Handsome and Etc.

The Handsome Businessman

The handsome businessman is up for a contract renewal and everyone is worried that he won’t renew. The head teacher reminds me to do my best to make him...want to renew. It’s all about the okane in this place, I think cynically as she says it. I say that I will try, but these are just words.

I am the product in this place, and the product either sells or it doesn’t. I’m being pushed, but god forbid I should push myself. I don’t, in other words, do anything that I don’t want to do. That’s the deal I’ve made with myself and I’m sticking to it.

I happen to know without being told that the handsome businessman is up for renewal because I listen for every bit of news about him. He is my student boyfriend, the student that I look forward to seeing every Friday. The student for whom I wear ever shorter skirts and ever higher heels for, despite the fact that I know that he is happily married and that I would never convince even an unhappily married man that the grass is greener...outside the marriage.

That’s my deal with the universe and I’m sticking to it.

Random

I’m convinced that one can find anything in Tokyo. Anything, that is, except cottage cheese. Cottage cheese doesn’t exist here. I have never seen it.

A new hair salon opened in Higashi-Mukojima about a week ago. With the opening of this salon, I can now walk to five different salons in less than five minutes. The new place is called “b/laugh.”

I am reading someone’s online journal and she comments that this morning, she really enjoyed her S’bux mocha. I read that and pause. The Brain says it doesn’t know what the word “mocha” is. The S’bux here do serve cha (Japanese green tea), but what is a mo-cha? I pronounce it in my head, using the soft Japanese “ch” as in “Charlie”: “Mo-chya?” “Mo. Chi. Ya?” Mo-chya? What’s mo-chya? The Brain, with some embarrassment, suddenly remembers that there are such things as “mo-kas.” Moka. it’s a moka, ne? Ne.

I interview a student, a young woman who tells me that is a hairdresser. As with any new student, I begin by speaking. Very. Slowly. Her English is relatively good and I ask if she has foreign clients and she says she has a few, but that she also has foreign friends with whom she speaks English. I challenge her a bit by picking up the pace at which I speak and I go through the highest level interview with her and though she makes several mistakes, I’d put her in the lower third of the advanced level of students at the school. After the interview, I chat with her another minute, then I have to run off to teach. As I close the door, I hear her say to the Japanese manager, in English, “She was speaking so fast!” I can’t help but laugh as I think: Why did she say that in English?

Handsome Businessman

“I love that guy,” I say to Yuko, of the handsome businessman. She says, “Ne? Nehhhh! He would be handsome anywhere in the universe, ne?”

I say, “Ne.”

Random

The student in the lobby is buying a textbook that puts him in an upper level class. I have never seen him before, but he must be Ben’s student because Ben and I are the only two teachers, native speakers, allowed to teach the highest level classes.

I walk over and say, “Hi, I’m Brenda. What’s your name?” He tells me his name is Yusuke. We chat. He is Ben’s student. I ask what he does and he tells me that he sells medical equipment. We talk about the specialized vocabulary he needs for his job. He gives me a business card and I ask him questions about it, as one does. As the conversation winds down, I see that he is eager to shake my hand. This is unusual for this place--Japan, I mean--as most people approach handshakes with a kind of trepidation at best. But I sense that this guy actually is chomping at the bit to shake my hand. What’s that about?

I say, “It’s been nice talking with you!” and I extend my hand, and he reaches out and shakes it firmly. That, too, is unusual. It is very rare that even the most successful, confident businessmen will offer a firm handshake. I say, “That’s a nice handshake!” He says, “I heard about what you said.”

I laughed.

About a week ago, I taught several classes and I had people practice shaking hands. Many people, as I said, don’t like to do it. I know this because I asked. The upper level class explained that perhaps it was because people were afraid they might have to speak English. I said, “But you pay money to come here to speak English!”

When I asked the lower level classes if they liked bowing better than shaking hands, they all said bowing was better. When I asked why, the lower level students wrinkled their noses and just repeated that they preferred bowing. I asked them to explain how bowing worked, then I told them about how handshakes work.

Generally, I said, the more powerful, confident people use gradually more powerful, confident handshakes. They hold them longer, they look into your eyes while they shake your hands. Try this, I said in my classes.

I had never, however, said this to Yusuke, the young man who was standing before me, ready to try it.

Handsome Businessmen

One of the assistant managers explains that it’s okay if her husband has affairs as long as he always comes back to her. This is not an uncommon point of view here. I think: We make the same deal in the West, only we have to pretend not to accept the terms of the deal. I think: I could never accept this.

I am single for a reason. I am single--in part--for this reason. She considers my point of view a mark of immaturity.

Random

Jun tells me that one of his students, during a class in which students were supposed to explain why they study English, stood up and said, “I study English because it’s better than doing nothing.”

I laughed and said to Jun, “Well, that’s the same damn reason I teach English.”

Handsome Businessman

The handsome businessman renews his contract, signing up for my class.