My New Hobby: Figuring out What "Teacher" Means in Japan

Happy fall (weather)! The cool breeze and lack of humidity has been real cheery here. I am thankful for the changing of the seasons.

While preparing to leave for Japan over two months ago I remember being prepped on two things over and over again: 1). teachers are really busy in Japan, and 2). make sure you have a hobby, that you do things you enjoy regularly. It turns out these two things are very related. You see, upon being placed in my town the only people I knew were the teachers at my school. They are all very wonderful and I have enjoyed working with and among them. However they are, just I was endless told, busy. Really busy. So, if coming over here I had the idea that me and the other teachers would be hanging out all the time, well, I'd have been in for a bit of a shock. I sit at my desk, they sit at their desks and we work. They run here and there (I'm not being poetically vague here, I really have no idea where they are going most of time and I have no idea why they must run). I usually have two or three free periods a day. They usually have, well, negative free periods as there are things to be done well before the first bell rings and well after the last one.

While still in the States I became a little dismayed when I realized I didn't actually have a hobby. I don't sew or paint or exercise. I don't collect anything anymore (I was young, Tweety Bird was cool then, give me a break). I read and I write. I've always done that, my childhood is a blur of softball practices and long hours by myself reading or playing with my beloved Barbies. Is reading a hobby, though? Is writing? Probably. And since they're all I've got I'm holding onto them. And yet, upon arriving on this island, I decided I should pick up a hobby. Ya know, just in case.

Here's why I don't have a hobby: I find few things more important than getting to know people or ideas so given the option of doing something or just shootin' the breeze with someone I'll always choose the latter. And so, I sit a lot at work. I prepare worksheets, activities, or lesson plans and, yes, I do teach. But when I'm not doing those things I sit. Sometimes I study Japanese (I learned 5 kanji characters last week, only 1,995 to go until I can read a newspaper). Besides the teaching part, though, everything else I do involves sitting: studying while sitting, writing lesson plans while sitting, and so on.

It was during one of these periods of sitting that I discovered my new hobby. You see, in those first weeks that I was here I was very curious, I wanted to understand the way Japanese schools are run. My curiosity hasn't waned since then, but I longer hold any futile notion of understanding how things operate over here. Back when I was trying to figure out what kept the teachers so busy I would ask them, periodically, what they were doing. I was especially curious during summer "vacation." During that time especially I was usually the only one in the office, the other teachers busy. Running here and there.

So as I saw a teacher getting ready for, well, something I'd ask what they were off to do. Ya know, maybe I could help. In the summer I had no lessons to plan, no worksheets to make, and no stamina to study for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. I thought I'd try and make myself available. So I asked one of the teachers what she off to do and she replied "I do the accounting for the first grade so I need to make some calls." And there my new hobby was born.

In a school system where the school clerks cut the hedges and school teachers do the accounting I knew I wasn't going to "get it" anytime soon. But I keep asking because I hope this answer will top the one before it. Most recently the I got this answer: "I need to go gather the aluminum cans." Teacher/accountant. Teacher/janitor. The fun never ends!

Forget reading, writing, or dusting off my Tweety Bird collection (kidding, it's back home...wait...I mean I gave it away) my new hobby is keeping a record of the answers I get to "What will you do now?"