Sometimes the smallest little things provoke the strangest reactions here. Today I brought in some leftover pizza to eat for lunch. No problem – no big deal. Then I pulled out the carrot sticks that I cut up at home and got an amazing reaction from teachers and students alike. They couldn’t believe that I was eating a raw carrot. No spices? Not cooked? Mr. Komuri said that “I must be a horse”. Other teachers gathered around to watch me eat the carrots, and oohhed and aaaahed when I chomped one down.
Some students were asking about the bag of carrots that I had on my desk, so the teachers asked me to go out into the hallway to show them. They were laughing hysterically as I ate the carrots. I felt like charging admission and taking my show on the road.
I had my last official Valentine’s class today, and it was with my rowdy group of kids. They were a little better today, because the lesson was a little more interesting, but they were pretty much ignoring most of the lesson. Mr. Kimura was extremely frustrated, but he couldn’t really do anything about it. I went into a zen-like state – I taught the lesson, but without getting worked up about whether the kids were “getting it” or not. No frustration that way.
Mr. Hayashi was going through some kind of guilt trip today and so he said that I should leave early. I took him up on it and left about an hour early from school. As I walked by the outside of the school grounds, I passed a group of three schoolgirls from another school. The giggles started up, and then I could hear running behind me. One brave girl said “Hello”, and I turned and smiled and said “hello” back. Her friend said something in Japanese that I didn’t catch, and then she said “I love you” in English. I said “thanks” and kept walking – I guess it was a successful intercultural exchange.
One of my male students rode by and his bike and gave me a big grin – he had overheard what happened and wanted to see my reaction. About two blocks later I heard running behind me again and got worried, but it was two female students from my school this time. They asked me to pose with them for some pictures, so I posed with each of them as they snapped photos. They were very polite and it was nice to talk to them.
The attention I get is a lot of fun, and I have to admit that I enjoy it quite a bit. It is dangerously inflating my ego, but on a more positive note it’s a great opportunity to show a positive foreign face to people. This morning as I walked to school, three people on my route said good morning to me first – all my smiles, bows, and good mornings of the past have been paying off. I feel like I’m making a positive impact on my little corner of Japan, even if it’s only in the smallest of ways. It’s been a while since I’ve made an impact on something other than some company’s bottom line.
