some recent laughs.

we were playing madlibs in my beginner’s adult class recently. an adjective they’d chosen formed the sentence “he was cool.” i explained the slang meaning to them. an older man raised his hand and asked “is that like ‘tight’?” huh?!? i questioned him to make sure i had heard correctly before explaining that, yes, ‘tight’ does mean ‘cool’ but it’s an esoteric term, somewhat related to hip-hop culture, that is not easily understood by the general public and therefore should not be used except among close, foreign friends. who knew kimio san rolled like that…


went out to dinner the other night with my friend takafumi. i chose nick’s bar cause i’d been craving this fabulous pork and ginger pizza they have. to my surprise, they had a new server, a fellow i know from another restaurant where he used to cook. also to my surprise, it was janken taikai night, which means paper, rock, scissors tournament. i laughed when he told us, thinking he couldn’t be for real. then he outlined the prizes you could win. takafumi let me do the honor. they say ‘saisho agu, janken pon’ as they pump their fists in and out of the middle before they throw. it roughly translates to ‘first a rock, then paper, rock, scissors.’ ‘pon’ is just a sound effect from what i’ve gathered. i horribly embarrassed our server as I beat him not once, not twice, but three times in a row to claim the grand prize…a free pizza. how perfect. although paper, rock, scissors seems like child's play to foreigners, it's a very serious decision making tool used by everyone from elementary school students to great-grandmothers here in japan. the chant was among the first language i learned after arriving although the meaning of the words escaped me until recently. there's also a second part to the ditty; if there's a tie, you sing 'aiko desho' which means 'the same isn't it?' as you throw again. and contrary to common belief in the west, there is some serious strategy involved. later at the restaurant, as I paid up, the server explained it was the first time he’d lost all night and the only time he’d ever been obliterated. I made the obligatory ‘and by a foreigner no less…’ joke, he laughed begrudgingly…