お世話になった私

Last week I stupidly crossed an intersection on my bicycle without stopping first, and I couldn't stop in time to avoid hitting the side of an oncoming car. Luckily, the 60-something year old woman whose car I hit was understanding, kind, and extremely polite! After making sure I was OK, she bought me a drink from the drink machine and chatted amicably while we waited for the police to get there. My supervisor, school principal, English teacher, and school nurse also showed up, surprisingly, and everyone seemed a little disappointed that the only injury to be spoken of was a scratch on my finger. Both my bike and my person were totally fine, but the damage to her car--scratch, scratch--was fairly costly (I love you, JET accident insurance).

I wrote the kind lady an apologetic letter, which she in turn replied to, glowingly. "You're just like my own child," she wrote in Japanese. "I'm sure your parents must be worried about you. Please enjoy your next two months here and be careful! Come visit my house sometime!" What a response from someone I gave a big headache to!

My poor supervisor at the board of education is also getting a lot of headache from this accident, dealing with the insurance company and all. Today he wrote me to ask me to go by the Koban (neighborhood "police box") to pick up a notice of accident form so he could send it in to the insurance company.

Thinking police boxes are open 24/7, and not being able to go there earlier, I set out on my bicycle (tempting fate!) around 6:30, ready to show off my impressive Japanese to the helpful policeman.

I had just gotten off of my street when I saw three of my ex-students, two girls and a boy, lounging on their bicycles and chatting by the side of the road. "Kazuki?" It was my favorite student from 2010, now in 11th grade (高校２年生), along with Natsumi and Kana, who just entered high school this April.

"You remember?" he asked. This is the same boy who wrote on an assignment, "I saw you with a man eating udon at Aeon. Who is that man? Is he boyfriend? I think he is boyfriend." He's hard to forget.

After we talked for a bit, I said I had to go; they wanted to know where; embarrassed, I explained the situation and how I needed to get a paper from the Koban. "I'll gambaru (try my best) in Japanese!" I laughed.

"Yokattara (if you want), I go with Jaimie!" Kazuki volunteered. He pulled out an electronic dictionary.

"Eigo ganbatte! (Good luck in English!)" screeched the girls. My protestations -- I'll be OK, don't worry, you probably need to go home, etc. -- were met with daijoubus all around, so that's how I ended up biking to the police box with one of my old students. I don't even want to know what the neighbors must have thought!

It's a good thing he came, though, because I didn't really know where the place was. He had been there before, to return a wallet he had found on the street (now THAT'S a good kid!). When we got there, it was closed up, with only a sign pointing at the emergency phone.

"I call," he said.

"No, no, no, it's OK," I told him. "It's not an emergency. I can come back on Monday. It's OK. Don't worry. I just need a paper. It's not an emergency."

Something got misunderstood in my bad Japanese and his understanding of English, though, because he picked up the phone and in the most polite Japanese ever (アメリカのかたですが。。。) he explained the situation. After a long pause dotted with occasional "hai, hai, hai"s followed by a proper "shitsurei shimasu" (so polite!) he hung up and looked up the word for "insurance" in his dictionary.

"Call. They have paper," he said in English, and then in Japanese, "And the rest I don't understand, because I'm just in high school."

Exactly.

So now I've got to call my supervisor back on Monday and see what I have to do now. Things which are a hassle in America are double the hassle here, what with the language and the hierarchy of who to call and all. At least, I met a new neighbor who I might go see before I leave the country, and I was able to connect with students I haven't seen in a while. Super ALT, that's me. お世話になっている私。