Monday, February 13, 2006
Hijiori
Friday: got news about some Germans that were celebrating the world cup with table football and German food. then I heard that there was nomihodai on German beer, which was the only sale needed. wandered around the vicinity of the Canadian embassy, finally stumbled upon the German cultural centre, and learned how to say prost. found a crew of people willing to make the trip down to shibuya for karaoke. Tokyo is proving itself to be a village again - ran into Rie in the metro station. said hello in some shocking way, and escaped before she could follow. time was short, so I haggled for 500 yen for 30 minutes, with the intention of getting the last train home. everyone decided to stay beyond that, and instead, we paid for another 2 hours. Unsurprisingly, given the company, 99 luft ballons and Dschinghis Khan featured heavily... Quit Karaoke, walked around the corner, and landed in some club which took the last of the spare change in my pocket for entrance and the rest was a blur. Shibuya is a far better place by leagues to Roppongi - at least there are Japanese people in the bars and clubs. Found ourselves in Mcdonalds at 5am, feeling groggy. Took the yamanote home, changed my clothes, picked up a spare T-shirt and my SLR, and headed back out, across town to Tokyo station. Got the 7.16am shinkansen to Shinjo with 60 seconds to spare. Sat in a reserved space, which i felt justified in doing, especially after paying 12,000 yen for a one-way ticket to god-knows-where, and knowing that sleep was imminent...
Woke up 300 km North of Tokyo surrounded by snow in a small town called shinjo. my thoughts were, in order: "that's beautiful. god, it's cold. damn, i smell. ah, painful pulsations in my head." jumped off the train, and met Rimiko, with her nephew. He saw me, and ran away immediately.
"he's probably never seen anyone like you before". Found Sumi, who turned out to be on the same train as me, and the four us headed out to meet Rimiko's father "chottooooo, nihongo wakari masen". Drove over to the ryokan in Hijiori. As we headed out further and further into the wilderness, despite feeling nauseous, i was in awe of the beauty. Japan has a countryside so much more beautiful than I imagined. I thought it would be all Shinjuku neon. Got to the place, ate some food, got some sleep. Wandered around outside, played in the snow, threw snowballs, rode sleds borrowed from the kindergarten, discovered an igloo. Got back home and had an amazing dinner, consisting of more than 10 different dishes, each of which was more delectable than the last, served in pottery that made me scared to eat from it. This was one of the rare times that i've actually felt fat from eating Japanese food. Wandered down to the Onsen, and enjoyed a bath in total isolation, without seeing or hearing another soul. Wore a Kimono. Played cards. Read my book. Slept.
Sunday: Woke up in time for breakfast, ate too much, went back to sleep. Woke up again for lunch, ate too much, packed our stuff, and got a lift back to Shinjo with Rimiko's brother in law. This guy used to be a racing driver, and despite the fact that he was now in control of a diesel minibus, in extreme snow, saw no reason to display caution. I'm sure he was cautious, in his own way. Shinjo had a snow festival going:
I wandered around and tried to take pictures, but unfortunately the snow was too heavy. there were guys with chainsaws who were shaping tree stumps into animals. huge cartoon characters like the ones in the picture. then a stage, where the power rangers, or their predecessors, appeared on stage for some live show with lots of sound effects and fighting. it was too cold, so we decided to leave for the station. bought a banana covered in chocolate and walked to the station with it. saw a convoy of humvees with japanese peace force dudes inside. i stood at the side of the road, with the chocolate banana high up in one hand, smiling at the sight of the ridiculously oversized vehicle that is the humvee. The soldier caught sight of me, turned his head, and saluted. What was going through his mind as he saluted a grinning gaijin with a chocolate banana held up high?
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