Last night I thought I would try and break out of my usual pattern and actually cook myself some dinner instead of leaching off others or going hungry. Just when I had cooked up the meat and veg for my curry rice I got a knock at the door and it was Keita again. “Why you cooking dinner, we have dinner at my friends restaurant. I said on Monday do you want have dinner on Wednesday and you said 'Yes'.” Yeaaaah... I really have to stop agreeing with everything that is said around me especially when I don't understand what it is they're saying. So I was forced to ditch the curry (before the curry was added at the end), and the rice, and follow Keita. He lives on the western side of town and it was the first time I had ever seen this area. My side of town is very lively with people in every house, but on the western side, whole streets are deathly silent, full of big, crumbling, abandoned houses with for sale signs on the front. As I have mentioned before Miyazu is very poor. This is because the young people leave the city to study at neighbouring universities in Kyoto and Osaka and never come back leaving only older people populating the older areas of the city. Keita said on his street about six or so elders die every year and with the lack of newcomers to the city, the streets have been left abandoned. Hopefully I can find my way over there again and take some photos of the dereliction, it's really quite astounding.
That night we ate at Keita's friend Shin-chan's izakaya called Azito, who are the sponsors of the volleyball team. When we arrived, two other guys from volleyball, the cool and silent Shirase-san and the fun and loud Tak-kun were already there. I don't know how I even missed (and yet agreed to) the invitation to this from the start as I'm sure Keita would have spent a while explaining to me who was coming and their backgrounds beforehand, in English. Huh. Another friend of Keita's, Ai-chan, also showed up soon after we arrived, and although she doesn't play volleyball, I pushed her to join us next week. I don't know how Keita can afford to shout people huge meals on such a regular basis, but huge they were and quite bizarre too, the weirdest being a plate of noodles with squid pieces all in a jet black squid ink sauce. Other meals that came our way included yakitori, anchovy pizza, ramen, and a mountain of other stuff.
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| Noodles in Squid Ink Sauce, so gross looking even the camera didn't want to focus on it. It tasted good though! |
As the night wore on, Keita and Tak-kun got drunker and drunker, saying I should give Shirase-san's soon-to-be-born daughter a 'New Zealand cultural piercing' (the excuse he came up with to make it acceptable for me to have my piercings in at school). Ai-chan, Shirase-san and I just had tea and grapefruit juice looking incredulously at the beer and shouchuu bottles gathering around the other two. For four hours we talked, ate, ate some more and practised our grunting for when we slam the ball over the net, then finally called it a night at 12.30am. It was the best night out I've had since coming to Miyazu despite everyone telling me there are no people my age in the city. Actually there is, they just gather in their burrow, but if you meet one and they invite you back to the underground HQ, you're freed from an eternity (or three years) of having to make polite conversation with the oldies.
When I arrived home the door was locked. I never lock the front door. Ever. That meant only one thing. An intruder was kind enough to lock up after his evenings work to prevent further thievery in the vicinity, or someone else has moved into the hub of coolness, the Fukusuke. The light under the second door confirmed the later. Maggie is back and here to guide me in the way of the gaijin. This morning I met her at work and at lunch she took me to a cheap izakaya for some yakiniku, rice and miso. All day she's been filling me in with the latest upcoming events, trips away and what to expect from the schools I'm to go to. So starting on 8th August is the Obon Festival, with the preparations for it going on several days beforehand. Maggie and I are expected to join in the Bon Odori (dance) and learn all the moves for several of the dances the day before it starts. Apparently no matter how hard the awkward gaijin tries, they cannot master them completely, and end up looking like a dick in a yukata. The second night of Obon, the 9th, is the big fireworks display for which we will probably have to arrive early to, to get a good seat. Kyoto Orientation is also coming up in a week and a half so I have to prepare an example lesson for presentation, to have it critiqued. We are going to Kyoto a day early to do some exploring, at the expense of the BoE (they just don't know it yet). Then a week after that, school starts, and it will be down to business*.
*games
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