One time, at English Summer Camp....

August in Japan is vacation time - students get a brief, three-week break from Japan's infamous year-round school system. So, how do many youngsters choose to spend their time away from school? They study! I had the pleasure of working at a two English Summer Camps for Jr. High students last week, and got my first taste of what teaching in Japanese schools would entail.

I started my Adventures in English with a two-day, overnight camp in Fukui City. We slept in a nature center in the mountains, on futons rolled out on tatami mats. Chasing around dozens of junior high students would drain anyone, but coupling that with speaking in broken English while writing and rehearsing skits, playing charades, and singing songs around the campfire really wiped me out. I'm getting old!

But it was the day-long camp in Sakai City later that week that made me realize that I had a lot to learn about life in Japan. Teachers were asked to bring their lunch to the camp, so I stopped by a conbini (convenience store) and bought a package of pre-cooked noodles. When lunch time came, I sat down with a group of students, opened the noodles, and proceeded to, in true American fashion, douse them with the package of sauce included in the box. My students stopped eating and stared. The conversation went something like this:

Me: What!?! Is this sauce bad?
Them: Dead silence.
Me: Can I eat this?
Them: Dead silence. (One student runs to get her English-Japanese dictionary and shows me the Japanese word for "itchy.")
Me: Laughing so hard I cry.
Them: Laughing so hard they cry.
Me: Am I going to die?
Them: Nodding their heads "yes." Then laughter.

Turns out I had doused my noodles in a sort of oatmeal sauce used to minimize the effects of wasabi. If your lips starting burning from the wasabi, you were supposed to rub some of the oatmeal on them - not pour it directly on the noodles.

With my noodles ruined, I proceeded to pull an apple out of my bag. Again, being the unmannered American that I am, I bit into the apple, juice running down my face. Again, my students stop eating and stared.

Me: What? Am I not supposed to eat this either?
Them: In Japan....cut!!!

So, for those of you planning to visit Japan, please remember to first peel, and then cut your apples. It's the Japanese way.

I made a complete a$$ out of myself in front of six 13-year-olds. But I got them to speak English in the process. All in all, not a bad day's work!