When I walk into school in the morning I hear kids sing. I take off my black dress shoes, stuff them in my personal shoe box and slip into my indoors-only sneakers. My hands are full: with picture cards; oversized posters; and my bento box packed in its own insulated bento bag. Before taking a step into the faculty room I bow. If I failed to do this I would surely hit my head, but there is, of course, still the intention of showing respect. I exchange salutations with the vice principal and other faculty members.
“Good morning, おはようございます (ohayogazaimasu)”, I say as I walk across the old wood-floored room; I can hear the vice principals mouse click between my every creaking footstep.
When the bell sounds its chime, the once sporadic leak of chatter bursts open into a flood of youthful voices, surging through the hallways enveloping everything in the start of a school day; I am nothing here without all of this.
For nearly two years and over countless kilometers I have commuted into the mountains and over bridges, along the ocean’s shore and amidst a vast diversity of agriculture to the institutions that allow me to fulfill my role as a member of the Akune Board of Education. There are nine elementary and four junior high schools in Akune’s school district and for me it all started at one: the first school I visited as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT), Nishime Elementary (Nishime).
The flowery entrance to Nishime
Nishime is the second most southern school I visit. Although the building itself is very close to the sea, there is no ocean view. You can smell it, though. Every forty-odd minutes a train on the Hisatsu Orange Railway chugs past the schools front gates that were erected one hundred and thirty years ago. According to my colleagues, Nishime, as well as every other school in Akune, used to be filled to the brim with students. Although Nishime’s number are quite different from what they apparently once were, the forty-two bright young students welcome me every week with contagious their smiles at the school’s entrance and praiseworthy diligence in the classroom.
Koi pond
Orchid
I would like to conclude these introductory entries with the various mottos of each school.
Nishime Elementary
On the handrails of the second floor veranda is the school’s motto: Friendly, Bright, Strong.
Nishime has another maxim, which is more like a catchphrase that is displayed on a hand-painted billboard upon entering school grounds. It is if the style of an acrostic poem, which does not really translate well into English, but for the sake of this fine school here it is:
Peppy Nishime kids
Greet you with a smile
Enjoy reading
Goal-oriented physical fitness
See you at my next school.
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