The Eye of Patrick

To continue from my last post…

That afternoon I returned to my apartment with nothing to do, which was something I was looking forward to as I have been so busy since I came to Japan. But when I was about to start cooking dinner my friend in Omu (located on the Coast of Northern Hokkaido) called me and asked if I would like to drive up to his town. So I thought to myself and said sure. I made sure to charge my ipod up and update it with the latest songs as I hate driving long distances without something to listen to and then I was off.

The journey to Omu is an interesting one, or at least the route I decided to take was interesting. The thing is that there is two routes to get there, one is the prefecture highway (Route 239) which is fairly flat and uneventful road, but it takes a long time. Then there is the route through the mountain that is much quicker but is potentially more dangerous. This dangerous is very small in the summer when the road is just up and down. But in winter it is a totally different picture I learnt, as you see the day before we had our first snow fall and as a result there was snow on the road when I went through the mountains. Which was not a problem, until I was going down a hill that swung left kind of in a U shape, but I started to put my brakes on and turn. This was a no-no as my car locked up and I started to slide out of control to the right. But maybe as a result of all the video games I have played I took my foot off the break and regain control over the car and continued along the rest of my journey at a more controlled pace.

This slowed my trip down, as after I was not so ready to keep my speed up. But it was not a problem as I was able to get to Omu and meet my friend in time to attend his student’s Junior High School concert. They played some nice pieces of music, and I really liked their cover of “Swing Girls” as it was a up-tempo jazz piece, which had them doing some fancy moves where the group that was playing would stand up and then sit down and let the other group played. This really helped to get the crowd going and brought a cheer to my face.

When the concert was over my friend introduced me to some of his students and they were a funny bunch to talk to. It is fun to meet other students that my friends are teaching as I am new to them and so they are very excited to see me. Plus my friend is Japanese-American so they had not seen a white person in a long time, so they were even more excited to see me and thought I was handsome. That was really good for my confidence.

After the concert we headed to an Izakaya (Japanese bar where you can get small dishes and alcohol to drink. I have gained an appreciation for Yakitori (Fried chicken on a stick) and beer. Before coming to Japan I was not a fan of beer and dinner, but I have opened my eyes since coming to Hokkaido.

The next thing was to go to a different bar that had Karaoke. The name of the bar was Afro because of the owners hair resembled it. The karaoke was a blast; I do not think I have ever had so much fun singing in my life. I am a natural shy singer, so normally I am not a fan. But because there were two other foreigners singing with me the fun just kept on going. I learnt that there was a Japanese version for YMCA and the other Japanese in the bar knew the Beatles and such so we did some of that. I think with each new Karaoke experience I am becoming more comfortable in front of the microphone.

The next day was a lazy morning, we had plans to wake up at 8 and go fishing by 10. But that was replaced with recovering from the previous night and having a full western breakfast of Sausage, Eggs, French toast and hash browns; it was a delight to say the least.

Then around 2 pm we gained enough strength to finally get out of the house and go do some fishing. The fishing location was located near the port and there was already a group fishing when we got there.

As it started to get dark we decided to finish up and return home. I got in my car and start my 1 hour drive home. I truly enjoy driving sometimes as it gives you a lot of time to think about things that are on your mind but you were unable to think about them before due to your hectic life.

This past weekend was another weekend in which I planned to do nothing but ended up doing something. When I got home Friday from work I was exhausted and not really feeling like doing anything, but I still wanted to get out. So I decided to visit one of the many wonderful restaurants that are located in my town.

The restaurant that I decided to visit was “Morena,” it is an Indian restaurant run by a local Japanese couple. They are both not from Shimokawa, but moved here to escape the heat of Honshu. They are painters and musicians, so when you visit you have the opportunity of seeing their art work and hearing some wonderful music as the master is a brilliant guitar player.

On this trip I decided to have some Chicken Curry with Chapatti. It was just the most perfect meal for me to have as I was craving fresh vegetables and non Japanese food that was not a Hamburger or pasta. So I ate up it up at a leisurely pace as to make sure to enjoy every moment of it. Then finished it off with a cheese pie and tea (the tea was compliments of the master). Then I headed home and did some cleaning and went to sleep.

The next day I woke up at 8:00 am, as I had to make my way to the town’s nursery school to attend a performance of sorts by the kids of the school. It was very fun to watch as the kids could not sing for their lives, but that did not stop them from belting out tunes. Some of them got so into singing that they would breathe in deeply and then exhale as if they were trying to blow out a birthday cake.

The performances were mostly songs or skits that they had created and decided to perform, and from the photos on the right you can see that it was a pretty packed house. It is amazing to see the advancement of technology and how it has played such an important role in our lives. When I was there I noticed at least 10-12 video cameras and who knows how many camera’s, and it made me think of how my generation onwards will be one of the most captured generation as so many people have technology to capture it.

I think it will be interesting to see how future generations look back at this generation and whether it will be easier to gain an understanding of this generation and what it stood for. As if you look at the evolution of the human race and our ability to capture it and understand it has grown with each generation, from the cave men with their sketches on the walls of caves, to letters from nobles of the 16th century and newspaper clippings from World War II, each generation has had the means to capture its history and give future generations the opportunity to understand it. But this generation will be the first one where the ability to capture the living moments so easily. So it will be interesting to see how things turn out.

That is all I will write now as I promised to keep my posts relatively short and my next post will be a longer one I think. It will be about an Izakaya, a Karaoke bar named Afro and fishing.

So till next time,
Take care,
Patrick

The next day I would wake up early, as I wanted to get a jump on the day. This meant waking up at 8 am. I got dress and was out of the hotel by 9 am.

While I was walking to Namba station to pick up my camera I noticed a barber shop. This got me thinking about getting a haircut as my hair had grown fairly long by this point, as I had not gotten one done in the 3 months I have been here. So when I noticed the barber shop I decided to make the effort and get my haircut.

I went down the stairs and enter the barber shop. It was a small little shop with 3 chairs, nothing fancy just the basic minimum that you would find at any barber shop, except this one was in Japan. I said hello and he said sit down and he asked me what I wanted done. I explained that to him and he got cutting.

After he finished cutting, he asked if I wanted a shave. I thought about it for a moment, as I had never gotten a shave done in a barber shop. I had always wanted to get it done, but usually I had shaved myself before the haircut. But seeing I left my shaving kit in Hokakido and knowing I was going to my university that day to meet my friends I made sure to look my best.

The process to get shaved was as followed, first he lowered me back and I think he put gel on my face and then hot towels and then more gel and started cutting. It was a nice shave and he got places I couldn’t. The interesting one was he trimmed my ears, now it is not like I have much hair their anyways but it trimmed it away. So after I was finished being cut, I felt smooth like a baby and knew I was starting my day right.

The next thing for me to do was to go to the train station and get my camera. When I got there they told me that I had to wait an hour for my camera to arrive from the station that someone returned it to. Instead of waiting there, I decided to go to Mr. Donut and get some breakfast (not the healthiest breakfast I know) and something to drink. Plus I wanted to read my book by Haruki Murakami. He is a Japanese author that I have been reading lately, whenever I open his book I get so caught up in his world that when I check the time usually 30 minutes would have passed. I did that until 11 and made my way back to the train station.

I got my camera and was on my way to Kansai Gaidai. I took the Keihan line to Hirakatashi. The whole journey there was a surreal feeling as the last time I was on this train was two years ago and I was in school in Japan. So as I passed places I used to go to I felt memories flash back into my head, some of them good and some of them bad. In roughly 15 minutes I was there in Hirakatashi, my old town. (Not really town, I think it was 400,000 people, but you wouldn’t notice it was a separate city from Osaka do to all the development along the train line)

When I got to the gate of the university I had a sudden sense of panic as I worried they would not let me in, that they would say you can’t enter, only current students can. But I hide my fear and cross the threshold and entered the university. It was the same as when I was last there.

I made my way around the many booths set up selling food. One of the major things about the festival is that the many clubs or circles in the school sell some food. The club I used to be a member of, the golf team was selling Yakisoba. (Yakisoba is fried noodles with sauces and vegetables, kind of like a stir fry with noodles) so I made my way there to see my old friends and to get some good lunch. I casually walked up to the golf stand and pretended to be just another customer. But they noticed me and we started to catch up. It was amazing to see how much the club had changed since I left. Many of the members I knew had left or graduated from the team. So there were many new faces. I met them, but waited to meet the person I had meant to see.

I waited 30 minutes for her to come, she was super busy. Not only is she helping with the golf club selling stuff, but she was helping to run the festival, which is a major undertaken. This is not a amateur festival. My festival had the proper yakisoba cooking equipment and other clubs also had the stuff that you would find in a normal restaurant for the food they were selling. I only had 10 minutes to talk to her; she had grown up a lot since I last saw her. I think she will do really well in life because she seems a very strong personality and speaks excellent English. I will remain in contact with her for sure. I took some photos with the members and said good-bye.

The reason I could not spend more time with them was because I was meeting another friend. We became friends in Japanese class when I studied there. It is kind of funny also how we became friends. She was one of the Japanese students to come to my Japanese language class to give us an opportunity to speak with Japanese people. We were usually given a set group of questions to act as starting points for our conversation. So when my friend became my speaking partner one of the questions was “do you want to have lunch?” so when she asked me it I was not expecting to actually eat lunch but just have an opportunity to speak Japanese. But we talk more and more and when class ended she was like where do you want to eat, and it was at that point I realized we were actually going to eat lunch together.

So when I came back to Osaka, I made sure I would meet her. We met up and looked around at some of the events and took some photos of the place. Then it was out of there, as much as I liked my university, it was not the school that made my time in Japan the good memories it was. The good memories came from the stuff I did outside of the university.

So my friend and I decided to check out fushimi inari in Kyoto. It is the pictures to the right of the many tori’s. Usually when you go to a temple there will be 1 or 2 of them, but this place is just a long series of them. I think it has been in a large number of movies, such as last samurai and memories of a geisha (sayori). I had always wanted to go here, but I have never had the opportunity to go. So seeing I could not see the temples in Kyoto as a result of me losing my camera, I thought I would check out something new and I was not disappointed at all. It had that wow and amazement that comes with visiting something new for the first time. Each step I took was something new to see. I like the feeling as it is so hard to get, as once you saw something the magic of the first time is gone. Maybe that is why I don’t watch movies more then once usually.

After we went to the temple we headed to an izakaya and had some food. The whole izakaya experience has started to grow on me, at first I was not a fan of them. But now I like the concept of getting a drink with friends and trying a bunch of little food. So me and my friend sat at the izakaya and chatted for 4 hours or so. It was some of the happiest moments I have experienced since returning to Japan. I have met many people here and it is nice. But it is nice to sit down with someone you know and knows you. You don’t need to explain yourself; you can just talk and discuss things to deeper degree then new friends.

We both had to say good-bye as we wanted to make sure to not miss the last train, it was sad saying good-bye but at the same time it was nice to catch up with an old friend.

This past weekend was a long weekend in Japan and as a result I took an extra holiday to make it a 4 day holiday for me. The reason was that I was going to go to Osaka to see Kansai Gaidai, it was the school that I studied at while I was on exchange before in Japan. They were also having a festival, which was another reason for my visit.

The journey to Osaka started with me catching a bus ride from one of the high school teachers to Sapporo. He was heading in the direction of Sapporo and said he could give me a drive. This was helpful in saving me some money in transportation costs.

I was going to stay in Sapporo for the night and catch the early flight to Osaka to maximize my time, as it was impossible to get from Shimokawa to Chitose airport to catch a 10 o’clock flight if I left the morning of the flight.

While in Sapporo I met up with my predecessor and we swapped stories about our lives in Shimokawa. I asked him for advice about some of the issues I faced in my life here.

After that I headed back to my hotel and went to sleep, as when I am excited for something I have difficulty sleeping and I didn’t want to feel exhausted when I got to Osaka.

The next day would come and I would head to the airport and try to check in. But not before I realized I had forgotten my ticket. I kept my cool and thought it would not be a problem and that they could issue a new ticket. So I went to the ticket section and explained my problem. She listened and started typing away at her computer, at times I thought it was good and then it went bad. She said “sorry we do not have enough information to locate your reservation” and I was starting to get really worried I might not make it. But then another person asked me, what time was your flight at. Before I had said 11:50, but then I thought maybe it was the 10:50 flight and she did her search and found my ticket. So I escaped the dread of losing something for one more moment, but this trend of losing things would continue through my trip as you will see.

I would get on my flight and arrive in Osaka at around 1:15 pm. I was in a hurry to get to the city and start having fun. So when I saw a local train I hopped on and kept going. But down the line I saw an express train and decided to switch. But it seems in my desire to make the faster train I had forgotten my new digital SLR. I was in panic mode that I thought I could switch back to the previous local train and find it. I did that, and still I could not find the camera, so I went to the station masters office at Namba station and explained my situation. All he could do was bring out a sheet of paper that told me that they would know if they had it by tomorrow at lunch and give me another paper with the number to call.

After losing my camera, my level of happiness dropped greatly and my happy experience in Osaka was not looking so happy. I made my way to the hotel and checked in and hopped on a trip to get to Kyoto to meet up with some friends I had agreed to meet. They were doing the temple thing, and as I had seen Kyoto before I was not as inclined to join them. But one thing about Kyoto that makes me happy each time is the Wendy’s they have, I think every time I go there I make sure to have a meal there, The spicy chicken combo is heaven.

With my fast food fix out of the way I met up with my friends and we went to a restaurant and had dinner. I think we had Japanese style steak. The steaks here are razor thin compared to the steaks I had back home in Alberta or Brazil. But it was a satisfying meal and we headed to a sports bar and played some pool before calling it a night. But that was not before my trip would continue to throw surprises in my way. It was in Kyoto that I had gotten on a express train for Osaka or I thought, but half way it stopped and I had to switch to a local train and then switch back to a high speed train. This made my 48 minute journey a 1h 30 minutes and made me get home at 12:30 am.

The next day was fairly uneventful, except for the fact that I went to Nara and went to Tōdai-ji (東大寺). I had been there before, but I wanted to go there and get my fortune told before I called to see if they had my camera. I am not a superstitious person, but I was nervous and thought that if I got a good fortune, that somehow provide certainty in them having my camera. So when I got my fortune and it mentioned that I would find something I lost in the most unlikely place. I knew they had it, and when I called them they had it. It was from that moment on that my trip improved. (Continue next post)