Always Learning

Wednesday my friend Keiko invited me over for dinner. She taught me how to cook some old Japanese dishes. We went to the supermarket together and bought things that I see in the store everyday and eat in kyushoku (school lunch) everyday but never have bought before. We made pork soup, a salad called shiroaki (or something like that), sweet and sour chicken and chili shrimp. It was great to learn some recipes. I will feel unaccomplished if I return to America without knowing how to make any Japanese dishes. Key ingredients in Japanese cooking, miso and sugar!

After we prepared the dishes we went and watched one of Keiko's friends teach kendo. It was quite interesting to watch. They kids were wearing the proper uniforms and yelling as they were fighting eachother. After that the kendo teacher (coincidentally the 'stranger' from the strange man drill) and another man who works at the police station joined us for dinner. The other man knows English very well. Normally this would be a good thing, but this particular day it annoyed me.

He translated everything Keiko and the Kendo teacher said even though I could understand most of it. I felt like Keiko was a deaf person and he was translating every word for me. It was really annoying. Then he got all preachy about Japanese culture and seasons. He thinks Japan is the most beautiful place in the world (it is beautiful, don't get me wrong) and it is a miracle that it has four seasons. If I could get a word in edgewise I would have told him that Ohio has 4 seasons as well. There is a word to describe this in Japanese but I forget it. He started preaching to me how I should eat natto because it is healthy and will prevent viruses as well as other nasty things. He was complimenting the Japanese education system now. He thinks English education has improved greatly, I could have told him a few things about that. I have no complaints with having patriotism for your country and I commend him for being so proud of his birthplace. But stop preaching to me. I live here and a lot of the things he told me I already knew. He told me that Japanese people use the back end of their hashi (chopsticks) to serve food. Hello!!! I have lived here 7 months, I already knew that. He did teach me a few things I didn't know. The reason why fish is so healthy and beef isn't is because fish live in a climate colder than us and their body temperature is colder than ours so when we eat fish the fats in the fish don't solidify in our body. Cows have a higher body temperature than humans so their fat solidifies in our body. Interesting, eh? And after a sumo match when the wrestlers are recieving their award for a winning match they kneel down and motion with their hands. The motion they do in the air is the kanji for 'kokoro' or warm-heart.