Ok this weeks been pretty awesome so Ill get straight to it.
When I got back to work on Saturday one of my kid students asked me if I could come to his house that night. I was a little confused but I said if its ok with ur mum then cool. I later found out that his parents were having a “Nabe” (Japanese stew) party and the other teachers had all been invited. Never being one to turn down a free meal, I agreed of course.
I had also agreed to meet some friends in the pub later, so had to go home to get changed after work. Unfortunately the party started at 5 and I finished work at about 10 past 3. It usually takes between 45 minutes and an hour for me to get to work, but because it was a Saturday the buses were well irregular. Anyway I eventually got back to the school (they lived next door to the school) well late but no one seemed particularly annoyed so it was all good.
When we got to their apartment Naoto (my 6 year old student) opened the door to us, and we met the rest of the family, (although they all come to ACC for their English lessons so some teachers knew the other family members). Naoto had a kid brother Shun which made 4 in their family, and there were 4 of us teachers making it an 8 person party (although as I`ve mentioned in previous blogs it is not unusual to have a fairly low number at a “food party”).
Their apartment was proper nice and had a corridor and everything making it at least 10 times the size of mine. When I got in there the women (the other teachers are all female) were given aprons and asked if they wanted to help make the nabe. This left me pretty empty handed so to avoid sitting awkwardly in the corner of the room I decided to play with the kids. This proved to be more fun than expected as Naoto had a bitching train set. As it was Japanese, he had a load of remote controlled shinkansens with flashing lights and sirens and all that stuff.
I found playing with Naoto was A LOT easier than teaching him. Whilst he`s a really sweet kid, every Saturday he causes a lot of trouble and doesn`t pay much attention. Still he always says “Sorry Jack sensei” so I end up thinking “He`s not so bad”. Anyway he`s nothing compared to my Monday hellraiser who I`ve mentioned in the past, so it`s ok.
After Naoto showed me all his toys (and hes a fairly well off Japanese kid so there was a lot of toys), we were invited to the table on the floor to start on the Nabe. There was a gas cooker on the table to keep it hot and bubbling and also there was still loads of food that hadn’t been cooked which would be added later. I wont bore you with a list of fish vegetables and meat that was put in but there was a lot.
Every time the amount of food in the pot diminished, more was added, and since I have the bad habit of not being able to leave food behind ended up eating a ridiculous amount. Despite my stomach complaining occasionally I figured I was ok, until they brought out the dessert which was cakes, followed by strawberries, followed by tea and biscuits. I stupidly ate everything and by this time my stomach was not happy. In addition to the colossal amount of food I had ingested I had also been drinking beer throughout the meal which doesn’t agree wit
h my stomach at the best of times. Somehow I managed to keep it together, and after an hour or so watching Japanese TV (which was awesome by the way, they had this monkey gameshow where they set challenges for monkeys using bananas as incentives. Then they started dressing them up in schoolboy uniforms and as a farmer and it all got a bit weird but hey that’s Japanese TV for you) I headed out to the pub to meet my friends. When I got there there was a massive group together, most of whom I knew. In fact I would go as far to say they`re my “crew” in Nagoya.
After drinking heavily (screw you stomach!) me, my friend Callie and my new friend Michyo headed out to find a Ska night which was apparently happening. It was ridiculously cold outside so we hurried. On the way it started snowing really heavy and then it got really difficult. We stopped at a combini to get some food and some charge for Callies phone. In Japan at all combinis you can buy portable battery chargers for your phone so if you do run out of battery you`re never far from anywhere to get some juice (as combinis are EVERYWHERE!).
After a while we got to “Club Buddha” which was on the 4th floor of a Sakae building. When we got there we found it was not ska but actually “Rocksteady and Reggae” which I thought was really cool. However the ridiculous amount of cigarette smoke together with the ridiculously laid back vibe together with the fact I had eaten a ridiculous amount meant I started to get well sleepy.
Anyway we got some drinks and chatted to this random bloke called Toru who was an optometrist (a bad one by his own admission), but a funny and interesting guy. After an hour or so we decided to leave being as things weren`t hectic enough. We said our goodbyes to Toru and headed out. On the way we saw someone lying down on the floor fully asleep. I found out that in Japan its ok to sleep in clubs. Anyone who`s nodded off in a British club will testify to the fact that bouncers have no mercy in throwing someone out who`s trying to catch a quick kip. In Japan its ok though, and people do it regularly. I guess if its ok to sleep in Manga cafes and the subway then why not nightclubs? In the UK I understand the idea is to keep out people who have drunk so much that they can no longer retain consciousness. But in Japan sleeping in public is so normal that its not frowned upon. I suppose its assumed that its more down to exhaustion from the intense working hours than from drinking too much (although in reality its probably a combination of both). In any case it was another reminder of Japans superiority over
Britain.
When we left the club the snowing had gotten worse. We decided to try to find a House club to wake us up. After tracking back and forth between pretty much every club in Sakae and finding there were no House nights tonight we decided to go back to the pub to get some warmth and ideas. By this stage it was around 2. After a short drink we headed to find a club whos location Michyo wasn’t sure about. Throughout the night she had been the one ferrying us between clubs being as she had lived in Nagoya a lot longer than me and Callie and actually knew where she was going. She had a sense of direction which I found astounding. I have lived in Nagoya nearly 6 months now and still can only negotiate about 20% of Sakae, and being as all the clubs are pretty tucked away, someone like Michyo was essential.
She once again managed to find the club although they were pushing hip hop. After chatting to someone hanging round outside we had 2 more leads, and went to check them out. Both times we found they were not what we were after. In the end we decided to head back to one of the hip hop clubs we had been to earlier. At this stage Michyo said she was too tired and so would go home.
Me and Callie went into “Lush” and paid the 2500 yen (around 11 quid) entrance fee despite having already paid the same entrance fee at the reggae club earlier (Nights out in Japan are so expensive!). When we got in there things had degenerated into a sleazefest replicating Roppongis notorious “Gaspanic” bar (No Tits, No Ass, No Service). There were some extremely scantily clad girls, totally wasted dancing on the bar, stage and even the DJ booth. The barman, DJ and some of the male punters had all decided to take their shirts off. Still we had taken a leap of faith and there was no going back. At least we were out of the snow.
After a couple of overpriced drinks the music change
d from hip hop to Ubergay Eurohouse with the odd gem thrown in (Daft Punk). It ended up being quite a good night, and at the end when the lights came on and the music switched off I was a bit surprised to see nobody leaving. Then I realized it was another 30 minutes before the trains started and I guess nobody wanted to be out in the snow at this time waiting around.
Me and Callie sat down and started chatting to the DJ. After a while the other staff came and joined us. It turns out that they`re pretty much all DJs and took great pleasure in telling us when their sets would be and where. After saying goodbye to our new found friends me and Callie went our separate ways and when I got home went straight to bed.
The next day had an event at the end of it which I had been anticipating for sometime which was the Carling cup final between Spurs and Chelsea. After finding out that my TVU internet thingy would not be showing the game live I settled for the fact that my friend Raul would be taping it off cable (No sports bars are open late enough on a Sunday to show it and even if they were train times make it impossible). However around 1130pm, half an hour before the game started I decided actually that I really wanted to watch it live and so trawled the internet for some legitimate coverage. Eventually I found this site which offered pretty much every soccer game in the world live for 8 quid. I was extremely skeptical but decided to take a risk. The site requires that you download a load of different software packages to watch international channels which show English soccer games live. By the time Id downloaded the first piece of software it was about 30 minutes throu
gh the first half. I found that it didn’t work so tried the next one, and the next one, and the next one. After downloading about 8 different useless applications there was one left and my hopes were pretty low. However after trying it and toying with it a while I managed to watch Guangdong TV which was showing the game live. It was 60 minutes through the game and we were a goal down. I was still happy however with my victory over the software, even if I did have to watch it in Chinese.
A few minutes after I tuned in Tottenham were awarded a penalty and while the world watched with baited breath the commentators talked like they were chatting about their shopping list or something with absolutely no flair or charisma. I didn’t even know we had a penalty until I saw Berbatov lining the ball up.
Anyway I don’t want this to turn into a match report of a game that happened a week ago but being as this was a major event of this week for me, it makes the blog. After we equalized it went to extra time, where we then scored again. After a tense 25 minutes of defending we held on to win the Carling cup. Since I have been a fan of Tottenham this is the first time we`ve won anything (well, we won it in 99 but I was off football then) so this was a feeling I had never had before.
However by the time the game ended it was nearly 3am here and being as I live in an apartment building my going mental had to be restrained. Having said that there was still a lot of jumping round the room and mimed screams of joy. After about half an hour I managed to calm down a bit although sleeping was out of the question, meaning much of my Monday morning was spent catching up on sleep.
Monday and Tuesday I had work which went relatively smooth although on both days I had parents observing some of the classes and my performances weren’t particularly impr
essive. Still hopefully I wont lose any of the students because of it although I suspect it is a possibility from one of the parents reactions. Anyway negativity aside, I went on another trip on Wednesday.
Yusuke, Ayaes brother got into snowboarding when he was in Canada and had offered me the chance to spend a couple of days up in the mountains of Gifu which is about 2 hours away. Obviously I accepted.
He picked me up on Wednesday afternoon and after driving along the highways and the stupid number of tunnels (there`s a lot of mountains in Japan) we eventually arrived at the hotel we would be staying at.
The first thing that struck me about this hotel was that it was extremely similar to the hotel in The Shining. Not just the snowy setting, but also the lobby and corridors beared a really striking resemblance. Anyway as far as I know it wasn’t built on any ancient Indian burial ground so I figured I should be alright.
After settling in we
could help ourselves to the “Bai Kingu” (Buy king) which is Japanese for an all you can eat buffet. This was a pretty good buffet with Oden and Nimono being represented as well as Western classics like Spaghetti Carbonara and Chips (Not Spaghetti Carbonara and Chips but as separate dishes. Obviously). The conversation flowed fairly easily thanks to the fact that Yusuke wants to improve his English and I want to improve my “Japanese”.
After a huge meal we returned to our room to watch some Japanese TV. It was around this time I realized there was no shower or bath in our room, just a toilet and a sink. This meant that the public bath downstairs was the only way option if you wanted to stay clean. I had no problem with this except that I had to go down 3 flights of steps to have my morning shower (the lift was really cold for some reason. Maybe there was an angry spirit in there….).
Anyway early the next day after taking my morning bath and having a Bai Kingu breakfast, we headed for the slopes. Yusuke had his own board and equipment (and luckily a spare pair of almost everything for me). After renting some boots and a board I was ready to go. I hadn’t snowboarded in about 5 years so I did wonder if Id still be able to do it. Luckily I could.
We tried some basic slopes first to get our confidence up, then went on to the intermediate ones. Yusuke only started about a month ago but is a total natural, and seems completely at home on a snowboard. In fact he beat me to the bottom every time. He also only fell over about 3 times the whole day. The bastard.
I however have a different style which involves a lot of falling over and stopping just
before I go over the edge of the mountain. After getting into my style a bit more we took a chairlift to the top of the mountain. There I had an absolutely awesome view of the gorgeous snow covered Japanese mountains. If that wasn’t inspiring enough the ski resort had its own radio station which pumped out music through loud speakers located throughout the mountain. Whilst I`ve snowboarded to music before, its never been to the sounds of Dragon Ash, Yui and The Offspring.
After doing a few more beginner and intermediate slopes we had lunch at the overpriced restaurant. (Tempura Udon for those keeping note). We then headed back to the slopes and tried some of the same courses and a few new ones even venturing into some of the “Pro” courses, which led to me face planting the snow and falling on my face down the mountain for about 10 metres. This left me with what they call a snow bath- snow in every gap of clothing on my body, I was literally spitting snow and blowing it out of my nose. Nice. Oh well I guess that’s why they call it the Pro course. If it was meant for me they would call it the stupid beginner course. Although in all fairness it was Yusuke`s idea in the first place. He has a real taste for danger and a lot of confidence which I guess makes him a great snowboarder. Anyway he had a 2 week intensive course in snowboarding which I keep telling myself is the real reason why he is better than me.
After a tea break and then some more snowboarding it was time for the slope to close so we headed back. When we got back to the hotel I was disappointed to find that I had a massive blister on my right foot. I suspected that this was the case as towards the end of the day I had real trouble carving without being in a serious amount of pain. The boots I had rented were the perfect size but the tig
htening mechanism was very badly designed meaning that my heel was slipping about a bit. This was really annoying as not only did it mean my foot was gonna be in pain for the next few days every time I put my shoes on, but also I would be out of action for tomorrows snowboarding. After cursing and asking “Why me??!!”, for a bit I settled on the fact that it was a vengeful ancient ghost and was thankful that instead of butchering my family I had just got a blister. Japans so much nicer than the rest of the world.
Anyway following this realization I headed to the Bai Kingu with Yusuke for some serious comfort eating. This worked although my muscles were also aching intensely. I had done some warming up, but apparently not enough. Yusuke was the same and we both lay in bed for hours watching Japanese TV after dinner. At this point it struck me that every show we`d watched the 2 nights we had been there had been basically the same, that is a bunch of Japanese celebrities answering questions on the subject of “Really interesting things from Japan and the rest of the world”. This was pretty good for someone who couldn’t understand Japanese as I just got to see some really cool stuff (like the laser that cuts up gas stations, and what Manchu is like in Hokkaido (kind of like a rolled up pancake with sweet beans in!!)). In fact every night a show, no pretty much all of the shows on certain channels will be on this subject of interesting/ crazy things, and celebrities going “Ehhhhhhhhhhh???!!!”.
Anyway Ive covered Japanese TV in previous blogs so I`ll leave the subject for the moment. After an intensely long soak in the public bath, my muscles felt better and I headed to sleep. The next morning I got up bright and early to have my morning shower (The bath was only open from 6 til 8 in the morning), and I had breakfast with Yusuke. After that we checked out and headed back to the slopes so Yusuke could do a bit more snowboarding. I chilled in the café and read my book which I probably enjoyed way more than I should`ve (although obviously I wished I was snowboarding, especially since the fee came with the Hotel so I`d basically already paid for my lift pass).
However the time went fast and after Yusuke had finished and we had lunch (I had a "Special Omrice" which had a tomato and bacon sauce one side, and a creamy white mushroom sauce the other. Lush.) we got back on the road and managed to make it back to Nagoya in an hour and a half which was pretty good.
That about takes me up to now and writing this blog, so I`ll leave it there. I`ve got no plans for March so I don’t know what I`ll be doing, but I`ll be sure to let you know when I`ve done it.
Thanks for reading!!
Peace Yo
Jack
When I got back to work on Saturday one of my kid students asked me if I could come to his house that night. I was a little confused but I said if its ok with ur mum then cool. I later found out that his parents were having a “Nabe” (Japanese stew) party and the other teachers had all been invited. Never being one to turn down a free meal, I agreed of course.
I had also agreed to meet some friends in the pub later, so had to go home to get changed after work. Unfortunately the party started at 5 and I finished work at about 10 past 3. It usually takes between 45 minutes and an hour for me to get to work, but because it was a Saturday the buses were well irregular. Anyway I eventually got back to the school (they lived next door to the school) well late but no one seemed particularly annoyed so it was all good.
When we got to their apartment Naoto (my 6 year old student) opened the door to us, and we met the rest of the family, (although they all come to ACC for their English lessons so some teachers knew the other family members). Naoto had a kid brother Shun which made 4 in their family, and there were 4 of us teachers making it an 8 person party (although as I`ve mentioned in previous blogs it is not unusual to have a fairly low number at a “food party”).
Their apartment was proper nice and had a corridor and everything making it at least 10 times the size of mine. When I got in there the women (the other teachers are all female) were given aprons and asked if they wanted to help make the nabe. This left me pretty empty handed so to avoid sitting awkwardly in the corner of the room I decided to play with the kids. This proved to be more fun than expected as Naoto had a bitching train set. As it was Japanese, he had a load of remote controlled shinkansens with flashing lights and sirens and all that stuff.
I found playing with Naoto was A LOT easier than teaching him. Whilst he`s a really sweet kid, every Saturday he causes a lot of trouble and doesn`t pay much attention. Still he always says “Sorry Jack sensei” so I end up thinking “He`s not so bad”. Anyway he`s nothing compared to my Monday hellraiser who I`ve mentioned in the past, so it`s ok.
After Naoto showed me all his toys (and hes a fairly well off Japanese kid so there was a lot of toys), we were invited to the table on the floor to start on the Nabe. There was a gas cooker on the table to keep it hot and bubbling and also there was still loads of food that hadn’t been cooked which would be added later. I wont bore you with a list of fish vegetables and meat that was put in but there was a lot.
Every time the amount of food in the pot diminished, more was added, and since I have the bad habit of not being able to leave food behind ended up eating a ridiculous amount. Despite my stomach complaining occasionally I figured I was ok, until they brought out the dessert which was cakes, followed by strawberries, followed by tea and biscuits. I stupidly ate everything and by this time my stomach was not happy. In addition to the colossal amount of food I had ingested I had also been drinking beer throughout the meal which doesn’t agree wit
h my stomach at the best of times. Somehow I managed to keep it together, and after an hour or so watching Japanese TV (which was awesome by the way, they had this monkey gameshow where they set challenges for monkeys using bananas as incentives. Then they started dressing them up in schoolboy uniforms and as a farmer and it all got a bit weird but hey that’s Japanese TV for you) I headed out to the pub to meet my friends. When I got there there was a massive group together, most of whom I knew. In fact I would go as far to say they`re my “crew” in Nagoya.After drinking heavily (screw you stomach!) me, my friend Callie and my new friend Michyo headed out to find a Ska night which was apparently happening. It was ridiculously cold outside so we hurried. On the way it started snowing really heavy and then it got really difficult. We stopped at a combini to get some food and some charge for Callies phone. In Japan at all combinis you can buy portable battery chargers for your phone so if you do run out of battery you`re never far from anywhere to get some juice (as combinis are EVERYWHERE!).
After a while we got to “Club Buddha” which was on the 4th floor of a Sakae building. When we got there we found it was not ska but actually “Rocksteady and Reggae” which I thought was really cool. However the ridiculous amount of cigarette smoke together with the ridiculously laid back vibe together with the fact I had eaten a ridiculous amount meant I started to get well sleepy.
Anyway we got some drinks and chatted to this random bloke called Toru who was an optometrist (a bad one by his own admission), but a funny and interesting guy. After an hour or so we decided to leave being as things weren`t hectic enough. We said our goodbyes to Toru and headed out. On the way we saw someone lying down on the floor fully asleep. I found out that in Japan its ok to sleep in clubs. Anyone who`s nodded off in a British club will testify to the fact that bouncers have no mercy in throwing someone out who`s trying to catch a quick kip. In Japan its ok though, and people do it regularly. I guess if its ok to sleep in Manga cafes and the subway then why not nightclubs? In the UK I understand the idea is to keep out people who have drunk so much that they can no longer retain consciousness. But in Japan sleeping in public is so normal that its not frowned upon. I suppose its assumed that its more down to exhaustion from the intense working hours than from drinking too much (although in reality its probably a combination of both). In any case it was another reminder of Japans superiority over
Britain.When we left the club the snowing had gotten worse. We decided to try to find a House club to wake us up. After tracking back and forth between pretty much every club in Sakae and finding there were no House nights tonight we decided to go back to the pub to get some warmth and ideas. By this stage it was around 2. After a short drink we headed to find a club whos location Michyo wasn’t sure about. Throughout the night she had been the one ferrying us between clubs being as she had lived in Nagoya a lot longer than me and Callie and actually knew where she was going. She had a sense of direction which I found astounding. I have lived in Nagoya nearly 6 months now and still can only negotiate about 20% of Sakae, and being as all the clubs are pretty tucked away, someone like Michyo was essential.
She once again managed to find the club although they were pushing hip hop. After chatting to someone hanging round outside we had 2 more leads, and went to check them out. Both times we found they were not what we were after. In the end we decided to head back to one of the hip hop clubs we had been to earlier. At this stage Michyo said she was too tired and so would go home.
Me and Callie went into “Lush” and paid the 2500 yen (around 11 quid) entrance fee despite having already paid the same entrance fee at the reggae club earlier (Nights out in Japan are so expensive!). When we got in there things had degenerated into a sleazefest replicating Roppongis notorious “Gaspanic” bar (No Tits, No Ass, No Service). There were some extremely scantily clad girls, totally wasted dancing on the bar, stage and even the DJ booth. The barman, DJ and some of the male punters had all decided to take their shirts off. Still we had taken a leap of faith and there was no going back. At least we were out of the snow.
After a couple of overpriced drinks the music change
d from hip hop to Ubergay Eurohouse with the odd gem thrown in (Daft Punk). It ended up being quite a good night, and at the end when the lights came on and the music switched off I was a bit surprised to see nobody leaving. Then I realized it was another 30 minutes before the trains started and I guess nobody wanted to be out in the snow at this time waiting around.Me and Callie sat down and started chatting to the DJ. After a while the other staff came and joined us. It turns out that they`re pretty much all DJs and took great pleasure in telling us when their sets would be and where. After saying goodbye to our new found friends me and Callie went our separate ways and when I got home went straight to bed.
The next day had an event at the end of it which I had been anticipating for sometime which was the Carling cup final between Spurs and Chelsea. After finding out that my TVU internet thingy would not be showing the game live I settled for the fact that my friend Raul would be taping it off cable (No sports bars are open late enough on a Sunday to show it and even if they were train times make it impossible). However around 1130pm, half an hour before the game started I decided actually that I really wanted to watch it live and so trawled the internet for some legitimate coverage. Eventually I found this site which offered pretty much every soccer game in the world live for 8 quid. I was extremely skeptical but decided to take a risk. The site requires that you download a load of different software packages to watch international channels which show English soccer games live. By the time Id downloaded the first piece of software it was about 30 minutes throu
gh the first half. I found that it didn’t work so tried the next one, and the next one, and the next one. After downloading about 8 different useless applications there was one left and my hopes were pretty low. However after trying it and toying with it a while I managed to watch Guangdong TV which was showing the game live. It was 60 minutes through the game and we were a goal down. I was still happy however with my victory over the software, even if I did have to watch it in Chinese.A few minutes after I tuned in Tottenham were awarded a penalty and while the world watched with baited breath the commentators talked like they were chatting about their shopping list or something with absolutely no flair or charisma. I didn’t even know we had a penalty until I saw Berbatov lining the ball up.
Anyway I don’t want this to turn into a match report of a game that happened a week ago but being as this was a major event of this week for me, it makes the blog. After we equalized it went to extra time, where we then scored again. After a tense 25 minutes of defending we held on to win the Carling cup. Since I have been a fan of Tottenham this is the first time we`ve won anything (well, we won it in 99 but I was off football then) so this was a feeling I had never had before.
However by the time the game ended it was nearly 3am here and being as I live in an apartment building my going mental had to be restrained. Having said that there was still a lot of jumping round the room and mimed screams of joy. After about half an hour I managed to calm down a bit although sleeping was out of the question, meaning much of my Monday morning was spent catching up on sleep.
Monday and Tuesday I had work which went relatively smooth although on both days I had parents observing some of the classes and my performances weren’t particularly impr
essive. Still hopefully I wont lose any of the students because of it although I suspect it is a possibility from one of the parents reactions. Anyway negativity aside, I went on another trip on Wednesday.Yusuke, Ayaes brother got into snowboarding when he was in Canada and had offered me the chance to spend a couple of days up in the mountains of Gifu which is about 2 hours away. Obviously I accepted.
He picked me up on Wednesday afternoon and after driving along the highways and the stupid number of tunnels (there`s a lot of mountains in Japan) we eventually arrived at the hotel we would be staying at.
The first thing that struck me about this hotel was that it was extremely similar to the hotel in The Shining. Not just the snowy setting, but also the lobby and corridors beared a really striking resemblance. Anyway as far as I know it wasn’t built on any ancient Indian burial ground so I figured I should be alright.
After settling in we
could help ourselves to the “Bai Kingu” (Buy king) which is Japanese for an all you can eat buffet. This was a pretty good buffet with Oden and Nimono being represented as well as Western classics like Spaghetti Carbonara and Chips (Not Spaghetti Carbonara and Chips but as separate dishes. Obviously). The conversation flowed fairly easily thanks to the fact that Yusuke wants to improve his English and I want to improve my “Japanese”.After a huge meal we returned to our room to watch some Japanese TV. It was around this time I realized there was no shower or bath in our room, just a toilet and a sink. This meant that the public bath downstairs was the only way option if you wanted to stay clean. I had no problem with this except that I had to go down 3 flights of steps to have my morning shower (the lift was really cold for some reason. Maybe there was an angry spirit in there….).
Anyway early the next day after taking my morning bath and having a Bai Kingu breakfast, we headed for the slopes. Yusuke had his own board and equipment (and luckily a spare pair of almost everything for me). After renting some boots and a board I was ready to go. I hadn’t snowboarded in about 5 years so I did wonder if Id still be able to do it. Luckily I could.
We tried some basic slopes first to get our confidence up, then went on to the intermediate ones. Yusuke only started about a month ago but is a total natural, and seems completely at home on a snowboard. In fact he beat me to the bottom every time. He also only fell over about 3 times the whole day. The bastard.
I however have a different style which involves a lot of falling over and stopping just
before I go over the edge of the mountain. After getting into my style a bit more we took a chairlift to the top of the mountain. There I had an absolutely awesome view of the gorgeous snow covered Japanese mountains. If that wasn’t inspiring enough the ski resort had its own radio station which pumped out music through loud speakers located throughout the mountain. Whilst I`ve snowboarded to music before, its never been to the sounds of Dragon Ash, Yui and The Offspring.After doing a few more beginner and intermediate slopes we had lunch at the overpriced restaurant. (Tempura Udon for those keeping note). We then headed back to the slopes and tried some of the same courses and a few new ones even venturing into some of the “Pro” courses, which led to me face planting the snow and falling on my face down the mountain for about 10 metres. This left me with what they call a snow bath- snow in every gap of clothing on my body, I was literally spitting snow and blowing it out of my nose. Nice. Oh well I guess that’s why they call it the Pro course. If it was meant for me they would call it the stupid beginner course. Although in all fairness it was Yusuke`s idea in the first place. He has a real taste for danger and a lot of confidence which I guess makes him a great snowboarder. Anyway he had a 2 week intensive course in snowboarding which I keep telling myself is the real reason why he is better than me.
After a tea break and then some more snowboarding it was time for the slope to close so we headed back. When we got back to the hotel I was disappointed to find that I had a massive blister on my right foot. I suspected that this was the case as towards the end of the day I had real trouble carving without being in a serious amount of pain. The boots I had rented were the perfect size but the tig
htening mechanism was very badly designed meaning that my heel was slipping about a bit. This was really annoying as not only did it mean my foot was gonna be in pain for the next few days every time I put my shoes on, but also I would be out of action for tomorrows snowboarding. After cursing and asking “Why me??!!”, for a bit I settled on the fact that it was a vengeful ancient ghost and was thankful that instead of butchering my family I had just got a blister. Japans so much nicer than the rest of the world.Anyway following this realization I headed to the Bai Kingu with Yusuke for some serious comfort eating. This worked although my muscles were also aching intensely. I had done some warming up, but apparently not enough. Yusuke was the same and we both lay in bed for hours watching Japanese TV after dinner. At this point it struck me that every show we`d watched the 2 nights we had been there had been basically the same, that is a bunch of Japanese celebrities answering questions on the subject of “Really interesting things from Japan and the rest of the world”. This was pretty good for someone who couldn’t understand Japanese as I just got to see some really cool stuff (like the laser that cuts up gas stations, and what Manchu is like in Hokkaido (kind of like a rolled up pancake with sweet beans in!!)). In fact every night a show, no pretty much all of the shows on certain channels will be on this subject of interesting/ crazy things, and celebrities going “Ehhhhhhhhhhh???!!!”.
Anyway Ive covered Japanese TV in previous blogs so I`ll leave the subject for the moment. After an intensely long soak in the public bath, my muscles felt better and I headed to sleep. The next morning I got up bright and early to have my morning shower (The bath was only open from 6 til 8 in the morning), and I had breakfast with Yusuke. After that we checked out and headed back to the slopes so Yusuke could do a bit more snowboarding. I chilled in the café and read my book which I probably enjoyed way more than I should`ve (although obviously I wished I was snowboarding, especially since the fee came with the Hotel so I`d basically already paid for my lift pass).
However the time went fast and after Yusuke had finished and we had lunch (I had a "Special Omrice" which had a tomato and bacon sauce one side, and a creamy white mushroom sauce the other. Lush.) we got back on the road and managed to make it back to Nagoya in an hour and a half which was pretty good.
That about takes me up to now and writing this blog, so I`ll leave it there. I`ve got no plans for March so I don’t know what I`ll be doing, but I`ll be sure to let you know when I`ve done it.
Thanks for reading!!
Peace Yo
Jack
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