Golden Week shenanigans

Golden Week in Japan is a string of 5 National Holidays one after the other, resulting in a week off work. Yippee! One of the holidays is 'Boys' Day' which involves hanging these beautiful carp kites from your roofs.

During Golden Week I went to Ninohe to stay with my friend Pete. Ninohe is 3 and a half hours by bullet train north of where I live. God, I love those trains!

I arrived at 4pm on Sunday and after dropping my stuff at P's and having a cuppa (we are so British) we headed up the 2 mountains in Ninohe. The paths were pretty damn steep and we needed gandalf sticks to steady us on route. I was still on my arse in under 2 minutes though! Beautiful views from the top so worth it.

We got back to the aparto at about 7pm and headed straight out with the Ninohe crew. We all went to an izakaya, then onto karaoke, and finally to the bar which P does a spot of moonlighting in. The bar is pretty classy for Japan! I was well impressed. It seemed like we were only in there for a couple of hours, but before we knew it, it was 6am and time to go home. We left the bar with a promise to be up and out at noon for a BBQ. I've absolutely no idea how we made this, but we did!

Had a great day. Relaxing in the sunshine, playing volleyball, chatting, and of course eating. Good times! The ball we were playing with seemed to have some sort of magnetic connection to the river in the park. Within 5 minutes of arriving (before the BBQ was even set-up) one ball had been lost to the elements. Grahame tried to go after it on his motorbike, but to no avail. By the end of the day there wasn't a single bloke who hadn't got wet trousers from wading into the river on a ball-retrieving mission!

Pete had ran off to recover the pesky ball on one occassion and returned absolutely soaked from head to toe. He'd been swept away by the current. Got the ball (woop!) but had forgotten that his phone was in his pocket and so completely bust that (boooooo!) The trouble that ball caused!

After the BBQ we headed back to the same bar from the previous night for a bit more fun and frolics. The Master (bloke who owns the bar) had organised the BBQ and said we could carry on the festivities back there, so off we went for another night of karaoke and jokes.

Got back around 1am and watch the film 'Children of Men'. I'd not seen it before and it was pretty awesome. Reckon I'll have to watch it again though to get my head around it fully.

On Tuesday we left the aparto at 9.30am to go on a road trip. Again, I'm not entirely sure how we managed to get up in time, but we did. There were 6 of us, so we took two cars and drove the 3 hours to the beach, stopping numerous times on route for photo opportunities. It was the perfect day for the beach. Blue skies and sunshine. There was no sand at the beach however, so it was a feat of endurance to lie on the rocks and pebbles. But, when there's an opportunity to tan, there is no room for wimpishness!

I went for a quick paddle in the water, with the hope of wading across to some smoother rocks a bit further out but a) it turned out that the water was much deeper than anticipated and b) it was fecking freezing! My feet were completely numb within minutes! So, I spent the day lazing in the sunshine, watching Tyler make a rock tower and the boys skimming stones over the water.

On the way home we stopped for sushi and another photo opportunity, before heading back to Ninohe.

When we got back to the aparto, PJ and Ebun came round and we went out to get PJ some birthday drinks. We went to a small bar where we played table football (read 'played' as 'got thrashed') and did a bit of birthday karaoke before heading back home.

Wednesday morning and time to depart Ninohe. Went for lunch with PJ and Jar before nearly missing the shink back to Fukushima. As I raced to the platform, the train was about to close its doors, but I made it. Woot!

I had a great time up north and came back with a few jokes and a bit of magic too. I'm jealous of the guys up there. They all live really close to each other (3 of them in the same apartment block) and they are all super friendly, just popping round to eachothers' apartos all the time. It was also really nice to spend some time with British people. I know that sounds crazy (and a bit racist) but i'll explain...when you chat about stuff, you usually make references and jokes about popular culture and society. Even little things, like if I mention something amusing which my gran does, other British people will laugh because it usually turns out that their gran does exactly the same. All our families have pretty much the same dynamics. You dont realise what an impact on your conversation being surrounded by Americans has, until you mingle with a load of Brits again and you find yourself sliding into familiar conversations and jokes. It's really weird! Whilst I was in Ninohe, even though it was only for a few days, and on someone's sofa, I felt completely at home. They are indeed a great bunch up there and they made my Golden Week pretty fabulous!