- A Calendar with pictures of Scotland to make me feel homesick
- A box of highland fudge to make me feel sick after eating it all in one day
- Three bottles of awesome beer I drank on Sunday
- A box of shortbread that I managed to make last the weekend
- A tin of Haggis I'm saving for a week on Wednesday (Burns night! Wahey!)
- And SIX CANS OF IRN BRU BABY YES OH YES OH YES...
I've managed to string out the Bru so far. I have two cans left which I'm saving to push on unsuspecting locals. I don't think the Japanese pallette can handle the sugar overload that one sip of the Amber Nectar will provide.
Also - Thanks to Dave, Akane, Yuka, Miranda, Yong, Amy and Pollen for the Surprise party they threw for me at Dave's place. Well - it wasn't much of a surprise (I already knew we were at least having a Nabe party) and Amy gave the game away by shouting "Surprise" every few minutes. Saying that - when a round of "Happy Birthday" started and the cake came out I didn't know what to say (as usual).
What else has been happening? I have to reach back to the dimmest recesses of memory to recall what I was doing four weeks ago... Christmas! Thats right - I went on a Snowboarding trip over the Christmas weekend with some of my work colleagues. Antony organised a great trip to Hakuba in Nagano (where the Winter Olympics were held so many years ago) and we stayed in a cottage for three days near the slopes. The trip was so good in fact, that I've been boarding EVERY weekend since then. You see, in Japan, snow sports (like everything else) are incredibly convenient. For example, on Hogmanay, a group of ten of us got on a Shinkansen (bullet train) at 6:20 am to Joetsu-Kokusai. We were on the slopes by 9 am. We boarded till we could board no more at around 4:30 pm, then went to the Onsen (I've already mentioned how awesome Onsen is), then got the Shinkansen back to Tokyo for about 8:30 pm, had dinner and got back to my apartment for 11:30! I was so exhausted I slept till about 11 am the next day.
The only bad thing about sleeping over New Year was that I missed some of the culture. I'd been planning to go out to take late night photos of all the people visiting Temples over New Year. For the Japanese New Year is very important, but it is important as a spiritual day rather than a day of partying sans Ecosse. I hear that Meiji Jingu temple is packed all night and day with people making prayers, buying fortunes and doing other New Year-ish things. I managed to get to the Temple at Tokyo Tower at about 4 pm on the 1st and things were winding down. Still - that atmosphere was quite spiritual. I saw photos from Meiji Jingu in which the police have to wear riot gear to protect them from the offerings that the crowds throw into the temple. Since most offerings are handfuls of coins I'm not surprised.
So the week of my birthday came round and I went to buy some furniture. I bought a kotatsu (very japanese), some shelves and new curtains for the living room. I also bought a rug and a light for my bedroom. The apartment feels much more homely now they've arrived (as of Monday the 16th) and I look forward to having a Shabu-Shabu party with my kotatsu. I'll need to buy a Shabu-Shabu+Nabe kit though. Oh, and I still need to buy some floor seats... All in good time.
What did I do that weekend? Oh yeah, I went boarding on Kagura-san. And last weekend? Back to Kagura-san it was so good. I love Japan...
ps, this weekend I'm flying to Hokkaido with five friends. I'll let you guess what for. Four days in Hokkaido. Awesome.
pps, Happy Birthday HN-san
No comments:
Post a Comment