F.Y.Intertainment

Feedback on the test. Let's get it over with.

It might not have been the best idea to drink the night before. But it was a reunion of sorts, a visit to the dude with whom I missioned around in Tokyo, way back during orientation days. Vincent Vertue. With a name like that, a life of mediocrity is impossible. To my shock, I realised that he stays an hour by car away from me. In inaka terms, he is practically my neighbour. The English is this paragraph feels really bad, but I'm gonna trudge on. Voorwaarts mars!

So, got to his town of 2000 people somewhere in the afternoon, broke open the Jack & lime, went for dinner at this stunning little sushi bar which seemed like it was run from the owners' house. We sat at the bar calling out whatever fish names we could remember. The old man behind the bar lopped a chunk off whatever sea animal we chose an stuck it on a ball of rice, tinged green with wasabi. This was washed down with namabiiru and topped off with sake. Damn, `twas good.

FFWD to the next morning, Fukuyama station, too early.
I realised how futile me taking this test is, when I tried to asked a Japanese girl at the counter what the fastest way to Saijo is. Through my dehydrated mouth, I stupidly fumbled around, saying "uuhh.. kono densha wa.. uhh.. ano densha.. uhm.. ichiban hayai" and straining my nervous system while trying to hear what the price is. Nisenkyuhyakurokujuen sounds like "yoroshiku onegaishimasu" that time of the morning. Crap.

And then I went to write that damned test.

The second realisation of the futility, no, stupidity of the test kicked in when I entered the exam hall, and everyone was speaking Japanese. Sho-sho, `twas a Japanese test, but it was the lowest one, for crying out loud. Where was my question saying "This is a pen"? The instructions were in Japanese. The do's and don'ts were in Japanese. The freaking test questions were in Japanese! I felt like crying. No, actually I felt like having some onigiri and Myprodols. But alas.

The kanji and vocab part I rocked. But then came the listening. I was hoping for sentences like "Mary is a teacher. She is 30 years old. She is an American." You know, beginner level shit.
Instead, it went something like this (translated in English for your convenience):

A: So, Hiroshitakahiro, when are you going on holiday?
B: Oh, I'm going the day after the one that came before last week's yesterday a week from now.
A: So, you mean Thursday the 22nd?
B: No, the 22nd is a public holiday, so I'm adding that to e = mc square and then I do the hokey-pokey and I turn around.
A: Ahh, I understand! You are leaving the week before the day after yesterday's tomorrow which is not a Monday but a public holiday.
B: No, that is correct.

Yah, I almost burst a vein listening to that.

That was followed by intense grammar, where I did not know what to answer cause I couldn't understand the questions! Haha. Was a grand day out in Hiroshima ken. 40 minutes away from the peace park.

Aside from the test, it was rocking. Chatted to a Hiroshima NOVA dude with beautiful eyes and a cool hat, saw some Okayamans (what's up!), caught a train back to Fukuyama with wonderful earthlings, walked around with Kevin for a bit, met up with Vincent again, had korean barbeque, made my way home..

..which is the part where I decide to take a new route back home, in the dark, in the deepest inaka, in the lightly falling snow, just me, very tired, super paranoid, scared of the trees, and end up getting lost for 2 hours. There were no lights. No double-lane roads. No signboards. No houses. Just trees and concrete blocks and mountains and darkness and scary roadworks next to dangerous cliffs.

But that's another post altogether.