So this happened
First of all, Mike and I are heading off to Hiroshima tomorrow for four days, and then it's back to the states for me. I'm SUPER excited to see Miyajima, which has the enormous, beautiful red torii in the ocean. Pictures of that will likely be posted when I'm back in America.
I don't want to go back to my real life. In Japan, things like this happen:
Remember the Harry Potter's bottoms lady (see post below)? Her name is Kioka-san. She is incredibly lively and friendly- she's also the one who came in her car to pick me up for the dinner, when I had first elected to stay home and read. At the same dinner, I asked her about some paper cranes that she had folded for the gifts that the teachers presented to the JETs that are leaving. This resulted in our sitting next to each other for 20 minutes and trading origami secrets (I remember some from a book I had as a little girl). She taught me how to fold cranes, and I taught her how to make a cootie-catcher...since I couldn't think of good Japanese to explain it, I called it "baka no gamu," or "fool's game," since that's pretty much what it is, right?
So today when Mike was at work, I was listening to my headphones in the apartment. Was that the doorbell? I took my headphones off and hear a woman's voice shouting, "Sarah-san!!" I hurried to get dressed, but I missed her. Kioka-san had come by Mike's apartment to bring me a present: an origami instruction book and a bunch of fancy origami paper. And a note, which urges me to come back to "Please come to Japan, Kishiwada, again." For my birthday, which she overheard is next week! Can you believe Kioka-san?? What a kind gesture.
And the other day, when I was biking to Mike's work by myself, the chain came off my bike. After struggling with it for five minutes, I stood up in frustration and looked around for a pay phone to tell Mike I would be late. At this moment, an older Japanese man who had been watching me wandered over. We smiled at each other. He fixed my bike chain in probably ten seconds. Then, seeing that my hands were covered in grease, he invited me over to his house to wash them.
I am SO GLAD that I learned the expression for "thank you very much for your kindness," because I use it all the time.
I don't want to go back to my real life. In Japan, things like this happen:
Remember the Harry Potter's bottoms lady (see post below)? Her name is Kioka-san. She is incredibly lively and friendly- she's also the one who came in her car to pick me up for the dinner, when I had first elected to stay home and read. At the same dinner, I asked her about some paper cranes that she had folded for the gifts that the teachers presented to the JETs that are leaving. This resulted in our sitting next to each other for 20 minutes and trading origami secrets (I remember some from a book I had as a little girl). She taught me how to fold cranes, and I taught her how to make a cootie-catcher...since I couldn't think of good Japanese to explain it, I called it "baka no gamu," or "fool's game," since that's pretty much what it is, right?
So today when Mike was at work, I was listening to my headphones in the apartment. Was that the doorbell? I took my headphones off and hear a woman's voice shouting, "Sarah-san!!" I hurried to get dressed, but I missed her. Kioka-san had come by Mike's apartment to bring me a present: an origami instruction book and a bunch of fancy origami paper. And a note, which urges me to come back to "Please come to Japan, Kishiwada, again." For my birthday, which she overheard is next week! Can you believe Kioka-san?? What a kind gesture.
And the other day, when I was biking to Mike's work by myself, the chain came off my bike. After struggling with it for five minutes, I stood up in frustration and looked around for a pay phone to tell Mike I would be late. At this moment, an older Japanese man who had been watching me wandered over. We smiled at each other. He fixed my bike chain in probably ten seconds. Then, seeing that my hands were covered in grease, he invited me over to his house to wash them.
I am SO GLAD that I learned the expression for "thank you very much for your kindness," because I use it all the time.