Memories of the 13th

A few nights ago, I succumbed to the urge to watch Evil Dead 2 again. I'd been in the mood since last Friday, which, as you remember, was a Friday the 13th. I'm not really into the Jason movies so I didn't want to watch one of those but that Friday also happened to be my last day at one of the schools I've been working at at one of the junior high schools here in Kakogawa. I took the opportunity to talk about the superstition around Friday the 13th since part of my job is to talk about western culture. In the past, there's been a 50/50 chance that I'll be working with a Japanese teacher who'll listen to me along with the students when I say no-one really knows the origin of the superstition despite a number of theories or a Japanese teacher who will tell the students a very specific history about how Friday the 13th is definitely related to the crucifixion of Christ.

I was sorry to bid farewell to this school, especially since I'd been with them such a short time. It's a small school so I'd been assigned to work there for only about two months, cumulatively, though that period was spread out in small chunks throughout the school year. This last bit was only a week, actually just four days because Wednesday was a holiday. There were several students with whom I developed a rapport from each of the three grades (junior high school is three years in Japan). Riffing off Friday the 13th with the first year students, we started talking about horror in general. When we were talking about using the verb "have" to talk about illness, I started giving absurd examples like "I have lycanthropy", "I have the plague," and so on, and I looked over at one boy who started smiling in a surprised, knowing way when I wrote "lycanthropy" on the board. He clearly knew the word already, which impressed me, of course. As is so often the case, I had the feeling that Japan would be much better at English if the kids were allowed to get their own imaginations involved more often.

From there, someone mentioned Chainsaw Man, a recent anime about a guy with chainsaw limbs. As always when someone mentions Chainsaw Man, I had the urge to recommend Evil Dead 2. Really, I should've recommended Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness. The mixture of slapstick comedy and horror in those movies is so perfect for that crowd of students, it's rare I've sensed such a perfect match of movie and audience.

As usual, I felt like I got to know the art club students the best. There was one girl who got into trouble and was banned from the art club until my last week there, which was really too bad because, like most of the independent-minded students I've worked with, she was one of the most rewarding to talk to.

Among the second year students, there was a guy on the basketball team who had a surprising interest in westerns and with whom I talked extensively about films. There was also a girl with a surprising fixation on the actor Clancy Brown.

The third year students were a little harder to talk to because they had a science teacher who for some reason had an ax to grind with me. But there was a girl on the student council whose English was surprisingly excellent and she and I were able to speak about movies and music quite a bit.

Even if it weren't the end of my period at the school, I wouldn't be seeing the third year students again. Every year is a heartbreak. There's not a group of students I've worked with that didn't have among them individuals who distinguished themselves with fascinating interests and personality traits.