Easily Distracted

A weekend involving ninjas, drinking, and waterslides absolutely *must* be good…. I’m sitting in bed, hoping I can do a quick recap of the weekend, without falling asleep.

Saturday

I take turns with Ben, doubling to the Hozumi station, and pay 100yen to park my bike for a night. From there, we take the train for a few hours and head to Iga in Mie prefecture. It is evident that Iga is known as a birthplace of “the ninja” when you see manhole covers with cartoon ninjas on them. We met Patrick and Paul, and went to the Iga Ninja museum. After having been to Eiga Mura (which was absolutely horrible) we would have liked almost anything. The price: 700yen. You are welcomed by a couple pink female ninjas, and shown many of the tricks in a mock ninja house. Some of those tricks were pretty cool, like a shelf that you could swing down and then it became secret stairs up to the secret top floor! After being shown a bunch of tricks in the ninja house, we walk through the “museum” area, looking at stuff behind glass and reading descriptions. This was even really cool, cuz we all liked ninjas. Who doesn’t!? ^_^

We made sure to catch the last live demonstration that day, for only 200yen!! It was even accompanied by a cheesy soundtrack on speakers that couldn’t support the volume! I wish I had made videos of the demonstration – I will have to get what Ben took. There was the main ninja dude, who demonstrated a bunch of weapons, and there was another guy who came in for the simulation battles… using real weapons! The last battle was done really well! After the demonstration, we went up to get our picture taken with the main guy, and then Patrick asked if he had nun-chucks – to this, he runs behind a wall, and comes back holding two sickles attached to each other with a chain! Cool! Ben tried to hold them, but he quickly took them away from Ben and demonstrated that they were very sharp by shaving a piece of wood off a nearby post with little effort. Everyone else had left, at this point, and he gave us a private demonstration of this new toy! Private ninja demonstrations kick serious ass.

Leaving the ninja museum, I had spotted some shuriken that finally were not rubber! Throwing stars! Every aspiring ninja needs a good set of throwing stars, so I bought 8 – which promptly drained money I wasn’t expecting on spending. We were happy, but happiness only lasts so long on an empty stomach, so we went to an izakaya (Japanese style bar) for food and drink. After that, we were truly happy. Ice cream followed, and then some more drinking, and then looking for a hotel to stay at (that we could afford), and then even more drinking. Yes, we were very happy by the end of the night. To top it all off, we got our own Japanese style bath – so relaxing!

So much for a “quick recap!” I fell asleep after writing “Hozumi” in the first sentence… =/ Why am I so tired, recently? ….

Sunday

We pried ourselves out of bed, because we had to be out of there by 10am -unless we wanted to pay for another night. We went to another museum, and did a lot of walking: looking for waterfalls. We didn’t find any waterfalls, but we happened upon a Brazilian restaurant where we ordered PIZZA! Really good pizza! This restaurant was the first time in Japan I’ve ever encountered someone trying to push religion on people. He came up to us, after having visited the table next to us, and spoke Japanese while waving around “words of the Bible.” After realizing we were all hopeless, he wished us all luck and shook our hands. Umm.. yah. The Brahma beer was actually quite good, too – and I don’t like beer! I got papaya juice, and man was it good! We had no more time to look for waterfalls, so we said our goodbyes and parted on our seperate ways: Ben and I back to the country-side we call home.

Monday (a holiday)

As far as Ben and I were aware of, Mayu and Mami were going to take us to the local swimming pool (still a good 20 minute bikeride from our dormitory). However, after we had been driving for a long time, and with what the girls had been talking about, it appeared as if we were going to Nagashima Spaland! SUGOI! And Mami had discount tickets, so everyone only had to pay 1000yen (usually 3000yen) for tonnes of waterslide-fun! Since this was mine and Ben’s 2nd time here, we knew which slides to go on, and which not to waste our time with… but we were also with a couple girls who weren’t so eager to go on all the slides. We didn’t want to make anyone feel left out, but we wanted to have fun… taihen. When we had come before, for Patrick’s birthday, we had also gone on the rollercoasters. Recently, the Steel Dragon (the massive rollercoaster that holds 4 guiness world records), had an accident – so we were really lucky we got to go on it – it was not running, anymore. We were also very lucky the girls took us to the waterslides that day, because it was the last day of the season.

The enjoyable day melted into evening, as Ben and I both bought takoyaki makers, and we all went for yakiniku. Yakiniku is when you order meat and you cook it on a grill in the middle of the table. It’s awesome! However, I think Mayu was feeling a little crazy, and ordered a HEAPING CRAPLOAD OF MEAT!! We were already full by the time we still had 4 full plates of raw meat mocking us. That night, we eventually defeated the meat, but in the end, it was the meat that won. I don’t want to see another piece of meat for at least a week.

so much.. meat….

Today, the wonderful Shirley brought my new camera to work!

YES! Finally! It got delivered to her apartment, and I gave her the cash to pay for it. I get to play with it once I get home… and I will play with it, don’t doubt that for a second. A bunch of us may be going to a Ninja-town/museum on the long weekend! What an awesome way for me to try out my new baby – pictures of Ninjas! =)

I still can’t decide if I’m willing to spend the money to go to Tokyo for the Tokyo Gameshow. I’d like to go, but… it seems so expensive *just* for that show. Hundreds of dollars in transportation (I’d be taking shinkansen, this time) and less than $20 for the tickets for one day.

And Nintendo’s not even going to be there….

I told myself that instead of wasting precious personal time writing journal entries, I’d do it at work when I needed to keep myself awake. Now, is one of those times. I’ve tried desperately to stay awake and do something, but I’m SO tired, and my head just keeps leaning forward for un-natural lengths of time… it’d be impossible for coworkers not to notice. It’s much better to appear busy, working or not, than to appear sleeping. *sigh*

This last weekend was great. So relaxing. Tanoshikatta. Shirley, Ben, and I headed over to Kyoto to visit Briar. We went to an extremely tacky movie-theme park called “Eiga Mura” (“Movie Land”). It was so bad that it was actually amusing – but I’m never in a million years going back. There was a HORRIBLE “special effects pond,” similar to the Universal Studios Jaws display, where a plastic dragon rises from the water with mist abound (you can see the nozzles) and turns its mechanical head spraying mist. Woooh… scary. Then there’s the trees that needed oil… oh man, so bad. Pictures simply won’t do it justice. We also saw a live samurai performance which was embarrassingly entertaining. But, I especially liked the robot ninja that “scrolled” between buildings, and then back again – backwards! Oh, and the crappy movie from the eighties with vibrating seats that made absollutely no sense. We could be heard laughing out loud when we were suppose to be having a “thrilling” ride of our lives.

Anyways, after that “interesting” experience, we went back to Briar’s dormitory – she was kind enough to host all of us, that night! However, as in most dormitories, visitors are not allowed to stay overnight – we had to sneak inside. Briar had bought this Takoyaki (octopus cake) maker for 1000yen, and that was our plan for dinner. We had bought the ingredients earlier that day, and we were excited to get to try homemade takoyaki. What’s even better, we added CHEESE! I haven’t had much cheese since coming to Japan, and it was very welcome. These were the best damn takoyaki I’ve ever had! Conclusion: I will search for one of these 1000yen specials. We must’ve ate nearly 20 cakes each! It’s similar to eating fondue – it takes a while, and everyone’s talking while doing it. Very social, very delicious, very fun. After indulging ourselves, we talked for a long time, and finally went to sleep.

The next day…

…Briar made pancakes for us! Thanks!! After sneaking back out of Briar’s dorm – we were very lucky – we went to Kobe and met Patrick. We all couldn’t help but think of Vancouver when in Kobe: it is situated between the mountains and the ocean; a very beautiful city. Kobe is known for some of the best beef in the world. The fat and the meat are very evenly distributed, creating a marble-like effect. We did not have any Kobe beef, we did not have time, or money (very expensive). But, we did go to the water-front where there was a flea-market, of sorts. Most of that stuff had probably fallen off a truck, but we bought some anyways. It was also the largest collection of cool Japanese hippies I had ever seen. =) Each setup consisted of the proprietor (hippie) sitting on the grass in front of his/her odd collection (whatever they could “get a hold of”), awaiting foreigners like us to spot a bargain. I bought a beanie baby (reaper) for 100yen, and a Sublime shirt for 300 yen. I was tempted by the “Smokemon” shirt, but Pat grabbed that so quickly.

We continued to walk along the waterfront (where I purchased a small bag for 980yen), passing a small amusement park, a couple restaurants, and a massive cathedral. Next, we strolled to Chinatown for dinner – the cleanest Chinatown I have ever seen! It was difficult to find a a place to eat that wasn’t packed. Eventually, we gave up and just asked one of the guys who was handing out pamphlets for a restaurant where that place was. He led us to a small place where we were led upstairs to a circular table. A circular table!! Not a Japanese thing. Dinner was… nothing to write about (so why am I?), but it was very cheap.

By that time, the Gifu people had to head back – we still had to double Shirley back to her apartment from Ogaki and then ride back to our dormitory. We headed for the train, which took a few hours before arriving in Ogaki, and that was that. A very nice weekend. Thank you, Briar, for hosting!

It’s 12:30pm, I just got back from lunch. Soon, the bell will sound, the lights will turn back on, and the “Sanyo song” will play…. *sigh*

Last weekend was really cool. Ben and I took our newly purchased inflatable dingy down the Nagara gawa from Gifu city… well… half way, anyways. The plan was to take the train to Gifu, carrying our raft, walk to the river, inflate our boat, get in the river, and ride it all the way back to Anpachi in time to catch the Beer Matsuri (a festival for the Sanyo Dormitory residents)! Well, after a couple hours in the river, we realized that there was no way we were going to make it back in time for the festival. Unacceptable! So, we got out *maybe* half way, after 3 hours, and looked for the nearest train station – we were very far away from any train station! =( The ride itself was very fun, though.

When we first got in was the most exciting, there were actual rapids, and we were genuinely frightened! Well, okay, Ben was – I had to hold his hand. There was fast and slow parts… some parts were just SO slow, though.. about the speed of walking. When approaching rapids, you only noticed if you looked at the ground passing beneath you: very fast! And then you panic as you realize you have to paddle accross the river to avoid a dangerous part that is approaching fast! Oh man, all the rapids were so fun! Adding to the fear-factor was when we realized there was a hole in the boat! It was under the water, and the boat is translucent, so you can actually watch the bubbles slipping across the underside of the boat. After we noticed this, the person in the front (Ben, from then on), was on hole duty. The poor little boat (which we later called, “Buddy” – due to the Budweiser logos plastered everywhere) could barely hold us. When we were setting off, we put our bags in, and our bags alone pretty much filled up the boat. It was definitely a cozy ride. We saw at least 20 jet skiis on our way – apparently a popular pass-time among Japanese! I guess the size is convenient. I’d love to get a chance to try one!

We ended up being escorted by 2 girls, (who Ben had invited to the Beer Matsuri) from one of the train stations back to the dormitory. They even gave us a bag of Doritos! For foreign food like that, you have to go to Nagoya. Actually, the car ride back to the dormitory had a few peaks of excitement that rivaled those from the rapids, earlier that day. At one point, we stopped in the middle of a crazy intersection, because it was unknown if we were allowed to go.. o.O Anyways, we got back safe enough to drink free beer, have a good time, play bingo (MANY prizes), eat (a little – there was hardly anything left), and even win “door prizes”! Because we were late, John (the good kid that he is) filled out our names for the resident lottery. There was maybe 15 prizes to be won, and the crazy thing is: every name John filled out WON! What are the friggin odds?! Ben got a blender, I got a rice cooker, and John got a foot massager! If I make any bets or anything like that, I’m getting John to have a lucky hand in it! Lance, another intern here, said he saw similar rice cookers for over 10000yen! That’s like, a $120 rice cooker! It’s really nice… I just need some rice (and maybe some other stuff) to test it out.

After the festival was over, Ben, Alex, and I went to the konbini to get some food – we hardly ate anything. We got some instant noodles, a couple fireworks, and some ice cream. We went back to my room, ate the instant noddles and then went to the roof to light off a few fireworks. Good times.

That was last Saturday. On Sunday, I ended up spending a lot of money without even leaving the dormitory – now that’s talent! John helped me make a couple large online purchases: the Canon IXY 400 digital camera, an extra battery, and an SD->CF adapter that allows me to use SD memory in the CF memory camera. All together, with shipping and such, that was 55000yen. I still haven’t received it yet. It is being shipped to Shirley’s apartment, and I gave her money to pay for it upon arrival. I also got Lance to pick up a 256MB SD flash memory card (10000yen), that I can use in both my phone and my new camera (via the adapter); and I even have an SD drive on my laptop! Standards are great, when they’re adhered to… *cough* Sony *cough* Microsoft *cough* And, finally, a PS2 controller (2700yen) that Alex may eventually buy off me. Now we can play 2player Soul-Calibur 2! And it’s pretty fun, I assure you. =) I’m still so tempted to get a Gamecube and SmashBros… Jesse, you still got that extra copy laying around? ^_^ If only I could read Japanese….

Well, back to work, I suppose.