Toyoko Academy High School (2)

Anno: Is this a feeder school? I ask because I haven't heard much talk of entrance exams.

Kashiwara: There's talk of entrance exams all over the place. I must be the only one taking it this easy. I want to get into a college where I can study dance, so I'm taking dance lessons, but I'm not studying any scholastic subjects. The entrance exam covers classical music, hip-hop, and modern (Japanese) language. I like these areas, though, so it's no strain.

Kasagi: I'm always going to cram schools, but I like it too.

Q. Are all of you going to cram schools?

Yoneyama: It's hard being on the softball team, but I go.

Kashiwara: It is hard keeping up with the softball team and going to cram school at the same time. I really close friends with one girl on the team, and it makes me want to support them. She tells me about it at night on the phone, and sometimes while I'm sleeping. Seeing that made me want to help out.

Yoneyama: But we practice nearly every day. I can't figure out what we're doing it for, though.

Kashiwara: Since you've been doing it for six years, though, you must have built up some confidence in yourself.

Kasagi: You won't let just anything get you down, right?

Yoneyama: I think I've changed since joining the team.

Kashiwara: Oh, that's terrific. I think it's great to be able to say that in your incoming year.

Kasagi: That reminds me, when we had a music recital, we talked about what it was that changed us.

"Discussions Every Day for Recitals"

Kasagi: Yes, we have discussions every day. We talk about what we should do to inspire ourselves.

Yoneyama: Wow.

Kasagi: I practiced conducting and piano during my rest periods too. I made a mistake in our actual performance, but it was fun anyway.

Q. You all take your coursework and extracurricular activities seriously, it seems.

Kashiwara: I'm in Baton Club, and we made that club ourselves when we got to high school. It used to be that it was only around during junior high. It seemed like such a waste to get so good only to have to give it up after three years, especially since we could take part in events once we got to high school. Plus we get along with our adviser like she was a friend of ours.

Kasagi: She refers to us on informal terms.

Kashiwara: Yeah, she calls me "Aya-chan" (translator's note: "-chan" is an affectionate diminutive suffix, usually used between close friends, or certain types of superior-inferior relationships, particularly where age is involved. There's more to it than that, but this note is too long already.--MH). I call her "Rumi-chan", and she helped us organize. The coach is a graduate who also helped us build the club.

Q. I know it isn't extracurricular activities, but what is the student body president's work like.

Ishihara: I've been working hard at it lately. I didn't get the job because I personally wanted it, though. It was more like, people told me to run for office. And I was in the hospital when the elections were actually held, too. My mother said I should forget about it, but an upper-class friend of mine came to visit me. And I thought of an essay in the hospital, which my friend read for me at school. That same day, I got word that I'd been elected. And that's basically how I got here.

Kashiwara: I'm impressed.

Kasagi: That upperclassman is on the softball team, and just an all-around nice person.

Anno: I might have figured she was on the softball team.

"I'm Crying Over the Farewell Match"

Mitsui: But today's the final softball team practice, with the farewell match tomorrow.

Kashiwara: I bet you'll cry over it.

Yoneyama: I'm already crying. Look, just thinking about it is making me cry again.

All: Wow.

Kashiwara: I made a promise six years ago that I would go to the farewell match for my class. But I've got dance, so I can't go after all. Instead, I'll send flowers and a letter tomorrow.

Q. All of you who've come to this talk are so nice.

Kasagi: Well, it's because we all acknowledge one another. We can all see one another's good points, and we figure we each need to hang in there because we see everyone else doing it.

Kashiwara: Even within a given class, we respect one another. It makes me feel good to have such good friends. We pat one another on the back when we do something good, and cry together when something sad happens.

Anno: Here, I have found what I had lost. I guess I've just gotten hard and crusty. But my heart is bursting at the thought that people like you still exist.

Kashiwara: As Seniors, we all talk about our dreams.

Kasagi: Right. That way, we come to understand that so-and-so has these sorts of amazing thoughts.

Kashiwara: And I hope to keep those memories the rest of my life.

Kasagi: Yeah, these are friendships I'll always treasure.

(From the Oct. 1, 1998 edition of Mainichi Intermediate-School News)