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!

Sunday: Let's bathe Kirby and eat too much sushi

Sunday we slept in quite a bit before making MORE FRENCH TOAST. You can't ever have too much french toast!!!!

We then watched more episodes of Firefly in our pajamas. Somewhere into the second hour of doing so, there came a knocking at my door! Who could it be but the crazy girl from Jun's company who lives somewhere in Ine and likes to drop by (HOW DID SHE FIND OUT WHERE I LIIIIVE). She preceded to giggle and present me with some amazing powder blue silk to make a kimono out of because someone gave it to her but it 'wasn't her colour', she says.

OMG. Like... WHAT?

So now I have to find someone to make me a kimono. Good thing I know kimono makers??? I am not even kidding when I say that. Weird.

Anyway, it was setsubun, which translates to 'magic bean day' or something in picture language. Megan and I visited my shrine but there wasn't a whole lot going on down there aside from free sake and a guest book (which we signed). We decided to go eat too much sushi after that.

And then we did. Too. Much. Sushi.

Somewhere between those events, we also bathed my ferret.

That's always exciting. He smells laundry fresh now. Or fresher than ferret stink, anyhow!

After sushi-death, we went to Mipple (the big shopping center nearest to my homestead). I splurged and bought a silly pair of shoes for school, a shelf, and a bag to carry things in. We then did purikura, which I will put a picture of on this blog post as soon as I scan it.
Megan then checked her watch and said 'um... my train leaves in 11 minutes?'

Cursing happened here. I thought her train was leaving 10 minutes later than the actual time.

As I was speeding down the roads of Miyazu towards the station, I believe we actually got AIR as we hit one particular bump. But Megan caught the damn train, and I drove home to put together my shelf.

As it turns out, you need a screwdriver.

And moreover, in seven years of predecessment, not a single Ine AET has managed to own a screw driver? Curiouser and curiouser.

Stranger still, my parents actually live in

this house

. Maybe I'll be joining them after this whole JET thing blows over!

Weekend/fun had by many

Two Cars, Nine Foreigners, One Beach

This weekend was wonderful! On Saturday I cleaned my entire house... mostly. It was about 96º outside, so I took constant tea and coffee and ice cream breaks, watched a movie in the middle of the day, and spent most of the time reconfiguring the futon business and putting away the leftover blankets in the tatami bedroom closets. So now everything that was out is put away, which is awesome.

I also sorted all my gross trash and I can't wait until Tuesday when I can put out all my old food garbage, ugh its really beginning to smell funky! Blegh.

Sunday was a more eventful day, as I had nine people come over so we could all go to my nearby beach in Honjo, aptly named Honjo Beach. I drove down to Miyazu city, which is about a 50 minute drive, and picked up three ladies at the train station (Marina, Amy and Paulette). Marina is from LA and she is a hilarious tiny tiny Ukranian girl who lives in Fukuchiyama (which is a bit of a hike by train to Miyazu). Amy deLong is from Kentucky hilarious behind her freckled, quiet exterior. And Miss Paulette, who is an awesome theatre junkie from Tulsa, Oklahoma. She is very boisterous.

From the train station I drove us to Mipple, which is a big lame department store on the bay in Miyazu. There we met Jarrad, a 31-year old ex lawyer from Tacoma. He looks like he’s about 24 years old. He told us that everyone he meets thinks he is a nice Jewish boy because he has a sweet face and glasses and a beard and he's a soft spoken lawyer. There are worse things to be mistaken as, I guess!

We also met up with Yumi, my favorite Japanese person. She is a 25 year old student who lives in Miyazu and likes to tag along on JET outings. Her English is flawless and she asks great questions, such as "what is crazy sex?" Or "do you think Lucy Liu is beautiful? Japanese people don't." Her mom of all people dropped her off, which I guess isn't extremely embarrassing in Japan (nerdy things tend to not be nerdy here, I have noticed). Grown men in Hello Kitty slippers? HELL yeah.

We then went inside Mipple and grabbed some food, since everyone wanted lunch. I personally was dying to go to a restaurant, but nobody else wanted to. I guess they all have restaurants in their towns so they didn't find the idea nearly as exciting. So we bought bentos and onigiri (the rice balls of deliciousness). The coolest thing I discovered, other than the pikachu ride in the upstairs arcade, was a cooler of green tea cans. I reached in to grab a can of ice cold green tea for the hot day and then realized the can was HOT. It was a cooler of hot drinks! Technology! The rest of the JETs started touching all the cans and yelling "its hot!" I then realized we must have looked insane to everyone else in the store. Stupid gaijins.

In Mipple, we met up with the last three JETs, Desirae (Kentucky fried Sweetheart), Scott (our South African resident/former film student), and new JET from Maryland, Liz! Liz is 100% Maryland. She came in with her dark blue regatta sports t-shirt, jean shorts, flip flops and dark blue visor, complete with freckles and a runner's ponytail. She is also a huge Harry Potter fan, so the conversation flowed like buttah.

The crew drove out to Ine in two cars: my little kei-car and Scott's white plated, normal-sized car. It was a long trek, and very warm, but we finally made it to my house! Everyone oohd and aahd at the size of my "mansion" and we ate snacks and put on sun screen. Then we grabbed the beer and food and went to the beach. The beach by my house is AWESOME. The water is mostly warm (but not too warm), there are no waves, no sticky sand, and no pointy things in the water. It's the perfect relaxation beach. We grabbed some inner tubes and hung out in the ocean for hours. It was delightful. Desirae brought her snorkel mask and kept finding us starfish! A few of us got nibbled on by a curious little crab (I am convinced it was the same crab every time) and we saw quite a few fishes. It was pretty much the best day ever. After we'd had enough swimming, we plastered ourselves on the sand and drank beers and had delicious Japanese snacks, procured by Miss Paulette. Mochi-balls (sticky sweet rice) and shrimp crackers and delicious beeeeer (brought by yours truly and Amy). Then we swapped bad relationship stories (I received much sympathy for the Randall debacle, or as Yumi called it "that horrible bastard boyfriend" because she couldn't say his name.) The best was the few who were admitting to writing or receiving really bad poetry from significant others or people who had crushes on them.

After the beach we had some delicious Nyuu Yooku sutayaru cheezuke-ki (New York style cheesecake) made by Yumi. It was very delicious! People kept telling me they wanted to stay, and I honestly wanted them to stay for more time! But sadly, there were trains to catch. So we began the long trip back to Miyazu, where I dropped everyone off, and turned right around to go home. I think I spent about 4 hours in the car yesterday. Worth it.

It's amazing how many instant friends I seem to have already! I only just made good friends my last few weeks in Los Angeles, so it's incredible to have so much socializing all of a sudden. I am not complaining, mind you.

Anyway, it was a good weekend and I even got a tan (to cover my burn!)

Moving to Ine-town

Moving to Ine-Town

I left Tokyo yesterday with my Kyoto prefecture group. We walked to the Shinjyuku train station where we caught the train to Tokyo station. There are a lot of Japanese people in train stations. At Tokyo Station, we bought bento lunches and couldn’t resist the delicious looking pastries sold all around the area. I got some pudding! This would not be worth mentioning, except that my little pudding was wrapped in a box with two packs of ice so it would keep, a little spoon, and then put inside a bag. It was a frivolous waste of paper, and so it could only be Japanese. From Tokyo, we hopped the shinkansen, bullet train. It was sooo comfortable! We got to eat our lunches and look out the window at the countryside and industrial areas, and we even got a pretty good view of Fuji-san (see the photo!). I unfortunately sat next to a person who wanted to chat the whole time... but dammit, I was reading the last Harry Potter book and things were getting CRAZY.

We arrived at Kyoto station. The first thing we did after departing the train was take a turn into a shopping mall. I was more and more confused as we climbed floor after floor on the escalator. On the 9th floor, we arrived at our Contracting Officers' office! We were filed into a small room filled with Japanese people in chairs. I had no idea what was going on, but I felt like we had been tricked into being sold as gaijin slaves. Finally, someone Japanese said something long and formal in Japanese and everyone stood out of their chairs and came towards us. A tiny lady in her late 40’s and a tiny man in his early 50's greeted me. Nishihara-san and Umezaki-san, respectively. Of course, I didn't know this until three hours later. The two took my bags and me to the car (Japan’s re-imagining of the station wagon). From there, we began our long drive to Ine-cho, where I will be living for the next 365 days or more.

The drive was immediately awkward. Umezaki-san and Nishihara-san speak about as much English together as I spoke Japanese two years ago (essentially none). My Japanese communication abilities are passable at best "Me are Rachel. New English to teaching, enjoyment!" However, the fact that I’ve never spoken to a Japanese person outside of a classroom paired with the backwater characteristics of the Tango Peninsula dialect [Tango-ben] made it almost completely impossible to understand what was being said. Facts were somehow exchanged, although they were almost entirely incorrect. The first; I am from Seattle. I don’t know how on earth this came across. I mentioned that I was from Los Angeles and my parents lived in Turkey. I told them I had eaten horsemeat and that I enjoyed swimming. At one point they argued about Washington DC and Washington-shyu (state). I mentioned that they were different, and that my grandparents lived in Seattle. From this, I must have somehow communicated *oh by the way i live in Seattle and am from there somehow* Though, I'm sure it's all my fault. At least I know what presents to get them from the US - Ichiro Suzuki merchandise. They asked me a million questions about him, and had I seen him. I had!

They took me to a department store (Mipple!) where I was encouraged to buy a small bowl, a pair of chopsticks (hashi) and some toilet paper (in retrospect, an excellent idea). I also made sure to buy soap and shampoo. Afterwards, they wanted me to buy breakfast. Well, I don’t know what I want for breakfast and I am too tired to translate every box of random noodles. I broke down and bought a box of frosties, because cereal is western and after that they left me alone.

Before they took me to my house, I had the amazing pleasure of going to INE KYANPU (camp). I met a bunch of kids and teachers, all of them adorable. One in particular kept running up to me and saying "Harro!" and running away. I finally cornered her with two friends and asked her name. None of them would talk. I know they understand me. So I asked in Japanese if they had forgotten. Then they ran away. I love kids. I also had some real-deal meat off the BBQ and yakisoba along with delicious tea. They gave me too much though and kept trying to give me more. I don’t think I’m actually going to be losing weight here... I’ll probably be a sumo by the end of a year. After a half hour, we said our goodbyes and left back towards Ine.

They brought me to my house. It is the most amazing house I have ever lived in. It is meticulously clean, smells amazing and everything is perfect. I have a big tub, a toilet, a living room, and kitchen with dining nook, two bedrooms and a huge study. I get to sleep on a futon, I have paper sliding doors, the neighbours are very friendly so far, and I have lots of random Japanese switches that I can’t begin to understand. It’s wonderful. It’s across from a farm, and up on a little green hill. Everything is green.

The downside to living in a muggy seaside village on a hill? Probably the amount of Jurassic-sized insects that are dying to get inside my home. I only saw a handful, namely giant ants, around the area. A big moth also landed on my window to say hi. It couldn’t get in, but anyone who knows me and moths... (THEY CAN'T SEE WHERE THEY'RE GOING AND IT'S TERRIFYING!)

I didn’t unpack or do anything when I was finally left alone. I took a bath, spread out my futon (after wondering what exactly makes a futon a "bed") and went to sleep early. The sounds were really strange; loooots of animals live out there. It made me a little nervous, but the futon was too squishy for me to keep awake worrying about it. I was asleep in no time.