Kotatsu Headstands, Raping Lions, and Goosebump Titties

So, let's see what I did this weekend. Hmmm. Dududu, dududu, dududu (imagine Wayne's World flashback noise).

12-01-06

I got paid on Thursday, so on Friday I made sure to stop by the post office to get some mulah out of my account. After the post, I went to the Kitamoto Board of Education (BOE) to drop off my weekly report, then to the department store next to the BOE. There, I got a pair of comfortable pants to sleep in, a warm coat (it's getting pretty cold out here), and a couple of pairs of fuzzy monster feet slippers (so warm, so fuzzy, so awesome).

After my shopping excursion, I went back to my place to clean up a little bit. The Yonedas (my principal and his wife) had invited me over for dinner and Jen was coming over later that night, so that was the only chance I had to clean a bit for Caroline's visit on Sunday. Eventually, the clock struck 18:35, so I headed over to to Casa De Yoneda to have an English conversation lesson and eat. I brought along with me some pictures from my onsen trip and a Kitamoto City Magazine whose English I had edited (the funny thing is that they didn't fix all the mistakes I pointed out, so it is still full of bad English).

Mrs. Yoneda made a delicious meal that was a European version of a traditional Japanese meal. It was a stew-like concoction that had carrots, potatoes, boiled eggs, cabbage, and meat. At one point, I told them that I planned on buying a kotatsu (table with a heater underneath), and Mrs. Yoneda promptly began to call her friends to see if they had one they were not using. After a few unsuccessful attempts she gave up, but proceeded to tell me "if you need anything for your apartment, ask us first". They're super nice.

Eventually, Jen came over and we got her to play her violin for us. Then she and Mrs. Yoneda talked and talked and talked and then talked some more. They both asked me why I was being so quiet, so I told them that they were doing fine on their own (they could both talk the ear off a dead horse) and quietly went back to my listening position. Eventually the night came to a close and we said our goodbyes. Oh yeah. They also invited me to go golfing with them again. Sweet. Oh yeah, oh yeah. They also also invited me to a New Year's brunch of traditional Japanese food on New Year's Day. That should be fun if I can make it (I still don't know what my New Year's Eve plans are yet...so we'll see).

After that, we went back to my place and had a little bit of a jam session. I just played random songs on the guitar and she would improv on her violin around whatever I was playing. That was really quite fun. I think that we are going to go into Tokyo and jam on the streets sometime. Maybe. Anyway, eventually I got tired and started to go to sleep, but it was not to be. Jen kept nagging me about watching a movie with her. "I came over so we could watch movies. You can't go to sleep. Bla bla bla bla bla. Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla". I stayed up for a bit, but finally, my desire for sleep got the best of me so I said something like, "Fuck you bitch. Watch the movie by yourself"*. She started to irritate me by saying, "I can't hear" and then turning up the volume on my speakers. I could only respond with, "Fuck. I'm gonna headbutt you in the anus....WITH MY EYE!". I then decided to turn the volume on my computer down because I knew she wouldn't be able to figure out how to turn it back up. That plan worked brilliantly and I went to sleep.

* If you don't know already, Jen is like my little sister, and probably my best friend in Japan, so I curse at her for fun, not malice.
** Japanese doesn't have plurals for most of their nouns, so I am not sure how to demonstrate there were many "kotatsu" (tables with heaters) without making the Japanese word sound strange. Oh well.

12-02-06

On Saturday, Jen and I went to the local recycle shop (thrift store) to check out what they had. She rode my bike, and I rode my skateboard there. On the way, I would grab onto the back of the bike and make Jen pull me. It was fun until she began to have an asthma attack. Ha ha ha ha. Wait a sec. It was still fun when she was having the attack. Ha ha ha. I'm a bad person. Anyway, we got to the recycle where I picked up the remainder of their stock of yellow sunglasses and some other random stuff before heading upstairs to check out their what type of kotatsu** they had in stock. I eventually picked one, we purchased our stuff, and headed back. I had to carry the stupid freakin' kotatsu I bought on my head. By the time I made it back to my apartment, my neck was killing me. It was about a 15 minute walk carrying a table. That's not as fun as it sounds. We eventually dropped off the stuff we bought, got some food, and headed back to my place.

Back at my apartment, we started to watch a movie. I was pretty tired (I had a giant butt poking me in the spine while I was trying to sleep the night before), so I started to fall asleep during the movie. Then I realized I had to catch a train in a hurry, so I grabbed all my stuff, tried to explain to Jen how to rip and burn cd's and then booked it to the station. I got to the station, bought the cheapest ticket and flew down the stairs just in time to catch my train. Phew!

I was taking the train to a place I had not been yet in order to visit Caroline in Gunma. We planned to meet up on the train, which meant that I would have to time the trains properly in order to be riding on the train that she was going to be getting on. To do this, at Takasaki (the last stop on the train I was on), I would have to switch trains...within 2 minutes of arriving (not so fun when you don't know anything about the station at which you are going to be switching trains). That had me nervous, because I only knew the name of the train line I would have to switch to and the name Oyama (one of the big stops on that train line). When I got to Takasaki, I jumped out, took a quick glance around, and proceeded to jump on a train that had the word Oyama on it. Fortunately, it was the right train and I ended up being able to meet Caroline as scheduled. Rad.

We ended up eating at a pretty good Indian food place that played Bollywood music videos. Awesome!!! We finished up our food and went back to her place where we took a bunch of pictures, watched movies, and slept. The next morning was pretty much the same: movie, music, pictures. Eventually, we built up the energy to go out and get some yarn so we could knit some scarves. We bought some knitting needles and some yarn, then headed over to the supermarket for lunch. On the way to the super, we got sidetracked by a second hand clothing store. There she got a belt and a pair of glasses and I got a pair of glasses (the clear type with UV protection). We left and then finally got to the super.

At the super, we got a little sidetracked by bubble machines (put in a coin, twist the lever, get a toy), and a purikura machine (photo booth that allows you to draw on your pictures before they're printed). Eventually, we got some food and then headed over to her local park to have a freezing picnic. It was pretty nice because we were able to make our hands freezing cold, then attack each other with them. We finished up lunch and then got to violate a lion.



After the lion violation session, we headed back to her apartment to get ready to head to Kitamoto. She gave me a bunch of music and then we left. We caught the train and played games until we reached Kitamoto. There I was able to walk, unrecognized, by my students at the station. I guess Clark Kent's disguise isn't that dumb because it worked for me. Ha ha ha. Still Superman sucks. Anyway, we got to be violated by Colonel Sanders and ride Aslan, all on the way back to my apartment. How cool is that!? Well, we got to my apartment, listened to music, and slept. Sweet. Good times, sweet dreams, bizarre reality.