Seiritsu International Education

Thursday morning we had another early homeroom at school, but for a change we did not have a normal day, because today was the big preparation day for the Bunkasai. To begin with I just thought it was just pupils’ parents that were coming to the Bunkasai, but I soon found out that I was wrong. The International Department had to give fortunes and my Japanese homeroom was going to make a casino. At my homeroom we had to change all of the tables, which was obvious since we had to make a casino. After we did that, we played Blackjack because everybody had to be a card dealer for either Blackjack or Poker at the Bunkasai. After I played a couple of rounds of Blackjack, I went to the second floor where the International Department had their display room.

For the rooms decoration we had to make posters of ourselves, so people who entered the room could get an idea of our personalities. We had to finish them before 11.30 because we had to practice for the English club’s stage performance, where Japanese students had to introduce all the students from the International Department. The other ID students had started their posters before me, so I had to hurry up. My poster was actually quite good, considering that I did it in half the time.

The English club practice was more about giving the Japanese students confidence since they had to stand on a stage and speak English in front of an audience. But the international students had to do a ”special skill”, and Gabu and I had to do Soccer ‘keep-ups’ (juggling the ball with our feet) to each other, so we practiced most of the Friday. The rest of the day we just prepared for all the ‘magical’ fortunes we had to do.

School on a weekend, that’s quite new for me; in Denmark the whole weekend is off. So when the alarm went crazy at 6 o’clock in the morning I thought it was Monday again. At the school we started in our homeroom, since we had to fit into their plans as well. I got a blackjack dealer shift, but nobody knew what time it was going to be, so we agreed that I just should drop in after lunch.

Then the clock struck 10 and it was time to get ready for the English club stage performance. The stage performance went smoothly. Gabu and I did 16 keep ups so we were happy; compared to how many we did the day before when we practiced, 16 was actually quite good!

After the stage performance we had to do the fortunes, we used a system the international department developed 2 years ago, where you got this wheel of fortune with balls inside [a bingo tombola – Peter] with numbers, then customers get a number and then the number fits with one of the envelopes where there are a fortune inside, very smart. To begin with there weren’t many customers, so Gabu and Peter got this good idea that we could walk around and say “Uranai”(Japanese word for fortune-telling) with a poster in Japanese and English, which attracted a lot of customers.

Jessica and I watched Richard-sensei and Peter-sensei’s karate show, where Peter-sensei destroyed 7 boards with reverse roundhouse kicks in a very short time and Richard-sensei kicking through a concrete block.

After the karate show I went to my homeroom and was Blackjack dealer, which was a very funny experience since I don’t have that big a Japanese vocabulary yet. But I did it and nobody left the table while I was dealer, so I consider that as a good sign. The rest of day we walked around and advertised ‘Uranai’ and in the end of the day we actually did it so well that we took 117 customers for the day. But the highlight of the day was that I won 2 goldfish at another school stand.

On Sunday the guys at my homeroom told me that I had no shifts, so that gave me a lot time to advertise our room. The Japanese students seemed to love the way we advertised because it was like an entertaining for the other Japanese students to see Gabu and I walking around with the sign where there was a picture of a very strange Fortune Teller on.

The second stage performance with the English club went very well. Gabu and I actually reached 40 keep ups on the stage, so it was more than acceptable. Even Peter was impressed by our performance! On Sunday we also had to carry the “Mikoshi”, the local shrine. When you watch it looks very easy and that it is very light, but I now know that it’s far from light! We were told to carry it our shoulders but when you then have to hoist it up and down, it kills your shoulders. Anyway we carried it into the school and out again, it was a very social feeling, but too heavy if you ask me!

For the rest of the day I walked around with the Uranai sign and shouted “Uranai”. At the end of the day, when we counted how many customers we took, we reached 126 customers!

One thing I noticed was that people with no relationship or family in the school also went to our Bunkasai, which I think is awesome that we got such an interesting event! Furthermore, my homeroom was the fourth most interesting room at the Bunkasai, which I think is even more awesome!