Dinner and a Surprise

Right before I left school today, the 3rd grade English teacher came to my desk and asked if I had any plans for the evening. I said I didn't so she invited me to her house for dinner. I wanted to bring a box of chocolates, as per my cultural traditions, but I don't think Japan has nice boxes of chocolates, so I settled for a bag of nice-looking chocolates.

She lives in a huge house with her husband, two kids, and her husband's parents. I came over and relaxed for about an hour while Obaasan (grandma) cooked dinner. I saw all of her son's soccer medals and her daughter's clarinet.

Dinner was quite fancy. We had oyster soup with oysters from Matsushima (a bay close to here), sashimi (raw fish), Japanese pickles, some sort of potato-salad type dish, yakitori (grilled meat), another dish that had various colored peppers and was therefore happy, and of course, rice. We had three kinds of sashimi--tuna, saury (anyone heard of this fish before?), and squid. My previous experience with sashimi was less than stellar but I vowed to give it another shot next time it was presented to me. I'm glad to report that this time I enjoyed it much more.

The table was cleared and my co-worker's son busted out the board game Othello. We ate some apples and I dominated at the game.

I was asked if I wanted coffee or tea and I felt very culturally at home. My co-worker started taking a log cake out of a box and I was thinking how similar this part of dinner was to home. As she revealed more of the cake, I saw writing that said "Happy Birthday Rita"! They put a candle in the cake, which I blew out and they all sang happy birthday to me. I was not expecting that at all. It was so sweet!

Tea and cake was pretty tasty and then Obaasan and Ojiisan (Grandma and Grandpa) invited me over any time I want, and said that I should come over if I ever feel homesick. Ojiisan said something along the lines of 'even though we don't speak the same language we can communicate from the heart.'

The whole evening was very sweet. Plus the two pieces of mail I got today (thanks Amy and Trina) made me feel like it was my birthday all over again.