GT and Physical Fitness Testing

Because we had school on Saturday, we had yesterday, Monday, off. I'd rather have this coming Friday off so I can have a three-day weekend, but that's just how it goes.

Now that all the welcome ceremonies are over, the school days are starting to become more and more normal. For instance, today was the first morning of classes. The students (at the very least the seniors, but possibly all of them) also drew lots during homeroom to figure out the monthly seating arrangements (yes, they change every month!), which apply to both the classroom and the cafeteria! (The kids sit by grade during lunch, with six tables that seat up to 8 students per grade.)

Today was also the first day of what we call "GT," which stands for "Gokase Time."

During GT, which lasts for 10 minutes and takes place between the end of 4th period and the beginning of the lunch break, the high school students do listening comprehension practice in their respective classrooms, via the intercom.* Yours truly is responsible for coming up with all the materials for the sessions, which I actually introduce as listening comprehension "testing."

When I started doing GT about a year ago, I actually had to do two-step "dictations." Step one was me reading a short paragraph on any topic I wanted over and over for about 5 minutes, before giving the students a couple minutes to look at the script and correct their work. Step two was what they call "shadowing practice," whereby I once again read the script over and over for about five minutes, but this time the students were standing up in the classrooms and reading the script out loud, word for word, as soon as I said the words. (This whole "shadowing" thing as well as the standing-up-and-reading-out-loud thing is very common in the classrooms here in Japan, since word, sentence, and even paragraph memorization is given more importance than any actual thought processes. I hope to write more on that in a future blog.)

Luckily, after about two or three months, I was able to switch from the dictations to "real" listening comprehension testing.

Since then, so as not to bore the students, I've done my best to change the format for GT every month or so. For instance, I started off reading two long paragraphs and asking five multiple-choice questions based on the content. Then I switched to three shorter paragraphs with four questions each. At one point, I even eliminated the multiple-choice questions and instead challenged the kids to come up with the correct answers on their own. Basically, as the year went on, I went from easier methods to more and more difficult ones. (Occasionally, I simply told stories that I came up with, but for the most part, I surfed the Internet for interesting news articles and edited them down to about 120-200 words each, depending on whether I read two or three.)

This year, I've started off reading really short dialogs and asking multiple-choice questions based on the content. Starting in May, I'm probably going to switch to "complete-the-dialog" type questions. Hopefully, when all is said and done, most of the students' listening comprehension scores on the "Center Test" will improve dramatically.

Another thing that went on at school today was the annual physical fitness testing, which included checking the students' eyesight and hearing, recording their height and weight, and having them do a few athletic activities such as the standing broad jump and 30-second side-to-side shuffle.

*The junior high school students head to the cafeteria as soon as 4th period ends. Until the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year, when the listening comprehension practice began, all the students went to eat at the same time and GT took place after lunch. Back then, GT lasted for 20 minutes and was used sort of as a "study hall." The students given worksheets to complete for either English, Japanese, or math with the subject changing from week to week. Last year, GT lasted for 15 minutes. This year, GT was shortened to 10 minutes when the new schedule came out.

The Welcome Ceremony

Today, the welcome ceremony for the new students was held in the gym. As per usual, the ceremony was full of bowing and speeches. There were even 24 VIPs present, including the mayor (who gave one of the speeches).

Every ceremony in Japan, no matter how small or unimportant, begins with a few opening words and ends with a few closing words. In the case of the welcome ceremony, that means that the junior-high-school vice-principal basically just says, "The ceremony will now begin." and "The ceremony is now over," respectively.

But it's not quite that simple. You see, first everyone present stands up. Then the VP bows a bunch of times before finally reaching the podium on the stage. Then he bows to everyone in the audience and everyone in the audience bows back. Then he says the magic words and bows again, everyone else bows back again, and then the VP bows a bunch more times before he finally takes a seat, along with everyone else. All that just to get the party started.

Today's other noteworthy events: Shortly before the welcome ceremony, the new kids went to their classroom (which was decorated for them) for the first time (the boys entered first, of course!) and got most of their books; after the welcome ceremony, each grade, as well as the faculty members, had a group picture taken; lunch was a "family meal;" and in the afternoon, some of the students actually had a regularly-scheduled class for the first time in the school year.

The Ceremonies Continue

The new students arrived today, which means there was another ceremony at school: The "Welcome to the Dormitory" ceremony.

The ceremony took place in the school cafeteria, and, as you can imagine, was full of bowing and speeches.

First, the junior-high-school vice principal welcomed the students. Then, the head of the dorm welcomed the students. Then, all the members of the dorm staff introduced themselves (which meant one "good day" after another as well as one "yoroshiku onegaishimasu" ["nice to meet you"] after the next). Then, the "hausumastas" (dorm fathers) and the two student dorm chiefs (one male, one female) welcomed the students. Then, one of the new students gave a short speech to everyone, essentially asking them to take care of them for the next six years. Finally, a representative of the parents gave another speech about taking care of the children.

The whole thing was scheduled to last 20 minutes but took twice as long.

Tomorrow we have yet another ceremony, the "Welcome to School" ceremony. That one takes place in the gym.

The Kids Are Back

The students came back last night, so today was the first day of school for them.

In the morning, the students had a short homeroom in their old classrooms and then moved to their new classrooms. After that, everyone went to the gym for an assembly.

That's when the students met the new teachers (the teachers were introduced to the students and the teachers had to briefly introduce themselves) and found out which teachers were teaching what grades.

(Last year, when the teaching assignments were made known to the students, each and every teacher lined up in front of the students. Each and every teacher except for me, that is. I felt incredibly awkward at that time, especially because I wasn't even introduced, as if I didn't count. That's why I'm really glad that this year only a handful of teachers were named and all they did was stand up briefly, bow, and sit back down. Apparently, the change in procedure was the principal's decision, so my hat goes off to him.)

After all the introductions (which included speeches) were over, the students had their uniforms inspected. Teachers also checked that the students' grooming was in order, which primarily means that the students' hair and fingernails can't be too long and that their eyebrows can't be shaved off.

(Some other specifics regarding the uniforms and grooming: The girls' skirts should at least reach down to just below their knees and all students have to wear white socks or, in the case of girls, black stockings. Also, students are not allowed to wear fingernail polish or earrings, and they can't color their hair or have unnatural curls or a perm. The rules are for the most part enforced, with a little bit of leeway.)

At one point during the assembly, we also sang the school song, which we do at least 20 times a year.

After lunch, the only thing on the schedule was testing. (You know what I was saying about the old school year blending right into the new one? Well, the testing is yet another example of that. One of the teachers even wrote the following on one of the homework assignments: "There's no time to rest." You gotta love Japan!)

And so went the first day of school for the kids. Welcome back!

Cherry Blossom Season

In case you didn't know it, it's cherry blossom season in Japan.

Cherry blossom viewing is so important to the Japanese that the topic takes precedence in the news around this time of year. The Japanese even have cherry blossom viewing "parties" called hanami, which means they go to some place where they can check out the flowers blooming, plop themselves down a tarp, bust out the food and drinks, and chill for a while. Sometimes, you even get busloads of people showing up to check out the cherry blossoms, similar to the busloads of leaf-peepers that hit the roads in the autumn in parts of the United States.

If you ask me, cherry blossoms are a bit overrated, at least from far away; I prefer plum blossoms. If you get up close to the cherry blossoms, however, you can see just how beautiful they really are.

I took this photograph on the school grounds, where there are plenty of cherry trees.

If you want to see the cherry blossoms around here you better hurry, because they'll only be around for about another week or so!

The Welcome Meal

The junior-high-school vice-principal came up to me at 12:28 today and told me that we had two minutes to get to the cafeteria. I had no idea that they were serving all the teachers a special meal today, but as soon as the VP mentioned it, I remembered having eaten such a meal last year.

The meal we were served today will surely be the nicest meal we have in the dorm all year. If you read my blog, you know how often I talk about the food that is served at school, and this one of the rare times I'm not complaining about it.

The funny thing is, the first thoughts that went through my mind when I saw the "welcome" meal last year and this year were not, "Wow! Amazing! Looks great!" but rather:

"Oh, the poor new teachers. I feel so sorry for them. They must think that every meal here is this good. Boy, are they in for a rude awakening. It would have made much more sense if they had served this meal on April 1, because then the new teachers would have known it was an April Fool's joke. Instead, it's just a bad joke. A really bad joke. Good luck to you all, suckers!"

P.S. I didn't make it to the chow hall until about 12:40, since I wanted to see the end of the NCAA Tournament Championship Game. Good thing I watched it. That was quite a finish!

Deep-fried Food Phobia

There's absolutely nothing on the schedule at school today, yet it looks like everyone is at work. I guess most teachers are getting ready for the upcoming school year. Nevertheless, I know that some teachers are still finishing up paperwork from the last school year. That just goes to show that there's such a short break between school years that they actually blend together in more ways than one.

One more example of that: Just a couple weeks before the juniors went on vacation, they started memorizing vocabulary from a textbook that they received at the beginning of the year but had yet to use.

You just can't convince me that the teachers need to be here. If they took today, tomorrow, and Wednesday off (the students come back Wednesday evening), would they really be that much worse off heading into the first day of school on Thursday? The answer, my friends, is a resounding "No." I'll tell you why later in the week.

In the meantime, I've decided to try to eat less deep-fried food. Believe it or not, that goal will not be easy to achieve, unless all I want to eat is raw fish, rice, or a bowl of noodles. (No, thank you!) Deep-fried food is everywhere!

Two of my favorite Japanese restaurant dishes, for example, chicken nanban and tempura, are deep-fried. (As a matter of fact, about two-thirds of the dishes at most restaurants are deep-fried. In a way, I'm exaggerating, but in a way I'm not.) When I have a bento, I eat deep-fried food. When I go to parties, I eat deep-fried food. When I eat in the school dormitory, I eat deep-fried food. All this deep-fried food must be doing damage to my body, so I need to stop eating it.

During the vacation, I've been eating at my favorite restaurant almost every day, and every time, as part of my new "diet," I've been ordering the same thing: fried rice. That's the only meal they have that isn't deep-fried. It tastes great, but it's getting old in a hurry. Still, it's better for me than what I usually have there.

The Welcome Party

Last night, the welcome party for the new teachers was held at the usual place, a fish restaurant relatively close to school. Since there is really zero tolerance for drinking and driving over here (which is one of the better things about Japan), two mini-buses transported most of us to and from the party, as is standard procedure for such events. (Teachers who drive to the parties stay far away from alcohol.)

These parties aren't all that exciting, mostly because they have set start and end times. (The buses inevitably get us to the venue with plenty of time to spare, but when the parties are over, we invariably have to make a beeline for the buses.) Not cool.

Also, we always sit on the floor, which is anything but comfortable, especially for a foreigner with long legs like me. What's more, the fish restaurant is one of my least favorite places to eat, primarily because the trays that our food is served on are less than one foot off the ground. Need I say more?

Every year I am jealous of the few lucky souls who avoid the torture by getting to sit where there is a pit for their legs. You see, when you get to the party, you pick a number, which determines where you sit. I was especially unlucky this year, because I didn't even get an end seat, which would have at least allowed me to put my legs off to one side.

Lucky for me, I kind of put up a stink about it right away, and that actually paid off! One of the second-year teachers who was in charge of organizing the party (I owe you one, Mr. Eastgate) felt my pain and ushered me over to the pits! Yes! I guess the pits isn't always the pits!

First Day of the New School Year

Yesterday was April 1, the first day of the fiscal year in Japan. Even though all of the students at my school have been on vacation since at least last Friday (March 26) and don't return until next Wednesday evening, all teachers (all across Japan) were required to be at work yesterday.

The first order of business was to meet the new faculty members. Last year as well as the year before that, about one-third of the staff was replaced, so I that was the norm. (It turns out the norm, if there really is such a thing, is more like one-fifth.) This year's turnover was especially unusual: only two teachers plus the chief administrator.

At around 8:15 a.m., the three newbies were led into the main teachers' office and were introduced to us. We all stood up to show our respect to the new faces, the rookies bowed to us and we bowed to them, and we all exchanged the standard yoroshiku onegaishimasu greeting for such a situation that pretty much means "Nice to meet you" (but, since the Japanese are so serious a folk, actually means "I'll do my best to get along with you, so please do your best to get along with me.").

After the introductions, I was handed "The Sheet." Even though this is the third time I've experienced the beginning of the school year and all the change (chaos?) associated with it, this is the first time I was aware of the existence of "The Sheet."

"The Sheet" is so special a document because it lists what committee each teacher is assigned to, as well as who is in charge of each committee; what grade each teacher is assigned to, as well as who the homeroom teachers are; and who the department heads are. In my opinion, the information contained on "The Sheet" that affects a teacher the most is the first bit: what committee they are on. Why? Well, where one sits depends on what committee one is on, so when a teacher changes committees, he or she is forced to partake in the game of musical chairs. Not fun.

This past school year, Mr. M., a teacher who arrived with last year's group, sat next to me. (Before that, my ex-supervisor sat there, but he got transferred.) Mr. M. and I got along ridiculously well and shared countless laughs, so we were both pretty upset when we looked at "The Sheet" and saw that he had switched committees. I will miss him! (Naturally, I'm hoping that I get along great with my new neighbor as well.)

The rest of the day was filled with meetings (only one of which I had to attend) and teachers moving their belongings to their new desks.

(By the way, if you look closely at the picture, you will see yet another instance of men being given priority over women in Japan: The female teacher was introduced last. Of course, that could just be coincidence. Maybe she has less seniority than the male teacher in the middle, for instance. But females so often play second fiddle to males in Japan that I think it's done on purpose.)