1998.07.29 WED

Sorry, folks, I know it's been a while since I wrote, but I haven't had much in the way of typing time. On top of that, I've also been writing an article for the school paper and my former employer, The East Carolinan, about my experiences here. My other e-mails might be printed too, I'm not really sure at this point, but I guess it's all up to the discretion of the Features editors...

Anyways, had an interesting week. I just can't remember any of it, so until next time...

Okay, really, I think some of it's coming back to me. I'm not sure if I wrote about my trip to Sanda where I tried pottery for the first time since the ancient history of childhood, but I got a second chance at pottery Friday. More on that in a little, I think my memory's working backwards now...

Wednesday, Yuki and I went to go see Godzilla. Apparently the last time we went to go watch it we stumbled across the only theater in Japan which was showing the version dubbed in Japanese. This time, though, we went to see the version subtitled in Japanese with the original English voices, much to the delight of this language-impaired writer. Otherwise, I might not have been the only one in the theater who laughed when Jean Leon did his Elvis impression. Looking back, it was probably one of those special-effects films like Twister was - fun to watch in the theaters, but the plot is about as weak as three-day old coffee.

Thursday, my host family picked me up, and I tutored English with a neighbor of my host family. They teach English really weird here - most university students have a minimum of three years of English, but they still can't hold a basic conversation. See, in Japan, there aren't many native English speakers, so they just don't know how to pronounce the words. I might be wrong, but I don't think that they make students pronounce the words they learn in class, either. In any case, this girl was distinctively Japanese - shy and VERY nervous. She knew her vocabulary, which was good, but it was kinda hard getting over her embarassment. Once she got her textbook out and we started reading from it, things got better. 8000 yen, not bad for two hours.

After that, ended up staying the night with my host family. Chieko's daughter Ayako had come back home for summer vacation. A student at Keio University in Tokyo, Ayako is studying civil law (I think), and her classes are VERY tough. Then again, I guess most classes at Keio are tough, considering it's one of the most prestigious in Japan. In any case, Ayako had lived in New York for a good deal of time. When she got to New York, she had to take ESL (English as a Second Language) courses, but when she went back to a Japanese-language school, she had to take JSL classes! But right now, she's really strong in both languages, and surprisingly she's probably the most fluent English-speaker that I've spoken with.

Friday, we went to... um... I can't remember the name right now. The place is just west of Nagoya, though, about an hour or so by car from Kashiba. (Kashiba is about ten minutes away from here, in Nara prefecture. The place we went to seems to have been another hot-spot for pottery, though this place was MUCH bigger than Sanda was. Seems like the entire town was filled with small 'tanuki' statues. I just read about the tanuki today in the paper - 'raccoon dogs' is the most accurate translation as long as you're not from the South. Faces like raccoons, these creatures are supposed to bring good luck, and from the way they're... endowed, they're probably supposed to promote fertility as well. In any case, there was certainly no shortage of these statues, nor was there a shortage of pottery.

I got my second crack at pottery, and I only did a little bit better this time. Let me put it this way, just because you've seen 'Ghost' does NOT make you an expert on pottery, it's MUCH harder than it looks. I ended up making a real pot this time, instead of degenerating down to 'abstract sculpture' like I had at Sanda.

I didn't really do much of anything after that, at least not until today when we went bowling. Bowling here's about the same as in America, except it's more expensive, and nobody was at the bowling alley. Maybe the first is the reason for the second, but I'll probably never know. In any case, I haven't gotten any better, but thankfully, I haven't gotten any worse.

Well, right now, that brings us up to Wednesday. Next Monday I'll be going to Tokyo, so if you want to get email to me before I go, Sunday (in the US) is probably the latest I can check mail. I'll be back on the 11th or so - talk to you then!