April Fool's Day

Although people don’t celebrate April Fool’s here, they certainly know the name. So when I arrived half an hour early to plant my jokes, unfortunately people were already in the office rearing to go, so I couldn’t get too crazy. (Side note: They are extremely busy at this time, since it is the end of the school year, the kiddies get 2 weeks off and then it is the beginning of a new school year. In the midst of this, the teachers and people in offices, mostly govt, are moved around to different offices around Japan. These mandatory moves are expected at a moment’s notice and could be hours away from home and family. Since Japan is about the size of California, effectively this is the government moving people from San Francisco to San Diego, or Sacramento to LA.) So I proceeded to stuff Kleenex into desks, open purses, jackets and shoes. Then I handed an exploding envelope (where a twisted paperclips jumps out) to everyone separately as they arrived so that all could get the benefit of their screams. I warmed Snickers bars and shaped them to look like “poo”, then put it in people’s coffee, on their desks etc. I poured salt in their tea and hid a scary-looking face in my supervisor’s open-and-waiting purse. Ok, A LOT was done throughout the day. You would think that they wouldn’t leave anything like drinks or shoes unattended. But no, they went on as usual, extremely entertained, but every time a new trick was discovered, no one searched their own shoes or desks. So darn trusting and gullible; I thought I was gullible! How could it continue to be a surprise!!! Nothing I did should have been surprising as soon as the first person stumbled into my traps I kept putting Kleenex everywhere throughout the day, in sheer amazement that no one learned not to trust….Kate on the other hand, wouldn’t touch anything I offered and didn’t leave her desk all day. She knew not to trust, zannen. However, I was happy when my trusting co-workers used my exploding envelope trick on the main boss. Yesss, after all that work I am finally leading them to the dark side!