beatles, britney, & a rice ball

i would like to apologize for the longevity of these past few posts. sometimes i just write as if i am speaking, because there isnt really any opportunity for me to just talk and talk and talk. writing this is an chance for me to release the thoughts and ideas constantly filling my mind. every day here brings something new, exciting, and often overwhelming. please feel free to read as you wish, skim if you desire, and ignore if you like.

the past 48 hours since Fuji have been totally nuts. im skipping monday completely bc it started horribly and there are just too many new stories since then.

yesterday (tuesday, for me), three significant things happened at school.

1. i talked to my three japanese teachers of english (JTEs). i gave one, Kohashi-sensei, a gift from home. i also talked to Takehara-sensei, who speaks english incredibly well. he understands my humor, which is something that most people here don:t really... it brightens my life to have someone laugh at something funny i say :) Himashita-sensei is always running around like crazy but i like her a lot and we always talk at least a tiny bit, even if it's about school stuff.

2. another teacher [Yamomata-sensei, i think], who i KNEW spoke English but had never spoken with, talked to me for the first time. he said *do you have a lunch?* haha, a man of many words, obviously [he told me later that he would have shared if i said i didnt have one; i didnt know what to make of that].

3. the super attractive teacher *single of course* came to talk to someone at MY school. i was shocked/thrilled, and of course wicked shy all of a sudden... i worked up my nerve, said *hello, how are you?* and he said *i am fine, thank you* [again, a man of many words!!!]. i blushed like a fool the entire time he was in the staff room, even though we didnt so much as make eye contact. THEN of course i was mad at myself for not taking advantage of the grand opportunity... shucks.

soooo after school Kohashi-sensei called my cell like 3 times. i kept missing the calls, but finally saw them and called her back. the summary of our conversation is this *hello, this is hiromi kohashi, from hokubu jr. high school. do you know me?* ... *well, wont you go to dinner with me? i am meeting some friends for an intimate dinner and i would like you to come, too. can you go by bicycle to the train station at 6:15?* of course, i said YES and met her. its hard to summarize the rest of the evening, but i:ll do my best...

an intimate dinner turned out to be 9 people! haha, Kohashi-sensei purposely sat me next to non-english teachers because *tonight you can learn japanese* hahaha, RIGHT... soooo i sat next to another teacher from hokubu, on my right. he mostly ignored me, but after a few beers got more confident and asked me if i had any brothers. [random question but i guess he has sons so is interested]. a bunch of times he rattled off japanese and didnt seem to really notice that i didn't understand a single word. then he progressed to pile food on my plate... every time something new would come to the table, he would say *kelly-san, dozo* ["kelly-san, take it"; -san is added to people's names when you address them or talk about them to someone else]. one time i didn't eat this nasty little fish [still in its original form/ shape] and a few minutes later he picked it up with his chopsticks and ate it himself [!!!!:)]

during all this hilarity, the teacher who spoke to me for the first time yesterday [Yomomata???] came in [we said cheers b/c his wife had a baby 2 weeks ago. he had a little picture on his cell phone-- soooo cute] AND what do you know, super attractive teacher walks in as well... golly, i was about blown away at that point but it only gets better. most of the way into dinner i went to the bathroom and when i came back to the table, new father teacher had me sit next to him. he told me that the students call him *onigiri* which is a rice ball, because his face is round. he said i can call him that as well!! he also said he is very shy [yeah, ok...]. he asked me what the buttons on my bracelet were for... i explained SORTA that my friend had given them to me... [more on this later]

then the guy next to him told me his hobby is drawing cartoons. everyone said *ohhhh draw kelly-san* so he did. i'm not sure why i have a cat on my shoulder...haha but he did a great job. even down to the earrings :) i stayed at that seat for the rest of the dinner; at one point they went around the table and introduced themselves. they all said basically the same thing: *my name is... i work at... my hobbies are.... thats all!*

around 9pm, we all got up, i prepared to go home. someone said *this is your party, do you understand?* which meant i wasn:t paying... sweet! :)

well... no going home at that point. Kohashi-sensei said *...it is very close* i had no clue what she was talking about, but we all walked to this tiny karaoke joint. 9 of us practically swamped the place, but the owners were two middle aged ladies and they welcomed us in-- super sweet and friendly. last night was my first time at karaoke; i was feeling nervous but tried my hardest to be confident bc i knew it would help my relationships with these new-found friends... i THOUGHT someone else knew the words to *wonderwall* by oasis, but apparently not since i was singing solo. if you can call it a solo-- yikes-- karaoke is not my strong point. but hey, i gotta start somewhere...

onigiri-sensei talked to himashita-sensei and me for a long time. he asked her if she had any boyfriends and she goes "no, i dont have any boyfriends, unfortunately. or maybe fortunately" so then she said he wanted to ask me the same question. i said no. he looked confused and pointed to my button bracelet. i started cracking up and said "a GIRL gave me this!!!" :)

someone chose *hello goodbye* by the beatles as a group song, but it ended up being mostly wicked-attractive-sensei and myself. a while later he said *kelly-san, lets sing together*... he had chosen britney spears *oops i did it again* bahhhhahahahaha... what a beautiful duet [HAHAHA]. the whole time i was thinking... *nelson, there's no hidden meaning here, settle yourself down*. haha.

anyway, i talked to everyone; they spoke much more confident english as the night went on and i added one of my 10 japanese words in there whenever i could manage.

when the night was over, i couldnt get myself to sleep. it was such a random experience; so so so fun and exciting and cool, but overwhelming at the same time. i seriously wish i could have videotaped the entire thing bc i never want to forget a single detail. i hope my brain was able to capture it all...

[today onigiri-sensei asked me "do you have a lunch?" we both cracked up and i said yes. he goes "i have rice ball"!!! i cracked up again, said "oh, thats perfect for you". and he pulled out the drawing that the guy had done of him last night with the label underneath... *rice ball* :)]

[just some random kelly nelson trivia for you]