Under the table - Last Friday's elementary visit

I am taking cover under the table in the abandoned lunch room at a nearby elementary school. Four small elementary girls are hiding with me, making surprisingly little noise. “Mo ii kai?” (are you ready?) yells a distant voice. “Mada da yo!” (not yet!) yells one of the girls. I have not been so small in years. The table looms above me, and I have become aware of the small details of the floor; pieces of dust and the pattern of the tile. The girls lead me through the game. “Get under the table,”they instruct with simple Japanese and gestures.　

"Mo ii kai!" yells the voice again, getting closer. "Mo ii yo!" responds the girl next to me, signalling we are ready to be searched for. We crouch even smaller, but we are breathing too loudly. I pull my hood over my head to camoflauge me even more. But we are found!

Next we hide in the locker, four of us in the small space. Then we hide in the kitchen, where there are big pots for cooking rice. Then we hide in the closet, where there are extra tables folded up. Each time one girl yells "Mo ii kai?" until she finds us.

When the game is over, and I am back in the teacher's room, the teachers chuckle as I explain that I was hiding under the table in rough Japanese. When you are and English teacher in Japan, you never know what sort of game you will be pulled into!

-Lisa