Taking over as principal of Bunka Suginami Canadian International School

Yesterday was my first day at work. It was a real pleasure to actually be here after these months of preparation.

We arrived late after getting sidetracked in the subway...We were pleasantly surprised to see adds for our school at the subway; me along with our bilingual secretary Kumiko:

There was a formal welcome at the gate with the President of the Board, the Japanese school's principal and various other officials. It was a bit overwhelming to meet the many people I will be working with but they were all invariably kind, polite and helpful as we navigated around the school for our first visit. 

We had a tour of the school. This is a vibrant school of 1200 girls. Our office and our classes are set up in one wing of the school, in the newly constructed area with the latest in terms of earthquake preparedness technology. We have a nice office, several classrooms and a conference room at our disposal.

We also have access to the rest of e school which includes 6!! Gyms, a foods room better equipped than most restaurants, a fashion design room, two traditional martial arts rooms, a dance studio as well as a room uniquely devoted to training the girls in the art of the Japanese tea ceremony.

We are extremely impressed with sense of importance the history and traditions in Japan play in all of their daily lives, including at school.

We said goodbye to Maggie and Karl today, our offshore BC ministry of Ed consultants who got the paperwork all set up for the new schoo. I am now the first principal of this school.

What an honour and an opportunity.