this crazy lil island

i forget how strange japan is sometimes. at my girl's highschool, one of my students got caught at restaurant. what was she caught doing there? working a part-time job. in japan, students are not supposed to have jobs while they're in school, because they believe school should be number 1 priority. you're supposed to ask the principal for permission if you want to work part-time. which she didnt do. so now she has to spend a week in a classroom all by herself, doing self-study. that is so ridiculous!

these kids have every hour of their lives structured. they go to school for 8 hours everyday. then they spend an extra three after school doing some club activity, everyday. depending how academic a school is, these kids might even go to school on the weekend. i see students in their uniforms all year round, weekends, holidays, summer vacations...

i wonder what would happen if japan was ever deprived of uniforms. chaos i tell u. utter chaos.

twiddling my thumbs

because it's exam time at my schools, i havent been teaching very much. i did some calculations, and worked out that for the 80 hours im scheduled to be at my boys highschool this month (where i teach the most), i am actually teaching only 5 of those hours. so that leaves me with 75 hours of sitting at my desk bored out of my freaking mind.

i only have 5 months left in japan, and i know i should really appreciate the opportunity i have to live here. and when i am teaching the students i love it! its just the many many many hours of downtime where i have nothing to do, no one to talk to that gets to me. its so frustrating that sometimes i wonder if i'll even survive the last 5 months. i end up spending a lot of my time online, blogging, or planning my next vacation. and i feel kinda shit, cuz i feel i should be doing something useful. like um...teaching english?!

it's 10:15 am. only 6 hours to go...

Sakuragaoka Impaired School.

I had a great day. I spent the past two days teaching at sakuragaoka impaired school, and the children and staff there are fantastic. I really appeciate the opportunities i get to teach at specialized schools. I've taught at kagoshima deaf school, blind school, iojima island, suwanosejima island, aira orphanage and now the impaired school. These students might not have the same advantages as my regular highschool students in the city, but they always have the brightest smiles on their faces!

Most of the Sakuragaoka students have problems with their legs, and have to wear these leg braces that hold their legs in this v-shape. Luckily for most of them, after a few years their legs improve enough that they can return to regular school. it's not a huge school, only about 18 students ranging in age from 6 to 14. But i can only imagine what it must be like to have to live apart from your family for so many years, and have hospital visits be part of your daily existance. Sakuragaoka even has a hospital attached to it.

Further down the road is Kagoshima University Hospital, which i also got to visit today. I spent two hours playing with 3 children aged 6-9. These children really touched my heart. Ruta, Nami and Yoshiya don't have physical handicaps as such. Ruta and Yoshiya have cancer, and Nami has a blood disorder. Nami is the sweetest little girl, who's spent the past year attached to an IV stand three times the size of her. The teacher i was working with, Mr. Yamamoto, told me that they are getting better. those are the happy endings. He's had several students pass away during his five years working with the hospital. I asked him if he liked his job, and he said at the beginning it was very hard, but he's grown to love it.

Before meeting the children at the hospital, the teachers asked me if i would make a special entrance, i.e. dance. if teaching english in japan has taught me anything, it's how to perform like a trained monkey :-P i just ran in doing a little jig, and started shaking all the kids hands. it was great. i felt stupid, but hey, it's only as stupid as u make it.

i do it for the kids. i love em :-) Hopefully, I'll get to see them again next month.