First Day of School, again

November 2022

How do I describe the sum of emotions that are flowing through my body? It’s my children’s first day of school and every mum with a school aged child knows this experience. The pride. The letting go. The tinge of worry. The enthusiasm. The love. I willed myself not to cry. I’ve done this twice before, lived through two First-Day-of-School experiences. The kids are older now, but the whole experience is happening all over again. It’s different now, they’re older, yes. But it’s also different because they know no friends. They don’t fully know the culture. And maybe more to the point, they don’t speak the language.

The air is crisp and fresh, making the end of my nose cold. I look at them as we walk to school on this cool November morning. As leaves crunch underfoot, emotions are raging in all of us. Enthusiasm and anticipation, nervousness and anxiousness. But they don’t hold back. They press on happily and I feel amazed at how easily they seem to be taking this. The only one trying not to cry is me! I feel so proud, I want to cry! Don’t think. Refocus.

As we approach my friend’s house her son comes bounding up the street toward us. He is a welcome distraction and makes a bee-line for Missy, his black silky hair bouncing in slight delay with the rest of his body and falling back into place perfectly. How does it do that??!! He gives Missy a big hug around her waist. He looks up at her with a huge smile and starts chatting, in his version of English! This kid is just so cute! We continue down the street and to the school. At the school gate the parents wave off their kids, but mine come in for a hug. Hold yourself together, just hold yourself together! I don’t want to make the kids cry! But they are brave and strong and off they go, to a new, almost unknown world, and I stand proudly watching them.

The day had started early for me. Missy set her alarm for 6am. Trouble was, her iPod was still on Australian time so it went off at 4am... Oh man! Thankfully it only woke me and no one else. I quickly rescued it! I know that not only would the kids need their sleep, but Shujin too. He had been up late the night before filling in still more paperwork for school. I’d left him at 10pm and went to bed. He was only about halfway through the pile! I felt absolutely hopeless looking at all that Japanese on the forms. If only I could help. Shujin hates filling in stuff like that. I’m weird, I enjoy it. Once again it’s a reminder that Shujin has to take on more responsibility here in Japan.

As the day went by my mind regularly drifted to the kids. Are they bored out of their brains? Are they hating school? Is it one major awkward nightmare for them? The day went by and soon it was time for me to go pick up them up. Despite not many student numbers, it’s quite a large campus with a an administration block attached to a three-story building housing the classrooms, a gymnasium, a school oval, and a 25m swimming pool (kids are SO excited about that!). All the schools that I’ve seen around our area look very much the same. I guess they were all built in the 1950’s!

I had arrived early for school pick up. There are no seats outside so I stand on the bitumen, the sun warming my back. It's a rather unwelcoming sight for me, the front of the school. The 1950's grey buildings. They could do with a good pressure clean. Original wash tub to the side looks it’s age. A tap drips. There is an island garden which features a Japanese sculptured tree. Pots surround the garden and line the sides of the entry way. Filled with blooming colours, they add cheeriness to what would otherwise have been a sorry sight. And then I hear it. The clock chimes just like a grandfather clock, except there's no clock. The sound is coming from… the school sound system? That's the school bell?? I check my watch. 3:15pm. Well, that's a whole lot more gentle on your ears than the ringing "fire bell" or horn in Australia!

My children come out of school with their teachers. They are very friendly and I only wish I could talk to them! Missy’s teacher wants to talk to me. She turns Missy around and opens up her school bag to pull out the packaged large rice cracker I had packed in her school lunch. The teacher informs me with a mix of charades, Japanese and broken English that no sweets are allowed at school. I apologise as I try and figure out how a rice cracker can be put into the “sweets” category but hey, whatever. Maybe it’s a language mistake? Bottom line is, they can’t take rice crackers to school. That’s fine. I apologise again and thank her. Bob pipes up and tells me his teacher also told him at lunch time that they can’t eat snacks at school, except his teacher let him eat his, just this once. I think back to Australia and the kind of food I would see in kids’ lunchboxes… my there would be A LOT of hungry kids at school if they weren’t able to eat sweets or snacks!

The children were all smiles and full of energy after their first day of school. They had a great day! I was actually surprised. I mean, how boring would it be sitting in class for about 6 hours and not understanding a word that is spoken?? There was no complaints though, except for one. The English lesson was SO boring, because they were doing preschool level stuff, haha!! The teachers were really nice. The students were really nice and friendly to them. I love that about Japan. Missy and Bob impressed them at lunch time with their fast running. They are looking forward to tomorrow. I am not only pleasantly surprised, but also relieved.

As we walked out the school gate Missy asked if she could eat her rice cracker.

“Of course!” I replied.

“Mmmm, yum!” Her face was full of glee. “It’s a sweet flavour with sugar on the outside!”

Whaaaaat?! Bahahahaha!!!!!