At A Glance
Links
Home
Photos
Feeling Sadistic? Wanna poke a penguin? Click here!
Last Week
Next Week
This Week's Social Comment
Hey, everyone. I'm so so sorry that I haven't posted more often but have seriously been caught up in the moment over here.
Ok, 1) My Phone. Those that have recieved my monthly email will know all about this. Cultural note: phones in Japan are THE BEST in the world. However it seems that someone up there hates me and wants me to have the shittest fone. Sorry about the language but this fone is so shit that it was pooped out a donkey's backside. I'm serious. It has: no flipflip action, no clipart, no camera and perhaps most importantly no ENGLISH!!!! Its terrible. My Rotary club bought it for me and I am too scared to tell them just how shit it is. It has something to do with being a pre-paid fone and as pre-paid is relatively a new import here only the most basic (ok, crap) fones have it. There are no sim cards in Japan either, everything seems to be programed into the fone itself. So, with my (wonderful) Jmum I am conspiring to buy another fone, one that is much much better and has all the bells and whistles that we have come to expect from Japanese fones. The only catch is that I will have to return to the Ochi household once a month after I move on to pay the monthly bill without alerting the authorities. But its ok, because they are so nice anyway.
2) My Night Time Bike Run. Ok, in Japan it is normal, nay expected that Jkids will go out together after school and do activities like shopping, pikkara (picture stickers) and kareoke. Ok, so one day after school Arisa (my bud) asked me if I would like to go shopping with her. Its been a long and boring day so I agree. We go to Saty (a shopping centre) and shop for a while, take some pikkara and so on, normal girly girly Japanese stuff. When 7pm clicks around I begin to think that maybe my Jmum would be worrying about me as I haven't rung or anything. So, I suggest that we go home, only to find it very cold and dark outside. Now in Japan, noone except little kids wear helmets as it is not compulsory and the helmets they have are so ugly I don't blame them. So we are riding around, two girls on bikes, no helmets with fast oncoming traffic, on sometimes unlit roads. I had this horrible thought at the time of being found weeks later, raped, blue and bloated (or possibly exploded) floating in the Imabari River, half eaten by stray cats. uuuurgh, horrible thought, touch wood please. And that horrible time (because I was very scared at the time) was not the last either, dispite me saying I would never do it again. Two days later, Komaki suggested that we go to Kareoke. Ok, so we went. But Komaki didn't take the large streets home, she took the shorter but less lit way home and THAT was bloody scary. Its like they have no regard for the horrors of what could happen. Maybe I am just too used to being in Australia where that kind of thing is a problem. Hmm.
3)Ok, on a happier note. Tomorrow is my first skiing adventure! So watch this space because sometime next week when I get a chance, I will post the event of Sunday up for you. (Perhaps sooner if I break something, touch wood and say a prayer for me).
Ok, here is the report for sunday. We woke up at 6:30am (which along with 4:30 has got to be the most ungodly hour) and set off for the snow at 7:30. I was the first up and ready but it was all in vane in the end because it took us 4 hours to get the snow anyway. The snow fields were on Nekoyama, literally Cat Mountain, in Hiroshima Prefecture on the main island of Japan, Honshu. (oh thats a mouthful) We finally arrived around lunchtime after a rather scary trek up the mountain roads in my Jdad's car. This car is the COOLEST (and can be viewed on photopage 4 i think) it has: Cd, a GPS touch screen that talks, TV AND a MD player. Not even in a Lexus could you find that kind of luxury and this is only a Toyota! The roads in Japan are like the smallest I have ever seen outside of Paris and this road was slicked with snow and wet. Ooh so scary. It was really pleasant to watch the countryside change from early spring in Shikoku Island to Winter in the mountains of Honshu. So beautiful.
Anway, at the lodge I hired some gear and then we treked outside to start. Get this, Japan is so funny, there were vending machines, sitting IN THE SNOW! Mind you all the hot drinks were sold out by 3pm. So I put my skis on and promptly slid BACKWARDS! Those amongst you will know that the first time you ski it is hard to do anything but go backwards, or sidewards, or anyway but forwards without much toil and cursing (well in my case cursing, the Japanese don't understand Australian words like bloody and shit, thank god) I can tell you after about 10 minutes I was about to pack it in, cut my loses and go tobogganing. However, I persisted for some strange reason and eventually got the hang of it.
Mind you, if I ever meet the sadistic sod that invented skis in this world or the next, I will smite his skull with the oldest, most tetinus infested ski I can find. What kind of person invents heavy pieces of metal that are strapped to a person's feet and encumber them so much that injury is possible? Really?
Anyway, after about half an hour of practise I felt confident enough to take on the easiest slope, so we all took the ski-lift up (which is possibly half the fun of the ski experience) and I started my first descent. Oooh My GOD!!!! So scary. At first I managed to keep control, for a while, but then after avoiding sitting snow-boarders (more about them later) I began to get too much speed and eventually lost my footing. What do you do when you are in over your head and speeding towards a patch of trees at a millions miles an hour? You panic, swear, and then lie down, spread eagle style and kiss your arse goodbye. I swear, after I had come to a grinding halt in the snow bank by the side of the slope I must have looked so funny. I couldn't say that I hurt myself, me being in the mangled shape that I was but it was hard to say I was comfortable either. Never the less, I got back up, with some difficulty and coasted down the rest of the way. And went back up that damn mountain!
After successfully finishing both easy slopes (I fell the first time on the second slope as well) I wanted to try something longer as the length of time on the skilift hardly justified the minute of terror and fun on the slopes. So I went up another longer ski lift to try another slope. Little did I know that if you travel more to the left then the slopes become harder. Whooops. It was a case of it looked ok from the bottom but looked like Mt everest from the top. I was so scared, but not wanting to be one that chickened out I started down. BIIIIIG mistake.
Now a word on snow-boarders. Being the fickle creatures that they are they are likely to stop at anytime, anywhere on the slope and just-sit-down (aaaaarrrrrrgh!!!) This may be all good and well for them but they then become instant targets for us poor skiers. They became so annoying that I just wanted to clip one with my spike to show them just how irritating they were, if it wasn't for the fact that I would probably be stopped dead and catapulted forward out of my skis, snapping my shins in the process, ouchy.
And so it was, avoiding sitting snow-boarders that I again gained too much speed and crashed, quite spectacularly in another bank of snow. I would have been able to extract myself more easily if my ski wasn't vertical (how did it get that way?) in the snow and I wasn't wedged under a hose (!). However I managed to get out with Komaki's help and again attempted the slope (so very stupid). I made it like 5 meters back onto the slope when a snowboarder swept by and took my feet out from under me! She fell too, so feel justified. However, I didn't stop right there either and kept on sliding down the slope AAAARRRGGHHH!!! Finally managed to stop by digging my skis in and using my fingers to stop myself, ouchy. I was so relieved that I relaxed and banged my head on the snow only to find that I bad put baubles in that morning and forgotten. Double ouchy! After that I just gave up, crawled to the side of the slope, took off my skis and walked down. My poor Jdad, who hadn't come up with us was beside himself and seemed to think that it was his fault that I had fallen over and kept apoligising.
After this, and a hearty lunch we walked up a hill and made a snow man! He was so cute even if his head was a big as his body. I wanted to name him and Komaki suggested John, as its the only male name that she knows, so somewhere on Nekoyama there is a jolly little snow man named John-san. After a couple of more descents of the easier slopes (after my poor heart had stopped doing backflips) it was decided that it was time to go. However we did do some cute stuff in the snow before hand and these can be viewed on Photo pages 4 and 5. And that was my ski adventure! I emerged largely unscathed and except for the odd bruise and broken nail, did not recieve the shattered bone that I thought I would get. Phew!
4) After the snow we went to an onsen. Now to the uninitiated, an onsen is a very scary and frightening place. What is an onsen? Why, its a communal hot bath! If you are unlucky then the onsen may be dualsex but usually in most unrural areas the baths are seperate (thank GOD!). However, this does not stop you from having to strip off to your barest of nakies and walk around with everyone in their birthday suits. So, Komaki, Ai and I all entered the outer rooms of the female onsen and I was greeted by bodies. So many naked bodies, some young and some so saggy and bulgy that I never care to see another inch of skin again. And yes, I had to strip off and walk around nakie. You are armed with a small towel for washing or modesty, but no one seems to use it to cover themselves and, well, you can imagine whats on show for all the see. Then we entered the onsen. The proper protacol is to first wash yourself sitting on small stools by the pool so that you are all clean when you enter the onsen, but since this one was chlorinated it wasn't necessary. So we first poured some water on ourselves and then entered. Ooooh, so warm and theraputic! I could feel the evils of the day, the impending snow banks, my bruised ankles, seeeeeeping away. aaaaaah. There were many facilities available for those that wanted them. There was outdoor rustic onsen (complete with rock falls), spa onsen (so tickly), a spout of falling water to pound the aches and pains out of your back (I was particularly addicted to this and nearly purred as I massaged my stress balls in my shoulders, oooooh so good, I need one at home), and a sauna. I only managed like one minute in the sauna before I chickened out and retreated to the now cooler onsen. The very air that I breathed burnt my bronchea. So after trying all the pleasures of the onsen it was time to go home. My favourite facility? Definately the falling stream of water and I will now want to install one in my own home once I return to Australia.
What a Day! I hope you liked the account and I'm sorry that its so late in the writing. ^-^ until next I have the pleasure of your presence, have a great week!