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Published: July 11th 2008
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Tsubo Hachi
Japanese traditional dining In which Nikky has her official welcome party, discovers the delights of 'daiko saabisu', goes for a midnight amble, does some origami and some sunrise shrining - and misses the sunrise altogether.
Well I don't really need to blog about it anymore now do I? I've told you what happened....Ok here we go... Suffice it to say I had an interesting and fun evening at my
Welcome Party
My school organized a welcome party for me. I asked for them to put it off for a short while (funds were rather low a while back) and so they combined my party with a farewell party for the 3 student teachers who had been working here. I think they changed times on me, because thinking I was late, I was in fact the first to arrive, and had to muddle my way through a conversation with the man at the restaurant, letting him know why I was there. I felt rather proud actually :D The venue was 'tsu bo hachi', an upmarket izakaya style place that had very traditional Japanese decor. We were all seated at a long low table, and rather than having the guests at the
head of the table, here (logically, I think) they seat the guests mid-way down the table so they're accessible to everyone.
Since I drove to the restaurant, I wasn't going to drink, but instead was convinced by the head teacher to get stuck into the beer because we could call 'daiko saabisu'. I thought, ok that's a fancy name for Taxi...but it turns out that they have what is essentially a taxi service - that drops your car off! 2 drivers arrive in one car, one of them drives you home in your car and the other one follows. It's a bit more expensive than a cab, so I wouldn't use it often but it was nice to try it out, and now i have their business card.
We partied on, eating a lot of different Japanese food (honestly, the amount they all put away - i'm surprised they aren't all sumo sized!). I was given a lovely bunch of flowers by K. sensei and was sitting next to M. sensei, who was smiling, laughing, and generally becoming more outwardly amiable with evey glass of beer he had. So was I though...the 'pitchers' of beer (and they
realy are pitchers...not Jugs...they're the size of my head at least!) helped with that. I even got to speak to teachers I was too shy to approach..and we all just got to chatting - in broken Japanese and broken English, but i felt really welcomed.
The party came to it's inevitable end, and we all gathered outside to wait for our lifts....and I just felt really content to have had some fun and to have known that it was arranged in part for me...i felt special. I was able to inform the driver where my house was and made it home....but that wasn't the end of the night for Nikky. Oh no..... I went for a
Midnight Amble
Japan is a very cash-based society...and you don't want to be caught out without enough money. I was short by about ¥1000 for the driving service, and mentioned this to head teacher before i started drinking and he said 'dont worry dont worry'. At the end of the night he handed me a ¥10 000 yen note! I got my service home, directing the driver with feeble mumbles of 'hidari' 'masugu' and 'migi' (left, straight, right) and speaking
broken Japanese in general. When I arrived home, I chnaged into comfy clothes and began my trek in search of an atm. I had been gripped with a desire to withdraw cash so I could take it to school the next day (Saturday) to give to head teacher. I was filled with fear thet the atm wouldn't be open on a Saturday! (but of course, it would be open in a Friday at midnight?).
Don't worry, I did think about safety....and much like prey in nature, I cad camouflaged myself so as to appear more menacing than i actually am. This included a hoodie, cargo pants, hat, and changing my walk so it looked more manly. It started raining halfway to the first combini (convenience store) but I trudged along, determined not to fail in my mission. The imaginary thugs were probably inside their imaginary houses, drinking imaginary beer, rather than stupidly wandering around during a torrential downpour. I went to 2 combinis - but to no avail! (I wanted to use that word). In Kyoto, most combinis have atm's but in this backwater village, I had to head to the Mecca of combini's: 7 eleven. Through a jumbled
conversation, I determined that the ATM at 7 eleven is open 24 hours a day 7 days a week. So off i went to that one - and success! I got cash!
After that I decided to walk a different way home, which incidentally took me past Minakuchi castle where I stopped for some night photography. I saw one other person walking that night - and i think they were walking from their car to the combini, not just mucking about in the wet. After arriving home i changed into some dry clothing and made some
Origami Butterflies
I learnt to make these back in Oz, and wanted to make one for each teacher at school (there are roughly 60) so i put on a movie and folded until i could barely move my fingers. (I have 30 butterflies sitting at home and haven't felt the motivation/boredom to make the other 30.....they did make for a nice picture though - see
5 hours of Japanese and a Sore Bum). By the time I finished these it was about 3.30 am, and I figured it would be a waste to go to sleep when the sunrise was so near. It was time for some
Sunrise Shrining
I live near a beautiful shrine. It was the site of a spring festival which was on not long after I arrived here, the
Minakuchi Hikiyama Matsuri. I took my camera, headed downstairs and walked through a nearby park/garden, around the back of the shrine and then to the front entrance. Now.....i didn't actually go into the shrine. Footsteps crunching on gravel aren't exactly nice 4am sounds, and i didnt't want to wake any monks/priests (not sure what the shinto term is) up. Instead I just snapped a couple of pictures and walked on, to sit in the park for a while and wait for the sun to rise. I like to see all of the pretty colours (yes dad, I know it's pollution but it's still pretty to look at), and so I sat in the park, wondering why everything was just getting blandly lighter and there were none of the sunburnt orange hues, or bright pinks and reds on the horizon. Then I realized that of course I wouldn't be able to see them as the only horizon i could see was the line where the park met fence and the train line began! I would have
seen more of a sunrise if i had stayed in my apartment and stuck my head out of the window! I walked home, miffed that I had missed out, but some beautiful flora caought my eye and i got to play with te macro function on my camera which made up for it a little. If I get some butterflies on macro, then i'll be really happy.
That's about it really. Quite a night, followed by a long sleep, and a small soujourn into school on a Saturday to drop off a small gift and borrowed funds without looking too hungover in front of the other teachers.
Ja ne!
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