Back to School

When we come back to school in August, I always like the idea of having 3 whole days with no students to start us off. We have one day full of meetings, and then we have time just to discuss our classes, plan all our work and get the mounds of photocopying done. Of course I sneeze all the way through the welcome Liturgy (my friend Trish thinks I am allergic to Catholicism since I do that at all school services), fidget my way through the meetings and then start doing the dull bits and pieces like arranging my planner and writing all the dates in my diary.

It is nice, because I never used to have this time to get myself organised before there were 30 kids in the room. On the other hand though, being organised (and I am generally getting better at this) can have a downside.

The students aren't in for another day, and I am BORED! I finished all my work at approximately 10.30 this morning, and have spent the rest of the day procrastinating, wandering around, sneakily playing computer games and finding other interesting ways to waste time. I spent a lot of time at the end of last term starting a new filing system (see, I really am getting organised. I even love spreadsheets) and it has saved me more time than I expected. It's not as though I rushed my work either! So now I am blogging, and from time to time lending my geological knowledge to a Japanese teacher who needs to know lots of English words for things to do with volcanoes. That at least is interesting!

I think we are just about over our jet lag now. I don't know why it takes so much longer when we travel east than when we travel west, but it always seems to take me at least a week to be able to sleep through the night and not hit a wall in the middle of the afternoon. At least we were back early - some of the others only got back at the weekend, and they are really feeling it now! It was good to be back before then, because then we could fully enjoy the Azabu Juban festival.

My camera is still broken and I have done posts about this for the past two years anyway, so I don't have any photos. It looked exactly the same, just imagine rain on there too! It is quite a claustrophobic experience really, as so many people cram into the little streets and around the stalls selling drinks and toys and so many different foods. An Australian friend says she avoids the Juban festival as she has just come back from a small town full of wide open spaces and she can't take the closeness of everyone. It is a great weekend, but when it is raining, it lends a whole new problem.

People in Japan are used to the rain, and used to walking around a lot, so during the summer months almost everyone has an umbrella on them. In a small space filled with so many people, it is quite alarming when a few spots of rain fall and they all suddenly pop out the umbrellas at the same time! Will tends to get hit in the neck, but I am just the height that the back of peoples umbrellas either jab me in the face or pour water off onto my chest. Twice an umbrella got caught in my hair clip, but it is impossible to stop in the sweep of people so it just sort of ripped out. And of course you still get wet! We did take an umbrella but it just seemed to make it harder to move around or carry anything from the stalls, so we gave up. The rain itself wasn't so heavy, it was the gathered drips falling from trees and other people that really got you wet.

We almost didn't go because of the rain, but Will had told one of the new teachers all about it and said we would be there. She doesn't have a phone yet, so there was no way to let her know if we didn't go, and we couldn't just leave her standing in the square waining for us on the off chance, so we went. When we got there, there were loads of school people who all strolled down to see if anyone had turned up. Almost everyone said they had come to get some food and have a look and then leave if there was no-one there, but with a big group, we all ended up staying until the end (not very late, this is Japan - 9pm!). After that some of the group went on to Roppongi to the pub, but I was tired so I went home. Will got in at 3.25am. I have never seen him quite so hungover. In fact I didn't really see much off him the next day at all!

So you are either wet because it is raining, or wet because the heat and humidity is a killer and you are sweating so much, but either way, the Azabu Juban festival of Obon is a fantastic night. And the new teacher had a great time too!