose a steak and a chicken skewer which were oishie desu (meaning delicious, that's all the Japanese seem to sy over meal times, oishie desu!)

Some of my Japanese class below at Ichiban.

Location of Ichiban is here