friday afternoon train ride with k and h

preemptively apologizing for not putting pictures in this post, since in the last one i said i’d put pictures in the next post to make it interesting. i just don’t have the energy or willpower to go through all that right now.

i just wanted to write about something that happened today.

i have realized i usually have really good or really bad fridays. just in time to set the tone for the weekend. today, which was friday, was a pretty good one.

i finally started teaching my classes at the “bad school”, and things are going smoother since i don’t have to spend as much time sitting around wasting time. and the kids really love me so much. all that time i spent hanging around the school, hanging around the classes, when i still didn’t have any lessons to teach, really let me get to know the kids, and now that lessons have actually started, they just go nuts for me. it makes me feel so happy. they are all always so happy to see me.

and i think that i like the kids in my schools more than anybody i’ve met in japan so far. when you think of elementary kids (especially elementary kids in asia), you get an image in your head. but one thing you don’t usually consider is that they are all individuals, and especially once you get up to the higher grades (4, 5, 6), they are just young people, not really even “KIDS” so much anymore. not toddlers and definitely thinking for themselves with their own developed personalities and all of that.

so when all of those kids go crazy to get the chance to learn things from me, it really is awesome. because those kids are way more likable as humans and as people than most of the other uptight people around here i deal with every day. it’s like they are old enough to be people but not old enough to have completely taken in all of the societal pressures and nonsense that makes people uptight and too serious. sure, there are some kids that take themselves too seriously. but there are a lot of wild kids too. there aren’t so many wild adults…

what I’m trying to say in my over-tired, too-late-on-a-friday-night way, is that being around all those kids can totally brighten up your day. so today was an ok day, because i got to see so many of the kids.

then as i was doing my commute back to my apartment, and i finished my bus ride to the train station, and got on the train at the station and sat down, i saw two kids get on the same car and sit down across from me. one was maybe around 12 and the other one was much much younger, obviously a younger sibling, and they were wrestling around and arguing. i realized that i recognized the older kid, one of the kids i teach at the OTHER school i teach at, meaning not the one i was at today.

i waved at him in the car and him and his little brother were there on the train across from me. i don’t want to keep writing in such detail like this, detailing every moment. so i’ll just tell you what i’m trying to describe.

Basically the kid is this kid named Kanata, and he’s a really cool little guy. and he had his little brother with him, named Hinata i think, and his little brother is a 1st grader at that other school. and the little brother was just being out of control and jumping around and trying his hardest to get into the bag that kanata had. it looked like maybe there was candy or something in there the way little hinata was going for it. and kanata was teasing his little brother and picking on him. basically that’s it. it was just so hilarious. because of the juxtaposition of all these uptight japanese people on a busy rush hour train grunting and glaring around while these two innocent kids were rough housing and being silly in the middle of it, totally unaware and oblivious to the grunting and staring of the masses around. kanata kept going “shh!” to his little brother, but it was just another way of teasing him, because 2 seconds later he’d be agreeing to give him some of the corn snack straw things from his bag, while covering his brother’s eyes with one hand and shoving the corn snack straw thing up his nose with the other hand. or surrendering his pocari sweat bottle and letting his little brother have a drink and then doing that thing where you shove the bottle up and into the person’s face so it blasts into their mouth and all over their face. and the little guy was just covered in pocari sweat within a few minutes, and had drool and pocari sweat coming down his face like crazy, but he was still just hyper as could be and having a great time. kanata acted like he was concerned and made hinata wipe up his mess using his own t shirt. he tried to wipe his face off but hinata would just waggle his face in the opposite direction, directly into some old man sitting next to him, who was visibly a bit upset about having some drooly pocari sweat dragged across his jacket sleeve.

I guess it’s hard to describe what was so funny about all of this without describing every little thing that happened. I guess it was just like, a big brother picking on a little brother. the big brother was smart enough to know that you’re supposed to be quiet and behaved on trains but fun enough to not care, and the little brother was just completely hyperactive and a junior comedian in the making. i know that a lot of their little performance on the train was a performance to make me laugh, but that’s ok, because it was hilarious and i was cracking up the entire train ride. i think a lot of people around thought i was just some weird foreigner laughing at two random little kids on a train. so i went over near them and started chatting with them.

Hinata’s 1st grade teacher turns out to be this lady that always gives me trouble in the teachers’ office and tells me that i’ll basically never amount to anything because i’m not crazy about all the seafood and japanese food that they shove my way at lunch time. she’s ALWAYS on my case. and she says some pretty screwed up stuff in the guise of joking around and trying to get me to eat the food or become a japanese person or whatever. even the other teachers around tell her to stop and gasp at some of the stuff she says. and i innocently asked hinata how he liked his classes, and he told me he HATES the teacher, and made a joke about her bowl cut haircut, and said he doesn’t want to see her, or meet her, or hear her voice, or think about her at all! and i think they said she stinks, and she’s too loud. that was funny, because i’m not crazy about her either.

Kanata told me they were on their way to a cooking class. i asked why. he said because they like cooking. so this little 6th grader (i think) and 1st grader were off, after school, on a friday, by themselves, to go to a cooking class, because they wanted to. how cute. and poor little hinata was going to show up with soft drink spilled ALL over him, and drool all over him as well. and chip crumbs and junk all over him and up his nose. with a big silly grin. and kanata was going to act like he disapproved of his dirty little brother even though he was the one that did all of that to him! all the while winding up and driving all the uptight people around them crazy and irritated. beautifully done.

basically it was like they put on a little performance on the train, and the comedic timing was perfect. i like those kids.

So i had to put up with some crap from the old hag at the bad school today just before leaving, but i got to enjoy a perfect comedy duo routine on the train ride back, so i was doing well by the time i got to my apartment.

i think as a “teacher” i’m supposed to keep those kids in line and make them behave themselves on the train. i think a lot of people were looking at me disapprovingly for just sitting there laughing (since the two had referred to me as sean-sensei a few times eventually). but being around all these kids all the time has brought out a lot of the kid that i still had in me. i never really am or was such an adult, but being friends with all these kids has really brought the kid in me out a lot more. and i felt like i was a 5th grader the whole train ride back. that’s one thing i have to say i like about this job. i get to run around on recess and play soccer and kick the ball and play dodgeball and run around on the grass barefoot and just act silly like a little kid again, and i think it’s great. i think it’s good for my heart. i never set out to be a teacher. i just took this job as a way to get to japan. i never really considered the prospects of actually having to teach kids and stuff. but now that i’m doing it, i’m finding that i love it. the kids all love me and i love being with the kids.

i don’t think i’ll ever actually be a teacher, though. i think maybe i’m still too much of a kid, and not enough of an adult.

sorry for rambling so much. just tired. i wanted to write this down here before today ended, because it was such a crack up and i know i’ll remember that train ride forever. i wish i had taken a photo or a video of those two going at it for the entire 20 minute train ride.