Sato Sho is Peace

Not quiet, necessarily, but I actually really authentically enjoy going to one of my elementary schools. sadly, I don't go there very often, but every once in a while I do and it's a beautiful place. The classrooms are new, furnished in mostly blond wood that smells of cedar (potentially. nice-smelling wood at the very least), and while from the outside it exhibits the same brand of rectangular, crumbling century old concrete inspired architectural squalor that all Japanese schools are famous for, on the inside the lines are smooth, attention to aesthetic detail apparent, and everything is generally both clean and cozy. Which is rare. My other elementary school exhibits all the attention to aesthetic detail of a fall-out shelter that didn't get its door shut in time; maybe at one time it looked nice, but that was before the bomb turned it into a heap of, well, crumbling century old concrete. I realize now that this is an entirely inappropriate description of any Japanese building, let alone an elementary school, but I will keep it posted with a nod to it's impropriety because it's gets at a truth. Japanese schools are generally sorta ugly and look blown out.

But this one isn't, and it's not just the inside that shines. The kids are great too. I don't I played some silly game called fruit basket in class that isn't really very intellectually stimulating but because the kids are running around bumping into each other all the time they don't really notice. The best part of the day is just bumping around with the kids outside of class, because they're cute. Simply put. In the morning they do this thing where the whole school runs around outside on the track for like ten minutes, and the asked me to join. I said yes, and while it was exhausting I didn't regret it one bit. I was running around in a shirt (not a tie today however) and slacks amongst a fucking sea of white T-shirt, green shorted little kids, the late winter sun shining cheerfully on the prow-like triangular faces of the school buildings, struggling to keep up with the frantic sythesized version of some Aladdin song they were piping in over the loud speakers, and for a moment, things were good. Things were real good. And that's where I'll leave it.