Saturday April 4, 1998: 7:45am
Whew. Well they arrived OK! Mom and Dad, that is. They called up the office at 6:30pm to tell me they were cold and at the Hino Station. Hahaha... not quite as warm as Jakarta, is it now?!? So I finished up work super-quick and biked-like-mad ov er to the station. There they were, cold, and waiting at the Hino station! We grabbed a cab up to the apartment, where I gave them the grand 20-second tour. After that, we chatted, etc, cooked up some grub, they unpacked, and took a we also took a good ol' trip to the local Lawson's, where we all had a ball. I think the girls who work there think I am crazy -- and this just confirmed it! Hahaha.
Today, earlier on, Mom and Dad went to Ueno and they said the cherry blossoms were spectacular and that everyone was out on the blue plastic tarps (which they put out under the trees) having their hanami parties with sake, sake, beer, and sake! It h as started!
And now we're gonna go to Hama Rikyu gardens to start off the day --
10pm
Whew looong day. We started at Hama Rikyu at 9:30 or so, after making numerous convenience store stops!!! Hard to resist, I guess! Anyway, the gardens were very nice I thought. I'd been there before, but in December a lot of the stuff was dead so it wasn't as nice then. They had some big ol' sakura trees. There were definitely more people than in December, which isn't saying much! But there was a big line-up for the Sumida Gawa Cruise! We missed the first boat, but caught the 10:35 one. It w as nice warm sunny weather, so the cruise was nice! Plus, there are just loads of sakura (cherry trees) lining the river. Especially by Asakusa, wow! It's just like one big party here when those sakura bloom!
Yeah so the cruise ended at Asakusa, where we spent most of the rest of our day. Wow, I bought so much stuff! See, I haven't done much souvenir shopping since I've been here, and now that I'm leaving I have to do it all -- quick! It's crazy! And gifts for people too! So between me and Mom and Dad, it took us a long time to get down Nakamise-Dori, and also Kappabashi-Dori. Mom and Dad got me this beautiful noren (this cloth that hangs in the doorway in restaurants and houses), I'm so happy! It' s this really nice green colour with cherry blossoms on it. Oh and then next I met up with Geoff to do a camera transaction... a new camera!! I have a new camera! oh it's so cool too. I mean, it's Geoff's old manual camera, but it's sooo much nicer th an my manual one -- so much lighter! And this one has a flash unit so I can take good pictures inside finally! And the lens is 40mm to 80mm!! Wow it is so great. So now I have to fins a place to see mine, but Sariya can probably help me with that.
Anyway, it was about 4:30 or so when we left Geoff and Asakusa. We had stopped off for a late lunch at around 2 at a small local Ramen (Chinese noodle soup, taken over by the Japanese) in thhe narrow backstreets of Asakusa, that was neat. And then we were headed off to Akihabara (Electric Town) to wander until we'd be hungry enough for dinner, or something like that. Yeah, Akihabara, that place is cool. So many gadgets and widgets to play with. And after 11 months of searching, I *finally* found an electronic translator that doesn't display the Japanese in kanji!! Wow! I had really given up on it, but I found this really simple translator, and since it's too cheap to support the display of kanjis, I can read all the translations! Cool. Plus, it translates to French and Spanish, as a bonus! Only Y3,800 ($45)!! I know I'm leaving soon, but I doubt I'll stop learning Japanese, and the French will be useful, and if I ever get around to learning Spanish...
K, so we wandered the streets of Akihabara 'til 6:30 or so, and decided to eat dinner at a restaurant above the station. I had this mushroom spaghetti dish, and when I got it, they'd mixed in scrambled eggs with the mushrooms as sauce! Talk about w eird! But, it was kinda tasty actually...
After din-din, back home. Now we're watching "Die Hard 3 With a Vengeance" in Japanese. On TV. While munching down on Japanese treat. Yeah! It's not too hard of a plot to catch despite the Japanese...
Sunday April 5, 1998: 9:30pm
Wow I am pooped! I drank 3 Diet Pepsis yesterday and I guess although I used to be a lean mean caffeine machine just a year ago, I barely drink any anymore, and so I didn't fall asleep for about 3 hours and only got 4 hours! Add in a day of walking and you have...
Ok, so today we were a little slow getting out the door, and slow getting to the station (convenience stores...) so we got to Harajuku at 9:45 or so. As it turns out, that was probably good because nothing is open before 9:30 anyway. So first we we nt to the Oriental Bazaar, where we did some obscene amount of shopping, again. Well, at least I did! But now I can say that I am finished! I mean, no more shopping for me! Uh, I think.
Oh and we picked the right day to be in Harajuku.. coinciding with the 100th annual ! Wooohooo! Talk about exciting. Actually, there were just loads of teenagers there because Speed (the singing group of 4 tee nage gals) was leading the parade, and when they went by, huge masses of spectators swam by on the sidewalk trying to stay in line with Speed! It was one crazy mass of screaming, running, frenzied teenagers! Crazy.
Ok next! We grabbed some lunch from a Lawson's and went over to Yoyogi Koen to picnic on the grass there. Obviously everyone else in Tokyo had the same idea! Can't blame 'em, it was a nice day! And the park is huge, so it's not like we couldn't f ind a spot. Actually, we sat right by this group of students who were magicians/entertainers, so they were doing all these tricks, it was really funny!
The John Travolta dudes were a no-show! Oh well. So we went to Takeshita Dori next, where we were pushed and shoved the whole way down, like you're supposed to be. We did a Coca-Cola print club! Cool.
K, after spending our afternoon in Harajuku (Ah! I forgot, we also went to Meiji Jingu!) we took the train to Higashi Koganei and walked to Sensei's place. And together (Sensei, Mr. Kitagawa, and us) we walked to Koganei Park to see the cherry blos soms -- holy kamowley! Holy shmoley kamowley!! I don't know what was most fascinating, the people, or the trees! Let me start with the trees... absolutely incredible. There's one particular are in the park which is just filled with huge old cherry tre es -- there must be almost a hundred of them in all - and well, it just looked like winter! But warmer! 'Cuz all the branches are muffled with clumps of pale pink and white - and it even looked like it was snowing with the petals falling everywhere! Wo w, I can't even come close to explaining just how beautiful they were. So let me move on the the PEOPLE. Again, absolutely incredible! Every single spot under the trees was taken up by partying people, and were they ever happy! Everyone was drinking, and eating, laughing, taking pictures, playing around - the park just echoed with all the noise. It was just amazing. I can see why they love this time of year! Oh, and Sensei told me that there's a saying in Japanese that says something about how real ly they party to eat and drink, without looking at the trees... hahaha. So really, they're just an excuse! But, a beautiful excuse.
We walked around the park for awhile. It was pretty funny with Mr. Kitagawa because he is hilarious! Mostly when he speaks English though - not because he's bad or anything - but he has an odd vocabulary and he often gets stuck with one word and yo
u totally lose the conversation somewhere in the middle... anyway, he talked to Dad a lot, and Mom, Sensei and I talked. It was lots of fun! Ah, but then we went to this Chinese restaurant, and wow it was tasty! The best part of the evening though was
watching Mom and Mr. Kitagawa literally wrestly for what they thought was the bill (it was actually a pamphlet)! No, maybe it was at the station when we were saying good-bye, and Mr. Kitagawa gave Dad a hug. Priceless. What a great day!
Monday April 6, 1998: 9:30pm
So Mom and Dad headed off to Kyoto this morning - they're on their own! I hope they don't get lost! I'm sure they'll be fine for the next coupla days.. yeah.
Oh today I got a call from Daphne! Cool. She arrived in Osaka last Friday and is just settling in now... She'll be going to uni in Osaka somewhere for the next 3 months, isn't that neat! I really hope she can make it up to Tokyo before I leave!
And will it PLEASE stop raining!
Tuesday April 7, 1998: 10am
Trick or treat
Smell my feet
Gimme something good to eat
Not too big
Not too small
Just the size of Montreal
If you don't
I don't care
I'll make you smell my underwear
Wednesday April 8, 1998: 9:30pm
Well, that's it for calligraphy...*boo*!! It was raining -- again. By the time I got to Sensei's, Yuka-chan was already there, and they were just sitting down to tea -- perfect timing! Today's treat was this an (sweet bean) and chestnut thing -- s teerange! And YELLOW oranges! Yellow! Those were neat too.
Today I went back to kaisho style [ed note: the 'kotobuki' was in teisho style]- I did "ki no medoki" which means "the season when the trees are starting to bud", but nicer! Perfect for Spring! Anyway, it took me awhile, but I finished a good one . Then Sensei showed me how to wash my brush since I'm going to have to do that on my own now! And she also gave me a really thin brush so that I can write on cards n' stuff. AND, she gave me this super-nice brush box! It's so nice. Wow. And she's g oing to buy me a mat and brush wrapper thing before I see her next (next Sunday's farewell party!), and I'll pay her back. So I'm set!
And I said my good-byes to Jun-kun and Ai-chan... gave out my address.. this is sad! Enough thinking about that. Anyway!
Today at work I got *lots* done and NONE of it had anything to do with "work"!! First, I finished up making the English text for Beppu. I told Mori-san that I would have it to him by tomorrow and I was determined to keep my word! I enlisted Ichii- san to help me translate the nasties...
AND, I finished my work term report! See, I also promised to have that done by tomorrow! What was I thinking? Anyway, it just has one or two grammar things to fix, but I can easily do that tomorrow. So yay! Two down, two to go! But the other 2 reports aren't really as urgent, important, or formal! Cool... less stuff to stress about!
I was up late PACKING last night - yeesh. See, I want to make sure I can fit everything in before Mom and Dad leave because they can take the excess back with them, and send it in the shipment they're making to Canada - which they said they're sendi ng soon. Coool.
Oh, the BIG release of the Copier, etc, was on Tuesday morning, and so things have suddenly become, well, slow! See, now if I want to make a fix, I have to go through a *whole lotta* beauraucracy - and most things are fixed (fingers crossed!). Neat. That's why I was writing reports today!
Well, Hino's the next stop, so that's it for today!
Next Episode -->
<-- Last Episode