Cooking with Kids

May 22nd, 2008
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(Bigger version!)

Here’s a video of me cooking with some students at Oshima High School. Oshima is my smallest school this year, consisting entirely of only 12 third year students. It will close in spring of 2009. It’s sad, really. (But Iwagi High School had only 6 students, and closed this spring. It used to be my smallest school.) Anyway, time is precious here. Everybody is crazy friendly at this school – and they’re all really relaxed. We try our best in English classes, but I find myself doing things unrelated to English more often than not here, be it volleyball, mask making, or cooking. This video shows us making fried rice, lettuce soup, and kashiwa mochi (glutinous rice cakes filled with sweet red bean paste, wrapped in oak leaves). You can hear the kids cheering and jeering one another, see them hamming it up for the camera, and of course, practicing English. Took us about 2 hours to make and eat all the food. Good times.

In fact, if you listen carefully between 00:43 and 0:52, you hear a fascinating exchange. One girl yells “I love you Deas!” and the other one begins saying “Poo. Poopu. Poop. What was it again?” to which the first girl replies “Poop in Mr. Kenya’s pants!” Ha ha ha ha. Awesome. Mr. Kenya is their English teacher and a godsend of a JTE. But I don’t think he poops his pants. :-D

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  • Nick - I guess they'll be going to my base high school (pretty long bike ride, though), or to one of the mainland schools (an outrageous bike ride). Kinda stinks for them.

    Aileen - I'm hoping he gets placed at one of my OTHER schools. He's pretty much awesome. Ha ha. And yes, I work with the fellow making us worry at 2 schools, now. Oshima and Ima-nan.

    Tom - I've had a few people mention that to me. Those guys are pretty ridiculous. I love goofing off with them. Until one of them stabs me with the utensil he's currently holding.

    Blue - thanks for the film recommendation! I'm glad it brought out your good memories. :-)
  • What a sweet video!
    To be honest with you, I hate the way Japanese girls talk.
    Besides that, this brought back sweet memories to me.
    And the story of small schools in Seto reminded me of the old but very good movie called "Twenty-four eyes " known as the biggest tearjerker of the Japanese film history, starring the great actress, Hideko Takamine.
    It is about a young female teacher of Shodoshima, I think it is located in the eastern side of Seto, in the pre-war time.
    And her & kids' lives were torn during the war.
    This is the trailer.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

    And this film will be released on DVD in U.S. soon.
    http://www.criterion.com/asp/r...

    I guess your local DVD rental store carries this.
    But it has to be the original version released in 1954.
  • Tom
    I liked the double act that the two guy students seem to have going on. Get them on Japanese telly!

    Toms last blog post was: “Travel is only glamorous in retrospect” - Part the First
  • Aileen
    i enjoyed that video. partly just cos it featured the lovely murakamai kenya!! you're so lucky he is your JTE. maybe when your school closes he'll come to one of my schools instead *crosses fingers and prays!*

    しんぱいですねー :)
    do you remember that?
  • Where are the junior high graduates going to go? Is there an uber-cool high school that is so popular all the other ones around it are closing? It's not your fault is it, Deas? What did you do???!!!

    Nick Ramsays last blog post was: Japanese Mothers with Big Cars
  • Hey Mom - I mean that there are no first or second year students at the school, and there are 12 third year students total, making 12 students period. It's a small school. The building is really old and used to cater to a much larger group of kids, so they have nice classrooms. I think they have 2 rooms for each individual kid, ha ha. And no - if they have Smart boards, they're in privatized big cities, where the local economies justify it. Out here an upgrade is installing air conditioning. :-)
  • Mom
    Did you mean that there are only 12 students in the entire school? Or just 3rd year? That kitchen classroom is huge! And appears to be very nice. What will happen to the school building? Where are all the kids going? Also, I wanted to ask you if any of your schools have Smart boards. I sat through an introductory presentation today, and it is so awesome. Supposedly we are all getting them eventually. But the guy said they are being sold internationally, so I wondered if Japan has them because they seem to spend bucks to get their kids the best. Enjoyed the video!
    Mom
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