The three 1-nensei classes I had today went pretty well. This time, to get their alphabet practice up to par we did hangman with lunch groups as teams. Typically a class has six lunch groups of five or six kids each.

Since they don't know any words in English just yet we had Japanese words in romaji (English spelling) as words in question.

It's pretty interesting what kind of words a group would consider to stump the rest of the class. I don't remember the exact spelling, but the Japanese longname for "North Korea" was so long I had a hard time filling in the letters every time a student guessed a correct one. Also interesting was the fact that one kumi (class) picked up the pattern of choosing vowels first every time we tried new words. Good Wheel of Fortune candidates.

Having an impact on their start of junior high school English feels like a big responsibility, even if I'm just an assistant teacher. Sometimes it feels like quite the privilege.

After my classes I spent the rest of the day adding entries from past blogs into this system. For the most part, everything is here now. The months that are missing though are marked in personal memory as a dark time, a very unpleasant time when I was home and going through a lot of personal drama. Let it be forgotten.

There wasn't much else to do at school - the 3-nensei (including teachers and our principal) were off on the shinkansen to Kyoto for their school trip. The morning meeting was humorously quiet ("sabishii desu ne" - "it's lonely isn't it?") and the day just felt more laid back then most with the lack of hustle around the staff room.

For a "change of pace" I had some McDonald's for dinner - back home you wouldn't catch me ever having a Big Mac - I'd have options. Burger King, Del Taco and what have you. This evening I had some chicken nuggets. Dining in style. Dining in comfort.