April is a very critical month in Japan. It might actually be the most important month of the year. Symbollically, it represents a time of change, rebirth and new beginnings. Practically, April is the time when students begin the new school year, where job hunters hopefully find and start their new jobs, and where people already in their place of employement get their transfer notices. In Japanese this is called ”tenkin” or 転勤.
As a stranger in a strange land, I am exempt from many of the culture norms. Even though my contract is renewed at the end of March like everyone else, I will not be moving to any other schools or branches. I am grateful for this, since many others are given less than 10 days notic, and may have to relocate a great distance from their friends and family. They also may have to do this every three to four years. This can cause a lot of stress, and I try to avoid that at all costs.
The idea of a Hanko, or personal stamp, will probably be fairly familiar to anyone who has lived in Japan. Hanko are usually circular, or oval stamps, with the person’s name written in Kanji, and are the equivalent of a signature in western terms, on all sorts of legal documents. When a foreigner comes to Japan, usually one of the first things they have done is have one made up, with their first or last name in katakana. These days, they’re not asked for much, as the signature is making some major inroads, but every now and then, you’ll run into someone or some business that demands a hanko.
So you’re probably all familiar by now about the fact that most of transportation that goes on in Japan is done by an elaborate system of local trains. Unlike public transportation in North America, this is a finely tuned system, where everything works perfectly in sync with everything else; except when it doesn’t. This is a story of one of those times.
