Ginowan high school

The kids have summer break right now, so the school isn't very happenin', but us teachers are still required to show up every day and hang out in the office room. We aren't doing much work compared to what will happen once school starts. We have time to do a lot of eating omiyake (souvenir snacks that people have brought back from vacation) and drinking cold ocha (Japanese green tea). I run around town every day with my supervisor, Junko-sensei, trying to get my alien registration, inkan (signature name stamp), bank account and other stuff figured out. This all would have been impossible for me to figure out without her donated time and help, so hats off to Junko-sensei. I really like the school from what I've seen so far. It looks a bit like a tropical jungle when you walk up to it. There are these crazy trees lining the way, and it's about a million degrees in the hallway. The zicaidas are chirping energetically (this occurs in the morning here, and they are much larger and much louder than our NC zacaidas! They're like mini-monsters that could eat you whole). There's a huge swimming pool that you can look out over from the windows, and I hear party music from the pool, I don't know if this plays all the time or if it's playing for a specific reason during the summer. Check out these crazy trees to the right! I love these trees. I have my own PC at my desk, and previous JETs left about 3 tons of lesson plans, organized by grade (!!!) for me in my drawers. But I can't check internet on the computer b/c the system is the same one the students use, and they have all the emails blocked. The teachers' room always has cold ocha and hot ocha to drink out of these really cute Japanese handle-less mugs. They drink tea like water here. Sell it in 24 packs like soda. Tea makes the world turn.

My school is an exception in Japan in that you don't have to remove your shoes when you are inside. I did see one teacher walking the halls today in night slippers, but generally people wear shoes. There's a lot of bowing that goes on here, I have to bow to everyone all the time. Luckily, my kouchou sensei (principle) is cool. They tell me that some kouchous are big meanies, but ours is really laid back. Weirdness about Japan: teachers (and some other occupations too) rotate schools on a 3 or 5 year basis. Teachers fresh out of teacher-school tend to be sent out to the remote Okinawan islands, so that they can get it out of the way before they have families. But even if you have 3 kids and a husband with a fixed job, you'll be rotated out of your job with no control over where you're going, and probably have to either move or commute hours to work. Our principle is being rotated out next April, and everyone is kind of worried about which new principle we will get.