Anyhow. Just some fragments that don't necessarily fit into a larger narrative.
While the Japanese accept odd-colored hair and facial piercings without blinking, tattoos attract a lot of attention here. Apparently the only people who have tattoos are Yakuza, and many onsen (public bathhouses) have rules that forbid people with tattoos from using the facilities. I think I've answered more questions about my ink in the past few weeks here than in the past few years back home.
The old man who lives across from me is rumored to be Yakuza. He has tattoos, and no teeth. One of my fellow students attempted to strike up a friendly conversation with him, but with no success. The old woman he lives with (presumably his wife) is the one who walks her cat, on a leash, every day. I've exchanged a few friendly words with her now and then (on the order of "Your cat is so cute! I have a tabby cat too!"). She is also missing most of her teeth.
The Japanese stereotype of really healthy, energetic old people is definitely true. It's pretty common to see tiny, wrinkled grandparent-types riding bikes up steep hills. Or, you know, climbing Mt. Fuji.
The police cars, fire trucks and ambulances have loudspeakers as well as sirens. They proceed down the street with someone making an unending string of announcements over the siren. I haven't been able to make sense of it yet, but I can only imagine it's something along the lines of "Thank you very much for your kind attention! We apologize profusely for the inconvenience! Please do us the favor of driving safely!"
At the mall, the cops directing traffic in and out of the parking lot shout "irasshaimase" ("welcome to our store!") and "arigatougozaimasu!" to every single car. They must get tired of doing that all day.
Did I tell you that Momo-chan and I went to the Cold Stone in Aeon mall, and tipped them, and they sang a song like Cold Stone does, but it was crazy adorable because it was Japanese? I can't remember what I blogged already anymore. :/
Oh, we did karaoke last week with a really good group of people (a good chunk of whom, unfortunately, were on their last night at Yamasa). Lyrics to the English songs were in English with katakana above, so sometimes we amused ourselves by singing the katakana version. Chance-san put in "Dragostei din tei" and I ended up trying to sing it with him, which was super fun. Also did some Bowie, some TMBG, some ridiculous 80s music, Hey Ya!, you know, my usual karaoke fare. And there was definitely some drunken "Baby Got Back". Think we're planning to go again this week as a goodbye party for myself and Momo-chan.
One of the girls who came out with us was this German girl, who, despite what you might conclude from the following story, is actually completely awesome. We were talking about Bart Simpson for some reason at dinner and she busted out with "Oh, he's really funny! What was his thing? Eat my pants?"
She also told me my accent (in English) was hard to understand (as compared to Lee-kun's), because I talk very quickly. It's happened before, but it always brings me up short when someone accuses me of having an accent. Somehow I still feel like I'm the one without the accent, of course.
OMG I have so much to do this week. I bought gifts for the last few people on my list today, and a cheap duffel bag to haul stuff home in. Still have to figure out how I'm getting to Tokyo on Thursday. And I have to decide what I'm going to say for my goodbye speech. Eek.
This was my almond packaging today. I actually LOLed when I pulled it out of the cover.
The other side was cute too.
Also, I bought this at the thrift store today. It's maybe not the most disturbing thing I've ever seen, but it's up there, my friends. And it was in the bin with, you know, the rest of the kid's toys, like cute little Pokemon figures and cell phone charms of bunnies with oversized ears. I don't even know, man. Read on at your own risk.
