Of all the massive failures in my life, my attempt to learn Japanese is probably the most egregious.
I had this idea in the summer of 2002 that I needed to learn another foreign language and I was intent on acquiring one that had a different alphabet. I was drawn to the graphic look of the Japanese kanji and imagined that I would pick it up in no time.
Within two weeks, I had dropped out of my Japanese course. For one, I was living in Germany at the time and trying to learn a foreign language through a foreign language: Just plain impossible.
Also, it struck me that in choosing Japanese, I had unintentionally aligned myself with the Axis Powers — I already spoke German fluently and had reached intermediate Italian.
But the final sign that Japanese and I were on the outs was this: What I really had a fetish for was Japanese food.
Salem has its share of acceptable sushi joints. I’m kind of partial to Fuji Ricetime.
But to find the real Japanese in Salem, you need to head to Willamette’s Tokyo University location on the east side of campus. There it is possible to feel like Scarlett Johansson wandering thoughtfully around Tokyo in the university’s cafeteria, in its Kaneko Commons.
Like that other Willamette University cafeteria, Goudy Commons, which is open to the public and which attracts a more varied crowd of state workers and local people in addition to students, Kaneko Commons is something of an insider’s secret. It’s got a fresh salad bar to rival your favorite Roth’s, and serves traditional Japanese noodle dishes that are both cheap, delicious and authentic.
My hungry man husband and I both got the special, a bean noodle dish smothered in green curry peanut sauce yesterday ($5.50) — and we should have shared it because it was too mammoth a portion for even this mighty eater and a mom-to-be.
We parked ourselves in the corner and spent lunch watching all of the Japanese exchange students hang out in the commons.
Lucky for me, you don’t need kanji to eat noodles. Though chopsticks can help.
You found it!
Take heart, Emily. If not learning Japanese is one of your massive failures, I think I’ve got you beat. Back in the winter of ’08, I signed up for a Kirkwood Community College, continuing-education, once-a-week, 6-week, night school course called “Electronics for the Homeowner.” I even signed up my P.I.C., knowing that a buddy system would make me even more eager to go. I should have taken it as an omen that I felt like I needed company.
Because I didn’t even get past week 2. I tried to blame it on the ripping-cold weather that winter. I tried to blame it on Guy, our instructor who was teaching the class for the first time. (He pronounced his name Guy as in “The Family Guy,” but I for some reason couldn’t stop pronouncing it the French way.) I tried to blame it on the lack of proper equipment. But in the end, I didn’t have any excuses. I’m just a Kirkwood Community College, continuing eduction, night school “Electronics for the Homeowner” dropout.
Sigh.
Stream or get “Ramen Girl”, this movie addresses the spirit and love of ramen. Like life you can have all the right ingredients and simply turn out plain.