Well well, there goes Wednesday! The morning was marked with short classes, fairly unremarkable, though my nails (painted in rainbow colours at the moment) are proving popular, particularly with one teacher who says she wants to take a picture of them, though every time I see her she seems to not have her 'phone on her. Around lunch time I was enlisted into helping handing out leaflets advertising the Hallowe'en party. Since many people already had them (teams have been distributing them since Monday) not many got handed out and we were finished fairly sharpish. But it was fun to hang around with my doommates for a while, and I must say there's a certain quality in the air lately that smells like Samhain.
In the evening I was treated to dinner with two ladies by the names of Chihiro and Hiroko, with whom I have a mutual acquaintance back in England. I'd been mailing back and forth to Chihiro for some time, but we finally managed to find a convenient date to meet up in person. I was rather nervous and quiet at first, as I always am meeting new people, and of course doing this speaking in a foreign tongue added to the difficulty. They were very kind-hearted and patient, though, and in the end we managed some good conversations. We went to an Oden restaurant (http://tinyurl.com/yawgl57), which itself was interesting - taking off shoes at the entrance, sitting at a low table, drinking beer from a very sturdy frosted glass with a handle. And people smoking inside! It all gave me a "Yep, I really am in Japan" kind of feeling.
I tried many new foods, though I can't readily recall their names. Lots of it was unexpectedly spicy, and there were some tastes that I have trouble describing as they were so very unlike anything I had experienced before. Perhaps the most interesting dish was お茶漬け(ocha zuké), which was, as far as I could tell, onigiri (for me, rice and salmon) in a cup of tea. Consider my mind blown - it was not only like nothing I'd ever experienced before, it was something that I never even imagined could exist! All in all an enriching and enjoyable evening.
Incidentally, dear readers, have you ever asked or been asked the question "Are You Gay?" It's always struck me as an awkward question to answer. For example, I think a lot of people consider bi-sexuality as being "half-gay" or "half-straight" rather than a separate orientation to itself, so if I respond to that question with the technically correct reply "No," would it then imply that I'm straight, thus giving the wrong impression about me? Should one simply answer the question that has been asked or elaborate with more information, or would the "tacking on" of a non homo/hetero sexuality to this yes/no question add to the idea that they somehow carry less value? This sort of thing preys on my mind sometimes. Food for thought!
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| A shrine |
