New Beginnings

On Monday, I had my first elementary school visit of the new school year. Over the two weeks that I was gone, much had change. This holds true for all my places of work. April is the start of the new fiscal year as well as the new school year. In order to prevent corruption in the workplace, most public employees are transferred to different departments after a certain tenure. As I arrived to my board of education office early on the Monday morning after my arrival, I was greeted by a new Office Lady and a new Supervisor. The old Office Lady (she of the Urine in the Cup) now works at a kindergarten in the town.　 My old supervisor has been promoted. I have no idea what he does, but I hear his voice every Monday morning over the City Hall intercom. I don’t know where the new supervisor and office lady came from, but it’s interesting to watch them go through the learning process and flub up every once in a while. It reminds me a bit of myself in August, except they actually have a bit of an idea of what’s going on. Again though, it’s a nice reminder of how much I’ve learnt.

It’s not just City Hall that’s gotten new blood. In the Kagoshima education system, teachers are also shuffled around every few years. The average time a teacher stays at one school, or in one district, is only about 5 years. Although the art teacher at my school is an anomaly: he’s now in his ninth year at Chiran, predating any other member of staff as well as the physical building itself.

Since there are so many small isolated islands in the prefecture, the teachers have to move to ensure that the same quality of education is available to all students regardless of where they live. It also ensures that no teacher is stuck permanently on an island that’s a 24 hour boat ride away from the city. Most teachers I know that have worked on an island have loved it. The schools are much much smaller, the students have less attitude, and the atmosphere much more relaxed. However, they all agree that four years was more than enough time to enjoy island life.

All but one of my schools has new teachers this year. All schools have gotten a new principal/vice principal. Last week the board of education had a big welcome party. Since I don’t actually teach ever, I was invited along beforehand to go on a bus sightseeing tour of Chiran. Most of the teachers fell asleep.

So the elementary school I went to on Monday got a new Kocho-sensei (principal). I normally interact mostly with the Kyoto-sensei (vice principal), but when I got to school I noticed that the man who I though was Kocho was still there. He’s this cool old guy who walks with a crutch and has surly eyebrows, a gruff voice and his own office. The kids seem to like him. Since he had his own office, I always assumed he was Kocho. But he’s not. I still have no idea who Kocho is, both the old and the new one. Nor do I know what this man’s job is. But I do finally know all the names of the junior high school teachers.

Kyushoku

Here is an interesting article about the origin and nature of what may be my favourite Japanese custom, the school lunch. Every month I pay Y3000, or a little less than $30, in exchange for school lunch. School lunch is, if you can believe it, lunch served at school. There is no choice in the daily menu. It is planned in advance, with everyone, teachers and students included, receiving a monthly menu on the first of the month. All in Japanese, the menu lists not only the meal, but the amount of calories and protein in the meal, but the ingredients, broken down into three columns: protein, carbohydrates, and nutrients (vegetables). There is also a little box in the corner listing all the locally produced ingredients that are used in the meals for the month.

I don't think we ever have the same meal in a month. Every day is different. I teach at 8 schools, and all schools eat the same meal everyday. That's because all the food is prepared at the School Lunch Centre, and delivered in cooler-like boxes to each school. Each class gets three coolers. One giant one for rice, one for soup/stew, and one for miscellaneous (usually either some sort of salad or fish/meat). There is enough food in the coolers for 40-so kids. Our plates are aluminum (maybe). They look like they belong in a prison. But I like them better than the dirty plastic plates used at some other schools. Depending on the day, we have either two or three different foods. Usually a soup in a bowl, with rice in a large plate, and the various miscellaneous other on a slightly smaller plate. Sometimes when we have a stew-type food, we don't have the miscellaneous food. On Mondays and Wednesdays we always have a bread. The other days we have rice. Everyone gets a carton of whole milk along with the lunch. I don't drink because of my allergy, and because milk is just gross. Many kids hate it, but they are told from a young age that they have to drink it, so they do. At the elementary schools in Chiran they serve green tea along with milk. I like eating at those schools (only on Mondays), except that then I have to eat everything on my plate in order to be a good role model. Sometimes lunch is amazingly delicious, other times, disgusting. Last week was an anomaly of a week, with at least three amazing meals. Usually there's one fantastic meal a week, one really gross one, and three good ones. Today was a gross one. Unfortunately, I was at elementary school so I had to eat it. It was a gross tomato-based stew, which I knew had powdered cheese in it due to reading the menu. There was also a salad with satsuma-age, which is the local specialty of grated fish mashed into a sausage like form. As well, we had raisin bread. I hate raisins. They look like ants. Yet I managed to eat the whole thing, gagging the whole time. But I still wouldn’t give up school lunch, because all in all it’s awesome. Anyways, here’s the link. Enjoy. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070422rp.html

I am back from my whirlwind Canadian adventure, without much to say about it. It was great seeing friends and family, Montreal is as amazing as it always seems, Toronto is still the last place I would ever want to live, and Ottawa offers the same comfort that it always does, with me moping about my departure for days despite (or because) not doing anything productive for the majority of the time there. It was interesting seeing people and talking a bit about my past eight months here. Living in Japan, being surrounded by either people who have lived here their whole lives or are experiencing the same expat existence as me, it is easy to forget that most people can't read katakana or have no idea what a Japanese school is like. I will try to be better and actually explain what the Japanese experience is, from the scenery that surrounds me to the random events that occur from week to week, but I wouldn't be surprised if I completely forget this promise during the next month that it takes me to update again. Your best bet is to email me, or comment here about what you want me to say. I think I changed the comments settings so you don't need to have an account to post.

Hopefully my next post will be about the beginnings of the new school (and fiscal) year. I would write about it now, but we had the town welcome party for the new teachers at all the schools, and as a result my car has been stranded in the community centre parking lot. Tomorrow morning I must wake up early and claim it.