Teaching English in Japan with Ato: Yakuza Light
Part 8: So I'm walking along the fence of the new school and see a lemon chuhi tallboy inside the fence. I think to myself, It can't be that bad...can it?The neighborhood is pretty nice and it's unlikely that someone tossed the can in there. Hmmm! The school itself actually doesn't turn out to be that bad; it's not quite newly refurbished, but it's not ancient either. The staff seems pretty nice as well but I've learned not to judge too much within the first week or two. The students are the usual mix of good students willing to learn and bad students who couldn't give less of a sh*t about English and stare out the window. Overall, the students seem ordinary, that is except for one kid...let's call him "Akira." Akira's father is yakuza. I guess this is why Akira has an attitude. He doesn't seem to give a crap about anything. His hair is dyed a color somewhere between pukey-red and pukey-orange, he wears an untucked white shirt and no jacket, keys on a long chains hang from his pants shine as bright as the multiple earring that adorn his ears.
Akira is loud and brash. Every sentence begins with "Oi!" (Hey!) or "Ore" (slang for "I") when he opens his mouth. Akira was sitting outside of the gym the first time I met him, banned from the joining the other students in the assembly. One of the teachers had to play babysitter to ensure that Akira didn't speak too loud and disrupt the goings-on within.
Akira's mother left him (or died or something) and because his father is busy with 'the business,' he lives with his grandmother. His father, however (in his infinite wisdom) , saw it fit to get his 15-year-old son his own apartment. Money means nothing to Akira's father. I think his son gets lonely being in the apartment by himself which is probably the only reason he shows up at school at all. Well, that and Akira probably senses that the teachers care about him.
Of course every hero needs a sidekick. Let's call Akira's sidekick, "Tetsuo."
On my third day I walked throughout the school (as I'm apt to do during my free periods) and happened to catch a glimpse of Akira and Tetsuo standing just outside the window smoking cigarettes. This in and of itself wasn't very surprising - Akira and Tetsuo smoke cigarettes all over the school - but this was on the second floor. It turns out there's a two-foot wide ledge outside that window that's nice and secluded, making it one of their favorite smoking spots.
I stuck my head out of the window.
Me: "Hello!"Akira: "Sensei, do you smoke?"Me: No! (lie)
With that, Akira and Tetsuo turn to shimmy along a pipe bolted to the wall one floor up (the pipe was dented with their footprints - I guess they do this a lot), then climbed down the pipe to within jumping distance of the ground and started walking away.
Me: "Where are you two going?"The boys in union: "Wakarimasen!" [with a shoulder-shrug thrown in for effect]
Hmmm! What's interesting is that when Akira and Tetsuo are together and both do something wrong, only Tetsuo gets punished. Tatoeba (for example), after their jaunt around the school the dynamic duo were accosted in the hallway by a teacher:
Tetsuo stood against the wall looking at his feet while a teacher reprimanded him - inches away from his face - while Akira stood inches away from the back of the teachers head - apparently invisible - mocking him and flicking his head.
Hmmm!Today's bout of trouble involved Akira using the chalking machine (used to mark lines on the soccer and baseball fields) to write something in extremely large hiragana on the soccer field. Eventually the prinicipal ran out and grabbed the machine away from him.
Akira yelled at the principal and whatever he said began with "Ore". The principal just walked away. Man, you just can't make this stuff up! I wonder what tomorrow will bring?
