Since coming here, I've found lots of interesting things around Japan, including people, porn (see previous post), toxic shaved ice stands (not sure if I blogged about that one). But today I came across something that really put a smile on my face and made me want to share.
Okay, so we all have yearbooks sitting at home collecting dust. Maybe once in a while we look back at them and reminisce about the ''good ol' days''. Or, maybe we lock them away and swear to never crack them open again. Either way, we all know what they are. Well, today I found a Japanese yearbook sitting around the computer room (ironically it's not even for this school, but a local high school). Being curious, nosy really, I had to take a peek.
The book is soft cover and rather small (almost pocket size). It has pictures of little anime-like characters eating sweets and drinking coffee (I say anime-like so people will be able to picture that at home...but here, anime is just animation and all drawings look like it). In the bottom corner it says, in English, ''Did you enjoy your school life?''
''Awww, how sweet'' I think to myself. I guess in America we really don't care if people enjoyed their school life. Maybe we just assume they did.
The first couple of pages are color photos of field day, club activities, school festivals, sports tournaments, and class activities...Oh and their school trip...which looks to be to some sort of tropical island (yeah, that's definitely not like anything from America).
Then you have a message from the principal which I'm sure is about enjoying your youth (I really don't have time to try and translate it). A message from the school president and vice president. All very sweet with hearts, smiley faces, and all sorts of clipart thrown into the letters. So I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, have a nice smile on my face, that is until I look at the next page...
Hmm, what's this...Meet the new students? Looking at the picture. Ah, hmm,
what exactly are they doing? There are 9 students who all look to be throwing gang signs. Yeah, seriously, gang signs. One guy looks like he's holding pistols. One girl has her tongue hanging out as she has her fingers crossed to make W's (west side??? of??). The other girls look all sweet and cute with their arms crossed over their chest. The picture looks an aweful lot like this:
Most of these kids probably have no idea what this means. They probably watched some gangster movie and thought, ''HEY, that looks cool!'' And then started throwing them up every time someone goes to snap their picture (much like the peace sign). I'm sure somewhere out there, some little Japanese girl has a sticker picture of herself throwing these signs with a bunch of Hello! Kitty characters, hearts, and smiley faces surrounding her.
Oh, what's this? Class pictures! Each class (students are put into classes of about 32, they stay with these students all day, except for electives) has one group photo. Boys on one side, girls on the other and the teacher in a track suit in the middle. Under the picture is a message from the class about who they are and a little hand drawn picture. Fairies, chipmunks, lots of baby Minnie and Mickey Mouses, and various other Disney characters. Aww...wait...What's this a picture of? Class 1-3 has drawn a picture of what looks like their teacher happily dragging his dog on a lease, while the dog drags its butt along the ground. *Chuckle* On the next page is an amazingly realistic picture of a woman who looks like she's either constipated, or about to blow her top. Looking at the picture...ah, wait...it's a picture of their teacher! Wow, I can't imagine many American teachers letting their students draw a picture of them looking so angrily constipated and putting it in the class memory book. What love and fond memories they must have of their homeroom teacher!/possible sarcasm.
But wait! They get better! Class 2-1 has drawn a picture of Minnie mouse, smiling and looking all cute while flipping the bird. Yes, seriously flipping the bird. Yet some how that doesn't beat the picture of class 1-6, where the ENTIRE class is flipping the bird. I guess it doesn't really mean anything to the students, but from the perspective of someone who understands it's meaning it's rather disturbing. The rest of the class pictures are rather uninspiring - pictures of baby donald in a diaper and just happy messages of love, joy and peace.
Then I get to the club pages. They list the club members and a little message about the club. Basketball, baseball, hmm...what's this the Hop, Step Dance club? Oh...Guitar club! That's cool! And they wrote their entire message in English...
''Welcome to THE Guitar club. Do not you enjoy heretical Rock with hardware together? I want to make CRAZY TIME with YOU! You will fall into The Hell if you do not come *Heart*'' then at the bottom
''A rock & roller & the punk & the fork & the metal & the Visuals come on!'' (The fork?)
Crazy time? Heretical rock? Fall into hell if you don't come?? That is one intense club! And just think, these kids meet 5 - 7 times a week. I can only imagine what kind of crazy time they're making together 7 days a week.
Oddly, the English club flier is almost ALL in Japanese....
Then a survey page with exciting questions like:
Who is your cell phone provider?
Do you like school lunches? (62% said yes :- WOW!)
Do you like this school? (52% said yes...hmmm)
What class did you like?
What is your favorite school lunch?
What is your favorite room in school? (haha, the bathroom is actually #3)
And then a school map...crap the school has 5 floors. That alone might make me hate the school.
And more photos from school activities. It looks like school life was pretty exciting and despite the ''hand signs" and bad English, it makes me a tad jealous. I wonder what it would have been like to attend school here? Would I have felt welcome or would I have been like the kid in class 2-3, standing on the very edge of the picture with his hands folded across his lap and his head hanging down. I wonder if he's enjoying his school life?
Okay, so we all have yearbooks sitting at home collecting dust. Maybe once in a while we look back at them and reminisce about the ''good ol' days''. Or, maybe we lock them away and swear to never crack them open again. Either way, we all know what they are. Well, today I found a Japanese yearbook sitting around the computer room (ironically it's not even for this school, but a local high school). Being curious, nosy really, I had to take a peek.
The book is soft cover and rather small (almost pocket size). It has pictures of little anime-like characters eating sweets and drinking coffee (I say anime-like so people will be able to picture that at home...but here, anime is just animation and all drawings look like it). In the bottom corner it says, in English, ''Did you enjoy your school life?''
''Awww, how sweet'' I think to myself. I guess in America we really don't care if people enjoyed their school life. Maybe we just assume they did.
The first couple of pages are color photos of field day, club activities, school festivals, sports tournaments, and class activities...Oh and their school trip...which looks to be to some sort of tropical island (yeah, that's definitely not like anything from America).
Then you have a message from the principal which I'm sure is about enjoying your youth (I really don't have time to try and translate it). A message from the school president and vice president. All very sweet with hearts, smiley faces, and all sorts of clipart thrown into the letters. So I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, have a nice smile on my face, that is until I look at the next page...
Hmm, what's this...Meet the new students? Looking at the picture. Ah, hmm,
what exactly are they doing? There are 9 students who all look to be throwing gang signs. Yeah, seriously, gang signs. One guy looks like he's holding pistols. One girl has her tongue hanging out as she has her fingers crossed to make W's (west side??? of??). The other girls look all sweet and cute with their arms crossed over their chest. The picture looks an aweful lot like this:Most of these kids probably have no idea what this means. They probably watched some gangster movie and thought, ''HEY, that looks cool!'' And then started throwing them up every time someone goes to snap their picture (much like the peace sign). I'm sure somewhere out there, some little Japanese girl has a sticker picture of herself throwing these signs with a bunch of Hello! Kitty characters, hearts, and smiley faces surrounding her.
Oh, what's this? Class pictures! Each class (students are put into classes of about 32, they stay with these students all day, except for electives) has one group photo. Boys on one side, girls on the other and the teacher in a track suit in the middle. Under the picture is a message from the class about who they are and a little hand drawn picture. Fairies, chipmunks, lots of baby Minnie and Mickey Mouses, and various other Disney characters. Aww...wait...What's this a picture of? Class 1-3 has drawn a picture of what looks like their teacher happily dragging his dog on a lease, while the dog drags its butt along the ground. *Chuckle* On the next page is an amazingly realistic picture of a woman who looks like she's either constipated, or about to blow her top. Looking at the picture...ah, wait...it's a picture of their teacher! Wow, I can't imagine many American teachers letting their students draw a picture of them looking so angrily constipated and putting it in the class memory book. What love and fond memories they must have of their homeroom teacher!/possible sarcasm.
But wait! They get better! Class 2-1 has drawn a picture of Minnie mouse, smiling and looking all cute while flipping the bird. Yes, seriously flipping the bird. Yet some how that doesn't beat the picture of class 1-6, where the ENTIRE class is flipping the bird. I guess it doesn't really mean anything to the students, but from the perspective of someone who understands it's meaning it's rather disturbing. The rest of the class pictures are rather uninspiring - pictures of baby donald in a diaper and just happy messages of love, joy and peace.
Then I get to the club pages. They list the club members and a little message about the club. Basketball, baseball, hmm...what's this the Hop, Step Dance club? Oh...Guitar club! That's cool! And they wrote their entire message in English...
''Welcome to THE Guitar club. Do not you enjoy heretical Rock with hardware together? I want to make CRAZY TIME with YOU! You will fall into The Hell if you do not come *Heart*'' then at the bottom
''A rock & roller & the punk & the fork & the metal & the Visuals come on!'' (The fork?)
Crazy time? Heretical rock? Fall into hell if you don't come?? That is one intense club! And just think, these kids meet 5 - 7 times a week. I can only imagine what kind of crazy time they're making together 7 days a week.
Oddly, the English club flier is almost ALL in Japanese....
Then a survey page with exciting questions like:
Who is your cell phone provider?
Do you like school lunches? (62% said yes :- WOW!)
Do you like this school? (52% said yes...hmmm)
What class did you like?
What is your favorite school lunch?
What is your favorite room in school? (haha, the bathroom is actually #3)
And then a school map...crap the school has 5 floors. That alone might make me hate the school.
And more photos from school activities. It looks like school life was pretty exciting and despite the ''hand signs" and bad English, it makes me a tad jealous. I wonder what it would have been like to attend school here? Would I have felt welcome or would I have been like the kid in class 2-3, standing on the very edge of the picture with his hands folded across his lap and his head hanging down. I wonder if he's enjoying his school life?
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