doobe dood'ne dooby doo. Words of wisdom once sung by Diana Ross. And often, it seems, spoken by the locals round here. Or at least that's how morning meeting sounds every day, reinforcing my belief that perhaps my Japanese language ability hasn't grown as I'd hope it would. Although I now know the kanji for aubergine (茄) which as you can imagine is useful in most daily situations. Oh well. Small steps and that.
In fact much of last week was taken in only small steps, thakns to the snow that seemed to go on and on with only inconvenient effect. Tueday truly was a winter wonderland, so much so that we cancelled conversation class, and LeeJay came to mine for tea. I decided to be considerate (never works for me) and rented a Spanish film as Leejay is bi-lingual (I said LINGUAL). The film had the kanji for English on the back, and looked like it had English subtitles. D'oh. We start watching the film (which fortunately I have seen before) and it has no English subtitles or spoken track. All it had was an English spoken commentary by the director which really would have ruined it for both of us as opposed to just me. But Leejay wasn't taken with it anyway, so we made up our own story and made obscene comments throughout the film's more serious moments.
Wednesday was similar, so we also didn't attend dance class and I watched Phoenix Nights on DVD and brushed up on my Northern accent (too many Californian-isms have been slipping in lately. That will sound so wrong when I return home...)
Thursday was a surprisingly good evening. LeeJay, Nao chan and I went to dinner (where I decided that perhaps the old testament is right after all. Gays should be stoned. Oh no, wrong page. I mean, shellfish shouldn't be eaten). Prawns (shrimp if you're American) are big in Japan (even the small ones are meaty) and they actually have loads of flavour. Loads of horrible flavour. Couple them with scallops and you have a recipe for evil. I can't think of a nice thing that comes out of a shell. Apart from Mars bars that you get in the shop when you pay for your petrol (mmm, Mars Bars). But it was OK, as after dinner we went to karaoke in Ochiai town in the Riverside hotel. This hotel has a wedding chapel, a hot springs (onsen), golf range and all sorts of other posh amenities. But the karaoke really rules- clear sound, walls that are solid, up-to-date songbooks with a beautiful selection of English songs (including "Never Ending Story" and "Let's Hear It For The Boy") and surround sound, so that the horror truly is everywhere. LeeJay and I were both drunk by the time we left. For me it was a warm up for Friday.
Having finished a busy school day where I took 3 lessons on my one, I rushed to the salon for emergency hair-straightening (I was being likened to a **young** Keith Richards). Yay! Now I know I'm not allergic to straightening chemicals. A while ago Kapo-san, the lady who organises our English conversation club, planned to start translating menus in local restaurants, so we decided to all do it together, I met her and Christine in town's best restaurant. Translation was interesting, and we got to try some new and tasty dishes. We also learned which ones to avoid- cows intestines, old (as in mature) chicken and other horrors were on the menu. I offered the opinion that there was no point putting these on the menu as very few native English speakers would really want to be eating these things...
After a while we had enough and headed to the yakitori (grilled chicken) restaurant where I ate tofu (thank God tofu is good here). We also met some new people. This group of 4 Japanese people started talking to us, and they were funny and friendly. They were also asking strange questions- do I love any of my students, do I think it's OK, etc. No. Not. No. No. It's wrong, and even moreso when the oldest of my students is 15. I will not be dating any of my students, although they are all nice human beings. That seemed to please them and they bought us loads of drinks. Christine and I were soon drunk and having bizarre arguments about Africa where we both managed to offend each other, but we soon got over it and drank more. And then the people went to Karaoke and Kapo san and I joined them.
I was still drunk on Saturday morning when I awoke at 8 to catch the bus at 9:30 (that's two weeks in a row now...) as I had to be at the Doctor's in the city early. Bum. But I made it ok having sobered up on the bus and then met Fiona and we wandered round the city We went to Japan's 3rd most beautiful gardens and then to the prefectural museum where I struggled to decipher the Japanese signs and Fiona simply read the English underneath them. This was a nice, cheap day out. Both of us have decided to try and stop spending, so we went to the supermarket and pigged out on cake and choc and I made kimchee fried rice for dinner (not in the supermarket mind, I cooked at Fiona's. I dread to think what they'd have done if I whipped out a frying pan and camping stove in the middle of the freezer section.) And Fiona joined the video club so we rented Nausica (a Japanese anime film, which was brilliant) and Flashdance, which was slightly less brilliant, but extremely hilarious in an "oh dear" kind of way.
Sunday was a quiet day. We woke up late and went for breakfast at an almost 24 hour restaurant near Fiona's. The food was good, and when I made my selection and asked the waiter if it continued meat, he confidently said "no". And then confidently came back 3 minutes later and said, "yes". So my next choice was a "yes", and the next, and then a firm "no". I no longer trust firm "no"s or bacon bits. In England, bacon bits are made of soya, so they can be enjoyed by pensioners, children, Muslims and Jewish folk alike. In Japan they are made of pig. And they had sprinkled pig all over my breakfast. And not having the vocabulary to argue (nor the motivation) I did my best to remove said animal, but have been feeling a bit piggy since.
Monday was my first visit to the local elementary school since before Christmas, and was a busy school day (yay!), but due to the weather (rain and poor visibility and ice) we didn't go to class in the evening. So I went to LeeJay's, she cooked dinner, and we watched her box set of the Golden Girls for, ooh, 3 hours. Yay! Top notch sarcasm and bitching. It felt like home...
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