Japan It With Me

Its been a while since I last posted and for that Im sorry and yes you are probably seeing a trend. Im currently typing this up on a school computer that doesnt support my blogging website so im sending it in an email to myself. Again this also means this post will be lacking proper punctuation.

 

This past month has been crazy! Drama at school, drama back home, useless and nonsensical tiffs. However, it has all been worth it because it made an incredible vacation even more amazing.

 

On April 29th two groups of JASIN students left for OKinawa. I was in the 2nd group and arrived in Okinawa late that night. We got off the airplane and the weather seemed a bit chilly and our cab driver didnt really know where our hostel was so it was a little worrisome. I had never stayed at a hostel before so I wasnt sure what to expect. When we arrived the owner of the hostel showed us the common room, our dorm, the shower, and the bathroom. Everything seemed fine and safe so we headed out to the main tourist street to try to find the other group. Kokusai-dori is the main tourist street in Naha, Okinawa. Its filled with omiyage (souvenir) shops, and several american/hawaiin themed restaurants. We managed to meet up with everyone at a huge Mcdonalds. One of the guys was already hammered (which really isnt attractive at allsince hes a belligerant drunk) so I had a vision of what that groups vacation was going to consist of. He then proceeded to tell me that I got him kicked out of the local bar in Nagasaki because I had been talking about him and the owner overheard and decided he didnt want him to come back. I had only been to that bar twice to eat and meet friends, I never talked about him so I wasnt sure why I was getting blamed for it. That put a damper on the evening and my group headed back to our Hostel,  Little Asia.

Then next day we tried to hook up with the other group but were ignored. This irritated the girls in my group so we ignored it. If they didnt want to see us they didnt have to. Our Little Asia group consisted of Rachael, Tracy, Matt, and myself. Rachael is from New Paltz which is right next to Marist so we had an instant connection. Tracy and I had facebooked before we came to Japan so we were already familiar with each other but I hadnt spent much time with Matt before. I hadnt brought a bathing suit to Japan so I was determined to find a cute one. I looked in tons of shops but still couldnt find an appropriate one. I learned that almost all Japanese bathing suits are extremely padded! I am not the bustiest woman around but I deffinitely did not want a padded bathing suit! I got enough stares as it was just from being a foreigner with some piercings and tattoos. I finally managed to find an American brand bathing suit that was under $80 dollars so I was pleased. Other than that we walked around the shops on Kokusai-dori and tried to figure out what we were going to do that night. Little Asia provides a home cooked meal every night for only \280! However Rachael has a wheat allergy which makes it extermely hard to find food in Japan in general but especially in Okinawa.　I was never bothered by it because it gave us the opportunity to stay away from the normal fried foods and delve into the Okinawan culture. So we went to a some what Mexican themed restaurant (ha.)

One of Okinawas famous foods is actually taco rice. Taco rice has all the ingredients of a regular taco except the are placed on a bed of rice. This became an every day meal for Rachael since it was difficult to find food at times and she didnt want to bother us. So we had a few drinks, ate, and headed back to the hostel for the night. The girls were exhausted and went to bed while Matt stayed up and talked with the locals and workers.

 

Im not exactly sure what we did the next day, I think we explored the city where normal tourists dont dare venture. Our hostel was in a maze of local market of sorts. Any direction you went out our door you could find something interesting to look at or learn about. That day was not as important as that night. That night started everything exciting that happened on that trip. Little Asia had its own bar on the roof of the hostel which Matt had found out the night before. We all went up and found ourselves in a completely wooden, open air bar besides the the small roof covering us. I saw an attractive interesting Japanese guy so I started talking to him. He was from Tokyo and he directed commercials. To me this is an exciting life but he seemed really content to get away from the city. His name was Kyouhe (spelling might be off I lost his information >,.,<) and he informed me that the next day the hostel was hosting a beach party and that my friends and I were invited. We didnt have any plans for the next day so we were all really excited to meet new people and to go to a beach. The bar closed at 1 and Kyouhe invited us out to another bar they were going to.  Tracy and Rachael went to sleep so Matt and I followed. We went to a small traditional restaurant which had no chairs, only tatami and seat pads. It was a nice environment even though there were probably 20 of us shoved along 2 tables thrown together. That night I met a deaf Japanese guy and another one who had lived in NYC and was incredibly fond of broadway musicals! and I honestly dont think he was gay hahahaha.　Matt and I ordered drinks we were familiar with while the Japanese ordered tons of what I guess they considered beer snacks. One was a strange type of Okinawan sea weed that they call green caviar. Its on a stalk with what I guess you call branches with tons of mini pods that pop when you bite them. At first it was really good, but then as I kept chewing the liquid inside the pods became gooey and strange... That was my last bite of that for the night and we moved on to other appetizers that were questionably appetizing... A bowl of cylindar shaped meat arrived and we were pressured into eating it. I honestly did try everything! Im not sure if this was because of my BAC or my eagerness to become more associated with the culture. This dish looked like veins to me. They were thick but hollow on the inside so I figured it was the main arteries in the heart or something of the sorts... Chigau.

 

Please dont vommit on your computer as you read this.

 

 It was pig vagina.

 

I was aware of this as I chewed and downed some drink while swallowing. The taste was fine but the texture was chewy and ... just strange. That was also my last taste of that for the night hahah After many nights of dining out I learned that Okinawans treasure a type of pig called Aguu. Im not exactly sure what it is about this pig but they eat absolutely every part of it as you can imagine...After 2 or 3 drinks and an onsalught of peer pressured eating we paid and headed back to sleep. We were told that our ride for the beach would be leaving at 10 am and that the price of the ride and food would be only \2000! This seemed like a deal since we didnt have to do anything to help cook or drive. The next morning came very early as we all woke up at 9 to be ready to leave by 10. There was only one shower on our floor but it was huge. Since we had already seen each other naked at the Onsen the girls decided to shower together and save time. So we were all ready to leave by 10 when suddenly a big group of people showed up from another hostel. We were pretty peeved because they took up the entire 1st car trip to the beach and we wanted to get there ASAP. I asked when the car would be back to get the rest of us and was told 2 hours. Taking this information with a grain of salt I plopped down on the tatami to use one of the computers. As I was angrily checking e-mail one of the Japanese guys staying at the hostel came up and tried to talk with me. His English really wasn't that great so eventually he gave up and started playing guitar. At the time it didn't click how outgoing and out of character this was for Japanese people. I was obviously agitated so the guy eventually came back over to see how I was doing. This vacation has taught me that many Japanese people love to play the age guessing game and Americans are almost always wrong. They also don't offer up their name at the first meeting. I guessed he was 26 only to find out he was 32. I don't know how they do it but many Japanese people don't seem to age. After laughing at me and thanking me for the compliment he told me his name was Kunihiko but to call him Kuni.
The car arrived to take the 2nd group to the beach and of course with our luck, one of our friends was MIA. At this point I gave up being agitated and sat down to watch TV and wait. A while later we finally managed to make it to the beach!

It was an incredibly interesting, beautiful day. All the pictures we have were taken around sundown so the lightning isnt the best.

 After eating we wound up in the water which was actually an ok temperature and began playing volleyball with everyone. After my wrists started burning in pain from the soccer ball we were using as a volley ball I went back up to the pavilion. I laid around until I heard a huge crash and the guy I met early was on the ground moaning "itai" which means ouch in Japanese.I look over and theres blood running down his back and arm. After everyone tended to him i wandered over to see what had happened. Almost 1/4 of his back was covered in deep gashes and his arm was too. This looked pretty rough even to me. i asked him what happened and his first response was "shisa!" At this time I didnt know what a shisa was so his next response was "tiger fight." This was amusing but not satisfying. Eventually after struggling through Japanese and English he pointed to a rock and then the roof of the pavilion. He was trying to climb onto the roof of the pavilion via a sharp rock. I called him and idiot and told him he was crazy to which he replied in Japanese "yes but my heart and mind are like a child." As the caring person I am I laughed, shrugged, and left him to suffer until my friends got back from the beach. Of course when they got back I just had to show them all these nasty cuts. After this we all started talking which lead to Kuni proposing to me and ensuring me we would get married some day. Again at the time I didn't realize how bold this was. We all laughed and made a big joke out of it. Eventually the sun started to go down and we all piled into two cars to head home.


Class time,
Write later :)