The Godfather of Minamisanriku

So the good news is that Anne’s alien registration card finally came!  But when we tried to go to the cell phone store to get her cell put in her name (it’s currently under our supervisor’s name) the cell company said that it would be impossible to change... kind of weird if you ask me since she pays the bill.  But she was able to change her internet router info so that she can pay for it automatically via her bank account.  I’m kind of happy now that I’m waiting to get a cell until after I get my alien registration card so it can all be in my name from the start.

Anyway, after I’d been in the neighborhood for a few weeks Anne came back one night to tell me that she’d been talking with Chibara-kuchou, the neighborhood chief.  Basically he’s a retired, older guy in charge of the community center building and who has a lot of connections.  The way Anne described him almost reminded me of a very tame mafia or something since Chibara-kuchou has a bunch of cronies and some of them call themselves brothers even though I'm pretty sure they’re not related.  When outside aid comes in to help the victims of the tsunami oftentimes the items will end up being distributed by Chibara-kuchou.  Anne told me that when she first arrived and was trying to figure out which days to put out the trash she ended up in front of the community center where Chibara-kuchou and his gang were grilling up some fish underneath a temporary pavilion.  They told Anne what she needed to know and gave her some milk and rice that had been donated to the area.  Anyway, apparently Chibara-kuchou was annoyed that Anne hadn’t been by the grilling-tent recently and that she hadn’t introduced me to the gang.

So... one Thursday after work Anne and I walked down to the community center and ate some barbecue.  Upon meeting Chibara-kuchou I decided that he kind of reminded me of the Godfather (hopefully without the shooting and horse heads...).  Basically it’s in your best interest to stay on his good side and then you’ll get things in return.  After eating some grilled fish(?) with Chibara-kuchou and a few of his buddies we decided to call it an evening (though it was only about 7).  On our way back to our apartment we were walking in the same direction as Chibara-kuchou when he asked us what we were eating for dinner.  Anne and I told him we weren’t really sure (we were planning to heat up some leftovers) and he told us to come to his place to see if his wife (whom he affectionately called “the old woman”) had made anything.  Chibara-kuchou’s wife is a full-time housewife (the “ideal” woman by Japanese standards) and has been for going on 40 years now so of course dinner was ready when we arrived.  So, though I felt a bit embarrassed about intruding upon the wife, daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren, we were invited for some homemade dinner!  Chibara-kuchou’s wife taught us about some Japanese table manners while the daughter-in-law tried to encourage her five year-old son to sing us the ABCs (unsuccessfully).  It was a fun evening.

On October 9th Anne and I took the bus into Sendai to see Erin again (this time as part of a yosakoi festival).  Yosakoi is energetic dancing with colorful costumes and props that is really fun to watch.  Erin and a few other JETs from the Kami area of Iwate joined a local women’s yosakoi team last year and apparently have a good time with it (plus it’s good exercise).

Here’s a different yosakoi team during their performance.

While in Sendai Anne and I also got to do some much-needed shopping and I discovered that there’s a Cold Stone Creamery ice cream store at the train station (so exciting!).  I’ll have to go back there again next time...