Monday, April 20--Sunday, April 26: My first week at Mito-Shi Dai San Chuu Gakko

I love the route I take to school.  Once I'm off the main street, it's very relaxing and peaceful and I appreciate the view of the canal all the way through the neighborhood.  All the pictures I'm going to upload from here on out are in chronological order, so excuse the lack of visual sense.

I kept hearing all these strange, propaganda-like announcements being made all throughout the week, and for a while I couldn't figure out where they were coming from.  They would appear through neighborhoods, down my street, down major streets, and either be in a male or female voice.  I rapidly figured it out that it must be election time.  Sure enough, it was.  The people inside the vans waved at everyone like they were going to be crowned Miss Universe, so I had to wave back at them.

Some pretty flowers outside someone's house.

I went to Saizeriya for dinner at one point (or two).  It's a Japanese Italian restaurant that has pretty much exactly what Japanese folks would put on Italian food.  Various dishes of seafood-pasta, hamburg dinners (which isn't hamburger in the American sense; it's more like meatloaf), and some mayonnaise-topped entrees (although they do have some delicious little breads). I took a picture of the table bell, which is a standard in many restaurants.  The waiter sometimes will not approach your table until your bell is pressed.  If the tables don't have a bell or a chime, it's perfectly acceptable to call out "Sumimasen!" across the restaurant in order to get a waiter's attention (or so I've heard.  I personally haven't done that yet).

The head teachers at San Chuu liked the Welcome signs I gave them.  They put one on display outside the teacher's room for a while.  Weeks later, I'm STILL finding glitter on the teacher's room floor.

The teachers liked the idea that I could paint names in Disney characters so much that they asked if I could make a certificate for the winners of a Spelling Test that would be happening at the end of the week.  I told them that I no longer had my paints or brushes, but I'd give it a shot with what I had. 

It took a LOT longer than a simple letterbrush painting.  Everyone really liked it, though.  I was even asked to present it to one of the classes that had won by request of their homeroom teacher.  It's now stapled up on their wall, nicely laminated.

I specifically picked characters that I knew were popular in Japan. 

Once in a while I'll remember to take pictures of my school.  No pictures of students, of course.  They're very strict about that.  

The teacher's entrance.  The student entrance is outside to the right.

Facing the student entrance.  Teacher's entrance is behind the flowery tree.

Student bicycle parking structure (with my bike)

In the middle of the week, I left school as usual and was in for a neat surprise.  Giant carp flags had been strung along the canal in honor of the upcoming Children's Day holiday (May 5th).

Kamado Shrine, right along the banks of Bizenbori

While at the station one day, I saw the mascot for Mito City's soccer team, the Hollyhocks.  The mascot, Holly-kun, is pictured on the little blue milk cartons that are an essential part of all Mito City school lunches.  I think he's cute, so I had to snap a picture (and take a selfie with him to send to my sister.  I knew that's what she would have done if she had been with me).

At the end of the week, my school had an enkai, or welcome party, at a local hotel.  It was a great opportunity to meet and chat with my new coworkers outside of the school environment and just see everyone relaxed.  People made speeches (about what, I had no idea, but I was highly entertained anyway), and I was informed that I would have to make one as well.  As soon as I got up to the front, my speech mainly consisted of: "Konbanwa.  Arigato gozaimasu" and then a small bit of English that immediately lost many of my coworkers, but went along the lines of "Thanks for welcoming me to your school and the educational community."  I then ended with the versatile "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu" and was met with a hearty round of applause.  It was great.

Much of the evening was spent socializing with the teachers and pouring drinks for each other.  Pouring drinks is a huge deal at social events.  People will simply go up to the person that they wish to talk to and offer to pour them more of whatever they're drinking.  If the person's drink is completely full, they will quickly gulp some down and then hold out their glass to accept more.  I walked around with both tea and beer in my hands and made a point to pour drinks and chat with every teacher I could.  Even if we couldn't say much beyond our names and such, it was still nice to be officially introduced to everyone.  

The most entertaining part of the evening occurred after much of the drink-pouring and the first few courses of food.  First, all the teachers sang San Chuu's School song (which I got a copy of, but unfortunately still can't read).  I really enjoyed listening to it and wished I could participate. 

Afterwards, there was something that I later found out was a cheer/chant of sorts.  At the time, I had no idea what I was watching.  The Curriculum director took off his suit jacket, put his tie on his head, and basically began screaming at the top of his lungs in Japanese.  It was incredible to watch for the first time with absolutely no context.  At first I thought they were acting out a skit, because even a few of the other teachers got involved in whatever was going on.  It made for a very memorable evening.

Once the weekend hit, I finally had time to do my laundry!  When in Japan, do like the Japanese do:  buy a bunch of clothespins and let the sun do what it does best.  The laundry detergent smells really good.  Thank you, former AET tenant, for leaving behind good-smelling detergent and an adjuster bar so I didn't have to buy them.