07/01 - Canada Day!

Never forget where

you came from, when far from home

it is part of you


My poem for today is admittedly a little over the top. I haven't been away for long enough to truly miss Canada, although more and more I am looking forward to a few things I know are waiting for me when I get back. Today being Canada Day it was unavoidable to think about home, while also being a great excuse to tell my students some of the great things about Canada. The day even got off to a Canadian start. On the way to work there was a guy handing out free tissues, which is a very common sight here. The free tissues always feature advertising, that's the whole point of them handing them out for free. Today the tissues I got had an ad for an English school and a picture of Winnie the Pooh and his friends.

For work I wore a red and white shirt and my Hudson's Bay striped watch and socks. I also brought my Rugby Canada hat and told all my classes a bit about Canada Day. In my free-speaking class we also wrote some stories in a hilarious way, passing the story to a different partner pair every two sentences, and all the students picked Canadian characters. The three main characters the students picked were Justin Bieber, Avril Lavigne and myself. One of the craziest students I've had, I wrote about him before making jokes about curling and introducing himself as Wolverine, also asked if he could wear my Canada hat. I let him try, knowing it would definitely not fit on his head.

After a fun day at work I headed to Shibuya with my coworker Simon. He's not Canadian, but he was more than happy to celebrate Canada Day and was excited to eat some poutine, having tried it when he visited Montreal. We ended up strolling around slightly lost for a while in Shibuya, knowing we had time to kill before we met other people at a Canada party. We discovered a really interesting area with some cool clothing shops, including a Supreme store, and a store that sold tons of exquisite motorcycle helmets.

When we eventually got to the Canada Day party we were greeted at the door by a cardboard cutout of a mountie. The whole bar, which is actually an English pub, was decorated for Canada Day and looked pretty good. Before fellow Canadian Clayton could show up in tow with an American, a Brit and a Japanese guy, Simon and I stood at the bar and talked to some Japanese women. As soon as we got there they asked if we were Canadian. Unsurprisingly, they had studied English in Vancouver, and had stayed at Robson and Thurlow, half a block from where I taught for three years. One girl complimented my Canadian soccer shirt, saying "I love your shirt." I had to reply, "I hate your shirt." She was wearing a Vancouver Canucks Alexandre Burrows t-shirt. Simon asked why I said that and so I explained that he was about as close as we have to Luis Suarez in the game of hockey what with all his biting and diving. I made sure I was nice to her after that comment though. I wouldn't want to alter the perception of Canadians being nice.

The party was hosted by the Tokyo Canadian Club. The whole bar sang the Canadian National Anthem at one point and they had two guys who played live music for chunks of the night. They played several Canadian songs, but for some reason after the anthem and asking questions to the Canadians in the crowd they decided to lead their first set with Steely Dan (Nicholas Adams eat your heart out). Simon asked me if they were Canadian and I told him they weren't. At least the second song of the set was Neil Young's "Heart of Gold". Perplexing nonetheless.

After Clayton showed up Simon ended up talking to the same Japanese girl in the Burrows t-shirt. Clayton not knowing what I had said before approached and told her he hated her shirt. It was pretty hilarious. I kind of felt bad, until she proclaimed her undying devotion to Nickelback. She seemed a bit drunk and was actually shouting "I luuubbbb Nickelback!" over and over. Simon then convinced her I also loved Nickelback and started singing "How You Remind Me". Luckily she and her friends left right after, and no, not because of the singing. Even better than that was when a guy came in with an old Oilers jersey, a straw cowboy hat and huge black-rimmed glasses. It wasn't a new retro style Oilers jersey, just a really old tattered one. Clayton and I, huge Flames fans, both rolled our eyes at each other and when he came over Clayton started giving him shit about how many #1 draft picks they've had and I asked him if he wore the shirt because he wanted to be the laughing stock of the bar. I realize that this blog entry makes us sound like assholes or possible just mean drunks, but I only had two beers and it was a very fun jovial atmosphere for everyone there. Honestly.

The only negative of the night was that the poutine they served was really bad. I tried Simon's before ordering any and decided not to get any at all. It's hard to get the correct ingredients here, especially the cheese curds, but it was a poor effort regardless. On account of the disappointing poutine, I capped off my Canada Day in an odd yet also fairly traditional way with a trip to McDonald's. I'm sure lots of my friends ended up at McDonald's for some hot bag after a day of drinking so it's not that odd of a Canada Day activity. I, however, soberly went to McDonald's and ate a "Japan Burger" a new menu item here. I've never seen a burger look less like the picture of it on the menu board in my life, which is saying something, but it was still very delicious. It had mince beef that was kind of breaded and had some sauce inside for the patty. I guess that makes it Japanese.