Farewell Steven!

Last weekend Steven, the GEOS English teacher from Sabae (a town about an hour's train ride north of Tsuruga) who comes to Tsuruga on Fridays to help alleviate the class load that day, held a going away party. He has finished his time in Japan (well, more specifically, at Geos) and his students had a party for him which he invited both myself and Kaori too. Unfortunately, Kaori was spending the weekend in Tokyo (so lucky) so I was the only representative from Tsuruga to make it up there.

Here is what stood out for me that night in no particular order:

--I love Sabae. It is such a pretty town. And it is smaller that Tsuruga, but has most of the same things as Tsuruga, so it is generally easier to walk around to more places. Regrettably for me and my palate most of the non-Izakya restaurants in Tsuruga are on the other side of town, at the very least a half hour walk each way for me. The few times I have been to Sabae I have been able to walk all over the town in about the same time, and there seems to be more places closer to the Geos apartment.

--Party started at 6. Last train for Tsuruga left at 11:35. That means, five solid hours of drinking. And boy did we EVER! I think I spent $70 that night, only $20 of it on food.

--Train ride up, I was sitting across from a very pretty girl wearing a very short skirt. I love Japan.

--Speaking of pretty Japanese women, the manager and Japanese teacher at Sabae are both very pretty. Geos hires very good looking women. I wonder if it is a marketing strategy or just a hiring staff with impeccable taste.

--The place we ate had the hottest hot sauce I have had in Japan. It was incredibly hot, too hot for me to eat much of it. Steven said he would give me 100 yen if I poured the hot sauce into my beer and drank it. Are you kidding me, 100 yen! Of course I would do that. Turns out, easier to drink hot sauce than it is to eat it. Bypass the lips and front of the tongue. Super easy to drink. ....30 seconds later when my entire chest started to feel the heat of the spice, well, that was just unusual.

--They had a kimchee spiced chicken intestine appetizer which was fantastic. Yeah, never thought I would be describing as spicy chicken intestine as delicious, but it was. I can't wait for Mom to get here and eat some weird shit. My advice, don't ask what it is until after you have eaten it. More difficult with food that has eyes.

--There were about 20 people total at the party. We had two long tables. Actually, a very cool thing about this place was the tables could be moved around to accommodate different sized parties.
Not a picture of the actual restaurant, but similar style. Tatami floor that you sit on, the table was over an open pit, on sliding rails, so you didn't have to sit crossed legged (thank god, five hours that way would have killed me), you could drop your feet down, so it was basically like sitting on a chair. Well, this place had sections of the floor that could be taken up and moved around so that tables could be moved around. We had two long tables, the party across the room from us had one VERY long table for their giant party. And the kids in the other party realized they could lift up tiles from the floor and crawl around under the floor and kept popping up throughout the room. It was amusing and very strange. Like a bunch of Japanese gophers.

--At some point in the evening it was decided we should start throwing paper airplanes at the other table to see if they would react. They did and we had a paper airplane war for a few minutes until better sense took hold.

--My former student and her husband (the people whose wedding party I attended a few months ago) were there. Such nice people. And so in love that it is almost sickening. Almost. Instead it is just sweet. They are still definitely in the "honeymoon" phase of their marriage and it makes me hopeful that one day I will end up with someone that makes me that happy.

--I was taught how to compliment a woman and ask for her phone number in Japanese. I tried it out on the waitress. The reaction I got was nothing less than horrified. I loved it, but it made it awkward for the rest of the evening. At least I didn't have to tip her after that.

--Speaking of which, one of Steven's students said I looked like a movie star and if they weren't married they would want to go out with me. Too bad it was a guy.

--All in all, a very fun night. I always enjoy talking to different people here. Especially ones that aren't my students. I love my students, they are some of my favorite people not just in Japan but anywhere, but, they are still my students. I always have to remain at least a little "professional" and keep myself guarded. Never able to really be the real me. Maybe that isn't such a bad thing now that I think of it. How many Japanese people want to hear sexual innuendo jokes and terrible puns?


This week has been fantastic weather-wise. Spring is just around the corner. Bright sunny days, warm weather, but not too warm. Didn't have to wear my winter coat. Just a hoodie. Friday was a holiday (Spring Equinox) and I wanted to go outside and do something, ANYTHING. Woke up at about 10:30 to a gray drizzly day, about 10 degrees colder than any day from the rest of the week. Boo and hiss!

Hopefully Sunday and or Monday will be nice out. I really want to go outside and do something. I wonder if they have gokarts near here?