I’ve been running a day behind, so I’ve put in two entries to catch up. Today I rolled out of bed a little tired from my late night but still feeling OK. When I got to work Mr. Kimura asked me all about why I had disappeared early yesterday – I think he was wondering why I got the free ticket. I explained that Mr. Hayashi had given me the go-ahead, so I’ll let him take it up with Mr. Hayashi if there is a problem. I just act stupid… which is pretty easy for me to do.
Today the history teacher, Mr. Urakami, had invited me and Mr. Kawamura to his favorite ramen place. We drove over there and I was very happy to notice that Mr. Urakami didn’t smoke a single cigarette while we were driving. The last time he went through two cigarettes before we even got to the restaurant, and I got out of his car reeking of smoke.
The ramen place was actually pretty good. The price was reasonable, and the style of ramen is similar to the Hiroshima style of ramen – thin handmade noodles. Good stuff! On the way back Mr. Urakami and Mr. Kawamura both lit up in the car, and I was practically hanging my head out the window gasping for air. I think next time I get invited to lunch I’m going to have to decline for my lungs’ sake.
After lunch I studied Japanese for a couple of hours, just waiting for three o’clock when the school librarian picked me up and took me to her house. She had invited me to celebrate Hina Matsuri (The Doll Festival). In households with girls, dolls are set up in a special arrangement. The dolls at her house were beautiful. There were about twenty dolls, each with their own swords, bows, tea sets, and flowing gowns. This would be a perfect place to put a picture that I took, but somehow I got out of there without a single picture. Doh!
Japanese people don’t usually invite people to their house – the home is a private place, and socializing usually goes on in public places. That is why it was such a treat to be invited to celebrate with them. I met their family – she has a son that is eleven, and a daughter that is twenty. Her husband came back from work late, and he was a really nice guy. The boys were both shy, but the daughter was more brave. We talked in English and Japanese about all kinds of things. I met the family cat, who looked at me with a bemused expression when I tried to speak English with it.
Some friends of the family came by to introduce themselves and speak English with me, and then we ate some cake to celebrate the day. The librarian showed me how to do a small part of the Japanese tea ceremony, which is no small task. Talk about etiquette and protocol. People could go nuts trying to remember something like that. I practiced serving the tea, and then I practiced receiving the tea. The tea itself was really good – and the way you prepare it makes it frothy and delicious.
We also made homemade sushi rolls for dinner – the librarian had heard that I liked sushi rolls, so she offered to teach me how to do it. Her daughter also didn’t know how, so we learned together. The first one wasn’t too great, but after a while I got the hang of it. As it turned out we had way too much, so I took two big sushi logs home with me.
For dinner we had a sushi dish made without a roll – with salmon eggs sprinkled all over the top of egg, sushi rice, mushroom, and eel. There was some tofu on the side with some strange pickled topping on top – I didn’t care much for that. The centerpiece was a salted fish. First, she had wrapped a raw fish in basil leaves, and then covered the whole thing with salt. The entire fish was buried under a mountain of salt. Then she put a little soy sauce over the top and baked the salt pile. Afterwards, she put the slightly brown mountain of salt on the table, and everyone took turns trying to break the salt. It had cooked itself into a solid chunk, and it took a lot of effort to break in. Once we got in, the fish was inside all cooked, having absorbed some of the salt through the basil leaves. The flavor was great and the meat was tender – no fishy taste at all. She just peeled the meat off the bones and passed it around. The other traditional dish was a clam soup – clams in a clear broth with watercress that had been tied into little knots. What a spread!
With dinner we had some homemade plum liqueur and some beer – the kids drank orange soda. Finally we finished as much as we could, so we went out to the living room to chat and relax. We talked for about an hour, and it was fun. I didn’t want to be “The Guest That Wouldn’t Leave”, so I watched my hosts carefully for hints or body language that meant that I should go. The first time it came I missed it – she asked me if I was OK to stay a little longer, and I said sure, no problem, thinking that they wanted me to stay and I have nothing else going on – why not? The second time came twenty minutes later when she asked again, and then I apologized profusely and said that I have to get up early the next day and please excuse me for inconveniencing them, etc. The hints here are more subtle than what I’m used to, so you have to really be paying attention.
After dinner she gave me a ride home, and when I checked my e-mail I found out that Miss Kageyama had passed her exam! This is great news for her, because she was hired for her new job in Osaka contingent upon the successful passing of the STEP test 1st grade. She has passed that, so there is no higher level – she is the same level as Mr. Hayashi. In typical Japanese fashion Miss Kageyama insisted that it was a fluke and she’ll need to study even harder. I called her up and congratulated her – I could hear the relief and happiness in her voice.
Well, I’m off to bed, but it feels good to catch up on the journal. More soon!
