Kakinoki James

* A few days ago I was at one of the Jr. Highs I teach at. One of the 1st grader (that would be a 7th grader in the U.S.) girls is really short. I mean, make an abnormally short for Japan person look big, short. Anyways, after lunch I was walking down the hall and saw another of the 1st grade girls holding the really short girl by her arms or legs and spinning her in circles. First thought that popped into my mind was "Hmmm, didn't know dwarf tossing was popular in Japan." Yea I know, not a very politically correct or nice thought; but what would YOU think if you saw someone spinning a really short person in circles through the air? Funny thing is that when the girl who was spinning the short girl saw me, she had the common Japanese reaction of seeing a foreigner (a brief moment of surprise), dropped the short girl and fell down herself. Neither were hurt and they both just sat on the hallway floor laughing.

* Last night I went to another BoE enkai (drinking party). This one celebrated the new year. I didn't drink much this time and since most of the food was seafood I didn't eat much either. The small old guy that was so crazy in an earlier post was at it again. This time I strategically placed myself to be as far away from him as possible most of the time. David wasn't so lucky. When the old guy wasn't sexually harassing married women or falling down drunk, he was all over David. Being crafty, David almost managed to get the guy to go after me, but the short attention span being drunk gave him and the karaoke machine saved me. Towards the end of the night the old guy ended up laying on top of David, licked two of his fingers and placed them on David's lips. Uh, shiver time. Worst that happened to me was I was laughing so hard at something else the guy did I kicked a bowl full of sauce & fish juice, splashing me from my shirt pocket all the way down my leg.

* Today I went for a walk. A river runs through the center of town. During the summer many people go fishing in the river, often using fishing poles that are around 30+ feet (10 meters) long. Try imagining an old guy barely over 5 feet fishing with a 30 foot pole in water maybe 2 or 3 feet deep. Odd site indeed. During my walk I saw a sign warning people to be careful while fishing. In Japan almost everything has to be cute, so this warning sign is done in the form of a cartoon image of a guy with 2 big buck teeth fishing with one of those tall poles with the fishing line getting caught in the electric/phone lines & being electrocuted. Two main thoughts on that. One, can you imagine the fallout if any city in America made a sign showing an Asian guy with 2 big buck teeth? Two, it amazes me that the Japanese are able to make a picture of a fisherman being electrocuted look cute.