That One Day We Tried to Go Swimming

Last weekend, we went to the beach. By "we" I mean a somewhat arbitrary group of people assembled primarily through luck and happenstance, and lacking the initial leader of the expedition.

This group, in fact, minus our friend Nayu who left early.

Once we got to the beach area, there was the usual stripping of clothing and shuffling of extra swimwear to the people who'd forgotten to bring their own, and then we all went into the water. After around 20 minutes or so of normal, we're-in-shallow-water-with-friends-type activities, we spied a couple of men on jet skis a little ways out. While we watched, they seemed to notice us as well, and came over. Neither of them spoke any English whatsoever, but we managed to make out that they were offering to let us go for a ride (it helped that we had Kouta with us, and he actually, you know, speaks Japanese). Of course we said yes, and so for the next several hours we all took turns riding, driving, and being towed behind (on a large yellow inflatable raft) the jet skis. 

An activity interrupted only by a completely necessary sword fight with conveniently-sized driftwood.

After the first round of crazy jet ski adventures, we all stood around with the jet ski guys and their families (they were having a bit of a BBQ) and talked for awhile. Then, out of seemingly nowhere, the two initial riders decided that they wanted to have one more go, and let three of us tag along. This happened to be Paula, Kouta, and I, although after an initial couple of minutes Kouta fell off and swam back to shore. Seeing this, I transferred from the jet ski Paula and I were on to the newly un-passengered one, and then the fun began. Our two drivers, you see, decided that the best way to let their mildly terrified passengers experience the thrills of jet skiing was to have a sort of "who can do the craziest stunts without capsizing" competition. There was a point in time where they seemed on a fairly steady track to creating a miniature whirlpool between the two of them, as they were both driving in the same circle with a considerable amount of speed. Later on I was treated to the full extent of a jet ski's power and speed, as my driver pressed down fully on the gas and took off into the ocean. It was one of the best experiences I've ever had. I don't think I've felt that much uncontaminated happiness in a long, long time. 

Paula and I with one of the drivers, Kohei.

A rather useless picture of us playing what appeared to be the Japanese jet ski version of chicken. We were far enough out that there were no clear pictures taken of us while we were riding.

We did have to leave eventually, and so we went back to Akita city for dinner. We ended up getting Okonomiyaki, make-it-yourself style, which was as delicious as it always is. The self-cooking did cause the meal to last a little longer than it otherwise would have, but it was a generally good time for all. Crepes were acquired at a stand near the station for dessert, and then we started our journey homewards. 

All in all, I'd say it was a successful day out at the beach.

Cataloging

New Friend Rundown (AKA: That day when I facebook stalked all my friends to find decent representative pictures of them that possibly had me in them as well in an attempt to slightly assuage my guilt at using them).

Paula: I believe the first time we met was on a bus back from the mall, and we got along well enough, but the next day we started talking and realized just how well we work together. Even later we realized we're in the same Japanese class, and so our friendmance began (it's like a romance, except we don't kiss. Except we did kiss that one night at the bar, so really I'm not sure what to call it). We keep accidentally keeping each other up until ungodly hours of the morning simply because neither of us wants to leave the conversation.

Paula and my friend from last semester, Kouta. Also Peter in the background praising something, and presumably someone else behind him. Oh, and me looking slightly more boyish than usual, possibly due to Martin's shirt.

Also, this happens to us ALL THE TIME. Its amusing.

Martin: My extremely liberal, woman's studies friend who hails from Ireland. Really nice guy, and has been letting me teach him acroyoga so that I don't get out of practice. He's also on rugby with me (by the way I joined rugby) and in my sociolinguistics class, so I end up seeing him a fair amount. 

Decent face shots are hard to come by, so instead here's one of us fencing with sticks on the beach in swimsuits. 

Sam: My dance partner. They know Ballroom (and all that that encompasses), West Coast Swing, some Tango, and are currently learning Break Dancing. Our dances are mainly Waltzes, Swings, or some odd sort of fusion-esque combinations reminiscent of Sunday nights at Om in Seattle. They are a very strong lead, and if I ever get confident enough to switch, I believe also a fairly accomplished follow. So far we've agreed to meet on Fridays for an uninterrupted hour or so of dancing, although we tend to run into each other throughout the week and will occasionally do a waltz or two for fun.

Bad, blurry dance picture, but fairly representative of a typical evening in Komachi Lobby.

Hannes: From the same university as my other German friend from last semester, oddly enough. He has a really great tree tattoo on his bicep which never fails to remind me of the one I want to get when I get back. We mainly see each other at parties and the (basically) campus bar, although we do have a class together every Tuesday and Thursday. He led me and our friend Helen on a hike through the woods/swampy area place the second week he was here. And this last weekend he just up and left to take himself on a camping trip into the surrounding hills. Because really, why not?

A picture Helen took from that hike. It has been pointed out to me that the branches behind my head look rather like horns. I am in full support of this idea.

Simon: An extraordinarily cynical and sarcastic British man. Our primary forms of interaction oscillate wildly between flirting and insulting everything the other holds dear. We never really plan to hang out but he tends to be in the general vicinity enough that we've built up a fairly strong friendship on mutual sarcasm and insincerity. He's pretty fun to have around.

  

Edit: A picture was taken! Simon is the one giving me a massage. No idea whose butt that is on the right though.

And that essentially concludes the new friend round up, for the moment. Of course, there are others, and some returning players from last semester that I didn't feel like introducing again, but these are the main people I hang out with. Other names I should mention: Ryoko (the girl who's papers I usually edit), Ryusei (a friend from last semester and also Hannes's roommate), Kouta (who is by anyone's definition certifiably crazy, but a lot of fun to be around) and Hiro (who continues to be a pretty solid friend).

I will doubtlessly meet/become closer to more people throughout the course of the Semester, but for now, I will end this, and get back to letter writing. I have a LOT of letters to write...

Cheers!

Grapefruit Theft Makes Tasty Snacks

Okay, first, a note: I have been silent for far too long, and I do apologize. Time got a bit away from me after I came back from my vacation, and between new classes and new people and somewhat successful attempts at staying in touch with the old ones, I've had far less time than I'd grown accustomed to for my own writings. I promise I'll try to make space more often now on for such communications, it's making me feel a tad twitchy as well.

Anyways, onto the blog.

As some of you may know, I had my version of a summer vacation here during the month of August. To celebrate this, I, along with two friends, went traveling. Specifically we visited Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo.

The street we stayed on in Kyoto. It was pretty damn gorgeous.

Because the other two were chronically late risers and could not be convinced to do otherwise, I took to getting up around 7 or 8 and taking myself out for breakfast. Generally I would simply pick a direction and walk, as cafes are plentiful enough in Japan that this was a viable option for food-findage. 

This particular place served "Bread with Chocolate," which, when delivered, turned out to be two slices of toast, a saucer full of Hershey's chocolate sauce and a miniature spoon. It was fantastic.

We did manage to do some sight-seeing things as well, once Chase and Cami woke up. In Kyoto we went to some pretty brilliant shrines, got lost a bunch, walked far longer than any of us would have liked in the sun, and bought ridiculously expensive fans. You know. Touristy things. 

Shrine gates for daaaaaayyyys. But really there were hundreds of them all the way up the mountain. I was impressed.

Chase graciously modeling my new fan for me. It has bamboo on the front.

And speaking of bamboo, I found a rather large growth of it, so of course I had to hug it.

Also, Cami stole a grapefruit from a shrine, in an area that was off limits to the public (to be fair, we didn't realize that going in). We all felt slightly bad about that, but we ate it anyways. It tasted like adventure.

Then, after a 9 hour overnight bus ride, we finally got to Tokyo. We hostel jumped a lot there, but despite sleeping in 4 separate places during the duration of our stay, we still managed to be in the general neighborhood of Asakusa. This suited me fine, because shortly after arriving at our first lodgings I accidentally befriended the grumpy, 50 year old owner of an English bookshop down the street. I noticed that he had a bag of tin whistles behind the counter and asked to play one, and he was apparently so startled by me, a random 20 year old American girl, being able to play Irish folk songs that it shocked him into friendship. We ended up talking until 5am that night, with occasional breaks for tin whistle or hand drum lessons. This bookshop happened to have a bar in it as well, and I ended up spending quite a few nights drinking with him and the only other regular. 

Said other regular had me over several times for lunch, and made some pretty fantastic salads and fish dishes. He also automatically made me tea whenever I visited, which was somewhat wonderful.

In Tokyo I discovered the benefits of traveling alone. As I was spending so many of my nights at the bookshop, I didn't see Cami or Chase as much, but I got to meet some pretty interesting people, make new friends, and hear of stories and adventures that I otherwise never would have been privy to. I really enjoyed it; waking up early for coffee breakfast with a book or some letter paper, going out for lunch with random people from my hostel, and then ending each night at the bookshop, drinking and talking and having fun. I think I'd do well traveling alone, although not for too long. I do start to miss steady companionship after awhile. 

A fairly good representative picture Chase took of me on the night my friend Bartosz, along with seemingly half the school, got on a bus to the airport and never came back. This was my "WHY IS EVERYONE LEAVING???" face. 

So. That was my vacation. Apologies again for the long wait, I've gotten several emails and messages in the last couple of weeks asking me what the heck I've been up to. I'll write up something on my classes soon, as well as general new-people cataloging (actually, do any of you want to hear about that? Are people observations of interest to you, o viewers of my blog?). Until then, as my new Irish friends keep saying, cheers!