"Quasi trogladidical" -Jon Kerr
The weekend started out pretty tame. I spent friday night playing soccer and eating gyoza with mel, jarryd and kevin.
Saturday came and went, with me spending most of it in front of my computer screen doing various things like playing games and watching downloaded movies. Then at about 10pm Megu paid me a "suprise visit" before going to her mum's apartment .
Late morning Sunday I got up and went to meet Megu so we could go shopping for stuff to make lunch with. Lunch was nice, Megu made use of her Nintendo DS cooking guide and made a really nice pasta dish, while I chipped in by making a way too big salad. Then at about 3:30 Megu and I made our way up to Kinosaki to watch the preperations for Monday's Danjiri Matsuri.
We spent time with my friends watching the shrines battle on the northern bridge, and at one point, my friend asked Megu if she was my girlfriend, and she pointedly said no. Meh, I'm a little confused by that, but I don't really know what to do. What I have with her is great and if it means that it is just a long term fling then so be it. I'm in no rush to commit, especially since I only have 10 more months on the JET programme.
Megu left early so that she could eat dinner with her mum and get home before she passed out. This left me to get rather drunk with a bunch of rich, crazy japanese friends of mine, which was a lot of fun. We all sat around the table drinking beer while Jon and I taught them slang.
Monday started at 10 when Jon and I went to the main shrine in Kinosaki to put on our gi. We waited until about midday and then we set off on our tour of Kinosaki. At 5 pm we fianlly stopped and waited for the real battle to begin. On the same bridge where we had watched the warm-up on sunday, the main battle took place. There were thousands of people lining the tiny streets and bridge. They were all there to watch the fight, of which the shirne I was at the very front of, was the center-piece.
After about two hours of stop-start battling, we finally moved back to the temple and put the shrine into it's house until next year. Jon and I got changed into our street clothes, and nursing extremely sore shoulders and muscles, wandered the streets for a while. I ended up catching a train home at about 8:30. I was in bed by 10 and asleep by about 10:02.
Thankfully I had had the foresight to call my vice principal and get the morning off. Ss I crawled out of bed at noon and came into work, which has so far involved one fire drill and watching a lecture from the local fire chief. I say watching because I have barely enough energy to keep my eyes open, let alone make sense of Japanese.