Fight! Fight! Fight!

"Ouch!"

Had a fight in class, today.
Not me, personally.
2 senior high school first year students.
Short but sweet.

Saw something was up when the one guy came over and punched the other guy to his left in the shoulder.
The other guy then stood, up, smiling all innocent like.
Before I could get to them, the first guy walked up to the other guy (who was now also standing) and headbutted him in the face.
They then started to grapple.
I managed to get between them and thankfully neither of them hit me or ripped both my testes from their housings.
It took me a while to get the first guy to let go of the shirt of the second guy.
I had to make myself sound as calm as possible and slowly ease his grip off the other boy. I figured this would work bettter and was the best thing to do, trather than have the students witness me grappling with two boys on the floor, in the middle of the classroom, clothes ripped to shreds, an occasional teste out of its housing...
The Japanese teacher then rescted by thinking that everything was finished and we could continue with the lesson, but I persisted.
I realised this was not over, whatever it was.
The Japanese techer then left the class wioth the first boy and had a talk with him.
The other boy (who didn't seem to do anything wrong) listened to me and sat down and we continued with a good lesson.
Then the teacher called for the second boy, who left the class. I continued teaching and eventually the teacher returned, sans students.
I assumed that the boys were with the homeroom teacher and the head of the year, in the teachers' room.
After the lesson was over I tried to explain to the students that it was not okay to resort to violence to solve your problems and if you did, then there would be consequences of those actions.They should try to talk about their problems, and not bottle them all inside, or try to forget about them or ignore them.
I think most understood.
The boy who went crazy is not such a bad boy. He just snapped.
But once he snapped, and the adrenaline started flowing, he then went into overdrive and headbutted the other boy and didn't recognize the teachers as symbols of authority.
Later, after calming down a little, he realised what had happened was not normal and he responded to the teachers' calm requests to let go and leave the clasroom.

I must admit, my blood was up and the adrenaline was flowing.
I tried my best not to sound alike a cross between Mickey mouse and Larrry the Lamb but I think it was easy to hear a slight shake in my voice.

BUt the kids were okay, as they usually, are.
I went to see the ehad of the year after my lesson, to find out what really happened and what was to be done about it.
It seems the angry boy is still in the nurses room and no one has decided what to do.

I tried to recommend that the boy recieve some kind of consequential punishment for what he did.
Also, the boys who taunted him (it turns out the other boys were calling him by a nickname he didn't like) need to be reprimanded.
What the boys did was wrong, but that in no way jsutifies the violent reaction the first boy gave.

Reminds me of the recent story about the boy who was angry with his mother and brother and so in the day, he bought a saw and that ngiht he cut off his mother's head and arm and carried his mother's head to the police station.
He didn't kill his brother because he said he was too tired, after killing his mother.

Great.
Stories like this eseem to be more and more common.
Joe Bloggs snaps atnd lashes out, wihtout warning or perhaps, reason.
Human beings can only take so mcuh stress before they find an outlet.


People here neeed to talk more and they need to be more aware of what is right and wrong and why. They need to understand that, yeah, of course they have the option to gouge out the smoking guy's eyes as he puffs away in the no smoking area of the cafe, right next to you. however, once they have done that, they msut realise that they will be held responsible for their actions and there will be consequences.

The textbook we use this year is called empathy.
Seeems ironic.
Where is the emapthy in Japanese contemporary society?

My friend was sitting at a bar.
At one end were 4 smokers.
He was sitting at the other end, about 10 seats away from the smokers.
He had just recieved his meal when a middle aged man came in and sat down - right next to him.
He then started to light up a cigarette.
MY friend politely pointed out that he was about to eat a meal and could the guy not smoke next to him.
So what did the guy do? He just held the unlit cigarette in his mouth for 20 minutes, whilst my freidn ate.
After my friend finished, the guy lit his cigarette.
Uncaring, or jsut plain stupid?


A few times, I have been sitting on the train, in an almost empty carriage.
A Japanese person gets on and immediately walks up the carriage and sits down - directly opposite me!
WTF? How can I explain to them that this will now mean we both have an uncomfortable journey, trying not to stare at each other.
Why can't they understand this?
I jsut now continues ot stare straight ahead, as I was doing before they sat down.
They then seem angry that I am staring at them!!! At times, I just save time and simply get up and move.
Then I'm sure that person feels upset that I didn't want to sit near them.
Idiots.
Or am I missing something? I'm pretty sure it's not my magnetic personilty or fantastic looks, because I have neither.

I love this country but some things about the way the people act make me want to scream.




But that would be bad, so I am expressing my feelings and talking about it, trying to remain open to a new interpretation.