May 5 2004
Crazy about Japanese girls #2: Close quarters

All the other students in my Thai language class were Japanese girls. They couldn't speak English so we got to know each other by chatting in pitiful Thai. It was all rather surreal. They were a friendly bunch, though, and were soon offering me tasty Japanese snacks from their Hello Kitty lunchboxes. Both the girls and the snacks were irresistible so I consumed their food like a huge cuckoo. As my fame spread, Japanese girls from the other classes would come round to feed me too.
Inevitably, I took on the role of class-clown and my efforts were rewarded each day with a giggle-fest of shy Japanese laughter. The Thai teacher, Khru J, was great too. She loved to raise dodgy subjects for discussion - and farang misbehaviour was her favourite. For some reason, she always addressed the most impertinent questions to me.
Naturally, I presented myself as a clean-living chap with no interest in such matters. I did, however, admit to having once been to the Ministry of Sound - a windowless concrete nightclub visible from the classroom. Architecturally, it looks similar to a dodgy massage parlour and Khru J asked me if it actually was one. In setting the record straight, I carelessly revealed the full extent of my nightlife-related vocabulary. Khru J knew all along that it was a nightclub, of course, and had lured me into an elephant trap. She took the piss mercilessly and I never lived it down.
As our language skills improved, the discussions just got better - middle class Thai values, dog ownership, my girlfriend's curious habits, burying corpses standing up etc. - and the set texts were often relegated to homework. As the months passed, we students also began to confide in each other more. Despite appearances, being a company wife (they all were) is no picnic. Being new to Thailand, I didn't have much of a social life at that time so our little group came to be something of a surrogate family.
I'd always been led to believe that the Japanese were an unfathomable bunch but it turned out that we had a lot more in common with each other than with the Thais. When Khru J was out of the room, we sometimes discussed what we honestly thought about them and our opinions were surprisingly similar. Excessive politeness aside, we were definitely all on the same wavelength.
Unfortunately, in the third term, we got a lacklustre replacement teacher. She stopped our lively group discussions and made us endure dull readings instead. The lessons soon became unbearable and I now understand why so many Thai kids get such a poor education.
Our status-conscious new teacher regarded the unlikely Anglo-Japanese alliance as a threat to her authority and, as ringleader, singled me out for criticism. Bizarrely, she tried to compensate for this by giving me (and only me) silly little presents each day. Not surprisingly, her Thai-style carrot and stick approach bred only resentment and, in the face of a common enemy, our class camaraderie only strengthened.
Eventually, though, it got to the stage where the lessons were a total waste of time so I decided to call it a day. When I told my Japanese pussy posse that I wouldn't be coming back the following Monday, they were visibly upset. It was very sweet of them and each girl deserved a hug - and, had the situation been less formal, they would all most certainly have got one. It was a rather sad way to end one of the most enjoyable chapters of my life in Bangkok.
[Posted to Diary by David]
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Diary
MySpace date ends in trailer park pissing party
Near death experience at the Madrid Bar
Body double at Bangkok's Eden Club
Pulling farang girls in Thailand
My Silom Soi 4 Thai gay experience
Maradona, my voyeuristic Thai gecko
My Thai girlfriend's unusual cruelty
Thai girlfriend wrestles my anaconda
McDonald's awards me crap mystery gift
Thai bar girl pukes on latest Nokia
Female torso sparks Thai Airways terror alert
Crazy about Japanese girls #2: Close quarters
Crazy about Japanese girls #1: The myths
The World's scariest cockroach chases
Ya-dong humiliation on Soi Cowboy
Thai food: Pad Thai cockroach Fantasia
My Thai girlfriend's KY Jelly revenge
Fucking serious: Mom finds out about blog
My lethal anecdote and the Heimlich Manoeuvre
Goodbye APEC and good riddance
Previously
June 2007
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