Miss Kageyama picked me up this evening and we headed out to the bowling alley. When I got home from Australia, there was a long message on my machine in Japanese, and from what I could tell it was from the bowling alley where we had bowled a couple of weeks ago.
We had both dropped our scorecards into a jar for a raffle, and apparently, I had won. When we got to the bowling alley today, there was a big sign with the winners, and among a list of about 15 names written in Japanese characters was my name. Woo-hoo!
It wasn’t hard proving who I was, and they gave me my prizes – a baby blue jacket that is four sizes too small and a small white mug that says “Merry Christmas” in English. Oh yes. Miss Kageyama couldn’t stop laughing at my reaction, and I tried to give her the stuff, but she was smart enough to say no.
Afterwards we went across the street and had some spicy nabe that was quite good. It was so spicy that we had to order several rounds of beverages, and I disturbed the traditions by serving Miss Kageyama instead of the other way around.
On the way back to the car we got in the elevator, and as soon as we entered the doors started to close, just about knocking some old lady to the ground. She yelled in alarm, and the only thing I could think of was that she was going to get cut in half by the doors or something. Apparently as soon as you enter an elevator, you have to hold down the “open door” button to keep the doors open. I was the first one in and everyone just kind of expected me to do it, and I was standing there oblivious, watching the old woman go down in amazement. Little differences in how an elevator works can make you look like a real jerk, and all the “I’m sorry”s in the world weren’t going to change the old lady’s perspective – she was pissed off.
We stopped for ice cream on the way back, and then Miss Kageyama went back home. She is going to just hang out this week – her family is not allowed to celebrate the New Year. She has been doing a lot more around the house since her parents are pretty distraught about the death of her grandfather. I did my best to cheer her up tonight and give her a break from the gloom of her household, and I hope it worked. Cutting an old lady in half might not be the best approach, but it was the best I could do.
Tomorrow I’m heading over to the yakitori at 10 p.m., and I understand that I probably won’t get home until 3 or 4 a.m. The New Year is one the biggest events on the Japanese calendar, and it should be fun!
