The Last Worst Day

Yesterday I declared to myself that today would be the worst day of the year, as much as one can predict such things. Here's why:

The marathon is in four weeks and today is the longest remaining run on a school morning. When asked, I tell people that I usually wake up between 4:30am and 5:30am for my daily runs. But occasionally, when my training plan calls for 20k+ runs, I have to wake up at 4am. Today I had to do 22k. It could have been worse, though, as it didn't rain until I finished.

[I woke up, stepped outside, ran a half-marathon, then took this flattering picture.]

I arrived at the boat at 7:41am to find the inside seats all taken. It was raining so the outside seats were not feasible. But it's okay, knowing that today was The Last Worst Day of the year, I expected to have to stand.

Not long after arriving on Aka I realized I'd left my pens (P-500's) at home. My pens are as important to me as a cell phone is to a 17-year-old. I don't go anywhere without them.

At Aka, another predictable downer. Five classes in five periods, three of which were elementary (solo teaching = 100% lesson-planning). But it did make the day go by quickly.

At lunch, a surprise. I had a peanutty-flavored salady side-dish that was tasty. I got a second helping and was questioned by the staff in a surprising manner. They shouldn't have done it, but they told me what it was. Pigs' ears. Pigs' ears? What? It looked like.. well... the more I looked, the more it resembled the insides of the ears of deer and elk I have cleaned. A rarity for me: I stopped eating. My half of the cafeteria got a kick out of my sudden loss of appetite. I was not amused.

Tomorrow qualifies as bad day potential since I have to run 20k, but I only have three classes!

Aka School

This week I am on Aka Island. I aim to leave my house by 7:35am, but usually get out around 7:39am for the 4-minute walk to the port. The speedboat leaves Zamami at 7:45am and arrives at Aka about 12 minutes later. There are two other women on the boat almost every day - one who works for the Aka fishing cooperative and another who is a nurse. There are usually some other miscellaneous passengers, including occasional tourists in the summer.

I arrive at Aka and then walk five minutes to the school, just a couple minutes before the morning cleaning session ends. Then there is a 45-minute(?) break before first period begins. Elementary class periods last 45 minutes with a 15-minute break and junior high class periods last 50 minutes with a 10-minute break. The first four periods end before lunch with the last two periods coming afterwards.



Aka has 13 junior high students, 25 elementary students, and eight pre-schoolers. For an unknown reason, I teach first and second grades separately (three and six students). I teach 3/4 together as well as 5/6. My JTE (Japanese Teacher of English), Jay, stacks the junior high classes heavy during the week I am at Aka, so I usually have 14-16 total classes in a week.

All of the ninth grade students are interviewing in Naha this week for next year's high school. Unlike the U.S, high school isn't technically required here. Also, many of the high schools offer specialties. So there's a school that excels at sports, one specifically good for badminton, one for English, another for international culture (whatever that means?), and others that rank as simply 'the best' or 'second best'. It's kinda like college.

Engrish Shirt #5

This is perhaps my favorite so far.

A "Photoessay" of Zamami School

Photoessay is in quotations because photoessays are supposed to be pretty. These are just photos. Scroll down and click to enlarge to see Zamami school, teaching, the teachers' room, and the cafeteria.

Zamami school from near the entrance, looking over our 200 meter track.

A closer view of the school. The teachers' room, offices, and gym are the buildings to the right.

This is my first/second grade English class during a game (which my sister might recognize - thanks Kristin!).

Junior high English is a bit more sterile. Shizuko-sensei is teaching 7th grade here.

The teachers' room. I have a desk but no computer, which is understandable since I am here only one of every three weeks.

The students fix the plates of food for each other and the teachers eat with their students.

I eat with the fifth grade.

A very typical lunch. There was fish, rice, and milk, but don't ask me what the rest was.

An Intro To My Schools

Over the next three weeks I'm going to mix in some posts about each of the three schools I teach at: Zamami, Aka, and Geruma. On all three islands, the schools contain junior high (the American equivalent of 7th-9th grade), elementary (1st-6th), and kindergarten/pre-school. All island students, upon graduation from 9th grade, move to Naha for high school. Most live with relatives, but I hear that some live in boarding schools or even in their own apartment.

[The entire Zamami student body at today's lesson on how to
defend against a violent man (I attempted the futile conversation
about a violent woman).]

This week I am on Zamami, the largest of the three schools. There are 35 junior high students, 49 elementary students, and 31 in kindergarten/pre-school. I teach elementary 1/2, 3/4, and 5/6 together (that's three different, combined classes). I don't know many of the 2nd-6th grade students' names yet, so that makes the connection outside the classroom difficult. There are only five first-graders and they are some of my favorite students of all three schools. I hang out with/get in trouble with them every day at lunch while their teacher takes a much-needed break in the teachers' room. (Yesterday I was swinging one boy around when a girl got too close and had her legs taken out from beneath her. She went down face first and came up bleeding from the mouth, her upper baby teeth freshly loosened. Am I old enough to know better?)

I just started teaching the kindergarten class two [three-week] cycles ago. That class is very intimidating because neither the teachers nor the students speak any English. This is no different than Aka or Geruma, except Zamami has 31 students! By a factor of two, this is my largest class. Fortunately I found a website that offers games in English with a Japanese translation. For now, we're working more on just getting through the 45 minutes rather than teaching English. Yesterday we played a game that had me, the shark, chasing them, the fish. It was so fast and tiring that with five minutes left, they all (ALL) just collapsed and lay on the gym floor. Success!

[Zamami junior high students electing next year's officers. Note the segregation of boys and girls.]

Junior high has some of my favorite and least favorite students. It combines the awkwardness of 7th grade (nobody is cool in 7th grade) and the blossoming maturity of 9th grade. Plus, the 9th grade class is a unique compilation of personalities that have become a team of friends. As witness to what a special class they are, my predecessor, Nick, is returning to Zamami from law school for their March graduation.

In junior high I teach alongside my JTE (Japanese Teacher of English), Shizuko-sensei. She prepares the lessons and usually I read lists of words or stories from the textbook while the students repeat after me. Often the students will have to come read a passage to me, as well. I am thankful for this one-on-one interaction as it prevents anyone from slipping through the cracks.

An Aerial Map of the Kerama Islands

I live in the Kerama Islands, a chain about 20 miles west of the Okinawan mainland. Only four of the islands are inhabited: Zamami, Aka, Geruma, and Tokashiki. While Tokashiki is in the Kerama chain, it might as well be mainland Japan (except I can see it). They have their own ferry system and Zamami respects them so much, they leave Tokashiki off their own Kerama Islands' maps.

Though there are claims of 22-some islands in the chain, I think half of those are small enough to be of questionable consideration. But it is a chain and the islands offer some weather protection to the inside waters, which help keep the dive industry afloat year-round.

Here is a quote I found about the Keramas:

"Despite outside interests the locals have resisted commercial development and life has been maintained in much the same way that it did centuries ago. The locals, proudly protective of their environment, pay greatest heed to the rise and fall of the sun in this untouched paradise that remains a peaceful eco-tourism destination."

Muchi and Mochi

Yesterday on Geruma we made Muchi and Mochi. I think. I was tired and didn't ask a lot of questions or get much explained during the two-hour school activity, so the content here is a little thin.


But the students grated some stuff (picture one) and mixed soy sauce with brown sugar (making a close relative to what we Americans know as teriyaki sauce) while the adults steamed already cooked rice. Then, over at the community center there was some pounding of rice with mallets (picture two) until it became a sticky, gummy substance. Then that was wrapped around something else that was sweetish (picture three). Sometimes the rice was pounded with potatoes or something else green. The kindergartners made the muchi, which was a pre-made sticky substance that I preferred. It was wrapped in leaves and then steamed? It tasted kinda like tea. I don't know what became of the grated stuff or the teriyaki sauce.


The night before was stretched late with basketball practice and it was an early morning with a long run, so I put all of my 'staying awake' efforts into photographing. I got 200 pictures and I'm pretty happy with a few, considering the harsh indoor lighting. Don't you like them?