03/01/2009: "Graduations, tests, and suits"

SO! I write again. I haven't really written much as of late because.. well.. it's a mixture of 'there's absolutely nothing to talk about and it's boring to write about my daily life' and 'I have a lot to talk about, and it'd take too long to write it down, so I opt to be lazy instead'. Oddly enough, these happen at the same time. How? I really don't know. But take my word for it.

First and foremost, today was graduation day at the high school I teach at. Was getting all set up and ready yesterday when I realized: I own a suit, but I have never worn a suit in my life. So I figured it might, just might, be a good idea to try my suit on and make sure all's as it should be before the big day. As it turns out, that was a good idea. I bought this suit back in America two weeks before I left the country (never needed one before) then never actually wore it in Japan. I had tried it on and checked everything in the store, but apparently I was crazy, had bad lighting, or something, because it was way too big (I have lost weight since arriving, about 17lbs, but not all around the upper torso). This means that I had about.. 7 hours to get a new suit and get the pants properly sized.

'Measure twice, cut once...' There's some serious logic in that. Bought a proper suit, I'd be fine now. But.. whatever, that's life. So, I went out to the store and was confronted with a rack of suits, with helpful tags labelled B, Y, and A with numbers from 4-9. Now.. WHAT?! After trying on 10 different sizes and letters to figure out what they even mean, I finally got something that fit nicely (and later found a chart taped to the wall explaining it). Err.. go me. So, finally got my suit, got it to the sewing-girl (is that the PC term? Probably not. I did meet her, and it was a girl, and she did sew.. so I'm gonna call 'okay' on that one), and all was safe.

Since I bought a suit, I also went out and bought a toaster oven. There's absolutely no relation on the surface to these purchases, but it somehow made sense to me, and I really have been needing an oven. In fact, I baked cookies from scratch as soon as I came back home. Aren't I nicely domesticated?

But now, that brings us to today. Got up early, got nice and dressed up and went off to watch the graduation. Oddly enough, this is the first time I've ever attended a high school graduation. Kinda funny that I do so as a teacher and not as a student.. but that's life. Though I have no direct 'high school graduation' experience, I feel I know enough about the affair to say that it's totally different in Japan. Here, it's much more solemn, much more serious, and totally formal and organized. We listened to many speeches, listened to the school anthem, that sort of thing. I'll spare you the play by play of the boring details. The highlights include a 1st year student (yes, ALL students must attend the graduation, even if you're not graduating) blacking out while standing during a speech (I think he locked his knees, blocked circulation) and after I heard the crash, two teachers next to be ran to grab him and escort him off, all the while the speaker didn't skip a beat. Kinda funny, in a weird way. Also, the student who gave the speech on behalf of the 3 graduating classes gave a long 7-10 minute speech and started crying halfway through. It was a sweet speech, and a deeply emotional time for the students, I think.

After that, I stuck around for a bit, wrote in 3 year books, talked to students, and took pictures. Then I had to kill some time and come back to the high school to catch a bus to the dinner party for the teachers and staff. It was a pretty nice party at a ritzy hotel, random seating so teachers are forced to mingle, and lots of traditional food (sushi, sukiyaki and the like). I talked to some of the Japanese staff I usually don't talk to, and had a generally good time. The only tough part is having to explain that I don't drink. The purpose of events like this is to drink. Of course, they offer tea for those who don't, but being American means everyone thinks I drink. Being a man means everyone thinks I drink. American man? Seriously, I should be drunk even before I arrive. Other than that, though.. I had a good time! Really nice people, and I look forward to coming back next semester (in April).

Aand.. that pretty much brings you up to date on my life. Under 'more..' you'll find a picture of my snazzy new suit and with some of the graduating students that I taught. Nice kids, it'll be sad to see them go and not have them next year. But such is life.

Oh... also, I didn't pass my Japanese language test, so gotta take it again in July, and I'm still studying to take level 1 in December. Blah. Gotta keep it up.

Sooo.. yeah. That's about it for my life! Pretty almost kinda exciting!

I'll try to write a bit more frequently. Not everything needs to be a 3 page epic..

I'm gonna head to bed. Been a long day. I'll write later!


My new suit


Some of the graduating students, class of 2009.
Jason

On Sunday, March 1st, Dad said:

Sorry about your test man, must have been quite hard as you are in the top 1% of the population intellecually...on another note, you're looking awesome in the rapidly acquired suit...