You All Speak Japanese

Last night Beth and Kevin had one of their famous BLT parties, where you come wearing pajamas, a black tie sort of thing, a toga or lingerie for the adventurous spirits out there. I wore pajamas. I wear a shirt and tie five days a week and didn't want to wear them again for a party. Togas are loose and flimsy. It is now winter. No good, I was thinking. And I don't wear lingerie for anyone. So pajamas it was. They were fleecy or plush feeling, dark blue, with snow flakes on the legs. And very necessary for me now that it is so damned cold here and I am reminded again of how much I miss central heating. The Japan/America scorecard is unreadable at this point, because there are so many things that Japan does better than America, and so many things that I prefer the American way too, so in the end they are equal for me, doing some things better than the other, but equally livable. I suppose I can think of no central heating as a good thing because it makes me have to have pajamas, so there's an excuse to shop and buy clothes! Always a good thing (as has been noted on Justine's blog recently).

So here are the pajamas...



Don't pay attention to Yoko, sitting next to me. She never follows the rules for Beth's theme parties.









There were also a couple of toga wearers, Crystal and Tressa, Canadian teachers from Shimodatte, near where Jody teaches:



Jody in her baby doll night dress:




















Beth and Kevin



None of the Japanese guests followed the wardrobe rules, except Nobuo, who is a young guy I used to teach with at Edosaki last year. Now he teaches at Miho with Beth. And what he wore is not suitable for internet distribution without an age verification check, I think, so we'll just leave that one alone. (And they say Americans are crazy. Hello, I don't know if *that's* always true!)

It was a fun night, followed up with karaoke for some of us. I've never karaoked in pajamas before. It added a little something, I think. ;-)

Other than this, not much to report. Except lately for the past week or two I have been dreaming a lot about friends from back home. From childhood and high school and college to grad school, old friends and friends who had been more recently made before I left the states. But the thing is, you all speak Japanese in these dreams. It's very odd. I get a little jealous that you didn't even have to work hard at it to learn Japanese while I've been slaving over here to be able to communicate on a basic conversational level. It's not fair!

Well that's the feeling I have in the dreams. Then when I wake up, I realize I was putting all the words in your mouths anyway, and then I feel quite accomplished.

Off to bed. Another week of school. Then a half a week after this, and I get to go to Thailand. I am so going to enjoy the beach when I get there.