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Published: September 10th 2006
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Life has been same ol' same ol'... Kara's Japan style, that is. More reading, more shopping, more mah jongg computer solitaire than I care to admit to, and some movie watching since the day of my triumphantly simple acquisition of a video rental membership. As always though, there are specific stories worth sharing.
I was full of anticipation for this weekend. The plan... a Saturday of r&r, a Saturday night of partying in Nagoya, and a Sunday at the beach! The Saturday of r&r turned out exactly as planned. It was a wonderful day of reading, relaxing, then dinner and a movie sushi style. Saturday evening... a whole other story.
When I signed up for the night in Nagoya, I was expecting a birthday get-together for one of the ACC teachers and a lot of staff that I haven't met yet were supposed to be there. A few of us ladies would head to Nagoya together, do a little dancing at a fancy club called ID, then make our way to the remainder of the karaoke birthday party. Though the karaokeing sounded more appealing to me, I figured a little dancing couldn't hurt either. As it turned out, we
The Beach - Round Two2
All those sticks are an artificially simulated breeding ground for seaweed... quite the industry! could not get ahold of any of the birthday partyers on Saturday night, so the plans changed to "let's dance then catch a cab home".
Unfortunately, a few of the girls heading to the city with us partook in a little too much pre-bar drinking prep. Several problems ensued... First, we were embarrassingly scolded on the train by an elderly Japanese man waving his umbrella at us for being too loud. Second, one of the girls literally grabbed a frightened passer-by on the street in Nagoya to ask for directions to the bar. Then upon arriving at Club ID, we were doing some dancing and it was looking as though the night could still show some promise. Shortly thereafter, one of our small group members was so drunk she actually fell flat on her ass not just once, but thrice. I spent the remainder of my evening at the bar as the responsible one, holding the girl's hair in the washrooms and babysitting her on the street after she was carried outside by a bouncer to pass out. When the rest of the girls finally came out of the bar, we hailed a cab with a driver who turned
out to be clueless. Though he tactfully tried to get us to Anjo by asking for directions, this somehow turned into arguing between two girls over this "we're lost" situation, while the other two girls remained passed out on top of me. In trying to look at this expensive and horrible evening optimistically... I can now affirm that I know a little more of what I am and am not looking for in my Japanese experience, and I know to steer clear of these particular situations in the future.
Having arrived back home in Hekinan at about 5:30 am, I went into my Sunday beach trip very tired, but knowing that it could not possibly be any worse than last night. The day turned out to be awesome. There were about twelve of us who headed to the beach together. Adachi-san and Junko, who also headed up our last beach day, as well as many of their friends. The weather was great... nice and hot. And the water provided the perfect escape with warm temperature and great clarity. We swam, we snorkelled, the men did some fishing, one man did some fish hunting (harpoon style), we picked clams, we jet-skied.
In the hopes of dodging the sunburn that haunted me for weeks after our last beach trip, I doused myself in SPF 45 before we left and again after each swim. But with the amount of sweating that I do in this country, I might as well have saved the effort as I burned to a crisp anyway, but this time with a few bright white handprint marks where the stupid sunscreen decided to do its job. I'm hoping that maybe the look will catch on as some kind of new Westerner trend.
I also went for a few firsts at the beach today. I had never jet-skied until today and not only did I cling for dear life to Machuko, the man driving the jet-ski, but I also got to drive it! Of course any time I picked up speed I got scared and stopped it altogether, until finally Machuko yelled "Faster!", and held my hand down on the accelerator to full speed. Though each bump forced my bathing suit to shift to horribly embarrassing positions, the experience was quite a rush!
I was really excited to pick clams too. After my last clam recipe success, I wanted to take these babies home and for the first time in my life, cook something I had caught myself. (Yeah... I've never hunted and amazingly my past experiences casting at Good Spirit Lake never proved fruitful. Go figure!) I carefully picked all the biggest and prettiest looking clams so that I could have not just a feast, but also a nice souvenir. Then I laid them out in the sun to dry, only to be later informed that this killed them and made them terribly unfit for consumption. At least I've still got a pretty keepsake.
The return from the beach was followed by a fish fry that I was not expecting. As we pulled up to the school parking lot, Adachi-san was setting out milk crates, which were then covered by a short wooden plank on which to set up the portable gas grill and fish feast. Beer, fish and good company. I thought, "What a great end to a great day!". Then it only got better as a few more beers were brought out and I got to witness not only Adachi-san playing guitar and singing "Your Cheatin' Heart" in a wonderfully Japanese accent, but I also saw this boss of mine dancing what I think was supposed to be the can-can! By the end of the feast and sing-along evening, I revelled at my sudden realization of just how great it is to be experiencing this modern Japanese lifestyle and at how lucky I am to have the support I do that has gotten me here. Thanks so much Aubrey! You talked this up to a seemingly untouchably wonderful experience, and yet somehow my expectations are being met.
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Levi
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another question
Shouldn't that cab-driver have gone Hari-Kiri after dishonoring his family name by getting you guys lost? Sounds to me like the Japanese aren't as honorable as I had once perceived. Any Godzilla sightings yet?