Vietnam

Remember a while back I told you about Sakura, the Vietnamese girl from my Japanese class? She'll call me once in a while to say hello and we'll always say we're going to get together, but we never do. This afternoon, though, we actually did hang out. I was still in my pajamas at three in the afternoon, still feeling kind of woozy but trying to rustle up something to eat, when she called. I explained the best I could that I was sick, but it didn't seem to make a difference. "Daijoubu, daijoubu," she kept saying. So I took a quick shower, threw on some clothes, and went to meet her at a restaurant near my house.

We didn't eat there, though, but instead drove to a cute Vietnamese restaurant called "Saigon" about 15 minutes away. The proprietor, a cute woman in her 30s, studied English a while back, and we were able to have a bit of a conversation. It was a strange feeling to be in a Vietnamese restaurant in Japan, speaking in a Japanese/English mix, eating Vietnamese food and listening to popular Christmas songs being played in Vietnamese. And what was even stranger was how much it reminded me of Greensboro! I miss Binh Minh and that other place off of Spring Garden St. (what is its name again...? Ah, Pho Hien, thanks, Google). It's just something about hanging out with immigrants from other countries that makes me feel like I'm right back in North Carolina, like I could walk outside and be on High Point Road (sketchy!). We ate Vietnamese "nabe" (hot pot), which is really similar to Japanese nabe except some of the vegetables are different and the sauce is spicier. And afterwards I got to have some delicious Vietnamese coffee--yum!

We talked about dating Japanese boys (both of them are married to Japanese men:"taihen!"/terrible! in their words, haha), about America, about learning English, about learning Japanese, about using chopsticks (why is everyone always so impressed?) and about clothes. Even if I was coughing every once in a while, the hot soup and coffee helped me breathe easier, and I left feeling almost all right. Fun times in Takasaki!

(Side note: I asked Sakura who she was able to speak Vietnamese with. She said she only had two Vietnamese friends in Takasaki. It was really nice to see her speaking so quickly to her friend, even though I didn't understand a word of it. All day long she goes about struggling in Japanese at work, at home, all around. It makes me appreciate the 100+ English-speakers I've met so far. . .imagine if I could only speak my native language with two people--! Taihen!!! )