This is sensei swapping at its finest. Shocked at first, I was prompted to understand why the educators found it beneficial to keep their staff liquid. Were they trying to work me through any betrayal issues I've had in my past through stealing from me teachers I became close to? There must be something more behind this seemingly arbitrary sensei swap meet.

My first response was to wonder if this happened in America. It had been awhile since I'd been involved in the elementary and junior high school American education systems, but I seemed to remember celebrating teachers' 20th or 30th anniversary at one school. I remember having a great laugh with my friends looking through the ancient yearbook archives, dated 15 years prior, with the pictures of our current teachers, unrecognizable because they had hair on their heads and looked so young. Often when I was little and my mom would take me to the cheap hair salon nearby to get my semi-annual spiral perm, the young stylist and I would bond as we discovered her alma mater was the same elementary school I was currently attending. Then she would go through and list the teachers she had had, asking if this old hag and that old monster were still there, and usually they were still truckin'. But it's a different world here, this is Japan and I don't get spiral perms anymore.

How do they decide where the teachers move? I could only imagine all the regional kochoo sensei-tachi gathering for some teacher day trading. Maybe each teacher had a "sensei card" with their picture and applicable stats that would be passed around. Did they have a first round draft? Could several of the young, not-quite teachers be traded together as one package, or a sensei set? Are the teachers lined up and chosen in sequence by the team leaders like a sick junior high school P.E. kickball game? What about if there is an argument over the most sought after teachers? Will a janken settle those disputes? I can picture at the end of an exhausting swapping session the kochoo sensei returning, new roster in hand, to a disappointed kyoto sensei- "I can't believe we got stuck with Dare-ka sensei? What were you thinking?!" Shoganai, ne.

Of course the movement is not that subjective. The teachers do have somewhat of a say. Months prior to the beginning of the new school year, they have a conference with kochoo sensei, offering their appeals for placement. One of my teachers had been unsuccessfully requesting a school much nearer to her house for four years. Sometimes wishes are granted. Other times they are not. Often the placement involves office politics and is based on kochoo sensei's personal tastes for staff. My newest English teacher had taught at Nagayama for 7 years, was moved to a low level school for 2 years, attributing it to a fallout with kochoo sensei, and moved back this year after the former principal's 3 year stint was completed. This teacher also told me that everyone has the opportunity to accept or decline placement, but refusal rarely occurs.