A Typical Convo

3 hours is the maximum amount of class I have in a 8 hour work day. Some days the extra time is taken care of because we happen to be making mochi, planting onions, having some type of important (BORING!!!) speech, or a fire drill. I never know about these plans until they are happening. Some days I am bitter about this because some days I hold the perception that they assume I do not need to know anything about my job. Other days I have plenty of time to chat with the other ALTs online about what we are confused about at that moment…

Robin: man im in shock though

so one of my fellow teachers, she's the PE teacher, leader of the third grade teachers

im also slightly afraid of her. She's been nice to me, but she's one of those people who like they tell you to do something and you do it

she's maybe like 50 or something, and reminds me of like....a nun, one of those nuns who practices tough love

though she’s not, she's married and has raised three sons apparently

anyway

i was sitting here at my desk, well i was slouching at my desk, searching the net cause I have nothing to do

when someone suddenly grabs my shoulders, I immediately sit up, thinking im in trouble, and look up to see her standing behind me

me: haha

Robin: and then, she starts to give me a massage

while chatting to some of the other teachers about random teacher things

me: AHAHAHAHAHA

Robin: after a few minutes she gives my shoulder a pat and moves on to do her work

while I sat there slack jawed in shock

im still in shock

i can like count on one hand the amount of times ive seen an adult japanese person touch another adult when they weren't drunk

me: ahahha

that is shocking

Robin: and I can't remember a clear time when one of my fellows teachers has touched me lol

like in anyway!

we don’t even hand shake for crying outloud!

me: ya one time someone put their hand on my shoulder and i moved away

out of pure shock

haha

Robin: right?

me: man you will be shocked for a while

Robin: and she's not even a teacher i interact with regularly!

i am not prepared for this

this wasn’t in the JET handbook

!

me: exactly

this is the real disturbing stuff

Robin: just when i thought Japan couldn't shock me

it could piss me off, it could bewilder me, it could amuse me

but it couldn’t shock me

it proves me wrong

me: hahahahaha

(5 min later)

me: since i feel inadequate at this job

im getting really involved in my English board

im making a miniature house at Christmas time

because i realized Japan likes miniature