Now, if I didn't do any travelling, what did I do with myself for a whole week, you may want to know. Well, let me tell you....
For me, Golden Week started off on Friday, and to be perfectly honest, I did a whole lot of nothing that day. In the morning, I heard loud noises from the street outside my apartment and I saw a big group of people going down the road...
Other than that, I did go out a little bit and did a bit of exploring, and found a really nice park area along the water relatively close to me.
 |
Random giant frog on a roof
|
Saturday was a little bit busier. I went into Osaka to meet a friend who was arriving from Takamatsu that afternoon. I believe it was her first time to come to the Kansai region. Once I found her, we headed out to find the hostel that she was staying at. After a little bit of confusion due to the lack of large signage, we were able to find it and got her set up. However, at that time, I was able to confirm for myself that hostels will definitely NEVER be my style. While she was checking in, the guy who seemed to run the place (a Colombian), was kind of strange. He said to ME, not to her, who was staying at the place, but to ME, that he had a present for me. Immediate creep factor. Then he adds that, of course he has it for my friend as well. Hmmm....well...not really interested. Then he wanted to confirm if we were going to be in Osaka for the evening. I cheerfully was NOT. His response to that was, no present for me. Wonderful! Things were looking up! It turned out that they have a bar associated with the hostel, and he was going to give us a ticket thing that would get us in for no charge in addition to a free drink, as they were apparently having some kind of party that night with Latin techno music. Oooh, so exciting....not. Anyway, my friend got one anyway, and I believe she went. But enough about that. Once she dropped off her stuff, we headed for central Namba, as she wanted to see the famous place in Dotonbori. Easy enough. Well, after crawling through the hordes of people that were out due to the holidays, anyway. Then after that, she didn't really know what she wanted to do, so we took a walk down to Shinsaibashi and ended up in Umeda, where we went to the Sky Building, and then went for dinner afterwards. After that, I got her back on the train to Namba, and headed home.
It was a really nice night, and I wanted to go out for a walk, so I did, and during that time, I found out that ヨシダヒロキ was having a live that evening in a place that's fairly close to me! So, of course, I went! It was, as usual, a really fun night, and I actually got to talk with more people that night as well, because the bartender kind of made other people talk to me. The only problem I had with that was that he told them to talk to me in English. I want to practice my Japanese though!!! One woman I talked with was apparently his classmate from junior high, and she told me that he always tries to make people talk together when they come into his bar, and that he has a kind of magic touch in that regard...but it was the first time he had done it to here. Hehehe....sorry! Another person I talked to actually knew Calgary is in Alberta, which was surprising for me, because most people don't seem to know things like that. At the end of the live, as I was getting up to leave, a couple girls who had been sitting kind of behind me, were like, "A FOREIGNER!" (in Japanese), which got awkward laughs from me, the bartender and ヨシダさん. That was followed up by an explosion of English, which was mixed with some Japanese (and whenever one used Japanese the other would jump on her and be like, "THAT'S NOT ENGLISH, IT'S JAPANESE! YOU SHOULD SAY THIS....") Did I mention they had been drinking? It was fun though.
 |
| *Borrowed photo* |
The next day, I went hiking with an Australian girl that I work with. We hiked in Rokko mountain, from Ashiyagawa station, all the way to Arima Onsen. Which is kind of far. It must've taken us 4 or 5 hours to do. But it was tons of fun, we got to talk about many things, and we bonded a lot, so I definitely made a new friend! Also it turns out that she's also interested in music, and she wanted to go see a live as well, so I suggested she come with me to a live later this month (and checked to make sure there were still seats available), and so we will do that! I'm excited! But anyway, back to the hike. I felt like I was kind of unprepared for it as I had missed my alarm that morning (probably due to staying out late at the live), and was in a rush to get there at the time we said we'd meet. But, there were many people there when we arrived and so we were able to follow some of them in the general direction of the hiking trail. Along the way, my new friend apparently decided to try to give me as many minor heart attacks as she possibly could by doing things like jumping at a falling stick (could've been a snake!) and nearly screaming at a lizard crossing the path. When we got about part way up (about 450m elevation), we stopped to have a bit of a snack in an area where many people were doing the same thing.
At that point there were quite a few cats roaming around, and my friend was making up stories about how they would be really valuable to catch and sell. One did look like a baby bobcat to me.
Anyway, as we were eating, suddenly a boar came out of the trees super close to where we were, and my friend just tossed her cherries at me and climbed up onto a rock. Good friend, right? Passing me the bait. Anyway, this boar was fairly calm, just roaming around, and didn't even seem too bothered when some not so smart people started following it around, trying to get close to it to take a picture or whatever other reason. I did take a picture of it this time (from a distance), as proof that I did indeed see one, as I failed to do so at my previous encounter. Eventually it went on its way with no casualties. Wonderful! We also continued on our way.
As we continued to walk, we began to wonder when we would get 'there' and all kinds of ice-cream cravings came out. Once we got to the rest house at the top, we actually ended up with shaved ice though. It was good, but not ice-cream.
After that we started making our way down, following the path with a 'good feeling'. And eventually we got to Arima, where we finally got our ice-cream, and watched a monkey performing as we ate it. Following that, we took the train back into the city, and my friend headed home as she was kind of tired. As for me, I went grocery shopping, and then out for a walk (because I clearly hadn't walked enough yet that day :P)
 |
| Not the exact path we took, but a general idea |
The following day, was quite simply a day to relax at the beach and enjoy the beautiful weather.
On Tuesday, I had been planning to go a street live by another artist, but it was cancelled due to the fact that it started to rain quite heavily. I was already on the train though! But instead of wasting the trip, I just decided to get off in a different location and hunt down where exactly the live later in the month would be (as it was a new place for me). After some misdirection from Google Maps (leading me into the back alley of a residential area), I was able to find it easily enough, so I won't be getting lost on the actual day!
The next day, I spent the morning at the beach, and then I had to do some things, not really worth mentioning, but I ended up going into Osaka again, and had dinner with my friend from Takamatsu (although it took a long time to mutually agree on a place). Oh, but that day at the beach, I did see something interesting...one person had hooked up a parasail thing to himself and then went out on a kind of surfboard and was surfing around with the wind and did some really high and long jumps. It was kind of cool!
On Thursday, that friend had said she would be coming out to Kobe to visit, but didn't actually give me a when, which was a little frustrating for me, as I had things to do as well. But when she eventually did come out, we went up the Shin-Kobe ropeway to the Nunobiki Gardens, which are always pretty. We wandered around up there for a little bit and then came down afterwards to go find some dinner. We ended up going to Chinatown, and ate there.
Friday it POURED all day long, so nothing worth mentioning happened.
On Saturday, I went to the Shinkaichi Music Festival for a little bit in the afternoon. It had many stages, some in a park, and some down the shopping streets. Of course, some were better than others, but it was interesting and kind of fun too.
Sunday morning I heard another interesting event going on. Not exactly sure what was happening, but I could hear really loud singing/chanting from outside, so I went to go take a look. There was a group of 4 or 5 men in robes and the kind of hats that pilgrims wear, and they were going down the street doing their chanting, but they would stop and bow in front of almost every house. Some kind of blessing ritual maybe? There is a shrine just down the road from me....I really want to know what it was though!!
On Tuesday, I had been planning to go a street live by another artist, but it was cancelled due to the fact that it started to rain quite heavily. I was already on the train though! But instead of wasting the trip, I just decided to get off in a different location and hunt down where exactly the live later in the month would be (as it was a new place for me). After some misdirection from Google Maps (leading me into the back alley of a residential area), I was able to find it easily enough, so I won't be getting lost on the actual day!
The next day, I spent the morning at the beach, and then I had to do some things, not really worth mentioning, but I ended up going into Osaka again, and had dinner with my friend from Takamatsu (although it took a long time to mutually agree on a place). Oh, but that day at the beach, I did see something interesting...one person had hooked up a parasail thing to himself and then went out on a kind of surfboard and was surfing around with the wind and did some really high and long jumps. It was kind of cool!
On Thursday, that friend had said she would be coming out to Kobe to visit, but didn't actually give me a when, which was a little frustrating for me, as I had things to do as well. But when she eventually did come out, we went up the Shin-Kobe ropeway to the Nunobiki Gardens, which are always pretty. We wandered around up there for a little bit and then came down afterwards to go find some dinner. We ended up going to Chinatown, and ate there.
Friday it POURED all day long, so nothing worth mentioning happened.
On Saturday, I went to the Shinkaichi Music Festival for a little bit in the afternoon. It had many stages, some in a park, and some down the shopping streets. Of course, some were better than others, but it was interesting and kind of fun too.
Sunday morning I heard another interesting event going on. Not exactly sure what was happening, but I could hear really loud singing/chanting from outside, so I went to go take a look. There was a group of 4 or 5 men in robes and the kind of hats that pilgrims wear, and they were going down the street doing their chanting, but they would stop and bow in front of almost every house. Some kind of blessing ritual maybe? There is a shrine just down the road from me....I really want to know what it was though!!
In the afternoon I went to a park as a friend I work with invited me to come to a picnic. There were some people from work and some other people who were new to me as well. But before I got to them I got cornered by these people who were having some kind of rally--they were literally everywhere! Anyway, turns out they're lobbying for things like an increase in minimum wage, more free wifi spots, free child insurance and Monday mornings as a holiday. I think the last one is maybe a little far fetched, but good for them for trying. Basically they just wanted people to choose the points that they agree with and mark it down. But for me to do it? It seemed kind of odd as I'm not a Japanese person, but I suppose I do live here after all. Now about the park...In the park there was lots going on: soccer, football, skateboarding, dancing, drumming, basketball....all kinds of stuff--seems like a popular place. And did I mention there was grass?! Real, thick, grass, not just measly tufts in the sand. That is so rare for a park here!
And that is pretty much the main points of my Golden Week this year. Tomorrow: back to work.
No comments:
Post a Comment