Chapter 2: dinner with Kuma-sensei

Made another friend at work the other day. We'll call him Kuma-sensei because the first part of his name means `bear`. It might just be me, but I find it really funny that I'm out here in the middle of nowhere surrounded by people with names like "forest" and "bear" and "mountain". It's probably more common than I'm imagining.

As it turns out, Kuma-sensei lives just above me in the same apartment. He invited me to dinner, and we ended up going out of town to this really fantastic sushi place. The area is famous for sushi because it's right next to the Sea of Japan. The sushi was good, but I have a feeling Kuma-sensei took me as much for his own enjoyment as mine.

Since being here, people have been asking me strange questions, like, `Do you like natto?`(a fermented bean that's notoriously gross, but apparently very healthy), and then flashing evil grins when I say I've never tried it. such was the case here. Kuma-sense treated me to dish after dish of sushi, most of which were delicious. There were a few that I didn't quite agree with, but being in the Land of the Rising Sun, I couldn't very well say that it was "nasty". Instead, when asked, I replied that it was "interesting".

Here's a breakdown of the sushi we ate:

eel - good
egg - very good
salmon - delicious
tuna - delicious
tako(octopus) - interesting
Squid - very interesting
natto - so interesting that Kuma-sensei had to finish it for me.
By the end of the dinner, Kuma-sensei had tears in his eyes from laughing so hard. He treated me, though, so I have no complaints.
Gaijin seem to have the power to make Japanese people buy things for them. I must examine this power and utalize it fully.