All Change Please

Sumo wrestling is probably the most quintessentially Japanese sport imaginable and last weekend my town hosted a national championship. I was lucky enough to finish early at the elementary school I was teaching on Monday and I even managed to get a lift to the venue from one of my colleges, so I was treated to a good few hours of Sumo. All the prefectures were competing against each other and it must have been fairly early in the competition, as they hadn’t got to the knock out stage of the tournament. I was warned by a friend that had been to a Sumo in Tokyo, that it can be quite a slow sport to watch; it takes each competitor ages to get ready and then the match is over in seconds. However, because this was a national event and there were so many people competing (teams of three from each of the 47 prefectures) they had a lot of matches to get through, so it was actually quite fast paced. It was a nice and simple sport to become a spectator of. There seem to be very few rules other than no punching and whoever’s opponent hits the floor or is pushed out of the ring first wins. I just feel really lucky that I had it on my doorstep, and not only that but it was free! Usually you’d have to pay a lot of money and see a lot less action. I really enjoyed it and feel it’s another tick on the list of ‘things I have to do in Japan’.

I’ve had a few final days at some of my schools over the last couple of weeks. I’ve been really overwhelmed by the effort that’s been put in to see me off properly. At Iwane Nishi I was given a leaving ceremony that included a couple of speeches and the presentation of huge signed cards and some presents, all done in English purely for my benefit! Then I was taken to staffroom, where I was presented with flowers and a new hoodie for winter. I was utterly unprepared for all the fuss and was asked to give several speeches, which were a bit of a joke. So the next day I prepared a speech and brought some presents to give to the teachers in return and I was neither asked to give a speech, nor was given any presents. So it probably was right for me not to expect any fuss. It’s strange how different the two days were.

Every six months the Board of Education moves the ALTs around to new schools, which explains why I’ve had some final days recently. I’ll be off to a new school tomorrow, which I’m excited about. I’m quite optimistic about having a better time at the new schools because I think first impressions are very important, and I think now that I’ve learnt so much more Japanese (language and culture), I should be able to give a much better first impression and build a better relationship with the students and teachers. The change is also an indication that I’m halfway through my year here and after dreading that I’d either love Japan so much I’d never return home or hate it so much I’d leave early, feeling I failed, it would seem that neither happened. I’m happy here for the time being and am enjoying it but am also looking forward to returning to the UK. What more could I ask for.