Living and Teaching in Tokushima
Two Photo Albums
Finally put up the pictures for Musical Mayhem 1 and 2...
Sorry for the wait. Check them out by clicking the link in that post, or here...
1...2...:)
Living and Teaching in Tokushima
Flashes of Boredom and Excitement
Three-day weekend earlier means no work on Monday. JET Mid-year meeting on Thursday and Friday mean no work on those days either. The result is a 2-day workweek...with a grand total of one class during those two days. Pretty sweet.
But far from it. On Thursday, I had to wake up at 6am rather than the usual 7:50 in order to make it to the meeting on time. The education center was about 3 hours away from me, and I had to pick up James on the way. So to get there by 9:30, I should have left by 6:30. I left at 7:10. Whoops. I was speeding like a madman though, overtaking everyone in sight in order to get to James' house. Once there, I had made decent time, so little need for speeding but no time for dawdling. Thy asked us to bring lunch, but stopping to buy lunch was out of the question. Luckily my Vice Principal printed me out several maps including the troublesome spots, so finding the place was no problem and we got there at 9:45 on the nose (the latest you could arrive without being late). Sweet deal.
These conferences are generally a waste of time, and this one was no exception. The positive side was that both the JTEs (Japanese Teacher of English) of Louise and I couldn't make it to these meetings, so we had no one of "authority." Looking over us. We sat together instead of with a JTE and just made fun of the whole thing, writing silly stories and jokes on the papers. Since we couldn't bring lunch, we decided to sneak out during lunchtime and go to a restaurant. This turned out to be a fantastic idea and we decided it would be on tomorrow's agenda as well. After lunch we had to get back into groups and sit in boring example lessons. The whole thing just drained you, and left you wondering "Is it better to be away from work, and here beating your head against the wall, or vice versa?"
After boring boring lecture town, we got in my car and headed toward Terrina's house. She lived pretty close to the center so it would be a good idea to stay there instead of driving in the AM. Something fun was definitely called for. We loaded in her car and went out to the bank and the dollar store (to search for musical props and costumes). We found a set of Luchador wrestling masks/power ranger masks and each bought one. Terrina was Gentle Green, Sean was Narcissistic Blue, I was Glamorous Pink, and Louise was Jocular Yellow! (These were written on the package and were in no way invented by us...) Back in the car we headed for Italian. It was a special all you can eat salad/appetizer bar with either a pasta or pizza entrée for about $20. This includes dessert of course. The buffet part was great. Our pizza and pasta however were not so much. Pasta was Bacon and Cabbage in a Tomato Cream sauce... Too Eastern European tasting for me... and the pizza was Corn and Tuna Salad pizza. loaded with onions and mayo... Dessert was ice cream and flan.
After dinner we decided to go bowling, wearing our new masks. First, however, we went to a discount alcohol shop and bought stuff to drink. Upon my encouragement, (because I thought it would have been funny) Terrina parked diagonally taking up three parking spaces outside a liquor shop. It was pretty funny. Sean and Louise bought a brand of sake called "Oni Killer" or "Demon Killer" which tasted horrible but was OK for the novelty. We went back to Terrina's and played cards for a while as we drank. Then we took a taxi to bowling. Much to the delight/confusion/horror (we're not sure exactly) of the many Japanese people there, we bowled wearing our garish masks. I even had Christmas tinsel around me to really enforce the glamorousness of glamorous pink. They put us in a lane next to a group of old ladies who quickly left. :( But were replaced by 19 year old boys who were eager to try on our costumes and have fun with us. We bowled in half real style, half handicapped style. Handicapped means no accounting for actual skill. The difficulty lies in meeting the challenge. For example, we had such rounds as "Flinstones Bowling" where you had to approach the lane like Fred Flinstone. "Turn and Bowl" where you had to spin up to the line and then bowl. “Animal bowling” where the approach was in the style of an animal of your choice, etc.
Hilarity ensued when Terrina's ball got stuck in her fingers and stayed there as she swung up.. looking as if she was going to toss it over her head. But the funniest moment of the night was during the Turn and Bowl. A man was next to us, in full bowling gear including a glove, by himself bowling strike after strike in two lanes. He looked serious. During turn and bowl though, Terrina gave him quite the scare of his lifetime. She started turning and went diagonally, landing RIGHT in front of one of his lanes. She of course didn’t realize this and took aim. Time froze still as we were calling out "Terrina NO!!!" as his face froze in the horror of her ruining his perfect games, and Terrina swinging back to release the ball. By some grace of heavenly being, she realized that we were shouting at her and stopped just in time. Heart stopping thrill moment and one of the funniest of my life. I lost miserably in the second bowling round but kicked but in the second round (122... kind of pathetic). After bowling we all got into a mini-picture studio and got more Purikura taken.
God of fortune was shining on us that night because as it turned out there was karaoke in the same building as bowling. They didn’t serve alcohol but suggested we get some from the convenience store if we wanted and bring it in. Also since we had bowled already, they gave us two hours for the price of one in Karaoke. Sweet x2. The crappy bit was we had work at 9:30am the next day and we were out till 3am. We called a taxi at 2:30. The guy didn’t know where he was going and drove the wrong way for a while, doubling our fare. But Louise took revenge by taking a picture in the car, probably blinding him with her flash. Asleep by three, awake by 8:30. No fun.
No fun indeed. We woke up, grabbed McDonald's for breakfast and headed off. This time, despite being a whole lot closer, we arrived a bit later. But the lectures were just as boring. After lunch we arrived back for another lecture that was interactive. Not boring, per say, but nothing interesting. The same old crap, all day long. Enough of this!!!
Finally the two days of seminar were over. We had to head to someone’s house before returning home to check out his closet full of props costumes and things from previous year's musical. After I loaded up my car with both things I wanted and things we needed for our show, we headed home. This time Chris, Janet, and Louise were in my car. It was getting late and we were tired and hungry. we dropped Chris off in the city and Janet Louise and I went to Karaoke Mos Burger down by me. We were all very tired so the energy wasn't up, but it was nice to have the instrumental "Tea for Two" playing while we were being served our food. To take a break from killing ourselves, we went right from Mos Burger to my apartment and quietly watched a movie, staying in all night. The next morning we had musical rehearsal in Anan (by me). We got up late and arrived late, but everyone else arrived later (as usual). After lugging millions of props into the meeting hall, (Pausing to put on the giant horse head and get chased by Louise with a toy rifle, of course), we got around to actually rehearsing. It was productive. A lot of costume was thought about. 1.5 of the dances were made. Scenes were solidified. Great job.
That night I had to take Louise to the train station to go to Takamatsu. She had plans to see some friends out there since she wasn’t going to be around for a while. I went with James instead to dinner, and a bar. The crappy part of the bar was that I was sitting next to a Japanese guy who was drunk off his ass and thought it was funny to keep hitting me on the head... I would have punched him if I wasn’t a symbol of friendly foreign relations as well as a community figure looked upon with much scrutiny (a teacher). So instead an endless barrage of bludgeons to the head compounded my following morning’s hangover. Thanks a lot jerk. Lucky (sarcasm) we had musical practice the following morning in the city.
Everyone's late. What else is new? But when they get there, I begin the big dance number (to the music for Footloose). Despite my feeling like hell, it comes together really well and makes for another productive day. Louise comes in really late, but is excused as she was out shopping for costume goods. We have delicious curry for lunch and all is good. After the musical meeting, James Louise and I go to an actual Italian restaurant for dinner, then our separate ways back home.
PICTURES!!!
Living and Teaching in Tokushima
Musical Mayhem
Hooray!! A three day weekend is coming... wait... never mind. There's musical rehearsal all three of those days. Friday night I'm feeling spry so I accept Stacie's invitation to come to a Salsa dance class with her and Theo. We get there a bit late and miss half the class, but it was still a lot of fun. The teacher teaches Salsa Mambo style, and I'm not entirely sure I trust him as a teacher, but the class was fun anyway. (I don't trust him because he couldn't tell me where one feels salsa inside them, even after I gave an example of where one feels flamenco...) They have the ladies of the class circle through the entire room. You begin with a partner, and after practicing the step once, you change partners, again and again until you've danced with every lady in the room. It was great fun and I'd love to come back and do it when I have another free Friday evening. I went out for a bit after that, and then stopped by James house. Tomorrow morning would be the first musical meeting, and it was going to be an early one...
I was woken up to James throwing things at my face. Apparently he doesn't like to shake people awake so he chose to throw articles of my clothing at me instead. :P To be fair, I was sleeping far too long and we had to leave.
Kamojima (where the first rehearsal was) was about an hour away from
Tokushima city (in the Westerly direction) and we had allotted 45 minutes for it. We were a touch late. We would have been later if we hadn't gotten a call from Louise saying she was lost and walking. As it turned out, even tho she was the lost one, she was on the correct street and we were driving on the wrong one, and her calling us alerted us to this. Despite being a touch late, we were among the first ones there. Everyone else filtered in whenever they felt like it, in the following 2 hours. Poor Janet never made it because she was lost, called for help, and her phone died before she could get any answers.
Finally we begin rehearsal. And shortly after beginning, its lunch break. Not very strict or rigid, this practice schedule is... One hour for lunch. We get in the car and drive looking for restaurants. Nothing... nothing.... nothing..... for miles. Finally we see a measly little
ramen shop (we had passed several others, but they didn't strike our fancy) and we thought "we've been driving for too long.... its this or nothing..." so we go in, and order from a menu that we cant understand. Louise got a red-something, I got a red-
somethingelse, and James got what I had, but the not-red version. Red versions were spicy! Who would have guessed. It made my lips numb but was tasty nonetheless. We got back 10 minutes late.. Oops. And again, we were one of the first people there. It
wasn't for another half hour or so that people started to show up. We started assigning characters, blocking etc. A semi productive day; Louise James and I went to Bulldog (costume/strange goods shop) and the 100-yen shop immediately afterwards to see if we would be inspired for costumes and props.
On the route home, we decide on Skylark GUSTO for dinner. James wanted a steak and to see if Skylark GUSTO was the same as just plain Skylark we saw in Kobe. It was. I got a pasta with meat sauce and a side of a creamy seafood gratin. Louise had a 4 course meal for some reason with soup, salad, bread, and gratin. James had his steak. The bread knives looked like flat spoons rather than knives...
Back in the car and off to James'. On the menu for that night was
Shidax Karaoke!
Shidax is a karaoke chain where you rent a room and a drink menu for an amount of time, and the rest is up to you! We bought a room for 2 hours, with unlimited cocktails. roughly $32.00 per person. The game we play in
Shidax is a reasonable one in theory, but completely unreasonable in practice--its called 'get your money's worth.' At about $5/$6 a drink. One would have to have 6 or 7 drinks during those two hours to about break even (as if you had gone to a regular bar with free karaoke). We each had 8, which meant ordering 6 drinks at a time, and when we emptied one, with another one waiting for us, we would place an order for more. Singing was the same. We had two hours so there was no time to waste with choosing songs. Bang them out, one after the other.
Shidax brings out the most debauched in people (and sometimes the worst).
After
Shidax we decided to go for a walk. We were all completely far from sober. For no reason we stumbled down this back street, and that alley, and that corner until we weren't quite sure where we are. It was at that point that we found a rather interestingly named bar, "
Barscapers." Louise and I had fond memories about shoving ourselves into a bar we don't know (back in the
Turibilly Bops days) so we went ahead and repeated it. It was a real posh bar and they sat us in some corner by ourselves. The kind of bar where people show up with a pressed white shirt
and ladies have thin dark colored dresses, and they're all drinking something from a class
that's not in standard cylindrical glass shape (
eg a martini glass, or a champagne flute). James takes a glance at the menu and sees "Famous Grouse" and recognises it as a Scottish Whiskey. Louise then demands that I order three "Famous
Grice" as she is certain that
Grice is the plural of Grouse. We were so caught up in the novelty of the word Grouse that we forgot, after 8 cocktails, straight Scotch Whiskey on the rocks is not a good idea. So we sipped it slowly for an hour or two and left after only one drink. "On the rocks" was also interesting here, as the bar master would chisel a piece of ice in his hand until it was i a near-perfect sphere shape. Then that one ball of ice would be inside your glass. We played games spinning it and trying to fit it inside our mouths. We noticed a young couple outside dancing, so we made some dancing gestures at them through the window, and they responded, but when they walked through the door, they pretended like we weren't even there.
Getting home around 1 or so, even after stopping at a convenience store for some buns, Louise and I decide we're hungry again. There's a man outside James' apartment building who runs a shady little
ramen stand out of the back of his truck, so we go order two
ramens. James doesn't want any and just goes to bed. We ponder the just-right amount of filth on the eating-room tent walls, and the pepper shaker as we enjoy our midnight, shady
ramen. When we get inside, James is asleep. Louise then proceeds to alienate herself from many a
Facebook friend, first trying to piss off her boyfriend, then having a laugh at Ingrid, a local bar owner, then finally responding to news of her friend getting hit by a car, breaking his collar bone, rib, and toe a little like this "
Haha!
that's the funniest thing I've ever heard...." We then proceeded to talk to one of James' friends who messaged us on the computer thinking we were James. (We were on his account). The following morning our conversation was revealed to us, with great embarrassment, as James logs all his conversations.
Quick Mos Burger breakfast and then off to another Musical meeting in the AM. This time we had props, including a 6 foot pole to carry there. Luckily the cab driver didn't put up any kind of stink about it. We get to rehearsal perfectly on time and to our not-so-surprise, every one's late. When people do get there we rehearse till lunch. Then since we're in the city this time and not a small town, we are given a 30 minute lunch. James Louise and I run around observing all the closed stores and not being able to find a single restaurant. Finally we go to a convenience store, grab some junk and get back. On time. The others haven't arrived tho. Even the director. 30 minutes had turned into a 90 minute lunch, as FINALLY the rest of the cast stumbles in. Rehearsal till 5, then time to go.
We stop at Coco Curry after rehearsal, then take a bus home to James' house where I take a shower and everyone else collapses into a nap. I follow suit after my shower and we wake up before 9pm. We watch a little "Pushing Up Daisies" which is a new series I just think is GREAT, then a little Family guy. Its far too cold to do anything outside so indoors we stay. That is to say until I get an uncontrollable urge for pie. James has an Italian restaurant by his house that is open till 11, and I try to convince everyone to come with me but they are stayed put. Finally I just bundle up and go outside to bring carry-home dessert. No pie but tasty cakes. I make tea and serve the cakes.
After dessert, we played a game of Clue. James had the board game sent to him from home. In the UK tho it is called
Cluedo. Instead of Mr. Green its Reverend Green. Instead of Wrench its a Spanner. Instead of Knife its a Dagger. Rubbish. I suppose its better than the Japanese version which includes such terrifying weapons as "briefcase" and "shoes." Our rules for the game of
Cluedo were not so simple. In order to make a suggestion you had to propose an entire scenario. Giving a story as to why the certain character found themselves in that particular room, how they came about holding the said weapon, and how they managed to (either accidentally or purposefully) commit the murder.
As it turned out, the murder was committed by Colonel Mustard. After having a chat with Mrs. White (who had earlier gone delusional in the game) he was informed that she just had transformed back into a woman after being the teapot from Beauty and the Beast, and that the Ballroom was being taken over by Lumiere and his dancing dishes. Armed with a spanner, he went to the ballroom; it was unfortunate, however, that Dr. Black was wandering about in the darkness as well, carrying a candlestick for light. Colonel Mustard mistook the now-dead doctor for Lumiere after hearing Mrs. White's far-fetched lunatic ramblings and smashed the poor man to death with his spanner.
Early to bed, Musical (again.....) in the morning.
We were a bit late, but still earlier than everyone else. Trend? But today was very productive. We got a lot done and even were able to end early!!! I drove Louise to the station, and James back home, then I drove back to
Hiwasa. Craziness...
PICTURES!!!
Living and Teaching in Tokushima
~*~*~*~Winter Break~*~*~*~
This is a long one. Apologies in advance, but it does cover like 12 days of activity. :)
Aah! This the 12 days of Christmas post. Everyone loves that song, despite it being so long. So you will love this post despite it being so long!!
Family’s Coming to Osaka
Thursday night, Louise and I head out to Osaka. My parents are due in Thursday and I decide it would be fun to get there ahead of time and tramp about town. One of the first things that we did when we got there was take a subway to Namba and hit the town. A bit hungry, we find a restaurant called “Surprised Donkey.” It looks themed and we love themed restaurants, so Louise looks at the menu on the outside. “This has a wide variety of food, lets go,” she says. In actuality she only saw a burger and a plate of spaghetti so she assumed there was a wide variety, instead the restaurant just had several types of bun-less burgers, and pretty much nothing else. We get colas (possibly the largest colas I’ve ever seen) shared some fries, and got cheeseburgers with curry. Large size of course, we were feeling hungry. After the waitress left, we called her over because we spotted “Organic Surprised Donkey Beer.” “Instead of the cola?” No you silly woman, in ADDITION to… As it turned out, the beers were even larger than the colas. HUGE flagons of beer. Drunk by 1:30pm and full to the top from greasy burgers, we hit the streets.
We spend the day shopping and searching for various Robot-oriented objects. (Louise is in the process of “pimping” her boyfriend’s toilet in the theme of Robots. We found some silvery security camera signs and even a life sized glossy silver plastic head—the kind you use doe displays in stores.) We bought funny hats and fake moustaches. My hat was a leopard print fur hat; Louise’s was a dapper looking hat with a badge reading “Slightly Stupid Department” sewn to it. After parading our hats and moustaches around town, getting strange looks from strangers and laughs from the people we asked for directions, we stumble first into a Purikura machine (of course) and then into a conveniently located moustache friendly bar called “Beard.” The cartoon man on the outside sign looked convincingly similar to us in our false facial hair, so we entered, ordered drinks, and basked in the moustachness of the scene.
Off to find a hotel. Louise and my philosophy on travel within cities is as follows. Arrive with no plans, get drunk, and THEN try to find a hotel. Nothing could ever go wrong when you’re drunk. And to this date, it has worked every time. I remembered the place I stayed in the first time I was in Osaka, and we headed there. There was a room, despite the online hotel booking site claiming that there was NOTHING due to the holiday season. Eat it Rakuten travel. In ADDITION to it being a room for the night, it only cost us $30 a person. Half what the online hotel reservations would charge. The room was huge—no windows, but a beautiful picturesque view painted on the wall in the image of a window, with glass over it for an added convincing touch. The only catch we can gather (unless there were perverted cameras everywhere) was that the bathroom had blinds and a window with a full view of its insides from the bedroom section. Not too bad for being in a shady part of town and paying almost nothing for a room. We drank some Chu-His (malted non-beer beverage) and settled into our huge accommodation, pulling the silver head of out the bag (we had named him Gerald and had given him a moustache as well) and set him up in a comfortable part of the room.
After that Louise and I go to the same bar I went to last week with James in Osaka, Barfly. She needed some convincing so I informed her about the Karaoke version of R. Kelly’s “Trapped in the Closet,” and she was sold. My favorite bartender wasn’t there and the crowd was more subdued than when James and I had gone for the Christmas party, but it was a good time still. Louise and I were served flakes of gold in a drink, and we even learned about a Madonna song that we both had never heard in our lives. It’s called “Hanky Panky” and from the sound of it, it’s hard to think of it as Madonna at all. But the bar master loved it so we’re on track to learning it to sing for him in the future. We sadly have to clear out of there around midnight to catch our last subway train back to the hotel, but we had a great time. Louise was even chatted up by a married couple trying to lure her into a threesome. She was less than thrilled.
The next morning was spent waking up late for checkout and getting a call from the front desk. Then we groggily meandered the city looking for something to wake us up for excite us enough to gain some energy. We played Mario Cart in a local Arcade Center but that didn’t do it. Ate some food. Bought Louise a bus ticket back home. Nothing. Blah blah morning. Soon it was time for me to get my parents and sister at the airport, so we had the mini-adventure of trying to find the suitcases that we had put in coin lockers the previous day. We are all too familiar with this game. Just stick your bags anywhere, and then try to remember where they are when you need them again. We involved about 3 station attendants and 2 police officers, but eventually we found them. Then it was “bye bye” to Louise as she went for her bus and I tried to figure out how to get to Kansai International Airport by train.
My parents arrived and we headed to the Osaka Hilton hotel. 90 minutes on the train. When we got checked in and sorted, my parents went straight to bed suffering jet lag and my sister and I went out to Barfly. We had a good time and Lauren loved the staff. She said her friend Alexis would love the bar master. I’m not sure what that means but right on. We got home around 1am. The next morning we woke with Osaka Hilton breakfast buffet. A large buffet albeit overpriced, but at least everyone ate well. We went walking/shopping around town. We were in Umeda so it was mostly expensive department stores but we saw the big Ferris wheel and different Osaka landmarks.
After tiring of that we got on a train and headed for the Osaka Aquarium. It was a long ride out there and once off the train, a bit of a walk but once we made it, it was spectacular. The main attraction was the giant whale shark but for us, we enjoyed the otters much more. The speedy buggers were nearly impossible to get a picture of. There were fish of every variety, otters, crabs, dolphins, sharks, jellyfish, stingrays, penguins, monkeys, a sloth, lizards, turtles, and even a rare un-photographable sunfish!! The whole thing was arranged on 8 floors, with several viewing places at various depths for each of the exhibits. Dad was the only one who got to see the penguins. He had gone a bit ahead; but by the time we got there, for some reason they shut the lights off in the penguin’s tank. Photographs were nearly impossible, sadly. We poked into the souvenir shop and then left to find food. There’s nothing in that part of town in the mid-evening besides the whiskey museum and the aquarium… we ended up going into the only restaurant we could find and being daring with different kinds of food. Dad had said afterwards that it was the best meal he’d had while in Japan, which is a good thing, although I’m not sure if it still stands after his delicious ramen meal.
Sunday afternoon we head off to Osaka Castle. Unfortunately (as is the case for just about everything in Japan this time of year) it was closed because of the New Year. We got pictures of the outside, some souvenirs, and a lovely walking tour of the grounds including such places as “the pine tree where priest so and so once hung his robe” and “the place where prince who’s his face and princess what’s her name committed suicide” as was written on the maps. We also got a peek inside a shrine on the grounds and even got our New Years fortunes in English. I must say, after all the hype about the pine tree where priest so and so once hung his robe, it was less than spectacular. Walking out of the castle we spotted an old man feeding an army of cats (which Lauren had to pet) a man singing Japanese blues, and a rock concert of Japanese boys trying to make it big (too bad it was only their moms and girlfriends in the audience). We took a train to Namba (the rough-around-the-edges shopping district) and perused the stores for a bit. I got my new Mac operating system OS X Leopard (swoons). Because it was so congested in the covered outdoor shopping streets, we didn’t get much done but at least they got a chance to see the fun side of town. Lauren also got her hair cut at a funky Japanese salon. Even though it took 2 hours, it was what she wanted to do all along. On the way back home, at my request, we stopped at Outback steak house! I had not yet been to Japan’s Outback and was excited to have steak. It was almost exactly like the American one, which was surprising, however we didn’t believe that “Jason” was the waiter’s actual name…
On Monday we had to switch from the Hilton hotel to a Holiday Inn, so our plans at first were home-centered. But after checking out at the Hilton and walking 7 minutes to the other hotel with all our stuff, we were relieved to find that the Holiday Inn let is check in hours early. This opened up the day for us, and we decided to venture out to Kyoto. I had never been to Kyoto so this was a strange new beast. After a grazing through my Lonely Planet guide to Japan we concluded that we wanted to see the Maiko (geisha in training) of Gion. The thousand Tori gates at the Fushimi Inari shrine, and Monkey Park in Arashiyama. We first caught a bus to Arashiyama, which Lauren affectionately renamed Monkey Town. It was an old town with jinrikusha (carts pulled by a person) and old bridges and boats. We popped into an udon shop for lunch and then hit the trail for the monkeys. It was a 10-minute moderate hike uphill. Moderate for Lauren and I. Impossible for mom and dad. They required several breaks, which was fine for Lauren and I as it gave us a chance to take some monkey pictures. They were literally walking the same path as us. You could touch them if you wanted to, but from the start the staff of Monkey Park instills fear in you with “do not look them in the eyes” as scenes from 28 Days Later come flashing into your mind. I took pictures trying not to anger or conjure up and monkey rage and we made it to the top. They called it the observation deck. Really it was a cage for people. You are ushered in when you get up there, and they monkeys are out in the wild. Quite a reverse. Then you could buy bags of sweet potatoes or peanuts to feed the monkeys. They are quite used to this by now, and just hang on the chains covering our cages windows with their arms outstretched inside waiting for food to be placed in them. Feeding them was fun despite the big ones stealing from the little ones, and an overall sense of greed I got from a lot of the monkeys. Lauren decided she’d irritate one of the monkeys by having nothing in her hand. Once this was discovered, the monkey just looked at her, pissed off. Outside our cage was a tremendous view of Kyoto from atop the monkey mountain. We had our pictures taken with the monkeys and I even caught two monkeys engaged in unwholesome behavior. Tisk tisk. We hiked back down and headed for Gion.
Once in Gion I had no idea where to find Maiko. And apparently it was strange to be on such a quest as everyone I asked, “where can we see Maiko?” just sort of laughed at me and said, “I don’t know.” I suppose it makes sense, as they are people with individual lives, and not stationary attractions. We found their school, and a cab driver said we had bad timing, so we went to a New Years festival at a temple instead. Just a quick glance around at all the stands and food and festivities, because it started to get freezing so we went home for the night instead. Dinner was a collection of goods from a local convenience store. Fried noodle sandwiches and steamed pork buns. Mmmmm.
It was New Year’s Eve and mom and dad were passing out in the hotel room at 10pm, so Lauren and I decide to go back to Barfly. The countdown party was exciting. The bar was so full, Lauren and I were put in short spare chairs around the bar. Two girls at the bar were impressed with Lauren’s and my ability to do shots so later we made them do tequila shots with us. I don’t know if it was the excitement, or the tequila but they seemed 100% more drunk after the single shot. There were several photos taken of dancing and New Years Mochi and Oranges on peoples heads. A good time had by all! There was a New Years toast with Japanese Shu with specks of gold in it. Tora even stopped by right as we were leaving so everyone was there.
New Years morning. There is a show in the hotel lobby. They crack open the sake barrels and give everyone a 10:30am glass of sake… then a New Years lion god comes out and dances (two people with a costume over their upper bodies). Everyone gathered around to pet the lion’s head afterward and then they wheeled out the mochi. It was to be pounded by whoever wanted to help make it. Mostly men at first, but soon little children and old grannies were wielding a hammer and beating the mochi. One of the hotel clerks asked me if I would do it, so I did. After everyone had their turn, they sprinkled kinako in it or red beans, and served it to us. Yummy. We missed the breakfast buffet because of the show, but we went to the hotel restaurant for lunch. Dad and Mom got a club sandwich with egg and Lauren and I got a sliced steak sandwich. Both were delicious!
We decided that today, instead of going to the Himeji castle, that we would retry Kyoto. This time we spent the afternoon in Gion, hoping to have had better timing in seeing a Maiko. No such luck. The Maiko must have been away for the New Year. Dad and Mom wanted to eat at a restaurant where you sit on the floor, and I had no clue about anything in Kyoto so we go into one. The down side is the meals for one person are $50-$90 each. Since we committed to staying there (they made room for us even though we didn’t have reservations) we decided to go through with it. We ordered two $50 meals to share between 4 people. This confused the ladies but whatever. Midway through dinner they needed some dishes that were stored in a cabinet behind mom and dad. At first a woman burst through the door, then she was pulled back and something was whispered about “no, no don't…” and she shook her head and marched back in, then excused herself and dove behind mom and dad for the plates. Two more showed up, I assume gathering their courage, and after they got their plates, there was a shower of the most polite apologies I’d ever heard, including things like “there’s no possible way you could forgive me for such a thing, but I’m sorry,,,” We head from Gion to the many many orange Tori gates of the Fushimi Inari shrine. The whole town of Fushimi Inari was alive with festivities, even at night. Stands selling grilled and fried everything (including what looked like fried chicken fetuses… tiny tiny chicken) and gifts, toys, and sweets galore. Walking up to the thousands of gates we found a Gyro stand. Walking under all those gates was more beautiful than can be explained. Simply going under them was a life changing experience, and the colors and massive presence were phenomenal. At the top there was a little section with more stands and places to pray. There was a set of two stones, one heavy one light. You make a wish and pick up a stone—if the stone is light your wish comes true; heavy it doesn't. We were all set to go but the jerk in front of us decides to tell all his friends after her went, “this one is light!” Ruining it for everyone around him. We climb back down under all the gates and get some gyros at the stand. Then we work our way back to the Kyoto station and finally back home.
Tuesday it was off to Hiwasa. We got on a bus at 1:30 in the afternoon, after stopping off a Choco-Cro first (a chain café). Three hours on a bus. Not too thrilling, but once in the city we find that Topia is closed. I had planned to store the luggage there and walk around for a bit, but no such luck. Instead we waited with our bags for an hour until the train left Tokushima city to Hiwasa. Two hours on the train, by now we’re all fed up with traveling. Dad manages to get all the suitcases in my car as we head to my apartment. My neighbors aren’t home and I wanted them to meet my family, so instead we go for Ramen at a local ramen shop. Dad had been getting a lot of crap about his tattoos. In Japan tattoos are associated with the Japanese mafia, Yakuza. He was asked to leave the hotel pool at the Hilton even. When he took his coat off, the girl who was working there was so in shock her jaw literally dropped. The young guy though thought it was awesome and came over to see. Even the old lady pointed to his arms and said “beautiful” when she was serving us. We each got a huge bowl of ramen and in addition to that we ordered two plates of fries, two plates of gyoza, one of fried chicken tenders, and one of chicken wings. It was such an enormous amount of food we were shocked that we ordered so much. But we finished it all. Dad loved the taste of the spicy ramen we ordered. I’m not sure what the flavor is, or what’s in it, but I get it every time. Then we went back home to sort out the luggage and bedding. I warned them all, sleeping on the floor in my apartment. There was lament at first, but I think everyone felt really good after it on the first night. It must be good for you to sleep on the floor.
Wednesday we woke up and did a little shopping in town. Dad was going to fix my shower door and mom was busy trying to make the house warm. Around 11:00 we headed to Tokushima city in my car. This terrified mom and dad but they had no other option. We stopped at the dollar store, and then for Kaiten Sushi (sushi that comes by on a conveyor belt and you take what you want and count the total at the end). The Harley Davidson shop in town was closed for holiday (what else is new?) so we went to the station and met up with Louise in Mr Donuts. With now two guides, Louise and I, we were taking my family to shop in the City store with interesting clothes shops and books. Lauren Louise and I took Purikura. Afterwards we headed to the Awa Odori Museum. A museum exhibiting the August Awa Odori dance festival held in our prefecture. Off to dinner at Mos Burger where we met James and then to Cassanovas, our Tokushima bar. Right away the owner, Mike liked dad. We did Karaoke and everyone drank but me (I was driving). A bit later Mike says he’s going to take my parents to a Japanese bar and that he would have them back in 10 minutes. In the mean time, Louise, James, my sister and I are left alone in his bar. We get out his bunny (he has a pet bunny in the bar) and get on the tables and dance with it while we karaoke. Ten minutes turns into thirty though and we’re almost late to leave and meet my neighbors. This however does allow me to drive like a maniac but maintain the “you brought this on yourself for being late” rationale. At the Japanese bar, they had sweet potato shochu, various fruits and things to eat, and Mike paid for it all. How nice of him!! Dad gave him some American cigars. In a record one hours time, we make it from Tokushima to Hiwasa again. I call my neighbors up and we go downstairs. Yuko has made gyoza and pizza and mochi for us and we chat with them. Even though the kids were sleeping, Haru and Mizuki kept waking up so we were able to visit with them as well. Yiu was asleep like a log the whole time though. Bear in mind that Mizuki is going on 4 years old and the other two are younger… Shige tries to pawn off Haru on mom, like he’s done to me before, and had done to my friend Liz. Why is he always trying to give away his son? Hmm…
The next morning we wake early. So much to do in no time. First stop is Hiwasa castle up a narrow mountain road. Then a walk along Ohama beach. After the beach we take a look inside the Sea Turtle Museum. I had never been and it was exciting to see it. The sea turtles look like birds under the water and it made me excited for summer when they come to the beach to lay eggs. Of course Lauren loves any kind of aquarium/zoo/monkey park. There’s even a quiz machine where you try to become Doctor Turtle by answering all the questions correct. Lauren becomes this doctor turtle and requests a certificate from the guy. He has a CD player that he pushes and it plays a victorious trumpet chime for a couple milliseconds then he hands over the prize. You could tell pushing that button was one of his life’s joys. We go shopping around my town after that, and we’re even served tea and sweets in a shop we walked into. 11:30 comes quickly and we’re due at a restaurant to have lunch with some of my eikaiwa students. They’re pleased to meet my family and are extraordinarily helpful in getting us back to the city on time for our bus back to Osaka. The trains would be risky with the timing so I would have to drive. As luck would have it, one of my students knew a guy who had a space in the city I could park for free for the weekend!
We make it to the city with everyone’s belongings just in time. We dropped mom and dad off with all the stuff near the bus. Then I get back in the car and head toward the parking lot. It's a 10-minute walk from the lot to the station so we turn it into a 6-minute run. There’s some bus confusion (I had gotten the wrong tickets and when I tried to change them it caused some confusion) but we all got on the bus for Osaka. At this point my brain is fried. So when we get to a restaurant to have dinner before I say goodbye to my family, I cant read a thing on the menu. Luckily I tell the waitress what kind of food (beef, chicken, rice) and she picks out some delicious things for us. It is a barbecue style restaurant where you cook it on the table in front of you. The beef was so good. Some wandering around lost for a bit and finally I find the station that will take my parents to their Ramada hotel. We say our farewells and I make sure they know which station to go to and where to get off. Then I go to my station for Namba.
It was great to see everyone. I did miss them a lot. But it had been a really difficult week as translator/tour guide so while being sad to say goodbye, it was a bit of a relief to not have to convey things that I barely understand myself. I did have a good time with them, and I hope that they enjoyed themselves too.
I head straight toward the hotel I usually stay at. It’s risky; being 9 at night, but luckily there’s room! I draw a bath and relax for a while until I get a call that mom dad and Lauren have made it to the hotel just fine. Then I go back to Barfly. This time, as promised to the bar master, I stay till closing at 5am. In actuality I didn’t have much of a choice. Trains stop at midnight and start back up again at 5am, so if you don't leave at 12, and if you don't want to pay for a taxi ($17) you stay where you are till 5. I was incredibly tired though. The next morning I get a phone call that I barely remember from mom at the airport saying everything’s fine. I ACTUALLY wake up around 1pm. I take some trains to the Harley Davidson shop (NOW its open... when I have to ship the shirts) and then to other places to eat and shop. I decide to see a movie in Umeda and hang around to see the sequel to National Treasure. Not too bad even though I hate Nicholas Cage. Then back to Barfly. Yes two days in a row. At around midnight I leave to go to a club downstairs but as soon as I get there, I ran into someone I didn’t want to see, and turned right around and left back to Barfly for the rest of the evening. A 10:00 checkout time and an 11:30 bus got me out of the city quickly but with little sleep, I did nothing but sleep on the bus the whole way back.
Back in Hiwasa. Winter break over. Work starts.
Phwew.
PICTURES!!!!!!
Pre-Family Visit with Louise a.k.a. Hairy AdventuresOsaka AquariumAbout town in OsakaSightseeing in KyotoBarfly with LaurenFamily comes to my town, HiwasaFamily’s gone home, last weekend of breakLauren’s photos will be added to these folders when I get them from her. Stay tuned.
Living and Teaching in Tokushima
Photos and Update
Update
There are finally photos added to the last post. Sorry for the wait I've been busy. Go check them out.
PhotosI emptied out my cellphone camera of photos I've been taking and made a random folder of them. No rhyme or reason, check them out if you want to.
