Over the weekend I went to my daughter’s bunka-sai or school culture festival. Anyone who’s watched more than a few episodes of anime will have quite a bit of knowledge about the kinds of activities seen at these school events, with each class or school club operating coffee shops, selling yakitori chicken on a stick, or doing something related to their club, like the shop my daughter’s English club ran selling American candy to the other students. I had fun roaming the halls, stopping at the “Haundet Mansion” (very scary stuff in there) and the school’s M.A.C. or Manga and Anime Club, which published a doujinshi made by all the members. (It wasn’t very good, but I bought a copy to show my support to the kids.) While I was at the culture festival, I made a point of pretending not to speak Japanese, to see what kind of reaction I’d get from the students. Most were flustered at idea that they would ever have to use the English they’d learned for nearly six years, but a few blazed ahead, speaking broken English with me and not caring if they made mistakes (which is the correct attitude to have, believe me). It wasn’t quite quite as moe as K-On! but it was a lot of fun.
I had fun at my daughter’s school culture festival.
