Noriko Furuhata, the JET Coordinator at the Consulate General of Japan in New York, recently explained to me the term shiwasu, which literally means “teachers run around” and refers to December being an extremely busy month as everyone tries to finish up everything they need to do before year’s end.
Feel free to post comments if you have additional perspective on this term.
I’m just wondering how I made it through 3+ years in Japan and 7 years of JET alumni involvement without ever previously hearing about this. :-)
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I think I remember this as the time when my management basically had to force my gakko houmon on the local schools, and when I got there I was pretty much left in the corner of the teachers office drinking ocha and eating mochi and satsuma-imo from the space heater… I learned a lot of Japanese during these times. :-)