Board of Education

Well, Wednesday was the “End of the Year” party for the Board of Education. It’s funny to me that the kanji for the name of this kind of party actually translates to, “forget year meeting.” Before I describe the event, though, I should take a moment to explain what the Nishiokoppe Board of Education is.

I don’t completely understand the way the village governmental jobs/positions are organized. What is clear to me, though, is that things are very different here. In America, the Board of Education is a group of concerned citizens who have been elected to the job of overseeing their school district. Usually they are retirees or have other jobs. Being on the Board is not a wage-earning job in and of itself, correct? Not so, here in Nishiokoppe, perhaps in all of Japan. The Board of Education, or Kyoiku-iinkai, as it is called in Japanese, is comprised of paid positions. There are only three people whose jobs I understand pretty well. Mr. Kamaya and Mr. Tasaki are the superintendent and assistant superintendent, respectively. Tomoko is the “nutritionist”. She plans and cooks (with help) the school lunches for Nishiokoppe and Kamiokoppe elementary schools, and for Nishiokoppe middle school. I think she spends each morning with food preparation and then returns to the Yakuba to work at her desk. Mr. Izuka’s job is a bit of a mystery to me. He was introduced to me as the “social education” director. I think he is the one who coordinates certain social activities, such as the mini-volleyball contest. Mr. Abe also has what is to my eyes a very ambiguous job. He is involved in agriculture in some way, and it was he who grew the pumpkins we used for Halloween. There is one more, whose name I do not know, and he is the director of the Komu.

These are the members of the Nishiokoppe Kyoiku-iinkai. Like many things in my life now, I have learned to accept a certain level of ignorance on my part. We each know our own job and it works out. Everyone pitches in to help where needed. If a bit of snow needs shoveling around the Komu entrance, you can count on Mr. Kamaya to take care of it if he is around. There is no secretary. When the phone rings, anyone may answer it and then pass the phone across the room to the requested person. We all share one room, with our desks facing one another to form one big table of desks. Mr. Kamaya, however, just like the school principals, does not reside in the big office with all of us. He has a larger office attached to our room, complete with couch, coffee table, and carpeted floors.

I don’t really know anything about the decision-making process, unfortunately. I suspect that, in accordance with Japanese custom, consensus is a huge factor. Only Mr. Kamaya has ever made a decision about a matter without consulting someone else. Even then, he often must consult another group of people before making a final decision. I’m not sure who he meets with, perhaps the village council.

So, again in accordance with Japanese custom, our little group had a dinner party at the hotel on Wednesday night. Thankfully, the entire Felker family was invited and we ate in one of the Japanese rooms. That means that we sat on the tatami floor to eat. Eating on tatami using low tables is especially convenient with small children. Since everyone is already on the floor, there is no need to bark at children to stay in their chair. They can easily get up and walk around without being a problem.

The meal was pretty mellow as it was a smaller group – only 8 others, not counting the Felker Family. We had a variety of dishes, including chili shrimp, tempura, a kimchi stew, rolled sushi, and a plate with tomato, cucumber, and cabbage. The boys ordered a meal from the kid’s menu. We have eaten at the hotel (for parties) enough now that the fact that the menu had no pictures and nobody could translate it to me didn’t pose a problem. I just asked them for the hamburg (not hamburger) children’s meal. Holt, as expected, didn’t touch his, but Ridge scarfed his down pretty quick. Dinners in Japan tend to be leisurely, so the boys had to amuse themselves while the adults ate. Ridge had brought along his new sword and a purple play silk as his cape. The men loved it. Mr. Izuka is a Kendo teacher (Click here for a quick explanation of Kendo) and had a lovely time playing around with Ridge. After a few beers, though, the men were instigating exactly the type of behavior we don’t want from Ridge. I thought things were a little too rough, but everyone was laughing. I now have a more clear understanding of what Japanese people expect from children’s behavior, so I tried to relax. It seems, in general, that kids are allowed to get away with a lot more than American kids. Not only that, but it’s really unheard of for Japanese people to judge each other based on the behavior of their children. Nobody will think Aaron and I are bad parents if our kids act a little crazy. Boys are expected to act a little crazy.

Of course, after dinner, there was the “second party.” Aaron got to go to this one and I went home with the boys. Apparently, he and Mr. Abe had a lovely time with the karaoke machine. Seems that Mr. Abe kept picking obscure English songs, which he then couldn’t sing, and so he would hand the mike over to Aaron. Of course, my talented husband with a photographic memory could sing most of them. Mr. Abe apparently ended up passing out and needed to be woken up when it was time for the party to be over. I saw him when I went to work yesterday, bright and early at 8:30. He seemed fine, if you can believe that.

Japanese people celebrate Coming of Age Day, which honors Japanese youngsters who are turning 20. This is the age of legal adulthood in Japan. As such, Aaron was asked to give a speech, in English, on January 8th. The sister of one of my middle school students will translate the speech. She spent this past fall in the US attending her first semester of college to study theater design. Having come home for the holidays, she was asked to translate the speech for Mr. Izuka. At first, they asked Aaron for a 20-minute speech, but I managed to get them down to 10 minutes. Aaron will give the speech in English, and then Mr. Izuka will give the same speech in Japanese.

The problem was, with Christmas, Ridge’s birthday, and general craziness, Aaron was having a very hard time finding a good opportunity to work on the speech. Upon finding this out at the dinner party, Mr. Kamaya suggested that on Thursday we “switch”. Everyone seemed to think this was a wonderfully inventive idea and it was met with many smiles and much laughter. So, yesterday at noon, Aaron came over to my desk and I went home to take care of the kids. Aaron worked for about two hours, finished up, and then he came home and I returned to work. Who would have thought that my boss would suggest such a thing? It worked, though. I printed out the speech and gave it to Mr. Izuka yesterday afternoon.

Today is a half-day and I have been forewarned that Japanese custom is to do a big bout of cleaning, as it is the end of the year. This will be preceded by a speech that I will not understand a word of. Should be fun!