身長何センチあるの？
How tall are you?
I've been asked this question more than
a hundred times when I was in school.
I'm 185cm which is about 6'1, so I'm pretty tall for Japan
Actually I grew almost all my height by the time I finished elementary school.
I was about 176cm when I was in 6th grade
so I was much, much taller than my classmates.
I always looked older than my age, too.
At the graduation ceremony a mother of another student came up to me and said
「息子がこの度はお世話になりました...」 blah blah blah...
which means, "Thank you for taking care of my son,"
because she thought I was a teacher or something.
I was 12 years old!
By the way I'm 22 now.
Everything then was too small for me.
I just looked stupid.
The desks and chairs were stuck together in the classroom,
and I couldn't really move my legs.
It was very difficult for me to fit in it.
My knees always hit the desk.
It was very, very uncomfortable and I was not happy at all!
I even had my own desk.
It was the biggest desk in my school and I was the only one in my class who had a
desk that big... even though it was small. It was kinda small.
There is a day called 席替え which means seat change, where everyone changes seats.
Everyone else just took their backpack and book and moved it to a new desk
But I had to take my desk with me and move it across the room,
which was annoying!
Also, Japanese elementary school students all have to use a specific type of backpack called ランドセル.
They're hard and not flexible.
This is what I used.
They are kind of expensive, too, so usually your grandparents...
well not all the time... they buy them for you.
And it was supposed to go down to your waist, but since I was too tall
it just stopped midway down my back.
And you also have to wear a bright yellow hat so you are easier to see.
This is my sister's.
The hats for boys are a different shape.
Everyone else was really tiny and short and they looked like little kids but
I looked like an adult with a ランドセル and a yellow hat
so I looked really stupid and funny.
I was only less than 10cm shorter than I am right now
so this is what I looked like in elementary school.
Even now being really tall in Japan is sometimes annoying
because everything is so small.
For example: the counters. I cook a lot
and the counters are really low
so it's hard for me to do anything in the kitchen.
And it makes my back hurt a lot.
The doorways, for example, they're really low and I hit my head so many times.
I've come here to save you!
And on buses and trains sometimes the girls standing next to me would put their hands
on their shirt and try to hide their chest
because they thought I was taking advatange of being tall to see their chest.
I am not a pervert! I get offended!
And on trains they have rings for you to hold called 吊革
to keep your balance.
For most people it's far above their heads so
they can hold it easily and balance, but for me it's right next to my head,
like here.
So I have to train my muscle when I'm holding onto it to keep my balance, like
fuck it's so low.
And when I'm not holding them it just hits me in the head.
And in Japan there's a lot of concern about perverts on trains,
about guys trying to grab girls and things,
so us normal Japanese guys have to be really careful
to stay away from girls on trains so they don't think we're perverts.
But some Japanese girls are really short compared to me, like they came up to here.
They're really short.
So when the train is busy and crowded it's very difficult to avoid them and
I have to use all my muscle I've got.
By the way, this is the umbrella I was talking about in my last video.
It just broke because of the wind.
It's still made of metal, though.
Anyway, if you are tall and thinking about coming to Japan, please be careful.