Some favorite student quotes recorded in my school journal...

On an English assignment, when asked to write something he's good at, Hiroki (who I absolutely love!) (9th grade), wrote, "I'm a strong gambler."

"As old as!!" shouted Yuusuke (9th grade graduate) as he left jr. high for the last time, proud to spout out the English he remembered.

"Peenatto!? いいなあぁぁ!" exclaimed Kyoutarou (7th grade) when he found half of an old peanut (or potentially an almond) under Ishida San's desk while we were doing end-of-the-year deep cleaning at school. These kids are always hungry! Because.....during the 5 hours between their breakfast and lunch, most of them have morning sports practice for an hour...and sometimes P.E. for another hour...and they're not allowed to eat anything. Anything! Not an apple, not an granola bar, not a peanut. Hence, Kyoutarou's thrilled response and obvious envy of whichever teacher it was who at one time or another during the school year consumed peanuts as a snack.

"Well, がんばって下さい!!" (Keep trying!!) Kensuke (8th grade) emphatically encouraged me when I replied with a definitive and shocked, "No!", to his question about whether I had gone to a love hotel with Yamazaki Sensei.

Ibuki (my 2nd grade sweetheart) whispered in his serious, husky tone:
マイア先生、気をつけてね。　(Mya Sensei, be careful, okay?)
Me: 何を気をつけて？ (What should I be careful of?)
Ibuki: ぶたインフルエンザ。 (Swine flu.)

On the English midterm, when asked to respond to the announcement that their class will get a new girl from Australia--
Nao (9th grade): "Let's go look (at) her."
Yuuhei (9th grade): "Oh! That's right. I like woman."

Tomihiro Hoshino

On Culture Day, November 3rd, I went to the 富弘　美術館　Tomihiro Art Museum, which I've been wanting to go to since last year when I first heard about it. In 1970, Tomihiro Hoshino was a 24-year-old, 1st-year P.E. teacher and gymnastics coach at Kuragano Jr. High, just a few miles from my school. Two months into the school year, while demonstrating a gymnastics move for students, he took a bad fall and became paralyzed from the neck down. He spent nine years in the hospital. During those nine years-- out of a desire to express himself and connect with people, as well as an antidote against boredom-- he began writing and painting, holding pens and paintbrushes in his mouth. He also became a Christian during that time. Hoshino and his story have become famous throughout Japan. I am awed at his paintings. I am touched and entertained by his reflective and humorous writing.

A few favorites...
What are you looking for?
What are you seeking?
What do you want to see?
After all it is an encounter with the Unchangeable One, isn't it?


You were not the One I had imagined.
You did not come where I had expected.
You didn't do the things for me that I asked for.
But You did the things many times that I had hoped for.


Let's go up to the mountain
and see the scenery You created

Are there any fences around the flowers?
Are there any guard rails on the top of the cliff?

Yet I'm guarding myself
with fences around my small heart

I'm happy-- in a "happy with the simple things in life" way-- to know about and to be able to enjoy this part of Gunma history and Japanese life.

See some of Hoshino's work and read more...
http://www.hoshinotomihirousa.org/greetingcards/greetingcards.html
http://www.tomihiro.jp/profile/english.htm

Sources: In the Palms of Your Hands and Road of the Tinkling Bell by Tomihiro Hoshino; English translation by Yoshiaki and Fumiko Yui. Kaisei-sha Publishing Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan.

Happy Days

The past two days have been two of my favorite days at school since coming to Japan-- yesterday at sho gakko (elementary school) and today at chu gakko (jr. high). So happy to be here! Simply pleasant occurences. Laughing laughing laughing all day with many students and then later with a couple teachers when I explained (all in Japanese!! :)) that I really was planning to eat my lunch...despite it being fish and wakame gohan (rice seasoned with salty seaweed) sick!...and that the reason I broke the "Eat all your lunch" rule (Note: Rules are REALLY not supposed to be broken in Japan.) and didn't finish, truly was because I didn't have time-- because I was focusing too much on the conversation I was having with Riki and Shizuru-- not because I was being picky. I also tried to pass the blame to Riki, saying that it was because he was shaberisugiru...talking too much!! ;D LOL! It was hilarious! I think Nakazatomi Sensei is still skeptical of my story though... ;D