The Age-Old Conundrum

Funny place, tano. Or maybe just lacking in women.

I went to the grocery store in the next town, and on the way there, three of my students waylaid me and made me have tea and coffee with them at an old grandma's (no relation to anyone present) art shop. they asked me a lot of questions about where I was going (the grocery store) where I came from (my apartment) and if I liked anybody in Tano (ensuing discussion about the appropriateness of me liking an elementary school student). They also all confessed who they liked (not as exciting as it sounds - this seems to be par for the course in the tano shougakkou fifth grade - everybody likes someone and it's no big deal who knows, unless i'm talking to Airi who recently told me she only has one more year to trap Seiyu because he's going to Aki Junior High and he likes Honoka, who is going to the same school, while Airi is going to Tano Jr High. Drama, drama, drama.) and proceeded to as me why Ryota sensei (25) and Takamatsu sensei (26) were "too young" (although they had no problem asking me if I liked one of them [11]).

We finished our tea and Yugo, who originally ran out and flagged me down while I tuned out to "Without Love" from Hairspray, disappeared for reasons that are still unclear. But the others of us decided to go check out the local home of historical significance, Oka Goten, and check out the dolls resurrected from storage for the annual Doll Festival, a girls' festival. N.B.: boys' festival is in May and includes giant flags of brightly-colored fish.  

We went to the house and had tea and sweets. The boys were mostly awful boys, except for the one sitting across from me who in almost every way epitomized an exemplary member of Japanese society, minus the bike helmet which he refused to remove for reasons that are still unclear. 

At one point, one of my coworkers came in and asked what they were up to. "Tea with Mary," was the response, upon which they were asked if they weren't a bit too young for that sort of thing. i'm not sure they got it. Whatever. I either get only old men or only eleven year olds (Gakuto, who has a text-book crush, remained aloof and outside for the duration of tea). Either way it was fun to be appreciated.

It almost made up for the lack of men.