A pleasant visit to my teacher's house.
So. Several months ago, my lovely English teacher Mr. Uekiyo invited me to come over his house sometime. We decided on a month, but I told him that it was up to his wife to choose the weekend. I didn't want to stress her out. (I've had experience with gatherings here, and there's always more work for the host/hostess. I guess that's obvious, though. ^_^;
Anyway, we decided on February 21st (or, rather, I agreed that that was a good day to come visit the Uekiyos). I didn't know what to think of the upcoming visit, and worried that I would be (ahem) bored as I usually am at visits from people my host mom knows, but I had nothing to fear. It was great. His kids were cute and awesome and smart. Hana is four years old, and their son Taro is ten. He'll be a fifth grader come April. And the kids were also musically inclined, which is totally worth extra points in my book. Mrs. Uekiyo (Yumiko--I couldn't bring myself to call her anything, though. lol) is an elementary school teacher, actually. So I was glad that we'd have the work connection to talk about if need be. Mrs. Uekiyo invited a another couple to come visit as well, the Fukushimas. They brought their two children, Haruka (age ten-ish) and Rino (age four). Haruka has been studying and playing violin about two years, and Hana (Mr. Uekiyo's baby) is learning piano from Mrs. Fukishima. I was asked to bring my violin ("And nothing else!! You've given us enough!"), and I did. I was supposed to play a little something-something, but I hadn't planned on wow-ing anyone with whatever I did. We had a little recital with Mrs. Fukishima, the little ones on percussion, Haruka and me on the violin and Taro on recorder. We did a few Ghibli songs (Laputa's theme, "Kimi wo Nosete"/'Carrying You'; "Ponyo the Fish" or whatever the theme's called, and maybe something in-between those two), and I used my budding accompanying skills learned from Hoshino-san last summer to play below the melody. It was soooo fun. And of course Mr. and Mrs. Uekiyo and Mr. Fukushima clapped for us and said how "sugoi!!!" we were. Good times, good times. Eventually I did a couple of pieces alone, and then sang some songs with Mrs. Fukushima on the piano ("Amazing Grace"--one I had the lyrics to in my violin case, but one that I do not personally favor). Gosh, I really don't dig every English song that the Japanese find great. But one of her piano books had Utada Hikaru's "First Love" in it, and I knew I could hang with that one. So, yay.
Mr. Fukushima has the same birthday as me! (February 10th) He's apparently "several, several years over" my twenty-five, but they didn't look more than thirty-seven to me. ^_^ That was a nice coincidence to have, too. And I'm glad that I didn't get a lot of weird questions from the three grown-ups who didn't know me. As usual, Uekiyo-sensei wasn't much a talker, but he jumped in with some comments about my music career or our daily gripes in English about other teachers and such. I think he enjoys the atmosphere more than he does dominating conversations.
I tried to play this Donkey Kong taiko game on GameCube with the kids, but I really sucked. I only tried a couple of songs, though, so don't count me out!! Man, four-year-old Hana was waaay better than me. Eventually, after watching me struggle for a few minutes, she said, "It's hard, isn't it?" (Gosh, I laughed really hard afterward. ^_^) I couldn't figure out when to hit, and I couldn't remember the sequence (red drums were hit by the right hand, yellow hit by left, pink for both hands beating, and blue meant to clap). It was crazy. I think I could get it if I had a half-an-hour to practice, though. Despite my horrible performance, I watched the kids playing and practiced drumming on my thighs. Taro was apparently really impressed by how fast I could drum. He also thought I was a guy, just from hearing my name from before. So he was of course surprised by the femininity I possessed when I finally met me in person. ^_~
Anyway, the food was good and plentiful. So was the dessert (layered white or chocolate cake brought by the Fukushimas). I told them about my current plans to leave JET, and what I might be able to do after returning to the US. Mr. Uekiyo looked soo sad when I told him about my doubts last week or so, and I brought that up again. Totally understandable, though. Just when you've got the JET at the level of experience where you want her, you end up having to train a new Assistant Language Teacher all over again.
Ahh, I'll finish this later. Or start another entry. It's time to fix a little dinner!
Anyway, we decided on February 21st (or, rather, I agreed that that was a good day to come visit the Uekiyos). I didn't know what to think of the upcoming visit, and worried that I would be (ahem) bored as I usually am at visits from people my host mom knows, but I had nothing to fear. It was great. His kids were cute and awesome and smart. Hana is four years old, and their son Taro is ten. He'll be a fifth grader come April. And the kids were also musically inclined, which is totally worth extra points in my book. Mrs. Uekiyo (Yumiko--I couldn't bring myself to call her anything, though. lol) is an elementary school teacher, actually. So I was glad that we'd have the work connection to talk about if need be. Mrs. Uekiyo invited a another couple to come visit as well, the Fukushimas. They brought their two children, Haruka (age ten-ish) and Rino (age four). Haruka has been studying and playing violin about two years, and Hana (Mr. Uekiyo's baby) is learning piano from Mrs. Fukishima. I was asked to bring my violin ("And nothing else!! You've given us enough!"), and I did. I was supposed to play a little something-something, but I hadn't planned on wow-ing anyone with whatever I did. We had a little recital with Mrs. Fukishima, the little ones on percussion, Haruka and me on the violin and Taro on recorder. We did a few Ghibli songs (Laputa's theme, "Kimi wo Nosete"/'Carrying You'; "Ponyo the Fish" or whatever the theme's called, and maybe something in-between those two), and I used my budding accompanying skills learned from Hoshino-san last summer to play below the melody. It was soooo fun. And of course Mr. and Mrs. Uekiyo and Mr. Fukushima clapped for us and said how "sugoi!!!" we were. Good times, good times. Eventually I did a couple of pieces alone, and then sang some songs with Mrs. Fukushima on the piano ("Amazing Grace"--one I had the lyrics to in my violin case, but one that I do not personally favor). Gosh, I really don't dig every English song that the Japanese find great. But one of her piano books had Utada Hikaru's "First Love" in it, and I knew I could hang with that one. So, yay.
Mr. Fukushima has the same birthday as me! (February 10th) He's apparently "several, several years over" my twenty-five, but they didn't look more than thirty-seven to me. ^_^ That was a nice coincidence to have, too. And I'm glad that I didn't get a lot of weird questions from the three grown-ups who didn't know me. As usual, Uekiyo-sensei wasn't much a talker, but he jumped in with some comments about my music career or our daily gripes in English about other teachers and such. I think he enjoys the atmosphere more than he does dominating conversations.
I tried to play this Donkey Kong taiko game on GameCube with the kids, but I really sucked. I only tried a couple of songs, though, so don't count me out!! Man, four-year-old Hana was waaay better than me. Eventually, after watching me struggle for a few minutes, she said, "It's hard, isn't it?" (Gosh, I laughed really hard afterward. ^_^) I couldn't figure out when to hit, and I couldn't remember the sequence (red drums were hit by the right hand, yellow hit by left, pink for both hands beating, and blue meant to clap). It was crazy. I think I could get it if I had a half-an-hour to practice, though. Despite my horrible performance, I watched the kids playing and practiced drumming on my thighs. Taro was apparently really impressed by how fast I could drum. He also thought I was a guy, just from hearing my name from before. So he was of course surprised by the femininity I possessed when I finally met me in person. ^_~
Anyway, the food was good and plentiful. So was the dessert (layered white or chocolate cake brought by the Fukushimas). I told them about my current plans to leave JET, and what I might be able to do after returning to the US. Mr. Uekiyo looked soo sad when I told him about my doubts last week or so, and I brought that up again. Totally understandable, though. Just when you've got the JET at the level of experience where you want her, you end up having to train a new Assistant Language Teacher all over again.
Ahh, I'll finish this later. Or start another entry. It's time to fix a little dinner!