On my birthday I went out for lunch with my friend and her boyfriend and then headed into Utsunomiya for some hanabi, or fireworks. It was a nice quiet way to spend the day. The next day my friend, who plays in a community orchestra, was performing, so I went to see her. There was a soprano soloist for the first half of the program. She was excellent. She sang selections from various Italian operas. The concert was in honour of Italian music. The latter half of the performance was just the orchestra. They did very well, although if you asked my friend, she would say the opposite.
The next weekend I joined the Saitama Saiborgs for a football tourney in Nagano. There was both a boys and a girls team, naturally I played for the girls and I got some friends to come along and play for the boys. My friends and I rented a car (a hybrid Toyota Prius) and drove up instead of getting the Shinkansen. It was a little far to drive in one evening so we stopped at a place in the mountains called Sakudaira and stayed at an onsen. My friend failed to tell me that there were no rooms nor beds. Where we slept was a common room. We slept on recliners! I'm pretty sure I was the only girl in that room, amongst snoring men. Hahaha. I didn't mind. Before we went to sleep we got to soak in a hot spring.... It feels sooooooo good, even if you have to be naked. The next day we had a full day playing games. The girls played 3 games, with 6 people per side. The boys got to play 4 games with a full team. We tied our first game, won our second game and lost our third. We should have won the last game, but we had no ball luck. I had 3 beautiful shots: 2 hit the corner post and cross bar and one hit the cross bar. It was a frustrating loss... The boys lost all of their games. They unfortunately had to play some very serious teams that belong to various metro leagues. After the games, we went back to our hotel for another much needed onsen soak. The second night we stayed at a real hotel and there was a dance with all the players. It was fun. I got really sunburned despite all the sun cream I put on. I guess I sweated it off. The next day I was really sore. Everyone was really sore. We had no subs for the girls. Luckily we just played one game. I also refereed in between playing and cheering for the boys. After Saitama had definitively lost, we headed back home, though not before I tried driving in Japan! Success! No one died!
The next weekend on Saturday I went for a long hike with the "wondafogill" club, aka mountain climbing club. We hiked 4 mountains, 25 km, total ascent of 1400 m. It was gorgeous and really fun. Every time the mountain climbing teacher sees me he talks about my debut with the club.... They were very surprised at my agility. It's quite embarrassing because now the whole school knows. During the hike we have an assigned formation, Taguchi-sensei leads, followed by the 1st graders, then my coworker and her boyfriend, then the 3rd graders, then the 2nd graders, and finally, me. He put me last!! I guess it's a compliment, but it was painfully slow at the back :p. the last mountain we climbed was a well known local mountain in tokyo, Mount Takao. It was a very steep walk down. On the way down, you can visit the temple and shrine of Tengu, a mountain god. He was originally a bird of prey, so some statues of Tengu are men with wings and beaks, and other statues are of a man with a long nose instead of a beak. Tengu used to be thought of as a disruptive demon and a harbinger of war, but now he is a god of the mountain or forest. He can be dangerous, but is generally protective.
The next day my friend took me to the ocean! I haven't seen the ocean in months! We went to a town called Ōarai. It is a beautiful seaside town. The first thing we did was wade in the ocean. There were lots of surfers out.... Definitely gotta go back! I also managed to drop my iPhone into the ocean. As a result, I bought my first ever bag of rice. When I got home, I didn't have any rice, so I stuck the phone in a bag of quinoa. The next day I bought some rice and left it in there for a few days. Luckily it still works!! Not perfectly, the volume controls seem to be out of order, but the rest of the phone works like a charm. I'm so lucky. After wading in the sea we went to the aquarium, which is famous for having the most number of sharks in Japan. There were hammerhead sharks! I really enjoyed the aquarium, it was very fun. I saw a capybara for the first time. It's a large animal that looks like a guinea pig (a giant one) and likes to swim. It's from the Amazon river area. We also watched the dolphin and sea lion show. It was great. They had four dolphins and a pair of seal lions. All of them were very talented. After the aquarium we went for a little exploration on the beach. I found a bracelet that once belonged to Ayaka and a little glove filled with sand. The water is very clean in Ōarai and it isn't too crowded. Can't wait to go back. On our way back, we stopped at "Mentai Park", a fish egg factory that appeared on TV and is now a destination. Mentaiko (明太子) is essentially an eggbsack from walleyed cod that is flavored with Mentai spice. They had free samples at the factory, so I tried some and was pleasantly surprised. It was quite delicious! I didn't buy any though...
So that's my update. Next week I'm off to go surfing, hopefully. I'll be visiting Itō city, a coastal town with lots of onsen. Yay. Also, the rainy season (梅雨) has started :( It is very, very, very muggy. Bleh!
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