Nasty Rumors Nasty Hood

I don’t know how many times I have started to write this entry. I have written notes about it several times. I have also begun writing with this entry in mind, but the eventual piece that I completed was not the one that I had set out to write.

In mid March, I attended a meeting where I learned about the new school where I would be placed. As soon as I received the news that my posting would be at Takasu Junior High School, I texted Katsumoto, my friend from Kawaragi, and told him what the name of my new school.

He texted back to me, “I think that will be bad.” A few minutes later he followed it up with, “The girls wear short skirts, but they are friendly.”

I wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that. I don’t know which part of the message was supposed to be reassuring. First, he told me that the school was bad, then short skirts, but friendly. Whatever he meant, my interest was piqued and I was excited to begin at my new school.

At that same meeting, all of the ALTs received their new school postings. There are four permanent Assistant Language Teachers. All of them are guys married to Japanese women. They have all lived in Japan for the last 15 to 20 years and have families. Claudia and I are the only ALTs on a temporary contract.

Michael, originally from Boston, was shifted to the elementary schools and David, an ALT from Liverpool, England, was moved from the elementary schools to the junior high school closest to my house. The other ALTs, an American and an Australian, kept their positions in the high schools. Claudia, the ALT from Spokane was placed next door to my new school at Nuaro Minami. Her school is about 100 meters from my school.

The four permanent ALTs began telling Claudia about her school. The described the kids as ‘Genki.’ The term ‘Genki’ when used in this context means that the kids will act out. They proceeded to describe some of the events that have taken place in our neighborhoods recently. Evidently, the area we are posted has been the location of a recent suicide and a murder. One of the students killed themselves, they didn’t say anything more than that, and another student was murdered by her grandmother. The grandmother reportedly didn’t want the granddaughter to live a troubled life, so she threw her off of the balcony from one of the buildings around our schools.

All of these things were great things to hear about the new schools: friendly, short skirts, murder and suicide. My excitement was tempered by the uncertainty of the situation in the neighborhood we would be working at. It was then I determined to not write anything about the school until I had a better idea about what situation they had placed me in.