Well, it finally happened: one of my female students poked my boobs the other day. I’d heard from my predecessor (and other JETs) that foreigners are often poked and prodded, because their looks are so unusual. Everyone wants to touch your blonde hair or see if your skin feels the same and, occasionally, see if your boobs feel different or something weird like that. Samantha (my predecessor) was rather well-endowed and constantly had to put up with kids at elementary school visits poking her boobs and saying “Big!” I didn’t think it happened so much with the high school kids, but apparently it does! But I’ll get back to that…
The ESS (English Speaking Society) had a big cooking day Tuesday- Steve came in and made lumpia (Filipino eggrolls, or “harumaki”= “spring rolls” if your Japanese) and there was miso soup, fish, takoyaki (fried balls of octopus, which is much better than it sounds because its mostly batter and very little octopus) and Estonian-style apple cake made by our wonderful exchange student Kati. Steve and I have grown quite fond of Kati. She’s more of a friend than a student and you’d never know she was only 17.
Anyway, while cooking preparations were going on, Masada (a third year (=senior) student who wants to study English so she can go to New Zealand), just comes up and starts poking my boobs and giggling. Then she starts to squeeze me and comments that I feel ‘soft’. She tried to do it to Kati too and later I saw her friends prodding Masada’s boobs and giggling as well. I tell ya, for a country that’s so anti-contact that you don’t even hug close friends goodbye, its sooo odd! Talk about a land of contradictions! Another example of this strangely intimate contact is kancho.
Beware of kancho in elementary schools! I’ve never had it happen to me (thankfully), but it DOES happen and basically it works like this: a little boy puts his hands together almost like he’s pretending he has a gun in his hands and then seeks up behind a grown-up and tries to poke his fingers where the sun don’t shine- seriously! I keep my back to the wall during all elementary school visits!
I think the reason the girls are so free with the touching, however, is because same-sex relationships are very close. The girls hold hands a lot (I have students who do this with me too) and usually don’t spend much time with the opposite sex until college. The guys are very close as well, sitting in each other’s laps and leaning on one another in class. Homosexuality isn’t a moral issue here, its basically just ignored, so you really don’t see any of the violent homophobia that’s in the States within Japan. But there’s also a closer relationship between students and teachers than is usual in the US, which is odd. Students are allowed to wander into the teacher’s office room (except during midterms, which we just finished and I gotta say, it was nice not to have the students hovering around for a while) and the students often give little shoulder rubs to the teachers. Its mostly female students giving the massages, but they give them to both female and male teachers so… just part of all the dichotomies that make up Japan! But that’s why I love it!
The ESS (English Speaking Society) had a big cooking day Tuesday- Steve came in and made lumpia (Filipino eggrolls, or “harumaki”= “spring rolls” if your Japanese) and there was miso soup, fish, takoyaki (fried balls of octopus, which is much better than it sounds because its mostly batter and very little octopus) and Estonian-style apple cake made by our wonderful exchange student Kati. Steve and I have grown quite fond of Kati. She’s more of a friend than a student and you’d never know she was only 17.
Anyway, while cooking preparations were going on, Masada (a third year (=senior) student who wants to study English so she can go to New Zealand), just comes up and starts poking my boobs and giggling. Then she starts to squeeze me and comments that I feel ‘soft’. She tried to do it to Kati too and later I saw her friends prodding Masada’s boobs and giggling as well. I tell ya, for a country that’s so anti-contact that you don’t even hug close friends goodbye, its sooo odd! Talk about a land of contradictions! Another example of this strangely intimate contact is kancho.
Beware of kancho in elementary schools! I’ve never had it happen to me (thankfully), but it DOES happen and basically it works like this: a little boy puts his hands together almost like he’s pretending he has a gun in his hands and then seeks up behind a grown-up and tries to poke his fingers where the sun don’t shine- seriously! I keep my back to the wall during all elementary school visits!
I think the reason the girls are so free with the touching, however, is because same-sex relationships are very close. The girls hold hands a lot (I have students who do this with me too) and usually don’t spend much time with the opposite sex until college. The guys are very close as well, sitting in each other’s laps and leaning on one another in class. Homosexuality isn’t a moral issue here, its basically just ignored, so you really don’t see any of the violent homophobia that’s in the States within Japan. But there’s also a closer relationship between students and teachers than is usual in the US, which is odd. Students are allowed to wander into the teacher’s office room (except during midterms, which we just finished and I gotta say, it was nice not to have the students hovering around for a while) and the students often give little shoulder rubs to the teachers. Its mostly female students giving the massages, but they give them to both female and male teachers so… just part of all the dichotomies that make up Japan! But that’s why I love it!
posted by riverdaughter at
9:59 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home