Joey
Regular readers of this blog think that I have a somewhat unhealthy obsession with the number of ‘special’ people in Japan. Reading back over my various entries it seems I might indeed have a bit of a special problem myself. If you think I talk about it a lot it is because here, at least in Toyama, the prevalence of children and adults with severe learning difficulties is high, and I am constantly wondering why this is.
People I have talked to claim it’s the highly limited gene pool; immigration is not encouraged in Japan. Others blame various cases of water pollution and such by Japanese industries. If you look around it does indeed seem that there is very little of the natural environment that has not been in some way concreted. Even the most hard-line will tell you that messing too much with the balance of nature will eventually come back at you.
I mention this phenomenon because the other morning I met a new chap. By now you know of The Jumper - the guy who jumps up and down on the spot. And you are no-doubt familiar with Rambling Man - the menopause-obsessed lunatic who yells torrents of brand names at every passing westerner. These days I have several special friends who accompany me to work every morning. Allow me introduce them:
Smiley. A very cheerful looking chap who does everything with his tongue stuck firmly out the corner of his mouth. He always gives me a little wave on my way to and from school while chuckling non-stop to himself.
Split Personality Boy. He likes to have conversations with himself. He has a normal voice, and his alter ego a high pitched one, and he often has entertaining arguments on the train home. Every time I see him I wish I could understand what he was saying.
There is a teenager who normally sits across from us on the last carriage of the train to school. I’m toying with calling him Napolean Dynamite. He gets on the train, sits down with a purpose and gets out a tall can of coffee. Then he sits up straight and takes long head-back slurps at one-second intervals until it’s all gone. Then he turns the can upside down and bangs out the remaining drips. Once happy that all is consumed he sits forward looking purposefully ahead, no doubt for the next coffee machine.
Constantly Lost is a very tall Japanese man in his mid twenties who seems, well, constantly lost. He jitters everywhere very quickly, peering over everybody’s heads as though looking for someone in the crowd. He never apparently finds them. He can often be seen talking into his train pass.
The Wall Sitter’s special need is beer, as he is a drunk. He sits on a wall outside the main station every day and enjoys long - obviously highly funny - conversations with himself over a can of beer. He’s there when I go home and when I’m back in town later at night. Though not technically ‘special-needs’ I feel he belongs on this list.
I mention these travelling companions because the other day I came across a new chap while getting off the train. In fact he almost killed me. A short man stopped abruptly in front of me at the door, sat down, and shuffled down the steps on his bottom - much like a four year old in a hurry. I’ve seen him a few times now and every time he gets off the train he gets extremely dirty looks and tuts from those around him. Which I think is slightly unfair. Indeed I thought it unfair a week or so ago when an elderly Japanese man stared in visible disgust at Split Personality Boy and very deliberately moved a few seats down from him. Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t understand Japanese.
Where is this special ramble going, I hear you mutter to yourself. Well, last week a student came up to me in the staffroom to ask what the various clubs did at an American high school she is going to visit. Going down the list she came across the ‘Special Olympics’ club. I looked it up and found that it caters for sports-minded students with learning disabilities, but I could not quite explain it to her understanding. I turned to my supervisor:
“Sensei, what’s the Japanese word for learning-difficulties?”
“Cripple?”
“What? No, like with dyslexia”
“Spastic?”
“Excuse me? Learning difficulties, er, problems”
“Oh, you mean retards”
“Right. That’s great, thanks … so Yamamoto-san, leaving Japan eh?”
People I have talked to claim it’s the highly limited gene pool; immigration is not encouraged in Japan. Others blame various cases of water pollution and such by Japanese industries. If you look around it does indeed seem that there is very little of the natural environment that has not been in some way concreted. Even the most hard-line will tell you that messing too much with the balance of nature will eventually come back at you.
I mention this phenomenon because the other morning I met a new chap. By now you know of The Jumper - the guy who jumps up and down on the spot. And you are no-doubt familiar with Rambling Man - the menopause-obsessed lunatic who yells torrents of brand names at every passing westerner. These days I have several special friends who accompany me to work every morning. Allow me introduce them:
Smiley. A very cheerful looking chap who does everything with his tongue stuck firmly out the corner of his mouth. He always gives me a little wave on my way to and from school while chuckling non-stop to himself.
Split Personality Boy. He likes to have conversations with himself. He has a normal voice, and his alter ego a high pitched one, and he often has entertaining arguments on the train home. Every time I see him I wish I could understand what he was saying.
There is a teenager who normally sits across from us on the last carriage of the train to school. I’m toying with calling him Napolean Dynamite. He gets on the train, sits down with a purpose and gets out a tall can of coffee. Then he sits up straight and takes long head-back slurps at one-second intervals until it’s all gone. Then he turns the can upside down and bangs out the remaining drips. Once happy that all is consumed he sits forward looking purposefully ahead, no doubt for the next coffee machine.
Constantly Lost is a very tall Japanese man in his mid twenties who seems, well, constantly lost. He jitters everywhere very quickly, peering over everybody’s heads as though looking for someone in the crowd. He never apparently finds them. He can often be seen talking into his train pass.
The Wall Sitter’s special need is beer, as he is a drunk. He sits on a wall outside the main station every day and enjoys long - obviously highly funny - conversations with himself over a can of beer. He’s there when I go home and when I’m back in town later at night. Though not technically ‘special-needs’ I feel he belongs on this list.
I mention these travelling companions because the other day I came across a new chap while getting off the train. In fact he almost killed me. A short man stopped abruptly in front of me at the door, sat down, and shuffled down the steps on his bottom - much like a four year old in a hurry. I’ve seen him a few times now and every time he gets off the train he gets extremely dirty looks and tuts from those around him. Which I think is slightly unfair. Indeed I thought it unfair a week or so ago when an elderly Japanese man stared in visible disgust at Split Personality Boy and very deliberately moved a few seats down from him. Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t understand Japanese.
Where is this special ramble going, I hear you mutter to yourself. Well, last week a student came up to me in the staffroom to ask what the various clubs did at an American high school she is going to visit. Going down the list she came across the ‘Special Olympics’ club. I looked it up and found that it caters for sports-minded students with learning disabilities, but I could not quite explain it to her understanding. I turned to my supervisor:
“Sensei, what’s the Japanese word for learning-difficulties?”
“Cripple?”
“What? No, like with dyslexia”
“Spastic?”
“Excuse me? Learning difficulties, er, problems”
“Oh, you mean retards”
“Right. That’s great, thanks … so Yamamoto-san, leaving Japan eh?”
posted by Geoff at 1:12 PM
3 Comments:
Ah yes. The japanese are very careful not to offend, but sometimes it seems like they are very careful not to offend only people that can understand them. Not present in that group? The mentally challenged. And, every now and then, us. The foreigners.
Ah yes. The japanese are very careful not to offend, but sometimes it
seems like they are very careful not to offend only people that can
understand them. Not present in that group? The mentally challenged. And,
every now and then, us. The foreigners.
What do you mean, "Every now and then?" More like "All the freakin' time!"
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