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Last week I watched a very interesting news story about a company trying to teach its employees the value of money. The method they chose was to give all the employees cash bonuses in US dollars. When the employees were interviewed, they said that they would cash in the money when the yen got weaker. They were very excited about the prospect of their own currency devaluing. I am not sure if the employees learned a great lesson. But they are definitely aware of the international money market. So I thought it was a bit weird. A new AET says there is trouble at his school. There are some high school-aged boys who once went to his school, terrorizing his students. They ride their motorcycles around the school grounds, and demand money from the kids. The kids are scared, and the teachers seem to be too. They haven't done anything to these motorcycle kids. My friend says the teachers stand in the office and watch the scene. One day, all but 2 classes were canceled. So for the remainder of the day, students were interrogated about the bullying. My friend asked why the school didn't call the police, and the was, "In Japan, we don't call the police." Since then, I have talked with two other people about this problem. One of the teachers at my school was very surprised about the problem and asked if the police had been called. I also asked an AET who knows a lot about Japanese culture. He says that the school hasn't called the police, because Japanese don't really know what to do about disciplining youngsters. Japan is very harsh on adults who commit crimes, but very lenient on minors. Recently, minors have been committing much more serious crimes (murder, poisoning, knifing, etc.), and Japanese don't know how to deal with this. This reminds me of an article from the paper the other day. Did you hear about the people who died from arsenic poisoning at a festival in Wakayama? Since then, about once a week there is something on the news about poisonings, some of them new, some of them happened a while ago, but poisoning had just been realized as the causes. So, one of the most recent cases involved junior high students who received a "weight-loss supplement" in the mail. A few students from one school received the liquid. One child drank some of it and ended up in the hospital. The police interviewed all the kids who received the supplement, and a few days ago got a confession from one of those kids. The girl said that she sent the stuff because she was inspired by all the poisonings in the news. She didn't think that any of the kids would drink it, based on its foul odor. She said that she realizes it was a stupid thing to do and that she is very sorry. So now the authorities are trying to decide how to punish her. In case you were wondering, McGwire is hot stuff over here too. He is all over the news. Today the English -lang newspaper devoted one whole page to him, plus making front page. I could even watch the games, live, if I want to stay up late enough. Only other news is that Augie is here and I have visited them in Tokyo. Doug and I will be there again this weekend. Everyone is having a great time. It is exciting for me to see people in the first stages of Asian Term. How I wish I could do it again! Valerie Straayer |