Deskwarming Diaries #2

Welcome back to another edition of the Deskwarming Diaries! In today’s post, Jayelon has fun conversations with her co-workers. Let’s jump in!

Today is going much the same as yesterday with three notable exceptions: as stated in the opening, I conversed with my co-workers at lunch, I don’t have to check my email every 10 seconds (my Olympics’ role was revealed to me last night!), and there is a new case of Covid-19 in Nagano Prefecture. I’ll go in order.

Lunch time

Today’s lunch was yakisoba, and while I failed to take a picture, rest assured it was delicious. It even included an over-easy egg on top which really tied everything together. Before coming to Japan, I thought over-easy eggs were gross; guess things change when you eat dishes with raw egg in them!

Anyway, there I was, eating lunch with some elementary teachers, when one of them started talking about りょうてい (ryōtei). I also heard ‘school lunch’ and ‘Kyoto’, but that’s all I could really understand. When they were done, one of the teachers looked at me and asked if I had understood anything. I kinda shook my head, and one of the teachers, who used to be an English teacher, asked, “Ryōtei? Do you know what ‘ryōtei’ is?” “‘Ryōte?'” I said, and sheepishly and held up both hands (両手 — ryōte — both hands). They busted out laughing, and I was glad I had made them laugh haha. “No, no, no. A ryōtei is a…. 何と言えばいい?” she switched to Japanese and conversed with the other two teachers.

“A ryōtei…” She began slowly; the other teachers were still discussing. “A ryōtei (料亭) is a very fancy, expensive Japanese restaurant… Each group of people gets their own room. Privacy.” Then she switched back to Japanese. I couldn’t really understand them because they were going too fast, but I did catch, “Don’t teach her that part! They’re not all like that! Not all of them are ‘black’!” (black — ブラック — a term I’m used to hearing when the conversation is about a corrupt company, or a company that mistreats its employees).

“OHHHH!!” I said. “A ryōte is a fancy Japanese restaurant where important people can go and give bribes!” The english teacher smiled, nodded, translated it into Japanese, and the other two teachers busted out laughing. “NO! ONLY SOME ARE LIKE THAT!!!!”

Next, the conversation turned to Japanese… I guess you could call them jokes. Some of them were a bit closer to riddles, but they were all about 「18歳と81歳の違い」– the differences between 18 year olds and 81 year olds. I didn’t get many of these either, but I could tell by the teachers’ faces that they were funny, but in a kind of dark way. Here are some examples I found on the internet:

Whatcha think? Funny? Not?

Olympics Role

Yayyyy Olympics! Well…. yayyy Olympics? Still not sure about the whole thing, but my role came in and I accepted it. I got my first choice, which was ‘personal support’. My role description was ‘Welcoming overseas delegations to ensure they have smooth working conditions in Japan.’ I’m honestly looking forward to it, but I’m also still concerned about accomodations and if the Olympics are even going to happen this year. There are a few places still left on Airbnb, but I still don’t know the exact dates I’ll be volunteering and the prices of those places were like $300 A NIGHT for things that would normally go for more like $50-60 a night. There’s no way I can afford something like that, since most volunteer shifts will be at least 10 days, so hopefully I’ll be able to find something else.

Coronavirus

It was bound to happen sooner or later, but there is another confirmed case of Covid-19 in Nagano Prefecture. I heard about it right after we got back from lunch because everyone was crowded around a computer. There was a news conference, and the only thing that I could understand was that it was located in Saku City. Saku is approx. 2:30 hours away, so I’m not super concerned yet. Hopefully they’ll write an article about it online soon so I can get more information.

That’s all this post! I’ll keep you guys updated! If you want to read the first diary entry, click here!