“Tomorrow, the sun will rise and everything will be shiny.”
- D. Rew
Today is April the 9th. The sunrise woke me at 5:30, blushing red and purple behind the sakura trees. Spring is here.
The stubborn winter has drifted away, and the tell-tale signs of spring are everywhere. The air is getting warmer, coaxing the sakura out of hibernation; my kotatsu lays disassembled, nothing but a poorly deconstructed pile of shambles in my closet.
People are changing, like werewolves surrendering to the full moon. My secretary is 100 pounds heavier, her voice 2 octaves deeper, and she is actually a man. My office crush is nowhere to be found and my English teacher is beyond recognition, having put down the tinted glasses, retired the neon track suits and resigned to the fact that The Bangles are no longer #1.
The 80s, it would seem, are over.
。。。。。。。。。
A few constants remain. My job is the same. The office feels the same - everyone is bustling around, some busy with actual work, others just pretending. The teacher across from me is fast asleep, having dozed off mid-sentence. I've obviously been thinking about this too long - the admin guy is giving me the stink eye again. But I don't mind. I'm just going to sit here, stare at out the window at the cherry blossoms and think about the beach.
I went to Izu for the weekend, in Shizuoka prefecture on the other side of Tokyo. I spent the weekend with my feet in the ocean and my head in the trees, and on Monday morning, I dragged by sandy feet back to a brand new workplace. It’s the start of a new school year, and as is typical in Japanese schools, there has been a major staff turnover at my junior high school. The notion of 30-year-veteran-teachers is a novelty in Japan - a myth, perhaps. Teachers are passed between schools and BoEs, rarely staying put for more than a few years. My first day back was filled with new faces, introductions and endless bowing.
A few constants remain. My job is the same. The office feels the same - everyone is bustling around, some busy with actual work, others just pretending. The teacher across from me is fast asleep, having dozed off mid-sentence. I've obviously been thinking about this too long - the admin guy is giving me the stink eye again. But I don't mind. I'm just going to sit here, stare at out the window at the cherry blossoms and think about the beach.
