Forget that last post

Yesterday was the best day of my life. That might be an exaggeration, but its a pretty good description. The family I tutor, the Mikami's, invited me out for a hanami party, but when it came to performance, the trees were lacking so we headed to Tono where we (me, Mr. & Mrs. Mikami, and their 2 daughters) toured a Japanese history site. I don't know the name, but if you've been to Gettysburg you know what kind of thing I'm talking about. Anywho, while there we got some pretty decent soba for lunch, saw a woman (video included) tell traditional stories of Tono in the local historic dialect (I occasionally understood single words - it is one hell of a dialect), and saw kappazuri, aka fishing for turtle monsters with cucumbers... I know, right?

Following that we returned to Miyako, around 7 PM (left at 10 am), and made some preparations for the barbeque we were heading to, during which time the younger daughter, who's my age, and I took their dog Sakura for a walk. Cute girl, cute dog, cherry blossoms blooming around us, dusk... I think yr probably starting to get the idea of where this post is ultimately headed - I've got a huge crush. From there we headed to the Taro district of Miyako, oceanside, where we met the rest of the Mikami's, probably 18 people in all, and proceeded to have the barbeque party of my life. Fresh caught squid, scallops, chicken & onion skewers, pig heart, pizza, beer, guitars and a bass and an amp (seems that most of the Mikami men are musicians, and mostly guitarists at that), multiple grills, a 3 month old dachshund, 3 very inquisitive (and a whole lot of fun) little girls (the oldest, I think she was 10 or 11), a fresh ocean breeze, great conversation, topped off with a cute girl who's become something of a diamond in my eye... couldn't really get better, right? WRONG.

After about 3 hours the party wrapped up, and young Ms. Mikami had just called one of her friends to pick us up and take us into town. So with our DD, (just like the school drinking parties, you almost can't avoid someone refilling yr cup with more beer, so at this point we were all except those driving probably about at least 3 16 oz. cans of Asahi super-dry deep) the 3 of us sped back to Miyako in order to, first of all, anyway, drop by the new billiards bar, called Rise, and DAMN is it nice. Only 1 pool table and 2 dart boards, but the place has 5 pretty big flat screens and 1 huge projector, a number of foreign beers in bottles and guiness on tap, decent prices (450 for a draft) and some great lounging space. The three of us proceeded to get on the pool table, where I performed quite poorly but held nothing against the burning light of inability that radiated from Team Japan. I'll blame it on the booze, but christ they were bad. Awful. I mean absolute shit. It was pretty funny to watch, and endearing to a point.

Awesome day of tourism, followed by the best party ever, and really bad pool at a really great new bar? Where does the fun end? Not at Rise, at least! We finished our "game" at Rise and headed to Karaoke! Such hits as Take On Me, The River, Anarchy in the UK, and The Ace of Spades, amongst others, were sung, some times by one, sometimes all together, and it was good like God said the world was.

Sadly, that was the last Miyako saw of us that night. Soon after we headed home.

Now, the problem that needs to be conquered is... get the Mikami's daughter (I've excluded names for some reason or another, just so you know that I know their names) single. She just got back from a year in Ireland (???), and informed me she has a boyfriend. But he's like, Polish or something, and lives forever away. God knows I'm aware of how those kinds of relationships don't work... so I guess I'll just have to put on my best when around her, and coax out the inevitable, little by little. Plus, her parents love me! I should be in like flint!