After reading my last message, I know where to pick up, although I`ll
do this in the wrong order, because I can. So I think I`ve already
mentioned how nice some Japanese people are, so at one of my local
bars (I must sound like a huge alcoholic sometimes) the bartender is
buying me Tabi, which are classically thought of as Samurai or ninja
socks, with the sandal spot in them. They also button up in the back
and they`re really warm, so it will be nice although it was like 14
degrees today and the plum blossoms are starting to come, so spring is
almost here already in Japan. It`s odd, but a lot of Japanese people
don`t really care about plum blossoms, but its something I want to go
see, especially since I`m one of the only foreigners who likes the
Japanese plums (they pickle them all the time, its super sour, kind of
like really sour candy). Some of my students are starting to think
I`m the strangest person in the world. In my voice class today, we
just talked about ninjas the whole time, it was hilarious. There`s
this old man, called `farmer`, one of my favorite students. It was
basically me and him taking turns lecturing on what ninjas really are
interspersed with both of us making things up and laughing when people
believed us. Then we talked about booby traps. It`s really funny to
listen to people try to describe different booby traps, because they
don`t know what to call it or how to say it. This is not a Japanese
thing at all, but just something you would do if your learning a
language. My favorite today was `door in the floor, exit down`. I
think you can guess what that is. There`s a really cheesy ninja house
in Iga, which is a famous ninja town, which was basically slaughtered
near the end of the Edo period. If you want to know more check out
`Owl`s Castle`, but try to get the original one from the 60`s I think,
it`s much better than the modern one. Anyway, the ninja house is like
four stories of a bunch of fake stuff that is sneaky and weird.
Basically ninja lore. But I want to go see it anyway. I went to a
ninja house last week, which was basically like a haunted house,
except the people who came out to scare you did cool stuff like run
across a fence or swing down from the sealing or did ninja rolls.
Plus I got to throw real shuriken, which was also cool and I earned a
free plastic shuriken, so now I can practice at home. Let`s see I
also have to talk about the aquarium. The Osaka aquarium was really
cool. They had some land animals too. They built environments from
different areas and you just wander down, so maybe at the top they
have monkeys in trees and sloths and below they have fish and below
that ocean fish. I went with a Japanese person, so they didn`t
understand my joke about seamonkeys the entire time, but we were
taking turns pointing out things you can eat and asking what things
were in English/Japanese, which was pretty funny, because a lot of the
fish, neither of us new the name of anyway. The snow crabs were
freaking huge. There was one that was literally as big as a pretty
big dog. Yes I used the word literally and a pretty big dog is not
that descriptive, but it`s legs were as big as my arms, so it was
huge. Maybe the funniest part was afterwards we were pretty hungry,
so I asked what should we eat and the reply was sushi. Looking at all
that fresh fish I guess makes you want sushi. But we went to an
Izakaya instead. Afterwards I saw a wine bar and haven`t had good
wine in a while, so we went and they actually had pretty good wine for
cheaper than the grocery store, so I was excited, but when we left we
had to pay for our seats, so it ended up being expensive. In Japan
its not uncommon for things like this to happen. Sometimes they will
give you free food and then charge you for it. Well, of course the
food wasn`t free, but when you don`t order something and they give it
to you, you assume it`s free, but its food that everyone must order
who goes there, maybe to make sure people eat something. You can get
pretty drunk in Japan as you can drink until whatever time you want
unless the bar wants to close. Which brings me to my next point that
in Japan there is a place you can go for anything and of course have
to pay money to do it. So the girl Kana, that I`ve been seeing is a
dog groomer, so she took me to her favorite place in Osaka, which is
the dog cafe. Here you pay to pet and play with dogs. It`s 500 yen,
which is the standard price to do anything in Japan that I normally
wouldn`t pay for in the US. It was actually pretty fun, though,
because the dogs were all trained, so you could get them to do tricks,
plus I know enough Japanese to get the dogs to come and sit and the
rest I figured out. Also they had a lab. Plus it`s been three months
since I pet a dog, because I don`t know how to ask people to pet their
dog. But I don`t know if I`d go back at all. The whole thing was
more of a, `they have a what, I gotta see that,` scenario. So in
Japan they have a place for everything. I`m going to get a little
dirty here, so stop reading if you want. But if you want to sing, you
go to Karaoke, if you want sex, you go to a love hotel, if you want to
play music you rent a jam space, if you want sex, but don`t have time,
you get a prostitute, if you want a bath, you go to a seito, if you
want a nice bath, you go to an onsen, if you want to play video games,
you go to an arcade, they even have whole businesses where you just
take pictures of you and your friends and you can draw on them. Of
course everything costs money. The japanese economy is strangely self
supporting. People also just read in bookstores and convenience
stores. Maybe the only free thing and no one gets kicked out. They
just stand and read a whole magazine. Anything but go back to that
tiny apartment and most men are on a 1000 yen a day allowance, because
their wives handle the finances, ie shop way too much. Oh whoops, I`m
starting to sound bitter. But the one thing that is pretty good about
it, is most people learn to be cheap, pick and choose, and actually
have fun when they have fun, so there. Not so bitter. Oh well, I
think we`re up to date now. Lets see, I start my kids classes next
month. I think I`ll have four or five. Hopefully it won`t be too
bad, I`ll let you know. I know that it`ll break up the day though and
that is a relief. I`m starting to know some of my students too well.
I come into class and say oh, how was snowboarding last week in North
Hyogo. Or why are you here on Wednesday, you usually come on Monday.
Or today I gave the teacher after me the wrong file, because this
student always takes two classes and today she only did one. I guess
work is always work and that`s why it starts to drag. Even cavemen
probably got sick of hunting everyday. That`s probably how
agriculture started. Til next week or something.
Dan