Medical checks. I HATE them. I seriously do. And now I hate them even more, these people are no good at measuring height! I am NOT 1m68,8. I refuse to believe that. My passport says otherwise anyway. So HA! Stupid Japanese measuring machines! Anyway, after the medical check I ran into Ken (not Kenji, just Ken, different person) whom I knew from the ketchup drink some time ago (remember?). Anyway, he looked different. It turned out he had switched clothes with his friend to prove his friend had bad taste in clothes… It doesn’t get weirder than that right!?

And the fun doesn’t end… Do you sometimes get the feeling that this person you’ve met is really going to influence how your life is going to be from now on? That this person can be that big of an influence? Well I have. I had it last night. I’ve told you all before about ‘baard’ right!? Well, last night, around 7, Andy knocks on our door and tells us Sachi is coming over to cook dinner for us. Well he could have told us a little earlier considering we had just had dinner, but we went up anyway, and it was unbelievable. Sachi came with the entire family, including Momoko this time, their 13 year old daughter whom I hadn’t met yet, with the most amazing amount of food. They brought this huuuuge pan of ‘oden’. We had seen oden in various places, in combini’s and separate oden restaurants, but we never really knew what it was. It looks like a BIG bowl of soup with all these snacks in it. Well, as it turns out, that’s sort of what it is ;). Everything from hard boiled eggs, chicken, tofu, konyaku to things containing squid and fish paste. It’s warm, and you just scoop out what you want and then eat it with some very spicy mustard (like English mustard!). Sachi had also brought a whole plate of sashimi, some karage (fried chicken bits) and a HUGE bottle of shochuu (sake). It was a real feast, and it was a shame that we had already eaten. That didn’t stop us from trying various bits and pieces of course! I must say it was quite yummy! After the ‘main course’ they brought out more snacks and things, and a whole plate of fruit! Considering fruit is relatively expensive, this was a real treat!

So in between all the eating and drinking (I don’t like sake so I had something else) we chatted with everyone. Here comes the best part though, in the end we were all speaking Japanese, even to each other. I seriously had a really, really fun time, and it was the first time I could really keep a conversation going in Japanese. I had a good chat with Yoriko and later on with Sachi. Nonoka is still a little shy though she’s getting better, and Momo is crazy about the care bears, so I went back to my room to put my own care bears shirt on scoring major points of course ;). To come back to what I said earlier: various people in Leiden who had come to Nagasaki before us have told me about Sachi, about how great and how much fun he is, and that we should definitely go there and everything, and now I understand why. Sachi lives for the Dutch people it almost seems. He told us that when the last lot left, he couldn’t wait for the next lot (us) to arrive. Yoriko told us he would ask her every day if we had arrived yet, which she couldn’t know of course, but you get the picture. I think that Sachi and his family are going to be a big factor in how I experience this year!

All in all, it was a great night, and luckily I only have class at 14:30 today so I’m not missing out on class or anything. But I do have to go and get dressed and ready to go now, so toodles!!!

ps: pictures uploaded under '24okt' and there are pictures of my phone in the general folder!