I survived another typhoon! Not too long ago, Lauren explained to me that it's not customary for the Japanese people to name their typhoons; the United States almost always names each hurricane that develops along it's Gulf Coast. This typhoon (“taifu” as they say here), Typhoon Number 20 was definitely a handful. Or should I say, it did a good job of getting me and several of my friends soaking wet. Random side note: I just taught the idiom "soaking wet" to one of my students yesterday morning.
It had been raining all day yesterday, but a good portion of the day was spent teaching inside. At the end of the day when it was time to head home, Lauren and I were finally forced to brave the weather. After twenty two years of living, yesterday was the first time that my umbrella has ever flipped due to strong winds. Not only did it happen once, it happened a second time! It flipped the first time when we (Hiroko, Lauren, and I) were walking back to the school after Lauren's birthday lunch at the little Italian restaurant two doors down from our school.
Despite the typhoon, Lauren’s 25th Birthday Party/Our Hip Halloween Hooplah went on without a hitch. We had invited about fifteen people to our little apartment, but in the end only about six could make it. A few more probably could have made it if it weren’t for the bad weather. When it gets really windy here, one of the major train lines called the Keiyo line that goes over the water always has to close. To make a long story short, five of my friends from church traveled a very far distance and one of Lauren’s friends from Purdue was also able to join us for some silliness. To clarify, Laurens’ fried is studying in Tsukuba (about 2-2.5 hours north of Tokyo) for a year.
On Friday night, Lauren and I slaved over vegetable curry and cleaned the house to get ready for our visitors. The kitchen smelled so good as it was filled with the spicy aroma of Japanese curry. I think this batch was our best one yet; maybe it was filled with extra love and happiness.
On Saturday afternoon, to our surprise, Lauren and I were able to leave earlier than we expected. We got a ride from Hiroko so we wouldn’t have to walk home in the rain and finished tiding up the house. Around 6:15pm we took the bus to the Tsudanuma train station where we met up with our friends from church. At this point we were all wet. We rode the bus back to our apartment and welcomed our first apartment guests ever! Everyone was hungry so we dished out the curry, drank some Mitsu Lemon Cider (it’s like Sprite), and had fun. We decorated “pumpkins” (we had to use tangerines because they were easier to find), ate birthday cake, played the game Spoons, and laughed.
From left to right: Me, Amber, Haeji, Lauren, Jenny, and Joe. Not pictured: Kate (hadn't arrived yet) and Alison (taking the picture). I forgot to mention that we are all sporting edomame and I believe you can see our beat up curry pot on the stove too.
Tangerine pumpkins! Can you guess which one is mine? Try Jack on the far right.
Happy 25th Birthday Lauren!!
Birthday cake candle embers.
We knew our game of spoons was becoming too violent when a helpless spoon lie in two pieces on the table top.
One bad thing about parties is that they always have to come to an end. Since all of our guests except Kate, who was sleeping over, had to catch the train they had to be sure to leave in order to catch the last one before it was too late. We all said goodbye and thanked them for coming.
On a brighter note, the one great thing about typhoons is the day after the storm. It is always absolutely beautiful. Today, Sunday, there isn't a cloud in the big blue sky, and I would say the temperature is just around perfect.
I saw many great things today, including, my first eyewitness account of a Japanese subway rat. Until now, I hadn’t ever seen one because everything here is immaculately clean. Some guy looked at me on the train and said “Hello, how are you?”. Since my parents taught me not to talk to strangers, I politely answered and then continued reading my book. After church, I met my friend Kozue at the Makuhari station, which is not too far from work.
I met her because she had invited me to her university’s festival. She introduced me to here two good friends Azusa and Nobue. The festival called Hamakaze took place at Konda University (known for its English program); Kozue and all of her friends are studying English as part of their International Communications major. It was an international festival celebrating countries all over the world. Many of the festival booths were selling a variety of ethnic foods. I went to a student run fashion show called “No Brand Fashion Show”. I hadn’t ever been to a fashion show, and I really enjoyed it! Afterwards, Kozue, Azusa, Nobue, and I all walked around looking for good foods to try. Just before we stopped to get some Korean style Okonomiaki (like a vegetable or seafood pancake), I passed a both selling Buffalo chicken wings “all the way from Buffalo, NY, USA”. This world is so small. Nobue recommended that we try some tempura ice cream (fried ice cream) so we headed to get some. It was very interesting and I had to eat it fast before it melted on me. I also tried some Thai noodles that were very spicy. Both Nobue and I agreed that our lips were on fire after eating the noodles and broth.
Before I left to go home, Nobue introduced Kozue, Azusa, and I to her English teacher. They told me he was Jewish and taught them Jewish History. I introduced myself and he asked me where I was from. He was very surprised that I was from Buffalo, as he was born there, but moved to North Carolina when he was only two years old. Nobue said he was a great teacher and he reminded me of a few LCLC friends; a little on the wacky side. Personally, I think being wacky is definitely a good thing. I said my goodbyes and both Azusa and Kozue said they were looking forward to doing something together soon! Azusa said that she is very interested in history and museums, which made me very happy to hear. Lauren is not really fond of museums so I was relieved when she told me they are very interesting to her. She was very sweet; she said if I’m ever in trouble, I should give her a call because getting around in Japan can be very difficult for those of us non-Japanese people. Her sincerity and kindness really touched my heart. Even though it made me long for my good friends at home in the states, it also reminded me that I should be grateful for the people who care about me here in Japan.
During all of this Lauren was hanging with her friend Kate; showing her around downtown Tokyo. She bought some new clothes with birthday money and they were all very cute. It was great to meet Kate and get to know her too!
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