Before I could finish my post on school lunches the other day I had to break for cleaning time.
Cleaning is a pain. Not because of my laziness, but because it's almost pointless. There are two stages - sweeping and wiping. The sweeping is fine, if not the most efficient way of removing the dust that gathers everywhere in Japan (with a broom that slowly disintegrates with daily use). The wiping, however, is a joke.
It's not limited only to schools. Companies, too, will break from their work schedule to dunk a filthy cloth in filthy water and then push it across a filthy floor.
Sure, no extra people have to be employed for what only takes 15 minutes of group effort, but surely a country as advanced as this one could come up with a better system. I force the sweeping to take extra long (I will gather the most dust in history today, even if most of it is bits of my broom) just to postpone the stinkhand that my stagnant cloth gives me.
Actually, recently I've managed to avoid the wiping all together due to the kids currently on duty in the teacher's room. 50% of my time is spent forcing them to clean properly.
Don't forget to don your tenegui; a pointless bandanna. Not sure why. It's the Japanese way.
As always, comments are welcome.
