Softly...softly, softly.

I have introduced many a folk over the last 6 months, but there are a couple of people that have been excluded from my stories, not by choice, of course, but simply by expedience.

First of all, there is my Tea Lady. This position, in and of itself, is something to note: Here in Japan, there is a person who takes care of all the things the teachers cannot do because they are simply too busy, like receiving packages, opening the doors for the lunch crew, serving lunch in the teachers room, cleaning the restrooms nearest the Teachers’ room (These bathrooms are safely outside the responsibility of the students), and fixing tea for the guests… thankfully not at the same time.

Hence the term “Tea Lady”. This isn’t what the Japanese folk call the position (It has a suitably normal Japanese title), it’s what we call them… because it’s better than “Toilet Lady” I guess…

Anyway, my Tea Lady is insane and wonderfully so. She cackles, she tells jokes, she constantly plays silly games… It’s wonderful. She is certainly as un-Japanese as it gets.

Needless to say, she has been trying to get me to do the “Ultraman” pose for a good couple of months now (Which she has demonstrated happily over and over in order to have me duplicate it).

She doesn't speak much English at all, though I think she speaks more than she lets on. I have the feeling that she has taken it upon herself to help me become fluent in Japanese. She often gives me lessons on useful words (In fact "Useful" was one of her lessons). The words she chooses are often cute or stange-sounding words (Useful is "Benri", I think she liked the sound of that word).

Regularly, she will say goodbye to me and add: “See you next week”… on a Tuesday… or, even better, “See you next year”. To which I say, “But Tea Lady, are you leaving?” To which she replies, “I have been absent for a long time!” And then she cackles.

She’s awesome.

A couple of weeks back, she taught me a little bit of a skit from a Japanese Comedy, to be honest I have no real idea what it means, simply that there is a part where one of the Comedians says: “Just….just just…” in context, it sorta comes across like “Softly…. Softly softly…”

So it is now part of our daily routine, she and I, saying “Softly...softly, softly." to each other.

The other day, however, we went into our normal routine just as the School Nurse, an older lady who likes to have everyone believe she is a cast-iron… well, a mean person, but we all know she’s a sweetheart. Anyway she comes into the teachers’ room just as Tea Lady and I start our little routine…

I say, “Softly...softly, softly."

And then the Nurse says (As she passes right past us): “Oh, shut up.” Which incites a round of laughter from all of us.

The other interesting character (and there are many), is my Groundskeeper. He’s an older fellow, maybe in his mid to late 80’s, and very, very tiny.

The first time I met him I was with my Japanese Contact (The lady who goes with me places to do translation and the like). She and I had just left the school after our introductions and this little old man come us to us with a Kama in his hands (A hand-held sickle), and, pointing it at me says (In Japanese) : “Are you the new teacher?” I say yes and step forward, “You are replacing OldTeacher-Sensei?” I say yes, “Okay,” he says, “Well then, welcome to MySchool” and he toddles off. My Japanese Contact says (In Japanese): “That was scary…” I simply nod, a little stunned to say anything in either language.

The next day I pull into my parking spot and The Groundskeeper is trimming the hedges, he looks at me, smiles and - get this - salutes me. The friendly kind, the David Letterman kind of salute, not a military salute by any stretch, but he’s been doing that every day since I started.

It wasn’t until Sports Day that I did much more than say good morning and good evening to him.

At lunch on Sports Day, my Vice Principal decided I wasn’t going to have lunch with the Teachers (As usual), but I was going to have lunch with the PTA (Gee… fun), so he hauls me into the Guest Room (Which the Tea Lady is responsible for cleaning, I might add), and we sit down for lunch.

Directly across from me is the little Groundskeeper. He smiles, salutes me, and then, noticing I didn’t have a wet cloth to clean my hands with, hands me his. No thought about it, he just hands it over to me with a toothless grin.

In Japan, it’s the little things that you need to watch.

The reason I bring this up is; 80+ years old means he was doing something here during WWII… I’ve always worried about what would happen if I, an American, met someone from that era. I know what Americans are like from that era.

Here’s a fellow who may have lost people in the WWII to my people’s attacks. Yet if he cares, he sure doesn’t show it.

He’s totally treating me as everyone else does; like me.

I can really respect that.

Okay, so I don’t think he’ll ever invite me to dinner, but he’s a lot more civil than I would think many of my grandparents’ generation would be toward Japanese… and they never firebombed or nuked America…

Softly…softly, softly.

---Me.