I barely even remember what I did three weeks ago.. I had my field placement for the second time (still awesome.. this time I worked with second graders, who were adorable) and I went to class. I probably did some things that were really fun. Oh right! I went clubbing for the first time, at a place that houses the world's largest disco ball.. it was all electronic music and they had crazy laser-like lights, strobes, and fog machines flashing everywhere at various times. It was really trippy but an amazing experience. I danced straight from midnight to five in the morning.
Two weekends ago I me
t Becca in Asakusa and we walked around the touristy shops and saw some really nice Buddhist temples. An old man on a bike stopped to talk to us while we were digging into our takoyaki, and he sat there with us for over half an hour talking in a medley of Japanese and English about how he was in the Navy and used to live in California. Nice guy. On Sunday, I met with Mai (a professional Chinese dancer whose sister is married to one of my dad's co-workers) and she took me to a professional ballroom competition. Not having danced or seen dance since I've been here, I thought it was pretty spectacular; granted, there were a few really American-style dances that were strange to see performed by Japanese people at first.I had class only until Tuesday the next week, so I didn't
have to go to the elementary school. Everyone has off a week of school in April or May and it's known as Golden Week.The first day of Golden Week I got my hair cut really short! It was a men's style, which threw the stylist off a tad, but I'm quite happy with it. Most families travel during this week off, so we decided we would take their lead and go on a mini trip. There were eight of us who went together, and we decided upon a campground in Hakkone that rented out six-person cabins for $200 per night. With eight of us, it was only $25 per night each! (For Japan, that's incredible.) Our trip began with extensive train riding, but at a certain point trains could no longer conquer the land between us and our destination. Thus, we had to take a cable car, which was more or less a train slanted on a steep diagonal, and a GONDOLA! We were all freaking out with excitement about this, because come on.. anywhere that requires a Gondola ride to get there must be amazing. And it was. The scenery from the Gondola was ridiculous; we were in a really mountainous area, and we could see the vague hazy outlines of mount Fuji against the sky. We passed a sulfur mine with steaming mountains, and we began to approach Lake Ashinoko, where we'd be staying. On the gondola's descent we noticed that there were pirate ships sailing across the lake. Added bonus!
The first day we settle
d into our cabin and found it to be delightful.. it was all wood, but there was a big open common area with huge windows, a nice kitchen, and two bedrooms with three beds each. There was a bathroom, but the toilet clogged within the first hour. We ate lunch (mostly just rice) and then set out to explore. We took an extensive hike around the lake and everything was so beautiful that we could hardly contain ourselves. Living in Tokyo for a month and a half, I've grown used to petite manicured trees in pots, and a smoggy night sky in which only the moon is visible. It was beyond refreshing to see Japan's natural side, to experience real trees again that hadn't been tampered with. When it was getting dark we turned back, and Griffin and I made stir fry for dinner (which, I might add, was delicious.) We all played charades for hours and then went to sleep.The second day was hot springs day! This I was really looking forward to, because J
apan is so well-known for its hot springs. First, though, we took a walk through town and notified the camp officials about our toilet being broken. The onsen (hot spring) that we went to was actually indoors, which was a little disappointing but no matter.. we'll just go to an outdoor one another time. The sexes, of course, were separate, and the we (the four girls that came on the trip) were the only ones there. It was at first a little strange to get naked with three friends, but we all adapted really quickly and then it became awesome and fun instead. Before you get in the onsen, you have to take a shower so that you don't take any grime into the bath with you (this is actually a principle for all Japanese baths, not just onsens.) Getting into the onsen was a little difficult because it was scalding, and being in for too long made my heart beat in strange places, like my arm and my toe. (Who knew that could happen?) We all got out every once in a while to stand under a cold shower, and then we'd get back in and the water would seem less hot for a minute or two. It was really fun, but it left us all exhausted because of the extreme changes in temperature and the general relaxing atmosphere. When we got back to the cabin, some people took naps and the rest of us went for a hike again and sat by the lake until we got cold and hungry. That night Griffin and I made curry, also delicious, and we played cards and charades again. Everyone went to sleep around 1 or 2, but I hadn't been outside at night yet so I went for a walk by myself until I came to an open field that we had played frisbee on earlier. I could see so much of the sky and so many stars that I could hardly believe I was in the same country as Tokyo. I laid on my back and watched the stars and listened to the lake for a long time; it was one of the most emotionally intense experiences I've had since I've been here.The next morning we had to check out, but we stayed in the area a little longer so that we could ride the pirate ship. We mostly just thought riding a kaizoku no fune in Japan would be hilarious and awesome, and we made abundant reference to The Lonely Island's popular bal
lad, "I'M ON A BOAT." But we had no idea the view that was in store for us. The sky was clear that day, and as we pulled farther away from our port we noticed Mount Fuji was extremely visible in all its glory. Hakkone was really mountainous, so to see how dwarfed the surrounding mountains were by Fuji was breathtaking.On the way home, Griffin and I decided we wanted to take some bamboo with us as a souvenir, so we got off the train at a promising looking stop and proceeded to search for bamboo we might be able to steal. Before we found any bamboo, we found a blocked off, deserted path with rusted structures overgrown by vegetation. It was a pretty rad atmosphere but my camera had died earlier that day so I have no photo documentation of the whole bamboo journey. (bamjourney?) Finally we struck gold! We tried not to kill too much bamboo so we took ones that were already bent or cut, and it took a long time to get the bamboo to cooperate in most cases. As we walked back to the train station, we realized we were probably the only white people in the whole town, and we were conspicuously carrying large sticks of bamboo onto a train. But hey, you do what you've got to do.
The rest of golden week, I went to Akihabara and went to a Maid Cafe! (where the waitresses are dressed up as maids and everything is pink and cutesy and they make you sing little songs and play games with them over your food. Definitely geared towards guys, but they seemed ok with the fact that three of us were girls.) The next day Lindsay and I had a small gathering at our apartment so we could have a movie marathon, but the infamous Endo-san came in and basically told us that we were terrible students and that we sucked, and that the neighbors would complain and we would get penalized. Endo-san is the scariest Japanese person I've ever seen even when she's happy, so this was positively terrifying for everyone. She had told us at the beginning that guests were ok before 9, but I think she was upset because some of them were boys? No one was sure what the problem was, since we were being really quiet and obviously she hadn't noticed anyone was there until she came into the room. We talked to IES and they told us don't worry about it as long as you aren't breaking rules, and that IES realizes Endo-san is a little off her rocker.
The next day was my birthday! I did homework much of the day, and that night a bunch of us went to The Lockup, which is an insane prison-themed restaurant. The lady who took us to our table first locked Griffin and I up in handcuffs and led us there. All the staff were wearing police uniforms or cellmate uniforms with the black and white stripes. The restaurant itself was a series of dark, (fake) cobblestones passages, and music from Pirates of the Carribean (what?) was playing in the background. We were led to our table.. or should I say cell (every group has their own private prison cell) and ordered drinks first. My drink of choice was an erlynmeyer flask filled with soda, and a series of different test tubes with various coloured/flavoured alchoholic syrups. They came with a beaker and a pipette, so that you could mix the soda with the different syrups to your own satisfaction. So fun! Other drinks included one with an eyeball in it, one with a syringe full of red coloured flavor syrup, and one into which you put white powder that looked like cocaine. As we were looking at the menu, the lights went out and the music was turned up and a strobe light came on in our cell. Various grotesquely costumed villains burst into our cell to threaten us and prod us with axes and the like. As a jumpy person, I for one was freaked out, but I was sitting far from the door and didn't get harassed. A recording came on to tell us that the police had gotten the prisoners under control again, and the lights came back on
and we proceeded to order our food. The most notable was the Russian Roulette takoyaki; we got nine takoyaki (fried octopus balls, one for each of us) and ate them at the same time.. they were all normal and delicious, except one. That one was almost intolerably spicy. Erin got the spicy one and said her mouth burned for a really long time after. We ate (I had fondue! Incidentally, nothing like fondue anywhere else in the world, but still delicious) and went home. And so ended Golden Week.Yesterday I had a field trip to Shibuya with a class, and since it was a Friday, almost everyone stayed and went out clubbing afterwards. Ellie and I did some killer Disney karaoke and then headed to meet everyone else for the club. It was only a ten dollar entrance fee and that included one free drink, so it was a really good deal. Once again, I danced all night and left at five in the morning, and once again it was 100% worth it.
Fin.
