I only had to teach three classes at my Thursday elementary school so I had a lot of free time. I spent one period amusing second graders by speaking very basic phrases in Japanese (Whoa! She’s mastered the simplicity of “I am.” and “You are.” LOLZ!) and eating gerbil food*. I’m a sucker for cheap thrills.
After school, I found a group of kids talking around the bathrooms. “Why are you all hanging out around the toilet?” The most outgoing of the boys came over to me. I don’t think he understood most of what I said, but he certainly understood “toilet.” He squatted down like he was laying an egg (or hunching over a squat toilet) and made grunting noises. Then he made a motion under himself to mime something being expelled from his bottom.
I followed that group around for a while. A few of the boys made a girl cry and she ran off. They peer pressured each other into apologizing to her and making her laugh. Wow. One day these kids will be unhappy, overworked, suppressed adults, but right now, they’ve got a lot of class.
Thursday night was the typhoon. It was a lot of hysteria in a landlocked area over some rain and wind. Minor train lines were stopped. Private schools canceled class the following day. Classes in Maebashi were delayed three hours on Friday morning, but I still had to go in on time.
The typhoon was bad enough that I wouldn’t have wanted to out walking in it. And I probably would have fallen over on a bike from the wind. But one of the biggest news stories of destruction and injury was that some old person had slipped and broken his/her hip.
My friend is a badass. He donned a swimsuit, put his cell phone and wallet in a ziplock bag and went out drinking until 2am.
*ok So the gerbil food was only raw sunflower seeds, but when I popped one of those into my mouth all the kids were totally freaked out. One of the boys eagerly handed me a second bag of gerbil food and helpfully held out a few green and brown pellets in his hand.
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Right now I’m obsessed with “Hybrid Rainbow” by The Pillows.
The music video isn’t anything special, but check out that gorgeous song.