Well I had my first drinking party with the NTT people last friday. I have to say that as serious as the people are in the office, get a few drinks in them and they are really fun.
I talked with a lot of people, in both japanese and english. Quite a few of the people had lived and worked in America. One older guy lived in the states for about 8 years, in fact he was able to guess the area I was from by listening to me talk. Of course he had a very west coast accent. I find it amazing to speak to a japanese person in english and think that, wow, this person sounds like they lived in the states their whole life.
It was a welcome party for me and a few other people that had started within the past few weeks, so we had to give little speeches, mainly about our interests and hobbies and answer questions after that.
After my introduction, I was shuffled around the tables meeting people and was finally able to return to my table with one of the guys that has been really friendly with me. After some more drinking, some of the ladies that I had lunch with came over and we started talking. One of the girls is a shodan in judo, so before I knew it she was up and grabbing me … so everyone got a good show. After that I was asked the standard questions about america; weather, food, big cars and why are americans so fat.
Aside from getting comments on how wide my shoulders are and my “presence”, there was no arm wrestling or other oddities that I had encountered in hiroshima.
Aside from the fact that I drank way to much and woke up in a Dinney’s around 7 in the morning, it was a good time. I hope I didn’t do anything to upset anyone.. I will find out soon.
Tomorrow I will go to a sword museum and have lunch with Murakami sensei and in the evening I might be meeting up with my hiroshima university friend that is here now. Peace out.
Looking at logs, I am noticing a lot of weird traffic. Besides of those in America and Hiroshima that are reading this, who are you people from Australia, China, and South Korea….. maybe the RoK people I know? Speak up!