Dream Fulfillment, Thanksgiving Day Parties

On Wednesday, the Japanese manager of my office wanted to discuss planning the Christmas party with me, since I’m the most enthusiastic and have been pushing the process.

He doesn’t speak English so much, so our entire conversation was in Japanese. So after my lessons at 9:15 PM, I spent a about 30 minutes meeting with him. That means I worked overtime without getting paid. And at the same time, I fulfilled one of my long-term goals and dreams: using Japanese professionally at my work-place!

😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

Unfortunately, I dunno if it counts as ‘work’ since I didn’t get paid for it. -_-; And it’s not a regular occasion. I’m not ALLOWED to speak Japanese to students…. I majored in Japanese in college so I could USE it professionally!

But oh well, forget all the details. I’d like to think I used it at work and was happy doing it. At the end of the day, as long as you’re happy…., right? 😀

So on Thursday, I went to Rodney’s Thanksgiving Day party! It was so nice! I ate turkey and other excellent gourmet food Rodney and others prepared. :] I’m so lucky. lol I enjoyed meeting the same people as the year before, and the year before that. It’s starting to feel like my extended family. It reminds me of how I used to only meet my Aunts and Uncles and cousins on my dad’s side once a year, at Christmas and New Years. :} And Kunioku-san was there. I talked to him for hours. I hope he didn’t get tired of me. lol I hadn’t seen him for an entire year. :[ He’s one of those people for me who I can not see after a while, and it feels like only yesterday.

On Friday, I hosted my own party with a few Japanese lady friends. I cooked….FISH and prepared stuff like that. I had gotten sweetened sanma and ikura (salmon roe) as a prize for winning that grappling match, so I served it and everyone liked it. 🙂 We had fun, and played this sushi card game, like memory.

(click to enlarge)

(click to enlarge)
This pic is funny because I’m pretending to spoon ikura (salmon roe) into my mouth, and it’s expensive and you’re not supposed to eat it like that. lol And Etsuko is chugging un-opened orange juice. lol I love them.

After that, I went and cheered on my teammates who fought in ZST! Tanuma-san defended his belt, Nadkadai-san lost, unfortunately, Tetsu-san had a draw. Ota-san lost, and I was sad because they stopped it so soon! He was getting back up! ;_;

Well, it was a good time. I went to bed so late, hah, and got up early for work the next day. My work day was pretty good. And I went to BJ-san’s class after work. It wasn’t intensive, but it was wearing on my body, and excellent practice technique wise for just what I needed to work on! BJ-san is such an excellent instructor. And he looked up my opponent for me without me having to ask him, and gave me advice! <3 I felt all warm and fuzzy that he made the effort. <3 …