Brian's Japan Adventure

November 25^th, 2007 

Bedtime Stories?

I woke up last night at 1:30 and didn’t get back to sleep until around 6:00. Ugh.   It’s at least halfway my own fault. Around 4:00 I popped in another audiobook, which kept me awake an additional two hours. I guess I’ll be going to bed early tonight. 

At Last! A Good Idea!

Mom called at 10:30, which woke me up, although that was plenty late to be sleeping anyway.  She wanted to ask about a certain present for Dad, that she wasn’t sure if it was a good idea or not. I think it’s a great idea.  She’ll buy the item in the States, but I wanted to research the item locally.  I might want one too, so I figured it was worth a double-check. The place that sells these is the same place I looked at the other item for him the other night. 

Nothing Annoys Me Like Being Ignored

So I took the bus downtown once again. This time it was too late in the day for McBreakfast, so I got straight down to business. I walked to the new electronics store, hoping they would be less crowded than they were Friday. No such luck. This is their grand opening, and I don’t think they are gong to have a slow time. I checked that I had considered buying the other night, and now I have decided against it completely. Not only would it probably not survive shipping, but as I looked closer this time, it appeared to be far more cheaply made than I remembered; it was probably made in China, heh-heh. 

I then checked out the new item that Mom suggested, and I think it’s not a bad idea. The price is right, and I know it’s something he’ll actually use, which is half the battle with him. She’s going to call later tonight for my decision, so I’ll just tell her to get him one and me one as well, and that can be my “big present” too.  I can get the item here if I want, so I’ll have to see if she wants to buy one and ship it here or not. The basic price is the same either place, but there is at least one extra accessory item thrown in if she buys it there. I’m in no special rush, so I’ll probably just wait. 

Since I had decided on my “big” gift, I figured I would pick up that Mac OS X while I was there. They have about fifty of them in their display case. The case is, of course, locked. I stood around trying to get someone’s attention for fifteen minutes. I have seen this before; store clerks do NOT want to come over and ask me if I need anything. I had the same problem at DeoDeo buying that dictionary.  Either they anticipate a language problem or it’s anti-foreigner bias, I’m not really sure.  I am sure that if I had been Japanese, I would have been waited on. I don’t really need it right now anyway; I’ll order it from Amazon and that can be one more thing for my Christmas box.  Operating system upgrades always turn out to be an all-day project, and I probably don’t have time for it today anyhow. 

It was still not even noon yet, and I didn’t have anywhere else to go downtown. I didn’t bring the computer along, knowing I was going into the computer store, so I had no reason to go to the library this morning. So I left the store and cut through the train station to the other side. I walked north, toward Big Boy, and took a closer look at the various shops over there. Not much really. I arrived at Big Boy after about a 15-minute walk, and ordered the usual. The place was packed on Sunday afternoon. I got my food (cheese melted over chopped steak with big, fat, peeling-still-on-them steak fries) pretty quickly nevertheless. It was great as always. I paid the bill and walked to Hokaiin station. I don’t know why I was in the mood to walk so far today, but I sure did take the long way around. 

Getting home, I did a few Sudokus on the computer, procrastinating with the preparations for this week’s classes. I’m not too thrilled with the stuff I downloaded yesterday, and I’m not looking forward to getting this stuff organized. It’s 3:15 right now, and I am considering running back downtown to the library after all to look for more stuff. The library closes at 6:00 on Sunday, so I probably won’t do it.  Then there is studying for Japanese class. The stuff we covered last Thursday was actually pretty complicated, and I didn’t really have all the vocabulary memorized even then.  I’m both looking forward to and dreading the long break. 

Mailing

On the plus side, with Dad’s gift taken care of now, I am free to get the rest of this stuff packed up now, and get it out a bit earlier than planned. I have no less than three packages to mail, and I can’t carry them all on the bicycle anyway. An extra day is going to be good.  Back in the States, I ran an Internet mail-order business, and it wasn’t unusual for me to take twenty or more packages a day to the post office. Now I am having trouble with three. I guess cars are better than bicycles for some thing. Then again, I figure the price of gas here is close to $8.00 a gallon, so a few trips on the bicycle has a lot to say for it. 

[X-Mas Packing Update] 

OK, I jut packed up what I have, and I am not thrilled.  Everything is small (which was intentional considering shipping), but due to the size it all just looks like I was being cheap. Now I feel like Scrooge. If you’re on my Christmas list and don’t like what you got, just remember; this is touristy stuff and was overpriced accordingly. Family Note: Pay attention to what everyone else got. I can easily take requests for “coming home” gifts; if you see something you want later, make a note. Remember: there are only a couple of months until the next round of gifts.  Also remember that I was more concerned with getting “Japanese Gifts” than I was with picking just the perfect item for each person. 

I had planned on writing a long handwritten message in each Christmas card as well. If I am going to mail everything tomorrow, I won’t have time for that. I guess I can wait an mail the cards later, if they arrive late, it’s not going to matter much. 

It Beats a Strip Search

Also, as I prepared one of the empty boxes I have here to put the stuff in, I notice it has “Japan Department of Customs” tape all over it. This was the box Mom sent my coat in about a month ago. They did in fact open it up and search it. So from now on, if you are mailing anything to me, make a list of contents for yourself, and include a copy of the list for me in the box as well.  I’m sure they packed it all up and it made it to me safely, but there’s no guaranteeing the next box.  Actually I didn’t even realize they had been into the box until tonight, so the really did a good job of re-sealing it.

November 24^th, 2007

Today Is “Grumpy Day”

After yesterday, today was somewhat slow. I went to McDonalds and the Library as usual. I downloaded a bunch of “Fairy Tale” material for next week’s lessons. I still have to go through all that stuff and make lessons out of it, but I don’t expect a problem. While there, I also downloaded a whole bunch of free audio books from http://librivox.org/ . I picked up mostly classics this time; the type of thing I’d probably never actually get around to reading in book form.

The Island of Dr. Moreau
A Tale of Two Cities
Beyond Good & Evil
Plato’s Apology
Walden
Dhammapada

Those, along with the huge number of Doctor Who stories that I already have, should keep me going for a good long while. Actually, I listened to another Doctor Who story tonight, so you can see where my priorities lie.

Bureaucratic Foolishness

While I was online, I remembered that it’s been a little over a week since school ended, so I checked my school’s website to see if my very last and final grade posted. It did, but now there is a new problem. The university has placed a hold on my academic record because I have not completed an “exit interview.” Well, duh. I did an exit interview when I got my Bachelor’s Degree. I know what they said then, and it’s not going to be any different now. Besides, it’s hard to go in and attend a “nonsense meeting” when you’re 7000 miles away. I emailed my advisor at school, and hopefully this can all go away quickly. Then again, this is a pretty stupid bureaucratic requirement anyway, so if there were ever anything that was going to hang on and cause trouble, this would be the sort of thing to do it.

Why Do We Bother?

Ptuny and I chatted a while as we usually do on Saturdays, and she expressed a regret that not many people comment on her artwork on the message board. I can only assume that’s because my readers here have forgotten about the message board. Check out The Arcaneum at http://www.arcanethings.com/phpBB3/ and take a look especially at the “Art” section. She’s recently done a couple of paintings based on my photography. I especially like the one with the Castle in Hiroshima, but the one she did on the trees in the Shukkeien Garden is pretty good too. Take a look, and be sure to comment; if you aren’t a member of the board, sign up, there’s no cost and no catch. If you don’t want to sign up there, then post your comment here.

And she has a very good point. While we’re on that subject, how about commenting on my blog reports as well. I can tell by my logs that there are a great many readers, but it seems that only Ptuny and Sisterinlaw comment here regularly. After all, if it’s not worth your time to send in a little feedback, I can stop posting them easily enough.

And that was about it at the library. I spent nearly five hours there today, and I think that may be overdoing it. I’m here to experience Japan, not play on the Internet. At least my Net addiction is down to one or two days a week.

I didn’t do any shopping today, just the library trip. On the way home, I stopped in at CoCo Ichiban yet again. I think that makes three days in a row now. I guess I should give them a rest for a bit. I did get a little adventurous in that I got a higher level of “spicy” than I usually do. I could barely tell the difference. Next time, I’ll go for two levels higher.

Stopping at Happy Town, I picked up a restock of groceries and bought the very last of my Christmas gifts with the exception of Dad’s thing, which I think will have to wait until next Wednesday’s Hiroshima trip. All others are done now, unless something really special jumps out before Wednesday. I plan to mail out everything on either Thursday or Friday.

Is That It?

And that’s about it. If it sounds boring, then I guess I’ve gotten my point across. I need something to do, and I’m not much in the mood to do anything. Between being so tired in the beginning of the week, and being so completely bored now, I wonder if I’m not on the edge of one of the various steps of culture shock? There are various steps, but I have to admit I can’t remember them all right now. While I’ll grant the newness of Japan has worn off, I can’t really say that I’m sick of it either. Neither do I find anything disgusting. No, I think I really just need something more to do. I don’t think all that spare time around the holidays is going to help any either. I don’t need more time off!

November 23rd, 2007

Black Friday

Black Friday: At least that’s what it’s called in the States. It’s not only the day after Thanksgiving, but also the busiest shopping day of the year. Yeppers, today was the day I decided to do most of my Christmas shopping.  Actually it wasn’t that bad. Considering it’s a holiday, I expected bigger crowds, but I really didn’t see crowds downtown any bigger than on a typical Saturday or Sunday.

Let’s start from the beginning. I wasn;t sure what I wanted to do this morning. I could have gone on my adventure to Kurashiki, but I’m kind of losing interest in that. There just doesn’t appear to be all that much in Kurashiki worth the trip, and it’s pretty cold to spend the wandering the streets looking at historical old buildings. My other option was shopping. So I packed an extra 10,000Y note and my list of purchases from Wednesday and headed downtown.

A Breakfast Caller

My first stop, as always, was McDonald’s for McBreakfast. Yes, I am a sausage-egg McMuffin addict. That’s not my favorite at home, but they don’t have as big a selection in the morning here as in the States. It doesn’t matter; it comes with hot coffee, so it can’t be too bad.  Just as I’m finishing up breakfast, my phone rings. Mom is calling a day early? No, she’s not making her weekend call; it’s a “Happy Thanksgiving” call. She barely gets 10 words in when she gets interrupted with call waiting. My brother is calling her wanting to know why MY phone is busy. She comes back on and ended that call so he could get through.

A Turkey Song

My brother comes on, and we talk about this and that while his seventeen children run around the room making noise. He doesn’t really have seventeen children, but it always sounds that way when he tries to talk on the phone. They’re as quiet as mice when he hangs up the phone, I bet. At one point, he got my 4-year-old nephew to sing me his Thanksgiving song. I didn’t catch every word, but it started off with, “I’m a little turkey, round and fat…” and ended with “gobble gobble.”  It’s about time someone came up with a good Thanksgiving song. There are so many classic Christmas songs you’d think someone somewhere would come up with a few songs about magic turkeys or something. My niece came on afterwards, but she was in one of her shy moods and didn’t have too much to say. It was getting close to bedtime there, and things get wild sometimes around that point in the evening. My brother wraps up the call pretty quickly and says he’ll call back with some gift ideas soon.

Hallmark Might Actually Be Cheaper

All the while I was talking to him, I walked through the Tenmaya Arcade, looking in shop windows. When the call ended, I went into one that resembled a “Hallmark Store.”  That was a big mistake. I walked out with cards for everyone on my list, plus a few gifts, while they kept more of my money than I even want to see in print. I am such a tightwad; a regular Scrooge. So far I am still under budget, but I still don’t have anything much for Dad, and all the gifts for everyone else are really small things. I seem to be making up in quantity what I usually do in quality. Still, I have several $20 gifts and one $30 gift, but so far, nothing big for anyone.

After the card shop, I walk over to the Cred store and go in. I go to the fifth floor bookstore and look at their English section, when my phone rings. It’s my brother again; he’s put his turkeys to bed and wants to talk for real now. He says he’s found a new way to “push Mom’s button.” When he wants to irritate, he mentions applying for jobs out of state. He’s the favorite right now because her other kids “have abandoned her“ to the awful hell-hole known as Ohio.  He learned today that mentioning an out-of-state job gets things thrown at him. I wonder what will happen to him when she sees this in print?

Who’s Number One?

He also mentioned an idea for a category of gift for Dad, which I think would be great. After looking at those items, though, I don’t think any of them would survive being shipped overseas. He usually asks for a gift card, and “real” suggestions are never forthcoming. I have another idea, but I’ll have to wait and go back to the Japanese store next Wednesday in Hiroshima. I was hoping to mail everything on Monday. Ah well, it’s early enough a couple of days shouldn’t matter yet. I sat down on a park bench in the lobby of the 10th floor of Cred and my brother and I talk about “stuff” for about 40 minutes. Nothing much of special importance, just “stuff.” Apparently my 4-year-old nephew is now running around the house yelling “Co Co Ichiban” because he likes the way it sounds. I explained to my brother that “Ichiban” means “Number One!”  I don’t know what “CoCo” is all about, but it’s simple enough to call the Nephew “Number One Coo-Coo.”  Eventually, we run out of stuff to talk about, and hang up.

I left the Cred building and headed toward either CoCo Ichiban or the bus stop to go home, I hadn’t decided which. Just as CoCo Ichi is within my sight, the phone rings again, an it’s Mom’s second go-round. I tell her what I’ve been up to and about my goofy schedule for the month.  I haven’t been able to post yesterday’s blog yet, so no one knows that stuff yet. She wants to know what I want for Christmas. Oh joy, now we come down to that. I don’t know. I ordered the computer game I wanted, so someone can pay for that and call it a gift, but beyond that, I don’t know. I have so much stuff right now to pack and bring home that it’s ridiculous. I’d like something that takes little or no space, or that could be useful for a couple of months and then be painlessly left behind. Any thoughts?

After all this talking, I feel the need for some lunch, so I do CoCo Ichiban. Afterwards, I think about it and see that’s it’s only been two hours since breakfast. Oops. I mean, Oink! Afterwards, instead of taking the bus home, I walk a bit farther t the station and take the train home. On the way I pass another couple of big stores that I’ve never been in and make a mental note to try them later.  While waiting in line to buy a train ticket, the monitor over the clerks heads flashes a “Now Open!” commercial for one of those new stores that I just noticed. I see they sell computers and electronics. Hmmm. That might give me an idea or two for myself! I go home anyway to unload my packages, but I plan to come back.

Heart Of Yawning

So I arrived home at around 2:00. I sit down on the bed and listed to the rest of “Heart of Darkness.”  I guess that book would have been shocking a hundred years ago or whenever it was written, but today I found it a little bit on the “meh” side. This guy finds Kurtz and his speeches and ideas to be so fascinating, but he never actually shows us why. His hunt in the jungle for Kurtz, who turns out to be insane, reminded me a lot of “Apocalypse Now.”  I assume the latter was intended to be an updated version of the book by Conrad. To be honest, I didn’t much care for that movie either. One thing I did learn was that audio books are really easy to use on the iPod.  It’s time to look for more free audio books next time I go to the library.

Around 4:00 I finish that story and decide that tonight would be a good time to go downtown and get pictures after dark. I assumed there would be lots of Christmas lights to see. I’m right, everything was wired with lights, but the big illumination ceremony wasn’t until 8:00 tonight, so there was nothing to see until 8:00.  I didn’t want to hang around that long, so I went for a walk instead. I think I may have found another library, but it was closed today for the holiday, so I’m not sure.

Then I went to those two stores I saw earlier. One is a six-floor shopping mall, but I was not impressed with their stuff. Sporting goods store with nothing that will fit me and bookstores with nothing I can read. Argh!

Techno-Nerd Heaven

The second store, however, was the one doing their grand opening. This was an electronics store, spread out over six floors. Their computer floor is the most densely filled, well-stocked computer department I have ever seen anywhere. All I can say is wow. They even have Mac stuff. OK, they have one thing I want for my Christmas list: I want the new operating system, “Mac OS X Leopard.”  It’s $129.95 in the States and 14,800Y here. I think that’s actually about the same once you take into account the currency values.  They didn’t have any Mac games however, so I didn’t buy myself anything tonight.

Scrooge Would Be Proud: A Dollar Store Xmas

Then I caught a bus home. Actually, I stopped on the way and went to Happy Town’s 100Y shop. I picked up a whole bunch of stuff for the kids presents. Actually, I bought two of a certain toy for 400Y each last Wednesday at the Japan shop, and I found the same thing tonight at the dollar store. Argh!  But otherwise, I got them a lot of neat little things that they can’t get at home. I’m not going to be buying any big toys for the kids this year. I’m making a big effort with little stuff that is very “Japanese” for them, but I have instructed Mom to buy them “real toys” and send me the bill. Yeah, I could buy Barbies and stuff here, but why mail them home if they can just buy them there? Origami play sets aren’t the sort of thing they can get at home, so I’m buying that kind of thing.  I do think that I’m about done with the kids. The stuff I bought for adults, I’m not quite even sure who gets what yet (with one or two exceptions).  And I’m still stuck on Dad’s gift. Maybe I will get him a Happy Town gift card.

And so, as I walked from Happy Town to Hokaiin Station, where I left my bike, I mentally went through all that I’ve bought, and I am STILL not done. I wonder what it’ll cost to ship all this stuff?  It’s mostly pretty light, but all together it counts up. I don’t think I’ll wrap this stuff, it’ll just add to the weight. The cost, however,  doesn’t concern me nearly as much as the fear that I will have to fill out a Japanese customs form. The American ones are hard enough to fill out, and I can actually read those.  But that is a problem for another day.

What’s up for tomorrow? The library, I guess, at least in the beginning. After that it depends on what comes up.

Co-Co-Ichiban!

November 22nd, 2007

An Unusual Thursday

I slept late today.  Not as late as I would have liked, but just late enough to keep my from going to the library. I started early working on my Japanese textbook. I bought a notebook the other day, so I started carefully transcribing all the vocabulary words into the notebook. If nothing else, it’ll help with my spelling. After about an hour into that project, I hear loud music coming from the mountain. The bug festival up there had apparently begun.

I can’t say it had ever occurred to me before to go up the mountain “just for fun,” but today got the better of me. I walked up there around 11:00 and many of the little booths were still setting up. They were mostly all selling food. I saw one sign that said “tako 300Y.” Tako is not in fact a taco; it’s octopus. I learned that one early on in my stay here. Yuck! I saw a few students from my Monday class; I didn’t spot anyone from Thursday’s class today. There were people walking around dressed as Santa Clause, a Power Ranger, a masked wrestler, and some guy dressed up as an anime girl. No, no photos. Overall, I imagine the people involved had fun, but I certainly didn’t see anything worthy of closing the school for three days.  It seems to be about the size of “May Days” at my USA university, but they keep having classes during that, since it’s really not that big of a deal. I walked through everything twice, and it took about a half an hour.

Then I came back down the mountain to do laundry.  It was cold today, but it was very sunny, so I figured I’d better take advantage of it while I could. While the laundry washed and dried, I went back to the Japanese vocabulary and finished writing all the words in my book. We’re still only on chapter five, which is pretty darn slow progress, considering that we only have about ten more classes.

Then the phone in the living room rang. I looked at my cell phone and it was turned off. Oops!  I ran into the living room to grab the phone and it was Y-san, calling for me. She wanted to go over my upcoming holiday schedule, and told me she had a few changes for me. Uh-oh!

The End Is Nearer Than I Thought

First, she told me that Marc and I have a “company” Christmas party on December 8th, which is a Saturday. It was an invitation, not a requirement.  However, in Japan, when The Company “invites” you to a party yu darn well better show up. I told her we’d be there. Then she explained that my Wednesday schedule had some changes. I knew that, since I’d talked to them all yesterday; no, there was a lot more to it now. Instead of the 19th for the Kindergarten, they want me to come on Saturday the 15th to play Santa. They have a costume already. Oh joy!  Oops, I mean Ho! Ho! Ho!  I really don’t mind that so much, but remember, I had a lunch date with my students in Hiroshima on the 19th.  Now I can’t go. They made reservations for that day too. I imagine they could change them, but I hate having to change their plans.  Also consider that the “Rotaru” party is on the 16th, the day after the Santa thing. That’s gonna be a busy weekend.

The Kindergarten had another change in store for me. My first day back after break was supposed to be the 9th, but now it will be the 12th, also a Saturday. They have some kind of rice-cake-pounding ritual they do and they want me to be there for that. I don’t know what that’s all about, but it sounds OK to me.  So now as it stands, my last day in Hiroshima will be the 15th of January, and I don’t go back until the 12th of January. That’s a good long break!

Then there was a surprise: She mentioned that on January 8th, my first day back to the University at Takahashi, would also be my last day there. Forever. Apparently, their classes end quite early. It also appears that most of my classes up on the mountain here in Okayama also end in mid-January sometime. Japanese class is also over in mid-January. Wow. Basically, once I get to Christmas, things are all going to be on the wind-down from there. With the exception of Hiroshima, almost everything ends before February. What will I do to fill all that time?

I then passed all this information on to Marc, who was as blown away by the nearness of our impending free time as I was. He said that he might ask to leave early. I don’t know if they’d go for that. They’d have to find someone else to take over his classes and – WAITAMINUTE!  I think I will start discouraging that kind of thinking before it gets started.

Japanese Class went about as usual. We covered positive and negative adjective tenses today. “The room is clean” and “The room is not clean” and “The room was clean” and “The room was not clean” are all very different structurally. It’s all in the book, but it’s going to take some memorizing and practicing to get it all down.

What Did I forget?

Oh yeah. It just occurred to me that this is Thanksgiving.  No sign of it at all here, so it’s easy to forget. Halloween was more visible here than Thanksgiving. I guess that makes sense; it’s basically an America-only holiday. Somehow I don’t think I’m going to forget Christmas so easily.

If today is Thanksgiving that means tomorrow must be my parent’s anniversary. Happy Anniversary to them! Congratulations and Woohoo!  (Now let’s see if the two brothers who aren’t 7000 miles away remember). Sorry, no card, but I am planning to finish up Christmas shopping this weekend and get that stuff mailed next week some time.

Weekend Plans

Tomorrow is a holiday, so the library is out. I might go to Kurashiki as planned, but I’m starting to lose interest in that; it’s just too cold to wander around a strange town looking for things of interest. That leaves Christmas shopping locally or taking the computer to the porno-café. Or I can stay home and do something; read, write, or something. The scariest part is that this is just a preview of all that open, blank time that’s coming in February.

November 21st, 2007

A Cold Day In Hiroshima

I woke up at 4am this morning and never did get back to sleep. I hate it when that happens. Eventually, I packed up and headed off to the station. I boarded the train and zoom, I was off to Hiroshima yet again.

It was pretty cool out today. When I checked the temperature in the late afternoon, it was 43 degrees (Fahrenheit), that’s the lowest I have seen it here. I saw on the Weather Channel website that it’s going to get down to 36 next Sunday night. Brrrrr! Still, walking in a hurry up and down the hills of Hiroshima with a 100 lb backpack on, the cool felt pretty good. At least I wasn’t sweating when I got there this time. I arrived at the kindergarten at the usual almost-late time and got started right away.

I review body parts first. I review eyes, ears, hair, nose, mouth, body, arms, hands, legs, knees, and feet. They know all this stuff, but I review every once in a while just to keep it in their minds. Then we worked on “My Name Is” and “I am 5 years old.” Then we got into the weather flashcards. They have one for rainy, snowy, sunny, rainbow, and night. They actually saw a rainbow yesterday, so they were all excited to see that. Then it was on to animals and food, and we went through all the ones that they know including the handful of new cards I added last week. Then I told them they knew those cards too well, and we started on the new set. This new set isn’t completely appropriate for Japan, it has medieval kings, queens, princesses, and that sort of thing. I put some of the ones I didn’t like back in the box, maybe I’ll use them later, maybe I won’t. Lastly, I explained (with the help of Mr. Kindergarten) how to do “I like” and “I don’t like.” Surprisingly, the kindergartners all liked rabbits and puppies, but didn’t like snakes or rainstorms. What a surprise!

On the way out, Mr. Kindergarten says “Next week, a song. ABC Song!” Oh yay. I had hoped to avoid singing, but he’s got me in a corner now. I sure hope he has a tape or CD or something, because I sure don’t have one. I could probably buy one at Maruzen, but I’m not going to rush right out and buy one. I bet they have one already. I’m pretty sure I know the words to that song at least: “ABCD, blah, blah, blah. Now I know my ABC’s, won’t you come and play with me?” Isn’t it? At least that’s the way I learned it. If you know of any other variation, post it in the comments or send me an email. I also found that the kindergarten will be closed for two weeks, so I know I have the 26th of December and 2nd of January off.

Then it was off to the Community Center. The first thing I did was ask about the holiday schedule since that was fresh on my mind still. They checked with the community center manager, and it turns out I will have no class there on the 19th, 26th, 2nd, 9th, or 16th. Wow! Five weeks off from that group. On the 19th, the afternoon class is going to a nearby restaurant for shabu-shabu and I am going with them. I haven’t tried shabu-shabu, but it’s some kind of beef dish, so I’ll give it a shot. Some of the ladies in the evening class didn’t show up tonight, so no plans were made, but I expect they’ll want to do something as well.

Both of the community center classes were mostly filled with talk of Thanksgiving. They are all very interested in early American history. Maybe I should have been a history teacher; they all seemed so much more attentive than usual this week. Or maybe it was just all the talk of turkey, stuffing, pie, gravy, and green beans. Turkey isn’t popular in Japan, one of the reasons being that the Japanese don’t have ovens, at least not big enough to cook a turkey in.

Shopping!

At some point during the afternoon class, I mentioned that I had to buy Christmas gifts pretty soon to mail home. The next thing I knew, I was dragged downtown to a specialty shop on the fifth floor of “somewhere.” This place sold all kinds of traditional Japanese items, as well as Japanese toys, prints, other souvenir-type things. I spent everything I had with me. Some of the things were more expensive than I thought, even had to dig out pocket change to pay for all of it. I may get more next week, or may start looking for more “regular” things that aren’t necessarily Japan-related.

I have two or three gifts for Mom, and at least one gift for each of the other adults, three small toys for the niece and nephew. I still have more to buy, but this is a very good start. I still haven’t found anything that just screams out “Dad!” but I did see a few things there that might work if I don’t spot anything else this week. He’s always the hardest to buy for. If you ask him what he wants, it’s always “a gift card.” Sorry Dad, a gift card for Happy Town isn’t going to do you much good this year. Mom’s usually tough too, but there are a few things she always likes. Besides, I doubt there is anything involving Japan that Mom likes this year.

I will buy some cards this weekend. I also want to try to finish up all my shopping as soon as possible. Mail coming to me from the USA has been taking about a week, but I have no reason to assume that it goes that fast in the other direction. I really have waited longer than I should have. The holiday has quietly snuck up behind me this year. It’s not as “in your face” as it is in home, and it honestly hadn’t dawned on me just how close Christmas is!

Is It A Holiday Weekend Or Not?

And so here I am, on the train heading home. It’s nearly nine and I have a little more than an hour to go. Tomorrow is a special festival up at the university, so my class is cancelled. I do still have to go to Japanese class in the afternoon, however, so I can’t really do much fun stuff because of that. I might squeeze the library into my morning schedule. Friday is an actual holiday, and I am not sure about Saturday and Sunday. So if I want to get online, tomorrow might be the best time for it. I guess there’s always the “porno café” if I really need the Internet this weekend and the library turns out to be closed.

Traveling. Don’t Know Where Don’t Know When.

Sometime this weekend, I don’t know which day, I am going to explore Kurashiki as I said in yesterday’s blog. I never got around to asking the students today what were good places to visit. I guess I’ll just take my chances with my map. Someone did give me an English map to Miyajima today. Everyone always says to go see Miyajima, so one of these “off” Wednesdays, I am going to go there. The 19th would have been good, except for the lunch party. I won’t be in Hiroshima on the 26th or the 2nd, so those are out. That leaves the 9th or 16th of January. Miyajima is on an island in the ocean, and in mid-january, that sounds pretty cold. Maybe I’ll wait for that trip after all.