“During the speech both old and new students had become extremely restless, and thirteen children were out of their seats and moving around the room. The obscenities accompanying another tussle between two four-year-old boys- bakayaro and aho (fool)- had started a wave of obscenity calling from various parts of the room. As parents and teachers listened to the director’s speech apparently undisturbed, children tried to outdo one another in demonstrating their knowledge of elicit words. One particularly daring five-year-old topped the list with unko (feces) and chinpoko (penis).Completely ignored by teachers and parents, the contest died down as the audience rose to leave. The director’s remark ‘It is good to see that many children have already begun to make friends’ was a veiled reference to the general commotion”

This really shocked me in Japan- not the indirect criticism, which is actually a lot more direct than Thailand, but the tolerance for what seems to translate as swearing by small kids and more generally the noise and seeming chaos during parts of the school day in kindergartens and, to a lesser extent, elementary schoools. As I continue to ponder why this is so, I will put my thoughts on my Japan Explained blog.