A haircut of destiny/chemical burns

As previously written in this blog, I had my hair cut at Vessel (where I was once before with a great haircut but a sort of tragic ending). This time I opted for a straight perm [by which I mean I was peer pressured into doing it by two Asians]. It ended up being a 3 hour long process. First my hair was washed. Next, smelly chemicals were applied bit by bit until my hair was covered in ‘beauty toxins’. Afterwards, another wash. After the second wash, my hair was painstakingly blown dry and ironed straight and shiny. This in itself took an hour! After my hair looked fabulous, they smothered it with chemicals again. Of course this was followed with a third wash, a second blow drying, and VOILA – straight perm achieved! I am pleased with the result so far. I find it’s hard to mess up my hair at this point. We’ll see how it keeps up as the summer months roll along.

I had also spent most of the day hanging out with Yumi and her high school buddy Helen (a Canadian-Korean 16 year old who was hysterical). Helen was telling us all about the trouble she’d get into by hanging out with BOYS at the ARCADE after SCHOOL! Japanese schools are so damned strict, I had no idea!!! I didn’t know you could get in trouble for hanging out with the opposite sex outside of school grounds and outside of school times! “Babel” has led me astray.

Weekend of anti-anti-socialness

Weekend was more social than expected.

On Saturday I joined a few Tango people for dinner. Due to feelings that I might have to detach a lot of people from my life in order to be happy/make new friends/keep other friends, I had stopped hanging out with a few of them. However, after some self-evaluation, I decided I didn't like that about myself at all, and tried to reconnect with said people. Not be their best friends, not even be good friends, but be an acquaintance. Nobody's really that awful anyway.

That said, on Saturday I met Marina, Desirae, Andy, Eric, Yuumi, Jarrad and Scott at Mipple for dinner at the little restaurant we always go to on the fourth floor. We had lots of delicious food for not very much money and followed it up with ice cream next door at 'pier jolly', as I discovered it is called.

Afterwards, we drove to Nodagawa to get some karaoke time in. We sang for HOURS. I didn't realize how late it was until one person started throwing up from too much whiskey and my voice was about as useful as said puking person's coordination. Andy and I did a mean nirvana duet complete with headbanging/hoarse screaming! And Desirae and I rocked out to some Alanis Morisette as well, which was the end of my voice. Everyone was really drunk except for the drivers/devoted girlfriends of drunken louts. We played in the snow a little bit too

I drove Desi and Andy back to their home and decided to stay there for the night since the snow might make it problematic to get back to Ine (over an hour away) at 2 in the morning. So, the next morning I set off home to feed Kirby and change clothes and then set BACK off to Mineyama to meet Liz for lunch.

I hadn't seen Liz in ages, so it was nice catching up with her even though neither of us had too much to talk about! We ate a lot of sushi (as to say, I ate a lot of sushi) and then went for coffee at a cute little cafe called 'Honeycomb'. Liz got a very nice looking cake!

Together we set off for an IYP event (IYP stands for something official that I cannot remember). We made moss-balls! So, we took potted flowers and ivy/dragon's mustache (yay!) and shaped the soil into a ball, covered it with soft, damp moss and tied green string around it to make it stay. Voila! Moss and ball, together at last.

Granted, they were really pretty! Mine is set up by my kitchen window now, which gives my kitchen the effect of looking non-horrible! (This is always a plus).

That's the gist of the weekend, anyway. I'll put up some pictures as soon as I find my picture adapter thingie.

Rachel

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.

Sand Dunes, Wet Blankets, and a Landslide

Elderly Respected, Sand Dunes Walked On

This weekend was a three day weekend. We had Monday off of work because it is the "Respect for the Aged Day" in Japan! It exists to honor and give respect to the elderly denizens of this fine fishing nation. Established in 1966, it used to be held every September 15th. Then someone brilliant established the "Happy Monday System" in Japan, moving quite a few holidays to Mondays in order to procure three day weekends. Since the Happy Monday System's establishment, Respect for the Aged day now occurs every third Monday in September.Historical tangent aside, we had Monday off of work.

A group of us who had Saturday free decided to go to Tottori. Tottori has quite a few natural attractions and tourist attractions! We had set out to see the Toy Museum, the Sand Dunes, and stay at an onsen for a bath and some dinner!!!

The crew: Marina, Jarrad, Yumi, Desirae, Andy (Desi's fiancé), and Kristin. Four Yankees, two canucks, and one Nihonjin in a pear tree. Or rather, in two tiny cars. We set off from Mineyama after a breakfast of French toast and tea ceremony matcha tea (which is strange and delicious). I had Jarrad, Marina and Yumi in my tiny car. The Canadians took Desirae with them. We listened to music and began the three hour trek west. It was a beautiful drive, but the 95 degree weather made us all very sweaty and cranky. We stopped at a few places on the way to take some photos!

At last we were at Tottori! We piled out of the car and explored the sand dunes. Apparently, there are sand dunes in Japan. Specifically in Tottori, and nowhere else. Who knew? It was hot but not too humid, as we were next to the ocean. We had fun playing in the alien desert and running up and down hills! There were quite a few tourists there, and it was fun watching the parents chase after their all-too-energetic toddlers, who inevitably would fall down the hills of the dunes in the most adorable of ways. It was definitely a lot of fun and something extremely different, even for Japan. Yumi had even made and brought onigiri for us to eat! For those of you who don't remember my brief onigiri obsession, they are Japan's answer to the sandwich. Sticky rice with something inside (like fish, fish paste, seaweed, tuna, etc) and wrapped in some nori (seaweed). They were fantastic and kept us going on our ridiculous trip.

After that we shopped for some onigiri. I suppose pears are the seasonal delicacy of Tottori because everything had pear in it. Some of the group even got pear ice creams! I stuck with water, since I was really dehydrated at that point. Then it was time for the toy museum! The museum was full of all sorts of toys from Japan and around the world. They had masks from every country, dolls, action figures, traditional old toys, modern toys, legos, kites, model airplanes, wooden toys, and puzzles! It was wonderful! We only had about an hour or so to spend in the museum, but everyone had a really great time!

Picture Says 900 Words, Poets Proved Wrong

Then it was about 5pm, and it was time to grab dinner and head back to Tango since it would be a long drive home. We got lost for about an hour trying to find some Thai restaurant and finally after asking about 2 people on the side of the road, we found a tiny tiny side road that led us to the restaurant. It had a gorgeous view and the curry was really delicious! We spent a lot of time there and set off on the road pretty late.

Grown Man, "Just Wants to Go Home".

Then the drama began. It was about a 2.5-3 hour drive to where we had began our journey, Mineyama. Mineyama is about an hour, hour and a half from Miyazu-city. So, because Ine was closer than Miyazu, I invited Yumi, Marina and Jarrad to stay over and I would drive them home in the morning or what have you. Everyone was fine with that, except Jarrad. Jarrad was only interested in getting to his apartment and got irritable and cranky. He said "well why can't we just go back to Miyazu and you can stay there?" "Because that's a four hour drive and I am tired?" Six hours of driving, in my book, is too much. He complained that he didn't have spare clothes or underwear. I said "Well... I have big t-shirts you can borrow if you want, and you can use my laundry machine or we can find you some underwear at the convenience store b/c they sell it at quite a few of them.... and I have extra toothbrushes, you can have a bath and a beer and you'll be fine." He was disagreeable to the whole situation. Finally we made him see reason and started home.

We took the northern coastal route. Jarrad by now had calmed down and explained that when plans change, he tends to get grumpy for awhile. I guess that's fine, I mean everyone is different. So everyone had high spirits once again! We stopped at a conbini to grab a few more supplies (candy, coffee for me, and underwear for Jarrad!) and then continued on our route, which led straight from Tottori to Ine, what a break!

Two and a half hours of driving and listening the ol' ipod later, we are nearing Ine! Nearing a bath and a fresh change of clothes and a good night's sleep on a soft futon... mmmmm. Instead we reach a sign and a huge blockade in front of the road. "Land slide. Road closed."

Oh. My. God. That was just about everyone's reaction. We were at least 45 minutes from the nearest small town and there are no other roads to Ine. The only one is closed. In order to get to Ine, it would take another hour and 45 minutes, by going back east, taking a southern route, going through Miyazu and then back up north to Ine, which would be ridiculous. Instead, we kept our cool and headed back towards Mineyama where Desi and Andy live. But it was nearly midnight by then and everyone was asleep! Instead I decided to keep truckin' and hoof it to Miyazu, where Jarrad would have his damn way. I think people thought I was going to freak out, but I just wanted sleep. I wasn't too tired to drive, but I was tired of being in a hot sweaty car with no A/C. On our dark winding road back through the coastal countryside, I slammed on the breaks to avoid hitting the wildlife in front of the car. It was a mama boar and her seven piglets. It was the cutest thing I had ever seen. The scene was ruined a little by Marina screaming bloody murder at the surprise stop, and Jarrad's reaction to being awoken by Marina screaming and the sudden stop, which led to him grabbing the front seats and hitting his head on top of the car. Ridiculous. The pigs were even freaked out. We stopped, stared, and both went on our way. The piglets followed the mama like baby geese.

Finally we reached Miyazu. A shower. A good night's sleep. And Jarrad had his damn change of underwear.

But the weekend does not stop here.

Sunday we had a concert in Ine-cho. A group of people from Osaka joined up with quite a few of the Ine people to play the koto (wooden harp instrument), the shamisen (a Japanse "banjo") and one man played the bamboo flute. I was excited about the concert! However, matters became complicated when one person from Kyoto city (a 3 hour train ride away) decided that although she had not told me she would be coming, she would show up in Miyazu at 12:07. She let me know when she was on the train and said "pick me up at 12:07!" It takes an hour to get to Ine from Miyazu and the concert starts at 1pm. I was livid. After I banged my head on the wall, I said "FINE WE WILL PICK HER UP." but I was not happy about it. I didn't want to be late to my own town's concert because some person with no common sense went and.... didn't use common sense!!!! So I piled the three in the car again and drove to the station. After five people in my car (which is illegal for a car of my size, and very well should be) I drove as quickly/safely as humanly possible up the coast. My car barely moves with four people in it, so imagine five people plus me in an enormous hurry. I told the passengers that if anyone made a crack about my driving, they could walk the rest of the way. They got the picture.

And we made it! In 45 minutes! We got to the concert just in time to meet Randall and Toko (this Randall being a charming man from NZ who is married to the Japanese lady, Toko). The concert was beautiful. A lot of my coworkers and neighbors joined in with their instruments and everyone wore beautiful kimonos! It was the first time I had seen people in kimonos since coming to Japan, as they are traditionally winter-clothes and it's still summer (and in the 90s). I really enjoyed the different style of music and my neighbors were really excited to see me there!

After that we relaxed in Ine and there was more driving drama in that I had to drive everyone back, but my car was out of gas and all t he gas stations in town closed early because of the holiday. I made it as far as Iwataki and met up with Jun, another Japanese girl we're all friends with. She bought me a cannister of gas (which filled up 1/4 tank of my car!!!) and we went out to dinner with quite a few of the Tango JETs who had been to their sports festival on Saturday. After some delicious food, good stories, and play-by-plays of sports festivals, I was recharged. I drove back to Ine and intended to sleep for a thousand hours. When I arrived home I had a text message from Jarrad, "I forgot my keys in your car."

Blegh.

The next morning I slept in, had a big breakfast and caught up on movie-watching and sitting around. It was glorious. Around 2pm I went back to Miyazu to give Jarrad his keys and to hang out at Mipple where a group of us got lunch and coffee . It was very relaxing compared to the rest of the weekend. I got to know Simon and Bryn (two JETs who have been here awhile) and drove Bryn home to Iwataki as it was on the way home for me. He is really cool and told me all about my predecessors for the past four years. A lot of them really loved it in Ine, so I am not the first (and surely not the last). It was a nice change of company too, since I had been in the car with the same people for two days straight.

I have to say that overall, even though the weekend was badly planned on my part, it was extremely awesome. I definitely bonded with Yumi and Marina, although I am growing apart from Jarrad who I find generally annoying and unpleasant more and more frequently. But, as I learned, it's a big peninsula, and there are plenty of other people to drive around it with!