ENTRY 24

Socializing in Any Language

11月4日 (水ー木) 1:17am JST

Today was Culture Day. I spent a good deal of it looking at election news.

Bleh.

In celebration of my native culture, I ate a Big Mac and continued not voting. I also painted sumi-e and drank green tea to cover my bases in case only Japanese culture is to be celebrated.

I’m feeling a bit down and was last night as well. I tagged along with a group of people who ate okonomi-yaki and went out for drinks. During the event, I realized that I had invited myself. Though no one else seemed to mind, it sucks that I’m not on any email lists and only heard about it from T--- when I proposed a different plan.

When they went to the bar, they started playing a drinking game with cards. Such things remind me of the summer before I first came to Japan… I’m against drinking games on a number of levels, both practical and theoretical. First of all, I’d rather decide for myself when and how much to drink. Last night, for example, my problem was that I wasn’t drinking enough to get into the spirit of things. Second, I dislike the adolescent attitude towards drinking that drinking games necessarily flaunt. They act as though drinking were still cool or dangerous for those over 21. With the intrusions of the police no longer a major factor in the length of one’s celebrations, such attitudes are patently unwarranted. Should I really be impressed with the ‘loser’ of the game for drinking a suicide? People our age should have had enough shots of cheap, foul liquor in depressing parties to stomach anything less than 200 proof. Drinking a mixture of saké and beer really isn’t that big a deal. Meanwhile, the very purpose of the game is confused, since the ‘losers’ are those ‘forced’ to drink more, while the ‘winners’ sit in smug sobriety. If I’m voluntarily participating in a drinking game with the purpose of finding a comfortable level of intoxication what reason do I have to feel bad about when made to take a shot by my opponent? And what joy does my opponent gain from making me take it? Clearly, the only way to make sense of the motivations of players is presume that one enjoys seeing one’s friends embarrassingly drunk and laughing at them in your superior state. But such a motivation is even more patently adolescent, because why should I want took keep around friends that I only look down on?

Also, I disliked several of the players, which no doubt contributes to my current foul mood.

Anyhow, I’m in a funk. I spend all my time thinking of my girlfriend and browsing in circles. I really need to start doing something else. I wish I knew what my future held. But then, knowing might worse than not knowing if the future turns out poorly.

Bleh, so pessimistic. Maybe http://www.georgewbush.com/ bombing Iranhttp://joi.ito.com/archives/2004/10/27/wwwgeorgewbushcom.html * will be fun.

11月6日 (金ー土) 2:17am JST

Speaking Japanese continues to generate mixed results. In class the other day, some kids were making mangled points on the topic of whether English classes should be taught to the test. One kid said, “English speaker is handsome.” So, I start hamming it up a little, and this girl is like, “Oh yes, Curl is hand-sahm.” Then she says in Japanese, “[untrue.]”

Now, I’ve taught her class by my lonesome before (in technical violation of Japanese teaching codes), and I typically field Japanese questions with English answers, instead of making them translate it first. Well, maybe she thinks I have an education only ESP or something. I considered whacking her on the head, as I’ve seen both H- and S-senseis do to students, but I ended up just kicking her desk and making upset sounds.

Then she’s all like, “[Oh crap, he understood!]”

Yeah, and I understood that too, ya punk ass kid.

In fact, most of their chit-chat is at a low enough level for me to get three quarters of it. Not that my consciousness makes any impact on them.

Grr!

When I was coming back from the party before culture day, the police were stopping people and checking bike registrations. They told me to turn on my light (which I didn’t know how to do), and I managed to talk to them for a solid two minutes before the cop finally looks at me and says, “[Oh, do you speak English?]”

No, your psychic powers are just growing with time on the force.

Yes, a little; now pay some attention, pig.

So, all this had me feeling down on my linguistic abilities. Meanwhile in English club today, it was the usual situation, in which neither questions in English nor questions in Japanese draw any kind of measurable response.

A http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20031005a1.htm dude from Guinea came and spoke in Japanese at school assembly. I learned what two of three colors in their flag stand for. It was a long speech, and both T--- and I lost consciousness in parts.

Finally, I went to the izakaya near my apartment. This has given me some small glimmer of hope for myself. We talked about politics and then usual why I’m here, how I learned Japanese thing. That was a fairly pleasant experience.

11月8日 (日ー月) 1:04am JST

I have, of course, been reclusive of late, but on Friday night, I tried going over to the ‘Foolish’ just to see if anyone was about. Just the bar girl taking out the trash. Nevertheless, I decided to try my luck again on Saturday night. As I was walking there, I noticed a crowd in front of the bar from the other night. Sure enough, it was a JET crowd. H--- asked where I had been lately, and I didn’t have much to answer for myself. Her husband was hilariously drunk and pestered the guy from Nova who’s always at the bar with a Japanese chick. As time moved on, more people showed up, and I inflicted my Japanese on various natives. Fun enough.

A--- invited me to watch “Reviews/{{Shaun of the Dead}}” at his place tonight. I went, but felt bad about missing my weekly public bath for no real reason. British people apparently don’t like Reviews/{{Twenty Eight Days Later}}, but they’re as foolish as the Chinese people against Crouching Tiger.

So, more socializing this weekend, which was good. But I still took all my meals alone. Which is mixed at best.