Yeah, not the most creative title, especially considering that it's essentially the theme for this entire year. It's as if Rowling got lazy and named one of her chapters, "Magic and Friendship, Muggle." I think I almost just referenced My Little Pony. Now I actually did just reference it. Shit happens.
Regardless, this overdue post's two themes are:
- A night at Aina's a.k.a international drinking games night, and
- A conversation with an elderly man
Let's begin, shall we?
OOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFF WEEEEEEEEE GO
A Night at Aina's
Two weeks ago a ragtag group of misfits and miscreants set out into the shady backstreets of Kanazawa, cradling alcohol and hopes of a good night in their arms. These fresh faced and eager young 'uns were in high spirits from their raucous dinner at GB's, the American diner themed restaurant where the food is neither American or even remotely diner-like, sole exception being the BLT that is served on a bed of rice...... points for trying, right?
Off into the night they walked, blindly following the footsteps of their two leaders, experienced trackers in this neck of the Kanazawa jungle. A few hops, skips, back alley short cuts and they were there, ready to really start the night off.
And that's where our tale begins. That's where we start.
OH, shit. Hold on a second. Let me give some context. The group I was walking with consisted of Alan, Frances, Sebastian, Annika, and Ollie (you may not know some of these people. REST ASSURED, they're all good people.) We were going to meet Aina and the people hanging with her out her house. That included Teemu, Veronica, Saori, Carlos, Mina, Q, friend that I forgot the name of, and Albina (you may not know some of these people. REST ASSURED, they're all pretty terrible human beings.)
OK, now we can start.
The ragtag group settles in, plopping down on an assortment of cushions, blankets, and open floor space surrounding one of the tables in the room connected to the living room. Aina came over with a tray of jello shots they had made earlier, featuring banana blitz, strawberry strugglefest, and I-hope-insurance-covers-stomach-pumps green-lime. In all honesty they were tasty and good, especially the banana. Seconds, please and thank you. After some talking and futzing around I reached into my pants and whipped out my deck of cards. TIME FOR A GAME OF KINGS. Or ring of fire, as Ollie referred to it as. Different versions of the same shit.
Although getting past the language barrier was a little difficult, we managed. Card after card was flipped, games were played, and at one point Ollie took out a bottle of absinthe to compliment the cheap beer we were drinking. Really, Ollie? Are you fucking kidding me? It's shit like this that makes nights both fun and destructively horrible. The cherry on top, however, was how nonchalant he was with it. "Oh hey guys, remember how I have a bottle of absinthe? *yoink*"
It was tasty tasty though, many thanks Ollie :D
As we neared the end of the game, we started getting more creative. For a game of categories we had "bad words around the world." Any language was fine. I felt kind of sad for Mina since Japanese doesn't have that many bad words.
Sample of that game: Cock monger, perrrrrkeleee, aho, mierda, baka, douche bag, asshole, twat, puta madre, (honestly too many to remember, but there were some good ones.)
However, the game came to a close when the final king was pulled by yours truly. //end life
To make matters worse, when I was in the bathroom someone slipped some black umeshuu into the drink (by someone, I mean Aina. Fuck you, Aina) DOWN THE HATCH //continue ending life
But all complaining aside, it wasn't too bad. And then we continued the night playing battle mode on Wario Ware for the Wii. SO MUCH FUN. TOO MUCH FUN. Like actually, I could see myself playing it in my room by myself (maybe not). All of these stupid tasks that are made even sillier when you find yourself flailing to complete them in the 5 second window.
Picking someone's nose? Normally really easy, right? NOPE. Try doing that while tipsy and freaking out about the possibility of messing up and falling into last place.
Bowing in front of an audience? Normally a piece of cake, right? NOPE. Trying doing that while screaming at the person to your right that they're a dirty witch and are cheating at the game. Also while tipsy.
Flipping a pan? Okay, that's actually takes a little coordination. Just imagine what something that requires a little coordination will morph into when given a group or people giggling their tushies off because last person to go failed to pick a nose properly. Struggle.
All good though. After some waiting and help by Aina, Veronica and I wrangled a taxi back to campus, ready to crawl back to our dorms and sleep until the sun decided it was about damn time to wake up and pursue the next day. I closed my shades. Fuck the next day.
//end
A Conversation with an Elderly Man
One of the classes I'm taking this semester is Education in Japan. Frankly speaking, the class is a joke in terms of work. We take field trips and then have to write a 2+ page writeup with pictures allowed. Yeah, OK.
However, just because the work is a joke doesn't mean the class itself has no value. Those two things are not intrinsically connected. The field trips themselves are actually pretty damn cool. We've gone to high schools, middle schools, colleges, etc. And while you have to dig past the candy coated layer of bullshit introductions that most places give you, you get a chance to get a feel for the place and institution when you sit down one on one and talk with the people. Admittedly, the time spent sitting down and talking is sparse (30 min - 1 hour), so even then you only get a glimpse of the school and its inner workings, but sometimes a glimpse is enough to get the gist of it.
This particular story is about the Open University of Japan, a school somewhat similar to the University of Phoenix in America in that it holds classes online. I am not sure if the two are similar in how much esteem and credibility they have, but I'm afraid they might be. However, this story is not about the lackluster teaching abilities of schools that focus on online courses! No, this story is about my conversation with an elderly gentleman who was taking classes in person at the school.
*enter stage right*
*Education in Japan students are bright eyed eager to learn*
*Open University of Japan students are waiting with warm smiles*
*Our teacher is wearing her backstage pass from the Aerosmith concert she attended weeks before in America*
*Our teacher is a pretty damn awesome*
// SIDENOTE //
My Education in Japan teacher is fucking ridiculous. She is phenomenally quirky, with a fashion sense that rails against stereotypes of age and profession. She is a bit of an older lady, maybe mid-50s, yet she dresses as she damn well pleases, rocking big leather boots and denim jackets that tell you to back the fuck off. Of course, the fact that she's 5 foot, maybe 100 lbs, and sweet as can be doesn't clash at all with this image. The cherry on top is that when she went to America to give lead some seminars, she made time to go see Aerosmith where she was literally 10 feet from the stage. She had the photos to prove it, too. Somehow, after the show, she managed to get a snag a few pics while rocking Joe Perry's guitar.
She's also a good teacher, and nice and willing to help in anyway, be it study, finding a part time job, or just giving you some candy to make the homework go by better. 尊敬
// END SIDENOTE //
We plop down around a large, square conference table next to a Japanese student, ready to dive into a conversation filled with awkward poses and lots of gesticulating to get your message across. Now, as a man that is used to using his hands to speak (as well as the rest of my body, ask Gabe Beckerman if you have the chance), I am perfectly fine with this. The awkward poses aren't even that bad, too, considering I've been living in Japan for the past two months and I'm no greenhorn when it comes to fumbling for vocab and grammar. Fuck yeah language inadequacy! Soldier on and get better, sucka.
The man I sat down next to was an amicable looking man named Minoru. He showed me has handwritten name placard (a piece of paper folded over twice) and gave me a firm handshake and sharp smile. This guy was here to fucking converse.
The conversation starts off with the usual "Where you from"s, "What are you studying"s, "What are you interested in"s, etc. Then we somehow managed to start talking about the politics and a blinker in my mind starts going off. I hadn't seen this blinker for a while so I didn't realize what it meant, but as the conversation continued I started to remember.
"CHANGE THE FUCKING CONVERSATION, YOU ARE APPROACHING A TOPIC YOU HAVE HOPES OF COMMUNICATING ABOUT, EVEN IF YOU ASK SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT VOCAB. THIS IS A SUICIDE MISSION."
Unfortunately, this didn't come to me until I had already dug myself into a hole.
Me: "So, do you know anything about American politics?"
Minoru: "Obama and Romney, right? This most recent election. Obama won. I know that."
Me: "Yeah, it was a really intense election. Depending on the source, the person who was "supposed' to win was different. Some people thought Romney had it for sure, other not.
Minoru: Yeah. I don't follow it that much, but it comes up on the news.
*Me feeling confident*
Me: So, what about Japanese politics. I don't know much about it, would you mind telling me a bit?
Minoru: "Well......."
JAPANESE. SO MUCH JAPANESE. YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS JAPANESE. WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? DID HE JUST FINISH A SENTENCE? NOD AND SMILE. MAKE SOME NOISE IN YOUR THROAT AS IF YOU UNDERSTOOD. WHAT ARE THESE WORDS? YOU KNOW THESE SOUNDS, RIGHT? CHANGE TOPIC NOW. CHANGE. NOW!
Me: "So how do you like baseball?"
Eventually we started talking about the states themselves and got onto the topic of Vegas.
*Note, this next part was in English*
Me: "So have you been anywhere besides New York?"
Minoru: "I've been to Nevada."
Me: "Vegas?"
Minoru: *rubbing fingers like cha-ching* "Yup yup." *shit eating grin*
Me: "You went gambling? Haha, sounds fun."
Minoru: "I did a LOT of things in Vegas."
Me: "Like what?"
Minoru: "Well... the food, there was a lot. And drinks. you know, osake, beer? Lots of that. And, how do you say it? Slots? Yeah, that too."
Me: "........."
Minoru: "I went some of my friends."
Me: "........"
Minoru: "Lost some money."
Me: "Would you go back."
Minoru: *Huge thumbs up* "Yes!"
And then the conversation went on, with him explaining how he was traveling the country with his friends on a bus that was going state to state. A big ol' adventure that hit some of the more well known places on the West coast, with Minoru's highlights being the California stops in San Fran and Venice.
After a little bit more our time finished up, but we exchanged contact info and have run into each other on my campus since he takes some Spanish classes every now and then and likes to stop in at the dining hall for lunch when its over. Definitely an interesting character.
Well, that's it for this weeks post. Sorry for slacking this past month. When I post it's usually to talk about the interesting things that have happened which is always in flux; some weeks are worth writing about (to me), and others aren't. However, I'll be having some good stories these upcoming weeks, as well as some backlogged stuff.
Peace
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