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A lot of things have happened during the months from September to December 1998 that I just cannot keep with all the cool stories. Anyway, here is a list of some of them:
At the beginning of November, a guy from Switzerland named Gilles Rey-Mermet has arrived to our dormitory. He is working for Aisin Cosmos, a sub-division of Aisin specialized in microtechnologies. Since he comes from the French speaking part of Switzerland, we are speaking French all the time and that is pretty cool particularly in Japan! His Swiss accent is different from the one used in Montreal. Hence, we have a lot of fun just to compare the different local expressions.
He studied Japanese for 3 months at Kanazawa which on the West side of Japan and
speaks sufficient Japanese to get by any where in Japan since he traveled all
the way up to Sendai, the northest city on the main island. Since he already
visited the North part, we are then planning to travel down to the southern part of Japan or the Kyusyu island.
I have never been in Nagoya so often since I know him. We first went to visit rapidly the downtown walking from Kanayama to Nagoya station through Sakae and Osu. Sakae is the main entertaining place of Nagoya while Osu is the huge outside marketplace typical of many big Japanese cities. Eating in an Italian restaurant in Fushimi was a great idea to break the everyday rice and noodles Japanese routine. We ordered tekitoh (meaning whatever that is on the menu) deciding only what kind of pasta and meat we wanted. Wonderful food made by a chef who most certainly wanted to impress with his culinary skills.
The second time, we went to visit the Nagoya castle and the northern part of Nagoya. Although it was my second time to the castle, I barely remembered it. Made of concrete and adjoined by an elevator, it is far from having the charm of the samurai times. Considering it as the main sightseeing spot in Nagoya, the museum is nice but too modern. A huge group of Silicon Graphics Int. had arrived and foreigners were overcrowding, a scene somehow unusual in Japan. Back in the real world on the eastern side of Sakae, we ate in a select Korean restaurant (where Gilles ate all my kimchi croquettes...). We finished the evening in a popular dance club of Nagoya called ID where we talked with 2 Japanese girls studying English literature! This club, the biggest of Nagoya, has 5 floors with a totally different style in everyone, from Jazz to hard rock. It was so cool that we almost missed the last train for Kariya at 11h50.
The following weekend, to change from going in Nagoya downtown, we headed for Gamagori and Toyohashi, which are in the southeast part of Aichi prefecture. Taking the express train, we got there very quickly in only 30 minutes approximately. Since I had my Bonenkai (End of year party)in this town just the last Friday, I knew the city enough to guide Gilles around. Gamagori is very nice with a temple-island in the interior bay where Gilles took tons of pictures. We jumped in the train to Toyohashi where we took the hot bath in a sentoh and ate in a pizzeria. High school Japanese girls were eating Swiss fondue beside our table. Gilles just could not believe it.... He took a picture.
A colleague has invited me to a game of semi-professional women softball. We work together in the laboratory since September. Because he worked most of life in the plant (he is 53 years old!), he has almost the same amount experience as me in the labo. He is very hard worker and he helps often with my Japanese.
Three games in one day, starting from 9 o'clock in the morning up to late afternoon! The sunshine was really hot and I was scared to get sunburn at the end of October. We watched the games while drinking beer, eating sushis and little salty cookies. My colleague is a home base referee in a high school league so he was observing every decision made by the present referee. He said that his greatest pleasure while referring was to shoot "Sutoraiku outo" (Strike out!) and his full hand pointing straight in the air. He is even practicing his movements in the laboratory sometimes!
But this is without talking about the supporters which as much as interesting as the game itself. With an ecstasy leader dressed the color of the team, they follow every pitch and roar at any made by their pitcher. Of course, with a point is made, they become totally crazy and gesticulate all kind of uncompressible arm movements similar to a guy who would guide a plane by to an airport gate. When a very high score, they must be so exhausted... After two games, I am also getting tired and a little bit drunk...
However, the third game is beginning soon and , the pitcher and the catcher are both American girls. . Winning many awards and finishing among the first of the league for seven years. They became the most redoubtable pitcher-catcher couple of the whole women softball league. Most unexpectedly, they shoot to each other in bold English and that makes the crowd crazy of joy! Particularly, the pitcher with her long curly blond hair that shifts at every movement was totally amazing. Considering myself proud of them, I yield her little name and say "GO GO GO MICHELLE!!! YOU ARE THE QUEEN OF THE GAME!!!"
I have been invited by the cool guys of my department to go to the Bunny girls. Well, well, as the name is quite meaningful, I did not hesitate to go... All the week long, my colleagues were almost dancing in the laboratory doing rabbit movements?! They got so excited that we left three hours earlier to go to down-town Nagoya or more exactly to the The Royal.
There is no doubt that the entrance ticket was going to be expensive. But no problem, the boss is paying everybody's half of it.
The leader has bought a yearlong pass and so the entrance ticket is relatively cheap (6000 yens=75$). He has come only once before for business purposes! We played a small game of bingo, which I won. The price: be in the middle of the picture seen to your right. All the bunny girls of the restaurant are in the background. Unfortunately, the picture was taken by Polaroid and is not really clear. During the week following the party, I received many pictures of the same bunny girls that my colleagues were searching on the Internet. Unfortunately, I don't think it is a good idea to put them on my home page...
A Swiss guy coming to Japan
True fans
Lovely Bunny Girls
We finally met the bunny girls... they are so cute in their French style bikini wearing a bunny hat (with two rabbit ears) and a small tail. Everybody had eyes only for them while they are making little origami, talking and laughing. Someone is playing classical piano for musical ambiance. Fondling in delicacy, we eat our supreme dinner quietly. No need to hurry, we are in the palace of the Japanese macho-man... Such places are common in Japan (not necessarily with girls dressed like Bunnies...) and depict very well the kind of relationship salary men will develop with younger women. Hence, Japanese women as a companion represent a luxury item. Something we rarely see in America or Europe rather than the women as a sexual object. The latter is also found in Japan but on a different perspective, which would require many home pages to elaborate.
