the weekend of the third week of the tenth month

Saturday night:
After work I went to a goodbye party for fellow American James in Kurume. A lot of students came, which I'm sure he appreciated. It was at an Italian restaurant which was quite delicious yet unfortunately expensive. I pointed out how beautiful our waitress was and was repeatedly accused of being a lesbian. Twas as if I'd never left...
Hung out with Paul afterwards, and confessed that I've developed a habit of drinking a half-size can of Asahi on the 20-minute walk from the station to his apartment. This kind of behavior illustrates the "no parents!" mentality I carefully crafted in college.

Sunday:
Watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which Paul warned was mediocre and Sam insisted was SOOO FUNNYYYYY. Paul- 1, Sam- 0.

That afternoon we went to a BBQ at Stephen's, which was pretty great. Their building has a patio on the roof with BBQs and plants and a great view of the city and lovely green hills dispersed between high-rise apartments.

The usual suspects were there (a.k.a the entire British population of Fukuoka-ken and their respective ladies), including Anna, Stephen and Naomi's daughter who is gorgeous already AND bilingual. Anna was playing the Japanese version of one of those hand-clapping sing-songy games that girls play during recess in grade school, and asked very publicly asked me to teach her an American version. Considering I can barely remember what I had for dinner two days ago, I was afraid I couldn't deliver, but was able to come up with something that passed as authentic, and luckily no other Americans were there to confirm or deny. I'd say the lyrics to the sing-song were around 30% accurate.

I'm picking up a few UKisms from hanging out with that lot, but I think I've introduced some new vocabulary as well. We're still working on the inclusion of "chill" as an adjective.

Monday:
Cafe with internet, the best Chai latte I've had in years and perhaps dinner in Tenjin later.

Many thanks to Joanne and Bob back in Glendora for sending Pirate's Booty. A real treat.