Hi friends and fans! Happy Holidays to you all! Hope you're enjoying this wonderful crazy season where ever you are in the world. I've actually been interviewed for the first time! Check it!
The interview is in two parts so please follow the link to Part 2. You'll be glad you did! I hope. Thanks to, Justin Tedaldi, a former CIR on the JET program, for wanting to do this interview. Check out his other, Japan related articles too. Good stuff!
(Real Tanuki Pics on BLOG page)
In Japan, you can see Tanuki statues in front of restaurants to attract customers and money. He's a raccoon dog spirit with a welcome happy smile and large testicles. I didn't know what to make of these things when I first got to Japan. Living in the Osaka area, there are a lot of restaurants/bars and plenty of tanukis! Even kids seemed to be ok with the idea that there's a statue with big balls out in front of where they're eating. Some people even put them in front of their home as a symbol of fertility. Tanuki's are so popular that even famous animation director, Hayao Miyazaki, made a movie about them called Heisei Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko! The best scene is when the Tanukis grab their balls and stretch out their scrotums to use them as parachutes. Yes, this movie was for kids! Anyway, I like tanukis because they have magical powers and are quite curious. I have a feeling that some of you are going to love my version of Tanuki, or hate him. Either way, I hope he'll make a fun addition to Fried Chicken and Sushi!
If you're teaching English in Japan, you are usually thrown a Welcome Party by your Board of Education or company. I remember reading about all of the rules for attending official parties in Japan but I didn't believe them. They turned out to be true! The hardest for me was sitting and waiting for people to finish making speeches before we could eat. They really take a long time and several people have to speak. In some places, the teacher that you are replacing is there and gives a farewell speech and then they make you give a welcome speech. Luckily, I didn't have to make a speech! Just say hello and thank you. The employees at the Board of Education did put in money to help me buy a cell phone though and when we all said, KAMPAI (Cheers), I was ready to eat and drink!
Yes, I did my fair share of beer drinking. The other people at the party really do fill up your little glass when it's empty. Sometimes, I didn't even see the person refill it. Ninja style! It's easy to get carried away and drink too much. I'm a light weight when it comes to drinking and I don't over do it, so what you see in this comic is pretty much the way it happened. So sad, I know. I really learned to pace myself after that experience and to just stop drinking from the little glass! That way, they can't give me any Ninja refills.
Hi friends and fans! Just wanted to let you know that this comic has been reviewed for the first time! Yay! Somebody noticed! You can check out the fine Fried Chicken and Sushi review at http://www.kryptodies.com/2010/08/fried-chicken-and-sushi-webcomic-review.html If you have a blog or review site, please feel free to review me or give a shout out. Thank you!
Also, I hope you're enjoying Karl's adventures at the Board of Education. I remember having to sit in the B.O.E. office everyday for a month before school starts, doing nothing. They hired me to teach but without having any classes yet, I guess they just didn't want me to hang out on my own with all the free time. Guess they figured, "We're paying this foreigner, he'd better do something!" It sure was boring though! I'm not kidding when I say there was nothing to do. I had to create my plans for the day and bring books to read and notepads to draw and write in. Every now and then, someone would come by and try to practice English on me. That would actually make me feel great because most of the time It was like I didn't exist. I couldn't wait for school to start so I could get on with the job I moved all the way to Japan for!
(Please go to the BLOG page to see photos)
It's great that Karl has finally made it to his little town of Shimamoto, Japan! Yes, Shimamoto is a real town between Osaka and Kyoto. I actually did live there for two years and loved it! It's right by the mountains and the people are really kind and friendly. I thought about making up the name of a town but I really felt it would be nice to give a shout out to my former home. If you're ever in the area, you should stop by and check it out. There's absolutely nothing to do, but you might see some familiar scenes from the comic.
However, it was a bit challenging when I first arrived there. My apartment was old but very large (a 1 LDK for those of you in Japan now) and the B.O.E. employees kept telling me how lucky I was to be one person living in a place large enough for a family. For a six foot three black guy, it didn't feel that big to me! All of Japan gets super hot and humid in the summer but I felt like it was extra-smokin' hot in Shimamoto. My apartment had a wall unit air-conditioner but it was broken when I moved in. So, I did have many of those freak out Culture Shock moments you see in the comic (while drenched in my sweat)! It took me awhile to learn how to live "Japanese style" in the summer heat.
Looks like Karl finished his English teacher training in Tokyo and now gets to travel to his town. I remember feeling SO scared when leaving Tokyo because I was given no pictures of my town or my apartment I was moving into. It was such a safe feeling being around other English teachers while in Tokyo and then they split us up and send us on our way! Good luck foreigners! Never before or since then have I ever moved to a place that I've never even seen before! While riding the bullet train for the first time, on the way to my town, one of the guides told me we would be passing through my town so keep a look out. It went by so fast and didn't look like anything special so I got even more scared! And a little sick to my stomach. It was a true "What am I doing here?" moment!
Hello friends and fans! Just wanted to let you know that I changed the setting for email delivery of your Fried Chicken and Sushi comics so that you can receive them on the same day they post. If you haven't signed up for email updates you can put in your info under the comic to the right. Thanks for all the great comments and support. We have been working out a few glitches but you should be able to navigate through the previous comics easily now. I also have been enjoying the Twitter feed on the site. Follow me, if you dare!
Thanks to all of you out there that have been stopping by to check out my strip! Remember, I'm updating every Tuesday and Thursday so I'm expecting for you to continue reading every week! If you really want to make me smile, subscribe via RSS or email! I'm having fun setting up this adventure that Karl is on and I hope you're getting the feeling that moving to Japan is a unique experience. TRUE FACT- I was given my first breakfast in Japan at the hotel and they served french fries with the scrambled eggs and sausage. I couldn't understand how they could get sooooooo close to hash browns (or even home fries) and not quite get it right! As you will discover, this will happen a great deal. As far as identity goes, people can feel odd living in Japan and facing the reality that they are not a part of the majority anymore. There aren't many (if any) people that look like you around. Some people can handle it well...others, not so well. Issues of identity will be brought up many more times in the future. Let's hope you can have a good laugh and appreciate the strange reality of being a foreigner in Japan.
Hello new fans and friends! This is Khalid Birdsong, writer and artist of this very strip with the delicious name. Even though it sounds like this comic is about food it's actually about the amazing, insightful and humorous adventure of living in Japan! I know what you're thinking, how does this guy know about living in Japan? Well, I actually lived in Osaka, Japan for two years and worked as an Assistant English teacher in Junior High Schools. I worked for the JET Programme and truly enjoyed my experience. Some of you reading this may be teaching in Japan right now (I'm sure you'll get all of the jokes!) and others may be curious about what life would be like there. As a cartoonist, I always thought it would be fun to create a comic strip based on my time as a black man in Japan.
DISCLAIMER! In no way is this comic completely true to life. There will be things that I will joke about
Fried Chicken and Sushi is a Blog and humorous comic strip about living in Japan and Japanese pop-culture.
© copyright 2010 - Khalid Birdsong All Rights Reserved.
