"I like Snoopy because he acts like he doesn't know he's a dog."

Perhaps you have seen the Michael Jackson-comes-to-Tokyo news. One of my teachers told me a few days ago that there was going to be a concert and people paid 400,000 yen ($3500) to see the elusive MJ. Today I read about how 400 people showed up, ate a dinner, watched some Japanese Michael Jackson impersonators, listened to a short thank you note, and took some photos. No concert. No singing. No dancing. That's some expensive sashimi. I asked Miyako-sensei if she would buy a ticket and she laughed. However, she still thinks he is absolutely genius and knew nothing of all the scandals surrounding him. She said she didn't think he had any plastic surgery, but maybe was trying to be too "white." She thinks he is still handsome (refusing to admit there is something off with his nose) and admitted that sometimes being a genius brings a" little bit of crazy" with it. She wanted to know why he comes to Japan so often and I tried to explain that because to people like her, he is still an idol here. He doesn't have the "freak show" quotient. He is still a talented musician and they can overlook Neverland Ranch. It was an interesting conversation and I tried to politely explain his scandals without too much detail. I have my standards and didn't want to completely shatter her world... especially on a Friday. I told her that I also used to love Michael Jackson back in the "Thriller" days and there is video evidence of the two Dorsey gals tearing up some pea green carpet with our moonwalking moves back in the day. I think that made her feel a bit better about what kind of teacher she is sharing her desk space with.

And this then led into us researching her favorite cartoon, "Peanuts" and the creator Charles Schulz. She loves Peppermint Patty and wants to own all of the comic strips. We looked up how many books she would have to buy, and I was also impressed by the sheer number of years that Snoopy and Charlie Brown ran daily. There were about fifty years of drawings and Miyako was contemplating buying the first few books in the set that is gradually being released until about 2030. She wanted to know if Peanuts was like Doraemon and on TV in motion. I showed her pictures of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" and we oohed and aahed a bit. Which led us into Dreamworks vs. Pixar and explaining American corporate lingo, including parent companies, patents, CEOs, mergers, etc. It was all very confusing and by then end we just ended on, "Yes. Tom Hanks has a lot of neck fat." (Don't ask.)