Shimatonbetsu Chuugakku - my favorite junior high so far

	Here's my ichinensei (first year) class. Guess which one lived in America for the past 12 years? Not hard, is it? Erika is pretty cool, and we spend some time talking while the rest of the class is writing the meanings of English words in their notebooks. She apparently has some difficulty with Japanese, but her ability far outstrips mine, and the teachers here are great, so she'll be fine. Fumiya is probably the worst at English in this class, and seems to be the brunt of the few jokes his classmates play, but it's not too bad. They're all still actual friends, and he's more willing than some to actually speak up in class, so that helps a lot even if his grammar is usually off. Takumi is the most vocal of the boys by a good margin, and his English is actually pretty good for his grade level. Being vocal helps with that. The other two - Michihiro and Manabu are both quieter, but studious (EDIT: yeah... that impression has changed a bit.. Michi at leat isn't so quiet now). They often know the answer when called on, though their pronunciation needs work. This is my favorite class if you couldn't tell.
	These are the ninenseis. The guy in the middle of both pictures left sometime recently, and without him, they are by far my quietest class. Emi is the loudest, and after meeting her mom (who's a politician) I see where she gets it from. Loud is good in English class though. I haven't met Ai yet.I gather she pretty much never comes to class. They're all fairly comptent at written English, but their speaking isn't so good. I suppose that works as speech isn't necessary for the highschool or college entrance exams.
	Here are the sanenseis. Marie is the third place junior high judo champ in Japan (she's Takumi's sister), Sho is far and away the most outspoken student at the school. Chihori is more quiet. The class as a whole is more confident than either of the others though and they have noticably better English. I can't carry out conversations with them or anything, but they can usually make themselves understood. They even surprise me sometimes at the complicated words they know. Especially Takanori... this guy knew the word "jellyfish!" I don't have a clue what that would even be in Japanese, and they certainly never studied it in any of the textbooks.
	Here's a bunch of students and faculty preparing food for the Autumn Festival. The face in the foreground right of the image is Mr. Hori, the school principle and a former English teacher. He's a really fun guy and we can communicate pretty well. Erika is the one with the red bandana and Yui is the one farthest left. Here they're making potato patties. Earlier we were doing pumpkin patties in the same spot (yes, I did in fact help with cooking and no, I didn't ruin it)
	Here's another shot of the preparations. The guy in the red apron is Mr. Hori the English teacher (not to be confused with Mr. Hori the principle). His English is really good - to the point where we do have conversations in English. His rythem and pronunciation are a bit off, enough to let me know he's not a native speaker, but still very good. Fumiya is the guy standing behind him, and Emi is the student in the red apron cleaning the stove.Erika's mom is the one hidden behind Emi.
	Here's Shimoto JHS from the outside. A huge building for 18 students
	Here we are eating. It was a really good meal. I got to sit at the boys table with English teacher Hori, Takumi, Toyohiro, Sho, Takanori, Shinnosuke (who's taking the picture), and Fumiya
	Here's everyone cleaning up after the feast
	I love these kids. Here we are getting ready for a bit of frisbee after cleaning up. They made sure to leave time for that.
	Erika took this one of us posing with the frisbee. We also roped Sena and (for a while) Hori sensei into a game.
	Here's the third years getting ready for lunch. Lunch is eaten in the classrooms in most cases in JHS in Japan (and probably other levels too). Here the students and homeroom teachers circle their desks, but in more populous schools (like Hamaton JHS) the class is divided into lunch groups of 5 or 6 students each. These groups are also used for other things, like deciding groups for group work. And I just used the word group way too often in that last sentence.
	Here's a shot of the lunch line, such as it is for a small class like this. It's pretty much 2 or 3 students spooning out the food and everyone else setting the desks.
	And for the curious, here's an actual classroom at Shimochuu. This is for the first years. I don't know whose desk is reversed or why. I think on this day Fumiya was out sick, and Michihiro and Manabu left early for a baseball game, leaving only Erika and Takumi. Now that was a small class. Didn't do much but play Bingo. A nice student-teacher ratio of 1:1 though when Hori sensei and I were both there. Teaching English to one native speaker and one 7th grader. What a day.
	Here's the school entrance for those of you curious as to how it looks. Here's a tip: unless you have tiny feet, bring your own slippers if you're planning an extended stay in Japan. The generic courtesy slippers they provide leave the last 3 and a half inches of my feet hanging uncomfortably off the back.
	Here's a shot of the school during winter, before the worst of the snow.
	Here's the (now 9th graders) under their 8th grade class motto. Or rather half of it. Kind of changes the message
	Daisuke is one of my new 7th graders. The only boy in a class of 3. He's... energetic. Most of the time anyway. Pretty smart too and good at sports, but if he ain't ADHD, he sure tries to be. He tends to take the role of antagonist on himself.
	This is Mina, another 7th grader. She started off knowing more English words than her classmates, but she seems to be getting held up on the alphabet. As in, she knows words, but has trouble spelling or reading them. She's already getting better about that though.
	Chinami can be shy, but not usually in a quiet way. As in, when singled out for something potentially embarrassing, rather than shrinking in on herself she'll exclaim "eeeehhhhhhhh?" (the longer you hold it the more surprise is indicated. It seems to be fairly common) For all that she's pretty damn start, and if she started out a bit behind the other's, she's caught up now and passed them in some areas. The whole class is fun and they aren't really shy, which I'm grateful for. It is hard to work with a class this small sometimes though as you can't make teams with just 3 people.
	Hori-sensei demonstrates the classic Japanese non-business pose
	Note the date on this picture. That's right, mid-May and there's still that much snow on the ground