Japanese high school principals

Today and tomorrow there will be a meeting of Japanese private high school principals at our school. For two weeks teachers and administrative office workers have been preparing to receive about twenty-five high school principals from high schools in our area. They’re going to have a meeting from twelve to four pm, with an extraordinary meal in between. Restaurant chefs came with a truck and used the school cooking classroom as their kitchen. Why have we teachers never received such excellent meals? As a “thank you for working so hard” It’s just too rude because our school is paying for everything. So that’s why we won’t get extra bonuses!! I think we are paying for them to stay at a luxurious hotel somewhere along the Ibaraki coast line with hot springs, meals and whatever more. Busses are being chartered and furniture is rented. I have been pondering what our or my benefit of all this money spending is going to be… But I haven’t told you about the biggest price tag of all. It was decided two years ago that this meeting of high school principals was going to be held here. Last summer an elevator was build especially for these people. It must have cost a fortune for only three floors, and building an elevator for twenty-five old people is just insane!! All summer it took to break walls, whack in the doors, build a shaft, construct the elevator, and neatly finishing things off. Actually the new elevator goes to the fourth floor but there it opens up into the music room and that room would not be fit to have “high status” principals walking through it. So, guess where the meeting will be held… Right, on the FOURTH floor!! Construction was so noisy and created much disturbance for many classes and students in a crucial stage of university examination preparatory studies. I do admit it has slightly eased our jobs. Our teachers room or staffroom is located on the second floor, so when copy paper or textbooks have to be brought to the staffroom we can load everything into the elevator and get the job done without breaking a sweat.