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Yesterday was a really great day. It started off with me participating in
an English language experiment conducted by one of the Kumamoto
researchers, for which I earned 1000 yen (£5.00!) However, I spent most of
it at the convenience store stocking up on bread, milk, sweets and the
ever-important Smirnoff Ice.
The evening was great fun; there was a Bounenkai (end-of-year-party) at
the International Centre in town, and it rocked! The organisation that
went into it really was incredible. The night kicked off with a
performance of Djembe (African drumming), including fantastically
acrobatic (and not to mention well fit) dancers, which was really good to
watch.
My mate Tom decides to join in with djembe!
Then, we played a load of silly ice-breaker party games, followed
by a Japanese Beatles tribute band, who ruled! Their cover of Day Tripper
especially was great, really rocky!
Of course, there was plenty of food
(both Western and Japanese) and wine to go around, so I ate and drank
plenty.
I also got to meet lots of new Japanese people. The Japanese are generally
very curious about foreigners, and will want to know where you come from,
why you’ve come to Japan, how you find Japan, and what your hobbies are.
And if you speak only ONE word of Japanese, you can expect them to shower
you with praises of “nihongo ga jouzu ne!” (Your Japanese is very good!).
They’ll probably also want to get a photo of themselves standing next to
you like some sort of theme park attraction, but you get used to it –
after all, gaijin are still a little unusual in Kumamoto (although
becoming increasingly common).
I also discovered that certain things I’d heard about Japanese people
aren’t necessarily true. In most books, you’ll read that the Japanese
aren’t very physical and dislike touching people or being touched – hence,
they prefer bowing to hand shaking. However, this wasn’t the case with a
lot of the Japanese I met last night. I kept being surrounded by girls I’d
only just met who wanted to grab me to take a photo, pat me on the
shoulder when I said something “cute,” and even tap my shoulder to get my
attention so they could introduce themselves (I don’t think you’d ever do
that to a complete stranger in England). To my English sensibilities, this
was all a little strange, and a little intimidating, although I know it
was meant to be friendly.
At the end of the party, there was a lottery held by the many sponsors of
the event, in which I won a bottle of akazake (traditional Kumamoto red
sake, Japanese rice wine)!
After the party, we went to Sligo Inn (the Irish pub) with some of the
Japanese people we’d met, which was as fun as always (but pricy!).
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