Homeless At Fuji Rock

Holy Hell. This week has been absolutely incredible, culminating with me turning 24. So I took a train down to Fukushima City in Fukushima Prefecture to meet my friend Aaron/Akio whom I worked with at Mori no Ike in 2006. Smallllll city with not much to do, so we booked a hotel room (not homeless yet) and went out to a restaurant for dinner. As is very common in Japan, this was an all-you-can-eat/drink type deal, so we spent 2 hours catching up between glasses of beer/whiskey/shochu and what turned out to be a whole lot of Kimchi... shit is real tasty. Afterwards, we went to another restaurant and tried out the "I Don't Speak Japanese" thing on a few girls there, but in the end English proved to burdensome and we reverted back to Japanese, to their surprise/pleasure. Good night, bad hangover.
Somehow we managed to get out of the hotel by 930 and took a train to a very small station nearby (I forget exactly which) that was located near a Service Area. A note first: service areas are the place to hitch in Japan for a number of reasons, first and foremost being that its illegal to be on the freeway outside of a car, or even to stop if in a car. Of course, a lot of people also stop at service areas, and are in greater numbers than rest areas. They also have a lot of time to consider your own circumstances versus theirs, i.e. "So he's Hitchhiking... looks like a nice guy... I wonder where he's going..."These things all make service areas the most logical place to try and catch a ride.
We managed to catch a lift from a couple with their father (wife's side, from Inner Mongolia) who dropped us off close to the shores of Lake Inawashiro. According to our map, we were wicked close to the lake, so we started walking in that direction, but either the map was wrong or we just weren't right and we ended up in this hidden valley of rice after hiking approximately 3 Km through a woodsy backroad. Fukushima and Niigata prefectures both have a staggering number of rice fields, and this was the first time I had ever been in one. It was dark by this time, and this village we were in was way cut off from everything else (and the houses were very nice/HUGE, surprisingly) so the night sky looked extra big while standing in the middle of many acres of low-rising rice plants.
This village turned out to be just off of the shore, so once we left it and got back on the main road we almost immediately discovered the lake. Unfortunately, we also discovered that this pitch black road had no sidewalks or anywhere whatsoever to walk, so we spent probably another 3 kilometers running along this road avoiding the very few cars barreling towards us. I guess I don't have much in the way of a safety sensor, but it was pretty fun playing Frogger like this.
We found a convenience store and a hotel in a small outlet off the road that was more or less a camping zone, and considered staying there/eating, but for some reason or another we thought it a good idea to keep pushing onwards and didn't do either. Mistake. Maybe an hour and a half later we still hadn't eaten all day and definitely didn't know where we were going to set up camp due to all of the rice fields taking up space. We ducked into a gas station and asked where a good spot to eat was, of which there was only 1 in the area still open, and got a cab there. Typical chain ramen store, but it was pretty tasty and definitely filled our stomachs so I can't say either of us were very angry at that. After eating, we walked around for a while looking for a spot to set up camp, and finally decided on a cemetery by the freeway where we planned on hitching the next day... buuuuuut that didn't happen.
We woke up/decided to start moving again around 8 and first wanted to find an onsen where we could clean up. In a bit of a rain, we walked to the train station and took a train to I-Forget-Where, close by anyway. The Onsen we found was pretty awesome, like the owners somehow collected a bunch of buildings and squished them all together. This "complex" wasn't the best of spots, but it totally sufficed after having spent the previous day hitching, hiking, and sweating all along. We retraced our steps, in a bit of a heavier rain, and had to wait about an hour for the train to come back and return us to where we started. It started raining pretty hard by this time, and we didn't really have sufficient rain gear, so we didn't get off and took the train all the way to Niigata City, in Niigata prefecture.
Despite EVERYTHING around Niigata City being rice fields, the city itself is pretty big and was a hell of a lot of fun while we were there. Went to a small restaurant to start the night off and had a beer with our Whale Sashimi (!!!). Good stuff, but it was getting kind of packed so we headed to another spot that served local nihonshu (Niigata is famous for its booze, supposedly) and we drank some really great stuff while eating Natto Pizza and Cow Liver Sashimi. The whole night was basically focused on culinary exploration and we were pretty successful in finding some great items; I totally want to go back some day and see what else I can find.

END PART 1

This Could Be Interesting

So... I just sent out 30-some applications to jobs in cities I actually want to be in. Already heard back from 2... might have an interview down in Kyoto this weekend (reallllly hope they opt for the Skype interview I suggested - itll cost roughly 400-600 USD to get down to Kyoto & back). The Kyoto company, Universal Campus, is not a E/JHS/HS position but rather en English school position. I also got another response, from a company called Altia Central, and this position is for JHS or E/JHS. Its in Osaka, and Osaka is awesome.

The link to Altia is here

http://recruiting.altmoot.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57&Itemid=63

And up front it looks like a pretty decent deal. About $100 extra a month, key money and all the other BS that goes into finding an apartment as a foreigner is supposedly covered, as are transportation fees. Can't say I know that much about Universal Campus' accomodations, but I figure thats what the interview is for... and if the pay is actually what they say it is (2-3.5 mil/month (with the experience I have I figure I can negotiate an initial salary of at least what I've got here at Interac)) it sounds pretty OK already.

Update: No dice on the Universal Campus gig. Scheduling conflicts don't allow, but that's well and good seeing as it begins August 1st and, aside from my 2nd day being my birthday, seriously disrupts my travel plans for around then. Altia, however, begins September 1, which seems like a mighty fine date to me - ample time to prepare.

I Found A Drummer

Practice starts saturday. Little Japanese girl, into Sabbath & Slayer. This should be good. And how about the practice space is fully furnished (kits, amps, etc.) and only runs 800 yen/2hrs/person? Awesome.

More sports festivals this week. Today begins 'Olympia' at Miyako HS, and I'll be playing on the teachers' Basketball team. This may or may not be a good thing, but I'm looking forward to it. Once again I don't know what my schedule is for Kita this week, so I'll have to contact Suisha or someone later on - I forgot my phone at home this morning so I'm temporarily cut off.

Stayed out last night to watch the Japan game at Rise, and boyyyy what a disappointment. I had 3 teams I was rooting for, and now I have none. Its not so much the World Cup anymore as it is the South American Cup... suffice to say I have no interest in any of the remaining teams, so looks like that'll be it for socccer for me this year.

Open Weekend

Don't really have plans this weekend, aside from going to this Rotary dinner thing tonight at Jodogahama to send off a few girls from Texas who've been visiting for the last few days. Though I'll probably watch the Brazil/Portugal game at Rise... awesome that no one else shows any kind of interest in sports. Who does that?

Anyway, this week was a breeze - Monday through Wednesday was a bunch of test correcting, and yesterday and today were/still are the Sports Festival at Kita. Volleyball today. Fun ,but lots of free time. So, per the usual, Ive been whiling the time away with a combination of reading various news sources and studying, but this time I also through into the mix some menu planning for the next dinner thing I'm going to have... maybe next weekend. Probably the weekend after. Real simple this time around, summer-y. Here's what I've got so far:

App: Prosciutto & cantaloupe, on arugula with strawberry vinagrette.

Soup/Salad: Gazpacho (chilled soup)

Main: Broiled Trout (or Bass) with Cucumber/dill/lemon tofu 'crema' sauce, topped with chili oil.

Id like to get a fourth item in there, but im still working on it.

Finally, Im in one of those uber-productive modes with guitar, so hopefully the fliers that Ive posted (and continue to post) around town'll start pulling in some potential members.

Pay Attention to Your Calender.

I should've - I totally wrote down on it that I'd be getting my internet hooked up on the 19th (so next Saturday), but somewhere along the way I started thinking it was last Saturday... which it was not. SOOOO I'm still without internet for another week. Bummer.

Had a bit of a party this weekend at my place, and it went pretty well - I think I might be doing it something like once a month... get the word out that I've still got wicked good skills in the kitchen. This weekend's menu was Eggplant rotellini stuffed with a tofu/walnut/sauteed mushroom paste, followed by a spinach, tomato, and buffalo mozz salad with a light olive oil/lemon juice/basil/cracked pepper dressing, and I cinched the evening with sushi-grade Tuna tataki topped with fresh guacamole & caramelized onions (and accompanied by my favorite garlic potatoes, asparagus, and mushrooms). Pretty tasty, though the plates I was serving on were absolute shit (next time I think I'll rely on myself to purchase plates and what-not), and I suppose I could do with a bit more furniture... Fun though, and I got mad props for both the food and the songs I played after on my guitar, and that's really all I was going for with this anyway.

Suisha should've taken some pictures, but I was too busy with, you know, cooking to bother myself with that. Plus, while I like photography, if I'm at a party I much more enjoy enjoying myself than removing myself from the moment.

Oh, and I finished my band flier and made a bunch of copies, so I'll be posting that around town, what, tonight? I'll probably watch some of the soccer game tonight at the Parisian Pub near my place 'La Tache,' so I'll at least put it up there.

I've got a really great secret too, but its confidential until completion, so you'll just have to imagine what kind of awesome thing/s I'm doing behind all of yr backs.

Culture-time

Played a bunch of volleyball in a park (and a bit of ultimate) for the majority of Saturday. Ultimate really is a fun game... I'm thinking about getting a group together - post some fliers, that kind of thing. Anyway, Saturday was a day full of sports and, ultimately, pizza.
Sunday was a day full of tabi, happi, obi, and gigantic shrines on my shoulders while walking down Oodori in Morioka - that's right, I participated in an Omikoshi which would be called, what, a shrine walk? IF you've ever seen those sterotypical parades in chinatown in one movie or another where a bunch of people in really asian-looking garb are carrying a big, but still mini, temple that may-or-may-not have women dancing on it on their shoulders while chanting, you know what I'm talking about. At the end of the day, I was very tired (still am, 2 days later - that thing was HEAVY), but the owner of a new pair of tabi, and a pair of boots.
This weekend's highlights will be my first party at my house (= me cooking lots of food), internet hook-up, hopefully more frisbee, and probably a long bike ride because I need to start training for a mountain race I plan to enter on the day before my birthday.

Great Weekend

Friday wasn't so eventful - just stayed in a read Great Expectations. Saturday, however, was a different story. I went into Morioka for the first time in a month or so (probably longer...) to see one of my favorite Japanese metal acts, Gotsu Totsu Kotsu. Met my friend Dan at a restaurant called Universal, had some pizza, habanero sausage, and a beer, and then headed over to the venue on the far end of Oodoori. Nice small place, could fit a max of maybe 300 people (and thatd be really packed), and admission was only 1500. Thats incredibly cheap compared with, say, Behemoth, who I saw in Tokyo for 8500.
Anyway, totally killer show. I was especially surprised with the openers (particularly JWA) as every time Ive seen Gotsu before there has been nary a good band playing with them (some exceptions, of course). Even more surprising still was that all of the other bands were local (Gotsu is from Kawagoe in Saitama Prefecture), and Morioka really doesn't have much in the way of metal. Sure, a bit of punk, but theres a lot of Rockabilly up here... and gigantic pompadours. Anyway, I knew JWA was going to be good when they tuned to a Church of Misery song, and I knew Gotsu was going to be good because they're awesome.

Anyway, it was a great show (my neck still hurts) full of stage diving, pushing people around, beer being thrown, and sweating on each other. At first I was a bit concerned as our plans following the show had been to go to one of Morioka's clubs and I was literally soaked in sweat/beer, but instead we were invited to the aftershow party at a local Izakaya where all the bands showed up. Got some tacos before hand though. JWA were a bunch of nice guys, real funny, but of course I was most pleased with talking to the guys from Gotsu for a few hours whilst eating various Japanese bar foods and drinking mizuwaris (shochu and water). We talked a bit of shop (Im trying my hand at contacting labels for their sake as well as promoting them in whatever ways I can) but mostly had a good time just shooting the shit. Totally awesome night, though now back in Miyako I can only remenisce about the fun that can be had OUTside of the middle of knowhere while immersed in the cultural blackhole that is the town I live in.

I'll be asking my landlords for internet access today, and I think I'll be redoubling my efforts to find another job/apply to grad school. I'm only young once, and as Dennis Hopper's death just proved, even the most badass of us have to slow down and die sometime, so get done what you can when you will.