Sunday, February 06, 2005
59 Degrees Fahrenheit
It’s 59 degrees in the staffroom today. I’m doing all that I can stop myself from taking a permanent seat in front of the kerosene heater and just staying there all day. I limited my first two trips to just 3 minutes. I don’t want to look like I don’t have anything to do… I haven’t been this consistently cold in a really long time.
I’m making a dictation about the Super Bowl right now and so I realize, I know nothing about the Super Bowl. A big game, lots of people watch it, famous halftime shows, what else goes on? I don’t care about football. I don’t know any interesting statistics or history about the games. I should just write something about Valentine’s Day. It’s easier, but probably way overdone.
Last night I had an awesome dinner with Asagami-san and the tennis crew. We went over for spicy nabe at his apartment. There were three other women there and later one of their husbands showed up too. The food was so good—I was surprised that Asagami had cooked it himself. It is also the first spicy dish I’ve eaten in Japan (besides when Daniel ordered Indian for us in Nagasaki and it was so hot I couldn’t taste it anymore). It was perfect for me, but the women were all wiping sweat off their foreheads with napkins and taking off all their layers of clothing. It was cute. I even asked to take some of it home so my bento lunch today and so they gave me enough for two more dinners. I didn’t stay for long because I was tired from my long weekend on Fukue, but I’m really glad I went. We had some interesting conversations about machoism in Japan and were the concept of “man ruling over women” originated from. I also learned a new Japanese word for “I’m full!” “Manpuku!” I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s impolite or has a hidden double meaning though because they all were acting pretty drunk and crazy and getting the foreigner to say dirty words would have been fun for them.
Hatakeyama is gone all this week. He’s taking the second years (juniors) on a skiing trip to the mainland. They will be gone Tuesday through Friday—although Friday is a holiday so we don’t have to come to work. Today is Hatakeyama’s substitution holiday so he’s not here either…except for one class this morning. Yes, he came to work on his day off to teach class—no surprise there, really. This is Japan! Things are going to be very slow this week. Our morning meeting didn’t even last a minute and usually it lasts about five to ten. We’re close enough to graduation that 3rd years (seniors) don’t need to come to school but once a week. So it’s just me and the first years.
Well, I have to go finish this dictation and eat lunch now. As soon as I get the pictures from Catherine from this weekend I’ll post an entry about my trip to Fukue.
Love, Sierra
I’m making a dictation about the Super Bowl right now and so I realize, I know nothing about the Super Bowl. A big game, lots of people watch it, famous halftime shows, what else goes on? I don’t care about football. I don’t know any interesting statistics or history about the games. I should just write something about Valentine’s Day. It’s easier, but probably way overdone.
Last night I had an awesome dinner with Asagami-san and the tennis crew. We went over for spicy nabe at his apartment. There were three other women there and later one of their husbands showed up too. The food was so good—I was surprised that Asagami had cooked it himself. It is also the first spicy dish I’ve eaten in Japan (besides when Daniel ordered Indian for us in Nagasaki and it was so hot I couldn’t taste it anymore). It was perfect for me, but the women were all wiping sweat off their foreheads with napkins and taking off all their layers of clothing. It was cute. I even asked to take some of it home so my bento lunch today and so they gave me enough for two more dinners. I didn’t stay for long because I was tired from my long weekend on Fukue, but I’m really glad I went. We had some interesting conversations about machoism in Japan and were the concept of “man ruling over women” originated from. I also learned a new Japanese word for “I’m full!” “Manpuku!” I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s impolite or has a hidden double meaning though because they all were acting pretty drunk and crazy and getting the foreigner to say dirty words would have been fun for them.
Hatakeyama is gone all this week. He’s taking the second years (juniors) on a skiing trip to the mainland. They will be gone Tuesday through Friday—although Friday is a holiday so we don’t have to come to work. Today is Hatakeyama’s substitution holiday so he’s not here either…except for one class this morning. Yes, he came to work on his day off to teach class—no surprise there, really. This is Japan! Things are going to be very slow this week. Our morning meeting didn’t even last a minute and usually it lasts about five to ten. We’re close enough to graduation that 3rd years (seniors) don’t need to come to school but once a week. So it’s just me and the first years.
Well, I have to go finish this dictation and eat lunch now. As soon as I get the pictures from Catherine from this weekend I’ll post an entry about my trip to Fukue.
Love, Sierra
