Back to the Dungeons

Twenty-six years after I last played it, I played Dungeons and Dragons again, two days ago.

At the Japanese junior high school I work at, a couple second year students (14 years old) are native English speakers--one has a parent from Australia and the other has a parent from Canada. The half Canadian student is a big fan of Stranger Things, a show that, oddly, is mostly unknown in the Japanese schools I've worked at. When I asked if she'd be interested in trying out Dungeons and Dragons like the characters on the show, she jumped at the idea. I could tell she wanted the experience of a group of friends like the one on the show and I sure wanted to make it happen.

I told her to ask around for students who might be interested in joining. The other native English speaker wasn't interested but the half-Canadian's best friend, a Japanese student, was interested. I announced the game in a couple of classes and got one more interested student, another girl. I recruited two boys from the English club so we ended up with three girls and two boys, all second year students except one of the boys, who's a first year student.

I ordered dice and the latest editions of the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide off Amazon, English editions both. Japanese versions are being released only later this month, though the older, "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons", was released in Japan years ago. I discovered the tabletop RPG Call of Cthulhu, based on the HP Lovecraft mythos, is widely available in Japan and is displayed prominently at the bookstore in my nearby mall. Which explains why the students recognised the big octopus headed monster I was doodling on the chalkboard one day. One of them was surprised when I told her it was created by an American writer. Whatever the quality of the tabletop RPG, it is nice to know Lovecraft's monsters and mythos are well known while his status as a political football in the US is meaningless.

Anyway, since Dragonlance is what I know, and my copy of The Art of Dragonlance managed to migrate to Japan with me, I decided to use the classic Dragonlance campaign. This meant I also had some ready-made characters if making characters proved to be too difficult or time-consuming for the students, assuming I could convert them to the new rules without any trouble. And generally speaking, I found the new rules to be simpler. I remember how long it took me to understand THAC0. Now THAC0 has been replaced by an attack roll modified by a relevant ability score (strength for melee weapons, etc.) and a proficiency score. I'm not sure if it's functionally simpler but it's easier to understand.

The artwork in the new Dungeons and Dragons books is pretty sad compared to the beautiful stuff in the old Dragonlance material.

Everything looks like it was hastily coloured with a graphics programme algorithm. Gone are the meticulous oil and acrylic paintings by the likes of Larry Elmore and Clyde Caldwell.

Which made me glad I was using old Dragonlance material.

I managed to get a classroom with a big TV I could hook my laptop to, which was helpful for visual aids, and I also used a playlist of fantasy movie soundtrack selections (from Conan the Barbarian, Willow, and The Thief of Bagdad, among others).

We ended up meeting for a total of two sessions. The students all have club activities and, in the wintertime, they all have to leave school at 4:45pm (whenever I tell students I went home at 2pm in junior high school, I'm met with astonished incredulity). So we could only meet on Thursdays, the only day none of the five students had club activities, and only for about an hour. I spent the whole first session explaining what Dungeons and Dragons is and how to make characters. We were still doing ability rolls when we ran out of time.

So before the second session, I made sure to have all the Dragonlance characters converted and distributed print-outs. Even so, most of the students seemed to be overwhelmed and opted not to come back. So for the second session, I had only the half-Canadian and the first year student boy. He's a real champ, that one. In the English club, I have them all practising sections of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" and he has the section when Santa says, "On Dancer, on Dasher" etc. Every time he does it he tries to shout it louder and louder. He records himself on his Chromebook which he takes out into the hall to practice. Even so, everyone can hear him from across the school.

I gave him Caramon Majere because he wanted to use a human Fighter. Among the changes he wanted to make was to have him be 10,000 meters tall (converting everything to metric was another headache). When I had the two of them fighting a group of goblins and I asked what he wanted to do, he said he wanted to beat them all. It took some time to bring him down to earth but, once I did, he really got into it, running at the lead goblin with a spear. The half-Canadian student, meanwhile, managed to create a character I helped her with by rolling most of her stats. She wanted to use a spellcaster but chose mostly non-offensive spells. Even so, she managed to kill a goblin with her dagger (I had them both starting at Level 8). At the end of the second session, I was pretty happy, and now the first year student is asking for more. It's a shame next week is taken up by testing and my last day at this school is the 19th. Hopefully, the two of them will find a good way to feed this RP beast I helped them create.

This Charming Lear

This is something I drew for my Shakespeare presentation. I made one for Hamlet, Macbeth, Falstaff, and King Lear. I had clips for all of them except Macbeth, from various movies. I usually only have time to show one clip so I have the class vote on which one they want to see. Yesterday, for reasons I can't begin to guess, one class overwhelmingly voted to see the King Lear clip. I showed the storm scene from the 1983 Laurence Olivier BBC production and the students actually seemed captivated, despite a lack of subtitles. I suppose a lot of what Lear yells at the storm is pretty simple English.

Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout, rain!
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters:
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness;
I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children,
You owe me no subscription: then let fall
Your horrible pleasure: here I stand, your slave,
A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man:
But yet I call you servile ministers,
That have with two pernicious daughters join'd
Your high engender'd battles 'gainst a head
So old and white as this. O! O! 'tis foul!

The students know words like "fire", "daughter", "children", and "kind". That might be enough for some students to get the gist. Though part of the reason I wanted to show Shakespeare clips was to tell them that a lot of native speakers don't understand Shakespeare's dialogue now but they go to see the plays anyway--"Because the plays are beautiful," I said instead of, "Because they're poseurs." I'm trying to get the students not to shut down when they hear English they don't understand. A lot of emphasis in Japanese education is typically put on precision and the kids are so afraid of making mistakes it often holds them back from even trying.

Yesterday I also planned to show the 1951 Alice in Wonderland after school. Unfortunately, all of the third year students had gone home early due to the sports festival and they make up the bulk of my typical audience. Only one student showed up, my best friend, the second year student who gave me the higanbana. She's such a sweetheart. But she could only watch the beginning of the film before she had to go home to study. However, I did end up showing it to two special needs classes. That was fun--despite the fact that merchandise from the 1951 film is all over the place--kids have pencil cases, bags, pens, and notebooks with art based on the 1951 film--most of them have never actually seen it.

I also played Go Fish with the second special needs class. This class consists of only three students whose only issue is that they're too shy to be in the normal classrooms. One of them is a little girl I met last year when she was a shy first year student. When I saw her for the first time this year, I immediately spotted her Cinnamoroll mask. I remembered how much she adored Cinnamoroll last year--she'd done an English presentation on the character--so I was excited and complimented her. She laughed and is clearly very proud of her mask.

I taught her and the other students how to play Go Fish on that occasion. Yesterday, I found Miss Cinnamoroll has become an expert at shuffling a deck of cards. It's amazing. This shy little girl with tiny hands can do all the tricks of a Blackjack dealer. She does the thing where the cards flip up under her thumbs and the quick movement where the two halves of the cut deck fan into each other. If she overcomes her shyness, I can see her making good money at a casino. Which is probably not something the other teachers would be too happy about. Still, I thought it was pretty cool.

Locals on the Move

Turtles and fish were milling about in confusion yesterday. This was in the river near the school I just started working in. This is the fourth junior high school I've worked in so far. The school year begins in April in Japan so there are brand new first year students who still look like elementary school kids. Less than a month ago, I attended a graduation ceremony for outgoing third year students, fifteen years old and looking like young adults. I feel pretty lucky to have ended up teaching junior high in Japan and being able to watch so many kids in this period of transition.

I wish I could have said goodbye to more of the graduating students. Fortunately, I have run into some of them around town. I ran into a group of three girls at the mall, each one wearing her new school uniform--and each uniform was different. They're all going to different high schools. One of them is going to a school in Tenri, a good distance from Kashihara, so this may have been their last time hanging out.

I had to talk to them in Japanese because they either retained no English or they were just delighting in forcing me to speak Japanese. I sure hope it's the latter.

This morning at the crowded Kashiharajingumae station, one high school girl in a crowd moving in the opposite direction to mine called out my name and waved. I waved back though I didn't have time to recognise her.

Twitter Sonnet #1442

The perfect tea appears with time and leaves.
The wayward page was turned by thumb and left.
The pants were weak beside the mighty greaves.
The worthy phones have supple shape and heft.
As wires clamp the nose, the questions form.
But any nose was named the same for streets.
For running cards who paint the yoghurt warm.
And bleach the priceless plot of ruby beets.
A heavy lid could never stop the tea.
A viper locks the case of captain cards.
Between the wasps there crouched a bolder bee.
The hardened honey broke in crystal shards.
Convenience grinds the lunch to plastic pulp.
A battle nears to find the biggest gulp.

Teens Graduate and Go to the Mall

I'm seeing more and more signs of spring around here. A really big sign was the graduation ceremony I went to to-day for one of the junior high schools I've worked at. I watched third year students I'd gotten to know over the past year file into the gym, sit down, and each be called by name. Parents and teachers were there, it was beautiful. I can't believe I won't see these kids around school anymore. I hope I see some of them around town.

Junior high school in Japan is three years, for students from 13 to 15, and then high school (which isn't compulsory in Japan) is three years. So working at a junior high school really feels like the bridge between worlds--the first year students are like little kids and the third years already seem like young adults. Normally first and second year students attend the ceremony, too, but, due to the Corona virus, couldn't this year. And everyone wore masks, of course.

I live in Nara prefecture which hasn't been in a state of emergency since early last year. I haven't even heard anything about getting vaccines around here. The mall's not even closed.

How are malls in America doing? I watched this new Billie Eilish video this morning in which she's wandering around the empty Glendale Galleria.

Looks like it was shot after hours but the shops had food ready for her. Chipotle had takeout ready to go for her, making me think the video's not so off-the-cuff as it looks. Though maybe having takeout bags ready is just normal during the pandemic now? Anyway, I like the energy of the video. It's a decent song, though I'm not a fan of Eilish's outfits. But I gather I'm kind of not supposed to be. Now that's punk.

Over 140 million views on a video of a girl wandering around the mall, shot on an iPhone. Hopefully this does something to reinvigorate malls in the US.

Twitter Sonnet #1432

Our smokey thoughts return to reddened trees.
For after blunted dreams we rolled a die.
However ants would fain disparage bees.
They dwell below the same collector's sky.
Guitars are stacked beside the burning grill.
A burger brain is writing songs of meat.
The story turns against the cheapest bill.
Expensive butts contend to take a seat.
For eyes, the dripping glass supplied the flame.
Electric dances charged the floor for gas.
Remember tiles swapped a shingle's name.
The sunny train redeems a drunken lass.
The crooked flower watched parading shoes.
A silver letter brings the gilded blues.

The Sun Sets on Another Club

This was the sunset at Yagi Station yesterday as I went home after my last day at my latest school, at least for now. Hopefully I'll be going back and it'll be nice to see all of the first year students as second year students and all the second year students as third year students. This is the third junior high school I've said a hopefully temporary goodbye to and the students have been so sweet every time. Especially the kids in the art clubs. This time, a group of three first year girls I talk to a lot made some artwork for me. One of them was a picture of various characters from Kimetsu no Yaiba, another was a big picture of the girl's original character coloured with colour pencils. The third girl made a little booklet for me, about the size of a memo pad, she'd stapled together. Every page had a drawing of a little girl in a different outfit--this particular young artist has an extraordinarily distinct style and I always told her she should make a book of some kind. One of the girls in the pictures wears the school PE uniform, another the dress, and another wears a pink sweater with a tiny bear. The style is a bit like an American comic strip, maybe Cathy in the eyes, but the bottom of the face is much smaller so the girls are cuter.

The colouring is brilliant on the works of all three students. These are thirteen-year-olds I'm talking about and they're making art I would expect from a twenty year old American with years of practice. I'm tempted to post some except I don't want to compromise the kids' privacy in even the slightest degree. Hopefully one day they'll be publishing things themselves.

I've been seeing stories about how animators and comic artists in Japan are badly paid, and that's very often true, but it's still a much more economically hospitable country for artists than America. I see comic style art everywhere: on billboards, on city signage, in the school text books, so at least there seems to be a lot of side gigs for artists not making it on their original works. Even so, I hope these kids have a brighter future than that, they certainly deserve it.

The girl who made the booklet for me seems to like me in spite of the fact that she hates English. Most of the time she refuses to acknowledge that she even understands the word "Hello" but she tilts her head so sweetly and politely when I greet her I can't feel frustrated. Yesterday she spoke English several times to me as a courtesy, I think, because I was leaving. The only other time she spoke that much English was when I found out she likes Ranma 1/2 and we were both so excited to find the rare (nowadays) fellow Ranma fan she immediately started talking about the characters she liked and so forth.

A lot of the students conceal their English ability, I've noticed, for various reasons. I have a few theories as to why and I think it varies from student to student but most of the time I think it's because they don't want to show off in front of their friends who aren't as good at it. People are generally extremely considerate that way--often if I make a mistake of some kind, one of my fellow teachers will make a somewhat similar mistake--I think on purpose--a few minutes later so I won't feel as bad. The art of politeness in this country is really intricate.

Twitter Sonnet #1450

Descending sleep would claim the lowest moon.
The rocks of restless mites were kissed by stones.
For easy apples turn the season soon.
For how the narrow channel sweeps the bones.
There's frozen cake to fill the fridge of night.
For sweeter substance stamps electric bills.
We bargain kits to knit the scarf aright.
Permission placed the screaming case of wills.
Discussing power, chefs prepare the seats.
A sugar glaze would gleam beneath the flame.
The morning nut of nurtured dough made treats.
A suit constructs the body's softer name.
A phone can never speak with honest worth.
And lastly Rei effects a weirder birth.

Critical Cats and Promising Birds

This cat continues to mock me. I turned another corner and there he was. What must I do to avoid the censure of his expressive wit, his wicked tongue? I left him some cat treats I've been carrying in my bag but didn't have time to see if he ate them. But why should I care about his approval anyway?!

This is my last week at the junior high school where I've been working. Then it's off to other work for the company that hired me. I didn't anticipate how great this experience would be, how really wonderful these kids are. To-day I did my best to tell one little girl how great her artwork is and I made the dubious choice of encouraging her to make manga. "Too difficult," she said. I told her, "The best work in life is difficult work."

These kids generally seem so much happier than the adults. I hope the machines of life aren't going to crush them a few years down the road.