Hemp and Playboy

You read that title right. This entry is about Cannabis and Playboy. In my schools. But not how you are probably thinking right now.

I should start out by explaining a few quick things. 1) Japan can be very strange. Things are not always going to make sense to a foreigner. This is one of those cases. 2) Marijuana is VERY illegal here. If you have it you go to jail, for a long time. End of story. Drugs are bad and the punishments are severe. This will make what I am about to tell you even more strange.

So, my first few weeks of school I was wandering around the classrooms, watching the kids work and I saw this:

This is a pencil case that holds one of my students pencils and pens and erasers and other such daily necessities. You may also notice it is covered in Cannabis leaves. My first thought was that this kid was trying to be sneaky and would soon be caught and punished for what is essentially drug endorsement in school.

But then I saw more of them. And I saw that the teachers saw them. And no one seemed to care. Another ALT apparently asked the kids if they knew what it was. They told him it was the Jamaican flag.

I have seen adorable girls with towels covered with cannabis leaves. I saw an elementary school boy with a jacket that had a GIANT leaf taking up the entire back of it. Most of my students who have hemp products seem to be female. And not the rebel or tomboy girls, but the cute, harmless, well behaved girls.

Then I started noticing the playboy bunny popping up. Some Jr. High and even Elementary school girls wear socks with the playboy bunny. He’s on pencil boards. Apparently, he’s cute. Seeing elementary school girls wearing the socks to school is really creepy to me.

I understand that the kids might not know what these things mean. They are just “cool” designs. But I find it surprising that their parents don’t know, or know and don’t care. Because the very thought of my future children going to school with either symbol so prominently displayed is terrifying.

It’s not just the kids though. I also noticed that almost every air freshener I see hanging from the rearview mirror of a car is a cannabis leaf in one of a variety of colors. They are incredibly popular. I have seen giant displays of them and I’m always afraid to even glance in their direction in case someone sees me and tells everyone that the ALT was looking at drug products! Which would never happen, but in my mind it does.

Drugs are very, very bad. But products that essentially advertise them are apparently not an issue. Not even in schools. Girls are supposed to be shy and modest. But the playboy bunny is a marketable logo on products for young innocent girls.

Don’t try to understand it. You’re brain will cry. Simply accept that sometimes things don’t make sense. And this is one of those times.