Friday Night with Greg and the gang and the Korean Homestay Friend
Greg invited me to a night out in his town in Kusu this Friday. It turns out one of his Japanese friends was hosting a Korean friend for a brief homestay. They were all going out for a Friday night outing, and being an all female group, they wanted to recruit some guys to go along as well. Plus since the Korean girl spoke English but no Japanese, they were looking to recruit some English speakers. So they called Greg, and he called up Eion and David and I.

The two week trip I took to Korea when I was 19 is fading from my memory fast, and Japan has become the only reference point I have for Asian culture. Foreign people who stay too long in Japan sometimes start to think that all of Asia is the same as Japan. I've heard several stories now about other JETs go to Korea and are surprised by how forthright and blunt everyone is. Apparently Koreans do not share the Japanese custom of always concealing one's true feelings.

What little I've seen from Korean friends here in Japan sometimes seems to reinforce this. And the Korean girl last night as well said a lot of things I've never heard from a Japanese girl.

For instance at the first restaurant we went to, she appeared to be a little tired. I asked if she was okay, and she replied that she was tired because she and her Japanese homestay host had stayed up very late in the night watching pornographic movies, and then had to wake up early this morning.

Initially I thought I had misunderstood, but upon pursuing the conversation, it turns out that indeed the two of them had been up until 3 last night watching pornography. The Korean girl said she had not had sex in 4 months, and so the pornographic movies excited her.

Turning slightly red, I then asked why then they had to wake up so early this morning. It turns out the only reason they had woken up was to watch the movies again. At this point the Japanese girl, who hadn't been listening to the conversation, realized what we were talking about and jumped into say that, yes, they had woken up early this morning to watch more pornography, but it had been only at the insistence of the Korean girl. Then began a brief debate about who's decision it was to watch the pornography, and who had been more excited by the movies. I think it was somewhere during the course of this conversation that I came close to choking on a piece of raw fish.

Another interesting thing about last night was since the Korean girl spoke no Japanese, she had to use English to communicate to her Japanese friends. Certainly being out in Japan has given me a new perspective on the importance of English as an international language. When Ajimu town hosted Korean exchange students for a week, they had to use English to communicate with them. It seems a bit surreal that these two Asian countries, right next to each other, have to use English to communicate. But I guess that is the modern age.

Greg, Dave, Eion and I occasionally had to do some translating when some one's English failed. We went to a bar after the restaurant. Since Kusu town is close to a base for the Japanese Self Defense Force (the Japanese equivalent of the army), Kusu town is a popular hang out for the SDF members at night.

The Korean girl proved to be very popular with the Japanese soldiers at the bar. One of them was trying to communicate with her, and I got called into translate. During the course of the conversation, he wanted to ask is she had any venereal diseases, which I refused to translate.

In a scene which seemed straight out of a Hollywood movie, I stuck my chest out, pounded on the table, and said, "no sir, I will not translate that, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself."

Actually I wish it had been like that. But those of you who know me well know I'm much more of a wimp. I said something like the Japanese equivalent of, "Um, I really kind of feel uncomfortable saying that and um I'd rather not translate that for you." Sensing perhaps a reluctance to take a stand, the SDF fellow began to plead with me to ask this for him, and it created a rather embarrassing scene. In the end though I stood firm.

The Korean girl meanwhile was making it very apparent that the advances of the SDF guy were unwanted. In an effort to try and be a gentleman and help the situation, I told the SDF fellow the Korean girl and I were a couple. But once she realized what we were talking about, the Korean girl quickly denied it, which I think caused the SDF guy to get a bit upset with me, and created another embarrassing situation. Fortunately though I got through the night without any fights.