By now, most of the staff sections have been able to meet with their counterparts and have a bilateral social. Most of these socials have occurred off post. I was beginning to feel that we were just not going to have one, when finally, I found out. By now, I’ve started to develop working friendships with other Army officers at higher headquarters and adjacent headquarters. I still haven’t really met my Japanese counterpart and at the rate I’m going, I probably won’t.
I found out about the social while I was taking a quick break from training my section. The Joint Forces Land Component Command (JFLCC- pronounced Jay-Flick) Deputy IO chief pulled me aside and asked me if I was going to the social because he didn’t see my name on the RSVP. Hmmm, could this be another communications problem? In any case, I told him I would go and that I was honored to be asked to attend. He also asked me to pass this on to the rest of the team at division. I went back and let my boss know and he already had something planned for that evening. He would drop in later.
The social was a complete BLAST! I really had a great time and got to know the Japanese soldiers a lot better.
It was hard enough to communicate to them sober, imagine what it was after a few…. I tried not to get too saucy and I followed the rule of keeping your glass full if you didn’t want any more. Apparently, rumor has it that it is rude to keep your guest’s glass empty. This by the way is true. The hosts were always filling your glass. We also were served a dinner. The Japanese colonel that sat beside me asked me if I ever had eaten noodles with chop sticks. Hmm… Yup. He laughed and asked the waitress to bring me a fork and I told him politely that I could in fact eat just about anything with chop sticks. I have been practicing with Sushi back home for over a year. The noodles were served and he was definitely impressed. So were the other US soldiers at the table. The Japanese colonel marveled over my “technique.” He commented that my technique was better than his son’s. Aregato!
It was hard enough to communicate to them sober, imagine what it was after a few…. I tried not to get too saucy and I followed the rule of keeping your glass full if you didn’t want any more. Apparently, rumor has it that it is rude to keep your guest’s glass empty. This by the way is true. The hosts were always filling your glass. We also were served a dinner. The Japanese colonel that sat beside me asked me if I ever had eaten noodles with chop sticks. Hmm… Yup. He laughed and asked the waitress to bring me a fork and I told him politely that I could in fact eat just about anything with chop sticks. I have been practicing with Sushi back home for over a year. The noodles were served and he was definitely impressed. So were the other US soldiers at the table. The Japanese colonel marveled over my “technique.” He commented that my technique was better than his son’s. Aregato!
The other parts of the meal consisted of “taco balls” and those goofy deep fried knuckle things.
The word TACO in Japanese means Squid. The rest of the night was toast after toast and lots of laughs. The pictures I took really couldn’t capture the atmosphere. I will remember this event for a long time.
The word TACO in Japanese means Squid. The rest of the night was toast after toast and lots of laughs. The pictures I took really couldn’t capture the atmosphere. I will remember this event for a long time.
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