Rock, Paper, Scissors, Wha?....

So today my kids discovered “American” rock-paper-scissors.

In my Japanese class at university, we played the “Japanese” rock, paper, scissors…”Junkenbon.” But we did it with the gestures we’d learned as kids, hitting our closed fits against our open palms (and having arguments about whether you showed your hand on “three,” or “shoot.”) I was a little surprised to find that my students play by doing this sort of shaker motion with their fists-it’s hard to describe, but a lot more suspenseful than the American way. Who knew you had to be multicultural to enjoy a game of rock-paper-scissors?

Anyway, in the course of teaching today, I joined in, and did it my typical American way. Both the students and the teacher were amazed and amused at what I was doing-wait, you… you hit your hand?! You hold your palm flat, instead of vertical? What are you doing, you crazy American??!

Just to experiment, I tried it in my following classes, all with the same result. Well, maybe, I thought, it was because they were ichinensai and ninensai. I decided I’d try it one more time on the sannensai, my lunch group.

I’ve been meaning forever to write about school lunches, but I just haven’t had the strength, so I’ll preface this by saying I’ve only scratched the surface. Anyway, they always give us/me way too much food. I’ve had a very hard time even giving my extra food away, which was what the other JETs suggested; even in the boys in my class didn’t want it. Today I tried out the advice of a particular JET, who plays Junkenbon with his students over the food… except doesn’t mention beforehand who gets it, so if they win, here you go, you won!, and if they lose, here you go, you lost! Classic win-win/lose-lose situation. I challenged a boy for the cucumber-white-shavings-that-might-be-fish-product salad, and just like predicted, the boy took the food when he lost without any protest. Works like a charm.

And my students were vastly entertained by the palm-hitting.

So, win-win day for me.

(Note: I was a little confounded when a student bumped into me, and cried,” Oh… my… God! Samimasin!* I am sorry!” I could have sworn she was making fun of me… so, okay, 95% win-win day for me!)

*A slaughtered version of “sumimasen.”

*Today's Random English: From a sannensai, in the middle of a lesson and totally off topic, "Guard rails help protect cars from going off the road."