ALSO BY KID ETHNIC:

100JapaneseThings.com
A collaboration to help folks (and each other) find Japanese stuff: We post links to/info on fun Japanese things, and little explanations of the Japanese involved.

The Alpaca Song
I wrote and recorded this for you. Because you need a song about alpacas, don’t you?

The Annual Kid Ethnic Valentine
Because I love you so much.

KID ETHNIC IS WRITTEN BY:

saleem
who updates from Japan and sometimes India.

RSS / Atom

Subscribe with Bloglines

FROM THE START:
The Quarter-Japanese Kid hits up the homeland

Tokyo Silence

I'm Oriented

Tilting Towards Kumamoto

Fish Heads and Public Nudity

Halfie the Half-blood falls off his bike

And furthermore: Halfie the Half-blood Breaks a Chair

I Don't Know if I Like Pippi Longstalkings

Tanboy Eats Fish Eyeball

Japanese Communists are Cuddly

Test Your Halfblood Knowledge!

I Scare Small Children

It Was Like a Cuteworld Abby Road

Today's Post Contains Bees. And Profanity.

Typhoons Will Not Stop Me

The Sun Also Sets

Quick Note: Saleem is Not Dead

CORRECTION: Typhoons Scare Me. Lots.

Watch the Tan Kid Blush

Call for Entries: Name My Kids

The Youth Are Quick and True

Open Letter: To the Breaker at City Hall

Halfie Gets a Verbal Sucker Punch

The Kumamoto Drunken Horse Fest

Japanese Houses Hate Halfie's Head

How to Start Your Japanese Rock Band

Halfie's Personal Dignity on Decline

Japanese Sports Day: I Train Young Warriors

Theory: Three Strange Occurences Per Hour

How to Win an iPod While Dressed as a Typhoon

Winnie the (drunken) Pooh

The Earth Quakes

Collecting Japanese Salmon Sperm

Illiterate at 26

Japan's Children Ignore Homeboy's Toothless Face

Japanese Genius Boy Answers Your Question

Our Students Have Respect . For Nelly.

The Young Boxers

Dear 27% of America (Kid Ethnic Registers)

Please Do Not Attempt to Step to My Japanese Rock Band

Fish Heads and Public Nudity · 29 July 04

When we touched down in Kumamoto, we were met with a sign-waving mass, like a mashed up pit of sports fans and limo-drivers.

The crowd that met us at the airport.

My sign was held up by one of my students-to-be.

Student from school flashing the peace sign.
Kids here flash the peace sign like back in ‘69.

We joined Nathan (my predecessor here in Kumamoto) and a teacher from my highschool for lunch. I ate a local variety of slimey potato mixed with noodles. Which rocked.

My jet-lag buzzkilled me, though, and as soon as I got to my new apartment, all I wanted was sleep. It was three in the afternoon.

“What are your feelings on public nudity?” asked my predecessor, and a short nap later, we chilled with a crew of old Japanese men at the local onsen, a public bath with hot water supplied from a hot spring. You buy a ticket, strip down, take a shower, and then just boil yourself for a half hour in little swimming pools of various degrees of hot.

At night, my new coworkers arranged a dinner party for me. I don’t remember much about it, except for the fact that I was served fish heads.

Fish heads taste like a dense, slippery, version of chicken Teriyaki. They look at you while you eat them.

| Permanent link to this

* * *

|