September 18th, 2005

Ok...in my last entry I mentioned a guy wearing a "sick mask". That doesnt mean a disgusting mask. Its a mask that Japanese people wear when they are sick. It doesnt cover your face, just your mouth and nose (you saw a lot of people wearing it in China with the SARs problem). Apparently there has been a little confusion. It wasnt anything completely bizarre or something like that. It added a bit to the creepiness but not as bad as everyone must have thought!

Recently, Chris and I have had two very strange but nice traditional Japanese meals. The first, was Chris's welcome party. It was actually an Enkai that was disguised as a welcome party. I think Chris explained Enkai in his last journal. Anyways, we walk in and there are these long tables and you sit on the floor (leave your shoes at the door). It was a lot of fun...but the food. Holy crap. I feel so guilty because its very expensive and traditional japanese food. When I sat down, there was a long dish close to me with cucumbers, baby squid tentacles, shrimp, and some other vegetable...all creepy and raw. I didnt eat anything from that plate. In another plate with three spots had some more raw things (including a really gross sea snail that Mihara-san (Chris's supervisor) showed me how to eat...but I didnt). There was another plate with sashimi (raw fish *sigh* sense a trend here). There was some white fish that was tasty but the dark red fish was gross. Lot of soy sauce was required. They did have a salad dishwith shrimp, squid, and crab. I ate the crab adn shrimp but left the squid. There was a little pot in the middle of all my dishes with custard. Warm fish and mushroom custard. Of all the things I tried...that was the one that almost made me throw up. Ick. It was so so so gross. Then they finally brought the tempura. Tempura was pretty yummy as long as I stuck to shrimp and potato. AFter the tempura, they had a little speach, because while it was a welcome party for Chris, it was also a leaving party for a pregnant lady who was taking maternity leave (I will get to that later). The speech was for the leaving woman and she got flowers. Then we sat down and had frozen fruit. There was tasty oranges and some crazy ass fruit that NO ONE new what it was. Seriously, no one knew. It has gross outside that I cant explain and a pit in the middle. I didnt eat them...just the oranges.

The enkai was fun, even with the crazy food. Lots of Japanese people. I practiced my japanese a bit but most people attempted english and Mihara-san interpretted a lot (and another JET who speaks almost fluent japanese). The enkai is really an excuse to drink. Chris didnt have to drink because he was driving and I pretend to not understand when they ask why Im not having beer and repeat my request for juice or tea. Heh. Im so bad. Everyone was SO NICE. Chris's head supervisor sat by me and talked to me a lot and asked lots of questions. It was fun. Everyone was really cheerful and excited for us. Plus, the pregnant lady was really happy. She invited me to her house to visit when she has a baby, since I dont do much during the day. They teased that I could take care for the baby while she rested. Heh...they dont know me really well do they? Heh. It was a lot of fun. Much laughing and alchohol was had. At the beginning of the dinner you pour a glass of some drink (usually achohol, I had nasty tea) adn then someone gives a speech and then everyone says "Kanpai!" and we clink our glasses together. And when the party is over and people start to leave, everyone stands in a circle and says "banzai! banzai! banzai!" and raises their hands in the air. Its really silly and cute tradition they do. It was a fun dinner...even if we DID go to McDonalds after dinner. Heh.

The other dinner we had was a moon viewing ceremony (ironically, you dont actually view the moon at all but stay inside for the most part). Chris and I get there and some guy recognizes us as the gaijin we are and gives us our nametags and leads us to the tea ceremony. The tea ceremony was really cool. ITs really an ancient japanese traditional ceremony. So the guy sat us down and gave us these little sticky rice balls filled with a sweet bean (but not mochi) that looked like bunnies. See, while in America we have a Man in the Moon, they have a Rabbit in the Moon. Hence the bunny ball. Then the tea ceremony. The tea was this really gross and bitter green tea. And when I say green, I mean it was basically steamed leaves mashed up into a liquid and water on it. Very green...very bitter. You have to turn the bowl a certain way and you drink all of it in three gulps and the last gulp you slurp. Heh. That was it...it was relaly neat though. The atmosphere was cool.

Then we went outside for the picture. It was a funny picture because they wanted it to be perfect. Did I mention this was done by the rotary club? Yup, they have a rotary club in Izumo too. Heh. Just like in america too. They do community things, get together and have dinner and drink (japanese people really like to drink). Anyways, the picture took about 20 minutes to get everything set up. Man, some little woman even positioned my feet just so. I wonder if we will ever see the picture.

Then came dinner. Dinner was a lot like the enkai but MORE SO. There was a flute player who played insanely long songs. Im talking like 10-15 minute songs. Just kept GOING. It was very pretty...but sooo long. There was a lot of sashimi, but no sea snail! They also had tempura already there. They had a really nifty thing that was a iron pot thing with a flat skillet on top of it...but individual sized. They light it for you and you throw butter on it and can cook things they give you. I cooked pork and potatoes. It was yummy. Then they started bringing us things. They brought us so much. There was the mushroom soup stuff that was gross (chris drank his though). They brought us some more bunny balls from the tea ceremony. Miso Soup came. Mushroom rice (they REALLY like mushrooms here). And all kinds of things. I kept looking up and they were bring MORE STUFF. Eek! It was so much food. No one ate all of it and I didnt eat that much of it. For the last course they brought us some more custard, but it was vannilla with blueberries on top. Chris ate mine...I was tired of food by that point (I had cookies when I came home).

When dinner was over, they made us stand in a circle, hold hands and the rotary club sang a song (drunkinly of course) about the rotary club. IT was really cute. Then we did "banzai!" and they let us go home. Oh yeah, during the meal, they had a game where they had those really sticky rice balls with bean paste inside, and they had a riceball eating contest. It was hysterical because there were people standing behind the contestants, blindfolded who had to feed the contestants these riceballs with chopsticks. It was REALLY funny.

Anyways...those were the lastest happenings. I have some of the bunnies left and I will take a picture and add it, but I dont feel like it now.

Love you guys!