It has come out recently that several of my second-grade students think that I look like Baymax, of Big Hero 6 fame. I’ll be honest that I don’t really see it, although I guess I am large and white and wear glasses and speak strangely (to them). In any case, she was super embarrassed when I eventually found out from an English teacher. It led to this adorable apology on the next essay that she wrote.
Grading English essays is usually a monotonous task. Not because I don’t like to read students’ ideas, but because the “group-think mentality” usually results in several hundred slight variations on the same idea. Sometimes they are funny and sweet, though. Like the student who wrote in detail about her family tradition of cleaning their pet turtle every month. He recieves a toothbrush scrub, gets to explore the garden, and sometimes hides behinds the car’s tires. A mischievous sort, that one.
I’ve been enjoying playing Out of the Park Baseball 2019, it’s a great game for several reasons. One is that it is chock-full of baseball stats, measurements, and data, which I love. Another reason is that is looks like rows and rows of text on my computer screen, so it’s easier to play at work, because it only kind of looks like a game. The first thing that I do when I start a new game is sign Munenori Kawasaki to play on my team. The AI assistant usually suggests that I cut him immediately, because his in-game attributes are low. To which I always say, “YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH, YOU’RE INSULTING A NATIONAL TREASURE!” Ok, not really, but I think it.
In (slightly) more serious news, I was able to enjoy my first Japanese 落語 (rakugo, Japanese traditional comedic storytelling) experience a few weeks ago. Every so often, the students at Sendai go to the nearby cultural center for a field trip. Last time it was a classical music concert, and this time it was rakugo. Rakugo is a lot like stand-up comedy in the U.S., except… they don’t stand-up. Hmmm, OK, maybe it’s different. Anyway, they basically tell long, funny stories. Some the Japanese was simple enough for me to understand, and one of the stories was in English, too. (This confused the hell out of the students and community members who attended, but I was quite pleased). My favorite part of the performance wasn’t the rakugo at all, thought, but something called 紙切り (kamikiri, literally “paper cutting”). During kamikiri, the artist takes suggestions from the audience, then cuts a scene or character from the paper while telling a story with musical accompaniment. It was entertaining, and the final products were amazing.
I recently finished the second gourmet tour with Kazu, but the more I think about it, the more I want that to be a separate post. So, I’ll work on that a bit later. For now, enjoy a few other pictures, many of which are Yoshi and I are on our random explorations of the 田舎 (inaka, rural or countryside areas).
Satsumasendai, Sakurajima, and Spencer-sensei 