Summertime in Japan

Summertime is in full swing in Japan right now! For students, this means five whole weeks of summer vacation! The kids weep when finding out that summer vacation spans nearly three entire months in America, and that there is absolutely no homework! The last week of school at junior high I  watched my students' dreams of beaches and lazy hours catching up on sleep literally melt before their eyes as the English teacher announced their laundry list of homework. Poor kids; they still have to come every day for club activities, so they really never get a break. In America, images of summer include camping, root beer floats, 4th of July, state fairs, and barbecues. Here in Japan, summer conjures up thoughts of unbearable humidity, cicadas, fireworks, festivals, confessions of love, and scary yokai, or spirits, stories. How does this compare with your country?

Questionnaire Time! Decoding my School's Bulletin

So I finally got my picture in the school bulletin! At least the staff bulletin...They took the pictures at the very beginning of the year, handed out a questionnaire sheet a month or two later, and now finally it's all been assembled! As soon as I found one on my desk I began reading everyone's answers to the questionnaire. As expected, I was highly entertained. Answers range from interesting, to hilarious, to downright sad. Either way, there's always some sort of cultural observation to discern.

Here's the list of questions each teacher was asked. (The Japanese love questionnaires!)

1. What was your dream when you were a junior high student?
2. What subjects are you good at? What are you bad at?
3. What's your current obsession?
4. What are your strong and weak points?
5. When was the last time you cried?
6. If the world were to end tomorrow, what would you do today?

Keeping confidentiality in mind, I'll go over some interesting answers to each question.