My japanese friends

One question you always hear when talking about being an exchange student in Japan is "Well, do you have any japanese friends?". Don't know about "friends", that depends mostly on the way you define a friend, but I certainly do have a japanese social circle of which I'm part of. The only funny thing about it is that it's made up mostly from 40+ y.o. japanese men (but very sweet ones at that).

If you didn't already guess, I'm referring to our dojo members. I've often heard that it's difficult to get close to japanese people, to really be a part of their group, and in some ways it is true. There are often various problems like the language, cultural differences, and the kind of not shyness, but reservedness that the japanese tend to sometimes have towards others (including other japanese as well, mind you). There are some japanese with whom I don't really know where and how we stand, and those situations always feel a bit strained and uncomfortable, but once your chosen group starts teasing you mercilessly you can be more sure of your footing. :) And it's even better if you can continue the joke give back word for word.

Our basic joke includes, surprisingly, alcohol, and to be more exact, sake. As I protested some time ago, I'm not really a strong drinker - in Finland that is. Instead, I'm old enough to know how much and what I can drink and still be able to behave, plus that not being strong in Finland still means at least average in Japan. By now everyone in our dojo (and after yesterday, the new recruits too...) also knows that I really like good sake (the only sake that you can buy in Finland tastes horrible). So, at some point sensei, who's been drinking beer until now, looks up, then at me, and tells someone to open the big sake bottles so that Laeticia gets some sake (and was about time to start serving it if you ask me *g*). Well, of course it's him who wants the stuff, but still all blame is put on me. Then, the younger Suzuki-san (been training under 1 year. It's normal to refer to people's "practising age" because that's what defines the relationships at the dojo. So, even though by physical age I'm younger than everyone else but Akihiro-kun (an adorable 10 y.o. boy), I'm still "older" than some guys who are old enough to be my father) starts going around with the bottle, and, of course always pushing the sake at me, even though sometimes I could swear he was there just a few minutes ago... He's trying to pour me more, while I'm protesting in my most feminine and sweet voice that he really shouldn't and that I'm just a weak woman who can't drink... And the rest of them around us are howling with laughter. You should also know that I'm not exactly know of my femininity - actually yesterday when I showed up in the morning wearing a skirt and carrying a handbag (in addition to my backpack and swords), I was told that "今日、レッドちゃんは女性になっちゃったよ", literally "oh my, today you've turned into a woman". Anyways, back to the sake, at some point I found myself with 2 glasses of it instead of one (the brand changed and I still had my glass half-full with the previous one... So, I was given another glass) and had to start kampai-ing people with both of them, and trying to get more and more inventive when trying to "avoid" Suzuki-san pouring the stuff around. Once again one of those things that you can't really relay the meaning in writing, but trust me, it's funny as hell - at least if you're drunk with the others included. *g* Of course if I didn't look after myself and would drink myself really to oblivion, puking around as a japanese university student, no one would think it funny - that's the fact that separates dojo-drinking from student drinking. In both cases there is an endless amount of booze you can't really drink away, but when drinking with the dojo, you don't have to worry about someone puking on you in mid-sentence.

And just as an offhand remark on the glasses - no one uses those tiny sake cups. Too much bother trying to keep one's cup full...

We were really blessed with the weather for the enbu, it was kind of hazy so that the sun wasn't scorching us too badly, but still warm and nice, a perfect weather for an outdoors demonstration. Didn't drop my setta (sandals) this time (like I did in our small enbu of February), remembered to do 5 kata which apparently went ok (got approval from Rumi-sensei twice) and didn't die of sleep deprivation. What else could one ask for? My workload was also small, I was given permission to just keep company to my friends who had come there to see some iai, so I got to watch the demostrations myself, too. My only task was to put in place and remove one of the mats to be chopped by Satô-san in his tameshigiri demonstration - it was the first time I'd seen him doing it (I'd heard previously sensei commenting that he's really good), and I have to say it was really cool. There was also some Katori, which surprised me, and a guy doing "guntô", the pre-war army sword style. The funny thing was that during the guntô-guy our background music, which had been a kind of traditional japnese version of the kind of music you have in the elevators, was changed to something that sounded like (and probably was) pre-war military music. All in all, it was a great "last enbu" for me, since I will be going back to Finland in some 2 months.

And what was really touching about yesterday was the way everyone in our dojo started to ask when I'll be coming back to Japan again. Ok, them suddenly starting to sing "Happy Birthday to You" in their broken english was pretty touching too *g*. But anyways, for the first time I really felt that it wouldn't be that bad to stay here for a longer time... Say, some years more. ;)