No, Really, I Am an American

Saturday

We didn’t do much today since it was the weekend and it always seems to me that everything is wicked crowded on the weekends, I mean, like even more so than in the States. I wonder about that sometimes, but I guess it’s just part of the culture, too. We stuck around Osaka for the most part. I was awake at around 8:30 — my parents had been up since like dawn and were pretty bored. They wanted to go to Vivre, the supermarket, to pick up some food for tonight’s dinner. I explained to them that in this country, store hours didn’t quite work like they did back home. We ended up going to Starbuck’s for a bit, and my mom did something terrible: she introduced me to cinnamon scones.

We decided to try a different market and so I took my parents down to Suburu Town. I hadn’t been there in quite some time…in fact, I think the last time I was there was last year. I’d forgotten that there were some cheaper things there than at Vivre. We also passed by a 90 yen store and my mom bought a few odds and ends to help organize the house a bit more.

I took my parents to the all-you-can-eat kaiten sushi place, which is definitely a stop for when Yoss and VoW visit; I was surprised to see that they were serving a whole lot of salmon when they usually have tuna like every five seconds. If we’re lucky, it will be the same for when Yoss comes to town as I know he is quite partial to the salmon.

After lunch, we walked around Shinsaibashi for a little bit. I also took them past DenDen Town and showed them where I took my Japanese class. Definitely not the most exciting tour, but it seemed to be sufficient for them. We went home thereafter as my father’s feet were starting to pain him with all the walking around we did.

My mom and dad passed out for a bit and I went to go rent my dad a DVD from Tsutaya. I had to work on Sunday so I thought I would alleviate the boredom by some small measure. Unfortunately, they didn’t have Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl and only had the second one in. I had hoped to get both for my dad, but I figured anything was better than nothing. It’s not like he’s all kinds of interested in the plot or anything either. At least, that’s the way I figured it.

I passed some time in Star’s Hollow, as I am once again back on a Gilmore Girls kick. I’m not overly invested in it this time around as I found I fell asleep through a few episode and did not feel the need to go back or anything.

My dad cooked dinner. He made some beef dish with onions and scallions. I’d forgotten how much I miss cooking. There was even enough for me to bring to work for Sunday.

I drew a map of the surrounding area for my parents as I was quite apprehensive about leaving them to their own devises while I worked on Sunday. They mentioned taking a walk and I wasn’t positive they would find the house again. We ended up taking our own walk after dinner and I walked a little behind to see where they ended up taking us. They made it to the Starbuck’s, and then they did something I had never done — they kept walking.

Holy smokes! I discovered there was another McDonald’s that was open until 11:30 PM, a Yoshinoya, and a Mister Donut. I’d known about that street, or at least, Masumi mentioned Saty, yet another supermarket/department store type thing, but I’d never actually gone down that street. I was pretty excited. There’s even a Baskin Robbins. AND a pet store!

Definitely need to go back during store hours to explore that area more.

******
Sunday

Of course, my parents were up when I got up this morning. In fact, they were up before me. Not that that was a big surprise, but I really felt like I could be functional as it was anyway. I sat down and had some cereal with them and then I helped my dad set up Ted, my DVD player. I put the DVD in for him and started the movie for him and everything.

I went to work like usual, and relayed the recent events to Clint and Laura. My voice was doing the weird husky thing that it does when people have colds and stuff. It was kind of neat.

Work itself was uneventful. I bought a strawberry cheesecake afterwards for Mother’s Day; I figured it would be the right thing to do since my mom was in the country and all. We were going to meet Fight Club for dinner that night. I tried to dissuade both parties as I knew it would be a borderline awkward dinner…but both my friends and my parents said it would be fine. Although, to be fair, I tried to talk my parents out of it more than my friends.

We went to the yakiniku place that was by Slices instead of all-you-can-eat. It wasn’t too bad. My parents and I sat at one grill, and everyone else sat at the other. The awkward wasn’t especially bad…but it was a little odd for me to be sitting there with everyone. My parents weren’t overly talkative and I couldn’t help but wonder why they wanted to go to dinner with everyone at all. It was pleasant enough, though. After dinner, my mom chatted to Anna in Tagalog. I really envy her that. I wish I could do that.

We parted company thereafter and my parents and I ended up walking around Namba Parks for a spell. My dad mentioned wanting to see Osaka Castle, but I told him it wasn’t the most exciting place to visit. Not that Namba Parks is any better, but at least there wouldn’t have been train transfers involved.

******
Monday

Having my parents around has gotten me to wake up earlier than usual. I used to wake up like before 9:00 on days I didn’t work when I first got here, but then amended my schedule as I discovered that nothing was open before 10:00 AM anyway so really, I may as well get up around then. Anyway, my dad mentioned wanting to see a Buddha, so that interpreted to me as going to Todaiji in Nara.

I dutifully looked up train information and jotted down train times that would get me back in Osaka with plenty of time to make it to work. We managed to make it to Nara around 10:30. This time around I had little trouble navigating the area since this would be my third visit to the city. I was actually quite proud of myself for not getting lost.

I had told my parents about the infamous deer in Nara. Seriously, you see one like every five seconds as you approach the park. Anyway, as we passed one of the carts, my mom decided she wanted to feed the deer, so my dad bought some “deer biscuits.” Not five seconds after showing the fact that she had the biscuits did a swarm of deer approach. Heck, it even got to the point where she tried to escape and they kept following. It was quite an amusing picture. (Sadly, my camera’s batteries died out.)

I had never been to Todaiji, but as we approached, it turned out that the Candle Festival I attended last year was but spitting distance away from the entrance to the temple.

Todaiji is just as impressive as everyone made it out to be. I had no idea it would be so cool. I’ve been to see some neat places in Japan, but none of the other structures quite got me like Todaiji did. I was glad to finally have had the chance to see it.

My mom and I lit incense for my grandmother. I didn’t quite understand why my dad didn’t since it was his mother and all, but I guess it’s just one of the mysteries that is my father. It bothers me a little that he’s not very forthcoming about his side of the family.

We had lots of time before we needed to be back in Osaka, so we walked around a little. We ended up eating at McDonald’s, which always amuses me. My dad commented that it’d been a long time since the three of us ate fast food like this. You’d think it was some fancy dinner or something, but for my parents it always reminded them of when they’d take me down to ISU. I still don’t know if that’s like a good memory or just one of those memories that come to mind.

I was surprised how quick the trip was. If I hadn’t needed to be back for work, I bet we would have been able to go hiking down to Kasuga Shrine like the Information dude suggested. We stopped by the supermarket to pick up some more beef so my dad could cook. It was pretty much the same thing as what we ate on Saturday night, but I thought it was sweet he wanted to cook for me and stuff.

I was wicked tired by the time we got back to the house; it was no surprise that I fell asleep to Gilmore Girls. Work itself was pretty uneventful. All in all, not a bad day.

Oh, remember how I was saying that this trip had been amazingly pleasant in that I didn’t get any kind of admonishments from my parents or anything. Well, today kinda proved differently in that my father made it known that he didn’t approve of Rob moving in. And here I’d thought that it would be fine. Silly me.

******
Tuesday

I arranged a swap for today so I could spend more time with my parents; I also managed to get Rob to substitute my private lessons with the ladies.

It turned out that my parents were uncertain of their departure. I had been under the impression that they had legitimate tickets and the like, but I guess they were flying stand-by on United Airlines or some such. I’m still not quite sure how that works, but it was the sitch. They wanted to arrange a back-up plan so I took them to NTB, the Nova associate travel agency where I had arranged my flight to Narita last December.

After our trip to the travel agency, I persuaded my parents to try spicy ramen. I was a little worried about whether or not they would like it ‘cuz they’re quite particular about their foods. I was pleased that they enjoyed it.

My mom decided that she wanted to buy some souvenirs for my cousins after all, so we tried our luck around Dotombori. Unfortunately for us, the souvenirs in this particular area are more novelty souvenirs than anything else: the giant crab, the Glico running man, takoyaki heads, etc. In other words, they weren’t ideal for what my mom had in mind. It was right after our third stop that I remembered my dad wanted to see Osaka Castle. This worked out in our favor as I also knew that the souvenirs from Osakajokoen would be more suitable for our needs.

It’s been just about a year since I was last to the Main Tower; I had visited the park during Plum Blossom viewing, but I stayed around the gardens and didn’t really go past the second moat. I had forgotten how interesting the courtyard really was. My dad was hella impressed with the stonework, marveling at the size and the cut of the stones.

It’s a bit of a trek from the station to the Main Tower, so as soon as we were in the inner court, we took a bit of a rest. There was a sort of vagabond fellow playing what looked like an accordion nearby. I was most amused in his music selection as I heard him strumming “Country Road”.

Eventually, we were able to venture further into the courtyard. Personally, I was motivated by the prospect of having an ice cream cone. While I ate my cool confection, my parents wandered into the souvenir shop, which was definitely what my mom had been looking for.

I advised against actually going into the Main Tower, as my memory of the museum was that it really wasn’t worth 600 yen; and so after my mother’s purchases, we departed from Osaka Castle Main Tower. Also, my parents aren’t quite able to keep up with all the walking and exploring like they used to, so I think they were quite happy to be going home.

When we got back to the house, I remembered that I had to pay my bills. And since my mom introduced me to scones, I also decided that I had to have one. I decided to check my bank balance while I was at it, and it was as I walked up to the ATM that I felt my nose running. It turned out that my nose started bleeding. I was amazed at this since I literally can’t remember the last time I had a nose bleed. Lousy cold combined with the weather causing my nose to be wickedly unhappy. Grrr.

One of the disadvantages to living in Japan is that public restrooms are a bit of a challenge to find when not very close to a convenie or a restaurant. Lucky for me, Fuse Station was but across the street.

After sorting out the nosebleed situation, I ended up paying my bills first and then buying my scone. In retrospect, I should have bought two.

My parents are wont to have coffee in the afternoon and being in Japan had not deterred them from their routine. My mom and I split the scone and my dad finished the rest of the cheesecake. I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed having coffee in the afternoon. I’d start up again, but I can’t be bothered to make the coffee.

My dad was on a big cooking kick, so he made another beef dish for dinner that night; and after dinner we went to the pet store. I was really excited about the pet store, but a little disappointed that there were no birdies.

After our walk, we walked past yet another grocery store where my parents bought even more stuff. We had planned on getting scones (again) and I was a bit confused as to why my parents were buying more beef. I guess, since they wake up at like 4 in the morning, they’re up enough to want lunch or some such. Anyway, they bought more beef, and I bought another scone.

Yum scones!

******
Wednesday

Yup, I knew I should have had anything to worry about regarding the beef ‘cuz low and behold, they finished it some time in the morning. That pesky Dateline does funky stuff ta yas I guess. Anyway, we sat and had breakfast together, well, I had breakfast. For all I know, my parents were having afternoon coffee. I wrote out explicit instructions in the off chance that my parents would have to come back to the house from the airport.

I can’t say the rest of the time was overly exciting or anything ‘cuz pretty much it was taking my mom and dad to OCAT. It was shockingly enough a really nice visit. I only got one “we’re disappointed in you” mentions and a few “don’t live with a boy” things…but they liked the house and they didn’t harass me too much about when I’m coming home. Either that, or I skillfully deflected those questions.

No, really, it was a good visit and I am sincerely glad they came. It was a lot of fun, and if Rob didn’t live with me, I’m sure they’d come back and visit.