Ok let's Jenken!

I forgot to mention one of the more positive aspects that comes from teaching kids. I am now an expert at Jenken. For those of you who don't know, Jenken is the japanese version of Rock Paper Scissors-I suppose it would be more accurate to say that Rock Paper Scissors is the english version of Jenken. I think they invented it. We use it in class usually when we're doing the card activities and there's a tie in a race to touch the correct card. If it's a tie I point to the two kids in question and say "Ok. Jenken."

What happens next is a sight to behold. It's as if you've hit the "Launch" button. If I did that in Canada it would take two minutes for the kids to get the rules sorted out. Here in Japan however, the words are barely out of my mouth and the kids' hands are already in motion. These kids have probably never met outside of class before but there's no question of how you play-it's just instinctual for them. I had one class that I divided up into two teams and they played Jenken for the cards. The two teams were so enthusiastic that they would scream out the words and usually someone from each team would grab the players arm and move it up and down for them-it was really funny.

During the man to man classes where there are no other students I get a chance to play a little myself. In fact I've played it so much that I know the chorus (try to imagine this in a cute little kid japanese voice.)

Sigh-show goo
Jenken
Pon

and if it's a tie:

Icodashow (repeat as required)

The game is fairly similar to the Canadian version only the paper is with the palm vertical instead of horizontal and in the event of a tie, rather than going through the motions three times again you just do one more and show your hand again so "Icodashow" is all in one motion. Also this is probably just what the kids do, but the first two shakes are regular and then on the third one they swing their hand all the way back behind their backs and then swing it all the way forward again as if to finish in a grand finale. It's quite cute to watch.