My hobby is sleeping.

It's the end of the semester folks! Picture me doing the happy dance from Perfect Strangers (with my computer). I have one more day with my students then I won't have to see them until the end of September. (Gosh, I'll miss them.) With the end of the semester, come the tests. Last year, I had one of my students fall asleep while writing her test - I was amazed. So amazed in fact I didn't know what to do - I just stood there frozen. Incredible. Well this year I discovered that this wasn't a rare phenomenon. Two more of my students fell asleep while writing their tests (not thankfully in the same class). The one guy fell asleep between sections of the tests (I was collecting the listening section of their tests and passing out the reading section). He woke up when the test reached him at his desk in the back row. He looked kind of surprised that he had fallen asleep. He shook his head, smiled at himself and began writing the test. But the girl in my Junior College class. Another story. There she sat, pencil in hand, test on her desk...and her head slowly working its way to her shoulder. This time I acted. I walked up touched her shoulder and said "No sleeping." (I never thought I'd have to utter these words to a student during a FINAL TEST! - as-fucking-if!) She looked kind of put out that I had woken her up. She dutifully started answering a question. I moved on but when I looked back her chin was settled perfectly on her chest, she was once again asleep. It is at times like this that I question why I even bother. I understand that certain students often work part-time until late at night; I understand that they sometimes commute up to three hours each day, EACH WAY but COME ON, falling asleep during a test? This habit of falling asleep anywhere anytime is by no means confined to my students and the classroom - it's a Tokyo wide epidemic. Sleeping on the train is acceptable, even normal but I've seen people sleeping at coffee shops, just sitting there, drink finished, heads on their chests - sleeping. Sometimes they even have their heads nestled comfortably between their arms on the table! I've even seen a guy asleep at a restaurant. A restaurant. I've seen Japanese professors close their eyes and even nod off at faculty meetings. I've seen construction workers taking naps in their trucks and even under their trucks. I'm simply amazed by their ablility to fall asleep anywhere at anytime. I'm even more amazed by the fact that it is acceptable.

*By the way the title of this blog is actually a popular answer to "What is your hobby?". Another popular answer is "Dog walking". But I'll leave that for another time.