Tokyo Time: Tsukiji and Spontenaity

Tuesday, August 25th, rolled around bright and early.  And by early, I mean early, as I woke up at five (okay… five thirty) in the morning so-as to catch the action at the famous Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo.

Tsukiji is the largest fish market in the entire world, moving over 2000 metric tons of seafood every day, to the tune of over 200 billion dollars a year.  It employs over 14,000 people in an area that, really, is not big enough for that much fish and that many people.  (I was nearly run over about 80 times.)

The foreigners who visit Tsukiji are both a blessing and a curse for those fishermen who work in the market, since we popularize the destination and add fuel to the fire regarding Tokyo’s plan to move the fish market to a somewhat polluted site.  However, we also stop in the middle of crowded, narrow walkways to take pictures and rarely buy anything.

I tried to get out of the way wherever possible.  Only one man yelled at me for stopping.  I consider that a job well done.

(I didn’t buy any fish.  It was six in the morning!  I can’t eat sushi at six in the morning.  Gross.)

Getting ice to keep that fish fresh.

I had no idea shrimp could be so colorful!

These fish were terrifying. Why? BECAUSE THEY WERE STILL BREATHING!

A wide angle of some of the madness.

And, of course, my favorite from the day:

It takes at least three men to cut fresh tuna.

In any case, the moral of the story is that, despite the chaos and my guilt for being nothing more than a camera wielding tourist, I really enjoyed myself at Tsukiji and I’d recommend it.  If you can, go earlier than six, as then you might be able to see the tuna bidding process, which I’ve heard is really interesting.  It’s also shocking to see the men cut frozen tuna–they use a power saw!  !!!  No, I’m not kidding.  It’s insane.

However, when shopping in Tsukiji, please be aware of the problems of overfishing.  Shop for yellow fin tuna, crustaceans like shrimp or scallops, and the like, as, in some point in the future, many of the fish species currently on sale in Tsukiji will be endangered and maybe even gone.  I want to keep eating my sushi, so let’s make it green, folks!

Anyway.

At about nine am, I went back to the hostel to take a nap.  I woke up from said nap at 11:30.  Found a bookstore.  Bought books.  Then I took the train back to Shibuya (time #3!) and… well, did something a little impulsive.

I gots a new tattoo. Sorry, dad:

道可道非常道

名可名非常名

It means, in case you care:

The way that can be known is not the eternal way.

The name that can be named is not the eternal name.

From the first chapter of the chinese philosophical classic, The Way and the Power by Lao Zi, written (supposedly) around 500 BC.  Laozi’s name, actually, is typical Daoist contradiction in that “Lao” is the character for old and “Zi” is the character for child.  Just saying.  It’s an amazing, thought-provoking treatise with lots of good-old-fashioned feminine worship, too.  I’d recommend it.

Anyway, back to Japan.  Right, I’m in Japan, not China.

Because I’m super twitchy, the whole thing took about two hours to complete.  By this time it was 4pm, and I was meeting Tomo-chan for dinner at 7pm.  I sat at a random table between Shibuya and Harajuku, back ramrod straight, for three hours, reading The Mysterious Benedict Society, which was actually quite amusing, if a little predictable.  I’ll probably get the sequels.

I met Tomoko and two of her friends (Yuki and… AHHH I FORGOT THE OTHER GIRL’S NAME) for Vietnamese food, which was delicious.  Especially the Pho.  But then pho is always delicious.  There was lots of giggles, lots of very confusing sentences with both Japanese and English intertwining in no semblance of sense, and finally it was time to go.

I miss Tomo-chan already.  :(

????, Tomo-chan, Me, and Yuki at the Vietnamese restaurant in Yokohama.

And that was pretty much it.  The new tattoo kept me from doing too much active stuff on Wednesday before I caught my plane (and it also made it difficult to carry my camera backpack)… but I made it back home.

Overall, I had a fantastic time in Tokyo.  There’s still plenty of things I’d like to see–more museums, for instance, with Studio Ghibli on the top of the list.  And I of course want to see Tomoko again, though she’s promised to visit Iki next summer.  If I had to do it again, I don’t think I’d change a thing.

Well, I might not have flirted with Edmond so much.  And I probably would have slapped the random Japanese guy who propositioned me on my way back to Shibuya from Harajuku, rather than just ignored him as best I could.

But those aren’t big deals.

 Any questions?

Off to South Korea tomorrow, so there’ll be a blogging blackout for about ten days.  Cross your fingers that there won’t be a typhoon, as apparently one is predicted.

 

Tokyo Time: Shrine for the War Dead and A Lot of Wandering Around

The main entrance towards the Yasukuni Shrine.

Monday (August 24th) rolled around and I dragged myself out of bed to check out more of Tokyo’s famous sights.  I’d initially intended to visit the Studio Ghibli Museum, but turns out there’s this whole process for getting your ticket that I had not anticipated (i.e., it must be done in advance from designated ticket buying places in Certain Convenience stores that are, inconveniently, not located on Iki).  Studio Ghibli is the animation studio that’s produced several titans of the anime film industry, notably Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Howl’s Moving Castle.

So since that was knocked off my things to do list (sad face!) I went straight to the Yasukuni Shrine.

For those uninitiated in modern Japanese history and politics, the Yasukuni Shrine is the main shinto shrine for those who’ve died protecting Japan.  It was originally built in 1869 during the Meiji Era, and was renamed Yasukuni (Peaceful Country) Shrine in 1879.  At the time, since this was the strongest era of Emperor worship/Shinto-ism since the Tokugawa Shogunate began, it was controlled and run by the State.  However, after the American occupation and the implementation of the new Japanese Constitution, an official law separating church and state placed the Yasukuni shrine into private hands.

This privatization is blurred, however, by the special relationship between the imperial family and the shrine.  Inside the attached Yushukan, what I would call a military museum, there’s actually an entire room devoted to the historical relationship between the imperial family, especially the Emperor, and the shrine.

The problem with such a blurring of lines is that, in case you didn’t know, the Shrine is incredibly infamous abroad.  It reached the pinnacle of notoriety when celebrated Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi headed the state.  See, in addition to the “regular” war dead enshrined there, the men who were convicted during the Tokyo Tribunal post World War II as well as many other soldiers who were probably guilty of war crimes (especially against China and Korea) are also “deified.”

Did you know?

In Japan, due to their historical ties to China, the concept of ancestral worship is very strong.  As such, after a family member dies, they are usually enshrined inside the family home and “worshiped” (I put this in quotes because it’s very superficial to most Japanese nowadays) on particular holidays during the year, both to show their respect and to hope that the spirits–kami, also the Japanese word for gods–will bless the family in the future.

To the Chinese (overall, a much more nationalistic country than Japan, I’d say) with crisp, maybe slightly distorted, memories of the Nanking Massacre, scientific experiments on Chinese civilians, and really, just bitterness overall, well, such respect and “deification” by head government officials is pretty galling.  The Koreans have similar reasons for their (I think justifiable) anger, especially the Japanese forced enslavement of comfort women for their troops during the war.

In any case, being a rabid student of China and Japan, I decided it would be an interesting place to visit, and I did my best to be respectful despite a great deal of disagreement with the way, uh, certain things were presented.

It is one of the prettier shrines I’ve been to, actually.

A statue of Omura Masujiro, the father of the modern Japanese Army. He was pivotal in getting the Emperor to end the class-based society of the Tokugawa Era (with samurai at the top).

The actual shrine building. Funny story: while I snapped pictures, I got FIVE new mosquito bites. I guess Japanese mosquitoes really like my delicious American blood.

Some cranes for peace on the shrine grounds.

The shrine wasn’t as bad as everything I’d expected from all the hype it gets in the foreign media.

That is, until I went to the Yushukan.

Because the Yasukuni Shrine is controlled by private interests (read: extremely nationalistic private interests), the Yushu museum is nearly as bad as the Beijing Military Museum when it comes to skewing history to put one’s country in an acceptable light.  In other words, it’s not really what it says, more like what it leaves out.  For example, the two Korean wars and the attacks Japan launched within China during World War II are referred to as “incidents” rather than wars.  They also, at least in the English parts, make no mention of the Japanese role in inciting said incidents.  And, of course, the Nanking Massacre is barely a footnote:

Aside from the fact that most estimates put the dead somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000; the idea that they only hurt "soldiers in civilians clothing" is laughable considering all the photographic evidence of, yanno, women, children, and *babies* massacred.

Of course, it’s not as if any country has an unblemished history of stellar treatment to its enemies during wartime (Abu Ghraib? My Lai?  and then there’s the clemency we offered both Japanese and Nazi troops during WWII in return for the scientific studies they performed on innocent civilians).  At the same time, the completely innocent tone this museum takes, especially when it has such a close relationship with the imperial family and many government officials well, I can understand why Chinese and Koreans would be pretty damn pissed off.

But their collection of artefacts was pretty cool.

They also had kamikaze planes, but there were very obvious "NO PICTURE" signs and too many people walking about for me to do it more sneakily.

What I find most interesting about this entire experience is the response I get from Japanese people when I say I went to Yasukuni Shrine.  I can only assume it’s because they think I went to pray for the war dead (…no).  But my supervisor here on Iki, when I told her I went, responded with a vehement “I hate that place!”  Proof that, although people may be concerned about Japan remilitarizing as China grows in power, there’s still a very strong and vocal majority who are not about to let that happen.

Aaaaanyway.

The Yasukuni Shrine is very close to many of Tokyo’s other sights, so after escaping more mosquito bite attacks, I walked through a park, past the Budokan (the main martial arts gymnasium in Japan) and discovered a science museum.  Remembering how much fun I had way back when in San Francisco’s science museum, I decided to give it a go.  Well, that and I’d purchased something at a previous museum that gave me a free pass, so I wasn’t losing much except time.

It was a little disappointing, I’ll admit.  But that was only because my reading of Japanese is not nearly as good as my speaking.  That and there were insanely energetic kids screaming everywhere.

Still, some of it was pretty cool.

Explanation of how hybrid cars work.

Hahahaha, methane...

Some prototypes of what robots may look like in the future, if they don't look like the creepily realistic human beings being created now.

After the science museum, I finished my jaunt through the park (sorry, don’t remember it’s name) and stumbled upon the National Museum of Modern Art by accident.  I was really excited, because it happened to be on the list, and so went inside.  The featured exhibition was on Paul Gauguin, which, though a bit short, was very well done.  I particularly liked his prints, even more so than his most famous painting, although that was also breathtaking.

Following the NMMA, I discovered I was quite close to the imperial palace and grounds, so I decided to go wander through there rather than find a place to eat dinner, as I wasn’t that hungry yet (it was, by this time, nearing 5pm.  I hadn’t eaten lunch.  So the fact that I wasn’t hungry was a bit odd but, whatever).

For anyone who wants to visit the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, only certain parts are open for visitors year round, and only till 5pm (haha).  The whole thing can only be accessed twice a year, once on the Emperor’s Birthday, and once for New Years.  And I don’t think you’ll see much of the palace, then, as the areas swamped with Japanese folks.

In any case, it may be the only place in Japan with very nice grass.  Not that you can sleep or walk on it.  That would make too much sense.

But I saw some very picturesque views as the sun hurried through its descent in the sky and felt very peaceful overall.

I think this may be the side you can access year round.

OMG GRASS! No freaking way!

This is actually my favorite picture of the day. Apparently the bridge is pretty famous.

No, I’m not done yet.

From there I somehow made it to the National Diet Building, which was not only closed but also under construction.  I find it entertaining that I’ve visited the central government buildings in both Japan and China but, despite my excessive patriotism and love for the US Constitution, I’ve never been to DC.

Someday.  If Georgetown, Columbia, or the Foreign Service are actually in my future.

It has pretty interesting architecture.

FINALLY, I found a train station and went back to Shibuya to take more pictures and just walk a bit more before I became too exhausted.  My back was already aching from my camera at this point.  It’s amazing how heavy four pounds can become after nine hours of it hanging around your neck.

I also found a Burger King in Shibuya, which was wonderful.  Despite eating at Starbucks (I can’t help myself), I ate a Junior Whopper.  It was delicious.

A more aerial view of the Shibuya crossing than what I took the night before. It's pretty intense. Taken from the Starbucks before a haggard worker told me I wasn't allowed to take pictures.

Shibuya is well known for its eclectic fashion as well as shops. Always be prepared, right?

I’ll leave you with that.

Only one more post, probably, as I didn’t do too much on the Tuesday and Wednesday before leaving.  I think I did two days worth of sightseeing that Monday as it was.

Flamenco tonight!  Except I’m exhausted.  Ugh.  And I still need to edit the second half of a book for my critique partner.  It’s okay.  I’ll do half of it today, half of it tomorrow.  No problem.  Hopefully the critique will still be good.  Eep!

 

Tokyo Time: Seeing Tomo-chan and Eating Mr. Kurihara’s Gyoza

On Saturday the 22nd, I spent a leisurely morning getting ready to meet Tomoko in Yokohama.  I felt much refreshed after a solid nine hours of sleep (more so than the other three nights I spent at the hostel, in which someone in a nearby box snored REALLY loudly).  Through some great miracle, I made it to the designated train station without getting lost.  However, I got on the Local Train, so it ended up taking about an hour and a half to get there.

Did you know?

Unlike smaller cities in Japan, several of the lines in Tokyo have different levels of “local” trains, ranging from the Express Local all the way up to something random which name I forget but only has, like, five stops out of thirty or something ridiculous.  I could have taken the highest express train to see Tomoko.

Oh well.

I settled in, greeted their dog Hana(re) and caught up a bit with Reuichi and Etsuko, Tomoko’s parents.  Didn’t get a chance to see Yuko, her sister, but maybe next time.  Then Tomo-chan and I set off to do a bit of window shopping (okay, I bought a new nalgene bottle to replace Casualty #2) and get lunch.  Lunch involved a great deal of me making fun of Japanese Cheesecake (it’s more cake than cheese-y) and trying to figure out a better recipe for the Chicken Asparagus sandwich I ordered (first attempt: did not go as well.  Will try again in the future).

Honestly, this isn’t very exciting, but it was super wonderful to see Tomoko.  She’s very easy to talk to–no matter how much she denies it, her English is as good as ever.  And I like to take my traveling slow.  It’s not necessary for me to rush from one site to the next.

Walking to the mall. They had a Banana Republic! Good thing there wasn't an Express, is all I have to say. That would have been a disaster for my credit card.

We eventually made our way back to her parent’s house.  While waiting for dinner, Tomo-chan and I ooh-ed and aah-ed over Sarah’s wedding preparations and caught up a bit more.  I also demanded she join Facebook.  Thank goodness.  Now I can bother her all the time.

Dinner was Reuichi’s famous Gyoza (or dumplings).  I don’t know how he makes them so delicious, but they’re honestly the best I’ve ever eaten.  This is throughout China, Japan, and America.  And trust me, I’ve eaten a freaking lot of gyoza/jiaozi.  That night he’d cooked up three different kinds: regular, with corn, and with a delicious leaf called shiso.  Usually shiso are wrapped around sushi/sashimi at nice restaurants, but I’ve also tried (amazing!) homemade shiso juice.

In fact, I still have some concentrate in my fridge.

I should probably throw that out.  It’s been like two months.  It’s gone bad.

Anyway.

Mr. Kurihara and the amazing gyoza of wonder.

The next day, Tomoko gives Hana(re) some attention. Thankfully, Hana(re) has calmed down since the last time I saw her.

Because Tomoko is studying to be a doctor, I’d decided to only stay with the family over the weekend.  She had a test coming up (really, when don’t they have tests?), so I went back to Tokyo in the afternoon the next day.  But not after sharing an excellent Korean Barbeque feast at Ichiroya.  It’s apparently a really famous restaurant or something.  I really liked their kimchi, which was something new and different as I don’t usually enjoy kimchi.

They gave us bibs because apparently eating is really messy (It wasn't).

Me and Tomo-chan's folks, sans bib.

We'd done and tidied up our meal. Delicious!

We talked a bit about the Japanese elections (which came to a close just this last weekend).  Reuichi was convinced the LDP would lose, and he was right.  I don’t think they’re as affected by the downturn as everyone else, though, since he’s a salary man and so doesn’t have much of a chance of getting laid off.  Tomoko’s studying to be a doctor, and there will always be a need for doctors, and as far as I could tell, Yuko is doing well, too.

Still, I enjoyed talking about it with them.  It also says something of their interests that we could discuss this at all (in English).  Very different from most Japanese families I’ve met who have next to no interest in politics (and usually can’t speak English).

It was sad saying goodbye–not sure when I’ll make it back up to that part of Japan, but I’m crossing my fingers in the winter, and then I was back on the train to Tokyo and the hostel.

More to come from the evening of the 23rd, including a proposal of marriage!

 

Tokyo Time: Sleeping in Parks isn’t as Bad as You’d Think

The unfortunate thing about living on an island is that there are only two ways off: ferry and airplane.  Since the airplane is expensive (and only goes to Nagasaki City), I usually take the ferry.  This was the case for my trip to Tokyo and Yokohama.

However, late in the summer, the amount of ferries per day are reduced.  In order to save money, I’d booked an earlier flight to Tokyo (circa 7:00am).  Unfortunately, there weren’t any ferries that would get me to Fukuoka by, say, 5:00am.  In fact, the closest one to my plane ride arrived in the big F at about 9:00pm.

The view of Tenjin in the wee-small hours of the morning from a comfortable spot of granite in the park.

In other words, I had a solid eight hours to waste before I could go to the airport to catch my flight.

Did you know?

Domestic Japanese airports actually have a closing time.  Thus, if your plane leaves at 7am, you actually can’t enter the airport until about 6am.  Also, the subways don’t run from about Midnight to 6am.  So if you were planning on sleeping at the airport (like I was), that’s not gonna work.

I spent the first four hours waiting for/watching Harry Potter 6 again (third time, awesome!).  The following two hours were me staring at the river and thinking about random, random things.  From about 3am to 4:30am, I napped.  At 4:30, a man woke me up saying (in Japanese), “It’s really dangerous to sleep in parks, what are you thinking?”

I waved my hand about, poo-pooing his point.  ”It’s Japan.  It’s totally safe.”

Then we talked for about an hour.  Then I went to the train station to go to the airport.

And see?  Nothing happened.  Because Japan is safe.

I would not suggest trying this on Honshu.  Kyushu’s way safer than Honshu.

In any case, got to Tokyo, got lost trying to find my hostel.  Found hostel.  Dropped bags off, went walking around Asakusa, and this is what I found:

The blue bridge is the correct bridge to cross when trying to find the Khaosan International Hostel: Asakusa Annex.

Senso-ji, the famous Thing To See in Asakusa. There were two Starbucks within walking distance. Gets my stamp of approval.

Just in case Paul Bunyan needs some shoes when he visits Japan, they've got some 12-footers for him.

Senso-ji is Tokyo’s oldest temple (completed in 645, though it’s probably burned down plenty of times since then, like the rest of Tokyo).  It’s dedicated to the goddess Kannon–meaning it’s Buddhist, not Shinto.  Just so you know.  It has a really big set of lanterns in the main entrance.  I didn’t take a picture of the ginormous lanterns because when I visited Tomo-chan in 2005/2006 (I went over New Years), I took pictures of them then.  I had a much greater appreciation for it this time, though, being as I actually understood more about Japanese culture.  Yeah, I was a bit of a spaz.

After more wandering around, and a bit more after that, and some more after that, and then a bit of light reading at a Starbucks, I made my way back to the hostel, moved my bags up to my room, and inquired about a Mexican Restaurant.  Turns out there’s a pretty good one in Shinjuku (the main JR–Japan Rail–station in Tokyo).  It took some effort to get there (I got lost), but I eventually managed it, wandered around some more, and stumbled onto the restaurant mostly by chance at around 7pm.  There I met a very nice Floridan and Japanese girl and we had dinner together and talked nonsense and I ate, wait for it, AN ENCHILADA.

So good.

In case I haven’t mentioned it before, Iki isn’t very well known for it’s foreign food.  They have Japanese and Chinese.  And the Chinese is pretty Japanese-ified.  Well, and I guess they have American food if that means hamburgers, pizza, and Japanese-ified pasta.

Anyway, I like to eat foreign food when I travel.

This was a great example.  I forget the name of the restaurant.  It’s by a Krispy Kreme (also awesome).  The Krispy Kreme is right next to a Starbucks.

I loved Shinjuku.

After eating, I went back to the hotel for sleep.  Because I hadn’t gotten much the night before when I took a nap in a park.

My little wooden box of sleepy-ness.

More to come!  (Hopefully.)  For now, I’m off to Japanese Fan Dancing.  Here’s hoping I actually remember my routine.  I’m sleepy.

 

Oh, right, I live in Japan.

And my life is awesome.

Not only do I not have to deal with crappy health care (see below), but I get to have amazing experiences like this last weekend.  And really, nothing truly special happened.  I didn’t find out my book is getting published (kinda hard as I’m on a standstill there), didn’t do anything majorly adventurous–heck, I didn’t even leave the island.  But everything just went really, really well.  Lots of laughter, beautiful weather, great food, it all combined to just make me a  happy camper.  Especially if there weren’t so many mosquitoes.

August 11th through 13th in Japan is this holiday called “O Bon.”  It’s a family festival honoring the ancestors.  Usually, people go back to their parents or even grandparent’s homes, eat lots of food, dance, and have a good time of it.  Supposedly, the olde ancestors also pay a visit to the family shrines, so there’s a great deal of noise making and water splashing to wake those old biddy’s up and get ‘em out of the grave.

Heh.

So I spent the first few days of O-bon cleaning.  (Need to clean again, too.  Will wait until Friday.)  Talked to the parents.  (Happy birthday, Mom!)  And then, on Thursday, I picked up my friend Sabsy from the ferry port and the good times began.

The first awesome thing happened right away.

After a snack of some french fries, I took Sabrina and our new friend (Yuka’s replacement) Ava to a place on the island called Sakyobana.  It looks like this:

Apparently it used to be a peace sign before a typhoon destroyed it.

Whilst driving to and back from Sakyobana, we noticed there were a whole bunch of people lining the streets of a local neighborhood.  Naturally inquisitive people, we parked in some random spot (eh, it’s Iki, everywhere’s a parking place), jumped out, and wandered in to see what was happening.

Turns out, and I could be wrong here because my Japanese is still a bit… funky, that they’d made this huge collection of branches to do s’more ancestor wakening.  They’d push and pull this contraption (it looked like a dragon to me, about 20 feet long) all the way down the neighborhood and back.  Meanwhile, well-meaning well-wishers toss water on you.

Which, in case you were wondering, meant as soon as they saw foreigners, we got wet, too.

It was hilarious and fun, got some free beers out of it, and I got to talk to some adorable elementary school students.  After three new mosquito bites and maybe two hours, we cut loose to go get sushi.

The next day was pretty usual.  Good beach weather.  The jellyfish are coming out–they’re just babies now, but they still sting.  We wandered around Iki doing more sightseeing, and ended up on my favorite place on the island: Aoshima.  In the spring, it looks like this:

The park, Aoshima, is actually the entirety of a small island, probably about a kilometer in diameter.

I received two more new mosquito bites at Aoshima (what can I say?  They love me), played a bit on the zip line and swings, and we were about to leave when Guy decided to test the play toy equipment:

As you can see, it didn't work very well.

We finished off the day with our usual Friday Night Curry (delicious!), went home exhausted, and I downloaded 17 Again because I’m ridiculous and like silly movies.  And Zac Efron has dreamy eyes.

Saturday was a big baking day.  Not so much in the way of nice beach weather, so in the morning I made Chocolate Malt Crepes (delicious!).  Then Ava and I made Carrot Cake Cupcakes (delicious!).  We lazed about in my house until around 1:00pm, when more travel ensued!  Up we went to Katsumoto to see the dolphins:

This picture is actually from New Years but, yanno, the dolphins haven't changed. Sorry it's sideways, I'm lazy.

There was lots of giggling and oohing and aahing involved, and then we stomped on over to one of my favorite restaurants on the island: Mochajavva.

Mochajavva is super good.  They have nice, American-sized hamburgers (delicious!) with optional cheese, bacon, and egg toppings.  Or you can get the basil-pesto sauce vegetable pizza.  Their parfaits are also quite nice, I’m a fan of the mixed berry.  And they make really excellent french fries.  Needless to say, I’m a frequent customer.  The other super cool thing about Mochajavva is that the restaurant is in the oldest building on Iki–goes back pre-Taisho, which is over 85 years ago.  It’s very beautiful, and the atmosphere inside has a sweet blend between modern and late Meishi- early Taisho- periods.

However, contrary to the name Mochajavva, they don’t serve coffee.  Unless you count instant coffee as coffee.  I find this endlessly amusing.

Came back home for some nap-age (awesome), finished making the cupcakes, and then we went bowling.  My high score for the night?  90.  That’s about average for me, I’d say.  What was the most entertaining was my penchant to get NINES.  We have officially nicknamed consistently leaving one pin standing “Kat Bowling.”  Over the course of two games, I had a nine in twelve frames.  It was a little depressing.  And yet hilarious at the same time.

Finally came Sunday, the end of the O-bon festivities, and the big day on Iki.  Up in Katsumoto, in the morning, they have a boat race called “Peron Taikai.”  I think this is to celebrate ancestors who have been injured or killed in boats?  Who knows.  I asked why only men could participate, and found out that it’s because the spirit protecting boats is a woman.  So if a woman is in the boat, then the spirit will get jealous and… something bad will happen.  Or somesuch.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day, and we had a good time walking around and getting more tan.

Katsumoto harbor.

They do this big splashy start to try and get ahead of the other team. I was cheering for blue. We did not win very often.

Turn, you fools!

The view of the harbor from the starting line.

We had to leave the race early so I could drop Sabrina off at the ferry home (sad face!), but I think we got a pretty good feel for it.  Had a lot of fun taking pictures, really enjoyed the scenery, and I may have convinced Guy to participate in at least one of the races next year.  Overall, I think that’s a win.

Ava and I went to the beach after dropping off Sabrina and spent a good time resting.  Except in the water some black-and-white striped fish attacked me, twice!  (Don’t worry, mom, it wasn’t that big.)  This was not so welcome, so I spent more time out of the water than usual.  Am now very, very brown.  Well, at least my top half.

Following the beach, the ALTs went on an adventure to Yunamoto to eat dinner with one of my Flamenco friends.  This very nice lady hosted me at her cottage before, where we ate lots of seafood and chattered away in Japanese.  Sunday’s was more of a usual Japanese barbeque with lots of meet and vegetables, but the food was delicious and the company even better.  More laughter ensued, Ava tried to eat a whole squid (delicious!), and I made up a song to emphasize my love for asparagus.

Finally, night fell, I sprayed myself heftily with mosquito repellant (current bite count as of today, in case you were wondering: TWENTY-TWO.  No, I’m not kidding).  We trooped onto my flamenco friend’s boat, and her very genki boyfriend drove us out into the ocean and up back to Katsumoto, again, to view fireworks.  This was, for some reason, an amazing experience.

The ocean was practically black by the time we set out, and the waves (due to a hefty wind) were pretty high.  The boat jerked and bounced, but not in a way that felt dangerous, just exciting.  We could only see the outlines of the islands surrounding Iki.  Each of us were liberally coated with ocean spray by the time we got to the harbor (about 20 minutes).  Our guides drove us to one of those ledge-thingamabobs that separate the harbor from the ocean (no, I don’t know what they’re called), and we sat back to enjoy the show.

Which was excellent.  Not as good as the one in Fukuoka, but the view here was better, and I wasn’t as obsessed with getting a good picture, so I could enjoy it more.

(Please note my poor editing skills–OMG, I’ve figured out how to add music.)

So this was a really long entry, much longer than usual, certainly, but even so, I really don’t feel like I’ve adequately explained how excellent this last weekend was.  Despite the exceedingly large amount of mosquito bites, I would do it all over again.  So great.  So much fun.  I’m so happy to be here.