So I thought I would finally get this thing started now that I have net and a predictable schedual. I have been here 41 days so far settling in and today being my first day of school. I will skip pretty much all the exciting preperations that took place until this point, otherwise I will be compelled to write a novel of rather ookii (big) proportions.
Today I had a fairly short day, but it was full of tension. I went to my first school, Miyahara Elementary School in Miyahara 4 Chome, a district of East Kure. Miyahara is absolutly beautiful! It is a seemingly small school nestled amongst the houses and tree line on a large hillside overlooking all of Kure> By hill I mean foothill that is the coastal mountains that pinch Kure up against the sea. To get an impression Miyahara is the district all the admirals and other officers had their houses and offices during WWII so that they possessed a commanding view of the inland waterways. The Yamato itself was built not more than 200m from where the school is. I arrived at school before eight in the morning and was shown by several teachers to various parts of the school as well as my very own oak desk! We then had a brief teachers meeting for about 25 minutes. Teachers meetings here are not like the states, it is incredibly formal and extremly steeped in traditional mannerisms. They spoke so fast I only really picked up on about a quarter of the agenda for the first week. I did pick out though that I had to give me jinkoshoukai or self introduction to the student body! I was a little surprised at this, but in time the meeting was over and we filed into the gym.
All the teachers were there first. Then one at a time from the oldest grade (6th graders) came in in soldier like formations marching, turning in step and sitting down on command... the process repeated till all six grades were seated in the same fashion equally spaced ont he floor. The discipline was unbelievable! The principle stood in front of the mic at the front, did some introducing of new students and faculty and then told them a little about me.. actually all.. and I was worried because he said exactly what I was going to say. They all stood and bowed to him and let out a loud "HAI!" (YES!) together and then remaind straight upright waiting for me. I walked up, gave my speech and then bowed and said the formal end greeting (dozo youroushuku onagaishimasu) in which they a half second later all at once returned the greeting and bowed in unison. HOLY F&^K*#G S%$* MAN! It was intense. By the way, there were over 1200 of them!
After that it was a few hours of meetings and lesson plans, which only took so long because my Japanese sucks and their English is nonexistant. We got through it though and had a good time. Also they like to force coffee into you all the time. I don't like coffee very much, but I have one at the schools every day... The other day I visited three schools in a single day and each gave me several cups of coffee each (impolite to refuse) and I was bouncing off the damn walls by the end of the day! I ran from like 9pm to 1:15 in the morning to tucker myself out so I could sleep! It also kept my mind off of other things that have been messing with my head emotionally, but ya'll don't need to hear about that.
Anyways,
More to come...
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