Tajiri International Club

The Institute allowed people from the Tajiri International Club (Tajiri is the name of this area that includes Rinku Town) to come to talk to those of us who want to have international exchange. They divided us into three groups where approximately three Japanese sat with six foreigners (non-Japanese). I thought the conversation was okay. I really wanted to ask "hard" questions such as if Japanese were aware of their prewar history, and to what extent. I want to ask about their lives. I did not end up asking any question because I thought it would be too abrupt and appear rude to them.

I wore this red shirt that Lindi gave me for my Bachelorette's party with a pair of black slacks because I ran out of non-T-shirt top (or I thought so, I later discovered I had one more). Two guys (Saigoto from India and Julio from Spain) in my program had interesting response to my shirt. Their faces brightened up when they saw me, "Oh, you are so beautiful today! You have become so pretty." They even took pictures with me. Saigoto-san said similar words to me again after the international exchange.

After the official round-table exchange, I talked to this Japanese college student. We had a good conversation. I felt fine until he asked if I was free then. Before that, he asked if I had been to the movie theatre in Japan. I took a chance to move away from him and got Carla and another colleague, Mutia, to leave and go to dinner. This was my first encounter with a potential asking-me-out type of situation... I felt weird...

I have four more international exchanges on my calendar. I will blog about them as they happen.