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.