Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto: August 10, 2011

(trash = garakuta, party = enkai)

I am so completely exhausted! I’m taking a break from attempting to separate the trash (garakuta). This is a big deal in Japan. I’ve read and heard horror stories of the friendly Japanese neighbor coming over and wagging a finger if the trash is not separated correctly. There are a couple of factors that have made this job slightly more difficult than it should be. 1) The instructions for separating trash are in Japanese. 2) At the moment I don’t know how to read Japanese characters. 3) I’m slightly nauseous after the enkai last night. 4) The trash has been piling up since Gordon and I arrived…its not pretty. Lets just say I’ve been exposed to more mold in the past half hour than I have been in my entire life thus far :(.

So much trash, so little time.

Trash instructions. I'm not a rocket scientist, but I think you have to be one to understand this.

Gordon and I did end up finding a car the other day. However, the car dealer had to make some exceptions for the broke and naïve Americans. They expected us to have all the money for the car then and there. We were supposed to drop 300,000 yen. That wasn’t going to happen especially when Gordon and I were under the impression that the BOE (Board of Education) was going to purchase the car and we would pay that back in monthly installments. SO, with a little negotiating and some help from Endo, her sister and her sister’s Australian husband (our translator/mate) we are going to be paying off the car in 3 installments.

I’m sure you’re wondering what kind of car we got? Well, we went expecting to hopefully get a four-door car with four seats (in hopes we’d have friends/visitors to transport around). So we looked at a Honda for a while that was a three-door and then “IT” happened. Endo and her sister zeroed in on the car they wanted for us. They obviously got excited when they saw it because their eyes lit up like fireworks on the fourth of July. It was the van to beat all “mom” vans. A Nissan Largo. With racing or, as I learned, “highway stripes”. Hawt. Now at first I was skeptical. I couldn’t picture Gordon and I (well mainly Gordon, I’m too scared to drive here) navigating the tiny streets in Tonosho in a Texas sized van. But one look inside and I was sold. The van can fit a total of 7 people. There are four sky windows (yes, four. I counted.) and the seats look rather comfortable. Plus we got it for the same price we were going to get the Honda. Why not get a bigger (and nicer car) if you’re going to pay the same price? So, we will drive the car off the lot (hopefully) before Gordon starts teaching, at the end of August. FREEDOM! Watch out Tonosho! The mommy van is gonna get ya! If the people of Tonosho don’t know Gordon and I by now, they will when they see us cruising around town in our new ride. One other thing, the van has a cassette player. How old school is that?! But because of our American charm (or maybe it was the begging and pleading done by Endo) we’re getting a CD player installed at no extra cost.

Last night, Gordon and I got to experience our first Japanese enkai (party). Traditionally there is lots of food, drinks and socializing. This is the chance for Japanese people to let their guards down and have a good time. A Choshi Plaza Hotel bus picked up the aomugikai group (a social club Gordon and I now belong to) at the Tonosho Town Hall at 6:00 pm. Choshi is about 30 minutes away from Tonosho and is the eastern most city in Japan. Choshi is famous for its fish market. We arrived at the Choshi Hotel around 7ish. Hideki Ito, the aogmugikai clerk/organizer, speaks a fair amount of English and was our translator for the night.

We ate at a long table (there were about 20-30 people in total) on the rooftop of the Choshi Hotel. It was a beautiful evening and the weather was perfect for eating outside. There were three cooking stations at the table and several plates of food for us to cook. There was cabbage, eggplant, bean sprouts, pork and beef. We could also order off a menu and they would bring food out to us.

Hideki told us we would have to make a short speech that was customary at these types of gatherings. Gordon told everyone he was excited to be there and thanked everyone for letting us be a part of their group. I said about the same thing. At first everyone was shy and just talked to the person next to them. Hideki kept saying that Japanese people are extremely shy. I thought this was weird given that fact that Gordon and I were the new faces and the ones that needed to be accepted. After a few drinks and once everyone got some food in them, people started to open up. Everyone was very interested in why Gordon and I were together (what characteristics we liked about each other, how we met, etc.). As the night went on everyone was laughing and there was a big circle of people around Gordon and I. We talked about the differences between America and Japan, the presidential campaign in the U.S. and what types of sports/activities we liked. Gordon and I had an amazing time getting to know everyone and really enjoyed our first enkai.