18th September

Mission at Akita Shogyo
After a nice sleep of the first night in Akita, our today obligation is at Akita Shogyo, a commercial high school. For the whole day, we were told to do three things: 20 minute of self and Cambodia introduction, participation in the classroom for six hours with Japanese students, and observation of after-school clubs. But what exactly would we do? How were the students in Akita Shogyo? Would we have any problems with communication? These were our doubts and concerns from the night before till the next morning.

Arrival
We looked through the window to the road and waited restlessly on the bus for seeing the high school students we were going to meet. When we nearly reached there, we was some of them walking and riding bicycle industriously to go up the slope to the school. When we got out off the bus, the students around the building were glancing at us. It was the first time we were stared by so many people smiling at and talking something about us. We felt we were like superstars, honorable delegations, or aliens from other planet! Our coordinators led us to waiting room, and more and more students looked at us along the way. Ten minutes later, we went to meeting room to meet the school headmaster and class monitors.

We were called one by one to enter the room and take a seat with the monitor of the class which every of us had to participate in today. One class was for one participant, but except two classes for a pair of participants. Almost the class monitors were male. After taking a sit, we started to have some conversation with our class monitors. Their English was not as good as we had though. Still, we tried to use simple words and slow speed to communicate. After the speech of the headmaster, Kumagai Takamasa, we went to classroom with our class monitors respectively.

My self-presentation at AkiSho
My class monitor took me to his class, 2C (11th grade in Cambodia). Interestingly, along the corridor, he said ‘osh’ loudly to teachers and elder students we met, which surprised me and made me wonder what was happening. Soon, I noticed that it was the moral behavior for Japanese students when meeting their elder schoolmates and teachers.

We reached the 2C classroom door, and screaming and cheering came toward me. What my class would be, I thought. Inside the class, my class monitor became more outgoing and amusing. The class was going a bit out of order, but luckily there was class supervising teacher to calm down the class. Then I started to make the presentation with self-introduction in Japanese which I had learned at CJCC on 14th. After that, I asked a question to the class, ‘Do you know anything related to Cambodia?’ but there was no reply at all. I explained that if talking about Japan, you would think of Mt. Fuji, Tokyo, etc, and what about Cambodia? Thankfully, a student at the front desk replied ‘Angkor Wat’. Oh my goodness, it took so much of explanation for just a question and contrasted to what I had planned last night that I had to speak fluently and bring up the topics of Cambodia to the class as much as I could. But now what I had to do was slowing down and making sure that they could understand every word I spoke.

I took out a picture of Cambodian map and postcard of Angkor Wat, Independence Monument and showed it to the class. The following was the summarization of my explanation/presentation:

The territory of Cambodia is like a rabbit, while the territory of Japan is like a bow. There are 24 provinces and cities, and Angkor Wat is located in Siem Reap province. Phnom Penh is the capital city of Cambodia. Independence Monument is symbol of Cambodian victory over the French colony since 1863 to 1953. Wat Phnom is located at the centre of Phnom Penh. Royal Palace is where the king lives.

The second part of my presentation was Khmer salutation, Som Peah. I showed them how to put their hands and what kind of people is appropriate to different level of Som Peah. I was glad to see all the classmates follow the movement of my Som Peah. In the end, I was not sure, among 42 students how many of them could understand how much of my presentation, but I was sure they must have had some impression of Cambodia. Because I spend over 20 minutes, there was no more time for question and answer. My first obligation was completed, here came the second.

My study day at AkiSho
I took a seat next to my class monitor at the last row. The first class was history class starting at 9:30. The history teacher didn’t ask me anything. He just continued giving lecture and asked very few questions to the class. I didn’t understand what he spoke but I knew he was teaching about European and Japanese history because I heard he talked about Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet and I could read the Ganji (Chinese letter) he wrote on the blackboard. At the same time, I chatted with my class monitor to know something more about him and the school. His name is Nobu, he is a soccer player in soccer club.

The bell rang and it’s time to have a break. All the students stood up and said some words like goodbye to teacher, which was different from Cambodian class. Then, all the students continuously left the classroom. I thought they were just going outside and would return, but Nobu told me we had to go to another room to study mathematics. That was strange for me because there is no class-changing like this in Cambodia.

Therefore, Nobu led me to another classroom, but I noticed there were fewer students than last session. This class was taught by Mr. Kuyashi, the class supervising teacher. I felt the students liked him because they sometimes made fun with him. Nobu wrote some phrases for me to read loudly to the teacher, so did I. all the students burst out laughing, so did the teacher himself. The phrase I remembered was ‘Katti katti yazo’, and I just knew that it might be the slogan related to strength of Akisho, but at that time I didn’t understand what it meant. The mathematics was about basic probability I had ever learned. Teacher Kuyashi was concerned I couldn’t understand the exercises written in Japanese, so he tried to explain and translate them to me although he was not really good at English.

After mathematics, it was sociology. We went back to 2C class. First, the teacher called me to come to front and asked me my name in English, so I told him my name is Taing Meng. Then he asked me how to say that in Khmer and told the class to repeat what I spoke. Obviously it’s very hard for them to repeat in Khmer. After that, he went on teaching and I felt very sleepy with just sitting and listening. In addition to the fatigue of last four days, I almost closed my eyes and fell asleep.

Lunch break
Eventually, the bell rang, and it’s time to have lunch. My class monitor and I went to the meeting room, while other students brought their lunch box and had lunch at the classroom. All the participants came back to the meeting room and had lunch together with their class monitors, and there were some teachers joining as well. We received a big lunch box for each and the food was very delicious. I could say that it was the most ‘oishi’ lunch I had ever tried since I arrived in Japan. Regrettably, we had to eat very quickly and I hadn’t finished yet. We only had 40 minutes of lunch time, and then the fourth class started.

Afternoon classes
My class was mathematics class again with the same teacher but another lesson, the second degree equation. It was easier than this morning, so the teacher didn’t translate it.

The fifth class was English, and we need to change our classroom again. My English teacher’s name is Kumagai, and he is old. He didn’t teach his lesson since he could speak English. He asked me something related to my study in Cambodia and my impression of Akita, and he translated my words to tell the class. Then, he let students ask me what they were in doubt. ‘Do you have a girlfriend? Who is the cutest in the class? Why can you speak English so fluently?’ For the last question, I replied that, in Cambodia, students studied for half day only, so they had plenty of time to learn other languages. Nobu told teacher Kumagai that I could understand Ganji, so he asked me to come to the blackboard and write the Chinese letter which the students asked the words in English. First, they asked me the word ‘monkey’, but I wrote the wrong word. In fact, it was not my mistake but the difference between Japanese and Chinese. The second word was ‘bear’, my letter was correct, so the teacher and students applauded. Another word ‘valley’ was correct again. Finally, teacher Kumagai told me that ‘bear valley’ was the translation of his name.

The last class was sport. We went back to 2C class and changed our clothes there, while female students went to another room. Coincidently, Sun Meng at 2D class had to play sport as well. We gathered at basket ball hall and listened to the couch for a short moment. After that, we could play any sport freely. Nobu and his two friends played badminton, so did I and Sun Meng. I was not as good as them, but I got a lot of fun and excitement.

The end of my second obligation was about to come. We went back to 2C class and changed back to our uniform. At that time, I gave a Kroma to Nobu as the souvenir, and another one to Koji, who gave the cloth of Kanto Matsui image. Unfortunately, the key chains and postcards were not enough to deliver to everyone. In the end, I requested teacher Kuyashi to take a picture of the whole class with me. He told his students like that and they rapidly pushed all the tables and chairs to the back. Thankfully, I got the greatest picture with classmates together and that was the most meaningful picture I had ever taken in Japan.

Nobu and I went to the meeting room, and he handed the school souvenir to me. It was the red towel of Akita Shogyo with its logo on it. It was time to say goodbye to Nobu, my class monitor at 2C.

Visiting AkiSho after-school clubs
Other participants had already returned and were discussing what had happened at their class. A lot of things we experienced today were similar, but some were better and some were worse. Sovann received several love letters from his classmate. Socheat made a very good friend and cried together. Six classes of Sunmeng were almost boring. Most of us didn’t take any photos. Thus, we went out and took a picture with Japanese students together.

Here came our third obligation. Primarily, we went to tea-making club. The instructor was an old granny. There were three female students preparing the tea. We went into the tatami room and sat into three groups with bending the legs. Making Japanese tea needs careful study and every movement must be slowly and accurately performed. First, we were given two pieces of special sugar candy, very sweet, to eat. Then respectively three female students made a cup of tea and handed carefully and orderly to everyone. She kneeled with holding the tea cup in her hands, put it down in front of the person she would serve, bowed with two hands touching the floor, held the teacup with her right palm, put it on her left palm, used her right hand to spin it two times in counter clockwise, and put it down. Then the drinker had to do similarly in holding the teacup up and inversely in spinning and drink. The bitterness of tea and the sweetness of candy were mixed together around the tongue, producing a kind of wonderful taste we and never had. After drinking, we had to do the movement which the female student did to us when offering the tea, and she had to do what we did when receiving the tea. It sounded very complicated but actually it was not difficult when you did it. In my opinion, tea-making is a kind of Japanese unique tradition for showing the beauty and meditation.
The second place we visited was Kendo club. Kendo is a kind of Japanese martial sport and similar to fencing of Europe. Students inside the Kendo Hall were wearing a set of armour and holding a Kendo stick. They practiced in pairs. First, they did the preparation in a distance. Then, they run toward each other with screaming and tried to hit the target on the opponent’s head and body where were protected by armour. There was only one shot, and they practiced like that again and again. The voice of their screaming and the sound of sticks hitting armour were the most impressive inside the hall.

The third club was Judo club. The way of practice was similar to Kendo, and the most fantastic sound was when a person threw his opponent’s back entirely touching to floor.
The last place we visited was baseball field. The baseball team of Akisho has ever won the national champion. We were not allowed to stand inside the field, because the baseballs were flying and dangerous. We just stood outside the field net and watched their practice. I wished I could have thrown the ball, worn the glove, or swing the bat. We could hear the sound of the ball thrown into the glove, so real!

It’s the end of the day in Akisho. Neary Roth gave the speech of appreciation to the school headmaster. After dinner, we went to a shopping center to play games.