Progress

School’s back here in sleepy Sunami, and this week both kids have brought home news of unprecedented new developments at school.

First of all, Sunami Primary School has taken the monumental decision to EXTEND LUNCH BREAK BY TEN MINUTES. Together with the 20-minute recess break this gives the tinies nearly one whole hour of free time per day, which almost begins to sound reasonable. And what’s even more amazing is that they’ve accommodated this extra time not by extending the school day by ten minutes, as one might expect, but by shaving ten minutes off one of the classes. In other words: ten minutes LESS study time per day. It’s unprecedented and totally unexpected and I expect at least half the parents to be up in arms with indignation. And yet it’s happened. How wonderful.

Meanwhile Ruby’s school, not to be outdone, has started allowing the kids to take drink breaks during PE classes, which represents a monumental culture shift, although it’s not totally unexpected…

The story goes like this. One day last term Ruby came home bright pink and overheated after being forced to sit in the scorching sun for an hour with no hat and no water.

“But didn’t they let you have drinks breaks?”
“No, of course not.”
“Why of course not?”
“Because you’re not ever allowed to have drinks breaks during class, and PE’s a class, therefore you’re not allowed to have drinks breaks during PE.”

It was hard to argue with that logic, so I went up and had a word to the Assistant Principal. His response was essentially that back in his day, there was never any such thing as a drink break.

Yes, and?

I tried to explain that things have changed since then, that we’re now in the 21st century and fluid replenishment is considered standard procedure. He promised to check with the PE teacher but when I asked a few weeks later this obviously hadn’t happened.

So I went to the Board of Education. Luckily schools are run by local councils in Japan so it wasn’t too intimidating. The guy was very nice and agreed with me without hesitation, and he promised to ring the school immediately and instruct them to start providing drinks breaks. The end result of which is that No. 4 Junior High has been dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century, at least on this one particular issue.

Tragically, despite the victory on water, I seem to have lost out on the hat issue; Ruby came home with the news that hats aren’t allowed at school. I don’t know whether it’s worth ringing back my friend at the Board of Education; the school probably already regards me as the Annoying Foreign Parent and there is the danger that too much activating could make life difficult for Ruby over the next year and a half.

On a different note, I’m pleased to report some important progress on the coffee front: Eleni and I came across a magazine listing all known cafes in Mihara and it turns out that there are quite a few tucked away in back streets that we never knew about. We have taken notes and are determined to check out each one in turn, possibly several times for confirmation purposes. Already I’ve found one called Cafe 3g which not only boasts a funky decor but actually makes a very nice cup of coffee. So I realise now that I’ve been a bit harsh about coffee in Japan. Even here in sleepy Mihara, there’s half-decent coffee out there if you know how to look for it.

And finally, there’s even been progress on the weather front: while it’s still hot and muggy, it’s not quite so searingly hot or oppressively muggy. Some evenings the weather is even, dare I say it, quite pleasant.
It’s as if, after causing nearly 500 deaths and hospitalising thousands with heat stroke, M. Nature has finally tired of torturing us all and conceded that it probably is time for autumn after all. And not a moment too soon.