"Are you wearing any underpants?!" "NO! MY SHIP!!!"

So many thoughts, and they drift away so unwittingly.

Night school tonight. I stayed after and watched one of my kids go through his portfolio with one of his homeroom teachers. The teacher was just curious; and the student is on his way from graduation to hopes of an art school in a little less than a month. Aside from being fun to watch, and to (only semi-linguistically; I don't speak Japanese at school) be a part of it, it just struck me watching it all unfold. The kid is already an artist; he's shyly - yet carefully - flipping out giant page after giant page, half the time too encompassed by the big grin and embarassed to talk, half the time quietly critiquing every page that comes up. One of the other students comes over and surprises me with his audacity to attempt to use english with me - that he doesn't ever use in class (yeah, two can play at this game, I know. ) - and we both start playfully commenting and poking fun at the pictures, and the mood lightens considerably. The teacher is self-deprecating, but wholly impressed himself, and keeps the student moving on through them one after another. It was like a rite-of-passage. It felt like it, at least. And yeah, the comments we made made him laugh a lot, too, and then he started telling us stories about what he was drawing, how long it took, which ones made his hand hurt and why... it was good.


That after a surprisingly good HS class were I tricked them all into playing battleship with each other and miracle of unbelievable miracles the two girls in the back corner who usually sprawl on their chairs doing their nails or staring blankly at the walls actually put down the cell-phones for once and did the game. (Me and one of the Senseis got them last week, too, but it took a bit more effort.) Not only that, the one girl found all six of the other girls ships. I suspect some muttered japanese but it doesn't matter that much. Really, more than half the deal really is participation. And I could see on the notes that they were doing more than just copying from each other. :)

(This would be the reference to the title. One of the slowest, but most persistent kids in the class - whose English is much better than he or anyone else gives him credit for despite his constant grammatical mistakes - totally wiped out his oppenent with inane questions. They were WAAAAY ahead of everyone else, so I had to put them together on a team, fast, and let them take on me. I started putting some real humor into my inane questions while looking for their ships that I!@#$!@# I never found, but eventually started getting some witty questions in return. It was funny. The bell rang and the three of us were still goin'.) The other half of the daily battle is putting in play enough solid distraction so that confidence no longer remains an issue.


Every now and then a crazy idea works. Even better, every now and then a crazy american makes a really dull idea work even better. And my kids, even my base school ones, have finally begun to understand; It don't matter what you say, just say it, and LAUGH. The laugh makes it OK. ...and if you understand, you can REALLY laugh.

Like that one ichi-nensei two weeks ago who was like repeating meaningless memorized phrases at me out of the text book one day and happened across "Shall we eat lunch? How about my place!" or something equally just... dumb ...but I agreed and much to his awe and amazement I actually came up to his room for lunch and sat down right next to him.

He actually did it again last week, and added that I have a nice Armadillo. Hey - these random sounds they utter do actually mean something. And he made me laugh, too, along with the whole class, which just rocks. The teachers get all serious and direct and preachy about bullying from their end. I work connivingly from the other side. These kids are doomed.




So that ain't what I thought I was gonna write about. No, I just watched a good Battlestar Galactica before bed. I get up in the morning, early, early in the morning, and head out on my bike right after the air temp has started moving back up the scale. I'm headin' up along the river; cranes stalking fishermen in the mists, dogs running their joggers, misfit and half-asleep teenagers in school uniforms and on bikes kareening senselessly along the path. I bike for an hour north out of the city, hit 可部[Kabe], fight traffic and one-up streetlights, take to the hills and come flyin' down the other side into little ol'飯室[Imuro]. It's gonna be hard to leave that school at the end of December. They've taught me a LOT. My physique will suffer, I'm sure, but my legs will also probably not mind the 50+K trek twice a week, once they get used to the inactivity.

久しぶりに had a good dinner with a friend tonight; one who wanders away -in plain sight- and hides herself for months on end. My grueling test performance yesterday really sucked, but a lot of my friends went way out of their way to cheer me up last night... and between fits of laughter at my overzealous antics in explaining the nuances of the tortuous questions, also assured me that I do, at least, speak some small passable amount of Japanese. The test was an experience in and of itself. I'll draw on it for while; and though the results won't arrive until February, I'm more than confident I failed it in fairly flying colors. I got a good picture of my own weaknesses, though, in the process - more clearly than I'd ever seen them, I can tell you that. :)

In the process of gettin' ready for it, I do feel I finally figured out what I really need to do, which is good. I jus' slow.


New music, full moon, new friends, blinky lights, giant bars of chocolate, unexpected conversation, simple acceptance, surprising persistence, a long walk for a good date - followed up a few days later, a meeting for coffee one night at the station, stiff, chill mornings, a basket - finally - on my bike and a warm, billowy comforter like a whole 'nother world.

I think I need another hike. If we're lucky, we might get snow downtown again this year.

Gute Nacht.

(This last pic is just the view of 可部[Kabe] and the mountains beyond as I pull out of the city alongside the 太田川[Oota River] halfway to 飯室[Imuro].)