March 17 – Gakuen-Sai

Saturday was the Gakuen-Sai celebrating all the students being at the daycare for the past year. I woke up bright and early at 8am to get ready. I ate breakfast and then attempted to put on the new clothes that I bought. Sadly Tamaki had to leave at 8:30 so she was not around to help out. I managed to get everything in place by the time 9am rolled around when Hirai Sensei came to get me. She about died laughing at the fool I made of myself. Too bad she won’t be around to see the real show at the Gakuen. She then suggested that we get something for my hair to make it look more girly. The original idea was to buy something, but Hirai Sensei then decided that a simple ribbon would work and we headed to the Hoikuen. Great, now I’ll be forced to show everyone what a fool I am. We walked in and just as expected, I got laughs from the sensei’s and screams from the children. Let me explain a bit, when I first got to the Hoikuen, the most asked questions were “how old are you?” “where are you from?” and “are you a boy or a girl?” This just sealed the deal that the children didn’t know what sex I am. Crazy eh?

Hirai Sensei tied 2 ribbons in my hair (I had pigtails btw) and we were off. Upon arrival at the Gakuen I was well received. Everyone said I was super cute and that the girl look “fit” me. Well I suppose the long hair really does it. For about an hour I helped set up tables and get the goods ready for sale (toys, bugs, and food.) By that time most of the people had seen me. I am sure some of the adults who had not met me before thought I was a girl. I get that a lot. The acts started and I sat down with the other members of the dance group (3 other sensei’s and 10 kids, all girls.) The first act was a jump rope show from the 1st year girls. The next act was our dance. It was pretty nerve racking as I was directly in the center. It was even worse that I only knew about half the dance at that point. It made me feel a little better that the other sensei’s knew even less. Overall, our act went pretty well in my opinion. I didn’t make any mistakes past not knowing some of the moves. At the end we had to introduce ourselves in front of the crowd. I just had to mention that I was not a girl to the crowd. That got some laughs.

The rest of the acts were fun. There was a comedy one, a couple piano acts, and finally double dutch. Isao sensei had been practicing with the boys every day for the past 3 weeks or so preparing. They did surprisingly well all things considered. Much better than their practices that I watched / participated in. They even got some of the parents involved to show how difficult it is. They all failed miserably.

Once the acts were all over, I took up my post in the candy shop with Ilia sensei. At first nobody would buy things from me (for fear of me not knowing what money was? Or what the candy was?) but once Ilia sensei went to help the game station, they had to talk to me. I was really surprised at how different the Gakuen-sai was compared to the Hoikuen-Sai. The kids being just that much older really makes a difference. They all came on their own with their own money to purchase food and play games. 1 year really makes a big difference. It was really hectic running the candy shop all by myself. The kids seemed to come in big groups with breaks in between. Weird. Eventually I was able to get away and get some ramen for lunch. I also got to browse the other shop, which consisted of beetles. Isao sensei is a big geek when it comes to living animals of any kind. He breeds beetles and sells them to the kids at incredibly low prices. I ended up buying a rather large grub for 300 yen. It is still sitting in my room crawling around its container. I wonder if it will live to see adulthood back in Tokyo…

Anyway, the Gakuen-Sai went on and on until 3pm. At that time I got to help clean everything up. Putting everything away was much worse than putting things out (mostly because I knew where things went and therefore had to do more work.) We put all the tables away and took everything out of the gym. We left the rooms as they were because pictures still needed to be taken of the kids and their dinosaurs / tamagochi’s. Finally I was able to go home and get some much needed rest. That night I got to meet Sono, Hirai Sensei’s 3rd daughter from Tokyo. She is really short, but has the same personality as the other daughters.

On Sunday I slept in until around 10am. It was the first time in a while that I was able to sleep in. It felt so good. It was a slow morning, but eventually we all got around to go to the Bijin Hot Springs. It was the first time I have gone to the hot springs in the afternoon. It was surprisingly crowded. I would assume that nighttime would be the busiest time, but I have been proven wrong. We all went to the respective baths. This was also the first time that I was caught up in conversation with one of the other bath-goers. You really meet some interesting people in public places. Up in the relaxation room, I had a few beers and cold soba for lunch. As soon as I finished, I was forced to get up and leave. It was also the first time that we had a schedule to keep after the Onsen.

We returned home where everyone changed into nice clothes for our trip to a temple. I recently learned that when someone dies, you go to worship them on the 3rd, 7th, and 13th years afterwards. I also learned that the wooden posts that you see in Japanese graveyards are given at these 3 times. Once all 3 posts have been collected, then the person’s soul can rest in peace. We went to the temple and entered inside. Once there we visited a room with a bunch of plaques behind glass. Each one represented a member of the temple who had passed away in the past 13 years. Toshihiro’s father passed away 7 years ago to the date. His little box was lit up with candles. We then had tea with the priest and his wife. It was a very interesting ritual. Next the real worship started. The priest came out to the main room and lit some incense. He then started chanting prayers, hitting this really loud bell, and hitting a drum. It was really interesting. I could not understand anything he said. It sounded like he was speaking in a different language. Finally, Toshihiro received the wooden post for the 7th year and we went out to the graveyard out back. He lit incense and a cigarette and placed it on the tombstone. He then placed the wooden post on the stand and everyone took turns praying.

After the temple we went out to eat. Apparently it is also a ritual to eat and drink really well after going to worship the dead. There was so much food that I could not have possibly eaten it all. I also went through who knows how many little bottles of sake with the person sitting beside me (sorry I don’t remember your name!) I returned home very drunk with Toshihiro and soon went to bed.

Today was a normal day at the daycare but with 2 new faces. There are 2 new sensei’s in training to start in April. It was weird that they were not actually observing the other sensei’s, but instead doing menial tasks such as cleaning and making decorations. I went along with my business until after lunch. During break-time I attempted to talk with them, but they were way too nervous to come up with anything other than simple responses. It was the first time that I felt I could express myself better than native speakers of Japanese. No matter how hard I tried I could not get any sort of conversation going. School, interests, kids, how boring Gosenshi is, nothing worked.I hope to get another chance to talk with them in a less “stressful” setting.