Monday, December 7, 2009

Days 57-71 in Summary

Strangelove of Joyful Tomoka (Day 60) 11/26/09

The first midterm of the semester began at 9am in the morning; and it was kanji. Good Greif. It was ok, as hard as I expected it, and studying till 2am the night before with Eva was very helpful. Unfortunately for us, Takehara sensei decided to put random vocabulary on the test we barely even covered in the last 5 minutes of class the week before. Other than that it went well (I ended up getting a B!). From class Eva and I went with Jesse, Riika and LuLu to AmPm, our normal place to go Thursday. We have been going so often now, that we are on first name and talking basis with the staff who work there. We go there a lot it seems… . For my globalization class we were treated to an excellent movie, “Dr. Strangelove”, which I had not seen before. It was great, and is now one more Stanley Kubreck (did I spell that right?) film that I have managed to see. It was awesome. From Dr. Strangelove and class Eva, Me and some of our friends went off to surprise one our tutors, Tomoka. Plans changed many times before during the day. It became complex, far more complex than we had planned on, but whatever, we were determined to surprise Tomoka. So when we got back to Oita station we walked a bout 20 mins or so to Joyfull, the local “Denny’s”-esque family restaurant chain. There with friends we ate food and talked and I gotta say the food was a bit sad. Having eaten there for the 3rd time by this point, the food seems to get worse over time somehow, which for me, doesn’t bode well. After Joyfull we brought Tomoka back to the Kaikan and in the lobby we surprised her with cards, gifts and a cake from Ashley. She was really happy, moved to tears even (she said it was her first surprise party). It was fun, sitting there hanging out with friends and celebrating Little Tomoka’s 19th birthday. After sitting in the lobby for awhile, playing cards and trading music with Tomoka we parted ways and some people walked Tomoka back to the station, helping her carry the numerous bags she had received.

Get Lost in the City to Find Music (Day 61) 11/27/09

After Nanri’s class Friday we all rushed off excitedly to Oita station, because we were leaving for Fukuoka for Sumo. We had planned this awhile back, and now we were finally going. We were all excited, talking about what we’d do once we got there. Eva and my friends Ryousuke and Hide were going to meet us in Fukuoka and take us clubbing so wee were excited to see them again. When we got back to the station we grabbed our money, our snacks for the bus and at 4:40 we boarded and headed off to Fukuoka, 2 and a half hours away. The bus we sat on had lots of leg room, a bathroom, T.V. screens and comfy seats. It was the cheapest and nicest way I have travelled in awhile. With us were Fabian, Marion, Quinn, Mina, Riika, Jesse, Ashley, Charlotte, Nora, Gerard and Seulgi. The others, John, Zack, Mike, and Matt were going to meet us the next day. We got into Fukuoka around 7pm that night we wandered around the bus terminal looking for where Hide and Ryosuke were. While trying to find them, we realized Ashley and Riika got off at the wrong stop so they went to the subway to go find their hotel, while Seulgi and charlotte took a taxi to their Korean hotel. Having temporarily solved those problems the rest of us not Korean or lost, headed off to our Hostel close by. It was clean and cheap (only 30$ a night) so we were happy. We dropped off our things, got ready for the evening and went to the station to wait for others. When we got there, after 45mins of waiting we finally got everyone but Gerard ( who had come on a later bus and got off at the wrong station, but decided the hour long walk from his station was do-able) and went to dinner. We had a Fukuoka specialty called Motsu-nabe*. It was really good, and we all had a lot of beer. At the end of the meal we lamented at the high cost of the meal, which Hide and Ryosuke had not mentioned, so we foreigners lamented the loss of our money. Having paid our do’s we went with a slightly drunk Ryosuke as he zigzagged us on foot around the city to the club we were going to. It took an hour of walking and by the time we got there we were a bit tired and miffed; until we got into the club. It was really cool, 2 free drinks for the guys with the entrance fee and the girls could drink as much as they wanted. The club had huge sound, lots of lights and even a fog machine that would go off based on the music. It was a great time dancing, and the DJ could really spin some good dance music. We ended up staying at the club from about 11:30pm until 5am in the morning. I drank a lot more and danced and we all danced and partied through the evening. It was awesome. Abiding a few creepy guys it was a fun time

*Motsu nabe is a hot pot with locally grown Fukuoka vegetables and meat, with noodles added the simmers over a fire in a large wok. It’s VERY, VERY good.


Rest, Recover, Party and Repeat (Day 62)

At 10am I woke up with a pounding headache. The price of partying was steep indeed. We all had to clear out of the Hostel by 11am so we showered and brushed our teeth packed and stumbled about while doing so. 4 ½ of sleep + hangover = shitty. Having cleared out, we headed to Mos Burger for some food and somewhere to sit. I sat there eating only half my food and feeling dizzy, so I asked for some water, multiple times and was kindly helped out by the people there. We sat in Mos burger till 2:30 at first waiting for friends and then just finishing the recovery from our evening. We headed off to sumo, feeling lot better and when we got there ( after waiting some time to help mike find a way in, having left his ticket back in Oita) we sat down in our seat. Our seats were toward the top of the stadium, far from the stage, but as far as we were concerned we could see everything pretty well, so the seats were just fine (if not a bit uncomfortable). So for the next 2 ½ hours we watched sumo and it was pretty cool. There was a lot of ritual between each match but the sumo itself was really cool. There were definitely some gnarly take-downs we saw. We left a little early because some people wanted to catch their bus to Nagasaki and the rest of us wanted to get back to Oita. So we split off, got some food for the bus and headed back to Oita. At 10pm we got back and went to drop off our things in the kaikan. We got ready and left for yet another night of clubbing. Eva, Jesse, Nora and myself were invited to the PEI pub for drinks and dancing. Even though we were really tired, we felt obligated to go, because Hide and Ryosuke were only in town for a short while. So we got to the club and at first Eva wasn’t feeling her best so we took some time outside to give her some fresh air. Minami, Jesse and Jun came outside to check on us and after awhile we went back in. Inside we danced and drank a little. During our time there, there was a 30 minute window for free drinks, so some people took advantage of that boon. Jun was shit-faced drunk and dancing strange and getting way to close for talking, but we all thought it was kinda funny, till he started to throw up. He passed out a bit, head sagging over a bucket. We were worried, and had to help him down the stairs. Albert, our friend from the Marshall islands, held Jun up and guided him SLOWLY down the stairs as I slowly backed down the stairs with a bucket pointed at Jun’s head. It was slow going, Jun had no strength to help out at all. It wasn’t just Jun though, thankfully, some other people were pretty sick and even Ryosuke threw up in the club. I was glad I had not drunk anywhere near as many as they had. Hide looked ok but he stumbled at the slightest touch so we knew he was gone also. We got Jun, Ryousuke, Hide, and poor Jesse who had to babysit them into a taxi and off to their apartment. Eva and I just walked home feeling relieved we hadn’t got the trashed. It had been a long, long day.

The End of the World with Dice (Day 63)

Sunday came and we slept. I slept till noon and felt great. That night after much needed grocery shopping Eva and I went off with Jesse, Minami, Albert, and Kame to go watch a movie and eat at Ethnic Bros. for some bomb ass Mexican food. They were full however so we settled on a small and hidden Izakaya where we ate random drinking snacks and beer until the movie. We ran out of the Izakaya and got to the movie. We watched 2012 with popcorn ( the movies and food were actually a bit cheaper here in Oita than back in the States). The movie was mediocre with its only saving grace the stunning CGI. After the movie we headed ot another Izakaya to continue our night. There we got delcious food for cheap and the drink as much as you want was cheap also, only 1-12$ for an hour and a half. So we enjoyed ourselves eating and drinking. By drinking I mean play an awesome drinking game involving dice. Its called 7-11 or doubles and its definitely the best drinking game I have ever played. It was amazingly fun. We cleared out of the Izakaya at midnight and went back home. We are definitely doing that again!

Christian Martyr on the Mountain (Day 67) 12/2/09

This whole week felt like it started early, every day. Today we had a field trip to Tsukumi, Kamae and Saiki. This trip started when the bus left at 8:50am in the morning, which is way too damn early but what choice did we have? The first stop was a t a memorial for the Christian martyrs at the beginning of the Edo period. The shogun had ordered all foreign Christians to leave and the citizens/ foreigners that refused to convert were slaughtered. This memorial was to honor those 30,000 some odd people that had been killed in the onslaught. A bit morbid for the morning but it did catch our attention. From there we went to Tsukumi to visit the grave of Ohtomo Sorin, and Japanese man who was Christian and supported the underground Christian movement during the Edo anti-christian period. We walked around the mountain, visiting both the real and fake graves ( yes, there’s a fake one, to throw off the former anti-Christian regime). The mountain was really pretty, full of autumn colors and grand vistas. We left Tsukumi and after an hour we arrived in Kamae for a seafood lunch. Kamae is famous in the region for its seafood so we were taken to an esteemed seafood restaurant in the area. I chose the fish sashimi and it was very savory and delicious. A lot of people had opted ofr the beef which I thought was funny considering where we were. After lunch we went to Saiki to visit the castle ruins on top of the mountain. A lot of us chose to take the scenic route up the mountain. While gorgeous and awe inspiring as the nature was, we climbed up outcropping roots, uneven patches of rock and a very wild and steep natural staircase to the top of the mountain. At the top, the tower ruins stood along with a nearly 360 degree view of the surrounding land, and even the sea. It was amazing, a very beautiful sight to behold. We took the easier root down the mountain and by the time we got to the bus, many people were pretty tired. We got back to the Kaikan at about 4:30 and we split off for a nap before dinner. At around 6, we went off together, a group of 14 of us to Ethnic Bros, and were lucky enough to get in. We had our food and fun and talked about the day, which had been, besides tiring, a lot of fun.

Teacher’s doing Karoke (Day 71) 12/6/09

A lot of people are in Okinawa now. Eva and I went to go check out the food floors of the large department store Tokiwa and had fun food shopping around all the different yummy looking things. That evening we went with the Ando’s again and we had delicious dinner, a make your own sushi meal, and talked about many things, in Japanese of course. After dinner Eva and I gave our 2nd English lesson to both Chiemi and some of her friends and family. We had doubled the class size since last time so Eva and I must have been doing well. It was a lot of fun, teaching them English for 2 hours or so, the only trouble being pronouncing certain words. Chiemi and Papa drove us back around 9:30pm and we rested a bit till 10:30. At 10:30 we met Seulgi, Nora, Koji outside with Charlotte. With Charlotte her younger sister from Korea, Alex, had come to visit her and we met her for the first time. She is very nice and speaks really good English, like her sister. We headed off together for some Karaoke on the bottom floor of Parco. We stayed there for 3 hours singing and having fun and got back around 3am. It was fun meeting Charlotte’s sister and singing, even if there were only 6 of us.

1 comment:

  1. Oh!! yes indeed, i had lots of fun looking in the Oita products section :) What a month, right? :) fun fun fun!

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