It's Saturday, June 29, 1991.
I'm up at 7:30AM. It looks kind of cool outside, but I say screw it and wear shorts anyway.
Myself, Kanemaru-san (one of my two bosses from the OBOE (Ohtawara Board Of Educaction), his wife (name - no idea) and his youngest son, Tomohiro (who is skipping school - in Japan, kids go to school for a half day on Saturdays) go for a car ride to the west... to Nikko-shi (City of Nikko) in Japan. I've been living in Japan for 11 months now - and I love it despite the language, cultural barriers... but the friendliness of its inhabitants and good gaijin (foreigner) friends like Matthew, Jeff, Kristine and Ashley (my ex-girlfriend) make it a wonderful place to be. Most of the time. I have my ups and downs, but the ups far outweigh the downs - like 100 to 1.
Rather than drive to Nikko proper - the temple town, we drive up to the mountainous area.
As we approach a long bridge spanning two mountains, I see a hoist over the bridge going down into the chasm. I just know instantly that its there to pick up a dead body from the canyon below.
We don't stop, though despite our curiosity... we leave the morbid curiosity to the 20 cars that have stopped along the bridge to see the corpse. It means we have less traffic on the road, too.
About 10 minutes later we do stop on a bridge. It's apparently the highest elevated bridge in Japan. While it's only 135 metres high - it is high up in the mountains - so it has a spectacular view... at least I assume so, as there was a really good fog blocking off the sight lines.
The fog was really thick... but still, there were dragonflies everywhere - it was beautiful, but kind of sick toi hear them crunch under your shoe as we walked... that's how many of them there were.
(For some reason... in my diary I wrote: "all we needed was an earthquake".... which I assume would have meant me falling off the mountain).
We drove up another mountain and then took a left onto another plateau. we looked around. went higher. Looked at the fog. Spectacular fog! No view, but it was great fog!
Tomohiro was catching dragonflies and pulling off one wing and keeping them in his bag. Tomohiro was about 5. He's cruel, and I figure he'll make a fine banker one day.
Then we drove down, down, down! We looked for sembei (rice crackers - man, I love those!) and then went sightseeing in Nikko. We saw a row of 44 Buddhas - and a beautiful raging river.
It was very hot now and it was only lunch time.
We drove down to the capital city of Utsunomiya-shi. They visited their daughter at university there while I passed out in the car. Honestly... there's no need for her to meet the gaijin, is there?
Then we drive home.
I relax for two minutes and then get dressed to go to Takako's concert. She squeaks the clarinet twice, but looks spectacular, so who cares. Matthew is a lucky guy.
After, she Matthew and myself go to the 4C for a couple of drinks.
And because I noticed this, I'm going to write it anyway.
Takako got smashed and was pressing her body up against me. Matthew trusts me, so I earn that trust. It does make me a bit uncomfortable because I do like Takako and I am very single... but Matthew is so much my friend that I only enjoy the pressure and never think about anything else. Why can't that girl hook me up with one of her friends? Oh yeah... she knows me.
Anyhow... Matthew drives Takako's car home to her place - flawlessly on a right-hand drive stick shift. I have no idea how the heck he does that, especially knowing that he had a couple of drinks. The guy is Batman.
I'm in bed by 12:30AM. Slightly drunk. Very tired and incredibly horny. Where's Junko or Ashley?
The phone rings, but I don't answer it.
Somewhere wondering who they fished out of the canyon,
Andrew Joseph
Today's title is by Fog Hat - for obvious reasons: TAKEITEASY
PS: Kanemaru-san drove a white Cherry Vanette.
I'm up at 7:30AM. It looks kind of cool outside, but I say screw it and wear shorts anyway.
Myself, Kanemaru-san (one of my two bosses from the OBOE (Ohtawara Board Of Educaction), his wife (name - no idea) and his youngest son, Tomohiro (who is skipping school - in Japan, kids go to school for a half day on Saturdays) go for a car ride to the west... to Nikko-shi (City of Nikko) in Japan. I've been living in Japan for 11 months now - and I love it despite the language, cultural barriers... but the friendliness of its inhabitants and good gaijin (foreigner) friends like Matthew, Jeff, Kristine and Ashley (my ex-girlfriend) make it a wonderful place to be. Most of the time. I have my ups and downs, but the ups far outweigh the downs - like 100 to 1.
Rather than drive to Nikko proper - the temple town, we drive up to the mountainous area.
As we approach a long bridge spanning two mountains, I see a hoist over the bridge going down into the chasm. I just know instantly that its there to pick up a dead body from the canyon below.
We don't stop, though despite our curiosity... we leave the morbid curiosity to the 20 cars that have stopped along the bridge to see the corpse. It means we have less traffic on the road, too.
About 10 minutes later we do stop on a bridge. It's apparently the highest elevated bridge in Japan. While it's only 135 metres high - it is high up in the mountains - so it has a spectacular view... at least I assume so, as there was a really good fog blocking off the sight lines.
The fog was really thick... but still, there were dragonflies everywhere - it was beautiful, but kind of sick toi hear them crunch under your shoe as we walked... that's how many of them there were.
(For some reason... in my diary I wrote: "all we needed was an earthquake".... which I assume would have meant me falling off the mountain).
We drove up another mountain and then took a left onto another plateau. we looked around. went higher. Looked at the fog. Spectacular fog! No view, but it was great fog!
Tomohiro was catching dragonflies and pulling off one wing and keeping them in his bag. Tomohiro was about 5. He's cruel, and I figure he'll make a fine banker one day.
Then we drove down, down, down! We looked for sembei (rice crackers - man, I love those!) and then went sightseeing in Nikko. We saw a row of 44 Buddhas - and a beautiful raging river.
It was very hot now and it was only lunch time.
We drove down to the capital city of Utsunomiya-shi. They visited their daughter at university there while I passed out in the car. Honestly... there's no need for her to meet the gaijin, is there?
Then we drive home.
I relax for two minutes and then get dressed to go to Takako's concert. She squeaks the clarinet twice, but looks spectacular, so who cares. Matthew is a lucky guy.
After, she Matthew and myself go to the 4C for a couple of drinks.
And because I noticed this, I'm going to write it anyway.
Takako got smashed and was pressing her body up against me. Matthew trusts me, so I earn that trust. It does make me a bit uncomfortable because I do like Takako and I am very single... but Matthew is so much my friend that I only enjoy the pressure and never think about anything else. Why can't that girl hook me up with one of her friends? Oh yeah... she knows me.
Anyhow... Matthew drives Takako's car home to her place - flawlessly on a right-hand drive stick shift. I have no idea how the heck he does that, especially knowing that he had a couple of drinks. The guy is Batman.
I'm in bed by 12:30AM. Slightly drunk. Very tired and incredibly horny. Where's Junko or Ashley?
The phone rings, but I don't answer it.
Somewhere wondering who they fished out of the canyon,
Andrew Joseph
Today's title is by Fog Hat - for obvious reasons: TAKEITEASY
PS: Kanemaru-san drove a white Cherry Vanette.
