"It is alright to make mistakes, as long as you keep trying..."

Last weekend, I went to Gunma prefecture to visit Ben. Our plans for Saturday fell through due to bad weather, so we ended up visiting the Daruma Factory in nearby Takasaki city. We had a great time roaming around the gift shop, filled with hundreds of Daruma, every color and size imaginable (even rainbow!). We also got to paint our own Daruma dolls.

In a warehouse behind the gift shop, we sat at a work bench next to an older man, who demonstrated how to paint the face of a Daruma for us. I knew we'd never be able to match his agility and precision with a paint brush, but we tried our best! We used black paint and thin paint brushes to add features to the faces of our Darumas. Ben bought a green and gold Daruma to work with and I chose a purple and pink one.

When we were walking around the gift shop afterwards, we noticed a picture of President George W. Bush holding a big red Daruma. The man who had instructed us told us that he had customized the Daruma doll for Bush. We also saw a picture of Princess Diana painting the eye of a Daruma.

According to the explanation that came with our dolls:

"Paint in the Daruma's right eye, then set the tumbling doll somewhere in your home or office for all to see. And when you achieve some major objective - whether it be in sales or life - paint in the other eye as a symbol of your success, even in the face of frequent failures. The Daruma always comes up smiling."

But my favorite part of the explanation had to have been this:

"It is alright to make mistakes, as long as you keep trying. This lesson is illustrated by the Daruma doll, which always returns to the upright position when it is tipped over. In olden times, people tried to obtain this doll in the hope that they can rise again an eighth time even if they fall down seven times."

Freshly painted Darumas.

Just beginning to paint my Daruma.
Photo credit: Benjamin Woodard

The Daruma master!
Photo Credit: Benjamin Woodard

The painting area. First, a Daruma is dipped into white paint and then set aside to dry. Once it dries, it is painted a different color. Then comes the face!






The finished product!



Japan's Hottest Summer in 113 Years

July 6th and August 23rd - Interactive Forum
Interactive Forum is a competition in which a select number of junior and senior high school students in Japan get the opportunity practice their English conversational skills. Students sit in groups of about 3 or 4 and discuss various topics. The topics for junior high school students are things like ‘hobbies’ or ‘my favorite place.’ High school students discuss topics that require some deeper thought, like ‘should only English be spoken in Japanese classrooms?’ and ‘should Japanese high schools have cafeterias?’

My role in Interactive Forum both times (once in July and once in August) was judge. The judges rate students based on their individual performance, which includes English fluency, not using any Japanese, and so on. They also evaluate students based on their performance within the group: Were they afraid to make mistakes? Did they monopolize the conversation? Things like that.

While judging this kind of competition may not seem like the most difficult task, I actually found it to be quite challenging. Students put an enormous amount of time and dedication into preparing for these competitions-I’ve worked with some of my students for Interactive Forum before. And speaking English in front of a panel of different English teachers is probably scarier for the students than I can imagine. So I wanted to be as fair as possible when judging. But of course when students who are practically native speakers are thrown into the mix, I feel conflicted as a judge: give more points to the ‘native speaker’ who clearly deserves to win based on my judging criteria sheet, or give more points to the Japanese student, who might benefit more from the confidence boost that winning would give them.

While this bothered me a bit, I was glad to see that in the end, a number of different awards were presented to students for various things. And I hope that whether or not students won this competition, they walked away feeling accomplished and proud of themselves for having tried something so intimidating. I always tell my students that they are very brave for entering Interactive Forum. I know that if I were in a similar competition for people who are learning Japanese, I’d be proud of myself just for having the guts to go!

July 17th-20th: Osaka and Kyoto Adventures
Ben and I visited Osaka and Kyoto in July. And while I hate to say it, the first thing that comes to mind when I think of this trip was the HEAT. It was almost unbearable. Usually, Kyoto is one of the hottest places in Japan during the summer and this year was no exception. Not to mention that this year’s summer was the hottest one in Japan in 113 years. But other than that, we had a great time visiting the Fushimi Inari Shrine (my favorite place by far), the Golden Pavilion, Kyomizudera, and other popular spots in the area. And as we ate a quick lunch before heading home, we saw a wedding take place in Kyoto Station! Kyoto Station is Japan’s second-largest train station and one of the largest buildings in the country. It includes a shopping mall, movie theater, and tons of restaurants, smaller stores, and omiyage (souvenir) shops!

July 24th-28th: Tokyo Orientation
Tokyo Orientation takes place every year in Tokyo to welcome the new JET participants to Japan. The JETs stay at the luxurious Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku for 3 nights and attend various workshops during the day, that will hopefully help them arrive in their prefectures feeling more confident about their roles as ALTs.

I was happy to go to Tokyo for this orientation. It was nice to get away from school for a few days and stay in a nice, air-conditioned hotel!  My duties as a TOA (Tokyo Orientation Assistant) were as follows: (1) spending the night at an airport hotel near Narita Airport and welcoming new JET participants at the airport the next day (2) riding the bus with new JETs to the hotel in Shinjuku, while giving them announcements about Tokyo orientation and taking care of paperwork (3) assisting other TOAs in the hotel’s hospitality and information centers, which were open during the day (and night:/) for JETs who had questions, needed to use the internet, iron their clothes, etc. The orientation was a lot of work but definitely worth it in the end.  I was able to stay in the Keio Plaza Hotel for free during the days I worked and I met a lot of great new and current JETs from all over Japan.