Saturday; French toast, amanohashidate, more izakaya please.

Saturday was a day for sleeping in. It was warm in our futons and we'd all stayed up fairly late. When we were in 'waking up mode', Amy made delicious french toast from the few ingredients that she could find in my kitchen. (I should note that kokedama-chan™ [mossy] was admired).

I took the kids on a driving tour of Ine. Ian played 'postal service' the whole way, which was oddly fitting to the surroundings. The washi tree was sadly only occupied by one washi today, but the skies were clear and you could see all the islands surrounding the bay in Ine! It was really spectacular! We then drove to Amanohashidate to walk around since Ian hadn't been there before. [Again, Amanohashidate is the bridge to heaven where them gods came down and birthed some Japans. ] It was chilly but a really nice walk in the mud and Amy told excellent stories, as per usual. I also had no idea how many of my friends had fired shotguns out of moving vehicles! People never cease to surprise me.

We moved along to meet my spectacular friend Yuuki and her nurse-buddy Momoya at an izakaya in Nodagawa that I really love going to. Liz was originally intended to join, but could not because she had to save a schoolbus of kindergarteners from bears or something. The izakaya is called Isshin 一心　(one heart/mind). I really enjoy that izakaya and have had many a good time there! This particular time was really laid back and man oh man, they have good food. The bartender/owner is Toshi and his mama is the cook. They treat us good. I think Yuuki really liked hanging out with Amy, Ian and Megan too (especially b/c Megan and Ian can speak to them properly).

I hurried everyone to the train station in Miyazu afterwards (not realizing how ridiculously close it was) and dropped off Amy and Ian. Their visit was short but sweet and I think they went home happy.

Megan and I went home to watch Firefly (she'd never seen it!) and to play with Kirby-kun. That was pretty much all we did! It was fantastic! Desirae was supposed to come up, but she too had to save a school bus of children from a bear. Maybe... the same bear?

Yuppie Weekend/Sweeny Todd

On Friday, Leigh and I drove in her car down to the city. The roads are icier these days, so the Japanese people have put in hot water sprays that get rid of the ice on the asphalt. Only thing is, some of them reach your windshield and it's fairly terrifying.

I spent Friday night hanging with Megan and Greg watching The Prestige (which was kindly given to me by Desirae and Andy for my birthday) and eating PIZZA (honest to God pizza).

This is Greg. He always has a good time!

Saturday was going out for burgers at an Americana style burger 'joint' with Greg, John and Megan. It was a LOT of fun hanging out with those guys. And adding a burger joint and a dr. pepper to the mix, it felt like I wasn't in Japan.

Not long after, Megan and I put on some dresses and make up so we could look/feel fancy for the opera that Ian had gotten us tickets to! High heels make me walk... poorly. The opera, as it turned out, was a mix of professional singers and community theatre types. It was interesting, and ridiculous. The Japanese people in the crowd took any excuse to clap to the beat of a song, even if there wasn't really a beat at all. And despite the fact that they generally have no rhythm.

As we were all dressed up, we decided to grab some posh food at a restaurant I have forgotten the name of! We ordered lots of delicious dishes and alcohol (for me: espresso drinks as I was battling jet-lag). Twice it was mentioned that we were having a yuppie's night out. Posh food, posh clothes and the fact that we're all way too young to be taking ourselves seriously doing either.

Sunday Megan and I got together with Amy at her apartment downstairs (we were soon joined by Ian and Lauren). Amy fixed us up a 'southern breakfast' with walnut/banana/chocolate chip pancakes, sausages, (Megan made eggs), and tea! It was immensely delicious. We then wandered out to the city of Kyoto to see Sweeny Todd in an actual movie theatre. Japanese movies theatres are very fancy and I was pleased with the over all experience! Movie was good, too!

Then it was a long series of train rides back to Tango. However, fortunately for me, there was no snow to come home to. And there hasn't really been any snow all week!