Ginza tottemo san desu good / Χρίστος ανέστη
On tuesday my boss (Orita sensei) took me out to dinner at a chinese buffet with his wife Rumiko, his 8 year old son Yuki, and his 3 year old daughter Ayano. I met his son this past summer in Baltimore when they came to visit Hopkins. He speaks ok English since he lived in Baltimore for a few years when he was younger and went to an American preschool. He's a pretty funny little kid. I enjoyed messing around with him. Orita sensei's wife also seems pretty nice. He told me that on Saturday he wanted to bring a bunch of new tissue samples to the hospital, after which we'd all go to an international school in Tokyo to meet his friend the headmaster who's originally from Chicago. Sounded fun to me.
There were some new hiccups with my salary this past week. Apparently I'll be making $50 less each month ($950 down from $1000) because, contrary to their original thoughts, I do have to pay taxes on part of my salary. It's kindve a running joke around the lab that I'm extremely poor (har har) since I bring my lunch from home every day (everybody else always buys at the cafeteria) and I always only bring either just a sandwich and a banana or some white rice and beans. Also because I walk to and from work every day from Sendagi (~35 mins each way) and am always asking where I can find cheap item X. I really dont think I'm that bad off, but apparently theyve all forgotten what its like to be a student. But anyway, I was kindve angry when they told me this because I had been promised before coming $1000 untaxed per month (which is actually sub min-wage if you work it out by hour) and threw a very small shitfit regarding my boss at work, so in order to "appease" me they promised to take me out to dinner after work friday. I tried to explain to them that I wasnt destitute and I wasnt trying to be a jerk, I just wanted what was agreed upon, but they still seemed worried that I might go nuclear. Whatever; who am I to argue with a free meal? Friday rolls around and one of the old profs that usually comes out with us cant make it, so as an apology he buys me a bunch of potato and meat croquettes as well a pack of cans of juice which I tell him arent necessary but he insists on giving me anyway. A few days prior to this one of the old Chinese ladies that works in the lab (whom my boss refers to as my "Chinese mother") gave me 2 bentos and 6 cans of asahi beer that she lifted from a seminar for me. Anyway, so two of the older male profs and I head over to one of our favorite Izakaya (sortve like a traditional japanese diner...? ish?) and start eating and drinking beer. I dont remember how it came up, but I mentioned that I really like the pediatrician in our lab. So as a sidebar: I'm absolutely in love with this woman. She's like 37 and is the most adorable human being I've ever met. Her computer wallpaper is a sleeping kitten, her screensaver is a dancing penguin, she has a little toy seal on her desk, she carries candy with her wherever she goes, shes always always always smiling, and has the warmest, gentlest, softest voice I have ever heard. Whenever I see her I'm consumed by a desire to give her a big hug. By "in love with her" I mean I wish she were my big sister or my aunt or something, but anyway. After awhile they ask me who I think the prettiest is and I tell them one of the grad students, a veterenary student who's about 27. They tell me that they think its odd I like these two because theyre both very "mysterious" and "secretive" and apparently very direct and businesslike for Japanese women. The two of them keep bugging me and asking if they can tell the 27 yr old I think shes the prettiest (she has a bf so this all seems moot to me). Eventually I tell them "sure, why not." They want to tell her I think she's the prettiest in all of Japan, but eventually I wrangle them down to just the lab. They also want to know if they can tell the 27 yr old I think she's the nicest. It takes me like 20 mins to convince them not to tell them both at the same time. I try to tell them I dont want to be part of this weird situation, but they keep insisting I should ask one or both of them out. I tell them if they want they can ask them out for me, but then they start getting huffy about being "machines" for me and there being "too much risk" to them of "seeming like they are plotting something." I just have to sigh and shake my head. Eventually we negotiate that one of the profs will tell the 27 yr old I think shes prettiest first, then if she doesnt make any moves toward me in the mean time that I myself can react to, the OTHER prof will tell the 27 yr old I think she's the nicest. I swear it's like fucking middle school all over again.
Saturday during the day I decided to go to Ginza, the big super-upscale shopping district in Tokyo. I dont even bother going into the dept stores anymore, and I certainly dont bother going into Prada or Gucci or Georgio Armani, so basically I just kept going back and forth between Uniqlo (sort of like a Japanese GAP) and H&M (pretty nice stuff, but on the expensive side. British brand; maybe comparable to CK?). I found a dressy shirt at H&M I really liked. It was 40 bucks. Normally I wouldnt spent that, but I only have a couple nice shirts here and I'm always needing them so I figure why not. At 2 I show up at the hospital to meet my boss. He calls and says that an emergency operation came up but that hell be over to the hospital as soon as he can so I should sit tight near my email for his signal that hes coming. I go back to my dorm to wait. I get there at 2:30. I sit around watching How I Met Your Mother on the net and 8:00 rolls around. No response. I send him an email saying I cant meet him tonight because of the Easter service at the church and go for a run during which I pull my left hamstring. When I get back there's finally an email saying he was too busy to come and that hell try to do it tuesday or thursday. Not even an apology. Jackass wasted my saturday. At 11:20 I throw on my suit and walk over to St. Nicholas Cathedral, the #1 Japanese (subset of Russian) Orthodox chruch in Japan.
This was a night I'll probably remember for a long time. Unlike my lazy church back home, at the beginning of the service they actually did a candlelight procession through the block around the church. There are roughly 150 of us; about half Japanese and half mixed slavic-looking caucasians all holding candles and talking amongst ourselves in Russian, Japanese, and even a little English as we walk among the shops and office buildings of downtown Tokyo at midnight and as a small handfull of regular Japanese on the streets stop and stare and take pictures with their cellphones. Still, the entire procession was very beautiful. It was lead of course by the chruch's clergymen who were 3/4ths asian and 1/4th white. Seeing a bunch of asians dressed in traditional Orthodox religious garb was so otherworldly and so surreal. I tried to keep my mind on the meaning of the ceremony, but there was definitely a voice in my brain that kept trying to yell "ZOMG WHITE WOMEN!! YAY!!" When we arrive back at the church, we enter inside. It looks like a normal orthodox church with the byzantine dome and the icons on the walls and the candles all lit, but unlike the orthodox churches back home, there are no pews, so we stand in two large groups in the back two corners of the church as the service goes on. The service was so surreal. It used traditional orthodox melodies but the lyrics were in Japanese. The priest chanted to traditional orthodox rhythms but chanted in Japanese (and occasionally a little Russian and a tiny bit of Greek). It was so, so cool. The priest would say out "Christ is risen" (christos anesti) in Japanese, Russian, and Greek always in sequence and different groups in the audience would chant back to their language of choice. It's just so odd watching small old Russian ladies in babushkas crossing themselves next to small old Japanese men in business suits. During the service I leaned over to a Japanese guy standing next to me and started talking to him quietly in Japanese. He was the one that told me about the hymns and the church's history. He also told me that one of the priests was half Greek and half Japanese and taught philosophy at Nihon University, which I thought was really cool. After I tell him that I'm Greek Orthodox, he also starts asking me about Greece and tells me about how he went there once and how much he liked it. We also talked about the Olympics for a bit. I probably shouldve kept my mind on the service, but whatever. At another point during the service I was standing near a white couple who I heard talking in what sounded like American English to each other, so I lean over to the woman and ask where they're from. She tells me New York, though they don't say much else. Closer to the end of the service, I find myself standing next to a white guy and a white girl that look about my age and I hear them talking to each other in English too, so I also ask them where they're from. It turns out that they're college juniors from New Jersey doing a study abroad semester in Tokyo. The girl goes to Temple in Philly while the guy goes to St. Joe's, also in Philly. The guy is apparently Russian Orthodox and was born in Russia while the girl, his friend, is actually half-Thai (no way in hell could you tell) and just came to keep him company. The service lasts 4.5 hrs in total (midnight to 0430). It was beautiful and interesting, but by that last hour, man was I starving and falling asleep on my feet. I said goodbye to my new friends and started walking away from the church when they yelled after me and asked if I wanted to join them in eating the shit-ton of food they brought to celebrate the end of Lent. Happy to have made new American friends I said "sure" and joined them in the church's annex along with about 70 other people at a bunch of tables at which the church had also laid out some food for us. My church back home never did anything like this, so I didnt know about it. So anyway, for the next 1.5 hrs we sit there eating their food and the church's food and talking amongst ourselves and the Japanese people sitting around us. Unfortunately I find out that they're both leaving next week, but it's ok. I gave the American guy 10 bucks in exchange for the food after some polite arguing. Later, one Japanese guy knocks over a wine bottle and almost gets wine all over my suit, but I'm fast enough to back away before it gets me. He gives me the rest of the bottle to apologize. At least it was a really fun, memorable night. Unfortunately I didnt bring my camera because I thought it would be disrespectful, but these guys did, so maybe Ill pilfer some of their photos later if they put them up on facebook. Got back home a little after 6:30 and slept till noon.
Today I decided to go to Shibuya crossing and check out the area. Had been there once briefly as part of my "date," but didnt get to see much, so I explored around a little. Not really any good shops. The ratio of women's shops to men's shops has gotta be like 8 to 1, so it's always kindve tough. Didn't find that cake buffet that Chris G and I were looking for either. I'll have to make a map next time.
My grandmother and parents both sent me boxes full of candy for Easter. I've been eating candy for at least two meals a day for the past 3 days since that's how I do. As Dad would say, I can feel my fillings resonating. My grandmother also sent me a bunny who now sits on my pillow and keeps me company at night.
I guess good times have to come to and end though. My boss just sent me another email today:
"Do you have enough cloths? Rumiko is worried about your clothes."
I was wearing a sport coat, a white dress shirt, and slacks when I met her. I'm going to go cry now.
Ah well. Christos anesti, one and all.