entry nº 56 // 20191107

sometimes irie-san, who’s worked his whole life as a carpenter, and who knows of my interest in woodworking projects and stuff, calls me up + asks if i’m available to help out on jobs. when i’m free, i say yes. 

of course when you think japanese carpenter, you might imagine like, dudes spending hours carving intricate joinery by hand, and of course there’s that whole scene too, but the truth is, at least when it comes to irie-san’s work, it’s mostly renovations – installing flooring, turning tatami rooms western-style, stuff like that. lots of circular saws and impact drivers, lots of pounding shit, etc. but it’s still interesting, and fun, and i get to understand better how apartments and houses out here are put together. many boring moments, being the helper, as in lots of time waiting around to hand someone a tool, or sweep up, or what have you. 

also, and maybe i talked about this before? but most of the time i have very little idea what these guys are saying, irie-san and his daiku-san friends, since they’re mostly all from more countryside areas of fukuoka prefecture and so speak a real thick hakata or yame dialect, which, you know, makes certain elements of the job stressful sometimes, in terms of me often finding myself in some situation where a guy is saying something to me, and i have to very quickly try to determine if i’m being asked to hand someone something, do something, stop doing something, or if he’s just making some sort of dad-joke in my direction. usually it’s the latter, but still, yikes! thank goodness for my slimy little brain, which for the most part seems to be able to grab at context clues w/ enough speedy desperation not to get anybody too irritated with me.