Ojisan got me back!

It was a long day. I was at the festival at 8 and was put to work immediately. I ended up in the ticket booth and felt so proud to be able to greet people in Japanese and English! It really was a hard day of work - I had about sum total of an hour to walk around and even then I was monitoring as a volunteer. I was stinky and sweaty an hour before the gates opened and am now washing my whites so I have a fresh volunteer t-shirt to wear tomorrow morning.

I have a new found Japanese boyfriend! Hiro is the man in charge of the logistics of this event and yesterday we laughed together and joked around. Today we finally exchanged names and in our downtimes we had a chance to talk just a bit. Hiro is maybe 60. He is retired from JAL (oh, the serendipity) and though we were busy we had several opportunities to exchange pleasant small conversation. He is my buddy now. He asked me if there were any Japanese foods I did not like and I told him no - I even like natto (natto is a smelly, disgusting, slimey fermented soybean and it's delicious but all westerners and even some Japanese detest it). He told me I am cute. This is terribly funny because if you know me you would describe me as big, strong, stubborn, task-oriented, terminally independant and a bit off the wall. My hair is cute, especially when it's humid and I sweat, but other than that the best you could say is I am statuesque and vaguely memorable. Hiro thinks I'm cute. Hiro is my hero today.

The most fun I have had so far is making the Japanese people laugh. For instance with the ojisan (grandfather) thing from last night. Now this guy watches every step I take and if I so much as falter when I bend over he calls me obaasan (grandmother). And I will sit with the Japanese staff and hear them speaking crazy rapid Japanese and then compliment them on their ability ("Nihongo ga jouzu desu ne?). Late this afternoon I was doing a ticket audit with a man who spoke very little english and after the 1800th count I asked him if he would like to go drink beer at my place. This is one of those really useful phrases I learned from my language CD. I think he peed his pants. My Japanese language CDs rule!

My english comedy is becoming stale. My comedy as a gaijn grows.

I dearly love the Japanese.