Shonan Strikes Back

After the teacher transfer window in April I knew the kimochi, or general ambiance, at Shonan was going to change. However recently there has been an explosion of Japanese-English or "Japlish" at work. Not the usual "how are yuu aimu fine sankyuu ando yuu" of the students, but a move amongst many of the young teachers (and Y-sensei) to mix English words into everyday conversation.

The most obvious example of this tendency is Y-sensei's cries of "Let's Go!! Smoking!!!" whenever he heads for the downstairs smoking room. But today, this craze reached new and worrying heights. Instead of his usual "see you later" or "see you tomorrow", K-sensei decided to sign off by declaring "May the force be with you!". Incidentally this is because N-sensei told us that he was a big Star Wars fan- he told us he'd memorised "may you force be with you" and "yes my master" (after which I broke the news to him that it was actually "may the force be with you"). Now K-sensei has decided to put the phrase into general usage...

It worries me on a number of levels, not least because K-sensei seems to expect me to reply with "yes my master" whenever he says it.

I think I'm going to teach him such words as antepenultimate and pulchritudinous in an effort to create a higher level of english debate.

Anyway here are a few pics from around my local neighborhood...

(Cloudy day Seto Ohashi hashi)

(House of Kojima's very own "Salt King", Nozaki)

Some Nature

Seto Inland Sea

A Boat