I promise this one wont be as boring as last week. It might be close, but I actually left my apartment for more than 2 hours this weekend and I have pictures to prove it. I did spend a considerable amount of time in my room though. More than I think I usually do. I have been learning to enjoy spending time in my room. I kind of hate it. I have always had some sort of phobia of spending too much time inside. This is one phobia I am happy to have. Recently though (mostly just last weekend) I have been able to stay inside almost the whole day without becoming overly stir crazy. But I haven’t completely shook it, and I hope I never do.
Saturday night after work, we had a little dinner at a yakitori restaurant close to the office. Since we had a good year, and had reached all the goals set for us by the head office, we were awarded a little bonus dinner. The food was good, but as usual, we were all looking forward to the beer more than anything. We had a bunch of food, the chicken sashimi (Raw chicken) at this place was really good. One of my coworkers lives right around the corner from the place, so she recommended it. We had a bunch of other little things too. Everything was really good.
We left the restaurant around 1030. I headed home and chilled out for a while before going to bed. Sunday, I woke up and tried to stay in bed as long as possible. I read some, and watched a movie. After that, I decided to make some coffee and straighten some things up around my room. I did some laundry, then decided to take a walk to the grocery store by the next train station. I didn’t have much to do, and the walk there is through a small park, so I decided to go a bit out of my way for a few things I could get at the grocery store near by.
I took my time walking so the whole journey took me about an hour and a half. I got back and cleaned a bit more, before making some dinner. Dinner was the highlight of my day. On days where I don’t have anything to do, I always try to think of something good to cook for dinner. It is kind of like the goal for the day. Saturday’s meal turned out alright.
up the hill from my apartment
Monday I woke up and saw a text from my brother about how good the football game was. I got up and turned the game on. Unfortunately the game I turned on was the later game, I missed the early game by more than a few minutes. I caught the late game, but unfortunately that game was a blowout. Now both of the teams I didn’t want to advance, will be playing each other in the super bowl. Oh well, I am sure I will watch it anyway.
After taking my time to get my day started, I got some things ready and decided to go out to Nara park to hike up the Wakakusayama, the hill/mountain on the edge of the park. The hill is considered a “bare hill” it has no trees, just high grass. Every year there is a festival where they set off fireworks and then light the hill on fire to keep anything more than grass from growing. Next Saturday, it the fire, so I decided to go check out the mountain before it turns black. I do plan on going back next weekend to see the festival though, I am taking off work 2 hours early so I can go to the park and watch the festivities.
The hike was pretty cool. The trail was nothing special, just a gravel road winding up through the woods. There were a few motorbikes that came passed, but the path was closed to cars on this day. It was pretty peaceful and in the woods. It was nice to get away and do a little hiking, but I didn’t feel all that removed from things since the trail was basically a road. The top of the hill was pretty cool though. It was a nice view.
It was really windy, but I could see all of Nara, and a few other neighboring cities. In the other direction there was the beginning of the mountains, just some more foothills, but on a clearer day I am sure I would be able to see some bigger mountains in the background.
It was a pretty easy hike. Only an hour’s walk from the station to get to the top of the hill. It was a nice afternoon activity though. On my way down I decided to go down to the bottom side of the bare hill to get a “before pic” preceding the fire next weekend.
I was walking around, and most of the shops were closed, or closing. One old shop owner came out with a pale and a scoop and threw out some feed for the deer. They had already started to gather around even before he came out, then when he started to throw out the feed many more came running in. It reminded me of the cows coming in for feeding time. Most knew it was about time, but there were a few others who came sprinting over right away and pushed their way in to get a snack.
I wandered around a bit more and then stopped at the grocery store by the station to pick up a few things for dinner. That was about it for my weekend. I watched a couple movies, and started to watch some of this new Netflix series called Marco Polo on my brothers recommendation. I am sorry this was not so exciting again. I am still trying to lay low and save some money.
Next week, I will at least have some pictures of a hill on fire if not any good stories. I hope everyone is doing well. I know a few fraternity brothers had a good weekend at the second annual Mountain Luther Palooza this weekend. I wish I could have been there, but it just makes me that much more ready to go for MLP2016 next year. Thanks for reading everyone. Have a great week.