Teachers trip

Quite some time ago I was asked by my teachers if I would like to go on their teachers trip with them. I had heard about others getting a chance to go on theirs and I didn:t want to miss out on mine so I said yes before they could even tell me what it was. It ended up being a bus tour to Nasu. Now I wasn:t really sure where Nasu was nor was I sure that I knew what we would do there but I wanted a chance to get to know my teachers outside the classroom and here it was.
Sunday morning, we all arrived at school about the same time that school would actually start. The first shock of the day was that everyone was in normal clothes. Of course, Japanese fashion allowed the women to look similar to school clothes but it started the day off right because everyone was more relaxed. My favorite was the youngest teacher I teach with, he just finished college so we are the same age. I had always seen him in suits or sports clothes and never pictured him in street clothes but he surprised me with him trendy outfit.

So we get on this big tour bus and somehow I get shoved in the back with all the men. My vice principal, who speaks the most English, a 5th grade teacher and this young teacher…all of us in the back. It ended up being really fun but at first I was skeptical, these men ended up being my buddies for the day. We played Bingo on the drive which was good because that’s something I could do. It lightened the mood and allowed me to relax. We stopped at a dessert shop, what looked like a European church and then the Cheesecake factory. Japanese cheesecake is not the same as American I come to find out which was a bit disappointing but still good. Lastly, we went to an outlet mall for a couple of hours. The best part of the day was that these men really did follow me around. Yuya, my youngest teacher, didn’t leave my side. It was quite funny since we can hardly communicate. He can understand more English but harder to speak it. It was an interesting day but so beneficial to really get to know these teachers and what they are like outside the classroom.