I Ate Horse

Since Monday, my days have been dominated by the nine hour training sessions and attempts to sleep. These days are long and brutal but effective and necessary. In a week’s time we’re to learn to be proficient in teaching among several other business tasks for the company - no easy tasks. Yesterday we taught our first self-created lesson to actual Japanese students while getting heavily critiqued by the trainers and peers. This was an important and challenging moment for us, one I’d say we all accomplished. Not without flaw of course, but as to be expected for our third day of training. The growth is already clear.

At the end of training on this monumental day, each of us trainees were given a present. These gifts were hand crafted letters/postcards from the school we’ll be joining in a week - from the area we’ll be living in a year. I have to admit, the amount of work, humor, and sentiment that went into this was really touching. The teachers and staff from the school really gave me a true sense of welcome. Their goofy poses, kind words, and how the paperclips holding the card shut were hearts were all just such sweet touches. Getting over this leap of completing my first lesson and then receiving this card all in one day, really boosted morale during these hard training days.

My fellow six trainees were all feeling similar feelings. We all just felt relieved and well, happy. Thus, we all went out. None of us knowing where to go exactly, we just walked the streets of Nagoya. There was an arm of a typhoon that hit yesterday so the night was warmer than usual - nice though. We ended up finding this hole in the wall bar that, to my surprise, had two more floors above it. We ended up getting the entire second floor to ourselves. The decor had us all sit on mats on the floor where we all sat at one long table. A waitress/waiter would come when called, we’d order alcohol and food when we wanted, and it just felt really good to let loose again.

While beers and sake were drank, our Australian compatriot’s eyes went wide when he noticed something on the menu - horse. Yes, horse, like the mammal. He ordered it, fully knowing it was horse. As it was served we just watched. Not only was it horse, it was raw. It was raw horse. We watched him eat raw horse. So, I too ate raw horse. It was admittedly horrible. I can’t say if it was the horse meat or the fact that it was raw. Since, you know, I never eat meat uncooked. The texture was unflattering, sort of slimy, and it didn’t offer much taste. He described it at first as sort of a tasteless jelly - I’m not sure I disagree. For reasons unknown, we were the only two to try it.

As if we just didn’t just fill our bellies with food and booze, there was one more stop on the way back to the dorm. As we passed a Takoyaki booth, another compatriot sprung an order for all of us to try. Takoyaki is a desert food, octopus puffs/balls. You can get it covered with a takoyaki sauce with option of mayonnaise. I had heard of this before, but certainly never tried it. So, I tried it. Easily not the strangest thing I’ve eaten this night, it was better than I thought but not necessarily something I’d pursue. They come out alarmingly hot.

After our gluttony, we checked Karaoke prices for a future celebratory date and headed back to the dorms. It was a good day. It was the first and ideally the last time I could say my stomach was filled with both horse and octopus simultaneously. Three more days of training.