Clueless?

So a few weeks before I left for Seattle, I met two Japanese girls through a friend who had gone to the zoo with them earlier in the day. We ended up hanging out and shopping around downtown Shizuoka. They seemed like nice, friendly girls even though they were a few years younger than me.

Over the course of getting to know one another, I revealed my passion for cooking and my desire to go to culinary arts school in France. They were rather excited by this, being recent college graduates with little experience cooking for themselves. They asked me to teach them to cook sometime, which I readily agreed to, assuming that it would happen in the vague, distant future that 'sometime' seemed to imply. I was wrong. Apparently, 'sometime' means 'as soon as possible.'

Since I've been back, I've gotten 3 messages via Facebook and my keitai asking when we're going to do it. I'm normally one of the more...energetic people that you'll meet, especially in regards to food and cooking, but the girl that's been messaging me is a bit too...enthusiastic even for me.

I told Travis that it's a bit like your little sister wanting to tag onto everything you do because she thinks it's cool. He said he'd never had a little sister so he couldn't relate to the analogy, so I tried another. "She's that nerdy kid that you reached out to once because you wanted to give them a chance, and then became your constant hanger-on."

Am I wrong for feeling claustrophobic when I get these messages?

Life in a Fishbowl

Lately I've been spending a lot of time with the BOE crew and I'm starting to see some of the critiques of BOE ALTs for myself. Not that I don't love the friends that I've made, and being able to spend more time with a solid group of people. It's just that, because the group is so small, it is both insular and insulated from the majority of the JET community. All of the dramas and melodramas play out on a much smaller, more tense stage.

Sometimes, it's nice to get away; I take advantage of my position as a kencho JET and hang out with other ALT friends. But sometimes, even that's not enough, because I still end up with ALTs. That's when I appreciate having made Japanese friends early on and continuously while I've lived in Shizuoka.

It's nice to forget all the issues, and just have a good time with friends. You lose yourself in another language. Which is what I did last Friday: after dinner with some ALTs, I went off to karaoke with two of my Shimizu J-boy friends, up until first train.

Which led to another fun experience when, while at the train station, two of my students saw me with them on their way to school. How they could be going to school while the moon was still up on a Saturday morning, I don't understand, but we had a good laugh about it when they asked me about it in class this week.

Robo-vision

Yuna and I met in Shizuoka for lunch yesterday. It's a bit strange to have a strong online relationship with someone despite having several mutual friends, so we both welcomed the opportunity to get to know one another better.

Yuna is an interesting individual, and unlike many of the Japanese friends I've made. Maybe it's her age and being married, though maybe it also has something to do with the situation with her mom. She gives me the impression that she's had to defend herself from other peoples' scrutiny: about her decision to take care of her and about giving up her plans to go abroad. She's like red wine: sharp, deep, mysterious. She doesn't yield things up to novices easily. You have to know how to read her to fully appreciate her.

After lunch we walked back toward Shizuoka station and she proceeded to take pictures of me. I remember vividly the look in her eyes as we walked around the station. Her focus was visible on her face. I told her I wanted to be able to go into her head and see through her eyes. As an artist, as someone accustomed to sizing up a situation, she must look at the world in a completely different way than other people. I think it looks something like how robots see, like Terminator or Robocop: all geometric shapes laid over the real world, ratios, measurements. And yet, also an appraisal of beauty.

Only in the last couple of years have I picked up a thing or two about photography and composition and design. This ability to make the world look a certain way is fascinating and empowering. It's about control. Yet I shy away a bit. I guess that's my natural inclination to be the power behind the throne, never actually sitting in it.

I think she's drawn to it.

I think I like that about her.

My New Japanese Friend: Retroactive Post

Hey all! I've been having a lot of fun lately with my new friend Chika. As I've mentioned before, we met because she's interested in practicing and improving her English since she wants to finish studying film in the US. We've hung out more recently, since it seems like she has more time on her hands and she's very cool and fun. Since we're both 22, we seem to be into much of the same things: going out with friends, drinking, watching movies, shopping, and lately for me, karaoke and piricura. Which is what we did on Tuesday and today.

Here're the pics from that: Buddies!. Hope you're all well, and that maybe sometime in the future you'll all get to meet my new friend!

Hell Just Froze Over: Retroactive Post

Why? Because yesterday, I did the UNTHINKABLE. The two things that I wouldn't be caught doing in Seattle, EVER.

Yesterday, I was on the phone with Pat, checking up on him post-birthday-barfage, and waiting for my cousin, the one that doesn't live with me (Eugen-san) to come home with his girlfriend, Yuka-chan, whom I had met once before, since I had to open the door for them because they didnt have a key. They get home, and after getting cut off with Pat, I take the gidensha over to the post office, where I exchange my travelers checks for yen, go for a quick bike-ride around the Mizuho Koen *park, pick up cookies for them, and come back home. But none of that is out of the ordinary...

To my surprise, Yuka-chan had planned on taking me out, so we left soon after, and picked up her friend Miwa-chan in Sakae, braving the traffic. While driving, we decided to go to karaoke, so we headed down there. I'm sorry, are you wondering whether you heard me correctly? Yes, I said, KARAOKE. I, Sarah, went to KARAOKE. Thus begins my official conversion into Japan. So we went, and I had a good time, but unfortunately left my camera at home, so, sorry guys, no pics for you. Maybe some other time.

This was then followed by going to a place where you can play pool, video games and other things, but we did none of those things. Instead, we took PICTURES. The kind of pics that are tiny little stickers that cover every Japanese person's cell-phone. The ones that you take in a tiny little booth with different backgrounds and such. Well, I am now ADDICTED. I love them! But only the ones in Japan, b/c the ones in the US, you can't do as much. The ones here, you can write and draw all over them, stamp them, etc...They're so KAWAI *cute!!! I like them so much that I'm willing to show them, so for you all (but I still wish that you were here with me so that we can take some together):

Today was less adventurous. My cousin Uichi-san had a day off today, so we went with him, his gf Sa-chan, and Riko-chan and Taku-chan to the Villaggio Italia. And since I promised pictures, here are some, though a lot less than I normally take: Little Italy

We had lunch, walked around, did some shopping and then headed back, since I had to meet up with Chika again, near my house. Chika and I studied English and Japanese while everyone else either slept or played video games (Taku-chan), then watched 50 First Dates, since Chika had never seen it. We had dinner, chatted about anime, comics and manga, and then everyone headed home, but not before I made them promise that we'd take pictures together then next time we met. Now, I find myself again staying up late to provide you with pictures and updates about my life here, so oyasumi!