>
Monday, June 28, 2004
KIT (Kohai In Training)
so on friday, i pulled all nighter, with nishino. and...my VICE PRINCIPAL.
hahahahahha eh? i went out to dinner with VP (Chuck), nino and mami cuz chuck wanted to take me/us out for rock crab. i have laura to thank for this dinner though bc when chuck found out she was from florida, he went into this huge impassioned monologue about the Delicious Rock Crab Flown From Florida. Sadly my girl left on monday and couldn`t join us. Dinner was great, though the appetizers were seriously lacking. And the poor Japanese... they decided to order the manhattan version of clam chowder, while i stuck to the new england option... I alone emerged victorious. Rock crab was awesome, and I got a really good picture of Chuck`s "oiishiiiii!!!" face =) I`ve been eating out a lot recently, and have actually been consuming more of the osake too... Matt, you`ll be interested to know that I actually had a moment of genuine appreciation for the beer I had at dinner. Seriously! Who woulda thunk it eh? Post-dinner, after a lengthy debate over whether to go to the Cavern Club to see a Beatles cover band play, or to Betty`s, a New-Half (i.e. drag queen) bar, the lads from Liverpool won out. Nino and Chuck were in heaven, since the Cavern Club is a faithful recreation of the original Liverpool club that the Beatles played their first gig in. It was pretty cool, and the band was really good. Chuck is trying to set Mami up with his son, so the whole night he was taking pictures of her and sending the best ones to the son, who lives in Hiroshima, and just bought his own mansion apartment... erai na~? hahaha...
After three sets, we decided to leave, but at point of departure, Chuck groaned and said he wasn`t going to go home that night. And thus the All-nighter was born. Mami went home, chuck headed off to a restaurant for more food, and I went to the post office. I met up with Nino and then we got fantastically lost in the back streets in some Umeda shotengai...u know, That One. We found him eventually, half an hour later... and he was kind of mad. Oohhhh... sempai kohai dynamics at work. Nino was extra nice to him at the restaurant. Around 1:30 we left the restaurant and were trying to decide what to do. Inspired by the Cavern Club, the two wanted to wail the night away lovingly, paying homage to Strawberry Fields and women named Eleanor Rigby and Michelle. How could I refuse such dedication? But in the end, it was I, the Young One, the Super Kohai that outlasted them all. Chuck fell asleep first, and then Nino conceded defeat, after telling me my head was bumpy =( So it was me, myself and I, in a Karaoke Box, singing the songs I always wanted to sing at karaoke but never did because it was too embarrassing... like... Barry Manilow`s Mandy.. heeheee... However I did find a Stevie Wonder song I could sing (I Never Thought You`d Leave in Summer). Two grown men, passed out on the couches, and me singing Reunited by Atlantic Starr. hahaha.... it was just so funny....they got up in time to leave around 5:30, and i was still really awake. The two of them looked very creased and worn around the edges, and I smiled inwardly at the strength of my genkiness. Then I came home, did a load of laundry, and crashed. and missed a softball game as a result.
obahan mitai.
_________________________________________________________________
it`s official!! I have a sempai! I guess technically, all of the teachers at my schools except for Mami, Owaku and Fukuda would be my sempais... but it`s never been explicitly spelled out. and you know me, i need brick-in-the-head-obvious assurance. I went out to dinner with Miwako from Tokiwa, and we had a good talk over various chicken dishes. The restaurant was beautiful... panels and panels of smooth dark wood, high ceilings, soft-focus lighting, and a single row of happily potted plants in the main entrance. But they totally messed up the spinach salad. When it first arrived, it looked oh so oishiso~ Then the waiter (who had frighteningly manicured nails for a MAN), crouched down beside me and started softly beating an onsen egg. Hmm, thought I, onsen egg and spinach? I`m not sure... aaaggghh!!! why are you pouring it over the entire salad???? sigh. needless to say, it was gross-tastic. anyways, my sempai and i (wheeee!) talked about work and about kids...well mostly she talked and i wavered in and out of comprehension. japanese is hard man. but i managed to find out some interesting things about the school and about my sempai (wheeee!). And my sempai (wheeee!) doesn`t drink! heehee...
i feel very japanese today.
i was able to book tickets to Yamanashi, at JTB, managing to get shinkansen one way and bus back.
i remember thinking, "i LOVE japan" while walking in one of the back alleys of shinsaibashi. and even later, when a sad salaryman blew smoke in my face, i shrugged it off, and triumphantly restated my love for this country, .
i also felt very japanese last weekend when i was leaving oji and oba`s place, and i called out from the entrance "obaachan, bai bai!" i dunno why, but i just felt SO japanese. eeeeeeeeeeeeee! stop me before i get another mullet.
so on friday, i pulled all nighter, with nishino. and...my VICE PRINCIPAL.
hahahahahha eh? i went out to dinner with VP (Chuck), nino and mami cuz chuck wanted to take me/us out for rock crab. i have laura to thank for this dinner though bc when chuck found out she was from florida, he went into this huge impassioned monologue about the Delicious Rock Crab Flown From Florida. Sadly my girl left on monday and couldn`t join us. Dinner was great, though the appetizers were seriously lacking. And the poor Japanese... they decided to order the manhattan version of clam chowder, while i stuck to the new england option... I alone emerged victorious. Rock crab was awesome, and I got a really good picture of Chuck`s "oiishiiiii!!!" face =) I`ve been eating out a lot recently, and have actually been consuming more of the osake too... Matt, you`ll be interested to know that I actually had a moment of genuine appreciation for the beer I had at dinner. Seriously! Who woulda thunk it eh? Post-dinner, after a lengthy debate over whether to go to the Cavern Club to see a Beatles cover band play, or to Betty`s, a New-Half (i.e. drag queen) bar, the lads from Liverpool won out. Nino and Chuck were in heaven, since the Cavern Club is a faithful recreation of the original Liverpool club that the Beatles played their first gig in. It was pretty cool, and the band was really good. Chuck is trying to set Mami up with his son, so the whole night he was taking pictures of her and sending the best ones to the son, who lives in Hiroshima, and just bought his own mansion apartment... erai na~? hahaha...
After three sets, we decided to leave, but at point of departure, Chuck groaned and said he wasn`t going to go home that night. And thus the All-nighter was born. Mami went home, chuck headed off to a restaurant for more food, and I went to the post office. I met up with Nino and then we got fantastically lost in the back streets in some Umeda shotengai...u know, That One. We found him eventually, half an hour later... and he was kind of mad. Oohhhh... sempai kohai dynamics at work. Nino was extra nice to him at the restaurant. Around 1:30 we left the restaurant and were trying to decide what to do. Inspired by the Cavern Club, the two wanted to wail the night away lovingly, paying homage to Strawberry Fields and women named Eleanor Rigby and Michelle. How could I refuse such dedication? But in the end, it was I, the Young One, the Super Kohai that outlasted them all. Chuck fell asleep first, and then Nino conceded defeat, after telling me my head was bumpy =( So it was me, myself and I, in a Karaoke Box, singing the songs I always wanted to sing at karaoke but never did because it was too embarrassing... like... Barry Manilow`s Mandy.. heeheee... However I did find a Stevie Wonder song I could sing (I Never Thought You`d Leave in Summer). Two grown men, passed out on the couches, and me singing Reunited by Atlantic Starr. hahaha.... it was just so funny....they got up in time to leave around 5:30, and i was still really awake. The two of them looked very creased and worn around the edges, and I smiled inwardly at the strength of my genkiness. Then I came home, did a load of laundry, and crashed. and missed a softball game as a result.
obahan mitai.
_________________________________________________________________
it`s official!! I have a sempai! I guess technically, all of the teachers at my schools except for Mami, Owaku and Fukuda would be my sempais... but it`s never been explicitly spelled out. and you know me, i need brick-in-the-head-obvious assurance. I went out to dinner with Miwako from Tokiwa, and we had a good talk over various chicken dishes. The restaurant was beautiful... panels and panels of smooth dark wood, high ceilings, soft-focus lighting, and a single row of happily potted plants in the main entrance. But they totally messed up the spinach salad. When it first arrived, it looked oh so oishiso~ Then the waiter (who had frighteningly manicured nails for a MAN), crouched down beside me and started softly beating an onsen egg. Hmm, thought I, onsen egg and spinach? I`m not sure... aaaggghh!!! why are you pouring it over the entire salad???? sigh. needless to say, it was gross-tastic. anyways, my sempai and i (wheeee!) talked about work and about kids...well mostly she talked and i wavered in and out of comprehension. japanese is hard man. but i managed to find out some interesting things about the school and about my sempai (wheeee!). And my sempai (wheeee!) doesn`t drink! heehee...
i feel very japanese today.
i was able to book tickets to Yamanashi, at JTB, managing to get shinkansen one way and bus back.
i remember thinking, "i LOVE japan" while walking in one of the back alleys of shinsaibashi. and even later, when a sad salaryman blew smoke in my face, i shrugged it off, and triumphantly restated my love for this country, .
i also felt very japanese last weekend when i was leaving oji and oba`s place, and i called out from the entrance "obaachan, bai bai!" i dunno why, but i just felt SO japanese. eeeeeeeeeeeeee! stop me before i get another mullet.
// posted by naomi @ 9:53 a.m. 
