Whoa.
That post below was a bit deep, so it's time to adjust the pillow on my lap, shake my head a little to try to get rid of 'plane ear', turn down the Podcast on 'Farming Today', and tell y'all how many Halloween Hearts I broke today.
I won't go into detail, but long story short, kids would come up to me and say, 'Trick or Treat?!' and I'd say, 'Fark orf, I'm on FB'.
I jest, kind of, but the 'ween totally escapes my DNA, even when one kid came and gave me some homemade candy, the quiet kid in the class, who whispers, but she's always giving me presents, even though I scream at her to 'SPEAK UP!!'
Not sure why I have 'Plane Ear'. Maybe I cycled down the hill too quickly after school today.
It was a good day of three classes, albeit I was once again disappointed when one kid said that the only country he wanted to travel to was, yep, you guessed it, Japan.
Recently a curious Westerner asked me what the Japanese were like after I'd mentioned that I find them quite 'cold' as a people, indeed, I don't have any good friends here, even though I have spent a third of my life in Japan.
Don't get me wrong, I have 'friends' but they don't really give a toss about you if push comes to shove.
So, fed up with this wishy washy friendship crap here, I responded to a Japanese friend's email yesterday -she was trying to arrange a meeting for me and her mother, you know, my old neighbor Kazuyo, whose house I was reluctantly invited to TWICE in a decade, even though she lived only 68 steps from my house - anyway, her daughter acts as our go-between, and my reply said that I was trying to figure out if it was me or the Japanese who was to blame for the shallowness of the friendships made here, as opposed to the deep friendships I have made with people in Turkey, Mexico, Thailand or Africa, and I wondered what the fck the deal was in Japan with the friendship stakes, like, how come we live in the same town, I was this chick's teacher for a couple of years, she loves English, and yet we have never hung out. I know I was being a bit direct, and maybe this is why I have no deep, lasting friendships here (I'm not the only one, though), but I'm just tired of role playing at sea-level and want to get deeper.
I said to her, 'Let's get together and channel being warm and friendly'.
It didn't work but I have a date with her mother tomorrow afternoon.
For sure, you can go to a festival and bond with the gangsters and get wasted on sake, or you might elicit a genuine smile at the supermarket when somebody hears you singing the 'Sakana' song out of tune, but on the whole it's Ice Age Central in this Far Out nation.
Just this evening, as I left the supermarket, I sweetly ding dinged with my voice, as opposed to using the bike bell, a bunch of parents/kids who were hogging the sidewalk, no worries, but I just wanted to get past, and they were obviously foreign because they gave me HUGE SMILES and knowing nods of brotherhood.
I reckon they were Thai, lovely, friendly Thais, chattering away on the street, exuding friendliness and approachability, and had I spent nearly two decades in Thailand, I just know I would have made deep friendships for life, because even during the 5 months I spent there in 2009, I made lifetime friendships, and spoke about so many things with these new friends, beyond the superficial crap that seems to make up most conversations I have here in Japan.
This is not a rant. I love Japan. I just don't get why people hide so much of themselves.
Even the teacher I sit next to, who I have been trying to get to loosen up a bit, wouldn't tell the kids his blood type the other day when I was asking the kids their 'ketsueki gatta' as we raked up some leaves in the school garden.
I guess I'll never know his blood type. Fine. Keep it to yourself.
Just like it took another teacher 8 years to share with me that she was a fanatic of the mandolin. I mean, really, surely your passions in life should come through in daily conversation, else who are you, what are you, other than somebody talking stupid shit about filtered water from the school kitchen tap.
Am I tigressing?
I don't know.
I have forgotten the point of this post.
That post below was a bit deep, so it's time to adjust the pillow on my lap, shake my head a little to try to get rid of 'plane ear', turn down the Podcast on 'Farming Today', and tell y'all how many Halloween Hearts I broke today.
I won't go into detail, but long story short, kids would come up to me and say, 'Trick or Treat?!' and I'd say, 'Fark orf, I'm on FB'.
I jest, kind of, but the 'ween totally escapes my DNA, even when one kid came and gave me some homemade candy, the quiet kid in the class, who whispers, but she's always giving me presents, even though I scream at her to 'SPEAK UP!!'
 |
| I scored two bags of fresh basil today for a buck each - well more than a buck, given that $1 now =75 yen and falling. Yay. |
Not sure why I have 'Plane Ear'. Maybe I cycled down the hill too quickly after school today.
It was a good day of three classes, albeit I was once again disappointed when one kid said that the only country he wanted to travel to was, yep, you guessed it, Japan.
Recently a curious Westerner asked me what the Japanese were like after I'd mentioned that I find them quite 'cold' as a people, indeed, I don't have any good friends here, even though I have spent a third of my life in Japan.
Don't get me wrong, I have 'friends' but they don't really give a toss about you if push comes to shove.
 |
| It's persimmon season |
So, fed up with this wishy washy friendship crap here, I responded to a Japanese friend's email yesterday -she was trying to arrange a meeting for me and her mother, you know, my old neighbor Kazuyo, whose house I was reluctantly invited to TWICE in a decade, even though she lived only 68 steps from my house - anyway, her daughter acts as our go-between, and my reply said that I was trying to figure out if it was me or the Japanese who was to blame for the shallowness of the friendships made here, as opposed to the deep friendships I have made with people in Turkey, Mexico, Thailand or Africa, and I wondered what the fck the deal was in Japan with the friendship stakes, like, how come we live in the same town, I was this chick's teacher for a couple of years, she loves English, and yet we have never hung out. I know I was being a bit direct, and maybe this is why I have no deep, lasting friendships here (I'm not the only one, though), but I'm just tired of role playing at sea-level and want to get deeper.
 |
| Ground Chicken Curry |
I said to her, 'Let's get together and channel being warm and friendly'.
It didn't work but I have a date with her mother tomorrow afternoon.
For sure, you can go to a festival and bond with the gangsters and get wasted on sake, or you might elicit a genuine smile at the supermarket when somebody hears you singing the 'Sakana' song out of tune, but on the whole it's Ice Age Central in this Far Out nation.
Just this evening, as I left the supermarket, I sweetly ding dinged with my voice, as opposed to using the bike bell, a bunch of parents/kids who were hogging the sidewalk, no worries, but I just wanted to get past, and they were obviously foreign because they gave me HUGE SMILES and knowing nods of brotherhood.
I reckon they were Thai, lovely, friendly Thais, chattering away on the street, exuding friendliness and approachability, and had I spent nearly two decades in Thailand, I just know I would have made deep friendships for life, because even during the 5 months I spent there in 2009, I made lifetime friendships, and spoke about so many things with these new friends, beyond the superficial crap that seems to make up most conversations I have here in Japan.
 |
| OMFG -The cheap beer company - Barreal - have made a 100% German hops beer for a wicked price - 148 yen, instead of its 248 yen Sapporo/Asahi/Kirin peers |
This is not a rant. I love Japan. I just don't get why people hide so much of themselves.
Even the teacher I sit next to, who I have been trying to get to loosen up a bit, wouldn't tell the kids his blood type the other day when I was asking the kids their 'ketsueki gatta' as we raked up some leaves in the school garden.
I guess I'll never know his blood type. Fine. Keep it to yourself.
Just like it took another teacher 8 years to share with me that she was a fanatic of the mandolin. I mean, really, surely your passions in life should come through in daily conversation, else who are you, what are you, other than somebody talking stupid shit about filtered water from the school kitchen tap.
Am I tigressing?
I don't know.
I have forgotten the point of this post.
7 comments:
Are the Japanese nutty about blood type like some Westerners are about the zodiac.
Nutty is the word. Although not everyone subscribes to it. Blood type determines character, potential earning power in a potential mate and so on. A girl might dump you if you lie about your blood type. They are also more in touch with their animal (Chinese?) birth signs than our Zodiac signs. These are annual signs though, not monthly. As in "I was born in the year of the (horse, monkey, rabbit etc)" My partner is a Hinoe-uma by the way.....and she was shocked that I knew the history before we met.
Ah, thank you Sok, my assistant on Japanese culture, for answering R's question in a far better way than I would have done.
I'd have just said, 'Uh, yeah, everybody knows their bloodtype'
Dang, I forgot that they even fret over blood types. What don't they worry about.
Japan! You gotta start chillin!!!
Yeah, and I bet your partner was shocked that you could use chopsticks, too.
;)
And the capital of Japan.
Plus all those other things they don't expect you to be curious about.
I wrote a poem about Nara once, a former capital of Japan.
I wonder where it is.
I LOVE HALLOWEEN !!!!!!
Went to a geat dinner party on the expansive front porch at Rainbow Ranch, watching the sun set and the cows and horses in the pasture munch on grass, (we "munched" a little, too :)))
and I dresses up, for the first time, as a GEISHA !!! Even wore Geta, and traditional whiteface. Only busted my ass one time (that I remember) Really should have been using all these antique Kimono more often, It was FUNNN!!!
Mata ne
Liz
Pics coming soon :))
PS I am Tarsus, born in Year of Snake and have NO IDEA of my bloodtype. Guess that might be a good thing to know ???
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