I'm not in the mood to write but I am going to because I have a half hour to burn here...
One quick note of interest...you know how Americans will point to their chest when referring to themselves, like "Who, ME?" Well, when Japanese people are referring to themselves, they put their finger on the tip of their nose. It's kind of funny.
OK, next story...there was nothing on TV last night so I ended up watching this REALLY stupid show. I STILL don't know what the point of it was but is was 3 young girls and 3 old men running around Shinjuku doing stupid stuff. When I first turned it on, they were all in some hot-tub, spa room and the 3 girls climbed into the small tub with their towels on. Then the one old guy tries to climb in the tub with them and they scream and push him and he falls into the big hot tub and they all laugh and so he tries again and they push him again and he falls into the hot tub again. Then he takes his towel off and spanks his butt (BARE BOTTOM) in their direction and they all scream (yes, I screamed, too..THEY SHOWED HIS BUTT ON TV!) and the insanity continues...next they all have robes on and are walking down the street and go into some store and start playing some game of who can toss a role of toilet paper into the toilet from 10 feet away (they are in some kind of appliance store with a bunch of demo toilets and tubs, etc.) So the one girl who makes the shot ends up having to get into her towel again and get in a tub with the 3 old men who are also in their towels again and they fill up the tub with water. Then they all get back into their robes and go to some fancy hotel and get a room with ANOTHER hot tub and after they eat, the girls get into their towels and get in the hot tub and eventually the guys get in the hot tub with them. Now if at any point in my story you can figure out the plot/purpose of this show, please feel free to e-mail and enlighten me. I guess this is their version of REALITY television, minus the entertainment value.
Then I was watching this other show the night before and I was SOBBING and I had NO CLUE what they were saying! It was a bunch of short "documentaries," if you will, with a camera following around a family for a day. Each family had like 7 or 8 kids and they were poor. I asked one of my students about the show and she said Japanese people like stories about poor, struggling families with a million kids. So that answers that question. Anyway, this one family had 7 kids and a mom and dad and what I could figure from watching it was that the woman used to be married to a guy whom she had 6 kids with, then they divorced or he died or something and one day, the meter-man or lawn guy or something, comes by and they fall for each other and he marries her and they have a kid together and this meter-man or lawn boy supports this huge family of 9 people and he looked rather young but he is this really soft-spoken, shy sweet guy that you can tell is a good daddy. And then it's the wife's birthday and the family is sitting around on the floor at the dinner table and the lawn-boy pulls out a ring from his robe that he has probably purchased by mowing extra lawns or reading extra meters or something and he is all choked up giving it to her. Then her oldest boy who is about 12 goes to his book bag and pulls out a note or poem that he has written for his mom and the little boy starts getting all choked up reading it and the meter-man gets all choked up and all the guys are crying because they are so moved and the mom is just sitting there listening (she obviously is NOT the emotional one in the family) and then he hands her the letter and I think the show ends soon after that (well,at least, THEIR story ends). So here I am CRYING because this Japanese lawn-meter-man-boy is all moved and the boy is all moved to tears so I join them. So you thinks it's my hormones?
OK, my time is up! Gotta run. More stories to come. Remind me to tell you about doko.
Love Rachel
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