Let’s just say that yesterday was pretty crappy. In fact, it was so crappy that it was the kind of intense crappy that you have to give a few props for how crappy it was. In that way, it was actually pretty fun.
The day opened with the earthquake that woke me up. My bed is on wheels and it was strong enough to be wheeling me back and forth a little, so I would guess maybe a 3.5 or so. Probably the strongest one I have felt since this one random one in Language Arts class of 6th grade. It only went on for about ten to fifteen seconds though, so nothing terrible happened. No news coverage of course, these things are a dime a dozen in Tokyo.
Then I had curry for breakfast! That actually wasn’t crappy it was very tasty. Although, kinda random and quite spicy for breakfast.
Then the whole family piled in the car and we drove to Yokohama – about an hour south of Tokyo to a big park called 子供の国。(Kid’s Country) This park is hard to describe. It is kinda like Enchanted forest except way bigger, and no rides, or castles, or anything else mythical or interesting, but what there WAS was just as old and decrepit as at the good old E.F. As far as I could tell, there was one giant pool, one really tall slide, one greenhouse, and one inflatable bounce house in the middle of a giant field. We weren’t there for the plethora of attractions though, we were there for a picnic! Apparently yesterday was some big event where people go and buy this traditionally popular time of fish： 秋刀魚. (Samma) and you grill it yourself, shred your own 大根 (Japanese White Radish) and generally do everything else yourself except actually do the fishing.
(You can see the bounce house in the background)
Us grounding up Daikon (the radish). If I look like I have a little bit of a pained smile, you aren't imagining things.
I don’t know why anyone ever thought this was going to be a fun activity, probably some crazy person. Actually I think it was my host Dad, and I think he knew it wasn’t going to be fun. In case the pictures fool you into thinking it was fun, let me just say that trying to seperate the cooked mushy innards from the cooked mushy meat and the burnt scales with just chopsticks is about as fun as when Sean and I spilled around 20 gallons of Macaroni and Cheese around the dumpster behind our cafeteria and had to clean it all up. 
Apparently the even the meat was not that good, mom said...
Also, we were joined by like 9 other old guys and one of them had his old wife there too. The one next to me was keenly interested in revisiting the English he learned in highschool with me. At length. Apparently the overall point of this picnic was to entertain and say nice things to this other almost bald dude that was with us.
This is what I think may have happened: Host Dad’s work friends schedule this lamo picnic for themselves, and the head honcho, the big cheese, is going to attend as well. Dad gets it into his head that having his whole family there will be a really good idea, and maybe even the token foreigner as well! So he somehow talks the event up to his wife enough that she thinks it is going to be really fun (and conveniently forgets to say that all his work buddies are coming along too.) When we get there, my sisters and mom are completely taken off guard when who is there to greet us but a crowd of businessmen holding an umbrella for, fanning, and generally sucking up to this one chubby dude. They hadn’t even put on the special ‘meeting dad’s coworkers’ makeup! Once we arrived, dad ignored us because you can’t be a family man and a salaryman at the same time… It was interesting I talked to mom about it some. We rushed through eating our fish, and then mom and the sisters and I excused ourselves to go ‘walk around.’ They kept apologizing and telling me that I was being a good sport for how lame it was, but I was just laughing because it was just a funny situation overall. Even though it was crappy it was an enlightening experience and I don’t think I could have spent my day in a better way.
Except that was when the Typhoon arrived. You see, there was a typhoon in Okinawa the last week or so. And apparently it decided we were a little to dry up here in Tokyo, so it made a house call.
I could be a weatherman, right mom?!?!
I made a diagram to illustrate. It was probably something like this. Although since I only saw one news cast on it and I did this in paint, maybe it isn’t that accurate. But it looked SOMETHING like this!!!!!
So the tempurature dropped maybe 25 degrees and it started getting windy oh and lets not forget pouring rain. So we had to leave early from the picnic (Dang!). The traffic back to Tokyo was so bad it took us 3 hours to get home. None of us ate very much fish cause it was bad so we stopped by McDonalds. I could have hung with friends but I told them all I was going to be busy that day, so I spent the rest of the evening sitting in my room not doing anything. (>_<) Oh well.
At least I finally had a chance to crack open the little cakes that Akie made for me. Even the twisty on the bag was folded in a cute way… haha
Thanks Akie!
–I am adding more to this post after the next class so stay tuned. I still have to address corporate development.
Ok now it has been added:
So I was too lazy to post some of the most interesting stuff I found out the night I went out with Akie.
Keep in mind that I met her in Seattle, with three other Japanese students. When I met her she seemed like the kindest of the four, but perhaps knew the least English. She was the most willing to talk to me, and the most inquisitive and willing to go out on a limb. Still, she was a little slow at expressing herself but had an easy smile to make up for it. I think she never wore makeup when I saw her in the states, and always wore lose fitting clothes. I’m not sure what kind of image this engendered in me of what she was actually like, but let me tell you whatever it was couldn’t have been farther from the truth.
When I met her the other night in Shibuya by the Hachiko statue (a famous statue of a dog that is a very common meeting place) she had well applied makeup, stylish clothes, but the same easy style. We talked alot over dinner… her english had improved dramatically and my Japanese has as well so we could get into some in depth topics. Turns out she is REALLY smart. She is the same age as me, but has already written a book. O.o Her major is in Developing Countries, and her minor is Corporate Development. Apparently her minor is the only one in the world and they are both exceedingly difficult. She has a part time job at a cake shop, and spends most of her free time working for a huge and famous national writers club or ‘circle’ as they literally call it here. She is a high ranking officer in this circle, and it was her job to do in depth interviews with famous persons in Japan and write a book on her findings, which she recently completed, I guess. She says most people in her major intend to be involved in the comings and goings of international non-profit organizations, but she wants to be a writer. She is also big into Japanese literature. She pulled out a book with a ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion’ cover (I don’t know what that portends, for those of you that know Evangelion, make your own conclusions 
) and said “This is the book I am reading right now, it is by Haruki Murakami” Who just HAPPENS to be one of the two Japanese authors I have read the translated works of, and along with Philip Pullman is perhaps my favorite author right now. In shock I said I had read lots of his stuff and turns out that she and I had read several of the same books in Japanese and English respectively. Which we both loved.
I guess it goes to show how much can be lost in translation. When a person goes to another country, not only are things lost because of culture differences, but you just act differently when out of your comfort zone. People can assume that you are much different then you actually are. I am glad that I could find out a little bit of what Akie is actually like. びっくりした！ bikkurishita! (It surprised me!)
