Japan is a truly great place, the politeness and respectfulness of the people is contageous. yesterday i came out of my apartment block and there was a family of about 7 outside, as usual, they all bowed and said konichiwa, apart from the youngest kid, who was about 7 years old, who looked at me shyly and embarrassed and said 'hello'...so i said hello back, at which point he beamed into a huge smile, and started jumping up and down excitedly as he'd spoken english to a geijin. i dunno, maybe im getting soppy, but these kind of things (which happen frequently) almost kinda make me feel fuzzy and warm inside...anyway...
decided on a snowboarding free weekend this weekend, usually i dont go out late the night before if im boarding, consequently, i havent been out into town for a while, and amazingly, we discovered that myself, adam, gareth and jo had actually all been out in town together as a four...ever!
friday, i went for dinner with my good good buddy J. havent seen her in about a month so had a lot to catch up on, and was a really nice evening (apart from the incredibly spicy 'normal' curry). had a good chat and i think she has helped me just about decide what im going to do with a few big decisions regarding my life etc...
saturday did nothing. having a run free weekend also, give my legs a bit of a rest. watched reservoir dogs on tv, and went for a drive along the coast road to see the sunset. strange weather at the moment, its mid jan, and should be freezing and 10 feet deep in snow...but saturday was sunny and i went out in a t shirt! so so mild here, not good for the snow thoughm some resorts not open yet. kinda wish id gone boarding as the blue skies would have been beautiful! not to worry
saturday night we went out, adam, garth jo and me. our japanese sensei also works as a waitress in a restaurant 10 mins outside town. we had no idea whether it was a noodle bar or a burger place or what, but we asked her to book us a table on our lesson last week. we got out of the taxi and 'whoa!' it was a beautiful place. very typical japanese restaurant. tatami mats, low tables, and each table is in its own separate room, with paper walls, amazingly gorgeous place. photos above. it was a tofu restaurant, which is kinda funny, tofu for first course, tofu for main and when she brought out our tofu desert...well...you can have too much tofu...
then we went into town, the usual haunts, immigrants cafe, Hotspoto (hotspot in japanese), then on to see my great mate deccy and a few other friends in Shame. by 4.30am i was falling asleep, and couldnt stay awake for the 5.30am first train home, so got a taxi on my own...apparently adam and garth rolled home at 8am this morning! i am such a lightweight! did have a slight scarey moment, i fell asleep in the taxi, and when the taxi driver woke me up and indicated that we were at my destination...i had no idea where we were, and no way of communicating with the driver. was a little panciky, waking up bemused and inhebriated somewhere that i didnt recognise! anyway, after driving around for a few mins i realised where we were and staggered to bed.
today has been a non event, watched tv all day (trainspotting was on tv) and eated home made (not by me) chocolate chip cookies/biscuits/cakes and drank coffee. so pretty relaxing and necessary weekend. we should (should) find out this week whats happening with us in japan, and if we have to move back to the uk soon, ie in a few weeks. just hope we find out something as i have an alternative offer that wants an answer imminently.
damn, getting sunday evening/pre work blues...
