Teeth schmeeth

Today I taught the grade 1s for the first time this year. They are brand newbies and it is GREAT. They are so new that they think teacher is god and listen accordingly. The teacher is also new so she didn't know the Nishi practice of taking over the English classes and only letting me operate as a dictionary, so I got to actually run an entire 45 minute class all alone. It was great. Well, I did only teach them how to say Goodmorning, Goodafternoon, Yes and Thankyou... but that is something! And they seemed to enjoy themselves so YAY for me. We even ran out of time for all the stuff I had organised which is great because it means left overs to supplement next weeks lesson and so on so I am never stuck for things to do.

I have noticed an alarming number of small children with black teeth. When they smile at me (which is getting to be an increasingly common occurance these days) I get a great view of the kind of rotting teeth I have only previously seen in pirate movies. It seems that the Japanese have decided that having their kids brush a set of teeth that is only going to fall out anyway is a complete waste of time, water and toothpaste, so they just let them rot away. Trouble is that when their second set of teeth come in the kids are not used to having to brush and so end up with a head full of fillings by the time they are 12. Every kid whose mouth I have seen inside (which is a surprisingly large number) has heaps of silver in there. Apparently the denstist is quite cheap in Japan so the parents don't have any financial reason to make their kids keep their teeth clean, and clearly concern for oral hygiene isn't a big motivator either! Which is odd, because at school every lunch time there is 5 minutes of hamigaki (teethbrushing). Just like a lot of things in Japan, appearances count for more than substance. If we appear to take care of our teeth, it somehow means we are... despite the cavities.