On Friday Victoria had a rough day in Japan. Thursday night the roads were pretty clear, but then Friday morning it snowed a fair amount, and the roads were frozen in the morning. She goes to Hirota elementary school on Fridays, and it is the only one of her schools not serviced by public transportation. However, it is also the closest, and she normally can bike there. Because of all the snow, she couldn't bike there, so she called her base school and asked them to call the elementary school to see if someone could pick her up and take her there, which they had done last year several times when it snowed. When they asked the elementary school, they said all the teachers were too busy, so she should walk to school instead. It's about an hour's walk in the snow, so Victoria really didn't want to do that. This is the same elementary school that Victoria left from the week before to go to the doctor's, so she thinks the principal was sore over her leaving school (apparently they weren't happy about that the week before). Really, the school should've had someone like the nurse or handyman who could've come pick her up. The drive would've been ten minutes at the most.

Instead, a teacher at Victoria's base school called an unemployed temporary teacher from the last year to come pick up Victoria and take her to her elementary school. Obviously, this was really nice, especially since the woman had been sleeping. When she got to elementary school, the principal asked her how she got there so fast, and Victoria told her that an old teacher picked her up and took her there. The principal then reprimanded Victoria for bothering someone else, and told her that next time she should walk there. Victoria told her that she wasn't going to do that, because it is a long walk and she has a lot of things.

I should note that teachers never really question the principal. They are a bit of a god in the school, someone who should be revered and obeyed all the time. I may have mentioned this before in my blog, but several times while I was having a conversation with one of my teachers about an upcoming class, the principal would walk past and say "Hello" or something, which I wouldn't hear because I was focused on the conversation. The other teacher inevitably got a consternated look on their face, interrupted what I was saying, and said, "Brian, the principal said hello to you!" like I was being really rude by not answering him. Of course, I told him "Hello" after all that fuss. The strangest thing about the principals is that they don't seem to do anything. They mostly wander around the school, make speeches once a month, meet with visitors, and are well-respected. Because they are so well-respected, keep in mind that Victoria's disagreeing with the principal is not really done in Japan, despite their seeming lack of purpose in the school.

The principal went on to argue with Victoria about how she could walk her, and leave her stuff there (she can't, she goes to two schools), carry it in a backpack (which she was doing, but still had several handbags), etc. The argument went one for a little while. Eventually Victoria just gave up and tried to imagine if the principal's car broke down or something if she would just walk one hour in the snow to school or if someone might possibly give her a ride.

Then she told the story about getting stranded at the Mizuhashi train station on the 22nd (read about it in my blog below) to the principal. She seemed quite appalled that no one at Victoria's school had offered her a ride home. She said Victoria should've asked directly at the school. Victoria had to bite her tongue on this one, but told me she was thinking, "Well, I tried that this morning, and see where it got me with you." Kind of strange that the principal could fault the other school for not giving her a ride, hen she wouldn't send someone to give her one, too. Then Victoria excused herself and went to prepare for lessons.

Victoria said she was pretty polite throughout the whole thing, which is more than I would've been. I think she was probably furious inside though, as I would have been. It is really frustrating to be in a strange country and then when you need help, have people who are normally friendly to you refuse to give it to you.