Easily Distracted

I’m with a couple country boys from Gifu (dorm mates), and we’re heading to one of the largest cities in the world. Typhoon Etau (“storm cloud” – not Japanese) is creeping across Japan. We left Anpachi just before it hit. It will probably catch up with us in Tokyo.

I barely got any sleep last night. Packing. Writing important emails. No really, they were important! Skipped going to the cafeteria for breakfast; as usual, no time. John, Alex, and I (Ben had other “bigger” plans, and Shirley decided to wait a day for possibly better weather) headed out at 7:45, running for the bus to Ogaki. We were rushed, and by the time we got on the bus, we were very wet. About 15 minutes later, we arrived in Ogaki; we had a bit of time to kill before taking the train, so we grabbed something to eat at Mr.Donut.

Train from Ogaki to Hasamatsu: ~2 hours

At Hasamatsu, we had to transfer to the train heading to Atami. This is the train I am currently on. When we transferred, I was not at all prepared for the rush of people to fill the train. We had to get off, but as soon as the doors opened, a flood of people rushed in. I’d like to describe it as opening a container under water. John expected this, and escaped before being crushed by the flow of people. Alex and I, however, were still scrambling to get our bags, and were pushed right back into our seats by the masses. Eventually, we squeezed out, holding our bags above our heads and repeating “sumimasen” over and over. I thought we were gonna get stuck on that train and end up backtracking! Luckily, we escaped. I’ve NEVER in my ENTIRE LIFE seen a huge group of people panic so much to get a seat! It’s like musical chairs: when the doors open, the music stopped, and whoever doesn’t get seat is SOTO!

Today, me and Ben… oh, sorry (Pat) – “Ben and I” took the train to Nagashima Spaland – a super cool amusement/water park.

Why did we decide to do this? Well, it was Pat’s birthday, and the plan was to meet Pat and some other guys (Adam, Wojtek, Edwin, and some french people I’ve never met before) at Nagashima. Wait a sec… Ben has these crazy fireworks on his birthday, and Pat has a party at an amusement park for his the next day… there better be something cool going on for MY b-day! =)

On our way there, we ran into a “fat sweaty Japanese man” who was selling discounted tickets for Nagashima that included the bus ride there. Well, it must be really easy to swindle some poor gaijin, because we got the water park ticket, the bus, and the roller coaster ticket… but this roller coaster ticket was only going to last for ONE ride! To cut a boring financial tragedy short, we ended up having to buy the all-day ride pass ON TOP of what we bought from the swindler. Okay, so he probably wasn’t really a swindler, there was just an evident language barrier.

Nagashima Spaland is home to the Steel Dragon. This is the biggest friggin roller coaster I’ve EVER seen. And so it should be! It holds 4 Guiness World Records! I think it was Fastest (150km/hr), Longest (2.5km), Highest, .. and something else. There was hardly any people at the park, so line-ups weren’t bad at all: 10-15 minutes, maybe. People were apparently going to a festival in the city later that night, so the park seemed very empty compared with most places in Japan. We went on almost all of the good rides. Oh crap! I just realized: Pat, Ben and I never got a chance to get super wet riding the crazy “Shoot the Chute” because we arrived a bit later. =( Oh well… looked super fun, though. After doing all the potentially stomach-tossing rides that we wanted to, we had lunch, and did a couple more after. Then, we decided to go to the big water park.

Ben and I got split up from the rest of the group at this point, but we had lots of fun riding the inner-tube slides and a couple regular slides. The weather was perfect, and so was the scenery… eheh. ^_^ It’s weird, I hardly saw any overweight Japanese – especially girls. They do exist, but not in the water park, it seemed. Eventually, we ran into the group again, and we went on a couple last slides, the fake river that used ocean water (filtered, I hope), and left.

After getting dressed, and some grabbed something to eat (I resisted with all my might, as the day was already SUPER expensive) only a few of us… okay, everyone except for the French people, went on a couple last rides. I really wanted to stay longer, because the park was looking cooler and cooler the darker it got, but it was good we left. We (Ben and I) actually had the easiest journey ahead of us, because everyone else was either from Osaka or near Kyoto, and Nagashima is near Nagoya. I bought a “chili dog” from a bakery in Nagoya train station, and that was pretty good. After we got to our last train station, (after switching a couple of times – I really have to do this on my own, some time), we got on our bikes and biked back to the dormitory. Home, sweet home! I sorted out a couple of things, had a BATH (so badly needed), and here I am. For some reason, it seems like I have SO MANY things to do! I have to organize my trip to Tokyo this upcoming week. I have to do school related and student loan related paper-work. I have to iron my clothes. I have to download pictures from my camera. Many more things, I’m sure….

Today was lots of fun! However, it easily cost over 10000 yen with travelling and food.

It’s now 12:47am, and I really REALLY do not want to iron. I want to sleep. What an exhausting weekend! Usually, I like to have one day of rest before going back to work. Not getting that, this week. So tired. Maybe my shirts and pants will just have to be wrinkly… can’t say it bothers me that much. =)

Today, I saw the best fireworks I’ve ever seen, (and possibly, ever will see) in my entire life. Sugoi!

The day started early, meeting at the train station and waiting for friends to arrive. Once we were all together, in Gifu city, we headed off to Inuyama Castle (in Aichi), where we had a very interesting complementary tour-guide that spoke English AND German (one of our frieds is German). Apparently, this castle is the oldest castle left in Japan. I’ve been to a few castles now, and this is the only one that was NOT rebuilt. This was the original (real – yes, I’ve seen lots of fake!) wood from 1537. 1537!!! That’s SO OLD! The guide explained how the castle was designed with with cracks between the floor-boards so as the people above could see intruders below, and if they had long poles (people below) they would try to poke people above them… so the cracks were very important! Another cool thing, was this room that the lord would sit in to work (the classic room you’d see in anime and asian movies). The lord would sit in this room, but if there was any trouble, two samurai that hid and waited (and listened) in a small room behind him would jump out to protect their lord. That’s… just like a video-game! A final boss, or something! ^_^ Cool…. To quote Alex, “You know, it’s pretty cool actually coming to a place you’ve owned in a video game.” heheheh

The real reason we came to Gifu, was for the fireworks… it was, after all, Ben’s birthday. So, we left Inuyama Castle: back on the train. After we arrived back in Gifu, we had a long walk ahead of us. But so did MANY other people! We just followed the masses. Having come last week to the fireworks, we knew where would be a good spot, and we came prepared: we had mats/tarps to sit on; sake to drink; and snacks to eat – oh yes, we were doing things right! After our long walk (remind me never to wear sandles with bare feet again..) we found a spot on the road and claimed it. The pre-show fireworks made a very satisfying BOOM and you could feel it pound your chest. Nice. We were very close!

I had heard from somebody, that these fireworks were going to be bigger than the ones we saw last week, but I was not prepared for the show we got! Even if you don’t like fireworks, some of these would have blown you away! At points, the WHOLE SKY was covered in showers of pyro-technic colour. COOL! I couldn’t believe how many they would fire at one time! How to describe it… if you’ve been to The Symphony of Fire, you know that the various countries always have a finale. These fireworks, were like a constant finale, and at the end (of an awesome 1.5 hrs), it, of course, had its own finale. Seriously, at points, you couldn’t see all the firworks in the sky at one time without turning your head! I’ve never seen such a good show…. The Japanese take their hanabi very seriously!

The way home: wading through the sea of people all over again for a long walk. We took the train back to Hashima, and got our bikes. This ride home was going to be a little different, because we had graciously offered to double our visiting friends, who happened to be girls, back to Shirley’s apartment (they couldn’t stay with us, because they were girls and we live in “Sanyo Men’s Dormitory”). =( Anyways, I’d never tried doubling anyone on my sexy basket bike before. Muzukashi! It was so much harder than I thought it would be! Especially getting started… moving so slowly, the balance was really hard. So the ride poor Nina received from me was probably not the best initially, but I think I got the hang of it half way. I couldn’t do much about the metal she had to sit on, however. =/

Those cheap bikes… sometimes I wish I splurged a few thousand yen more… Two people is very difficult on them, I was very worried going over bumps that the weight caused the back wheel rim to actually be impacted directly by the pavement – that’s how it felt. I have to pump up the tires, again, already! And my handle bar has come loose, so I need to find an Alan-key to tighten those, or I may get into an accident…. Eventually, we got to Shirley’s (had to make a pit-stop at a circle-K convenience store first, of course) and dropped off the terrified passengers safely. *phew* Today was the HOTTEST day I’ve been in! Just walking around, I could jerk my head toward the ground and at least 5 drops of sweat would fall right off my face. I was not built for this tropical humidity! And riding the bike with the light enabled AND an extra person, AND compensating for my screwy handlebars… ingredients for Steve to perspire like his life depended on it!

I would probably be quite willing to sneak girls into the dormitory, as I’ve seen other people do it a couple times. =)

My laundry is done; it’s 3:04am; and I have to go to an amusement park tomorrow (for another friend’s birthday); so I’d better go to sleep now. So tired!

Holy crap! I’m SOO CUT!

The festival was awesome! Some of the nurses that we met last week came and hung out with us for a bit. Also, Sanyo has these festivals every year (apparently) and every year they hire brazillian dancers. I’ve heard of the term G-string before, but never “T-back.” They’re similar. And man did these girls have six-packs!! Very nice! But, the best part was getting totally wasted with everyone! Initially, Ben, Alex, and I, took part in a couple LARGE shots of Kumashochu (the 25% poison that has actually started to grow on me) before we left. This made our spirits high very quickly! In fact, for those that really know me, you’ll know I do not like beer. There was no sake or any other alcoholic beverage at the festival, so I started drinking beer. And other people (co-workers and such) started buying me beers. So, I drank. I drank so much, that eventually, the beer actually started to taste good!

But I’m a little worried about Ben. I think he may have drank too much. He was knocking over tables and cursing a lot, by the end of the night. Ben was more gone than I was, but…

I repeat: I am wasted!
Bath time!