I had already decided not to say Good morning to passers-by when running in the morning, because I felt that I obliged him to―while acclimating to Japanese life. Japanese never greet strangers. If I was a part of his group, where we interact with our own interest, we would greet one another with much jollity.
After leaving that agency, I did not belong anywhere, not even to a small gathering, and was an outsider. As the outsider, I could keep to myself, be anonymous, be invisible. No different than I was a boy. Feeling free, I could go the other way.
I recalled the worst three years when I was a high school student. In Japan, there is something like a hierarchy system from elementary to high school―it is roughly comprised of three main ranks. In the highest rank is the extroverted like Jock and Queen bee that included bad boy and girl―it was no matter if you are intelligent or not. Mostly they are good-looking, appealing and vibrant, and everywhere he goes he blends. As an exception, if you are a promising athlete regardless of your character, you can definitely be here.
The students of the highest rank casually talk with the teachers, who tend to favor them. They dominate the class and manage the important events: sports days, school festivals, and school excursions. They are dating among them and feel somehow superior to any other students, who would bolster up the class; hitting the “like buttons” on Instagram or on TikTok―the number of your likes are proof that you are popular.
A large majority of the class are in the second rank―ordinary students preserving the harmony in the class. Unlike the assertive ones of the top rank who get carried away, they are not that prominent―no eccentric. They are plain students with Japanese-style common sense that saying anything that might disturb atmosphere in the class risks plummeting down, where they never ever want to go.
Some students are in blurring of the rank line, like middlemen between the top and the second rank; reading the atmosphere and sucking up to the popular ones. They simply have ambition to rise in the class.
I am sure that mediocre students who take a back seat can have a stable school life, because the ruling clique, now and then is sharply split by a row over trifles that are none of their business. The awkwardness those bastards display in each other’s presence, while you can devote yourself modestly to what you want to do in your school life: club activity, studying, or hanging out with your friends.
What is horrible is how unassuming they are. With hindsight, they adjust themselves to the high rank―like a relationship between superiors and subordinates. For example, the arrangements of roles such as a sports day―which attracts people’s attentions: the teachers, the families and the locals―can not begin without kind of show-offs. The most horrible thing of all is when they follow a leading figure who can use his strength to ostracize one.
In a state of anarchy are the low rank students. Each student has his unique characteristic and tend to go his own way. Basically, they are isolated, and a couple of groups, for example, are made up of otaku―obsessive fans or fanatics, video game or anime geeks, nerds. They are out of style―that was really wack―but impressively hard-core.
In retrospect, some geeks were wearing their thick glasses and deeply absorbing in a dating simulation game, Tokimeki Memorial( it was popular in the 90’s)―with pink fantasies for virtual girls not real ones who turn away. After a decade, maybe they got a school girl fetish for the idol groups like AKB48. And obsessive fans of Evangelion enjoyed their world, where they imitated its characters and laughing with each other. They would not have noticed that they made the others cringe.
The low rank students include nerdy studious boys who are mute. He will continue study hard for years to come, and the next thing you know the brain that you looked down on grow up to be a doctor or innovator. And a video games geek is a modern gamer who dreams of playing in Esports, a form of competition using video games, and of earning prize money.
I believe those who focus on one thing have the potential to be winners in life. Oddly, over the years, a beautiful girl in the high rank find herself developing her sense of her type from the cool guys to kind of dull ones or middled-aged men, both in a high standard of living. I always wonder what had happened to the innocent girls.
