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Lastly we get to the 5 pairs of shoes. One pair is to wear to work, this pair gets me from my apartment to my car and from my car to the entrance of the school. Quite useful. The next pair is to change into the minute you step into the entranceway of the school and can be worn around the halls. This pair should never have touched any ground outside of school, for fear of bringing dirt into the school. The third pair is for the gym. This pair must have only been worn in gymnasiums for fear of getting the dirt, that supposedly shouldn�t exist, in the school into the gym. The fourth pair is for the bathroom, so that you don�t spread bathroom gunk other places. However, since this pair only touches bathroom floors, within a month the gunk on the shoes has evolved into a living, oozing organism and you must purchase new shoes. The fifth pair must be a brand new pair of shoes just in case gravity gives out and you must walk on the ceiling. As you might imagine, at least 5 years of a Japanese person�s life is spent changing shoes. Surprisingly enough I have yet to see velcro shoes here, which I thought would be perfect. Not to mention that they don�t have shoes my size in this country, so instead I have different plastic bags that I strap around my feet with rubber bands. Same idea, only less fashionable. Now on to teaching, not much to it really, I just simply explain all the basics of English grammar and vocab to Japanese Junior High School students who eagerly anticipate every class. Well, maybe if you replace the above sentence with �stand there and nod� you will have a more precise picture of my job. Now many of you might have heard that everyday the Japanese students are responsible for cleaning the school. This is true and what a great idea. Instill the students with the responsibility of cleaning up after themselves and at the same time keep the school clean without having to hire additional staff. This seems all fine and dandy until you remember that there are no paper towels to be found on the premises. For example, say a school lunch, which is eaten in the classrooms, were to spill onto the floor. No problem, the land of recycling has just the answer. It would be cleaned up using pages of the previous month�s newspaper which has the absorbency of teflon. |
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Later, during cleaning time the rooms are first swept. A good start. Afterwards they are rubbed down by hand towels dipped in water. Despite the fact that there is soap at every sink, there is no cleaning solution to be found when it comes to cleaning the floors. Now I am no scientician, but something tells me that simply wiping a floor with water doesn�t exactly make it clean. Now imagine you are at Elementary school cleaning time. That�s right, why have a janitor who specializes in the field of cleaning when you can have the first graders ensure the sanitary condition of the school. Simply because they can�t keep their fingers out of their noses doesn�t mean they can�t give Mr. Clean a run for his bald-headed money. Lets just say the dirt coming in from my first pair of shoes seems to be the least of the sanitary problems inside of the school. Finally, it is the end of the day and time to take the Big Toe back home and cook up some dinner which will be the exact same as the breakfast I ate earlier that morning, but who knows maybe I will go out and do some karaokeing later and be in for a treat. -Jamie |
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