Yes I do.

Okay, time for some wacky Japan postings.

Today was a local shrine festival. Nothing special, just lots of booths with your typical fare--goldfish game, corn on the cob (fuck you 500 yen!), takoyaki, hamburger on a stick (meat only), french fries, ice cream...I had a lot of fun. It's kind of a bittersweet thing because this was the first year I was aware of it. It would've passed again this year except both my kindergarten kids and my elementary school kids asked if I was going. One girl asked where she should wait for me. (I think.) How could I resist that?

So I went, and I ate a hamburger on a stick, drank "peach soda" (::cough:: shaved ice syrup mixed with club soda), shared french fries with some graduated students, and bounced from group to group of students. I complimented them on their lovely high heels (jeebus kids, I didn't wear heels like that until, well, ever), I admired pedicures, and even inspected a 7th grader's pierced ear. (Big big no no. It came up in the staff meeting this afternoon, and I just had to check it out.) I got punched by some kid (typical), and watched kids try to catch goldfish and freshwater eels (the latter with a hook, for eating, not keeping).

There's this one guy who's graduated that has two holes in his left ear. Two! And he keeps two giant crystalesque studs in them. Pencil eraser, maybe bigger. And he has this cute little girlfriend that must've gone to the same junior high school, but I just can't place her. They're cute. The boy seems bad, but for the record, he's the only one ever in three years to tell me what verb tense I was using in a casual conversation. Love the kid. Here's the conversation we three had (more or less):

Girl: "Look what he did!" (She's got two more hickeys on her neck. I saw them, I swear, like last week, and she only had one.)

Me, to him: "Bad boy. She's a nice girl [no clue, actually]. Do you love her?"

Guy: "Yes I do." (IN ENGLISH! JUST LIKE THAT! I wish I could've praised him without blowing his cool vibe.)

Me: "Why do you do that? Sad. She's cute. In the summer, she'll want to wear cute low-cut shirts. Now she'll have to wear a scarf. Lame."

The girl nods with me. Dumb proprietary boys. Neither one of us is really angry about it, but I feel bad for the girl. Hickeys sure are ugly. I think I also told her to give him one on his cheek.

I also bargained with my motorcycle gangsta kid (hilarious, a little bad, intelligent, obsessed with motorcycles). He had a friend on the back of his bike, and that's SOOOOO BAD. Not allowed. Nope, not at all. (Note to non-Japaners--this is funny because my primary mode of transportation in the city is on the pegs of my boyfriend's bike.) I told him I wouldn't tell the other teachers if he's good during English class. I told his friend (7th grade mouthy twat idiot) the same thing. Such threats resound so sweetly when I can call them by name.

I wish I had taken more photos of my kids all blinged out. One kid had a shiny silver cross (complete with shiny approximation of a hanging Jesus) about 3-4 inches long. I told him it was too big. I don't even bother explaining the whole Christianity connotation anymore. The WWJD bracelets wore me out, as I don't possess the vocabulary for religious explanations.

And then I went to English conversation class and one woman ranted in a very cute way that she and her husband never talk. He's a quiet guy, she said, and if she didn't initiate conversation, they would never talk at all. She once stopped talking to him, and they didn't talk for two months. Two months. While she's breastfeeding a baby. The only reason why she started talking to him again was because she had a fever. I had to think about that one for awhile.

And then I went over to this woman's house. She has a beautiful house. They just built it...maybe a year or two ago. I've only seen the downstairs, but let's sum it up in one observation: TV built into the wall in the bathroom. A small one, but really. built in! I'm going to devote an entry to that house someday.

Back to these Thursday night get togethers. It's awesome, in this weird way. I get to hang out with 6-7 women who are older than my parents (save one, who is only 5 years older than me), and listen to what real Japan is like. They pour over the grocery ads, we watch TV, we drink coffee, they ask questions sometimes. This is the Japan I wanted. Sitting and zoning out and listening and not giving a damn about rules I may or may not be breaking.

Tonight I got my nails done by their ringleader. She did almost everyone's nails. After that, she colored someone's hair. I call her crazy, but it's only a mild crazy. She's one of my favorite stereotype breakers. She's a temple minister's wife, but doesn't hold back her gregarious socialite personality. I'm reading that Ya-Ya Sisterhood book right now, and it feels like Ringleader Crazy would fit in quite well with those brassy personalities (if she didn't also possess the mandatory Japanese self-control). A few weeks ago we made hand-rolled sushi, and she dropped a fish egg on the ground. One of those big orange ones. With barely a pause, she picked it up and popped it in her mouth. Didn't even look at it for dust (not that there was any dust in that lovely house).

Final thought: did you know that "NEED TO DUMP" can be anagrammed into (among other things) "Mended Pout"? I amaze myself sometimes. Desperation truly is a great inspiration.