Day 170 (First Date with a Japanese Girl) - Friday, September 5, 2008

Day 170 (First Date with a Japanese Girl)

Ok.. so I taught 3 classes today at my furthest school then I went to the bank to lodge some money and also went to the gas station. Darn gas is so expensive nowadays... The company I work for called me today and told me that the car mechanic place from yesterday will tell them the cost for getting a new compressor. I told them that there is no way I was going to pay for fixing a car A/C that suddenly got broke, 4 months after I got it... They went on to tell me that I had a 3-month warranty and everything else after that 3 months, I will have to pay for... I then told them I still not paying for a thing that goes broken or bad if it's no fault of mine, under 1 year...

Anyway.. I went on a little date with a Japanese girl that I met in the train while heading to Niimi last week. Please, don't think anything, it's just a simple date... (Comments from especially certain people like Richard on this matter are not welcomed :D ) ... We met at Okayama and we went to a little restaurant. She speaks and understands English pretty well as she studied English Literature in University.. she said her sister wants to meet me as well but she is at work. 

After we ate and chatted a little, she said she had to go because she had work the next morning. So she followed me to the Jamaican restaurant and then she went home afterwards. She said she works at an internet company and she is extremely busy... anyway that was the date pretty much... Yes, I know very boring, all we did was chat and eat... I was forewarned by many friends that people in Japan (both males and female..but mostly females) have no time for themselves and they LOVE to punish themselves with work. I see it for myself... It's like the opposite of Jamaicans, we long for a holiday, the Japanese, don't want any holiday. Its drilled in their heads from they are children to work work work until you die...I see even old 80 add year old women and men delivering mail and driving big vans... Yes SERIOUSLY!!! I am not sure if I have ever seen an 80 add year old woman in Jamaica doing that...

 OOh and in general, if the Japanese are not working and being busy, something is wrong... They enjoy being busy ...YUH MADD MAN... I even saw this in Germany, as soon as you start a conversation with the Japanese who I met there, they tell you they have to go because what??? THEY ARE BUSY!!! Doing what???... Although I know I can be very busy body sometimes, I do need rest from time to time, then I want to go out again... Most Japanese I meet, they don't want to rest, except for the the 5 or 6 hour sleep in the night...They don't like holidays, because they miss work... WHAT THA???

Ok so I went to the Jamaican restaurant where these many Japanese people are obsessed with Jamaica and our lifestyle but as soon as they see me an actual Jamaican, I get the feeling like "what the heck is he doing here?" kinda look... however as soon as I talk to them, they seem cool... This thing at the Jamaican restaurant was an event that we had to pay for dubbed, "Jerk Chicken night"... There were 2 persons collecting money at the door...So I told the girl I was from Jamaica and she probably thought I was lying.. She even said, what did you say "You are from Africa?" I said "No!!!, Jamaica".. she said her Ex-Boy friend is actually from Jamaica....

Now, apparently, because I wasn't smoking a spliff or parading in my Jamaican colours, she some how heard Africa... At the Jerk chicken night, there was this Japanese guy playing the steel pan, and he was pretty good at it actually. He attempted to sing our Jamaican song "Carry mi Ackee guh a Linstead Market" He didn't do too bad but some of his pronunciations were wayyy off.. Well hey the Japanese who were present didn't have a clue what he was saying, and they loved it, so he did well...He also attempted the Jamaican old hit song that say something " time is hard but I'm holding on, I'm going to be your number 1" something something something...

He didn't do to badly with it either... My deduction from all of this Japanese craze over the Jamaican culture in Okayama is that, these Okayama-based Japanese, are not necessarily interested at all in meeting a Jamaican, but they like the Japanese guys who pretend to be Jamaican and try to act like us... Bwoyy ohh bwoy... so weird..

The owner of the Jamaican restaurant is a Japanese guy who spent 1 year in Jamaica with some Rastafarian men. He has a tattoo of a weed on his right hand and a tattoo of Bob Marley on his back. He said he spent 1 year in Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth. He said the last time he went back to Jamaica was 7 years ago though...

I spoke to a couple of the Japanese people there and they were surprised at the level of my Japanese, which I am sure is very low, but they think it's wonderful. For some strange reason, when a foreigner, even worst a black foreigner, speaks Japanese to a Japanese they can't believe it. They somehow think that it's impossible to learn their language if you are not from Japan. My friend said it right, that Japan is a first-world country but generally has a third-world mentality and behaviour, in a general sense that is. Some of them wonder how is it that I can drive... WHAT???? Even my IC last week wondered how I got 100% on the very easy written driving test that maybe a grade 3 kid could have passed as well.


Anyway, after the Jerk Chicken night celebrations which ended at about 2:30 am.. I had to search for an internet cafe to go and sleep at. I walked all over Okayama at that time of the morning, searching for an internet cafe. I think it took me about 45 minutes to find the very first one in which the receptionist told me it was filled to the capacity... I asked him for another 1 and he gave me directions... I then went to a 24 hours Mcdonalds and they directed me... I went there and slept for about 5 hours....