beansprout

In Japan, there are two ways to get into med school: 1. get in right after high school, 2. get in after graduating a university with a different major.  The latter is sort of a special route; the applicants are something like thirty times as many as the fixed number, and most universities only take up to 10 students.  It's a pretty competitive exam and the majority of the applicants go to this certain cram school for preparation.  They either take classes or watch the classes recorded on DVDs.  The cram school is located in three cities: Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya.  The story I'm going to write about today is about a guy who went to the school in Osaka.  My classmate, Ryoji happened to have been in the same class and told me about him non stop while we drove back from a park where we enjoyed hanami (花見 = when people sit under cherry trees and drink, except that we didn't drink; we ate under the cherry tree and played badminton later - exactly why my muscles are hurting).

He was white and thin with drooping eyes and slender fingers.  Ryoji called him Beansprout.  He would look what people were watching in the DVD room to check who was studying to get into med school (the school had programs for other exams too), and he would give his number to every girl who was studying to get into med school (-- he always carried cards with his number on to give out to girls walking on the streets and whatnot).  Soon, girls started swarming around him.  He had graduated from one of the most prestigious universities with a major in agriculture.

But he wasted his intelligence to lead an "easy life".  When he heard that T university was the easiest to get in as long as you were from T prefecture, he used his smart head to think of ways to become a T prefecture inhabitant.  Was it enough to make a girlfriend from T prefecture?  Did he have to have a couple from T prefecture adopt him?  His thoughts were always somewhat beside the point and immature - the reason Ryoji called him Peter Pan (as in Peter Pan from Peter Pan Syndrome).

One day, Beansprout aka Peter Pan lost one of his textbooks.  When Ryoji asked what happened, he said it was going to be a long story, but he told Ryoji anyway - he had met a new girl with big boobs and heavy makeup and had started studying with her.  The girl turned out to be a daughter of a rich med school professor, and he went to her house occasionally to "teach her" and had left some of his textbooks at hers.  He got locked out and could no longer ask her to give him back the textbook.

I didn't quite feel sorry for the guy yet, but the story went on:  His initial purpose of coming to the cram school was to flirt with girls but he soon had another purpose; he got acquainted with some bad classmates and started to plan bad stuff, i.e. he secretly/illegally recorded the class DVDs and planned to sell them.  He was awfully serious about this business, and he would arrive at the DVD room early in the morning even before Ryoji.  But the school eventually found out what he was doing and started posting notices saying not to use personal computers in the DVD room.  When that didn't stop Beansprout, they posted more and more notices until he had nothing left to do but to read a tabloid in the DVD room.

But smart Beansprout still had plan B.  He decided to go to the school in Nagoya and record DVDs there.  The bad guys all agreed and Beansprout, burdened with all their expectations went off to Nagoya, cheating on the fare.  (He loved cheating on the fare.)  When he sneaked into the school, it was unexpectedly small and the staffs soon noticed Beansprout and asked what he was doing.  He said he was a student going to the school in Osaka.  He said he had wanted to see the DVDs of the classes held in Tokyo.  He complained to the executive that it was unfair that the students in Nagoya got to see what the students in Osaka couldn't.  In the end, the executive agreed to send him the DVDs.

When Beansprout got them, he soon had another plan.  He asked his female classmates if they wanted to buy/rent the DVDs, which sort of backfired - they got mad that he had personally gotten the DVDs and insisted to the school that they also had the right to watch them.  The school accepted their complaint and students in Osaka soon were able to watch the DVDs of classes held in Tokyo.

After this consequently great contribution, Beansprout decided to quit his DVD business.  The executive only sent him one course so he had other courses to record but he didn't have the guts to continue.  The bad guys started putting pressure on him.  They said it was too late to give up.  When they saw that Beansprout was reluctant, one of the bad guys suggested Beansprout that he make money in the entertainment/media industry.  He said he had good connections and that he could introduce Beansprout to one of the executives.  So that motivated Beansprout to continue with his DVD recording.  He had never really wanted to be a doctor in the first place.  He just wanted to make a lot of money.  And he had started to realize that he was somewhat too unprepared for his exam.  He hid in the toilet with his PC and kept recording DVD after DVD.

This was where I finally started feeling sorry for this Beansprout guy, and the story only got worse.  When the connection guy got into med school, Beansprout asked him to introduce him to the executive in the entertainment industry.  The connection guy was annoyed, and eventually cut him off.  Left with nothing but the DVDs, Beansprout started working as a tutor.  He gave the DVDs to the bad guys out of fear, but he kept one or two classes to himself - the strongest resistance he could manage.

I wouldn't say Beansprout is exactly an endearing character, but I still hope this isn't the end of his story, that he would lead a happy life in some way.  Ryoji said I was wasting my wishes but that's the way I feel anyway.