Violation

Japanese children are infamous for a game called kancho. The game is simple: you sneak up behind your victim with both hands formed as if you are having a make-believe gun fight, and you ram your index fingers up the person's butt. A Japanese enema, if you will. Honestly, it's hilarious...until it happens to you.

I'm on my 6th month here, and it has happened to me numerous times. I found the best way to react is not to react at all. So far, this tactic has worked well, I just swipe their hand away and they quit.

Until today.

2nd period. 8 1st graders. They see me once a month, and I could hear them as they ran to my room. They get to the door, shout, "Cliff sensei!", and rush me. This is the standard greeting. However, instead of giving a my a high five, or whatever, and leaving, they all surround me, jumping up and down to get my attention. I thought it would be funny if I play fall over, so I land on my back. They're crawling over me like ants. This is where I make my mistake: I roll over onto my stomach.

Time stops.

I can almost hear the neurons in their brains firing in excitement. My heart begins to sink as I realize what I have done. All at once, 16 hands with 80 fingers begin to kancho me like I've never been kanchoed before. Keep in mind, I wear only a t-shirt and track pants to work. I freak, and try to wrestle them off. So much for not reacting, this is more of an reaction then they had hoped for. But it's difficult to get up when you have kids sitting on your arms, legs, back, and head.

I finally get up and slap them away as they chase me. But they're not done. Next thing I know, my pants are around my ankles. I got pantsed by a first grader, in front of all the first graders. I wanted to throw the kid out of the class by his neck. They probably thought they looked cute rolling on the floor laughing. Thankfully, the other teacher wasn't there yet.

That incident behind us, we started class. The kid who pantsed me is actually a really cute kid. I think he's in the running for being My #1 Fan. But today, when we were sitting in a circle, he starts bawling. I have no idea why, but through my little experience, I just ignored him and kept the class going. He ends up leaving and not coming back. I found out from the teacher that every class, it's always him that sits right next to me. Today, some girl decided she was going to sit next to me instead, and moved him out of the way. Accepting defeat, he cries and leaves. Good to know I'm popular among the 1st graders.

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Had another fire drill today at a different school. I got to shoot the fire extinguisher at a target that popped a balloon. It was cool.