One of my teachers gave me two tickets to see the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra at Act City (where I had my concert). Tiffany and I went together (she got to meet some other teachers of mine as well as some students) and we sat down in some seats that were pretty far away from the stage. But oh well. It was an orchestra concert. The first half was Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor, Op. 18 with Alexander Gavrylyuk, a 21 year old prodigy from the Ukraine, playing piano. The conductor was Russian born, Vladimir Fedoseev. After the piano concert, Gavryluk played the Wedding March for an encore. Then the orchestra played selections from "The Nutcracker".

It was a really good concert. Gavryluk played the piano...well, amazingly isn't a proper word and well just doesn't cut it, and I've already used the word prodigously. He was doing stuff with the piano that was just incredible, especially when he went off with the Wedding March.

And in truth, it was just really great to go out and do something like this for a change. I know, that makes me a square and I'm dragging Tiffany down with me, but I had fun. And that's all that matters, right?

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On Tuesday, January 17, an old friend of mine, John from California, came and visited and made his tour around Japan. John and I bartended together out on the West Coast of America, but he was the one who got me interested in moving to Japan to work. So a huge Thank You goes out to John for introducing me to this opportunity.

John has been traveling through Osaka and Kyoto for the first few days of his visit, but on Friday, we finally got in touch so he could spend a day in Hamamatsu. He was very thrilled about it, but Tiffany and I didn't know what to show him! Where do you start and what can you cram in one day?

We arranged to meet at the Hamamatsu Station, where the fountain is on the north side between 11:00 and 11:30. All morning, I tried to find the train times from Osaka, but the internet was not being cooperative, so I couldn't find the times. But we were coming from Tiffany's place, a twenty minute train ride, and I knew those times. We needed to make the 11:10 train and that would put us back in Hama at exactly 11:30. If we had known John's train time, we could have coordinated it together.

Tiffany bolted on time, but I lagged behind trying to get my socks on. She ran ahead to return some movies we had rented while I was still getting ready. And as I raced towards the station, I saw the train we wanted right alongside me. I was racing the train. I met up with Tiffany and locked our bikes (both are hers, actually) as the train pulled onto the platform. "We still have time. We can make it!" I yelled.

We missed it. I watched forlornly as the train pulled away while we were racing up to the station. Oh well. The next one would put us in at 11:48, almost 20 minutes after late. I hoped he wouldn't be annoyed at us. But as it turns out, when we got there, John was nowhere to be found. He wasn't at the meeting point. We thought maybe he went to the coffee shop in the station or even McDonald's. But nowhere. Oh no. He's lost somewhere in Hama with no phone and no way of contacting him. He was pissed at us and wandered off. He took the next Shinkansen back to Osaka. He got kidnapped.

He stepped off the Shinkansen platform and started to make his way to the fountain. He took the later one, which put him getting in at 11:50. Phew!

But it was really good seeing him again. And he finally met Tiffany! Good times.

We first went to an unagi don place. For those who don't know, unagi is Japanese for eel, and Hamamatsu is famous for its eel farms at Lake Hamana. So it was pretty much a definite that we would have eel on a bed of rice for lunch. John and I got caught up over eel and Tiffany discovered more about my past than she wanted to know. My bartending days and what it was like working in California, and stories that John and I shared.

After that, we walked around Hamamatsu to find a place to drink and chat some more. But oddly enough, EVERY place that sold alcohol was closed Saturday afternoon! I never realized that bars and pubs and the like closed like that! But we could not find a place at all! I showed him my apartment, and we went to Act Tower (of course), where I take every visitor to at least see how big and sprawled out Hama is. We went down to the basement and had one beer at the Italian place and then went to Tertullia for some good ol' Brazilian food.

However, Tertullia (which I will explain in a moment) was closed for a few more hours, so walking around, we happened upon a bowling alley. Tiffany suggested we go bowling and John seemed really happy to do it, so we decided to go for an hour and a half. I won the first game, and then I proceeded to slaughter John in the second and third game. That's right! I beat him completely and I have the score printout card to prove it! Actually, I won the first game, but John won the next two. But he said that he would tell a different story to his friends back in America. But here it is, the final score: Sugu: 191 John: 186. Yes, that is the sum of three games, so you know we weren't doing too well.

60% of the foreign population in Hamamatsu is from Brazil. The signs are in Japanese and Portuguese. There are Brazilian markets everywhere. So anyone who visits me has to experience the Brazilian Japanese environment, and the best place for that is the Churasco restaurant. Great slabs of meat sliced off a skewer right in front of you. Tiffany and my favorite is their garlic steak, done medium. [Drool.] But they also have chicken hearts, every edible piece of a cow and a pig, and of course, dessert, which I'll get to in a second. It's one of our favorite places to go, because it's so distinctive to the Japanese culture. But the trouble with it is, the meat all looks so good that it's difficult to stop and thus, get extremely stuffed up. You don't need to eat the next three meals because of it. But it's oh so good.

And John was mighty happy with all of it too. Tiffany and I introduced him to a caipirinha (Brazilian drink, Brazilian liquo), which is sort of like a Brazilian mojito. John ignored the healthy salad and went straight for more meat. The three of us sat and chatted over good food for a few hours. And then dessert.

Dessert at Tertullia is something both Tiffany and I usually salivate over. It's so good and surprisingly healthy. When they come around with it, we usually pile it on a plate to the absolute horror of everyone around us, but then they have a taste and they dig in. Every time. People always think I ask for too much of it, but our friends that we have introduced to this place always finish it off. Except this time. We only had four slices and there was still half a slice left over. The waiter who serves the amazing dessert (which I am slowly getting towards explaining) looked at us oddly as we didn't ask for even more like we usually do. But we were too stuffed.

The dessert is this: They take a pineapple, put it on a skewer and cook it so it gets a little hot. Then they coat it in cinammon and cook it some more. When they servfe it, they only serve the outer layer with the coating, then they take it back, coat it, cook it again, then serve it. We usually go through about one and a half coatings. Even now, as I'm writing this, I'm drooling over the thought of steaming hot cinnamon encrusted pineapple. If you aren't visiting me anytime soon, I highly suggest you make it sometime.

While there, Tiffany got in touch with her brother Tim, who actually volunteered to show John around while he was in Osaka the next day! Wow! Thanks, Tim! I'm sure John had a good time there (I heard they got to try puffer fish!)

It was getting late and time for John to head back to Osaka for the night. But it was good to see him again. Have fun back in California, John, and keep in touch!

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As soon as I came back from America, I went to one of my bosses and asked about a supervisor position. I just said I might be interested in the opening. She looked at me and said, "You were our top choice. I was going to ask you if you wanted it or not." Holy crap. My new title will be, effective August, 2006, ALT Coordinator. It looks fancy, I know, but really all it means is that I have to help train the new people coming in, watch over the veterans, and generally keep us ALTs working. Cool. But hopefully, I'll be good at it. Wish me luck!

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All I can say is: Wow. I can't believe I did it. I went to the United States for 9 days and covered 3 states. In teh midst of the whirlwind, there were people and family that I couldn't visit, and I feel bad about that. But I think in total, I got to see a good number.

Preparation

Prior, I wrote down as many people I could and I wrote what I thought they would like for Christmas. I wanted to get something more Japanese than something generic. So Tiffany, for two solid days, went shopping to many different types of stores looking for the "perfect" gift times 200,000. As I wrote, the list of families got larger and larger and I had to figure out how I was going to get that number of presents out to them. A few times, I thought about shipping it separately, and then dividing it out there. That way I could still pack less.

So we walked around stores, trying to figure out what to buy, what would go well, what would be nice, everything. I hate shopping and Christmas time is certainly no exception. Tiffany had to put up with me getting incredibly stir crazy and wanting to get out of various stores. But we finally got everything.

And then, Tiffany wrapped them all! I was amazed that she was willing to do so much. She insisted that she loved wrapping presents and laying them out and everything. Which I have to say was awesome because I could not have in a thousand years have wrapped them as well as she did. All the presents looked top notch. (Of course, they all had the same wrapping paper, but oh well. That was my fault) Nothing broke in flight. I hadn't planned on taking much anyway. I was only going for 9 days! But I ended up having to take two suitcases full of gifts plus two carry-ons full of gifts. Yeah, I was a bit burdened down. But it would be worth it, I told myself.

Since I was leaving the day after Christmas, Tiffany and I had a great Christmas dinner that she made from scratch! We couldn't find a turkey, so we had a whole chicken cooked in the oven. Stuffing doesn't exist in this country, so she bought a few loaves of bread, and made really great stuffing from. And of course, the mashed potatoes and gravy. It was as traditional as we're going to get out there. But it was so good!

Arrival and the Trip

After a grueling flight (Sky High was the movie for crying out loud!), I stepped off the plane and Mom broke through the crowd and raced up to me and gave me a hug. Then I tried to find the rest of the family, and they had made a huge banner that said, "Welcome HOME, Sugu! Merry Christmas!" Georgie, Manju, Sunny Chayan, Susamamma, Dad, Mom, Sajo, and Sandy had come to pick me up. I actually saw a few strangers look over at all smiling. It was fun. Of course, I had major sensory overload. I could understand EVERYTHING that was going around me. All English, no Japanese. It was a bunch of white people and not Japanese (of course, for me, an Indian, it didn't make a difference either way, I was still a minority).

So we went back to Mom's place in Dallas and there, we opened presents almost right away. Everything was still such a blur. Alex stopped by that night and we got to talk to him a bit.

December 27:

Sajo, Sunny Chayan, and Susamamma flew back to Kansas City, and Dad and I went shopping for a brief moment.

December 28:

Dad, Mom, Sandy, and I flew to Kansas City and spent the night there. We had dinner with Sunny Chayan and Susamamma. Later, Sandy wanted to see The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Extended Edition on Sajo's home theater system, so we watched that.

December 29:

We drove to Sajo's work (an old trip for me, but new for Mom and Sandy) and then up to Des Moines where we had dinner with Sunny Uncle, Kunjolmolauntie, Jake, Min, Apachen, Ammachie, and two additions to the family, Jake's sons, Ben and Isaac. Isaac, I met briefly before I left for Japan as he was a newborn then. So it was good to see how much they've grown since then.

December 30:

Sandy and I drove to Waterloo where I saw Darby! Darby and I shared a morning where we talked about each other's lives and everything that we couldn't speak over the phone or over emails. It was really good to see him again. We went and saw his brother's art gallery and walked around a newly developing Waterloo, Iowa.
After that, Sandy and I went to Ames, Iowa to visit Ashokuncle, Sandyauntie, Becky, and Rachel. We stopped and chatted with them for an hour before they left, and then we went to the hospital to welcome the newest member of the family, Nicholas Jacob. He was born earlier that day (6:26 am) to two proud parents, Jake and Jill. Yes, the same. This is their third son. So we got to see Jill in the hospital and greet Nicholas. That was great. After that, Sandy and I went back to Des Moines, where I spent the evening working on Sajo's gift, an MP3 player.

December 31:

We left for Kansas City early to help Sajo prepare for his New Year's Party. It was here, we found out there was ANOTHER new addition to the family! Georgie and Manju gave birth to a girl named Teena Sara. For lunch, we got to see Achenkunyenchayan and Pam and their daughter, Amber, her husband, Shawn, and their daughter, Elise. And two other friends, Brandon and Angie. Then we prepared for the party and then I got to see Sajo's old friends again. People whom I had met and hung out with all the time before I left. Mike, Karen, Joe, Luz, even Toni (whom I had just met) was there. And for the party, I got to see Sneha, Reggie, Anju (Mike was sick), Sunny Chayan, Susamamma, Uncle, Titamamma, Steven, Sheba, Anu, Renu, Kamalauntie, and I'm sure there are more that I'm painfully forgetting. And we rang in the New Year together.

January 1:

The next day, we went to Uncle and Titamamma's place for lunch, then we met Toni's mom and son. That night, we rented the movie Touching the Void and Sneha, Reggie, Sunny Chayan, and Susamamma came over. Good movie.

January 2:

We finally got to do a little shopping. We all went to Best Buy. Well, Dad left earlier back to Des Moines, so it was just Mom, Sandy, Sajo, and I. We went to Border's Book store. That night, Sandy flew back to Atlanta, and Mom and I flew to Dallas.

January 3:

I had a dental appointment, so Mom and I went to visit my cousin Simon, D.D.S. and got my teeth cleaned. Then we went and saw Teena and Manju and Kunjomolauntie and Easawuncle. Then I packed.

January 4:

I left in the morning and flew all day, back to Japan. But when I arrived in Japan, Tiffany surprised me and met me all the way at the Nagoya train station! Wow! We rode together back to her home (which was closer than mine from the airport), getting caught up.

Recap

Phew! Literally every day there was something big going on and a lot of family to see. The wonders of an Indian family, just bigger and bigger. Somehow, we managed to cram a lot in and I got to see quite a lot of the family before I left. It was a great time, guys!

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I can't hold it inside any longer. I don't have quite the pictures I would like, but...

I've been published!

I submitted some stories to an editor and they are publishing them in a book! I'm very excited about it. Right now, I can only give you the name of the book and the publisher. The book is romantically called, To Asia with Love: Japan and it's being published by Things Asian Press. Wish me luck!

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