This Past Weekend

Friday

So the weekend started out excellently.  One of my fellow teachers invited me over to their house for dinner.  The thing was, she doesn't live near a train station so my traveling abilities were very limited.

So there's a bus that takes me really close to Take's house, but I didn't know when it left, how much it was, etc.  I casually asked my teacher about what time I should be at the train station.  Flash forward about 5 minutes and there are 7 teachers huddled around this giant map of bus times and locations and they are all speaking in Japanese so I couldn't understand them, but they just kept talking.  It was really the most amazing thing ever, seeing everyone drop what they were doing, getting together, and finding the answer to this random guys question.  Every teacher is extremely busy, but they all made sure I knew exactly when, where, and how much the bus was going to be.  The prices weren't listed on the giant map, so there was a few minutes of everyone sitting at their computer, madly typing away on yahoo search, trying to find out exactly how much it would cost for me to go to Shichinohe.  Finally, one of the teachers ended up calling the bus company, talking for 5 minutes, and getting me the exact info.  I really expected them to just say "i think it comes around 7 and 1000 yen should be plenty" but instead they said (after 10 minutes of 7 teachers working together) "the bus leaves at 18:52 right across the street from the south entrance of the train station and it costs 880 yen.

Japanese people are so thorough and awesome.
 
I caught a bus to Shichinohe (kinda big town near Noheji) and another ALT (Takefumi, he speaks fluent Japanese and English, his name is pronounced Tah-Kay, but everyone calls him Tah-ka) picked me up and we went back to his place for a little bit.  I saw he had some rolled oats, and he was nice enough to sell me a giant bag (like 4 pounds).  So now I will be able to make my favorite food: Granola.

After hanging out for a little bit, we went to one of my coworkers house.  She happens to live in a temple.  She treated us to a very traditional Japanese meal with lots of fish and rice and other things that don't have English names.  It was all made with a generous amount of deliciousness.

Then her brother, a Buddhist Monk, took us out for a night on the town.  I went to my first Japanese bar, although it wasn't so much of a bar as it was a lounge.  We sung karaoke and since Take and I were the only ones that spoke English, I was treated to a good sampling of Japanese music, and it was excellent.  Also, they don't really know how any of the songs I sang were supposed to sound, so I kind of get a free pass on my terrible singing abilities, which is awesome!

So we get back to the teachers house at like 1am after having been treated to a feast and a night on the town, and waiting for us on Take's car is a bunch of Onigiri (Rice balls), bananas, leftovers from the feast, natto, anko bread, and other goodies.  The night was absolutely amazing and they refused to let Take or me pay for a thing.

The trip back was also pretty interesting.  When you call for a taxi from a bar, two people arrive in the taxicab.  One person drives you in the cab home, and the other person drives your car home.  Pretty snazzy.

Saturday

Saturday had the starting of an average day and then it quickly took a turn for awesomeness.  We woke up and ate the leftovers from the previous night (delicious), played some Wii, and didn't really have any plans until the night.  So at like 10am, Take wanted to get his car checked out [there was a wire hanging down from the steering wheel] and then he wanted to do some phone shopping.  At this point I had no interest in getting a phone.

We get his car fixed, head to the cell phone store [AU] and start looking.  Take quickly finds a very good deal (free phone, 20 bucks a month if you sign a 2 year contract, free incoming calls).  So I didn't have a phone and was like 'dang, that's a really good deal' so I ended up buying the same phone as Take.  Sweet.

I could write about 5 pages on how awesomely we were treated during the buying process, but suffice it to say that the cell-phone-selling-people were amazing, and when we left every employee in the store, even the ones who hadn't helped us, stood up and gave Take and me a 90 degree bow.  Unreal.

Then we went for lunch at Kappa Zushi, a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant of deliciousness, and got tons of sushi and more (yes they do have cooked fish, soup, and other stuff).

Then it was off to my first experience at a 100 yen store.  (the equivalent of a dollar store).  It was awesome.  I can't really explain, but theres a clothes section, a school supply section, an electronics section, a toy section and everything is a dollar!  I have no idea how they can sell so much for so cheap.

Then the whole reason why I went to Shichinohe in the first place, the AJET welcome party.  I got to hang out, eat hot dogs and hamburgers for the first time here, and meet about 30 other JETs in Aomori.  It was an amazing time.

Sunday

You'd think my weekend couldn't get any better.  But you'd be wrong.  Woke up early, got back to Take's, stopped at a convenience store for breakfast (onigiri, bread stuff, anko, ice cream, bananas, leftovers from Friday). 

As we're eating, Take was like "do you want me to take you back to Noheji or do you want to stay and be in the Shichinohe festival?" Obviously, I chose to take part in the festival.  Take and I walked to the temple at Shichinohe that is on top of a giant hill and overlooks the city.  I should say at this point, that neither Take or I knew anyone there.  Take eventually ran into a teacher he taught with 2 years ago, but for the most part, we were just two random people standing around at this temple not knowing what to do.  Of course, I was the only white guy there, and there were several old people that were no more than 5 feet tall, so I got stared at a lot.  Finally, one person just grabbed us and lead us up the stairs to the temple.  They pulled out a uniform that was 3 sizes too small (I wear size 31 shoes in Japan, the biggest they had was 28, but they were fine) and I got all dressed up in traditional Japanese clothes and was treated to a giant lunch.

We got herded into a car and driven across the town to a shrine that held the spirit of the temple we were just at.  The spirit only comes out 3 days a year during the Fall festival and it was our job to make sure the spirit got back to the temple safely. So Take and I were 2 of about 20 people that had to push this massive Ark-of-the-Convenant style thing that weighed hundreds of pounds and was home to the spirit.

We push it around for about a mile or so and they tell us to stop, give us all the drinks we want, then start back up for the home stretch...pushing the massive Ark up a very steep hill to the top of the town.  After a good 2 hour parade walking route, we were back in the temple and not really sure what was going to happen next.  Since it was getting kind of late on a Sunday, I thought the weekend was about over.  I was wrong.

They told us to wait around for about 20 minutes, and then we got to worship at the temple.  Sweet.  (meditation is actually awesome, if you've never tried it, that is a shame, it is so relaxing and refreshing.  But of course being from America, I thought I was always way too cool to waste my time sitting around looking like a fool.  I'm glad I gave it a chance).

Then the fun began, after the quick worship service (a thanks for the safe return of the spirit to the temple) the festivities began.  We cleared out the area everyone was just in, and tables were brought in, followed by enough food and drink to feed the state of Minnesota for 3 days.  It was such a feast, and everyone there was sooooo nice and polite and did their best to speak as much English as they could.  We ended up staying for about 4 hours just stuffing our mouths and chatting away with people we had never met before.  Truly an amazing experience and something you would only find in Japan.

Then Valerie (another ALT from Shichinohe area) was nice enough to give me a ride back to Noheji (I dont have a car and theres no train to Shichinohe).

Monday morning

So I woke up from a very good sleep on Monday, all ready to start the new week.  And of course, being an American, I was walking on the right side of the road [there really arent sidewalks in japan].  And a bird thought I would make good target practice so it dropped a bomb and it landed right on my shoulder.  Yes, that's right, I was mistaken for a toilet.  A bird shat on me.  Talk about a proper ending to an amazing weekend.  That bird made sure I was brought back down to earth.  And the best part about it, is as soon as it pooped on me, it squawked really loud and flew away, as if to say "hahaha, see ya."

So I'm sorry this was really long.

tl;dr [that stands for too long, didn't read] - I had an awesome weekend and then a bird pooped on me.

Videos
Bird Poop on me
Video of the Weekend