Principals Office

Today, was the closest thing I have had to a full day of work, since we arrived. I got to work at 8:35 and worked a seminar with Elementary English teachers, working on their skills. until 11:30. Some of them were strong, others needed a lot of practice. We played Jeopardy with them at the end. They got the hang of it by the end.

My lunch was from noon until 2:15. I called Chrissy and gave her the afternoon off. I didn't come home, instead I went to the bookstore with the view of downtown, Junkudo. I went a bought a blueberry waffle and looked out the window for about a half an hour. Osaka was off in the distance and for a moment I toyed with the idea of hopping on a train and riding to Osaka and beyond before my 2:30 meeting. Take the line one direction for an hour, then hop back on and come back. Instead I ate my waffle and counted the train cars as they came into the station, and I studied the streets to the southeast. I found a bike trail that will take me to another part of town and I learned how to write Nishinomiya in Kanji.

At 2:30, I met Sakurai back at Sogo center for our trip to Kawaragi Junior High School. I swear it took longer to get there in the car than it would have on my bike. She took me up to the faculty area and the Principals office. All of the school buildings, classrooms and offices are built like motels. Each room has its own entry onto the balcony or sidewalk. The same was true for the principals office.

His office was long and narrow, It resembled a classroom cut into thirds, two thirds for the office staff and one third for the Principal. Shelves and trophies lined each side of his office. Two leather couches faced each other in the center of the room. There were narrow walkways behind the couches. Sakurai directed me to the right side of the room and had me sit closest to his desk. One of the secretaries brought us some cool tea. They make their tea in the morning and let it cool all day long.
Over the tops of the shelves and trophies hung sixteen black and white pictures of the former principals from the inception of the school until the last one. The present principal did not have his picture on the wall. Under their pictures were written the dates and names of each and when they served. I began to get a little anxious. I told Sakurai, that I heard that Kawaragi had a reputation for bad boys. She assured me that that was in the past and that the current principal had changed that. Her information didn't calm me. I don't know how long we sat there, but it felt like a while.

Then a man came in the slider, Sakurai leapt from the couch beside me, stood straight up, bowed deeply and said something loudly into her tea on the table. I barely got up and nodded to him berfore he stepped through the room and left into another room. I asked Sakurai who he was, he is the principal. A minute later he brought in four teachers with him. A man, a little older than I am and 3 girls in their 20s and early 30s. We shook hands and introduced ourselves. My principal is a small man, but not a guy I would mess with. He teaches Kendo, a Japanese martial art form, but beyond that, he reminds me of a Japanese version of my uncle Mickey. Mickey is a former green beret, back in the day I wouldn't have messed with Mickey either, but then I out ran him in the mile when I was in 6th grade. Since then Mickey have a mutual respect for each other. I don't think I can out run the principal, yet.

Sakurai gave the principal a summary of my resume in Japanese and a list of my responsibilities as well. We reviewed them. When it came to the school lunch program, Sakurai informed them that I am a vegetarian, all six of them gasped. I patted my belly and assured them that she told them the truth. The male English teacher, patted his belly and said he was a vegetarian, too, and quickly backtracked. The principal assigned them the jobs of translating the schedule into English for me, assigning classes to me and giving me a desk in the teachers room.

When the meeting finished the took me into the next room to show me my desk. The teachers room was the size of two classrooms and nothing but big institutional desks pushed together. They have a section for 7th grade teachers, 6 desks together, 8th grade is the same, and so is 9th. There are similar groups of desks arrainged closer to the windows in the same fashion. I talked to the teachers about their schedule and how much they work. One of the girls said she works from 9:00 am to 6 pm during the summer break. I asked her why. She said she needed to study. I assured her that English was easy and that I didn't need to study it at all. Maybe, I can infuse some American attitude into the office.

It looks like a good place to work. I can't wait to get rolling.