In Shizuoka every fall they have this crazy big event called Daidogei. I've never actually been since it's all about street performance and.......yeah, freaks doing stuff in the street with huge crowds watching.....not so much for me, but I know the basic idea. It's something like this.
*shudder*
Yesterday and today I went to a school that I've been to several times in the past 2 years. It's pretty huge though & there's an actual English teacher so I'm not that close with any of the kids since I've never been left to handle them on my own. Yesterday though, one of the 5th grade classes had a couple of handicapped kids and they asked me to come see them perform after lunch. The teacher couldn't fully describe what it was they were going to do she just said, "It's something like........daidogei? I think.........."
Great.
My favorite.
But at least they were doing it in the special ed. classroom, so no big crowds. A few girls from the class went along with me, but that was it. It turned out what one kid was doing was something (I had to look this up) that is probably called a Chinese yoyo. (The other kid just tossed it to him & started the cd player!) It looks like this:
(This is not my student, just some random picture I found online.)
Turned out it was pretty fascinating. He was really good at it. Good to the point that he was dripping sweat after he was finished twisting and turning the rope, spinning around, throwing the yoyo up in the air and catching it on one finger while it was still spinning, somehow making it slow down out of nowhere and sliiiide up the rope.....
I sat there for half an hour without realizing it. He tried to do some juggling too, but he obviously hadn't practiced it much yet & he always went back to the yoyo. I wanted to write about it last night, but I'm getting a cold so I left it, and after today I'm glad I did. I would've had to post again right away.
It's amazing how easy it is to recognize something when you understand it for what it really is. A while back I wrote about how my dad had inadvertently made me sympathetic to kids with disabilities. Today in another 5th grade class there was a kid who was obviously autistic. No question about it. Later on the teacher told me, "oh he's.........got something wrong with him.......it's um.......well, his parents don't want to hear it so he just stays in the regular class all day." Sad. But reality all over the world.
And just like the girl who never spoke at my last jr. high, he fit into the class in his own way. The other kids were nice to him, they didn't ignore him, but they didn't try to force him to do what they were doing either. He did participate in the self-introduction part of the lesson. Came up with his teacher, said "nice to meet you", shook my hand, & gave me a "name card". And I couldn't let go of his hand. Because he was wearing like, 4 different Vongola rings!!! We talked a lot after that while the other kids were moving around, preparing, changing activities. He brought one of the low tables up to the front and sat on the floor behind it and gradually took everything out of his little bag. And by everything I mean about 6 stuffed animals, a pair of slippers made from mostly masking tape, various Reborn! related goods, a small sewing kit, several spools of thread, and a green piece of felt in the shape of a leaf. And when I wasn't talking to him, he sat quietly sewing on the leaf. Not really making anything, just pulling a piece of thread through it over and over. There was no knot in the end though so it didn't leave stitches behind.
After class we talked about Reborn! with some of the other kids & they of course got really excited as he and I compared the stuff we'd collected. I said I had all the rings except Rain & Lightning (that's Sky, Storm, Cloud, Sun, & Mist if you're counting...) He gave me his Lightning ring.
I thought those cheap capsule toy rings made for Japanese-kid-fingers didn't fit my hands (which is why all of mine are on a bracelet attached to my backpack) but I put it on & somehow it didn't get stuck. The kids in the next class called me Lambo the entire lesson.
