New Fiction

2. I Want a Pair of Nike Shoes

by Tracey Bretag

"Kinoshita-sensei, I keep seeing this term, 'enjo kosai' everywhere. What does it mean?" Lucy had innocently asked her co-teacher, Mariko Kinoshita, as she bit into her apple at lunch time.

Everyone stopped eating and looked at Lucy, who imagined they were about to warn her, again, of the dangers of eating unpeeled fruit. Mariko looked uncomfortable.

"Eto ne. 'Enjo kosai' means girls who go out with older men," Mariko mumbled half-heartedly.

"Oh, you mean if there's a big age difference. Is that unusual in Japan?" Lucy pursued the topic, oblivious to Mariko's body language, which was clearly telling her to drop it.

"Mm. Yes. Well, not exactly. It's when young girls go out with older men for payment."

"Go out? Just go out? Nothing more?" Lucy probed.

Mariko felt like getting up and shaking Lucy. Why did she need every detail spelled out? Why couldn't she learn that some things are simply inappropriate to discuss publicly, in any language? Mariko felt trapped. She knew from previous conversations that Lucy would naively continue to ask questions until she got a satisfactory answer. Lucy was infamous in the staffroom for her speeches about Japanese students not being able to "think". But she was just as guilty of demanding "spoon feeding" in matters with which she was not familiar.

"Lucy, think about it," Mariko said tersely.

"OK, so enjo kosai is prostitution. Why didn't you just say so?" Lucy could never understand Mariko's hyper-sensitivity to anything even vaguely related to sex.

"Oh no. No, no. It's not prostitution. It's enjo kosai. Um. The girls are just average high school students. Of course they are not prostitutes. They don't actually get money. Usually the men just give them brando."

"Brando?"

"You know, brand name products - Nike shoes, Gucci handbags. Things like that."

"So, let me get this straight. They just go out with the men...like, to dinner and stuff. No sex involved, right?"

Mariko wanted to scream, but she somehow kept her composure. "I didn't say that. Maybe some of the girls, you know, but, um...I don't know, really. Maybe some just go out for dinner, or...Lucy, I don't know. OK? But it's enjo kosai, not prostitution."

Mariko thought she could finalise the conversation by getting the support of the other teachers, who'd been listening and only catching the words 'enjo kosai'. She turned to Makino-sensei, a young Taiiku (P.E.) teacher who spoke a little English. They had a quick exchange in Japanese and then Makino-sensei turned to Lucy.

"Enjo kosai not same prostitute. Okane nai (no money). Just gakusei (students)," she said nodding her head up and down for emphasis.

Hirotani-sensei, a male Art teacher, raised his eyebrows, and spoke to both teachers. From his expression and gestures, Lucy could see that he was disagreeing with them. Within moments, the staffroom had erupted in a vigorous discussion. Lucy could only catch one word in ten, but it was obvious that two camps existed. Those who saw enjo kosai as a not terribly desirable, but nevertheless harmless activity, and others who viewed it as prostitution.

After the commotion had died down, and school was finished for the day, Lucy relaxed in the kitchen of her tiny 2DK apartment, with the newspaper. Coincidentally, there was a detailed double-page spread in today's Daily Yomiuri, with the headlines, "Teens Seek Popularity Through Prostitution". This article at least, tried not to skirt the issues. And the issues according to the article, centered on materialism, easily accessible high-tech products such as mobile 'phones and pagers, and the decaying morals of Japanese youth.

It didn't mention the almost claustrophobic lives led by most teenagers, who trudged from home to school to juku (cram school), rarely arriving home again before 9 o'clock each night. Five days a week, even during the summer "vacation". Perhaps luckily, Monbusho, the Japanese Education Department, expressly forbid students from having part-time jobs.

It seemed to Lucy that something like "enjo kosai" was bound to occur in a culture saturated with pornographic images of young girls; and where most families actively discouraged teenage dating. Sixteen year old girls, bored, curious about sex, and wanting the latest fashion items with absolutely no legitimate means of obtaining them, not surprisingly were attracted to "Telephone Dating".

Lucy put the newspaper aside and began to mark a huge pile of English essays, written by her San Nen Sei (Third Grade, Junior High) students. Lucy had traditionally set the topic "What I want most in the world" for her students in Australia, and had always felt her faith in human nature restored when she'd read their often idealistic responses. Her favourite essay, written by a fifteen year old girl in Sydney, had begun, "What I want most in the world is understanding. I want to understand myself, other people, nature, animals, the spiritual world, and all the mysteries of the universe." The essay had been a delight, and one that Lucy had carried around in her handbag for weeks. Whenever she'd felt frustrated or tired, she'd reached into her bag, and touched the innocent and sincere essay, to remind herself of the rewards of teaching.

After much discussion, she had persuaded Mariko to set the same topic for their San Nen Sei class. As a foreigner who spoke very little Japanese, it was difficult for Lucy to have a "real" discussion with her students. Through the essays, she was looking forward to "getting close" to her students. She wanted to understand their dreams and aspirations. She was also hoping to gain some insight into the culture of Japanese teenagers. Eagerly she picked up the first essay. It began, "What I want most in the world is a pair of Nike Air Max shoes..."