Christmas Day - a day for walking around a shopping mall and inpromptu クリスマスデート's

Christmas day was spent giving a quick goodbye to Zara, who ran off to work. Then I wandered over to the little train station and was harassed by some crazy lady who kept saying she didn'T speak english and that she could read dreams. I played dumb, "Oh I don't speak Japanese sorryyyyyyy OKBYE" but she kept following me around the platform... and then as I was eating my morning nikuman (bun with meats), she asked if she could have some. I just gave her the whole thing. Finally two train stops later, she left me alone and I switched trains to a much nicer one headed for Hakata.

In Hakata, I hopped on the bullet train that would take me back to Kyoto Station. The rest is a memory only of napping.

In Kyoto, I wandered around the stupid shopping malls in the station, got some coffee, and played my video games until Lauren and Ian met me in the afternoon. Lauren was off to Kobe to catch an overnight bus to Tokyo so it was a quick hello/goodbye/Merry Christmas. Ian and I then grabbed some sub-par soba and oyakodon at a little restaurant in the shopping center for our CHRISTMAS DATE (クリスマスデート), since that is all that people really do on X-mas. Then we geeked out about Zelda video games and I went to catch my trains back to Miyazu so I could go home.

Yuumi was fabulous enough to keep Kirby an extra day, so I didnt have to worry about going by her house until Wednesday. Unfortunately, I spent most of my evening getting on the wrong trains and having to haul ass back to Fukuchiyama to catch the last train back to Miyazu for the night. Phew. If I had missed that train, I would have most definitely spent the night in the train station. Everyone, after all, is on holiday.

Anyway, I did make it home around 11:30 and called my family in the UK. I ranted about my trip and then fell asleep watching Lord of the Rings. It was a good Christmas.

Kyushyu Mini-Holiday Part 4 - Christmas Eve, a day for Driving and eating fried foods

On Christmas Eve, Zara did a lot of driving. We took the coastal road instead of the mountain road back towards the ferry. We stopped by to take pretty pictures of pretty things! Here are some.

Also, we took a break in Kumamoto, a city in a prefecture that means "Bear Tree", which made me really happy. We grabbed lunch at a little restaurant and they gave us apple juice! Afterwards we hopped over to Kumamoto Castle, which is supposed to be really awesome but was actually mostly boring. Without the flowers or trees in bloom and everything under contsruction, we mostly just wandered around taking ridiuclous pictures and then hung back to the city area for some ice cream.

Afterwards we found our way to the ferry and went back to Nagasaki Prefecture. After some more driving, we got back to Zara's and got some Xmas Eve dinner at her local izakaya (or tavern). It was really delicious food. The best was by far the chicken wings stuffed with gyoza pork dumpling filling. Ughghghg so artery cloggingly delicious.

We celebrated the rest of X-mas eve by watching "the Queen", which I really enjoyed, and then we fell asleep.

Kyushyu Mini-Holiday Part 3 - Samurai Village, Ryokan, and some very large eels indeed

I woke up this morning to the thought, "Today is the day I didn't lose $900." The day was already better. My bruise had turned an interesting shade of green, while keeping its purple highlights.

We left the hotel and grabbed breakfast at a nearby Starbucks. I had a crazy delicious coffee and hot sandwich thing filled with cheeeese. It was a good morning already! Zara mentioned that she felt optimistic about the day, and I couldn't disagree with her crazy-smiley face. She is definitely a morning person.

On this day we saw many beautiful sites. One included a place that said "World famous Eels!" It was just a little hut by a dock full of eel tanks. Granted, the eels were quite large. We then drove through the mountains to a place that has a name, which I cannot remmeber. We also stopped off at a little themed area called "Samurai Residences", which was a little area with some old houses and gardens in a beautiful area of some random valley.

After that, HUNGER came! We looked for kurabuta ramen (a specialty of the area made with a special kind of black pig), but it was 3pm and we found nothing but Hokahoka bento (a chain of made to order bento places) and scarfed down decently delicious bentos. Afterwards we went to a really cool onsen to be buried in warm, semi-volcanic sand and follow it up with a traditional onsen. Zara was privy to see my amazing technicolour bruise, and complimeted it.

Afterwards we found our ryokan (traditional Japanese overnight stay house) and hung out watching bad TV while I played some video games! We then ate way too many courses of yummyish food and soaked in the little onsen for an hour or so. It was nice girl-talk time, and I had forgotten my woes and was actually enjoying myself properly.

As it was Christmas eve, we hunkered down and watched the "Happy Christmas Show!" on TV. They had a bunch of terrible Japanese singers and Enya! Weird! It was fabulously bad and all of the narration was in English for no apparent reason. It was also nice being in a place for the evening that was not really really cold. I appreciated that aspect of this Southern area of Japan quite a bit.

Kyushyu Mini-Holiday Part 2 - "Disaster Strikes by bus, Kagoshima comes by ferry, Relief comes by Naan bread

I woke up at 0605, 10 minutes before my bus was meant to roll into Omura (where Zara lives). I scrambled my things together and prepared to get off the bus with the rest of the departing passengers. Only thing was, I was the only one getting off the bus. Everyone was stil stretched out, and my seat was in the way back, so there was no way for me to exit the bus without something standing. Nobody would! I had to scramble OVER someone finally because the bus driver wanted to leave! As I got off the bus, I realized my wallet must still be on the seat b/c it was no longer in my jacket pocket! So I turned around to let the bus driver know, but at that moment the bus sped off and wouldn't stop. I didn't panic. It's common for everyone to carry a lot of cash in their wallets because nobody uses credit cards in this country. I also knew that theft in Japan is very rare, and that my wallet was tucked away in the very back of the bus. So I let Zara know I had arrived, and that I had left my wallet on the bus. She came to pick me up and told me not to worry and that we could call the bus company when we got back to her house. She then told me more about the breakup with her boyfriend and that he had to take on a second job to support his car payments and never had time to see her, so he broke it off. She said she was in need of a fabulous vacation, and we prepared to leave!

After grabbing breakfast at a lovely bakery in her town, we received a phone call from the bus company saying that my wallet was not found. This is about the point where I died inside. No wallet? Granted, my important things were tucked away in my rucksack. But important things aside, I was now missing $900 and upwards. There was nothing I could do but pray that someone would somehow turn it in. This however, was not to be my luck.

The rest of that day is somewhat a blurred combination of sleep deprivation, massive cash loss, and a swirl of Zara talking about her exboyfriend and the injustice that was currently following both of us. I agreed, probably. We hopped a ferry to take the two of us and her car over to Kagoshima, the southern area in Kyushyu.

Aside from being mostly dead inside that day, the two of us arrived in Kagoshima city and put our things away in the business hotel Zara had made a reservation at. Lucky for me, they took credit cards! We then walked around the busy town to the aquarium, where we were lucky enough to see some of the biggest, most amazing fish I had ever seen! So big! We saw a whale shark, some huuuge guitar sharks, groupers, some weird Amazon fish I forgot the name of, and dolphins, otters, and weird sea snake things! It was a blast!

We then decided to walk around "Dolphin Pier" or whatever it was called, which looked like a typical Californian outdoor venue. Very nice, indeed! We purchased souvenirs for our coworkers back home.

We then found our way to a fantastic Indian restaurant (complete with actual Indian chef!) At the Indian place we dined next to three couples. All of them involved one caucasian male, and one or more giggling Japanese women. Oh lordy. Zara felt a might bitter, I expect, and I drowned my new financial despair in naan bread and spiniach potato curry. Mmmm.

Afterwards we wandered over to do some purikura (funfun Japanese picture stickers), followed by some beer and swift karaoke. We then retired to the business hotel to shower and sleep in an actual BED! It was then I realized the extent of my "falling down stairs" injuries. The bruise on my back was enormous and a beautiful gradient of blues, blacks, and purples. It was pretty fantastic.

I believe I slept really really really hard that night.

Kyushyu Mini-Holiday: Part 1 - The Road to Kyushyu

I left the Board of Education an hour early to get down to Miyazu and grab a train (with Leigh and Simon) to Fukuchiyama, and then to Kyoto station. The trian was 13 minutes late, and we nearly missed out connecting train but managed to hop on it alright! Simon and I ate chocolate shou creams and Leigh felt sick and yucky. Then I grabbed a coffee from the station's starbucks and Leigh and I grabbed some yarn from the yarn/sweater store. After that, she went off to Steve's, Simon went to his hotel, and I got on my bus to Kyushyu.

Kyushyu is a very long way from Kyoto, so I opted to take the less expensive overnight bus there. The trip began at 7:40pm and would arrive in Nagasaki Prefecture at 0615am. It was a long trip! The bus was really comfortable! The seats stretched out and each passenger got a complimentary blanket and slippers. I sipped my hot chocolate, snapped some photos of Osaka as we passed by, and slept pretty soundly for most of the ride.

I believe I will take another overnight bus when I go to the airport near Tokyo. It saves a lot of money!

(Here we have a man utilizing all of his space. This man was much bigger than I was, and his feet were really grosss).

Cake Party!

I went to my shuji class, where I normally talk to my awesome Honjo JHS kids and paint kanji poorly! But today was the cake party!

I hung out with Kamitsuji-sensei (my calligraphy teacher and the mother of one of my students) and we chatted a bit before my kids came in. It was all the 2nd year boys (Takanori, the Yuukis, Mahiro), then Kaai (my wonder girl at English), Hitomi (a little first year girl) and Toshiki (a disgruntled/awesome 1st year boy).

Then there was CAKE! I only managed 1.5 pieces... but Masaru (a short 1st year boy) showed up from nowhere and ate 8 pieces of cake! I couldn't believe how these tiny kids could pack away sugar! Although I suppose 13 year old boys are the same in every country.

I also had good English conversations with Kaai, who is so fabulous at English. Her English is 10 times better than my Japanese... and she has only been leraning for a year and a half and lives in Japan. Way to show me up Kaai, thanks a lot. Kaai says things like "I like Christina Aguilera, but her hair is look crazy! Britney Spears is crazy too, yes?" Hahahahahah.... oh my yes.

I also found out that Kamutsuji-sensei breasted/raised one of my 3rd years (besides her own daughter). It apparently is quite common for Ine/Honjo mothers to up and leave their kids behind. I don't know where they go, but they certianly don't stay. It's pretty sad.

The day was awesome though. I heart Christmas in Japan.

The three ways in which I did not die today.

Well yesterday felt slightly final destination to me in a ... really lame way, mostly.

It all began as I was taking the ferret to Yuumi's in Miyazu. I was wearing socks and coming down the stairs with some of his things and totally slipped, landing REAAALLY hard on my side and falling down one or two more stairs. Fortuntaely I hadn't dropped anything! But my first two instincts were:
1. did i crush the ferret? - no.
2. can I still go to Kyushyuu? ....proooobably
so I limped over to the kitchen table and gave myself a moment. I have a huuuuuuuuge welt on my backside and man oh man is it ever tender. Anyway that was daring death defying escape #1.

Then while driving to Yuumi's house this guy pulled his big ol pick u ptruck out of a parking lot like, INTO MY CAR. But i swerved and slammed on the brakes and managed not to hit him (barely). What a jackass! He didn't even put on his brakes, he just kept going! ....stupid Japanese drivers.

THEN at night I had my heater turned on and was watching a movie while winding down for bedtime. I put the heater towards my feet to warm them a bit before turning it off. Well, I guess without realizing I put my feet a bit too close to the heater. THEY MELTED OFF-- well no not really. But what did happen is as Eowyn and Aragorn were having a moment with Brego the horse, I smelled burning. I sat up and realized MY COMFORTER WAS ON FIRE (I mean there were little bits of it that had firey bits on them... nothing had ACTUALLY burst into flames). My first reaction was "Oh... I should get up..." I separated the comforter, turned off the heater and doused it with WATER!!!! Then I took a wet towel and put it over the comforter. I spent the next half hour panicking about all the smoke in my house, not being comforted by the smell of burning, and vacuuming up the charred comforter stuff. I was sad cuz I'd JUST bought it, but at the same time it's only some of the bottom which I can patch, its MINE and not the house's (phew) and I didn't burn to death in my house thats like, MADE OF PAPER! Cuz this seriously happened in my room made of paper walls and grass floors. Not to mention my futon is on the floor and is full of burny goodness. Like ME.

So obviously I didn't die yesterday, which is good. But I wouldn't quite say it was a lucky day either!

K that's all.

Post Rachelmas Empty Nest

I woke up at 9:30 am when I saw John, Amy and Lauren leaving the room of sleep. I wanted to go hang out with them downstairs, but found I couldn’t get up without feeling pukey. I also took this moment to appreciate that I had gone to sleep in my belt. I however didn’t take it off as I went back to sleep for an hour or so. At 10:30 I joined Megan downstairs as she was making delicious rice/apple/cinnamon porridge for everyone. I couldn’t do much but sit still and drink soda water and hope to regain hydration. I was however pleased at my hangover, as I feel it made Rachelmas seem even more legend. By this point, John, Amy, Lauren and Desirae had left. It was very sad. I mourned in my own way. The way of eating porridge and watching Grey’s anatomy until Marina and Ian joined us. We watched TV and ate porridge for a few hours and then headed down to Miyazu to give Yuumi back her wallet. After that it was sushi-city in Fukuchiyama and a long long drive back to Ine.

My house was SO empty. After having 20 happy, smiley people in the house and then having NONE was very strange. It was extremely lonely, I won’t lie. I feel that adds to the LEGEND that was Rachelmas 2K7 though, and I know that once I transcend space, time and emotion, I will forget the loneliness and remember only the LEGEND.

Rachelmas 2K7 PART 2: Rachelmas

[A Preface]

Ah Rachelmas. When was the first Rachelmas anyway? The first one probably started around my birthday after my first year in college.

Rachelmas 2K2
Instead of having one cake, I had two and neither was accurate. The first said 'happy 19th birthday Rachel!' and I wasn't 19. The second said 'Happy Birthday, Bachel!' which ... will just go down in history as being amazing. Then we played truth or dare jenga.

Rachelmas 2K3
This still predates Rachelmas, but not by much. I turned 19 at a drag show in Rochester and then got drunk and ate a hamburger. I also believe I had to kiss a stranger during a game of kings and Tristyn found out THINGS about me. I also had to buy my OWN birthday cake!

Rachelmas 2K4
This was the first Rachelmas. This is the one where Brendan told us he was an ordained minister by the Life Church online or something and Karen and Randall got married! I also think I turned 20 underneath a table while laughing at a 'your mom' joke.

Rachelmas 2K5
21st birthday Rachelmas = somewhat legend. Current ex-boyfriend who was at the time current boyfriend flew in to surprise. Drinks were imbibed. Memories were lost! And I bleieve I threatened to stab my roommate (Caitlin) with a knife SHARP SIDE DOWN! Also I believe IS pent more time underneath a table. It seems to be my birthday place.

Rachelmas 2K6
Meg made chicken wings and we binged on Disney princess cupcakes and beer and watched Elf. Then, on not being drunk, we posed drunken pictures so in 10 years neither of us would remember that we weren't drunk on Rachelmas! They are very convincing.

[end preface ]

Rachelmas 2K7

It began at 6:30pm when a group of JETs from Kameoka[Amy, John]/Kyoto [Ian, Lauren] came up with Desirae. The car in which they had arrived was packed with items that would soon be irreplaceable. Futons, drinks, food, and friends. Most of which begin with the letter 'F'. Megan and I had been pre-gaming a little bit and were SUPER happy to see everyone. Immediately Ian and John saw the sea-creature flashcards I had decorated with and gave them voices. The squid is British, they decided. Then Desirae and the girls hauled in probably 300000000 tons of food. I had just eaten pizza and could not enjoy, but others did! I got very nice presents from everyone. A completely fantastic thermos and coffee from Lauren/Amy (on top of the coffee from Marina and the coffee from MEgan... like, if I'm ever not wired, I should be ashamed of myself.)

Not too long after, others joined. Liz, Jannie and Brynmor from Tango came over bearing gifts! A very bright pink octopus doll, toilet paper, and hugs! Liz' hug came with germs, as she has the plague. [note, the plague is why Scott and Greg were not able to join, alas.]

After that the chronology for me gets a little hazy, but I will point out the important stuff.
- I had two birthday cakes + brownies = LEGEND. (from Liz et al, Leigh, Desi and Megan)
- My beer full of booze became empty = LEGEND.
- I don't remember who brought me the cakes, but I remember blowing out all the candles on the first try - LEGEND
- Impromptu dance party in the tatami room at 3am - LEGEND.

Also Leigh, Ray, Steve, Ruth, Jun, Simon, Marina and Yumi showed up too! It was like... the best party ever. Kirby didn't drink too much but he did manage to steal some of Amy's bourbon and nearly KILL HER.

Also when Steve was leaving he came up to me and said, 'Don't worry Rachel.' Then leaned in close to give me a hug and whispered, 'I won't tell anyone you're batman."LEGEND.At some point around 4am, about 9 hours of drinking/dancing/sending ridiculous text messages later, someone smart said 'everyone needs to go to bed'. We all did. In the same room! Giggling happened just before deep SLEEP.

Rachelmas 2K7 PART 1: Megan Arrives, Ine-chu Enkai

[ I have literally taken almost a week to write this post because the weekend was so intense it damn near killed me and brought me back with the memories of AWESOME. Basically it was legend. ]

Friday Megan came to Ine on a bus. She asked some elementary students (who she said were very polite) where I worked and after much 6-year old deliberation, she was pointed to the BoE. She then found me and my supervisor let me leave 15 minutes early! From there we went to Nishigaki, where we counted obaa-chans and got the first of many cases of BEER.

Megan thought Ine was absolutely beautiful, and she's not wrong.

Anyway we then played with Kirby a bit and then hopped back in the car and headed for Amanohashidate (天橋立)　to meet up with my co-workers from Ine JHS to get crunk (read; sit seiza [hurty-style] and eat raw things). So my co-workers were immediately in love with Megan because of her fluent Japanese! it saved me from making another awkward introduction anyway. The food was amazing, and my tea was quite refreshing. Seeing my teacher co-workers drunk was the highlight of my week for sure. A lot of them started talking to me in broken broken English and saying things that made absolutely no sense. The night ended with people asking me if I'd ever gone skiing, then someone said 'whis-SKI????" which was hilarious. Then they started telling me about sledding on a piece of paper or something instead of a proper plastic toboggan. I ... didn't really understand that.

I then drove Megan and the lunch ladies home to Ine. After dropping off the lunch-ladies, we watched cartoons and played with the ferret until sleeptime. 'Twas good.

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=G3m8Qje1e8Q
I have been lazy about posting this week because nothing overly spectacular has happened (aside from having an awesome birthday, having it rain 100% of the time and getting a new car). But I will make it up to you with this video.

MONKEYS

As I was leaving school today, I noticed a small group of baby monkeys. They were so cute and little! Not at all like the big scary monkeys I usually see in the road, which is just before I fear for my life… normally, anyway.

So I admired the babies, but then I looked to my left and saw that there was another group of mother monkeys. Big, mean mother monkeys. I immediately made the mistake of looking them all dead in the eye. To which they replied with SCREAMS OF ANGER. I fled… then realizing I still had to get to my car and go home!

So I ran for it! The screams kept up behind me, but nothing ever chased/killed/ate me in the end, so it was lucky.

I then hopped in the junk-mobile and it managed to die twice before I got out of the parking lot. I am going to rent a car until the summer, and then I am going to buy a car off of a leaving JET. My mind is made up. I am tired of the little car that couldn’t.

In better news, Kirby is adjusting well to being let out in the rest of the house. He isn’t daring enough to climb or descend the staircase yet, but he’s getting there. He’s litter trained and doesn’t usually chew, scratch or destroy things. He’s fond of things that make noise and buttons that are attached to things. Other than that and the consant puppyish nibbling, he is a perfect angel. Having a pet wandering around while I am having breakfast or am doing laundry makes it feel proper. He is no longer a little weasel that I spend an hour with on a good day shut up in a room that serves no other purpose. It’s time to turn my house into a home! And the first thing it needed was a pet. Done. Accomplished. Next, FURNITURE?

Also finding Swiss Miss hot cocoa powder at Itotome has officially made my week better. I have a hot cocoa after my last class of the day, and it just makes the day seem warmer and life seem better. Mmm… cheap instant cocoa. Who knew I missed it? I figured by now I would be missing pizza or burritos or panera bread. While I love those things, I don’t seem to be having the uncontrollable cravings I thought I would be by now. Hooray!

Walkabout

Saturday wasn’t terribly eventful… mostly going to a tavern-type place (izakaya) with some friends after hanging out with Liz at her house for a few hours. She put up some Christmas decorations and I showed her a thing or two about her new macbook laptop!

The next day I joined the townspeople of my area for a walkathon! I wasn’t quite sure why the town was having a walkathon until much later, but the reason for it was that the bridge connecting the main road to itself was completed. Now I am able to take a main road from my house to anyone else’s house, which will be great once it starts to snow. Before I would have to take one of three back roads to get anywhere. This cuts my travel time by about 10 minutes, which is handy!

I suppose the walkathon was in celebration of this bridge, and for the hell of it. As autumn seems to be turning into a strange, moist season (it rains or hails 99% of the time now), I think everyone was keen to walk while the weather was still manageable.

Luckily for the people of Tsutsukawa, Ine and Honjo, the weather was lovely! It was in the 50’s and the day was clear and even a bit warm (or maybe it was all the walking). The walk was divided into three courses, 4 kilometers, 7 kilometers and 10 kilometers. None of them was too long or arduous. I joined the boss of the Board of Education (or rather he sort of made me join him) and some of his family. He had a daughter (in law?) and three grandchildren. Hamano-san is an energetic and kindly old man. I think he likes hanging out with the town gaijin because it makes him look good to the rest of the town and interesting to his colleagues. I would have spent the time with my students, but I suppose the company wasn’t lacking!

There were a lot of children and elderly people joining in the walk (and I am talking ELDERLY, like people in their 80’s and 90’s). Many of them decided on the shorter courses, but I was impressed nonetheless! Many of the children joined the walk as well with their parents and friends. Most of them did the full 10 kilometers. The baseball team ran the whole thing! I was so impressed by that. It wasn’t just 10 kilometers around a track; it was up and down Seaside Mountains and everything! We even saw a miniature dauschund walking the 10 km hike! He seemed pleased. The whole thing took just under three hours with the constant stopping to appease the 3 year old. It’s hard to make a 3-year-old walk five miles without stopping, it really is. He, Harunori, was a pretty awesome kid though, and didn't’ complain once. When he got tired he would simply sit down until his mother came to fetch him and carry him on her back. The walk was beautiful, and because nobody stretched, we were all very sore the next day. My feet hurt quite a bit by the end of it, but instead of falling asleep on the floor of my hallway, I managed to drive South and hang out with some people at a Korean-style restaurant before going to a shopping mall and buying a new watch.

Nothing else remotely interesting happened, which was fine by me! I’ve had enough crazy weekends so this was a nice relaxing one for a change.

Osaka and the Bicycle of Hate

This past weekend was a three-day, and despite my efforts to be well traveled/worldly, etc., I hadn’t made a single plan.

So on Thursday, I decided this would be my weekend for visiting Osaka, where Danielle lives. Who is Danielle? She is a lovely lady I worked with in Seattle during those long, arduous iD tech Camp months (or just the two of them). We got along wonderfully and it was only by chance that we both ended up in the same country and quite close to each other (about… 4.5 hours away in total, I think). So we were definitely overdue for a weekend together!

I grabbed a train from Mineyama (where Desirae and Andy were kind and took Kirby in for the weekend) and hustled to Kyoto Station. Originally, the loose plan was to meet up at Kyoto Station for some walking around and then later hop the train back to Osaka for a Thanksgiving Dinner at Outback Steakhouse. This was a grand idea in theory. I arrived at Kyoto station after receiving a text that Danielle was meeting a potential private student and probably wouldn’t make it to Kyoto, which was fine. The train station was the most crowded I had ever seen it! It seemed that Tokyo had come over for a visit and brought the twins. That’s a terrible metaphor. Anyway there was like, a butt-load of people there for some reason. Oh the reason? Gee, maybe that every Kyoto festival ever was happening on this weekend (which is probably why we had the three day weekend to begin with). There were lots of people in kimono and I was seeing geisha and maiko left and right!!! I decided to get the hell out of Dodge.

I hopped a hopelessly crowded train to Osaka. The ride was fast, but it didn’t seem as such when I was half stooped, half leaned between a door, a vapid couple, and a baby carriage. Most of me was standing, some of me was scrunched against the wall, and all of me was trying its hardest not to fall on the baby. The infant lived to see another day, and I arrived at my destination.

Osaka station is big and confusing. It connects to probably a million subway stations, underground malls, and hotels. I wandered while waiting for Danielle to text me back and tell me where to go next. About 75 minutes later, I got a single text from her. ‘Go to umeda station and the outback is around there.’ I then realized that Danielle wasn’t getting any of my text messages, and it was only by luck that she had sent me this one. I found my way to the subway station she had mentioned, after awhile… I didn’t realize it was a subway station so I sort of wandered around the JR trains… like an idiot. However after my relative success at locating the station, I then realized that there were 10 exits to the streets above. Not knowing much about Osaka, I then wandered around for an even longer time trying to locate the Aussie-American steak place. After asking two security guards, I found my way to the restaurant. I looked inside but did not see Danielle, so I proceeded to wait for 40 minutes outside, watching all the gaijin pass by.

Osaka has a lot of gaijin. It was scary, and I felt out of place since I seemed to fit in so well. Osaka also has a lot of bicycles…

I went back inside after the 40 minutes to find Danielle and her friend Pete in a corner. I suppose I just hadn’t seen them earlier. Regardless, I had a delicious steak dinner and got drunk on red wine. Danielle then had a bad asthma attack and spent a bit of time in the bathroom trying not to pass out… in our drunken states, Pete and I probably weren’t a great help to her. Eventually, however, we got Danielle back on her feet and grabbed a cab back to her house in Momodani.

Her house is about three stories and WONDERFUL. She has a crazy kiwi roommate who laughs to herself while watching movies and likes to talk AT people. This explained the behavior she had towards Danielle when we stumbled in, pale and drunk, and she started talking about knitting patterns or something. Maybe all Kiwis are just like that. I have yet to meet a sane one (cough BRYN cough).

We slept.

The next day we got up around noon (well I did, but mostly because I thought Danielle was still sleeping!) We decided food needed to come next, and then got lost on the subways trying to find any. Danielle usually bikes everywhere, but as her bike was stolen a few weeks back, and her borrowed bike was still at the Outback Steakhouse, we had no other choice but to take the trains. We did a lot of walking. Osaka has bridges, buildings, and subways. Not much when it comes to cultural things, but it was actually nice to be in a city that resembled a city and not a cultural heritage site for a change. Not that I’m complaining (I’m complaining a little).
We eventually found ourselves in Namba, an area Danielle lived in while she was with NOVA (as to say before NOVA died a slow horrible death). She took me to an excellent okonomiyake place where we dined on fine cabbage pancakes and colas. After that it was Starbucks city, which delighted me in oh-so-many ways. Ways which I am not comfortable discussing… Also I bought yarn and stamps. Yarn and stamps also make me happy for inappropriate reasons.

It was nearly 5pm by this time, and we made our way back to Outback Steakhouse to retrieve Pete’s bike (the borrowed bike, that is to say). At about this time, I realized that Danielle planned on biking back to Momodani. But what about Rachel, I asked? She pointed to the back metal grill of her bicycle. I obliged.

Riding on the back of that bike was a thrilling experience. Whizzing past traffic, people, lights, stores, and other bikes… and not being able to see a thing in front of me except for Danielle. It was terrifying. And amazing. At one point we hit a big bump and my leg flailed, causing us to lose balance. But we recovered! We in fact managed to not die the entire way home. We then watched TV shows and grabbed some dinner nearby (again on the bike). This time I used a sweater to pad my behind, as it was quite sore from the previous half hour ride from Osaka Station. Anyway, I’m no daredevil, so this was exciting to me. I’m such a rebel.

We also got donuts and coffee, which was easily as rebellious as the rest of it. Mine had chocolate on it.

The next day Danielle and I went to Kyoto city. We grabbed some coffees and took pictures with some maiko that were in town. A maiko is an apprentice geisha. The maiko in Kyoto are well known for their colourful kimonos and fabulous hairdos. They were adorable to boot! Couldn’t have been over 18 years old and definitely not over five feet tall. Kawaii to the max.

We then met up with Megan B and her friend Zara and walked around a crowded flea market in the area of Kitanosomething… anyway we took a bus there and then cabbed it over to teramachi where we had sandwiches and lemonade. THEN we did purikura. Purikura being a weird Japanese thing where you take funny pictures and then decorate them with backgrounds, sparkles, funny stamps or writing tools… and you make them look… EVEN MORE JAPANESE. We came out with some pretty decent ones if I do say so myself. They are stickers too, did I mention?

After that Danielle decided to wander the streets of Kyoto armed only with her amazing 10 megapixel camera. The rest of us did some half-assed karaoke (well Zara was whole assed, but Megan and I were definitely half assed). Japanese songs are strange. Japan is strange.

I then left and met Scott, Simon and Leigh for a ride home to Tango. It was uneventful, and as Tango-ey as ever. Everyone quiet and tired, and there being unnecessary tension all the time forever. I LOVE WHERE I LIVE.

Then it was home at midnight, and sleep for not long enough (this is how my weekends seem to be ending this month).

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

It may seem KIND OF sad, but in actuality I did pig out on Thanksgiving.

Mostly I forgot it was Thanksgiving, but when I remembered, I prepared a feast. Not one, but TWO tuna fish sandwiches on toast. And a beer! And coffee! AND A TRUFFLE. And there's more food if I wanted it too, oh yeah.

And I watched Grey's Anatomy... and I just might watch more movies. 'Cause it's Thanksgiving and that's just how I roll.

My weekend in Wakayamano Koyasan

The Trip to Wakayama

The trip to Wakayama was long, and we had a very late start in the morning. However, we did manage to get to the prefecture and up a long mountain road to ‘Koyasan’, which is a famous mountain area chock full of Buddhist Temples in Wakayama prefecture. The leaves were spectacular, but man oh man was the weather COLD.

First thing we did was walk around a temple area and see lots of old Buddhist temples, new ones (since 99.9% of Buddhist temples seem to burn down multiple times) and lots of statues of Buddha, Bodhisatva and other friends as well. The weather was quite nice that day, and it was cool seeing some of the JETs I’d met at the airport in LA or at the Tokyo Conference in July! Everyone took plenty of pictures and nothing else is worth writing about.

The Temple

That night we went to a Buddhist temple where we would stay the night. We all crowded into a spacious dining area and feasted on delicious vegan foods prepared by the monks. It was a wide assortment of tastes and colours. The Swiss Buddhist monk who was our MC for the evening mentioned that the meals always must have 5 flavours. There were indeed, at least 4. I may not be the biggest fan in the world of TOFU, but it wasn’t half bad, not half bad at all. We also indulged on BEER which was twice as good as half bad! After that, we all went over to a facility on the 2nd floor and made PRAYER BEADS! This sounds like some sort of rehab retreat by now, but I swear it isn’t… My beads are pink and many of the beads list good qualities and qualities that could be improved upon. After that, it was time for a hot soak in the bathing area, which was tiny, but emptied of most JETs after about an hour and a half of waiting around. It was freezing cold in the temple, but the bathwater warmed everyone up just enough that we didn’t die before we got to the futons. I shared a room with my carpool (Desi, Andy, Marina and Kristin, who came from Sonobe). It was cozy.

The next morning we woke up at quarter to 6am to take part in a meditation ceremony downstairs. The room was cold and everyone was exhausted, so I don’t think anyone stayed the entire hour and a half, but it was definitely interesting! The monks chanted and some lit candles or incense. We had the opportunity to walk around and view the chanting area and candle area from all sides. It was really cool!

The Graveyard

After the meditation and a light (and delicious) breakfast, the group of us went over to a famous graveyard in Koyasan to… look at tombstones! Japanese tombstones are very different than Western ones, of course, but it never occurred to me before I arrived in Japan. Japanese stones are generally shaped like Shinto lamps (I’m sure I’m not correct in calling them that), and they are set up in more of a shrine area up some stairs and grouped in families or like causes. They are much less creepy than western cemeteries, … and there is a noticeable lack of zombies.

Nothing too terribly interesting, aside from some lighthearted stories about suicide, betrayal, and samurai killings. Although there was a blowfish shaped tombstone (it seriously looks like a cartoon blowfish) that was for the deaths of people who ate the poisoned part of blowfish sushi (fugu). Unbelievably awesome. The only other aspect of the tour that I can recall is HOW COLD IT WAS. I think it just dropped into the lower 40’s without warning and everyone was numb and cranky by the end of the two hours. We all wandered over for some hot lunch before calling it a day and driving home.

The Trip Home

The only thing notable about our trip home is that it took us 9.5 hours to get back to Mineyama. Why, you ask? The reason is that we got lost in Osaka for about four hours. Easily four hours. I won’t go into it because I want to block out the memory, but there you have it. 9+ hours to get home. I didn’t even bother to try and go home to Ine since I knew that detour would be waiting for me again with open arms, and fresh tanuki/unicorn corpses. Also because my car died when I tried to start it and wouldn’t start up properly until the next morning. So, I left early the next morning and drove home only to begin a considerably shorter workweek.

Shorter because I would spend Tuesday at home with a bad fever, and because Friday is a national ‘Thanksgiving Harvest’ holiday that I can’t wait to sleep through.

Epilogue

So other than that ridiculous week, nothing much to report other than the weather, which has turned very cold and very rainy. Although, I’m fond of rain! The Japan Sea side of Japan apparently gets quite a bit of rain and snow in the cold months, so I suppose I have that to look forward to. The books don’t mention much about how much HAIL and THUNDER we get, but maybe (probably) it’s just Ine.

and now enjoy pictures of leaves for no other reason than they're pretty: