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Tuesday, March 02, 2004
reasons why
on friday i had a funny incident at nishi kujo (who have, by the way, totally won me over in terms of their lunch. staff are pretty good, had a really relaxed and fun time at my welcome thing, but am still emerging from my classes with the third and fourth graders with an extremely battered voice. i am NOT a shouter). I had no classes in the afternoon, matsushita sensei wasn`t holding her Japanese language class, and I had finished my Book 3 test by 2:30. So maybe sensing that i was on the brink of utter boredom, Kawagura (...actually not sure, will refer to her as "K" for now) sensei approached me while i was standing in the doorway of the shokuinshitsu, not sure if i wanted to wander or stay inside. K sensei is actually one of my favourite teachers at nishi kujo. she teaches the special needs class, and is a soft bespectacled woman, overflowing with genkiness, with a cherubic face to match. on my first day at nishi kujo, she invited me to repair the spines of old picture books with her in her classroom. it was a really great moment... i mean a warm friday afternoon, in a quiet and colourful classroom, fortifying old but lovely picture books with library tape... i`ve always wanted to be a librarian, and actually thought to myself, this is so perfect. it doesn`t get any better than this. and she made me throw a bean bag at the huge red oni they had made for setsubun =) i was a little hazukashii, especially after she cheered for me =) but it was sweet nevertheless.
anyways, this afternoon, k began saying something about moving aquarium creatures, dojou, that usually burrow underneath the gravel from the bottom floor tank to the one in front of the shokuinshitsu. well that`s what i understood anyway. but then after grabbing a big red bucket and filling it with a bit of water, and walking past the 1st floor aquarium and out the school gates, i was totally confused. we walked to this small restaurant across the street, and were irrashaimase`d by the store owner. After a brief exchange with K, the owner handed us a small jar filled with long squirming eel-like things... which K accepted excitedly and turned to me and exclaimed "Suuuuugoi na~! doJOU!!!!" i was pretty repulsed. =) They looked kind of creepy, and then K introduced me to the staff of the restaurant, and asked if there were dojou in Canada... I wasn`t sure and then she pointed to a HUGE jar of the squirming eel things on the counter in front of the grill/stove... "dojou? ours are pets... those... for eat!" GROSS man! i was like, uh yeah, i`ve never eaten those or had them for pets... i think i looked a bit manaical, grinning like crazy to hide my urge to run away. it wasn`t so much as they were ICK, but more the fact that every so often one of them would just spaz out and slam up against the side of the jar which made them look like worms (uuuuugh) more than eel things.
so anyways, we left, K triumphantly holding the jar, while i followed behind with the red bucket. on the walk back, K would every so often hoist up the jar to peer at the dojou. sigh. then she asked me what doJOU! were in english... i looked closely at them and noticed they had baby whiskers on the sides of their mouths, and were a mottled brown colour... so I thought, hey, baby catfish? maybe not so gross after all.. i can deal with catfish..
"Oh, i think in english, it`s catfish..."
"Catfish?? AH!! CAT-FISH!!"
who knew the word "catfish" would be so popular?
afterwards, every teacher or staff member we ran into, K would ta-dah! the jar of doJOU! and then follow that by asking what they thought doJOU! were in english, to which i would then automatically reply, "catfish! kao ga neko mitai!" and then the surprised victim would nod understandingly. it was great =) we went back to K`s classroom, to transfer the doJOU! into her aquarium. she dumped the jar of doJOU! rather unceremoniously into the red bucket, and then bent down to watch them swim about for a few seconds. one of them decided to pretend to gimpy in the hopes that we would maybe take pity and release him back... into the large jar at the restaurant? he just kind of floated to the top and played dead... but after K poked him a bit with the fish net, he wriggled away resignedly =) after we had finished moving them, K showed me a children`s book with various species of sea life... and after a few minutes I discovered i was oh so wrong... doJOU! weren`t baby catfish at all, but actually a "cousin" of the eel... she started laughing when i was like, "uh... unagi no itoko?" hazukashii man.
so doJOU! are Not catfish... but they still made for a pretty fun moment.
on friday i had a funny incident at nishi kujo (who have, by the way, totally won me over in terms of their lunch. staff are pretty good, had a really relaxed and fun time at my welcome thing, but am still emerging from my classes with the third and fourth graders with an extremely battered voice. i am NOT a shouter). I had no classes in the afternoon, matsushita sensei wasn`t holding her Japanese language class, and I had finished my Book 3 test by 2:30. So maybe sensing that i was on the brink of utter boredom, Kawagura (...actually not sure, will refer to her as "K" for now) sensei approached me while i was standing in the doorway of the shokuinshitsu, not sure if i wanted to wander or stay inside. K sensei is actually one of my favourite teachers at nishi kujo. she teaches the special needs class, and is a soft bespectacled woman, overflowing with genkiness, with a cherubic face to match. on my first day at nishi kujo, she invited me to repair the spines of old picture books with her in her classroom. it was a really great moment... i mean a warm friday afternoon, in a quiet and colourful classroom, fortifying old but lovely picture books with library tape... i`ve always wanted to be a librarian, and actually thought to myself, this is so perfect. it doesn`t get any better than this. and she made me throw a bean bag at the huge red oni they had made for setsubun =) i was a little hazukashii, especially after she cheered for me =) but it was sweet nevertheless.
anyways, this afternoon, k began saying something about moving aquarium creatures, dojou, that usually burrow underneath the gravel from the bottom floor tank to the one in front of the shokuinshitsu. well that`s what i understood anyway. but then after grabbing a big red bucket and filling it with a bit of water, and walking past the 1st floor aquarium and out the school gates, i was totally confused. we walked to this small restaurant across the street, and were irrashaimase`d by the store owner. After a brief exchange with K, the owner handed us a small jar filled with long squirming eel-like things... which K accepted excitedly and turned to me and exclaimed "Suuuuugoi na~! doJOU!!!!" i was pretty repulsed. =) They looked kind of creepy, and then K introduced me to the staff of the restaurant, and asked if there were dojou in Canada... I wasn`t sure and then she pointed to a HUGE jar of the squirming eel things on the counter in front of the grill/stove... "dojou? ours are pets... those... for eat!" GROSS man! i was like, uh yeah, i`ve never eaten those or had them for pets... i think i looked a bit manaical, grinning like crazy to hide my urge to run away. it wasn`t so much as they were ICK, but more the fact that every so often one of them would just spaz out and slam up against the side of the jar which made them look like worms (uuuuugh) more than eel things.
so anyways, we left, K triumphantly holding the jar, while i followed behind with the red bucket. on the walk back, K would every so often hoist up the jar to peer at the dojou. sigh. then she asked me what doJOU! were in english... i looked closely at them and noticed they had baby whiskers on the sides of their mouths, and were a mottled brown colour... so I thought, hey, baby catfish? maybe not so gross after all.. i can deal with catfish..
"Oh, i think in english, it`s catfish..."
"Catfish?? AH!! CAT-FISH!!"
who knew the word "catfish" would be so popular?
afterwards, every teacher or staff member we ran into, K would ta-dah! the jar of doJOU! and then follow that by asking what they thought doJOU! were in english, to which i would then automatically reply, "catfish! kao ga neko mitai!" and then the surprised victim would nod understandingly. it was great =) we went back to K`s classroom, to transfer the doJOU! into her aquarium. she dumped the jar of doJOU! rather unceremoniously into the red bucket, and then bent down to watch them swim about for a few seconds. one of them decided to pretend to gimpy in the hopes that we would maybe take pity and release him back... into the large jar at the restaurant? he just kind of floated to the top and played dead... but after K poked him a bit with the fish net, he wriggled away resignedly =) after we had finished moving them, K showed me a children`s book with various species of sea life... and after a few minutes I discovered i was oh so wrong... doJOU! weren`t baby catfish at all, but actually a "cousin" of the eel... she started laughing when i was like, "uh... unagi no itoko?" hazukashii man.
so doJOU! are Not catfish... but they still made for a pretty fun moment.
// posted by naomi @ 10:54 p.m. 
