Shabu Shabu and War Faces

Back to late posting, yay! -.- This month is... hectic. Super busy every week at work, all kinds of overtime, and my free days are mostly spent inside because of the bad weather, trying to study Japanese and recuperate from the work week. This isn't bitching so much as offering a weaksauce explanation for why my blogs are so boring of late.

This week I went to a shabu shabu restaurant with Naoko. She found out I'd never had it before and insisted that we go. It just occurs to me now that I forgot to take pictures, but it was delicious. Really, it was a lot like the nabe I had before, so it wasn't quite the "new" experience I was hoping for. Whatever, still good and different enough to be interesting. I am routinely delighted to have Naoko with me at restaurants. For the company, of course, but also for her ability to order things. When we're looking at the menu and discussing what to get, I always think to myself, "Yeah, I could probably order this stuff if I needed to. I mean, I'm talking to Naoko about it with no problems." Then the waiter/waitress comes and Naoko starts speaking something that I'm not even entirely positive is Japanese. It's similar to Japanese. It's Japanese-esque. But the words come out so fast and use so many sounds I can't recreate that it all becomes a blur and suddenly there's food in front of us. Usually it's what I thought we were going to order. Sometimes it's a surprise.

I also started to play Disgaea 4 this week. In Japanese. With kanji. I don't understand the conversations so much as stare at the screen in abject horror and resist the urge to run screaming into the night. Sometimes I get the overall meaning of what they're saying. The main character talks about sardines, promises, and sardine promises a lot. It's a learning process. Naoko says the Japanese they use is strange and difficult. I say I'm just not good enough at Japanese.

I also handed out flyers this week for work. Again. And got shafted on the overtime pay. Again. This time it was sunny, at least. There were also about 4-5 other groups of people handing out flyers... the poor students were just there to see their results for entrance exams, but first they got barraged by people shoving flyers in their faces. I felt horrible as they tried desperately to find room for our flyers while they were already holding a stack of other flyers. Yuko said they're used to it though because it happens all the time.

Random shit!:

1.)

One of my students gave me a present because she knows I like sweet food! It was decent, but I have no idea what was inside of it. Some kind of green paste with what I first thought were bits of chocolate, but were actually a seed of some sort. I think.

Naoko made me adorable rabbit cookies! Because she's awesome. She even put them in an adorable bag with Engrish on it! "Have a tea time with me." I'm pretty sure she doesn't realize that second part, or the fact that I love Engrish, but it still counts.

I have come to the conclusion that Naoko enjoys making faces out of food. Pistachios that my mom sent to me because she rocks. The eyebrows on this thing make me believe that this pistachio face has impure intentions. Probably toward your daughter. Just sayin. It looks like that kind of pistachio face.

Apparently this comes from a shrine. Naoko says parents get them for their children so that they'll grow up strong.... Parents buy penis lollipops with girl faces on the wrapper for their children? WTF Japan?!

 And now for some much-needed motivation for my six day work week. Show me your war face!

PS - Holy crap, upon review of this post I just realized that every picture involves faces even though almost all of them are of inanimate objects. That was not intentional. I officially declare this to be the war face post.