Janken!

Janken - it's the Japanese rock paper scissors and it's a daily part of my life. A day does not go by in school where my students don't janken for something, extra dessert or milk at lunchtime, who is going to go first with their speeches, random games for fun in the hallway before class. If there is a dispute in one of my games, something is a little too close to call, I just say "janken!" and they have to abide by it. There are no hard feelings in janken. It was one of the first things the other English teachers taught me when I arrived. You will need this, they told me.

Some teachers try to teach the English version, knowing the kids will be interested in knowing another version of their favorite game, but the truth is that I prefer janken to the English version. Janken has a much nicer rhythm to it. Sisho gu janken po. You throw on the po. If you throw the same thing then you say aykorasho, throwing again on the sho until someone wins. Some kids shorten it to just janken po and sho, but that usually throws me off so I like the full version better.

What makes me laugh is when they really get into it (which is almost all the time.) We had frozen yogurt with lunch the other day and the shrieking caused by kids who had lost their chance at the extra in janken made me giggle. They do big group jankens for the leftover milk too. What really makes me laugh is when they glare at their hands and shake them with disdain, as if it was the appendage that let them down not their own intuition.

It's one of those things that I will take with me from Japan. I don't know if I'll ever play rock, paper, scissors again, but I will janken.