My week in review:
The junior high school students were taking mid-term tests this week, so I spent two days at the junior high school with nothing to do. Of course a little boring, but I've learned how to entertain myself on these days. Cracked the books and got some Japanese studying done, chatted in the teacher’s lounge, etc.
This Wednesday we had a soft ball match. Once every trimester (Japanese schools have 3 terms a year, not 2) all the teachers from all the schools in Ajimu gather for a sports tournament. The sport is always changing, but this term we played softball.
Since I teach at every school in Ajimu on one day or the other, I have mixed loyalties, but I played for Fukami Elementary, which was the school I was at on that particular day. Good fun, nobody takes these things too seriously. I was up to bat 3 times. Hit a single each time. And then each time got out before I made it back to home plate.
Elementary school visits: two kids cried this week (see previous post). Slightly above average, but not too bad. Good news is that “Kancho”s have gone down dramatically recently.
“Kancho” is a Japanese prank of putting your hands together and ramming them into some one else’s rear end. It is very popular in the elementary schools. Although even Japanese teachers are not safe from this, foreign teachers are a favorite target.
Hard to swallow, but every one who has spent time in a Japanese elementary school will attest to the validity of what I’m saying. I know in the West, children would never get away with doing this to a teacher, but Japanese schools have different standards. The stereotype is that Japanese schools are stricter, but I like to think of it as just different. Some things are stricter, some things are more loose. I could give many examples of this principle, but I don’t want to get side tracked from my main point.
I've gone through various ways of trying to deal with the “kancho”. When I first arrived, I was trying to please everybody and be easy going about everything, so my first response was to laugh it off. “Oh, hey, got me again. Ha, ha, ha.”
After a while, I tried to communicate to the kids that I did not appreciate this behavior, but they seemed unwilling to understand that.
Then I went through a period of physical retaliation, but that had its limitations as well. Half hearted retaliation only seemed to encourage the kids, and of course I didn't want to really hurt them.
But at last I think I have found the solution. When I get a Kancho now, I usually throw the child's hat out the window. If the child isn't wearing a hat, I turn them over and take off their slippers and shoes and throw these out the window. I try and appear good-natured about the whole thing, smiling the whole time to let the child know I appreciate the fact that they are just playing a friendly Japanese joke, and that I am just making a friendly retaliation. At the same time, I try and make the retaliation enough to discourage them from repeated incidents. Especially since we've had rainy weather recently, the children really dislike having their clothing thrown out the window.
Since my new “hat out the window” policy, the number of repeat Kancho offenders has gone down dramatically.
Monkey sightings: Actually this week I didn't see any Monkeys myself. (Although I saw one last week, see last week’s post). But I have been asking around about it, and apparently there have been a lot of Monkey sightings recently within Ajimu. So they are around I guess, but in my two years here, last week was the first time I ever saw one in Ajimu. Elsewhere in the prefecture Monkeys can be quite plentiful though. Especially this place they call “Monkey Mountain.”