March(ing) Fwd

March seems like a bit of a blur in my mind’s eye. It was cold it was warm, it rained, it snowed. It was full of ceremonies as school breaks for the new school term in March. As a consolation for teaching at so many schools I was not required to go to work for two weeks. Before I get ahead of myself, let me tell you about the ceremonies and parties that followed. Every school has a closing ceremony; the spring ceremony coincides with the eldest students “graduating.” There is also a ceremony for leaving teachers. In Japan teachers have the potential of being moved for the coming school year each year. As a teacher you can be moved to any school in the prefecture since the Japanese school system is federally run. There is no personal consideration taken into account. Also at age 60 you are forced to retire if you are a principal. The closing ceremony was like going to church, more specifically like going to a funeral. The dress code for teachers was a black suite, women-pearls and crappy corsages, men-a white shirt and cream colored tie, principal-wore tails. The teachers whose homerooms were “graduating” had special corsages and no one could pin them on. I came to the rescue and now thanks to me they think Americans are experts at pinning corsages. Clapping was only allowed at the beginning and end of the ceremony, speeches followed bowing followed by speeches followed by bowing, ending with “graduating” students leaving with either no emotion or crying. The ceremony for the teachers leaving was about an hour long, we had to stand in the gym with no shoes, feet freezing and listening to their goodbye speeches and they were presented with flowers. The “enkai” aka drinking party followed. My favorite principal was forced to retire; his speech to his students was well thought and not over their heads like many Japanese speeches can be. His party was filled with tears, I bursting as I had to present him with flowers. This man has been so wonderful to me. He is always attempted to make conversation when I visited his school, took my family out to dinner, showed me his home and town (which was amazing. He gave me a Japanese doll because in March it girl’s month and since I don’t have a father here in Japan he is my Japanese protector. Telling me if I ever have a problem in life he will come and help me. The thing is I have no doubt that I could call him and he would drop everything for me. He is one of my two favorite Japanese persons. His kindness has allowed me to see a side of Japan that can make all of my frustrations melt away.) His party showed me how ridiculous the group system is, why there is such a thing as ageism. The upside is that he is going to USA in about a month and will visit my dad. Also to note that, Arita, painted a portrait of my dad, brother and I, it maybe the nicest thing anyone has everyone done for me as every brush stroke was from the heart. My other party for my middle school was not as emotional. They are a different group. We actually had two meals at two restaurants and they made me give the closing “kampai”(cheers) and so this monkey continues to dance.My vacation time was kept in a low profile mode. I cancelled my trip to Cambodia and bided my time cleaning and becoming addicted to LOST. I went to Osaka for a handful of days with Onika. We stayed at our friend’s Crystal’s place. We at any western fare we could get our hands, admittedly I was disappointed with our over priced meals, but I was having such a good time I hardly noticed. We attempted to go to the movies, but the last showing was at 8pm not 10pm and you have to understand that would be like no movies not showing in Boston or LA after 8pm. I went to a hip hop/reggae festival. I had a blast except for the Japanese pushing. They are like what you see with Michael Jackson and they even managed to bust a barricade, SO stupid. They just push and it is weird and they don’t even know the artist sometimes. There were drugs being smoked, so they do exist here, although they were being smoked by Japanese Yakuza.April has brought cherry blossoms and lots of rain showers. It has been raining for a week straight now, today being the coldest day so far. The opening ceremony was just as dual as the closing, but the dress code allowed for a bit of change of hue-tan whooooooooa, I wore black. The little ones entering into first grade were so cute! The little boys had knickerbockers. Other than that I have three months left, which will pass quickly I am sure. I am on the job search hunt and trying to figure out when exactly I will be in the US. My English department has basically invited themselves to my home next weekend, which by their cultural standards is rude. I am sure it will be fun and fine, that they just want to see how I live. I am realizing more and more how they are just simply not exotic to me anymore, but I will forever remain a mystery to them. So as the cultural, educational and all around representative for the entire United States I will sign off for now as there is a bit of brightness bellowing from the sky.