Shitsureshimasu

It's customary to announce yourself before entering a room. At school, when students enter the staff room, they must say 'shitsureishimasu' which translates loosely to "excuse me for bothering you". When they exit the staff room, they stop just outside the doorway, face the inside of the room, bow and say shitsureishimashita. When people other than teachers come to the staff room, they also say 'shitsureishimasu', bow then state in a loud voice for all to hear who they are before they enter. When I first arrived here I found this strange, but very quickly got use to it.

Kitano sensei (my new supervisor) and Shimasaki sensei (the new teacher, it's her first year teaching) and I went out for dinner after school. Just as we were preparing to leave, the baseball coach came into the staff room and said that this year's new members to the baseball team will be practicing their 'entering the staff room' greeting. They practice yelling (at the top of their lungs) shitsureishimasu, bow before entering the staff room, walk through the room stopping to bow and greet the vice- principal (Konnichiwa!!) and exit at the opposite end.(shitsureishimasu!!) . The staff room is a large room, the picture below shows about 2 thirds of it. The vice-principal is seated in the middle of room.

So for about 10 minutes, there was a string of students coming through the staff room one after the other, each yelling at the top of their voice before entering, and exiting. If they didnt yell loud enough or clearly enough, didn't walk correctly, didn't look confident, didn't bow low enough when greeting the vice-principal etc..they had to go around and do it again.

At one point, Fukuda sensei answered the phone which happened to be close to the door from which the students were coming in. I wonder what the person on the other end thought of all the yelling.

I found this whole exercise very strange...but entertaining at the same time!