Oh no not the bees, not the bees!

Post II

I didn’t want to be one of those people who spams their blog every day, but there isn’t much to do on a little island during a typhoon. And anyway, my day was quite weird so maybe it is worth a quick line. 

Last night I offered to help my teachers clean the school (in Japan, the teachers and children clean, not cleaners). My Kyoto-Sensei (deputy head teacher) told me that ‘tomorrow we are clearing out the bees that have taken over the school’. Naturally, I was quite afraid. She informed me I did not need to wear a suit, and that a T shirt would suffice. Again, naturally, this seemed somewhat unsafe to me – school full of bees, exposed arms and the like – but I thought, ‘what the hell, you’ve eaten raw octopus, just roll with it’. Of course, I didn’t actually have to clear out any bees from the school today (though it would have been quite a laugh just the two of us running around with fly-swats).  What was meant by ‘we’ was that, ‘we would be there in the staff room, and some contractors would come to sort out the bees’. But I thought this was very interesting as it reflects the Japanese culture of work being a team based exercise. No personal targets, inter office competition and so on. Unlike in the west, where we are told to be cut-throat or left behind, Japan focuses on the team achieving things together cooperatively. This makes for a very nice working environment, and even though I cannot speak Japanese, just me helping re-arrange some furniture goes a long way to becoming a part of that team.

I also met my predessor tonight at supper, and it feels as though he is much liked and that I have large shoes to fill. He, and every Japanese person I have met so far, have done a lot to welcome me to the island, and I just cannot imagine how difficult this transition would have been without that…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1GadTfGFvU