Weekends like this make it all worthwhile

You know, when I came to Japan, I figured I’d have to give up a lot of things… mainly in the entertainment and food departments. I think I had underestimated the resourcefulness of some Tajima Gaijins…

Last Friday night turned into game night at Rebecca’s, a lovely gathering of Gaijins and locals all partaking in the bonding of souls through kicking each others’ ass on a TV screen. I discovered that I prefer my Tetris the old fashioned way, without all those “attacks” you can use to fuck up your opponents’ pile and therefore cover up your lack of talent at fitting the little colorful bits together. Yeah, I ended up losing… sue me.

And also, do not expect that the Wii Mario Kart is good practice for your teen to test his driving skills… unless you want your car ending up in every ditch on the side of the roads. I’ll take my good old fashioned N64 joystick any day… Still, Wii proved entertaining enough and cheering others on made me think that maybe all those game ads on TV actually had a bit of truth to them (I personally always thought they were an elaborate scam to lure the nerdy gamers into thinking a new multiplayer game would actually get them friends who’d want to come and play instead of simply spending hours beating every level on the single player mode).

But oh, the icing on the cake definitely was Jarryd’s PS3, and the two little plastic guitars that I practically jumped on as we were setting up the games. Hey, someone had to make sure it was working, no? Guitar Hero 3. Lovely, lovely revered and adored game, how I missed you (‘specially when I thought I wouldn’t see you again for another year)! So yeah, game night was a blast, not only because I got to play GH3 again, but also for the bits of socializing with cool people. Also, this little social experiment allowed me to discover that my name is entirely unpronounceable for Japanese speakers. So was its shortening to Val. Yet strangely, adding –chan to the end of it solved the problem as clear ringings of perfectly pronounced Val-chan started echoing throughout the room. Hm, will keep in mind for future outings.

On the food side of things, I was fed sushi (which, can you believe, I hadn’t even had a chance to try since I arrived!) and a broth of …something… that was absolutely delicious. Yet, it was nothing to what was coming on Saturday.

I spent the next day in Kasumi, having slept over at Rebecca’s and as night rolled around we drove down to Stix for Italian night. We were planning a short stay and a quick getaway, but those plans changed to something much more better. (Anybody get that reference, you get a cookie^^) Adam had Italian friends visiting Japan for a while, and they had nicely agreed to come to Stix and give a cooking class where we could sample some of their delicious cuisine. And oh. My. God. I have never had a particular fondness for Italian food, liked it well enough, but oh goodness! Everything was just so wonderfully tasty, in blends and flavors I had never really experienced before and just plain WOW. Spaghetti bolognaise, mashed potatoes and salami (best thing eva!), that little spicy sauce and the rice…mmmmmmm! I still had a pang of longing for my old club sandwich when I saw Allie digging into hers but, that was all forgotten as the dessert was set on the table. Something made with cream. And special powder from Italy. And caramel. And even though you’re completely full, you cannot help but take another helping.

I left the Stix rolling to Rebecca’s car and as I got home, I fell into bed and slept like a rock ‘till the next morning.

And lastly, Sunday was a lovely day. Sun was shining, it was freakishly hot for an October day, but beautiful nonetheless. I biked to Kinosaki after lunch and met up with Ben, great guy, another JET from the area. We headed up the mountain in the village using the rope way and cabin cars and had a spectacular view of the village, the river and the surrounding mountains. Though I did get sweaty palms going up, the trek down was much more pleasant as we followed the windy stairs in the actual mountain and made various stops along the way. (For pics, check my facebook ;)) Finally down, we ran into Adam and his friend s again as they were coming back from the onsen. And seeing how relaxed everybody looked, I know now that I really need to go try it out.



We ended up splitting up, Ben and I grabbed dinner at this tiny ramen place (funny how neither of us actually ordered ramens) and talking for a good long while about Heroes. We left, looking for stuff to do but the town had apparently shut itself down. As we wandered around looking (hopelessly) for a coffee shop, we noticed the “Shot bar” was now the only open thing in town. Oh well, not coffee, but I won’t complain. As we got back to the station, we still had a while to wait for Ben’s train, so we sat down and abused the onsen’s free foot bath.

I biked home in the dark, blessedly remembered to buy milk and soy sauce, and crashed into bed. And then got up, searching through my bookcase and looking through Matthieu Simard’s Echecs Amoureux et Autres Niaiseries. And stumbled upon the quote I felt summed up the day the best.

“Baiser et parler, la vie peut etre belle, je vous jure.”

Remove one word in there for it to be accurate, but you get the idea.