The Day Daniel Recaps His Winter Vacation
I could write pages about my winter vacation, however my posts are overly long as it is, so I'll try to keep it short and to the point(But you know it's gonna be long anyway).
I went to Yokohama Via the night bus on the 22nd, the night bus still sucks, however the bus drivers were dressed in Santa costumes, which was cute, but somehow made me more nervous, thinking maybe this time instead of ending up in Yokohama I'll end up on an island with an explosive collar around my neck.
The next day I got to meet up with my new friend Kei, and we went to a colour guard/marching band showcase performance of all the groups that placed in the prefecture including Masa's group and one of the schools he teaches, both our first time to see such an event, it was great. Afterwards we went shopping around the minato mirai area with Kei, then I went home and blitzed out Masa's apartment with Christmas lights and decorations.
On the 24th, Masa took me shopping to buy my Christmas Present (He learned earlier in the week it's a bad idea to play the guessing game with me) He wanted to get me a camera I picked out the one I liked. We then went to Shizuoka where he had to work that evening, we tried to go to the zoo, but we were too late. I hung out in Shizuoka city while he worked, afterwards we drove to Numazu and went to a gay bar his friend owns, his friend wanted to meet me. Entering the bar the owner and the patron's mouths dropped, and asked Masa if I was his boyfriend. They all said they were jealous. One man who's nickname is Picco stared at me the whole night and when I looked at him and tried to talk he would just turn his head and giggled and well the name Picco became a kind of joke/verb for the rest of the vacation. It was late and we toyed with the idea of staying at a love hotel which made me a it nervous for the next day's surprise, but we decided to go back to yokohama and got back at 2am.
25th. Like an elf I woke up in the middle of the night and took Masa's giant stocking out of of my book bag it was crammed in to and placed it by the bed. Around 7 when I had gotten up to pee, Masa woke up when I got back into bed, and I told him Santa came, he looked at the headboard (he was under the impression the gift was small in size) and said he didn't see a present, I suggested he look a bit harder. After sitting up and clearing his eyes he saw the stocking and let literally uttered an "eeeeep!" he was shocked at the size of the stocking. He isn't a morning person and said we should go back to sleep and he will open it later. 30 seconds later he said he can't sleep and wants to open it.
He hefted the stocking onto the bed, read the card, and opened the presents, shocked to realize it was everything he ever told me that he liked in regards to chocolates, candies and snacks. I also got him some small presents like ear warmers, grapefruit lip balm, and tickets to the Ghibli museum. He loved each gift because it showed that I paid attention and cared about him. When he got to the bottom and opened up the last tickets to see cirque du soleil for that afternoon, he was shocked and happy. Then we went back to sleep for awhile.
We went to cirque du soleil and it was amazing, later we went to his friend's quasi gay izakaya for Christmas dinner and it was nice, It was a very enjoyable Christmas, one not to be forgotten, now to think of ways to make next Christmas just as special...
26th, we went to Lalaport shopping mall, where somehow we managed to spend the entire day at the mall, eating at an organic veggie and natural food buffet, going to my favourite store H&M for Christmas sales, and to his favourite store Banana republic (we definitely have different tastes and budgets) I showed him my fashion prowess and got him to buy clothes he would never usually buy and he was surprised on how they looked good on him. The mall was ass busy.
27th Masa had to work in Numazu and he was planning to stay over at his mother's but he had some extra work to do and decided to come back to Yokohama, I spent the day hanging out with Kei, we went shopping and I went to Kawasaki to La Citadella to buy my beloved ring, as well we went to Tokyo station to look at Illuminations.
28th I went to Numazu with Masa while he worked. I got a brochure and a map and sat at Tully's for a bit and planned out my day. I walked 20km's around the city, the signs for the tourist destinations are really crappy in Numazu, I missed most of the places, near the end of my journey to the place I really wanted to go to, I got within one Km and then suddenly the signs stopped, I came to a four way intersection, and I was trying to see signs or any indication of which way to go. No one was around, so I said fuck it, walked up to the main road and hopped on a bus back to the station. However I did get to see the ocean, a park filled with cats and hawks, a flood gate for the city, and their popular fish market.
After Masa was finished work he wanted to take me to a hot spring at this hotel he stays at sometime for training. The hotel was huge, and also I commend them for their awesomeness as they had mad illuminations, I a giant tunnel of illumination magic. The hot spring was also very nice all of it being outside (that type called Rotenburo or Roten furo) Also they had food shops set up for the holiday season and we had some Shizuoka style Oden and Yakisoba which were were yummy.
The 29th was Tokyo day. We went to Asakusa to see the new Sky Tree, which is the new tower they are building to blanket all of Japan with a digital signal. The tower was at the tender height of 500 metres, and by July it will be completed at 634 metres (musashi, they are trying to be cute) Tokyo tower is 333 metres. After that we went to Ueno and went to the AMERIKA market, and it was crazy crazy crazy busy, with shoving, i was freaking out and almost about to rage out so we left and went to Ikebukuro to a cat cafe for an hour which was much calmer. After the cat cafe (which freaked masa out a bit) we went to one of my favourite restaurants Shamaim (Thank you Sara Linekar) It's very yummy all you can eat Israeli food. It was Masa's first time to each such food and enjoyed it.
The 30th was a day to relax, we just watched DVDs all day, Masa slept a lot, I made a yummy soup, and some taco rice. We watched DVDs. I was spending the week educating him on the ways of Harry Potter. For anyone who has travelled with me, knows that me planning a day to do nothing during vacation is indeed a change, and thoughtfulness on my part for other people involved.
The 31st we planned to go to Kamakura, see the big Buddha, go to some temples and do the count down at one of the famous shrines. We got there at about 1pm and we did all of that and by 4:30 it was getting dark and going to shrines and temples in the dark isn't so great. I had wished there was a starbucks we could relax at, and Masa said there's is one right there, I thought he was joking with me, and he said, no really, right there a few feet ahead of us. A nice surprise, but the real surprise was that it was the fanciest Starbucks I have ever been to. By five o'clock Masa stated we have seven hours till midnight, and if I wanted to wait. He was under the impression that I REALLY wanted to at a shrine for the count down. I've done shrine countdowns before and I was just as daunted of the aspect of kicking around Kamakura for seven hours till midnight.
We discussed it, and Masa isn't a big fan of crowds, and I told him that I am not die hard wanting to be at a shrine at the stroke of midnight. That I was just as happy watching DVDs and ordering pizza and staying in together (and getting my first new year's kiss from a boyfriend). That is what we did, we went to the department store got some foods, and wine, got some Harry Potter DVDs and watched them (Masa got addicted after the 3rd movie) until 4:30 in the morning.
January 1st. We just slept in very late, and relaxed and Masa did some work, watched more Harry Potter.
January 2nd, Masa went to his mother's to celebrate New Years with his family. His being gay is a secret so of course I am too. But I made oatcakes for his family so they could eat them, at least I could feel kind of like part of his family in my own way. I spent the day in Tokyo hanging out with a friend.
January 3rd. We had the day free, and Masa decided we should go to the cinema to watch the newest Harry Potter movie. We did a bit of shopping and saw Harry Potter in the beautiful Minato Mirai area.
January 4th was Ghibli Museum day, we went to the museum, my second time, Masa enjoyed it, after we went back to his friend's izakaya, where some of his friends were there we chatted with them for a bit, but then a guy who we didn't know that was kind of friend with another, his name was Kazu, an English teacher and could speak some English talked to me. The creepy vibes were strong in this one.
Within minutes of talking to me he asked me if I REALLY loved my boyfriend, I gave him my version of Garbrielle Union's sassy eyebrow raise, and said probably more than his mother loves him. Crazy Kazu went to the bathroom and the izakaya was alive with gossip, everyone in the bar thinks he is creepy and they couldn't believe he asked me that. Witty as I am, Masa said he loves Osabo's macaroni salad, and I asked him if he REALLY loves the macaroni salad, to which he burst out laughing and became a joke for the rest of the vacation. I feel bad that this guy is creepy and doesn't know it, I hope I'm never that guy that is talked about behind their back due to his creepy level. They say he is only creepy when he is drunk...
The 5th Was another relax day and also Daniel's gyoza academy day. We watched the DVD it's complicated, and I taught him how to make Gyoza, we had a nice dinner of Gyoza, rice, and miso soup. We made 40 gyoza and we at them all. Oh yes, we ate them all.
On the 6th Masa had to work in Numazu again, I came along again. This time I just walked around the down town shopping area. As soon as I was dropped off and walking away from the station and elderly lady dropped like a sac of bricks on the side walk. I was like oh fuck! I checked her and she was breathing and semi conscious, I was internally panicking because the language barrier was going to be a huge problem, thankfully like a speeding bullet obasans were there checking to see if she was alright and calling the ambulance. The ambulance came quickly and took her away, I can only guess it may have been a stroke the way that she was acting and moving. The rest of the time I just explored the shopping area, then bought some yarn to make a scarf and hunkered down at Tully's knitting and reading until Masa was done.
Masa wanted to take me to another hot spring in the mountains of Shizuoka and said they were pretty famous. There were a couple different hot springs belonging to this Giant ryokan (Japanese style inn) The one we wen to was one of the best I've been to in Japan. All the hot springs were outside, using natural mountain water. It was hard to see in the area for the air was filled with steam. There were super hot springs, medium, and even a cold one. They also have a structure that was a little dome like cave that was a sauna. beside the little cave there was a huge barrel of sea salt, you rub the salt all over your body, then open the door to the little cave and sit inside. Inside there were rice stock woven mats you sit on and relax inside, it was very similar to a sweat lodge.
A very enjoyable hot spring, we didn't get back to Yokohama until 12:30am and Masa asked if we could go to Osabou (His friends Izakaya) I like going there so why not. When we were near by and walking there I joked that Kazu will be there waiting. We were waiting to cross the street to get into the izakaya and a minute later after I said that Kazu freakin walks by, we said hi, he looks shocked and said hi, and walks down the street. Relieved he kept walking we went into the izakaya. Five minutes later kazu walked in, and sat with some guys he knew. They were a couple of guys I met the time I went there in August.
During the meal creepy Kazu proved that he isn't just creepy when he is drunk it's all the time, he kept staring at me. And the other people as well would stare occasionally across the room into our booth, and actually talk about Masa and I, and not whispering, we could hear what they were saying. At one point Masa looked over and they were all staring at us, and he was like..... Hi? I also said hi, and then they just asked me questions about me. So very strange. I think that when you come into that bar as a couple people will talk to you and about you, but I think it was augmented by the fact that I'm a foreigner.
On the 7th we woke up late and we did errands in Yokahama for Masa's job. Around 5pm we went to a "park" which was basically dirt with under a bridge with lights, but those count as parks in Japan. Sometimes his group practices there when no gyms are available. I asked him to teach me his art, and he taught me how to spin a flag in two different styles, Drop spin, and Peggy Spin (And no he doesn't know how that name came to be) I picked up those very quickly and I was optimistic.
It was then time to learn how to toss a flag in the air so that it does a full rotation and catch it. That was special. I spent two hours learning how to toss that flag. I was hit by the flag numerous times, my hands were battered and bleeding, but thankfully my hands were numbed by the cold. An hour in he asked if I wanted to keep practicing, there was no question that I wanted to continue until I could successfully toss the flag. I think he was both scared and happy with my determination. I could finally toss the flag acceptably and we took a video of it for poof, after getting home into the warmth is when my hands realized the pain.
On the 8th it was time to go home. It was sadness. I had, we both had one of the best vacations of our lives, something I will remember always.
I went to Yokohama Via the night bus on the 22nd, the night bus still sucks, however the bus drivers were dressed in Santa costumes, which was cute, but somehow made me more nervous, thinking maybe this time instead of ending up in Yokohama I'll end up on an island with an explosive collar around my neck.
The next day I got to meet up with my new friend Kei, and we went to a colour guard/marching band showcase performance of all the groups that placed in the prefecture including Masa's group and one of the schools he teaches, both our first time to see such an event, it was great. Afterwards we went shopping around the minato mirai area with Kei, then I went home and blitzed out Masa's apartment with Christmas lights and decorations.
On the 24th, Masa took me shopping to buy my Christmas Present (He learned earlier in the week it's a bad idea to play the guessing game with me) He wanted to get me a camera I picked out the one I liked. We then went to Shizuoka where he had to work that evening, we tried to go to the zoo, but we were too late. I hung out in Shizuoka city while he worked, afterwards we drove to Numazu and went to a gay bar his friend owns, his friend wanted to meet me. Entering the bar the owner and the patron's mouths dropped, and asked Masa if I was his boyfriend. They all said they were jealous. One man who's nickname is Picco stared at me the whole night and when I looked at him and tried to talk he would just turn his head and giggled and well the name Picco became a kind of joke/verb for the rest of the vacation. It was late and we toyed with the idea of staying at a love hotel which made me a it nervous for the next day's surprise, but we decided to go back to yokohama and got back at 2am.
25th. Like an elf I woke up in the middle of the night and took Masa's giant stocking out of of my book bag it was crammed in to and placed it by the bed. Around 7 when I had gotten up to pee, Masa woke up when I got back into bed, and I told him Santa came, he looked at the headboard (he was under the impression the gift was small in size) and said he didn't see a present, I suggested he look a bit harder. After sitting up and clearing his eyes he saw the stocking and let literally uttered an "eeeeep!" he was shocked at the size of the stocking. He isn't a morning person and said we should go back to sleep and he will open it later. 30 seconds later he said he can't sleep and wants to open it.
He hefted the stocking onto the bed, read the card, and opened the presents, shocked to realize it was everything he ever told me that he liked in regards to chocolates, candies and snacks. I also got him some small presents like ear warmers, grapefruit lip balm, and tickets to the Ghibli museum. He loved each gift because it showed that I paid attention and cared about him. When he got to the bottom and opened up the last tickets to see cirque du soleil for that afternoon, he was shocked and happy. Then we went back to sleep for awhile.
We went to cirque du soleil and it was amazing, later we went to his friend's quasi gay izakaya for Christmas dinner and it was nice, It was a very enjoyable Christmas, one not to be forgotten, now to think of ways to make next Christmas just as special...
26th, we went to Lalaport shopping mall, where somehow we managed to spend the entire day at the mall, eating at an organic veggie and natural food buffet, going to my favourite store H&M for Christmas sales, and to his favourite store Banana republic (we definitely have different tastes and budgets) I showed him my fashion prowess and got him to buy clothes he would never usually buy and he was surprised on how they looked good on him. The mall was ass busy.
27th Masa had to work in Numazu and he was planning to stay over at his mother's but he had some extra work to do and decided to come back to Yokohama, I spent the day hanging out with Kei, we went shopping and I went to Kawasaki to La Citadella to buy my beloved ring, as well we went to Tokyo station to look at Illuminations.
28th I went to Numazu with Masa while he worked. I got a brochure and a map and sat at Tully's for a bit and planned out my day. I walked 20km's around the city, the signs for the tourist destinations are really crappy in Numazu, I missed most of the places, near the end of my journey to the place I really wanted to go to, I got within one Km and then suddenly the signs stopped, I came to a four way intersection, and I was trying to see signs or any indication of which way to go. No one was around, so I said fuck it, walked up to the main road and hopped on a bus back to the station. However I did get to see the ocean, a park filled with cats and hawks, a flood gate for the city, and their popular fish market.
After Masa was finished work he wanted to take me to a hot spring at this hotel he stays at sometime for training. The hotel was huge, and also I commend them for their awesomeness as they had mad illuminations, I a giant tunnel of illumination magic. The hot spring was also very nice all of it being outside (that type called Rotenburo or Roten furo) Also they had food shops set up for the holiday season and we had some Shizuoka style Oden and Yakisoba which were were yummy.
The 29th was Tokyo day. We went to Asakusa to see the new Sky Tree, which is the new tower they are building to blanket all of Japan with a digital signal. The tower was at the tender height of 500 metres, and by July it will be completed at 634 metres (musashi, they are trying to be cute) Tokyo tower is 333 metres. After that we went to Ueno and went to the AMERIKA market, and it was crazy crazy crazy busy, with shoving, i was freaking out and almost about to rage out so we left and went to Ikebukuro to a cat cafe for an hour which was much calmer. After the cat cafe (which freaked masa out a bit) we went to one of my favourite restaurants Shamaim (Thank you Sara Linekar) It's very yummy all you can eat Israeli food. It was Masa's first time to each such food and enjoyed it.
The 30th was a day to relax, we just watched DVDs all day, Masa slept a lot, I made a yummy soup, and some taco rice. We watched DVDs. I was spending the week educating him on the ways of Harry Potter. For anyone who has travelled with me, knows that me planning a day to do nothing during vacation is indeed a change, and thoughtfulness on my part for other people involved.
The 31st we planned to go to Kamakura, see the big Buddha, go to some temples and do the count down at one of the famous shrines. We got there at about 1pm and we did all of that and by 4:30 it was getting dark and going to shrines and temples in the dark isn't so great. I had wished there was a starbucks we could relax at, and Masa said there's is one right there, I thought he was joking with me, and he said, no really, right there a few feet ahead of us. A nice surprise, but the real surprise was that it was the fanciest Starbucks I have ever been to. By five o'clock Masa stated we have seven hours till midnight, and if I wanted to wait. He was under the impression that I REALLY wanted to at a shrine for the count down. I've done shrine countdowns before and I was just as daunted of the aspect of kicking around Kamakura for seven hours till midnight.
We discussed it, and Masa isn't a big fan of crowds, and I told him that I am not die hard wanting to be at a shrine at the stroke of midnight. That I was just as happy watching DVDs and ordering pizza and staying in together (and getting my first new year's kiss from a boyfriend). That is what we did, we went to the department store got some foods, and wine, got some Harry Potter DVDs and watched them (Masa got addicted after the 3rd movie) until 4:30 in the morning.
January 1st. We just slept in very late, and relaxed and Masa did some work, watched more Harry Potter.
January 2nd, Masa went to his mother's to celebrate New Years with his family. His being gay is a secret so of course I am too. But I made oatcakes for his family so they could eat them, at least I could feel kind of like part of his family in my own way. I spent the day in Tokyo hanging out with a friend.
January 3rd. We had the day free, and Masa decided we should go to the cinema to watch the newest Harry Potter movie. We did a bit of shopping and saw Harry Potter in the beautiful Minato Mirai area.
January 4th was Ghibli Museum day, we went to the museum, my second time, Masa enjoyed it, after we went back to his friend's izakaya, where some of his friends were there we chatted with them for a bit, but then a guy who we didn't know that was kind of friend with another, his name was Kazu, an English teacher and could speak some English talked to me. The creepy vibes were strong in this one.
Within minutes of talking to me he asked me if I REALLY loved my boyfriend, I gave him my version of Garbrielle Union's sassy eyebrow raise, and said probably more than his mother loves him. Crazy Kazu went to the bathroom and the izakaya was alive with gossip, everyone in the bar thinks he is creepy and they couldn't believe he asked me that. Witty as I am, Masa said he loves Osabo's macaroni salad, and I asked him if he REALLY loves the macaroni salad, to which he burst out laughing and became a joke for the rest of the vacation. I feel bad that this guy is creepy and doesn't know it, I hope I'm never that guy that is talked about behind their back due to his creepy level. They say he is only creepy when he is drunk...
The 5th Was another relax day and also Daniel's gyoza academy day. We watched the DVD it's complicated, and I taught him how to make Gyoza, we had a nice dinner of Gyoza, rice, and miso soup. We made 40 gyoza and we at them all. Oh yes, we ate them all.
On the 6th Masa had to work in Numazu again, I came along again. This time I just walked around the down town shopping area. As soon as I was dropped off and walking away from the station and elderly lady dropped like a sac of bricks on the side walk. I was like oh fuck! I checked her and she was breathing and semi conscious, I was internally panicking because the language barrier was going to be a huge problem, thankfully like a speeding bullet obasans were there checking to see if she was alright and calling the ambulance. The ambulance came quickly and took her away, I can only guess it may have been a stroke the way that she was acting and moving. The rest of the time I just explored the shopping area, then bought some yarn to make a scarf and hunkered down at Tully's knitting and reading until Masa was done.
Masa wanted to take me to another hot spring in the mountains of Shizuoka and said they were pretty famous. There were a couple different hot springs belonging to this Giant ryokan (Japanese style inn) The one we wen to was one of the best I've been to in Japan. All the hot springs were outside, using natural mountain water. It was hard to see in the area for the air was filled with steam. There were super hot springs, medium, and even a cold one. They also have a structure that was a little dome like cave that was a sauna. beside the little cave there was a huge barrel of sea salt, you rub the salt all over your body, then open the door to the little cave and sit inside. Inside there were rice stock woven mats you sit on and relax inside, it was very similar to a sweat lodge.
A very enjoyable hot spring, we didn't get back to Yokohama until 12:30am and Masa asked if we could go to Osabou (His friends Izakaya) I like going there so why not. When we were near by and walking there I joked that Kazu will be there waiting. We were waiting to cross the street to get into the izakaya and a minute later after I said that Kazu freakin walks by, we said hi, he looks shocked and said hi, and walks down the street. Relieved he kept walking we went into the izakaya. Five minutes later kazu walked in, and sat with some guys he knew. They were a couple of guys I met the time I went there in August.
During the meal creepy Kazu proved that he isn't just creepy when he is drunk it's all the time, he kept staring at me. And the other people as well would stare occasionally across the room into our booth, and actually talk about Masa and I, and not whispering, we could hear what they were saying. At one point Masa looked over and they were all staring at us, and he was like..... Hi? I also said hi, and then they just asked me questions about me. So very strange. I think that when you come into that bar as a couple people will talk to you and about you, but I think it was augmented by the fact that I'm a foreigner.
On the 7th we woke up late and we did errands in Yokahama for Masa's job. Around 5pm we went to a "park" which was basically dirt with under a bridge with lights, but those count as parks in Japan. Sometimes his group practices there when no gyms are available. I asked him to teach me his art, and he taught me how to spin a flag in two different styles, Drop spin, and Peggy Spin (And no he doesn't know how that name came to be) I picked up those very quickly and I was optimistic.
It was then time to learn how to toss a flag in the air so that it does a full rotation and catch it. That was special. I spent two hours learning how to toss that flag. I was hit by the flag numerous times, my hands were battered and bleeding, but thankfully my hands were numbed by the cold. An hour in he asked if I wanted to keep practicing, there was no question that I wanted to continue until I could successfully toss the flag. I think he was both scared and happy with my determination. I could finally toss the flag acceptably and we took a video of it for poof, after getting home into the warmth is when my hands realized the pain.
On the 8th it was time to go home. It was sadness. I had, we both had one of the best vacations of our lives, something I will remember always.