First Week of Classes

It's been quite a while, at least by my standards, since I got on the blog horse. Apologies all around.

Tuesday morning heralded the return of students from summer break and an all-school assembly where a certain new English teacher was asked to get up and make a speech in Japanese.

In some ways I wish I could have found a way to get a picture of me standing at a podium in front of 500 Japanese middle schoolers, but this also definitely falls under the category of "experiences that don't translate to film". I asked my friend for help and wrote a quick but fairly comprehensive introduction speech of about 2 minutes. He helped me speak in much more natural idiomatic Japanese, which I hope doesn't give anyone the impression that I actually know what I'm doing.

I didn't have many classes until Friday, so I was able to walk around and sit in on some classes to get a feel for what I'd be doing. The first thing I noticed was that I am a celebrity. I walk down the hall and the boys all high five me, the girls stand in groups and giggle. Kids stare at me everywhere I go. In the halls of Takaodai Junior High School, there is no greater sensation than this tall blond gaijin. It's pretty great.

A couple quick notes about Japanese schools as they differ from American or western schools:

--All the teachers work in one room, the main office. This is where your desk is, where all your materials are. There is no "homeroom", per se. Teachers move between classes while the kids stay in the same room for the most part.

--Advertisers and marketers are allowed into the main office, as there is no front desk. I was pretty thrown the first time a pair of Nippon Travel Agency representatives dropped in on my desk smiling broadly.

--Similarly, kids come into the main office all the time. There is no real "teacher's lounge", or a place where kids aren't allowed. Teachers have a very close relationship with their students, even to the point of a physical closeness that would probably get them stupidly sued in the States. That's not at all meant to imply that the physicality is inappropriate, just affectionate and family-like.

--At the end of the day comes "cleaning time". The kids are expected to clean their rooms and the hallways. I am somewhat unconvinced about some of the effectiveness of their methods, but the fact remains that there are no janitors at my school. I didn't even notice that till recently.

--Awesomely, at my school they put on soaring, movie-climax orchestral music for cleaning time to galvanize everyone.

--Japanese teachers work incredibly incredibly hard. I've heard from some veterans that unfortunately this is often because of meaningless administrative paperwork, but even so they are always there when I leave and there before I arrive. And often running even between small office tasks.

I had a great time with the energy of the first week of classes. This weekend I went to a baseball game and hosted a fantastic barbeque. I am just about to do a header into my desk from being so tired, so I will post about those things tomorrow. Here's a quick picture of me on the first day of school (on my sweet wheelz...)