Tottori, Tottori: Gyoza Goodbye

Last Sunday I was invited to a going away dinner for a student from Malaysia. He was a cool kid, and a fluent English speaker so we chatted on a regular basis. The girl hosting the party is a gem. We met in my first days at school and she has always been a pleasure. Her English is superb, partly stemming from living in Beijing for a while, and she has traveled to Vermont before for exchange. Anyways long story short I was invited to a small dinner party and I didn't know what to expect. I was met at the station by a small group of giggling girls and we headed off to Yo's house. Once there we got to work making Gyoza from hand!! Everyone thought it was really hilarious how I made them...I honestly didn't think mine were bad at all but I think it was the whole 'laugh at the gaijin' thing. Anyways we made gyoza for about an hour so by the time dinner rolled around we had enough gyoza to feed a small army. In addition to our amazing gyoza we had chicken, fruit salad(courtesy of moi), a platter of sushi rice and some other odds and ends. Oh, and for dessert we had hand made sponge cake and some tarts made by one of the students! After the amazing dinner (so stuffed) we sat around and played Karuta, a famous card game in Japan. It is really difficult so we played some simplified version. Was an amazing night and I was so blessed to have been included. Some days I feel like I am not appreciated at school, by the students or staff. Then I get invited to house parties and spend my night laughing with students who seem genuinely interested in English and the silly foreign girl they got as their ALT.