kaigi ga daisuki

Every morning in Japanese schools, teachers have a short meeting (just because, well, because who wouldn't want to have another meeting- meetings are so much fun!) to keep everyone abreast of how the day ahead will play out (Japan is really about keeping everyone abreast, at all times of the day. Big time love of the group dynamic here. Group first, individual seventeenth.) Anyway, at the meetings, the bell sounds (I say "sounds" because it's not really a bell. It's the doo-doo-doo-doo "song" I recogize best as what they play on CBC radio at noon. Minus the rings to count the hour. There's got to be a name for that, right? Can you tell I teach ESL?) everyone stands up and says good morning, bows, the kyouto-sensei (vice-principal) says the date (heisei juu nana nen juu gatsu juu hachi nichi- in about the longest most formal way possible- no "Hey guys, it's Wednesday. How's it hanging?"), then asks if there's anything anyone wants to share, other teachers stand up, share, etc.

I understand more Japanese now, but when it comes to things like the morning meeting, I wish I didn't. Things were more interesting when they were left to my imagination. For instance, today the koucho-sensei stood up, in a manner ceremonious enough to make one imagine he had something pretty serious to impart, and proceeded to lecture the teachers about some trash (I never would have used that word before I lived in the U.S., but it seems to come more easily than garbage now) that had been left around the school the day before. A few PET bottles (what they call plastic drink bottles here- anybody have any idea why?) and juice cartons had been left in a classroom, and a few more near the school's entrance. His speech got a few teachers' pencils working. I guessed their students were in for a similar treat of a lecture, but who knows. Maybe they were just pretending to listen and composing grocery lists? Love letters?

I wish.