Kaleideoscope /Kaya concert

I haven't written a blog in a while, so, if you are interested, I wrote about my concert experience last Saturday in Tokyo. I went to Tokyo solely for the purpose of seeing this concert, and headed home the same day.

The show was held at the Ruido K3. This was actually my first concert in Japan, not counting V-Rock Fest, so I had no clue about the venue, setup, crowd, anything. When I arrived, I was shocked to the see how small the building was. It was no longer strange to me that it didn't show up on Google Maps. There was a very small crowd of about 65 nicely dresses, mostly lolita-style, girls standing around outside, (I was defiantly the only foreigner) so I knew it was the right place. A staffer guy started calling out ticket numbers, which was a surprise to me. I knew my ticket had a number, but I thought it was all standing room. To facilitate an orderly entry once the doors opened, the staffer lined us up more or less in numerical order. Except, the entry was in the basement and the building was so small, we lined up by winding around the stairs going up the inside of the building.

After the doors opened, we slowly wound ourselves down into the basement. I was really shocked (again) to see how small the room was were the concert would be held. They had filled the standing room with folding chairs, which explained the ticket numbers, but I am pretty sure we could have held the concert in my 1LK apartment. Honestly, I was thrilled to see the arrangement. It guaranteed that no matter where you were, you had a good seat and could see Kaya and all the band members. I was super happy to get to sit down for the next hour and half as well.

The band members came out first, took up their places and, minus Kaya, began to play. I liked it immediately. It was a jazzy sort of rock/pop that I could tell immediately would suit Kaya to a T. Even without Kaya, I would have gone to see this band play, as they were quite good, and quite fun to watch. I thought the Bassist, Shingo, was particularly cute, as he was clearly having fun; he kept sticking his tongue out and would sometimes silently mouth the sound of the other instruments (which cracked me up).

After the first song, the band paused, and Kaya blew onto the stage. He was dressed in platform boots, a black high-waisted pants, a white shirt, a short black jacket with looong coat tails, and a short white wig. I was a little disappointed he didn't just stick with his natural hair. The wig was definitely a little weird, and I know he looks gorgeous as just himself... ah, but anyway, he was very quiet, reserved, did a simple little bow, and sat down.

The first couple of songs were the same jazzy stuff that the band had been playing as a warm up. It was not very fast paced, just easy, relaxing. Kaya sounded even better with them than I could have imagined. From the first time I heard his music, my fantasy of him has always been to have him sing at private jazz club/restaurant, without big crowds and where one could dance. My fantasy was somewhat fulfilled; I think, if he ever did such a thing, this is what it would sound like. I wanted to sit there and listen to them forever.

However, after the first couple of songs, the lights came up and so did the band members. Kaya, Shingo, and... the guitarist (he was cute too! I just.. can't.. remember his name...) had all been sitting down, but they popped up and suddenly the mood changed. Kaya laughed and started talking. I have no idea what he said after "Good evening!" so don't ask me. They started playing without much talking, but it was a faster pace, not as mellow, though it still had that jazzy edge to it. After they played for a bit, Kaya whisked away off stage while the band kept playing. I assumed he had gone to change his clothes. The band played a full song, and when Kaya had still not reappeared, they continued into a... rotating solo. Shingo went first, the spotlight shinning down on him as he showed off with his bass. The guitarist went next, then the pianist, then the drummer. They did this about 5 times until Kaya swept back on stage again. He had indeed changed his clothes, now a blouse and skirt. As the girls next to me burst into a quiet round of "Kawaii~!", Kaya summed up the transformation himself: "I'm a princess!" He then apologized (I think... don't quote me on the translation!) for taking so long because he couldn't get his clothes on! Everyone laughed at both comments.

The fast paced music continued for the rest of the show. They did pause for about 15 minutes to do a "Talk Show Corner", where Kaya read from cards collected from the audience. I could only read the second half of the question on my card, so I didn't fill it out; I think it was asking where we wanted to go with the Kaya Express, but again, don't quote me. I grew a bit bored from not being able to understand. Watching Shingo was fun though; at one point, he was too busy checking himself out in mirror and fixing his clothes, that he didn't even hear Kaya ask him a question, which he got teased mercilessly for.

I floated out of that venue on a cloud. It was such a good show on every possible level. The band was amazing, Kaya was amazing, and venue was perfect, and even the sound was great. I was really sad that I hadn't bought a ticket for the 2nd show of the night, but I did have to make the last train home so... till next time Kaya.

I have two more concerts in Tokyo this weekend, ha ha. I don't think they will be as amazing (the venue is much bigger) but I will let you know!

Cheers,

musical Baer(s)

Twizzlers, oh so good for you~

Happy (belated) Halloween!

I love Halloween. I do. It's so much fun and not religious, so I don't even have to feel guilty about enjoying it.
Thus, it was a little disheartening to see such a lack of proper enthusiasm from my fellow residents! My neighbor, Yuki, who speaks English, invited me to a Halloween party at a nearby English school. She told me not to dress up though... so I just wore a colorful tie in effort to be a little different. Walking around Ota, you'd never guess there was anything unusual about this Saturday, that it was a Saturday like any other. It drove me crazy! I wanted to yell to the people on the street, "It's Halloween! Why aren't you dressed up?!" Yuki just laughed at me.

The English school was really small and yet the amount of people at the party could not have filled even one room. It was a little awkward, to say the least. There was a mix of ALTs from all over and Japanese people interested in English. The absolute best part of the party was... one of the Japanese women there had been given Twizzlers as a gift from an ALT, but hated them. When she discovered that I liked licorice, she perked up and immediately said, "Wait here, I'll go home and get them for you!" We all just sort of stared as she ran out the door... she was really eager to get rid of those Twizzlers!

When she came back and gave them to me, I was feeling a bit mischievous and looking for something to cut the boredom. So, naturally, I offered some "great American candy" to the Japanese people around me. I cannot even tell you.. how amusing it was to watch their reaction, from the moment they pulled a single strip from the package and watched it sort of flop in their grasp. 'Seriously skeptical' would be an understatement. However, good manners won out over suspicion, and they all gamely took that first bite. Gods, their expression! After chewing for just a moment, they looked over at each other and asked, in Japanese, "What is this?" over and over, like they simply couldn't understand. "This is plastic./Is this plastic?" or "is this really edible?" was the standard response, accompanied by a pain expression as they chewed. Yet, even as they have this look on their face like they are eating poison, they look over and me and nod, "Oh yes, very good. Delicious." I was laughing my ass off. Even for the sake of being polite and maintaining harmony, they simply could not contain their disgust for this so called "candy." One woman even suggested that it might be a candle. lol. They asked me if it was really candy. I told them it was actually quite popular in America, and they didn't believe me!

Thus, for every unsuspecting Japanese person I saw that night, I would innocently offer them some "very popular American candy," to which they would eagerly respond until they actually tried it. Then the response was universally the same as I described above. A few people actually said they didn't mind it, but I was not sure at all if they were just better at maintaining harmony in the face of great odds. lol.

I am SO buying Twizzlers to bring to the office. Mwahaha.

Cheers,

evil Baer

JRock is good for the soul

I am late in my report, as usual, but before too much more time passes, I wanted to tell you what a did the weekend before last.

On Saturday, Chingyi and I headed into Tokyo. As usual, it was right after payday, so I was guaranteed to be poor for the rest of the month. However, I'd been looking forward to this weekend for a month, so I was sure it would be worth it.
First we went to a somewhat last-minute concert for a band that Chingyi likes and that I have never heard of, Monkey Majik. What was funny about them was that the band was made up of two Japanese guys and two Canadian guys. The Canadian guys sang all the songs in Japanese though, and, as it turns out, were former ALTs. It was a pretty small concert, held at the Canadian Embassy, and I think we might have been the only foreigners there. What really cracked me up was that, if the band members wanted to confer privately (say, about the next song) all they had to do was switch briefly to English and they were instantly alone.

We puttered around Tokyo for the rest of the day, primarily Harajuku (my heaven/haven). Unfortunately, as soon as we left the concert, it started to rain! Rain! I was so unhappy about this. Raining on my Tokyo day. Not to mention, raining on my nice dress!! Irk. We hid in Laforet for a while, looking around at all the nice clothes and trying desperately not to buy anything. I did end up getting a coat, a nice long white one that Chingyi says makes me look like a Russian princess. I was sure happy to have it though, because the rain did not let up for the rest of the weekend. We were even forced to buy an umbrella, a super stylish $6 one that I would end up losing later that weekend.

As a weekend of many firsts, it was, firstly, the first time we ever got lost in Tokyo. We had been good little girls and left Harajuku with plenty of time to get some rest at our hotel before the evenings activities, however, we did not anticipate how much difficulty we would have finding it. We probably walked for 1/2 hour before I determined we were definitely lost. We caught a cab in effort to save time and energy, but the cabby ended up being an idiot who could not even find a MAJOR department store, letting us off in the WRONG place, and forcing us to go down into the subway before we could find the correct route to the hotel. $9 just to get us more lost. thanks a ton.

That night we went to a party in Tokyo, called Tokyo Decadance. This is a party where every crazy Tokyo fashion you have ever seen or heard about, come together. It was quite amazing to see. I didn't get any pictures, because I didn't want to be rude, but it was fun. We saw the first couple performers, really unusual performers, but had to leave at 2am. I was really sad to leave... one of my favorite artists was supposed to perform later that, er, morning, probably closer to 5am. However, I had to wake up at 5am so... I've never had that kind of stamina, unfortunately. 3 hours of sleep already had me feeling like death the next morning.

So, yes, the next morning I went to Chiba, the next prefecture over, for the 2nd day of the V-Rock Festival, a huge event held at Makuhari Messe, where about 50 visual rock artists came together to perform. Snow told me later that she had seen on TV that 30,000 people went to this festival over 2 days. Amazing! I saw 3 of my favorite artists, including Versailles. It was so nice to see Versailles. They are absolutely my most favorite band to see live. They had some random fellow wearing all black, standing towards the back of the stage playing bass in place of Jasmine You (I wrote earlier about how he died recently), which was sad to see... They had Jasmine You's guitar there though, and held it up during introductions, as if to say "He's still a part of us." It made me happy to see them together.

So, a pretty busy weekend! I took the next day off, which was good, because I needed it just to recover. Already, though, I am buying tickets to other concerts soon, and even planning to see Versailles again in January. Not soon enough, I think.

Cheers,

VK Baer

Happy Halloween! (almost)

Since this weekend is Halloween, I was requested to give some information in my first year classes. To make it a bit more fun and interesting, I also decided to wear a Halloween costume; my favorite Japanese character, Rilakkuma! Aren't I just the cutest thing? I think I look more like a hamster than a bear, lol.

It was pretty funny. I was just sitting at my desk after changing, being normal, except that... I am dressed as a big white bear. The principle comes out of his office and stands at the front of the teacher's room, surveying the room in silent contemplation...until his eyes comes to me, and suddenly he does a double take, and bursts out laughing. Every time a new teacher came into the room, this senario was repeated, with lots of wide-eyed staring it "Sugoi! Kawaii!...Nan desu ka?" (Wow! How cute!...um, what is it?) I got quite a kick out of it.


I only wore it to two classes, but it certainly livened things up! The girl students liked it especially.

Cheers,

Rilakkuma Baer

Let's Search for Tomoroooooow!

No theme this time, just some general comments.

First off, I just found out what the name of this show was, so excuse my excitement. I actually haven't turned on my TV since I got internet... but when I DID, every once and a while, this show would come on that was just the funniest thing; Otomen Shojo Manga. Even though it was completely in Japanese, I got the storyline somewhat and found it quite funny. It's about this guy (or guys?) who is, on the one hand, a manly (though beautiful) kendo player, but also has a secret love for girly-manga/comic books. It's so cute, go figure I just found out that it is a live-action adaption of a manga. Too bad the TV series is so new, I would buy it to watch even in Japanese.

A more reality based comment... the junior high school students are practicing for a singing contest tomorrow. (This contest has had them miss a number of classes since it, like pretty much everything else, is more important than English). As I sit here at my desk, I can hear them practicing in the music room. What drives me CRAZY is... they sing this song "Let's Search for Tomorrow" (those being the only words in English in the song) but instead of saying 'to-morrow' they say it 'tomo-rrow', so that, before I knew what they were actually saying, I thought it was a song about some person name 'Tomorow'.
Maybe it is just a bit irrational, but it reaaally grates on my nerves. I feel like busting in there, throwing up my hands and yelling "STOP! Sing it THIS way.."
...
What can I say? I never knew I had such an attachment to 'tomorrow'.

dork Baer

I love food

I had to laugh when I read this article this morning on the New York Times website:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/science/earth/20trash.html
It's about the growing "fringe" movement of "no waste" - efficient recycling- in the USA.

I laugh because Japan is so far ahead of the US on this matter that after being here for two months, reading this article is sort of like reading "US beginning to widely consider the revolutionary idea of the world as being round!
...
and I hear crickets in the background. lol.

Anyway, that is not really what this post is about! It's about my favorite subject: food!
I haven't shared my cooking with you in a while. Actually, for about a week, I got lazy and didn't cook at all. I've discovered the not-so-secret evil of living alone; while I don't mind, and even enjoy, cooking, and I don't mind doing the dishes, I hate doing both. So, sometimes the prospect of this eats away at my motivation. Pretty typical [of single life], I imagine.

Anyway... on to the food!
This delightful looking stuff was actually an experiment from a month ago:

I know what you're thinking: "Lindsay, that looks like something you scooped out of the bay." Well, you wouldn't be far wrong! It's seaweed, but don't ask me to tell you what kind, cause I have no clue. Hashiba-sensei told me that seaweed is good and can be used to make a green salad of sorts, so I decided to try it.... however, after soaking it in water (it comes dehydrated in small packets), it was soft but so strong I couldnt even cut it with a knife. I gnawed away at some of it for a while... it didn't have a bad taste, but... yeah...

More recently, I made the chicken rolls you see to the left. As usual, I was following a recipe, but it did not work out like it was supposed to... As you can see, my chicken was not quite big enough to fully wrap around the chives and asparagus... however, with some mustard, it tasted simple, but quite good. Maybe I will just skip the rolling next time.

The meal you see to the right, I actually finished eating last week, so it was very recent. Mmmm, this is definitely one of my winning recipes. It was... beef chunks, onions, potatoes, edamame, in garlic in sake, mirin, and soy sauce. I modified the recipe a bit, but it was so good! Yum. The potatoes were actually a gift from Snow.


I don't have a pictures, but last weeend was the first weekend I made pancakes! Yum. They made me nostalgic for the nearly weekly trips that my roommate, Nicole, and I used to take in college to the local diner for pancakes, on the weekend. I miss doing that. One problem though- Japan does not have Aunt Jemima's! I had bought some fake syrup, but it still tasted like maple syrup (yuck) so have to eat them plain.. bleh.

My next experiment was definitely a challenge I set for myself. I wanted to make Ohagi, sticky rice balls coated in red bean paste. I love red bean! I was kind of hoping I could buy the red bean paste already made but... that was a pipe dream. So I made them from scratch! My first attempt, I was trying to follow the recipe pretty closely and.. they didn't really work out the way I wanted. As you may or may not be able to tell from the picture on the left, the paste ended up being lumpy. Also, the recipe didn't say anything about using special rice, so I just used regular Japanese rice... which is WRONG. In addition, it (the red bean) was not sweet enough... I brought some for my closest teachers yesterday, and Hashiba-sensei said that is was good.. but the rice needed work.

So the next night, last night, I took what I had left of the red bean and recooked it, adding water and sugar... and when it was still not smooth enough for me, I chucked it in the blender! What a moment of brilliance that was! The paste was smooth and sweet! Delicious! I even had some mochi gome (sticky rice) left over from my predecessor, so I was able to make the correct kind of rice. Actually, for Ohagi, you don't have to mash the rice, but I thought it tasted better, so I did it. So difficult!! Really exhausting.

To the right you can see the different stages of production: bowl of mashed rice, bowl of red bean paste, spread paste into a circle on Saran wrap with a rice ball in the middle, roll it up, and you have = ohagi.

Really, not cooking for the faint of heart. I only made about 10 balls and I was quite ready to be done. They turned out pretty well though. I brought a few to school again, and actually got a little mini round of applause. lol. I feel bad I didn't bring more for everyone but... it is just too much damn work!

Man, here I am talking about food and I'm starving...
Cheers,

chef Baer

Waterfalls

You might think that the title of this journal entry is intended to be a metaphor.
Let me tell you.
It's not.

Last weekend, I did something a little crazy. I went canyoning. Not to be confused with canoeing, canyoning involves sliding down a freezing cold river and jumping off waterfalls - with no other protection than a helmet and wetsuit.

Did I mention I am afraid of heights? I didn't really predict this to be a problem, but only because I don't think I ever really THOUGHT about what I was going to do before I did it. Nothing like a 20 meter free fall to bring about reality!

But I get ahead of myself.

I actually signed up for this event a month ago with little idea of what it was. It sounded exciting, so I signed up. Period. I took a train to Minakami, about 1 1/2 hours away, where I met up with 12 other Gunma ALTs, some JETs included. A bus took us to the base where we would get ready. We had two guides, both Australian, who took us around and gave us our wetsuits, with instructions on how to put them on ("This is a shirt. You know how to put on a shirt? Well first..." quite a funny-man). They warned us ahead of time that they were going to give us small wetsuits, to guarantee that we would be as warm as possible.

Despite this warning, I don't think any of us took the threat of the wetsuit quite seriously until we actually tried to get it on. It was like...trying to force yourself into a tire. I cannot even begin to express how difficult it was to put these things on. We literally all managed to get the first piece up to our thighs before we would have sworn on the life of our pet goldfishes that it was going to go no further. Talk about a team bonding experience, we were literally shoehorning each other into these blasted things. When we were not strong enough to help each other, we waddled out to the deck, where one of the guides would literally would pick us up by our pants.
...
Actually, I have to laugh just reliving that moment. Standing out on the desk, one slender muscular Australian guy watching, trying not to laugh, while another huge Australian guy is jerking me off my feet by my pants like it's a pillowcase and I'm a recalcitrant pillow.

Needless to say, we were all quite exhausted before we ever made it onto the river. The wetsuits were so thick and stiff that we literally had to waddle, penguin style, to walk easily; Effecting a normal gait was quite a workout.

We took another bus to the river. On the bank, out guides gave us instruction. Of course, we didn't quite expect him to suddenly say, "okay, everyone lay on your face." Although they had the slightly bored air of well-practiced professionals , there is no way they could not have been amused by our pitiful struggle to perform such a simple act. Soon, he had us rolling around on the ground, and we had been downgraded from penguins to beached whales. Affectionately (I like to imagine), our guide berated us for not being quite as quick as some touristing Marines had, the previous week.

Afterward, we took a picture ("possible the last!" he warned us with a laugh):

I am on the bottom right.
Next, we headed down the river:

While it may look like I am just floating there, as if in a swimming pool, I was actually moving steadily forward, head first, toward a small outcrop of whitewater and rocks. Yay.

As it turned out, the first waterfall of the day was also the biggest. Quite a thing, to be floating along, and suddenly have the current pick up and have no real way to stop yourself from hurdling over the edge. I am being dramatic, however, for our guides took good care to keep us from falling - yet. I was second in line, and as I was peering over the edge, unable to see the bottom, I was definitely wondering WTF I had been thinking in signing up for this. "Holy s**t," doesn't quite cover it.

To mark the occasion, our photographer took one last photo, second before being pushed over the edge:

The smile you see was strictly for the camera; it was preceded and follow by a look of abject fear. The guide and cameraman had to continually persuade me to move closer to the edge, I am not embarrassed to admit. I have no idea exactly how big the waterfall was, but at least a three story fall. One of the guides lowered us halfway, or so, sliding us down the vertical rockface by a rope. The water was intense and completely overwhelmed me, blinding me, blocking out everything else, and trying to push my body away from the wall. Then, the rope was released, and I plummeted the rest of the way down, crashing into the water below.

Fortunately, rubber floats. and I was wearing quite a lot of it. So, I was spared the trouble of swimming while initially trying to get my breath back.

The rest of the trip went similarly. We floated/swam along, going down small rocky inclines headfirst, feetfirst, and backwards headfirst as the occasion called for it. The water was so cold. Even with two inches of rubber on, some of my fellows had violently chattering teeth. We didn't see any more waterfalls as big as the first, none requiring ropes. Instead, on the next one, I slid off headfirst, got pulled into a whirlpool (loving called the "washing machine"), tugged out of the whirlpool, and made to shimmy between rockface and waterfall to escape. On this same waterfall, we were given the option to climb back up and go again. I have to tell you, wetsuits, or at least ours, made the absolute WORST climbing gear imaginable. What a workout! Not only fighting gravity, but the very movement of your arms and legs! Gods, it was exhausting. This time, at the top, we were told to jump off the cliff of the waterfall, rather than slide down the water. Waaaah, it was so much scarier to jump than it was to slide. Looking down, all you can see are the rocks, and it seems impossible that you will clear them and make it to the water.

It was at this point that I realized bungee jumping was probably not for me.

On the last waterfall, the smallest one, went down headfirst and backwards, reclining as one would watching Sunday morning cartoons, before slipping over the edge.

All and all, it was quite an experience! I was glad to have done it, but... don't think I will do it again. For one thing, it was quite a lot of money for a short period of time. Mostly though, I think I am just not an adrenaline junky. Next time, I want to try white-water rafting.

Cheers,

adventure Baer

BBQ

Last Saturday, Tsuiki-sensei was kind enought to once again invite me out, this time to a picnic. They picked me up in the morning along with another friend/co-worker. The area we went to for the picnic was really lovely. I guess it was sort of a community area, with a huge, well-cared for garden, lots of green green grass, and a sort of mini-golf place.

The coworker that we picked up on our way was the only othe person besides Tsuiki-sensei and Raj that spoke English. It worked out well enough for me, with three people to talk to, one excited child, and a group of very friendly Japanese happy to stuff me full of food without any exchange of words. I can't tell you for sure what we ate, but it was really really good. "Barbeque" here certainly doesn't mean hamburgers and hotdogs. I think we started with pork belly. I don' t even want to know how unhealthy it was, as I imagine it had to be pretty bad, but it was so damn good. They made waaaay too much food though! I can't imagine how anyone says that the Japanese dont eat plenty of meat, because I think I got a months worth in one day. It just kept coming.

It was a simple and relaxing day. I talked with the other English speaker a bit. We played "guess my age".... and he said I was 32! 32!! My students sometimes think I am 19! Man, what a blow... lol... The time not spent talking was filled with Taro-chan, who was, in the tradition of children, ever to happy to take up our attention. I still don't have a great fondness for children, but I can fake it quite decently.

Seeing me eyeing the mini-golf course a little longingly, Tsuiki-sensei invited me to play with Raj, Taro, and his friend. It was pretty fun. Raj's friend was strong, but so bad. He kept hitting his ball into every possible obstacle. Taro-chan was hopeless. Tsuiki-sensei was quite good and Raj was even better. It was pretty fun.

Tsuiki-sensei and Raj are so kind to me. Since she is not actually my sensei anymore, I wonder if it is okay if I call her Tsuiki-san. Maybe after a few more visits?

Cheers,
grilled-sweet-potato Baer

Home Stay

It's been forever since I made a post, I know. As such, I won't attempt to rehash everything in great detail, but it certainly has been an interesting couple of weeks.

Backtracking a couple weekends ago (ah, it was Sept. 11, I do recall), one of the teachers, Tsuiki-sensei, at my elementary school invited me to go stay with her for one night, have dinner, meet her family, etc. I certainly was not going to pass up the opportunity. Even though she is not an English teacher, she was one of the very few that spoke English at the elementary, and was always kind to me.

As it turned out, Tsuiki-sensei actually lived in an apartment with her husband, Raj, and young son, Taro. The apartment had about 4 rooms, counting the kitchen, with the tatami room and the kitchen area right next to each other, making one big room when the doors were open. It struck me that, even though the apartment had more rooms than my own, the hallways made it feel quite small. Having only visited one other Japanese home, quite a nice, large house, it was somewhat of a shock to me.

The evening was very nice. Raj also spoke English, which helped greatly. I felt like I was a bit of a burden to them, that they were busy but still felt the need to entertain me. Anytime my thoughts began to drift a bit, a head would perk up, "Oh, are you bored?" and would find something to do, even it it meant stopping what they were doing to just stand there and talk to me. It was quite sweet, really, though I felt bad about it. I was quite happy to watch them go about their lives.

Actually... we had Italian food for dinner. Or, a variation of Italian food. Tsuiki-sensei said, "Oh, I'm just so tired, and this is easy," but I knew she had done it for me, since she knew it was the sort of food I liked. Like a said, very sweet people. She had homemade pesto sauce for the pasta... ah, delicious. Actually, I've found, quite to my surprise, that Japanese people are quite fond of Italian food. Then again, who doesn't like pasta? One thing that was amusing was their son. He ate so much!! He was only... 3? but I swear he ate just as much food as the rest of us. I think he would have kept going if the TV hadn't finally distracted him. Amazing. Better hope those skinny Japanese genes get past to him!

At night, the three of them went to their bedroom to sleep (their son sleep with them, despite available space elsewhere... apparently this is normal), and I was given the tatami room. I do love tatami rooms. However, I did discover that, having adapted to my double-futon, one futon just wasn't quite enough! Sleeping on the floor.... it still gets me.

In the morning, we had a typical Japanese breakfast: miso soup and rice. To me, this sounds like lunch, but I go with the flow. As I am being served the soup, my sensei's husband says, "If this has a weird taste for you, don't worry about finishing it." Honestly, I had every intention of finishing it.... but... seeing the little minnow-sized fish floating around in the broth had me second guessing myself. I'll try anything [dead] once, but... it was certainly not the miso soup I was used to! Their son, Taro-chan, certainly had no problem with it; he licked those little suckers right out of the bowl!

Before taking me back to my apartment, the couple wanted to give me a little bit of a taste of Ota. They brought me to a Brazilian festival. While I have heard that Ota is full of Brazilians, I never see any sign of them. I think they must have all been located in the area we drove through, Oizumi (?), which seemed to be a Little Brazil. The festival itself was a ring of food vendors with a stage out in front. Most of the food though, seemed to be quite multicultural, but the dancing on stage was supposedly Brazilian. I though it looked a little like Vegas, with feather headdresses and dancing lines. I was very confused. lol. But it was fun. We hid from the rain under big tents and ate kabob.

I am sad to say that that sensei has since transfered out of my elementary. I will miss her more than I can say at the moment. However, before she left, she invited me to a BBQ which is actually this weekend. Perhaps I will remember to take pictures this time! I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

Cheers,

Visting Baer