Sam (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
l33tminion) wrote2007-04-15 09:56 pm
l33tminion) wrote2007-04-15 09:56 pm
Some of the Following Takes Place on Trains
On Thursday, I ran into a Nigerian oil company man on the train. He immediately struck up a conversation, which surprised me, since there isn't much solidarity among gaijin. (I would have expected, "hey, we're both foreigners!" to be a more common starting point for conversation between strangers, but that doesn't seem to be the case.) The guy was named Moses, which led to the following conversation:
Me: "I'm Sam, by the way."
Him: "My name's Moses, like from the bible. I'm Catholic, they gave me that name when I was baptized." [A convert?]
Me: "Yeah, I know who Moses is, I was raised Jewish."
Him: "You're Christain now?" [I get that response fairly frequently.]
Me: "I'm not really religious." [My usual response when I want to avoid a lengthy discussion of religion.]
Him: "Oh, that's all right." [Or something like that... presumably, his usual response in the above situation.]
As he was leaving the train, he handed me a business card, which turned out to be the card for his church, which seems to have a rather slick marketing department. (I wasn't too surprised because I've encountered that before. Some people are really willing to plug their places of worship at the drop of a hat.)
On Friday, I was going to go to Y's Bar with Vito, but they were full up. Guess you really need an advance reservation at that place. We went to the area near Meikai University instead, so I got to see that neighborhood. I had a distinctly Japanese-style burger for dinner (just the patty, topped with mushrooms and wasabi (note: wasabi in Japan is generally the real deal, which is much better than the wasabi flavored horseradish paste generally called "wasabi" in America), served on a hot metal plate with spaghetti and corn as side dishes) and awesome crepes for dessert (wrapped around vanilla gelato, fresh strawberries, whipped cream, ice cream, mochi, and chocolate sauce).
I was taking the Tokyo subway towards home late that evening, and I was right next to an extremely inebriated middle-aged salaryman on the train. It was rather amusing. The guy seemed to be sleeping on his feet, and I was amazed at his ability to remain upright on the ride. At the end of the line, he was passed out on the seat next to me. I tapped him on the shoulder and tried to rouse him, but he was completely unconscious. So I pointed him out to the conductor. ("Sumimasen [excuse me], that guy [*pointing*] might like to know that it's the end of the line.") I have no idea if the conductor knew any English, but he got what I was saying right away. So hopefully that guy got home safely instead of waking up at some random location on the Tokyo subway.
On Saturday, I went to the Narita drum festival with IES. It was very interesting. We had a fancy Japanese lunch, toured the temple at Narita, saw the Goma rite (a Bhuddist purification ritual that involves fire, beautiful chanting, drums, bells, and a heck of a lot of incense), and watched / listened to Taico drum performances. (Also, one brief conversation with some old Japanese dude which was amusing because his tone could be translated as, "Look at me! I'm speaking English!" Older Japanese people are rather awesome, perhaps even more so than Japanese kids.)
Today was fairly uninteresting. I had a late breakfast and spent most of the day studying. Kyoko-san brought some lunch up to my room, which was a really nice surprise. The whole family went out to dinner, and that was very pleasant.
Isamu-san apparently works Saturdays on a regular basis. He's only home for dinner on Sunday. It seems that this is unusual even in Japan.
Kyoko-san brings meals to her younger brother, who lives a short drive away. Apparently, he works as a baggage handler at Narita Airport. She does this frequently, apparently she brought three meals to him today (does she do that every weekend?). I went with her in the hopes of meeting her brother, but apparently he was out. She left the food, collected the empty containers, and we left. It doesn't seem out of character for Kyoko-san to be so nice, exactly, but I still feel like I don't have the whole story there...
Kyoko-san got some old English textbooks from a friend. Apparently, Kyoko-san studied English for three years in middle school, then went to a high school that focussed heavily on homemaker skills. Isamu had little English in school and "didn't study" (his knowledge of English seems rather comparable to my knowledge of Hebrew, although probably a shade or two better).
Culture shock hasn't been too bad. I think it helps that I really like the food. Still experiencing some tiredness and occasional headaches.
Also, I haven't been run over yet.
Me: "I'm Sam, by the way."
Him: "My name's Moses, like from the bible. I'm Catholic, they gave me that name when I was baptized." [A convert?]
Me: "Yeah, I know who Moses is, I was raised Jewish."
Him: "You're Christain now?" [I get that response fairly frequently.]
Me: "I'm not really religious." [My usual response when I want to avoid a lengthy discussion of religion.]
Him: "Oh, that's all right." [Or something like that... presumably, his usual response in the above situation.]
As he was leaving the train, he handed me a business card, which turned out to be the card for his church, which seems to have a rather slick marketing department. (I wasn't too surprised because I've encountered that before. Some people are really willing to plug their places of worship at the drop of a hat.)
On Friday, I was going to go to Y's Bar with Vito, but they were full up. Guess you really need an advance reservation at that place. We went to the area near Meikai University instead, so I got to see that neighborhood. I had a distinctly Japanese-style burger for dinner (just the patty, topped with mushrooms and wasabi (note: wasabi in Japan is generally the real deal, which is much better than the wasabi flavored horseradish paste generally called "wasabi" in America), served on a hot metal plate with spaghetti and corn as side dishes) and awesome crepes for dessert (wrapped around vanilla gelato, fresh strawberries, whipped cream, ice cream, mochi, and chocolate sauce).
I was taking the Tokyo subway towards home late that evening, and I was right next to an extremely inebriated middle-aged salaryman on the train. It was rather amusing. The guy seemed to be sleeping on his feet, and I was amazed at his ability to remain upright on the ride. At the end of the line, he was passed out on the seat next to me. I tapped him on the shoulder and tried to rouse him, but he was completely unconscious. So I pointed him out to the conductor. ("Sumimasen [excuse me], that guy [*pointing*] might like to know that it's the end of the line.") I have no idea if the conductor knew any English, but he got what I was saying right away. So hopefully that guy got home safely instead of waking up at some random location on the Tokyo subway.
On Saturday, I went to the Narita drum festival with IES. It was very interesting. We had a fancy Japanese lunch, toured the temple at Narita, saw the Goma rite (a Bhuddist purification ritual that involves fire, beautiful chanting, drums, bells, and a heck of a lot of incense), and watched / listened to Taico drum performances. (Also, one brief conversation with some old Japanese dude which was amusing because his tone could be translated as, "Look at me! I'm speaking English!" Older Japanese people are rather awesome, perhaps even more so than Japanese kids.)
Today was fairly uninteresting. I had a late breakfast and spent most of the day studying. Kyoko-san brought some lunch up to my room, which was a really nice surprise. The whole family went out to dinner, and that was very pleasant.
Isamu-san apparently works Saturdays on a regular basis. He's only home for dinner on Sunday. It seems that this is unusual even in Japan.
Kyoko-san brings meals to her younger brother, who lives a short drive away. Apparently, he works as a baggage handler at Narita Airport. She does this frequently, apparently she brought three meals to him today (does she do that every weekend?). I went with her in the hopes of meeting her brother, but apparently he was out. She left the food, collected the empty containers, and we left. It doesn't seem out of character for Kyoko-san to be so nice, exactly, but I still feel like I don't have the whole story there...
Kyoko-san got some old English textbooks from a friend. Apparently, Kyoko-san studied English for three years in middle school, then went to a high school that focussed heavily on homemaker skills. Isamu had little English in school and "didn't study" (his knowledge of English seems rather comparable to my knowledge of Hebrew, although probably a shade or two better).
Culture shock hasn't been too bad. I think it helps that I really like the food. Still experiencing some tiredness and occasional headaches.
Also, I haven't been run over yet.