On my fondness for goldfish...

I was telling my friend about my “pet” goldfish that I kept in a fish tank at the school I used to teach at in Japan, and I was instantly reminded of dear Masahiro Takita, my “secret crush” of many months. Although this memory of Takita-sensei is years past now, it still puts a smile on my face.

On my first day at a new school, I was shown my desk in the teacher’s room. The teacher to my left was a hot, young, guy teacher… athletic build, strong jaw line, tall, lean. Did I say hot? Yes, very hot.

Anyway, being the super genki foreigner that I am, I introduced myself, and attempted a bit of conversation. I think I got two words out of him, and a couple of shy nods. Even though my Japanese was pretty lousy, I don’t think it was that bad. He just seemed like he didn’t want to talk to me for some reason. Possibly because he was shy, possibly because he was scared of foreigners, or maybe he was just a snob.

Anyway, every morning from then on, I continued to say hello to him and was greeted back with the usual nod. But then, finally one day, I made him crack a smile. After noticing that he wore a different PUMA shirt to school every single day (he coached volleyball, therefore he was always in his athletic wear), I said to him teasingly “you really like PUMA don’t you!?” (To which he proudly told me he owned 29 different PUMA t-shirts). That was also the moment that broke the ice…

After that, Takita-sensei really opened up to me, and we became pretty good friends. We shared diaries with each other, in which I would write an entry-a-day in Japanese and he (was supposed to) write an entry-a-day in English for me. We'd trade our "diaries" to help each other with language study. He would also come to some of my classes whenever he had a break, just to watch me teach… and then I would go to his classes, and participate along with the kids. He taught Japanese, so going to his class was a great place for me to learn calligraphy, or kanji or something. Besides, he taught the grade 8's, and the grade 8's loved me!

A great thing he did for me was on a day when I missed my bus (ie. the one bus) that came to my school area to get back into town. I had an appointment in Chiba city that I would be late for, and when I told Takita-sensei, he grabbed his car keys, and told me to meet him out front. He drove me out to Chiba and then went back to school to finish his work for the day…

My favourite memory with Takita-sensei though, is of my black goldfish. I had won a goldfish at a summer festival and brought him to school to put him the school’s large (empty) fish tank. Takita-sensei gave him the name “Swimmy” and told me the children’s story of Swimmy the black goldfish. (Aside: at the time, I thought it was a Japanese story book, but I realize now, that it’s an American children’s book by Leo Lionni). The story basically tells of Swimmy the black goldfish, who was ostracized as a child because of his colour, but then became the hero of the day when he saves the whole school of fish. Takita-sensei drew the pictures out for me, and slowly and patiently, explained the story to me in his (nonexistent) English and patient Japanese. Then the next day, he brought in a gold goldfish to put into the fish tank so that Swimmy would have some company!!

Anyway, the last time that I saw Takita-sensei was at a dinner, on a night about two weeks before I left Japan. This was the very same day that I found out I had been accepted into my Master’s program at SFU. When I got to the dinner I was of course very excited to tell him the news. It took me quite a while to explain it to him… me with my translator (what’s “Master’s program” in Japanese?) and simplified English. Just when I thought I had finally explained it all to him, Takita-sensei got up, said “I’ll be right back” and ran out the restaurant front door. And, me, dumb-founded foreigner girl, just sat there, thinking he had to go the bathroom and the bathroom was outside or something—but then he came back five minutes later, carrying a bouquet of flowers!! The sweetest part, I understand culturally, is that this is a very, very rare gesture for a Japanese man. It’s rare enough for a Canadian guy to do it, but for Japanese man? Unheard of.

Anyway, that was the last I saw of Takita-sensei and the last that I heard of him. I’m sure now he’s happily married and may even have a kid or two. See, I purposefully didn’t mention at the top of the story that Takita-sensei was engaged this whole time. (It’s a more interesting story when I leave that part out, don’t you think?!) And thus it was a “secret crush” on my part, but truly a treasured friendship. I didn’t at the time, nor now, regret that nothing came out of that relationship—just happy to remember my old friend, my old goldfish, and smile.