Come Away with Me

Faces of Narao

2 weeks on the island would be an extremely boring time if there was nothing much to do but studying. In between free time and on weekends, I brought Alvin around to meet some people. Finally he could put faces to some names he had so often heard over the phone.

Dinner at the Toda san's (lady on my left) house. She is the librarian who works at Narao library which is just a short walk away from my place. A very kind lady who allowed me to borrow books for longer than the actual period ;p When she knew my boyfriend was visiting, she invited us over for a meal and chat.

In addition, Kawasaki sensei actually got permission from the school principal to bring him along to junior high and had him participated in one of our class!

So here you are, Alvin sensei for the day! =)

The students especially the boys got all hyper and excited when he stepped into school that day. In fact, i couldn't recall them being that enthusiastic in seeing me when i first arrived. I was informed shortly afterwards that in the history of all the ALTs in Narao JHS, the school had never had a guy ALT before. So that sort of explained their reaction perhaps. The girls were however very inquisitive and couldn't stop giggling whenever they saw Alvin in school. All in all, we had a great class and it was an eye opener for Alvin too as this was the first and probably the only time he would get to sit in and observe a typical class in a Japanese school. What's more, as there was a teacher on MC that day, the school staff actually asked Alvin to have his portion of lunch.

School lunch here is a major affair. Students will don aprons and scarves and serve the day's menu to one another not to mention creating lots of noise in the process. As many Japanese schools tend to be small in size (Narao JHS has a grand total of 92 students!) it is not feasible to have a canteen. As such, meals are prepared by the town's school lunch center daily and delivered to the all the schools in the town.

Teachers take turn eating lunch in the respective classrooms as a way of interacting with students outside studying hour. Students here seemed a lot less restraint in talking to their teachers. I certainly don't recall being on such friendly terms with my teachers back in school. More often than not, we would probably scuttle away at the sight of one along the corridor. Left: Group of 13 years old which Alvin had lunch with.

Students came up to chat with us while waiting for the bus. When asked if they wanted to take a picture together, they posed readily. Mini celebrity of the day ;p

School aside, there was also dinner invite at Tamami-sensei's place. Tamami sensei helps out during my lessons at elementary school and is an extremely lovely lady who also teaches her own English class at home. She is very chatty and we've since become very good friends. Nowadays i help out at one of her night conversation class every Friday evening. Whenever she goes swimming, she will always bring me along too. She is a very good cook and every meal at her place will surely not disaapoint. We were treated to a sumptuos homecooked Sukiyaki and Alvin simply loved every bit of it!

We loved playing with her dog, Goo-chan too, who had the tendency to start performing from out of nowhere just so he could be rewarded with the beef on the plate ;p

Alvin with Kawasaki sensei and Taro-kun. Taro is such a sweetie, he probably was one of Alvin's favourite on the island. No words are necessary between these two, just lots of gestures, smiles and rubber bugs Taro liked to play with :p

The last 2 days were spent going around saying byes and taking pictures with people whom Alvin had become good friends with. As a matter of fact, when he comes for visit again next April, he said he will definitely want to drop by the island to see all these people again because they had been nothing but generous and kind to us!

Left: Alvin with Yasu, boss of the largest supermarket NICEDAY in Narao. Yasu san is a student at my weekly adult English conversation class.Right: Alvin went behind the sushi counter to have a shot with Kotobuki san, the delicious sushi place in town.



Rounded up the night with dinner and karaoke with a couple of youngsters in town.I met them through the festival when we performed and danced together. When they heard that my boyfriend was here, they insisted that we met up. Alvin having a great time with the 2 Tsuyoshis at karaoke (the 2 guys are both called Tsuyoshi).

Leaving the island the next morning...and coming back again definitely! =)

posted by テレサ @ 7:53 PM