Good Morning Maikeru, You're in a Play.

As far as things on the Japanese Front go, I’ve been busy for the last week, so things haven’t seemed so dire. This past Saturday morning, I attended culture day at one of my Elementary schools. The children performed plays about cultural awareness, rice (par for the course), Mother Teresa, sea turtles, and a host of other topics. It was really fun and they are all so darned cute!

The event was held in the gymnasium of the school, which, as expected, is not temperature controlled. Recognizing the fact that it was about 38 degrees outside, it was considerably chilly inside. They had about 6 kerosene heaters set up on the gym floor, but you had to be less than 18 inches from them if you wanted to keep warm. The best cure was not to sit, but to stand and hop around like a lunatic. Strangely, though, nearly everyone was sitting seiza-style (Japanese style on the knees). I have no idea how they were able to walk after nearly 2.5 hours like that!

The funniest part of the day came when one of the teachers approached me and said “Hey Mike, you’re in a play. Come here!” Although I'm not shy and typically like to ham-it-up, I wasn't prepared to be in a play. Also, the level of English among the teachers at this school is low, so I was worried about getting instructions for what to do. The reply I got was "We do. You do same." OK. Me do same. They pointed to a costume on the floor. When I opened it up, it was a home-made Frog Suit! No problem. I can be a frog. But now I'm really getting nervous. What do I do in a frog suit? That also became rapidly apparent as the curtain was raised and we were revealed to the audience. I had to do summersaults and jump around making croaking noises. Oh, and if you were wondering, frogs don't go 'ribbit, ribbit' here. They do more of a 'gro---k, gro---k' kind of noise. Trust me, they sound the same, but the onomatopoeia is different. Luckily, I’m not an inhibited sort of fellow, so I just jumped around the stage like an idiot. The kids were laughing hysterically. All in all, it was fun.

After the culture fest, I went to a Japanese friend’s house (yes, I’ve made one) and cooked chili. It turned out great and was a big hit with the family.

Sunday, I played in a volleyball tournament for my town. I had the winning point on the first game, but after that they realized that my true talents lie outside of volleyball, so they pulled me from the game!!! I was relegated to water boy. But, that’s fine by me because we were getting our arses handed to us and it absolved me of responsibility for future losses.

Finally, Sunday night, I went up to a nearby city and participated in “Interculturalization” with a bunch of Afghan Civil Servants here on an exploratory mission. We had a big banquet and I actually got something other than Japanese food for a little while. Plus, I met a couple of attractive Japanese girls and took them out for coffee afterwards. Of course, we couldn’t find a coffee shop, so we went to Mister Donut. Hey, I’ll take what I can get!

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone, and I'll talk to you all soon. This weekend I'm heading up to my cousin Shina's house for dinner. I have to take a car, two buses, two trains, and an airplane just to get there. The ride back is worse! Gambarimasu!!!

Sayonara,
Maikeru
^_^