( WARNING!!! don't look at the picture. DON'T! it has the F word written on it. you know the word. THAT word. So, unless you're 45 and lonely and unoffended by that magical word...don't look)
Enoshima floats off the coast of Fujisawa, attached by a long bridge. The island is home to one of Japan's temples dedicated to a female god and also home to gardens, restaurants, a spa, a lighthouse...and one of the best sunset-viewing spots in Japan. By climbing, or riding the extensive escalator system, to the top and then down the other side, to the sheer cliffs facing the sea and Mt. Fuji, you can sit in a very unassuming little bar that sells overpriced beers with a smile. The bar is great in that it is so...unadorned. The husband and wife the run it have always greeted me with a smile and a few words of near-english... At sundown, on a clear day, there is no better spot in japan for one of the coveted Mt. Fuji pictures.
The day started late, Mimi and Rayford lay sprawled across the length of my apartment sleeping peacefully, and good in that we all were woken up naturally by the sunshine, the white cloudy sort of sunshine that drips before the rain begins. We ate at Suzy's, a very small cafe run plastered with torn and stained movie posters (mostly french) and run by the beautiful Koichi. Mimi and I both had the tuna and tomato sandwich, Rayford had the Hash and Omu-rice (a Japanese invention that combines A) omelet and B) rice). The restaurant grew darker and darker still until it was like night and the rain began to fall--we three looked at each other quietly and decided to wait out the storm. We discussed the likely personalities of famous people (ie is Julia Roberts a raging bitch?) then hollywood myths/rumors (ie ARE Jamie Lee Curtis and Sigourney Weaver both hermaphroditic?)....the rain slackened off and we snuck out.
If you don't know PuriKura (Pu-ri-n-to Ku-ra-bu=Print Club in Katakana) let me explain--in America you have little booths that sell strips of boring vaguely out of focus pictures..in JAPAN you have a larger booth that sometimes hides a green screen, seats, ladders, and a touch screen panel to let you choose where you want to be or even let you choose strange double or even triple exposure manipulations...you take the pictures, choose your favorites and then edit them with a friend--adding costumes, backgrounds, stamps....each different machine offers different features. Then you choose the sizes you want--they have helpful settings for groups of 2, 3 or more so that you don't have to bother with the math when dividing up pictures later.. It's 400 yen (roughly 350) for about 10 minutes of fun and a crazy only-in-asia souvenir. Every single visitor I've introduced Puri-Kura to has loved it--and Mimi and Rayford did as well. We took 3 differnet sets of pictures.
After Puri Kura we stopped at a Conbini (Convenience Store) for beverages for the beach. I bought a bottle of champagne, they each bought a beer and a chu-hai (a sweet flavored drink--think smirnoff ice but carbonated). We followed the river out to the sea--the temperature rose steadily from 60 to a beautiful 80 degrees in that 45 minutes.
We took pictures with his digital camera and her Polaroid camera--we placed his camera on a bag of popcorn and, after turning on the timer, we'd run and JUMP just as the final beep ended. We took perhaps 10 jumping pictures in all, each nearly ending in disaster--there might be something inherently dangerous about expensive equipment, drinking, and jumping.
After that, after the beers and the chuhai and the champagne, we bought more drinks and went to a Karaoke bar...1000 yen (9 bucks roughly) for "free time" or as karaoke till 10 at night AND outside food and drink is encouraged... the building that houses that particular Karaoke joint is roughly circular and our room had a heartrending view of the sea, enoshima...
Karaoke in Japan, for those unlucky enough to not have had the pleasure, is a much more private affair than our American version; you rent a room and you sing as loudly and badly as you like... The provide microphones, tambourines and a decent selection of English songs to sing... Karaoke is great as long as you don't go with song-hogging asses or the downers who didn't-want-to-come-and-they're-not-gonna-have-any-fun-"see i told you so" sort of people...
After Karaoke we caught the train back to Fujisawa and went for Okonomiyaki--a vaguely pancake dish made with eggs, cabbage, flour and whatever main ingredient you like--and..the rest of the night is a bit vague. There was a lot of laughing, the people in the bar/restaurant laughed with/at us a lot so..hopefully it was a good time... I remember ordering a lot of food, but sadly I cannot remember a bite of it. Mimi and Rayford raved about it the next morning so it must have been delicious.....
I am doing all right, besides the highs that come with visitors and the lows that come with sitting at work all day...reading.... I applied for a position at a local school--it pays a bit better, it would be very educational, it's very close to where i live...but...it would also require a lot more work on my part... I'm considering it. I am not afraid of working, but I am afraid of committing myself to something and it being beyond me. I can teach adults, I can teach children, but I've never had to create a whole year of lessons on my own.....for kindergartners.
.....no more drinks for awhile....
Enoshima floats off the coast of Fujisawa, attached by a long bridge. The island is home to one of Japan's temples dedicated to a female god and also home to gardens, restaurants, a spa, a lighthouse...and one of the best sunset-viewing spots in Japan. By climbing, or riding the extensive escalator system, to the top and then down the other side, to the sheer cliffs facing the sea and Mt. Fuji, you can sit in a very unassuming little bar that sells overpriced beers with a smile. The bar is great in that it is so...unadorned. The husband and wife the run it have always greeted me with a smile and a few words of near-english... At sundown, on a clear day, there is no better spot in japan for one of the coveted Mt. Fuji pictures.
The day started late, Mimi and Rayford lay sprawled across the length of my apartment sleeping peacefully, and good in that we all were woken up naturally by the sunshine, the white cloudy sort of sunshine that drips before the rain begins. We ate at Suzy's, a very small cafe run plastered with torn and stained movie posters (mostly french) and run by the beautiful Koichi. Mimi and I both had the tuna and tomato sandwich, Rayford had the Hash and Omu-rice (a Japanese invention that combines A) omelet and B) rice). The restaurant grew darker and darker still until it was like night and the rain began to fall--we three looked at each other quietly and decided to wait out the storm. We discussed the likely personalities of famous people (ie is Julia Roberts a raging bitch?) then hollywood myths/rumors (ie ARE Jamie Lee Curtis and Sigourney Weaver both hermaphroditic?)....the rain slackened off and we snuck out.
If you don't know PuriKura (Pu-ri-n-to Ku-ra-bu=Print Club in Katakana) let me explain--in America you have little booths that sell strips of boring vaguely out of focus pictures..in JAPAN you have a larger booth that sometimes hides a green screen, seats, ladders, and a touch screen panel to let you choose where you want to be or even let you choose strange double or even triple exposure manipulations...you take the pictures, choose your favorites and then edit them with a friend--adding costumes, backgrounds, stamps....each different machine offers different features. Then you choose the sizes you want--they have helpful settings for groups of 2, 3 or more so that you don't have to bother with the math when dividing up pictures later.. It's 400 yen (roughly 350) for about 10 minutes of fun and a crazy only-in-asia souvenir. Every single visitor I've introduced Puri-Kura to has loved it--and Mimi and Rayford did as well. We took 3 differnet sets of pictures.
After Puri Kura we stopped at a Conbini (Convenience Store) for beverages for the beach. I bought a bottle of champagne, they each bought a beer and a chu-hai (a sweet flavored drink--think smirnoff ice but carbonated). We followed the river out to the sea--the temperature rose steadily from 60 to a beautiful 80 degrees in that 45 minutes.
We took pictures with his digital camera and her Polaroid camera--we placed his camera on a bag of popcorn and, after turning on the timer, we'd run and JUMP just as the final beep ended. We took perhaps 10 jumping pictures in all, each nearly ending in disaster--there might be something inherently dangerous about expensive equipment, drinking, and jumping.
After that, after the beers and the chuhai and the champagne, we bought more drinks and went to a Karaoke bar...1000 yen (9 bucks roughly) for "free time" or as karaoke till 10 at night AND outside food and drink is encouraged... the building that houses that particular Karaoke joint is roughly circular and our room had a heartrending view of the sea, enoshima...
Karaoke in Japan, for those unlucky enough to not have had the pleasure, is a much more private affair than our American version; you rent a room and you sing as loudly and badly as you like... The provide microphones, tambourines and a decent selection of English songs to sing... Karaoke is great as long as you don't go with song-hogging asses or the downers who didn't-want-to-come-and-they're-not-gonna-have-any-fun-"see i told you so" sort of people...
After Karaoke we caught the train back to Fujisawa and went for Okonomiyaki--a vaguely pancake dish made with eggs, cabbage, flour and whatever main ingredient you like--and..the rest of the night is a bit vague. There was a lot of laughing, the people in the bar/restaurant laughed with/at us a lot so..hopefully it was a good time... I remember ordering a lot of food, but sadly I cannot remember a bite of it. Mimi and Rayford raved about it the next morning so it must have been delicious.....
I am doing all right, besides the highs that come with visitors and the lows that come with sitting at work all day...reading.... I applied for a position at a local school--it pays a bit better, it would be very educational, it's very close to where i live...but...it would also require a lot more work on my part... I'm considering it. I am not afraid of working, but I am afraid of committing myself to something and it being beyond me. I can teach adults, I can teach children, but I've never had to create a whole year of lessons on my own.....for kindergartners.
.....no more drinks for awhile....
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love ya