Nihongo-a-Go-Go :: Aimee's Journal

Headin' home...

Okay, I'm packing up my laptop now, so I'll be completely out of contact until I get home. (Afternoonish on Thursday.)

Have a great couple of days, everyone!

Wow.

Well, this morning the sun is shining and it's a beautiful day. I'm elated because the sky is a pleasant blue with white cotton clouds... and I'm completely finished with working for NOVA.

YAY!

There are a lot of people I will miss from NOVA, but by and large I am relieved to be finished. NOVA was just a terrible company to work for, and I've never experienced such mental fatigue before in my life. Really, the workplace was devoid of intellectual stimulation... and the company really loved to jerk us around (either our schedules or training or whatever) and make us feel paranoid. The funny thing was, they were so critical and nasty until they found out that we were leaving. And then it was "Do you want to be an AT [supervisor]? What can we do to make you stay? Is there anything we can offer you to make you stay?" But the truth is, if they'd been nicer all along, they might have been able to seduce us into another contact. When I came originally, I had thought that I would stay 1-2 years. After the first 3 months, it became very very apparent that it would be hard for me to stick with NOVA for a whole year, much less more than one. I don't understand the people who continue to stick it out - I can't handle so much contact time.

But anyway, yesterday was pretty nice. :) I got to see several of my favorite students, and it was really nice. I'm really going to miss some of my students. They're so sweet and really interesting. I've exchanged some contact information with various students, and I have pictures... but it doesn't change how much I'll miss them. It's strange to think about the way things work, you know? Like on Monday, I was at my language exchange and I was thinking about going home. Papa's coffeeshop is a part of my life; I go there every Monday with Naoki, and we study together. Every week, the waitress brings us our little hand towels before we order, and every week I dread when Naoki will start lighting up his cigarettes. The hardwood tables and the semi-soft leather benches, as well as the pseudo-American decor are part of my Monday mornings... and it's strange to think that it won't be a part of my life anymore. There are so many things like that: seeing all of the signs in Japanese and trying to pick out the kanji/kana that I know to scrabble together some kind of meaning, grabbing my cold bottle of Kodakaden Royal Milk Tea every morning...

Anyway! I'm digressing a little toward the depressing. I'm done with work! YAY! Mandy and I went out to dinner with two fo my favorite students last night. Nami organized it, and Miwa surprised me by showing up! Miwa was a student at my school about six months ago, but her husband got transferred to Kagoshima (which is really far away, about 8 hours by train I think?) so she had to move. She's been staying in Osaka recently, which is about an hour away by train... it's so sweet that she came! It was a really awesome restaurant! One that Mandy and I, unfortunately, wouldn't be able to go to on our own because they don't have a picture menu. Well, they sort of do, but it's really limited. Everything was really beautifully presented and very tasty. Pictures and descriptions are in the extended entry. The conversationw as fun, too. It was mostly english, with them wanting me to speak some Japanese... which I did. They also liked correcting my little Japanese study notebook. :) At one point we were talking about Miwa's trip to Niagara Falls, and she was showing pictures from Turtle Point. And Mandy was explaining about it, and Hiroko didn't get what the name was. I was like "Turtle... kame." And then I was like "Turtle Point, Kame no Pointo. Turtle no Pointo." And Nami was just in hysterics over this. I say dorky sort of half-assed Japanese/English stuff all the time, but I don't say it in front of Japanese people usually. I guess mixing languages is as funny to them as it is to me... I love saying things with my bad accent. :D

My students also gave me a few gifts, like letters or postcards... and Nami gave me a pack of doll shoes! :D It's really sweet, because I know that my students really listened to me, and cared about my interests. Miwa got me a little mermaid pendant... since I love mermaids. It was so sweet of them, I found myself getting a little teary-eyed. I'll really miss them. Well, some of them. Some students I won't miss at all, but others I'll really miss terribly!

We were there till about 10 till midnight... and then we realized we had to RUN to make the last train home! EEEK! We just barely made it! It was crazy because we did literally have the very LAST train. The other side of the subway had already finished for the night, so the lights were out! Kowaii ja nai ka! (Scary, huh?!)

Oh. And it's payday! *dances*

Everyone graciously let me take pictures of everything before we ate it. Though I did miss one dish... I don't remember what now though. Oh, yes. I remember. Lightly battered, fried corn. It was REALLY good. I was a little surprised.

This was the veggie plate to begin the whole affair. On the left, there's some kind of veggie shredding in mayo and dressing (sort of tasted like potatoe salad, but it wasn't potato), in the middle was a roe and veggie concoction, and on the right were these seasoned little beans. They were very good! But I made my one faux-pas of the evening by thinking they were like the kind of beans we have at home where we eat the casing as well. So I'm biting into it and Nami is going, "No no no! Inside only!"

This was an assortment of Hokkaido cheeses. They were soooooooooooo good.

This was the absolutely beautiful salad. It was garnished with all manner of raw seafood - raw shrimp with their little heads and tail-tips still on, raw scallops, raw salmon... it was SO pretty. I ate some of the raw scallop and I actually tried the raw shrimp. This is only exciting because I don't like shrimp... but it was actually really good. I think I like raw shrimp more than cooked shrimp.

These were chips in an edible bowl. It occurs to me now that I never actually tried these.

This looks yucky in pictures, but it was really good. It was fried rice wrapped in egg, topped with very finely shredded crab meat.

Sashimi. :) Raw fish. The dark red is tuna [maguro], the light pink is salmon [salmon], and the white meat... we don't know the name of in english. In Japanese, it's hamachi (or some similar spelling). Hamachi is also Miwa's last name, so Miwa collects fish goods. :) The sashimi was goooood.

This was a crocquette. It was full of potato and finely shredded meat.

This was expensive sushi. Miwa said that since it was expensive sushi you eat it with your fingers, in one bite. It was really good. Mandy actually sampled it too, even though she doesn't do the raw fish groove.

This was a sort of tempura scallops and salmon. Mandy had some and she said the salmon and scallops were raw before they'd been tempured, so they were only very slightly cooked. I also somehow missed on trying this one... I don't remember how.

It's very strange... Mandy and I both had two drinks. The first was an alcoholic drink, but I didn't feel the alcohol at all. The second... I didn't taste the alcohol at all. It was a Ringo Sour [Apple Sour] and it tasted like club soda and slightly bitter apple flavoring. I have NO idea what the alcohol was, but I felt SO drunk SO quickly! I've never been drunk like that before! Not even on my 21st birthday have I felt that way! It was crazy... just one cocktail-type drink! It was a little scary, too. I felt very dizzy and off-balanced. I actually sort of wonder if maybe I'm slightly allergic to that alcohol, because this morning I still feel a little dizzy. Strange. Mandy had the same reaction.

This was dessert. It was gorgeous... I actually almost didn't want to eat it. I haven't been in Japan so long yet that I'm not still moved by the beautiful presentation of food. I can't just bolt it down, I have to look at it and notice how pretty it is. Anyway, this was vanilla ice cream and a little chocolate cake with melted semi-sweet chocolate inside. It was soooo good. Mandy got one too.

And this was the dessert that the other girls got. It's sweet red beans and vanilla ice cream. :)

It was a LOT of food!

Picture update!

I updated my picture galleries, finally!

Meiji Mura
Nagoya Port Aquarium
Our usual izakaya dinner...