Kuniko and I woke up around seven in the morning, and we were both ready to get to work studying. I got up and turned on the hot water for shower, and while we were waiting for it to heat up, we ended up falling asleep. I woke up a few minutes later, ran in and turned it off, and the next thing I knew it was eleven in the morning.
We finally got out of bed and we hit the shower. Afterwards we made a quick visit to Ito Yokado, and we bought some roast beef to make a couple of sandwiches. Back home I made up some sandwiches, and then we went out to take a walk and enjoy the beautiful weather. It was gorgeous today, and we walked through the park on the southern coast of the inland sea. The cherry trees are losing their cherry blossoms gradually, and we got to walk under trees with petals drifiting through the air on the wind. It was a really nice moment for me – one that I’ll remember for a long time.
We walked back to my place, and did some studying together. Kuniko is listening to English lessons that she records from NHK radio. I was working on Japanese vocabulary, and we worked during through the afternoon with all the windows and doors open to let the breeze and warm air come through my apartment.
Finally around 5 p.m. Kuniko had to head back to her house, so I said goodbye to her out in front of my apartment, and then I went inside to study some more.
Before I knew it I was hungry again, so I decided to go get sushi over at the restaurant close to my place. The last time I was there the locals bought my dinner, so I have no idea what the prices are like at this place. I had a wallet full of money, so I figured it was a good time to find out.
I went inside and there was already a crowd of people in there. I took the last chair at the bar, and everyone was buzzing with the idea that there was a foreigner in the place. The master of the sushi place always has a funny reaction to me being there – kind of like he’s waiting for the punchline of some joke that someone is playing on him.
I sat and ordered up some sushi and sake. Before that the master laid out some food for me, and so I ate some of the mysterious food with the older guy next to me speaking incomprehensible Japanese in my ear. It was some kind of cooked fish suspended in a gelatinous material, served cold on a platter. The flavor was OK, not too fishy, but definitely not my favorite.
Somebody next to me said that I should talk to another one of the customers, and before I knew we were switching seats and I was introduced to Iku-san, a middle aged woman who works for a computer company in Osaka, takes weekly English lessons at a local school, and spent a few months living in Sacramento, California. At first she said that her English was terrible, but of course by the time we started talking she was extremely fluent, and she did a great job. Unfortunately for me I had no chance to practice my Japanese tonight.
Everybody watched me carefully – “Oh, he can use chopsticks!”, “Oh, foreigners can eat octopus!”, etc. There was a lot of food, and I really ate my fill. Which reminds me…
Sushi restaurants in Japan can be pretty daunting. First, there is rarely a menu – you ask what the master has, and what he recommends. Also, at most places I’ve been to there is no price list. At the end, you just find out how much you owe, and then you pay it. This evening, I ordered a few pieces of sushi, but other sushi appeared at my place without me having ordered it. It was like the master was keeping me in food, and if I ran out, he would have some kind of fish in front of me. It was hard to explain, and I asked Iku-san about it. She said that it was just best to bring lots of money when you go to a sushi bar. It’s hard for a foreigner like me to get used to.
At the end I called for the check, and for the second time in a row I found out that the meal was being paid for by one of the other customers. At first I refused, and then said that they were being too nice, and then finally I relented and gave lots of thanks and promises to pay next time. If I ever see these guys again, I’m going to go broke!
This week should be interesting – it’ll be my first full load of classes. I’ll get to meet the first years in my classroom for the first time, and at the end of the week we’ll have the welcome party for the new teachers in Himeji. It should be a lot of fun.
