Chapter 27- Tuesday 15th, Wednesday 16th,Thursday 17th July
Well our courses are chugging along nicely and the numbers are increasing so we are feeling like things are on the move at last and the word is getting out.
I have scored a weekly English lesson and looks like more coming up. I am also doing some workshops on the ‘Love Languages’ and ‘Women’s Wisdom’ (which I have been wanting to do for ages) and I will continue when I get back to Aus. I am also getting booked up for private consultations which I have not done for ages and at last feel I have enough time to dedicate to practicing my craft and what I am really good at. Feels good to be back helping people and I am looking forward to starting my consultation clinic again on my return!!! Blessings, blessings many blessings.
I am doing my little ritual every morning at our alter and have just invested in some ‘very nice’ incense from the ‘special incense shop. Many Japanese have a special room in their house (if the have the space) or a corner where they set up an alter for their particular gods and also for their ancestors. There are special shops that sell incense and holders and pots and all manner of things. It smells divine and the incense can be very very expensive. (I paid $10 for 12 small cones) and that was cheap. It is very easy to pay $50 or more for just a small packet. If I understood more about it I could appreciate the price a bit more knowing that the incense is made from the sweat of ’10 Naked Italian Latin Dancers’ or ‘7 nubile virgins’ etc.
Now I have learnt that in Japan if you get food at a restaurant that is not right, burnt etc ‘you don’t send it back’!!!! We were in a ‘Ye Olde English Tea House’, that really didn’t know how to make tea. The décor was great with Old pictures of London and ‘English’ paraphernalia. I ordered a ‘cinnamon tea’ and expected at pot of tea with milk etc on the side. Instead I got a milky cup of stuff with a ‘skin’ on the top………I think they had micro waved it or ‘cooked’ it too much and they had ‘burnt’ the milk. So it was really yucky and of course I could not drink it. I did try and it tasted ‘scolded’. It also was not ‘cinnamon tea in my book and asked to have something else. Just explaining to our friends (who speak reasonable English) that the tea was no good, was very difficult. They kept saying that the tea was “Ok!!” and I kept saying “No it is not!!!” They eventually got the message and we called the waitress over and had the same conversation over again. In the end they took it away but said that they would not replace it and that we had to pay for the one I had returned!!!! Go figure!!! Service here is exceptional but you do not send food back. Something about ‘saving face’ and it is considered impolite as you do not say ‘No’ very often and you do not draw attention to imperfections or mistakes. There are just some things I have difficulty getting used to.
(Note: Do not shame the Japanese by ‘making a scene’!! Be gracious and accept what you cannot change!) This was a great lesson for me in diplomacy.
We went out for lunch with Jack and Chieko and they took us to their favourite Chinese place (see photos). It has a cooker in the middle of the table and you make a soup and cook your own food. It only costs around $10 each for the meat and all the veges you can eat. Fantastic and really really yummy!!! We had Aussie and New Zealand pork sliced really thinly and it cooks fast in the bubbling ‘soup’. We will go there again as it is in the crown Plaza just across the road!!! So Handy.
After lunch we went out for ice-cream at ‘Wendys’. The only way you will get us in there as the hamburgers look awful!!! But the cones are OK and only 99c. Food is so cheap here!!!
We all had chocolate and while we were sitting we met Casey our landlord, (see photo). She globe trots between America and Japan every 3 weeks (must be exhausting!!) and has several businesses and is very busy. She also works for Mugen Life as an interpreter (that’s how she ended up being our landlord) she lives in the building too. We talked for over 3 hours we really had a lot in common and we liked her very much. She has gone off to Tokyo to meet with the Mugen Life team and we will see her again soon. She wants to do some singing lessons with Brian
Well will keep you posted……………..life is and adventure here for “MARTINSSSSSSS INNNNNNNNNNNN JAPANNNNNNNNNNNN!!!”
Well will keep you posted……………life is and adventure here for
“MARTINSSSSSSS INNNNNNNNNNNN JAPANNNNNNNNNNNN!!!”
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