Last day of freedom

Today is the last day of freedom. I'm looking forward to starting the new school year – there's nothing like the interaction of teaching and, on the whole, the students here are pretty keen as Japanese students go. In the year in Tokyo, I've found that keen-ness doesn't necessarily live up to ambition. Many of the students are far less ambitious and have much narrower, more constricted hopes and dreams than at my old, 'less prestigious' school, but at least a large proportion of the current ones pay attention.

Every year is different, and I've no idea what this year will bring, so I'm also a little nervous. One new resolution: I am taking photos of the students this year and damn the rules. The rule about no photos is because of a fear of privacy being invaded – yeah right! It's really because the Uni doesn't want to be able to be traced back from outside websites. There's a big department for sexual harassment and discrimination, but, as ever, stopped such problems is far from its mind. In reality it's all about fire fighting potential scandals, no matter how small. By having such a department, the hope is it will find out about problems before the press do. For me though, not having photos makes remembering 40 names in 7 days all that more difficult. So, sod it, I'm taking them.