Himeji-yaki and children

So, I went to Himeji on Sunday. But it took way longer than it should have. Let me explain. After wandering around Kamigori, I finally made it to the train station. I approached the attendant at the window to buy a ticket because the machine was not on. "Himeji e ikimasu (I'm going to Himeji)," I said. ¥570 was the ticket price. He directed me to platform two. There's only two in Kamigori Station. The first train that arrived was going to Aioi. Turns out, that is the way I wanted to go. I did not board that train. I got on the next train, bound for Tottori. I had no idea where Tottori was, but I figured it must be going in the right direction.

It was not.

I got off the train in a town called Sayo. Then I waited two hours at the station until the train going the right direction appeared. Keep in mind these are tiny towns in the middle of nowhere. Trains do not frequent these stations. And it was Sunday. I finally got on the correct train, and ended up in Himeji 35 minutes later. Finally. I made my way towards the castle. When I got near the castle grounds, I saw this:



A flea market! Which was pretty cool. I walked around and looked at all of the goodies that people had to offer. A flea market in Japan is a lot like a swap meet in California, except everything is clean, and all of the people selling things are nice and like to bargain. I didn't end up buying anything. I'm going to make it a point to return for the next one, though.

As I walked closer to the castle, I realized what was different about it this time. Last time I saw Himeji was in the middle of winter, on a weekday. This was Sunday. Which is like Japan's national "Go Check Out Famous Stuff" day. It was a zoo. There were so many people there. So, rather than fight my way through the masses, I took some photos from outside the castle and promised myself I'd return soon. Aside from all of the people, it was stunning.





The cherry blossoms were still blooming, and it was absolutely beautiful. I won't post all of the pictures here, but you can check out the others (or bigger versions of these) by clicking on any picture. I ended up coming home not long after that, and went to bed fairly early.

Yesterday, Rokuda-san picked me up and took me up to Pre-School Koto to introduce me to the staff. They were all very nice. Then he took me out for lunch at Nanpuu, the local okonomiyaki shop. I wasn't sure what to order, so he ordered for me. We both had the Himeji-yaki. If you don't know what okonomiyaki is, I am so sorry. It is ridiculously good. Imagine a crepe with cabbage, meat, noodles, egg and spicy mayonnaise piled on top. Now add another crepe, some yaki sauce (almost like barbecue sauce), nori flakes (seaweed) and fish flakes. It's so good. Himeji-yaki was a whole new experience for me. It was just like the above, but remove the noodles. Now add milk, shrimp, octopus, some kind of flavorless clear gelatin cubes, pork and pieces of roast beef. It was amazing.

Today, I started class at Koto. I have to say, I forgot how tiring it is to run around with small children all day. They wore me out. My work day consists, basically, of playing with the kids, reading stories in English, singing and dancing, running around, carrying children, reading stories, helping with snack time, eating lunch, playing with the kids, etc. It's a lot of work, but it's fun and I love it. There are 42 kids at the school, and I think I remember the names of four of them. You'd think that remembering names would be easy. It's not. Remember, these kids have Japanese names. The only ones I remember are Hana, Midori, Yuriko and Oliver. Oh, and Siddartha. He's from India. I have to memorize, at the very least, 22 names. These are the 22 kids that have regular, organized English lessons in the afternoon. They are five and six years old. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

The drink of the day is:

Lifeguard Jungleman Calorie Off


How could I not buy a drink with a name like that? This is an energy drink with a ton of vitamins and a bit of caffeine. ¥100 at the vending machine down the street.

LA to Kamigori takes a long time

I made it! I'm in Japan! I'm so tired!

I arrived with a lot of time at LAX, but it still managed to take an hour to get through security. No surprise, I suppose. Leaving Jennifer was really hard. But we are going to talk a lot, and six months is not a long time. In the whole scheme of things, I mean. Teed stopped by to say hello (goodbye?) once more before I left. She's a TSA agent, so she goes where she wants at that zoo. The flight was fairly unremarkable. There were only a couple of things that really stood out for me. First, sitting to my left was this incredibly cute baby. She must have been six months old. She was awesome. And, you know, when you sit next to someone for twelve hours, you tend to make friends. The two seats to my right were unoccupied. Second, this:



This is the Magic I controller. For JEN - Japan Airlines Entertainment Network. This is a controller with a retractable cord that comes out of the armrest. Look at this thing! It has shoulder buttons! It's like a bad approximation of a Super Nintendo controller. It controlled the films, music and games that were available. The film selection was decent, and I didn't really check out the music much. And the games. Wow. The list included Tetrix (Tetris clone), Alien Blaster (very bad Space Invaders clone), Solitaire (like one-player Chinese Checkers), and Aces (what we call Solitaire in the US). There were a few more, but they were not worth remembering. All of the games I briefly attempted to play were horrible. Each game used exactly one button, and the directional pad. Why so many buttons then, you ask? Just in case, I guess. It was like someone hooked a Nintendo up to a 5-inch monitor, then smashed the Nintendo with a hammer. They almost played that well and looked that good. Never mind. That's not true.

I landed in Narita after the seemingly drunk pilot decided to land by smashing the airplane into the ground as hard as he could. For real. Someone near me almost fell out of their seat. Then I headed though Customs to get my bag. That went fine. Got my bag, checked into my next flight, and got on the plane to Itami in Osaka. That flight was only about an hour and thirty minutes, so it was easy. Rokuda-san picked me up from Itami, then drove me to Kamigori. That was a two hour drive. We hit up the supermarket so he could buy me some supplies for the next few days. I won't get my monthly food allowance until Tuesday. Then he dropped me off at my house. Which is enormous. I'll take some photos tomorrow.

Finally, I was able to sleep. I did not sleep at all during the trip, and I was totally wrecked last night. I went to bed around midnight. That would be 8am on Saturday morning for you Californians. That means I was up for 26 hours, and 15 of them were spent traveling. That's a lot, man.

I woke up early this morning with the intention of exploring the town and checking everything out. There were some flaws in this plan, however. It's Sunday, first of all. In Japan, not much is happening on Sunday. Especially in Kamigori. I wandered around for a while. Then I thought to myself, "Hey, Jonathan. Why don't you take a train to Himeji? it is your favorite place in Japan, and you live just 30 minutes away." Great! I'll do that. Then I realized that I had a wallet full of US Dollars. I didn't have time to exchange my money in Narita. So I happened across the local 7&i Holdings, which is just 7-11 with a different name. And, bonus, they have an ATM that accepts international cards. Minimum withdrawal: ¥10,000. That's about $100. I had no choice. Then I bought coffee and a delicious custard-filled bun for breakfast. Next stop: Himeji.

The Kamigori train station is only about ten minutes from my house, but I was not at my house. I was at 7&i. Took me nearly an hour to get there from the store. To be honest, though, I was not in a rush. And I was wandering off of the main streets quite a bit. This is what Kamigori looks like by the river:





Yes, the cherry blossoms are still out. Which is incredible. I love it. I finally made it to the train station, and Himeji. I'm tired, so I'll tell you about that tomorrow. If you want to cheat and look at the photos before I post about it, hit up my Flickr link over on the side somewhere. I'm having fun already. More to come.