Next Time I'll Wear A Tie

Well, I finally have a streak of good things to talk about, that's nice. Here we go:

A little while back I was on the phone with Saki late in the evening after she had been drinking with her family. I needed to ask her about an informational consultation with the Japan Labor Health and Welfare Organization. Anyway, we were talking when her dad walks in, snags the phone, and proceeds to speak to me in the funniest "I can't speak English" English of all time. Then, after asking me if Japanese is ok, invites me to have dinner with the family sometime. I of course say yes.

Jump forward to last weekend. So we finally set a date for Saturday, and so after she finishes work, Saki and I meet up to spend some time together, you know, preparing, before meeting the parents. Now, it's not really meeting since I've met them both before, Saki's mom Takae was a student at the Kashiwa branch of Nova where I used to work, and I actually knew her before Saki, and we seem to have an ok relationship, so that's cool. Also, I ran into her and her dad while walking around in Kashiwa with Saki while waiting for my new cell phone to be ready back in September, which was fun, as my Japanese ability completely left me and I was left standing there in summer clothes, unshaven with my piercing in, talking to my girlfriend's parents. Fun stuff. Anyway, the time finally rolls around to have dinner, and Saki gets a call from her dad saying her mom is a bit sick and won't be coming, so it'll just be me her and her dad. Her dad who basically doesn't speak English. Woot.

Anyway, we go to the restaurant, this really nice sashimi place in Kashiwa, and wait for her dad to arrive. He gets there, and of course at first we're all really quiet, cause none of us know quite what to say. But, we get through ordering the first round of drinks, and conversation at first is based around looking at the menu and seeing what is and isn't ok for me to eat. Her dad, Tomoaki, was a little surprised with how much Japanese food I'm able to stomach, as their family friend, Mike, who they go out with often, not only doesn't speak any Japanese despite being here for years, but basically can't eat any Japanese style foods. So, they're used to foreigners being picky eaters, and I think that was a factor in going to a Japanese style restaurant for dinner that night, perhaps.

So we're sitting there waiting for our food to come, making small talk, when Tomoaki asks us why we weren't drinking, as he finishes his beer with the two of us with half of ours left. Saki says it's because she's nervous, to which he asks, "Why are YOU nervous?" prompting a bit of a laugh, and getting us to finish our beers. We then launched into the traditional 20 minute discussion over what bottle of shochu to order, and after deciding on wheat based shochu, which is quite popular at the moment(probably because rice based shochu tastes like shit and potato based shochu tastes like dirty potatoes), we start pouring the liquid courage and get to actually talking.

We played the "what's this?" game for a while when the sashimi Tomoaki ordered came out, and played translator while trying to describe the various textures and flavors of some of the side dishes. During this delightful little game, Tomoaki was trying to think of a word in English, and asks Saki what it is, but she doesn't know. He teases her a bit about being a foreigner's girlfriend and not being able to speak English, and I join in too, because really, her English has gone to shit since we started dating, much to my chagrin. He says, "HIS Japanese is WAY better than the first time we met, what's up with you not speaking English?" and I think at that point we finally found common ground. We both like to tease Saki, playfully. I think that's when I realized that he and I have pretty similar relationships with her, we want her to be happy, we enjoy having her around, and we both think it's cute when she's embarrassed, so we tease her not to point out her flaws, but because we want her to be better. After that, the night was a breeze.

Somehow, after mentioning my dream of the two of us ending up plastered at a karaoke bar with our ties around our foreheads, Tomoaki decided that we should finish up dinner and go get a room at the karaoke joint down the street. As Saki and I were walking to do that, while he picked up the bill, we were both kinda like "Wait, what?! We're ACTUALLY going to go do karaoke with your dad?" We had a great time there too, and he and I got to be pretty friendly.

Oh, I forgot to mention, Saki of course had to go to the bathroom at some point, leaving the two of us alone, and that's when I got the little, lean in and say the important stuff real fast talk from her dad. He basically just told me that he wanted to have dinner because I've been wtih her for a while, and he's just concerned whether of not I'm a good guy, and just wants her to be happy, whoever she's with. No big deal, I just wish I understood his Japanese a little better.

Anyway, at the karaoke bar, Tomoaki sends Saki out to make the reservation at the desk, then looks at me and says, "Man, there are a lot of hot girls here. Who do you think is the best?", to which I of course replied "Saki, duh." He made a lot of little comments throughout the evening that I thought were just adorable, just little things about his daughter, and how fathers worry about daughters, and the songs he sang at karaoke were these kinda melancholy songs about letting go, and it was so cute. He's such a father of an only child daughter he loves very much, and it made me really happy not only to be with her but to have him as her dad. I like him a lot, he's a good guy. I hope I live up to his standards.

So, after karaoke, we stumbled back to the station, me a little wobbly and they rosy-cheeked from the alcohol, and we parted ways when my train came. All in all a good night.

That's good news one. Good news two is I got a notice from the Nova Trustees saying my back pay will be deposited on the 12th. I misread the papers I got, and it turns out I'm only getting 489,000yen instead of about 600,000, but either way it's a lot and I'm way happy to get it. I'm gonna go buy a new digital camera, and a Nintendo Wii, so Saki and I have something to do when she comes over, or once we get our new place. The rest I'll save or send home I guess. I might need some to cover moving fees too, depending on how much they are and when we move.

The 12th also happens to be Saki's birthday, so today I went out to buy her a present. About a month ago we were shopping around and she took me to look at purses, talking about how she wants a new one, and pointing out styles she likes and whatnot. Being a guy, I never pick up on these things, but this time I figured, ok, this is what she wants for her birthday, she's being nice and showing me so I can do well, and from then on payed attention whenever she brought out her wallet to see if she already had a new one, which she didn't. So I got one along the lines of what she pointed out today, and I hope she likes it. Shopping for presents has never been something I'm good at, so we'll see how that goes. $150 though, for a purse/wallet thing. What are those called anyway? Not a purse, that's like a small bag, but it's not a wallet, wallets are mens' things. Ugh, the world of women.

The 14th, two days later, is White Day, the clever Japanese holiday aimed at milking the most money from couples. See, in Japan, they don't just have Valentine's Day, they have White Day too. Here's how it works. On V-Day, girls give prominent males in their lives handmade chocolates and cards, so there's money sink number 1. But then, on White Day, the guys who received gifts then have to return the favor via a present of some equal or greater value, but only to those women to gave them something. So, Saki made me this absolutely amazing chocolate tart for V-Day, and for White Day she's gonna come over and I'm going to cook dinner for her. She commented that since her birthday and White Day are so close together, people usually cram them into one thing, so I figured at least this time around I ought to do both, just to be nice. Besides, I've always enjoyed pampering, so, it's alright with me. I asked her what I should cook, and at her request I'm making tacos. Lol. She loves that stuff.

Saki's out skiing with her dad this weekend. He invited me to come with them, but it turned out there wasn't space or something, I can't remember the reason, so I wasn't able to go. But it was really nice of him to invite me to come, I would have loved to have gone.

My weekend, on the other hand, is 4 days this week, thanks to it being the end of the school year and me being a sub. A lot of schools don't really do English classes during the last weeks of school, so last week I only worked two days, and next week I only work three, followed by a two week unpaid Spring Break. The unpaid thing I'm not so excited about, but I only work 5 days the whole month, so I suppose it's only fair. My paycheck in April will such, so May will be tight, but I'll have my Nova money so hopefully I can use that to get by if I fall short a bit.

My friend Jenna from Oregon is moving out to Japan at the end of this month to teach English for Berlitz, so it'll be nice to have people I know out here now that all my friends I made here are slowly going home. Big Jenn's leaving at the end of this month, and Ty is going home sometime this summer. Most of the rest of the people I knew here have long since gone home, so it's getting kinda lonely. But Jenna'll be here soon, complete with my long list of "please bring me this shit" stuff, so woot woot for that.
Also, I just got an email from a friend of my friend Morgan out in Austin, who I met and stayed with when I went there with Tyler back in '05 before coming to Japan. Sarah's her name, and she's coming to Japan two days after Jenna to work for Interac, my company, out in Kyoto. She has training from the end of March, and it just so happens my buddy Greg will be there to do some of her training. Weird small world. So I'm going to meet her at the airport and help her get settled before she starts training and gets shipped out to Kyoto to do the same thing I do. She's covered in tattoos tho, so I wish her luck in the Kyoto summer heat covering them up for work.

It's starting to warm up here a little bit, thankfully, and the plum blossoms have come out, the signal that the cherry blossoms are only a few weeks away. Some people, myself included, find the plum blossoms almost more beautiful than the cherries, because they bloom earlier, and contrast the gloomy leafless plants around them very nicely. To me, the plum blossoms represent hope and promise, they're a long awaited herald of nicer weather and the rebirth of the countryside, whereas the cherry blossoms are that rebirth, and while that's beautiful in and of itself, I've always felt the hope, the anticipation, is a more enjoyable feeling than the end result. The cherry blossoms are hyped up, fragile and short lived, it's very anti climactic.

Come April, I've been informed I will officially be working in Matsudo schools, so I can say goodbye to the ridiculous commute every day and say hello to working locally, and seeing the same school or schools on a much more regular basis. This is both good and bad, as though waking up early and taking crowded trains isn't exactly my cup of tea, I do enjoy getting to see different places, and having days off throughout the week here and there. Once I'm at regular schools, I can most likely say goodbye to three day weeks. Hopefully the schools I'm at will have easier schedules, and I can maybe start late or finish early every day to get home quick and enjoy the evening. That would balance it out a bit, I figure. It would suck to go to the same school every day 8 to 5, I'm starting to think. We'll see how it works out, I guess.

Ok, that's my novel.