Koncho

I know it is May and most people wrote about this phenomenon in September but today is the day that I lost my virginity of never being koncho-ed. Koncho (for the folks at home) is where the little kids (usually 1st and 2nd graders) but their hands together, extend their index fingers and jab them in your butt. I have heard about this happening to many male teachers but hardly ever to females. The new 1st graders at one of my schools must have made koncho the hazing ritual and invited me into their secret society of 1st graderness. I got konchoed about 20 times. It didn't hurt, but the sensation of the hands of small children up your ass isn't appealing. I finally had to back myself into a wall, but this is where the little kids got confused. They obviously don't know their anatomy too well because they attempted to punch me in the balls (if I had any). They often do this to their male teachers. Good thing they are only first graders and probably have yet to learn the way the world works.

These are the children which yell "Gaikoku-jin" (foreigner) every time I see them. To which I reply "Nihon-jin" with a pointed finger in their direction.

These are the children that surrounded me after their first English lesson grabbing ahold of me where ever they could so I wouldn't leave. Sitting on my feet and having their first touch of a gaijin.

Ah, these are the moments that make it all worth while.