Today's title looks misty. What does "forgetting" have to do with being on JET? In the narrow sense of losing memories, not much. The staff room and even the staff at school X have't changed in any significant way since arrival, and my students from first year still say "hi" / giggle in the corridors as they pass. Watching school X for changes is like watching an hour hand on a clock.
But I found something specific in my desk today, wedged between more important documents. It said "ALT Lessons 2017". I wrote it, but it was already at that point where I couldn'T remember the words, and saw them like someone else's work.
"AIMS!
1) Strengthen speaking
2) Enthusiasm
3) Widen Our Studies"
Each point is developed on its own flashcard. There are some good suggestions for lessons ("fact of the day") but on the whole, as you could probably tell from that exclamation mark, it's a pack of wishful thinking.
Still, they're nice wishes. I'm glad I took the time to write it out, because it feels like some sort of measure of of the intervening space. Perversely, I'm also glad that I totally forgot them. Whatever kind of school we're in, it's important for us to escape our own preoccupations and techniques. Even to forget the thing we say we never will, that we're in Tokyo, real-world Tokyo. So we can remember it again.
Happy Friday...