nothing to prove

oh ojima

After another tiring bus trip back to Sanjo I showered and repacked for another trip with my favorite school, Ojima. The trip was to an area called Myoko Mountain and the place we visited is basically a outdoors facility that reminded me a lot of being back in Minnesota. Of course we had to take another bus but at least the students were really excited to be going on a trip for a couple days and so was I. Together with one of the other teachers, I rode on the first grade bus for the drive out there and joked around with the students. Once we got there, everyone got lunch at the cafeteria buffet. I was amazed that one of my students could out eat me, which is unbelievable for how small they are. Anyway they had team building games all afternoon and all the teachers walked around to watch the students. Later we had dinner and free time. We played a Japanese card game called hanafuda. Then later I taught them slap jack and Egyptian rat screw.


That evening we played, what can only be described as, dry curling. Take away the ice and the brooms to get a general picture of what we were doing. I was on a team but found out that I was really bad at it because of how tall I am. That was okay because my teammates were pretty good, we still took last though. Afterwards a teacher that switched schools in April came by and all the teachers had a little party. It was fun but between the translating I had been doing in Kyoto and the energy used up during the day, I was fried! Everyone seemed a bit tired so we headed to bed kind early at one in the morning.


In the morning I was awoken by the sounds of students who had apparently gotten up around 5:30. We cleaned out the rooms and got some breakfast before the mornings activities. It turned out that we were doing orienteering that morning, basically a map with numbers and trails. I wanted to partake so I asked one group if I could join and somehow ended up being with two groups that merged together. We had a good time trekking around the woods for a couple hours and managed to find everyone of the markers taking first place together. It was a blast! Everyone got one last lunch before the closing ceremony and the bus ride home. Most of the students slept a bit, myself included, and we got to see the third graders, who didn't go, when we returned. It was great to be with my students outside of class for a couple of days and it made me realize how much I am going to miss Ojima when I go home in less than a month.

posted by Aaron @ 3:19 AM