Mikunigaoka 90210

I suppose I’m showing my age here. In retrospect ‘Mikunigaoka Beach’ probably would have been more up to date. Oh well. I still love you, Luke Perry. The Real Catch indeed!

Anyway, the reason I picked the soap opera theme is because big news has broken at Ichiko. Indeed, two things occurred while I was away in Tokyo. First, Maeda-sensei, who previously thought that she wasn’t going to be able to transfer out from the school, has had her transfer approved. This is great news for her since she’s never been very happy at Ichiko but has been there for at least six years (having been there for less than one I can only assume this feels like an absolute eternity). The next bit of news is that Omae-sensei has been replaced by a new teacher (whose name I keep forgetting… something… mura… er, naka). This is kind of weird because no one mentioned anything about this to me at all. Somethingmuranaka just turned up today and when I asked later who he was I was told he was the replacement.

This is one of the things I dislike the most about not speaking Japanese in a Japanese work environment. Routinely things go on at the school that I am not informed about. To be fair to the teachers, they will generally tell me what’s going on if I ask but it gets tiring to be asking all the time. I feel like I burden on all the other teachers and I don’t want to feel like that. So instead I try to go with the flow as much as I can and pick up what I can.

Still, I feel as if the departure of two teachers might have warranted a heads-up prior to the arrival of one of them. It’s especially annoying because although I was away last week I went to school yesterday and even spoke with Kussu-sensei for half an hour (before he left for the day). He had ample opportunity to inform me about the changes but for some reason didn’t. Indeed, I’m wondering now how long they’ve all known about Omae-sensei (while I believe Maeda’s did happen last week I can’t believe Omae-sensei was dumped and a new guy hired all in a matter of days). I’m pretty sure I remember a conversation before school broke up where Maeda-sensei said Omae-sensei wanted to keep teaching English. The way she said it made it sound like he was happy working at Ichiko. Too bad for him.

While Maeda-sensei’s new job is great news it’s left me a bit worried. Supposedly they’re going to get a replacement to come in. What if I don’t like him, though? I was really starting to get along with Maeda-sensei and now she packs up and leaves. Not to mention the inherent awkwardness in having been at the school longer than the teacher I’m teaching with (and who is nominally in charge of the class). I think I understand better what my predecessor MJ had to go through when Omae-sensei first arrived in 2006. At least he only had one new guy; I have two.

The vibe in the English staffroom at Ichiko is probably the best thing there and I really hope it’s not disrupted by this. Listening to Kokubu-sensei and Maeda-sensei chatter away was comforting. The replacement’s supposed to be some 50–year-old guy so I can’t imagine him slipping into Maeda-sensei’s style of banter. And the new guy seems really quiet. Granted, Omae-sensei was generally pretty quiet, too, but he and I used to muck around with each other and I’m going to miss that. Somethingmuranaka came in looking like he’d just graduated from Tokyo University – dressed in a suit, all right and proper. I’m wondering how long that’s going to last.