Playing Tricks

Last night I went out for dinner with my friend Taka, and his girlfriend Akiko. It was the only the second time I had seen Akiko, she's a bit shy and hard to get out of the house sometimes. I first time I met her was when her and Taka met back in October.

It's cherry blossom time here in Japan. They bloom and fall off all in the course of a few weeks. So I'd better get out there and take some pictures. Last night I asked my friends Taka and Akiko about the signifigance of the Cheery Blossoms (Sakura). As I am a foriegner with a short time left in the country I had better not try to figure it out for myself I had decided.

At first Taka said that it was like a new beginning. The school season starts now, work starts now and other functions of Japanese life are having their starts around now. Ok I thought, that's interesting. But it didn't really serve to deapen my understanding of this place.

Later Akiko would mention that the Cherry Blossoms remind us not to hesitate in life. The blossoms are only on the trees for a week or 2 and that the lesson to be learned was that life is short. If you want something, just go for it. 'Oh yeah', I thought, I guess that is an important lesson. hmm.

Later we went to the Gaigin bar in Shizuoka. There I ran into a friend of mine from England, Kate. She invited us out to a Hanomi party in the park. Hanomi is like a polite way of saying getting drunk. At the park we would be drinking under the cherry blossoms. At first it sounded to me like something you might do back when you were in high school. Go get drunk at a park. But Taka and Akiko wanted to go see the Cherry blossoms. So I handed off the rest of my nachos to some guy from Cincinatti and we made our way to the park.

We arrived there and I saw something a little different than what I was expecting. There were maybe 200 or so Japanese people all doing the same thing. They were spread out in small groups of friends sitting on matts. They were just getting hammered under the Sakura. And then I understood the signifigance of the Cherry Blossoms. In fact I'd say it hit my like a frieght train. "Of Course!!. You drink under them! They're like Christmas trees for getting drunk!"

Half of understanding a culture is being able to relate to it and take part in it.

Taka and Akiko would wander off on their own for a stroll under the blossoms. Those 2 are really into each other, it's really quite disgusting.

I would stay and talk with Kate and her friend Duffy(California) for a while. We talked about our experiences in Japan. Kate has been here for 4 years, Duffy for 7. I am the rookie as I still seem to marvel and be baffled by this place.

I could only stay for a short while tho as I had to make my way back to the train station so I could head back to ultra conservative and kinda boring Fujieda. There are gaigin here, but the gaigin bar here is a bit of a Sh** hole and I almost never see other gaigin there. I hear it said that the Skin Flute used to be a fairly decent place to hang out, but now it's a ghost town. Kinda sad really.

It's ok though. I like Shizouka a lot better. The gaigin all seem to look out for each other there. It's kinda nice. If I were ever to return to Japan, I would live in a bigger city like Shizuoka or Tokyo.

My life here is really starting to take on a full form. Biking friends, gaigin friends, Dojo friends and friends who loan me snowboarding gear so I can go with them to Nagano. Last night under the Sakura I started to wonder if I would stay in Canada when I got back. Maybe just my mind playing tricks. 8 months of relative strife and anxiety and now this.

Here is a little footage of me on the board from Nagano last week. Not bad for my first time if I may say.

My Sadistic Japanese Friends

You can see some pictures from snowboarding trip on the other blog where the safe for public conumption type posts are made. This post however is not so safe. Every great story has a night before. The night before I went snowboarding, I was hanging with my friends in a hotel.

Satomi seen here in Pink, arranged the trip and cooked us dinner. That's Kaz in the green, I think he is Satomi's BF, but I don't think either of them want me to tell you that. Not really sure what is going on there.

Anyways, right ...... the story.

Big dinner, a few beers and little Kampai! All is well, right?

And then its time to play a card game. Kaz opens up the deck and starts dealing. Satomi lays out some packaged tea bags in the middle. We all pick up our hand and start moving cards around, one card at a time is given to the player on the right. When you get all the same numbers in your hand, you gotta grab a tea bag. 7 players, 6 tea bags. You grab first then there is a frenzy to get one of the remaining. Because if you are left without a tea bag, well then you gotta eat the puke biscuit. Just cracker with some nasty hot mustard on top. I had to eat 4 of the f***ing things. I was a slow learner and got my ass kicked at the beginning. I didn't want to get sick so I had to take a break after the 4th. I felt myself starting to get a bit queezy.
This is Take as he tries to eat one. His facial expression about says it all.

After my break we made it a drinking game. Suddenly my reflexes got better. Thankfully. But in the last round, there was on cracker left. I got 4 aces and grabbed. I did not have to eat the last one.

Watch Horre eat the last barf cracker here.

8 months in Japan and I am finally starting to feel like I have built a life for myself here, friends and all. Time to go home soon. Typical.

Go Karate Toad, GO!!

Look at him GO!

Karate Toad

The weather is getting really nice here now. It's warm and the flowers are starting to bloom on the trees. Last week I needed 3 layers when I went riding, today 2 was more than enough.
This is a picture of one of the roads I climb to get to the trail I usually ride.

I came across this guy today too. We don't get frogs this size in Canada so I stopped to take his picture. I swear I saw him in Pans Labyrinth. Not sure what his name is, but from this day hence he will be known as Karate Toad.

Mental Health

It's Saturday afternoon again. This week was the same as the last. Another finish line crossed. Another week in Japan, completed successfully. But this Saturday is a bit different than the last one. Today I do not feel the need to lock my door and hide from everyone. I wonder why?

Before I came here, everyone told me that not all my days here would be rosy. They were right of course and I expected it to be so. There is stress and isolation, frustration and confusion mixed in with all the friendships and generosity, achievements and zen in Japan. There is no doubt, in the end, this will have been a life changing experience. Do I rue coming here? Not a chance. But I did have great expectations of myself. One was to be a good Ambassador. "Keep my shit wired down tight." as it was once put to me. I think I've done a good job......mostly. But just as honest men have a short life in politics, my 'vocal' self makes repressenting here a bit tough. Truth be told though, I don't mind. I'd rather be happy than popular. True of me I think for my whole life. And the truth does set you free.

It was however not last weeks post alone that has provided me with this sense of inner calm. My mom called me in Japan to tell me that maybe some of the things I said last week were not the best things to say. Of course she is right, I would never admit it though. I defend what I said. I make no apologies. It's my right to be a jackass if I want to. But being able to vent over the phone to someone who knows me well has reminded me of what makes me happy in life. It's being honest. To thine ownself to true, I think Shakespeare once wrote. Well, this is me.

My apologies to readers who don't like it when I use foul language, but if you read blogs regularily like I do, you know it's just part of the blogging culture.

Thanks for calling this week, Mom.

The Bright End of Nowhere

I haven't seen these guys in months. The cold weather I guess plus Kaoru snowboarding on the side has kept me away. But it was a nice day to be out on the bike on the hills in Kawane.

Kanewa got us started as usual. He said he had a new trail that he wanted to show us. We followed him along some pretty treacherous ground. But all we got was lost. Twice! We had to turn back and push up the mountain. And here I thought it was going to be a nice relaxing sunday ride with the boys. But no, I had to work. Thats me. The view is nice if you pretend I'm not in the picture.

Just a couple of shots from the ride today. Blogger is being bitchy and not letting me upload all my photos at once, so I am forced to make my readers suffer for it.
I have a whole 12 second clip from the ride today too which I'll post as soon as Utube approves it.