Long Weekend - 体育の日
As I mentioned last week, we have exams (so no classes) this week. It's already halfway through the day on Tuesday, however, and I have to admit that while I have no complaints about the extra free time, the long weekends seem to sort of mess up my internal clock.
That being said, the long weekend was nice. I watched a lot of movies and didn't really go anywhere, but sometimes that's exactly what you need.
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On Friday, I went to Japanese class in Kobe (back to the old routine with HIA classes twice a week), this time walking to the Hyogo International Center from Sannomiya instead of switching trains to get there. I've been to Nada, where my class is held (and the Prefectural Art Museum and Earthquake Museum are based), a million times, but this was the first time I had actually attempted walking from central Kobe. I was suprised that it only took a little over 20 minutes and was really easy to get to; I swear it takes longer on the train.
The class went pretty well and I knew most of the kanji on my test (suprisingly - hadn't studied & left my books on the train last week), so after class, I walked back to Kobe again (this time using another, prettier route) with a few friends and hung out & talked over a few beers before getting home and going to bed.
I was up early on Saturday for group gardening (ie-Saturday morning "community time" with the apartment complex), which meant cutting the grass and weeds with a little sife, again. It went by quickly, though. I talked to my neighbor for most of the time we were working. Class with the old ladies later in the morning turned out to be a lot of fun, too.
On Saturday afternoon, I headed over to Amagasaki to hang out with Dave before meeting some friends and going to a wine and cheese party at our friend Katie and Rob's house in the evening. The gourmet grocery store closed before we could get any decent cheese (which is expensive and can be hard to find in Japan), so we ended up only bringing red wine. When we arrived, we found out there was also a Bordeaux-theme for the night, which I thought was a great idea (getting to know different variations of one kind of wine). We ended up with mostly bottles of red, but the theme (which Rob was strict about) allowed some white, and someone even brought a box of Bordeaux (learned the old box-wine-camping-pillow trick) that wasn't half-bad.
I was originally planning to do a long run on Sunday (gotta get back into it!) morning, but I realized that wasn't a good idea after the late night and ended up sleeping in pretty late instead. I guess I should've known better after a wine-and-cheese party, but I did get out to Kobe to meet up with my friend Ben and his two guests from California in the afternoon.
Ben's friends were literally just-off-the-plane (had only been in Japan a few hours) when I met them, but Ben had decided that sightseeing would be good for their immediate arrival (prevent them from getting tired and wanting to go to bed on America time) so we headed for the Nada Sake Breweries and did some shopping before parting ways for dinner.
I have tried to get to these breweries a few times, once also dragging a visitor to Japan there after a long day of sightseeing, but they'd been closed every other time I'd gone (or I'd gotten lost), so I was pretty pumped to actually make it to one of these places. Both Kobe and Kyoto are renowned for their Sake production, but we were told that Kyoto was more of a women's variation, while the Kobe breweries made stranger ("manly") sake... which was, of course, "the better of the two." I haven't been to Kyoto to confirm this, but I will agree that the sake in Nada (Kobe) is pretty good. I don't generally like Japanese sake, but I enjoyed all but one of the samples I tried (the tour of the brewery is pretty much just taste testing and maybe a museum - you don't get to see the production lines or anything). I'll definitely try to go back sometime before I leave, hopefully trying out some of the breweries I didn't go to.
Sunday night was also low-key. I went back to Amagasaki, got some chinese food to go (starting to have a thing for Osho - cheap, fast and tasty Chinese food chain) and just watched a few movies before calling it a night.
Monday was 体育の日 (Health and Sports Day), a national holiday which commemorates the opening of the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and is supposed to promote sports and a healthy & active lifestyle. I did go for a long run along the Mukogawa River in the morning, so at least did something in spirit of the holiday, but the main attraction of my day was actually just getting a free day off work... and watching TV all day:-P.
We ended up watching the last half (5 hours) of the Shogun series (finally!) and doing barbeque for dinner. Rob and Katie (the wine tasting bunch) brought some delicious stuffed figs (figs wrapped in bacon with blue cheese and walnuts inside and a thick, sweet balsalmic vinegar sauce... my mouth is watering!) and another friend, Charity, made her aunt's special cocktail weinie sauce. The end of the Shogun series was OK (was a little disapointed that it didn't end on a more excited note), but coupled with all the food (including teriyaki cheeseburgers from Costco), it was a pretty excellent day.
That being said, the long weekend was nice. I watched a lot of movies and didn't really go anywhere, but sometimes that's exactly what you need.
*****************************************************************************************
On Friday, I went to Japanese class in Kobe (back to the old routine with HIA classes twice a week), this time walking to the Hyogo International Center from Sannomiya instead of switching trains to get there. I've been to Nada, where my class is held (and the Prefectural Art Museum and Earthquake Museum are based), a million times, but this was the first time I had actually attempted walking from central Kobe. I was suprised that it only took a little over 20 minutes and was really easy to get to; I swear it takes longer on the train.
The class went pretty well and I knew most of the kanji on my test (suprisingly - hadn't studied & left my books on the train last week), so after class, I walked back to Kobe again (this time using another, prettier route) with a few friends and hung out & talked over a few beers before getting home and going to bed.
I was up early on Saturday for group gardening (ie-Saturday morning "community time" with the apartment complex), which meant cutting the grass and weeds with a little sife, again. It went by quickly, though. I talked to my neighbor for most of the time we were working. Class with the old ladies later in the morning turned out to be a lot of fun, too.
On Saturday afternoon, I headed over to Amagasaki to hang out with Dave before meeting some friends and going to a wine and cheese party at our friend Katie and Rob's house in the evening. The gourmet grocery store closed before we could get any decent cheese (which is expensive and can be hard to find in Japan), so we ended up only bringing red wine. When we arrived, we found out there was also a Bordeaux-theme for the night, which I thought was a great idea (getting to know different variations of one kind of wine). We ended up with mostly bottles of red, but the theme (which Rob was strict about) allowed some white, and someone even brought a box of Bordeaux (learned the old box-wine-camping-pillow trick) that wasn't half-bad.
I was originally planning to do a long run on Sunday (gotta get back into it!) morning, but I realized that wasn't a good idea after the late night and ended up sleeping in pretty late instead. I guess I should've known better after a wine-and-cheese party, but I did get out to Kobe to meet up with my friend Ben and his two guests from California in the afternoon.
Ben's friends were literally just-off-the-plane (had only been in Japan a few hours) when I met them, but Ben had decided that sightseeing would be good for their immediate arrival (prevent them from getting tired and wanting to go to bed on America time) so we headed for the Nada Sake Breweries and did some shopping before parting ways for dinner.
I have tried to get to these breweries a few times, once also dragging a visitor to Japan there after a long day of sightseeing, but they'd been closed every other time I'd gone (or I'd gotten lost), so I was pretty pumped to actually make it to one of these places. Both Kobe and Kyoto are renowned for their Sake production, but we were told that Kyoto was more of a women's variation, while the Kobe breweries made stranger ("manly") sake... which was, of course, "the better of the two." I haven't been to Kyoto to confirm this, but I will agree that the sake in Nada (Kobe) is pretty good. I don't generally like Japanese sake, but I enjoyed all but one of the samples I tried (the tour of the brewery is pretty much just taste testing and maybe a museum - you don't get to see the production lines or anything). I'll definitely try to go back sometime before I leave, hopefully trying out some of the breweries I didn't go to.
Sunday night was also low-key. I went back to Amagasaki, got some chinese food to go (starting to have a thing for Osho - cheap, fast and tasty Chinese food chain) and just watched a few movies before calling it a night.
Monday was 体育の日 (Health and Sports Day), a national holiday which commemorates the opening of the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and is supposed to promote sports and a healthy & active lifestyle. I did go for a long run along the Mukogawa River in the morning, so at least did something in spirit of the holiday, but the main attraction of my day was actually just getting a free day off work... and watching TV all day:-P.
We ended up watching the last half (5 hours) of the Shogun series (finally!) and doing barbeque for dinner. Rob and Katie (the wine tasting bunch) brought some delicious stuffed figs (figs wrapped in bacon with blue cheese and walnuts inside and a thick, sweet balsalmic vinegar sauce... my mouth is watering!) and another friend, Charity, made her aunt's special cocktail weinie sauce. The end of the Shogun series was OK (was a little disapointed that it didn't end on a more excited note), but coupled with all the food (including teriyaki cheeseburgers from Costco), it was a pretty excellent day.
posted by Brenda Ann Elizabeth McKinney @ 3:35 PM
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