John Stupart.com

In true arse-about-face fashion, let me start with the sickness! I had, and still have to a lesser degree, contracted a god-awful cold from someone. I assume one of the little plaguebeasts that clamber over me every time I go to an elementary school, but it could just as likely be someone from the Junior High, the petrol attendant or the deliveryman bringing me my book (Michael Yon’s new effort. Worth a read!) Long story short is I have run out of my Panados and have realised yet again how painfully short on sympathy I have it here!

No matter, I have been sicker before and I should not be so curmudgeonly. Nay! For this week was Sports Day week. *cue trumpets*. Essentially it’s the JHS’s equivalent of an interhouse athletics day, except with 70-odd students in total, and a folk dance added in for good measure.

It was all in all a good way to spend a Sunday. The students had been practicing relay baton-switching all week, as well as refining their roles in this weird-ass event involving a model train, a crate attached to a harnass, foot-pole things designed to make 4 people run together at the same time, a model plane and about two dozen wooden poles. What happens is each team has 4 people run 100m with the foot pole/ski-like things, whereafter one dude (henceforth known as the pilot) climbs onto the crate, pulled another 100m by 2 other students. Then the pilot hops into the model train, which is dragged over the 2 dozen wooden poles (which are picked up and ‘relaid’ in front of the train again), transferring after 100m to the plane, which is carried in the air to the finish line. This is repeated four times, meaning the plane, train, crates and ski things all get moved 400m. I cannot make this stuff up even if I was huffing paint thinners…

… I think it has something to do with mimicking the transport history of Sarufutsu, but that’s just a wild guess. Other highlights of the day included a ‘folk dance’ where students danced in a giant circle to the tune of ‘do your ears hang low’ and one other Japanese song. Scary stuff.

Work-wise nothing much is noteworthy. Working in a school while coughing and sniffing is NOT recommended. All I can suggest to alleviate the fatigue is Red Bull. Lots of Red Bull.

Here are the pics of the week. Osaki ni!

From Sports Day

Sports Day!

From Sports Day

Tug of War

From 2008-05-21

More Sakura

Sure, Japan is weird. Really weird. From whale-hunting to television to education policy, this country plays by its own rules, or at the least it has thrown the rulebook out the door. To characterise this weirdness, I present two obvious examples of my typical work-week:

First and foremost is the work environment. It seems that Japanese have two personalities, the dry, humourless, ascetic and utterly monotonous work mode, in which the average office peon will slave away from 7am until 9pm every day, Monday to Sunday, often running out of real work to do, relegating them to simply pretending. What productivity is achieved isn’t really important, but rather just that you appear to be working hard. During work time, colleagues prefer not to talk about anything outside of work. Conversation is normally limited to lessons, students, curriculum, meetings or somesuch related topic. Workers will hustle and bustle about, shuffling papers, photocopying nothing in particular, drafting 4 page agenda for the 30 minute PTA meeting… you get the idea.

But the moment, nay the second work time is ‘over’ colleagues will revert back to their normal selves. Dreary office underlings will suddenly have a personality and jibber jabber incessantly about their hobbies, family or anything really. It’s very much like a switch is turned on and off inside the brain that activates and deactivates work mode, appropriating the correct level of personality to the desired task. Myself? I load winamp, listen to music and write blog entries. It makes me look like I’m working ever so hard and have headphones on to avoid distractions, when in reality I’m just goofing off. Even with elementary school lessons to plan for and conversation classes to think of, I can finish my work comfortably, leaving me with plenty of time to… well… look busy.

The next weird thing is sport. Soccer practice, for example, sees the kids following a prescribed schedule of drills which never change and are done every day. Nobody improves, everybody just follows the rails, and then at the end is a collective huddle to discuss how hard everyone practiced and congratulate the team on a job well done. The last soccer tournament saw the team losing 0-11 to a local side, so I’m somewhat sceptical of the tactics employed.

Baseball is just pure insanity. It’s the equivalent of high school rugby, or the ‘jock’ sport in other words. The team bow and scream formalities at each other for 3 hours every day, following a baseball-adequate practice routine, with players removing their caps and bowing at each other after each drill is completed. It’s quaint, but hopelessly inefficient.

But then again, I doubt efficiency was ever the objective. Much like in the office, it’s more an exercise in appearances, making sure one looks good while doing nothing in particular. You have to remember that this is a school of 70 odd students, staffed by 14 teachers, excluding the ALT (me) and groundskeeper. There really shouldn’t be that much to do!

I have never gotten used to this phenomenon, and to be honest working in SA might do me some good; a kind of reassurance that bob is still at the coffee machine, talking about the rugby game on Saturday instead of filing his reports, and to be able to drive past the office on a Sunday night and NOT see over half my colleagues’ cars parked outside. When I see all the grey hairs sprouting from my coworkers in their twenties, and even some of the students(!), because feigned diligence isn’t limited to adults, I have take it all with a grain of salt!

That being said, I often find myself getting back home at 7pm or later, but it’s completely voluntary and largely due to soccer practices, school lesson planning meetings or somesuch. Basically if I’m still on the clock that late, I’m either driving around the countryside to an elementary school or at the soccer field. I sure as hell wouldn’t be at my desk, writing blog entries…

Pics of the week:

From Sakura and Deer

Asajino Elementary School. Pretty Cherry Blossoms!

From Sakura and Deer

Oh deer…

From Sakura and Deer

Fog bank that hung over Sarufutsu all weekend

Last weekend was Golden Week (*cue trumpets*)!!! A four day long weekend seen once a year in Japan. Thusly Chris and I set out to go camp at Lake Shuemarinai (sp?) for the duration, aiming to relax, drink beer and watch the Japanese bass fishermen fail miserably at their pastime

From Shuemarinai L…

Lake Shuemarinai. About 30 mins drive from Nayoro

It was in all a very chilled weekend. Even the weather was chilled. Freezingly so! We constructed giant bonfires with stolen wood and sundry supplies and were not terribly freezing. Watching the Japanese neighbour-campers park, unload a CRAPLOAD of camping equipment, sleep for 8 hours and then pack up and leave at 8am sharp the next day. Crazy people. Likewise watching the fisherman hurl their lines out and then proceed to reel them in faster than any fish could possibly hope to match, repeating the process for the day. It was great entertainment watching from the campsite! It does however make me want to get my own fishing gear.

From Shuemarinai L…

Note the snow…

From Shuemarinai L…

Generic John Tourist Shot

Speaking with the town’s veterinarian during my weekly conversation class, the trout season starts in June, so I’m quite tempted to make fly fishing my summer preoccupation. I still miss snowboarding though. Alas!

I also got my first look at the Sakura which is slowly starting to bloom way up north here. We drove past this awesome little Shinto shrine (the countryside are peppered with them) which was sheltered by Cherry and Pine Trees. It was literally in the middle of nowhere!

From Shuemarinai L…

School-wise the Junior High Lessons have picked up in pace somewhat. It seems to be some manner of weird energy generated both by the students and us teachers. It’s odd, but great nonetheless. It might also be due to my increased elementary visits and am thus just happier with work regardless! On the way to one elementary school I passed the Hamaonishibetsu (town next to Onishibetsu) harbour, and next to it, much to my amazement, were 10-15 surfers! Bear in mind the water was in single digits and they were decked out in full body wetsuits, but I was really amazed to see surfers this far north. I know on the Western coast of Hokkaido there is quite a surfer scene, but here! I certainly won’t be trying that anytime soon!