Compared to the hustle and busy and insanity of October, November has thus far been very laid back. I haven’t really traveled anywhere, much less barely left Saitama prefecture. But, you know, that’s ok.
In fact, I think the highlight of the month so far was when my Twinsy Jamie and I went to visit the Yamazakis. I had been so busy the past month I never made it out there. We went on a national holiday (Culture Day, aka The Meiji Emperor’s birthday), so I called in advance to make sure Oba and Oji would have the shop open. When we arrived it wasn’t crowded, and Jamie and I were quite content to gorge ourselves to the point of carrying an 8 month food baby.
The fun started when Oba reminded me that she had invited us to dinner. Cue panic. I hadn’t heard that at all when I was calling her, but goshdurnit I loathe talking Japanese on the phone! Any refusals to not attend their dinner party were ignored, and so they told us to come back in 2 hours while they cleaned up the shop.
What did we do in our spare time? Laugh, share ridiculous stories, take purikura, and eat ice cream- even though we were still full. Dinner…I have no idea where we put it. But it was delicious! The company was quite colorful too- Oji’s daughter and her husband, the mythical Chinese woman who told me to eat more leafy greens because I have poor circulation (and then gave my arms a fantastic massage), aaaaaand their mutual friend whom I only know as K-chan. He (yes, he) was a lovely woman, and had a great manicure that I was insanely jealous of.
All in all, it was quite a wonderful way to spend the evening!
Otherwise I have just been schlepping around, going to school, trying to jam something intelligent into the heads of my students. Oh the life of a 9 to 5er!
