Being half Japanese and half American, my kids don’t always fit the mold that’s prepared for them here in Japan. At my daughter’s school they have something called fuuki kensa, which is an inspection by the teachers to make sure the students aren’t doing scandalous things like dyeing their hair, shortening the hems of their skirts or painting their fingernails. Sure enough, the other day the teacher wanted to know why my daughter had lightened her hair, but of course it was her natural color, which caused a bit of a logical disconnect until the teachers realized she was haafu. Pierced ears are also a no-no in conservative Japanese schools, and the teachers were amazed to see that my daughter had had her ears pierced when she was younger. Of course, going to junior high school here means learning English in the formal “this is a pen” way that Japan loves so much. My daughter’s (Japanese) English teacher was coming in to start one such lesson when he overheard my daughter singing one of the songs from High School Musical in perfect English, which just about made him jump out of his shoes with surprise.
(I am guessing that they probably did this in the U.S., back in the 1950s or 60s? It seems like something you’d expect to see in Back to the Future.)
