The Difficult Part of Traveling Anywhere
Ok, so now that I’m done with my rant about the school I’m currently sitting in (either above or below this post, I can’t decide which order to upload them in). I’ll give a brief summary of what’s happened since the last blog.
So, we met Mo’s family in Tokyo, and that went relatively smoothly. Mo found this sweet deal for Shinkansen (bullet train) tickets to and from Tokyo with a stay in a sweet hotel for 17,000 yen ($170cdn). I should say, her secretary did, teaching private does have its perks! To put that in perspective, normally, just the tickets down and back cost 16,000yen. Soooo, an extra 1000 yen (10 dollars) for a night in a sweet hotel in one of the best areas of Tokyo is AMAAZING!
I learned something very valuable on our trek down to Tokyo. You see, Mo’s mother does not pack lightly and in all fairness they were going to the Philippines following their 8 days in Japan, so they all had 2 climates to pack for. So, because of all this, the 3 of them had…6 bags. One of them was full of stuff, mostly for Mo. Like a zillion boxes of white cheddar Kraft dinner, ranch dressing…you know, a bunch of stuff you can’t get here that she wanted. I think she went a bit overboard, BUT, whatever. I got toothpaste. Anyway, they had 5 bags after coming to Fuku. They left 2 with us; 2 big suitcases. It makes sense, they were traveling around Hiroshima, Kyoto, etc and they only needed one bag each. We decided that Mo and I would bring the other 2 to them. So, this is what I’ve learned. “Traveling with someone is not the difficult part. The difficult part is lugging a heavy bag. Well, going through the physical stress of dealing with a heavy bag and NOT lashing out at the person you’re with.” By the time Mo and I got to Tokyo, and keep in mind we didn’t even really have to move the bags that far, we were ready to KILL each other.
Anyway, we took the Barrys on the Tokyo tour…whirlwind styles, as we arrived on the Sunday to meet them and they left to go to Narita on Monday night, for an early flight Tuesday morning. First, obviously was TGI Fridays in Shibuya for a late lunch of straight up WESTERN food. Sidebar: I don’t have many pictures of them, cuz, I kept taking pictures of the 4 of them with Mo’s camera and then with her Dad’s camera, so I was too lazy to use my own. I’ll punk some from Mo when I have time and put them up here. After Fridays that we took them to the Meiji Shrine in Harajuku/Yoyogi park and then, because Dr. Barry’s birthday was on the Tuesday we took them to NINJA! God, I love this restaurant, it is soo cool! I’ve been once before with Drew and Haley and it was just as good the 2nd time around. Mo, Kathleen and I paid, for the first time since the Barrys had arrived. It felt good. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for being treated or whatever, but, it killed me inside a little bit every time my girlfriend’s father paid for me. 27 years old and being treated to everything…ha jeez!
On Monday, the ladies went shopping in Harajuku, I believe, and Dr. Barry and I (I can’t seem to call him Brian, it seems weird, especially when he’s paying for everything) went to Akihabara, the technological capital of the world. I figured he’d be right at home there and he was. This was probably the best part of their trip for me. As much as Dr. Barry is very academic and knows everything about everything, for instance, did you know that when buying memory cards for cameras it’s never a good idea to get a card above 8 gb if your camera isn’t brand spanking new, because programmers sometimes don’t write programs that allow for bigger cards because they don’t have the foresight to see that a bigger card is possible and sometimes those cards won’t work with the firmware? Neither did I, but now you do. But aside from all that, at one point we just sat down, grabbed coffees and talked. You know, about life, relationships, families, and all that other stuff. It was good. I’ve known Mo’s father for awhile and we always get along, but our relationship had always been very academic, even when discussing hockey, which we did at length…as if the Senators will be good this year…ha jeez. The conversation was something beyond those academic discussions about why Japan has continued to promote agriculture when it is a country that is not at all suited for that type of industry. I think that it helped both of us to, you know, bond. It was good. Afterwards, we met the ladies with their bags of new clothing at the Imperial Palace. Mental note, the East Gardens are closed on Mondays and Fridays. Burn. We rocked Asakusa after that to see Senso-ji, I have been to this shrine a MILLION times. It rained a bit at that part but it was cool. Then we headed back to Ueno, got them tickets for the train out to Narita and hit the Shink back to Fuku. All in all, a cool weekend.
It’s only been a week since then. And I really haven’t done a whole lot. I hit the final day of the Nihonmatsu Lantern Festival (watch I’ll write it in Japanese now, cuz I’m awesome 二本松提灯祭り). I’d never been to the last day (it’s a 3 day festival), because I’ve always been told the first day is the best, but I really really liked the last day. And all my students pulled me into the huge crowd following the Mikoshi (float like thingy) and made me jump around with them. It was wicked. There’s a good picture that one guy took, but it isn’t online yet. I’ll put it up when I can. This last weekend was a long weekend; I think it was Sports day…maybe. I did nothing other than getting really really drunk one night, which was the goal after 2 weekends with the “in-laws” being Tour Guide Tom. Other than that, I slept. And I mean, for more than 12 hours every night. It was wicked. Not much on the horizon, a guy’s night coming up October 24th and obviously Halloween. Both should be a good time. Anyway, I’m out for now, class in 10 minutes…I think, I still have no clue what the schedule is at this school.
B
