Ok so i last left you with my introduction to a Japanese girl on a camping trip..... after the camp, with the help of a book (that was ever so kindly given to me by a very good friend before i left), I was able to ask her out for a meal and thus I took her out for dinner, the story of this evening is where we shall begin this continuation of the chronicles of Kane.
To avoiding boring you with grandiose descriptions of how i felt before we went out i will just say that 15 mins before we were supposed to meet i had butterflies that were flying so high i felt like my stomach was in my neck. It wasn't the nerves of boy meets girl but the nerves of boy cant speak English with girl........... OH MY GOD WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?!? A friend from work has given me an electronic translation dictionary for the evening - in my hands i hold my life line to not dying an ever so slow and painful death........ i look up the word "nervous" as i sit and wait - Fuan desu.
She arrives and we go and eat - im not going to go into the events of the evening in depth but one moment that stands out for me was the inability to decipher the (what seemed like) completely irregular brush strokes on the menu - oh geez I cant order anything on here! Another critical factor i have failed to consider, I let her take the reigns with ordering and agree with everything she decides to get - berru - i know that one! HAI! The meal and conversation was not as tough as you may imagine it to be - we both struggled at times, but with a little persistence our point was made (or so we thought - for the record there is nothing tasty about eating a filter - let alone the one called a liver!). The evening went well and even though there was a combination of poor Japanese and equally poor English we came out the other end smiling happily - its funny how some people who speak perfect English can annoy you just being in their presence yet someone who barely speaks English can have you in fits of laughter and enjoying their company....... ohh to understand what is really happening in our heads when we meet someone new.
Now the other point i have to quickly make here is that Japanese girls do seem to be very subservient - she came over the other day and I took a shower...... thinking she would most likely entertain herself in my house full of excitement (it is admittedly an empty house), I came out to find all my washing had been ironed, my lounge had been tidied and my dishes were at that moment being washed............ it was just weird, but nice weird.
So last week I went to a pool party - there was a pool and a party and a couple of naked dudes - i dont want to talk about it ever again. The food was great - bbqs made from empty barrels cut in half and put on poles covered with chicken wire is an untapped market here........ or so i believe, and its what i think that makes the most sense (to me anyway).
I should also mention Japans mind boggling maze of canals... you wouldn't think it, but this place has so many you would be mistaken for living somewhere in Europe below sea level, if only the number of people with almond shaped eyes didnt give it away.... outside my house i was doing a sideways shimmy to the supermarket and noticed the level of water in the canal had dropped dramatically, I peered in and was surprised to see not one or two fish but tens of fish surrounding and undoubtedly annoying a much larger fish (it was at least the length of my fore arm)! I continued to stroll a little further, and thinking i had seen a one off, I was rather chuffed at myself for spotting this, however I looked in again to see another two massive fish......... so this is where all that bloody sushi is coming from i thought - to the supermarket to by a hook, line and sinker!
Oh yeah and also very quickly - They had a solar eclipse here the other day, staring at the sun without having the correct glasses doesn't make you tough, it makes you stupid with sore eyes.
I hope you're all smiling and listening to what your mother says! Till next time Ja-ne from this Zespri abroad.
