A Weekend in the Japanese Countryside

Friday

I left work at about 6 p.m. and made the long trek across the street to my apartment. Immediately, I changed clothes, turned on the kotatsu and sat down to work on my Japanese homework.

A kotatsu, by the way, is basically a coffee table with an electric heater under it. There is a soft, comforter-like carpet that goes on the floor under it, as well as a comforter-like table cloth that goes over it. In winter, once you sit under a kotatsu, you don’t ever want to leave it. It is so nice! Of course, if Japanese homes were properly insulated and heated, there wouldn’t be a need for these kotatsu!

At about 7:30 p.m., I decided my cold was too bad and I called a teammate to say I couldn’t make it to volleyball practice that night.

For dinner, I had some kind of foul-tasting energy/nutrition drink. Normally I don’t touch those things, but I was given a couple of them by a colleague. Earlier in the day I had refused a piece of cake he offered me, saying I didn’t feel like eating anything since my throat hurt so much. So, he fished around in the supply room and brought out two bottles of the magic nutrition drink and said I should have one for dinner. So I did. Ick.

At 9:00 p.m., I turned on the television to see what the weekly Friday night movie would be. It was The Fifth Element. I’d seen that movie before, but all I could remember is that the fifth element is love. This time, I learned that Bruce Willis has a big ol’ scar running from his right armpit up to his shoulder. I also learned that the character Lilu speaks a language that sounds just like the Sims2 language.

Let me change the subject a bit – just for a moment. Did you know that my mom once had a thing for Bruce Willis during his Moonlighting years? It was so bad that I actually got angry with her. I was afraid she’d leave my dad for Bruce! Now, of course, I understand completely, as I also have a thing for cocky, arrogant, witty men who have grins so adorable that you don’t know whether to slap them or kiss them!

I made myself some yuzu (a delicious lemony fruit) tea and popped a couple of Tylenol PM and at 10:00 p.m., I abandoned the movie in favor of the nightly news. I watch it not so much for the news value, or for the English translations, but rather for the sheer hilarity of content. I wish you could see it.

Sometime between the sports and the weather, I konked out.

Saturday

About 10 a.m., a good 11 hours after going to bed, I woke up. Wow! I love that Tylenol PM! I changed into some sweats and biked over to the Farmer’s Festival, held by the Farmer’s Bank. Everybody was there, perusing the plants and produce and tractors for sale. I picked up some spinach, a huge bag of tangerines and a container of home-made daikon kimchee. One of the school clerks was there and she gave me a couple of sweet-bean-filled pastries, called taiyaki.

Back at home, I did laundry, studied Japanese, killed some weird bugs that I found crawling out from under the baseboards and had instant tofu udon for lunch.

I napped for an hour (why?!) and then went to the Eda family’s shop to buy cough drops. I also went to the community center to use the internet for an hour and then I went home.

I cleared off my table and made several new games and flashcards for my classes. I played my 2,303rd game of Free Cell and then I read my Turkey guidebook and tried to create an itinerary for my winter holiday.

My mom called a little after 10:00 p.m. and we chatted just 20 minutes, as she was busy and it hurts for me to speak for long periods of time.

I don’t know what I did for the next few hours, but suddenly I looked at the clock and saw it was 4:13 a.m. I was waiting up for a documentary I wanted to see, scheduled to begin at 4:10 a.m. on Channel BS1. When I couldn’t find the program, I realized that I don’t get that channel. What a way to end a Saturday night!

Sunday

Well, I couldn’t sleep at all. I woke up with an awful itch in my throat and I ended up coughing and hacking and throwing up my dinner. I finally found a comfortable position to sleep in and I slept til 2:00 p.m. When I woke up, I had an awful headache and runny nose – looks like my cold is getting worse.

I cleaned my kitchen and prepared my lessons for Monday and then went to the community center to use the internet again. When I walked into the little library/computer room, the place was crawling with students – even the preschool ones – playing computer games.

One little preschool boy cried, “Amy-sensei!” and strutted right up to me, right arm extended, and shook my hand for a good 30 seconds. What a doll! Four years old and he knows that we Americans don’t bow – we shake hands!

I sat down to chat with some of the kids and another little girl came up to me with her younger brother in tow. “His nose is bleeding!” she cried. Uh-oh. The mother in me zoomed into action, leading the boy straight to the ladies’ room, where I had him hold up his head and pinch his nose while I scrubbed the blood off his nose, mouth, chin, hands, arms and T-shirt. What a mess! His sister insisted that we shove a wad of toilet paper up the bleeding nostril and, as disgusting as it looks, I conceded. I know the Japanese are not ashamed to wear masks over their mouths, slurp their noodles, poke people in the bum-hole for laughs, or shove wads of toilet paper up their nostrils. It’s just the way it is!

We called his mom to come rescue him and then I went back to the computers to check the news and my e-mail.

At 7:00 p.m., I returned home and watched my favorite Sunday-night program. I don’t know the name, but every week it shows the adventures of Japanese abroad. The producers send some Japanese star (I think they’re stars, anyway) to a foreign country to live with a family and learn some new skill.

For example, one Japanese man went to Turkey and lived with a lovely but very dysfunctional family and learned to catch some kind of elusive, but apparently very tasty, fish. Another time, a Japanese woman went to France and worked at a bed and breakfast run by a widowed woman and her children. There, she learned to make fragrant, homemade lotions.

This week, a Japanese man went to Italy and worked at the Salvatore Ferragamo shoe factory. He designed and made his own very beautiful leather shoes. It is quite fascinating to watch this program and I always cry at the end, when the Japanese are leaving their host families. It really is sweet.

Well, that was my weekend! I hope you enjoyed reading these exciting adventures.

Love,
Me