The Wonderous World of Elementary Schools...

So first to cover a few points of the past...

I performed for those kids and it was fun. No one really listened except the parents, the kids ran around and drew on the chalk boards in the room, but whatever. No biggie, I just jammed out. Then with the other teacher I played a version of "Ue O Muite Arukou" or "Sukiyaki Song" the name changes depending on whether you know Japanese or not...

The camping trip was so-so. We stayed at a hotel that was pretty nice, there wasn't much to do in the area we were in and there wasn't even that much beautiful landscape to see. We were surrounded by mountains which was nice, but they were the same mountains I always see from my window at home. At the talent show I played "Wave" by Antonio Carlos Jobim again. I enjoy that song a lot, it's kinda cheesy, but it's pretty. After that everyone got totally shit-faced drunk, the teachers didn't stay at the hotel, just the students. So everyone was blasted screaming in Karaoke and then everyone went to bed. A large number of people vomited on themselves or other people at some point. I can't say I didn't drink, but I can safely I had good control over the situations I was in, especially compared to others. It was a fun and strange trip though....

AAAAAANYWAY, earlier this summer I signed up to go on a field trip to Asahi Elementary School. Then they asked us to pick a game to a group of kids we'd be selected to play with. There were a handful of folks in my group. Then one of the HIF workers asked me to lead a song for the trip there, something easy and something in English. I picked "If You're Happy And You Know It..." it easy and there's a Japanese version so they'd be able to pick it up fast.

We got to the school and recieved handmade (by the students) name tag necklaces. There were huge, in the vein of Flava Flav's giant clock around the neck. I think the teacher made mine though because the hand writing was far too neat for a 4th grader. (I was assigned to the 4th grade class)

They led us into the gym and it immediately because the most wonderful thing I've ever done. Children were seated all around the gym and we walked through these giant hoops covered in flowers being held up by small children while an orchestral versions of music from "The Sound of Music" played. Everyone clapped and cheered, it was the happiest thing I've ever seen. in. my. life. Here is a picture of what we walked through. My friend has a video of us going through it and when he puts it up I'll put a link to it...



Then they sang us a bunch of songs, including "It's a Small World" in Japanese. Then they taught us how to do the "Hakodate Squid Dance." Squid is Hakodate's meibutsu (Famous product) it's so insanely good here. SO GOOOOOOD. Anyway then we played some games. They had my level (Intermediate IIB) battle Intermediate IIA in tug o' war. We won once, they won once. We left it at that. Then, I was told I'd be teaching the whole school "If you're happy and you know it..." and I had to explain it in Japanese to them. It's not a very difficult song to explain in Japanese. I just had to tell them the order of the commands. So... I picked "Clap Your Hands" "Stomp Your Feet" "Snap Your Fingers" and then "Smack Your Behind." They dug the smack the behind part. Anyway, it was SUPER fun and I got some pretty nice pictures of some kids having fun. The game we taught them was "Zip Zap Boing" which is a pain to explain in english, and even a bigger pain to explain in Japanese, but my 4th grade class had fun.

Last night my host dad came home early and we got to have a nice little chat about music. Turns out he has perfect pitch and can jam pretty well on the piano. They have two right next to each other so we had a nice Jam session and we kind of played off of each other. It was nice. Then at like 9:30 at night he was like "Everyone, in the car! We're going to get some snacks and then drive up to the top of Hakodate mountain and look at the beautiful night view." So... we did. And it was gorgeous. Apparently it's the 3rd or 4th more beautiful in the world... it looks like this.



That's right, I snapped that shot. Pretty darn pretty if you ask me! Anyway, stay tuned, I got a video of my host mom pretending to call Chucky at dinner tonight because my sisters wouldn't finish their dinner and wouldn't help clean up. It was hilarious and contains a lot of english...

-Mike