I’ve got my work cut out for me.

Sometimes I get to mark students’ tests or assignments. Sometimes they make me laugh, sometimes they make me cry. Sometimes they do both. These gems were short opinion essays that the kids had to write in response to statements provided by the teacher. It was interesting to see how varied the opinions were in a group that tries so desperately to be homogeneous. For example, one statement said that students should have to study English. One student agreed, for very good reasons:

A foreigner meet when is of great use.
A foreigner country go when is of great use.
English talk if pleasant.

. . . while other students disagreed for equally sound reasons:

we are Japanese.
foo me difficult.
I got tired.

I can’t argue with that. I can’t argue with this one either, mostly ‘cause I don’t know what it means:

Age a limit is nesessity gana I.
Age a limit ga naka tamo chamge.

And then there’s always got to be one cocky kid:

to learn is Enghish is very easy.

Full points for the positive attitude. No points for the h.

Technological Breakthroughs

Hmm. I hope that no one is reading this expecting to learn something exciting about the space program. Actually, I just found out how to add images, so now I can post the pictures that should have accompanied my previous ramblings. Wooooo.


First up: festivals











Streamers . . .














Lanterns . . .





Shrines and vendors . . .















. . . and the main event, Kagura.




And just for fun, what by the light of the camera flash turned out to be two baby boars in a cage in the dark alley. Definitely uncute, but apparently delicious enough that people stop to pick them up if they hit them or find them dead in the road. One teacher thoughtfully brought a frozen one into school to share and spent the morning in the little staffroom kitchenette using a hacksaw to divvy it up.
Very generous, but I think I’ll stick to tofu.