Oh Boy, Oh Boy!!!

First day of school! So exciting and nerve-racking. I don't think I have been this nervous and excited to go to the first day of school since 6th grade! Yes, it was an excruciatingly long period of formal education years, but here I am! I'll have to back track soon after I finish this post as I have left out a few events, but I figured it'd be best to write about the raw emotions emerging from the first day of school and from the second day of school being a typhoon day.

To begin with, the process of actually getting to the school was absolutely exhausted, at least on the first day. I left my apartment at 6:30 AM, and I rode my bike 1.9 km (yes, metric! Please switch it over America!) from the Shirasagi Residence to the Himeji bus station, at which point I realized I didn't know where to park my bike. There are usually areas in which a lot of bikes park, so I would also park my bike in those areas. However, because it was early in the morning and because there were no shops open yet and because most employees take the bus or train to work, there were not huge crowds of bikes everywhere. I arrived at the station on my bike at 6:45 AM, and my bus going to my school leaves at 7 AM. It was 6:53 AM, and I was in a panic because I absolutely did not want to miss the 7 AM bus and be late for school since the next bus comes at 7:40 AM. I ended up just willy-nilly-ing it and parked my bike next to some store. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Side note, I have never needed to or wanted to use public transportation to get to work or school, especially during Arizona summers. However, I absolutely love the transportation system here. The buses are scary when it comes to how on-time they are. If the sign says 16:34, they are there at 16:34 and gone within the same minute. Japan's got it down.

BUT, the panic doesn't end. My trial run two days ago only took the bus 40 minutes to get to my school from Himeji station. However, this time, it took 50 minutes, and I was in another panic because when I get off the bus, I would still have to walk another ten minutes to get to the school. I was expected to be at school by 8 AM. Long story short, it was an emotionally exhausting morning, and it was barely 8 AM.

The first day at school entails having a welcoming ceremony for new teachers (aka me). It was a very formal ceremony, and this was the first time I saw any of the kids at school. I was astounded by the discipline and formality that is taught to the children at ceremonies and events. The ceremony was held in the gymnasium, where, like all the other rooms aside from the teachers' room, there is no air conditioning. Luckily, the weather was starting to cool down from the summer, and it was a cloudy day. All 89 students at the school entered by grade. They entered in four columns, two being boys columns and two being girls columns, and they entered silently after changing from their inside shoes to their gym shoes. Each grade had a girl and boy leader to be in charge of the ceremonial lines, and there is often a different boy and girl leader for different classes or events (music class, English class, gym class, et cetera).

The way the children moved and positioned themselves was very similar to how Air Force ROTC was; they measured themselves an arm's length behind the person in front of them, and when commanded, they placed their bags on the floor. Then, when commanded again by the leaders, they'd sit down with their legs bent and in front of them. A similar, robotic procedure was executed when leaving the gymnasium. During the ceremony, they didn't move, and they didn't say anything unless commanded otherwise. There was even a dragonfly landing on students and flying near the students, but they were incredibly disciplined to not react and to be still. I cannot imagine what a sh*t show it would be if a dragonfly flew near American students. It was mesmerizing to watch.

During the ceremony, the principal and vice principal made a speech, and then I made my prepared speech in Japanese. It was a very simple speech, and I was allowed to read off of my notecard. I basically said, "Good morning. My name is An. I love basketball and dogs. My Japanese is not very good now but I will learn. Pleased to meet you." Didn't even break a sweat... except with I saw a spider dangling three feet from where I was standing, but like the students, I kept my cool while screaming in my head. After my speech, a representative student came up and made a speech in English to me. It was very nice, and it was obvious that the student was incredibly nervous. That's what I have found about junior high school students, is that they have become more self-conscious about practicing and speaking English because they are afraid to make a mistake. Hopefully, the students will be comfortable enough with me to speak to me more.

The ceremony was the first and last time I interacted with the students for the next three days of school. The rest of the days was filled with nothing. Literally. I sat in the teachers' office and learning a set of the Japanese alphabet for the next three days while the students took exams. Overall though, I am exhilarated to interact with the students. They are very good kids, and I am continuously dumbfounded by their politeness, manners, spirit, and everything else about them. It really gives me hope in the generations after mine again.

I slept on the bus on the way back to the station after school, but because the station was the very last stop, I didn't have to worry about missing my stop (unlike when I take the bus in the mornings). I ran back to where I left my bike, and it was still there! Unfortunately, it was moved slightly, and the kickstand lock was engaged. However, I had no idea that there even was a kickstand lock, so I just tinkered with the bike for roughly 15 minutes wondering why my kickstand won't go up. Luckily, group of students walked by, and seeing my confusion and frustration, they came up to me offering to help. Even luckier, they spoke enough English to understand my dilemma, and one of the students un-engaged the kickstand lock. I was amazed when she did it and thanked the students for their help. It was a silly misunderstanding to them, so they laughed a bit and continued on their way.

Having been emotionally and physically drained from the day, I bought a cup of matcha boba tea from a shop downtown and biked home. Today was another example of how wonderful the teachers here at the residence are. Barbara, a teacher from Australia, offered a time for anyone and everyone to go to her apartment for ice cream and to talk about their first day of school. It was incredibly nice of her, and she was very hospitable. I initially didn't want to go as I was exhausted and felt that my limit for human interaction had been reached for the day, but I'm glad I went for the short period that I did.

Wanting to exhaust myself even more so that I would have absolutely no trouble falling asleep by 9, I went for a run at roughly 7:30 PM. Because the roads are uneven and because I didn't feel quite comfortable enough to run on my own in after dark, I decided to run in circles at a dirt plot of land outside the Shirasagi residence for 30 minutes. Some would ask how I managed to run in circles for that long, and I would say that running is the only time I have for my brain to shut off and not have a single thought in it besides when to turn or how to move my legs. Thus, it wasn't a tremendous feat. Overall, good first day! I learned a lot, and I still have a lot to learn about Japan and Japanese culture. However, I'm excited and grateful for this opportunity, and I'm so blessed to have such supportive friends back home providing words of wisdom, humor, and kindness.