thoughts

It seems I now find myself in the middle of flu season in Japan. Slowly, more and more children are disappearing from classes, whisperings of 'infuruenza' abound. The room is freezing cold from the windows having being left open for the last 5 minutes. I look down at my remaining students and most, if not all, are half-hiding their faces with the ever popular face-mask. And I scream internally. Because to me, this is all wrong . Let me backtrack, and begin with a point that I believe you will all be familiar with: it really upsets me how Japanese people don't wash their hands thoroughly, if at all. Which is an issue, seeing as it is now 'influenza season', and for me at least, I have been taught that one of the best ways to prevent the spread of influenza is to wash your hands (plus cover your mouth with your arm when you sneeze and cough; you know, standard stuff). Therefore, this lack of hand-washing is an increasing source of frustration for me. However, it s...

Picture this. It's a Tuesday morning in January. It's cold outside, and I'm huddling under the aircon with my scarf piled around my neck, cursing every teacher and student who dares open the staffroom door letting the freezing air in. Except on this day, I'm only half-heartedly cursing those who dare open the door to my warm nest. My mind is occupied with something else. Today is kujira school lunch day. I've known about this day for over a week now. Friday was New Zealand school lunch day; corn pilaf, crumbed fish, a broccoli salad (consisting of mostly cabbage and carrot?) and kumara soup. Not exactly what I would say is truly New Zealand food, but the kumara soup was close enough for me. But neatly tucked away a few pages after the explanation of the New Zealand school lunch, in the 'special school lunch week' newsletter, was a diagram of Tuesday's lunch; the kujira school lunch. And underneath said diagram, was a diagram of a whale. The 'Sp...