Archive for category Friends and coworkers
February 19, 2005 – New nickname
Posted by Barniferous in Azeroth, Drinking, Friends and coworkers on February 19, 2015
After work I went out to my favourite izakaya Ryuu with Palmer and Azeroth. If you have been reading this blog for a while, you may notice a pattern developing.
In addition to the famous 100 yen draft beer, Ryuu also has very cheap sushi. I ordered some tako nigiri (octopus on rice) for only 70 yen each. Unlike other discount sushi, the pieces of fish were surprisingly large.
After a fun evening of beer and sushi, I was given a new nickname by my Aussie and American roommates: Frenchy McFrencherson from North Frenchland. If Canada does change it’s name to North Frenchland, it will make the anthem a lot harder to sing.
January 17, 2005 – Izakaya
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Friends and coworkers on January 17, 2015
After work I made yet another visit to the new izakaya “Ryuu” with some co-workers. We got 2 free orders! Ryuu is quickly becoming the popular after work beer spot for teachers, likely because it is really cheap.
There was no karaoke afterwards for a change.
December 30, 2004 – Non alcohol karaoke!?
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Friends and coworkers, Return to Canada on December 30, 2014
Today it started snowing, and the snow didn’t stop. By the end of the day, some parts of Winnipeg had received more than 30 centimeters (about 12 inches) of Snow. Since I was only back in Canada for a few weeks, I didn’t want to let the weather slow me down. I had a full evening planned with friends.
The first venue of the evening was Smitty’s lounge for their famous wing night. My friends and I all gorged ourselves on chicken wings and beer. Sometime around 2000 or 2001, my friend Grog and I discovered the joys of Smitty’s Tuesday and Thursday cheap wing nights. We invited more people, and wing night became a regular event. I am proud to say that the wing night tradition survived even after Grog and I both moved away from Winnipeg. Tonight’s wing night was the first time we were both back in Winnipeg for wings in over a year.
After wings, we drove to Osborne village to find something fun to do. I was staying in my old apartment (now shared by my sister and a roommate) in the neighbourhood, so I was able to safely park my car and meet up with the group at a new karaoke place. It was Asian style private room karaoke, but they weren’t licensed to serve alcohol. I hadn’t realized before how important alcohol was to karaoke. We still had fun, however. My group had a few people who had been in some local bands, so the quality of karaoke was above my usual drunk English teacher level.
We finished up with some beverages at Toad in the Hole, a popular pub style watering hold that has become a landmark in Osborne Village. It was a really fun night, and despite me being away for a year, my friends made me feel like I had never left at all.
December 24, 2004 – Strangers in a foreign land
Posted by Barniferous in Friends and coworkers, Return to Canada on December 24, 2014
I woke up at the fraternity house and went out for breakfast at the nearby Perkins with some of the brothers. Perkins was a popular spot for University students due to its proximity to campus, never ending refills of ice tea, and the fact that it was open 24/7.
After breakfast, I went to pick up Fatima from her apartment to take her to my parents’ house. Fatima was originally from Sierra Leone, but had escaped the brutal civil war by seeking refugee status in Canada. My sister met her while volunteering at a support group for newcomers to Canada, and they became friends. Since then, Fatima has been an adopted part of the family, and she comes to our family dinners.
I had met Fatima a few times before, usually with my sister or at my parent’s house. In the past we never really had much in common. However, after living in Japan for a year, I found that we both had some similar experiences living as a visible minority in a foreign country. We both look different from many of the people around us, and we have both been treated differently because of it. We have both been surprised or confused by the local culture. We both have some experiences with the different climate in our new countries. Also, we both don’t speak the local language well enough (yet). Japanese is my second language (third if you count the French I learned in school), and English is Fatima’s third or fourth language.
It’s about a 75 minute drive from Fatima’s apartment to my parent’s house, and we talked the whole time. By the end of the drive, we had become good friends. It’s amazing what finding a few things in common can do to bring people together, even if they have very different backgrounds and situations.
In the evening, we stuck to our usual family tradition for Christmas Eve – a big meal featuring tourtierre (French Canadian meat pie), and then midnight mass at the Catholic church. For the record – midnight mass in Portage la Prairie starts around 9:00pm. It was my first time to see the new church building, which was finished while I was teaching in Japan. The new building replaced two 50+ year old smaller church buildings in town. It was a nice modern church, but I did kinda miss the classic “big stone church” feeling.
After mass, I finished the evening with my tradition of wrapping the last few presents frantically and sneaking them under the tree. I love Christmas!
December 22, 2004 – Poutine and Hockey
Posted by Barniferous in Friends and coworkers, Return to Canada on December 22, 2014
Clubhouse sandwich and poutine at Chicken Chef
My jetlag feels much better today, and I have now assumed my holiday schedule; stay up late, sleep in late.
Today I went for lunch with my friend Janet and her son Dominic. We went to our old favourite lunch place, Chicken Chef. In my year in Japan, I have lost some weight due to lots of walking, biking, and eating better. Therefore, I didn’t feel bad at all about ordering a big clubhouse sandwich with an order of poutine instead of regular fries. For those sadly unaware of poutine, it is french fries with cheese curds covered in gravy. Poutine is one of the few true Canadian foods. It’s not what most people would consider “healthy”, but it tastes amazing.
After lunch we went to 7-11, which was a regular part of hanging out in high school. Canadian 7-11 is a big disappointment after living in Japan. The selection is much smaller and I missed my Japanese favourites.
In the evening my family took me to see junior hockey in Winnipeg at the new downtown arena. The game was an exhibition game in the annual World Junior tournament. We proudly watched Team Canada beat Switzerland 5-0 with a full house of 15,000 other noisy Canucks. I missed hockey!
(2014 Update) You may remember my friend Janet as the person who ruined my… um… romantic intentions on my trip to Edmonton to get my visa. Dominic was the product of her unexpected news.
You may notice in the picture that Chicken Chef’s poutine is made with shredded cheese instead of cheese curds. Poutine purists demand curds, but I assure you that the shredded cheese poutine shown above was still delicious.
December 15, 2004 – Immigration office master
Posted by Barniferous in Friends and coworkers, Karaoke, Life in Japan, Tokyo on December 15, 2014
My Weezer shirt that I bought in Harajuku
Today I went to the immigration office in Shinyurigaoka to get my re-entry permit for my passport. I now feel pretty confident in my skills at navigating the immigration office, and can usually be in and out in about 10 minutes.
Like most people, my work visa expires after a certain period of time (one year for me), and will also expire if I leave the country. To prevent the visa from expiring when I go home, I needed to buy a re-entry permit. The permits are available as one time permits or unlimited times for the period of one year. Since I am only planning to leave Japan and return once in the next year, I bought the cheaper one time permit.
Immigration officers are not allowed to handle cash directly, which is a nice way to prevent anything shady from happening. I had to go to a small convenience store in the same building to buy a voucher for a re-entry stamp. I then returned to the immigration office, where they exchanged the voucher for a sticker in my passport.
After finishing up at the immigration office, I spent most of my day exploring some cool stores in Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Harajuku. I bought some books for my flight home at Kinokuniya, and a cool Weezer shirt in Harajuku.
In the evening, I met up with Okonomi in Noborito. We went out for Okonomiyaki for dinner and then went to karaoke. Since I was traveling back to Numazu, it was a much more reserved karaoke experience that the last time. After karaoke I gathered up all of the Christmas presents that I couldn’t bring home on my shopping trip to Asakusa, and then returned to Numazu. It was a fun day, but the highlight was explaining to a taxi driver at Numazu station where I lived in Japanese, and having him drive me to the right place!
If you have only ever spoken one language, this doesn’t sound like much of an accomplishment, but trust me, it felt great.
November 24, 2004 – Christmas Shopping in Asakusa
Posted by Barniferous in Friends and coworkers, Life in Japan, Lux, Tokyo on November 24, 2014
After crashing at Hello House last night, I went Christmas shopping in Asakusa with Lux and Zoe. Christmas shopping is pretty easy when living in Japan because basically everything is a unique Christmas present. I ended up spending too much money, but I got nearly all of my shopping done. Also, the stores wrapped everything nicely for me too. The street leading up to the temple in Asakusa is a great place for souvenir and gift shopping.
We ate lunch in a really cool Chinese restaurant near the temple. I had ramen loaded with seafood. Yum!
I ended up having way too much stuff to get back to Numazu with by myself. I packed as much as I could, and left the rest at Hello House to pick up before I left the country.
(2014 Update) I found out about a month later that having the gifts wrapped was not a smart idea. Stay tuned!
November 23, 2004 – Visiting Hello House
Posted by Barniferous in Friends and coworkers, Greater Tokyo Area, Life in Canada, Lux on November 23, 2014
Today I got a late start and then went to Kawasaki to hang out with Lux and Zoe.
Not much had changed in Hello House in the month I have been away. I updated them on stories of my new city, and Lux filled us in on stories about her friend Fritz. She was always talking about Fritz – Fritz this and Fritz that. Other than tales of Fritz, Lux was getting ready to move back to Canada. Her recent trip home reminded her that she liked living in Canada better. This caused a bit of tension with her boss, who had just promoted her.
We went out to Gyukaku and watched horror movies in the evening. I ended up crashing on Lux’s floor in Hello House instead of returning home. I don’t think anyone ever completely cuts ties with Hello House.
November 19, 2004 – Halo 2
Posted by Barniferous in Azeroth, Friends and coworkers on November 19, 2014
Palmer bought Halo 2 for his X-Box today. He, Azeroth and I spent the whole evening playing it, only stopping for a snack and beer run at the 7-11 across the street. Life is good.
November 10, 2004 – Ryoba
Posted by Barniferous in Azeroth, Life in Japan on November 10, 2014
After work I went to a chain izakaya called Ryoba with Azeroth. They specialize in cheap sushi and 100 yen draft beer. The beer was nothing special, but the sushi is amazing, especially considering the price. I can understand why Numazu is known for its sushi.
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