Monthly Archives: May 2018

A Tale of Two Concerts

Last Friday and Saturday our oldest and youngest had concerts.

Our oldest performed in her final brass band concert before entering “Exam Hell” (more on that in a future post) and this involved a nearly two hour concert complete with acting, comedy, dancing, and giveaways. It ends with the seniors lined up as they are introduced and a certain amount of tears flow.

It is quite a show and our oldest spent a lot of time preparing for it. She was also part of the advertising committee which meant I got to spend a lot of time helping and my personal computer and printer got a workout. (Note: I’m annoyed I was not mentioned in the program’s acknowledgements. Our oldest is still doing dishes because of that.)

The concert was open to the public which meant I looked at every older male with suspicion as our oldest’s school has it’s own class of pervert.

The next day, Saturday, our youngest finally got to perform the Christmas Concert that was cancelled because of a flood in October. Because the house of one of the piano teachers involved was flooded, the concert was postponed as she apparently lost both a piano and an organ and couldn’t teach her students.

Unfortunately, this meant that concert was extra long and involved three acts of over an hour each plus 10 minute intervals. Young kids go first, then slightly older kids, then the oldest, and usually the best kids.

Our youngest was involved in a couple performances (playing piano and bell ringing) which meant we had to stay around. Making things even longer, both instructors took time to perform on both the piano and the organ. As they chose long pieces, the event became even longer.

It was fun to see our youngest perform, but not as much fun to see everyone else.

Next year, there will be junior high school concerts to attend as our youngest has apparently decided to join brass band club. There also may be a piano concert.

Badder to Better in the Day that Interrupts

Today was a day of work that interrupted a series of holidays. If there was such a thing as a just God, the Christian school where I work would have declared today a day off. However, they did not, therefore God is not just. (Something like that.)

At the end of April and the beginning of May in Japan four national holidays all fall in the same week. This week Monday is Showa Day; Thursday is Constitution Day; and Friday is Greenery Day. Saturday is Children’s Day and, oddly, this year it gets me an extra day off.

In between all this, the school where I work has, in an unusual move, scheduled the annual student health check for Wednesday. As the school where I work in not concerned about my health, I have a day off.

However, today nothing was scheduled and because there is no God (something like that) I had to teach four classes. However, the students had clearly decided that today was a special party time and my first two classes of the day were especially bad.

The last two classes were better and that salvaged my attitude.  Now I have no place to be for the next five days.

Maybe there is a just God after all…