I'm working out of town all this week in a town called Toyota City. It's not far from Nagoya (hence, it's quite far from Susono), so I'm staying in a hotel in nearby neighboring Okazaki city. Both Toyota and Okazaki have interesting histories. Toyota is the birthplace of Toyota cars (the town changed its name to Toyota after the Toyoda began mass-producing the awesome automobile); and Okazaki is famous as being the birthplace of Tokugawa Ieyasu (of the Tokugawa Shogunate). However, Shizuoka people take pride in the knowledge that Ieyasu's horse was buried in Shizuoka city!
So amidst this ancient and modern history I am spending my days and evenings. I had planned to get a few photos of Okazaki castle after work tonight, but the cold and the rain dissuaded me. Instead I went to a nearby mall, bought a 2 GB USB flash drive, made my way to a little Italian restaurant and, discovering that it was closed, found myself instead in a little local eatery.
I ordered the local specialty of miso-katsu (lightly battered deep-fried pork cutlets coated with miso-sauce) and a cold draft beer. It was a bit of a smoky place with some vociferous locals; naturally, I didn't exactly blend in!
Three older men who were drunkenly celebrating a birthday began chatting to me. They said Hello, I said Hello. A few minutes later the one furthest from me figured out that I wasn't Japanese! He apologised and said I looked like a Japanese but with a bad hair colour. Ha.
Well, they left soon afterward, insisting that as soon as I was done eating there I should join them at the karaoke bar next door. Naturally, I opted out of the karaoke - but the whole chit chat was good Japanese practice!
And so ends my hump day out of town...
3 comments:
You aren't Japanese? How did I miss that?
Kind of cool that you could pass (even for a second) isn't it? I guess your accent and pronunciation must be good.
Kind of cool that you could pass (even for a second) isn't it? I guess your accent and pronunciation must be good. (I have no idea why I am being called oldmac all of a sudden) - bernicky
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