speaking of fish...

So I’ve really been getting into learning how to speak Japanese. I’ve been teaching myself during my free time, on days off, in between classes, on the train. I bought a CD that has recorded dialogues in Japanese. You can listen to it for pronunciation and speaking practice. I’ve been reading through the grammar section of my phrase book and writing copious notes in my little notebook, and every time I learn a new word or phrase I faithfully write it down. I carry this notebook with me everywhere I go. It’s amazing how I’m sitting on the train and suddenly something clicks in my head and I understand what something means. A phrase or word I’ve heard over and over again suddenly means something to me. It’s a wonderful feeling.

It’s also awesome when you finally get to use a phrase you’ve learned in a real-life situation. For example, the other day when my friend Emma was visiting and we were out for dinner, I was able to tell the waiter that we were done ordering. “Sore dake desu.” (That’s all.) It’s not much, but I tell you, it beats waving my arms and grunting. I felt like a human again.

Now for a series of random thoughts on the past couple weeks:

Some of the students I meet are really interesting. For example, I taught this old guy last week who manages a grocery store. He hates riding in trains or driving cars because he’s claustrophobic. He rides his bicycle everywhere, except for longer distances when he takes his motorbike. One time, he rode his motorbike across the country, refusing to take the train. One of the lesson’s suggested discussion topics was, “What’s the strangest place you’ve ever fallen asleep?” His answer: “on a motorbike.” After riding 26 hours straight, he just fell asleep.

This is also completely unrelated, but the saying “April showers bring May flowers” really rings true in Japan. It has rained on almost every day off of mine lately. It has rained almost every day, in fact. I can’t wait until that’s over. Apparently it’s not even the rainy season yet. By the time it’s over, Tokyo is going to be disgustingly hot and humid. We’ll all be soaked in sweat anyway.

In other news, my long-time family friend Emma, who’s like a cousin, came to visit last week. She stayed at a hostel in central Tokyo cause my guesthouse has crazy rules about guests, and I had to work a lot. We got to hang out a little bit before work one day though. Then Saturday night I took her to an art opening at my boyfriend’s gallery. It was quite an event because the Tokyo Contemporary Art Fair was going on and people from important art organizations from all over Japan were in town. There were a few celebrity sightings. The best was famous conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth, who we learned about back in art history class. This was his most famous piece:
One and Three Chairs. That was exciting.



On the following Monday, Emma and I went to Kamakura, where I’d been once before. It was raining—big surprise, but we saw some impressive temples and I sampled not one, but two intriguing ice cream flavors: sweet potato and cherry blossom. The sweet potatoes are purple here, so the ice cream was purple. It was wild. It also tasted great.

I also showed her the wonderful world of Japanese department stores where you can find anything and everything you need in twenty different varieties, shapes, and sizes. We enjoyed the costume section where I felt we needed to try on a giant fish head. I really wanted to buy it.



Speaking of fish, there are these fancy stickers that are made specifically for decorating cell phones. I bought a fish sticker and put it on my phone. My phone is officially tacky and very Japanese. I love it. I also put one of those dangly things on my phone that everyone has here. I may have to take it off though. It’s starting to bother me. It’s amazing though; even stern Japanese businessmen have them on their phones. They are purely decorative dangly things that you loop through a little hole in your phone. There are whole sections in the department stores that sell every kind of dangle you can think of. Figurines, bells, fake food, cartoon characters, fuzzy teddy bears. They’re like key chains only much more popular, and on your phone. I don’t know why this happens, but it does.

Another thing. Why do people think it’s okay to spit in public here? I often have to step around huge spit wads on the sidewalk on my way to the train station. The other day I was standing on the busy platform in Shinjuku, and this guy in a suit just hawked one on the ground right next to someone’s feet as he waited for the train. Gross, man.