Sitting in the japanese pizza place tonight, munching on pizza almost as good as I had in Roma, sipping some sake, listening to Nora Jones doing her breathy jazz singing thing, I realized that I was feeling really, really alone. Those of you who know my very screwed up personal life will probably just nod your heads in agreement, but it seems like it was more than that, although that is a big part of it.
Upon further self inspection, (which I had more than enough time for, since I had no one to speak to), I think it is just that being over here in Japan, by myself, the only conversations I get to have are very short, broken English conversations. Not only is there no conversation, there is essentially no hope of a conversation. A typical conversation goes something like “Blah, blah blah [Japanese that I don’t understand, usually including arigato goziamashita]”, my response “Sumimasen, [some request in English unless it happens to be one of the very few phrases I know in Japanese, like Mizu o kudasai or sake o kudasai, or something similar”], followed by Japanese person doing their best in English and generally getting the point across, all the while smiling and internally thinking “Baka gaijin!”, or in the more rare cases of complete communication failure, the Japanese person going “Wakarimasen. Blah, blah, blah [Japanese that I don’t understand] followed eventually by a shrug.
Of course, that is mostly my fault for not learning much more Japanese than a two year old, but it doesn’t make it any easier to bear… Talk about being a stranger in a strange land…. Damn Japanese Italian places… why the hell would they play Nora Jones?!
On top of that I spent about 20 minutes trying to find Mibu Gishi Den with no help (since all the salespeople were swamped) in Bic Camera. Of course, I had to do this the only way I knew how, by comparing the kanji on the printout I have of the Mibu Gishi Den box with every DVD box I could find… Guess how incredibly tedious that is… and the end was no Mibu Gishi Den. I am not giving up though… I will check in Akihibara on Saturday. And of course I have about 3 hours of work to do and it is already 8:30pm… and I am really jet lagged… sigh………………………………….
Hey man, we’re going to have a great time in May, just like we did in London and Paris. Language barrier or no language barrier… 🙂 *HUG* Oh, by the way, I’m here and thinking about you, so you’re not entirely alone. I mean, sure, my telepathy is minimal, but I’m trying, dangit!
Mibu Gishi Den is a movie I’ve wanted to see for a long time myself! Cool! I salute your dedication to try to match the printout’s kanji against all known movies, without knowing their sorting scheme. That takes true dedication!
It sounds like your suppliers are not going to wine and dine you? Where is the Japanese hospitality? Rather than Nora Jones how about a song you used to seranade us with when you were a little guy, “The sun will come up tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there’ll be sun!” See you very, very soon……love you lots