Nihonjin (Japanese people)

This weekend I fully appreciated the Japanese people that have befriended me.

On Friday I went to Osaka and met up with Nobuko for coffee and Miyuki and her boyfriend for dinner. I know Nobuko and Miyuki from university, they both came to Mount Allison on the MASSIE program and were my friend Julie's and my (respectively) conversation partners. I randomly met up with Nobuko at the Osaka train station last fall, and she helped me get in touch with Miyuki. This was my second time meeting up with each of them. Nobuko and I chatted about life as a teacher (she's thinking of maybe becoming one) in the afternoon, and then I met Miyuki and her boyfriend for a Mexican food dinner. The first time I met up with Miyuki, I told her I was going for Mexican food later and she said that she couldn't even imagine what that would be like, so I told her I'd take her. I also got to meet her boyfriend and they were really cute together-- and they liked the food.

On Sunday I went to an all female choir concert in the next town over. I was invited to go by Yuki, whose mother was in the choir, and used to be a teacher at the junior high (the mother)-- which is how I met Yuki in the first place. The music teacher from the Junior high was the pianist, and some of the choir members looked familiar, I have a feeling half of them live in my town I and that's how I recognize them. It felt good to feel like a part of the community and not just be staring a sea of strangers.

There were 4 parts to the concert, and costume changes for each part. The 2nd and 3rd acts were my favourite.Act 2 was all English songs. Over the Rainbow, Moon River, Shall We Dance, Amazing Grace- gospel style, and Hail! Holy Queen a la Sister Act! They got really into most of the songs and had some pseudo dancing with them, and a tambourine for Hail! Holy Queen. The pronunciation wasn't perfect, more "Over za rainbow" than "Over the rainbow" but some of these songs were really difficult and fast, so I was pretty impressed.

The 3rd act was The Sound of Music themed, but the songs had all be put into Japanese. There were Japanese versions of "Do re mi," "Edelweiss," and "So long, farewell", all sung by elementary school students, many of them my students. They were amazingly cute and swayed to the music, along with some choreography copied from the movie. After the concert the performers all lined up for people to congratulate-- my students were super excited to see me and I gave them all high fives. Yuki's mom was also really happy to see us there (even though she's been singing in the choir for about 10 years, this was Yuki's first time seeing her sing). The choir was great-- they have been practicing for about a year and their hard work paid off.

Later I went to my ikebana class, did the arrangement and then talked a bit with my teacher, which lead to her inviting me to go out for dinner with her and her husband! We went out for Kansai style okonomiyaki and talked about places they've visited and the height of foreigners.

Even though my Japanese is minimal and I only have known most of these people for (less than) 10 months, they were all generous with their time, willing to talk, and even went out of their way for me. Sometimes I wonder why I decided to stay in Japan, and then I remember that the kindness of the people I meet makes me feel at home in a land that couldn't be more different than Canada. I want to get to know them better and have the opportunity to show them the kindness they've shown me.