Monkey on your back

This weekend I went to Osaka to experience some big city life. I ended up buying some books and a bath towel. I guess that counts for big city life. I also saw a man who was standing in front of a big Zara’s display with a stuffed monkey on his back. He was standing out there admiring the mannequins for quite a while. At least three hours. He was just staring either; he was actively engaged in appreciating the placement of these mannequins. We just have our junkie man in Sasayama, so it’s always good to see another crazy person.

Today was apparently a special lesson. I found out about this at 8pm last night, so I’m not sure how truly special it really was. Basically five other English teachers from the city, a person from the BOE and the principal attended a class this morning. There was a big write up that each guest was given about the lesson for the day. I even hanko’d each of them. (A hanko is the Japanese version of a signature. It’s just a stamp with your name on it.) The lesson was about changing verbs to match the 1st, 2nd and 3rd person forms. Being as though 90% of verbs are just adding an “s” to the end, I really failed to grasp what part of the lesson was difficult. But much like adding an “s” to make a word plural, you might have well have asked the kids to transcribe the Mahabharata onto a grain of rice.

Then today I had a great conversation about how I should go meet with my elementary school teachers today after I finish my classes. I naively responded that I had no classes in the afternoon, so I could meet with them whenever they were finished with classes. After several explanations and showing the schedule with an empty afternoon, he said he understood but still remained very suspicious. Simple answers are not welcome in this society. Much like rational thought, these things are dangerous and counteractive to the whole idea of making the most work for the largest amount of people instead of efficiently getting it done before lunchtime. Sometimes I wonder what happened to the culture that gave us haiku and minimalist design, which values simplicity over excess.