Thursday and Friday Teaching

Thursdays: Sobu and Yokodai. Fridays: Kaneriya and Yoshii

This Friday afternoon I completed my last class. It was the culmination of a whirlwind week. I said final "goodbyes" to students, prepared the new teacher, packed up and moved out. I sit now, relieved and ready for some rest.

Here, I would like to recount both the character of my Thursday and Friday classes.

The average Thursday began with high-energy Sobu assembly classes in the morning. After, I would have some time at the office to rest and prepare lessons and then head north to Yokodai. There I taught four classes above a dentist office near Yokodai station.

The classes had a wide range of personalities. Some were enthusiastic, some were highly intelligent, some were disinterested and some were sweet and gentle. The quality of the classes' learning would go in cycles. As the year went on, some would be joyful and progress rapidly for months at a time and then have a phase of indifference. I believe such was my own fault. My teaching act and style would grow stale over time, and I was constantly forced to create new ways to draw interest.

In the end, it kept the job very exciting and greatly enhanced my teaching ability and understanding of the nature of children.

Here I would like to speak of Kurumi, Ryo, Saki and Shunichi: four students that I will not soon forget.

Kurumi and Ryo were girls in the third or fourth grade. They were very sweet, good natured and retained much of the lessons. They would giggle at the jokes, sing the songs, and focus on learning.

Saki was a couple years older than Kurumi and Ryo. She was also very sweet and worked hard. Sadly, she was grouped with a disinterested girl that sucked a lot of the life out of the class. Even so, Saki overcame her influence and learned a great deal. She was a great pleasure throughout the year, and left me two sweet and well-decorated letters.

Shunichi was a tall Junior High School student with big hair. At times he felt like a big second grader. He was such a joy to have in class. His natural English ability was weak compared to others of his age, but he always tried hard. If we were alone in the class we would go through the songbook, singing everything from "Rudolph" to "Yellow Submarine." He worked very hard on his Speech Contest performance; making up for his level by learning emotional gestures and tones. In the end, he took the gold medal home. I was very proud of him. On his final day, he left me the following letter:

On Friday mornings I would head to Kaneriya Kindergarten for one lesson. Such was one of the happiest places I have ever been. The students would run to greet me and scream, "Hello," and the administrative staff would gladly sit me down and give me fruits and drinks. They put me in their staff yearbook picture and treated me as one of there own. On my last day, they rounded up the bulk of my students during their recess for a final "goodbye" and handed my a nice parting gift.
Friday afternoons, I had two classes in Yoshii. They were held in a small and well-decorated basement of a very kind woman named Mrs. Nakamura. Although we spoke little of the same language, Mrs Nakamura and I built a close relationship over the year. She served me drinks, introduced me to her sons and invited me to a fantastic Taiko drumming performance in Tokyo.

The first class was composed of as many as eight kindergarten students. At the beginning of the year, they were very difficult to control, but in time became my most interested class. They laughed hard whenever I changed the pitch of my voice and would fight to hold my hand during action lessons. They were a lot of fun and I cared for them as my very own children.

The second class was composed of four super-intelligent and lovely 1st-2nd grade girls [Mana, Hina, Chihiro and Yuna] and an intelligent class clown boy named Taisei. The girls would pick wild flowers and hand them to me at the beginning of the class, and sit attentively and absorb for the entire 40 minutes. They soared through the textbooks and learned and retained more than any other class.
In the end, I let go. I felt like I had completed my task and am now ready to move on. I received many letters and statements of appreciation from students and parents, and feel that nearly all were satisfied. Although, I was not in the best health or mindset for teaching in the final week, the Lord gave the strength to finish strong.

The sun has set on the Japanese teaching experience. May the coming rise arrive with His glory and inspiration.

Japanese Mikvot

Over the past few months I have become accustomed to going to public baths, or sento, and/or hot springs, or onsen, about twice a week.
The sento’s indoor facilities include multiple skin-scorching baths with water spouts to massage the limbs and saunas. The experience includes the removal of all clothes in a locker room, crouching under a low showerhead to wash the body with soap and then submerging.

It is an ancient Jewish custom to purify by complete submersion in a body of water at least the size of a large outdoor hot tub. Today, it is a daily ritual for many to submerge in a well-heated mikvah before the morning prayers.

My most interesting mikvah experiences have come with Rabbi Binyomin. He tries to go almost every day and knows some of the most fascinating sento in Tokyo. One time he took me to a festival-themed sento. Once we entered, we were given festival robes and belts of nice traditional fabric and design. Then we took off our clothes, put on the robes and walked into a large room with food and game stands, large bright displays and hundreds of people walking around in nothing but the robes. From there we went into the locker room, undressed and entered a large bathing area with indoor/outdoor, clear and salt water baths and saunas. We spent some time and left. I was told that that Japanese will take there families there for a day trip. I imagine such a place can only be found in Japan.
Also, Japan has much underground volcanic activity. Such brings many hot springs, or onsen, to the surface. The Japanese have a particular affinity for bathing in them and have built indoor and outdoor facilities throughout Japan. (Wild monkeys also enjoy them and are often spotted bathing in the mountain pools.)

A personal high onsen experience came at a recent trip to Shikine Island. There, salty steaming waters arose from the beachfront. I read that its pools are believed to have healing effects on the skin and have been documented as having one of the best 100 views in Japan. I entered, stomached the heat and the salty sting on my flesh wounds, submerged and refreshed.

Binyomin describes the experience as being “born again.” The lifestyle in Japan occasionally wears down the body and/or spirit, and the mikveh has personally been a great resource of sustenance and renewal. May it continue to be so.