Hello mayo, my old friend
I got woken up this morning by what sounded like a pretty large group of people watching the Japan-Denmark World Cup match somewhere up the street. At that point my jet-lag kicked in and informed me that I may as well get up, so I just watched the match too. It was pretty good! I'm not saying either team is all that great, but there was a refreshing lack of flopping and the corner shot goals were beautiful. But man, what is the world coming to when Japan wins against Denmark 3-1 thereby advancing past the group stage for the first time ever, America leads its group over ENGLAND, and both the French and Italian teams finish LAST in their respective groups (and are probably going to be horribly killed when they get back to their respective countries). These are the end times, I'm telling you.
But enough about soccer! Let's talk about Japan. I was feeling extremely pleased with myself because I found a Vie de France, a chain of bakeries, as I was walking to the Center. I bought myself a French Pirozhek (your guess is as good as mine about how THOSE two concepts got related, the result appeared to be a toasted meat filled steam bun) and a pepper, potato and bacon danish which did not look at all like a danish but instead like some sort of weird triangular fried sandwich. I devoured the pirozhek and was feeling pretty pleased with life and myself for finding the bakery when I started in on the "danish" only to encounter...mayo. Sigh. I should have expected this, shouldn't I? I should, in fact, count myself lucky that the pirozhek didn't have any. Very well, Japan. You caught me by surprise THIS time, but next time I will be more vigilant!
At the center, after the general orientation which was largely uninteresting except for the bit where we found out we get to see some kabuki at some point in the next few weeks (joy.), we split into our classes, whereupon I found out I had been put into a group I have dubbed "people unable to advance past speaking in simple sentences." At first I was mildly annoyed because my comprehension skills are much better than that, but well, the fact is that yes, I DO find it quite difficult to get beyond simple sentences when speaking, and it seems kind of silly to be able to READ complex sentences but unable to SAY them. So now I am cool with it.
After going over the syllabus, our teacher, who wears a STAGGERING amount of makeup and is hopefully not reading this, loaded us down with a crap-ton (metric) of homework. Homework which I should probably be doing instead of writing this. But...well this requires a lot less concentration and I am VERY sleepy. At the end of the day there was a party, where we heard a billion self-introductions (which is when I found out that one of the other teachers currently teaches at Warsaw University - I guess SOMEONE has to teach Japanese there but...man, Japanese people trying to speak Polish. Terrifying.) And had pizza and sushi.
You know, I was telling someone (I forget who) recently that there are three foods in the world that I am in a constant state of wanting to eat: fried potatoes, pizza, and sushi. I never expected to get ALL THREE in one place though! (the pizza had come with tater tots) Of course, the pizza was Japanese pizza so 1. the crust was...sub-par. Like, domino's level. and 2. corn. also, mayo. Still, though, pretty sweet!
At the party, I also found someone who has the EXACT same level of interest in soccer as I do (only cares about it for the duration of the world cup, then stops) and we are totally going to go watch the England vs. Germany game on Sunday! In a British pub no less! Up England! Please turn in a better performance than you had against America! No, I am never going to stop bringing that up, why do you ask? So that was good. I also talked to some of the other people in Japanese religions but they are all doing Buddhism. YAWN.
On the way home I stopped in a 100 yen store to pick up some cleaning supplies, coat hangers, a notebook that declares itself both useful and convenient and proceeds to order me to enjoy using it, that sort of thing. Guys, the 100 yen store had FOUR FLOORS. FOUR. FLOORS. All I can say is thank god I was nearly unconscious at that point or I would have spent SUBSTANTIALLY more than 1100 yen. I DID get a tea mug that says "Gentle Cat" and has a cat in a top hat and black cloak sitting at a bar (no monocle though, which is a GROSS oversight in my opinion) along with several other cats, one of whom is wearing a bandanna, while another is wearing a tie and pants but no shirt. I am pretty sure anyone reading will agree with me that that was a totally reasonable and, what is more, necessary purchase, however.
After that, I found a grocery store that sells ready made ebi chili. mmm, ebi chili. The place I found them, named With (because Japan), is probably going to be my go-to super market. Although the seedy one I visited earlier had cheaper tea. So maybe I will get tea there and everything else at With. The area in general is a little seedy with some suspiciously pink shopfronts dotting the next street over that, my compatriot from UCSB assures me, are likely soaplands. There are also a number of coin laundries, the closest one of which is apparently for women only. Coincidence? I THINK NOT. On the other hand, there appears to be a minimum of one combini per block and occasionally two, which is kind of insane after Anamizu's TWO TOTAL combinis.
I signed up to do a Neat But Optional Thing tomorrow to try and get into the spirit of the whole "taking advantage of opportunities while in Japan" thing. I am being deliberately cagey about what the Neat Thing is because I like to build up suspense but mostly because I am not sure I understand myself exactly what we are doing. Other than eating lunch in China Town, but I'm pretty sure that is not really the point of the outing. More details tomorrow!
But enough about soccer! Let's talk about Japan. I was feeling extremely pleased with myself because I found a Vie de France, a chain of bakeries, as I was walking to the Center. I bought myself a French Pirozhek (your guess is as good as mine about how THOSE two concepts got related, the result appeared to be a toasted meat filled steam bun) and a pepper, potato and bacon danish which did not look at all like a danish but instead like some sort of weird triangular fried sandwich. I devoured the pirozhek and was feeling pretty pleased with life and myself for finding the bakery when I started in on the "danish" only to encounter...mayo. Sigh. I should have expected this, shouldn't I? I should, in fact, count myself lucky that the pirozhek didn't have any. Very well, Japan. You caught me by surprise THIS time, but next time I will be more vigilant!
At the center, after the general orientation which was largely uninteresting except for the bit where we found out we get to see some kabuki at some point in the next few weeks (joy.), we split into our classes, whereupon I found out I had been put into a group I have dubbed "people unable to advance past speaking in simple sentences." At first I was mildly annoyed because my comprehension skills are much better than that, but well, the fact is that yes, I DO find it quite difficult to get beyond simple sentences when speaking, and it seems kind of silly to be able to READ complex sentences but unable to SAY them. So now I am cool with it.
After going over the syllabus, our teacher, who wears a STAGGERING amount of makeup and is hopefully not reading this, loaded us down with a crap-ton (metric) of homework. Homework which I should probably be doing instead of writing this. But...well this requires a lot less concentration and I am VERY sleepy. At the end of the day there was a party, where we heard a billion self-introductions (which is when I found out that one of the other teachers currently teaches at Warsaw University - I guess SOMEONE has to teach Japanese there but...man, Japanese people trying to speak Polish. Terrifying.) And had pizza and sushi.
You know, I was telling someone (I forget who) recently that there are three foods in the world that I am in a constant state of wanting to eat: fried potatoes, pizza, and sushi. I never expected to get ALL THREE in one place though! (the pizza had come with tater tots) Of course, the pizza was Japanese pizza so 1. the crust was...sub-par. Like, domino's level. and 2. corn. also, mayo. Still, though, pretty sweet!
At the party, I also found someone who has the EXACT same level of interest in soccer as I do (only cares about it for the duration of the world cup, then stops) and we are totally going to go watch the England vs. Germany game on Sunday! In a British pub no less! Up England! Please turn in a better performance than you had against America! No, I am never going to stop bringing that up, why do you ask? So that was good. I also talked to some of the other people in Japanese religions but they are all doing Buddhism. YAWN.
On the way home I stopped in a 100 yen store to pick up some cleaning supplies, coat hangers, a notebook that declares itself both useful and convenient and proceeds to order me to enjoy using it, that sort of thing. Guys, the 100 yen store had FOUR FLOORS. FOUR. FLOORS. All I can say is thank god I was nearly unconscious at that point or I would have spent SUBSTANTIALLY more than 1100 yen. I DID get a tea mug that says "Gentle Cat" and has a cat in a top hat and black cloak sitting at a bar (no monocle though, which is a GROSS oversight in my opinion) along with several other cats, one of whom is wearing a bandanna, while another is wearing a tie and pants but no shirt. I am pretty sure anyone reading will agree with me that that was a totally reasonable and, what is more, necessary purchase, however.
After that, I found a grocery store that sells ready made ebi chili. mmm, ebi chili. The place I found them, named With (because Japan), is probably going to be my go-to super market. Although the seedy one I visited earlier had cheaper tea. So maybe I will get tea there and everything else at With. The area in general is a little seedy with some suspiciously pink shopfronts dotting the next street over that, my compatriot from UCSB assures me, are likely soaplands. There are also a number of coin laundries, the closest one of which is apparently for women only. Coincidence? I THINK NOT. On the other hand, there appears to be a minimum of one combini per block and occasionally two, which is kind of insane after Anamizu's TWO TOTAL combinis.
I signed up to do a Neat But Optional Thing tomorrow to try and get into the spirit of the whole "taking advantage of opportunities while in Japan" thing. I am being deliberately cagey about what the Neat Thing is because I like to build up suspense but mostly because I am not sure I understand myself exactly what we are doing. Other than eating lunch in China Town, but I'm pretty sure that is not really the point of the outing. More details tomorrow!