Where the Magic Happens

And now for part 3 in a continuing series of blog posts about work that will, presumably, continue until I retire or die. The last blog post covered the journey: now for what lies at the end of the rainbow!

Sakishima High School is in Port Town Nishi, part of the larger Nanko Port Town area of Osaka. It's actually a really pretty place, from what I've seen; lots of huge project-type apartment buildings, lots of trees, parks, the occasional shopping center, even a few nude statues in front of the school (I know, shocking! They probably don't even have the 10 Commandments posted anywhere in the building, if you can believe it!). I've been told that this is one of the more economically depressed areas, home to factory workers and gangsters. I remarked about how pretty all the trees were, and I got a scoff and something about how that's "unusual for this area." Your guess is as good as mine.


This is the English office. All of the other teachers are cooped up in the much bigger room next door. Our cubicle technology is years ahead of theirs, as you can see.


And here's my desk. Most of the things on it were left by the guy who had my job before me. Incidentally, he quit halfway through his contract to go surfing in Bali. Also, his name was James Cameron. Not to sure what to make of these ominous portents.


No robots in my school (economically depressed, remember?), but they do have a TV-ray-gun. Or maybe this has something to do with that whole analog-digital changeover.


The view from the English office. I wish I had anything to say about the huge, sinister-looking black tower in the distance there. Anything beyond a halfhearted Mega Man/Lord of the Rings reference, anyway. The real view in the office, though, is this picture, which sits right behind my desk (possibly NSFW?):

Words fail me. The technical term for this would be yaoi, but knowing that doesn't help explain what it's doing in the English office. My only assumption is that 1. a teacher made this and is proud enough of it to leave it at school, or 2. a student made this for a teacher. Neither of these helps explain anything either. As if I had enough difficulty focusing on looking busy, I've got these guys looking over my shoulder.

Those are most of the sights, really. A couple more brief accounts of the Japanese educational system in action:

1. My students still struggle with difficult questions such as "How are you?" -- we covered potential replies to this for about 10 minutes in class -- but during a Halloween activity, my students are correctly able to say "chainsaw" when they see a picture of Jason Voorhees and identify Frankenstein's Monster as a "homunculus."
2. Bumping into one of my students outside the English office, I was greeted with a "hellohowahyou," which I happily replied to. The student, hair perfectly spiked and dyed, then said "cyamerondiazu" and looked at me expectantly. I just smiled dumbly; what the hell is the proper response to (what I assumed was meant to be) "Cameron Diaz"? He and his friends laughed, and I retreated back into the English office. Next time, though, I'll be ready to enthusiastically describe my long-running friendship with Ms. Diaz.