Day 1 - The kids aren't talking at all on the bus. That worries me a bit. • Turns out that we have ラジオ体操 at 7:00 AM every morning. It's pretty much aerobics at old people speed. I'm not real thrilled about it. • Only three of my students are attending the camp. None of the three are particularly keen on active participation, two of them I've never had actual conversations with before, and one of those two, Reina, I'm pretty sure legitimately dislikes me. Not in that shy Japanese "please leave me alone" way, but more of a "you make me sick, get away from me" sort of way. • It's dawned on me that I'm going to have to keep all of the boys in line by myself. So I get to be the mean guy with the flashlight who keeps everyone from having fun in the middle of the night. Probably not the best way to get the kids to like me.
Day 2 - Feels more like day 5. I'm already beat, but can't complain because so are the kids. • We're having breakfast when Shigehito, one of the junior high students, announces that he wants to have sex. I'm sure that most males are thinking the same thing at 14, but it takes a special breed of person to make that admission on day 2 of English camp over the breakfast table. Not sure whether to be frightened or encouraged by this enthusiasm. • The indoor slippers that they gave me are about three sizes too small. Trying to decide what's worse, the heat or the blisters forming on the sides of my toes. • The boys celebrate wildly when they find out that they have to clean the bathrooms. I didn't understand why until I found out that it was an excuse for them to spray each other with water. • I can't stop sweating. Wish they'd turn on the air in this bitch.
Day 3 - We took the kids to the local museum and the beer factory. I know that it doesn't make a lot of sense to take a bunch of children to a beer factory, but we did it. • The boys borrow my camera while we tour the museum. Naturally, they immediately proceed to take detailed pictures of the stuffed horse's junk. • I got pulled aside by the camp director because Sakura was starting to follow me everywhere. I'm used to junior high girls getting clingy and trying to get me fired, but this was the first time that one of the higher-ups actually thought that it presented a legitimate problem. • Yelled at three of the junior high kids because they were up snooping around the girls' rooms past lights out. Motohiro and Daichi jumped into the same bed when I sent them to their room. Funny thing is that they were still there when I went to wake them up in the morning.
Day 4 - I miss my car. • The older kids were being disinterested and rude to the American instructor during the night session, so I gave a stern talk to the entire group after class was over (yes, I've become a mean bastard). I'd like to say that I was simply sticking up for the teacher, but I think that I may have also been indirectly venting some of my personal frustrations as a foreign language instructor myself. But as they say, I wasn't angry with the kids, just disappointed. A little while later, I was sitting around thinking of all the things that I said to them and of all of the things that I should have said to them, when Wahiro pulled me into one of the rooms where the boys were shooting dumb videos and tried to get me to join in. Maybe I'm giving him too much credit, but I'm pretty sure that he was trying to cheer me up.
Day 5 - Afternoon hike, which was a nice change of pace. • The term "walking stick" comes up. Daichi points at Kaito, not exactly the slimmest cat at camp, and says "Walking steak?" I don't get how some of these kids can not understand their lessons but still snap on each other in English so hard. • Kaito gets into a tree somehow, and all of the ants that live in it start panicking and bail with their eggs. • 「先生、カッコイイんですけど。」I don't think much of it when the girls say it, but for one reason or another, it means a lot coming from the boys. • Junkichi, who's an absolute nightmare during the day, knocks on my door at midnight and says that he can't sleep because he's lonely. He's so busy getting into shit most of the time that you almost forget he's just a 10-year old kid who's liable to be scared of the monsters under his bed.
Day 6 - I think I've hit a wall. Instead of warning each kid about every single thing, I've been letting more of the little stuff slide. I guess it's that I'm tired myself and can understand why some of the kids might want to goof off a little. • Blindfold direction game in the afternoon (left, right, go!, etc.) and Shigehito runs full speed into a tree. Too busy laughing with everyone else to feel particularly bad. • S'mores and High School Musical to close out the night, and it's actually starting to feel like a proper camp.
Day 7 - Mei, the tinniest one at camp, thinks it's funny to mimic me during meals. I eat my food as fast as I can until she starts laughing and can't keep up. Cute kid. • Hinako tries to toss an empty steel can into the trash but instead ends up tagging Ibuki in the head. Ibuki bleeds for a bit, but he'd be okay. • We give the kids the afternoon to themselves at the park. Fumiya, Amon and Riku were following me around, so I end up paying their admission so they can see the aquarium. Their faces are absolutely glowing as they run from tank to tank, and I'm immediately glad that I parted with the cash to get them in. Fumiya makes sure that I'm never more than a few steps behind. Before long, they're the little brats who run around and get into everyone else's pictures, but it's kind of funny for a change because they're my little brats.
Day 8 - So tired that I literally feel like I'm floating. Just 4 hours of sleep last night, but better than the 3 that I had the night before. • The elementary kiddies do an activity where they have to cut out pictures of foods that they like and paste them on a paper plate. Aya: ice cream, cookies, pizza, grapes. Yuki: pizza, hamburger, ice cream, oranges. Morita: bicycle, Miller Lite. • I forgot my gym shoes at home, so I end up playing basketball with the junior high kids in my socks. Not smart, but such is the cost of bonding with the boys. My left ankle is killing me. • Last bath. The boys are jackasses as usual, being obscene with the hoses and doing laps in the onsen-style pool. I let them have their fun and tell them not to be late for their night class.「はーい~」they promptly answer, in perfect unison, earnest. • During the evening activity, Reina, who hated me on Monday, sits next to me.
Day 9 - After the morning exercise, little Junkichi walks over to me, takes both of my hands in his, holds them for a few seconds, then walks off. • Closing ceremony. Everyone cries. • The staff does their best to get everybody onto the buses, but nobody wants to leave. • On the ride home, the kids on my bus are already calling the kids on the other bus with their cell phones, and Daichi hands me his. I tell Shige to がんばって and promise Hinako that I'll come back next summer if I can. • I don't cry, but I wear my shades all the way home because I think that I might.
Finally over. I make sure to get everything that I've been craving for the past 9 days: quarter pounder with cheese, fries, ice cream, sleep.
Listening to: Felt
