It's all over the news - a huge earthquake hit off the northeast coast of Honshu, Japan's main island. The main areas affected are Miyagi and Tokyo, with the former experiencing tsunami (plural) as high as 10 meters. This was just over two hours ago. Now the TV is on in the staffroom as we watch the footage of 10 meters of ocean creeping into cities on Japan's coast. It's not unlike the first wave of reports from Katrina. It certainly must be one of the biggest natural disasters in Japan's history. Certainly one of the biggest in mine.
What's odd is that life here goes on as usual. On Monday, the 3rd graders at the junior high school will graduate and scatter to different high schools and technical schools. Today was the setup and rehearsal for the ceremony on Monday. It certainly is a rigid ceremony, requiring a lot of bowing, much of which must be synchronized with your classmates, and a good bit of singing from the students. There's a school song, a song the 3rd graders sing to the 1st and 2nd graders, a song the 1st and 2nd graders sing to the 3rd graders, and a song the 3rd graders sing just for kicks (for all I know). Then the band will start playing and the 3rd graders will file out down the isle and out the back of the gym (where the ceremony will be held, since it has the stage), walking to the beat of the music behind their homeroom teachers. The class has about 60 students.
After the morning ceremony, there will be a less formal goodbye party, where I believe memories will be rehashed, and gifts and messages showered upon the 3rd graders. The teachers made video messages (which I might not have found out about and participated in if I hadn't been asking every morning this week about the various strange announcements and graduation preparations that no one was tell me about). So I made my own goodbye message - in song :) A few of the teachers put choreographed a dance, and I have yet to see some of the other videos. Apparently, there will also be a dinner party in the evening including 3rd graders and their parents and teachers, about which I know little other than this.
And the 6th graders at the elementary schools are having their own ceremony. From what I gather, at Yamanishi I'm invited to play dodgeball and other games from 4-5 on Tuesday and there will be a ceremony in the gym at 10 am a week later at Kawahara. I've already taught my last elementary classes for the school year. Guess this means it's time to start reviewing the curriculum once more.
Basically, turnover time is on its way and everybody working for the government in any capacity is getting really busy. I believe that Ms. Yanase (the teacher pulled from retirement) will be leaving. She's almost as out-of-touch with what's going on as I am, and has referred to herself briefly as a temporary teacher (today was the first I heard her thus call herself). I'm a little nervous and hopeful about having a new teacher. On the one hand, Ms. Yanase gives me a lot of freedom to have input in the glass, and really values my help. On the other hand, she has a lot of teaching habits that I disapprove of, such as translating everything for the students, and sometimes babbling about irrelevant things in what seems like an effort to fill extra class time. So there's independence and creativity, but not much continuity within the class.
Turnover for me means I'm spending time finding and reorganizing flashcards. Some of them I never organized (and neither did my predecessor), and others have made their way to various schools, my car, and various rooms in my house. And there are still so many old materials left to sort through, as well as new ones of my own to file away properly. I have ideas for the elementary school curriculum I would like to solidify and a trip to Okinawa I'd like to plan for the spring break before school starts again. Dunno how this earthquake will affect Okinawa, though.
Word of the Day: Jishin. You have one guess as to what it means.
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