I was in the middle of teaching a 5th grade classes at one of my elementary schools. To prepare for an activity I had the students cut out some cards. As they were doing that I walked around classrooms looking at all the things displayed on the walls. There were pictures of the students, some of their watercolor drawings, calligraphy work and assignment folders held in to place with the thumbtacks. Inside each of the transparent assignment folders was a packet of papers. One in particular caught my eye. In Japanese it said rejendo obu banana, a transliteration of the English words, legend of banana. There were two bananas drawn beneath the title, and they were crossed together like two yellow swords.
Curious about what the title was referring to I pulled the packet from the file and flipped it open. I read the handwritten words within and quickly concluded that it was a story. It was not very long so I was able to read through it before the students finished their cutting task.
In the story there were two boys, Ichiro and Jiro. They are riding along with an adult on their way to the monkey park. (In Japan they have a few of these monkey parks, or rather, places where Japanese monkeys are kept and people can pay to go in and see them up close.) Jiro expresses his dislike for the monkey park and wants to go home, but Ichiro says, “We have come this far already, it would be a waste to go back now.”
The two boys get in the park and are surprised to find that there are no other people around. Then they feel strange, and the next thing they know they have transformed in to monkeys. Terrified by the other monkeys present they run away in to the forest, but that brings them in to contact with a bear. The two monkey boys flee from the bear and luckily encounter honey with which to distract the animal. Unfortunately, that provokes the wrath of some angry bees which pursue the two until they find a pond to jump in.
When they are free of the bees and dried off Ichiro remembers the legend of banana. It speaks of a great banana which rests upon the biggest hill in the park. Should anyone be changed in to monkey, eating the banana will turn them back in to a human. Ichiro and Jiro head for the biggest hill in sight. It is a tiring climb but they arrive at the top. The banana is on a table ready to be eaten, only there is a problem. The park’s alpha male monkey is guarding the banana. The alpha monkey looks at them and laughs. He is powerful and arrogant but Ichiro and Jiro are not afraid. Both have trained in kendo (a Japanese combative sport that uses bamboo swords). They each grab a tree branch and beat the monkey away.
The prize is left for the taking. They split the banana in two and are about to eat their halves, but Jiro hesitates. He hates bananas. “You must eat it to change back,” Ichiro tells him. Jiro nods and swallows his half. The two become boys again and quickly leave the park. “I’ll never go there again,” Jiro swears. “Me neither,” says Ichiro. The story ends.
As I finished reading, some of the students noticed what I was up to. One girl pointed to a boy across the room and said, “Nakashima wrote the story.” That boy looked up hearing his name.
“Wow, this is an incredible story. Is it true?” I asked jokingly.
The boy said nothing. He looked dumbfounded and embarrassed by the sudden attention. The boy next to him spoke up in his place. “Oh yes. It’s true,” he grinned.
“Really? What a frightening adventure.” I placed the packet back in its folder.
“That was a lie,” the first girl pointed out thinking I had been fooled. “We each wrote a story, one we made up. I wrote about a snowman, and Minami here wrote about rabbits on the moon.” The girl was right. Each folder contained a story. I furrowed my brow looking at the random titles.
“You kids sure are imaginative.” Not wanting to fall behind in my lesson I turned away and returned to the chalk board. “Okay everyone, please open your books to page 51.”
The class went on as usual, but I couldn’t quite focus on the lesson. Somewhere in the back of my head I was still thinking, ‘Legend of Banana’, now there is a story worth sharing.
