E Cannibus Unum?

Recently, the sumo world has been rocked by scandal. Two wrestlers have been permanently banned from professional sumo for having failed drug tests. They were found to have used… wait for it…. Marijuana. Yes, that dangerous drug that gives a professional athlete such an unfair advantage.

The Chairman of the Japan Sumo Association has lunged to accept the full blame of such a disastrous scandal and responded by tendering his resignation, though he insists that he had no prior knowledge of it and in actuality, completely believes the wrestlers when they deny having used marijuana. The Japanese, as a culture, have such an amazing ability to accept full blame for a situation, while at the same time, completely denying any of the responsibility. As usual, it seems to be the opposite of America, where everyone wants the responsibility, yet accepts none of the blame.

And after recounting all of the dirty details of lifetime bans and resignations, the media then focuses on two, in my estimation, minor details in the scandal. One, the fact that the wrestlers are Russian borne, though they have been living and working in Japan for a good portion of their young lives. And two, they allegedly attained the pot while in America. The implications are unspoken, yet certainly not subtle; no true Japanese sumo would have succumbed to this terrible western drug. It’s as though the Japanese believe that they couldn’t possibly be corrupted by such things.

And yet, the more I see, the more I kind of believe it. Not that Japanese can’t be corrupted by things, but they seem to be completely unaware of marijuana’s existence, and at the same time, naively aware of it.

A slight digression, but stick with me. All Japanese schoolchildren have pencil cases in which they carry pencils (of course), erasers, crayons, rulers, and - somewhat oddly in my mind – needles and thread. The younger kids usually leave them in their desks and the older grades bring them to my class despite the fact that they never, ever use them. In fact, it was when I was directing them to set them down on the floor by the wall to keep them out of the way, when I noticed the large number of cases in very distinct colors of green, black, and orange-red. It was the unmistakable image of a cannabis leaf on the lid of one of the cases that really caught my eye, however. I won’t insult you by pretending that I didn’t immediately recognize it. Despite what social conservatives proclaim, to be raised in a small town in Kansas and not recognize the shape of a cannabis leaf or the distinctive smell when it’s being smoked, requires such a passionate commitment to ignorance that I am grateful to have never had.

I had a class to teach, though, and no time to investigate this interesting development. Thankfully, I was scheduled to eat lunch with the one of the other 6th grade classes and would have the opportunity to check it out.

And we circle closer and closer. I think I’ve described in general terms lunch-time in Japanese elementary schools before, but to give you a little better picture of what happens – lunch period officially begins at 12:30. It’s at this time that about six students put on their aprons and caps and head down to the ‘kitchen’ area and collect lunch and all of the dishware for the entire class. This usually consists of a basket full of bowls, plates, and chopsticks, a metal bucket full of rice, another containing soup and a smaller covered pan with the fish and / or pickled foods. Another pair of students head to the school refrigerators to collect the milk for the class. When they return to the classroom, these students set up an assembly line and serve their classmates. Nobody begins eating until everyone is served and the students on lunch duty for the day have removed their aprons and caps and settled down to eat.

This entire process often takes a good twenty to twenty-five minutes. I’ve seen it take up to thirty minutes a few times. It’s odd to me how these students react at lunch-time - it’s beyond patient and bordering on the apathetic. We can have our food sitting in front of us for ten minutes and the kids never act annoyed or even curious as to why we haven’t started eating yet. I have to admit, I become both curious and annoyed, though I try to hide it.

My point – and yes, I do have one – is that I often have ten or fifteen minutes to interact and observe the kids as we wait for our lunch to begin. The kids are often reading, drawing, playing cards, etc. Most importantly, they are often opening their desks, revealing their pencil cases. During this particular lunch, I didn’t immediately sit down and start talking with the kids at my particular lunch group. Instead, I wandered around the room on the lookout for that distinctive leaf. Almost immediately, I spied a very sweet and somewhat shy girl named Naoko open her desk, and sure enough, sitting on top of her Winnie the Pooh folder, was her metal pencil case in that distinctive green color and covered with outlines of cannabis leaves. On the corner of the case, however, were the words ‘The Hemp Society.’ Now, Japan actually has a decently large hemp market, so I withheld judgment.

In the desk next to her, however, I hit jackpot. The boy threw open his desk to get his comic book to show his friends and next to it was his pencil case. It was black, green, and red striped and in big, black letters completely covering the top of the case, said ‘CANNABIS.’ I kind of caught his and Naoko’s eye, and tried to subtly look at the cases questioningly. Their faces as they looked back at me were the definition of childlike innocence. There was no hint of a smirk which I would have suspected.

I’ve had my eyes on the lookout since, and these particular pencil cases are everywhere and they seem as though they’re all from the same company or brand. And despite their wide dispersion throughout all of my schools, nobody seems to indicate that know what they represent.

But seeing young girls walk around with pencil cases advertising marijuana along with their Winnie the Pooh binders and their Hello Kitty pencils isn't the only incongruity to been found in Japan. A common sight in downtown Kumamoto are thin, young men with Clay Aiken hairdos and delicate features wearing oversized FUBU clothes, and small boutiques filled with lacy, frilly clothes and playing Bob Marley’s ‘Africa Unite’ on the speakers.

It’s like an entire country is in on the joke and nobody is blinking.

My Current Reading Material – Stanley Lombardo’s brilliant translation of Virgil’s Aeneid. Dr. Lombardo was a professor of mine at the University of Kansas and I’ve had the extraordinary pleasure of listening to him read from several of his translations, including Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. He brings such a modern voice to these classics, while still remaining faithful to the spirit of the author and work. I cannot recommend these translations more highly.

Album currently playing on my IPOD – Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings. And next up – Eric Clapton’s 2004 album, Me and Mr. Johnson.

- Jenny