Okurimono desu

So just when I thought I was getting too familiar, too comfortable in Kyoto and my funny adventures had come to an end…

I decided to go to my local sushi joint down the road.  The Itos introduced me to it maybe a month ago and I have been several times since.  The chef tries to speak English and I try to speak Japanese.  Normally when I go I am the only one at the sushi counter.  Tonight there was another older gentleman.  As often happens, especially when I'm in my neighborhood, people become curious about the gaijin.  I'm always the only one.  This is Uji-City, not Shijo Dori in Gion; there are no gaijin in Uji-City.

I explained to the chef on a prior visit that I was an artist.  The very little Japanese I know is good enough to know when people are talking about me.  I heard "atisuto" and knew I was the subject of conversation.  I happened to have my "artist statement" translated by my friend Emiko.  So I pull it out and hand it to the chef, mid-meal.  He in turn shows it  to the other gentleman at the counter.  "Ahhh, so desu."

I was invited to join the gentleman at his end of the sushi counter.  He asked me if I like fish.
"Hai."
"I give you fish.  My present."
"Um…hai…??"
He points to a fish in the aquarium.  I was confused.  I was also worried.  This is Japan.  I had a bad feeling this fish happily swimming around in this tank was going to end up on my plate.

I've learned that when people in Japan ask if you like something it really means do you want it.  
"You like shochu?"
"Um…hai."
A very large glass of shochu arrives.

This gentleman has had a couple of beers already and he wants to talk.  Luckily the questions he is asking are things I remember from class.  "Where are you from?"  "How old are you?"  "Do you have brothers or sisters?"  Etc.  A friend arrives with better English skills so the conversation becomes more lively.  Meishis (business cards) are exchanged.  

Soon the fish I had see in the tank arrives cut into pieces in a cast iron pot.  It is now swimming in a broth with cabbage and some glass noodles over a low flame.  I am shown how to eat this.  It is good.  Mind you, I've already eaten a full order of sashimi.  I'm not hungry.

A beer arrives.  Then an order of special nigiri sushi.  Then a whole crab.  I can see where this evening is going.  I am fast becoming the gentleman's best friend.  Via the rough translations of his friend who joined us he talks about peace after the War and friendship.  He talks about how foreigners are welcome in Japan.  He invites me to  a bath.  Now in America, if a man invites another man to a bath it is something funny, probably gay.  In Japan it is perfectly normal and a sign of friendship.  I laugh and ask politely, "When?  Now?"  "Ashita.  I call."  "Um…okay…??"  I hope that he is maybe too drunk to remember.

A couple more beers arrive.  He sings his favorite Japanese pop song from another era a cappella: "I'm happy…"  When the people next to us get up to leave he introduces me to them as if we are old friends.  They speak very good English having spent some time in America.  I explain what I am doing in Japan and give them my meishi.  (Advice to anyone coming to Japan for more than a few days: bring a lot of business cards.)

Eventually my new best friend decides he has had enough and must go.  I thank him and say goodnight.  I haven't yet learned the phrase for "Get home safe".

Am I going to a bathhouse tomorrow?