Incoming: Fish Croquette Hovercraft Bomb

Ok, we're back with another hour of hits. Thanks for listening to our sponsors, to be sure, they thanked us. But before we throw down the grooves, you kids out in radioland ask yourselves: Two trains depart at the same time, one from Chicago, the other from Moscow; assuming the Overland Route was discovered, how long would it... So, on the weekend of Physical Fitness Day (a bank holliday) i really had no plans. I was just gonna work on homework and wonder what the trip to Tokyo was like. But Friday night, my Kenji emailed me out of the blue and invited me to spend the weekend at his family's house in Gifu. We met in Nagoya Eki, and after a 20 minute trainride, we got off in the middle of a huge city festival. 生麦生米生卵 Namamuginamagomenamatomago (Japanese tongue twister.) There was a parade of people dressed in ancient war garb. It looked heavy. Lots of famous historical figures on horseback. Princesses on palanquins. Lots of soldiers with Mattlocks. I learned that Gifu was the location of the first use of gunpowder in Japan. Impressive. I saw them fire the guns later on. We walked around the festival for quite a while, my bags getting heavier with every hour. But it was definitely worth it. Kenji had takoyaki for lunch and i bought an okonomiyaki. We saw a Delorean in the car part of the parade! Later we saw a Taiko ensemble perform, which was awesome. I could feel my lungs vibrating with the drums. We watched a cormorant(japanese: 鵜；う；u (so easy!)) fisher demonstrate his pet's awesome skills. Also, i tasted and bought my first Kakki (japanese persimmon). Eventually, we decided to go to his home. Waiting at the bus stop, an old japanese gentleman struck up a conversation with Kenji after asking me where i came from. I guess he assumed i didn't know enough to carry on a conversation (probably true). He was a teacher and i sort of gleened, and confirmed later, that he was complaining because young teachers never disciplined the students these days, and the students were going to hell in a handbag, etc, etc. Somethings are not culturally dependent, i guess. After a bus ride and a little walk, we arrived. Tadaima! Mother (i don't remember her name) had eclairs waiting for us. yum. Shortly afterwards, because of a conversation we had earlier, Kenji took me to the Onsen (hot springs, spa). It was, needless to say, ridiculously relaxing, and i wish we had stayed longer. I really didn't mind the naked thing. Guess the puritan conditioning (American, not my household particularly) wasn't grounded too deep. After we returned, mother made an amazing dinner: Temakizushi. If you thought you recognized "sushi" at the end there, you get 5 points. Te means hand, and maki means to roll. There were three huge plates of lovely things to make into sushi: imitation crab, squid, sashimi (raw fish) salmon tuna and tai (sea bream), cucumber, prawn, egg, raw quail egg, and everything else a growing boy needs. I ate soooo much sushi. I don't know how much i set them back, but i would not have been able to afford that much sushi in a month of sundays. Yumm.. .... ... *pauses in delicious revery* ... Afterwards Mother and Kenji and i talked while father watched tv. Father watched tv pretty much the whole time i was there. We talked about things that are different in america, all kinds of stuff. Then we all went to sleep. For some reason i slept in Kenji's room and he slept in his older brother's old room. Japanese traditional houses have really thin walls. You can honestly hear snoring quite well from several rooms away. Father snores. Then next morning, following a breakky of salad and toast with egg, cheese and ham, we (Kenji and i) drove to what i guess is Gifu's largest temple (or was it a shrine? I think it was a shrine, not a temple.) I learned how to purify my hands etc. Kenji bought a fortune paper thingie, all that jazz. It said he was not going to have very good luck that day. Later we drove to Mount Kinka, utop which is Gifu Castle. Being the enthusiastifc outdoorsman i am, when Kenji asked if we should hike to the top or use the ropeway car, my answer came quick and sure. Yeah, I climbed that.
The park was packed. It took us about a half an hour to park. Kenji set quite a pace, i can tell you. It is a "short mountain" so it only took us about a half hour to climb. Good grief. It was great though, all these rocks, barely worn at all by all the visitors, employees, soldiers, etc that had climbed it through all of history. At the top, after a short rest where i payed a highway robbery fee for a drink, we toured the castle/museum/observation tower. Did you know that they used to have japanese clocks with the zodiac signs on them? There was a really old one by the castle. No numbers, just Kanji for the animals of the zodiac. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_clock you should read this. Fascinating. Anyway, i suggested we take the ropeway car down, for obvious reasons. In the process of buying a ticket, i realized i didn't have my wallet. Misery and Woe! The long and short of it is, we searched the entire path we took up, with the help of a kind passerby, and yet could not find it. My wallet was somewhere down there...
Keep in mind, i was keeping all of my money, (7万), as well as my alien registration card, my student card, my drivers licence, my travel money card, etc, in that wallet. Finally, driven by shrinking hope, we looked in the car... ATTA! huzzah, it was there! Not a fun hour, needless to say. Afterwards, we returned home; Mother had doughnuts of course (Anko filled, yum(!mild sarcasm!)). The rest was pretty much wrap up. We watched the beginning of Mononokehime in Japanese (I miss billy bob thorton, is that sad?) Then Father drove us to the station. With no TV to distract him, he became rather voluble, talking the whole ride with Kenji. I sat in respectful silence. That was about it. We rode the subway back, etc. It was unbelievably awesome. Kenji is a cool guy. Anyway, that is all i have to say about that. Coming up next: a word from our sponsors, followed by the Kabuki post! But first, check out this track by Wellwater Conspiracy "Felicity's Surprise"