My young friends

Wednesday was a holiday here in Japan and I had the opportunity to spend the day with some really cool people. A friend of mine, who I shall call Tanabee, graciously offered to take myself and a group of graduated young people on a road trip in his big, sweet van. We awed at mountain views, ate delicious food, engaged in English-Japanese conversations, and all around enjoyed a day off work. Please allow me to share the photos with you.

Swings at the top of a mountain…the positioning of the swings on the hill makes you gasp every time you swing out cause you feel like you’re flying over the edge.
Eating DELICIOUS cheese cake flavored ice cream…what a happy crew!

These kids are amazing people and my day with them was so fun. You can see where I get inspiration for my hairstyles. Ah, I love Japan for many reasons, but maybe the biggest is because I can be friends with folks like these. Ajimu for life!

I’ll eat anything! (maybe)

Japanese cuisine can include all kinds of wonderfully scary/tasty things—many of them being some sort of sea creature with its eyes still intact and looking at you. Sushi has become one of my favorite meals and after a year and a half here, I really enjoy eating raw octopus and fish eggs (and don’t forget the raw horse meat!).

This being said, there are still times when I must say DAME (that means “don’t”) to a particular food item.

For example, the other day I had a wonderful meal with some friends and included in one of the dishes was a happy little shrimp smiling up at me (see photo above). He looked like he had just come from the sea with all his antenna (is that what you call them?) still pointing out and his little eyes glistening in a dreamy gaze. My first clue that maybe this wasn’t the best thing to try is the fact that we had to ask the waiter, “How do you eat this?”

“Just pop him in your mouth,” we were told. Okay, sounds easy…let’s try!

I would come to regret this.
This is me feeling not only pain in my palette, but also in my mouth…you see, the little shrimp’s pointy bits were stabbing the insides of my cheeks and gums. It was kind of like chewing on long tooth picks.

In the end I managed to get it all down…but was left with some mouth pain and a lingering taste of shrimpy saltiness. Not the best moment of my week, but I did feel stronger for the experience.

Now, please don’t let this discourage any of you from trying the many exciting dishes Japan has to offer. The food here really is amazing and I have rarely had a bad experience (this shrimp story was an anomaly—that’s why I’m writing about it…and I just wanted to throw up an update).

Two Wrongs Make a Right

First, just to explain the title, the above photo is of my dear friends, Jared and Steph Long…but in Japan where “l” and “r” is a mystery for some, their name sometimes becomes “Wrong”. Get it?

Anyway, as you all know, I live a very glamorous life out here in Ajimu. My weekdays are filled with uniform-clad teenagers and countryside serenity…and my weekends are 48 hours of pure Bacchus-inspired merriment.

Well, sort of.

The last two weekends have been fun times as I’ve had the chance to hang out with Jared and Steph (and they are such nice people!). Last weekend was the 80’s dance in Oita City where Jared was DJ-ing and I was dressed up as Spike from TRANSFORMERS (maybe two of you will know who Spike is). The night started slow but gradually grew to a pretty groovy dance party (in part due to my really great idea of group tequila shots!). See below.

Lick it, shoot it, suck it!

This past weekend, the Longs came out to the inaka to visit me and enjoy some of the sites that the countryside has to offer. I rarely get visitors, but am always happy to serve as tour guide.

Steph and Jared at the Ajimu waterfall (Kyushu’s tallest).

Jared and I after we had just passed a group of Korean tourist who wanted to give us all high fives…it was pretty funny (Steph said Jared and I looked “special” in this photo).

Fun times, yo. KOREA!

Tokyo, Yokohama, and My Birthday!

The breakdown: I spent 5 days up in Tokyo (Japan’s mega capital) and Yokohama (city just beside Tokyo that has a futuristic utopian feel) to attend a conference and celebrate my birthday (February 28th, thanks everyone for the messages and wishes). Lisa was my primary travel companion and besides her weird urges for almonds and zero calorie jelly, we had a great time together.

The above picture is Landmark Tower in Yokohama that served as our, well, landmark as we navigated the spotless streets and long moving walkways of the city (seriously, Yokohama made me think of Earth in the Star Trek universe—all perfect and peaceful with white buildings and ferries wheels).

Even though I’ve been to Tokyo before, there are still many parts of the city I wanted to explore. To help with this, I opted for a FREE TOUR of these desired areas with a volunteer tour guide (check out tokyofreeguide.com). Below is a picture of our guide, his friend, and Lisa. They’re all Japanese…can you spot the Japanese-American? With our guide’s knowledge of the city, Lisa and I had a fun time and accomplished our sightseeing goals (even though Lisa kept wanting to go into weird stores that made our guide nervous).

After two days and about 11 billion yen in Tokyo, we headed over to Yokohama for our conference. Lisa continued to crave almonds and zero calorie jelly (at this point I started emailing her boyfriend asking if I should intervene or something) and we enjoyed a night out in the area’s renowned China Town to celebrate my quarter century mark (25, baby!). Below are pictures of the evening…and after spending several days up in the Kanto area, we were all saying things like, “I’m almost out of money!” or “Either I have another beer tonight or lunch tomorrow…can’t swing both” It was cool.

Lisa, Rhoda, and Andy in China Town

Crazy British Andy and me...we ordered the same thing!

And here's Lisa and Rhoda...also ordered the same food!

Lisa! (where are your almonds now!)

Boku wa nekojita desu!