Back to Judo

So this week has been pretty busy. Today wasn't too bad, though. Thank goodness. I had 4 classes today. I had two 3rd grade classes and two 1st grade classes at the middle school today. Nothing special in particular happened today. I guess the parts that I translated in the document that my principal asked me to do awhile back finally came into good use. Today, out of the blue, one of the teachers asked me to print it all off so they could create an English version packet. I don't know who they were going to show, but there were many guests that came to the school today. I think they might have had a meeting today about the sister school exchange program and wanted to show that at the meeting. Either way, the principal was very happy with the work that I had put into it (as well as the efforts and enormous help from my mother and prior vice principal). It took many many hours to translate, edit, and re-edit the parts! Translation is a tough job, so I give my mother lots of credit for the job she does! It's tough because even if you are fluent in one language, there are so many nuances, phrases, and references that you have to learn in the language that you are translating it to in order for it to read smoothly. Even so, just doing that kind of work for a long time is also straining on your mind as you try to think of the best words and phrases and is tiring.

Tonight I decided to go to Judo club again since it's been awhile since I'd been there. I also want to get back in the habit of regular exercise during the week so I figure that going there will be a good way to fit it in. It's also fun to wrestle around with the students because they all like to come up and challenge me...their English teacher! It's cool to see that there are a lot of new 1st graders on the team. It's good that they have the interest so that by the time they become 3rd graders, hopefully they will get a lot of experience and become pretty good. They are all a good crew and good group of kids. But I was tired today after practice, needless to say. I stayed at the practice until around 6pm, but they usually stay until close to 7pm, I think. There was one big cultural thing that I was aware of but that really hit me today at practice. In America, people are very laid back and you can come and go to events/practices/classes as you please without it being a big deal. If you enter, people will greet you and say, "Hey, what's up?" or "hey there." But in Japan, things start and end with a definite bow, greeting, and other form of interaction or process. When I left early, I just told a few of the kids that I was leaving early and they were like, "Ok, see you!" and I thought that would be it. Then the senior captain turned off the music, called everyone over and said, "Lei!" and they all chanted "arigato gozaimashita!" They all bowed and told me thank you and saw me off. I was kind of in shock even though it's not the first time this kind of thing had happened. But it was just interesting because I didn't know what to say except, "Thank you. Mata yoroshiku onegaishimasu. Minasan ganbatte ne!" I thought I w0uld just leave casually but that was not the case. I guess it just hit me but it was a good realization and very cool. The culture is similar, yet so different.

I'm having a great time here in Japan and realize/discover something new everyday!