Teaching Day... and speech???

Thursday - June 13, 2013

I can't believe that this is almost over.  On the other hand, I can't believe that it was only one week ago that I was in a dentist's chair!  It seems like two weeks worth of "trip" has been packed into the last week.  On the other hand it seems like this has all flown by so quickly.

I'm starting to realize that there are two types of experiences on this trip.  There are the experiences that I could pretty easily recreate with another trip to Japan.  The shrines and temples probably aren't going anywhere.  The museums can be visited at a later date... etc.  But then there are the experiences that happen as a result of this program, this group, this moment.  And I suspect those are the ones I won't forget.  The ones that will never be recreated. I'm finding that my favorite moments fall under that category.  Last Thursday with the dentist and the campground.  The baseball game with that awesome group of people.  And now today...

Today was full of those moments.

It was a teaching day so, like Monday, we had a half-day tour in the morning and then half of us taught in the afternoon.  I was teaching today so I was a little nervous but mostly excited.

Our morning tour was to this really interesting architecture museum called the Edo Tokyo Open-air Architectural Museum.  This place was pretty amazing.  It's a park full of real size houses.  We walked around the park and walked into different houses viewing the different styles of architecture. Some houses appeared to be 19th century.  Others were from various time-periods in the 20th century.  Some of these houses were actually moved here while others were recreated for the park.

http://tatemonoen.jp/english/

That's a link for the museum website.

It's hard to get a good picture of a great looking room when you are standing in the room.

What a great looking house!

This is what a well-off farmer might live in.

We've seen these before but the lack of tourists allowed for a nice photo opportunity.

This is a famous room where a famous high-profile assassination took place.  The window and even the view out of the window was carefully recreated.

Alright... this photo is a little corny but I was caught up in the moment.

An old-style bath house.

After the architecture trip it was time for me to get ready to teach.  Now, for those of you that may go on the trip in the future, a few tips...

1)  Make it as visual as possible

2)  You may or may not have a translator depending on what type of classroom you get placed in.  If you are placed in a class where part of the focus is learning English, you may have no translator.  Refer back to tip number one!

3)  You might not know until the day of your class if you have a translator or not which severely alters how much content you may want to present.  Have options.

4)  Having a project or an activity for the class to do has the potential to be very helpful and very engaging.

Alright... so I lucked out with the teaching. I teach theatre, so perhaps I had a bit of an advantage on material that I could use to create a presentation that could transcend any sort of language barrier.  Even better, I found out that Technos teaches a theatre class and I'd be teaching in that class for the day.  AWESOME.  I decided I'd do a class on Commedia dell'arte which is a very movement-based form of physical theatre that developed in Italy back in the 16th Century.  It also tends to be very comic.  When I learned it in Italy, I learned it from a man who often taught the class in Italian.  I learned in a group of 31 people who were speaking 8 different languages.  Then we were paired up and, despite our language barriers, we were able to make scenes based on the language of Commedia.  You watched him and then you tried it out.  It seemed like a perfect format for this class.

On top of that, I was given a translator, and I got an amazing person to be my translator.  The gentleman that translated for me was a professional opera singer who studied in Boston.  We hit it off immediately.  I knew this was going to be fun.

The actor and the opera singer working together to teach a class in Tokyo! (This is after the class was over which is why I am so sweaty!)

  The class went very well and we had so much fun trying out different characters and their movements from the Commedia dell'arte.  We were all sweating like crazy and it was so hot but it was a lot of fun.  The students really took to the work.  As an acting teacher sometimes I teach a class with a new group of students and immediately I see a performer and think "I'd really like to work with that student more."  Well, despite the language barrier (which there really wasn't much of because we were all speaking Commedia) there were one or two students who I would have liked to have worked with a lot more.

Japan's newest Commedia troupe!

 It was also great just to be back at the school.  It's fun interacting with the students and we hadn't done of much of that for a while.

Back at Technos?  Then it's picture time!

The plan for the night was one final dinner with technos faculty members.  We had dinner with the faculty once, early in the trip, and even then it was a little wild.  I had a feeling that this could get crazy.  I was right.  We went to a restaurant that served shabu shabu which is thinly sliced pieces of meat that you dip in hot water.  It's kind of like fondue and it's delicious!  I also learned an interesting chopstick fact during this meal.  When eating, you use the "regular" end of the chopsticks but when doing things like pulling food from a common plate or dipping food in water that everyone will use, you flip your chopsticks around and use the back end.  I had no idea!  I kept forgetting but it was fascinating to learn that sometimes you use the back end of chopsticks.

It was a wild dinner and many of us didn't want it to end.  We fly out Saturday but tomorrow is essentially our last day.  We leave our hotel tomorrow and head to the airport hotel.  So after dinner we went to another venue and then went to a karaoke bar.  This karaoke place was fun.  It's kind of like bowling.  Instead of renting a lane you rent a room and pay by the hour.  The room is equipped with everything you need to have a crazy karaoke night and a waitress comes around and takes orders.  All I can say is this...  if you are going on this trip, prepare a song or two to have ready for the moments of karaoke.  Many people in Japan are prepared for these moments.  Come ready to ROCK.  Here are a few random pictures from the post dinner activities.

Oxford Mike can rock a karaoke machine. 

Mike and Matt together?  Look out!  Canada and England rock an American song in Japan! I love these kinds of moments.

One other thing happened today that is worth mentioning.  Tomorrow we have our closing ceremony for the program.  Dr. Tanaka will be there along with members of his family.  Before dinner, Yuji asked me if I would give a bit of a speech on behalf of the international faculty and international group.  Out of everything that has happened on on this trip, this speech is easily what I am most nervous about.  How can I possibly say in a few minutes how grateful we all are or what this means to us?  How can I possibly sum up this experience or wrap it up on behalf of the group when every group member has had their own journey and made amazing discoveries and taught me things.  I'm guessing Yuji picked me because he knows I am used to being in front of an audience.  But wow... I am really nervous.  Whip up some magic, Hatch.