Salvation has big feet

Apologies if I'm repeating myself...

I am contractually obliged to be at school from 8:30 until 17:15, unless somebody tells me to go home. This is regardless of any work I may or may not have.

I can only guess (maybe accurately) on the motives of my illustrious employers' and say that they're pandering to the Japanese group/work ethic, thus leaving the decision as to what I do with my day in the hands of their clients, ie; whichever school I'm at.

The 1st graders are on a skiing trip with the Vice Principal. The 2nd graders are engaged in work experience. The 3rd graders are going through the process of applying for High Schools.

On a day like today, when I have had no classes, but still have had to be present between those hours, I'm not sure of their motives for keeping me there. In my not inconsiderable down time, I've boiled it down to three possibilities

i) They are in fact too busy to notice that I'm not actually needed today
ii) They assume that I, like them, want to save face within the working group by leaving work as late as I possibly can
iii) They are so obsessed with procedure, formality and hierarchy that even the absence of the Principal and Vice Principal isn't enough to release me when I have nothing to do, namely because neither of them are present to give their consent.

The latter seems to be the case. I only left when I did due to the intervention of Nakanishi sensei (THANK YOU) of Ojima Elementary school. Every year, teachers are given various gifts such as jackets, tracksuits and the like, and he wanted to give me a surplus pair of shoes. For convenience, he wanted me to pick them up tonight, so I was released. He had noted on my previous visit to that school that my current pair of indoor shoes (not even a year old) were tatty and maybe in need of replacing, thus beautifully demonstrating a typically Shintoist spirit of renewal and purification, and maybe shedding an unflattering light on their attitudes towards economy and ecology...rest assured, entries on those subjects will arise.

As for the shoes, they fit, they are comfortable and utterly hideous. Behold.


But no matter, they took an hour and twenty five minutes off a very long day.

On the plus, I've had plenty of free time (wherein I still get paid) to study Japanese & read about the entry on religion I've got planned (about a month in the making now) and a call for the Japanese to stop working so damn hard has been made. I'll be doing more of the same tomorrow, but unfortunately, I won't have a random shoe acquisition to save me. I may bring a chess board into school, but that would ultimately be self defeating.