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saleem
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Uniform Boy and the Skinny Man Thump · 21 November 05

As I reached the front of the line, the boys in the booth all smiled.

“Saleem-sensei! Saleem-sensei! Hello! Good morning!” they shouted. School festivals excite them.

“I’ll take one beef bowl,” I said.

“Would you like tea?”

“No thanks.”

“Then that’s 300 yen.”

I paid the money and he handed me my food. He also held out a box of folded papers.

“What’s this?”

He said something else in Japanese that I didn’t understand. I reached into the box and pulled out a piece of paper. I couldn’t read it.

I handed it to him. He read it aloud. The boys all cheered.

A tall, uniformed, student with a huge smile walked out from the back of the booth. He stopped in front of me and leaned forward.

His friends yelled.

“I don’t understand,” I said.

More excited Japanese sounds.

“Sorry, I still don’t understand.”

The leader of the boys put his index finger on his thumb and flicked it forward in the air. Fast, like he was thumping the head of a very bad child.

Huge-smile boy leaned farther forward and pointed to his own head.

I glanced behind me. I hesitated. The people in line were waiting.

I turned back around. I put my index finger on my thumb and held it high in the air. More cheers.

I thumped the kid good and proper, right in the center of the forehead.

Shouts of approval from all behind me.

“Thank you, Sensei,” said the boy. And still he smiled.

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  1. So baffling… so Japanese… ;)
    — Ching    1748 days ago    #

  2. In America we used to have dunking booths at school festivals. A teacher or principal sits on a platform above a pit of water.

    You pay a buck, you get three baseballs, and if you hit a target, the platform drops. The teacher is soaked.

    I guess it’s not so different, this.
    — saleem    1747 days ago    #

  3. but that’s where culture shock comes from—if something’s similar, but different enough to be blatantly noticeable. Like tea with ice in it and no sugar.
    — Twyford Zahir    1734 days ago    #

  4. off the topic, but:

    http://www.wordpress.tokyotimes.org/?p=725

    !!!
    — Kate    1723 days ago    #

  5. Kate, your level of research into Asian Studies frightens me.
    — saleem    1722 days ago    #

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