Everybody's Working for the Weekend

Luke, Gabrielle and I went to Osaka last Saturday to check the city out and melt in the unbelievable heat.

We made it to the Umeda Sky Building. You take the elevator to the 30-something floor and then the escaltor accross the middle to the top. There is an inside circle to walk around along with an outside one giving you a panorama of the city. Pretty impressive scene- one I have to check out again at night.

Then we wandered around a bit more and finally got to the film festival-- a free one that focused on foreign perspectives of Japan/Japan perspectives in a foreign land. We caught the "experimental" section... odd... but there was one amazing one about a chicken, named Erni, wearing a sort of jacket... wandering around Vienna and a little Japanese boy who kept finding the Erni and talking to him. The highlight being when Erni is wearing a jacket that has a Japanese flag on it and it standing in front of an Austrian boys choir when one of the boys attaches a strap to Erni's jacket and presents him to the little Japanese boy. Check out http://www.chickenssuit.com/english/the_story/ if you can't quite visualize a chicken-jacket... or if you want to laugh and cry at the same time.

On Sunday I went to Himeji with my new friend Ayana. I met her on my first Saturday in Kamikawa and she invited me to a BBQ party (which I went to). This was our next outing and tres fun. She's studying English literature in her first year of university and is very sweet, if not a bit on the quiet side. We went to the Himeji museum where I was lucky* enough to get dressed in full Japanese princess regalia. There were over 12 layers of material.. at least. Officially there are " ju ni" (12) layers but "ju ni" can also mean "enough". There was also a huge train which you can kind of see behind me.

*Lucky because I had to draw straws for the opportunity and I picked the lucky straw. At the museum they have scheduled "dress-up" times and if more than one person wants to get suited up you draw straws. I won against a little boy... I felt a little bad but I wasn't prepared to pass up the opportunity.

After the museum we went to Himeji-jo (castle). It's one of the few remaining original castles left in Japan-- most likely because it never actually had to be used. We met up with some more JETs that I knew, who were also checking out the castle. We got a guided tour as Ayana had arranged for a volunteer guide to go with us and explain all the clever tricks that they used to help keep the enemy at bay, which they never got to try out.

Note the parasol in my hand-- very hip in Japan. Every second person has one and they are useful, if not a little annoying to carry around. After the castle Ayana and I parted ways with the other JETs and had a little lunch. I was back in Kamikawa by 5 and after some laundry, I went to Fukusaki to make dinner with Gabrielle and watched 13 going on 30. Very nice and relaxing, little did I know the excitement hadn't ended.

After that exhausting weekend, I got to party like nothing else at the an infamous "enakai" (work party). My BoE threw a welcome enkai for me and Suzie. We got picked up by bus and then went to a restaurant where they proceeded to tell me that I should eat and drink a lot. So I did. You can see the beer mug beside Mr. Yamada (the man in the back), I had 2 of those, and untold amounts of sake. You can also see the piles of meat... I've never see that much meat for so few people. The way this worked was there was a BBQ in the centre of the table and you got to roast your own meat and veggies on, very tasty. I didn't get too ridiculous, till I got home and proceeded to send incomprehensible messages to Gabrielle online. Around 9:30 I was fast asleep in bed. By some miracle I awoke feeling fine, and went to school by 7:50am as per usual.