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climbing feats and awesome eats, july 21 - 30, 2001
July 30, 2001 21:02
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--scurrying--
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everybody is fast at work. they scurry this way and that and i always feel slow. they're always faster than me when taking off their shoes to go into no shoe areas, and putting them back on when leaving. they're faster than me in getting into the clean room suits, and faster getting out. faster slurping noodles, and faster eating in general. faster getting to work, and faster at getting their laundry done. the only thing i think i'm faster at is going home at the end of the day....
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--babble--
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so, a lot of stuff, and a lot of nothing has been going on since last we talked. let's see, first i went to the beach the weekend before last with noah and the tsukuba kidz. had a tons of fun, and tons of good food. we spent the majority of the weekend at the beach, admiring scantily clad shapeliness and measley little waves....but the waves got up to 1.5 meters on the last day. (and just our luck, the waves were 2.5 m on the day we went home). jerod relayed to me an interesting story about his trip to a nude beach in germany, but he didn't partake in the fun. ask him to send you some details if you're curious.
in other news, i drove! well, it was a likeness to driving, we were in a car, the motor was running, and i was in the driver's seat, but i wouldn't really call it driving. driving back from the beach usually is a four or five hour trip, but it took us 8 (count 'em) EIGHT hours to get home. insane. i've never been in such a stand still for so long. we were in the same position for more than 30 minutes at a time. then we'd inch up about a meter, then wait another 30 minutes. sachiko kept blaming it on someone in the front sleeping. sleeping?! and it's so japanese not to wake them up. because the people behind the people sleeping are probably also sleeping. so the people behind the people behind the people sleeping see people sleeping so they probably sleep, too. then we wait until they happen to wake up and we get to move a couple more meters. yay. well, we finally got to the highway and i got to drive for real. ah.... although i kept the car a little to far on the left side of the road (i was putting my head where it usually is in the road, on the left), i got used to the left handed thing pretty quicky. but i can't get used to paying three to five bucks at every toll, of which there are many! all the highways in japan are toll roads, and it's not very condusive to long travel. such is life, i guess...
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--climbing--
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so this past week was climbing week. i found a climbing place in a nearby town about ten minutes on the train to the east where tons of hecka good climbers are. hecka. it's a small bouldering place with tons and tons of routes. everyone there is extremely good and serious about climbing. lots of one handed pullups, inhuman climbing feats, and incredible moves go on. me and my skinny fingers and hands aren't a match for anyone there. i was really impressed. i have at times been considered by people to be strong, but i'm way, way below average with these guys. and girls. the girls there are at least five times better than i am. but anyway, so since the place is so small, everyone is a part of a pretty tight knit group. they all cheer each other on, screw around, and are generally pretty laid back. so when i first went there, it was really weird. i mean, i was the only person by myself, i was the only person who was foriegn, and i was the only person who seemed to be in the wrong place. 'one of these kids is not like the other, one of these kids does not belong...'- big bird, seasame street, thanks for making me a confident adult. no, it wasn't that bad, but it was definitely weird. (i brought sachiko there this saturday and she said she felt the same way, so it's not just me...)
anyway, the second time i decided to go back, people started talking to me, and showing me different moves, and being real nice in general. that was great. then out of the blue, they invited me to dinner last thursday night for a welcome party. i couldn't believe it! sure, why not. so we went to a korean yakiniku place and ate raw liver and beef, and it was sooooooooooooooooooooooo good. i've never had raw beef before, but this was incredible. liver, too. i never would have thought that raw liver would be so good. then some insanely spicy, insanely red noodles. ah, so so good. the main guy, tajima-san, he kept on saying how sweet the noodles where, laughing at the tears streaming down my face. anyway, they let me into their group and i'm pretty happy. i get to learn climbing, and they get to learn english. yay us! i'm going to buy a half year pass, i think. or maybe a year, i haven't decided yet.
ok, to finish up, i finally found an outdoor climbing spot real close to hanno. take the train five minutes to the next station to the north, then hike about 10 minutes to the entrance to the woods, ( a small drain like path ), then twenty minutes up the winding path to the rock. it was excellent. brought water, ritz crackers and peanut butter. i haven't found much nature in japan, but this was great. the forest was incredibly thick and alive with summer locusts, and the air was cool and clear. anyway, sachiko and i bought a rope just for the occassion and we spent most of the day on the easy routes. extremely easy. unfortunately, they were a lot like hiking, but with a rope. that's ok, we're going to hit up the difficult ones later, when it's not so crowded.
so that's news from japan. nothing funny or too interesting this time, but that's what's going on. i have business trip number two coming up this thursday, so i'm looking forward to that. i'll be going to our new 'research lab', an old renovated house in a small japanese neighborhood. it's great. i might get to live there for a while to do some experiments later on in the year. well, keep me posted with what's going on with you guys. over and out.
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--brain twister--
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did you know you can cut a cake into 8 pieces in three straight line cuts?