The true Japanese experience

The work party on Friday night was actually a bit better than I expected, if only for the sake of change. Rather than things disintegrating into karaoke and whiskey (not that there's anything wrong with that), we ended up at a classy bar drinking out of absurdly big wine glasses and being served cheese and chocolate by the Japanese equivalent of Eric Clapton in a waistcoat. This was the first chapter in a recent trend of doing very non-Japanese things. Somewhat ironically, after spending a lot of my downtime last weekend playing a game where you aim to exterminate mankind with a new virus, I've found myself struck down by another doom flu. It's really not doing much for my sense of adventure wanting to leave KFC.

That's not to say we haven't been enjoying it - Lisa tells me it's a good thing for a wine glass to look more like a soup bowl. "It helps the wine to breathe without a decanter," she begins, before stopping to look annoyed at how much I'm sniffing. Maybe I'm the one who needs a decanter. The chocolates were amazing and so was the cheese, although I was surprised at our Japanese coworkers forgoing the crackers entirely and eating big wedges of Camembert the size of Laughing Cow triangles. Japan tends to be a bit all or nothing at times - it's either fiercely Japanese or anything-but-Japanese and this place was definitely the latter. In the big cities especially, you're just as likely to find a French patisserie as a teppanyaki place, an afro-toting Japanese hip hop dancer as a girl in a kimono. Their take on the rest of the world may be a little unusual at times, but they still do a good job of it for the most part (especially if it's old fashioned). We also managed to arrange a few dinner parties with the others that we'll each have a go hosting - our turn might be interesting given that we have no chairs and 1 portable gas burner.

Saturday we abruptly decided we were going to KFC and did so, then made the exciting discovery that Japanese rice makes a mean risotto. Yesterday, we went to IKEA fully intent on buying drawers but ended up spending most of our time (and money) in the food bits. Long story short, we now have enough bagels, hot dogs, meatballs and cheese to stock a small bomb shelter (and a proper thing to hang my ties on). I'm equal parts ashamed and smug about all this blatant disregard for Japan - but even when immersing yourself, it's a good idea to come up for air every now and again. The Dime cake, though - that's something I have no excuse for.

The weather can't decide what to be up to at the moment - we've come through a cold snap and it seems to be stuck between coat and jumper weather now. I can only hope for glorious sunshine this week - on Wednesday I'm heading up for another school hike which I'm hoping is less chilly than last time. This time we'll be heading up Mt Rokko. The first years will be staying the night there but I managed to negotiate myself an early egress. I do still have to hike though, shaking my fist at the many teachers driving up in comfort. I overheard one of them dobbing me in for it, saying that "the hike will be much more interesting" - from afar, apparently. I'm hoping I've quit my pack-a-day tissue habit by that time, otherwise I'm going to need deep pockets.

Golden Week next week as well. Rough plans: introduce the miracle of Vegemite worms to one of my schools at the Culture Festival, go see the whirlpools on Awaji Island and attempt the tonkatsu challenge. 9 chicken schnitzels or something, that you have to eat by yourself. If you can't finish them, they let you take them home in what they call a yowamushi ("weakling") pack. I'm not sure if "winning" is the right word for finishing, but that's loser talk. Will let you know how I go if the hospital lets me take my laptop in.