Old friends
Aug. 29th, 2008 12:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aideI have kept in contact with very few of the friends I made when I lived in Singapore all those years ago... now that I'm in Japan and most of those people have come back here, I have only met up with two of them and only once a couple of times! It seems like such a waste... I should make more of an effort. Get on Facebook and stalk those people...
I went to my friend Yuka's house tonight for dinner with her family in Shinagawa and to catch the last of the summer's fireworks from their place. The weather has been like a bitch in heat lately and it was absolutely torrential today so we weren't sure if they would go off but they did. Their apartment is on the 16th floor and has a gorgeous view of Odaiba, the Rainbow Bridge, the big Ferris wheel, and Fuji TV. The fireworks were quite far, but we had an unobstructed view. They were only 10 minutes, which is short by Japanese standards but pretty normal for North Americans so it was nice. Yuka's mom made Singapore Chicken Rice and it was cho oishii!! She even packed me up the leftovers to take home!
I've known Yuka since grade 4 or 5... I thought it was closer to middle school age but apparently not. I guess that makes sense because I knew Aya at the same time and we were in the same grade 5 class. So I've known her for over ten years. I went to their house for lunch in October but haven't seen her since then. This time, I got to meet her brother for the first time since Singapore and wow has he changed. Granted, the last time I saw him he was in elementary school, probably 6 or 7 years old... He's in his last year at Keio High School and is probably looking to going to university overseas. He was this short, shrimpy little boy and now he's about 6', tanned and beefy -- he plays American football at school (and their team is the fucking UNICORNS). His English is amazing, seeing as the last time I met him... I don't remember him speaking at all, let alone in English.
He told me all his classes are in English... so Keio must have an immersion stream? I can't find anything like that on the website. If that were true, I'm sure there would be more English on the site. Well, if they are at the top of Japan's Ivy League and you're paying roughly ￥1,235,120 a year in tuition (yes, I looked it up), I should think they would have something like that. He's in the highest English class and that would definitely be full-on seeing as he's writing essays, not just paragraphs and stupid grammar exercises. It's also an all-boys school, which I didn't know. (Keio operates both boys' and girls' high schools, I've learned.) Must be like Vancouver College and LFA? Anyway, he asked me to edit his English paper and it was pretty good. There were a few grammatical errors and stuff and he has taken some TOEFL writing course and it shows. I fixed some mistakes and offered him some advice about wording and making his argument clearer. I'm really nerdy so I enjoyed it... his mom gave me ￥2000 for helping him! Not that I did it for the money... but I told him if he ever needed any help, just give me a call. And Mrs Uda was saying she wants to practice her English more... so I have an open invitation. :D They'll pay me in food. It was really great. I am going to jump on that invitation more often.
I also got the Hagiwara's address from Yuka's mom; Yoko and I were best friends until she moved back to Japan in grade 6. We wrote letters for a few years and she had an email address but I never got any replies. I tried writing a postcard when I first got here but it got returned. Luckily, Mrs. Uda kept in contact with Mrs Hagiwara. I think she said Yoko moved out but her mom can contact her for me anyway. They still live in Yokohama but moved house. I'll have to write a letter and see what kind of response I get.
I went to my friend Yuka's house tonight for dinner with her family in Shinagawa and to catch the last of the summer's fireworks from their place. The weather has been like a bitch in heat lately and it was absolutely torrential today so we weren't sure if they would go off but they did. Their apartment is on the 16th floor and has a gorgeous view of Odaiba, the Rainbow Bridge, the big Ferris wheel, and Fuji TV. The fireworks were quite far, but we had an unobstructed view. They were only 10 minutes, which is short by Japanese standards but pretty normal for North Americans so it was nice. Yuka's mom made Singapore Chicken Rice and it was cho oishii!! She even packed me up the leftovers to take home!
I've known Yuka since grade 4 or 5... I thought it was closer to middle school age but apparently not. I guess that makes sense because I knew Aya at the same time and we were in the same grade 5 class. So I've known her for over ten years. I went to their house for lunch in October but haven't seen her since then. This time, I got to meet her brother for the first time since Singapore and wow has he changed. Granted, the last time I saw him he was in elementary school, probably 6 or 7 years old... He's in his last year at Keio High School and is probably looking to going to university overseas. He was this short, shrimpy little boy and now he's about 6', tanned and beefy -- he plays American football at school (and their team is the fucking UNICORNS). His English is amazing, seeing as the last time I met him... I don't remember him speaking at all, let alone in English.
He told me all his classes are in English... so Keio must have an immersion stream? I can't find anything like that on the website. If that were true, I'm sure there would be more English on the site. Well, if they are at the top of Japan's Ivy League and you're paying roughly ￥1,235,120 a year in tuition (yes, I looked it up), I should think they would have something like that. He's in the highest English class and that would definitely be full-on seeing as he's writing essays, not just paragraphs and stupid grammar exercises. It's also an all-boys school, which I didn't know. (Keio operates both boys' and girls' high schools, I've learned.) Must be like Vancouver College and LFA? Anyway, he asked me to edit his English paper and it was pretty good. There were a few grammatical errors and stuff and he has taken some TOEFL writing course and it shows. I fixed some mistakes and offered him some advice about wording and making his argument clearer. I'm really nerdy so I enjoyed it... his mom gave me ￥2000 for helping him! Not that I did it for the money... but I told him if he ever needed any help, just give me a call. And Mrs Uda was saying she wants to practice her English more... so I have an open invitation. :D They'll pay me in food. It was really great. I am going to jump on that invitation more often.
I also got the Hagiwara's address from Yuka's mom; Yoko and I were best friends until she moved back to Japan in grade 6. We wrote letters for a few years and she had an email address but I never got any replies. I tried writing a postcard when I first got here but it got returned. Luckily, Mrs. Uda kept in contact with Mrs Hagiwara. I think she said Yoko moved out but her mom can contact her for me anyway. They still live in Yokohama but moved house. I'll have to write a letter and see what kind of response I get.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-28 04:44 pm (UTC)Glad you're having fun these days. Shame we couldn't meet up once more. Oh well~
(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-28 04:45 pm (UTC)