Today was a great day. I ate well and I got to see my friend Erina. Erina lived with my great aunt and uncle (Caroline and Dutton) for about three years when she was in high school. In fact, she's the one who first taught me Japanese. So, anyway, here's the list:
1. Eating shabushabu with Erina in Kyoto. Shabushabu is basically like fondue but with less cheese, and more tofu and vegetables. Erina and I had a great time chatting during dinner and relaxing after a long week. (Yes, today is Saturday, but I went to the nursery school undoukai, and while it was fun and the kids were cute, today still kind of feels like Friday).
2. Shopping with Erina and her cousin AND finding books! First of all, Erina's cousin was really cool. She speaks great English so we had a fairly bilingual conversation going the whole time- she studied abroad in Vancouver. But books: I bought a book by Joyce Carol Oates which I'm really excited to read. I read a short story by her once and it was fantastic. Also, I bought Oliver Twist- the Penguin Classics edition, of course. :) For those who don't know, that was the edition we bought for our Dickens seminar last fall. It was so exciting to see all of the Penguin Classics lined up- an entire shelf!- at the bookstore. Ok, maybe you think I'm a total nerd, but I haven't seen anything like it in several months. I could have hugged that bookshelf.
3. Soba. I ate soba with a woman from the nursery school and some of her coworkers from the town office today in Shiga-ken. Shiga is a prefecture right next to Kyoto. Ujitawara's actually pretty close to it. Anyway, we drove through the mountains (beautiful!) to this tiny little store in the middle of nowhere. It had a giant sign, though, that just said "soba" or, そば, rather. Anyway, the soba was really delicious, and the atmosphere was really nice and really Japanese. We sat on the floor, of course, around a sort of dug out fireplace (which we didn't use, soba is served cold). And we were right next to a large window/door through which we could see bamboo trees waving in the wind. It was the kind of green that reminds me of Minnesota. It was really nice.
4. I got to see the nursery school students jump around today at their sports festival. It was cute, but the funniest was when they would get really confused and start crying. I know this sounds really bad, but it was so adorable. They would be organizing for a race, or an obstacle, then totally space out so that when they finally found their way back to reality everything around them had changed and they were so disoriented they just got really upset. They were fine. It was cute.
5. Mousukoshinareta. I think I'm getting more used to being in Ujitawara. And I love being this close to Kyoto. I am so lucky!
おしまい！The end (for today)
3 comments:
Nice day! Say hi to Erina. Thanks for the great description. Makes the distance seem smaller. Glad to hear you're getting used to being there. Sounds lovely. LL, D
This is from Peaceful Valleys: What are you reading by Joyce Carol Oats? I want to read more by her, too. I can image wanting to hug that bookshelf if I were in your shoes! The nursery school field day does sound adorable. I can imagine them just as you describe them suddenly confused and disoriented and just bawling. Don't you wish we could all just do that sometimes without fear of being labeled a nutcase?
As to your last question: yes.
About Oates: I'm reading 'my sister, my love' It's kind of scary, but very good.
Post a Comment