Saturday, April 19, 2003



So I am sitting here eating and waiting for Janet to recover from her hangover. Sometimes no longer being able to drink is actually a blessing. I do suffer hangover type feelings with two drinks I do admit but not too bad.
I am eating these truly wonderful Japanese-idea onion ring look-alikes. They are actually octopus rings, or maybe squid I am not sure. Either way I love them. I buy them already made at the supermarket and then I nuke them in my toaster oven. Haven’t bought a microwave yet.
I phoned Grandmas this morning to talk to everyone there for the Anniversary party. That was nice. I got a little emotional when I hung up though. Had a bit of an Alisha moment. I had a shower, went shopping, spent some money and I am all-fine now. I accidentally dialed the wrong number when I called Grandma. This older woman picked up the phone and I thought it was one of Grandmas friends who answered, sure sounded European, and I had no idea who was all going to be at the party. I said HEY how are you. She goes hello. I said who is this, she goes who is this? I went it is Andrea. She goes your voice sounds strange. That tipped me off that this really was a stranger. Well after a few minutes of laughing we figured out that I had mixed up the 4-7 and for some stupid reason had dialed 9-7. Not sure where my brain was. I had her really confused because her granddaughters name is Andrea, same pronunciation, but she lives in Louisiana. No wonder she said I sounded funny. No twang.
I got my nails done yesterday. They are a sort of wine brown colour with flowers painted on the thumbnails. This is my favourite colour so far. hmmm… Anyway I have a funny little story to tell you.
OK. When I arrived at Shizuoka station I got off the train, went down the first flight of stairs and then turned the corner to walk down the second flight to the out gates. Well I noticed a group of young boys, about 10 or 11 years old, standing around the bottom of the down escalator. They were hovered around the moving arm part. I am walking down a little confused as they were not acting like normal Japanese school boys, tired and on their way to another study class, they were all giggly and one boy seemed really embarrassed. I also noticed that no one else seemed to notice them. As I got closer I realized that these little resourceful boys had figured out that when they press their little chingchings against the moving arm things the feeling is really quite pleasant. They kept pushing their shy friend toward it to try. He was so embarrassed. It was so funny and gave me the giggles all the way to the nail salon. I told Chie, my nail girl, and she quite enjoyed that. Smart boys she said. heheh. Kids are so cute.
I am listening to a new CD I also bought yesterday. It is called Asian Drums. There is no singing, only really nice music. The drums are mixed with other instruments. Very pleasant.
I also went to Jumbo Encho the other day. This is a Japanese version of Home Depot. You can have a lot of fun there. Li and I had bought a hose for the porch the other day. This saves me from having to throw buckets of water around. We also had to buy a splitter thing because there is only one tap and the washing machine is hooked up to it. No problem. Li put it all together on Friday but we were one clamp thingy short. Now this is proof as to why I still can not speak Japanese. I had no idea where to find this little piece that I needed and I had no idea where to look. I walked around lost for a while looking in all the spots that I thought it would be. Nope. AUGH! SO I had ask for help. I actually rehearsed the speech I am about to write for you. The speech included hand gesturing as well.
Excuse me (in Japanese)
The name I do not know. (in Japanese)
The guy nodes in understanding.
(Now gesturing starts)
Hose. Tap. Connect. (All in English) Clamp (in English) I don’t know (in Japanese).
The man took off like a bullet and I started racing after him. He was walking so fast that I looked like a bloody speed walker. I looked so funny trying to keep up with the man with out running that I made a little old guy laugh. Any way, the guy led me straight to the clamps found me the perfect size and all with very little Japanese. I am truly pathetic and I like. hehhe. I still don’t know what this clamp is called. Does anyone know?

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