hi, i'm jenn

on sunday we woke up and made miso soup from scratch for breakfast. Nachan is my cooking sensei as well as my japanese sensei. i got a sweet deal.

then i met a few of nachan’s customers who seemed to come an hour early to talk to me before their appointments (i feel like her exotic pet). we made curry rice for lunch.

at 1:30 my new friend, hireki, who speaks english super well and french better than me, took me to see the doraemon exhibit at the museum. it was fun. lots of japanese kids.

then i ate nabeh with lots of nachan’s friends and eric. the trip to the supermarket was super fun, and cooking was great. I got to cut the Gobo, and also the Daikon (radish). Nabeh is a hot pot family style meal — there’s a hot plate with soup and you keep throwing things in. Meat, veggies, tofu, whatever. As you eat and the bowl empties, you throw more in. Lots of fun. I spilled all over myself, which was entertaining to everyone else. Heh.

oh! when i walked to the train station to get eric, i ran into ogawa-san — a friend from Friday night! man, i’ve been here for 4 days and already know people around town. hehe 🙂

after i was told we were going to a bar where the owners wanted to meet us (= eric and myself). we walked downtown to sunny side, and met kaiko and her husband jeff (both japanese). they were super nice and very impressed with my ability to ask for more drinks. they even ordered us pizza. kendall and his girlfriend Yuka met up with us. i think we’ll go back there with the other interns.

it’s funny — every time i go to a bar i’m told it’s a “new year” party. now, the new year was a few weeks ago. and i haven’t seen/done any new year related stuff when i’ve been out. if i should figure it out, i’ll let you know.

also, until now eric has been living with kendall. but it seems that last night there was a couple that is “interested” in taking him into their home. they wanted to meet him first, which was one of the reasons we had to go there in the first place. we’re waiting to hear if the adolption is final, but things are looking good.

Saturday after work I headed downtown with the other interns to explore. The main shopping drag is a covered pedestrian walkway that spans many blocks. Nachan was at her french lessons so we met at Starbucks at 6.

Now, I was dressed in a sweatshirt and jeans so you can imagine how surprised I was to see her dressed in a Kimono.

Off we went to Lion Coffee – a small coffee shop with a wall covered in music with a Jamaican theme. They were playing Bob Marley.

Nachan’s friend, Tereo-san, was there. He spoke English well so it was interesting to chat with him. He told me we were going to a party at a gay bar. I told him that was fine, but was wondering if maybe I could change first as I was feeling quite underdressed. He taught me to say “I am dressed like a bum” in Japanese so off we went to Nachan’s house for me to change.

An hour later we returned to Lion Coffee, and me, Nachan, Tereo-san (who is about 50) and his girlfriend Shato (who is about 20) left to Chicky Chicky Snaku. We sat at the bar, were served little snacks and my glass of sho-chu was kept full. Now, keep in mind “bars” in japan are tiny. Maybe the size of my bedroom at home. So not so many people.

I noticed some of the women looked a little, well, less woman-ish than normal. And given that it was a “gay bar”, and that they had adam’s apples, I began to wonder.

Well, at 9:00, the lights went off and a disco ball started spinning. Nachan said to me “Show time” and next thing I knew I was treated to a 30 minute Japanese drag queen show. It was wicked! Better than my birthday last year. And because the bar was tiny totally upclose and personal. There were fans, and singing and whips… Sugoi! (that means cool)

After the show, the group of us moved to another bar. With another drag queen who was singing karaoke.

Japan ski-desu.

so all of a sudden the music in the bar turns off and this man takes a guitar and starts singing in japanese. kendall told us the song was about us. luckily, every second chorus was in english with “I’m not japanese, i’m not the same as you”

After work yesterday I went to my host family’s house. I’m staying with Na-chan. She’s 30, single and lives in a very small apartment. I did my best to unpack my stuff into a closet (I left a lot of stuff here at the office) and then we went out to dinner.

Now, Na-chan doesn’t really speak English. I don’t really speak Japanese. Scratch that, I don’t speak Japanese at all. So that made for some very interesting giggling as she watched me unpack my massive bag. We’re refining our communication techniques, and have already improved.

After I got my stuff into a closet, we left for dinner. We went to a tiny (a room smaller than my kitchen at home, with three tables) place down some alley and up an elevator on the third floor. One of the tables had a couple at it who spoke a little english, so I did a lot of sitting and listening, and Mama had cooked us a lot of stuff. Mama had made us mostly American type food — Japanese versions of pasta and pizza and omlette… The table next to us shared some sashimi and beef with ginger. There was a bit of a pork episode — where she knew I didin’t eat pork, but had bacon in some of the food — but that was okay.

Mama has been to more of Canada than I have — Calgary, Vancouver, Quebec, Niagara Falls… They also have french lessons at the restaurant so there was some je m’apelle going on.

Afterwards, Na-chan took me by the arm and led me around the city to some shrine. We went up the stairs, which had stone shinto gates that were beautiful, and into a bar — Shu’s Cafe.

Shu had more CDs on his wall than any place I’ve seen. We all sat at the bar and met Na-chan’s interesting friends: A newspaper owner, a photographer, her apartment owner’s son…. Everyone was happy to try some English on me, but some of the time they would speak in Japanese amongst themselves and I was left listening. So every so often I’d pipe in with a “Wakata” (=I understand) or “Watashimo” (= me too).

Then Kendall (= my boss) and Eric (= another intern) showed up which allowed me the luxury of English conversation and people to translate. I continued with my piping up every so often, and apparenly told them that I was an identical twin with a well placed Watashimo. I’m fine with that.

Japanese phrase of the night: “one more please!”

Congratulations to Reshma-ben for correctly guessing that I left my digital camera at home.

I guess of all places to buy a new camera, this is pretty much the best one.

so it sounds like we’re going to be a part of an english teaching revolution in japan.
it will definitely involve DVDs and might involve television appearances.
i just want to know if i get a cape.

we made toasts with sparkling wine that tasted more like grape popsicle than anything else.

soon i leave for my host family’s house. we’re calling her my host sister since she’s a 30 year old single woman. she doesn’t speak english. that’s alright, i don’t speak japanese. and apparently we’re going out to a bar tonight. sounds good to me.

The flight to Fukuoka was pretty uneventful. Watched some family guy while waiting on a portable dvd player a group of marines had. Then slept for the hour while in the air.

Met up with the group, and we made our way to hotel Sun Life 3. We had to take a train which meant manouvering with my massive bags down escalators, across streets and on trains. Oh what fun!

We got into our rooms — mine was barely big enough to contain me, my suitcases and the small twin bed. The shower was hooked up by a hose to the tap on the sink. Fun stuff.

Anyway, after a dinner at some random Japanese restaurant (SASHIMI!) we crashed hard.

This AM took a 9AM train to Nagasaki. Train had hardwood floors and leather seats. Heh.
And now I’m at the office. We’re stationed right across the street from Nagasaki University. The place is a pretty sweet setup. There are couches, a TV with english channels including CNN and a keyboard. There’s a banner hanging with flags from all sorts of countries. Guess which one is missing?

Don’t worry – I’ll take care of that.

This afternoon we’re working, and tonight I meet my host sister.