Viva Mexico!

Howdy y'all! It's been a while since I've posted! I have a huge backlog of things to write about from over vacation, and I double pinky promise to have it up by Friday. Really. Would I lie to you?

Well, I can safely say that this was the best Tuesday I've had since coming to Japan.

Oh, but it didn't start off very well. Just before I got to the bus stop, I realized that I forgot my wallet at home, meaning we had to drive all the way home to get it. And the streets get crowded close to 8. I finally made it to the station at 8:13, and just barely made the 8:15 train. But any later, and I would have been in big trouble making it to Doshisha on time.

On the upside, we got our monthly allowances today. Well, that minus cost of books, so sans 26000 yen for me. The 11000 yen I got won’t even cover my train pass this month. Looks like I'm going to have to take out money again...

Also, since I had thoroughly failed to print out my essay on Monday, I dropped by Hirano-sensei’s office to hand in my paper. But we actually wound up talking for almost an hour. At first, I was explaining my dissatisfaction with my host family - lots of little things that were adding up to a lot of stress. As it turns out, he was totally sympathetic to my plight. It seems that he had a lot of similar issues with his home stay when he was in England. We're going to chat again next week to come up with the best solutions for my problems. Then, I mentioned how I was hoping to get the KCJS summer grant and stay on over the summer, which he encouraged me to do. We talked a bit about why I came to Japan, finding “my calling” (influenced by Soseki’s essay discussed in class), and then my plans post-graduation. He suggested I consider aiming for a Fulbright scholarship, which sounds like a viable plan to me. On the way out, I mentioned that I was headed for reina de reina for dinner, and as it turns out, he had been, and recommended it quite strongly.

I hung out in the café for a while with Kaori and Tala-chan, a combination I can always count on for a laugh. Kaori was reading some sort of document about famous writers, which bored me the moment I looked at it. Tala turns to me and says, “How could you be bored! It’s about famous authors, like Miller and Balzac-”, at which point I collapse laughing. Balzac. Say it out loud. Is there really a guy out there with that name? I feel so, very sorry for him. Tala picked up on the hilariousity of the name, and joined me in my (probably really disruptive to other groups) laughter. Kaori, not quite sure what was so funny, asked us why we were laughing, which lead into another amusing session of “teach dirty slang to Japanese students.” Tala and I DIED laughing.  Incidentally, there’s an amusing slang word in Japanese that can be roughly translated as “endurance soup”. I’ll let you figure THAT one out.

笑

Now that we got that out of our system, onwards. I rounded up the gang (Nick, Tina, Dani, Yuka, and new friend Ayaka). 

*********We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for breaking news: Star Wars VII?! What is this madness? *********

We hopped onto the 201 bus down to Heian Jingu, and made our way over to the restaurant. Kenji was way ahead of us, having already been seated inside. And boy, was this place authentic looking! I swear, I could barely tell it was still Japan (okay, the menu and the waitress speaking Japanese were dead giveaways, but.) Having a Mexican in the party definitely made things more interesting. For one, Tina helped us pick out a nice variety of dishes to try. And when they came out, I was damn impressed. Tacos, nachos, flautas, and some other things I’ve never tried before. Boy, was it tasty! And I knew it was good because Tina was impressed as well. The sauces were spicy and jalapeño filled, and there was definitely cilantro somewhere in there. Oh, and she translated the music for us too! I heard many “songs of [the Mexican] people”, and learned that most songs revolve around three things – women (usually of the broke-my-heart variety), horses, and chickens. Occasionally, all three. Fun was had by all, and I think I’ve found another entry for my book, “Places to Eat in Kyoto (If You’re Tired of Cafeteria Food).” I’ll be back, that’s for sure. They even have live mariachi music sometimes! I think we’ve found a door to another dimension.

I’m sure nobody realized it, because it was cloudy as all hell, but it was the full moon last night. And I wanted to do tsukimi, because I said so. But everyone was tired/busy/had to go home. LAME. I was just about to go off and hitorizake, but Yuka decided to join me. I’m glad she did, drinking alone is damn lonely, even on a pretty night. We made our way across town to the Kamo (Kamo River = Kamo) and hung out for a while. It was chilly, and I fear the day we can no longer drink at the Kamo is soon approaching.

But for now, our precious party spot remains available, as long we’re prepared to face the chilly Kyoto breeze.