Party in Honjo/Ine/Inaka/Your Mom

Party in Inaka; 6,000 Found Dead.

This weekend was a celebration of nothing in particular. A month ago I had decided to throw another party (the last party being Rachelmas™ back in December). Most of my good friends could come, which was good. A few couldn’t, which was too bad. The most interesting part was the RSVPing, which was usually acquaintances telling me that they ‘probably wouldn’t make my party unless nothing better came up’, which is always a delight to hear. Well, the turn out was a good number of people to the food and liquor that we had prepared. I have more liquor left over in my house than I could ever drink in a year.

Let’s go back in time to Friday, where I drove to Nishi-Maizuru to pick Ian and Megan up at the train station. What a great place to pick people up! It’s only an hour and 15 minutes away from my home and there are no tolls! I believe it’s also quite thrifty for the train passengers, which makes it an ideal Inaka-pickup place for future weekends. We immediately went to Karachi for curry and followed it up with a donut or two. After a lovely drive home (accompanied by Easy-E, as per usual), we watched cartoons and slept in the downstairs tatami room. We didn’t even need the heater! Kirby was pleased to see his favourite guests back in the house. The guests were equally pleased to see Kirby, who is now as big as a wild boar and twice as chubby.


Saturday I left around 1030 in the morning for Yagi (Greg’s town) which is about 30 km from Kyoto as I understand it. I got there in about two hours time and met Greg at the train station. We trained it to Nijo to meet Zara (who was visiting from Kyushyu after dropping her mother off at the airport). We all went hanami-watching [a term used to describe looking at blossoms] in the city while I did errands. Pet food, coffee, etc. The blossoms were indeed lovely! I shall have to plan a proper hanami picnic for next year, but I got my fill of pink flowers, which was my goal anyway. Two hours, one ice coffee, and a subway ride later, we met John ‘Nowun kan oonderstand me’ Blakeney at Nijo. He looked as though he’d been hit by the party truck. He immediately asked if he could have a shower at m house, and we jumped on the slowest train in the world back to Yagi. The ride back was quick and painless with a quick stop off at Miyazu’s most famous beauty spot: MIPPLE. An unbelievable load of snacks and booze and we were back in the car and driving to Ine.


The party was lovely, as I have mentioned. A great group of people came over, plenty of liquor was imbibed, and nobody got so drunk that they threw up in my house or yard, which is always a plus. I am always touched that people will drive all the way up to my town for a few hours of standing around in my kitchen eating pizza and chatting. It’s no small trek.

Around 3am, we called it a night and went to bed. No hangovers the next day, which was fantastic (and VERY different from Rachelmas™). The first problem in the morning was the realization that there was NO MILK. How did we drink a gallon of milk in one night? The answer: we COULDN’T HAVE. Someone had most certainly pilfered my milk. I drove some of the kids out to the Nishigaki about 20 minutes away to get milk and veggies for omelets. Zara made omelets and smoothies for us and we enjoyed them while forcing John to watch “The Little Mermaid” (my work here is done). Eventually it was time to go down to the train stations and get Zara and Greg home.



The only problem was that my car seats four people and we had six. Simple solution, three HUGE boys in the back (all being tall and or bootylicious), Megan in the front seat, and Zara curled up while sitting on Megan’s lap. [PEOPLE IN THE CAR] Zara is also about 16 feet tall, so that worked out as well as it sounds. A dangerous car ride to Amanohashidate saw Zara off! We then drove down to Ayabe to drop Greg off at the station which would save him money. He of course ended up on the SAME TRAIN as Zara. The earth is so small.

• The remainder of the lot found ourselves eating yakiniku and being ripped off on kimchee. Those bastards. Then an ice creamy goodbye and everyone hopped a train or two home. It was a very lonely trip back up to my inaka home, but all in all, a very satisfying and bank-draining weekend. Let’s do it again!

Curry is Always in Season

Leigh and Simon enjoying their donuts and drinks. Simultaneously.

Not much to report, other than curry is delicious. Here are some pictures of my adoring public at Mister Donut.

Jun and I enjoy donut... bags.

Another weekend in the cities

Friday night after driving down from Tango with Leigh, I joined Megan and her buddy Kelly in Kameoka for the evening. After much ado about losing an expensive, cult item -- tortillas were made by the semi-Mexican Kelly (and consumed by all).

Saturday I went to Osaka with Ian and Kelly. I had my rolling suitcase with me because inside it was my semi-broken iMac! Rolling that around was far easier than taking it in the original box. Also, I looked even more like a tourist than usual! Always a plus. We arrived at the Osaka Apple Store! With the help of Ian and Kelly, I managed to describe the computer problems to our helpful 'genius', and he whisked it away for repairs. I will be picking it up in two weeks time, and hoping meanwhile that they are fixing all the right problems! It would be really nice to have an electronic escape weapon for those long afternoons after school...
With some serendipity going on, I ran into Anthony on the train to Osaka, Simon and Lyle around the Shinsaibashi area, and Lauren O. with a bunch of gaijin buddies not long after. After a while, the three of us (tryst, if you will) met up with Megan and her friend Doug of Gifu.

We all had dinner and drinks at the Outback Steakhouse. Outback in Osaka is kind of like Disneyland for English teachers in Kansai -- I don't honestly know why. Our kindly server, Yuri, managed to put up with us for 2+ hours as we drank too much beer, ate too much meat (why did I order so much, again?) and booby-trapped Ian's plate with sauce.

After an amusing train ride back to Kameoka, we left Ian for dead and sang lots of Japanese songs at karaoke. As to say, the three of them did and I drank cocoa! I also sang me some "Dust in the Wind" because I was tired and it was the only song I could manage. Accompanied by Kelly's crunking. The perfect evening.

Sunday
Sunday was mostly laziness. Megan, Doug and I dropped Kelly off at Kyoto station and went down to the Sanjo/Teramachi area to walk around the river. It was a beautiful day! Families were out enjoying recreation, the birds were enjoying the sky (from what I could see), and there were heron everywhere! I tried to take some pictures... mostly the day was so pretty it was hard to take a bad picture, but I believe I managed. I also remember that we had Indian food with Amy, Ian and Lauren as well and that it was delicious. I did, however, have a fabulous late night road trip back to Tango with Leigh and we caught up on our weekends!

Weekend with my Japanese Homies

When asked what my weekend plans were, I replied, "I am eating. With Japanese girls."

Essentially that was precisely what I did this past Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday, I braved my slight cold (read: I had no ability to breathe) to meet Yumi and Scott and the Honeycomb coffee shop. This is a coffee shop with cute cakes, derricious coffee beverages, and some attractive waitresses! If only I swung that way. But I'm not into waitresses.

Yumi, I should add, wanted to go back there about five times during the day. I blame LIZ for this, as she introduced me to it awhile back and I have been addicted ever since. The addiction has now been passed on.

After coffee, the three of us went to meet Miss Yuuki Shibayama for some Sushi Ro------- in Oyima. The sushi was good, but my sickness prevented me from eating a disgusting amount, as I usually do. Alas.

We ditched Scott afterwards and Yuuki drove us to a Jersey Cow dairy farm in Kumihama! They had baby cows in one pen and HUUUUUGE Jersey dairy cows in the barn. They were HUGE! I don't know why they seemed so big... either Jersey Cows are humongous or I haven't ever actually seen a cow before and I forgot. Anyway, the point is we tried salt ice cream and it was gross. So we revived our taste buds by eating blueberry yogurt ice cream was what soooo good.

After a quick glimpse of the Kumihama vegetable market and a very detailed discussion on sweet potatoes, we went back to the Mineyama area, stalked Liz from place to place, and bought me a shiny maroon bicycle! It's being delivered on Monday after school (in theory). Hooray transportation that isn't my car! Not that I have anywhere in biking distance I can go to, but damnit it's the principle of the thing.

After wandering around Mine and looking at ugly ugly shoes, we went to Seiryuu (a Japanese tavern by the train station). Yumi and Yuuki's stomachs were bottomless pits. I was thoroughly showed up by their crazy hunger.

The next day was meant to be taking Kirby-kun to the vet. However, the friendly vet said that he didn't actually know anything about ferrets and recommended a farther away different ferret-affiliated veterinarian. We did not go all the way to Fukuichiyama, however. Instead, we dropped Kirby off in Ine and drove even FARTHER and close to (in?) Fukui Prefecture. The goal, you see, was a road trip to Obama. Obama, through the ridiculousness of the Japanese kanji system, means "small beach". The name could easily be pronounced "kohama", but fortunately for my obsession with novelty, it is pronounced like our dreamy possibly presidential candidate. You know, the black one.

Obama has two mermaid statues, a public restroom, and a train station. We found no statues of Barak Obama, no ridiculous Obama-shaped cakes, and no shirts with Engrish pronouncing undying fidelity to the strange, American politician. It was sad. We DID however, find an excellent onsen! Yumi and I got nekkid and enjoyed the seaweed, vitamin, and freakishly hot baths in the onsen, drank lots of water, and hopped back in the car!

I should add that on the way to Obama (small beach), we passed Nagahama (long beach), Takahama (high beach), and Oohama (big beach).

We met Marina and Scotty at Karachi (the Indian/Pakistani curry shop in Maizuru). Quick fact about Maizuru, it means, "dancing stork". YAY! 舞鶴. Curry, as always, was magnificent.

Then it was moooore driving! Dropped Yumi off, went home, and realized that my glasses are still so broken and I have to wear contacts until I figure out how to procure more eye wear. Crap.

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.