Friday while I was on the train heading to Osaka I received a phone call from someone that couldn't speak English (why they call me I have yet to find out...) the only English they could throw together was "tonight, go home." This of course made me a little nervous as I tried to quickly review all my work obligations in my head, but I couldn't come up with anything I needed to do. I told them to call my supervisor, who then called to tell me my modem had arrived and would be at my neighbors house when I got back from my trip! So no more long runs without internet and blogging!
Since I last posted two big things have happened - one being my weekend of sports festivals and the other being my trip to Osaka.
Sports Festivals:
Sports festival is pretty much awesome. It felt like I was back at camp, but in Japan...
I had three during the weekend of September 12-13 so I went to one on Saturday and 2 on Sunday - one in the morning, one in the afternoon. Basically, the school is divided up into two teams, red and white. They compete all day in running races, cheers, dances, acrobatics - you name it! and since I've found the Japanese to be some of the most detail-oriented and hardworking people I've ever met, it was quite a sight to be seen! The highlight for me was definitely when the youngest of the elementary school kids did the thriller dance. Sitting there watching it I couldn't help but think I love this country!
Some of the events called for community participation. Adults ran relay races that ranged from straight running to sitting on balloons and after popping them, running with paper bags on their heads. The superintendent was at 2 of the festivals I attended and he invited me to join in on a game where you hit a ball through some cones (a large version of golf). Luckily I made it on the first time! I had to represent being the only girl on my team! The mayor was at the other sports festival and he is just a character. In Japan they don't shake hands or wave (they bow) and they don't have the thumbs up hand gesture. Every time I see the mayor he runs up to me, intensely shakes my hand, and follows it up with a big thumbs up. I give him an equally enthusiastic thumbs up back, and secretly hope that he doesn't journey over to America where he might come to learn that thumbs up are really only given by movie critics and hitchhikers...
Osaka
What a crazy place! It felt kind of like Japanese New York...
I went to Osaka for Silver week, which are three national holidays that take place in a row and this year were on a Monday, Tuesday and a Wednesday. I had the Friday before the weekend off from school as well, so Keiko, an ALT from Osaka that I met once randomly in San Francisco and then saw again at Tokyo orientation, invited Erin and I to come visit.
Erin and I met up in Kumamoto city where we tried to navigate the trains to catch our overnight ferry from Fukuoka (the largest city on our island.) We made it in time and were surprised to find that what appeared on the internet to be a sketchy looking boat, turned out to be quite nice! There was kareoke, massage chairs, public bath and a small arcade! We tried to get some sleep, although there was a snorer in our room, to gear up for the 5 day four night trip...
After docking, Keiko met us at the port with one of her JTEs. We then dropped off our stuff and went to her school. All the teachers met up and then we headed over to the Danjiri festival. At this festival, each town/city gets their own danjiri that members of the community pull, dance on, run with etc. in their respective community happi coats. It was tons of fun and was the largest festival I've been to thus far!
The celebration went well into the night and with the amount of alcohol consumed I was amazed that none of the Japanese men fell off of their danjiri!
After the festival we went to a bar in Osaka. Here if you miss the last train (leaves about midnight or so) you have to wait for the first one which is at about 5am. Of the 4 nights, this happened 3 of them so the sleeping on the ferry turned out to be a great idea! After the club we caught about a 6:30am train, napped for about an hour and then started the next day!
There are some really awesome JETs living in Osaka and we all met up at the castle for some sightseeing. There were so many foreigners there, I didn't even feel like I was in Japan! Maybe it's just because I live in the countryside and I'm the only blonde...
After walking around castle grounds, we went to the major shopping district in town where we got dinner and had a little evening purikura and kareoke session. We decided not to stay out all night though because we were going to Kyoto on Monday!
Kyoto was beautiful! I wish we'd gotten to see more but because it was silver week, it was insanely crowded. I'm going to try to make it over there again, preferably not during peak travel time, so I can get in everything! We went to the imperial palace and to the golden temple. Kyoto has shrines on almost every corner, so it was beautiful walking around and taking everything in!
After we took the train back to Osaka and met up in triangle park, which felt a little like Tokyo drift. There were all these skateboarders and people driving really nice cars...an interesting place. After hanging out there for a couple of hours we went to a local bar that had darts, foosball and was just a little more relaxed. They kicked us out around 4:30am and with a half hour to kill before the first train, we did what any American would do - went to the 24 hour McDonalds. The 24 hour McD's is hilarious - it's more like a hostel than a restaurant!
After we took the 5am train back to Keiko's, caught a couple zzz's and met up with a woman that lived with Erin during a homestay in the States. She took us to a great place for lunch with her boyfriend and then we headed out to meet up with the rest of the Osaka crew for an afternoon at the aquarium. It was way too crowded in the aquarium but fun none the less. They had some really interesting fish I'd never seen before and we had a great time making up captions for the ridiculous warning pictures posted throughout the building.
I call this one 'please do not surf on stingrays or you might be eaten by a shark'
The aquarium trip then turned into Taco Tuesday, where we all went to one JETs apartment to cook up some Mexican food. We all missed our last trains so we went to kareoke to complete allnighter #3.
The next day Erin and I said our farewells and took the shinkansen, or bullet train, back to Kumamoto. I slept through most of it, but it was pretty cool going 300+ mph by train! It looks so aerodynamic too!
When I got back to my house I unpacked and passed out circa 8pm. Luckily I had elementary school the next day which is so much fun or else I might not have made it through the day awake!
This weekend I kept it pretty low key. I went out to dinner with one of my JTE's and had friends come down to Aso on Saturday for Denory's night. Previously at school, I was handed a map with a time by an elementary school vice principle inviting me to play tennis, so I also got in 3 hours of tennis Saturday morning with what I think is my new tennis club? It's really difficult not being able to communicate! All in all though it was a really fun weekend - not too crazy which was exactly what I needed!
So now the new week begins! I'm working on planning my next couple of trips including an October long weekend to Hiroshima and a 3 week trip potentially to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and maybe Laos over winter break. Thailand is a definite though - the others depend on price. I'll keep you posted!
Well I must say, if you've read this far you truly deserve a medal! Since I'm not planning on losing my internet anytime soon, future entries won't be this long.
じゃね！
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