Gleeful Gaijin

A friend of mine from training in Vancouver, James, is flying in tomorrow to stay with me for our New Year's vacation and I have a lot of preparing to do for his arrival... aka cleaning. So of course I am writing in my blog instead! I can bet that anyone who has ever lived with me in the past was not surprised by the previous statement, because I will do just about anything to avoid cleaning. Once I start I really don't even mind that much, as long as there's some good music playing, but just building enough motivation to begin, well, it takes me a while. Don't worry, I'll get it clean before he arrives, it's not even that dirty, because with so little space I can't tolerate too big a mess or I'll go insane.

I'm so excited to have some company for a few days. I still don't really mind living on my own, but having a friend around will be nice. The whole group of us from training, minus one, is planning on meeting up over the next few days and partying together on New Year's so it should be really awesome. I only had room for one person to stay in my apartment because there's so little space, but the other two guys are staying with my friend Jenn who was in training with me and was also placed in Tokyo (I've mentioned her in previous posts). I'm not sure exactly where we are going to go for New Year's but I suspect that we may end up in Roppongi which is well known for its club and bar scene.

On Christmas Eve I went with Jen and some of her co-workers to a pub for dinner in Roppongi. Roppongi is just dripping with foreigners and walking into the pub was sort of like going home for a little while. It looked just like bars you'd see in America, everyone spoke English (the owner was Australian), and the food was a fusion between British and American cooking, so it was quite familiar. Except for one JET (Japanese English Teacher) everyone in my party was either British or American, so it was nice not being the minority for a few hours. The area I live in, Shin-Takashimadaira, is on the outskirts of Tokyo so it's somewhat quiet and secluded and besides my one co-worker I feel like I'm the only foreigner for miles. I've heard that there's another girl who teaches at an Eikawa (English school) down the street from mine, but I have never seen her and I would think she'd be awfully easy to notice! Every time I travel into popular areas, like Roppongi or Shibuya, I get really excited to see anyone who is NOT Japanese and I always want to run up to them and say "HI! I'm American where are you from? Be my friend!" but since they never seem to show any interest in seeing me, I resist the urge. I do believe, however; that some of them really are excited to see me and they're just doing the same thing I am, resisting the urge.

Being a gaijin (foreigner) has its perks though, I'm not going to lie. For one thing, everyone notices you, there's no way around it... and sometimes it's nice to be noticed. My sushi chefs at the revolving sushi place I wrote about a few weeks ago have definitely noticed me. I know it's odd that I refer to them as "my" sushi chefs, but I'm pretty sure they refer to me as "their" white girl, so it's ok. I go there ALL the time, because it's one of the few places that's open after I finish work and because I really love sushi. Last night when I was there they prepared one of my favorite dishes for me before I even ordered it and when the chef sent it over to me he gave me the peace sign, which made me laugh. Plus they gave me a discount so that was nice too. I suspect had I just been a regular Japanese girl the dish and the discount never would have happened.

Alright, I'm going to clean now, or at least that's what I'm going to say. I'll try and write one more December post, but if not, best wishes for everyone in the New Year!