I am Lying - October 6th, 2007

I went to the institut franco-japonais du Kyushu tonight for the second time. The first time, yesterday, I stepped into the elevator and froze when someone suddenly said "bonjour", without any warning. I was so unprepared that I didn't say "bonjour" back at first, and then too much time had passed so I just pretended that I didn't hear him. Not classy.

But at tonight's hour-long "chat with French people over some coffee and please don't embarrass yourselves" event, I spoke with native Francophones for the first time and it went really well. I have to admit, I was geekily excited/happy afterwards. It was a reassuring barometer for how my French is progressing.

Afterwards, my friend Tiffany and I wandered around downtown Fukuoka, and when we got to the Nakasu district, we stumbled upon a full on festival. Nakasu is known as "hooker island" by some of the JETs (well, ok, by me, but I'm trying to coin the term) because it is an island where salary men go to ladies who will bust out all kinds of handjobs on them. But tonight we saw little kids in kimono and middle aged ladies and entire families roaming the streets alongside the usual mix of young club-hoppers (Nakasu is also a party district) and disgusting, horny salary men. It was weird.