a shot of towadako, making some candles with the chillunz, more fireworks, a huge taiko at the tree planting ceremony, and the guy that works at aoi tori, back in the little kitchen area.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Me ga Mabushi Sugiru
the attendees at the little dinner out by the damn mall, the birthday girl mei-ping shooting off some fireworks, a couple of the creepy cracks and tunnels in the copper mine, and a feller painting the creek near aomori.
Ketsumakuen Yabe!
well, shoooo... many things have gone down and transpired and happened over the last few weeks. among the things that happened was a morning when the entire damn earth wobbled and rocked like jeebus hisself was dribbling the globe like a big ass basketball. i scrambled out of my bed and ran out into the lobby in my unnerwears, and everyone was just strolling to breakfast like that kind of thing happened every day, gawking at my disshevled arse until i woke up enough to realize i should probably go get some pants on. the earthquake wasn't so severe here in akita, but in the next prefecture to the east, there were some roads and bridges destroyed, and a few landslides. so that was my first earthquake...
other happenings...went to a friend's apartment out in a neighborhood not too far away from the damn mall, and she cooked a whole bunch of food for us three visitors. just sat out there jabbering, eating, playing her piano, talking to her mom on the phone, making cookies and lounging about for a few hours, a lovely time. this friend talks to me alot about how living out there away from the school feels really strange, and i think i end up talking alot about how being stuck in the school sometimes feels really odd, so we whipped up this little plan to hang out and make some food. delightful, no?
a few days later was the birthday party for a friend from singapore, a lovely affair with snackie-poos, drinklie-winkies, and a jaunt over to the park to shoot off some fireworks. well, not really 'shoot off', i guess, japanese fireworks basically fizzle for a while and then shrivel up and blow away, but they're still friggin fireworks, so i shant cry foul.
nearly burnt eachother to a crisp for a while out there at the park, then went to bed relatively early, because the next day, there was a school trip out to an old copper mine, lake towado (not to be confused with tazawako), and a long, rushing stream right on the border of the next prefecture to the north, aomori. we spent almost 3 hours getting up there, and first crawled off the bus into the copper mine, a dank labyrinth of tunnels and creepy lights running throught the center of a mountain. there was a small shrine in there, a stock of sake and wine, and some of the tunnels were lined with flashing christmas lights for some reason, like a cockamamie science fiction movie. crammed ourselves back on the bus for a few more hours and drove up to the stream, slowly passing by plenty of interesting spots with rushing rapids or quiet walking paths, and stopped at a relatively uneventful little shallow spot to walk around for about 20 minutes. saw a feller painting a big canvas, and trotted along smelling the mossy rocks for as long as i could before i had to turn around and get back on the bus so we could go to towado lake. the lake was cold and choppy when we got there, a few tour boats winding around out there on the waves. the lake is pretty big, much larger than tazawako. we were just on a little bay with big green bluffs holding it in. tottered around there for a while, and sauntered back to the bus again to come home.
the next day, i joined a volunteer thing in the wada neighborhood to make candles and play english games with a bunch of kids from the area, most of whom were reluctant to talk to me, because at the time i had a big red eyeball on account of the trees blooming and whatnot. at least i learned the japanese word for 'conjunctivitis'. we sang songs, melted some crayons and stirred 'em up for the candles, and one kid taught me some kanji for a while. i walked back to school with a few people, taking the long way through some rice paddies and a shrine, working up a beastly sweat. later that day, had a picnic out in a little patio area, and lit off some more fireworks. this time some of them whistled, spun, and bounced around.
the next event of note was a trip out to a tree planting ceremony somewhere out in the middle of the prefecture, a big deal whith the emperor attending and everything. we all had to wear our ridiculous official event baseball caps, badges, and prove to security guards that our cameras were not in actuality secret spy bomb devices. so sat there in the damned sun for several hours while people danced around or sang and whatnot, all of which i could not see behind the thousands of people wearing the ridiculous official hats. then the emperor came out for a while, and we all went bananas, waving around little paper japanese flags. after that, we were ushered over to the tree planting area to spread some dirt around, and filed back on the bus for home. when we got back to school, i had exactly 9 minutes to get ready and run back out to the bus bound for the station for some plans i made with 3 japanese ladies (yeah, thats right, me and three lovely japanese ladies, people). we went out to a really great little cafe/bar/restaurant place called "aoi tori", or "bluebird". it was a quiet old place with scuffed up wooden furniture, book cases and plants along the walls, and a strong smell of chocolate wafting out from the little kitchen area in the corner. we had a big, multi-course dinner of italian-ish stuff (pasta and pizza, but with japanese ingredients, like full wasabi leaves in the salad) and just relaxed and talked about general whatnot for a while - studying abroad, differences between japanese and american people, and my abiding little crush on the country as a whole, and most of its people individually.
some other stuff what happened was yet another birthday party for a taiwanese friend, a surprise deal with a treasure hunt and everything, followed by about ten plates of appetizers, strange card games, and some running around out in the dark playing some half assed tag. also, recently, because it's getting so damned hot here, i went off to the local river to wade around in the water for a little while, sliding around on the rocky riverbed, and finally getting a little use out of the snazzy swimming trunks i brought with me.
coming up soon, what the hell.... erm... party tonight for someone from fall semester who's here for a few days visiting, and also, there is a little clump of 'summer program' people who have dropped in for 6 weeks of japanese study, mostly from singapore, so maybe i'll get to talk to a few of them. kind of a wierd time for a new group to be coming in, right when most people are thinking about the end of the semester, which is coming way too fast.
other happenings...went to a friend's apartment out in a neighborhood not too far away from the damn mall, and she cooked a whole bunch of food for us three visitors. just sat out there jabbering, eating, playing her piano, talking to her mom on the phone, making cookies and lounging about for a few hours, a lovely time. this friend talks to me alot about how living out there away from the school feels really strange, and i think i end up talking alot about how being stuck in the school sometimes feels really odd, so we whipped up this little plan to hang out and make some food. delightful, no?
a few days later was the birthday party for a friend from singapore, a lovely affair with snackie-poos, drinklie-winkies, and a jaunt over to the park to shoot off some fireworks. well, not really 'shoot off', i guess, japanese fireworks basically fizzle for a while and then shrivel up and blow away, but they're still friggin fireworks, so i shant cry foul.
nearly burnt eachother to a crisp for a while out there at the park, then went to bed relatively early, because the next day, there was a school trip out to an old copper mine, lake towado (not to be confused with tazawako), and a long, rushing stream right on the border of the next prefecture to the north, aomori. we spent almost 3 hours getting up there, and first crawled off the bus into the copper mine, a dank labyrinth of tunnels and creepy lights running throught the center of a mountain. there was a small shrine in there, a stock of sake and wine, and some of the tunnels were lined with flashing christmas lights for some reason, like a cockamamie science fiction movie. crammed ourselves back on the bus for a few more hours and drove up to the stream, slowly passing by plenty of interesting spots with rushing rapids or quiet walking paths, and stopped at a relatively uneventful little shallow spot to walk around for about 20 minutes. saw a feller painting a big canvas, and trotted along smelling the mossy rocks for as long as i could before i had to turn around and get back on the bus so we could go to towado lake. the lake was cold and choppy when we got there, a few tour boats winding around out there on the waves. the lake is pretty big, much larger than tazawako. we were just on a little bay with big green bluffs holding it in. tottered around there for a while, and sauntered back to the bus again to come home.
the next day, i joined a volunteer thing in the wada neighborhood to make candles and play english games with a bunch of kids from the area, most of whom were reluctant to talk to me, because at the time i had a big red eyeball on account of the trees blooming and whatnot. at least i learned the japanese word for 'conjunctivitis'. we sang songs, melted some crayons and stirred 'em up for the candles, and one kid taught me some kanji for a while. i walked back to school with a few people, taking the long way through some rice paddies and a shrine, working up a beastly sweat. later that day, had a picnic out in a little patio area, and lit off some more fireworks. this time some of them whistled, spun, and bounced around.
the next event of note was a trip out to a tree planting ceremony somewhere out in the middle of the prefecture, a big deal whith the emperor attending and everything. we all had to wear our ridiculous official event baseball caps, badges, and prove to security guards that our cameras were not in actuality secret spy bomb devices. so sat there in the damned sun for several hours while people danced around or sang and whatnot, all of which i could not see behind the thousands of people wearing the ridiculous official hats. then the emperor came out for a while, and we all went bananas, waving around little paper japanese flags. after that, we were ushered over to the tree planting area to spread some dirt around, and filed back on the bus for home. when we got back to school, i had exactly 9 minutes to get ready and run back out to the bus bound for the station for some plans i made with 3 japanese ladies (yeah, thats right, me and three lovely japanese ladies, people). we went out to a really great little cafe/bar/restaurant place called "aoi tori", or "bluebird". it was a quiet old place with scuffed up wooden furniture, book cases and plants along the walls, and a strong smell of chocolate wafting out from the little kitchen area in the corner. we had a big, multi-course dinner of italian-ish stuff (pasta and pizza, but with japanese ingredients, like full wasabi leaves in the salad) and just relaxed and talked about general whatnot for a while - studying abroad, differences between japanese and american people, and my abiding little crush on the country as a whole, and most of its people individually.
some other stuff what happened was yet another birthday party for a taiwanese friend, a surprise deal with a treasure hunt and everything, followed by about ten plates of appetizers, strange card games, and some running around out in the dark playing some half assed tag. also, recently, because it's getting so damned hot here, i went off to the local river to wade around in the water for a little while, sliding around on the rocky riverbed, and finally getting a little use out of the snazzy swimming trunks i brought with me.
coming up soon, what the hell.... erm... party tonight for someone from fall semester who's here for a few days visiting, and also, there is a little clump of 'summer program' people who have dropped in for 6 weeks of japanese study, mostly from singapore, so maybe i'll get to talk to a few of them. kind of a wierd time for a new group to be coming in, right when most people are thinking about the end of the semester, which is coming way too fast.
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