Students

It's definitely true that Japan is different from America. I am totally aware of that. I've smacked my head against the cultural differences both literally and figuratively, and I'm not that tall. However, there is one I can't quite put past me.

In America, when studying to be a teacher, it's pretty much crammed down your throat that you do NOT hang out with students outside of class. It starts scandals and is generally no fun. Well, in Japan, it's actually encouraged for students to go out with their english teachers on weekends and after work. 3+ months into work, and I still haven't wrapped my head around it. The first event I went to was a going away party for the teacher I replaced, and it was full of students... but instead of just being myself, I felt like I had to be a "teacher." Since then I am relaxing more, but still, I personally don't feel like I could be myself around students if I went out with them, and thats not fair to either of us.

The reason for my rant, is that I did actually hang out with one student outside of class named Yoshiyuki. We went shopping with my friend Sarah from Umeda and he is a really nice kid... he's 18. He's going to California to study in June, so it is beneficial for him to be around native english, so thats another reason why I met him. And it was actually fun. But, in school and class the next week, he started talking about things we talked about on the weekend, and the other students in his class were out of the loop... so it wasn't fair to them. Also, it just made the entire class awkward.

Well, most recently, Saturday night I was walking to the train station to go home from work, I saw Yoshiyuki buying a ticket. So, I said hey whats up? Where are you going? And he said, your place. He had decided to come to my apartment to hang out and stay over.... with little notice to me. I was so surprised.... and I said ummm I guess you can come over, my apartment is totally dirty and I have nothing to do or eat.... but we ended up ordering a pizza and watching movies. But still, he stayed over and wouldn't leave the next day until I actually said, I have to kick you out. 

It was actually a good time, but now I know he's going to go into my school and tell everyone he stayed at my place on Saturday.... and the eyeballs are going to all turn on me for having an 18 yr old student at my apartment for the night alone. Sigh. Or I could just be paranoid, but I would rather be paranoid than optimistic in this situation.

I'll let you know how it all works out! Now if you'll excuse me, I am going to enjoy day 3 of my 4 day weekend :)