John Stupart.com

Every April sees the ‘shuffle’ of staff throughout Japan. Old teachers wanting a transfer for whatever reason can put in an application and, by April, move out to new posts with no seriously career-ending consequences. It’s a way, I think, to prevent conflict within the office place, as the staff generally don’t fight or engage in passive aggressive chicanery, so anyone dissatisfied with their current job situation can get an annual chance to move out if they so wish. It’s also, I have been told, a way to prevent unionisation of the workers, which is probably more plausible than the government caring about worker happiness. I wonder if it’d catch on elsewhere… 1st of April, or April fool’s day to the rest of the world, is a day when everyone working for the municipality gets their new contract, signed by the Mayor’s incredibly huge personal ‘hanko’ or seal/stamp. I have one too, but it’s tiny and insignificant when compared to such stationery prowess as the village mayor. Anyways, I got a new shiny contract (ending in July 29th, much against protocol I’m sure), along with the rest of the office drones, and it’s now sitting somewhere in the bowels of my desk. I should probably find it as proof of my first salaried occupation since leaving university…

Back on track, this week saw some 21 new teachers entering Sarufutsu, of whom I have met but a few. At the Junior High we have borne witness to the first proper art teacher at the school, which is cool, and a replacement science teacher. I quite liked the old guy, Shin-sensei, as he could speak pretty good English for Sarufutsu and was quite active academically in writing and researching Chinese air pollution patterns across into Hokkaido. The new science teacher, however, also seems to speak decent English, so that’s OK. I must ask him sometime if he too is writing journal articles for environmental science journals.

On a good note, it seems my fax issued to the elementary schools has borne results, as I now am happily scheduled to teach in them until July, which is great. It also means I have to learn all the new teacher’s names. I had barely just gotten my head around the old lot, some of whom I STILL cannot remember. It should make for an interesting last few months in Japan!

Still no new pictures, unfortunately, as the camera place in Sapporo sent me the wrong charger for my battery, leaving me with no option but to resort to Amazon.com to get the right one. SIGH! I had hoped to get some pictures of Nayoro and so on, but alas this was not to be. Perhaps the next time I head there I’ll have a camera with a charged battery!

Having to delve ever deeper into the bowels of Hokkaido in search of boardable snow, last weekend saw me driving back to Nayoro and Piyashiri Ski Resort for what is almost certainly the last time I shall be snowboarding for the foreseeable future. On the plus side, I drove a different route this time, coming inland from Hamatonbetsu instead of heading South from Wakkanai, and it ended up being a much faster trip, with me making it there in just over 2 hours.

The snowboarding was, to be honest, less than awesome, as the powder is by now long-gone, with only the icy surface of the slope remaining, which in turn transformed into slush by midday. This meant that falling hurt. A lot. Also the table, rails and generally FUN trick things on the slope were removed, most probably to prevent plucky yet woefully-naive snowboarders like me from breaking our necks on the icy ice shelf of hard crystalline iceness. Nonetheless, I enjoyed just going out one last time, and it was certainly far from miserable. The ice also meant that one went a helluva lot faster than normal, so it was enjoyable regardless.

In the evening I went bar-hopping with Shelly, one of the resident Nayoro ALT’s, who in turn was hunting a particular Japanese guy she has her eye on. In the last bar we went to (‘Soul’ I believe) I met a remarkable gentlemen who turned out to be a warrant officer in the JGSDF (Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force, or ‘Army’ to the rest of the world). A warrant officer being effectively the highest rank an NCO can get short of being offered a commission. Anyway, it turned out this fellow had been to Mozambique and SA back in the day on various peacekeeping capacities, and as an added bonus was also quite fluent in English. Me being the warmonger I am, we became instant friends and thus chatted along happily for several hours about all things martial and militant.

Sunday saw a monstrous hangover and drive home, and then blissful sleep.

The past couple of weeks has seen the so-called ‘spring shuffle’ in the office and schools around Japan. Anyone wishing to transfer out of Sarufutsu or their current place of employment can apply and be relocated somewhere else in Hokkaido (or Japan maybe?). What this means is a ridiculous amount of time spent at farewell ceremonies, farewell parties, and farewell speeches. Just go already damnit!

Of course now is the time all the NEW replacements come in, so that means an equal amount of welcoming ceremonies, speeches and parties. At least now I’m officially not going to be the new guy any more. So while gaijin, and thus perpetually an object of constant attention and befuddlement, I at least will not be the rookie anymore.

On that note, I also received a shiny new contract paper from the mayor (contracts run from april to april, so my JET contract and village contract are different pieces of paper) today, April Fool’s day. I don’t think anyone here would appreciate the humour in this!

This weekend saw the departure of Heather, an ALT in Wakkanai and one of the few foreigners working in Japan that I could tolerate. As I was going to Sapporo regardless we made a bit of a road trip of it, but man oh man am I tired of driving now! Japan doesn’t know what Easter is, so there was no super long weekend that I normally get to enjoy. This meant that I effectively spent most of this weekend behind the wheel, driving all over the country. Nonetheless, the countryside on the way back (about a 5 hour drive) was pretty as usual and I got to see some new tiny little Japanese farming villages on the way back.

Due to a total breakdown in communication with the only person I knew in Sapporo, we stayed with a friend of Heather’s in Iwamizawa, which was also an unknown town to me before then. Aside from a ridiculously overpriced theme park, I didn’t really stay around long enough to explore it adequately, as the weekend was mostly spent just getting to Sapporo and doing some shopping for clothes, books and replacing my camera charger which has so far eluded my every efforts at locating.

One of the big things I wanted to get were a new pair of glasses, an endeavour which resulted in eventual success, but only thanks to one extremely helpful law student who offered to help me translate the kanji on the optometrist’s form. I was really battling through, so when she appeared out of nowhere offering to help, it was quite amazing to see. Normally public waiting rooms, subways and similar areas are occupied with politely indifferent occupants, much like anywhere in the world. Finding help in such a place was a miracle, and it certainly sped up the process. As a result I now have some new glasses, and a new eye prescription, which I think indicates that my eyes are only slightly worse than they were three years ago. A good sign, I think, considering how much time I spend in front of a computer screen.

But it was sad to see Heather go. We generally hung out quite a lot on the weekends with the other person whose company I actually enjoy, Chris, so her presence shall certainly be missed! Living this far out in the middle of nowhere doesn’t really allow for an abundance in friends, so losing even one is a bit… crap. Likewise driving past towns like Nayoro, Otoineppu and roadside convenience stores that we’d been to many times before just reminded me of how alone I ultimately am. There’s still Chris, thank goodness, so I shouldn’t whine too much, but when you have only 3 friends in a country, losing even one is quite significant.

No matter! With April just around the corner, and a 2 week office imprisonment ahead, my time in the JET organisation is fast approaching its end. I have to start brushing off that CV and start collecting application papers in anticipation of a glorious return to Africaland. In the meantime, however, I at least have some new books to keep me busy, as well as some glasses to read them with!

PS

Below is a photo I got from the Chiraibetsu Elementary School after their last English lesson for the year.