Today is the single day out of the year that annoys me the most at school. It's the start of the new year, so the teachers will all change offices, depending on what grade they'll be teaching next year.

I came into school today to find the office locked because of a big staff meeting with all the teachers, so I had to hunt down a key and let myself in. The first thing I noticed at my desk was that the router for my group of desks was gone. All of the routers in the office were gone, except for the central one.

Since the teachers are changing rooms, they are supposed to take all of their equipment with them, too. So the office computer gets moved and an identical one from the other room will come here instead. All of the routers are switched to the other office, and ones from there come here, despite the fact they are identical. Then, later in the day, when the teachers know where their desks will be, they have the students drag the desks down the hallway to the other office. It's a big, pointless mess. It would be much easier to switch only the things that are different. Just switch the desk drawers, and the tower of the computer, and they'd be all set. It would take about a third of the energy that moving everything takes.

Such things are frustrating to me, because they seem so pointless. But, granted, often there is some point behind the madness. So I asked several teachers about it, but they had no idea why they do that. Most people seem to think that not moving the desks would be a good idea, but instead they say, "Well, that's just the way we do it at Horikawa." Some schools don't move all the desks, so it is inconsistent.

Last time they moved my desk to another part of the office, just to put it back in the same place in the end. I couldn't figure out that point of that, either. It shouldn't really bother me so much, since I don't have to move the desks myself. However, it represents the way things are done in Japan. Most of the time it's tradition, or just because, not for any thought out reason.