Matsubara sensei, that is. I was talking to her earlier today and trying to lay the foundation for my time off during November. She casually mentioned that she is pregnant, and is looking forward to the birth of her second child in February. I was happy to hear it, and also I felt like I have some kind of supernatural ability to detect pregnancy.
Elsewhere in the gossip department, yesterday I bumped into Yamamoto sensei and the school nurse standing together in Ito Yokado and looking very nervous that I had caught them. Yamamoto sensei recently got a cellphone after years of not owning one, and that’s a symptom that he’s seeing someone for sure.
Today I bumped into them both separately, and he didn’t seem to mind, but the school nurse looked really embarrassed and found something else to do quickly. Their secret is safe with me – they’ve covered for me in the past, so it’s the least I can do. I just hope none of my teachers read this site!
Like I said before, I’m starting the very complicated process of getting time off for my wedding. I’m planning on taking the week before the wedding and the week after to show around my family while they are here. It’s interesting to see how people view vacations in Japan.
I have plenty of vacation time, so that’s not an issue. In fact, I have five free days off just because I’m getting married. Since the time I want to take off is during classes, it becomes a big deal. Unlike other teachers I cannot be substituted, so I need to make sure that my classes are covered with other activities, and I have to talk with everyone involved. I’m doing this process in the Japanese style, getting tacit permission from everyone before I actually request the time off.
In Japan long vacations are pretty rare. Most vacations last a week at the most. People hurry back to work because they don’t want to leave their co-workers hanging. Oshima sensei just got married at my school and he was gone for about three days. He came back today with a homemade lunch from his wife and acted like nothing had changed. Even some teachers that had gone to Europe or the United States only stayed for three or four days – they spent more time traveling on the plane than at their destination!
My philosophy on vacations is much different from what is normal here, and we’ll just leave it at that.
For dinner tonight we had some Okinawan soup that we found at Ito Yokado. It was my first taste of Okinawan food and it was pretty good. Kuniko says that the food there is great, so we’ll definitely have to make it a vacation destination someday. Two or three days there wouldn’t be so bad.
