Saturday, May 14, 2011

Golden Week Part 2: 3 Days in Gifu




Last week consisted of two days of work (Monday and Friday) and then Tuesday – Thursday were National Holidays! Woo! On Tuesday and Wednesday, I went to the Toki Ceramics Festival. It’s a famous ceramics event that gathers hundreds of vendors and about 35,000 visitors over the course of 3 days.



I got to bargain for dishes and glasses and I was even lucky enough to get asked if I wanted to try the pottery wheel. Obviously I did, since I had never done it before. If you wanted to see something funny, try watching a Japanese man explain how to make a mug to an American woman in 95% Japanese and 5% English. Yes, very funny, especially when you have no idea what the man is telling you…Oh, I laughed hard. However, about 30 minutes later, I created 3 masterpieces (if you ask me). It was fun and I can’t wait to see how they turn out.




On Thursday, I went into Nagoya for some civilization. I visited Starbucks, the foreign food store, the Apple Store, and the English Library where I checked out some books. A good, fun day if you ask me.


Having a quick snack after golf


And that was the extent of my official Golden Week. This past weekend I stayed home with a cold on Saturday and Sunday consisted of Mallet Golf (think metal croquet mallets, wood/plastic balls, the course is in the mountains (trees, rocks, even rugs are obstacles, or helpers). It was interesting and in the tournament I cam in 7th out of 42 people, shooting a lovely 11 under par, 61. Go me.



The rest of my Sunday was spent in fear of bugs. Yes, right as I was getting ready for sleep, the first centipede of the year crawled under the chair I was sitting in. Scared me half to death before I thoroughly sprayed it with bug killer and took it outside. On Tuesday morning, I packed up all of my clothes and dishes and thanks to another male ALT (who basically did everything, I’m way too chicken), we set off 2 centipede and other bug bombs inside my apartment. Hopefully they all die and don’t come back (however, I’ve seen several lurking on the walls outside of my apartment window…eek). It’s only May, I can’t imagine 5-6 more months of this. If you are wondering the number 1 thing I don’t like about Japan, it is the bugs. Hands down. No question.


School lunch: milk, orange slice, soy beans and small fish (ick), veggies, green tea, udon noodles, sesame seed dressing for the noodles (the real soup had pork)

2 comments:

  1. Is it me or did you get a hair cut! Look at you crafting!!

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  2. Oh, it does look like it doesn't it? No, I had my hair tucked into a bun. It is SO hot already, so my hair looks crazy now with all of the humidity. My apartment at 10pm, 84 degrees. Yay.

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