Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Rule #1 For Being A Good Host
If you’ve invited someone over, plan to be home when they arrive so they don’t have to ask your neighbors and your supervisor where you are, then hunt you down at taiko pratice. (Read on to hear this one!)
There’s something wrong with me (no snickering); over the weekend we determined that I’m probably anaemic. At first that idea really bothered me because I would like to think that I'm a healthy person and responsible about my diet. But I guess that even if I’m trying to eat the same as I do at home, breads, cereals, cheeses, meat, fruit and vegetables, I’m not getting the same nutrients out of those foods. The bread here is only white, the only cereal is frosted flakes or choco-flakes, the cheese is processed, I’ve replaced almost all meat with tofu because of the price, I’m purchasing only the very cheap fruit (bananas and kiwi mostly) rather than getting the wide range I get at home and vegetables are just different and therefore I eat fewer. To make things worse, I can’t read labels to see what’s in the food I do buy. I’m not eating a typical Japanese diet, but I’m not eating my normal diet either. Anyway, hopefully with some iron and multi-vitamin supplements I can get back in check soon.
On Tuesday and Wednesday I was so exhausted that I actually fell asleep at my desk for a while. I was really embarrassed, of course, so I didn’t sleep that long or hard, but I just couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. When Takeda-sensei asks me if I’m genki (lively, healthy, well) I’m supposed to say “Genki, genki!” but now I just say, “No.” Everyone looks at me, tilts their heads and says, “You must be tired.” Tell me about it.
Kyoto-sensei asked me to go running with him and some students for an hour after school today. I agreed because exercise is suppose to give you more energy and I wanted to anyway. At 4:30 we did start running and they timed us down to the second. We ran for an hour straight! I tried to keep up with the high school boys track team, but after about two laps I slowed down to my own pace. Almost halfway through the run I saw a boy playing shooting a soccer ball on one side of the track. Because I’ve openly confessed to being a soccer nut, I yelled, “Pass!” and so every time I circled the track we passed the ball to each other a couple of times. It attracted some attention and soon there were kids hanging out of the school windows watching me pass back and forth. Talk about pressure to pass accurately! But it was really fun and eventually we even started passing and shooting too! I considered stopping the run entirely to play, but I had promised to run for the full hour.
And after running I had to race back to the staff room and gather up my things for taiko practice at 6 p.m. I decided to go straight there because I didn’t have much time. At about 6:15 Yamanaka-san showed up at practice and asked me where I was. I was so confused… I’m here, at taiko practice. Oh, crap! I invited her and her husband over for dinner tonight!! Ahhhh!
Rule #1 for being a good hostess. If you’ve invited someone over, plan to be home when they arrive so they don’t have to ask your neighbors and your supervisor where you are, then hunt you down.
I felt so absolutely horribly awful and bad! I kept saying to myself, “Who does this?” “What’s wrong with me?” “Why did I do this?” Luckily, Yamanaka-san is the most wonderful, forgiving, and accepting person ever, so we just went back to my apartment and started making dinner together. Her husband had even gotten off work early to head down to Narao for the event and was just waiting around for a call to find out WHERE I WAS! Once we got home I decided, it was a mistake and the best thing would be to put it behind me and try to have a nice evening, and we did! The Yamanakas are really fun! Masami works in the career center at the high school (she speaks excellent English--that’s how we know each other) and her husband, Kazuya is an engineer at the oil plant in Aokata. They brought and made half the dinner, French bread and salad rolls and I made spaghetti (my specialty) and edamame and grapes for dessert. I wanted to learn how to made some Japanese food and get to know them better so it was a perfect plan—all except that I forgot about it.
My goal was to get to know at least one Japanese person or family every week by having them over for dinner or going out together, but now I have this horrible reputation so no one is going to want to come! Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating, but really, you can’t get away with this at home either! We ended the evening with some German cake (Masami brought from the north) and Erin Brockovich, the movie. It was taped off a Japanese channel so it was in English with Japanese subtitles! They stayed late, but tomorrow is a day off so I can sleep in as much as I want!
Love,
Sierra
There’s something wrong with me (no snickering); over the weekend we determined that I’m probably anaemic. At first that idea really bothered me because I would like to think that I'm a healthy person and responsible about my diet. But I guess that even if I’m trying to eat the same as I do at home, breads, cereals, cheeses, meat, fruit and vegetables, I’m not getting the same nutrients out of those foods. The bread here is only white, the only cereal is frosted flakes or choco-flakes, the cheese is processed, I’ve replaced almost all meat with tofu because of the price, I’m purchasing only the very cheap fruit (bananas and kiwi mostly) rather than getting the wide range I get at home and vegetables are just different and therefore I eat fewer. To make things worse, I can’t read labels to see what’s in the food I do buy. I’m not eating a typical Japanese diet, but I’m not eating my normal diet either. Anyway, hopefully with some iron and multi-vitamin supplements I can get back in check soon.
On Tuesday and Wednesday I was so exhausted that I actually fell asleep at my desk for a while. I was really embarrassed, of course, so I didn’t sleep that long or hard, but I just couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. When Takeda-sensei asks me if I’m genki (lively, healthy, well) I’m supposed to say “Genki, genki!” but now I just say, “No.” Everyone looks at me, tilts their heads and says, “You must be tired.” Tell me about it.
Kyoto-sensei asked me to go running with him and some students for an hour after school today. I agreed because exercise is suppose to give you more energy and I wanted to anyway. At 4:30 we did start running and they timed us down to the second. We ran for an hour straight! I tried to keep up with the high school boys track team, but after about two laps I slowed down to my own pace. Almost halfway through the run I saw a boy playing shooting a soccer ball on one side of the track. Because I’ve openly confessed to being a soccer nut, I yelled, “Pass!” and so every time I circled the track we passed the ball to each other a couple of times. It attracted some attention and soon there were kids hanging out of the school windows watching me pass back and forth. Talk about pressure to pass accurately! But it was really fun and eventually we even started passing and shooting too! I considered stopping the run entirely to play, but I had promised to run for the full hour.
And after running I had to race back to the staff room and gather up my things for taiko practice at 6 p.m. I decided to go straight there because I didn’t have much time. At about 6:15 Yamanaka-san showed up at practice and asked me where I was. I was so confused… I’m here, at taiko practice. Oh, crap! I invited her and her husband over for dinner tonight!! Ahhhh!
Rule #1 for being a good hostess. If you’ve invited someone over, plan to be home when they arrive so they don’t have to ask your neighbors and your supervisor where you are, then hunt you down.
I felt so absolutely horribly awful and bad! I kept saying to myself, “Who does this?” “What’s wrong with me?” “Why did I do this?” Luckily, Yamanaka-san is the most wonderful, forgiving, and accepting person ever, so we just went back to my apartment and started making dinner together. Her husband had even gotten off work early to head down to Narao for the event and was just waiting around for a call to find out WHERE I WAS! Once we got home I decided, it was a mistake and the best thing would be to put it behind me and try to have a nice evening, and we did! The Yamanakas are really fun! Masami works in the career center at the high school (she speaks excellent English--that’s how we know each other) and her husband, Kazuya is an engineer at the oil plant in Aokata. They brought and made half the dinner, French bread and salad rolls and I made spaghetti (my specialty) and edamame and grapes for dessert. I wanted to learn how to made some Japanese food and get to know them better so it was a perfect plan—all except that I forgot about it.
My goal was to get to know at least one Japanese person or family every week by having them over for dinner or going out together, but now I have this horrible reputation so no one is going to want to come! Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating, but really, you can’t get away with this at home either! We ended the evening with some German cake (Masami brought from the north) and Erin Brockovich, the movie. It was taped off a Japanese channel so it was in English with Japanese subtitles! They stayed late, but tomorrow is a day off so I can sleep in as much as I want!
Love,
Sierra
