Then We Couldn’t Have Been Your Pupils!

The reunion of our class at the former Ishibiki Elementary School in Kanazawa was held at the Japanese style hotel Takitei in Kanazawa Saikawakyo Spa from the evening of June 2 to the morning of June 3, 2005. Participants were our teacher Mr. A and his wife, 16 class OGs including Prof. H.I. from USA and her younger sister to help her travel, and nine OBs including myself; a total of 27 people. The number of pupils in our class was 61. Among them six OBs died already.

The party of the reunion took place from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. We were seated along the three lines of tables put in the shape of the Greek capital pi, with Mr. A at the center of the shorter line. Mrs. A who has a problem at her knees took a seat at the corner of one of the two long sides. The other particiants' seats were determined by drawing.

The organizer in chief, Y.T., presided the party. He explained that this reunion celebrated Mr. A's age of 80 (actually he is now 83 years old) and ours of 70, and then asked Mr. A to give a short talk. Mr. A began saying, "I came to Ishibiki Elementary School just after you finished it." Some OGs and OBs said, "Oh, no! Then we couldn't have been your pupils!" "It's wrong!" "Let's say for his honor, 'Mr. A is quite right.' " and so on.

Does Mr. A have Alzheimer's disease? No, that was a slip of the tongue. He wanted to say, "I left Ishibiki Elementary School soon after you finished it." Thus the reunion started with a big laughter, and merry mood continued all through the party and a party after party, which ended at 11:00 pm. It was an experience like a time slip into elementary school days.

At the party after party, H.I. told me that she had had the disaster of losing the memory of her lap-top computer by exposing it to X-ray inspection at an airport. On June 5, I called her at her mother's house in Takarazuka to ask if I could help her with her computer. However, it seemed that I could have nothing to do, because she had lost only document files and because she had back-up files back in USA. Wishing to get a copy of her publication some day, I sent her the book "Kagami-no Naka-no Hidarikiki (A Left-Hander in a Mirror)," in which I had written a comment of twenty pages.