Well, today was another boring day at work. Classes are quite limited this week, and some of the older students have tests too. I was looking at the schedule for after the holiday, and it seems like the oldest students have exams (mostly high school entrance exams) at a rate of at least one per week throughout February and March. In mid-March they learn where they will go to high school. The system is different than in America. Here, you go to elementary school and junior high school based on where you live. However, you go to a high school based on your ability. It might not be located anywhere close to you. However, there isn't a bus system, so I don't know how students who live on the other side of Toyama could go to a school on this side. Basically this means there are good high schools and not so good high schools. Some of the JETs who work at lower-level high schools tell me it is really frustrating, since many of their students are going into technical colleges after graduation instead of advanced universities. These students often don't have any need or desire to learn English. So they are often loud and rude in classes. All students are required to take English as part of a national curriculum, regardless of their future plans.

It looks like the closing ceremony for the school year is March 24. After that there is a short vacation of 1-2 weeks and school will resume again. I don't know how much of the vacation counts as a holiday for me, and how much I have to take vacation days for. I have four weeks of vacation during the year. I'll be spending 6 days on this vacation, and I hope to have 10 days for when my family comes to visit in July. Odds are that there won't be school in July, but I will still have to show up for work. It's kind of a stupid system, since they are paying the teachers to just sit there. I think the Japanese teachers have some special vacation days they can spend only during the summer. I've heard it is sometimes possible to take a couple days of unpaid leave if you need it for the summer. I don't know if that's true though.

So it looks like I'll have 4 days I can spend on vacation during the spring break. I wouldn't mind travelling somewhere then, but I've also heard that it is the most popular time for Japanese people to travel during. Apparently Okinawa is insane during that time period.