Friday we (Ryan, John, Guillaume, Moui and Paul) played Risk over at Moui's apartment.
In case some of you are wondering why we play so many board games, I should remind you that Japan
is the most expensive country in the world to live, and a social evening where we don't spend money is
a welcome change. By the way, Paul won that game.
Saturday was my birthday (I'm now 23 years old). I celebrated by having a party thrown in
my honour at Moui's apartment with 10 of my closest (geographically speaking) friends. We ate
sushi, chanpon
(a cabbage and noodle dish) and cake baked by Yukari. I got some interesting gifts as well. 2 J-Pop CDs
(Smap and Urufuruzu), a Jenga-like game called "Woody Unbalance" and some figurines of Dr Zira, Dr Cornelius and
the ill-fated Dr Milo from the movie Escape from the Planet of the Apes.
Fact: In Japan, corn chips are chips that literally taste like creamed
corn; tortilla chips (or tortilla shells) are hard to find. You can get salsa in the regular grocery stores here,
except the Japanese method of eating salsa involves spreading it on a nice slice of fresh white bread. That doesn't
quite appeal to me (even Moui and Guillaume think it's weird, despite the fact that they think
Nutella-on-a-baguette is OK).
Anyway, I reasoned that since they speak Spanish in Mexico, and since Portuguese is kind of
like Spanish, I should try looking for tortilla chips at the Brazilian Specialty Hut in Murai. It's
about the size of your average elevator, so it didn't take me long to find what I was looking for: A big
bag of Tostitos. That night, my nachos complemented Miranda's
sushi beautifully.
Sunday we went to Hakuba, a city in the north of Nagano prefecture. There I tried snowboarding
for the first time. I spent most of my time falling on my butt, or sliding down the hill face-first, but I had
a great time. Afterwards, we went to an onsen (natural hot spa), then out to dinner at an all-you-can-eat-for-90-minute
buffet.
Monday I came to work late, aching all over. Falling down continuously for 4 hours during snowboarding
the day before really took its toll on me.
Saturday we had a dinner party for Miranda's birthday, which was in part for me as well. It was an
all-you-can-eat/drink-for-2-hours restaurant, and was very good. Afterwards, we went out for karaoke, where Ryan and I sang
Boney-M's
Rasputin and Culture Club's
Do You Really Want to Hurt Me.
After Chris' birthday, Guillaume and I forced-- er, convinced-- him to go snowboarding with us.
I'd have to say that Chris took up the sport with considerably more ability than I did a couple
of weeks earlier. However, my second time snowboarding definitely went better than my first: instead of plowing
snow with my face (see previous week's entry) I actually spent some time upright. The area where I was is the
same place that the skiing events were held during the Nagano Olympics (Hakuba). Some of the ski runs begin
in the upper stratosphere; I thought that I'd be stupid
not to try them. To make a long story short,
I got to the bottom quickly, if not gracefully.
The all-you-can-eat restaurant we went to afterwards was a dream come true. I cannot emphasize
how great it was; I intend to have my children baptized there. Usually when you go to a restaurant in Japan,
you get teeny-tiny portions of food for the equivalent of about $50 to $80. This place had a flat rate of $30,
and you could actually leave feeling full. I stuffed myself with
yakiniku
and Canada Dry (a great combination, let me tell you) and waddled out several hours later.
Around Wednesday or so, Chris and I were standing around waiting for the train to take us to
work when this older Japanese man walked up to us, staring intently. He watched with fascination as we talked,
and finally interrupted: "You from America?"
I considered saying "Nein. Sprechen sie Deutch?" but he had already heard us speaking English,
so Chris and I just admitted that no, we were from Canada.
At that, the old fellow's face lit up. "Canada!" exclaimed, "You catcha the KINGA SALMON?"
I told him no, I'm not much of a fisherman. He said that he'd been to British Columbia on a fishing trip, and
had a great time-- the highlight of his trip was catching the ever-elusive KING SALMON, which he demonstrated
by an elaborate lure-casting pantomime.
After recommending that Chris and I go to Hokkaido someday, where there are plenty of salmon,
the man gave us his business card and went off to chat with some 15-year-old school girls. His card identified
him as a "Bard Song Writer" from Shiojiri, Japan. He misspelled "Shiojiri." And "Japan."
Sunday night we went to Moui's to hang out. She had some French friends over who live in Tokyo. We had a good
cross-cultural time.
Monday was a holiday here, something like Foundation Day. I celebrated by letting John teach me how to play squash.
It was a lot of fun, until I collapsed into a sweating, exhausted mess.
Saturday night a bunch of us (about 15) went out for dinner and drinks. Afterwards some of us went dancing at a tiny
dance club in Matsumoto. They played good music, and as the beer started to work its magic, I was having a good time. Suddenly the lights
came on and this skinny Japanese guy picked up a microphone and started rapping. It wasn't long after that we decided to leave.
In an attempt to save money on future haircuts, I had the Rat Man
of Matsumoto shave my head this past weekend. He called it the "Skinhead Cut." I might not look better,
but I do look balder.
During the Japanese class in Matsumoto, one of the teachers (Mrs. Takenoiri) asked me if I'd help out with an English
class she teaches. It would only be for a single evening, in March. If there's one thing I can do,
it's speak my native language, so I agreed. That same day, I was invited to be the guest speaker at the Matsumoto English
Club sometime at the end of April. I'm not sure what to talk about; apparently the topic can be anything.
Busy week for me. Lots of work to do. Nothing much new. Sorry, not much goes on towards the end of the month,
as we all wait hungrily for our pay cheques to be deposited.
Money or no money, I still went snowboarding on the weekend. Most of the snow has melted, leaving the
ski slopes coated with a layer of pure ice. It was like snowboarding on concrete. Afterwards, I went to a restaurant that
offered steak, which is pretty rare (ha!) in this country. Since the portions were so small (about the diameter of a tennis ball) I ordered two. This thoroughly
confused the cashier. She could not conceive of anyone eating two whole meals.
Clearly, I was more beast than man.
My bosses asked for several new features to be added to my project one week before it's due. Although it seems
impossible now, I'm sure in a week I'll be sighing a breath of relief as my project is finished and handed in. Either that, or I'll be
on a plane back to Canada.
Our friend Tatsuya invited us to go strawberry picking next week with his motorcycle buddies. This I have to see.