Tokyo Fox (東京狐)

This not only refers to feeling down following Leicesters relegation to the third tier for the first time ever but also to the general state of my health since I got back from Thailand. In my adult life I have never really felt ill for more than a few hours so when I woke up at 7:30 am on Wednesday morning rushing for the toilet what began was the start of a countless number of return trips throughout the day. Even Anne Frank didn’t make that many diarrhoea entries!!

With my late start on the first day back at work I thought from my history that I would be fine by the time I had to go to work. That was not the case though as I felt so faint when I stood up that I began to wonder how I would get through the day as it was by then way way too late for me to call in sick.

Just as I thought I couldn’t go on I managed to dig deep and use some ‘never say die’ spirit to muster enough energy to get myself to work and do what was a very short day consisting of only kids lessons which may have been better for me as it meant I was moving around constantly. I also suffered a complete loss of appetite, high fever, a headache, weak knees, heavy arms, little energy and with diarrhoea on top of all it takes a lot out you I can tell you……quite literally!

Personally I prefer to let nature run its own cause rather than interfere via medication which is a far contrast to the Japanese way from my experience in class. Whenever i’ve done any advice lessons they always suggest taking medicine or going to the Doctors or the Hospital which is maybe why, for example, women about to give birth in this country are increasingly being turned away but thats another story altogether.

I am still not sure what the cause of my illness was but its likely to be due to the change in diet in Thailand mixed together with too much sun, not enough sleep, a lot of activity. One thing for sure is that it wasn’t hereditary diarrhoea as it didn’t run in my jeans!!

Switched my mobile phone on last Sunday afternoon to find a message from the standby co-ordinator of my company saying I was on standby and needed to do sickness cover that morning! This was a big shock to me as had no idea I was down for it despite scanning the schedules many times.

I was already five hours late when I listened to the message and so in a panic I just phoned a random company number and spoke to someone in another district who confirmed my name was indeed on the schedule but not in the predominant West Tokyo district column which I run my eye over when it appears at the end of each month in anticipation of the following month.

Obviously it was my fault and my fault only for not checking the schedule thoroughly but I honestly had no idea and to add insult to injury I stayed in on the Saturday night, had no plans for Sunday and only turned off my phone before I went to bed as my spam mail has been increasing throughout the night recently and one doesn’t want to be woken up by such a thing. To cap it all off it was blo*dy raining on Sunday and in my mind an ideal day to do an extra days work which was just the icing on a filthy tasting cake!

A fax or two has been sent round our schools recently regarding people basically taking the p*ss on the subject of the sickness cover system emplyed by the company and with it the threat of a days pay being docked which would have been a bitter pill for me to swallow as I have never called in sick and always been reliable in such situations.

Since I first penned this article it has been decided that I will indeed be singled out and made to pay the price for my first offence for which I will definitely appeal. The case continues.

I’ve mentioned before that it’s part and parcel of life as a teacher that students will come and go but lately it seems to have been a bad time with a fair few students going or soon to be leaving. The end of March is the climax of the school year and inevitably with this there are some changes, particularly where the kids are concerned due to their age, lesson time and other school commitments.

In the last year I have tried to breathe fresh life into most of my lessons because if you don’t teaching can become a bit tedious and so consequently I have increased my efforts in making my lessons (even!) more entertaining by trying to come up with new and different things. This includes using music, photos, worksheets, real menus and information pamphlets, special lessons and so on which keeps me interested, motivated and (hopefully) more sane than if I was to just do the bare minimum and wing each lesson.

I hope I don’t sound too arrogant when I say that these students are not leaving because of me or my lessons being bad or whatever but I do take it personally. Also, its a numbers game and even though most of the students excuses or reasons for leaving/transferring are valid I realise only too well that it many not look that way to anyone looking in from the outside. Of course in due time the departing students will be substituted for new ones but at the moment I just feel unfortunate that a fair number of people all seem to be going in close proximity to one another.