My June school visit to Kitanodai JHS was a time for making new friends. Although teaching in the Junior High I made lots of new friends under the age of 8 as I commuted to work every day. I provided daily entertainment for the kids at the feeder elementary school up the street as I passed by to get to my Junior High. For week 1 I was greeted with echoes of "Gaijin Da" and giggles and points while by week 2 a chorus of "HERRO"s followed me up the street. By week 3 it turned into "Mowning" and by week 4 this was extended to " Mowning Meibu!". There was one little girl, however, who was particularly curious about my exotic looks and stopped me in my tracks every day for a chat. My first encounter with Marika went like this... "You're not Japanese" .. a pretty good obsevervation for a 6 year old I thought.. "Which is your country" .. a good chance for some internationalisation .. " I am from Ireland, it's in Europe, do you know where that is??!".. a little laugh from Marika... "Speak your language, show me it" .. this kid is clever I thought.. "Hello Marika, It's nice to meet you" I happily obliged.. another little giggle ensued but was suddenly followed by an almighty gasp and a fit of pointing at my mouth.. "Go aaaaaaaaaah!!" she exclaimed. It took me a minute to realize what had just happened .. "mmm, Is that your tennis racket" I said quickly pointing to her hand... in a cunning attempt to defelect from the topic that had just arisen ..."No no go aaaaaaaah" she yelled again jumping up and down excitedly, pointing to my mouth... Not settling for my "mmm I don't know what you're talking about" type expression " and another distraction attempt... She finally yelled " stick out your tongue.. do it .. what is that!" And at that point I knew Marika had me! I had managed to conceal my tongue piercing for 10months now only to be busted by the 3ft tall Marika Nakagawa of the 1st grade in Kitanodai E.S... How perceptive 6 year olds can be! I have a feeling this little one won't be satisfied until she gets to the bottom of it either! Escaping unscathed for the moment, I better think of something good quick... Marika- san I beg you! please don't tell my B.O.E!
Maeve, Kate and Greg: Paddy Foley's, Tokyo : June 3rd 2006

Makomanai Marathon - June 11th 2006.
5K, 10K, 15K and full marathon. Jeff, Mano and Laura run the 10K. Gus, Carrie and Calvin spectate while Maeve runs and unregistered 7K of her own! Trombone players add to the atmosphere down at Toyohira River.

As precocious as Mozart to Music...Thoughts of a san-nen sei

こんにちは、Maeve。メールをありがとう。Today I will write this in Japanese and English.
わたしのクラスはあしたまでやすみです。(My class is closed until tomorrow.)
わたしはきのう、ドラえもんのビデオをみました。わたしはドラえもんがだいすきです。
Maybe you think that Doraemon is childish, but I don’t think so. I think that Doraemon is cool for all generation. He is lovely. And his voice is very cool. Doraemon! Name is nice too. Doraemon!

やっぱり、日本語でメールをうつのはむずかしいよ。Kanji をつかわないと、naturalじゃないからね。（じゃない。Do you remember ?）
日本にながいあいだすんでいたらかなりしゃべれるようになるね。まえにMaeveとあったときもMaeveはとてもじょうずに日本語をしゃべっていたよ。びっくりしたよ。
I think that learning many languages is good for understanding different culture.
Language expresses culture of each country or a way of expression.
For example. There are many very polite words and polite expression in Japanese, but English doesn’t need a lot of polite word.
This expresses that Japanese is modest.
When I talk in a bad way, being negative.

I cannot tell it in English, I will use Japanese.
「たとえば（for example）、日本語と英語をcompare したとき、日本語はていねいなwordやexpression があるけど、英語はそういうのをneed しないから、日本人はmodestなんじゃない？と思いました。Ahhhhhhhh! Difficult! I don’t know what I am speaking…
Anyway I must answer your question.
About ALT of E.S.
When I was in E.S, ALT is not there. And I didn’t know ALT. But there was the time to study foreign culture. It was nice.
We studied about America and New Zealand China Korea India Spanish Brazil.
At every that time, a person of each country came and talked about own country.
They talked only as for the national flag and the greetings and the representative culture. It was very interesting for us. I liked that time.

Though I was going to write it in Japanese, after all I employed a lot of English.

if you have time, can you write e-mail in English and Japanese?Im looking for your Japanese!

keisuke.P,S What is a meaning of Maeve?Name’s mean.

What are you made of ??
Journey from one pole to another. A test of the human spirit. It will take place at the end of this year and run for 18 months. The team chosen will be comprised of members from up to a dozen counties. The goal/mission of the organisation is to "inspire the youth of today to be leaders within, their communities whilst addressing the critical issues of our time."There will also be other groups working alongside communities in Africa, working with Aids children, clean water, solar oven projects and many other worthy community projects. The journey team will pass through these different projects bringing media with them to show the world what work is being done. Other groups will be spreading the word of the projects to schools and universities throughout the North America and Europe. Up to 140 youth volunteers will be involved in this project worldwide.

The criteria to get involved are:
You must be between the ages of 18 and 28 as of August 1, 2006.
You must have a working command of the English language.
You must be prepared and able to be trained for travel and survival in extreme environments.
You must demonstrate that you can communicate effectively.
You must be able to demonstrate that you have volunteered your time and energy on projects that improved your community and/or the environment and/or supported economic sustainability.
You must demonstrate that you can communicate your interest and energy for Pole to Pole so that people in your community support you and Pole to Pole.

The Yosakoi Soran Festival in Sapporo. June 10th and 11th
Odori Park, Susukino and our local Daiei Car Park no less!!

Matsui Hideki (New York Yankees)

Ohata Daisuke playing for Japan with a shinsekai of 65 trys.

It was sakura season in Hokkaido and Maeve and Mano decided to head for Toya-Ko and run the 10K marathon around this lake.


We joined in the fun with 4 of hajet's (hokkaido jet group) very own musical stars, Kim and Dan (U.S.A) and Teresa(U.S.A) and Tim (Australia). Myself and Mano took the train from Sapporo on Saturday (20th May) and we headed for Nikappu where this year's hajet musical, "Guys 'n Dolls" was giving it's 2nd of 3 performances in it's 3 week tour of Hokkaido. That night, after a show-stopping performance this athletic group of 6 left Nikappu bound for Lake Toya. Here, we were hosted by Toya-ko's JET, Heidi, as we caught some shut eye the night before the marathon. Thanks for having us Heidi!



With registration kicking off at 8, we left Heidi's and picked up our entry forms, took a look at the course, and soaked up the sunny view of Mt. Yotei behind the lake.









There was time for a few last minute shots before attaching our timers and warming up.





By 10.20am, Teresa, our injured team member and hence nominated photographer was snapping pictures as we all took flight. (Otsukaresama Teresa!)

By 11.?? (to be revealed!), it was all over... and time for some amino supply. Somewhere along the way we were entertained by Mano's accounts of the "turtle walker" back in Odori park. A Turtle walker!! A story I found hard to believe until provided with the accompanied photographic evidence. Also note in this picture the picnic basket and can of coke. The only logical explanation is that is was an advertising shoot for Coca Cola. More of the bizarre to be caught only in Odori Park. And so with Sapporo on our minds, we hit the road for the 2-hour journey back (Thanks to Tim and all his driving!), stopping along the way for a well-earned onsen session. Here's to next year and improving on my time of 58:57!! Otsukaresama!

Girls Gone Wild- Why are women athletes in college choosing to mimic the worst behaviors of their male counterparts?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12979743/site/newsweek/from/ET/

(The Northwestern girl soccer team scandal)

The Wonderful World of Elementary School


I vistited 5 different elementary schools this month. As I am usually based in junior high, this was a varied experience, not just a change of scenery and a break from the norm for me, but a view of Japanese schools from the bottom up.

While the kids got high on interacting with a foreigner ( for some it would be their first encounter), I had to adjust to all the attention. I spent most of my time outside of class, signing autographs and running around school with 4 children attached to each arm. It's only now that I can begin to understand Angela's daily toil as a one shot elementary school JET in Hirosaki. Though I still doubt I'll ever know what it's like to have a driver! For the past few weeks, I have been trying to think of an analogous exciting event from my own primary school time to try to understand the excitement that comes with being a tiny Japanese child meeting the ALT. Thinking of my visits from the kids point of view, judging by the excitement, shock, consternation it causes, the best situation I can liken it to from my own primary school days is a visit from the Meath Team after winning the Sam Maguire! (This thought also brings me back to another time a younger, hotter Meath team visited Loreto Navan after a similiar victory. Mr. O' Leary (R.I.P) got the worst of that when he was crushed by stampedes of screaming adolescent girls down at the piano rooms in St. Ciarans Building.) The point here being that perhaps now I know what it feels like to Colm O' Rourke back in the eighties!!

The whole experience came in welcome relief from working with shyer Junior High school kids. In both cases, perhaps, students are equally as fascinated, it's just that at elementary there are no inhibitions to come between students and their ALT.

First off was Yamanote Minami Shogakkou, where I kicked off with a 2 day visit in early May and finished the month there with a 2 day Grand Finale, 4 days in total and hence my longest elementary school stint. Yamanote Minami is located at the foot of Sankaku Yama (Triangle mountain) in West Sapporo.

It's rainy season now in Sapporo, that time in between winter, the 5 foot of snow, and 25 degree heat of summer. I have yet to catch Sankaku Yama on a clear day. This is a view of the moutain on a misty Sapporo morn.
(Taken 31st May 2006 )








Some earlier shots of Sankaku show the same mountain submerged in snow a few months previous.

This was a snow shoeing expedition on Sankaku Yama with Sekio Sensei, social studies teacher from Koryo JHS, in early March 2006.

Koryo JHS is my base school and is also in West Sapporo, near Sankaku Yama and Yamanote Minami E.S.

Elementary School part deux!

There were indeed times when I too had to escape onslaughts of hyper kids.

For the most part, however, we hung out gently, while learning.....


















Time to janken in English....Rock, Paper, Scissors, GO...!!











and outside of English class too...

and outside of class we...

ATE LUNCH TOGETHER











did the school cleaning.....




took care of the empty milk cartons.... recycling time!

We played games like, Yubi Suba ( the thumb and number game), nawatobi ( skipping), Kataki (being hit with a ball and then out), and Koryoni (chasing and freezing when caught until rescued). We practiced for the Undoukai in the gym, upcoming Sports Day.



Meetings were an important part of this process in the gym; (organising; an important feature of any Japanese undertaking. ) Soon after I was a witness to games of "Sabasen" all around the gym where the first team to steal the top person's hat from the other team is the winner!! Those little red hats that are so frequently sported in the gym are thereby made useful. Sabasen will evidently be featuring on the Sports Day schedule too.

We were all well photographed by the end of every day...



Even the lunch lady got in on the action and stole a photo "to show her daughter".
The staff were entertained with my Japanese for a few days ( these people have the patience of saints). I shocked them with stories of 8 year stints for students in Irish primary schools. At other times we would try to come up with translations to phrases like 'Yoroshiku' together.