By now I've been living in Japan for about four months and I am starting to pick up a routine. I am all for spontaneity and adventure in life, but lemme just tell you... there is nothing like a good daily routine.
Every morning I head out of my apartment door at precisely 6:45am (6:40am if I want to stop by the convenience store to get coffee). On most days I see my downstairs neighbors leaving their apt and we share an ohaiyo (good morning) which always makes me laugh because they are foreigners (Filipinos?) and I am pretty sure we both speak English...but I'm working on that.
I walk past this street every morning, which leads to the closest train station to my place, and I head 5 minutes down the road to the bus stop.
My bus stop is in front of this very Japanese building that I believe is an assisted living home, but don't quote me on that.
The bus comes at precisely 6:59am (why not just make it 7am??) and while waiting I usually play this game I invented called "see how many people you can recognize" haha. Basically I just see if I notice the same people everyday, for example...oh there is the guy walking with his giant dog, oh there's the girl on the cool white sports bike, on here comes the business man that I always think is one of the teachers...
It is a very fun game - I highly recommend it for anyone who takes public transpiration frequently.
Anyway, after a nice 40 minutes (of me usually listening to music of a podcast) I arrive at school. My School's name is intimidating to read in Japanese *see above* but most people refer to it by it's nickname - Ichikashi.
Almost all the teachers come to school by car, a few by bus...and almost all of the students come to school by bike. Students have to follow strict safety rules when riding to school and even have assigned parking spaces designated by their homerooms.
In proper Japanese fashion, everyone takes off their outdoor shoes in exchange for indoor shoes when coming indoors. The students all wear the same white sneakers with the color on the side signifying what class they are in. First year students have light blue on their shoes, second year students have red, and third year students have dark blue. On this particular day the first year students removed their shoes to walk down to the library/study area where they were practicing for brass band.
The third floor is where I reside...aka the English department (you can see it from here)! I like to stand at the corner of the balcony up there to look at those beautiful trees and get some fresh air.
School days go by quickly with teaching writing classes, communication classes, teachers meetings, and after school tutoring with individual students. I take the bus back home at either 5:17, 6:07, or 6:32 and usually head into Kashiwa to run errands, or I just head straight home. I am blessed by this job I get to wake up and go to and the people I get to see every single day.
God is good!
Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgments as the noonday. Psalm 37