In which the Traveler Has a Few Flashbacks

First was Halloween! We had a party at my Conversation Classes and watched The Nightmare Before Christmas.

My Halloween "costume!" I had a few accessories and was an "evil fairy." Or "lazy," take your pick.

My kids playing outside in the snow. Look at all the snow!!

Just about the most adorable girls you'll ever see. The girl on the right adores me and I adore her in return. ^-^

In December I went to Tokyo to see a Cirque du Soleil-type performance! This is the Shibuya Scramble Crosswalk!

I went to the SkyTree, too! It's the newest skyscraper in Japan and the second-tallest building in the world. I had to cut my visit short tho, since I had a dinner date with a friend.

 

The SkyTree all lit up for Christmas!

 

Isn't this about the saddest shirt you've ever seen?

I made a snow angel. Halo courtesy of Day-chan.

I took up cooking! Sort of. xD I need to get lids for my pans.

 

Christmas came! I got a bunch of goodies from my best friend and bought a Christmas Cake. That's what you do here, you eat Christmas Cake. And fried chicken, but Christmas Cake!

There's actually a saying in Japan, that women are like Christmas Cakes.

Nobody wants them after 25.

Ouch.

New Years! I stayed over at Yko-san's house and on the first we went to Taiki's shrine. Both of us got Small Luck on our fortunes. Apparently this year love is going to come veeeeery slowly. Thanks, Love. 9-9

Awesome blossoming tea from Sara! <3

Yko-san's dog Hayabusa. He loves the snow but hates to get bundled up for it.

I bought a kotatsu! A heated table. There's a heater on the underside and the blanket keeps the heat in. I put it together all by myself and it hasn't caught fire yet! I call that a win.

It's the Year of the Snake! I was born in the Year of the Snake, so this year I'm a 年女、toshionna, a Woman of the Year. This is an adorable bread snake with chocolate filling.

Also it's my golden birthday this year. I was born on the 24th and am turning 24. Awesome? Yes. Quite.

Oh yeah. It snowed.

And snowed.

But the town looks really pretty.

The car-ish part in this (panorama) picture is actually Ichi-san's car. He happened to be driving on the same stretch of highway and saw me pulled over taking photos, so he stopped to say hello. 

The elementary kids get to go outside and play in the snow during their breaks. I remember when I was that excited to play in the snow.

I actually couldn't see the road on this day, it was snowing so hard. As in, I couldn't see the end of my car, but I had to drive back to Taiki from Oda! Oh dear! See those arrows on the poles? Those are to show you where the road ends. They're quite necessary.

I got a new friend to cuddle with! He's very soft and quiet.

Some of the brownies I made in Conversation class this Monday. All nice and wrapped up individually in seran wrap. I gave them to my office coworkers. Luckily on Tuesday the men all had to schlep over to Oda and shovel snow, so they were a welcome snack when they got back.

Chapter Six: In Which the Traveler Parties on a School Night

So last night we had a work party to welcome New Guy-san to the office and say goodbye to Sasa-san from the other section in the office.

Wait, what's that you're saying?

What about the last four months?

No idea what you're talking about.

Never happened.

<.<  >.>

Seriously. Last year the world skipped the last half of September through the end of January. I checked.

I'll probably post anecdotes. I'm just terrible at keeping up with any form of diary.

But back to last night. We've had two unofficial welcome parties for New Guy-san already, but this was the official-official one. On a Wednesday night. o.O But okay.

The party was at the 焼肉, yakiniku (kinda like barbecue) restaurant in town. I like yakiniku! (Literally it means burned meat. Fitting, huh?) I wound up sitting across from my three-times-removed boss (as in my boss's boss's boss's boss) and -his- boss, as well as a lady I've never met before but apparently runs a cafe here in town somewhere, and between Yko-san and New Guy-san. The Uber Boss kept talking about me and how great my Japanese was and I know everything about Japan and Japanese society and I'm so polite and I could only understand about half of what he said, honestly, but good god he kept talking about me. x.x

And then he looked at New Guy-kun and says, "Oh dear, New Guy-kun, Ashli is your senpai!" (先輩, senpai, means senior or upperclassman. It's a somewhat complicated relationship, but places me higher than New Guy-kun in the office hierarchy [in theory, anyway]).

So New Guy-kun turns to me and bows really low at the table. 「あ、アシュリーさん、僕はただの日本人なんですけど、何も知りませんです！どうか教えてください！」 "Oh, Ashli-san, I'm just a Japanese person but I don't know anything! Please somehow teach me!"

He was laughing and really it was a joke, but how am I supposed to respond to this?!

Apparently I have a very nice speaking voice in Japanese. It's not too high, it's very calm and soothing, and I have an excellent accent. I get these compliments a lot, so maybe they're true. Hm.

Someone came by and interrupted the Uber Boss and his Ashli-centric train of speech, so I seized the opportunity and ran away. xD One of my coworkers came in quite late and conveniently a couple of spaces around him had opened up, so I went to say hi and make sure he was okay. He's very nice to me at work, Ichi-san is--he talks to me a lot (like, real conversations, not "Hey, Ashli, you're schedule's changed a bit for this week" or "Are you catching a cold?") and he randomly gives me chocolate.

Actually, last month at the 忘年会, literally "Forget the year party," a kind of year-end party, he won a box of chocolates as a prize and gave them to me, saying he didn't like chocolate. But then a few weeks later when work started up again after the holidays, he started randomly giving me chocolate at work. Like, he'd get some from the kitchen and bring me some too. o.O But he's really nice to me. (^-^)

Actually the other day in the morning I saw the bag of chocolates in the kitchen while I was getting coffee and thought, Huh, why hasn't Ichi-san given me any chocolate lately? And I was kinda bummed about it, too. I mean, it's free for grabs, if I wanted chocolate I could just take it, but that wasn't the point. And then in the afternoon he passed by my desk.

Ichi-san: 「アシュリー、チョコレートいる？」 Ashli, do you want a chocolate?
Me: 「あ、ありがとうございます！」 Thank you!
Ichi-san: 「あ、そうだっけ、アシュリーは今ダイエット中じゃない？」 Oh, that's right, aren't you on a diet?
Me: 「。。。そうだね。」....yeah.
Ashli's thoughts: Yes. Yes, I am. I'm still eating this, tho.

Ichi-san, smoothly offering me chocolate
and then pointing out my diet.

Yeah, I'm on a bit of a diet. Not like strict diet or anything, just cutting out most of the junk food and not eating after 9 pm unless I'm out drinking. And he knows this because I was kind of complaining that my English Conversation classes decided to make brownies for our cooking class and I was on a diet, so I'd have to make two pans of brownies that I couldn't eat. Of course, we had a party last weekend too, and Ichi-san kept giving me chocolates at the bar, too, so I'd thought he'd forgotten. xD'

Anyway. Last night's party. I escaped my table to talk to Ichi-san.

The Uber Boss was asked to give the closing speech. He stood up and looked around. 「この部屋には、美人がいっぱいいますね。そうですけど、アシュリーさんが逃げてしまいました。」 "Hmm, this room is full of beautiful women, isn't it? Though Ashli-san ran away."

He seriously said that. In front of everyone. >.<'' Through the laughter Yko-san pointed out that I was sitting two people to his left. xD

Anyway. After the dinner about half the people went to a bar for karaoke. I like karaoke, and people like asking me to sing English songs, so it works out. Japanese people are always so surprised when I can sing Japanese songs. Granted, I only know, like, five, and half the time the bars here don't have most of them, but still. Ichi-san remembered where I sat the last time we were at this bar and sat across from me so he could ask me to sing songs more easily. He had me sing the Eurobeat version of the Mickey Mouse March. I don't know the regular version of the Mickey Mouse March, let alone the Eurobeat version! But it was actually fun. ^-^

One of the ladies from the school lunch office,

New Guy-san, and Ichi-san

My boss's boss, me, and the new lady at the school lunch office. 

She's really nice!

So all in all it was a rather fun night. ^-^ I drank too much, tho, and was decently drunk when I got home. Which is great, for work parties, because everyone acknowledges that I talk more when I drink, in both English and Japanese. But it's not so great when I have to get up and go to class in the morning. Why have a work party on a Wednesday night!?