Fri 6PM! Time to head down to Joyce's apartment...hey, there was no sign on that 2F door across the alley when Janice and I looked yesterday; what does it say now? Ohhh. It's a "juku", where those pitiful students have to study their heads off for the intense school entrance examination competition (You've heard, haven't you, how the suicide rate in Japan is highest among junior high students during high school entrance testing season?)
But we weren't going to juku. We didn't have to worry about any of that stress; we were just going to pig out and enjoy ourselves. The expression "pig out" was chosen rather intentionally, as the main dish Kinya was preparing was "tonjiru", a pork, or pig stew. An hour before we ate, Kinya became Master Chef and taught Janice how to make it, giving her handwritten list so she would have reference when she was by herself in the U.S.
The tonjiru was good. I didn't realize how good--until Janice commented she would never get tonjiru in the U.S. I'd forgotten how blessed I am, since Kinya makes it for us about once a week. Father, I'm so sorry I haven't been more grateful.
After the meal, Janice gave the menfolk some gifts (Kariyushi shirts, like Okinawan Aloha shirts), and we played some games around the table. Most people hear the word "game" and imagine the monitor with electronic images moving across the screen, but we still have loads of fun with Pit (the "Peek" version) or Phase 10 too. Actually, no one was bored; we would've played much longer, except we knew Joyce still had preparations for tomorrow's women's Bible Study, so we cut it short, and the fellas went home while the 3 J's ran through the special music a few times before I ran back upstairs too.
The Kariyushi shirts? I forgot to take a picture. Sorry!
