Good Luck

Good luck seems to be a common topic in Japan. I don't know how many times we've been around someone, namely one of the lab members, and they have said, "That ___ means 'good luck!'" I hate to be ignorant, but how many things could mean good luck?! Here are a few examples:
When Casey and I were with the lab members doing the "marathon karaoke" and found the 10,000 Yen bill on the ground, that was good luck. (Damn right!) That's a given.. I understand.
At New Years, everyone sends out postcards to their friends, etc., wishing them happy new year, etc., each one having a number that was stamped by the post office. Shortly after the 1st (if I remember correctly), numbers are announced, and certain numbers win certain things. The Kaneda family gave us some neat 'Year of the Dog' stamps that they had won. Again, it meant... you know.
When I showed Natsuki-san a picture I had taken of one of the koala bear biscuits (cuz I'm a DORK), she said it was good luck to see one with eyebrows because apparently they don't print those very often.
I was knitting a scarf and showed it to Yanagi-san who proceeded to get really excited about it- turns out the color of yarn means good luck... I don't know if it's specifically for this year or something, or if it's a constant thing. (Guess I know what color I'll be using for her scarf!)
Tonight, Casey and I were in Senri-Chuo looking for a place to eat. A few people were selling sushi rolls near one of the shopping areas, and suddenly Casey remembered that today is one day in the year that if you eat the entire roll without talking, you are supposed to have good luck all year. I thought he was kidding and it was just an excuse to shut me up (which wouldn't be a bad excuse, now that I think about it) but it turns out he was right. I couldn't eat the whole roll so I guess I will only have good luck for part of the year. :P (By the way, the roll is huge.. I'll post a picture later).
I know there are other examples I'm forgetting but I'm honestly stumped. I really don't mean to mock the culture at all- I don't want to offend anyone. It's just such a common theme here that I really wonder what types of things are 'bad luck'. Maybe they have just been polite enough not to tell me...
In other news, it snowed again tonight (Holy Crap it was so cold I can't even explain it)- I have heard from so many people that it's rare to see snow in Osaka... (Does that mean good luck? Okay I'll stop...) Anyway, it was fun to see people's reactions when they walked outside and saw the snow. It was really pretty tonight and came down heavily for awhile. We tried taking pictures of that but I have yet to figure out the right setting on Casey's camera.
We also went to our favorite spot in Senri-Chuo... Mister Donut. :) Here's an example of good customer service that some people in America could learn from; Casey and I were sitting at the table eating our donuts and drinking our coffee (that's why I'm awake at 2 a.m.) but the little dude that walks around refilling coffee noticed that our table was wobbly and he bent down and fixed it for us without saying a word. I don't think either of us even noticed that it was unstable at all. It doesn't seem to me like many people would take the time to notice something like this back in the U.S... but it's sort of refreshing to see that people here do notice the little things. I will always remember Japan for the 'little things' people have gone out of their way to do, just because. I really respect that about the culture and the work ethic here.
So yeah, now that I have managed to probably offend both Americans and/or Japanese in some way, maybe it's time for me to shut up. :) Actually, I am less likely to care if I offend too many Americans right now... I am mad at someone in Kansas because they stole my dad's car today while he was at work. Don't know who this person is of course, but their day of judgement is coming soon enough. (Wow that sounded a little like a death threat... sorry about that, it's the caffeine talking.) Karma's a biotch!!
I'm done now. Love to Japanese and Americans alike. :)

-Ashley

No sleepy for me...

Hello again.. sorry it's been a few days. I've been feeling a little on the sicky side so not much has been going on. Yesterday I spent the entire day in my pajamas, and almost half of the day in bed. However, today has been much better, so I thought I'd update.
The only real noteworthy event this week before today was that I agreed to give a presentation to some high school students about America on February 17th (Jeremy's birthday!). I don't know how great of an example I will be of the US, but I will do my best to represent. Anyone who knows me knows I am downright terrified of public speaking. This would explain why I can't sleep right now.. I am thinking too much about the presentation. It should actually be pretty easy- I talk for 30 minutes about various things, and I get to talk slowly because the students have only studied English for 2 years... so I am going to try and bring lots of pictures for 'show and tell'. But of course I will freak myself out about it beforehand. I am really good at being a worry-wart. (I have been thinking about strange expressions we use in English, and I am adding that one to the list.) Anyway, I find that my best brainstorming time is right when I'm about to fall asleep. Then anxiety kicks in and I start worrying about all kinds of things. This is why I'm writing right now. :)
In other news, tonight we took Hara-san, Tanaka-san, and Fujita-san out for a "Thank You" dinner. They have all been very helpful to us so far during our stay and we finally got the chance to all take time out and have a good meal. We ate at the Nepali Kitchen... I had some excellent curry and cheese nan. I really need to find a place like that in SC... I'm going to miss it! Anyway, it was nice hanging out with the three of them and getting to relax. I usually only see them at the lab so it was nice to talk about things other than work. Hara-san just passed his dissertation defense so he is officially DR. HARA-san. :) He laughs every time we call him that. What's amazing to me is that he still stayed at the lab last night until 1:30 a.m.! They work so hard here... crazy hours! Sounds like Mr. Hetrick will be pulling those types of hours after I leave. :( Actually, I think he will be happy doing it.. he feels like a 'slacker' (his word) compared to a lot of them, and I can almost understand why after seeing the way they work. I just hope he also gets to relax when he comes back to SC- I have had fun hanging out with him in the evenings and on Sundays when he's home.
I guess that's about all for now. I'm still not tired yet so I think I will continue with this brainstorming thing. :) Only 2 more weeks until it's over!

-Ashley

Casey and my blood pressure...

So Casey's starting to scare me recently with his latest afflictions, like the bicycle accident yesterday. Tonight, we went to a Yaki Niku restaurant (where you cook your own meat) and when he was trying to swallow a piece of meat it got stuck in his throat and I had to hit him on the back... it wouldn't come out so Tomoko's husband had to do the Heimlich Maneuver... Luckily the piece came out and Casey was able to breathe the whole time, just not swallow. We were all a little freaked out after that happened... but Casey is fine. He is just a little embarrassed, but other than that and a little soreness in his chest, he is doing okay. I honestly don't want to know what my blood pressure has been like the last 2 days!! If I'm like this with him, I don't even want to imagine what it'll be like when we have kids. (Sigh...) I am really glad he's okay.
Otherwise, we had a nice dinner with Tomoko and her husband. They brought their son Haru, so of course I was enthralled with him and all of the Japanese phrases he says. We had a very good time with them. They both speak English very well, so conversation was much more relaxed.
That's really about all for this evening. We spent the morning and afternoon sleeping to catch up for last night. No big plans so far this week, but hopefully that'll change soon. I'll write more later.

-Ashley

Wow what a day!

Yesterday was pretty much one of the craziest days I've had here. I got a call from Casey around noon, saying that some of his labmates had talked him into participating in a marathon which went around the campus of Osaka University. I ran up to the school to take his running shoes and a few other things to him. I ended up staying and watching the race, too- he did well, especially for never running like that before! It was a fun experience, although he was exhausted afterward. After the race, he decided that it would be good to go home and relax his muscles a bit. We were riding our bikes down the hill that leads to our apartment, and at the intersection there was this dude on a moped that was too busy paying attention to oncoming traffic so he could merge, and Casey was extremely close to hitting the moped with his bike so he hit the brakes. Unfortunately, he hit the front wheel brake instead of the back one, and his bike stopped and he went flying over it into the street. Thank GOD he was okay... it could have been a lot worse, but he cut up his hands pretty badly and skinned his knee and both elbows, through his clothing. It was a pretty scary moment. We came back to the apartment and tried to assess the damage... he lost some feeling in his hands for awhile, but it was mainly because it was so cold outside and he didn't have gloves on.
He is doing better now, though... if you know Casey, you know he's pretty tough, and he's used to getting hurt so it doesn't phase him much. I think the adreniline kicked in and that's what freaked him out the most. I was pretty freaked out myself because I saw him fly over his bike and slide into the street. I thought we were going to have to take him to the hospital. Again, thank GOD he is okay!!!!
So yesterday afternoon we took it easy, ate some dinner, and got ready to go out to meet a bunch of the group we had met on New Years. They invited us out because one of the girls from Australia (named Casey, actually) is leaving to go home on Wednesday and they were all going to Club Pure. Casey and I had been there with Jeff and Gopal before so we thought it sounded like fun.. we also hadn't been out since New Years so it was nice to socialize, esp. with people we knew a least a little bit.
Club Pure is basically a meat market... there are tons of people (Do they care about fire codes here? You wouldn't know by looking at the amount of people in the club!) So we drank a little and danced quite a bit, but I basically liked to people-watch the whole night. I think part of that was because there were some scary people around and I had to be aware of what was going on. Squeezing past people to get to the bar, bathroom, etc. was difficult because if you were too close to a guy he would think you were trying to dance with him. This is not the place for couples, in my opinion. Being married at a place like that is sorta strange because even if people see a ring on your finger they don't really pay attention. I just tried not to make too much eye contact with any of the guys and get where ever I was going. At one point in the night, Kim and Paul, a couple we met on New Years, told us they were going to go find a place to sit. We lost them so Casey found a room and told me to go figure out where they were and tell them we had found a place. What a mistake. Someone grabbed my butt in the process of me trying to get past all of the people... and I didn't manage to see who did it because there were so many people around me. Then two really tall guys asked me if they could beat anyone up for me so I could get through the crowd. I just wanted to find Kim and Paul and get the hell out of there! I finally found them upstairs so I had to make my way back to Casey to let him know where they were. It was gross. Between squeezing past people making out everywhere and trying not to get groped, I was just thankful that we were going to go sit down and not have to be in the middle of that much longer.
Upstairs, something really random happened. I started talking to a random girl and found out that her friends were from Kansas and went to KU. Then she brought her friend over and we started chatting about Kansas, and I told her I went to Topeka High. She then told me that she was roommates with a girl that I was pretty good friends with in high school! Wow, it's a very small world. It turns out she is living in Kyoto and has a 2 story house to herself. She invited me to come stay with her and go out with her soon. If I remember correctly, she is teaching (I think English) and is pretty busy, so I'm not sure if we'll get the chance to meet up again before I leave. However, it would be awesome- we were both really excited to meet each other, esp. because we had a mutual friend! (If any of my THS people are reading this, her roommate was Anna Gregory!) Crazy stuff.
So about an hour before the club was set to close, Casey was getting pretty tired (and who can blame him after all the things he did yesterday!?) so we decided to leave. We went to a gas station and got some food to munch on since we had about an hour before the trains would start up so we could go home. We were sitting on the side of the street when a random Japanese guy walks up to us and starts asking us questions. Casey was eating a bowl of ramen with chopsticks, and for some reason the guy was really interested in it and took a picture of both of us- esp. Casey while he was using the chopsticks. The guy knew a little bit of English but he mainly spoke to Casey in Japanese. It's pretty impressive, actually- Casey knew quite a bit more than I thought he did (and he's been worried because his labmates mainly speak English at school so he hasn't had much practice with Japanese lately). I think maybe that experience renewed his confidence. Anyway, the guy stuck around and talked to us for maybe 15 or 20 minutes. A few other Japanese people walked by during this time and looked interested as well- one big guy (looked a little like a Sumo) kept walking by and listening to the guy speak Japanese with Casey. Kinda weird, but the guy was really nice, and Casey felt good afterward.
After that we hopped on the train, came home, and crashed (but not literally this time). Bad joke. Oh- another thing about last night that I didn't mention- I was wearing a skirt, and we decided to ride our bikes to the train station on our way out. Ummm.. yeah. It took a while for me to thaw my thighs after that experience.. I see girls riding a bike with their skirts and high heels on all the time here, but had never tried it before until then. Never again!!!!! Very very bad idea. :) That's enough of that.
Tonight we are going out with Tomoko and her husband (the surgeon) for dinner. I think we are going to have peppered steak or something... looking forward to it!
I should get going now... that's quite a bit for one evening. Blogging is so much more interesting when there's actually something to write about! ;)

-Ashley

PS: We bought a disposable camera for last night (39 exposures...!) so it'll be awhile before any of those pictures are up... if ever. I will definitely scan anything of interest when I get back to the US. :)