November 4, 2004

  • i am the dumbest, only i could manage this


    so IN THIS ISSUE, what i did yesterday: i played with kids again.  little cute ones, ate udon, met a japanese person and were going on a trip on sunday, and then i managed to make my way thru getting a jump when my car wouldnt start.


    yesterday was national cultural day or something, so Donari town had a culture festival. there were some food stands, some yard sales, and lots of kids.  we had a little english section where we did head, shoulders, knees and toes, and then we did some weird game with colors and numbers and fruits and veggies.  the kids were really cute ranging in age from 1-6ish.  the one year-old was slumped against his mother with his thumb in his mouth by the end.  we watched some weird video about foreigners in tokushima, but it was all in japanese.  this was just the adults now, and then we had some QandA with the gaijin...US.  when we were playing the counting game with the kids, we all held hand like ring around the rosie, but this little boy thought i was REPULSIVE so he ran away leaving me to hold hands with one of the two japanese women in the group of 25 kids.  thats AWKWARD, so the boys little sister came over to me.  she was only 2 or so. really cute.  she could only hold my ring and pinkie finger!!  so i thought she liked me, but then she shoved me in the butt a couple of times.  i dont know if these were LOVE TAPS or what game we were playing, but i was not offended.  and she could say my name is reina.  CUTE!  so she was my fave little kid. 


    then one of the adults came over and talked to us few foreigners.  she had very good english.  she sounded kind of like a deaf person, but her vocab was really good since she lived in north carolina for two years and went to college.  so we had some japanese tea, saw a weird power rangers-like show with real ppl in suits fake fighting and had TARAI UDON, donari town specialty, i think.  then they gave me some raw udon to take home.  and 2000 yen for gas like a token.  so that was awesome.  after taking a look at all the crafts and displays of flowers and homemade clothing and stuff, JUNKO (the japanese girl who went to north carolina) and her friend AKIKO said they were going to have coffee and chat.  so i havent met any japanese ppl in a way where i could actually pursue some kind of friendship, so i jumped at this chance.  at first i thought she was kind of foreigner-groupie-ish, but really shes just very nice.  she even offered to help me if i ever have a problem living in japan because a lot of ppl helped her in america and she wanted to give back.  she teaches english too for a different company.  AKIKO is trying to learn too, but she kind of lacks confidence and her level is much lower.  but i want to learn japanese, so this is a start.  we went to a cafe and had some coffee and chatted. junko said she wanted to do something sometime, so we made plans to go to takamatsu and eat some of their udon and window shop, or maybe real shop.  so we re doing that this sunday!  neat!  maybe i can meet up with lily. junko and akiko are friends from high school but they are about 25.  akiko has a 1 year old and she s married. 


    so we had some nice coffee and some "chat" and then akiko took me back to my car in donari town.  the festival was over so there was just my little civic there and also parking attendants.  they dropped me off and left.  but my car would not start!  it wouldnt even try to turn over.  i watched as they drove off.  hmm, i could call her, i could call aki (my supervisor) or i could ask these guys for a jump-the parking guys.  so i quickly deduced that junko and akiko would probably useless in this car related situation so i let that idea go.  i figured i might be able to get the JUMPER CABLE idea across to the parking dudes, but that was wrong.  they kind of helped, but then they talked to me and i couldnt understand.  FOR FUTURE REFERENCE, the japanese is BOO-STA (booster) of course!!  so i did end up calling AKI and he was going to come out and help me, but i told him to just explain to these guys what i needed.  they seemed a little greasemonkey, they probably had some cables around.  so he did.  but he was still going to come over. 


    the dudes put the car in neutral and pushed it out of the weird slanted parking spot on a piece of sidewalk where they had told me to park when i got there.  i was so flustered from having to do the BACK IN onto a slanted sidewalk, with a dude directing me in japanese, that when i put the windows up, i forgot the keys IN THE IGNITION and left the car on accessory.  so the radio, clock and windows were all draining the battery from about 10-5.  good job joj.  NO WONDER IT DIDNT START.  that was so dumb that i told AKI that i left the lights half on.  more understandable stupidity.  so those dudes jumped my car and i called AKI again and told him i was ok.  i tried to give the guys some puffed rice or udon that i had in the car from the festival, but obviously they see enough of that.  i drove off feeling like i had handled the situation pretty much the same as if i was in the states and never got panicky or stressed.  wow, glad i have the phone tho. 


    trying to get all my pix to go somewhere viewable...OK, FINALLY! the first 100 PICTURES!