Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Last Day at Ine Bunko!

My days are winding down, and thus begins my series of "lasts".... I taught my last lessons at my favorite school, Ine Bunko- the little family-like school about an hour away.


We had a cooking class for the 1st year students- my half of the class made BLT sandwiches and iced tea and the other half made okonomiyaki, kind of like Japanese omelettes / pancakes!







The students at Ine are either super shy or super outgoing, so it's difficult to plan classes for everyone to do activities together. But, drawing games really get them going, so we did some of those.

I really get along well with the 3rd year guys (my 2nd years from last year). The last time I was there, I gave Kato-kun, one of my cool 3rd years, a skate- boarding magazine that Paul had gotten for me to give to my students. He was so stoked that I asked Paul to get me a music magazine for my other cool 3rd year, Ozaki-kun. Too bad I didn't have anything for the other students (I know- it's bad to have "favorites"!) and after pouting for awhile, one of them asked me to give him a kiss! (Of course I refused!)

In typical Japanese form, they presented me with a square board with everyone's signatures and messages on it. Leaving school was crazy- kids were hanging out the windows shouting and waving and some of my girl students were running after me with these cool anime drawings that they had made for me!


Kumi drove me back to her house and we had a fun night of making Japanese food! Leigh and Becky also came over and we made "temakizushi" (hand rolled sushi), "oshizushi" ("pressed" salmon and rice in a little wooden box), "harumaki" (spring rolls), and miso soup. Kumi's friend, Ogino-san, and Yasumi-sensei, the school nurse at Ine Bunko, ended up joining us too, and it was a riot. Masami had work that night, so it was a table of like 6 women sitting around a table- with food as our common language, it was easy to just relax and spend a whole night cracking up over stories and jokes.

This was probably one of my most relaxing and enjoyable days I had in Japan!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

IS THAT KID IN THE BACK OF THE CLASS FLIPPING THE BIRD?!?!

laurie said...

Um... yes! (sheepish grin) Kids these days...