Let's see, where did I leave off? I think the end of Golden Week. The last day (I think) of Golden Week, I went to Unnan City with Naoko and a few friends. We went hiking, had some delicious lunch, and visited an old iron foundry (although that term is a bit misleading. It was mainly just one building and most of the stuff was belowground where we couldn't see it.) It was really nice. I've been wanting to go hiking since I got here. I've done a few minor treks on my own, but it wasn't really what I would call hiking. To be honest, this wasn't either, but it was at least a bit closer. We went to Dragon's Head Falls, which was a little bit crowded.
I like this picture because it looks like we're tilting the earth. Makes me kinda dizzy if I look at it long enough.
Group picture, yay!
There's bears in them thar hills!
This was the actual waterfall. Nothing amazingly impressive, but it was still pretty.
I climbed up behind it and got some more pictures!
We were supposed to climb Mt. Daisen the weekend after that (or maybe two weekends after?), which would have been real hiking. I even bought hiking boots and everything. Unfortunately, this is the rainy season in Japan. This fact completely caught me off guard by the way. Anyways, we got rained out on our planned day. Oh well. Someday I'll actually get to go to Daisen. Instead, Naoko and I went to see the fourth Pirates movie. It was pretty awful, but I can console myself with the fact that I figured it would be going in. There were actually three things that were of note about it though.
1.) This was my first time going to a movie theater in Japan.
2.) The tickets cost 2,200 yen a pop (for a 3D show). That means I spent about $55 for two tickets to a overwhelmingly average movie. Wow, that hurts even more when I see it in writing.
3.) I officially felt homesick for the first time. Not the occasional little "I miss Chipotle" or "man, it'd be cool to go see my friends right now" that I get on a weekly basis. Something about Yonago, the rainy night, or the movie theater was just way too much like home. I was full-on despondent and confused for an entire evening. It was unnerving and I didn't like it. Next morning it was gone though.
Okay, I'm no sure that was the weekend before this most recent one, which means I don't really remember what I did on the weekend after Golden Week at all. I'm almost positive I sat at home and did nothing. See, this is why I need to update this thing more often. You people know how bad my memory is, why didn't you say something sooner?! Jerks...
On Sunday, Naoko and I did a bit of shopping, and I saw this awesome monster mask in one of the makeup shops she took me to.
Something tells me it actually has something to do with makeup, but I choose to believe that women put this on their face and pretend to be monsters. That's probably way cooler than what it's actually used for anyways.
We also visited a few thrift stores trying to find used weights (since weights here are ridiculously fucking expensive). We found no weights, but we did see some awesome stuff like "Let's Beer". I can't argue with you, box, you're so persuasive. Also, Naoko has officially confirmed there are Magic cards in Japan. Her brother used to collect them.
Just when you thought it couldn't get any better, Let's Beer Great hits the scene! What's so great about it? It's Engrish and beer combined! How was this thrift store not a smoking crater irradiated with awesomonium? Why was I not bitten by a radioactive beer bottle and turned into awesomeman immediately upon entering the vicinity? WHY DIDN'T I BUY THIS THING?!
After that, we went shopping with Masashi. He wanted me to visit a few shops that his friends owned. A couple of clothes stores, to be precise. The first one had shirts that cost 7,000 yen (almost $100) and the second one didn't have much of interest to me, but had some interesting handmade leather stuff. That being a bust and all, we went to an onsen. It's my second time being to one, and this one was much larger than the one before. It was refreshing, but once again I get really light headed. This time I actually kind of fell over, but I passed it off as saying I thought the step was lower down then I thought. I'm still distinctly uncomfortable getting naked around a bunch of people, especially since I actually knew one of them this time, but I found a couple of tricks to get over it. Trick 1: Don't really think about the fact that you're getting naked. Sounds weird, but I just kind of let the thought slip from my mind every time it cropped up, and somehow that worked. Trick 2: Don't let your eyes focus on anything, even if you think it's safe. See, the thing about an onsen, especially a crowded one, is that it is, in reality, nothing more than a steamy jungle of hairy man-dong. You can't avoid this. You're going to see some, and you should just count yourself lucky that it's not leaping from the bushes like a tiger to mangle you and leave you weeping in a corner. But we're all big kids, and seeing another man's dangly bits in passing isn't going to kill us. However, if you're focusing on something that you happen to think is a safe area and it is suddenly invaded by a flopping Donkey Kong (I am amazed an endlessly amused that that works as a euphemism for penis), that shit is kind of unnerving. Just learn to not really look at anything, and you'll be fine. I lack pictures of this visit for obvious reasons.
After that, Masashi took us to an all-you-can eat yakiniku place that only costs 1,600 yen per person (20 bucks a head. Yes, that is cheap here).
Happy Yakiniku was happy! :D
Random Shit:
1.)
I would feel remiss in my duties as that annoying guy that won't shut the hell up about his girlfriend if I didn't remind you that Naoko is, indeed, still adorable. She drew this. Except the ghost. That was all me. She also sat semi-patiently through a DnD session I had over Skype, and drew some more pictures for my fellow nerds.
Hello from Japan!
This is Danielle. I'm pretty sure it means Naoko thinks she's ugly. Trust me on this one, I know what I'm talking about.
Here's Ryan. Apparently Naoko remembers him for having good teeth and showing her a cat.
And this... well, this is Damon. This picture was originally much more flattering, but I made the comment that he looked kind of angry (he really did). Thus, Naoko prettied him up and made him into a China Baby. The shirt is her interpretation of his zombie Mona Lisa shirt.
2.) One of my students recently informed me that she refers to me as "Tomuo" when she talks about me (wait, she talks about me? Why?). See, many Japanese male names end with "o", and "Tomu" is how you say Tom in Japanese, because you can't just end on a consonant unless it's an "n". Now, this is something I am almost 100% positive you don't know about me, but I actually like nicknames. I've had exactly three actual nicknames (aka, ones that weren't just randomly made up and used for one night) in my entire life. One was given to me when I was super young while at a playground. I don't remember where it was, why I was there, how long I was there, or who I was there with, but I know it wasn't one I normally went to. I spent maybe an hour playing with this kid there, and he decided that my nickname was "T" after expressing his amazement over the fact that I did not previously have a nickname. I know this flies in the face of the addendum I started this list with, what with the whole only being used for an hour thing, but the guy happened to be black. Yeah, that's probably racist, but I don't even care. It legitimizes the nickname. It's like getting a clean bill of health from a doctor. Some people just have the authority to certify these things. The little homie even checked it out with his mom, who give it her approval (I'm not even joking, one of the only things I remember about this kid is he was the littlest gangster I've ever seen). The second "nickname" was actually a number of nicknames all given to me by James playing off the original nickname Eddison (yes, another exception by bundling them all into one, but they're all from the same source). Now my third is Tomuo. I am collecting these things and hoarding them like gold, because they're interesting and I can't figure out why I like them.
Huh, in retrospect this is probably the most bizarre post I've written to date. I was only paying attention to half of it, but I'm pretty sure I wrote an entire paragraph about onsen man-dong. Sorry mom.
It's uh... rainy season here in NorCal too this year, apparently. Yesterday, June 1st, we had a massive thunderstorm complete with marble-sized hail. Terrifying, let me tell you.
返信削除Dude, outside of blog comments and Facebook, is there any other way to contact you directly? Would be cool just to catch up. You can message me on FB to tell me, I still check it once a week since it's several friends' preferred method of communication.