Principal's Retreat/Food post

When I came to teach at Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ) about 4.5 years ago, I was quite impressed with how well things were documented and organized.  I think it is one of the best schools I have taught in over the course of my career.  I do need to qualify that a little.  I taught in Christian schools my whole career and sometimes the requirements are minimal to be able to educate students.  The longer I was teaching, the more developed I became as a teacher.  Christian schools were also developing and doing things like documenting curriculum, writing policies, and determining governance.  So, to be honest, CAJ is probably the best school I've taught at, but that does not mean the schools I taught at previously are not at this level now.

One of the things CAJ does look at is best practice.  What is the best way to do things?  We are currently in a self-study year, but really, that is something we think about regularly, how can we be a a better school?  

This past Thursday and Friday, the High School, Elementary School principals, Anda and Jacquie, and I went to Ome to spend two days working on making improvements on how we evaluate our teachers.  I could have taken pictures of us working, but they would just be us sitting at a table (Japanese height) with our laptops on our laps, books and papers on the table with maybe some cups with drinks.  That would be kind of boring pictures.  So, I took pictures of the places where we had our meals.  😀

Our first stop was at a little "Mom and Pop" style restaurant.  They basically have one meal they can offer.  It was a really cute place called Burari Cafe and it had a bit of a gallery there too.  

Jacquie took along some delicious scones and tea AND the lovely tea cups!  

You can see that our table was low and our chairs down on the ground. 

That evening we went to the restaurant in the hotel.  It was a shabu shabu dinner, where you cook your food.  The one pot has water in it where you can put your meat and vegetables in to cook.  

Left pot was cooking rice and left post has the water in it to cook the meat and vegetables.

Friday morning, there was a breakfast buffet in the same room where the dinner was the evening before.  

For lunch we went to this cute Con Brio cafe.  It was another little cafe.  There was a full menu.   

Front entrance

We shared a tuna salad 

Pasta with mushrooms

Bacon gratin

Gorgonzola cheesecake with coffee

It was a good two days, both being able to accomplish much work on developing a better evaluation process and being able to experience delicious food in various places.  

Someone is also content to be back in the house. 

I am very thankful to my colleagues, Anda and Jacquie, who are great professionals to work with on a daily basis, but are also fun people.  I am also grateful to Rie, who helped arrange some of the food we were able to experience these two days.  Most of all, I'm so thankful for God placing these people in my life.