Tales of Kyoto

One day my Kyoto-sensei asked me what my hobbies were, so I jokingly replied that my hobby is to goro goro (ゴロゴロすること), which means to lie around and be lazy.  He made this face and noise of surprise and was like, nah, c'mon, be serious.  We laughed, and the secretary joined in our laughing, and he was also surprised that I said such a thing.  I then struggled to list actual hobbies since goro goro-ing is legit my hobby.  I like to be lazy and do nothing and relax at home.  This is why I have been having trouble updating all these social media things because I come home and sit under my kotatsu and watch Netflix and Youtube and nap.  It's so cold, too, so once I get under that blanket, I don't want to move or do anything that requires leaving the warmth, ha ha.  I laugh, but I cry a little inside.

Anyways, my Kyoto-sensei then went around telling everyone that my hobby is to goro goro, which produced much laughter.  Thanksssssssssssssssssssss.

Tales of Kyoto

Christmas and the new year are coming up, and so many teachers and my Kyoto-sensei keep asking me if I'm going home for the holidays, if my boyfriend is visiting me or vice versa, what am I going to do to celebrate, etc. etc. etc.  Today, while we were both chilling in the kitchen area by the electric water kettles, my Kyoto-sensei asked me if I knew about otoshidama (お年玉).  Otoshidama are money put in envelopes and given as New Year's gifts, usually, to children.  I said that I did, and he asked me if I was going to be giving any (har har), and I said no and immediately stuck my hands out in a receiving gesture and asked, where's my otoshidama?  He laughed and told me to stop it and playfully slapped my hands away while laughing.

Later, we were still talking, but now Kyoto-sensei was seated at his desk, and I was standing.  Two second year students came in asking for Kyoto-sensei, Kyoto-sensei irrashaimasu ka? (教頭先生いっらしゃいますか。)  And then Kyoto-sensei replied back in Japanese, Kyoto-sensei died (教頭先生死んだ。) The kids laughed and asked again for him, but he just repeated that the Kyoto-sensei was dead a few more times, and then another sensei across the staff room chimed in with, yeah, there's no Kyoto-sensei here.

Tales of Kyoto

Today, I showed Kyoto-sensei, the vice principal, some of the paper gingerbread cookies that some students made.  He liked them.  He said they were cute.  Then I pointed out the gingerbread man with sketchy eyes, and he pointed to it and then me and motioned that that cookie was me.  I was like, nuh uh, and then I pointed to a cuter gingerbread cookie.  He then pointed to the cuter one and said, "me.  not you.  that is you," and pointed to the sketchy eyed cookie.  LoL, and then I pretended to be upset, and then we both laughed.  Good times.

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Another time, Kyoto-sensei came to use the laminator, which is on the desk next to mine.  He hadn't used it in a while and forgot some how-to's, and so I had to tell him that he needed to turn it on and wait 20 minutes for it to heat up (it was a really old laminator).  So he kinda chilled next to me while it heated up.  He noticed my work purse, which is a large navy blue Coach purse my aunt bought me as graduation present.  He told me it was very cool (kakkoii).  When I told him my obachan, aunt, bought it for me, he laughed a bunch.  I asked why, and he said it was funny that I said obachan.  I'm guessing it was funny because it's a more familiar and casual word than the expected obasan.  The san part makes it formal, and the chan makes it more informal and cute.

Tales of Kyoto

Hello beautiful darlings,

So I need to explain a little bit about the positions in a public school in Japan.  It's pretty similar to most American schools, but I want to provide some different label names and some information on the hierarchy.

Okay, everyone who teaches at the school is called sensei.  Sensei means teacher.  So we got our Tanaka-sensei, Kimura-sensei, Hashimoto-sensei, A-sensei, B-sensei, C-sensei, etc. etc. etc.  And they basically equate to our Mr. Smith and Mrs. Gomez and Ms. Brown of American schools.  (I'm seriously just using any name that pops into my head.)  Anyways, so sensei is reserved for teachers in a school setting (and also doctors, Ph.D's, and other positions, but that's a different story for another time).