Fiesta time!

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Monday 7/31/06
*First let me say, the next two posts won’t have as many pictures as usual…it’s kind of hard, when you’re having fun with your friends, to stop everything and say, “hey, let’s take a pic!” I decided I would rather be in the moment with everyone then stop every few min to take a picture. Hence, the lack of usual photos* And now, on with the post…
Another hectic, but exciting weekend here in Japan! This one started off Friday night when I went to play volleyball with a bunch of co-workers. I Shou-chan drove me in her car to the gym, which is this massive facility near our office. Unfortunately, there was no air-conditioning so the place was boiling. There were about 10 of us there and everyone had a lot of fun even if we (and by that I mean “I”) kinda sucked. By the end though I was exhausted; we played for 2 hours straight and by the time we were done I think I had lost half my body weight in sweat (eeewww I know). I wish I had gotten pics but I accidentally left my camera in the locker room and couldn’t be bothered to run back down and get it ;P I did manage to regain my humanness when, after the game, Shou and I went to this amazing noodle place where I got curry udon! Yum! (udon is a kind of thick white noodle) After dinner Shou-chan drove me home, but nobody was there so we went back to her place instead. It was really great, we just chilled and watched Shark Tales (in Japanese with English subtitles), drank coffee and talked. Shou-chan is seriously an amazing person and I’m so happy to have met her as a friend. She also is so patient to try and put up with my awful Japanese! Haha! The next day was Saturday, which is when I was supposed to go to the festival with Asai and Yamauchi-kun. However, I had no idea how to get there because, even if I was dropped off along the river, there were tons of people there and, since I can’t understand a word those boys say on the phone, I would have had no idea how to meet them. In the end, I decided just to meet Charlene and stay at her house that night so I could get into Nagoya quicker the next day to catch the early Shinkansen. This worked out well because I also wanted to go to Helen’s going away party, since she and her boyfriend Hiro are leaving for Canada tomorrow. I met up with Charlene at around 2 and we decided to go back to her house, since everyone wasn’t meeting for quite a while later. We just chilled and watched “Castle in the sky,” an anime by Hayao Miyazaki, which was good, but not my favorite that he has done. But it was really nice to be in the air-conditioning and play with her kitties, who are so cute!!! I really must get a picture of them before I go. Then we met Amelia, Shawna and Nathan at the station and walked to a tanabata festival being held there in Ichinomia, which is where Charlene and Shinya live, and is just one stop on the rapid train outside of Nagoya. It was a lot of fun, but there were so many people! When there is a festival in Japan, apparently everyone goes!! I mean it was just a sea of faces. However, it was so cool to see all these young women and girls wearing yuukata (light summer kimono). They all looked so beautiful with the yuukata and Japanese style sandals with their hair pinned up with flowers and beads. Some of the men also wore men’s yuukata and I felt for a moment like I had stepped back in time. With so many couple there it was also really romantic. The festival itself was really good. There was every kind of food you could imagine, lots of music and dancing. It was amazing to watch all these women, young and old, dressed in yuukata and dancing traditional Japanese dances to enka music. (Enka is traditional Japanese folk songs which are very beautiful and warbly). Everyone knew the steps and were dancing in unison. I saw a grandmother and her granddaughter dancing side by side and it made me think of my grandma, who died a couple years back. My grandmother also loved Japan and I know she would have loved to see this. Anyway, after having eaten as much meat on a stick and various sweets as our stomachs (and our wallets) would allow, we decided to head out to Helen’s party. When we arrived at the park where the party was being held, everyone was already quite drunk and setting off masses of fireworks. Most of the people there were Hiro’s friends, but Julia and her boyfriend Takashi were there as well as some of the people I had met at Julia’s party. There was Laura and Sarah, 2 other Brits, and Aneas, who is Australian. Aneas was quite smashed and hitting on anything with breasts, so I was rather entertained watching all the action as he tried to pick up every girl there (yes, including me…just say no! hehehe!). There was one guy there who said he was a friend of Helen’s named Dominic or something, who, like Aneas, was drunk and on a mission. Unfortunately, Dominic was quite a prick and managed to insult all of us in some way or another, so by the end of the night the guy might as well have had the plague…the minute anyone saw him coming they ran the other way. Well, he brought it on himelf…mean cocky jerk : ( But that was the only bad part of the night, the rest of the time was a blast! Helen and Hiro are so cute together. She’s tiny and very pretty and he’s tall and really handsome. They’re actually a beautiful couple!! What’s more is they’re both exceedingly nice, fun people and are just so good and genuine that you can’t help but like them. I’m lucky in having met so many people like that here. Hiro’s friends were also quite entertaining and I got to practice my Japanese quite a bit. I made friends with a guy called Takanori whose English is awesome because he lived in London for almost three years. He is Hiro’s closest friend and also a really good guy. I think he might come out with us next weekend. There’s another fireworks festival and I think we’re going to try to make that one. Helen and Charlene spent a lot of time together at the party, and I can tell they’re really close and really going to miss each other. Charlene displayed her affection by accidentally dropping Helen on the ground and bruising her cheek and shoulder : ( Poor Helen!! Charlene felt so bad too, but Helen was really cute and told her “not to worry because now I have a memory of you I can keep!” Haha how cute is that?? Shawna also had a good time trying to pick up Hiro’s friends, which she eventually succeeded at, with a boy she dubbed “Velcro head” because of his buzzed haircut 😉 I really hope they end up together because Shawna is really a really cute, fun, quirky girl and deserves someone nice. Anyway we all talked and drank until around 11:30 when we went to catch the last train. We were slightly delayed when Aneas decided it would be fun to throw Charlene in a nearby fountain. This was really funny at first until we discovered that Charlene’s purse had gone in with her, destroying her cell phone and various other important things. This did not make Charlene happy, nor did the fact that because of the little escapade we had missed the last train and were now forced to take a cab to Nagoya station. The last train from Nagoya leaves at exactly 12:03 and we got to the platform at 12:02 and 30 seconds. I love you, you perfectly punctual Japanese train system!!! *blows kiss* So we thankfully made it home and weren’t forced to stay in Freebell with all the other Nova teachers, because that place is like a party 24/7, and I needed to get some sleep for the next day. When we got back Shinya was home, so we all hung out and talked for a while before going to bed. I have to say, that was the best night’s sleep I have had since I’ve been here…a soft fluffy futon, the air-conditioner at my control and 2 little kitties who wanted to snuggle up with me…*sigh of content*

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Photos

Talent show we passed on the wat to the Tanabata fest
they just looked so cool I had to take a pic ;)