This post is for mon amant Bill. I have mastered the chopsticks. (Apparently I have not yet mastered the bus system...more on that later.) When I was in Tokyo, an American guy gave me some good advice. I was trying unsuccessfully to pick up shredded carrots--basically I was starving--when he said, "Don't squeeze them, just rely on surface tension." I'm not even sure if that statement is grammatically correct, but I understood what he meant and I loosened my grip. It worked wonders and now I can pick up pretty much anything.
After a week of using the bus with no problems, I thought I had it down. I have to be at school by 9am, and today I had an English Club meeting at 10am. I am the head of the English club so it was important to be ON TIME. The bus came on time at 8:38 and, recognizing the destination on the display, I got on. About 2 minutes into the route I realized that I didn't recognize the neighborhood...but I did know that I was WAY southeast of my school. In Japanese I asked the bus driver, "Does this bus stop at Fuji Higashi High School?" For some reason he could never respond with a simple "Yes" or "No." He rattled off Japanese and pointed in various directions, so I thought he was saying, "Yes this goes to Fuji Higashi but it takes a different route." Well half-way to Yoshiwara I cut my losses and admitted to myself this bus was NOT going where I needed to be. More importantly, I knew that I read the bus correctly, so why wasn't it going to my school like every other bus with the same final destination? By that time the whole bus (literally) was talking to me in Japanese, trying to help me figure it out but to no avail. I was so embarrassed that everyone on the bus was involved. Finally I just motioned something to communicate, "I'm getting off now and turning around," and the bus-load of nice Japanese people said, "Hai hai hai." Luckily I had a vague idea of the direction I needed to go, so I walked...and walked...and 40 minutes later made it to school dripping with sweat. My supervisor is great--she had been worried but wasn't upset at all, and I made it in time for the meeting. Turns out she was just as confused as I was about the bus route and told me she would have made the same mistake! Maybe language barriers aren't always, and simply, language barriers...
2 comments:
Hi Darling, Jess here. You are so cute -- remember when I said that you'd get really into Japan, like noticing napkin-folds. I was so right. Look at you, talking about puffy cheeked women, under-wear clad drummers and the taste of orangy-chocolates!
I do enjoy tremendously reading what you write, and I promise an email is on the way, girl! (PS: that email cracked me up!)
Lauren, Jess here again -- I miss you SOOOOO much. I don't know why I can't write you a dratted email. I think it's because if I do, I'm going to open a floodgate that I won't know how to close. I miss you.
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