That is all.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
In the midst of madness...
...there is still beauty to be had.
I realize it when I, guiltily, pull myself away from my order-in lunch at the junior high school today, put my suit jacket back on, and file into the school's genkan with the other sensei. We welcome one of our students--the last of the third graders to graduate--back to the school for the first time in months. We all follow her into the principal's office and cram in around furniture to be the witnesses to the presentation of her diploma. In this small office, they do it with all of the pomp and ceremony that they used when the rest of her class graduated "normally" this morning in the cavernous gym. With the exception of the odd setting, there is no mention or recognition of whatever demons have kept her from school these last months. Her homeroom teacher announces her just like any other student, and the principal hands her the certificate just as woodenly as he's handed all the others, and then we teachers--us small posse--we clap like it was the most regular thing in the world.
In the parts of Japan untouched by the recent tragedy, life goes on.
I realize it when I, guiltily, pull myself away from my order-in lunch at the junior high school today, put my suit jacket back on, and file into the school's genkan with the other sensei. We welcome one of our students--the last of the third graders to graduate--back to the school for the first time in months. We all follow her into the principal's office and cram in around furniture to be the witnesses to the presentation of her diploma. In this small office, they do it with all of the pomp and ceremony that they used when the rest of her class graduated "normally" this morning in the cavernous gym. With the exception of the odd setting, there is no mention or recognition of whatever demons have kept her from school these last months. Her homeroom teacher announces her just like any other student, and the principal hands her the certificate just as woodenly as he's handed all the others, and then we teachers--us small posse--we clap like it was the most regular thing in the world.
In the parts of Japan untouched by the recent tragedy, life goes on.
Monday, March 14, 2011
All's Well. I was on the Mountain.
First off: I'm fine. Completely. Didn't know there'd been an earthquake until it exploded all over my Facebook just after 14:50 on Friday afternoon. I didn't feel a thing, and when I turned to my co-worker at the Board of Education to tell her that there'd been a big earthquake down in Iwate-ken, she seemed completely unperturbed. I left work at three like I was supposed to, rode a bus into Yoichi (mostly along the Sea of Japan coast), and then jumped another bus inland to Kutchan where I'd be meeting Mark, Alistair, and Ross for some nightboarding at Hirafu.
The view from a bus in Hokkaido at pretty much the exact time that the world was falling down.
If it hadn't been for my phone, I never would have gotten any indication that anything was amiss in other parts of Japan.
It was that uneventful here. When I spoke to Mark, he told me that he hadn't felt it, either, over in Iwanai. Ross and Alistair had felt it on the mountain, near Kutchan, but they had no idea about the scale of the craziness that was going on down south.
The view from a bus in Hokkaido at pretty much the exact time that the world was falling down.
If it hadn't been for my phone, I never would have gotten any indication that anything was amiss in other parts of Japan.
It was that uneventful here. When I spoke to Mark, he told me that he hadn't felt it, either, over in Iwanai. Ross and Alistair had felt it on the mountain, near Kutchan, but they had no idea about the scale of the craziness that was going on down south.
Sunday, March 06, 2011
Niseko Winter Meet & Niki Student Boarding
I'm trying to go back and fill in the giant gap I've left here since about mid-February, so these are going to be mostly photos.
Friday night and Saturday were spent with the HAJET folks, taking in the winter meeting at Freedom Inn in Hanazono (near Niseko). It was at this meeting last year that Heather and I had quit all our dicking about and had finally gotten together, so the meeting held a certain salience for us. Personally, it was also salient as it was at the winter meeting in Furano last year that I'd taken on the role of HAJET Social Coordinator, and next to all of the madness that I get up to with my friends and the sun-eclipsing light of my elementary school kids, being a part of the HAJET Prefectural Council has been one of the most fulfilling parts of this JET experience. So it was with a bit heavy heart that I accepted that my time with the council was at an end as our council handed off responsibility to the newly-elected council, and I handed my Social Coordinator role off to Andy Suvoltos.
Friday night and Saturday were spent with the HAJET folks, taking in the winter meeting at Freedom Inn in Hanazono (near Niseko). It was at this meeting last year that Heather and I had quit all our dicking about and had finally gotten together, so the meeting held a certain salience for us. Personally, it was also salient as it was at the winter meeting in Furano last year that I'd taken on the role of HAJET Social Coordinator, and next to all of the madness that I get up to with my friends and the sun-eclipsing light of my elementary school kids, being a part of the HAJET Prefectural Council has been one of the most fulfilling parts of this JET experience. So it was with a bit heavy heart that I accepted that my time with the council was at an end as our council handed off responsibility to the newly-elected council, and I handed my Social Coordinator role off to Andy Suvoltos.
Sentimental bullshit or not, we still managed to have ourselves a good 'ol weekend between the parting with all the other Hokkaido ALTs and the snowboarding.
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