Learning Japanese, all over again!

Wow, today was a tough one! lol I thought that I had gotten used to the idea of attending a university, but today was a tough reminder of how demanding the life of a student can be. We started off the day - our first day at the Hokkaido University of Education - by going through our schedule, followed by a tour of the campus. Summarizing our weeks of school visits and lesson plans was difficult, since many of the details of our trips have yet to be ironed out. It was a welcome sight to see the student cafeteria, and not just for the fantastic prices. I had a curryrice dish that was literally served in a gigantic squarish plate; the way every student would hope! ^^ I forget the exact price, but it was something that would make any uni student smile, and the atmosphere of happy university students is something I always enjoy.

After lunch, we began the real work of tweaking our lesson plans for a 20 minute joint taught class that we will give tomorrow at Takuhoku Elementary School. Instead of our more lengthy plans, we will likely teach a short song, followed by a story about Canada's weather and geography. Or something like that. Sylvia's got the books, so I'm kinda talking about something I don't really know. . . lol For me, the really grueling part of the day then began, as we settled into our first Japanese language lesson. Because Sylvia and I are already able to read and write basic kana characters, we worked together on a different lesson than Jon and Allison, who were whisked into another classroom. They can speak about their experience, and likely will, but I can definitely say that it was extremely difficult to try and operate in Japanese for two full hours. Our teacher, Mrs. Onishi (sorry about the spelling) is fantastic, and thinking of her teaching style makes me want to dedicate another entire blog entry to education, and the University of Calgary's curriculum of 'inquiry' for education undergraduates. The quickest thing I could say right now is that Dr. Field's mention of 'N+1'as an effective approach to literacy is a perfect description of what took place for me this afternoon. Actually, I will write an entire blog entry about this, but not today. But I will say that this experience will add a lot to my understanding of effective teaching strategies, and in my own understanding of what a student of mine is likely to go through in order to learn literacy in any language.



My favorite Japanese street food. Takoyaki , aka , octopus balls!



What a fantastic end to a two and a half hour Uno game!! :-)

Yesterday, as Allison mentioned, we also went to Hanami, the cherry blossom viewing festival. A new friend from the University took us downtown to the Maruyama park, where we ate takoyaki and took pictures. Here are two of my favorite pictures. Oh!, and I lost at a game of Uno to my host family's father, who must have been cheating! lol I mean really, who picks up seven 6-cards in a row! :-)

The walkway up to the jinja (shrine)