Though many of you might want it to.Ý Well,
as you already know I am back, and now my writing is in full force, bringing
you more silly adventures from the land of Nihon.Ý In this venture
I talk about the New Year's Party and other New Year's things, a
medical examine, and other tidbits. ------------>Well before I left,
as many of you know, I spoke of the bonenkai (which is the party
for the old year), now comes the shinenkai (party for the new year).Ý
So one happy evening last week my Board of Education walked from
the office about a quarter of mile in the freezing cold to a restaurant,
where it rented an upstairs room.Ý Of course I was the only Westerner
there and it became rather obvious in the following event...the choosing
of what seat you have which is done by lottery.Ý The big question
was "Who will be 'lucky' enough to sit next to the foreigner?"Ý Luckily
for me it was one of my officemates and the night was pretty fun.Ý
A couple interesting things to note.Ý One is the fact my chopstick
expertise is unequalled except when I am in public.Ý This fact was
especially true this time.Ý A good writer would set the stage...an
average writer tries to...so here I go.Ý Picture all these little dishes
in front of you with lots of strange food (this description is like
the last email)...one of the little bowls is a dipping sauce for
the items you pull from a kettle looking bowl in the center of the
table.Ý Okay, so I take a rather large item from the kettle and before
it gets to the comforts of my dish it slips from my sticks and right
into the sauce causing a splashing effect that not only covers me
put all my officemates within a 3ft radius...oops.Ý Still this little
event didn't hinder one lady, being translated through a friend of
mine, to say that she REALLY wanted to talk to me, but that she was
too old (40), married, and didn't know english...uh...okay.. Afterwards
some of us went to kareoke where, of course, I was obligated to sing...and
my direct boss, who is normally pretty anal, got extremely drunk...he
almost passed out...so since then he treats me a little better...so
far. ÝÝÝ In other related news, I went to a New Year's festival down
the road.Ý In this festival Japanese beat drums to scare away "bad
birds" that would try to sabotage the rice harvests.Ý The highlight
of this is the fact they let me hit the drum...I didn't know that
hitting the drum would cause such a backlash because the drumstick
went right from the drumhead and into my head causing quite a laugh...I
think I might even have that on tape.Ý But what I didn't know about
drumbeating I quickly learned in the next event.Ý This event was
pretty strange to me.Ý Japanese crowds gather around a group of 5 or 6
people, who begin throwing oranges into the crowd.Ý The people in the crowd
fight over each orange as if it's McGwire's Homerun ball knocking over
everyone, women, children, in the process.Ý Well I learned why this
is so important.Ý The Japanese pick some bad year in the past (maybe
a bad year for rice harvests) and "transfer" it to the orange and
throw it...the people who catch it then will have a lucky new year.Ý
So after hearing this explanation I decided to use my baseball skills,
my height and weight for an advantage to catch these flying orange
luck givers.Ý Any Japanese within 10ft of me didn't have a prayer
of catching a thing...and after 6 oranges I thought someone else
might need the luck...and I wanted to film this.Ý As I pulled out
my camera and was ready to film, an orange came flying towards me and
in protection mode I caught it...and it splattered all over me...what fun.Ý
ÝÝÝ Also last week I got another haircut and when I left, the barber's
wife gave me this stick with these little colored balls on it...I
went out not having any idea what this was for and decided to eat
one of the balls...after a bite it occurred to me that maybe this wasn't
supposed to be eaten because it tasted like wax.Ý I found out later that
they are in fact riceballs to be eaten after you roast them over a fire,
hence the stick.Ý Well that was after I broke the stick in half and
stuffed it into my car trunk with the idea I would stick this thing
in the yard..ala pink flamingos...glad I didn't do that. ------>Every
year every Japanese gets a medical examine...so what you ask?Ý Well
I did it today.Ý You go across the way and this place is set up much
like the Red Cross with blood donations and you carry your form with
you and wait in line with all the other people...male and female.Ý
Going from one station to another you do your height, weight, blood
pressure, blood test, eye check and my favorite...the urine sample...at
least I was able to go to the bathroom for this because nothing else was
private.Ý Also I waved the X-ray which is given in all cases except for
the foreigner who really would rather not have his body exposed to
cancer causing radiation (I don't really think this but I still didn't)
unless he has to...so I didn't. ------->Went to Nagano, the place
of the Olympics this past weekend.Ý Saw a castle and a shrine...pretty
cool stuff.Ý One thing though was travelling back in the mountains...why
is this bad?Ý Because Japanese don't believe in snowplows and the
ice was pretty bad both up and down these steep slopes.Ý In honor
of the Olympics, I thought about maybe using my '87 Honda Civic as
a bobsled, but then it donned on me that my brakes need replacing...maybe
next time.Ý ------>I just went to an award assembly at one of my
jr high schools.Ý This school has the second best ping pong player
and brass band in the prefecture and the best boys relay team in
all of Japan!!!! What talent ---------> There are other things I
want to mention but this email is long enough as it is...so I will
save that for another time... Hope all is well with everyone....HAPPY
NEW YEAR