Friday, June 03, 2005
Nice Boys and Girls
My main goal is to speak to two people in Japanese for at least 10 minutes everyday. I usually do that anyway, but sometimes on a weekend I don't make any effort to speak to the grocery store clerks or fellow gym patrons and I really should. I went to a session about speaking Japanese and they showed a great video called “Good Learner, Bad Leaner.” The good learner spoke to everyone—co-workers, store clerks, children, old people in the street. The bad learner watched English TV, read English books, went through the check-out lines muttering only a “konnichiwa” and missed so many chances!! It really encouraged me to chat up everyone around me. Now I see how many opportunities there are around me all the time. I just need to be outgoing and see everyone as what they are—a wealth of knowledge!!
And the nice people I met! Well, I’ve met Dawn before but we really bonded on this trip! She is so much fun and I’ve promised to come to her island (Ojika, the northern-most Goto island) real soon! I also got to know Kelly, a JET in Saza, much better too. We see each other every few months, but I’ve decided to come to her place for a real visit sometime. I’m still convincing her that a trip to Kamigoto is well worth it! =)
Finally, I met a new dude, Scott. An American from Colorado who lives in Nagasaki City. He’s kept himself well hidden because no one (not even Nagasaki JETs) knew about him until now! But Catherine and I found him!! He’s really cool (and really tall!) and I want to go visit him in Nagasaki. Again, still convincing him that a visit out to Kamigoto is worth the $100!
Look at these beaches!!
How much more convincing do you need? It’s a tropical paradise!
[That’s my sly way of getting old pictures into a new post.]
I just discovered that Dawn also has a blog and it’s much more fun to read than mine, so why don’t you read hers too. She’s really got a talent for writing and you can see just why I think she’s wonderful!
And Dawn just gave me a bunch of pictures from the weekend in Kobe, so I can post them as well!
This is Kelly and Dawn. The four of us (Scott, too) ate a huge dinner at Asian Kitchen on Tuesday night.
A Kobe street. Just to prove I was there!
Wednesday lunch we had Indian (got to get in that Indian before we leave the city) at this restaurant.
Dawn attracts some interesting characters. This Moroccan and Indian came up to us in a bar Monday night and started talking like we were old friends! Dawn has a way with people!! We agreed they were a bit weird, but they were nice people and along with their French and Russian friends who joined us later, kept us entertained for a few hours!!
Josef told us he was an artist. You can see Josef is making us an angel playing the guitar out of cigarette paper. It was actually really cute.
Dawn and I took the overnight ferry from Kobe to Kitakyushu (near Fukuoka). Catherine was supposed to come with me, but she flaked out last minute. Dawn and I had a great time though. It was so much cheaper than the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) and we didn’t have to get a hotel for the extra night! Only $50 and there was even an onsen and restaurant on the boat! We met a Canadian who lives in Yamaguchi-ken, she was really sweet. And I, encouraged by the “Good Learner, Bad Learner” video, chatted up some boys on the ferry and we had dinner with Japanese kids. (Not really kids, they were 21, 22 and 26, but they looked really young.)
I was quite captured with Norihito, a super-genki 22 year old. After dinner I saw him in the ferry gift shop and we talked more. We saw on the eletronic map that we were going to pass under a long bridge and we bet long it would take to get to it. I said an hour, he said 2 hours. It was 1 hour 49 minutes so I had to buy him a drink. He was sweet, but communicating was hard because he spoke no English—but that’s the whole point, right!?!
My super-genki Norihito as we passed under the bridge the overnight ferry.
We had lunch in Sasebo before heading home. I indulged in a fruit and sorbet dessert!
I saw two movies this week. Closer and Dance With Me. Dance With Me was alright. Closer was really good. It reminded me of... life. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it.
I’m so glad to be back on the island now, but my sleeping schedule is all messed up. It’s 1:15 a.m. now and I’ve slept all afternoon so am not tired at all! Late nights, early mornings and naps whenever I can grab them. I completely missed karate tonight and tomorrow, although I should be going to work, have been given permission to rest up instead. It doesn't matter, I have plenty of work to do at home.
Found my first cockroach of the year in my apartment today. Gross.
Love, Sie
I’m not into guys with girlfriends. (Except that once.)
