Entrance Ceremony

Today was really great day, even though I didn’t sleep very well last night. I woke up early by about 30 minutes, so I was up at 5:30am. But I felt like I had a lot of energy and couldn’t really go back to sleep. I know I didn’t get enough sleep though, but I felt good today, which is something that is unusual. I was convinced right from the beginning that today would be a good day.

When I went to school, there were many things that were awaiting me. After the ceremony, which was actually very short, some of the teachers got together to go to an exhibition. Actually the teachers were the top teachers in the school, meaning seniority. I went to see an exhibition of photographs of Myanmar taken by a friend of the headmaster of my school. There was a big ceremony at the temple in Shiba Park next to Tokyo Tower for the anniversary of the temple being built, so the timing was excellent. The Tokugawa Shogun Burial site was open to the public, which is rare and only happens once in a long while. I was thrilled to be there because of the nice background of the Sakura trees and the backdrop of the city and the Tokyo Tower behind it. I felt pretty confident with my Japanese that I didn’t need a dictionary. We had a light snack at the Tokyo Prince Hotel, which is pretty famous in this town. I was able to collect my transportation fee for the Commuter pass for the next six months. When I was leaving, I left with the new teachers, and I showed them the “teachers’ path” to go to the station. Teachers take a different path to work because it’s shorter and because no students go that way.

I worked on getting my schedule punched out with the English department chair, even though nothing really worked out in my favor. Found out a little more about my situation teaching at the school. I will be working more than I did before and still getting paid the same. I’m not really concerned with the pay since I don’t use much of the money on anything, but it would just be nice to have a raise.

I had given all the teachers a gift from San Diego, and they were delighted by it. This made me happy about it too. I went into the headmaster’s office too. That was a first and gave him a gift too. I’m happy with my new seating position in the office. I’ll have to warm up to some people who sit next to me, but I think it will be fun. I feel really part of the group now and I’m getting along with the new teachers very well.

I’m surrounded by too many good looking people, it’s ridiculous. It’s almost unbearable almost as if it was only done that way to torture me or something. I mean of all of Japan, when I visited everywhere, I haven’t seen such a collection of good looking people in the same place, except for my school. And I’m not talking about my students either. I’m talking about the teachers at my school. Sorry, I really can’t get over that since it’s in my face every single day. And you’re probably wondering why I’m complaining about seeing great looking people everyday, and the problem with that is that its only taunting me. It’s not like I would want to have a relationship with them or anything, but they are all married too. Some of them are married to each other, which is another weird thing about my school. It’s distracting though, it really is hard to get work done. I don’t know, it’s strange but it’s true. I won’t deny it. I’ll be honest, since you’re brave enough to read these entries, it wouldn’t help me to lie about it.

When I went to the Ticket office, there was a really long line out front. When I finally arrived to the front of the line, I found out that my old transportation ticket is still valid, which means I’ve wasted some money that could have been saved since I have arrived back into Japan from my spring vacation.