hi, i'm jenn

on wednesday evening i went to dinner. it was myself, nachan, another woman and then three men. first we went to dejima warf to a chinese restaraunt (chinese sake is very good)

and then to a bar downtown called psybar that was pretty damn cool.

The men paid for everything.
I assumed they were friends of Nachan’s or something. I mean, I noticed a wedding ring on at least one of them. But then, after the bar at a fork in the road we said “bye” and then men walked in one direction, and the women in another. Just a fast “bye” – no stopping and shaking hands or anything.
At this point things started seeming fishy. Upon further questioning I found out that Nachan only knew one of the guys. She didn’t know the other girl, nor two of the men (including the one who paid for everything). But anyway, after the party split, I went with Nachan and the other woman (who looked about 25 but told me she was 40) to do Print Club. I love PriClu.
The next morning I asked Kendall if he had any explanation about the events of the previous evening. It was then I learned about a phenomenon called “Set-up Parties” where men and women (who aren’t necessarily their wives) get together for evenings of eating and drinking. The men treat, the women sit and entertain. It’s just what’s done here.
Then, when we were out again last night, I picked up the word “setai” when nachan was telling her friends about what we had done the day before. Apparently my “Setai” was the doctor who is in the background of this picture. Old, neh?


So apparently Nachan isn’t just my host sister, she’s also my pimp 🙂

see, i do cook. until today i only had chad’s pictures, but now have uploaded mine and nachans. so there.

last night nachan’s friend miki came over to teach us to make soba.
first, you had to knead the dough.

then we had to roll it. we had a contest – foreigners vs japanese – to see who could roll a better sheet. we rocked out, and even had to help our Japanese friends finish theirs.


then we had to slice the sheets into noodles. took a long time and i was afraid i’d cut off my finger. i didn’t.


finally it was time to cook the noodles.



and then eat them. our meal was accompanied by nagasaki salad (well, that’s what nachan called it) and some grilled fish.

they looked scary to me, and were the only thing I haven’t eaten in japan (on chad’s advisement that “they taste as good as they look”).
and that was my night.

here is an album of my japan pictures so far… they’re all labeled and include kagoshima so knock yourself out. the set will grow as i get more pics… anyway, i gotta run…

on thursday night i ended up out until 3:00. pictures and stories to follow. i ate horse meat.
friday AM we caught a 9:30 train to kagoshima – a place that’s known for its volcano. we arrived around two, and caught a ferry to the volcanic island. by the time we got there we had missed the last sightseeing bus. it was also pissing down rain. so we walked around a bit, the boys bought some *magazines* and then we headed back. i grabbed dinner and then dissapeared to my hotel room — it was nice sleeping in a room alone, and with a real bed so i took full advantage of it.
saturday AM we were on a train at 7:23 to the school we were meeting with. the vice principle picked us up, and we did our thing. they fed us moss burger for lunch. man were those things small. also, i can’t remember what i ate the last time i was in japan — but this burger had gross red sauce on it. not in a rush to go back unless i can time it to get the infamous 1000 yen burger.
we got home around 10 and headed out to a few bars last night. Ja Rule, the first bar, was full of foreigners. so strange to be surrounded by english speakers. we left fairly quickly for Diablo where there were also lots of foreigners. then headed to Ayr’s Rock where we were the only foreigners and a japanese rapper named B.I.G. Joe was performing.
got back to the office around 3, and slept in.
now my friend Jess’s host family is taking me site seeing with her…

After our guests left, I was all set for a quiet evening. Who knew that was not to be. Nachan got a call, and then told me we were going to Shu’s Cafe for a little while.
“Sure sounds good”
Turns out there was a foreigner there, and they thought we would be friends or something. Spent the night talking to a [drunk] woman next to me whose daughters go to the school we teach at and had told her about the foreigners who had come to class to teach. We’re celebrities.
Shu gave Nachan and me a bottle of wine, and it was a good night. And a not so good morning.
Which leads us to the new word: Futsukayoi.
This post will be augmented with pictures later. Our new friend left with Nachan’s camera.

Last night I got home to Nachan’s and three of her friends – Panchan (Pan as in Panda since she wears lots of black and white), Natsuki and Krara. Now, Panchan and I have met before, and this time she gave me a gift – a fan. Now, I think of fans as decorative, but Panchan has taken fan dancing lessons for 12 years so really it was an activity.

First we worked on opening the fan with one hand. I still can’t get that down. Then we worked on a special twirl. It’s awesome! Panchan gave me another 2 fans, and I can do a two haded twirl! They were very impressed – frankly so was i. Better pictures to follow.

We then feasted on Curry Rice with squid. Mmm.
And then, Panchan brought out more gifts — turns out she also studied Kendo. She brought me some head scarves and we all practiced putting them on since only panchan know. It’s a good look, eh?

As if that wasn’t enough, Panchan and Krara brought me the BIGGEST bag EVER of candy. All sorts of things I’ve never tried like Nori Wasabi.


Oh, and Natsuki brought us donuts for breakfast.
Oishii (=delicious)

Yesterday we ventured across the street onto the campus of Nagasaki Daigaku (Nagasaki University) for lunch and braved the crowd at the cafeteria. It took a second to orient myself – Curry here, noodles there, salad and some other random stuff – and then I dove right in. I even went to someone else’s table to get salad dressing.

Jess got herself pasta and was having difficulty eating it with chopsticks. We egged her on and she started to shovel like everyone else. Notice how you can see people shoveling in the background.

There was one stray noodle (can you find it?).

There’s more pictures here.

Look! I finished my hat! I don’t like my pompoms, so i’ll go without for now. And I’ll fix the hole, don’t worry.

this morning i taught my first 2 classes. i was working on comprehension, so was told to make up a simple story for the kids about canada and ask them questions.

i told them about how in Canada it is very cold and there is so much snow we cannot drive cars. but not to worry – we have something better than cars! dog sleds! my sled has 5 dogs and i use it to get to work every day. but i am heavy so it is difficult for the dogs and they go slowly. this is a problem because i am late for work everyday. my boss yells at me, and then i cry. i think when i get home to canada i will by 5 more dogs so they can pull me quickly.

i have my next class in an hour. here’s to propegating lies!