Sunday, August 12, 2007

Soaking up the Culture

Yui was nice enough to swing by on Saturday night and take me down to the neighborhood party. Thats me with Yui and her cousin, Misito. All over town there are these gravel yards where communities and get together and play games or have parties. This one took place about a 20 minute walk from where I live. We sat down at a table next to these guys. Right away they started passing beer my way. But in Japan your not supposed to pour your own drinks. So I figured they were giving them to me so I could pour for them. I did my best with Japanese manners and walked over to them and started pouring. They of course reciprocated. The men here were all quite busy getting liqoured up so I just jumped in and swam as best I could. . Everyone here works hard so its pretty natural I quess for them to wanna party hard too.
The festival was alive with music. This guy was atop the podium banging away on the drums for the Bone Odori dancers. (Forgive my spelling) The ladies like to dress up in their Kimonos and dance in a circle around the podium. It's called the Bone Odori dance and its pretty central in Japanese culture. The Women, children and even the men like to take part. I dont know much about the origins of the dance tho, I wish I did.

This guy was a bit of a comedian. We started talking and drinking together. Everyone here always seems to ask the same questions. How old are? Are you single? Do you like Japanese women? I don't get it. He spoke a little english and after a few minutes he came right out and said to me -"You are very strange" . I think the whole table was wondering what I was laughing at. He introduced himself as Kawa ii. Which is actually Japanese for "your cute". Good thing I already knew that. I was spared the embarassment of of telling a 60 year old Japanese dude that I found him attractive all night. After getting quite hammered, this guy had to do direct traffic around the party grounds. Hmmm. Whatever.

So I finally got a chance to see some real Japanese culture here. People here really seem to relish in their chances to socialize and party party. Plus I learned another imporatance lesson last night. Japanese guys will mess with you if you let them. heheehehe.




1 comment:

Unknown said...

Looking good there teddo. I see you've grown back your flavour saver. That's so cool that they have small communal areas to hold parties. Kind of reminds me of our last night in Melaque. Of course Mexicans are crazy, but you knew that already.

It was Ian's birthday this weekend. It was pretty fun having Ian and Elisa over. We all missed you. Hopefully we can come and visit you.

-Craig