Hiking with the kids
Haha I just watched Japan win their S.Korea friendly football match by the most ridiculously accidental goal in the history of ball-and-foot-related games.
The observant of you will have noticed that it was my birthday at some point between this entry and the last (it was actually the 12th of April). I am now 23 years old - an age which is bang in the middle of that annoyingly uninteresting gap where you are neither 21 nor 25. Thank you very much to those people who left a note in my guestbook and a graceful, yet curiously effeminate curtsy to those who took the time to actually send me a message personally. When the revolution comes you shall be spared from fiery death in fire.
Anyway.
Looking out upon a sea of criss-crossed paddy fields with groups of kids dotted randomly about, fumbling with maps and pointing in all directions must have been the kind of thing Escher saw in his dreams, when he wasn’t dreaming about naked women with big tits walking backwards down some stairs on the ceiling.
This is how we spend Ensoku’s in the inaka. An Ensoku is a hike / picnic, and is relied upon as a sort of universal platform on which student relationships are to be cemented. An Ensoku is usually how the whole school will end their year to say goodbye to the graduating students and also how the school celebrates the new year, welcoming in the new students.
Leaving the school behind them, many of the kids take this as an opportunity to behave as they would normally (you know, like kids), liberated from the Gundam 4875 Robotic Suit of Monotony that the JHS makes them don before each school day starts, features of which include overriding imagination (for this is a class B thought-crime) and mechanically reacting to a “how are you?” question with a firm “I’m. Fine. Thank. You. And. You”. As such, these Ensoku’s are always entertaining to be involved in. Here are some examples of what was talked about whilst walking:
“When you were Junior High School student, what club (bukatsu)?” “we don’t really have school clubs in the UK, but after school I was in the orchestra” “I see. Did you have sex?”
“Jon, you can eat this stick” “what, raw?” “no. tempura” “really? Is that normal?” “no. but my grandfather eats”
“do you have a playboy?” “no” “please give me a playboy”
(smelling the air, which smelt entirely of manure) “ah, good oxygen”
“eh Jon Jon Jon, kondomu wo tsukatte ne. sex.” (use a condom) “very interesting Takanari-kun. Do you have anything else to say that doesn’t involve some sort of breach of the teacher / student dynamic and an eventual inquiry into how big my penis is?” “eeto sex- “
