Japananna Republic

Hi!!!
I’m writing from the end of a pretty long feeling day, but I wanted to get in a quick catch-up post because it’s been a while.  I can’t go to bed right away after this, although it’s late and I’m sleeeeeeepyyyyyy and really should, but I still have to hang some laundry up outside …. which seems like a really bad idea actually; it’s super super windy and the stuff I already have out there is whipping around like it’s liable to fly off the building.  Maybe I’ll just let the other stuff rot in my washer for another day and rewash it tomorrow.  Sigh.  This happens too often.
Oh shit, I think I just lost my bathrobe.  

I need to plan something or other for my san-nensei English elective class tomorrow.  It’s a funny crowd, the elective class. They’re the third year junior high kids, a small class (maybe 8 kids?) and their English abilities vary hugely – on the one hand is a kid who seems to know less English than I know Hungarian, and next to him someone who speaks like he’s being carefully computer scrambled to protect his identity from the mob or the government.  On the other hand, there’s Mia.  
Mia, in addition to having a normal-to-us sounding name, speaks English.  On the first day of school I had to go around to each of the kids and let them introduce themselves, which meant they said their names (unbelievably and thus incomprehensibly quickly) and some other stuff (one teacher had apparently taught her class the conversational phrase, “please call me,” but without teaching really why or when we might say it, so lots of the kids stood up to say things like, “my name is Koskei.  Please call me … Koskei.”  You’re the boss, Mr. Kosukei.  I mean Kosukei!  Kosukei!  Shit, sorry, I got confused.)  The forced handshake part of the introduction is also something that falls into the limbo between hysterical and endearing and awful – man, these kids suck at handshakes.  They also had to tell me ‘something about themselves,’ which meant, “I …. PLAY ….. SOCCER!”  Or, “I ….. like …. BANANA!  NO, PINEAPPLE! I LIKE …. PINEAPPLE!”  “I ….. LIKE …… CAT!”  
Now me, I like pineapple too, and cat, just never, you know, together; the tastes just don’t go right with each other.  Anyway, we’re going around the room with this, which takes an enormous amount of time and is endearing, if somewhat, shall we say, monotonous.  One kid in a third year class memorably stands up and fights out, “I LIKE ….. ORANGE….. AND …… ICE CREAM!”
“Ohhhhhhhhh!” goes the class.  “Sugoooooooiiii!”  And yes, well done; it is hard, I do realize.  Still, after four classes of this it’s become pretty grinding, especially when their vocabulary is limited across the board to fruits, sports, and animals.  Right when I think I’m reaching my wits’ end, I get to Mia.  Mia stands up, shakes my hand firmly, and says without any kind of accent, “Hi.  My name’s Mia.  I like animals, soooo … when I grow up, I want to be a veterinarian.”
No response from the class, likely because not a person could understand what she said, but me, I could have given her the Silver Cross for bravery and skill right then and there.  
So tomorrow I have the sannensei elective class – these 8 kids signed up to do these extra English lessons with me – and as of this week I’m fully in charge of planning and running it, so I gotta get something together, and something good; I really do like all these kids –especially the one who speaks through the cable TV style scrambler stuck down his throat– and they deserve a good activity.  I last had them two weeks ago, when I told them to watch a movie in English with Japanese subtitles and to write down some comments about hearing the language – if they could pick up any words, if they were dubious about the subtitling process for some things, if they heard things they wanted to understand, if they didn’t get a word of it, anything.  I actually watched the Beat Takeshi Zatoichi tonight, in Japanese sans English subtitles (it was on TV and there was nothing I could do about it).  It was a lot better the first time around when I could understand what the people were saying to each other, but it was still really good – I’d forgotten how unbelievably well done of a movie it is, how bizarre and poignant and cool.  And how well lit.  That is one well lit movie, let me tell you.  I found it on TV after turning off Lethal Weapon 3 halfway through.  A poorly lit movie, I have decided.  Lethal Weapon 3, in case it was on your Get list, is completely unbelievably terrible.  Lethal Weapon 1, enjoyable if somewhat belabored and dumb.  Lethal Weapon 2, a stretch on the ‘belabored’ and ‘dumb’ parts, but, you know, still fun.  Lethal Weapon 3?  Terrible.  Why am I watching Lethal Weapon movies, you ask?  
I think I’m working through the 80’s light-comedic light-action movies; in the last few weeks I’ve watched Kuffs, the first two Lethals Weapon, Beverly Hills Cop 1, and another one or two whose names aren’t coming to mind.  The 80’s light-action light-comedy is a theme around which we apparently made about eight hundred thousand different variations.  I think many of them are “buddy movies.”  Oh dear lord.  Ghost Busters 2 is next up for me; God help me if I ever get to Stripes.  See, I found a bunch of mediocre movies for sale at the Book Off – second hand CD’s, books, and Videos, and they’re the same price that rentals are just down the street so I got a bunch; this way I have something at my place I can watch, albeit somewhat painfully, with any Japanese friends that come over, and everyone can understand most of what’s going on (except of course that the answer to “why are we watching this?” will probably still remain a mystery).  Stupidly, I left Batman behind and someone else snatched it up.  But, you know, I’ve got 3 Lethals Weapon movies.  Thankfully, they don’t have number four, so I don’t even have to worry about trying to resist the temptation.  Yet.
Who is hammering outside at 12:10 in the morning?  Don’t they know this is Japan?  This is unbeleivable.  Oo look!  There’s monkeys on TV!  AHH!  AND SQUID!!  AHH! AHH!!!