April 28

Today was pretty great. It started with pancakes (always a good thing to start with) and the new frying pan. I managed to make pretty pancakes this time. :D Okaasan ate the smallest (and rather circular) one, though I couldn’t persuade her to eat more. She told me I was jouzu because I moved the pancakes around on small plates without spilling or puncturing them.

After commuting, I went to Carl’s ryou, where the band practiced before going to the Logos Center for the party. As it happened, the party was much delayed due to the cooks taking a long time and I had a hard time singing with my band because the promised microphones were not to be had. Regardless, we were a smash hit, not to mention it was fun.

The performances started with Kelly singing a song she wrote about IJ 400 (while playing guitar!), then there was an elaborate piano performance, sparring (a bit awkward to watch), Keily doing a Hawaiian dance, and finally, our band. Everyone was impressed by the transitions between the songs (Carl really put it together well). Someone has video footage and we got band pictures afterward. :D We got a lot of compliments too throughout the day, which was really nice. (:

When the party was officially over (when we ran out of performances) some of the class hung around and talked (this was the best part). We found that Ryan is a pretty impressive guitar player and singer as well and a few of my classmates want to get together for jam sessions (for lack of better words). I want in on it too, especially with the bass. :D The other good outcome of the “after-party” was that David and Matt want to go to Osaka (and Nara since it doesn’t cost much more) with me. That means; no solo boringness in the city of entertainment. We’ll probably miss Mike when he goes (he’s planning on biking to Nara Friday, when we’ll already be in Osaka) but I guess it’s the price to pay to see super cars at Suzuka.

After this was hanga, where I turned in my prints and tried to get my professor’s signature for ISEP. Luckily, the nice lady from CJS (the one who helps me with the issues concerning government) was conducting the end-of-class survey and instructed me on the proper way to get the sheet signed. I figured it was just like the US, where it’s your own responsibility to get everything you need (in this case, ask the professors face-to-face for their signatures), but in Japan, the land of procedures and convention, you submit the paper to CJS and they request the signatures for you. It sounds like a convenient service, but I’m still skeptical of meeting deadlines when it comes to adding a middle-man. I’m really not worried though because the only use of the form I need signed is in the case that my transcript doesn’t show up from ISEP. In the worst (and improbable) case, I wouldn’t get credit for a few classes until I requested and received another copy of the transcript, but most of the classes don’t count toward my degree anyway.

I cleaned out my locker and went home around five-ish, putting me at my house around six, and soon after, I left with my family to go to kaitenzushi. I must say, I love kaitenzushi and there should definitely be a restaurant specializing in it in Raleigh. Okaasan wouldn’t eat much, but she kept telling me to pick up more plates. The thing was, all the types I wanted to try would come by at the same time, so there were lulls of no plates at my setting and at the other extreme up to three plates of yet-to-be-eaten sushi at my place. I felt kind of bad that way, so I offered some to okaasan and otousan, but they were usually uninterested. Together, we had twenty-seven plates total. I got to try all sorts of sushi like; tenpura squid, maguro (fatty), two types of mackerel, onigiri-esque ebi tenpura, some white fish that looked like a flattened centipede (because it had points that looked like legs), an egg (not sushi), maguro roll, and a couple of things okaasan gave to me. I felt kind of bad because I couldn’t usually fit an entire piece of sushi in my mouth, but of course, the nori will not tear easily, so I had to chew with an unusually full mouth or not-so-elegantly try to cut the sushi.

Otousan had a plate of nattou sushi (nattou wrapped in nori). I’m not sure how he ate it because it looked like stroganoff (greyish-brown, lumpy, cottage-cheese like substance). Okaasan taught me about snooty restaurants. I asked her if kaitenzushi was uninteresting from a Japanese person’s point of view and she said it wasn’t particularly interesting, but it was fun and enjoyable because you could relax and eat what you wanted. She said that at expensive (I’m guessing really expensive) restaurants, the chefs choose their clients (and refuse them if they don’t think they look up-to-par) and direct them how to eat their food because they are so proud of their creations. Okaasan says it’s not fun to have to worry about the price of everything or get dressed up either, which is a bigger issue at expensive places. I was shocked to hear that restaurants choose their clients, but I guess I shouldn’t because when people have a lot of money, they tend to abide by weird social rules.