About a month ago, all of the Jr. High Jets went to a city 3 hours east of Iwaki. The whole reason to go was to take an intensive “Japanese Language Course” and do a homestay while we were there.
The classes were great. The teachers were better though. Obara was a short older lady with a smoker’s laugh, glasses and short hair. Sakai was a soft-spoken long haired innocent looking woman. I made them both my geishas. Combined with the rest of the other jets in my class, we formed “Team A” (not the A Team) short for “Team Awesome.” We ran that shit. One of our assignments was to interview other Japanese people. I purposely went into the other classes and interrupted them. The teachers were not pleased.
The homestay was awesome too. I was placed with a family of 7. The grandparents, parents, and 3 kids. The first night, we were hanging out and had some world-class tonkatsu and sashimi. We went to meet up with the grandparents too at one point, because they were working at their ramen shop. We then proceeded to go to the store and buy a 6 pack of tall boys and drank at the house. The little girl had nabbed some fish flavored cheese & beef jerky before we left and ate at least 3 quarters of both bags. She was tiny too. Right before I was going to go to bed though, the grandfather called me over to drink with him. After the 4th or 5th 1.5 liter bottle, I called it a night.
Morning came and I ate some natto, fried fish, miso soup and rice. I got a stomachache. Then I got dropped off at the university for the language course and got picked up in the early evening. From the school, we went to a little festival. I was the hero of the night because I caught 12 fish in this fishing game. It’s different though because instead of a net, they give you a magnifying glass looking thing with tissue paper instead of glass. I was about 10 fish in before it started to break. I’m da man.
We left the festival and went back to the house for a feast. We first ate tsukemono, rice, sukiyaki, sashimi, stewed veggies and seafood, and then ramen. I got a stomachache. On top of that, the dad had me drink whiskey and nihonshuu and the grandfather had me drinking beer. I got F’ed, real bad.
By the end of the trip, the kids were calling me big brother in Japanese, and the family waited in the rain at the bus stop for 30 minutes until we left. I obviously made them my geishas too.
Cultural Notes
1. Tonkatsu – Tone-kawt-su, deep fried boneless pork cutlet
2. Natto – naw-toe, fermented soy beans
3. Sukiyaki – a type of stew
4. Tsukemono – pickled vegetables
5. Nihonshuu – knee-hone-shoe, basically what we call sake, except not. Made from rice. What we actually call sake back home is a Japanese made Korean alcohol made from wheat or barley or something. I can’t remember
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