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 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.

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!

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.