More haiku. These are from my first of three classes at Sundai junior high. All three classes are second graders (8th grade to us) and consist of about 40 students. These classes I teach with Yamashita-sensei who is the guy that took Amy and me on the day trip up to northwestern Yamanashi. He is a great. Whereas my other classes just wrote their haikus on any old scrap of paper they had, Yamashita made up a page with lines for the haiku, under that put a couple lines for any notes to me that the students wanted to write, and under that printed my example haiku and even translated it. Some of the kid's notes are funny and I will print them here in a seperate section.
I will post the haikus from the other classes in the next few days.
Again, these are exactly as written on the paper.

I have a cold.
I have a headache.
I am very painful.

Bummer. Hope you feel better soon.

It began to snow
children were playing outside
warm smils were born there

Not bad.

Back to Japan now
We say "Don't forget me, please".
as hard as possible

Not sure if this is about me or not.

You'll be champion
believe your ability
try hard Matsui!

Not sure which Matsui this is for, but obviously written by a baseball fan.

Kuromuti high school
is interesting. becasue it's
very interesting

Isn't that circular logic?

I like apples very much
Red apples are like me a little
I'm eating it now

I think I need some explanation on that second line.

He was feeling the cliff
He think "I'll be a dead body"
The rope held his foot.

Son, you don't know the words he'd be thinking in that situation. And I can't teach them to you.

The pencil is very nice
But I do not like the pencil
Because it is not useful

That's because it's the pen that is mightier than the sword, not the pencil.

The old man is running.
He is old, but he is fine.
He is greater than me.

Keep trying and you'll be old and fine one day too.

He is foolish.
I am foolish, too.
We are foolish.

What?

Ok, so those are the better haikus from the first class. Here are some of the notes to me they wrote.

My English Haiku is the best in the world. (this is from the kid who wrote that last haiku)

I fun your lesson---English Haiku is very difficult (for me).

I like baseball and my favorite team is Yomiuri Giants in Japan. How about you? I want to talk with you about baseball more. (from the kid who wrote about Matsui)

Hello, Mr. Marcus.
I enjoy your class every time.
Please give interesting class to us again.
See you.

Mr. Marcus's class is very interesting.

I like sports.
I like summer and fall.
What season do you like the best?

Do you understand a Haiku? Writing a Haiku is difficult. But it is interesting a little.

So there you are. Stay tuned and classes two and three will be up shortly.