Japan: It's Like Faery, In A Way
Feb. 24th, 2004 09:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akujunkanI'm sitting at my desk this morning, reading an Abe Miyuki novel, when I start to hear all teachers present uttering the ominous word "Komarugo" every few seconds.
Komarugo is a third-year Brazilian student. As he is Brazilian, and thus possessed of Brazilian and not Japanese sensibilities, the staff has a hard time "controlling" him. (I, on the other hand, have always found him to be very sweet and very lonely. He gives me oekaki from his favorite manga.) He spent most of his life as a street kid in Rio, and one does not lose those instincts so quickly, I think. It's also interesting that his name is a pun on the Japanese word "problem child", but I digress.
I start listening closely when the VP begins searching for Komarugo's home number. The Brazilians get picked on quite a bit; I'm hoping one of my favorite kids hasn't been hurt.
But no, it turns out that Komarugo has, gasp!, shown up to school with wax in his hair, and they absolutely cannot allow him in front of the other students until the styling product is removed.
So they're going to call home and have his father come to school to take him back home to wash his hair, which boggles. They finally find the number. And I'm floored by how rude the caller is being to Mr Komarugo. No keigo here; he starts of the call with, "Is this Komarugo's dad?" Perhaps Komarugo Senior doesn't understand much Japanese, but still. It was rude, and the other teachers were snickering about it during the phone call.
As it turns out, Mr Komarugo is not available to pick his son up from school, so the boy is being sent home. This has caused no small amount of consternation among the teachers; they think the dad's lying.
I think he is too, but jesus. Most of the Brazilians in town work 2nds or 3rds - they probably woke Dad up. And as a Westerner, if someone told me I had to take my kid home to get the hairspray out of his hair, my response would be You're fucking kidding me...right?, as well. I'm siding with the Brazilians on this one.
My position in all this reminds me of living in Faery.
I exist in this limbo that overlays and mimics the Japanese "reality", but never quite intersects. Yeah, I can't wear earrings to work, let alone my nose ring, but I have got away with hairwax, hair dye, nailpolish, and a host of other "offenses" that get the Japanese kids punished.
It's like I've stumbled into the old Celtic ideas of Faery. It looks like my world, most of the time I think I'm existing in it, but one of these days it's going to spit me back out and then I'll end up Stateside again, aged 100 years and not quite knowing what the fuck is going on there either.
That will be all.
Komarugo is a third-year Brazilian student. As he is Brazilian, and thus possessed of Brazilian and not Japanese sensibilities, the staff has a hard time "controlling" him. (I, on the other hand, have always found him to be very sweet and very lonely. He gives me oekaki from his favorite manga.) He spent most of his life as a street kid in Rio, and one does not lose those instincts so quickly, I think. It's also interesting that his name is a pun on the Japanese word "problem child", but I digress.
I start listening closely when the VP begins searching for Komarugo's home number. The Brazilians get picked on quite a bit; I'm hoping one of my favorite kids hasn't been hurt.
But no, it turns out that Komarugo has, gasp!, shown up to school with wax in his hair, and they absolutely cannot allow him in front of the other students until the styling product is removed.
So they're going to call home and have his father come to school to take him back home to wash his hair, which boggles. They finally find the number. And I'm floored by how rude the caller is being to Mr Komarugo. No keigo here; he starts of the call with, "Is this Komarugo's dad?" Perhaps Komarugo Senior doesn't understand much Japanese, but still. It was rude, and the other teachers were snickering about it during the phone call.
As it turns out, Mr Komarugo is not available to pick his son up from school, so the boy is being sent home. This has caused no small amount of consternation among the teachers; they think the dad's lying.
I think he is too, but jesus. Most of the Brazilians in town work 2nds or 3rds - they probably woke Dad up. And as a Westerner, if someone told me I had to take my kid home to get the hairspray out of his hair, my response would be You're fucking kidding me...right?, as well. I'm siding with the Brazilians on this one.
My position in all this reminds me of living in Faery.
I exist in this limbo that overlays and mimics the Japanese "reality", but never quite intersects. Yeah, I can't wear earrings to work, let alone my nose ring, but I have got away with hairwax, hair dye, nailpolish, and a host of other "offenses" that get the Japanese kids punished.
It's like I've stumbled into the old Celtic ideas of Faery. It looks like my world, most of the time I think I'm existing in it, but one of these days it's going to spit me back out and then I'll end up Stateside again, aged 100 years and not quite knowing what the fuck is going on there either.
That will be all.