Some stories from Japan

[flonnebonne]

Found these old LJ drafts I never posted. It was like, "hello, all this stuff written in the present tense is all past tense now." But I'm too lazy to change anything, so this entry is often in (temporally innaccurate) present tense.

I can now say I've been mooned by a bunch of pre-schoolers. This is how it happened.

Occasionally I get accosted by a bunch of young kids who live down the road from the junior high school where I work. Okay, maybe "accosted" is too strong a word--they just run up to me and ask me questions and follow me around a bit. They seem to do this to the junior high's girls' volleyball team too.

Anyway, a couple weeks ago they asked me what "shiri" means in English. I, having forgotten that word, asked them what it was. They started pointing at and emphatically patting their butts, which quickly and painfully triggered my faulty memory. Oh yes, I know what a shiri is. Then two of them pulled their pants down to show me their shiri up close and personal.
Yeah.
(The parents of these kids eventually invited me to come have snacks with them occasionally, and they even took me out for Italian food once in the next town over.They gave me a really cool watch as a goodbye present when I left Japan--it has two faces, so you can set two different times, from two different time zones. These people were so kind to me.)

---

Whenever I meet a Japanese person for the first time, there are three things they will say to me 99.9% of the time:

1. Where are you from?
2. Is Canada cold?
3. You look Japanese, but you're not! Oh my god! Ha ha ha!

Ninety-nine point nine percent. It shall surely maketh me mad. Occasionally they'll also mention Anne of Green Gables too if they're twenty-five or older (at one point, Japanese public schools had Anne of Green Gables on their curriculum somewhere).
But yesterday I got asked a different question. The asker was one of those aforementioned crazy kids down the street (though not one of the ones who mooned me), a grade one student named Sayu who recently graduated from one of my kindergarten classes.

Sayu: Have you fought in a war in Canada?
Me: Whaaaaatt??
Sayu: You know, war. (Punches the air)
Me: No. No no no.

It's nice to get a little variety.

---

(I think this next part is from 2007)
Tennis rules the world.

Right before spring break, I spoke to one of the students from class 2-3, Natsumi, about her favourite manga series, Naruto. Aside from accidentally spoiling a character death for me (yes, I do understand the meaning of "______ ga shinda"), she also told me about how she is a not-so-secret fangirl of Orochimaru (ew), Kimimaro, and especially Sasuke. I wonder if she likes goths? We also talked a bit about PoT and she asked me how to say "mada mada dane" in English. Natsumi is generally pretty quiet, but once you get her going about Shounen Jump she shows her true colours.

(Btw, a lot of students spoiled a lot of manga events for me, I've gotta say)

Two weeks later, after spring break ended, Natsumi informed me that her favourite series had changed to Prince of Tennis and that she spent most of the break reading the PoT manga, playing the Shounen Jump fighting game, and saying the phrase "You still have lots to work on" to her bewildered friends. Kids today are so fickle. But then, um, so am I.

---

(And this next part is probably 2008)

3-4 is probably my favorite class overall out of the third years--they're very lively and willing to speak during class. During lunch one day, I was talking to a bunch of them about I-forget-what. I noticed that this group was stacking their trays on one boy's (Kouhei's) desk for him to clean up after they'd finished their food, so I did the same. They all laughed at Kouhei (ha ha, you have to put away the teacher's tray!), to which Kouhei good-naturedly said to me, "Fuck you!" I naturally gave him an appalled look and told him not to say that, but his homeroom teacher said from nearby, "It's okay."

WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S OKAY?

Actually, I'm pretty sure she hadn't heard what he said and was referring to something else, but still!

3-4's homeroom teacher, by the way, is the school's crazy-go-nuts homeroom teacher. She said "bad smell...like shit" to me once.

(Btw, after class 3-4 graduated, this teacher should have become a homeroom teacher for a brand-new first year class...but somehow, she ended up becoming the homeroom teacher for the next set of 3-4 students (ie, the previous 2-4 students), whose teacher had transfered to another school. And she made that bunch of students liven up a lot too.)

---

I know I have more of these partial write-ups sitting around, I just need to find them. :p

Comments

[lucathia]

Cute stories. :D I wonder if I'll get comment #3 when I'm over in Japan for sightseeing this year.

Thanks!

[flonnebonne]

If you stick to the big cities, probably not, come to think of it. I think I only got comment #3 in the inaka. People in the cities have enough exposure to other Asians that it doesn't surprise them too much, I think.

[februaryfour]

The f-word was classic, ESPECIALLY the "it's okay". XD

[flonnebonne]

I remember telling other JETs about that particular incident, and they were completely unsurprised. "Oh, you got your first f-bomb, did you?" All those Hollywood movies are bad for the kids, I tell ya.

...

[cryforthedream.livejournal.com]

your life is fruitful. i hope it always stays that way. <3

Re: ...

[flonnebonne]

I hope so too! But I think everyone's got some interesting stories, somewhere in their memories. :)

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