So, it`s been a while since I sent the massive e-mail. I`ve just
been pretty busy. My one day off the last three weeks has been a
massive day of doing way too much stuff. So last Wednesday, I had
Japanese lessons for like 2 hours after work, then I went out
drinking, because it was my Friday night. But then I had to wake up
early for Japanese lessons with my other tutor in the morning. After
that, I met the girl I mentioned in the last e-mail (her name is Kana
by the way) and we did so much stuff it was ridiculous. So the tofu
restaurant was really good by the way. Some of the food was really
strange though. Oh, and they had Soba tea, which is buckwheat tea, it
would probably have to be one of my favorite teas. They also had a
few things that I don`t even know what they were, but they were pretty
good and of course tofu in everything. They had this really soft tofu
mixed in a salad with lettuce. That is the hardest thing to eat with
chopsticks I`ve ever tried. Because you get is halfway to your mouth
and the pressure cuts the tofu in half. I used a spoon after a while
for the tofu. After that we watched a movie and I showed her around
Kobe. Japanese people are strange, she`s lived in Oosaka her whole
life, but only been to Kobe once, even though it`s only 30-40 minutes
away. And it is somewhere she wanted to see too. I don`t understand
it. Then we had Okonomiyaki, I think I`ve explained this before, but
now I`ll elaborate. Okonomiyaki is maybe the best food for a
hangover. It is some kind of fish or meat, mixed with a lot of
cabbage and onion, cooked into a kind of corn pancake and it is pretty
greasy especially for Japanese food. It is super filling too. At any
okonomiyaki place you can also get Yakisoba, basically soba noodles,
cabbage, onion, and meat or fish fried together. Then there`s
modanyaki, which is okonomiyaki with soba mixed in. This is really
good too, but it`s hard to eat, because the soba in the corncake is
hard to break apart with chopsticks. And there`s one more, the name I
can`t remember, but this is yakisoba with a fried egg wrapped around
it. This one is really good too and even more filling of course. A
lot of times these places have other types of food too. And the table
is a giant grill, so they bring out food and set it on the grill and
everything stays warm, you just grab a little at a time, move it to
your plate and eat it. It`s good. After that we went out drinking.
Then the next day, I had training of course, so I took her home. Yes
she stayed at my house, but in Japan last train is really early, so
she couldn`t get home. So because my training was past Oosaka, I took
her back and went really early to this place in the boonies. Here, I
went out to breakfast, and the people knew absolutely no English, plus
I think I was the first white person they had ever had, so they asked
me like a million questions, but eventually I couldn`t understand
them, but I know the classic maybe 10 questions all Japanese people
ask me, so I said I can`t understand you, but I will talk. And then I
just answered all those questions. They were pretty happy, because
that was probably what they were asking me, I`m just used to getting
them in English. So when I left they wouldn`t let me pay. This was,
by the way in the middle of my barrage of getting free stuff. So the
day before with Kana, we went to my students cake shop, which I
promised to do, and we got two free little cakes, and when we were
drinking the bartender gave us, free shochu, free nihonshu, and free
whiskey, and a free shot of tequila. Which made it super cheap and
she doesn`t like shochu or whiskey, so I drank half of each of those,
so we drank for about 1000 yen, or 10 bucks and both got drunk. Lets
see, all last week I went out drinking too. On Monday there was a
birthday party for one of the people I work with, so I went out for
that. The bartender was the nicest guy from New Jersey I`ve ever met.
He was friendly and attentive. It got to the point that I said, my
families from there and you`re the only person I`ve met from New
Jersey that wasn`t an asshole. He started laughin pretty hard and
said I told know him well enough yet, which made me start laughin.
After that I went to my local bar, it`s in between the train station
and my house, so when we`re coming home we almost always have to pee
and stop their for one drink. Here I ran into, mister english
practice, but also, probably the coolest Japanese guy. When he sees
me, he moves over and just talks. We talked about hockey. So, he`s
the only Japanese person I know who likes hockey, knows about twin
peaks, listens to good jazz, and something else I can`t remember.
He`s a cool guy though, so I don`t mind the English practice, plus
he`s got a pretty important job with Kawasaki motorcycles, so I feel
priveleged to talk to people like him. In the US someone like him
wouldn`t even be in a bar like that. But in Japan lots of people
drink and most people think it`s perfectly fine. But I guess most
people work so hard, they need to hit alcohol immediately to get
enough time to unwind. Also, they are pretty reserved, so alcohol can
be an excuse to act how you actually want to. Holy crap that`s a lot
for one e-mail and I didn`t get to everything. Oh well, stay tuned
for Japanese Tabi, Osaka Aquarium, the dog cafe, and the wine bar.
Oh and next week I might go to Kyoto for crab dinner and onsen on my
day off, so even though it will be busy, hopefully it will be
relaxing. And I might be going with 7 Japanese girls, although the
number might be less, and the plans might fall though, but you never
know.
Dan