Dinner last night
was pretty interesting. Mike and the other Kishiwada jets have a new supervisor of sorts, so yesterday they went out to dinner with him. I got to tag along, too. We went to this small but pretty fancy traditional Japanese restaurant near the Kishiwada train station. Individual rooms, tatami mat floors, several small, ceramic dishes instead of one big dish (like in American restaurants). I love being a secret anthropologist and collecting new and weird things that happen.
-There was no sunken place under the table to put our feet this time. You're supposed to kneel down and sit on your feet like so (thank you, Wikipedia). If you're not used to it, your feet fall asleep in a few minutes. Then what to do?
-For an appetizer! Slices of clear, fish-flavored jelly, covered in fish eggs and mustard! I bravely took two bites. Almost everyone took a bite and then politely pretended like it wasn't there.
-I speak almost no Japanese other than the perfunctory amount to get around. One of the supervisors there spoke almost no English. One of the other JETs (the program that Mike is in), Christine, kindly translated for us. He asked me what I do. Hilarity resulted.
I try to communicate: "I study astronomy."
Christine translates: "She studies astrology." She says "astrology" in English.
He asks: "What is astrology?"
Other people join in, with no idea of the aim of the conversation. They immediately beginning miming astrological signs, like pulling back a bow and arrow, to explain what astrology is.
He looks totally bewildered. Is Sarah-san an archer? I am laughing too hard to breathe.
Finally someone jabs an index finger up toward the sky repeatedly and says the word for "stars." Finally, it has been communicated that I study stars somehow.
I remember that I recently visted the HUGE Japanese telescope, Subaru, on top of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. I started excitedly shouting about this, and making a telescope-type gesture with my hands (like looking through a spyglass).
Confusion again, when the supervisors think I work for Subaru, the company? I tried vaguely to explain that Subaru is a Japanese name for a constellation, and the namesake for this amazing telescope. Failure again.
It takes a full three minutes to explain that "Subaru" is a constellation.
I give up. Fun game!
-I learned the Japanese gesture for "crazy," which is amazingly similar to the American one. Americans twirl an index finger next to their ears and say "cuckoo, cuckoo" in a high-pitched voice. The Japanese version is much funnier. You twirl the index finger next to the ear like in the American style, saying "cooru-cooru-PAH!!" At the "PAH" part, you put the palm of your hand out toward the "crazy" person's face. It's like an insane hybrid of "you're insane" and "talk to the hand."
-There was no sunken place under the table to put our feet this time. You're supposed to kneel down and sit on your feet like so (thank you, Wikipedia). If you're not used to it, your feet fall asleep in a few minutes. Then what to do?
-For an appetizer! Slices of clear, fish-flavored jelly, covered in fish eggs and mustard! I bravely took two bites. Almost everyone took a bite and then politely pretended like it wasn't there.
-I speak almost no Japanese other than the perfunctory amount to get around. One of the supervisors there spoke almost no English. One of the other JETs (the program that Mike is in), Christine, kindly translated for us. He asked me what I do. Hilarity resulted.
I try to communicate: "I study astronomy."
Christine translates: "She studies astrology." She says "astrology" in English.
He asks: "What is astrology?"
Other people join in, with no idea of the aim of the conversation. They immediately beginning miming astrological signs, like pulling back a bow and arrow, to explain what astrology is.
He looks totally bewildered. Is Sarah-san an archer? I am laughing too hard to breathe.
Finally someone jabs an index finger up toward the sky repeatedly and says the word for "stars." Finally, it has been communicated that I study stars somehow.
I remember that I recently visted the HUGE Japanese telescope, Subaru, on top of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. I started excitedly shouting about this, and making a telescope-type gesture with my hands (like looking through a spyglass).
Confusion again, when the supervisors think I work for Subaru, the company? I tried vaguely to explain that Subaru is a Japanese name for a constellation, and the namesake for this amazing telescope. Failure again.
It takes a full three minutes to explain that "Subaru" is a constellation.
I give up. Fun game!
-I learned the Japanese gesture for "crazy," which is amazingly similar to the American one. Americans twirl an index finger next to their ears and say "cuckoo, cuckoo" in a high-pitched voice. The Japanese version is much funnier. You twirl the index finger next to the ear like in the American style, saying "cooru-cooru-PAH!!" At the "PAH" part, you put the palm of your hand out toward the "crazy" person's face. It's like an insane hybrid of "you're insane" and "talk to the hand."