My favourite time....Bunkasaiiiii!

Last weekend was our school festival or bunkasai in Japanese. The festival lasts two days, Friday is just for the students to enjoy and Saturday is when the parents and past students come to take part. We don't have anything similar to this in Ireland, which is a shame because its so much fun and the students organize everything. It's a lot of responsibility! Each homeroom class decides on a theme for their class and decorate accordingly. They decide if they will have a game or serve food in their room. Students spend days painting, drawing, gluing and crafting so that the school becomes a colourful wonderland. These are also performances such as dance, singing, and instrumental.

Me as Wally in the middle with HR21

The students preparing their Line activity

Even the stairs were transformed

I got to hang out with the students teachers on Friday

I really enjoyed the shooting room

The Math club had so many puzzles, which were a lot of fun. My neighbor Jill came to enjoy the festival and this is her trying to solve a puzzle, she was good at them but this one was too difficult. Our English club had some boards about world food and also about our cooking club day. I think people liked it as they were informative and had great drawings.

Two members of English club

The third year English club members who will be leaving club now

I love the science clubs room too, there is always so many interesting creatures. My favourite is the Salamanders (above). Science club also play a common summer festival game called Kinyoshui, the object is to catch goldfish in a cup using a paper covered hoop as a net. You have to be careful not to rip the paper as when it breaks your turn is over. I caught only four goldfish but I watched the science teacher catch 23! 

I was so excited that my friend Jill came to visit my school. She is the ALT at Gotemba High School and we had so much fun visiting all the games rooms and eating lots of food. We really enjoyed the Coco Curry from HR33 and various things made by the cooking club.

The Brass Band club performed on Saturday morning and they were brilliant. As well as music some students performed a dance routine. Unfortunately my video isn't uploading but I will hopefully be able to fix it and upload at a later date. Until then, there are some picture below. Four of our teachers joined the club for the performance Miss Unno, Miss Goto, Mr Heima and Mr Atani, they were excellent.

Some of the first year students who watched the performance with me

The music clubs room was so much fun but it was very hot, so I didn't spend too much time in there.

Some of the students art

School council

All the students worked so hard and should be proud of their achievements. The students council worked tirelessly for weeks and most are third years so I hope they have many great memories of their last school festival. I certainly have lots!

Our Principle waiting to give out awards

Cooking Time for English Club

 A few weeks ago the members of the English club asked if they could learn about food from other countries and cook them. I love cooking so I was extra excited about this request. First we talked about the different continents and the types of food we knew from each and we voted on which one we wanted to study. The students decided on Europe, so the next week I gave them a list of different types of European food. They read over some different recipes and had to choose four dishes that they would cook, two mains and two desserts. The four dishes chosen were Spaghetti from Italy, Quiche from France, Apple Strudel from Austria and Eton Mess from the UK.

 The students were divided into groups of four and each group cooked their dish and everyone shared at the end. However, the week before they had to study and translate the recipes into Japanese.

The boys making Apple Strudel

The girls making Eton Mess

The students all worked well together and finished each dish perfectly. We all enjoyed working and eating together and it was a very nice to have our little European food party. I think that it was interesting for them to learn about food from other countries because Japanese food is so unique and is especially different from European food. They have also decided to present world food as their topic for the school festival.

The girls waiting for their Quiche to cool

 Maybe it’s a little sexist to say, but it was also brilliant to see that the boys were great chefs and they understood the instructions well. Most of them are third years, so soon they will be off to university and having to cook for themselves. Great to know that they will survive!

The boys with their Spaghetti

All of the dishes and the students together. I was very proud of their achievement, from translating to cooking, Mr Katsumata and I hardly helped at all.

As the saying goes, 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating', and everything was delicious!

 Even the soccer boys dropped in for a bite!

It was a lot of fun messing around with the new first year students and getting to know them better. These two were very funny!

Third Year School Trip

Recently, I went with the third year students on their school trip to Yamakita to have a BBQ. It was a lovely day and the scenery was beautiful. This group of students were my first to teach at Gotemba Minami and I don't see them so often anymore. Therefore, it was very nice to relax and talk to them.

All the students were so good at preparing all the food and making their fires. I not sure if I would have been as good when I was their age.

Japanese BBQ's are a little different to the ones we have in Ireland. The food is much healthier and there is more variety in Japan. In Ireland, and most Western countries, a BBQ is mainly lots and lots of meat. For example, burgers, sausage and kebab skewers.