Croquet Is Not My Cup of Tea

5/15/2007

It has been a long time since I had the opportunity to spend some time on the internet. I should have my own connection in my apartment soon. I have been able to spend my time in my apartment doing things that were much more worthwhile. On that note I have been able to read my Bible a great deal while I am school. There are breaks during the day where no one will miss me in the teacher’s room and I am able to stay in the English room, read and recharge. I have found it to be a way to really renew my mind and purpose. I encourage everyone to try “Bible breaks” during the day. I was able to have my first real religious discussion with 2 friends. They come from opposite ends of the spectrum and both gave me their perspectives on Christianity in a foreign culture. I was excited to learn so much and humbled at the same time. I keep forgetting how little I know about the Japanese culture and how to relate to it.

At the moment I am trying to build as many relationships as I can with the people I meet. I have really been trying to learn the language so I can actually communicate, but it is going to be along time until I can carry on a full conversation. I can really relate to my students at school: we are both on the same foreign language level, we both pick our noses, we aren’t really sure if we like what we are eating for lunch and we really want people who are speaking in other languages to speak much more slowly. I was eating lunch with the second graders the other day and they had a few strawberries. I was sitting beside a boy who was obviously a clown. I told him what a strawberry was in English, he told me what a strawberry was in Japanese. Only he didn’t know that one of the first Japanese words I learned was the word for “poop”. He told me the Japanese word for strawberry was “unko” which is really the Japanese word for poop. I looked at him and smiled. He thought he got the best of me. But I knew better. I really have to stay on my toes.

Last Saturday was a fun filled adventure. I went to a friends house and we made takoyaki. Italians eat meat balls, Japanese eat octopus balls. We all sat around a griddle covered with indentions for the batter. We poured the batter (flour, egg, cabbage, ginger, onions) into the indentions and then they brought out the octopus. It was a tentacle. They sliced it in front of me then we placed a chunk in each ball. The batter then cooked for awhile until we where left with small hush puppy like balls with a surprise in the middle. I have to say that I really enjoyed takoyaki!! It was delicious. After that we played “gato ball” with his grandmother and a few of her friends. “Gato ball” is croquet.

I have never played. I have watched Alice In Wonderland. I was clueless, so here was my strategy: I hit the ball way too hard and missed the gates many, many times. I asked afterward who won and they said that I did. I think they were trying to be nice to the goofy giant. I know less about croquet than before I played. After that we went to a sushi restaurant that has a bar with a conveyer belt. They put plates of sushi on the belt you take what you want, they count how many plates you ate and then you pay by the plate. I ate natto again (fermented soybeans) hoping that it would taste better a second time. No dice. It was worse this time because the fish that it was on was old and mushy. Then I went home and took some nyquil and went to bed. I have been sick for a few weeks and can’t shake it. I don’t know where to get good medicine other than the doctor and I don’t have my insurance card yet. I hope that I haven’t been offensive to the Japanese people by blowing my nose in public. Usually I try to sneak off the bathroom to blow my nose but then I wonder if they think that I have other problems. I have been told that wearing a mask helps sore throats (a popular way of treating sore throats in Japan) so I bought a few and tried sleeping in one. I had to take it off because I kept hearing Darth Vader.

There were 3 surprises during lunch today. 1# The bread had a package of honey with it (HOORAY)!! 2# The honey had lemon flavoring and zest in it (BOOO). 3# I think the soup at lunch today had raw bacon in it.