Time seems to be flying by lately. I could've sworn I just wrote an entry a couple of days ago but apparently it was more like 9? How these things happen, I just don't know.
I guess it was a week ago now that Amy and I had dinner with our (former) Japanese instructor - I'd tell you his name but I can't remember. His last name translates to "Bath" in English - that's all I retained. Anyways, dinner was an interesting experience... We met him at his friend's restaurant (his "very famous" musician friend mind you - he's been on TV! NHK to be exact - the equivalent of TVO in Ontario, so yes, "very famous" in deed LOL). "Bath" had ordered all the food before we arrived (and we arrived 5 minutes early) so we were pummeled with plate after plate of yakitori (basically a kebob). It wasn't that the food was bad (although some of it was) it was just that a person can only eat so much meat in one sitting - By the end all I really felt like was a nice, crisp, green salad but that just wasn't in the cards. We kept telling him that we were full but he either A) didn't hear us, B) didn't care, or C) didn't understand. I'm guessing it's a combination of the three. For an English teacher, he really doesn't know a whole lot. By the end of dinner Amy and I were both feeling pretty queasy.
The food is only half the story though... In addition to having already ordered all our food, "Bath" had also already ordered a bottle of wine for the table. I hate wine and Amy didn't want red. So Amy ordered a glass (or three) of white wine while I suffered through the red. (I hate wine by the way, but I had no choice but to drink it - my request for water was ignored/denied). After the wine we were informed that we had to try shochu - a southern Japanese liquor made from sweet potatoes. Now I've heard of shochu before and knew better than to actually try any, but when I tried telling "Bath" that I wasn't up for it and that I'm not much of a drinker (a tiny white lie) he either A) didn't hear me, B) didn't care, or C) didn't understand. Again, I'm betting on the combination. He promised us that it was a very weak drink and so after a lot of pushing on his part (and the fact that he already ordered it) we agreed to try - thinking that it would just be a small shot. But no, it wasn't. It came in a large glass mixed with water. I took one small sip and knew I'd never be able to finish the entire thing. Amy powered through her's and by the end she was ready to fall off her chair (it was about 8:00 at this point haha).
One of the highlights of the dinner was when the restaurant owner decided to come out and play us some tunes. We were informed (repeatedly) just how lucky we were for this honor. In all honestly the guy was pretty decent, but it was pretty funny watching his facial expressions as he did some renditions of classic Beatles songs. The owner's son, (also "famous") was invited out to sing us some songs as well. He chose some Eric Clapton songs. These guys are hitting up Nova Scotia soon, so if you're ever on the East Coast and need some entertainment...
By about 8:30 we were ready to leave, we finally got the One-Armed Bandit to stop ordering more food - after he ordered some rice balls. After promising us they were seafood-free, out they came sprinkled with dried shrimp flakes - yum! (Note: sarcasm) Instead of making a clean get away, Amy managed to get us into a little bit of a situation... All night "Bath" kept asking us the same questions over and over (I think in part due to his limited vocabulary), but one of these questions was what do we like to drink? ...Getting bored of answering the same way again and again, Amy decided to switch things up a bit and said "tequila". This was a big mistake. "Bath" just so happened to know a nice little tequila bar around the corner and insisted on taking us there. I protested that I don't drink tequila and that it makes me sick but he either A) didn't hear me, B) didn't care, or C) didn't understand. I was getting a bit annoyed at this point, but since I had to see him again the following Tuesday for my Japanese lesson me and Amy decided we couldn't just ditch him on the way there (a very tempting idea though).
So we get to the tequila bar after running to keep up with the 70 year old man leading the way and we all get a round of shots. I was hoping I could fly under the radar and try and order a glass of water - but no such luck. To cut a long story short, after finishing the shot we finally were able to break free of the One-Armed Bandit and take the bus home. We were almost conned into letting him "drive us home in a taxi" - whatever that meant? I was confused on whether he meant he'd pay for our taxi, or that he'd drive us home. Either way it didn't matter, we both just wanted out of there. All the repetitive questions all night and the ignoring of our requests to stop with all the food and disgusting drinks! At least the night makes a good story...
Other than that outing the past week has been pretty low-key. On Tuesday I had my Japanese lesson - it was pretty redundant and boring. I don't I'll be returning... I don't think I'm really learning all that much and it'd probably be best to find a good tutor or a more professional class. By "professional" I just mean one that isn't run by a bunch of bored, retired, Japanese men who really just want to learn English.
Wednesday, Amy and I went to a small town about an hour and a half away called Yufuin. We'd heard good things about it from our students so we thought we'd give it a go... The town turned out to be a bit of a bust - it was super cold and windy (a repeat of Usuki) but with the added pleasure of rain (luckily not until the end). We decided to take a horse carriage ride around the town. It was one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time... About 3 minutes into the ride we clued in that it was one horse pulling a huge carriage with 14 people in it! We felt so bad for the horse! ...I was half tempted to ask the driver to stop so we could get off. I really couldn't enjoy myself because all I could think about was the poor horse... We did stop at a temple and a shrine which were kinda cool though. We didn't stick around to do much else in Yufuin. We had lunch at a yakiniku restaurant (Korean BBQ), and somehow managed to order what looked to be beef intestines of some kind... The menu was completely in Japanese but there were drawings of cows, chickens, and fish by the appropriate dishes. We thought we were ordering a regular beef dish, but apparently not! After seeing our disgusted faces the waitress let us reorder and we had some relatively normal beef - albeit more fat than meat... After that we caught the first train home. (And then almost forgot to get off at our stop - that would've been an interesting situation).
So that's pretty much all that's happened in the past little while... The Cherry Blossoms are out in full bloom now, so we've gone to see those and try and weasel our way into a hanami party to no avail. Hanami parties are literally "flower viewing" parties - and they are taken quite seriously! People take off work or school to go picnic under the trees... We even saw one party that had caterers! Now that's hardcore.
Sorry for the length, I hope I haven't bored you all to death ;)
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