(Day 77) 中学校文化祭 Base School's Culture Festival

Today I went to my base school's culture festival. My feelings about it were sort of like a mixed bag because I wasn't invited by my coworkers to the Bunkasai Work Party following the end of the festival. Regardless, I still went and enjoyed it. It was a very small-scale festival, held within the school building itself. Upon arrival I watched each class from each grade sing in a chorus. I wasn't too sure how it was all setup, but it was my understanding that they were competing against each other. They all sounded great, but at the end of the day, the teachers would announce who won / did the best.

After the chorus, we were allowed to walk around the school to see each of the exhibits that the classes made for culture festival. There were exhibits showing calligraphy, woodwork, crafts, writing, and even elementary schoolers' crafts.

Elementary Schooler's Crafts Exhibit

Scarecrows made by the middle schoolers.

Throughout the free time I kept running into my students, who didn't interact with me too much, but still smiled and said "hello!" to me as I passed by. One of my notoriously genki and noisy 1st year student tried selling me the snacks that he bought (or at least that's what I took it as). I kept refusing and told him to eat it, but instead he followed me around for a little while, lowering the price until he ultimately offered to give it to me for free, but I thought that he should have it since it was his, and I also didn't know why he was offering it to me, and whether or not I would be allowed to take food from the kid.

Later, I ran into my teacher, who in hindsight I should've asked about the enkai, but I felt too uncomfortable to ask because I didn't do anything prior to bunkasai to help prepare and they haven't told me or given any hint that I was welcome to go (despite the fact that every single ALT's schools invited them and it's basically assumed that we're invited, even if we don't do anything to help prepare). We talked a bit about bunkasai and she was trying to explain and point out some of the exhibits that I had already looked at, then told me that I should eat lunch.I saw a line earlier on the first floor, but I didn't know what it was for. She explained that it was the line to buy lunch tickets that we redeem on the 3rd floor for several different menu items. I bought coupons for karaage and yakisoba. 

When I was eating, I was complimented on my ability to use chopsticks, which is something that every single foreigner gets complimented on. I tried explaining to her that there are many Japanese restaurants in America, and so there are many Americans who are able to use chopsticks. I added that my Dad is also good at using chopsticks as well. After the woman left, I started talking with the other man who was sitting at our desk and asked about how long I'd be in Aomori, and let him know that I'd be here for a year. We talked about my hometown of San Francisco for a few minutes and he told me about how he went to San Francisco 35 years ago.

Afterwards, we reconvened at the gym to watch the last bits of Bunkasai. We watched a Karate demonstration, a singing performance by a student, a demonstration of Nebuta dancing, a Yosakoi dance demonstration, and lastly a short Alice in Wonderland play. Obviously there are students who are talented, but it didn't really click until then. The student who sang a song sang absolutely brilliantly. He sung a song called "I Love You," which resulted in many students chuckling since they're at that age where that's the natural response to anyone who says that phrase. For security reasons, as much as I want to, I can't post the video of him singing, but this is a video of the song that he sung, by the original artist.

The festival ended with a few teachers announcing the winners of each of the chorus competitions. Many of the different teams won in different categories, but one of the 3rd year classes seeemed to win the most. Oddly enough, the students were really into it because after the announcements, some of the teams began to cry.

Another note about the festival, or rather any sort of ceremony in general, the students seem to be so well disciplined. They know what to do, when to do it, how to boy, where to walk, and teachers circle around them like sharks to make sure they're behaving.

By the end of the ceremony, bunkasai ended, and I walked to the bus stop to go home. It was only around 4:55pm at this time and the sun was already going down. When I got on the bus, there was a small baby, less than 2 years old, and I started talking with the mother and who I assumed was the grandma. We did a bit of small-talk and she complimented me on my Japanese. We talked about Aomori Winters as well as my job as an ALT. She was curious about what the elementary school students are learning, and I let her know that they're learning about days of the week, months, counting from 1 to 31, and other simple things. It was actually a really enjoyable conversation that sort dissipated some of the bitterness I was holding onto that day. I even missed my stop, but it was worth it. 

Now, it's 7:38PM and I don't have any other plans for tonight, hence the blog post! I haven't eaten dinner yet, and since It's long overdue, I'll probably do some cleaning or shopping or something like that.

Admittedly, I am beginning to either get winter blues or homesick because I don't so much miss seeing or hearing people (since that can be fixed by webcaming), but rather I miss being surrounded by an environment where I can easily communicate with others and feel relaxed beecause of it. I'll keep active though so that I can fight that feeling of. Homesickness is all part of the experience anyways, right? (It's not that bad, so please don't worry). 

Anyways, until next time everyone! I hope you're all doing well back home. If you're reading this, please get in contact with me so that we can webcam over the weekend or something since weekdays don't really leave any time to webcam because of the time difference.