first, a summary of my trip to sapporo, which for the most part was very relaxing. some unfortunate stuff went down during the trip, but i'll take a break from my gossip-mongering ways and employ the weapon that i must use in my defense: being quiet. :-) the following account is ripped straight from an e-mail to mel and al, btw.
well, my trip to sapporo started at 5am last thursday, when i got up to catch the 6:21 to sendai. catch it i did, eschewing the notion of taking a later bus to furukawa and riding the bullet train down to sendai, which would've made me 15 minutes for the gathering at the airport. the 6:21 is supposed to arrive in sendai at around 7:30. due to massive gridlock (note: the word for gridlock in japanese is "juutai suru"), it arrived at 9:30. not to be deterred, i took the bus to the airport pondering a long weekend stuck in sanbongi. fortunately, the leader of the group expedition left me a note at the ticket counter, saying that a new ticket to sapporo would cost ~200 dollars. one visit to the cash machine later, i was aboard a jet to sapporo. that night i went out with a group to places called "the gaijin bar" (which was great. excellent food and many rare varieties of beer) and "rad brothers," which paled in comparison to the cozy atmosphere and general warmth of the gaijin bar.
the next day i went snowboarding, which was suckful in just about every way. i made the mistake of taking the lift up the mountain my very first time, and ended up walking down most of hill. after eating some crappy curry udon, my confidence waxed, and i went back outside to have another go. i walked a ways up the final hill a few times, and practiced the basics of boarding (minor stuff like stopping, turning, etc.) so i got some stuff down, but it still was pretty difficult. but all trials pass, and soon i was back on the bus, heading home with the group. for most of the bus trip, the group played a game where someone thought of a word, and then the left and right side of the bus would have think of a song with that word in it. well, one of words they picked was "train", which, for a fan of artists like johnny cash or the old 97's is like picking "the", so i was all over that. nice to have a little success after a day of failure. that night i was really sore. i had a headache, and it felt like every muscle in my face was contracting. getting to bed at 11, i slept like a log, and woke up in the morning quite refreshed.
Stumbling out into late morning/early afternoon temperatures just below 0 (centigrade), i went cd shopping saturday. for lunch, i found a ramen shop recommended in my guidebook. it was quite good. next year i plan to eat nothing but ramen. :-) that night we went to the sapporo biergarten for a genghis khan barbeque (mmm...fresh genghis khan) and related bacchanalia. i basically wore out my arms from arm wrestling people (i felt just like stallone in _over the top_, but without the backwards hat and nosebleeds) (well, maybe a few nosebleeds). most of my group got roaring drunk, despite the mediocrity of the beer. one of the highlights of the night was the waiters who could hold about 20 beer mugs in one hand at the same time. i kid you not. several people took pictures...it's quite mindboggling. after staying way past closing time, the group proceeded to engage in a snowball fight directly outside the restaurant. i wish i had had my camera, as drunken snow fights are hilarious. people just didn't seem to realize that dumping snow on another person's head is not a good way to avoid having the same done to them. there was an igloo with a snow table and snow lumps (meant to be seats) there, so i checked it out, remarking to my canadian friend rich "so this is just like home for you, eh?" to which he replied "naw, this is just like our parliament building." :-)
The last day i went with a group of guys went out for brunch, which took most of the afternoon. that night, another group took me to a nearby italian restaurant, which was quite simply the bomb. authentic italian food is next to impossible to find in japan (unless you happen to live near the tokyo/kyoto/osaka continuum), so eating pasta and tiramizu was definitely a thrill. one of the ladies i went with had lived in italy for a year, and was rather pleased with her discovery (it was at her insistence that the five of us had gone there). after teetering back to the hostel completely stuffed, i had a japanese-style bath. we flew back home the next day.
..and that was my sapporo vacation.
this weekend has been pretty cool in it's own right...friday night i went out with a bunch of furukawa-area jets for steak, beer, and karaoke, and we all had a blast. i met a few people in the area that i previously hadn't, and i also met a former alt from a few towns over, who was in the area for a few days on vacation. then i spent the night at steve's along with a few others, and we had a game of risk the next day, in which i was thoroughly annihilated.
today i went to church and walked to the gym to play a little bit of basketball. unfortunately, no one else showed up at the gymnasium, but i got to work on my moves, i guess. :-/
been listening to: sunny day real estate, gardenian, various dub artists, miles davis, the velvet underground, and jurassic 5