2006
well i'm back to my 'usual' life. it was a relief on saturday to return to work and hear my students complain about me speaking too quickly and complicated. after just two weeks with amanda and marshall my speech started to regain some of its native characteristics. i was afraid i was going to need to take english classes myself after living here and teaching conversational english as a second language. i had almost stopped questioning the validity of words like 'sanitarized' and 'relaxfullness.'
the new year's holiday was lovely. we spent the 31st visiting and cooking and drinking coffee to counteract amanda and marshall's potential jetlag. fortunately they both adapted quickly to the time change without anything more than a bit of drowsiness. we played some euchre after dinner and left the house before midnight to watch hanabi (fireworks) at the harbor for the new year countdown. with a little champagne to help our decision, we headed downtown instead of to bed and ended up at a darts cafe.
although they sort of miss the idea of celebrating halloween here, they do bring out costumes for new year's eve, apparently. when we arrived at the darts bar their celebration was already in full swing. there was a cheerleader and an s&m wo/man and a whole lot we failed t
o identify. we played darts as they (the staff and other customers) proceeded with shots and sleeping at the bar. hah. after marshall kicked our butts at darts we moved on to karaoke. marshanda was indeed impressed with the karaoke booth and sang with abandon.
as expected, we slept late on new year's day and woke up slowly with lots of coffee and a big breakfast. we took turns in the japanese tradition of taking hot baths on new year's day and drinking spiced sake in the bath. the sake really wasn't that good so we all had an obligatory sip and saved the rest for the drain. by evening we were ready to leave the house so we strolled to kushida shrine to pray, another tradition.
the japanese pray for good luck and health in the new year at shinto shrines on the first day of the year. many people wear traditional kimonos and nearly everyone (christian, buddhist and shinto alike) journey to the shrines to pray. we waited for about 20minutes in line to pray ourselves. the prayer includes ringing a large bell above the shrine's altar, giving money to the prayer box and a mix of claps and bows.
before getting in line ourselves we observed the pilgims from the side of the shrine to try and memoize the bow-to-clap ratio. it seemed that everyone was doing their own routine so we gave up the idea of offending the gods and got in line. it went fine for all of us save john, who stepped on the door frame (a definite offense) while waiting in line. he observed, "uh-oh, the frame has been stepped on," while amanda observed that it had indeed been stepped on by john. well. we gave him some extra yen for his prayer to perhaps make amends. hopefully it worked and he'll have a fine year. . .
the new year's holiday was lovely. we spent the 31st visiting and cooking and drinking coffee to counteract amanda and marshall's potential jetlag. fortunately they both adapted quickly to the time change without anything more than a bit of drowsiness. we played some euchre after dinner and left the house before midnight to watch hanabi (fireworks) at the harbor for the new year countdown. with a little champagne to help our decision, we headed downtown instead of to bed and ended up at a darts cafe.
although they sort of miss the idea of celebrating halloween here, they do bring out costumes for new year's eve, apparently. when we arrived at the darts bar their celebration was already in full swing. there was a cheerleader and an s&m wo/man and a whole lot we failed t
o identify. we played darts as they (the staff and other customers) proceeded with shots and sleeping at the bar. hah. after marshall kicked our butts at darts we moved on to karaoke. marshanda was indeed impressed with the karaoke booth and sang with abandon.as expected, we slept late on new year's day and woke up slowly with lots of coffee and a big breakfast. we took turns in the japanese tradition of taking hot baths on new year's day and drinking spiced sake in the bath. the sake really wasn't that good so we all had an obligatory sip and saved the rest for the drain. by evening we were ready to leave the house so we strolled to kushida shrine to pray, another tradition.
the japanese pray for good luck and health in the new year at shinto shrines on the first day of the year. many people wear traditional kimonos and nearly everyone (christian, buddhist and shinto alike) journey to the shrines to pray. we waited for about 20minutes in line to pray ourselves. the prayer includes ringing a large bell above the shrine's altar, giving money to the prayer box and a mix of claps and bows.
before getting in line ourselves we observed the pilgims from the side of the shrine to try and memoize the bow-to-clap ratio. it seemed that everyone was doing their own routine so we gave up the idea of offending the gods and got in line. it went fine for all of us save john, who stepped on the door frame (a definite offense) while waiting in line. he observed, "uh-oh, the frame has been stepped on," while amanda observed that it had indeed been stepped on by john. well. we gave him some extra yen for his prayer to perhaps make amends. hopefully it worked and he'll have a fine year. . .
posted by nel at 9:37 AM
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