January 8th, 2010 I work as a Jr. High English teacher here in Japan and today was the first day of the third trimester. There weren't any classes today, just a ceremony to open the trimester. The opening ceremony was at 8:40 in the morning on a cold January morning in the gym, which is the coldest place in the school. The kids get shuffled into the gym where they are forced to sit in straight lines and listen to boring speeches for an hour. And it's cold as hell in there. Which brings me to the topic of shoes. Shoes and feet are a big deal in Japan. You always remove your shoes before entering somebody's house, and although some workplaces don't require you to remove your shoes, the school does. So I have a pair of "inside" sandals that I wear when I am working. I come to work, take off my "outside" shoes and put on my "inside" sandals. You'd think that would be enough, but the gym is holy ground. You can't wear your inside shoes into the gym and of course your can't wear your outside shoes either. You have to have a special pair of "gym" shoes. So all of the Japanese teachers keep a spare pair of shoes in their desks. I don't because I don't think it's worth it to pay a hundred bucks for a pair of shoes I'll only wear about 6 times a year. So when I go to the gym, I remove my inside sandals and enter with just my socks. Not a big deal, except in the winter.
So there I am standing in the gym at 8:40 in the morning, double-jacketed, wearing gloves and a scarf to keep warm, and my toes are numb because the only thing standing between them and the cold is a thin pair of socks. Not very comfortable, but January only rolls around once a year.
