I just got back from dinner with Kazuko, and she didn't sell me into sex-slavery! After work, I went outside and waited for a man to recognize me and have me follow him into a nearby department store. See, we are not allowed to fraternize with our students so Kazuko and I have to have a clandestine meeting. Since other Nova teachers would recognize her, she had to send her husband to get me, then he took me into the department store where she was waiting. The three of us exited the back of the store and walked to the other side of Chofu station and went to the 7th floor of another department store where we had a wonderful dinner at a Japanese tempura restaurant. It was the kind of place where you take your shoes off and climb up onto a platform and sit on cushions around a low table. Our dinner lasted THREE HOURS!!! I ate more than I have in a month (accept for Hakone French dinner). It wouldn't have taken that long but Kazuko and her husband really loved to talk and they were competing with each other to talk to me. They reminded me of my aunt and uncle because they both would talk to me at the same time but eventually, one of them would back down and let the other one talk (UNlike my aunt and uncle). I think there were about 10 courses to our meal and about 10 carafes of sake. He kept filling my little glass. Later, he told me that it was Japanese custom to fill their guest's drink whenever it would get to the halfway point. The sake was actually good. It was fruity tasting (not like the sake I tried in the U.S. that tasted like warm rubbing alcohol). At the end of dinner (and dessert and coffee and tea), they handed me a present (I haven't opened it yet, but they told me it is 2 tea cups and a tea pot, a customary Japanese wedding gift). I took pictures with them so hopefully those will turn out. They were just the sweetest people. Kazuko is almost blind and she was so cute. She kept wanting to hold onto my arm instead of her husband's. She reminded me of my grandma. Her husband used to be the president of a company which had a "daughter company" in Knoxville, Tennessee so he used to travel to Knoxville once a month for a year or two (he is retired now). I told them that I want them to meet my sister so maybe we will have dinner together again when Amber comes.
In other news, I got my haircut yesterday and Miho did a really good job. It was cute because one of the other hairstylists came over to Miho while she was blow-drying my hair and said something to her. They talked back and forth for a minute, then Miho said, "She wants to blow-dry your hair, is that ok?" I said "sure," so she took a stab at it and ended up sucking my hair up into the vent of the blow-dryer within the first 30 seconds of taking over. I didn't mind because I could tell she felt horrible, she was so excited to brush a foreigner's hair. It's those "simple" pleasures in life, ya know? Kinda like my tee-shirt with Kanji writing...or my Japanese astronaut student.
A quick story before I leave (I'll have to save the rest of my Hakone stories for another day...) When I told Paul about Miho, he said that he used to date a girl named Miho but he hated introducing her to people. I was thinking, "Why, was she ugly? Did she have gunky brown teeth? Was she knock-kneed?" No. He was embarrassed because the way you pronounce Miho is "me-ho" and if you put the accent on the wrong syllable, it sounds like you are calling her your whore..." Hi, this is me ho." I found that to be very funny. Japan is FILLED with comedy. It ain't hard to find a laugh around here. Maybe that is why I don't mind the staggering drunks and the crowded trains and the cockroaches. There is a natural kind of comedy about this place. I'll miss it.
OK, just wanted you all to know that I am not dead or being sexed to death. Write soon. Love me
(Me, Miho, and the girl who sucked my hair into the blow dryer...not in that order)
(Me, Kazuko, and her hubby)
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