Kayoko states in her measured delicate English. Kalonymus yells at me to wake up or miss dinner. I take my place on the mats next to seven fellow performers, Kayoko, and our boss. We are treated like special guests and receive a nine-course meal. Kalonymus describes it as raw fish, barbecued fish, breaded fish, candied fish, baked fish, dried fish, and rice.
Dinner comes, and comes, and never seems to stop.
Our boss is an avid pachinko player and has won handily the night before. I have eaten very little these first few days. Our show has not been going well. In America, we depend on almost non-stop talking and joking as background to our juggling, but Japanese is not one of the easiest languages for a westerner to learn. For starters, the grammar is totally different.