October II 2004
24th
Given all my complaining of late, I thought it would be beneficial for all concerned if I escaped the monotony of suburban Kanto, and the paralysis of work. There was a half hearted plan with Toshi to try and go back to Fuji, but it fell through for some reason, and I looked for somewhere else to go. Having hit most of the touristy places at least once in my first year, it was high time to start getting a little more imaginative. I met Kyoko at Shinjuku in the morning to transfer to the Chuo-line, and head into the mountainous Oku-Tama region to the immediate west of Tokyo. Got an early reminder of why I was escaping the concrete jungle, when just before we boarded the train someone (presumably a salaryman) jumped on the tracks and brought the whole line down…the only unfortunate thing is that he didn’t manage to kill himself!
So, found another line, and after a few hours reached the mountains. Amazing the extent to which even nature has been dominated in this country. You don’t have to climb the mountain any more (infact, there’s little other option and no clear path up); rather there is a cable car to the top. Nor do you have to worry about bringing food, as you’ll never be short of a restaurant or even vending machine at the summit! Some very quaint old houses have survived here though, and offer a brief glimpse into how beautiful this country must have been before progress demolished it.
Climbing halfway down the other side to get to the waterfalls was the more interesting and scenic part though. Leaving behind the youth, in their high-heels and skimpy skirts, we took a rather treacherous (on account of the recent typhoons) decent to the waterfalls which were lovely. There’s a “rock garden” (but not the kind I’d envisaged) linking the two falls. It’s actually a series of large rocks placed in the river, so that you’re walking on (and at times partially in) the water, which is cool.
The journey back was no less eventful. Japan has been a bit crazy lately what with all the conspiring to kill me and what not. First there was a volcano that went off not far from here a few months ago. Then an unprecedented number of typhoons making landfall. Finally, my train was delayed over an hour because of a series of major earthquakes…not to mention hundreds of little ones, in Niigata. In one week, natural disasters have killed a hundred, injured thousands, and left many destitute and homeless. All joking aside, I’m feeling quite fortunate not to have been adversely affected yet. The train platform at Mitake had swayed, a sensation rather like being onboard a P&O ferry, but otherwise, hardly noticed the devastating quakes!
1 down, 3 to go – 29th
So, I finished permanently at one of my schools today, because of the new rotation system that was brought into operation. It’s a huge relief; I almost felt as though I’d finished the job entirely, but imagine the euphoria accompanying that will be so much greater! The last three weeks descended into a virtual nightmare as far as I’m concerned. Far be it for me to criticise yet more sports tournaments, choral contests, exam review and exams of eating into class time, but I bemoan the illogical inefficiency of my working conditions. I’m actually puzzled as to what the students can be being tested on, because as far as I’m concerned, they haven’t learned very much over the past 2 months. My mole on the inside confessed that the government stipulates 6 hours of English teaching per child per week, but with all the other distractions, doubted they’d received even 3 hours!
Anyway, I was rapped over the knuckles by my supervisor. It was a long overdue comeuppance, unsurprising given the Stasi-esque surveillance of my activities by the secretary. So, I’d cut out of school a little early a few times, no classes, you know how it is. Yamaguchi was more than nice about it, even asked me what was wrong before laying down the law. I also got to air my side of the argument for once, that I’m rarely consulted for lesson plans, made to come to school when there are no classes, made to come to school during typhoons when there are no classes, treated as a human tape-recorder, etc. I apologised of course, even half-wished for the chop!
So, I thought rather than moaning, I’d give an empirical break down of the evidence:
No of classes per day: No of days
0 ---------------------- 11
1 ---------------------- 3
2 ---------------------- 9
3 ---------------------- 4
4 ---------------------- 6
5 ---------------------- 1
6 ---------------------- 0
We can analyse this several ways. The mean no. of working hours per 8 hour day is about 2. That’s bad enough. The number of days with 2 working hours or less was 23/34…shocking. Another way of looking at the stats show more than 2 working weeks with zip required of me. And finally, the mode number of working hours, wait for it, 0!!! On top of this inactivity, owing to a nationwide sports competition in Saitama, all the Public gyms have been closed for the last 3 weeks, meaning I haven’t been able to work out or do Aikido. Is it any wonder then, with all the pent up energy, that I became more than a little disillusioned? I should think they got off lightly, and that they should be thankful that I just sneaked out early rather than poisoning their coffee!!
The other notable event recently was the Mid-Year Conference, a two day borathon in Omiya. Notable not for the reinvigoration that it didn’t give, but for the huge earthquake that went on during the lecturing! We were in the Sonic City building, a huge concrete centre in Omiya, when a 6.1 on the Japanese scale reared its ugly head, and with mega tonnes of concrete above my head, not a pleasant experience. The speaker gave up because the overhead lighting was visibly shaking. The epicentre was in Niigata again, so we had a brief silence for the people up there who are really having a time of it right now. I don’t know when the aftershocks are going to stop, but we’ve been free of them for 2 days now, and I’m hoping that’s the end of it.
The overwhelming feeling from 2nd year JETs regarding recontracting is “never again”. All the first year enthusiasm has solidified into stoicism; everyone is on auto-pilot, just trying to get through the job without getting fired. The number of 3rd year JETs could be counted on one hand. So if one good thing came out of it, it’s the consolation that I’m not the only one.
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