For the love of tacos

More fun times in Japan! I'm going to make tacos for everybody tomorrow and headed home around 8pm to pick up my Maebashi map in hopes of finding the foreign store that sells taco sauce. On the way out I stopped by my American neighbor's house to get some guidance on using Japanese taco seasoning. His wife was home, thank goodness, and she read a very long story on the back of the package (including warnings not to let your meat get soggy or burn yourself with the hot grease) that amounted to "120cc of water + 500 grams of beef + 1 package of seasoning." Then it started raining pretty hard and she gave me one of their extra umbrellas that was a little funky but useful as I forgot my umbrella in the lab. So! Onward to the store I went on my little orange bike, stopping at Saty (the main food store in my neighborhood) first in hopes that there would be taco sauce there and I wouldn't have to wander around downtown in the rain trying to find a store Atsuko took me to once but I didn't really know where it was. Lo and behold, Saty was closed (WHY?), lightning began to flash, and as there was nobody around I launched into a minor vocal fit about being in Japan in a lightning storm at night looking for taco sauce and the store being closed and my unbrella being bent and my pants soaked. When I finished yelling at the door I turned and saw an old guy staring at me from the corner and I smiled nicely. So much for that sterling representation of America. The only nice thing about being in a small town where most people do not know English is that thay never assume I am from America. I could be French or German and yelling at the door. But anyway, I hopped back on my bike and raced for the foreign store as that was probably as close as my house at that point, but then a giant thunder crack scared the tar out of me and I zipped under the closest awning and separated myself as far as possible from my umbrella. I'd rather not attract the lighting if possible. The lighting hit ground about 1 street away and I jumped inside the partially open door of an empty bar. I stood there for a good 15 minutes and nobody noticed me, but I figured somebody would eventually and when I didn't see any more lightning I went back outside the door to sit under the awning and wait for the rain to quit. I was sure the lightning was still out there somewhere waiting for me to emerge with my funky umbrella.

Time passed, and I was lost in thought watching the Japanese rain hit the Japanese pavement when the bar door suddenly opened up and whacked me. A little Japanese woman peeked around the door and went "Daijoboo! Daijoboo!" (Okay!? Okay!?) and I said yes, yes, but dangerous lighting scared me. She invited me in, but I said I would just wait outside. About 10 minutes later an older guy went into the bar for a drink and after they had a talk session the lady came back out and asked me to please come in and have a coffee. Well what the heck, it was going to rain forever (rainy season over my foot!). I went in and had a coffee, and spent the next hour having a fun time trying to communicate with two people who spoke no English, without the aid of my dictionary. Topics were limited. They figured out that I was studying here this summer, that I live close by, and that I would be leaving in a couple of weeks. Yes, I saw the Maebashi fireworks, I think I managed to tell them that fireworks are bigger and longer here than in the U.S. (primative sign language to the rescue) and I also told them that I tried the tako-yaki and it was good. The Japanese are always happy to hear that foreigners like their tako-yaki! The guy works at the forestry office and has been to Hokkaido but not Okinawa. Either that or he was from Hokkaido. They wanted to know what I was studying, so I tried to call up pieces of my Japanese introduction, but thought it out after they looked confused... what did I say? Ooooh. I had tried to tell them that I studied the brains of fruit flies, but instead I told them that I received the brain of a fruit fly. I had a really good laugh then and told them I was sorry, not received! But they just continued to look confused so I'm not sure I ever made any sense to them. Really, I shouldn't have tried.

I pulled out my Maebashi map when I was trying to figure out which government office he said he worked for, but after I figured it out the lady took the map and looked over every inch of it with a magnifying glass, exclaiming many things to the guy but I do not know what all that was about. I was ready to go, but the lady then brought out some watermelon and insisted that I eat it, so I did, but at last told them I had to go. The taco sauce place was only open until midnight! Hooray the rain stopped and it was a lovely full moon, which the lady told me was "suki" in Japanese. A different accent then the "suki" that means "favorite," which she explained by saying "suki" and hugging my arm (demonstrating suki-favorite) and then pointing at the moon and saying the other suki pronounciation. With a teacher like that I'd have Japanese down in no time!

So now I'm back at the lab, I have all taco ingredients at home crammed into my little fridge, I had a hot dog with broccoli on it for dinner, and I have to turn in my JSPS report tomorrow as well as finish getting my journal club presentation put together. It appears that Dr. Yanagawa and Kakizaki-san have just finished an after-midnight meeting and Dr. Yanagawa is back at work. Saito-san is down the hall still working. I really don't know when they sleep, or where, or if.

Later!