After a long, hot summer of relative ease (work-wise, certainly not in my personal life!) school is back in session and the days seem longer than ever. Unlike the laid-back school schedule of summer "vacation" - getting to work at 9am, taking hour+ long lunches and finishing at 3 - these days things are a little more hectic. Granted, currently I'm only teaching 10 or so classes a week and using the rest of my time to research holidays, play WWF or update this blog but having to get up at 7am to be at school for 8am is a bit of a shock to the system. Most nights I'll be lucky to bed down before 1am and waking up every hour on the hour with bizarre dreams doesn't exactly make for a restful sleep. Imaginably, staying at school long past my 4pm finish time (courtesy of a looming English speech competition and the preparatory rehearsal schedule for my two participating students) makes me cringe and cry out for another impossibly strong coffee! Lately, in an attempt to take my mind off things, I've also been planning eventful evenings during the week. Whether it's Tuesday night Japanese lessons or Friday night yoga, Wednesday night skype sessions or Thursday night dinners, I'm finding it both good (a welcome distraction) and bad (incredibly draining) to be so busy.
So you can imagine my sigh when I realised that the first week back at school would be for six straight days and that I'd have to work the Saturday for my school's annual Culture Festival (bunkasai)...
A school festival in Japan is like nothing I've ever seen in Australia before. Part talent show part fete, everyone puts in weeks of preparation to make sure everything runs smoothly on the day (including running a full-length, timed rehearsal of events the afternoon beforehand). Each class is expected to put on a performance of some kind (with most choosing to present a choreographed J-pop number) as well as run some kind of stall across lunchtime. Some classes chose to sell karaage (deep fried chicken pieces) and soft drinks; others sold American-style hotdogs on sticks; one class was flogging gelato ice-cream and Yakult drinks; while another set up a PlayStation on dual flatscreen TVs and charged you per race to smash your friend at Gran Turismo.
Truthfully, most of the performances - which ran for around 4 hours - were a little dull for me though. It's hard to get into a comedy act when you can't understand what's being said or appreciate the humour in a cross-dressing twisted rendition of an AKB48 song that you've never heard before. That's not to say that my students aren't talented however - a few of them presented speeches in both Japanese and English, others played instruments on stage and the school's brass band even performed an extended set!
Rows of JHS Grade 1 students watching the Grade 2 class perform a traditional Japanese folk song.
But it was the lunchtime buzz that made getting out of bed at 6am on a Saturday worthwhile. Wandering around the halls, toting my camera and getting the kids to pose for all number of ridiculous photographs put a smile on my face. Watching the students get their stalls set up or packed away and eating my fill of junk food made for a good day overall. As did running into countless number of my elementary school students (visiting Awa JHS with their parents for the day) and hearing the excited shrieks of "Naomi-sensei" whenever they spotted me. Adorable.
Overall, I'm glad it's over and happy to be spending this replacement day off at home, in bed, watching my TV shows in my underpants. Though I have to say that I am a little sad that this will be the last school festival that I will get to experience in Japan. It's about as far from being a regular school day as possible and seeing the grounds come alive with smiling teachers and students really makes for a marked change to the norm. I think I'll miss these school festival days, even if I won't miss getting up at ridiculous o'clock on a weekend to attend them!
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