Day one of classes.. whee!
Thanks to everyone for their love and support--my family, Darren, Cat, Hiro, Olav, everybody for their comments and letters. I woke up at 2 a.m. (okazaki time) this morning to find encouragement from all sides, and I really appreciated it. I could face the day again!
But first, my adventures for today.
I woke up this morning and went with Sarah down to breakfast. Breakfast in the Bizunesu Hoteru Okazaki (Okazaki Business Hotel) is served in a tiny room on the first floor, behind the entrance, and is free of charge. You walk in--always in your hotel slippers--take a tray that's been pre-made by the mama-san, fill the appropriate bowls with rice, miso soup, and green tea, and sit down to eat. Today's meal consisted of:
1.) A small "salad" (read: lettuce, a few thin rectangles of ham about an inch long, some cheese cut the same way, and mayonnaise)
2.) Some pre-wrapped seaweed
3.) What I THINK was natto (fermented soybeans)
4.) An egg.
Now, being a silly gaijin, I figure that the egg is hard-boiled. Sarah is a bit more skeptical, and sheepishly asks the mama-san how we're supposed to eat it. The mama-san smiles, takes her egg, yells "BAAN" and makes a slamming motion against the table. Sarah mimicks, and surprise! The egg is raw. (Luckily, she gets it into the bowl with due haste.) Still a bit confused, I follow along, and as per the mama-san's instructions, add soy sauce to the raw egg, then whisk it with my chopsticks. The mama-san, seemingly satisfied with our progress, then walks away. Sarah and I look at each other, not knowing what comes next. After a few failed ideas (I think the mama-san was secretly watching us fumble about), we observed the natives and found out that you pour the raw egg and soy sauce mixture over rice.
It's probably the strangest breakfast I've ever had, truth be told.
After that was class. I arrived about 15 minutes early, and found out that my high-level refresher course is only 6 people strong. One of the guys in it is from New Jersey! How strange is that? I didn't get to ask him, but the rest of the students seemed excited to see a new face. The class consists of me, Jin-san (the guy from NJ), Aida-san (the only other girl besides the teacher), Chu-san (a self-proclaimed "30-nani"/30-something), and one other guy whose name I didn't catch. The last member, JK-san, is the only other Caucasian, and was out sick today.
Class was fun, if a bit difficult to stagger into at first. The forms we were covering were all familiar to me (basically how to say "I don't know when she's coming" and "Let's see whether or not the zoo has pandas," that kind of stuff) but their vocabulary set is vastly different from mine sometimes. At least I have the textbook, so I can study up to where we are. We also inadvertantly learned how to haggle over goods, and I complained that a camera I was trying to buy made me look fat. (I half-expected Jin-san to mutter "it's not the camera's fault" but he grinned and refrained.)
After class Sampath and I headed out to lunch. We walked all the way to the JR Okazaki train station, which is maybe a 10- or 15-minute walk from campus, then got some mystery "A-Lunch" and "C-Lunch" specials (still don't know what was in mine, except that it might have been pork croquettes), and wandered over to the bike rental shop, which was another 20 minutes, as we travelled in true shinjin fashion and got lost. We're heading back tomorrow to rent bikes--only about $15-$17/month. How nice is that? Granted, I don't need one for the week days, as I'm literally across the street from my class, but once I move it'll be a little more crucial. Plus, Okazaki is decently large, and I am decently lazy. It's a decent enough reason.
Also a sidenote: Winnie the Pooh (aka Puu-san) in Japanese is absolutely adorable. I caught it yesterday morning.
Also also a sidenote: I can't get used to the fact that all the ads I see now on websites are in Japanese. Apparently ad servers operate by your network address, so even if I use google, it transfers me by default to google.co.jp.
Also also also a sidenote: Men are pigs.
But first, my adventures for today.
I woke up this morning and went with Sarah down to breakfast. Breakfast in the Bizunesu Hoteru Okazaki (Okazaki Business Hotel) is served in a tiny room on the first floor, behind the entrance, and is free of charge. You walk in--always in your hotel slippers--take a tray that's been pre-made by the mama-san, fill the appropriate bowls with rice, miso soup, and green tea, and sit down to eat. Today's meal consisted of:
1.) A small "salad" (read: lettuce, a few thin rectangles of ham about an inch long, some cheese cut the same way, and mayonnaise)
2.) Some pre-wrapped seaweed
3.) What I THINK was natto (fermented soybeans)
4.) An egg.
Now, being a silly gaijin, I figure that the egg is hard-boiled. Sarah is a bit more skeptical, and sheepishly asks the mama-san how we're supposed to eat it. The mama-san smiles, takes her egg, yells "BAAN" and makes a slamming motion against the table. Sarah mimicks, and surprise! The egg is raw. (Luckily, she gets it into the bowl with due haste.) Still a bit confused, I follow along, and as per the mama-san's instructions, add soy sauce to the raw egg, then whisk it with my chopsticks. The mama-san, seemingly satisfied with our progress, then walks away. Sarah and I look at each other, not knowing what comes next. After a few failed ideas (I think the mama-san was secretly watching us fumble about), we observed the natives and found out that you pour the raw egg and soy sauce mixture over rice.
It's probably the strangest breakfast I've ever had, truth be told.
After that was class. I arrived about 15 minutes early, and found out that my high-level refresher course is only 6 people strong. One of the guys in it is from New Jersey! How strange is that? I didn't get to ask him, but the rest of the students seemed excited to see a new face. The class consists of me, Jin-san (the guy from NJ), Aida-san (the only other girl besides the teacher), Chu-san (a self-proclaimed "30-nani"/30-something), and one other guy whose name I didn't catch. The last member, JK-san, is the only other Caucasian, and was out sick today.
Class was fun, if a bit difficult to stagger into at first. The forms we were covering were all familiar to me (basically how to say "I don't know when she's coming" and "Let's see whether or not the zoo has pandas," that kind of stuff) but their vocabulary set is vastly different from mine sometimes. At least I have the textbook, so I can study up to where we are. We also inadvertantly learned how to haggle over goods, and I complained that a camera I was trying to buy made me look fat. (I half-expected Jin-san to mutter "it's not the camera's fault" but he grinned and refrained.)
After class Sampath and I headed out to lunch. We walked all the way to the JR Okazaki train station, which is maybe a 10- or 15-minute walk from campus, then got some mystery "A-Lunch" and "C-Lunch" specials (still don't know what was in mine, except that it might have been pork croquettes), and wandered over to the bike rental shop, which was another 20 minutes, as we travelled in true shinjin fashion and got lost. We're heading back tomorrow to rent bikes--only about $15-$17/month. How nice is that? Granted, I don't need one for the week days, as I'm literally across the street from my class, but once I move it'll be a little more crucial. Plus, Okazaki is decently large, and I am decently lazy. It's a decent enough reason.
Also a sidenote: Winnie the Pooh (aka Puu-san) in Japanese is absolutely adorable. I caught it yesterday morning.
Also also a sidenote: I can't get used to the fact that all the ads I see now on websites are in Japanese. Apparently ad servers operate by your network address, so even if I use google, it transfers me by default to google.co.jp.
Also also also a sidenote: Men are pigs.
posted by Meredith at 2:25 PM
1 Comments:
Umm... umm....
Oishikunai.
(P.S., you rock.)
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