My June school visit to Kitanodai JHS was a time for making new friends. Although teaching in the Junior High I made lots of new friends under the age of 8 as I commuted to work every day. I provided daily entertainment for the kids at the feeder elementary school up the street as I passed by to get to my Junior High. For week 1 I was greeted with echoes of "Gaijin Da" and giggles and points while by week 2 a chorus of "HERRO"s followed me up the street. By week 3 it turned into "Mowning" and by week 4 this was extended to " Mowning Meibu!". There was one little girl, however, who was particularly curious about my exotic looks and stopped me in my tracks every day for a chat. My first encounter with Marika went like this... "You're not Japanese" .. a pretty good obsevervation for a 6 year old I thought.. "Which is your country" .. a good chance for some internationalisation .. " I am from Ireland, it's in Europe, do you know where that is??!".. a little laugh from Marika... "Speak your language, show me it" .. this kid is clever I thought.. "Hello Marika, It's nice to meet you" I happily obliged.. another little giggle ensued but was suddenly followed by an almighty gasp and a fit of pointing at my mouth.. "Go aaaaaaaaaah!!" she exclaimed. It took me a minute to realize what had just happened .. "mmm, Is that your tennis racket" I said quickly pointing to her hand... in a cunning attempt to defelect from the topic that had just arisen ..."No no go aaaaaaaah" she yelled again jumping up and down excitedly, pointing to my mouth... Not settling for my "mmm I don't know what you're talking about" type expression " and another distraction attempt... She finally yelled " stick out your tongue.. do it .. what is that!" And at that point I knew Marika had me! I had managed to conceal my tongue piercing for 10months now only to be busted by the 3ft tall Marika Nakagawa of the 1st grade in Kitanodai E.S... How perceptive 6 year olds can be! I have a feeling this little one won't be satisfied until she gets to the bottom of it either! Escaping unscathed for the moment, I better think of something good quick... Marika- san I beg you! please don't tell my B.O.E!
Maeve, Kate and Greg: Paddy Foley's, Tokyo : June 3rd 2006