The most important 30 minutes of my life

Alas this entry is somewhat long overdue, and a as a result is going to mess up the nice sequence I was attempting to maintain, but such is life. If it was always orderly and went the way you planned, it would get boring.



Fridays in August were taken up by a string of special activities. The first was the tour of Kurume with the university students, the next was our prefectural orientation in Fukuoka (when I went to the wrong train station, and arrived out of breath and very sweaty just before it started. All I could think about the whole time was the cold beer waiting for me at the beer garden afterwards. I hope I wasn't supposed to learn anything that day). The Friday following the orientation involved a second trip to Fukuoka, this time to the Prefectural Board of Education Building (yes, its as imposing as it sounds) for the annual "Bowing Ceremony." The official title is more like "Contract Signing Ceremony," but no one actually signs any contracts. This time, with a big head start, I managed to stay with my co-workers and arrive in plenty of time, but still sweaty because this event is one of the few that requires a suit and it was probably about 98F and humid. I am beginning to wonder if it really does get cold here...

This is the only picture I dared take before the seriousness began. Look at all those dark suits.

Outside of the room where the ceremony was to take place they had several tables where we signed in and found our places on the seating chart. The room itself looked a lot like McKenna Auditorium at CMC (for those of you who know the 5 C's) but larger and with a higher ceiling. There were even desks lined up with numbers on them. I found my place, sat down and made small talk with the other JETs, all looking similarly uncomfortable in their suits. An important guy then gave us directions about when to stand up, bow and sit down and told us the ceremony would begin at 2:55 and last 30 minutes. Just before 2:55, he told us it was about to begin, and that we should be quiet and looking straight ahead when the VIPs came in. So we all got quiet....but nothing happened for a while (the actual time is up for debate, some think it was only 5 minutes, I say it was closer to 8, and some even think it was 20 minutes of uncomfortable silence). Allison got the hiccups. Still no VIP arrival. Still very quiet, and finally the back doors open and the VIPs come in followed by one very late JET. Whoops. The VIPs take their seats off to the side and are introduced. The most important one present (not the most important of all, but the most important with time in his schedule to watch 150 some foreigners bow to him) takes the stage. The name calling commences. Name and school/school district read; stand, bow, sit back down. I was in the back, so I got to watch how it was all done before they got to my name, but it was incredibly nerve wracking all the same. Then there were some speeches. And then, exactly 30 minutes after it started it was all over and we could breathe again.