So the last few weeks, my brother has been here visiting me in Japan. Okay, he's really not here to see me at all. Actually, since I've had so much work, I haven't seen too much of him. But he had enough airline miles to come for free, so he came. I have managed to show him some of the more important cultural aspects of Japan though. For example, the first night he got here we went to Pachinko. We put in 1000 yen for him, and the bastard hit the jackpot almost immediately. He came out with more than 7500 yen, and he could have won more if all the scary employees didn't keep coming over to say that the place was closing. Still, it's a pretty auspicious start to the visit.

After that, we mostly have been either doing tourist stuff or just hanging around. We ate some fancy sushi, and some eel. We went to Kyoto for two days (my eighth visit) and I showed him some of the sights there. We went to a soccer game and a baseball game. He even went up Tokyo Tower, although I think it's a waste of money. We had a lot of fun, but I don't think any of it surpassed that initial thrill of winning at pachinko.

So my students are baaack from the Orientation Camp. As I predicted, they are a lot crazier now than they were before the camp. The girls in my class are still pretty shy actually, and the boys seem to be dominating the question-answering and things like that, but that will change too. Girls seem to be more dependent on social support networks to give them confidence than the boys, so as the girl get to know each other better, they will come to answer more than the boys. My class already seems to be more well-behaved and studious than the other class, according to all the teachers. This is a first for me as I have always had the class with all the discipline problems in it. Only time will tell if my craziness will lead them down the path to delinquency, or if their innate goodness will stick with them despite my best efforts.

So the new school year has started, although it's been a little hard to tell the difference because I worked every day over break too. The first day of school was just for teacher only. It was interesting because it was the first chance to meet all of this year's new teachers. We got six new teachers in the junior high who are fresh out of college and have no experience teaching. So it should be a challenge with all these beginners, but I think that the young atmosphere and energy will benefit the English education aspect of the school at least. But I am worried that it's going to be a lot of work taking care of all of them.

The next day was called 登校日, which is the day when existing students are elevated to the next grade level. First graders became second graders and second graders became third graders. So they all come to school and find out their new classes and meet all the new teachers. Obviously there was a lot of whining and flipping out as kids found out that had been separated from all their friends and placed with teachers they hate. But it was also their first chance to see all the new teachers, so they all crowded around the teacher's room and watched us continue trying to move all our stuff to our new desks.

The day after that (today) was the 入学式, the school entrance ceremony, held at the big performance hall up the street. Which I always found a little odd, that it's a school entrance ceremony but the students don't actually physically enter the school. This ceremony mainly involves all the new students having their names read by their new homeroom teachers. The junior high and the high school were done together, so that means my new 12-year-olds had to stand up individually in front of a thousand high schoolers; needless to say, they were scared shitless. Almost none of them exhibited any personality at all. My old students of the past two years were also there as high school first graders. Since they were the only ones who already knew each other, their corner of the hall was loud with chatting and mucking around while the rest of the place was perfectly quiet for the entire grueling three hours of name-reading.

From tomorrow, I will actually have homeroom with these kids. This weekend they will go to Orientation Camp in Izu and get to know each other. Until then, they will probably be really shy. But when they come back, they will be completely crazy, if last year's first graders are any indication. Then the fun can begin.

So it's Spring Break here in Japan. Unfortunately, this doesn't involve anything remotely like going to Daytona Beach and getting jiggy with something. In fact, I'm still really busy at school every day. When the new first graders come to school, there's going to be an assembly where all the clubs demonstrate their activities and try to recruit new members. Of course for the Guitar Club this amounts to a concert, so we have been practicing every day. It's nice to be able to play guitar all day instead of teaching class and that sort of crap. But I'm still tired and wish that I could have a real vacation.

Of course, if I am not at school, I am at home. Hana is getting big and difficult. She's been able to crawl for almost a month now, and she's really fast! And of course, she is only interested in things she shouldn't be, like electrical outlets, wires, the special poop-only garbage can, and my collection of butcher knives that I keep under the coffee table. And she's already started to stand! She can't quite do it yet, but she sometimes tries to pull herself up onto the sofa or over the railing of her crib. It's really dangerous, so you have to watch her all the time.

So I got my schedule for the new school year. I was mostly worried about who would be my partner for homerooms, but I got lucky there and got one of my favorite teachers as my partner. We've already taught English together, so I know her and know that we can work well together. What really worries me now is everything else. Due to my school being somewhat mentally challenged in the administrative department, they've reduced the number of foreign teachers from 6 to 5. Which is just not enough people to teach all the classes. Of course the other 5 of us have to pick up all the classes that the sixth person should be teaching. So next year, I will teach English conversation to my homeroom 2 hours a week, and art to everybody 10 hours a week, and English Conversation to the third graders, whose homeroom teacher has been downsized away, 2 hours a week, and 5 hours of high school English classes as well. All of the other teachers have a similarly packed schedule. I'll probably be able to pull it off, but I am going to be exhausted. The problem is that I won't be able to really apply myself to my classes as much as I'd like.

So we had graduation the other day. I've been so busy with all the stuff going on in and outside of school that it really snuck up on me. I didn't really notice that graduation was getting close until the day before, and now it's over. This graduation was not nearly as sad as some other graduations I have been to , even though these kids have been my kids for two years rather than the typical six months I spent at my previous schools. That's because graduating from the junior high school just means continuing on to the high school. So I will still be able to see my kids every day, because they'll be right downstairs. The ceremony itself was pretty much the same as other graduations, although it was mercifully somewhat shorter and had a lot less crying. And then we went drinking for 8 hours.

So now I have nothing to do at school, except clean my desk and wait for news of next year. It must seem like it's pretty late, since the new year starts in two weeks, but nothing has been decided yet about next year, including who the homeroom teachers are, who's getting fired or hired and so on. Well, I guess somewhere deep in the bowels of my bosses, it's all been decided. But none of it has been revealed to the employees yet. What happens to me next year is completely at the whim of the administrators, and has probably already been decided. They look at me when they see me, already knowing what's going to happen to me, and don't tell. I'm supposed to be a homeroom teacher for the entering first graders, but even that's not really a sure thing. The most important thing is who I'll be partnered with for homeroom, because that relationship is the key element in your success and happiness over the school year. They never pull homeroom teachers directly out of their asses, which is to say that the new homeroom teachers will be someone who already works in the school. Most of them would be really nice to work with, but some of them... not so much. Anyway, they should announce it in a few days, so I will let you know what happened once the shock wears off.

So it was my birthday the other day. I turned 34. What did I get? Nothing. As with everything else in my life, my birthday was completely eclipsed by Hana. On the 1st, we had a Hina Matsuri party for Hana. I have to admit that this holiday doesn't make much sense to me at all, even compared to all the other crazy Japanese holidays and messed up versions of western ones. Hina Matsuri means Doll's festival in English. It technically takes place on March 3rd. But nothing really happens. The main thing with Hina Matsuri is the dolls. Everyone with a daughter in their family is obligated to put out this elaborate dolls of the emperor and his wife and the princes and princesses and all their retainers and servants and accessories. Apparently, if you don't out them all out just right, your daughter will turn into a craggly old hag and never get married. Our set is actually pretty small, with just the emperor and empress and some lamps. Even though it's bigger than the TV, and cost more than the TV, all the people who saw it seemed to think it was so small and cute. As for the actual celebration, all the family came over and we had sushi. Not especially interesting really. But actually, I did get one nice birthday present: Hana called me "papa" for the first time.

Valentine's Day in Japan is significantly different than in America. Much as American greeting card companies have shaped the celebration of Valentine's day in America, in Japan it is mostly driven by the chocolate companies, so it seems to have been optimized for them to sell as much chocolate as possible. As such, chocolates are given on the 14th instead of cards. The main difference is that, in Japan, only girls give Chocolate on Valentine's Day. Boys just sit around to either be snubbed or to get some chocolate. There's a separate holiday a month later called White Day, in which boys return the favor and give chocolate to the girls who gave them chocolate on Valentine's Day, but they never have to go out on a limb, only reply! And it's perfectly acceptable for girls to give chocolate to many people, as Valentine's Day is not seen as a strictly romantic holiday. While there is a romantic aspect, and plenty of girls confess their love for someone with chocolate, most women end up giving out a bunch. Office ladies and such are almost obligated to give chocolate to every male in their work place, in what is called "Duty Chocolate". And of course students give chocolate to their teachers as well. So of course this is a great day to be a male teacher! However, we are also obligated to respond on White Day, so it's kind of a pain in the ass. Traditionally the chocolate is homemade, with countless girls slaving over their stoves on the evening of the 13th to create the most sickeningly rich concoctions conceivable. I tend to prefer the store-bought chocolate, because I don't like rich chocolate, and I don't like getting diarrhea because my kids don't pay attention in Home Economics. And I get so much chocolate that I can never finish it all, even within a few weeks, and the homemade stuff all goes rotten a lot faster. Anyway, here's this year's haul, although I already ate quite a bit before I thought to take a picture.