Easily Distracted

I went swimming! There is a poool not too far (20 minutes by bike) from my dormitory. This pool is way out in the country-side, though. It was obvious I was the only foreigner to walk through those doors in a long time, if ever, because as soon as the receptionist saw me, she panicked in terror. I just looked in her general direction and she was already looking for someone who could speak more English than she could. Funny. =) The facilities are pretty much the same as you would expect in Canada, except for one difference. The 25m pool is a constant depth, it does not vary at all, from one end to the other. It is a bit above waist level, I guess. So you can stop and stand up in the middle of doing lengths, no matter where you are! heheh.

The etiquette used when people swim is a bit different, though. The lanes are smaller, so a group of 4 people in one lane will pretty much occupy it. Not only that, but the 4 people will seemingly spend most of their time standing at one end talking!… or just standing. I think it’s common for a family or a group of friends to come to pool together and use one whole lane. Precious space. I don’t think anyone would ever pass another. I know I felt awkward even thinking about it… the pool is only 25m though, so it’s not that big of a deal.

It was very cheap (400yen), and I think I can manage going there a couple times a week. I felt very good, afterward.

A coworker was nice enough to invite us to a Japanese-style BBQ with her, her boyfriend, and her boyfriend’s friend. We had to be ready by 11am. I was a COMPLETE idiot and actually ate a healthy breakfast of choco flakes and banana slices, earlier that morning – I had no idea what was ahead of me. First, John, Ben, and I are picked up by Uji and her boyfriend (in a BMW, no less). We drive to Shirley’s ultra-inaka (but still cool) apartment and pick her up.

Now, BMW’s are nice cars, especially ones equiped with a full GPS unit like this on had, but they are not meant to have 4 people in the back seat. We arrive at Uji’s house 20 minutes later, and get out of the car. John: “I think my bones are misplaced.” Yeah, he was sitting next to me – I didn’t have much problem, but I guess John doesn’t quite have the same build as me and he just kind of folded where I wasn’t affected. Sorry, John. ^_^

The other guy arrived the biggest frigging truck I’ve ever seen before… with a huge extended cab. I took a couple pictures of it, I think. =) It seated us all comfortably (total seating of 7 people, I think). Off to the grocery store! While I was meandering back and forth poking fish-things and other squishy substances, everyone else was going CRAZY buying food! So much beef, pork, weiners, fish, prawns, vegetables… crazy, I say!

It took maybe 1/2 hour more to get to the BBQ destination at the base of a mountain. It was really nice. We dug out a little hole, put some rocks around it (to balance the tray on), and started the fire… eventually. We did more of the standard fare: drinking/eating/socializing/cooking. And there’s not ONE thing wrong with that! It was dark before we decided we had to roll ourselves out from that site, and back into the massive truck.

Back to Uji’s house! This, of course, made Uji very nervous: she had not prepared for visitors! No, really: she was horrified. We had to buy more drinks, so she was dropped off and said, “take your time,” in a commanding but polite way. =) We got back just as Uji had just finished, judging by her relieved look on her face. We still had yaki soba (fried Japanese noodles) to eat. But, not just yet… we were all pretty stuffed with the day-long feast, thus far. Fish eggs. I can’t believe how many friggin fish eggs I ate, that day. Or, should I say, fish FULL of fish eggs. Anyways, it was all good.

We had lots more fun continuing to snack and drink, of course. We had a great selection of drinks, including BMW wine! Yeah, Uji’s boyfriend is a BMW salesman… so I saw more BMW that day than any other day in my life. BMW calendars. BMW wine. BMW insulated bags. The food, just like the rest of the day, was awesome. I really want to get my own electric frying pan or something, so as I can cook my own stuff. The only problem would be the smell in my room… but I think I could leave the window open most of the time… until winter, that is.

We got back around 1am, I think. I was thinking I wouldn’t need to eat for a whole week.

Class is every Tuesday and Friday, from 6:30 to 8:30 in Gifu city.

I don’t see any way around this: we were all unprepared. This class is HARD and is gonna demand some major attention! Which means.. less time for whatever else it is I do. Damn. But, if I can endure this horrible new pain that I’ve incurred upon myself, my Japanese language level *will* increase ten-fold. The text book has zero English in it. Not even any roman characters. All hiragana/katakana and kanji (my most feared enemy). I think I may have to translate the chapter sections so as I know at least what I’m looking at. The teachers are very nice, and speak no English. The class is an interesting variety including 3 Canadian Sanyo interns (Alex, Ben, and myself), some Americans, a South Korean, a Philipino, a Brazilian, and others. I can honestly say I probably have the worst skill level there. That’s okay. I will overcome and conquer. I will, right? Right?

Definitely gonna have to “practice” karaoke in a personal booth, at some point, so’s we’re not so ear-bleeding-bad.

After the “slap in the face,” (more like a punch in the gut and kick in the crotch) we went to an izakaya for dinner. Dinner was good. I think I already mentioned it, but I really like izakayas! Lots of variety for food and very social. Then we went to a pub where Ben proceeded to sing bad karaoke. It costs 100 yen to punish the other inhabitants of the bar with your choice or audio torture. They have a HUGE database of songs! Anyways, I bought Ben a shot of tequila for his courage, (I had not had nearly enough to drink to partake much more than clap and sing along away from the mic), played a couple games of darts with Alex, and finally had a pino-colada in Japan!

I definitely cannot do that every night we’re in Gifu, or I’ll have no money for… food… and … stuff.

As a perfect prelude to our long weekend, Alex, John, Ben, and I made banana milkshakes and played cards. It also happened to be the perfect way to use up the bananas I had bought but would not be able to finish! ^_^ We just had to buy the milk and ice cream, which we could get from the local konbini. We played a game called, “oh shit,” and it’s very fun and very appropriately named. However, I say, next time we do the milkshake thing, we obtain some rum.

Ben was even able to obtain a covert video with his camera of the heavy card action!

NOTE: Have I mentioned how cheap alcohol is, in Japan? Unless you order a drink at a restaurant or pub, of course. The best example would have to be these awesome killer-hard sake you can get in a tiny tetra-pak – it looks like a small juice box, and it’s cute, so it makes you think this is a kids drink… but don’t let that fool you! It packs a 14.5% punch. One of these little buggers (200ml) will only set you back 100yen ($1.20 CDN). Of course, it’s most probably the worst sake you’ll ever taste – very raw.

Now that we (Shirley, Ben, and myself) had takoyaki makers, we wanted to use them!

Takoyaki are fried octopus cakes that Osaka is very well known for.

Since we had so much fun doing the takoyaki party thing at Briar’s, we planned to do the same thing in the good ‘ol countryside! It ended up being at Shirley’s apartment, so we could invite more people than we had originally planned for one of our dorm rooms. Everyone that ended up coming: Shirley, Ben, John, Alex, Suzuki-san (Ben’s coworker), myself, and eventually, Chris (from Tokyo!)

We bought lots of stuff – this was gonna be awesome takoyaki! We even bought shrimp, so that we could try ebi-takoyaki, “ebiyaki?” This night was enjoyable enough that I even did my speech about it. (I had to do a speech to my department at work – so I talked about making takoyaki). We ate lots of takoyaki and snacks we could put in the toaster oven, drank, and watched movies (Austin Powers 2) all night. It was tonnes of fun, and we’ll be sure to do it again! Even if Shirley’s futon now smells like takoyaki….

I really, really, REALLY wish I understood Japanese!

It would have made this evening so much more enjoyable. I went to a Japanese restaurant with my department (6 coworkers and myself) and we drank and ate all night. Oh wait, THEY talked, I just stared blankly and kept eating. Okay, this is not entirely true: my supervisor was the main source of conversation, as he had just come back from a business trip to Beijing, so he would pause and translate what he just said to me, every now and then. And my advisor, whom I *know* speaks pretty good English, would ask me questions in Japanese! That’s okay, they were usually simple enough for me to get the idea. Of course, I would answer in English. ^_^

The food was really good. There were a lot of small dishes, and the menu had Korean and Chinese sections! I love Korean food, so when asked what I wanted, I ordered a kimchi dish. And it was delicious! The meal started off with everyone getting a complementary dish that consisted of a raw egg in some sort of clear liquid. I had my doubts, but I watched everyone else mix up the egg and liquid with their chopsticks and slurp it up, so I did the same. Surprisingly, it was quite good! For drinks, everyone (except my advisor, who was the designated driver) started off with a round of beer. I must have been drinking my beer a little slowly, so they started ordering sake, which they know I like. I got to try very nice sake that I’ve never had before! Kubota Sake from Niigata. It was SO smooth! Very good. Other dishes included some sushi and sashimi, tako (octopus) parts in a spicy sauce, edamame (green soybeans), skewered meat and vegetables that were deep fried (“like yakitori” was the best name I got) to dip in miso sauce (bean paste), korokke (croquettes), and lots of other stuff I can’t remember. Oh, and the coolest thing, I got to eat deep fried *fugu*! Simpsons reference: “Don’t worry, map to hospital on back of menu!” I got to eat blow fish! heheh. It was strange, and there were many bones: at first, it seemed like it tasted like chicken but had the texture of fish. Fugu-licious.

The bill, for 7 people, ended up being 22,870 yen. Everyone paid 3000 each. Not bad. Not really sure what happened to remaining… got an email the next day saying the manager took care of it… or something. O.o