A Day in the Life *new photos!*

This entry is a response to several requests for a rundown of my average, boring day.

OK here goes. I get up every morning around 6.30-7 to the dulcet tones of my cell phone announcing in Japanese that "it is six-forty-five! do-do-do-di-dooooo!!!!" Arg, how do I make it stop saying this? Why can't it just beep? I fold up my futon and pack it away in the futon storage closet (photo). Yes, they have those here. I strategically open my sliding walls as to provide the best airing-access to the crosswinds that will form in my house 5 seconds later when I throw open every window and turn my 2 fans on full blast, as it is more often than not already quite hot at 7am here and I decided to go for the challenge of no air conditioning. Then coffee. Yes, lots of it. Then I hop in my Toyota Starlet for the short drive to school, narrowly avoiding collisions with the ½ of my student body that feels it is ok to walk in the streets as long as they travel in packs. I used to ride my bike to school in the mornings since it's so close, but I embarrassed myself trying to dismount the bike in the skirts that I wear to work (pitching headfirst over the handlebars isn't the best entrance to make). I aim to get to school at 8.05 every morning, even though I'm not supposed to be there until 8.15. This is not because I'm a good person: it's because I am still somewhat wary of my depth perception abilities driving on the right side of the car and prefer to have a wide selection of parking spaces available to choose from. So I have to get there before the crazy 8.14 teacher-rush!

I walk into school. "ohayou gozaimaaaaaaasu" (good morning + polite marker) and baby bow to the teachers standing in front of the school greeting students. "ohayou gozaimaaaaaasu," mouthed to the administrative employees behind a glass wall upon entering the gi-normous school complex. Compulsive head-bobbing and muttering of "hmhhhhh gozaimaaaaaaaaasu" to every person I pass up the stairs on the way to the teacher's room. Slide open the teachers' door and proclaim in a booming voice "OHAYOU GOZAIMAAAAAAAASU!!!!" I am genki incarnate. A chorus of the same answers me. Start to walk past the Kyoto sensei (vice principle)'s desk, craaaaaaaaap, a quick about face because I've forgotten to turn over my name plaque on it's wall hook (just in case someone in the room didn't see my entrance, didnt hear my entrance, and can't see me sitting at my desk, this will tell them that I am officially HERE). Retrieve my inkan ("name stamp": my official signature in Japan) from my desk and approach the Black Book on Kocho sensei (principle)'s desk. Open book to my page and "sign" in the space where the nice lady from downstairs has marked with a pencil. No matter that even if I couldn't read the date in Japanese (which I can) simple logic would prove today to be the day following yesterday, and today's stamp would directly follow yesterday's stamp. No, she worries I may not be able to sign in on my own, so she always marks it with a pencil. Then I sit down behind my desk amidst the other English teachers, whip out my hand fan, and begin vigorously fanning myself. 5 minutes. The teacher's room is air-conditioned, but for some mysterious reason they don't turn it on until 8.30. Teachers socialize for 15 minutes now. Whoever I talk to usually amazes me by re-producing some tidbit of information about what I said to some other teacher the day before, passed through several intermediaries. "Joyce-san, the lady from downstairs told Junko-sensei that when she came up to give you your pension booklet yesterday, you were only eating vegetables for lunch. She's worried about your health. What all did you have for lunch yesterday?" Meet expectant, unblinking gaze. Uhhhh. News about me really gets around here.

There is a large box of mugs and coffee, hot tea, and cold tea are provided for everyone all day long. Usually there's a big box with omiyake snacks in it as well. Snacking has definitely been developed to an art in the teacher's room. At 8.30, the morning meeting begins. The position of meeting leader rotates, so some poor soul has to stand in front of everyone and blather on about what I imagine to be boring stuff. I can't understand much though. Then some teachers leave to go to their homeroom classes. In Japan, kids have a classroom, not teachers. So the kids stay in the same room all day, and teachers go from class to class to teach. 9.10, the bell sounds. The bell is weird: the one that begins and ends school plays the tune of "joyful joyful," which I think of as a Western church/Christmas song. I'll ask what's up with that someday soon. Off to teach! I teach 15-20 classes a week.

Classes! You probably want to hear about these. MY KIDS ARE INSANE!!!!!!!!! It's like a zoo. Ok, got that out of me. The classes vary significantly depending on grade and track. I have sophomore, junior, seniors. Then they are split into different carrier tracks, 1-8. As far as I can figure it, there's a computer track, an international track, a college track, a sports track, and then 3-4 tracks that don't have names and are basically kids who don't have a plan for what they will do after school. My teachers say about 40% of the students don't have a secure job when they graduate. Only a handful of our 666 students will go to a four-year college… maybe 3 each year, one teacher told me.

Whether my classes are the supposed "good" track kids or other, they all fall under the American education system's classification of somewhat poorly behaved. I'm told this is because I'm at a "lower level" high school. Except that no one really cares here, so it's a lot less stressful than dealing with badly behaved kids in America. You probably have an image of Japanese kids as very well-behaved and diligent: well that's because they sort the kids out by high school entrance exams. The diligent kids are all together somewhere in their "upper level" high schools, getting exported to US documentary series. The other kids weeded out to be unsuccessful are quarantined in schools… like mine!!! I have the second or 3rd "worst" (my teacher's words) high school in all of Okinawa, though from some stories I've heard from other JETs, I really don't think my kids are that bad. For a lot classes I help teach, a number of kids will be having their own conversations in groups. Maybe 15% will be sleeping. 1 or 2 will be wondering around the class aimlessly, 3-4 will be writing emails on their cell phones. Today some 18-year-old guy in the front row stood up and took off his shirt, proclaiming that it was hot. On Monday, I had a class where this one girl sitting alone just burst out shrieking something in an extremely high-pitched voice 3 times during class, for no apparent reason. A group of 4 boys were trying on wigs and taking pictures with their phones yesterday. The Japanese teachers usually don't have the energy to stop all or most of this behavior unless it is threatening to bother other students extremely, so I don't either.

Actually, I have some classes where most students are attentive. I get really confused when confronted with these classes because I'm not expecting it. Usually, these classes are the most boring. Really the more interesting classes are the crazy kids. I love the bad kids. Today I had 3-4… the 18-year-old sports boys. Basically, the whole baseball team. You've never seen such a fantastic array of hairstyles in your life. I mean, it's worth it just for that experience. Mind-boggling. Japanese kids are really serious when it comes to hair style. These boys had it all. Long, short, curled, straight, spiky, and combinations, like left side short / right side long. Bangs on one side, spikes on the other.

Really, the kids here aren't that bad. It's not like in America, its a different kind of badness. A teacher's car isn't going to be keyed at my school, I will never have gum put on my seat. Kids don't shout at teachers and it's infrequent that kids act hostile towards teachers. It's not hostile badness, it's just kids who don't want to pay attention in class. And the bad kids' punishment is to come to school early and do gardening/sweep leaves. Don't they look peaceful? What makes them behave badly here is mostly just that they're allowed to do whatever they want in class, so they do. Teachers rarely raise their voices with students. You aren't allowed to send kids out of class, they aren't allowed to fail high school. I've had it explained to me that they will pass NO MATTER WHAT THEY DO. So there's not much impetus to do any work. I don't really understand this. Teachers in the English department here don't really give homework because the kids won't do it. Last week 3 girls were singing pop songs in chorus in the back, really loud, and my teacher was trying to teach. What does she say to them? "Hey girls, please try your hardest to be good." They blink, and go back to singing. She could have made them stop singing if she wanted to, but I guess its just not their way here, which is ok. I'm not going to get mad about it, its a different culture. But I definitely have to spend more time figuring out the disciplinary system here. I've raised my voice with kids a few times, and they always look really surprised, and then shut-up (for a while). So clearly it works, but perhaps it's not allowed. [Later: eventually I figured out that more male teachers raise their voices than female teachers so it might have been more the fact that I was female that was a bit surprising.]

After 4 periods we have 50 minutes of lunch. I usually buy obento (boxed Japanese lunch) from downstairs. Tasty stuff. Slight detour: have you ever heard of "fu"? I've been eating it the entire time I've been here but I just figured out what it is. Thought it was egg at first, but its NOT! No no, fu (麸) is wheat gluten. Really popular here. Solid gluten is mixed with rice flour and millet and steamed in large blocks. Then they put it in funny shapes and colors. According to Wikipedia: "Popular shapes include autumn-colored maple leaves, bunnies, and other generally "cute" forms. Such shapes and colors enhance the attractiveness of the cooked product since steamed gluten has an unappealing grey tone." If you come visit me, you too will be able to experience the wonders of:
1. Japanese boxed lunch
2. FU!
Teachers at lunch (L-R: Nakamura, Junko, Nice Dude, Kocho, Kyoto)


I often go to the teacher's tatami room (which no one uses except the Tea Lady when she washes tea mugs) and take a nap on the tatami. This is acceptable teacher behavior. There is more doing nothing by staff at Japanese schools than American ones (though overall they do much more work at school here, since in Japan they are all involved in 50 million after school activities that consume their entire lives, including their vacation time). I see teachers sleeping at their desks sometimes, or playing solitaire on their computers. Eating. Drinking tea. I really enjoy the laid back atmosphere at my school. The thing about teaching in Japan though is that the Japanese teachers have to spend many more hours at school than American teachers do. So while I see them relaxing frequently during my 8-4:30 work day, they might not get home until 7 or 8, and spend many weekends with the student activities as well.

After school, I go to karate club with the kids a few days a week. They generally get really nervous when I do this, since I'm their sensei and they have to teach me karate. Karate club is 3 hours every day. Yeah, they're really serious about club sports here. They're more important than academics. I think because it develops team spirit, which is super important. One of the best things about karate club is that the ken-do (sword fighting) club practices right next to us. Craaaazy! They put on these huge, million pound samurai-esque outfits, a helmet with a grate in the front so they can see, and start wacking each other with giant wooden swords. Its really exciting. I should have joined that club. Katanosaka sensei has recently invited me to join the art club, which meets Saturdays (for 6 hours!!). Yesterday he gave me the grand tour. Its going to be fantastic. Not only do we have a huge art room, we have a pottery wheel and a kiln, and tons of painting and drawing supplies. I can go whenever I want and use whatever I want! He was showing me the students most recent projects: ostrich egg art. Say what? Oh, yes. Ostrich egg art. Apparently there are many ostriches in Okinawa (?) so the zoo and other places have a lot of ostrich egg shells and nothing to do with them. They donate them to my school and the kids paint them. I definitely need to paint me an ostrich egg.