Motoyama Junior High.

The front of my school, Motoyama Junior High. The old building was destroyed in the big earthquake of 1995, so this is a relatively new building with great facilities. It's located in a pretty posh area of town, too, with a Starbucks (US$3 coffee of the day), a snazzy flower shop (US$500 cascading orchids), and a Claire's (the ear piercing store, which is random).

Clubs and sports teams meet during the summer term.

Even though students are missing from the building, Japanese teachers have to be in the office all year long. No one seems to be doing anything particularly productive (photocopies are made, pencils occassionally touch a notebook, and we eat our lunch as slowly as possible to waste time), but they still have to be present. I would even go as far as to say that we're all competing to see who can do nothing better, who can turn nothing into something. On this particular day, the most exciting event came when a painter fixed the stained wall and ceiling. They used to have a little smoking booth here in the teachers' lounge, but as of mid-August no one can smoke on school property. Therefore, the partitions were taken down, leaving nasty, discolored panelling. My most productive feat that day was documenting it in a photo.