Clear picture of Mt. Fuji

Me with Mt. Fuji in the background

Going to Hakone

I went to school today and found out my new position in the teacher’s office. I’m sitting next to a new teacher, Miss Ushiyama and Miss Nakamura. It isn’t the best position that I’ve had and probably but not that bad either. I was surprised to find that I was sitting next to Miss Nakamura because she used to sit in the front of the office with the top dogs. But it looks like she got demoted since she sits next to me and I sit in the middle of the room close to the windows. But I was wondering who would be promoted to sit with the big people, meaning the headmaster and the VP. The other teacher got demoted too and sits in front of me and off to the right. That is such a strange change in the new positioning. I think that they have been sitting in front of the office for like decades… I will be leaving soon, so it doesn’t really matter to me. I didn’t get my schedule like I thought that I would. I thought that we would leave somewhere around 9:30am so I got to school around 9am. But we didn’t leave till around 10:30am, which is just my luck since I was getting very hungry and didn’t buy anything to eat. I was walking with a Japanese language teacher to work today, so I didn’t get a chance to stop and eat. She was a high school 3rd year homeroom teacher last year and this year, she will be a first year junior high school homeroom teacher. That’s a jump of 6 years.

Then we left for Hakone. I got a ride with Mr. Honda and the ride was pretty pleasant. The other members of the car were Mrs. Watanabe, Miss Akiyama, and Mr. Ukai. We had talked for a quite a bit, but most of it was about how hungry we were. I’m going to miss not being next to Mrs. Watanabe because we are eating partners. I would eat when she would and she would when I started eating in the office. She is actually a new homeroom teacher for 7th grade now too. Miss Akiyama is a first year homeroom teacher, but she got stuck with one of the hardest classes to teach at the school, so I feel really sorry for her. It will be incredibly tough for her. We also talked about Mr. Ukai and found out that he likes video games. We drove down a street that was really amazing with all the cherry blossoms. The whole street was lined with trees and it was beautiful. It was the epitome of the Japanese spirit of the sakura season.

We stopped off at a soba shop half way up the way to the Hakone residence. We could get an awesome view of Mt. Fuji. It was really great. I have pictures that I will post. I took a lot of pictures actually because I had never seen it that clearly before. I ordered what most of the other male teachers order, which was a soba and tempura set. They finished very quickly, which was really amazing for me to see since I was sitting next to them and trying to pace myself with them too. We were joined by many other teachers later and the group ended up being about 12 teachers sitting next to each other. We occupied the center tables. The senior teachers all pitched in and paid for the junior members of the group.

At the school, first we changed and then we got things set up for the dinner. I had to wait a little while since they had meetings before they started getting things set up for dinner. So I was talking with a new Science / Math teacher (Mr. Ishibuchi) and Mr. Ukai, who is a math teacher. We had a three person meeting for a little while and we just chilled there in the main room with nothing really to do. We talked a little and I was doing my best with Japanese. I think that I developed a good rapport with them. Then we were joined with the new teachers, after some of the meetings were over and we went to the Hakone Glass Museum. It was my second time going, and I was a bit surprised that I was going with new teachers and not staying to help.

So we spent like an hour touring the Hakone Glass Museum, which wasn’t that interesting for me, but I did talk to a lot of the new teachers so I could get to know them all better. I think that I really connected well with them. Many of them understood English, but couldn’t speak well; which worked fine since I could understand more Japanese than speak it. They seem like a close knit group. Then we got picked up and started getting ready for dinner.

Dinner was a BBQ outside of the 2nd house on the grassy field next to the pool. Dinner included a lot of BBQ things like chicken and beef and fried noodles and other things like that. It was pretty good, but for some reason I didn’t eat that much. I was talking to a lot of the new teachers and introducing them to some of the older teachers so that they would know each other. I think that was the purpose for the event anyways, so I was just helping it along. There is also a new member in the office that is incredibly cute. I didn’t get a chance to talk to her much since she didn’t sit anywhere near me, otherwise I would have. It was a bit chilly at night and we were working on getting the heater filled with kerosene, but the siphon was broken, so I came up with rolling up some paper and making a funnel and it worked well since it was lined with aluminum foil so it wouldn’t leak or seep through the paper. That kept things warm for a little bit before we decided it was too cold and went back inside.

After dinner we had more of a second dinner inside talking to people. I was sitting with the new teachers from two years ago, so the teachers that entered when I did. We talked a lot, which was good. I was also talking with another teacher that went to America in March with the 9th graders. I asked her about it and we spoke a lot in English. We were talking a lot about various things until she was called away to do some math things on the whiteboard.

I wanted to talk to ESki about the 11th grade oral communication class, but that didn’t work out since she was sitting on the opposite side of the room and I didn’t have any of the materials that I needed for that. So I thought that we would have more time tomorrow, so I just left it at that.

Around 9pm, we left to go back to the first house and we had a little party again. Many of then new teachers and staff were in this house so we talked and stayed up very late. I didn’t get a shower till 12am and didn’t get to sleep till around 1-2am. I did meet the cute office staff though. Her English is ok, but we spoke only for a little since I was talking with other teachers and she was just mingling with the office staff. It was pretty cool and very relaxing. I didn’t feel much stress at all and it was a very pleasant start to a great trip.