Coz I`m Budo like that.....

Well it’s been overcast, rainy and downright dreary here the last couple of days. It makes me want to curl up in a cat-like ball and stay in bed reading and drinking cocoa. This strong desire is not helped by the fact that I now have a nasty cold as well (which probably started when I decided to go for a run in the rain…I just wanted to be hardcore, damnit). Maybe if I make cutesy eyes at people at work? I don’t know how good I am at eliciting pity….but I’ll give it a go. I just hope it doesn’t freak people out so much that they attempt to attack me out of fear. The risk seems worth it though. (Update: it worked. Well sorta…..they didn’t give me a day off, but they gave me some hot cocoa…score!)

Anywho, as of yesterday I am a Jodo Nidan. I passed my test despite an insufficient amount of sleep (mainly due to my cold) and a general feeling of weakness and nausea. That’s true Budo, though, as my Dutch friend Yurun pointed out.

Saturday night I had helped Kara with the 2nd annual charity concert event in Shimabara. I mainly manned the door, which was perfect cause I really just wanted to be sitting down. The concert was good though and makes me want to organize similar things when I get back home. Partying AND helping people? What’s not to like?

Anyways, I think that’s all for now. I am on a `loving Japan` kick right now. I think the next few weekends will be more relaxed because all my martial arts tests are now successfully behind me and I have to save money for Thailand so no partying. I can’t wait to go tho!

Also, I made the best kimchi ever last night. I`mma make that stuff for you mofos back home when I make my glorious return.

Ritual beginning to the big Sumo fights. 

Big boys posturing. 

The cushions go flying.....this was fun times right here. 

i look rough! and this was only 6 pm....(but probably like 3 bottles of sake later) 

Sumo, Sake, Cirrhosis

Well as expected, this weekend was a good one. Nothing like watching two fat guys wearing thongs wrestle each other whilst drinking hot sake. I have to say that Sumo is rather surprisingly an entertaining and highly watchable sport and it was definitely worth seeing. Lots of history and tradition (apparently it’s one of the oldest sports in the world?) and so very Japanese (thankfully the people I was with seemed to know a lot more about it than I did and took the time to edumacate me).

A lot of people came out for it too and we were all walking around with our sake and sharing the love as much as we could. Of course, the result was that by 6pm most of us were completely gone. I managed to keep it together though by having a big meal right after and so by the time 8:30 rolled around I was ready to keep the party alive. I also partly have my new jacket to thank – there is just something about a fur-lined, part-pimp-part-classic heiress coat that gives me a natural high. Worth every penny. Most of the night after that I don’t really remember but I gather it was a good time with the bulk of my money spent on clubhopping. I was paying for it yesterday though – I don’t remember the last time I had been that sick. It’s definitely a good thing I am leaving this country next year because I don’t think my liver can take much more of this (and that’s ME saying this so you know there must be a problem).

This coming weekend I am going to go help Kara in Shimabara for a charity event that she and another JET are organizing. I will be in bed early on the Saturday night though because I have my Jodo test on Sunday morning so all in all it should be a detox weekend. This week I am looking forward to a lot of healthy eating and hardcore training (both because of the Jodo test as well as my desire to look hot in a bikini for Thailand). I am also excited coz Thursday is Japan’s Labour Thanksgiving Day so I have the day off (why they don’t just move it to a Friday and give us a long weekend I will never know….but meh). I think I’ll finally go visit Huis Ten Bosch – a Dutch theme park about an hour away.

Ok, so was that a boring post? I can’t really tell as I have maybe one brain cell working on this fine Monday morning, so y`all will have to forgive me.

My friend Jay and I near a waterfall in the mountains. Poor guy had to really crouch down to get in this shot!  

Hanging out with the Jamaican ALTs.  

at the entertainment complex....do i look like a redneck or what?? kinda scary.....(incidentally, i was reeeeally good at this game....) 

Mountain retreat, rodeo-style.

Waking up to the smell of woodsmoke in the clear, sharp mountain air against the backdrop of traditional Japanese houses nestled among stunning peaks and lush forests, I felt at peace. It was nice this weekend to get away from the craziness of partying and city life for a bit and it felt good to take some time to revive my spirit and reset my chi (ok, ok, so I don’t really believe in all that karma-Buddhist stuff…but there really is something almost mystical and inspiring about the mountains here). However, though most of my weekend was spent relaxing in a small mountain town, I did end up going to a hip-hop/reggae party on the Saturday night in Saga city (a friend was DJ-ing). I also met some really fun and friendly Jamaican ALTs and got to eat spicy Jamaican stew and learn the basics of `Patwa` (actually a really fascinating language that I would love to learn more of). It was so refreshing to be around people from a culture that likes to laugh and talk about the deeper things in life for a change – a nice break from Japan.

I also got to ride a mechanical rodeo bull this weekend. Hopefully I will be able to post a video of that at some point coz I think it’s hilarious. It’s even more hilarious because like 20 Japanese guys were all watching me do it, seemingly mesmerized, which admittedly made me feel a little self-conscious. I just gotta say though, I love the huge gaming complexes here in Japan. For about $16 you can spend three crazy fun hours in a place with video games, batting cages, indoor sports of all kinds, massage chairs, a roller alley, mechanical bull, etc. I mean these places kick ass in the fun department and cost the same as 5 minutes at the comparatively hole-in-the-ground Saga Playdium. Being a huge nerd, I completely lost track of time in that place – mainly spending it on flight simulators and high-tech fighting games that actually require you to duck, kick and punch for real (as your motions are read by sensors). Needless to say, I had to be dragged away from the place.

Today I finally feel like I am recovered from the past two crazy weeks. This week promises to be a lot slower so hopefully I will finally be able to connect with people from back home with more than just emails. I need to spend the week resting and taking care of my body though because the coming weekend is possibly the craziest party weekend of the year – The Sumo championships in Fukuoka. I didn’t go last year but I hear amazing things. From Nagasaki alone there are about 50 ALTs going and finding a hotel was impossible so I am staying with a few people in a capsule again. I just hope that I will be able to remember enough of the weekend to write about it next Monday….

Crashing the hair salon party. As Erica commented, it was like being in NY. (I will post more pics when I get them) 

Karaoke place much later....yes I am being licked, though apparently I was unaware of it at the time. 

Just to prove I did something other thank drink...hehe, Nicole hated the climb. She was cursing me for a long while after.... 

Autumn on Unzen. 

Mixing business with pleasure.

Have you ever had one of those dead-to-the-world deep sleeps that are so needed and so completely satisfying that you don’t remember your name or age or geographical location when you wake up? Where in waking up you in fact feel like you are being reborn? Well that was me this morning, and man was it long overdue.

From last Thursday straight on through to last night (Wednesday a week later) I have pretty much been away from home and busier than a prostitute stationed at a naval port near a Viagra factory. I had a business trip last Thursday; had Ali (formerly of Toronto, now of Kyoto) and Niki come visit me for the long weekend; partied on Friday, Saturday and Monday nights; entertained visitors on Thursday and Sunday nights; climbed a mountain on Sunday and did two presentations and helped run a conference for about 200 people on Monday and Tuesday. Yesterday (Wednesday) I came back to the center and then had to help with a Japanese conference on team teaching. If you got tired reading that….imagine how I feel.

In any case I can’t complain really because it was completely fun, totally satisfying and even had me considering staying a third year in Japan (though only briefly, don’t worry, I am not insane).

Some highlights of the last few days? Well let’s see.
-Live music put on by some friends followed by listening to an awesome Osaka band in a Nag nightclub.
-Having to deal with three friends whose sex hormones had gone through the roof (I have heard the word `tittie` so many times that I swear I will be waking up from nightmares about large breasts and yelling that word for the rest of my life).
-Shimabara fun featuring yet another `drinking` contest with Kazuya….who won? Hahahaha. Though I shouldn’t laugh so hard, I had to go hiking with that hangover the next day (but he had fishing at 3 am so really it’s a tough call).
-Crashing a party at a hair salon on Monday night (after the first day of the conference) and getting tons of free booze as well as connections for good haircuts in the future.
-teaching Niki`s Japanese teacher to say the word `cunt` and then listening her use it to greet everyone she met (she was awesome actually, she kept saying `hello cunt` with a completely straight face and in a totally cute Japanese. She also kept drinking other people`s drinks and copying whatever swear words Niki said....which meant she was basically swearing like a sailor all night long in broken English.)
-Having Niki feed me beer from a pitcher even though I was clearly barely standing and then her laughing as I ran off to wrestle a guy friend who seemed rather surprised by my strength.
-Meeting up with another group of people for a later party and being greeted by “hey, are you the Lana that was raised in the former Yugoslavia as a communist and had a red star on her cap??” when I introduced myself. This was followed by sheepish looks from P who had apparently been glorifying my communist past for anyone that would listen (and in fact, at the conference the next day, this was the comment that came up the most).
-Putting on two presentations and fielding questions without killing myself and others (quite an accomplishment, let me tell you)
-For the second day of the conference, changing into my suit in a car parking lot after only two hours of sleep and still intoxicated from the night before. I clean up well though, and I somehow managed to keep it together and survive the day. Others were not so lucky (though a certain friend did look surprisingly elegant as she calmly and peacefully walked to the bathroom to be ill every 10 minutes or so.)

Well that’s about all you are going to get for now. The rest I can either not remember or it is just not fit to post online (trust me). It scares me how quickly my mood can change on certain things though. When I came back to Japan this year I was looking forward to it but more looking forward to going home. Now, even though I know I cannot stay, a part of me is feeling the pangs of regret. At the same time, I know that if things don’t work out for me back in the real world, there will always be a strangely comfortable place for me here in Japan should I want one.

This weekened it`s off to the mountains for a needed getaway....more adventures to come soon.