So, the third years graduated in mid March, right? School continues for about a week afterward, and then spring break starts. Then the teachers find out whether or not they'll be moving schools. Teachers are reshuffled to new schools, usually within the same town, at a very rough average of three years. Spring break is just about two weeks, so the teachers who are changing schools get about that amount of time to clean out their desks and move to an entirely different work place with largely new colleagues, where they might be teaching a different grade level.
If you're saying, "what!?!" with a certain amount of sympathetic indignation, I'm right there with you, and the story gets better. Occasionally teachers will be moved from elementary school to junior high and vice versa. Teachers who work in different towns can request to be transferred to their town of residence, and these requests are sometimes granted, but the opposite is true as well: teachers can be assigned to a different town entirely. That might not sound terrible, but even driving from one end of my town to the other takes about 45 minutes, and that's not even counting Shingu, the mountain hamlet which is one of the four towns that merged into Shikokuchuo-shi several years ago. Add that on to living half an hour away in the next town, and you could have a significant change in commute. Also, the teachers have no choice in the matter.
However, they're not the only ones in this position: government officials of all kinds are rotated in a similar fashion, and can be transferred to and from fields as different as HR and accounting. There's something to be said for variety, for shaking things up, and for developing a workforce skilled in many areas, but there's also something to be said for building up experience in a given field, and for being better at one job than another. However, that's the way the system works, and it fosters a plethora of goodbye parties at the end of March and welcome parties at the beginning of April, since April is also the beginning of the fiscal year.
At school, there's a special going away ceremony for the teachers who are leaving. If you're beginning to think there's a short ceremony for almost everything in Japan, I think you might be right. The going away ceremony takes place during spring break, actually, and all the students, including the recently graduated third years, come to school in their uniforms to see it. I'm pretty sure the majority of them have no idea which teachers are leaving before the ceremony. I was at Higashi-chu for the ceremony because I'm no longer going to that school (the number of ALTs in town has increased by one, reducing my number of schools somewhat in a not entirely unpleasant fashion).
There were twelve teachers moving to other schools, including the vice principal. We all got on stage, bowed, and sat down. We stood one by one as the principal introduced us and informed the students how long we'd been at the school and where we were moving to, and bowed to the students. Then we got up one by one, bowed to the people to the left of us, to the right of us, and to the students before saying a 1 or 2 minute goodbye speech. Then the bowing in reverse order, and sitting down. It was by and large a serious affair, with admonitions to the students and a few tears, but there were also a few jokes. I myself started out by saying "Good Morning," and then exclaimed indignantly at the paltry response I received, which made a lot of the students smile, and they replied much louder the second time I said it. My speech was in both English and Japanese.
I went last, and so once I was done, a procession of student representatives came on stage two by two: one to say the thank you speech, and another to give out flowers. I was fortunate enough to get the speech in both English and Japanese; the English bit was written and said by one of my favorite students, a small but spirited rising third year girl named Nanami who came to my English conversation class for adults as well. Then we all got off stage and waited while the students and remaining teachers made a column for us to walk through with their bodies and a few flowered arches. After the ceremony was over, several students came up to say goodbye and thank us for our instruction personally.
That night, there was a going away party for the teachers at the local hotel, Grand Foret, which has several banquet halls. There were round tables for most of the teachers and the PTA members, but those of us leaving had a place of privilege on a long table facing everyone else. In addition to a lovely kaiseki ryori feast, there was another double round of speeches: each teacher leaving was called to the stage and given a goodbye speech by a colleague, and then the teacher him/herself would make a farewell statement to everyone. This was much more informal than the ceremony, of course, so there was a good deal more humor, especially amongst the younger male teachers. I was sent off by Yumi-sensei, who is not an English teacher, but a very kind Japanese teacher who would always come up and chat with me when we had some free time. Not being aware of the need to make a speech beforehand, I improvised somewhat successfully!
Though I do miss going to Higashi-chu, it's nice to have one of the many goodbyes I will have to go through out of the way, and life is a little less hectic with one less school. It was also nice to experience the going away ceremony as it's experienced by teachers here, so for a short time, I could feel like one of them.
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