1998.07.20 MON

Well, since the last article, things have changed a lot. James and Adam both left last week, and Callisto, the exchange student from Zimbabwe (who also speaks English and Spanish in addition to Japanese and his mother tongue) left Sunday. Half the dorm's also returned to their home countries, as well, so it's... it's a lot different here in the Foreign Students dorm.

Not to say that it hasn't been busy - in fact, it's actually been quite the opposite. Last Wednesday Yuki and I went to go see the Godzilla movie, but when we got there we found out that it was dubbed in Japanese instead of being subtitled with the original English voices, so we decided to just hold off till we found a theatre playing the subtitled version. (Actually, that's not as hopeless as it sounds - often in Japan they show both versions on the screens for those who prefer the original talents' voices, like for Titanic) So we just went to Namba instead and cruised around for the used CD stores. Good stores are kinda hard to find in Japan if you can't read Japanese ;b

The next couple days I didn't really do much of anything, but Sunday there was a big get-together in Kashiba (Nara prefecture, practically spitting distance from Osaka Dai-Kyo). Lots of people from foreign countries, several from our dorm, came to Kashiba and we had a bit of a presentation. One of the guys from Thailand performed a Thai dance, another played the flute. Basically, everyone who performed did something to represent their country. Being an American, I just sat there and watched everyone else.

Really. I wasn't scheduled to perform in that part of the get-together. The next part was eating, and after that was when myself and representatives for six other countries (China, Indonesia, Korea, Thailand, Brazil, and Chile) presented five simple Japanese phrases in their home languages. Um... I think everyone knew English already... NO ONE who wasn't Thai knew the Thai phrases though - the pronunciation was very difficult, and so was Thai writing. Ratchapoon kept saying, 'This is the simplest one yet' just joking around ;b

Afterwards, we had a little discussion, and then each group had to tell the others what they talked about. For some reason, they had someone from our table relate EVERYTHING they talked about, and then they asked me to get up and tell more. But I didn't KNOW what to say - there was nothing else left to say, so... um... well, let's just say that it's hard enough to make up BS in English, let alone a language that you're only partially familiar with... I ended up just saying, 'I'm too embarassed to talk any more, neeeext!'

After that, Chieko took me to the bus station. In another two weeks we'll be going to Tokyo, and so my 'host mother' took me there to show me where to catch the train, since they'd be heading on ahead of me. I'll probably be staying with Chieko and the Yamashitas in Tokyo for about a week or so. Don't know if I'll get to go to Tokyo again, so I'm gonna bring my camera and all my film ;b

But anyways - I've been getting my share of Japanese food lately. Which I guess is good considering that I'm in Japan... but seriously, I usually eat at the American-style restaurants here because I still can't read the menus. Since the school cafeteria isn't open evenings any more (due to spring break) I've got to start finding other solutions for dinner - which led me to make my first dinner for myself the other night. Yakiniku chicken, eggs, and rice were the result of my latest foray into self-sufficiency. I think that's about all I can cook so far without using the microwave though - but Chieko said she'd teach me how to cook okonomiyaki later, so hopefully I'll be able to cook, like, FOOD, by the time I get back.

So far, though, there's a lot of good food that I've eaten here. Some food that wasn't so good, as well, but that's to be expected. Okonomiyaki, as I thought, has become one of my favorites - basically, you just grill up whatever vegetables and meats you want into a big pancake-pizza-quiche kinda thing. Tastes really good once you put some of this special 'okonomiyaki sauce' on it, too.

Another of my favorites is called 'karubi-don' - I'm not sure what kind of meat it is, probably beef, but it's basically meat on top of rice with a bunch of really good sauce on it. In Japan, a lot of foods are basically different things on top of either rice or noodles. If the name of the food ends in -domburi (-don, as an abbreviation), then it's served on top of rice, but if it's -soba or -udon, then it's served on top of noodles. Whatever it is, it usually tastes pretty darn good.

In any case, whenever I come back to America I'm definitely going to have to get used to the food again. I miss it, still, I do - I mean, every time I watch an American movie and watch them eat barbecue or something, I get REALLY hungry for it - but it'll still take a while to get used to not having everything within fairly easy access ;b

Easy access, in case you're wondering, means having machines next to the dorm that serve udon noodles hot. The drinks here are different too - in American drink machines, you basically get soda or lemon tea. Maybe fruit juice, if you're lucky. Here in Japan, there's more drinks than you can shake a stick at - a lot of which taste really good. Most of them aren't even carbonated - in fact, it's kinda hard to drink carbonated drinks like Coca-Cola now. It's gonna be weird, but at least there's a few Japanese restaurants back home, so I won't miss it TOO much...

Anyways, I need to get up early tomorrow, and I don't really have much else to talk about tonight. niiiiight...