The Guess Who Visitor

So the city I'm in is called Kanazawa, it's in a peninsula-prefecture called Ishikawa on the midwest coast that, as I tell everyone, looks like a fire-breathing sock puppet. Some people claim they can't see it. At the very least it looks like a hissing snake head or something... right?

Kanazawa is an awesome city, it is certainly one of the the best placements one could hope for on the JET programme. It's probably one of the biggest cities involved in JET too, actually, with half a million people in it. Kanazawa is home to a castle, a Temple district, a samurai district, a geisha district, one of the 3 sacred mountains in Japan, one of the 3 most beautiful gardens in Japan, a bustling fish market, and a downtown that's totally mini-Tokyo meets Disney World Pavillion. It's really quite something. I really want to detail each trip to these nifty places in different entries because I think they each warrant their own with fancy photos. So that will come later.
For now I think I'll share with you a unique anecdote.

Last Sunday I was hanging around the apartment, reorganizing some things and basically putting off getting groceries in the terrible humidity. Around 2pm, my doorbell rang. I thought for a moment, wondering who it could be. Most of the other JETs lived too far away for an impromptu visit, and my appliances had already been delivered the day before. So I opened the door, and there stood a very friendly Japanese woman.

"Hello?" I asked politely, wondering if maybe she had been expecting someone else to answer. Instead she began speaking rapidly and excitedly in Japanese. She kept saying "koenkai", which I had no idea what it was. "Enkai" means an afterwork drinking party, so I kept wondering if it had something to do with that. She barrelled on, ignoring my helpless replies of "I'm sorry, I don't quite understand". And thus began an epic guessing game, and a huge test of my (obviously weak) Japanese skills. Yep, here is our strange conversation. In Japanese.
"Oh, I'm sorry." I said, bowing, "I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Allie. Nice to meet you."
She looked at me funny and hesitantly introduced herself. I continued to try and deduce who she was. "Are you my neighbour?"
"No..."
"Do you live near here?"
"Yes, over in Izuminomachi."
"Oh! By the library!"
"Yes, the library."
"It's nice there."
"Yes. Um, are you a mother? That is, do you have children?" she asked.
"...No, I do not have children. ....Do you have children?"
She brightened. "Yes! I have a son and two younger daughters."
"Oh!" I seized this opportunity, wondering if perhaps her kids went to my school. "How old are your children?"
"My son is 16. My daughters are 12 and 14."
"Oh, Junior High!"
"Yes."
"Do they go to Noda??[my school]"
Again, she looked at me with a perplexed expression on her face. "No..."
"Oh..."
An awkward silence ensued before she said, "Oh, are you an English teacher?"
"Yes I am. At Noda."
"Really! That's great."
I brightened again, hoping to get more info, "Are you possibly an English teacher as well?"
She frowned. "No, I dye kimonos for a living."
"Oh... wow, that's really interesting!"
Yet another awkward silence before I said, as politely as I could, "I'm sorry, why did you come here today?"
Again, she repeated koenkai, and talked of "the other women" and it became even more confusing, so I ran to get my dictionary and together we tried to carry on our conversation but it kept getting very roundabout. She finally said, "koenkai--conversation!". I thought of course she was referring to the conversation we had been having in my doorway, about kimonos and children, and so I smiled. "Yes, we're having a conversation" I affirmed.
Finally, after another few agonizing moments and my attempts at saying "Thank you for coming today to visit", I explained that I had to "meet a friend soon" and she nodded in understanding but still didn't leave.
"I'm very sorry my Japanese is so bad," I said bowing. "Next time, I will ask my friend to come. That chick speaks Japanese and English."
She laughed amicably at my use of "that chick", a term I had thrown in when I couldn't think of how to say "she" in Japanese. Finally she said, "I'll come again then." and bowed. I thanked her and said, "yes, please come again."

It was only the next day, through asking a Japanese teacher, that I realized what koenkai was-- a lecture. She had been there, wanting to ask me to give an English lecture to a group of eager homemakers.
I hope she DOES come again so I can be prepared with this newly learned vocabulary and say "Hai! Yarimasu! *Yes, I'll do it!*"