My updates have become...nonexistent. Here is an attempt to try again. Like much of my writing, except for my poetry, it usually becomes like a drive down Ft. Crook Rd, lots of stop and start. I have been trying to do a chronology of my time in Japan and I have come to understand that that is impossible. I don't have the time. I am busy. I am also a really important person. Really.
The cherry blossoms were out in Japan a few weeks ago. I sent an e-mail to some people with pictures of the beautiful picnic that I attended with a friend of mine. We ate good food, played catch, my friend played guitar, and we looked at all of the beautiful cherry blossoms. Mind, this was while we were inside the largest active caldera in the world. A word doesn't come close to describing the beauty of the scene or the feelings of the activity.
Later that week, my friend Austin from South Africa had a birthday party in a cabin out in the mountains. I understood that we would be camping out, which to me means there will be some roughness to the whole experience. I was wrong. I thought that Americans took it easy with there campers and indoor toilets, but that is nothing compared to the Japanese.
The cabin was two stories, there was a shower and toilet, a air conditioner, a heater, pots and pans, and futons for everybody. We brought all of our gear inside and we proceeded to celebrate. It was around two o'clock in the afternoon when we arrived and we started to eat and drink. We played drinking game and a couple of the girls started preparing some of the food that we would be cooking on the bar-b-que.
A few other people showed up throughout the night and by the time we were cooking, at the large covered community picnic area, we had grown to a group of fifteen. We cooked and drank and sang songs, it was all very bohemian. I spent a lot of time tending to the meat on the fire, drinking my grab bag of beers that I brought from my fridge, and chatting with a girl named Kimi (I have come to find that I am the perfect size for Japanese women. Who knew?).
After cleaning up at the picnic area, we headed back to the cabin. A couple more people showed up and we continued to drink. The cake was brought out with a nice rendition of Happy Birthday, off key in all of the right spots. I stepped over to the small speakers that Austin brought and started to play DJ. The girls wanted hip-hop and I obliged. Even Japanese girls, who are known for being shy, couldn't help but shake their asses. I even got up and showed them some funky South O shit.
We continued to play games, talk and, at one point, Austin and Jay, a Canadian, went outside and went hiking. Things started to wind down when this happened, the birthday boy was out in the mountains, and we were all getting pretty tired. Kimi told me that she and another girl wanted to sleep next to me because one of our crew was getting a little creepier as time passed. We took our things to the loft. The other girl didn't come but Kimi and I slept up there with another couple and Holly, a friend of my friend Chris'.
The next day we woke, cleaned the cabin and just goofed off. We decided to go to an onsen, to sweat the alcohol out of our systems. We all needed a bath too, I'm sure. It was nice sitting outside shootin' the breeze with these guys. We spoke about the impending rocket launch from North Korea, which was probably happening at that moment. We talked about our homes, which are all completely different from the next. We also talked about the future. I am being vague because sometimes times like these should be kept close, instead of disseminated in a blog. We finished and walked outside waiting for the rest of our crew to join us. We planned to go get something to eat, but we all had different plans. So we parted.
Holly, Kimi, and I went to Minami-Aso. We had bagel sandwiches for lunch and we visited our friend Soh, Kimi didn't know Soh but Holly and I did. We spent the rest of the afternoon at Soh's cafe, drinking coffee and eating chiffon cake. We went for a walk; Holly took some pictures, and Kimi and I flirted with each other. We walked back towards Soh's cafe and I picked a piece of grass and whistled with it, Kimi tried and failed, and Holly had her own way of whistling with grass. We taught Kimi how to do the same, but she had better luck with Holly's method. As a train pulled into the station, three twenty somethings, two foreigners and a Japanese girl, were using grass to make whistle sounds and giggling like we were 10 years old.
We made plans to have a party for our friend Chris, who was returning from his wedding that day. It was about 6:30, and I didn't sleep much the night before, so we all decided to part ways.
Another great weekend under my belt, and really it was part of a great week linking into a great few months. I have left myself open to every experience that presents itself, even though sometimes I just want to sit at home and play video games or sleep, I have enjoyed nearly every moment of time that I have spent in Japan. I am expanding as a person, and I am searching still for whatever it may be that I am looking for. It hasn't presented itself yet but I am a part of an adventure everyday that I am here, even if at the end of my time here I don't find that something, I won't have any regrets. "Let's all enjoy English," what Paul-sensei says to his students. Let's all enjoy Japan! Ne?
