End of School Year. End of Masks? Point Cards

Hello!

The school year is starting to wind down and the weather is warming up.

Last year, I wrote a few posts about the end of the school year and a spring trip to Kyuushu. If you would like to read them, you can catch them at the links below -

• ​End of School Year Processes - March 20th, 2022​
• ​Graduation and Closing Ceremony - March 27th, 2022​
• ​Kyuushu Spring Break Trip - April 3rd, 2022​
• ​End of Spring Break, start of new School Year - April 10th, 2022​

A lot of similar things are happening this year. And, I will have some changes to write about soon but I will wait to share those until next week. The prior posts will give you a sense of what the end of the school year is like in Japan.

Like I mention before - this time of year is when teachers start to find out about changes to their assignments. Unlike America, teachers in Japan rotate around to different schools. Some teachers stay at one school for a few years while other teachers rotate.

From what I have heard, it seems like the teachers usually stay within the city and/or prefecture (prefecture is kind of like an American state).

Over the last week or so, teachers began to find out their new assignments. Officially, any changes are a secret until this Friday, March 17th. Though the principal and vice-principal tell the teachers individually about the changes, they are not supposed to share the news with colleagues or students until Friday.

Sometimes, with certain teachers, you can sense their attitude starts to change around this time - some can become less friendly. I tend to think it might be a sign that that the teacher will be changing schools and is unhappy about it. But, we won't officially find out until Friday.

On Friday, during the staff meeting, the vice principal will go through all of the teachers who are changing places. It is a pretty big event. After that, there are about two weeks left of school culminated with graduation and ceremonies to say goodbye to the leaving teachers, the graduating 6th graders and to close the school year.

Monday is also a big day in Japan in that March 13th marks the day on which the government will no longer recommend mask wearing. It will not change things much in schools - the government has said that people should still wear masks in school settings (except for graduation) until at least April 1st.

Also, for public transport (like trains and busses), I believe the official guideline is that masks should be worn during rush hour and if the train is crowded.

​This article summarizes the changes.

It will be interesting to see how the Japanese react to this change. I know many are tired of wearing them and would prefer to make their own choices on it.

At my fitness gym, the policy will be that you do not have to wear a mask while working out unless you are having a conversation with someone. So it sounds like we still need to have masks with us in case we want to talk. I am curious to see if people follow this or not.

Outside of masks, the other thing I have noticed recently is how almost every store in Japan has a "point card" or some sort of membership card. When you go to doctors in Japan, they will normally give you a card and a unique number.

You then present that card in the future when you back to that doctor. Doing this seems to save you from having to fill out a bunch of paperwork, but it is interesting that they do this using a "card" rather than just taking your name and using that to look up your information.

I had to do some dry cleaning recently and even the dry cleaner had a "point card" - for every time you use the dry cleaner, they give you a stamp and if you accumulate enough stamps, it gets you a rebate on a service.

Same thing even with onsens - the local onsen I have been to several times has a stamp card that will eventually earn you a discounted bath. Restaurants, grocery stores and pharmacies do the same. Many use "Rakuten Points" which usually you earn about 1 point for every 100 yen or so spent. Then when you accumulate enough points, you can use the points to deduct money from your bill - usually 1 point is worth about 1 yen (about a penny).

Other than that - the World Baseball Classic started in Japan last week. It is very popular here and Japan's national team is playing games in Tokyo. The team record 3-0 so far and leading versus Australia at the moment.

Until next time,

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