Things are coming to a close for this year. I've already visited four of my schools for the last time till January and in the next three days will be closing out the remaining three. Amy and I are quite happy to be going to Hokkaido and to have almost two weeks off. The 23rd is the Emporer's birthday and a national holiday. Then the 24th through the 29th we'll be up on that north island. From the 29th to the 3rd we'll be back here and taking in the Japanese New Year celebrations and customs. And on the 4th we go to Yamashita's place for a day with his family with a day to recover on the 5th. Gonna be a great couple of weeks. I did have to take some vacation time for it but I consider it worth is since five days gets me two weeks off without missing any schools and not having to visit the Kencho so much.

CNN is now is Japan. Or part of it is anyway. Bill Hemmer (sp?) is in Tokyo and is introducing some of the Japanese culture to America. I think this sort of thing is good. I'm betting that many (most?) Americans don't know much about Japan other than that it's where cool technological gadgets come from. That and sushi. Most of what Bill is telling the viewers is old news to me but I happen to be one of the lucky few who has experienced this country first hand. Anyway, I think it's only a three day visit so catch it if you can.

Last week at Sundai I had the little guys work on a letter to Santa--Amy's idea, of course, as she is the real teacher--and it went quite well. I think the students enjoyed it for the most part. Some of their answers to the fill-in-the-blank parts were quite funny. I'm not sure how much of the humor they got but I imagine they got a fair bit. I didn't collect their papers after it was all over. Instead, I just walked around the room as they worked on them and wrote down some of the things that struck me as humorous. The first part of the letter went like this:
Dear Santa Claus,
Christmas is coming and I am looking forward to your visit. This year I would like many things for Christmas:
First of all, ________
And then, ________
Finally, ________
So with that explained here are some of the answers they, and keep in mind that these are 8th graders, gave:
a lot of new suits (bit young for this aren't you?)
my own home
a job (you'll get there soon enough, oh young one)
world peace, world love, much money and absolute power (somehow that last part killed me)
beautiful hair (a young girl whose hair looks nice to me)
I want to go to the movie with my boyfriend.
big brother (uh, that might be a little tough to deliver)
much land, much authority, much money
time machine
height more 15cm (this kid is already tall)
beard (I think I inspired this one)
Santa's clothes
Mentos for a year (yeah, the breath mints)
your reindeer
boyfriend
girlfriend (got this one considerably less than the previous one)
beauty
free time
sleep time (I don't think you'd catch American kids asking for this)
soccer talents
weasel (as in a pet, I guess)
love
Kaoda's Dictionary of Place Names (the name is close, I think, but...what the hell?!)
genius (Santa delivered this to me in my youth too, heh heh)
erase my little sister (this one killed me)

and the number one answer from all three classes.................

hot soup

As you can read, they are quite the creative and funny little junior high schoolers.
There was another section to the letter where they were supposed to list three things they did in the past year to prove to Santa that they were good little boys and girls. Not much of this turned out out to be funny due to a lack in English ability, I guess. But a few were good enough to write down. Keep in mind that these are supposed to be sentences to convince Old Saint Nick to bring you something nice:
I get up at 7:00 this morning. (And....?)
I like natto. (Good. Eat mine. Natto is fermented soybeans and I keep it no secret that it is the only Japanese food that I can't stand.)
I helped bad boys. I didn't believe god. But I'm a dear boy. (This kid is great. One of those kids who doesn't say too much but when he does speak up it's gold.)
I didn't cause any accidents. (That is reason for reward.)

And my favorite from the files of mixed-up word order:

I helped to cook my mother.

Anyway, that exercise went well for the most part. Hope you enjoyed the above.