The Crazies (cont) Sport's Day

Today was Sport's Day, an event that the teacher's seem less than interested in. There boredom is written as clearly on their face as if I had taken a marker and wrote it there for them. Of course, on the list of disinterested sensei's, Bill tops the list. We get lunch together, and he makes sure to drive all the way back to school, as if he wants to avoid all the noise and rabble rousing. I didn't mind, mostly because he gave me a delicious tofu snack that tastes like pudding.

No one told me what was happening today, so all the sudden I look up from my computer at the Home Ec teacher, who points out the window. "Sanka suru? (Are you joining them?)" she asks. To my horror, I see teacher's leaving in droves, and students mounting the stairs of a bus. "Where?" I ask, frightened, wandering with my eyes rolling around the office. Just as they turn off the lights in the teacher's office, I grab Fujii. He says he'll take me with him, but to where, he does not elaborate. Again, I ask "where?!" There is no reply. I'm starting to wonder if it is some convaluted plan to kidnap me. Then I remember that I'm not worth anything, and quickly dismiss the idea that festers in the romantic synapses of my mind. Instead, I end up at the community gym, alive and whole, andsurprisingly enough, not held for ransom.

I always hear these fascinating stories about Sport's Days, and how there bizarreness has confounded many a foreigner. For my part, everything made sense. They played Tug o War (which I participated in), played mass jump rope, and did three-legged races. The only race that was slightly out of the ordinary was the race that required the students to spin around a baseball bat ten times, then dizzily make their way to a pan of flour where they had to pick a piece of candy out with their teach. Then, with their faces ghostlike, and somewhat creepy, they get a piece of paper that says what their partner should be like. They then have to find a partner, tie their legs together, and then make it to the finish line. It was altogether very interesting.

I have not yet had chance to talk about Fujita-sensei, and although I spoke to him little today, I think a description is in order.

Fujita sits next to me in the office, and is the head of the first year class, second homeroom. Apparently, he was very good friends with Etienne, and it makes me a little sad that I haven't yet achieved that status. I do my default of doing stupid things around him so he thinks that I'm not scary. My plan hasn't suceeded yet. MyMr. Bill told me today, with great relish, that I scared the crap out of him initially, and joked that I made him pee his pants. "You're an awkward person, aren't you?" I respond.

Fujita is very good friends with Fujii, and completes the "cool trio" of teachers (Okada, Fujii, Fujita). When I told him my brother's age, he became very excited because it was the same as him. Since my brother isn't always the most mature person, I found it odd to be in an office setting with a twenty-six year old. I mean, surely, that's not grown up enough, right?

Who Fujita is would make a great story in a novel, if he already has not been. He is a math teacher who he says he likes the incomprehensible subject because the order of it all is simply beautiful. This order he loves so greatly is put into practice by leading the brass band after school. I find that I admire him for being so mathematical, yet inspired.

This is not enough to make him a character worthy enough to write about, although I think that it is intriguing at the very least. What I find so interesting is that he enters all purchases so he knows his finances down to the single yen. He even enters in a 100 yen purchase of a bottled water into his excel document. I had never thought such anal behavior from such a seemingly normal person could exist! He also has three cellphones, one for each Japanese company (au, Softbank, DoCoMo), with a compartmentalized purpose. Such extremes are only reserved for fictional characters, yet here he is, existing in the real world, existing in the same office, existing in the chair next to me. I wonder if he wonders at my existance. How could such a messy girl exist? I never keep track of my money, and my desk is a trove of papers which I must excavate before every class to find the necessary worksheets. Surely, no one could be as messy as I.

I feel as if ying and yang.