Okabe Junior High School

My placement at this school was the reason my employers were insistent that I lease or buy a vehicle for work. To me, however, a car seemed like a terrible idea—the expense, the lack of parking space, and of course that whole driving on the other side of the road thing. This country has one of the most developed, efficient mass transit networks in the world—it is absolutely awesome—and what a shame to not utilize this luxury while I’m here! So despite Okabe’s quite rural location (in the hills northwest of Shizuoka City and northeast of Fujieda), I have managed to avoid driving…I’ve just learned to love the bus.

To get to Okabe, an outlying village just recently absorbed by the Fujieda Board of Education, I walk to the Shizuoka train station, but instead of hopping a train, I board a bus that takes a winding route through western Shizuoka City, west over the Abe River, through a long tunnel and into rural territory, then finally to the Okabe Village Hall, where I disembark and walk about 20 minutes out of the village to the school.It really helps that the school is in a scenic valley; my walking route crosses then follows a river for a while, and when the river curves south I am left to take a path bordered on both sides by agricultural land: rice fields, wasabi fields, corn fields (ah, Wisconsin!), orchards, and more. The road is lined with blue and magenta hydrangea bushes, and the whole scene is peaceful and lovely.As an added bonus, when it is raining—which it does often this time of year—the head English teacher pities me and gives me a lift in his fabulous little 2-seater from the Village Hall to the school (Below: students' mode of transport, my mode of transport).

The school itself is like the others—a plain white building with a courtyard (complete with sad courtyard fountain in this case), the requisite clump of palm trees near the front entrance, and facilities such as an outdoor pool, tennis and basketball courts, a baseball diamond, and a dirt soccer field.
The scene at Okabe, however, is far more relaxed than at my other schools, especially crowded Aojima. My second day at Okabe, a took a 5-hour hike/picnic with the seventh graders and helped facilitate a scavenger hunt throughout the city park that was our destination (I took tons of photos of this event, then accidentally deleted them...awesome). The next day, I participated in a jump-rope competition, although I merely spectated during the 3-legged races. And the following week, I even ended up teaching by myself a few times. It's actually against the rules to leave me in a classroom without a Japanese teacher present, but one day a teacher called in sick, and another day both English teachers needed to attend a meeting, so they asked if I'd be all right teaching alone. Considering how chill everything was, I figured nothing too ridiculous could happen...and it was just fine. Really great, actually.

Despite the hour-and-a-half commute each way, my Okabe days were crazy entertaining...I'm so looking forward to getting back to the hills in a few weeks.P.S. Yes, the school is relaxed, but they are nevertheless prepped for The Tokai Earthquake!