On my recent all day field trip with the first year students (age 13), we did a “hike” around the rice patties and parks of the city and I got a kick out of the things that they seem to find the most curious about me:
#1: Sunglasses—In Japan, sunglasses are apparently linked to the Mafia and are generally uncommon so many of the kids just had to try them on...they looked really cute!
#2: Blond eyebrows and arm hair—While red hair isn’t too interesting since so many Japanese people dye their hair shades of blond and orange, my blond eyebrows and arm hair seem to be very strange and even in the grocery store people will point to my eyebrows and say, “natural??" I don’t really mind the kids petting my arms but it gets a little old allowing them to take turns petting my eyebrows.
#3: Carrying a water bottle with...WATER!!??—Even in vending machines and convenience stores, it is usually difficult to find bottles of water since tea is the predominant beverage followed closely by sports-like/”ion supply” drinks that are similar to Gatorade. Therefore, once the kids figured out that my really cool and peculiar clear bottle (a Nalgene) was filled with water of all things (as opposed to their beautiful thermoses with tea), everyone had to have a sip and try it out. I kept restating that the crazy clear liquid actually came from my kitchen sink and that it wasn’t all that special but it didn’t seem to matter. I would say that literally over 30 kids had a sip from my water bottle during the hike, even after they watched me repeatedly refill it from the outdoor bathroom sinks (I know, gross). Good thing I don’t know of any sickness going around.
I also spent a lot of the day learning the “gossip,” such as who likes who and which kids are “together” (even though I don’t think I have ever seen the boys and girls talking to each other, even during class). After living in a bunk with 12 thirteen year olds for two months last summer, I think that I can safely say that this age group behaves very similarly whether they are in the U.S. or Japan.
#1: Sunglasses—In Japan, sunglasses are apparently linked to the Mafia and are generally uncommon so many of the kids just had to try them on...they looked really cute!
#2: Blond eyebrows and arm hair—While red hair isn’t too interesting since so many Japanese people dye their hair shades of blond and orange, my blond eyebrows and arm hair seem to be very strange and even in the grocery store people will point to my eyebrows and say, “natural??" I don’t really mind the kids petting my arms but it gets a little old allowing them to take turns petting my eyebrows.
#3: Carrying a water bottle with...WATER!!??—Even in vending machines and convenience stores, it is usually difficult to find bottles of water since tea is the predominant beverage followed closely by sports-like/”ion supply” drinks that are similar to Gatorade. Therefore, once the kids figured out that my really cool and peculiar clear bottle (a Nalgene) was filled with water of all things (as opposed to their beautiful thermoses with tea), everyone had to have a sip and try it out. I kept restating that the crazy clear liquid actually came from my kitchen sink and that it wasn’t all that special but it didn’t seem to matter. I would say that literally over 30 kids had a sip from my water bottle during the hike, even after they watched me repeatedly refill it from the outdoor bathroom sinks (I know, gross). Good thing I don’t know of any sickness going around.
I also spent a lot of the day learning the “gossip,” such as who likes who and which kids are “together” (even though I don’t think I have ever seen the boys and girls talking to each other, even during class). After living in a bunk with 12 thirteen year olds for two months last summer, I think that I can safely say that this age group behaves very similarly whether they are in the U.S. or Japan.
posted by Alexa at 1:23 AM
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