So Golden Week is overwith. It was a good trip...the main activity was basically enjoying city life in Nagoya with my friend Marco (from college) and some of his friends (most of whom are Lewis & Clark graduates). At least 4 nights out of the 6 that I was there we saw the sunrise and ended up sleeping into afternoon, which limited our daytime activities. But it was fun and it was cool to see an old friend.
I took a train straight from my apartment down through Nagano and got there Friday night. Immediately we found a taco stand and ate some good Japanese tacos (I ate very little Japanese food on this trip. Mostly tacos). The next couple days were relaxing and walking around the city, taking in some shopping and city stuff, different bars (Gaijin bars and izakaya bars). After a few days we decided to check out the World Expo 2005 which was just outside of town. I figured I couldn't miss it even if I had slept through the whole morning and wouldn't see much, but it was worth it. There were tons of international pavilions and we talked to some interesting people from places like Iran, Libya, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, etc. I played with a lot of robots and ate some good Mexican food at the Mexican Pavilion.
The next couple days were still spent lounging around the city. It is such a different experience down in such a metropolis...he lives on a subway line and you can get anywhere cheaply up until midnight or so. We took in a session at an Oxygen Bar, an English book section at the bookstore, shopping, and just being crazy at night. We usually met up with Gavin, Gavin's girl (name?), a Korean guy, and a few other people here and there.
Finally we decided to get out to Kyoto for a day even though we got there in the afternoon. We hopped on the bullet train and went straight to Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) which is like the most famous place for Japanese people to go in Japan other than Mt. Fuji probably. It's a golden temple in the middle of a beautiful lake and surrounded by forest. Down the road we went to Ryoan-ji temple which I had studied in college because of its Zen gardens. That pretty much took up most of the afternoon because we got lost a little, and then settled on a cool part of town (Gion district?) where there were tons of beautiful little side alleys, each loaded with traditional architecture and restaurants, etc. We relaxed by the river and met up with Aya, the other Gavin, John, a couple more Japanese people (every one of these people went to Lewis & Clark). We had planned on heading back to Nagoya that night but missed the last train so we decided to stay up all night and enjoy Kyoto because it was just so nice to walk around and be in. So we stayed up and caught the 8 A.M. train back to Nagoya and were in bed maybe by 10 A.M.
That day we went to Nagoya castle for a little barbecue and took in the Fuji Flower bloom and I checked out the castle for a bit. Apparently I saw the very famous "Golden Dolphins" that are normally on top of the castle but they were down for display. Didn't mean a whole lot to me but I guess I was lucky to see them?
The whole castle was demolished in ww2 but a lot of the walls were original and it was pretty interesting, my first time in a big castle here. Nagoya is basically built around it but the whole of Nagoya was also demolished in the war which is why it has such a spread-out feeling...it was just rebuilt in a big flat grid pattern so there isn't really any central interesting area but mostly just the same buildings and neon for miles. But it was so great to see new stuff, and to just be in a lively city with young people everywhere. That was the most satisfying part of the trip, just to be with young people who want to have a good rowdy time and nothing much more.
About an hour after I returned to Tokamachi, my Japanese friend Take who I skied with in Taos for a year was driving through Niigata on his way back to Tochigi and stayed with me for two nights. I showed him around town and we ate some good food and had a couple nights on the town.
So, all in all it was 9 straight days and nights of heavy socializing, but all with good old friends which was really satisfying. Almost relieved to be back in my apartment to have some quiet time but definitely became accustomed to the constant lively company.
I'm back at work now and I'm enjoying it but I was slammed into it for sure. Over two days I've already had 10 lessons plus 2 private lessons, and I had to wake up at 6 am to help take down the snow barriers around our garage. By the time i got down there they were mostly finished and there was no need for more than one or two people really. But because it's Japan, EVERYBODY has to participate or show their face regardless of whether or not it's necessary. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me but I was mostly just put off by the time of day that they decided to do this work that I could do by myself in 10 minutes.
It's still cold and I still have to put on the kerosene heaters in my apartment...which you have to ventilate too...I occasionally pass out (can't tell if it's from the fumes or just exhaustion) but luckily the safety timer turns them off every three hours. There are more bugs in my apartment already though and I'm wondering if they are coming in via a new earthquake crack I found in my wall where the support collumns and walls were seperated a couple cm from each other, leaving a big gap! i'll have to figure out how to fill that in and keep the spiders out!
