Female Noodle Power!!

I have a friend named Janelle here, and she is super awesome. She moved here with her husband when we lived here 3 years ago, and they are still living here, in the capitol of Kagawa, Takamatsu. Here is why she is super awesome: she taught herself Japanese while living here! And she knows over 1500 of the standard 2000 kanji you need to know to read Japanese. And she rocks Japanese cooking like no other gaijin* out there.

Plus, she works at an udon shop, but not just any udon shop--the first "josei" or only female udon shop in Kagawa. Udon making is traditionally a man's job, as it takes strong muscles to roll and cut the stiff dough. So, this restaurant where only women make the noodles is a huge deal, and they feature it on the news. Check out Janelle--after about 1 minute, she comes on:



I had to laugh at the reporter. He is basically saying, "Eh? A foreigner?! From Canada?! This is the first time I have ever seen a white person working in a noodle shop!"

Janelle loves her job, and they sent her to noodle making school this summer, too.
Go Janelle!

*Gaijin is the slang term for "foreigner". You'll notice the reporter says "gaikokujin", which is still kind of slang-y but a bit more polite. There is another polite term for foreigner, but no one uses it. Every person from America or Canada here even refers to himself and his friends as "gaijin" and the English classifieds here are called "Gaijin Pot". I don't know what I would do without my gaijin friends!