Snowy Day

Last week came snow. People seem to behave differently when it is snowing, they smile and laugh more, they come out of their homes to shovel the snow from their drveways. One woman even said, "konichiwa," (good afternoon) as she stopped shovelling to let me pass.

Here are some pictures I took.


Bikes in front of my guesthouse.





At a park near where I live there are some wild animals.









Some snowmen.

Drinking with colleagues

Last night the teachers from my school and I went out to celebrate the success of Wednesday. Wednesday for me was an extremely dull day as I had no lessons and spent most of my time alone in the staff room cutting things out. Wednesday for everyone else in the school was a madly stressful day full of inspectors coming to observe lessons, talk to the kids and check the school for cleanliness. As I found out last night, the school did pretty well in the inspection and don’t have to worry about another one for about three years.

So, as is the usual case when we all go out I met some of the other teachers at 6:20 outside the small police station near school. It always seems to be the same teachers who meet here, and when we get to the drinking place everyone else is always already there. I sat next to one of the secretaries and the school nurse, both of whom are very friendly and easy to talk to. Also on the table was one of the teachers who started at the same time as me, another secretary who I discovered is only 19 and not allowed to legally drink alcohol until her next birthday. This didn’t mean that she wasn’t drinking alcohol, just that what she was drinking was disguised as orange juice. Finally on our table arrived a guy who is friendly and smiley at these events but has an infuriating habit of standing at the back of my lessons looking moody or falling asleep.

There was a woman who I have seen before in school but I have no idea who she is or what she does. Now I know that we are the same age. I know this because at the start of the night someone else pointed it out and we both looked at each other and smiled awkwardly. Then a few drinks later she kept shouting it while I continued to smile awkwardly.

There was another school’s staff party in the same venue and one of the female teachers was about to get married. So of course, the lights dimmed and everyone began to clap. A waiter came over to her, she stood up and he announced the good news to which everyone said “ooooh,” apart from me because I don’t understand anything in Japanese until about 10 seconds after it has been said. Then, of course, everyone started humming, “Here comes the bride,” and clapping, apart from me again because I was too taken aback by yet another new Japanese custom. Maybe we do it in the UK too but I’ve never noticed before.

The alcohol was flowing freely, literally it was am all-you-can-keep-down kind of affair which it should have been since it was £16 a head. The vice principal was walking around the tables with a big pitcher of beer filling any empty glasses he saw and then forcing its owners to empty them again in one go. I’m not the strongest drinker in the world in any respect, alcohol goes straight to my stomach where I honestly think it flips a coin to decide whether it can be bothered to digest or send it straight back up again. Yet alcohol does not do a lot to change how I feel, and this is both a good and bad thing. By then the vice-principal had become loud and emotional and this heralded the first time that he has ever given me any feedback about my work. I am happy to say, that it was good. His main point was that now the kids always say, “hello,” and, “see you,” to me, which since he has never been to any of my lessons that is probably the only thing he can go by as to whether I am any good. “Weldone,” he said, and shook my hand. Then, he filled my glass and hugged me saying, “I like you.” I told him that I liked him too and he looked happy.

For the reason of how relaxed and inebriated people get at these workdos I think the ones in Japan are about a million times more fun than in the UK. I don’t think we change so dramatically from our working selves to our social selves, and perhaps feel free to be more honest in the workplace from the start. This is all speculation but at the end of the day I am not complaining, it’s always nice to get praise.