Kanagawa Prefectural Ikuta High School (2)

"They Even Get Talked About in Class"

Anno: Have you had lecture courses on AIDS and drug abuse?

Oda: It's even come up in class. Everyone listens up.

Kuramoto: Uh, that's not really...well, I watch out for myself anyway.

Q. Have you had classes on sexually transmitted diseases?

Miyabu: Yeah, we've had them. There was an explanation of syphilis. I was surprised to find out that it leaves crater-like marks on your skin.

Q. What about drugs?

Sakagami: I'd head that they were being sold at a local video rental shop. It's gone out of business, though.

Oda: I'd heard about people who were doing it while I was in junior high, but not since I started high school.

Miyabu: You couldn't count all the people who were doing it in your vicinity, though.

Q. Why don't any of you take drugs?

Kuramoto: Because we're the good kids.

All: (laughter)

"Addiction to Paint Thinner Is Ugly"

Kuramoto: I saw someone who'd been doing paint thinner, and his teeth were falling out. It was ugly.

Miyabu: I'd heard of people sniffing thinner and then going crazy and causing accidents, that sort of thing.

Suzuki: The more you want it, the more it nails you.

Anno: It has more points against it than for it.

Q. Do you feel there is no excuse for men who buy high school girls under compensated dating?

Takahashi: I'd just as soon see them get bought (laughs). To tell the truth, though, I wouldn't like it if it were my girlfriend. I'd make her stop in that case.

Suzuki: I don't like it, even if it's girls I don't know.

Kosone: I think it's a bad thing, because it's been made illegal, and because I think that those who engage in it will absolutely regret it...

Takasaka: If a friend of mine were to do it, I'd stop them, but I wouldn't want to do it myself for money. No way. It'd have to be with someone I'm in love with...

Oda: I'd stop someone doing it out of morality, but if pressed, I'd have to say that if that person needed to do it that badly, stopping them wouldn't do any good, and it's ultimately the decision of those involved. I don't really like the idea of doing it, but I couldn't give you a clear reason why. I think it's wrong, but if you asked me why it's wrong, I couldn't come up with a satisfying, clear-cut answer.

Okubo: Even if it was a friend of mine, I couldn't stop them if they had it in mind to do it, and besides, no two people think alike, so I don't think it's any of my business to criticize.

"I Don't Like Girls Who Do That"

Q. What do the boys think of girls who engage in Compensated Dating?

Suzuki: I don't like them.

Sakagami: If I had a girlfriend, I'd probably want her to belong to me. So I wouldn't like it if she went with other guys, especially for money, when I want her to belong to me.

Miyabu: A long time ago...a girl I was seeing said something that startled me. She was given money at a train station, and then promptly had sex with the guy. That's what this former girlfriend told me. We broke up then and there. I'd been thinking about breaking up with her even before that, but I haven't seen her ever since she told me that. My brother, who's six years older than me, knows about things like that, so I talked with him and decided to break up with her. I know it was before we started dating, but I couldn't believe it when she told me.

Q. Would you rather she didn't tell you?

Miyabu: I think we'd have broken up even if she'd said nothing about it.

Q. Does it bother you to see couples behaving like couples in the classroom?

Miyabu: Not really. They're involved, after all.

Takahashi: What? You're kidding. It's pretty shocking to me.

Miyabu: I like what I see.

(From the July 23, 1998 edition of Mainichi Intermediate School News)