Mini-Vacation
On Wednesday, I skipped school a little early and jumped on a bus (followed by a train) and 6 hours later, I was giving carly a hug outside the train station in Toyooka. We chilled for a few days in her tiny little town, Izushi, which involved lots of sleeping, eating cheese, watching girly movies (The Cutting Edge!!!, Sex and the City episodes, Amelie), drinking champagne, and snuggling under her kotatsu (heated table, hard to explain but easy to enjoy). On Thursday we went to a Thanksgiving dinner at her friend's house. There were 16 people there and everyone brought something to contribute. Carly and I brought a delicious Apple Crumble. The thing about cooking Thanksgiving food in Japan is...there are no ovens. Everyone just has a high-tech microwave oven that has a button on it with a picture of cake and "kekee" written in katana. And THAT'S supposed to get the job done. Well let me tell you...it's alright...but it's no convection oven, and many dishes just werent up to snuff.
It was a fun night though, which included a doooorky debate over what was "the first novel" (my bet's on Apuleius' "The Golden Ass") and my first exposure to a "lesbian vampire" joke.
On Friday Carly had to work so i lazed around her apartment and went on a long walk exploring her town. There was an awesome temple complex at the base of a hill that lead up to the ruins of the old castle! The weather was nice and it was really pleasant to get an experience in small-town Japan. Narrow streets, open air markets + haggling, beautiful hills with autumn leaves all around, etc. That evening we ate at an Izakaya and met up with Carly's "Japanese host mom", whose daughter is studying in Gonzaga, and whose huge golden lab "BOB" was tuggin at the leash the whole time.
On Saturday, we drove down to Kobe, where we met up with Tristan, got some coffee, went to the Fashion Museum, went on a long walk around the city, and ate dinner at a cool little Turkish place. After dinner Carly went back up to spend the night in Izushi. Tristan and I foolishly booked a hostel for the night, because we knew it would be a really busy weekend and we didnt want to risk it on a lovehotel. But the experience, though tolerable, really made me think that I'm getting too old for hostels (wha?). Or something.
In any case, we actually could have been a thousand times more comfortable in a business hotel or something, and it really wouldnt have been that much more expensive. This place was really out of the way and inconvenient...we had booked "a private room with a double bed" and when we got there we saw that it was a tiny little tatami room with a BUNKBED! When we asked the manager what the deal was and why the website said "double bed" he said that that's what a double bed means, adding when we described the kind of bed WE had expected: "we have...no such type...bed...". The room itself was like a closet, it had a sink (which i was grateful for) but the toilets were down the hall and the showers (ONE shower for guys and ONE shower for women, for the whole packed-full place) were on another floor, and the manager turns off the hot water at 9am. We tooks the sheets from both beds and doubled up on one bunk, but even with double sheets / blankets / pillows, it was one of the most uncomortable beds I've ever been on! It was unreal, like a freakin rock! The pillows were little squares, smaller than a human head, and filled only with a bit of rice. To top it off, the "walls" were paper thin and we could hear drunk people coming back to their rooms all night long! I was very happy to be with Tristan and it wasn't that big of a deal to have one shitty night, but I definitely learned my lesson!
The next day, we got up early, actually found a neat little cafe that served yummy breakfast (like hard boiled eggs in egg cups and croissants and SOY MILK coffee and wheat toast) and headed into Nara, which was about an hour train ride away. Nara was the ancient capital of Japan, in the early 8th century, and the place was full of lots of neat old buildings, temples and...DEER! Deer roam the area, snatching senbei from the hands of innocent tourists and generally frolicking. I was so excited, I bought some senbei from one of the old ladies' senbei stalls and approached a cute little fawn. Within seconds i was completely surrounded, with deer nibbling my butt (no joke!) and nudging my hips and occasionally jumping up on their hind legs! I tried to keep them at bay but then a big buck came over, covered in mud (his antlers, luckily, recently chopped off by monks in an annual ceremony). I was wearing light-colored pants and he just head butted me in the thigh, leaving a big muddy imprint. Throwing senbei at him did nothing, running away would only egg him on. I hid the remaining senbei in my jacket, threw my hands out to gesture "i got nothin!" and slowly turned to walk away. The rest of the deer scattered, but the buck gave me one last little muddy nudge in the butt, to teach me a lesson. After I washed off my pants, I picked the mildest mannered fawn I could find and started the process over again. I'll post some pics on Facebook later :)
Nara's most famous attraction is The Big Buddha, which is housed within either the biggest or the oldest (i cant remember) wooden building in the world. It was really magnificent, and I'm glad I got to see it. But also, there were a lot of tourists around that area, so it was almost cooler to explore some of the lesser-visited shrines on the hill. Especially when it started raining lightly and the mist covered all the buildings and set off the color of the brilliant autumn leaves. There was this cool big wooden sign over a fountain that had some kanji written on it with bold, impressive strokes, but tacked to the bottom of the sign was the English translation, scribbled in Magic Marker on posterboard. It said "Let's be able to say...'I'm sorry'" Awwww schucks...how cute.
Anyhoo...after Nara I had a few hours in Osaka while waiting for my bus to Tokushima. I MIGHT go back there this coming weekend to see the Bond movie, but I'm also pretty worn out with travelling, and might just enjoy a quiet weekend at home.
It was a fun night though, which included a doooorky debate over what was "the first novel" (my bet's on Apuleius' "The Golden Ass") and my first exposure to a "lesbian vampire" joke.
On Friday Carly had to work so i lazed around her apartment and went on a long walk exploring her town. There was an awesome temple complex at the base of a hill that lead up to the ruins of the old castle! The weather was nice and it was really pleasant to get an experience in small-town Japan. Narrow streets, open air markets + haggling, beautiful hills with autumn leaves all around, etc. That evening we ate at an Izakaya and met up with Carly's "Japanese host mom", whose daughter is studying in Gonzaga, and whose huge golden lab "BOB" was tuggin at the leash the whole time.
On Saturday, we drove down to Kobe, where we met up with Tristan, got some coffee, went to the Fashion Museum, went on a long walk around the city, and ate dinner at a cool little Turkish place. After dinner Carly went back up to spend the night in Izushi. Tristan and I foolishly booked a hostel for the night, because we knew it would be a really busy weekend and we didnt want to risk it on a lovehotel. But the experience, though tolerable, really made me think that I'm getting too old for hostels (wha?). Or something.
In any case, we actually could have been a thousand times more comfortable in a business hotel or something, and it really wouldnt have been that much more expensive. This place was really out of the way and inconvenient...we had booked "a private room with a double bed" and when we got there we saw that it was a tiny little tatami room with a BUNKBED! When we asked the manager what the deal was and why the website said "double bed" he said that that's what a double bed means, adding when we described the kind of bed WE had expected: "we have...no such type...bed...". The room itself was like a closet, it had a sink (which i was grateful for) but the toilets were down the hall and the showers (ONE shower for guys and ONE shower for women, for the whole packed-full place) were on another floor, and the manager turns off the hot water at 9am. We tooks the sheets from both beds and doubled up on one bunk, but even with double sheets / blankets / pillows, it was one of the most uncomortable beds I've ever been on! It was unreal, like a freakin rock! The pillows were little squares, smaller than a human head, and filled only with a bit of rice. To top it off, the "walls" were paper thin and we could hear drunk people coming back to their rooms all night long! I was very happy to be with Tristan and it wasn't that big of a deal to have one shitty night, but I definitely learned my lesson!
The next day, we got up early, actually found a neat little cafe that served yummy breakfast (like hard boiled eggs in egg cups and croissants and SOY MILK coffee and wheat toast) and headed into Nara, which was about an hour train ride away. Nara was the ancient capital of Japan, in the early 8th century, and the place was full of lots of neat old buildings, temples and...DEER! Deer roam the area, snatching senbei from the hands of innocent tourists and generally frolicking. I was so excited, I bought some senbei from one of the old ladies' senbei stalls and approached a cute little fawn. Within seconds i was completely surrounded, with deer nibbling my butt (no joke!) and nudging my hips and occasionally jumping up on their hind legs! I tried to keep them at bay but then a big buck came over, covered in mud (his antlers, luckily, recently chopped off by monks in an annual ceremony). I was wearing light-colored pants and he just head butted me in the thigh, leaving a big muddy imprint. Throwing senbei at him did nothing, running away would only egg him on. I hid the remaining senbei in my jacket, threw my hands out to gesture "i got nothin!" and slowly turned to walk away. The rest of the deer scattered, but the buck gave me one last little muddy nudge in the butt, to teach me a lesson. After I washed off my pants, I picked the mildest mannered fawn I could find and started the process over again. I'll post some pics on Facebook later :)
Nara's most famous attraction is The Big Buddha, which is housed within either the biggest or the oldest (i cant remember) wooden building in the world. It was really magnificent, and I'm glad I got to see it. But also, there were a lot of tourists around that area, so it was almost cooler to explore some of the lesser-visited shrines on the hill. Especially when it started raining lightly and the mist covered all the buildings and set off the color of the brilliant autumn leaves. There was this cool big wooden sign over a fountain that had some kanji written on it with bold, impressive strokes, but tacked to the bottom of the sign was the English translation, scribbled in Magic Marker on posterboard. It said "Let's be able to say...'I'm sorry'" Awwww schucks...how cute.
Anyhoo...after Nara I had a few hours in Osaka while waiting for my bus to Tokushima. I MIGHT go back there this coming weekend to see the Bond movie, but I'm also pretty worn out with travelling, and might just enjoy a quiet weekend at home.