:Japan )

April so far has been a pretty boring month work wise. On the first day of the month I usually get the schedule from the office lady, Junko-san and this time is was completely blank. When I inquired to this oddity she told me that the schools wanted the students to have a period of adjustment with all the new teachers that had come in. She also said the schools would call in when they were ready. I took this to mean they might be calling in about half way through the month or so, but here we are almost at the end of April with no school visits scheduled. So what have I been doing all this time? Living for the weekends mostly.

During the week I do have Japanese lessons on Tuesday and then Japanese Calligraphy classes on Wednesday so that has kept things varied and I still got to have interaction with some of the students. The winter sport season is rapidly disappearing so the first part of the month Tsutsumi-san, my co-worker/speedskating coach, and I went to Hakkoda Mountain to get some last bit of snowboarding in. I’m still quite bad but I’ve at least gotten to the point where I can use both edges of the board when turning.

The downtime this month has also taken a toll on my body as well. I’ve already gained probably 2 or 3 kgs just from not have the constant exercise that speed skating brought me. I’m looking forward to the weather warming up so I can start running and biking.

Well as of…uh 6 days ago…we are on Spring Break here in Japan. When I say “we” I really just mean the teachers and the students, the ALT has fun filled days at the office studying Japanese, seemingly futilely. However in Japan, Spring Break is really the break in between a new school year so there has been much hustling and bustling all around. The kids all had their graduation ceremonies. I would like to tell you about them but I didn’t get to attend a single one as they were all, except one, on weekdays which I was scheduled to teach elsewhere. I wasn’t told about the one that wasn’t until the last moment and of course it was the one day I had inescapable plans. From what I hear though they are terrible boring affairs.

However this is also the time when many teachers and government office workers retire or rotate to other schools. It’s also a time when the ALT gets the “Surprise, I’m moving to another school” To which I like to respond (in my head) “Hey if you would’ve told me earlier, I might have taken you out for farewell dinner.” Actually maybe you are lucky if you get the warning. There were several teachers that I had no clue about until they were all marched into the office to say their last goodbyes to the board of education. Yes, everyone marched in, we all stood up and then lined up like firing-squad vs. targets, the teachers (aka targets) went down the line saying how long they worked here and where they were going to next etc,…and then BANG! we all bowed to each other “お疲れ様でした！(otsukaresama deshita [thanks for your hard work])” and they all walked out probably never to be seen by me again. That was a sad day because one of the teachers was one I worked with and was the one who talked to me the most.

In all this mess I find it interesting that after a week and a half of break the students will be starting their new grades, I’ll have new 7th graders and teachers to work with and then in about 3 more months it’ll be time for sumer vacation. The whole getup seems quite bizarre to have a long summer break half way through your academic year. But as their new year in school starts I have suddenly started feeling like this year has flown by. I can’t imagine just staying one year. I still haven’t gotten to do all the things I want….like spend more time in Tokyo, visit Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Hokkaido, etc. It’s good that I still have another year to look forward to.