Ok. One last story from my vacation. This one involves Yamashita-sensei.
On my last day out at Sundai (Tuesday--junior high) Yamashita and I were talking about the day trip he wanted to take Amy and I on. This is the trip I already wrote about. So we were talking about where, when and all that when he mentions that he'd also like me to come over to his house at some point in the near future. "Yeah," I said, "That'd be fun." He mentioned that I could meet his wife and his two boys, eat some food, have a few drinks, and then says, "And you could stay overnight." (enter the sound of a hard braking car) "Come again," I thought to myself. I was confused about this and was thinking back to my childhood days when one would have sleepovers at one's friend's house and began questioning just how old I was.
But he continued, "Yes, I will pick you up and you can come over and in the morning I will take you back to your apartment." Still confused I said, "You want me to stay the night?" "Yes," he said, "You see, I want to drink with you and....."
"AH HA!" the bells rang in my head, "Drinking and driving in Japan....ZERO tolerance....no ride home....must stay night." So at this point and under a sigh of relief I listened to him explain this reason and decided that yes, I would go have a few drinks with him and his family and stay the night at some point in the near future. It would be fun.
We never decided an exact time to do all this but upon dropping Amy and I off from our day trip, I had said, "Ok, I guess I'll see you on January 20th," (my next day at Sundai) to which he replied, "I will call you before the new year." I wasn't sure what that meant exactly but said ok, and left it at that.
So on Dec. 30th the phone rings and it's Yamashita. "Hello, Marcus-sensei, this is Yamashita."
"Yes, hello."
"Is there anything I can do for you?"
Baffled I thought of the crack in my glass window, the dishes that needed washing, and the laundry piling up. "No, I don't think there is anything you can do for me," I said, unsure of his question's real meaning.
"I would like to have you over to my house. When is a convenient time for you?"
"Oh that's what you mean," I thought and said, "Well, I am going to go to Takeda shrine on the first, but anytime after that is ok." So we decided on Friday, the 2nd, when I would meet him and where.
I met him and his eight year old son that morning at 11am with my backpack full of night clothes in hand. First we drove over to the local art museum which was closed but the grounds were open and we walked around a bit and talked. His English is really quite good, although sometimes it is a little awkward, aka. the first question of his phone call. But we had a short walk and a nice time while his son ran hither and yon in an attempt to scare birds or take flight or generate some wind, I guess. That kid was running everywhere.
After the walk we drove to his house during which time I was informed about his parents who were still in Yamanashi (they live north of Tokyo somewhere) from their holiday visit. Turns out that his wife's and his parents had come to stay for the New Year holiday. But as her parents live very close they returned home whilst his parents remained. I was ok with this but was beginning to wonder about the status of my sleepover.
So we got there and his mother came to greet me (very friendly) and his father then greeted me (also very friendly) and then they asked if I preferred beer or sake. It was about 11:45am. Now, I have nothing against having a beer at this hour but I thought that Yamashita and I would be doing some evening drinking and a certain lady's voice ran through my head, "It's before noon. You can't have a beer yet!" as if there is some law against it. But if there is a law against it, I figured that I was out of its jurisdiction and looked at the kindly old lady and said, "Biru, please."
So she brought us two glasses and a can of beer and poured it for us while we, Yamashita, his father, and I sat under the kotatsu (the low table with heater). Yamashita and I said "Kampai" and drank and talked while he translated for his father. It was all very low key and nice.
Then his mother brought over a tray of food (don't ask me to name it all) and then two large bowls of salad. What struck me here was that his father was not eating and his mother who sat with us a very short time then got up and left the room. Where did she go? Into the next room and sat alone! Yamashita had mentioned that they would be introducing me to some typical Japanese New Year's food, yet grandma and grandpa weren't eating and we weren't waiting for his wife and other son to come home (they were at the son's kendo practice). Where I come from, if someone has gone through all the trouble to prepare a meal and you are expecting a guest, you wait till everyone is present and then you all eat together. But what was I to do? So I ate and drank and had some conversation.
Yamashita's father seemed like a very nice man although, of course, there was the language barrier. But he kept telling me to drink. Normally I would admire his enthusiasm but at noon on a day when you don't exactly know what it is you'll be doing, you tend to want to stay relatively sober. So I was drinking very slowly.
Eventually grandma came back into the room and brought us over some more food and then a bottle of sake. "These people certainly are attempting to fill me up," I thought as I sipped the sake and beer and nibbled on the food. The food was all pretty tasty and mostly stuff I had never had before. Some seafood, some chicken, some egg-like things, and various other things I'd never seen before except perhaps on menus here and there. Yamashita explained to me what it all was and the significance of it in regards to New Year's.
Not too much later Yamashita's wife and son came home. His son greeted me and I never saw him again, but his wife sat with us and was extremely nice. She spoke a little English but I think she understands it better than she lets on. So we sat around and talked and had a great time.

(Hmmm.....I have a little more to write but the caps lock key feature is stuck in the on position and I am having to hold down the shift key to keep from writing in all capitals. Can't seem to fix it. I will shut this thing down and see if that corrects it.)