TV party tonight!

Culture time:


Japanese TV, what is it?


It is not like American TV, that is for sure! The majority of the shows seem to be either like a game show or like an advertisement show (what are they called, on at two am in the states...oh, yeah, an infomercial; geez, how could I forget that?) with a liberal dose of the news sprinkled in, often every hour for a short bit. There are also a few dramas (translated soaps from Korea are supposed to be popular, but I really have no idea--I am still working on describing locations and asking where things are in Japanese). There is anime too, at 3am I am told; so if you want to stay up that late...


Let`s talk about the game show and advertisement show first. Here is a link to YouTube. Watch and return, please.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u171-byIUV4

Finished?

OK, what did you notice?


Yeah, it was like an infomercial. This was some super-high tech thing, but it could just have easily been for something common (a new rice cooker or coffee pot) or for a restaurant. However, unlike a regular infomercial, it is only a few minutes long. Some of the day talk shows have 2o minutes segments.

Did you notice there were two hosts at the egg dropping site outside the building? Very common. Back at the studio, there were probably a lot more. This is a morning show (did you notice the time and weather?), so there could be almost ten hosts. In addition to the lead or two leads there would be the headline news people, the sports, the weather and the gossip. In addition, there is the watching audience in the studio. Different from an audience in the states, these are a small select group of people who sit on the stage and are shown in a small box on the screen watching the same thing that you are. They tend to laugh when you laugh and cry when you cry. We western gaijin joke about how this is part of the Japanese way to never be alone.

How many people are on Today or Good Morning America?

One thing they do here that really strikes me is the use of boards with headlines and pictures. They do not do this during the evening news, but on another shows, especially the morning shows, they use physical boards to show things for which we would use computers for in the states. Sometimes they will have stickers covering an area and then pull off the sticker to show some special information. Sometimes you can tell the information is merely the blown up photocopy of a newspaper. In sports, they often add stickers to add information, like denoting an MVP.

For a sample of a game show, check out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc3zOSge9sY

Pretty hilarious, eh? They usually are pretty funny, even if you have no clue what is being said. A very important thing to know though is that these are not regular people off the street doing the contest. There is a whole profession of people who go from show to show as guests. They also are often on commercials. There is even a stable of foreigners who know Japanese and do these shows! These shows often have a regular studio audience watching, but not always.


One last sample:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YwoP0thR1k&mode=related&search=

I didn`t watch this one all the way through. I chose it because it has the all-important subtitles. So many shows have subtitles, even in the original Japanese. If a person is being interviewed, you can read his/her words on the screen 99% of the time. Well, you would if you could read Japanese! I have been frustrated a few times during the news when they are interviewing an English speaker and they not only dub what he/she is saying but also subtitle it in Japanese.

Just so you know, they do have regular infomercials too. I was up at 5:30am to go to Osaka Saturday and their was an infomercial about some weird vacuum thing. They had Japanese testimonials interspersed with footage from the states or Europe; those were probably from an infomercial! Yes, infomercials are terrible no matter where you live!

A Monday and a Sunday

Monday was a really busy day for me.

The first thing I did was take the hour-long train ride to Fukuoka (the big city north of my little town that is the local center of commerce and partying). I rode the subway to the airport, which is closer to the center of town than Salt Lake`s airport is (there are no really tall buildings in Fukuoka due to the closeness of the airport; that closeness is one of the town`s selling points). There I got my multiple re-entry visa. The visa allows me to leave and enter Japan as many times as I like in the next three years. Before I had the visa, I did not have permission to leave and re-enter Japan!

One great thing is how nice people are. In getting my visa, I did not fill out the form right and I did not go buy the stamp (I`ll explain in a minute) before turning in my document. Add to those that my Japanese is so bad it is not even atrocious yet, and you could imagine a nightmare situation--if I were in the States. I actually cringed a little when the gentleman behind the counter started to point out that I did something wrong. In the states, we all have had experiences with the person behind the counter who is exasperated with our ineptness. Here, he just smiled and I said, `Sumimasen,` (excuse me) and bowed my head a lot. It worked, he was nice and I got what I needed.

The stamp is a common way to pay for things officially around the world. It looks like a postage stamp. Sometimes here in Japan they have machines that sells the stamps, but at the airport Office of Justice for Immigration I had to go out to the combini (convenience store) in the main hall and buy one. It works easily enough; the people behind the counter do not have to worry about money in addition to looking at all the weird passports!

After that I got my visa, I rode the subway back to the big Japan Railroad (JR) station in Fukuoka. Here I purchased a discount ticket for the Shinkansen--the bullet train. I`ll be riding it this Saturday to go to Osaka.

Then I hopped back on my local train (not JR, an independent transit company in my area: Nishitetsu) and rode back to my little town. There, I bugged my supervisor to help me with the paperwork for my car. Even he had a little trouble with it and he is Japanese; I am glad I did not try to do any of it! We took a short ride to the DMV (that is not what they call it, but that is OK) to turn in the paperwork. The car is now officially mine. (An amusing anecdote: In most places my name is written as Bramble Chad William because, as you might now, family names go first here. Twice at the DMV, different people called William-san to get my attention. And both times my supervisor and I sat there unknowingly waiting for the papers. When they said it the second time, it clicked that they were talking about me...)

Following this was a short nap...very important!

Then, Morgan and Maggie (my two locals) headed north to Costco. We missed our exit on the expressway (a big deal here!) but that just gave my my appetite more time to grow for the churos and pizza when we go there.

Yes, the Costco looks like a Costco anywhere (that is Maggie on the left; please call her Margaret when you meet her though). Sure some of the products are different, but it is still a giant, cavernous warehouse of a store. Meat and produce in the back, electronics near the front. And pizza, hot dogs (my mom will be happy to hear that!) and churos all can be enjoyed with unlimited drink refills.

Here is my list of what I bought:

Giant jar of pickles

Giant jar of salsa

4 giant bags of tortilla chips (one lime flavored)

2 giant jars of peanut butter (Skippy, one crunchy, one creamy)

2 giant jars of strawberry jelly (not as necessary as the peanut butter, but still...)

1 brick of Colby/jack cheese

1 box of 10 cans of refried beans

20 tortillas

asparagus (YUM!)

celery (which I amusingly shared with my teachers at school--with peanut butter!)

1 box of 28 packages of microwave popcorn.

Maggie gave me half a dozen bagels.

I feel like I am forgetting something...

Don`t you just love Costco?

Yeah, it was a busy Monday.

Why did I have Monday off? Because Sunday was the sports day at the elementary school that I go to on Mondays. Everybody works really hard for a sports day and then they get the next Monday off. Sound fair?

The sports days are long, elaborately planned events where the teachers have charts of how the field is supposed to look for every event and they, with the help of a few of the older students, run out in between events and quickly (in less than five minutes) set up everything for the next event. They did, 5 hours of events, what would have taken the average American school two days to do. There was little sitting around being bored for the students--all 400 of them. If the students were not participating in a particular event, they were cheering for the current participants and/or lining up for the next event.

The school was evenly divided into four teams: Red, Blue, Yellow and Green. They all wore their regular sports uniforms, with their cute hats that have a chin strap and the foldy bit in back to protect their necks (like a Legionaires cap). Attached to the front of their hats, above the brim, was a colored piece of cloth that said their number (for competitions) and their grade. This cute toothless wonder is on the blue team. (You can click on the picture to see it bigger.)

To start all the teams congregated on the center of the field which was surrounded by tents. The tents were good because we had a little rain in the morning (which in turn was good because it kept the dust down).

After listening to some speeches (including a cute one by the first graders), the day began. Most of the activities were races--regular relay races, silly relay races (one involved costumes and pulling people from the audience, one involved running while holding a ball between two bodies (or two balls between three bodies, or four balls between five bodies!) without using hands, and the funnies one involved a pole that the kids had to use to circle a cone with--the inside person was desperately trying to swing the pole around while the outside person was running as fast as they could in a huge circle trying to hang on to the pole!)

There was also a cheer competition where 12 boys and girls, led by a drummer, led the rest of the team in cheers. I slept through the dancing section that was after lunch though!

I wore my red Bronx Arts T-shirt. I don`t have many Salt Lake shirts (the SL,UT one only actually) while I have a few NYC. But not to worry! I found someone who was happy to represent for me!

The elementary teachers had an inkai (remember what that is?) but I was not invited. That is OK, though, I could not have imagined going drinking the night before my big day (Visa, Shinkansen tickets, car paperwork, and Costco). I`m sure they will invite me next year.

Finally, fruit news: I had my first green tangerine (yes, Beatles buffs, it does exist!) and a persimmon (a date-plum, known to the Greeks as the fruit of the gods).

News and Money

Hi!

Long time here, all my fault!

Coming up in the weather, it is still way too hot!

But first, the news:

First Item: I found out lots of information about our winter break recently. First, I found out that it is two weeks long. That made me happy. I thought we had one day free, Monday, December 24, the Emperor`s Birthday, and I was going to take paid holiday time for any of the days off I wanted. I was thinking I would just take the four days off after that holiday (which includes Christmas) and then go to work for a week (going to the community center like I did most of August). With this information I approached Uncle Gabby in the Philippines about visiting for Christmas. He said yes.

Then I found out more information; namely that New Years here is a four day holiday. That means I could take 2 weeks vacation and only take five days vacation (called nenkyu). Not sure what to do with myself for two weeks!

Second Item: Another important bit of news: I bought a car. It is a used car. It is a `99 Honda Life. It is white and small. That is the best description I can give it. Here in Japan, they have a special classification of cars called Kei cars. They have to be under 660cc to be called a Kei car as well of being small in stature. This is the only kind of car I can get and drive with my International Drivers License. (If I want to stay a second year, I will need to get a Japanese licence, which would also allow me to drive a normal size car.) For a little more detail on the history of Kei cars, I urge you to go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keicar.

I am not supposed to drive the car for work. My supervisors originally told me I could not have a car. However, there was nothing about it in the contract and, as I am an adult, I decided to buy one from an American girl whose International Drivers Licence had expired. It was cheap but in good shape. My supervisors have since told me I am not to drive it for work--whatever that means. To work? At lunch while working? I am not sure. I really don`t mind this as my school is only 5 minutes away by bicycle. Well, the jr. high, is. The elementary school I go to on Mondays is a lot farther and I may not remember the injunction not to drive on cold, windy, wet, rainy days when both I and Maggie, the other English speaker/teacher in my town, have to travel north on those days. I might have to give her a ride for her health! And mine too, of course.

The car also means we can go to the Costco that is near the Fukuoka city (yes! Costco) or any number of the onsens (hot spring) around the island. My bike still seems like the best way to get around, but for weekend trips, the car will be good.

The love hotels are also more easily accessible by car, lol.

I am also now super popular as the only one of us non-Japanese folks with a car.

Third Item: Baseball!

I have joined a local baseball team. We had two games on last Sunday. I was supposed to play in the second, but we got rained out. :( We have rescheduled for next Sunday. After the game, we are having a little inkai to welcome me. (If you forgot what an inkai is, look at the first Japan post. And then think, hmmmm, he is going drinking with a bunch of men after playing baseball...yeah!)

Fourth Item: Baseball!

Yes, again! A group of us led by my supervisor went to the big city (Fukuoka) and watched the local big team play. They are called the SoftBank Hawks. (SoftBank is a cellphone company. All the teams are owned by big companies and their names reflect it (the opposing team was Nippon-Ham Fighters from Hokkaido). This isn`t so different than naming locales after companies--the Delta Center, ahem, excuse me, the Energy Solutions Center anyone?) The game was at the Yahoo Dome). There were six of us: my supervisor, his wife, their daughter (Chikako from the rafting trip), her boyfriend, Maggie (the other English speaker/teacher--she is from New Zealand) and I went. Lots of fun. The home team crushed the opponents, 10-0, which made it extra fun for our first game.

The Yahoo Dome is small compared to the MLB venues I have been to in the states, but I guess it is perfect for Japan where most things seem just a bit smaller (did I mention my car?). It is an indoor area, which is important seeing how often it rains `round here! For days when it doesn`t rain, they can retract part of the roof and they light off fireworks when the Hawks win.

=============================
OK, now for your Japan lesson. This week, I want to talk to you about money.

You probably know the Japanese currency as the Yen with sign, ￥. But here it is merely called `en`. The current rate is about ￥115 to US$1, but it does vary a little bit. It has come down in the past few years from 120, which is really bad when you think the US$ has gone down to other major currencies, including the Canadian dollar and, more importantly, the Euro.




There are only 3 bills. The ￥1000, the ￥5000, and the ￥10000. Each bill gets progressively a little larger in physical size.

There are 6 coins. The ￥1, the　￥5, the　￥10, the ￥50, the　￥100, and the ￥500. Imagine if we, in the USA, had dollar and 5 dollar coins. That is what the ￥100 and ￥500 coins are like. It makes a lot of sense as they last longer than bills. The two smallest coins are pert near worthless. You can`t use them in the vending machines--which I love and are ubiquitous--so what good are they? I save them in jar in the hallway. I am not sure what I will do with them yet, but I will find something good.

It is hard to talk more about the currency as things here are sometimes logically more expensive or less expensive or illogically so. You already heard about bread. One day soon, I will talk about those vending machines and that will cover drinks.

Oh my gosh, while writing this, I realized tomorrow is payday! Yay! I got paid once a month on the 22nd. As that is a Saturday this month, I get paid on the day before. Whoooooo!!!!

Summer`s Over

Funny that the last weekend of summer is the same as in the States. School started again on Monday and Saturday and Sunday were devoted to people doing one last thing.

Ok, you are thinking, that makes sense; but if I haven`t been teaching, what exactly have I been doing?

A whole lot of nothing is the fairly honest answer. Let me explain.

The Japanese school year starts in April. They have three breaks, including August. Most of the people in the program cannot come in April, so they send them in August. This give us a month to get up to speed and familiarize ourselves with our new lives.

I live in town called Mizuma. Two 1/2 years ago, it was swallowed up by a larger nearby city (Kurume). However, the town retains some of its independence. It has a town council of sorts and its own library. For the past month I have been going into the community center which shares space with the library. My supervisor works here. The community center used to have total control of the schools in the town, but now has to listen to the city. My supervisor (technically I have two at the community center--but I`ll try and talk about the other one another day) is the person I go to for all my problems first. If have trouble at the jr. high school (Mizuma Chugako, where I have an on site supervisor, the vice-principal) or at the elementary school that I go to on Mondays (Araki Shugako) that I cannot solve at the school, I am supposed to go to him. This is a good thing, because he is a really good person.

His name is Tanaka. That is his family name; I just call him Tanaka-san. His first name is Mitusmi (I think); they do not use first names here very often. He signed me up on his family plan so I could have a cell phone (81-9079206531, emperorchadeus@docomo.ne.jp) without waiting for an Japanese ID card (our `gaijin` card). Waiting is what I had to do for Internet at home (which I only got last week). He even came over and fiddled with things when I couldn`t get the Internet to work (it worked, too--fiddling with the cords did the trick!). He has done even more than that, too...

Knowing there is no way I could ever really pay this kind man back, I paid for him and his daughter, Chikako (who speaks some English; Tanaka-san does not), to go on an excursion with me: our last summer thing.


We took a 3 hour bus ride south. There we had a 2 hour boat ride through some minor rapids (the long boat just cuts through the rapids) and then lunch. Lunch was in the restaurant above the shops of a tourist spot--a cave. We even walked thorough the cave. All this was only US$8 so it wasn`t like I was going way out of my way to pay; I was just being nice. Of course, to pay me back, we went out for sushi with his wife and Chikako`s grandmother Sunday evening when we returned.

Yeah that is the kind of guy Tanaka-san is. I`ll never be able to pay him back.

(If I can get the technology to work, I will put a movie of the boat ride we took. It is only a minute long and it is from my phone, but you can see how beautiful and green it is here. Please check back.)

Tonight is Judo. He is the head teacher of 5 teachers with about 45 students of varying ages, 5 to 15. If I get a gei--which are expensive, like US$100 for the cheap ones!--and yes, they have my size--I might be able to participate. I think my going makes him happy, even if I just sit for now.



Finally, I have Skype. It is an Internet service that allows you to call using your computer instead of a phone. If you have Skype, which requires a faster Internet line and a headset, my ID is chad.bramble (I know, I know, real imaginative!). If you don`t have Skype, I also signed up for a Utah number: You can call me there anytime. If am not online at home, you can leave a message on my voice mail and I will get it later. What will this cost you? Well, how much does a call to an 801 area code number cost you now? That much.

The Bread Blog!

I have to decided to devote this blog to yet another burning question many of you have: What do I eat? The simple answer, that takes up one-third of the week is bread because I eat it with peanut butter for breakfast everyday. Yup, plain old white bread. It isn't like I have much choice... Take a look at the bread aisle at the store I like to visit most often. At the head of the aisle there are two brands of bread. Down the side are more choices of rolls and sweet things. There is something like a baguette sometimes, but it just doesn't look right to me.

Back to the two brands at the head of the aisle. The red package is more expensive than the blue; I do not know why. It only occupies the top shelf. I do not think the blue is bad so that is what I buy and eat. (The bread packages are one of the few things that do not have a description in English, but as it is obviously bread, that is not a problem!) The packages all come in the same weight, but you have your choice of five or six slices in a package at the same price. That means if you buy five slices your slices will be thicker so that your package equals the weight of the six slices. I go for the six slices because the bread is already sliced pretty thick.

Yes, you get six slices in a bag; not a loaf. And no heels. I wonder what happens to the heels of the bread here... A friend told me that they are anti-crust here. You've got me.

At home, I pop the bread in the microwave and hit the toast button that is at the bottom of the many buttons of my microwave (I have no clue what most of them do!). I wait about 6 or 7 minutes (I should have timed it for this blog) and bam, I have toast done English style--that is, toasted on one side.

My stove also has a toast function, a little area under the two burners, but I have not tried it yet. I'll get back to you on that.

Yes, I can get peanut butter here.
Unfortunately, my favorite store doesn't seem to have it. I made two mistakes and bought something (the left jar) called labelled whipped (a light, sweeter peanut butter type of thing) and something (right jar) labeled peanut cream (like an oozing peanut butter). These packages are mostly in Japanese, but I should have realized that what was in English was accurate. The peanuts on the package of cream (right jar) really helped me fall for it (and it is the worst of the two!).

I will have to run over to the other store--the true grocery store--today to get real peanut butter, because I am out. This small Peanuts jar (I don't know what to make of that branding: Peanuts brand peanut butter...) had almost two weeks worth of peanut butter. That is a regular size price tag on the jar to give you an idea of size. Pretty expensive too, at 285 Yen ($2.50 at the current 115 yen to $1US) but it was good at least. My only choice appears to be smooth. The bread was either 79 Yen ($0.70), just so you know.

There are, apparently, other ways to get peanut butter--including a Costco near Fukuoka city--that I will investigate later.

(One quick note, all the photos here were taken with my wonderful phone. I sent my camera to get fixed because I cracked the screen and I hope to have it back soon. In the meantime, please excuse the flash-less pictures!)

Quick update, Monday, August 27, 2007: I went to the store yesterday after posting the main article and found a different kind of peanut butter; it even came in creamy and crunchy! The bread at the `real grocery store' was twice as expensive, and they didn`t have my blue brand. I sure hope they aren`t putting sawdust in my brand to make it cheaper!

My Apartment

I know that everyone is just dying from curiosity: What does my apartment look like? I`ll answer that with pictures and words, but first let me tell you some important things. First, I do not live in a city. I live in a rural area that is about 20 minutes by train to the nearest big city. Looking out my window I cannot see any buildings higher than mine (three floors). There are rice paddies to the south and lots of wires. Lots and lots of hanging wires. No unobstructed views around here. (I should say to the east, across the train tracks there is a hospital that is five floors and it is a taller building than mine; I just don`t have a view of it.) Other people live in the Inaka (the countryside) too, but many people live in a city near other English speakers. I am alone except for a Kiwi (a New Zealander) who lives 10 minutes away by bike. It sounds to me like the people in the city tend to have dirtier apartments!

The first area, and one of the most important, is the entryway (genkan). Here you take your shoes off when entering. There is a appropriate way to do it: kneel, take off your shoes, turn them around so they face the door. I don`t do it at my place of course; nor do I offer slippers for my guests. But you still have to take off your shoes! One nice thing in my apartment is a small wooden cabinet in the entryway that has shelves for shoes. My big shoes don`t fit perfectly on all the shelves, but then again, I don`t use all the shelves. If you take two steps from the shoe area, you can go left to my bedroom or right to the bathroom. Keep going and you`ll go into the kitchen.

My bedroom is nice, it has a bed, a wardrobe and a traditional closet (sliding doors of regular height--about my height, not quite 6`--hide a huge area with one shelf halfway up and another smaller set of doors are above the main doors with another shelf area). The bedroom is 6 tatami in size. Tatami are traditional mats. When I tell others my bedroom (and my living room) is 6 tatami, they automatically know the size. The picture at Wikipedia is exactly the layout of my 6 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatami)--wish I had those beautiful doors in my room! The door frames in my place are just barely over my head. If you are taller than me, you will be doing a lot of ducking in my place.

The bathroom is nice. Like the bedroom it has a solid sliding door fusuma (the bedroom has two actually).

(Forgive the dim picture of the bathroom sink.) To the left of the sink is the toilet. It has one of those wonderful efficient tanks that with which you can regulate how much water goes in and you can wash your hands on top, too. (Toilets are going to have to have their own blog, don`t worry.) To the right of the sink is the shower/bathtub. The shower area is nice enough, I don`t have to crouch much to get m head under the nozzle. The hot water heater is on the porch near the washer, so it can take a while to get the hot water to the bathroom. It is a stand-in-shower area and you have to cross through it to get to the bathtub. I am not so sure what I think about the bathtub. For anyone to use it, they would have to sit with their knees bent to their chin. That is fine with me though as I actually never used the bathtub in my last apartment in New York City where I lived for three years.


If you ignore the bathroom and the bedroom, you`ll go into the kitchen/dining area. It is the biggest room in the house. All the amenities you could ever need--except a real oven. I have a two burner stove, a microwave, a rice cooker, a 3/4 size fridge and a sink. What? No toaster? Don`t worry, the microwave does that just fine. The kitchen, like the living room, has a sliding glass door that goes to the balcony. Right outside the kitchen is my washing machine. In the picture you can see one of the plants that the community center gave me. Very nice people there! They also gave me an electric kettle that looks nothing like a kettle and which I never use--I just boil water on the stove.

Also in the kitchen pictures you can see my futon--that long white padded looking thing. That is the traditional Japanese bed. Mine doesn`t fold up, so I usually throw it to one side in the kitchen. Why the kitchen, you ask? Because I am to lazy to take it to the bedroom. Now, I am sure you are really confused. Why don`t I take it to the bedroom? After all, all isn`t that where I sleep? And don`t I have a normal bed too? Yes, I have a normal bed, but right now it is to HOT to sleep anywhere but the living room where the A/C unit is. I drag the futon into the living room, slide the shoji (the sliding-glass doors with the small frames) shut and kick the A/C to 26C and sleep there.

My apartment is plenty large for me. Next door to me is a family of four. I am sure the little ones share a room. What is the living room for me is probably a bedroom for them.

Welcoming Inkai

And this was just the start. There were seven cold dishes on my plate: 1) sashimi in cabbage salad, 2) crab claws, 3) a whole fish, cut in half,with fish cakes 4) octupus, 5) sweet beans, 6) a whole shrimp with vegetables, 7) salted herring (I think!). In the front middle you can see a beer glass and a saki glass (the little blue one turned upside down): whichever one you chose, they would keep filling for you. If you wanted tea, they could do that too. Right behind the glasses is a glass bowl; this has the sweet beans in it--not baked beans mind you, something completely different.

Later they brought everybody a steak (I think, I didn`t try it) and I got a salad with tomato wedges and eggs. After that they brought us a small bowl of soup with sprouts and chicken. Then they brought us two slices of melon (they call it pumpkin but it was green--I think pumpkin is a catch all phrase for melons). Finally they brought us some sweet rice cakes.

They were really upset that I could barely eat half! I kept trying to tell them I was full but they didn`t believe me!




This was the welcoming Inkai for me and the farewell for my predecessor, Eric (August 9, 2007). Our immediate supervisors came, as did the community center manager and the principal and assistant principal from the jr. high school. Also there were a bunch of people who I didn`t know. They were, apparently, principals from the local elementary schools. Guess they were there as functionaries.





Two days later was the real party.

The community center had an Inkai too, this was not only for Eric and I, but also another girl who was leaving. Almost everybody from the community center and its library showed up--about 18 of us. The food was delivered in increments. Beer was ordered by pressing one of the buzzers around the wall (you can see one way in the back of this picture with its accompanying sign). We spent the night eating, drinking and butchering each others` langauge. Great fun. This is Tahara and I. Kampai!!!