April Fools

I know, it's only March still. But yeah, I must relay this story before I forget. Tonight at my eikaiwa (English conversation class), the topic of April Fools came up. First my student asked me, "Oh, America also has April Fools' Day, just like Japan??" UMM, yeah. Then we started talking about pranks that have been played on us or that we've played on people in the past. My student, Sumie, told me a story that her mom told her had happened a long time ago in their small town in Okinawa. Apparently, one April Fools' Day, someone had spread the rumor that a tsunami was approaching the town. In order to protect themselves, most of the people in town left their homes and fled to higher ground, including Sumie's mother and Sumie, who was just a baby back then. Of course later everyone found out that it was just a prank and that there really wasn't a tsunami coming. Sumie told me that her mother was "shocked" that someone had played such a prank. I asked Sumie how many people lived in their "small town." Her answer: 20,000. HAHAHAHAHHAA.

My other student, Noriko, told me that when she was in jr. high school, she pretended to have a terrible headache one morning on April Fools' Day. She even put a thermometer under her dog's leg? to fake a fever. She told her mom she was too sick to go to school. It worked. Her mom said she didn't have to go. However, being that this was just an April Fools' "joke," she fessed up and went to school that morning, anyway. UMMM, I understand that it was only a prank, but STILL. I don't get it. It must be GREAT to have Noriko as a daughter. Seriously.