First Week at School

Ok, so first and foremost, there are quite a few things about Japanese schools that are way different from what you might be use to (for sure it is way different from American schools).

There are the obvious differences.  Practically every school has a school uniform that the students wear.  It kind of seems like the junior high requires them to wear it more than the elementary schools here though.  Though for the elementary schools I teach at here, some of them have a very small population, so that might have something to do with it too.  Then there is the fact that you have to take off your shoes before you step up into the building, and switch to either slippers or a pair of inside shoes (and it’s kind of cool cause some of them have cubbies with my name on them J ).  There are some major differences too.

While it generally starts at around the same time (technically a bit later since the first thing in the morning are staff and student meetings), it can get out wayyyy later depending on if you are a part of a club or not.  If you are, you can anticipate being at school for much longer!  While in America there is usually only about an hour to maybe an hour and a half for club activities, here in Japan they can easily run until about 6 or 7 in the evening.   That doesn’t even include the extra time some students have for cram school in the evening!  We have it easier by far in America in that aspect.  They also go to school year round, with a short summer vacation (about a month I believe), as well as some small breaks for national holidays and I think in between semesters.

I also found it a little interesting that here it is considered part of the child’s education to learn manners, and etiquette.  Each child is taught how to give thanks before and after the meal at lunch (they even all say it together), brush their teeth after eating, and show proper respect to their teachers in how they speak (though granted, like in America, just cause they were taught that doesn’t mean they stick with it lol).  Even lunch is interesting.  Here, everyone gets served the exact same thing.  You aren’t allowed to bring anything from home for lunch until you are in high school.  You are also expected to finish your plate (with the exception being allergies I would think, though I don’t think I’ve run into anyone with that kind of problem).  This is followed by everyone brushing their teeth together.  I really haven’t had any problems with it so far, I find it is all really good actually!  My only problem comes to the fact that at every lunch they drink milk!  Normally I would suck it up and just drink it (I’ve sort of gotten over my aversion to tomato and lightly with shrimp this way), but it is more because I can’t digest it well.  Milk always ends up making me feel sick if I drink too much of it, and I’ve apparently been this way ever since I was a baby (my parents had to get a special kind of formula for me because I would keep spitting it up).  Small amounts are ok, and if it is cooked into something (essentially any way that it is not just by itself) I am usually okay with it.  I just do feel a little bad that I can’t drink it.  That aside, I’m also not that much of a fan of the taste either.

The one thing that can get pretty tiring really quickly is the amount of times you have to introduce yourself!  This of course is a sort of case by case thing.  Some JETs (lol I think on rare occasions) will only be assigned to one or two schools.  Others will have a surprisingly large amount of schools to go to.  I myself had to give my own sort of self-introduction to 7 schools (and this was actually doubled as I had to do it once for the staff and then another for the students), and at least 3 or so departments in the Board of Education building.  There were even a few of the schools where I addressed the whole student body (in this small town that isn’t very much in each school), and then again later to the English classes.  At the junior high I actually had to do so for at least 4 different classes.  This also usually meant that for at least the first week of school I was essentially repeating the same lesson over and over with each new group of students.

While all the students are usually on the shy side (lol I think the junior high kids the most to be honest), the elementary kids are so cute and very energetic!  One of my favorite times is at one of the smaller schools (lol population of maybe 14 or so students), where a group of 2^nd graders come up to me and ask me to join them for the end of the day after my lesson.  They usually go to finish their homework in the library, and then after that they pretty much have free time to themselves.  It is a wonderful end to the day!

My First Week at Work (sort of)

I keep putting off writing a new entry every night, but I think it was understandable that at first my time here in Japan would be one big whirlwind at the start.

So here are a few brief things about my literal current situation.  In between classes (and unless you are allowed, or invited to sit in on other classes) you get to sit in the staff room at your desk.  Being an assistant, and not yet fully trusted by some of my teachers, this can be a VERY boring time.  This is what I’m doing right now.  I’ve finished giving my lesson for the day, so until lunch I have pretty much nothing else to do.  But why waste this time?  Instead, if I have the time and I can, I will be trying to write out some of my blog entries.  At least it will give me something to do and give the appearance that I am working to my co-workers.  LOL one of the advantages to being the only fluent English speaker in the office I suppose is that it will just look like I am typing something up, not many will be able to fully understand what exactly I am writing.

What I really wanted to reflect on during this post was what my first week here in Japan was like.

Since I was a late upgrade, that means I missed most of the nice long orientations in Tokyo.  After I landed and was gathered together with some other late arrival JETs we were then taken to the same hotel orientation was at, but for only two nights.  Our one day in Tokyo was for a major crash course orientation session, and then the next morning we would depart ways to our designated towns/cities.  For me that meant a bus ride to the second airport in Tokyo (Hanaeda), and then an hour and a half or so flight to Izumo, followed by an hour drive to my small town.  There was a Shimane Prefecture representative to guide me along my trip to Izumo, and then at that airport I was met by my supervisor and another worker from the town office that was kind of my translator.  I didn’t have too much time to myself at first since there was sooo much to take care of!

During the weekend I was taken on trips to the larger town of Matsue for supplies that may be missing from my apartment, set up my cellphone contract, and car insurance.  I was also shown to a local supermarket that I could buy food for the weekend at (which is actually a short walk from my apartment, so yay!) The rest of the week was also packed full of various appointments, and showing me around town a little bit.  During the week, I was officially starting work at the Board of Education Office, but through the week I had various meetings with people and traveled about town.  A couple of the days had time dedicated to my supervisor driving me around town and showing me how to get to the various schools.  This also gave me the opportunity to briefly meet the staff and give a short self-introduction to them.  It was also during this week that I had an appointment to meet with the mayor of the town!  There was a brief ceremony in his office where I was presented with my official contract for the school year (Definitely something to frame!).  This did mean though, that the rest of the day while I was in the office I had to once again make myself look busy.  This included making lists of things I needed still for the house, practicing writing my self-introduction to my future students, and whatever else I could scribble.  At least there was something to do every day to break up the long hours of “working” at my desk, and every day my supervisor took the other JET and me to eat out at these really good restaurants!  I also had to go get my bank account set up during the weekday, and I got my inkan (personal seal) officially registered.

During this first week as well (and actually even a little bit longer) I also didn’t have access to my internet connection.  It was already set up, but the PC tablet I brought with me only had USB ports, so I didn’t have anything to connect it to.  This meant that my evening activities were pretty much limited to the iTunes movies that I already had saved on my external hard drive.  Though this wasn’t always a bad thing, there were times that I was pretty tired when I got home anyway, so I was fine with it.

One of the exciting things that happened my first week being in town was that I was right on time for the next festival!  There was all kinds of yummy food booths, some that were merchant stalls with various things to buy, and the highlight was by far the beautiful fireworks display!

All in all a pretty good start to my year here I think!