Busy Week and The Cultural Festival

All week I have been hustling back and forth. Each day, Monday through Thursday, I had four classes. Then I would have lunch and ride my bike across town to the seminars with WSU and Pullman School District. Today, we finally had our cultural festival. All I can say is Wow! I don’t know how they put all of it together without me seeing more of the preparation. It was actually a great show.

Yesterday, I had the Asunaro, alternative education class, translate today’s schedule. That was the first time that I saw we would have a 3 hour program in the morning. When I arrived at school, all of the guys were wearing suits and ties even the young teachers. I thought that I might get away with wearing Jeans, I am glad I didn’t try. When I walked into the Gym, I became more worried. For the first time they had chairs set up on the floor. I had visions of sitting in church for three hours on hard wooden pews. I wasn’t real excited.

It started with a short speech by the principle, followed by the ASB president, and then a dance or two. It was like our assemblies, but a step or two more demanding. There was a live student band. The faculty had a small choir and a band as well. The PTA had a song they sang. There were several skits, as well as the English recitations. I was extremely impressed with the plays. Even with out speaking Japanese, I could tell that they were well written. I was very impressed with the acting. I was like a proud papa I taped every act and thought about my kids in their performances. I also thought about how lucky I was to see the show. There are not a lot of adults who get to see schools put on performances like this.

After the three-hour assembly the students and faculty had 40 minutes to eat our bento, sack, lunches. The kids gathered on the baseball field and ate. The teachers did too. I was able to talk to a couple of the kids and congratulate them on their performances. Kindai-ich was the lead singer for the student band. He did very well. Miawalkie played the guitar for the band quite well. Yasui played the devil in their rendition of the Peach Boy, and Osawa played a television reporter for the same skit. They both have excellent comedic timing and delivery.

After lunch, the classrooms were set up as displays. Much of the best artwork from each student was displayed, along with poems, planters, paintings, drawings, sewing and crafts. There was also a Japanese tea ceremony. Matsuno, one of the semi-retired English teachers, took me through the tea ceremony; I now know the proper etiquette for the ceremony.

The teachers have worked quite hard to put on the program. I had a chance to talk to Okamoto during the afternoon and to congratulate him for what the staff had put together. During our chat, I asked him how long his days were. He gets to school before 6:00 am and doesn’t leave until after 8:00 pm. This is a daily thing. Then he will work half a day on Saturday. He coaches baseball, so he also attends games on Saturday and Sunday. He has 5 days off for New Year and another 10 days or so in the summer. He does it because he likes working with the kids. I like the kids too, but I also like a few other things.

Itaha had put in four days of work on editing the video with only a few hours rest. This morning he said that had not slept Thursday night. The video was to introduce each of the acts for the program. He told me that he was going to go home and have a beer this evening. I told him that he deserved it. At the end of the day we had a faculty meeting and I understood that Itaha was mostly in charge of the program. He did a super job.

Oyama, one of the English teachers I work with, told me that she was very tired today. Tashiro also looked very tired, too. I asked Oyama what time she would be able to go home. She said that she would have to help clean the school before she left. She then spent the rest of the afternoon finding jobs for me to complete before I could leave. I didn’t see her do any cleaning before I left. She did eat the rest of her lunch while I was leaving, but that was the extent of her cleaning. I think most of the teachers are compelled to stay at work simply because the other teachers stay.

On my way out of the office I saw the younger teachers gathered at the top of the landing. They all were still wearing their suits, but three of them were teaching a fourth teacher the Haaka, the same Haaka that they had danced at the last faculty party. They must have been getting ready for the celebration of another event successfully completed.