I actually moved to Makikiキリスト教会 about a month before the pandemic in 2020. I moved from Inspire Honolulu because I felt called to attend a Japanese service. After only a few Sundays, everything got shut down due to COVID.
After not attending church for a few years, I decided to finally go back on April 2nd (since April marks the start of “new beginnings” in Japan.) I learned that the only I friend that I made at MCC had left. Still, everyone is so nice. The 日本語 will be difficult for me, but I hope to make friends and find a new home here.
I finally got to visit my best friends in Kumamoto 熊本🏯 It was a long, long wait (Japan was the last country to open to travel,) but that made it even more special. I can’t even express how happy I was to see them again😭💦
Last year was a really difficult time for me, so I treated myself to a nice present on my birthday. I got a watch! First time in a long time…
All of my friends (and co-workers) have Apple Watches. About 100%! But because I’m so passionate about 日本🇯🇵、I really wanted a Japanese watch.
The very first watch that I ever owned (as a kid) was handed down to me by my dad. It was a Seiko. なつかしい。。。
The first watch that I ever purchased in my life was on my high school band trip to Japan. It was a Seiko…
So of course, this had to be a Seiko. And the 62MAS Diver was the right one for me.
Being an automatic watch, it’s not quite as accurate as a quartz watch. But it’s all good. It’s a few seconds slow, just like me. Everyday my watch seems to tell me, 「アラン、がんばってね。」
I love ラーメン！So much so, that it’s become a weekly ritual. My go-to ramenya is Menya le Nood on Pensacola. I’ve tried almost all of the ramen shops in town, and this one is my absolute favorite. Kuriさん is the best! さいこう！Here is my Yelp review:
You can find me there on Saturday mornings at opening. Look for the table near the door, next to Nezuko.
Finishing our last plantation iced teas at our final お茶会。
お茶会 (おちゃかい / ocha kai) translates to “tea party.” We really don’t have an equivalent term here in the states, perhaps “afternoon tea.” It’s all about friends hanging out at a cafe and enjoying good conversation.
My story is about how a language exchange blossomed into an amazing, amazing, lifelong friendship. After meeting on the first day of a Saturday Japanese language class at UH-Mānoa, we somehow discovered that we lived in the same condo. I say “somehow” because at the time, my friend could only speak a little English, and I couldn’t speak 日本語 at all.
We started to meet weekly at a boba tea cafe in our building. Soon her daughter joined in, and I met the entire family. Everyone was so incredibly kind, and we got along so well. This led to dinner at a nearby microbrewery, barbecue in our condo’s shared space, and lunch in my unit.
The turning point was actually the city’s lockdown order due to COVID. Social gatherings were not allowed. We were still able to take walks together. We bonded and became the best of friends. When things opened up, we were able to go on outings around the island. Because my friends were here in Hawaiʻi for a limited time, it created a sense of urgency. Every bit of time was extremely precious.
Now I will talk about what we did at お茶会。Because we’re all students learning a second language, we often had questions regarding grammar & vocab. We also realized that there is “school” language and “real” language, so we tried to learn what a native speaker would say. For fun, we answered survey questions (アンケート) and learned a lot about each other.
In the last few months, we started journaling in our target languages ジャーナル。This was a great practice. You had to compose sentences, write them, read them (speaking & listening,) get feedback, and work on pronunciation. Here are my journal entries (from newest-to-oldest.)
In the beginning, we just wanted to learn a new language. But thanks to お茶会、we became family.
Alan Tamayose 