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.