Friday was the graduation ceremony for the 3rd grade students. It was a very formal deal, we had to wear black suits and there was an improbable amount of bowing involved.
Fortunately I was having dinner with Galen and Marcus, two American ALTs, the evening before. Galen told us he had heard from his teacher that a black suit was required, and while we all assumed a black tie would be appropriate he was told that a white tie was best, but anything would be better than black.
No one bothered to tell us at any of our schools, and Marcus only found out by accident. Fortunately I was able to stop at Daiso (the local version of the Reject shop) and get a cheap white tie on my way home from dinner.
Saturday Marcus and I went to Tokyo for the day, we went looking for pizza. You can get pizza in Gunma but it's truly awful. There's a Dominos pizza in Tokyo, so we went there. It doesn't have any seating and eating on the street isn't approved of in Japan. So we ordered a horribly overpriced pizza and went for a walk while it cooked to find somewhere. There was nothing! Not even a park. So Marcus went in to Mr Donut and got a table. He ordered a coffee and donut and I went and got the pizza and brought back. It was kind of cheeky but we had drinks and donuts so we didn't feel too bad. No one asked us to leave, they were probably afraid of talking to foreigners anyway.
Later we saw Wakana-san and gave her some chocolate. She gave both of us chocolate on Valentines Day, and one month later they have White day, where men are supposed to return the favour to any women who gave them chocolate.
Wd got back and went to KFC in Kiryu before I went home, so in all I ate way too much junk food on Saturday.
Monday morning I had an ALT day at Sakuragi, the schedule was changed at late notice due to the death of one of the students parents. Sakuragi was the school where the death of a teacher made them cancel an ALT day last year, seems an unlucky place. Anyway it basically meant that I was an hour later getting to my desk than expected, not that it mattered as I have no classes in the afternoon.
Term is nearly over, I'm looking forward to getting out of Japan for a few days, though I have to admit, the changing weather and sakura blossoms are making a difference. It was getting uncomfortably warm while I rode my bike back to school today, soon I won't need all the winter gear to go for a ride, that'll be nice.
