Weekend Insanity

I had a big weekend.

On Friday, I was eating my dinner, which was mostly noodles, when I got a visitor. It was Izuno-san, the husband half of a couple that took eikaiwa, English conversation, from my predecessor. It was an unexpected visit, but a good one. I had to clean up because the apartment is a huge mess, due partially to all the stuff my predecessor left behind. Anyway, we set up a time for more English conversation, and just did general introduction stuff with photos and the like. He is originally from Kyushu, the furthest west of the four major islands, but lived for a while in Chiba-ken, up near Tokyo for a while before moving out to the boonies of Shimane. He and his wife really like it here because there are few people and lots of space. I guess the space thing is relative.

So, anyway, on Saturday afternoon, Karen came to pick me up with friends Aki and Shoko in tow. Aki is going to Los Angeles soon, and she was worried about food. A friend of hers was studying abroad (I think she said in Australia) and her host family fed her french fries and coke everyday. Karen and I assured her this was fairly unlikely. So, we went up to Matsue because there was supposedly a matsuri there. We were going to meet up with a couple other JETs, but they decided not to come.

In Matsue, we went to the Matsue Vogel Park, which is a park containing exotic plants and birds. There were even emus and cassowaries. It was pretty crazy. There was a tower giving a nice view of Lake Shinji, on the shores of which Matsue is located. We saw a parrot that could talk, and it was speaking Japanese, which was odd, but makes sense, really. It makes me think

Buy me some rings
And a gun that sings
A flute that toots
And a bee that stings

A sky that cries
And a bird that flies
A fish that walks
And a dog that talks.

Anyway, in one room, we actually got to feed the birds by holding out little cups of fruit and letting the birds fly over and land on our arms. It is a very weird feeling. Karen and friends took pictures of some of these things, so maybe I can convince her to send me some, and then I'll post them.

After the park, we went to Matsue castle, where the matsuri was supposed to be. It was strange because we didn't see anybody wearing kimono, which people often do for such events. It turns out it wasn't a real matsuri, but a "summer fest" that included a hip hop dance show and a group of Japanese musicians playing Latin music. It was very bizarre, but enjoyable. A bunch of JETs who were either working in Matsue or just there for a language course were at the castle, too. So, we hung out and listened to music. There were a couple of Columbians who go to Shimane University there, too. They have scholarships or something to get agricultural degrees, which they just couldn't get where they're from. They take classes in English, so they speak English in addition to Spanish, but neither had picked up much Japanese. Karen was talking to them in Spanish, and when she met Nate, another first year JET, who speaks French, she spoke to him in French. It was weird.

After a while, Karen, Shoko, Aki, and I left to eat dinner at a Sri Lankan curry place. It was a super awesome little hole in the wall, but they even had English menus. It was real curry, not Japanese curry, which I like, but is much more common. So, then, we went back.

On Sunday, Karen picked me up (I am still sans car) and we met up with Satoko, who teaches English, her friend Yumi, Yumi's mom, Heidi, Ivy, and Sally. Oh, also Satoko's sister's boyfriend, Tor, who is from Denmark, but speaks English fluently in addition to Japanese at least very well. Sally is from Tottori, but Heidi and Ivy are also from Shimane. We went to a barbecue for Satoko's students and their families, from what I can tell. There were introduction games and games with waterballoons, the latter being Karen's idea. We were all supposed to bring food, which I did, but I ended up not putting it out because there was so much food there already. Tor and I got put in charge of grilling because I'm American and apparently we grill all the time. Neither of us really knew what we were doing, but then Yumi and her mom took over, so it didn't matter.

There was so much food it was ridiculous. There were two big grills on which they cooked meat and vegetables, and there were also potato and noodle salads, onigiri, which are Japanese rice balls, and various other stuff. I ate so much food, and even after we had all stopped eating, the grills were still going. One of the little kids whom I had befriended (I think his name was Hisashi, but I'm not sure) wanted me to play badminton with him, which I gladly did. After a couple minutes, badminton became some kind of baseball with rackets and shuttlecocks when two other kids joined in. I was pretty much awesome at it.

Then Karen started a game of soccer, which was awesome, and I eventually joined. It was hilarious watching the little kids play soccer with the adults. Some of the kids were like 6 years old. The soccer went on for a while, and then Satoko asked Karen to teach salsa dancing. Karen was supposed to have taught me to salsa beforehand, but we just never did, so she was teaching everyone with Satoko only there to translate. Some of the little kids got it, but I was completely terrible at it, as were some of the Japanese adults. It was fun, anyway.

After the salsa was fireworks, which were mostly sparklers, nothing to crazy, but they let everyone do it, even the little kids. It was nice. Then we just kind of hung around for a while, eating or drinking or whatever. I started playing harmonica, which impressed people, and Sally, who is also a music teacher, sang some. It was nice, but eventually we had to go, so we did. Oh, I forgot that there was a watermelon smashing for the little kids. It's basically like a pinata, except it is just a small watermelon, and it is put on a mat on the ground. When they smashed it, they got to eat it. After all this, we went home. A splendid time.

Sometime in the middle of the night, one of my neigbors' alarm went off, and they didn't shut it off for an hour or so, so I'm a little tired today.