Transitional Euphoria and other leftovers from the good ol` party days....

It`s amazing how much of an affect a three day work week can have on my mood -- I have been positively euphoric the last few days. Partially it`s the weather being gorgeous and my tan coming along nicely, but it`s also my parents coming for a visit, and many exciting things planned both within Japan before I leave and after Japan when I go to Europe for a bit before finally going back to Toronto. Notice, I didn`t say before finally going home. I don`t know when that happened, but I don`t see Toronto as home anymore. Whether it is the fact that my brother and parents moved away from there since me coming to Japan, or whether it`s just been too long since I`ve been gone, the fact is it no longer feels like a place I can go back to and make a life. Maybe I will change my mind when I go back, but likely I will just move on the the next place. I do have big plans for the future, but time will tell.

My parents arrive tomorrow and then we are off to Kyoto for some historical sightsteeing (i.e. me secretly drinking cold sake from a waterbottle as they obliviously galavant about ancient temples). After a few days I plan on bringing them back to Nagasaki where I am looking forward to introducing them to everyone, though I am a little anxious about how they will react to `the boys`. I am also dragging them to a battle of the bands event here, which my mother easily agreed to much to my surprise, until I later realized it`s because she thinks it`s an orchestral performance of some sort -- I plan on letting her keep that misconception until after the doors are closed and they have no way out of the venue...

My whole body is buzzing with the anticipation of things to come these days. In the back of my mind there are still some things to resolve and deal with but for the time being they have been pushed back in favour of `action mode`. It`s a good feeling.

I like pain

Well party-wise it was a quietish weekend – screaming karaoke and drunken trampoline jumping are the only hallmarks of the past two nights out. However, nature adventure wise – this weekend kicked some serious anus. On Saturday me and the girls went wakeboarding at our friend Nori`s shop. We stayed over at his on the Friday as well because the shop is right on the bay and has a huge trampoline to practice wakeboarding moves on. I almost killed myself trying to do front flips, which also quickly degenerated into trampoline sumo with the others – a highly safe sport, I assure you.

My first attempt at wakeboarding was less than glorious and left me feeling as if my arms had been ripped out. My second attempt was not much different and ended with a face plant into the sea. The other girls (most notably Shawna and Courtney) seemed to be naturals at it and had no trouble getting up and even attempting tricks. My start was slower but eventually I did manage to stand on the board and even be pulled along for a few seconds before once again planting it into the salt waters. Ah well, I plan on going again coz it was fun as hell!

Sunday was spent in a more relaxed way tanning at a waterfall. The water was still quite cold but given that I had swam there in March I felt like I could afford to give it a go. It was refreshing to say the least…and I fear that the cold it took me all last week to get over may now be back in full force. I guess I am just not that good at saying no to temptation!

This weekend a friend from Toronto is coming to visit me and the week after my parents are coming down! I`m excited to have visitors – seeing Japan through people new to it is always amusing and also it will be nice to see family. I might just drag my parents to some extreme sports…

In-tents Golden Week Adventures

Well, my second (and probably last for a while) Golden Week has come and gone and summer seems to have fully set in here again. I had an amazing time over the past week and I gotta say, I don’t regret choosing to travel within Japan rather than heading out of the country on holiday – gotta make the last few months count!

For the first part of last week I went down to Miyazaki with Courtney and Kara for surfing. We hitchhiked there, which was an interesting experience. The guy who picked us up first was kinda strange but was only gonna drive us a half an hour to the expressway from the Kumamoto ferry port. However, as we talked to him in the car, he suddenly decided to drive us all the way there and on the regular roads – a 4 hour trip one way!—even though he had work the next day and so would have had to drive back to Kumamoto that evening. We were amazed at our luck but figured the guy was the lonely sort and was just happy to have three young women in the car on a sunny day. I actually quite liked him, and we chatted about the X-files and extraterrestrial life while Kara spent half the trip throwing up out of the back of the car (we had gone drinking the night before in Shimabara) and Courtney spent most of the time trying not to laugh at my nerd connection with our driver.

We arrived in Miyazaki in the early evening and after setting up camp on the beach, quickly changed into our swim clothes and ran to the sea. It was amazing and refreshing! That night there was a candle festival going on near the beach so we decided to check it out. There were candles and various lights everywhere, arranged in different patterns in this gorgeous Japanese garden. The effect was enchanting and we spent a lot of time taking it in. Finally though, our tiredness and hunger took over and we headed for the local Izakaya where we had a great traditional Japanese meal.

We woke up early the next morning and headed to the surf shop. The guy rented us boards and gave us a pretty extensive lesson, and in Japanese at that. I also bought a really cool rash guard so that I could look the part of a surfer…even though I had only tried the sport once before. Image counts, people!

The waves weren’t huge but we did get a few good rounds in all the same. I even managed to stand on the board a few times! That night we were exhausted after all day in the ocean and finished with a seaside onsen and a wine and cheese party on the beach. The following day we spent touring the nearby volcanic island and going for a long distance swim before heading back towards Kumamoto.

All in all, it was incredibly refreshing and I am now completely addicted to surfing. I am going to go to Miyazaki at least one more time before I leave Japan.

The second half of the week was a different kind of animal. I went with the boys (Aaron, Julian and Mike) to a large outdoor hippie fest in the mountains near Aso (an active volcano). It took us forever to get there (and most of us were already drunk when we arrived) but it was worth it. There must have been something like 1000 people in the camp, and it was an almost even mix of foreigners and Japanese people. We set up our tents quickly and headed for the main stage area. Over the course of several days we met up with tons of people we knew as well as befriended a bunch of new people. We drank, ate, sang, danced and generally had a great time. Lots of people had little booths set up in tents where they were selling anything from jewelry to chai, to curries, to hemp products. Many people sat in front of bonfires just playing African drums or acoustic guitar and people joined in if they felt like it.

I spent most of my time with Sachiko and Kazuya, and Kazuya`s two kids though. They are friends from Shimabara whom I totally adore and rarely get to see these days. They had come really prepared so they had a grill and chairs and tarp set up, which was good because a lot of the time it was raining and windy and they had a little safe haven.

It was an amazing experience, drifting from one campfire and tent to another, walking in the rain and the mud completely out of it. However, by the time Saturday rolled around I was starting to get a little sick from not having been dry in several days and so I was sort of relieved when all the boys agreed to head home. Getting out was a bit of a struggle though, as the rains had made the roads mud and we had to push several cars through it to get out. I was completely covered in mud when it was all done! Thankfully there was an onsen nearby, so we stopped there before heading home. They were not all that happy to see a group of muddy gaijin in their pristine baths, but hey, that’s what the pre-showering is for, right?

All in all, the whole week was organic and nature-y. In other words, kinda a step away from the norm for me. I probably spent more time in a tent in that past week than I have in my entire life. I felt at one with nature – and let me tell you, by the end of the week, I certainly smelled `natural`. It was really, truly, great – but at the same, coming back to Nagasaki and going out for dinner in normal clothes, clean, dry and in a nice restaurant felt wonderful as well. Long live variety!