The Big Kid

I was always the big kid in school, and being a teacher in Japan hasn't changed that. I still need lots of guidance like the kids, I want to eat the dessert before all of my rice, I never give handicaps when I play some made-up game with the kids, and I often get the kids in trouble for goofing off.


Above is a picture of me and the Panda Class at the hoikuen (kindergarten). They are graduating this Friday and will be first graders next school year, which starts in April. I teach these guys, along with the Rabbit and Squirrel Class every Wednesday morning. I often walk away from the kindergarten feeling exhausted and enriched....and sometimes completely awful. You never know what you are going to get when you have a bunch of three, four, and five year olds on your hands. Hoikuen is a place where the tears flow like the mighty Mississippi and the notion of relaxation is all but extinct (at least until nap time). It's a place where the students don't know you can't speak Japanese and a place where Isaac Sensei means trapeze artist and jungle gym.