WHEN WE HIT JAPAN!!! Post 5

INZAI JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL AND TEA CEREMONY

The students arrived to Inzai for their first of two days at Inzai Junior High classes. They were distributed into different homerooms after being told the school rules, which were not unlike the ones back home other than the fact that they were they were not allowed to chew gum and food is to be eaten at lunch only in the allocated time. Ok so the second rule is slightly different, however lunch is catered for every student in the school and that eliminated the excess rubbish that plagues the schools in Australia. The students attended different classes, which included traditional Japanese calligraphy, mathematics, and also English classes, thankfully the kids from lakeside excelled in the English classes. After the delicious school lunch we all hoped into different cars down to the local community library to experience a traditional tea ceremony, due to my bad knees they catered for us by having us sit on chairs which made the whole gang pleased that they didn’t have to spend the hour kneeling. The tea ceremony was one of real structure and tradition where every movement, every position of the utensils had to be precise. The ceremony started with a really sweet cake slice to help off set the taste of the tea. Following the cake, which the students hesitated in eating to begin with due to the different smell and texture, we were all presented with a bowl of hot green tea. The bowl was placed in the left hand and rotated clockwise twice with the right hand, the presenter then bows and hands the bowl to the recipient who rotates it again clockwise twice and drinks from it then rotates it back before handing it back. The tea was very bitter however had an alluring taste which was difficult to describe. The students then had an opportunity to make the tea themselves and present it to a fellow class member. The students then asked questions of the ladies and presented them with the traditional Australian gift of a little plastic Koala. The students returned back to school to spend the rest of the evening with their host families as the staff got ready for a staff dinner that night at a traditional …………. Italian Restaurant!

JAPANESE ITALIAN FOOD AND PACHINKO GO! GO! GO!

We arrived to a quaint little Italian restaurant not to far from the school and the area we were living in. Upon arriving we were besieged by the amount of food that was presented to us and the diversity of the Italian cuisine on offer. All types of pasta, risotto using Japanese mushrooms, fresh pizza and the vino was flowing! Even with the difficulties of the language barrier the party hit high gear when the phrase book was pulled out and my broken Japanese skills were put to the test. This led to an impromptu Japanese lesson where each sound in the Japanese alphabet was made clear to me. We laughed and ate till we could have no more. A stunning meal which brought together two cultures of educators in the common love of fine dining! After the end of the night I spotted what is known as a Pachinko hall called ZUES SLOTS. After viewing Weird Al Yankovic’s “Complete Al” where he visited Japan and was mesmerized by Pachinko I just had to see it for myself. Pachinko is the Japanese version of the pokies. It consists of these metal balls pinging through a machine, I wish I could explain it in more detail however that is all I know about Pachinko. Mrs. Nakamura and I enter the hall to discover that the Pachinko hall had no Pachinko only the slots which were interesting in themselves. Unlike the pokies here the slots in Japan consist of 3 buttons and computer screens that showed Japanese cartoons, which was the theme of each machine. You put your cash in to receive tokens. I couldn’t figure out how many tokens you get for your yen so I just placed 1000 Yen in the machine to receive a handful of tokens. I made my way to the speed racer machine (or otherwise known as GO! GO! GO! in Japan.) after a few spins and not knowing what was going on I started to see the tokens disappear at a quick rate. Just as I was coming to grips with the fact that the 1000 Yen was gone, we were grabbed by one of the staff and told to check out the lucky 777 machine on the other side of the room, which we did. Again putting coins in and pressing the buttons was my ultimate strategy, then to my surprise the machine made a weird sound and this little blue light came up, not knowing what was happening I called over one of the attendees who smiled and started hitting buttons, to my surprise it seemed that I was winning. So as any person in this situation would do I started to hit more buttons to the sound of buzzers and whistles going off. Once the excitement of the commotion had ended I hit the cash in button and watched the coins come flowing out of the machine. I went to cash them in as I figured I might as well end while I was ahead. The tokens were placed in a counting machine that spat out a receipt. I took that over to the counter and I was told to pick a can of drink. The first thing that went through my mind was after all that noise and 375 odd tokens I win a can of mountain dew? That can’t be right, can it? Well it wasn’t I got another drink and a Twinkie. Oh and also these little red boxes we were marched out to the back were the boxes were slipped into a deposit box were a minute later I was handed a crisp 5000 Yen note and a 500 Yen coin. Some how I was able to turn my 1000 Yen into 5500 Yen, how I have no Idea and it will be another one of those life mysteries that I think will never be solved, with that my career as a professional Pachinko and Japanese Slots player ended. Well after such a big win where do you think I would head to next you may ask? DISNEY LAND OF COURSE!!!!! Which Ironically happened to be our next destination, talk about timing?