Monday off and the Influenza

Today is Monday here in Japanland, but I have the day off because I came in to work last Saturday. I will tell you why. Last week, my school was supposed to have a chorus festival on Saturday. As far as I could tell, it was to be a school-wide singing competition, pitting half of the school's choral prowess against the other half. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Half way through last week, a third of the school had been sent home for the influenza.

Japanese schools do not mess around when it comes to influenza. Thats right, influenza, because in Japan "flu" does not do the disease justice, apparently. It started on Monday. One of the 2nd year classes was already short a fair number of people because of influenza, but during lunch we were informed that one of those flu - excuse me, influenza - cases was actually swine flu! By the end of the next period, the class had been sent home, en masse; quarantined in their homes till next week. Two days later, one 3rd year class was also sent home for having too much influenza. And the chorus festival was canceled.

Well, I'm sure you're thinking, if the festival was canceled, what were you doing on Saturday. The answer, dear friends and family, is simple. Because the festival was not to be, the school, in their infinite wisdom, decided we should just have classes instead. That's right. To commend all those students who had avoided influenza, we sent them to Saturday school. Awesome.

So, I worked on Saturday, and went to the teacher's party we had scheduled for that night. (also not canceled) The party was awesome. Teacher's parties are always all-you-can-drink affairs (for 2 hours or so), and as the only non-Asian in the room, I pretty much dominate that situation. That night was no exception. After two or three teacher's parties under my belt, I knew I had no time to waste. In the past I always start my drinking slowly - wait for the food to arrive, savor the first drinks, try not to show off or draw too much attention to my drinking, and what-not - but that ends up with me just getting started at the end of the 2 hours. This time I made it clear to everyone that I was game to drink anything and everything they ordered for me. I drank a lot of sake that night. It was delicious.

Unfortunately, there's not much more to the drinking side of that story, because I, like most people my age (from America? can I say that?), have no problem drinking at a comfortable pace for 2 hours. However, the conversations were great because I got to sit at the old-boys table: the principal, vice-principal, head teacher, the 2 next-oldest male teachers, and I were all sitting together. I think I got to sit there because the vice-principal and head teacher were the only other two English speakers at the restaurant. Either way, I talked with the principal all night about food, drinks, America, Japan, ...and his daughter, repeatedly. This comes up a lot with Japanese parents, and I still am not entirely sure what to think about it. Seeing as how he was drunk, and we were obviously at the man table, I feel pretty comfortable saying that it was all talk, but still, man. Having parents try to set up blind dates with me for their daughters, even in gest or geniality, (is that a word? congeniality maybe, but then the alliteration is RUINED) still throws me off balance, and the language barrier pretty much prevents any clues or hints about how genuine the offer is. I decided to assume its a joke, but not laugh, except nervously. Kocho Sensei (principal) also invited me to sushi. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to assume this is also just a politeness, because the first implies the second.

So, in conclusion, this is why I don't have to work this Monday. Instead, I did laundry, a bit of cleaning, took some clothes to the dry cleaners, and slept in. A good day.



These are transcribed entries from the journal I am writing in at school. I started the journal for a number of reasons, one of the main ones being that I didn’t have Internet yet so I couldn’t post things online. The other being that I had free time on my hands. These entries are slightly modified, but mostly for grammar. I suppose you’d never know either way. Surprisingly, I had way more to say than I thought. Unsurprisingly, I have been bad (abysmal) at keeping my online entries up to date with my written ones. Someday, the dates will match but for now…These are the voyages of a long time ago in a galaxy far far away:

Wednesday. May 20, 2009.

I don't know if one can say enough about the brilliance that is yakiniku. Last night Bobu Bobu and I tried to go out for sushi, but we were stymied when the place we wanted to try decided to be under rennovation till June. This was a surprise because we had walked by the sushi place earlier this very week and they had been open with no signs about closing down. Because we were so disheartened by this turn of events (well, really we were just hunry, and Bobu Bobu is kind of an Eyore in general) we settled on a yakiniku place near Bobu Bobu's house instead of looking for another sushi place. OMG, the pure delight of grilled meat will never cease to amaze me. Who ever invented fire, you rock. And I bet the cro-magnon who invented BBQ was the coolest pre-guy in the history of pre-history. Also, I spoke Japanese to the waitress to ask about beer, and to order food and beer. (Name biru arimaska?) It felt pretty good. I wouldn't say I'm "comfortable" with the language yet, but there's been some definite improvement.

Speaking of getting comfortable, I am finally feeling good about my school. Not so many surprises anymore and I've talked to pretty much all the teachers at least once, and I recognize most of my kids faces and know a good percentage of names. But too bad, I'm switching schools at the end of the week. I'm pretty bummed and a little nervous to go through the whole "gaijin teacher" production again. Also, my commute time is about to triple, but my teaching hours will be about 1/2. (Future update: not true, teaching hours are about the same at each school) That's right, this is the part of the season where Alex goes and teaches in the boonies of Japan. Rice paddies, here I come! (Future update: this part is true)

Warm/hot days in Kimitsu are great: one, because, well, its warm, which is a new and exciting twist from life in WA and two, warm weather always puts the kids into a frenzy. Blue skies and a warm sun, and poof, the kids get loud, agitated and feisty. Its fun for me because they are more interesting when they're excited. They also seem more inclined to speak the English, go figure. We'll see how I feel about warm weather after track practice today.