Go Ninja Go Ninja Go

Today I had a New Year's Party with a group of city hall workers that I have lunch with every once and while (Koshio and Fukuchi from my division, Uemura, Yamauchi, Iwamoto, and Dara). We started of at a really nice restaurant called Rakuza. It is one of those restaurants that I never would have noticed if I hadn't been introduced to it. I honestly don't know how places like these get business. There are so many restaurants in each tiny narrow building and the signs don't stand out at all. How do people find them?

Anyway, we sat down at these really nice triangular shaped tables (which I thought was much better than a rectangle or circle because it was perfect for being able to talk to everyone. I really like that. Also, the windows looked out over the river. It was really nice.

As with most course meals in Japan, there was a lot of food. It began with an appetizer.


After the appetizer came the plate of sashimi. Uemura and Yamauchi were in the mood to be photographed so they became our food models. This is Uemura modeling our sashimi plate.




Next came the salad, modeled by Mr. Yamauchi. Yamauchi is one of the men that I go to eat ramen with every few months and it was cool to see him with a different group of people. Actually it was great to hang out with all of them. I was worried that I would have trouble keeping up with the conversation, but I think I did ok, that is, until they got me to confess all the details about my relationship with The Boy. They all already knew about us anyway, so I figured I might as well tell them the truth. Some people may say that's not the right way to go about it, but I am uncomfortable with the Japanese way of keeping everything about their personal lives a secret. I can understand keeping a lot of details secret, but they don't even tell close friends when they get engaged.




After the salad we had a fried tofu course.



After the fried tofu, they brought out some raw meat and a rock....Modeled by Iwamoto.



The rock was really really hot, and we cooked the duck meat on the rock. It was delicious.



We paused during eating to take a bunch of pictures. You can't see her because she is hiding, but Fukuchi is in this group as well.



Koshio (my boss) and Yamauchi posed for us. Koshio is adopting the oh so cute Japanese girl pose.



They even got me in a photo o(>< )o ｏ( ><)o



Next came the tempura course.



Followed by a giant pot of rice modeled by Uemura.



The rice came with miso soup.



Yamauchi modeled the soy milk pudding dessert. Sounds kinda gross, but it was good. The flake things on the bottom are corn flakes, which the Japanese love to put in parfait and other desserts.





Our next stop was the Ninja restaurant, appropriately named as it is ninja themed. It has a maze and everything, so that only the ninja can find their way around inside. Uemura adopted the ninja theme with his oshibori, or hot towel, while Koshio and Yamauchi tried to be cute.




We got to Ninja too late to be able to go through the maze, but we did get to go in and get dessert.



On the way inside, Uemura and Yamauchi sneaked in like ninja.




Our waitress was dressed up as a ninja and adopted older speech styles.



This was the chocolate cake dessert.



I don't actually know what this is, but I think it was something vanilla in the shape of a frog with shredded cheese on top.



This is a Japanese style mont blanc.


I have no idea what dessert this is.



I got a tower of chocolate brownie and azuki red bean ice cream with a hot chocolatey dressing.



It was good until it feel down :(



At the end of the night, we all posed as ninja, at Uemura's request. He and Yamauchi were quite hilarious. They were goofing around all night. They were hiding in the hallways at the ninja restaurant and adopted a ninja stance while walking everywhere. It was adorable.

Laurel is a Christmas Cake!

Today was Laurel's birthday and she requested two things: tacos and margaritas. So, I headed off to the foreign foods store to pick up the taco and margarita fixins, and while I was there I of course grabbed some cake mix.

Now, there are two very important ingredients to a mexican food themed birthday party that they do not sell in Japan (at least not that I can find): limes (or lime juice) and frosting. So, I bought juice with the picture of what looked like a lime on it (turned out to be kabosu, which is a green Japanese citrus fruit that is kind of like a lime, but different).

I also tried to make my own frosting. But I chose a kind of gross recipe that used cocoa and it became a kind of sticky caramel-ey mess.


Dara took a picture of the cake baking in my microwave.


This is what my kitchen looks like when I fill it with Mexican food. Yes I even got tomatoes because most normal people like them. The Boy was kind enough to cut them for me because he knows my hatred of them.



Finally the birthday girl and the other guests (Kim-chi and Paulette, as The Boy and Dara were already there helping). Kim saw a DVD that I had bought, thinking of giving it to The Boy for Christmas because he really likes this one French director, and was asking me about it. Kim is currently studying French because her boyfriend is from Quebec, and she was interested in the film. I haven't seen him but The Boy has (I'm glad I chose not to give it to him).



Laurel was getting excited while I was cooking. We do love our tacos and burritos, but can't really get them here.



It has been a while since all of us have gotten together. So it was kinda cool to catch up and just hang out.


I put them in charge of making the margaritas since I was doing the cooking. Laurel had a good time pretending she had had a few too many margaritas.



After dinner it was time for the cake of course. In Japan, they used to call women who were unmarried at 25 Christmas cakes. In Japan they often buy these little chiffon cakes covered in white icing and fruit and eat them at Christmas so they are called Christmas Cakes. But you don't buy a Christmas cake after the 25th of December now do you? Do you want a woman after 25? Apparently not (T_T) So I wanted to write "Christmas" on the cake. There was extra room so Paulette added "Baby."



As you can see, the icing looks, not so yummy. It was kinda good but it was really a sticky mess. But Laurel was sweet and didn't complain.

TGIFridays! in Kyoto! What?!

So we all found out that they have opened a TGIFridays here in Kyoto. And not just that, but it is really close and easy to get to. I have just gotten back from America, and I really never cared much for TGIFridays but I had to go. I just couldn't pass it up.

Dara and I headed into the city for a real American meal, in the historic capital of Japan....



As you can see, I was thrilled by the menu. It was actually just like the American one, as far as I could remember, having only been maybe two or three times.



It was really an odd experience. The waiters were all dressed in red and white stripes and they had their flare and everything. They had weird nicknames and they even had a flare bar show.It was amazing to look out the window and see Kyoto and then look inside the restaurant and feel like I was in America, except that I had to butcher the English when I ordered "cheezu chikin" please.



Dara got the chicken finger blt (below), but it reminded me too much of when I was in college and I gained like 25 pounds on chicken finger quesadillas, etc.



note, I have since dragged The Boy there twice. The first time he tried the double Jack Daniels burger, which of course only made him believe that American portions really are huge. He couldn't fit it in his mouth. The second time I finally got to try the fried mac 'n' cheese appetizer, which is odd. I wanted to try that back home, but didn't get to til I came around the world.

Help I'm trapped in a stairwell and I can't get out

Every once and a while I start to feel really intelligent. My Japanese is improving, I finish a project without being told I suck, or I just make it through the day listening to Japanese for 8 hours without getting a headache.

But don't worry, I won't get a big head about it or anything, because as soon as I start to feel smart, Japan reminds me that I am not.

Today I was expected to stay late for a training within my division. However, it was really just three of my coworkers telling us about the training sessions they went to. So it was a big old waste of and hour and a half of my time.

It ended around 6:30. It was the latest I had ever been in city hall before and I was dying to get home.

There are two exits to city hall and I always take the main exit, not the employee exit. The mayor's office is on my floor so the elevator on the employee exit side does not stop on the floor unless you have a special key. I do not. So I take the main side elevators.

Today I left the office at 6:30. When I got to the elevators, I realized they were shut off for the night. That should have been my first clue.

So I took the stairs down to the first floor.

When I exited the stairs, it was dark in the main entry hall. That should have been my second clue.

But I walked toward the automatic glass doors. By this point I was a bit nervous and I figured they might not open. They didn't.

I tried the back door inside the main entrance, but it was locked.

I couldn't get to the employee exit because they had shut the gate that leads to it. So I went back to the stairs to try to get up to the second floor to get to the employee exit.

But the stairs were locked.

So I was trapped in the main hall of city hall.

I remembered a stairwell in the center of the room leading down to the basement, so I went there hoping to get to the parking garage or something. I wound up back in the same stairwell...luckily the door was unlocked.

BUT...the door to the 2nd floor was locked.

The door to the 3rd floor was locked...

And just when I thought I was going to have to call my boss and tell him I had trapped myself in a stairwell, I got to the 4th floor. Thank God for the hardworking people on the 4th floor. The door was wide open!

I made it across the 4th floor and down the elevators on the other side...but the door to get outside wouldn't open.

The security guard stood there and laughed at me as I pulled and pulled, until I realized I had to turn the lock.

It was almost 7 by the time I actually escaped city hall.

Kyoto Newspaper

And I'm famous. Well not really, but I wrote an article for the Kyoto Newspaper recently and it ran today. People I have never met were coming up to me and saying "I saw your article in the paper. It was really good. Did you write it yourself?"

Aside from the unfortunate photo of me (I did not know I was going to be having my photo taken that day) I am really quite proud of the article.

And here it is...


I figure I should include an English translation for you all. I am doing this quickly so if it sounds strange, I apologize. I tried to insert any information that a person who doesn't know any Japanese would need in order to understand the article.

"That group of guys over there seem really high tension."

When my Japanese friend told me this, I turned and glanced at the men across the restaurant from us. I replied "Huh? They look like they are having a great time." My friend gave me a very confused look. I was confused too. It was the first time I had ever heard the phrase "tenshon ga agatteiru" but I knew that "agatteiru" means increased or high and since "tenshon" is just the Japanese pronunciation of "tension" I figured as a native speaker of English I pretty much understood what she meant. But in English, "tension" means stress or nervousness. The Japanese use of "tenshon" is much different and the phrase comes out to mean something like "having a really good time" and is often used about drunk people who have low inhibitions.

Once I began studying Japanese, I soon learned that Japanese uses a lot of words borrowed from English. It is almost as if in order to really understand Japanese you must have at least some background in English. But then again, being a native English speaker does not mean that I always understand the Japanese adopted English. Actually I find those borrowed words to be the most difficult to use properly.

First of all, the pronunciation is completely different. When I first read a word that was originally in English (denoted by the style of writing, called katakana), I often have to look at it for a long time and try to pronounce it in different ways until I get it. Suddenly a light goes on and I realize that "uirusu" (oo-i-ruu-su) is actually "virus." Also, a large amount of these borrowed words, like the aforementioned "tenshon" is actually Japanese-English, or English created by the Japanese. It sounds like English but it if I think of it as English it is just nonsense. For example, the Japanese often say "Rebberu appu" (Level Up) or "Pawaa appu" (Power Up) when talking about improvement. These phrases probably came from video games but we never say that in English. They also say things like "Mai baggu" (My bag) about a shopping bag they carry with them to the store in an effort to be Eco.

They also use many English words differently. For example, the word "Kanningu" (cunning) means "to cheat (on a test)" in Japanese and is a verb. But in English cunning means "sly" or "sneaky" or "smart, but with negative connotations." So "kanningu" is actually Japanese.

Although most native speakers of English would think of these Japanese-English phrases as nonsense, that doesn't make them bad. In fact I think it is great. Language is a living thing. I mean, English is not pure English. It is a mish mash of Latin, French, German, etc.

There are even words in English that came from Japanese. When we say "just a skosh," that word "skosh" is from the Japanse word "少し sukoshi" which means "just a little." But I think most Americans don't know that.

I think that the creative use of English within Japanese shows that it is a colorful, lively language. They take words that have been borrowed but give them a Japanese spin, making very interesting phrases. I think it shows the linguistic creativity of the Japanese. Japanese is not static, but dynamic and every day I enjoy learning new phrases.

But I think it is very important for Japanese people and students of English to keep in mind that this Japanese-English is not actually English, but is Japanese. Oftentimes this becomes a barrier for people studying English. If you use Japanese-English to a native speaker, they probably won't understand what you are saying. So when speaking English or writing in English it is important to use natural sounding English.

Foreigners take great enjoyment in finding really weird English written on Japanese T-shirts and making fun of it. We even have a word for it: "Engrish." It's funny for foreigners but isn't it a bit embarrassing for the Japanese?

MUSE

Last night The Boy and I ventured to Osaka for the Muse concert. It was my first major concert in Japan and I was not disappointed. In fact I was very pleasantly surprised by how similar to America it really was.

The arena was just like any other, a large oval with the back curve closed off with the stage in front. There was standing room only on the floor and then the seats in the stands were almost filled up.

A group of foreigners even started the wave which eventually made its way all the way around the arena. I thought that was kind of awesome. I'm always intrigued by how the small actions of a few people in a giant arena can suddenly be picked up by everyone around.

Usually Japanese people don't really seem to get into concerts, at least the ones I have been to. But when the band started playing all the people on the floor started jumping at the same time. It was kind of hilarious. But it was even funnier that they were all jumping at the same time and thrusting their fists in the air at the command of the band because the song they opened with had very Orwellian themes and the lyrics go "They will not control us." Yet three people on a stage were able to control the whole arena. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8KQmps-Sog

I was actually really impressed with Muse live. Normally I think concerts are fun but that the music itself sounds better on an MP3 or CD. Usually it sounds a little off. But the music was very clear and much more powerful live, which made it that much better.