May 20th

Today I went to school...

I met Mr. Foodie (sorry for butchering that D:) and went to his first class at 9:50. The whole room burst into "UUUUUOOOOOO!" And then the two teachers told the kids to shut up and get ready to work. I stood in the back of the class and listened to it.

The kids were good with pronounciating and understood perfect present tense very well. I was then given a piece of paper, like everyone else, and had to write down 2 things in perfect present tense. Then the class was told to give the papers back and have another handed to them, this one a different student wrote. We then had to shuffle around and ask, in English, questions and figure out who the person was. Mine was really easy.

I have been in Japan for 20 days.
I have been playing video games for 13 years.

I sat down next to a student (cuz I was tired of standing in the back) and all eyes were on me. "Yo." I said. I said it just like I say it to everyone, American or otherwise. Everyone burst out laughing, not laughing that I said the wrong thing but laughing that I had spoken at all. After my face was done being red, we continued the lesson.

Next class period! Here, right when I walked into the classroom, some kid stands up. "WHO ARE YOU WHO ARE YOU WHO ARE YOU!!!???" He yells while pointing. After settling down, the teacher made him direct all questions in English directly to me. "Hello, I'm Nicholas. Ni-Ko-Ra-Su. I am 19 years old. Jyuu Kyuu sai. And want to be a eigo-sensei someday." Everyone gasped at the same time. "Eeeeeehhhhhh?" And then class started.

This time there were to practice reading a thingy to the teachers and the teachers would give them a grade. Mr. Foodie then made me a teacher saying "-to me, Fujii, or Nicholas." After telling kids how to pronounce things right, class ended and I asked Hyper Active Loud Kid to give me his autograph. He spoke English very well and seemed to be the top student. I said "Ganbatte." And he replied. "Ganbarro." Which makes me think that "Te" is for girls and "Ro" is for guys. Like YaMeRo for guys and YaMeTe for girls.

Did the same activity with a different, more quiet class (who still said "UUUUUUOOOOOOOOOO!" when I walked into the room) and then ate a bit of lunch until Kanaguchi-sensei asked if wanted to eat food with the students. "Sure." and we were off!

The students were all like "Nikoras! Nikoras! Sit next to us." So after a table was prepared, I sat down with some kids. It was silent except for the Japanese music playing over the intercom when some kid asked if I went to school to learn Japanese. With the help of Kanaguchi-sensei, I said "No. I study it on my own."

"Why learn Japanese?"
"Because its cool."
"Why is it cool?" And some kid in the background kept saying "Samurai!"
"Samurai, Ninja, Anime, Manga, Sugoi!" I replied.
"Ooooo." and they laughed and repeated what I said.
"Boku wa gey-mah (gamer)."
"Oh, what games do American kids play?"
"Halo, Xbox360." But none of the kids knew what I was talking about. "But those are bad games."
"Well what games do you like?"
"Shin Megami Tensei, Persona, Monster Hunter." and then a kid was like "Oh! I have Persona!" and everyone was happy they connected to the gaijin.

Afterwards, I learned how to sort my trash and before I could escape, a girl put her notebook down and said "Sign please." So I did...and more notebooks came...and I spent 20 minutes writing my autograph to a bunch of Japanese kids. One of them called me out to the hall and led me into another class where I signed more things and that Persona kid gave me a Persona folder thingy.

Then a kid asked for hair...So I ran my fingers through my hair and got some loose hairs for him. Who am I to deny the Japanese their American hair? Then Yukiko came and rescued me. I said thank you to everyone and sayounara! Then some more kids blindsided us with questions.

Most of it was in Japanese and Yukiko answered most of the questions.

"Are you his translator?" No his aunt.
"Your 19 right?" Yeah.
"Where are you from?" Idaho, America. (America = USA in Japan. I don't make the rules.) Idaho grows potatoes.
"You like shellfish?" They're okay.
"You scared of Swine Flu?" No, I think its stupid.
"You have a girlfriend?" No.
"Have you ever met Michael Jackson?" Nope.
"What Anime do you like?" Claymore. (which they didn't know about. Damn Japanese and them not knowing their own Japan only shows.)
"You look like Johnny Depp." Thank you?
And then we escaped! and here I am.