The Skyboat

These past 2 weeks unfolded relatively slow, as I spent a great deal of time working or chilling at home. On Sunday however, me and Ayae ventured into Sakae. Our first stop was the Sunshine Sakae building. This is known to all Nagoyans as the building in the centre of town with a huge ferris wheel stuck to it. Ive often looked upon the “skyboat” as they call it but have never actually ridden it.

When we got on, it gradually got higher giving a pretty awesome view of Nagoya as it went. Inside our “boat” there was a TV screen (as there is in and on almost everything in Japan) which had a control panel. Using this we could select from a variety of styles of music and tracks to be the soundtrack to our ride.

After reaching the peak and seeing familiar Nagoya sights from afar (such as the castle, the Oasis 21 Centre, and the crazy spiral building near Nagoya station), we eventually descended and got off.

After exiting the Sunshine Sakae building we went to the “Big Echo” Karaoke box to spend an hour singing our hearts out, and I was pleasantly surprised to find some rarities including 2 Asian Dub Foundation songs.

Following this we went to find some food. I had a craving for something which I first (and last) tried about 8 months ago. The Pizza Cone. For those that don’t remember or didn’t read that blog, this is basically a cone made of pizza dough with a pizza filling which is then baked, and its proper lush.

After finishing that off we walked around until we were hungry again (which didn’t take long as the pizza cone is probably the equivalent to like 2 slices), and then we went to an Okinawan style restaurant. I had Taco Rice which is Taco meat on a mound of rice together with salsa, and shredded cabbage, and Ayae had Chanpuru which is a bitter vegetable thing mixed with egg and pork.

Ｏn Friday I had to go to the doctors to get vaccinations (Hepatitus A and B and Japanese B Encephalitus for those wondering) and malaria tablets for Thailand, which was fairly easy but cost a fortune. I decided on the expensive Maleria tablets which surprised the doctor who said most Foreigners go for the cheap option.

On Saturday I met my friends Callie, Rich, Min, Tomomi, Mochi, Raul and more at the Hub for drinks. Whilst there I also saw my work mates Lauren and Melody and adding everyone to the group in the already packed Hub meant that the group stayed together for about 10 minutes before the claustrophobia sent people there separate ways.

My group all headed to Club Domina where there was a house techno night. Within minutes of being there I had blagged a free flashing neon ring thing being given out by some raver at the bar. Also at the bar was a DJ called “Loki” who had an awesome haircut featuring blue streamer things, and was promoting his club night next week, snappily titled “Funeral” (cos that sounds like an awesome party!).

As time wore on I got hungry so left the club to go to the Lawson Station convenience store round the corner (all combinis are 24 hours), to nab some food (a Teriyaki burger in a muffin by the way). Outside I saw an Aussie and a New Zealander I knew, who didn’t want to pay to get into the club, but still seemed to be living it up outside the Lawson Station. In fact when I returned 2 hours later around 5, they were still there. They seemed to just be trying to pull girls but no matter how cheap loitering outside a combini is, there must be easier ways. Well, each to his own I guess.

As the night wore on more people left and by around half 4 it was just me Callie, Tomomi and Mochi. Whilst taking a break from raving, I met a bloke called Tomoya who was a Japanese language teacher for Junior high students. Anyway he was properly loving it and after chatting for about 10 minutes he invited me to an illegal rave in Gifu (a couple hours outside Nagoya) in a couple of weeks.

An hour later and the club was still going strong. Me, Tomomi and Mochi were knackered though and I had to meet Ayae in an hour, so we left and went to Dennys to get some breakfast. After a satisfying “Big Cobb Salad”, I went to Nagoya station to meet Ayae, who had woken up in Nisshin an hour ago and had come to meet me.

When we met I was obviously knackered but we had a day planned so I decided to honor it. People reading this might wonder why I went out the night before I had to wake up at 6, and the only way I can explain it is that I really felt like a night out. So I did.

The day we had planned was to go to Ise, in Mie a couple hours out of Nagoya. When we got there we went to the Gegu temple which was apparently an intensely spiritual place. Allegedly it holds the stones the 10 commandments were written on (Moses came to Japan all those years ago and actually finished out his life here). Like I said, each to his own.

After that we had lunch at a diner and got some pastries from a French bakery nearby. After that we took a 40 minute train to a place in the middle of nowhere called Izanomiya which was apparently even more spiritual. This place was really lush and had loads of beautiful trees.

After this we took a load of trains (including one wrong one), and eventually ended up at home around 7pm. By this time I was passed being tired so stayed up a bit longer.

On TV I managed to catch this awesome Japanese game show where people with strange pets (including a Penguin, a giant Turtle, a Sheep and a Pig) had to test their pets love for them. This was done by the animals watching their owners being attacked by these men dressed up as giant bananas, then seeing if they would try and rescue them. Most of them didn’t seem to mind that much, although the sheep did head butt the banana men over when they tried to chase him. This was just another awesome example of Japanese TV.

After this I got some much needed sleep (13 hours worth), and this concluded the last 2 weeks.

Thanks for reading everyone, tune in next week for more adventures as I begin my final month in Japan!

Peace

Jack