Making Friends (and Enemies)

I don't step foot in Hanoi for another couple of days and I've already made quite a few friends. Not only friendly local Vietnamese, but other foreigners alike. It's a good start. Maybe moving around a couple times as a kid has made me socially adaptable. yeah right.

I've also seem to have made an enemy. I got a pretty harsh message from a prospective roommate, upset because she found out (through other friends) that I was looking for other 'long-term arrangements' with other houses. This, after she did not respond to an e-mail for over a week, where I was asking for an update on when I could move in as the date was not set. She finally responded, yes, but asking me for a couple more days because the availability was 'now up in the air'. Maybe that was a mistranslation between American English and Quebec English, but I take that as enough uncertainty that dipping my feet in other housing adverts would be acceptable. Her e-mail basically ended with 'have a nice life', but I should be saying that to her, as I am sure she has a lot of difficulty with an attitude like that.

Good news is that I will now be moving into a much calmer house. With a Canadian couple and two Americans. The location seems more ideal, and there is this cute vegetarian restaurant really close by that I discovered on the New Hanoian. That's enough to convince me.

My time in Japan has been amazing, despite being low-fi, and just chilling with Jeannette. The food is much better, thanks to Jeannette's greater grasp on the ability to express the mind-blowing notion that vegetarian means no fish. Motto is really amazing, he made tempura for us the other night, and a sweet soba soup with fried tofu on the top. He's also been sharing the futon with me and Jeannette, Jeannette acting as a suitable heterosexual barrier between us. Her snoring also muffles out his own, and likewise for my sleeptalking. And so there is no embarrassment!

I've decided that while I am in Hanoi, I will start thinking more about possibly going to grad school. I would definitely consider studying in Japan. I've looked at university websites for schools in Kyoto and Hiroshima. Judging from their proper use of English, I would say they look pretty good!

Field Trip to Yamaguchi City in Pictures

We relaxed and dipped our feet in one of the city's foot onsens. After a while it get pretty crowded, but everyone was chatting to each other. It seemed like a big community thing, there was even a couple with a month-old baby!

Jeannette is obsessed with trying every weird flavour of soft-serve. This one is soba-flavoured.

Lighting an incense at the Pagoda in Yamaguchi.

People would leave offerings for the spirits, I think this one is for children. Yes, that is a doughnut.

The Pagoda.

Me and Beth, a fellow Canadian eating at this delicious macrobiotic vegetarian organic restaurant.

Instead of eating, you can always opt for a martini glass of these yummy green pills, that are much better than eating a basket of plastic fruit and vegetables.

Gaydar

The other night Jeannette and I went to this new bar with a bunch of other foreigners that was owned by two young Japanese brothers. The bar was about the size of my kitchen in Montreal, fitting only about seven chairs around the bar.

As two Japanese people entered the bar, everyone else left. Which was good, because I don't know how they would have fit in the bar. The girl was in a kimono, and immediately started talking to me and Jeannette. It turns out nobody spoke enough good English, and so we had to resort to primitive noises and gestures in order to communicate.

At one point while trying to describe a question for us, she had a cigarette pack on the right, a lighter on the left, and a pair of chopsticks in the middle. We had no idea what she was asking, and how all three of these objects related to each other. Finally it dawned on Jeannette: She had made a scale of sexuality, the cigarettes being 'Homo', the chopsticks being 'Straightu' and the lighter being 'Lezzu'.... of, of course! At this point it started to get uncomfortable, as she was obviously very drunk, and winking and licking her lips at Jeannette. She said she was a lighter - a Lezzu. I don't think this type of question is very common, and either it is quite obvious that I'm gay (which I just thought would not be too obvious in Japanese society were the guys spend so much money and time on clothes and their hair), or Jeannette and I happened to find the only gay hotspot in Tokuyama.

Either way, we both got molested by her, as she got up from the bar, she kissed me on the lips, and then proceeded to bite on Jeannette's nose while nuzzling Jeannette's head on the rough silk of her kimono... Yeah. Not awkward at all.

The point is, gaydar is international, all you need is the instruction manual in your language.

United Once Again!

So I've arrived at Jeannette's in Tokuyama. I am surprisingly not very jetlagged, I fell asleep around midnight and woke up around 9 am, which is my usual schedule. Other than a couple scary sleep talk/walking episodes that woke up Jeannette, I slept pretty well.

I finally met Motto, Jeannette's Japanese boyfriend. He is super nice, and he is just so cute the way he is a little awkward and dorky just like Jeannette. We went to a tempura restaurant near Jeannette's. I had a bunch of veggies dipped in the batter and fried, but the best was the nest of shredded carrot.

In terms of Hanoi, I think an apartment will finally work out, after having another apartment not fall through. This time, it's with a Canadian couple who lived in Montreal for a while.

It's strange to think that my life has pretty much changed now. I'll never be able to go back to Montreal, to my apartment and to my boyfriend. This isn't a vacation. It's just the next step in my life.

Land of the Rising Sun: Japan.

Sorting of this sort would never be acceptable in Montreal. People get upset that they have to separate plastic from paper

We flew over Lake Winnipeg, through the prairies and then into the tundra of the Yukon and Alaska

This was the flight route from Chicago to Tokyo

I am in Tokyo right now, waiting for my plane to Hiroshima. I feel just a little dirty and very tired.

I had this unexpected cold develop over the last couple of days, and I am thankfully feeling better. It might be because I accidentally took twice the dosage of Cold-FX last night and this morning.

I swear that as I get older, I become more and more terrified of things... like for instance flying. I am always convinced that just one turbulent motion or one 'unstable air pocket' is enough to send the plane rocketing to the bottom of the ocean, or to some suburban neighbourhood, destroying the local Wal-Mart and and most of the McDonald's drive through. Once we landed in Chicago, I told myself I was done with this trip. And it was only 3 hours into a total of a 27 hour journey... and this 27 hour journey isn't even my final destination!

I forgot how great Japan is. I am sitting at Gate B of Narita Airports domestic departures terminate, and it is pretty much silent except for the faint traditional Japanese music playing the background. And the way the people great you, smiling with the whole face, and repeating over and over and over again how much they want to thank you... arigato gozaimasu!! It's nice.

Lunch was even good on the plane. Some weird concoction of steamed vegetables, sushi rice and tomato sauce... and then a plate with about one third of a gherkin, a fourth of a shitake mushroom and some baby corn.

I'm glad I am taking a week to just chill with Jeannette. It's a much needed break from all the stressful preparations... But I asked myself on the plane while over the Pacific "What the fuck am I doing?!"