Goodbyes and Hellos

April marks the beginning of the new school year in Japan and it means an interesting Japanese phenomenon occurs. Teachers are rotated among schools. For some reason (a reason not known to the Japanese teachers I asked today) elementary school and junior high teachers don't stay at the same school for more than a few years. They don't get a choice in the matter and are told sometime in March that they'll be transferring.

Thus, last Friday we had a goodbye party for the 7 teachers leaving Taiwa Junior High. At school that morning we had a ceremony with the students (despite the fact that it was technically vacation and that the 3-nen-sei had graduated, they were all there in their uniforms). After the ceremony the teachers moved all the desks in the staff room around to reflect everyone's new positions. Most of the 1-nen-sei teachers became 2-nen-sei teachers, those 2-nen-sei teachers that didn't leave became 3-nen-sei teachers...

And then the teachers gathered in the evening at a fancy Chinese restaurant. In the true Japanese sense there were quite a few speeches and even more drinking. The presentation of the food was spectacular. (Unfortunately my camera is officially out of order). The first dish that got brought out for each table had slices of duck eggs on one side laid out to look like a frog. On the other side of the dish were thin slices of various foods arranged to look like a peacock. Later we had shark fin soup and some kind of large fish...and probably some other things that I'm forgetting. Two of the English teachers I worked with left and saying farewell to them was sad.

But if teachers leave others have to replace them. Therefore, earlier this evening we had a welcome party for the new teachers. This took place at another fancy restaurant in Sendai. The food was good, but less remarkable. And once again there were tons of speeches. Among the speeches...each new teacher introduced themselves and then all the 'veteran' staff were introduced. And at both events, at the end of the night and the height of drunkenness everyone stood up and sang the school song.

So it seems that in Japan fancy parties come in twos. You have a party to ring out the old year and bring in the new year. And you have a party to send off your leaving coworkers and welcome your new ones. Although the reason for the reshuffling remains a mystery.