So the new teacher is cool. Last week was a good one. Elizabeth fit right in at the school, everyone likes her and she seems to be happy to be here. I think she has now met all of her students, and they seem to be getting along well. So far, everyone is happy. Now that I am the one who has been there longer I have a lot more responsibility at work. I am not upset about it though. It makes the time go by much faster, and I have always preferred to stay busy. It will definitely help me with my time management and organization.
We made sure to welcome Elizabeth properly after her first full day of teaching alone. She said she was tired, but that is expected, Saturdays are usually a really busy day. We headed out to an “Italian” restaurant downstairs from our office for dinner after work. The food was really good. We got all kinds of things, mostly dishes which were a mix of Italian and Japanese. We had more than a few beers. Everyone was having fun and enjoying hanging out outside of work. I kind of lost track of time, and ended up having to leave the dinner early to meet my friends.
I had made plans a few weeks ago to go to Kanazawa with some friends that particular Saturday night, then this informal welcome party came up. I felt bad leaving the party early, but I was pretty excited to go see somewhere new and meet some new people.
Kanazawa is a city on the west coast of Japan, kind of close to the Japanese Sea. It is famous in Japan for being a relaxing place with a lot to do. It is no where near as bustling as Kyoto, Tokyo or Osaka, but it wasn’t difficult to find things to do at all. There were plenty of good restaurants and cool things to see.
We ended up leaving my apartment around 10. I was already in a great mood from the little welcoming dinner we had. As soon as my friends arrived at my place I was handed a beer and told that my job was to drink beer and enjoy the ride in the back seat while Claudia and Koichi shared the driving In Japan they have a zero tolerance policy for driving under the influence, if you register above a .01 on the Breathalyzer then you lose your license. However, it is perfectly legal for passengers to drink in the car. Sam was my back seat co-pilot. He is from England, and is one of the best drinking buddies I have ever met. The drive to Kanazawa was about 4 hours. We made a few stops at the rest areas along the way to get some food, and so Sam and I could inspect the facilities. It ended up being the shortest 4 hour drive of my life.
When we arrived in Kanazawa we went to meet Koichi’s friend, Akio, at the restaurant he owned. We arrived around 2am but he was still finishing up work, so we just said hello and made plans to meet him for a drink when he got off. We went to a small club right around the corner from Akio’s restaurant. We were there for a little while and then Akio showed up and seemed to know some of the people working so the night got a little more fun and a little less controlled. I may have some younger more impressionable readers out there somewhere, so I will just leave the recollection of might night as it is now, and as it forever will be… to myself as well as my readers.
The next morning I woke up to 2 small children yelling at Koichi to wake up. I sprung up right away, wide awake and ready to meet the day. Just kidding…These children that woke me up in such a nice manner would soon become my best friends for the weekend, although I do not remember that being the first words I would have used to describe them when I heard their excited shrieks first thing that morning. After a shower and a few sips of water I felt refreshed and slightly more ready to meet the day.
We first went to get some food. There is a famous market in Kanazawa that has fish vendors and fruits and vegetables, kind of like Tsukiji but much much smaller. We went to a restaurant there for lunch. It was a holiday weekend so it was a bit crowded but we didn’t have to wait too long. The food was pretty good. Everyone got some sort of fish and rice. It was one of the prettiest things I have eaten since arriving in Japan. As we were eating I began making friends with Rin and Rikuto. Rin is 3 and Rikuto “Riku” is 2. Rin was a bit shyer than her little brother, but then again Riku was quite outgoing, and was the life of the party for most of the weekend. After making faces at them and letting them beat me up a bit while we ate, we were basically best friends… As you can see below.
After lunch we went to Ken Rokuen, a famous Zen garden. This place is ranked as one of the top 3 gardens in Japan. It was on top of a pretty tall mountain, so you could see over a good bit of the city. There was a massive koi pond and a ton of trees and flowering bushes. There were a ton of cherry trees too. I would definitely love to go back there during the cherry blossom season, but I am sure it gets absolutely packed. There were a few statues and some nice little streams as well. It was a really peaceful place despite being a bit crowded and us being really tired. We couldn’t muster the energy to walk around the whole place so we found a nice spot in the shade to sit and enjoy the view. I think that is what these kinds of places were meant for anyway, not running around to make sure you see everything on the list of attractions. We sat by the pond and watched the fish as a few people came by and tested out their English skills on us. As usual it didn’t go much deeper than “Where are you from” but it was still nice that they were being friendly.
We managed to walk around a bit more before leaving but I don’t think we saw more than half of the garden. I wished I would have seen more but the ice cream cone I got on the way back was enough to completely absolve any regretful feelings I had before then.
After the Garden we stopped at a castle for a bit, then went to a 21st century modern art museum.
The art museum was pretty cool. They had some really different kind of exhibits. There was a “pool” that was only about 3 inches of water over a plexi glass plate. you could pay to go underneath the plexiglass and go “swimming” in the pool. We only stayed up top and took some pictures of the people down below. There were also some things outside to see. Different sculpture like things, and a bunch of horn like things that stuck out of the ground. If you found the other “horn thing” that was linked to yours by a tube buried underground you could talk to the person on the other end. We entertained ourselves for a while running around shouting things down these horns. The kids thought it was neat, but the confused looks on their faces made me think they were kind of freaked out that this metal thing sticking out of the ground knew their name.
The art museum was cool. We ended up laying down on the lawn there for a while relaxing while Rin and Riku ran around some more, much like what we did at the garden.
After the museum we went to dinner at an izakaya. We ordered all kinds of food. I don’t remember what half of it was but it was all really good. Rin fell asleep within about 5 minutes of sitting down at the table, but the rest of us had a good time.
When we got home we watched a movie and digested a bit. I fell asleep for a few minutes during the movie, but it was one I had seen before. We went out on the porch for a while after that. It was perfect weather and you could see some stars. We all laid on the floor since there were no chairs. We made fun of each other and played a few games and before we knew it, it was 130 and Akio was getting home from work. He came out to join us and we stayed up for a few more hours laughing and talking.
Akio, Yoko and Koichi all studied abroad in Australia together so they all speak English pretty well. It was not hard to communicate with them at all. We all got along really well actually. I think everyone was sad when the weekend ended. I had just met them a few days before, but they were really nice people and they welcomed us all with open arms.
After another short night’s rest we woke up and went to Akio’s parents restaurant for breakfast. It was absolutely amazing, and exactly what I needed to prepare for the day. We met Akio’s mom who was really nice. She didn’t speak any English, but she was very smiley and thanked us a lot. When we went to leave she wouldn’t let us pay, which was kind of surprising. The bill was pretty big. We were all starving so we were not shy about ordering. I kind of felt bad for not paying, but we thanked her many many times before leaving.
The main destination for the day was what everyone kept calling a “pool”. I was not so thrilled to go at first. I was wondering why anyone would go to a pool when there was a perfectly good beach so close. Koichi said Rin was scared of the beach so that was why we decided a pool was better. We stopped at the beach on the way anyway. We all walked around for a little bit. Rin didn’t seem the least bit bothered by the sea though. I guess she conquered her fear.
When we arrived at the “pool” I finally realized why everyone made such a big deal about it. It was actually a huge water park with a bunch of massive water slides and a wave pool. I was pleasantly surprised. It also backed right up to the sea so there was a nice view as well.
We stayed at the water park all afternoon. Everyone was pretty tired when we went to leave and some people had been drinking, so it was up to me to drive the short trip around the corner to dinner. My first time driving on the left side of the road from the right side of the car. We made it to dinner safe and sound. We went to a yakiniku place. As usual, it was awesome. I was really stuffed when we left. Since I didn’t drink at dinner either, everyone decided that I should drive the first leg of the trip home as well. I had been missing driving so I didn’t argue much. It was really nice to drive again. I didn’t realize how much I missed it until this night.
I drove for about an hour and then hopped into the back seat and slept a bit. We ended up getting back to Osaka around 130am and unloaded Sam and Claudia’s things, while fighting off swarms of blood sucking Japanese mosquitoes, which are no different from American mosquitoes, but I hated them much more for those few minutes of torture.
We finally made it home to Nara around 2am or so. I showered and went right to bed.
Today wasn’t a bad day at work. Everyone seemed to be in a great mood. I was informed that the welcome party continued for a while after I left, it sounded like everyone had a great time.
It was a busy day for me, but it went fast so that is fine with me. Now I am very tired and ready to finish typing this post. I got a bit lazy in some points and didn’t include as many fun details or make much effort to make the less fun details more fun for you. Also some of my pictures are not uploading. Sorry for that I will try to deal with it later. I had a great weekend though. It is time for me to go to bed now. I hope everyone has a good week. Merci for reading 😉
And thanks a lot to Yoko and Akiyo for hosting us!
In the USA , “coy” fish are spelled “koi”!!!