Chapter 5: Mmmm...$200 pizza

You heard me. I did indeed have a $200 pizza. That also doesn’t include the other 4 courses we had, or the many, many beers. Of course I didn’t pay for this. This was a dinner I went out to with my host family from Kyoto who came up to visit me. The bill had to be an easy $500, and I’m thinking more like $700.

But putting money aside, it was wonderful to see them again! I hadn’t seen most of them in about 5 years. We just talked, got caught up with what happened in our lives in the last half a decade. It was good times. I reall like those people. Also, I noticed something funny. Something I hadn’t even thought about since being in Japan. OK, I’ve been here for a little over 4 weeks now (Seems much longer, ne?) and I struggle with my Japanese. I mean, I can get by, but things seemed easier before. Then on Saturday night, while having dinner with my host family from KYOTO, I could understand essentially everything they said, and I was able to easily respond. And I realized my Japanese teacher from UW was from OSAKA, and it hit me. Do you understand this? See what I’m getting at? KANSAI-BEN! It’s a dialect that the people from the Kansai (Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe) speak. Never occured to me that I’m not used to listening to Kanto people speak.

Here's a picture of me, Chiari, and Fukuyo



But anyways, we split at about midnight, and I hopped the Yamanote line. I then briefly met up with my old friend Sadako from Kyoto in Shibuya for a quick drink. It was basically a get caught up with old friends night. However, it seemed to also be a transfer night...from Kansai people, to Kanto people. Both with the language, and the people. I won't be seeing my host family too often, and Sadako is so damn busy with work it's essentially like she is dead. But new faces are too come, and good times as well.