The Whole Erk Catalogue Tales of a Geek Abroad

Thanks to Jen's contacts, we got to go together to a Forget the Year Party, or Bonenkai (忘年会). We went with Jen's "Tomodachi in Natori" group, the group she learns Japanese with. I've not had a chance to meet a lot of the people there, although it seems about 99% of them know who I am. Actually, it's pretty funny (and a little creepy) how fast gossip about our daily affairs filters through the Natori grapevine. One of the ladies who sat with us asked Jen how her calligraphy classes were going... Jen has only had time to go to two of those classes, and hasn't had a chance to really talk about them to the Tomodachi in Natori group. In a similar vein, another lady (one seat further down) asked how I liked my haircut. Apparently an assistant at the place where I got my haircut is a friend of hers, and told her all about when Jen, Mom and I came in for a haircut and a conversation. These days, I wouldn't be surprised to bump into a Natorian I've never met in a store in Sendai and have them ask if the nabemono we had for dinner last night was any good.

We didn't get to sit with many people we knew, which was too bad, but we had a great time nevertheless. It is generally acceptable, after a few drinks, to meander about and talk to people at different tables within a particular dinner group. So, after a few drinks and self introductions, I meandered over to meet Mom's dear friends Mrs. Yamada (who insists now that she be called Mokoto [her name is Tomoko] or Momo) and Mrs. Sato (Chikako). Both have sent her a couple emails now, which I have translated like the dutiful son I am, and they had me translate into Japanese the mails Mom has recently sent them - mails I have already proofread. When I told them I'd been helping Mom understand the Japanese mails they thought it was pretty hilarious: they're sending mails to Canada, to have those mails sent back to Japan, translated, and sent back to Canada. Lucky thing the internet doesn't charge postage. Also, I had to explain to them that they don't need to calculate the time difference in Canada before sending email to Mom. Apparently, this was an issue: in Japan, everyone uses cell phones and almost no-one is computer literate, so they'd assumed Mom was receiving mail to her cell phone as well. I think it is all cleared up now, I demonstrated it was OK by mailing Mom right then and there, despite it being 4 AM in Canada. Mom, sorry your computer started ringing in the middle of the night. Hope it was on Silent Mode.

The other sparkle of the night was Mrs Mizutani and her two little kids Kae and Soyuki, sitting across from me/beside Jen. Kae is seven and Soyuki is five. Since Kae was sitting closest to me, I did my best to regale her with anecdotes of Canada and various snippets of conversation, since in general she was starting to look pretty bored by peoples' self introductions and stories of how close they lived to the restaurant. She was very shy, but finally we broke the ice, near the end of the night: tongue twisters. Tongue twisters are loved, I think, by children of all cultures and all languages. I am pretty confident the !Kung people of Africa have some kind of tongue twister; in fact I would really like to hear what the !Kung consider a tongue twister, but I digress. I already know three pretty good ones in Japanese:
Sumomo mo momo mo momo no uchi --- Apricots and peaches are members of the peach family.
Niwa ni wa niwa niwatori ga iru --- In the garden there are 2 chickens.
Aomakigami Akamakigami Kimakigami --- Blue wrapping paper, Red wrapping paper, Yellow wrapping paper.

Today I rememorised one and learned a brand new one to boot, all thanks to my young friend Kae. The first one is:
Basu gasu bakuhatsu --- the gasoline in the bus explodes!!!!
I knew this one before; in fact, I learned it from Masaru and Kei, the couple who came over for christmas dinner, but I forgot it entirely. It was nice to be reminded.

The final tongue twister was the only thing Kae actually said directly to me, initiating conversation and getting my attention. She told me right before we all left for the night.
Namamugi namagome namatamago --- Raw barley, raw rice, raw eggs.

Besides entertaining the children, I had an interesting conversation with another Tomodachi in Natori student, a Korean lady Jen has met a few times. Her Japanese is about the same level as mine, I think. It's really interesting to speak to someone who makes similar mistakes to mine, but filtered through a different first language. I think Canadians in general are more used to having to rephrase something when a given way of putting it does not make sense; the Japanese and Korean people I have met are not particularly inclined to do that. When a given phrase isn't understood most people here have difficulties thinking of a different way to say it, they just give up and move on. Mrs. Kosai, the Korean lady I spoke with, does make the effort to slow down and speak louder when she isn't understood, which is an improvement... but if it's the vocabulary/grammar that is the problem, slowing down doesn't help too much. I don't understand why people here don't think to, say, rephrase "small" as "opposite of big" or even "little" if the listener doesn't understand "small", but they don't. It's really an interesting cultural difference. Interesting, and one that drives a person nuts.

After the bonenkai, Jen and I waited with Mrs. Iizawa for her daughter and thanked her for the good year. Mrs. Iizawa and a lot of the people who were there, like Mr. Aizawa and Jen's teachers/compatriots from Tomodachi in Natori, have really gone out of the way to make us welcome, and to make this year awesome. It was nice for us to have a chance to say how much we appreciate it.

I'm really excited for this year's Hadakamairi Pilgrimage, the naked pilgrimage made for the Dontosai festival. Jen and I will get all duded up in traditional Japanese underpants and march thusly garbed for a good hour or so, chugging sake every 10 minutes to keep from passing out. It will be good times.

Happy New Year's, everyone!