On day seven, it was back to Middle School for me, and the
school day started with a P.E. class. I think they were doing fitness testing,
but I didn't actually have to do any of this, I just did the long jump and
tried this device that measures the strength of your grip. As it turns out, my
left hand is weaker than my right one. I’m actually not that surprised by this.
The following class was Japanese. The teacher gave me a copy
of the book they were reading, and I spent the entire class attempting to
decipher the story based off the pictures. As near as I can tell, the story
goes a little something like this:
Once upon a time,
there is a man who loves his horse. One day, he walks out of his house to see a
kappa (a Japanese river monster) trying to push his horse into the river so
that the kappa can drown and eat the horse. In a fit of rage, the man grabs two
tufts of grass and charges the monster. The prospect of being hit with blades
of grass terrifies the kappa, who falls to his knees and drops a rope that was
apparently concealed in his shell. Seeing how sad and injured the poor creature
looks, the man takes pity on the river-dweller and apologizes. As a reward for
his understanding, the kappa gives him a magical glowing green bottle and says
he will lend this to the man for three days. It turns out that the bottle
contains alcohol, and the man drinks himself into a stupor for those three days
despite the disapproval of his neighbors and friends. When towards the end of
those three days it finally occurs to the man to check on his beloved horse, it
is too late and the horse has died. However, the kindly kappa (who evidently no
longer cares about feeding his family) restores the horse to full health, and
everyone lives happily ever after. The end.
After Japanese, I headed down to the science labs for my
next class. I dutifully copied what was written on the board for the first half
of the class, and then spent the second half watching a very determined lizard
attempt to climb the glass walls of his home. This was both entertaining and
sad. Despite the help of his buddy (who stood underneath and let the first
lizard step on his head) the black and orange reptile failed to get himself
more than a quarter of the way up the wall. He fought hard, but eventually he
lost his grip and splashed back into the water of his tank. I gave him points
for effort though.
In math, we had a test on what we’d been doing yesterday.
This proved unfortunate for me, because I had no idea what exactly we’d done yesterday. Still, I tried to go
through and do something. I wasn't even halfway done when the teacher called
for the papers. I really would have preferred to hang on to that pathetic
memorial of my time there, but the girl next to me didn't understand what I was
saying, so I just handed it in anyway. I knew I’d never see it again, so in the
long run, I guess it didn't really matter.
After lunch with the same girls from the day before, we went
back to science class. I mentally encouraged the lizard to try again, but he only
made one half-hearted attempt before abandoning the effort.
One odd P.E. class later (the entire time was spent on some
weird dancing/exercise routine), we went back to the classroom and everyone had
a job to do in regards to making the school clean. Some people left the
classroom to get the halls and bathrooms, while others stayed to clean the
classroom itself. I was one of the ones who stayed, and I got to sweep the
floor and move desks. Personally, I think that if it weren't for the fact that
most teens wouldn't even try, this would be another really great idea for
Canada to adopt.
Before everyone left to go to their respective clubs or to
just go home, I took a picture with the entire class on my iPod. I would have
used my camera, but it ran out of battery power earlier that day. Then the bell
rang and some of the students from the day before came to show me around the
clubs. I dropped in briefly on the tennis club, the soccer club, the basketball
club, the kendo club (this time I got
to hit someone with a stick), the tea ceremony club, and the art club. During
this time, I learned that the Middle School students were very excited to get
to use English on me. Most of the younger kids would greet me in English as I
passed, and they’d get really excited when I answered them.
Around four thirty, I again thanked the students who’d led
me around, and waved goodbye until I couldn't see them anymore. I didn't stop
for a drink that time, but I narrowly avoided another one of those hysterical
fits when I saw what looked like a completely normal husky other than its legs
seemed to be only about three inches long. I probably would have burst out
laughing, but the man walking the dog looked kind of scary and I decided I’d
better not.
Right as I got back, I was off again to visit a small shrine
within a park. This shrine felt different from the larger shrine we’d visited
earlier in the week, possibly because it was so much quieter. I learned that
the shrines have two animals (I say animals because neither I nor Otosan knew
what they were) on either side. The one of the left always has its mouth
closed, while the one of the right always has its mouth open. I asked Otosan
why that was, but he said he didn't know.
It felt like I didn't actually spend that much time at the
house that day, because we went right on to dinner afterwards. On the way
there, I watched what I thought were swallows swooping around near the water.
When I asked, I was told they were a type of flying rodent. That comment seemed
odd to me at first, but then I noticed the different wing shape and realized
they were bats. There were hundreds of them all flying around and catching the
bugs. They didn't look very big, so I’m assuming they were a different type
than the ones where I live, because I've been told that bats look huge when they’re flying.
At the restaurant, I tried okonomiyaki, a type of Japanese
pancake made with vegetables and meats. It was very good, and I will definitely
have to have some again. Before we left, I wound up taking pictures with two
girls around my age we met at the restaurant. They were very nice, and seemed
really excited about getting a picture with me. Being in Japan is literally
forcing me to get over my fear of cameras.
Before heading back to the house, we stopped at a grocery
store and a kind of bakery place. I still have a bit of a fascination with the
grocery stores because they sell some very different foods there. Like octopus
tentacles. And entire squids. (No giant ones though, so I’m thinking that the
risk of them drowning me is pretty low).
There were no bats out on the way back, which was a little disappointing.
I've been rethinking my plan of bringing a Japanese cat home, and I had started
to consider a bat as an alternative. After all, bats are cute. Who wouldn't
want a pet bat?
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