Another Weekend

I start teaching tomorrow and the printer here, which just today decided to let me print, only prints in black and white, which is kind of crappy because little kids like color pictures and I don't have any big enough for decent introductions. I'll try to get a flash drive from JUNTENDO, the only store here that isn't for selling food or agricultural products only, and save pictures onto that. Hopefully, at least one of the schools will have a color printer. According to orientations, they generally all do, but I've learned that what people tell you is often not nearly as absolute as they'd like to believe, or simply a lie.

Anyway, I had a good weekend. On Saturday night, I went to Nichinan in Tottori prefecture for a sort of barbecue party. Sally, who was hosting the party, sang some opera while a coworker of hers played the piano for everyone's enjoyment. I got to play on the piano later, which was nice, as I haven't gotten to since leaving the States. Also, I got a bunch of eggplant and green peppers that were left over, so I will be making some mapponazu, Chinese style Eggplant stuff, for dinner.

On Sunday, I drove with Karen up to Matsue and went to her tiny Japanese church, where these two Irish ladies whom we'd met at Sally's were. There were four Japanese people in the congregation, and I had to stand up and introduce myself after the service, which mostly I didn't understand but wasn't concerned with. One Japanese lady was translating for the foreigners, but I wasn't paying attention.

After that, Karen and I went to an Okonomiyaki place for lunch. Okonomiyaki is usually translated as Japanese-style pancakes, but that is fairly misleading. They are made with cabbage as the base, with other vegetables and meat and whatever else mixed in. They're very good, and they make them in front of you at a big flat-top grill.

After that, we drove (I drove) to Hirata, a city on the west/south end of lake Shinji, the opposite side of the lake from Matsue, basically. Shinji is pretty large, and not so clean, from what I hear, but famous for some kind of clam (?) that people eat in miso soup. In Hirata, there was a festival, which was very small and held in a parking lot. One of the JETs there, Ivy (?) is in a taiko, Japanese drum, group, that performed. There was also some kind of performance, which I think was telling the story of why they had this particular festival, but I didn't really catch what was going on other than "three months" and "summer." Also, it rained through most of that and the mics were messing up. After the performance but before the drumming, a girl from the local tv station (I think) was walking around with a cameraman. They came to the other side of the table where we were sitting and interviewed a little girl. I think this was pretense to then interview one of us. The other JETS (two others had joined us) I think also figured that out and made a point of watching the stage intently. So, I got to be the subject.

Here's pretty much a transcript of the interview, translated by me:

Her: Is Japanese ok?
Me: Slow is ok.
Her: Where are you from.
Me: I'm from America.
Her: Why are you in Hirata?
Me: I will watch the festival.
Her: What do you think about the (I have idea)?
Me: It was enjoyable.
Her: What do you think about women playing taiko (maybe)?
Me: I don't know (also I didn't understand, really).
Her: Have you ever (something something about taiko)?
Me: No, I haven't.
Her: Ah, thank you! Please have fun (or something)!

They also interviewed Ivy after the drumming, and she did pretty well, for knowing even less Japanese than I do. So, anyway, I'm going to be on TV again, I think. Last time it was just me eating cake, I guess, but I never saw it.

Alright, well, that's it.