One of the Moms

Yesterday after school, Ariana and I joined several of the other mothers and children for a visit to the local Jido Kaikan (Children's Hall). About nine of us in all, mostly Japanese except for myself, a woman from Hong Kong and one from India, made the short walk from the school to the hall. It seemed to take forever as seven children ranging in age from one to four years old, tripped and fell and ran and jumped and cried their way there, with the parents patiently herding them along.


We stopped at the local grocery store to buy snacks. Having experienced the kindness of Japanese moms, as they always bring enough to share, I ran to the drink isle and bought enough containers of milk for everyone. Little did I know that in this kind of situation, everyone just bought their own. So, I now have many little bottles of milk (it turned out to be soy milk) in my fridge.


The hall has a room specifically for snacks, so we all filed in, taking off our coats and shoes and settling down on the mats to enjoy what we bought. Ariana had about three of the little bottles and ate her cookies, enjoying it all. The kids ate, drank and ran around, the moms talked and I took in the experience of spending time with women I was just beginning to know.


One of the little boys spilt his drink on his pants and his mother took them off to try to clean them off. While in his underwear, he started prancing around, grabbing various parts that really shouldn't be grabbed in public. We all laughed, his mother blushed, and I said "In the United States, there are women that pay good money for that". No one laughed. They looked at me as if they were trying to understand what I was saying - confused that their knowledge of the English language was failing them.

It dawned on me that here in Japan, male strippers did not exist. Just how I was going to try to explain without offending someone I didn't know, but I bravely made my bravest attempt. When I mentioned that there are places in the United States where men dance for women, one of the Japanese women I was with, looking started, said "you mean men with big chests with muscles?" I said "yes", thinking this particular woman, as demure as she seemed to be, had a wild side that was just waiting to come out - perhaps in the United States.....at a place called "Chippendales".............
.....preferably after a couple of ladylike cocktails.