China Babies and Surprise Perfection

Alright, wow. Time to actually get this posted. Sorry as always for the lateness. Things at work are starting to calm down a bit finally, so maybe I'll have more free time. I had to cut down the number of pictures I put in this post by a LOT. Between the past two weeks, I have about 350 pictures, and it's a pain in the ass to upload them to this thing. If you're still curious when I come back, I can show you some of them ><

So, one of the first times Naoko and I hung out, we went to this 100 yen shop called Daiso (I read it as Daino at first because katakana is a bitch and Naoko still laughs at me for it ><), and we saw these little coin banks you can throw your spare change in. At the time, she mentioned it would be fun to get one and save up for a trip somewhere. We didn't grab one, and I've been looking for one off and on since then. Long story short, no dice, so the weekend before last, I decided I was going to find Daiso again. With nothing but a vague suspicion of where it might be, I hopped on my bike and headed off. Three hours later, I was about to give up when I miraculously ran into Mika out of freaking nowhere and she guided me there... that counts as a victory, right? >< Well, I picked up the bank and had some Mos Burger on the way back (it was pretty damn meh). This was the result of my Daiso trip and about an hour of trying to write Kanji and Katakana in block letters...

While I was out and about, I saw a lot of stuff that I didn't take pictures of. After finding my third random temple, I decided to take a break.

This temple had a bunch of these little statues. It took me a full minute to figure out that they were the Chinese Zodiac.

It's me!

Also, best billboard ever.

Random shit from last week:

1.) I got to talk to a crazy guy. I was at lunch, minding my own business, and he decided to pop a squat next to me and start speaking to me in (admittedly decent) English. During the conversation, I was personally thanked for both the American aid to Japan with the earthquake and the money donated by Americans. That's right, I took all your credit. It's mine now. You can't have it back.

2.)

I'm constantly amazed by how much of the Engrish I see here that is in my office. It makes me pretty smaily.

3.)

Now, ostensibly Greg here is getting a checkup for a dislocated collarbone. Really, I think he's getting his brokeback checked out if you know what I mean. Manlove.

4.)

Baby samurai gonna fuck you up.

5.)

Don't worry, me and creepy statue got your back.

6.)

Unless I'm being crushed by a super small doorway.

Okay, truncated version of last week DONE. This week. Oh man, this week. Well, first I rode the train to meet Naoko near her house so we could head to Izumo Taisha! Finally. Seriously, I've made plans with like three different sets of people to go to this damn place before now, and they've always fallen through. The train ride was... pretty uneventful, really. Here, have some pictures!

This is Naoko's angry face. It is achieved by repeatedly taking pictures of her when you know she hates it then telling her it's not safe to try to cover her face because she's driving. I have just given you the recipe for adorable. You can thank me later.

The main gate of Izumo Taisha! We actually took this picture near the end of our visit because we went in through a different gate... :D

The main building of Izumo Taisha. That rope is fucking huge. Also, sorry for my really non-photogenicness breaking your eyeholes.

You're supposed to make a wish then throw a five yen coin into one of the three hanging ropes. They're made out of straw packed super tight together. I saw one person maybe succeed while we were there. My coins just bounced off ineffectually. Naoko... well, she threw like a girl ;)

We found an almost completely abandoned side shrine! Hooray!

Hey, look! A waterfall! And a Naoko!

I really like this picture. It should be pointed out that it was complete luck that I got it. I'm really not good at taking pictures.

These were the men and women signs for bathrooms there. So awesome.

That sculpture opposite the dude? It's a wave with a metal ball on top. 

Looking up the pathway to the main gate from the shrine area. The walkway is much longer than it looks here.

Cherry blossoms!

After Izumo Taisha, we went along the coast a little bit to go to another shrine. Lots of people were out fishing. It took me a minute to notice, but there were people way out in the ocean on this tiny spits of rock. There were no boats there, and I highly doubt they swam. The only conclusion I can draw is that they walk out at low tide and just fish all day... what happens if they have to go poop?

A tiny shrine on a big hunk of rock near some docks. I can only imagine the shrine is for the kami of bird poop. Wow, two poop references in a row. My inner child is overjoyed.

Here you go dad, I finally got a decent picture of the hawks that are all over around here.

A really cool dragon carving near the side temple. Naoko found this. As well as that abandoned shrine earlier. Apparently she excels at finding things I like.

Except for this. I found this. Well, I saw it first at least. It was along the road while driving to the shrine. I even saw where we could stop and walk up an old path to it. Naoko wouldn't let me. She insisted it was too scary and that there were ghosts. It looks so cool though... :(

After that, we went to a big mall in Izumo then returned to Matsue. While driving through town, we went past Masashi's bar and Naoko mentioned we should visit him that night. I should have realized something was up, she never suggests we go to bars. Mainly because she doesn't drink. So, we played some games for a while then headed out. She was texting before we left, and refused to tell me who it was. She did the same thing when we got there. I was still oblivious. It was only when we got to the top of the stairs, where Masashi was outing outside of his own bar and couldn't even say hello to me without breaking into a big grin that I suspected something was up. He ushered me into the bar, and this happened.

I would like to make the excuse that I have never, not even once in my whole life, thought even for a second that someone would throw a surprise party for me. It kinda caught me off guard and I just stared at everyone in confusion for a few seconds. I guess their deception was also aided by the fact that my birthday was still a week away, but I'll be in Kyoto then.

They had nachos. Real freaking nachos. With sour cream and cheddar cheese. You have no idea how hard those things are to find in Japan.

This is, as always, an awful picture of me and I am 110% positive Naoko would try to murder me with a pillow if she found out I posted it, but it does a good job of showing the mood. I was glad that they pulled one over on me.

They also got me ice cream cake. Everyone involved in this endeavor has earned my eternal love through beer, nachos, and ice cream cake.

I just like this picture, to be honest.

As if that wasn't enough, they also gave me presents. They gave me an awesome party, delicious food, AND PRESENTS. Not pictured are the sweets that Sarah got for me because we ate them all.

These are the presents that Naoko got for me. That picture is fucking legit. Just sayin.

We were going to go cherry blossom viewing at Matsue Castle on Monday, but it surprise rained on us. Sorry, no hanami photos this year :(

Random shit from this week:

1.) Remember those students I mentioned before? Well, they were still on break until the start of this week, so I've seen them around a few times since then. Normally we just wave, but one day they decided to talk to me. My Japanese was better this time, which caused A BUNCH of their friends to gather around to talk. A few of them actually spoke decent English. The conversation was mostly nice, but the awkward part came at the end, when I had a group of girls on one side asking me questions like "do you have a girlfriend?" and a group of guys on the other side asking questions like "do you play breast massage?" (pronounced as "do you play blest massage?") and "do you play masturbation?". That was about the time I excused myself and went back to work ><

2.) That's not the end of the saga, though! That mall in Izumo? There's a reason I mentioned it. While Naoko and I were eating there, the girl in the Minny Mouse jacket came in with her mom and friends. I got the most awkwardly scathing look ever from her mom when I waved at her. Whatever.

3.) The adorable little girl that I gave a Starburst to was at the office again this week. I didn't have any candy, but I went out to talk to her a little bit. I was rewarded with such awesome things as her running around waving an American flag and chanting "go Thomas-kun! go Thomas-kun!" and "I love you Thomas-kun!". She also stopped mid-conversation at one point to pull a bottle of juice out of her bag and tell me she liked that kind of juice like it was very important and timely information. I almost died from cuteness overload that day.

4.) Something that wasn't cute? The dude that decided to just drop trou and take a piss right in front of the post office, on the sidewalk in front of a busy street. Okay, his pants didn't technically come down, but he definitely whipped something out of them and a stream of liquid followed suit. Luckily, he was facing the opposite way from where we were driving. Naoko got VERY embarrassed when I exclaimed loudly, "Welcome to Japan!" :D

5.) I got Little Big Planet 2 recently because I figured it's something I can get Naoko to play with me. I was right. Anyways, you can dress up your character, and yesterday Naoko discovered she could put her's in a diaper with a pacifier. This spawned a series of "soandso baby!" in English. It finally culminated in her adding a fez to it and proudly exclaiming "China baby!" You know... looking at that in text, it seems like one of those "you had to be there" moments. Whatever. I couldn't stop laughing for like five minutes, and I now have a new catchphrase.

That's... holy crap, I think that's all I got. I'm sure I missed things, and the writing is probably rushed. Whatever, it's 1 AM and I have work tomorrow. Peace.

Norse God Baby!