And it's a really long one too.
Well, first thing, I went out last night to an Italian restaurant after I was done class. Long day yesterday. Started at 11:30 as normal. Taught from noon to two. One hour break from 2-3. Then taught straight from 3-9. Long day. Teaching is my favorite part of this job, so not a bad day, just long.
Afterwards went to an Italian restaurant. I had octopus tentacle. I don't know if it was cooked, well I think it was cooked, but it looked raw, so maybe boiled or heated up in a pan? I don't know. Either way, still had the suction cups on it. It was about the size of my thumb and I ate it in one bite. Well, I put it in my mouth in one bite. Octopus. Octopus is chewy. I mean really chewy. I probably chewed on that thing for a good minute to minute and a half. As I was chewing the suction cups kept coming off, and they were crunchy, so I would swallow them and then continue to chew the tentacle. Yeah, it just tastes like chewy fish. Really really chewy fish. If you like fish and like chewing gum, might I recommend octopus tentacle. I don't think it will be a main staple of my diet. But, I still want to try takoyaki, which is octopus mean rolled up into a ball and deep fried. That is supposed to be extra good.
They served a pizza with an egg on top of it. Lots of stuff in Japan gets an egg thrown on top of it for some reason. Not raw, but not completely fried, like halfway in between. Yeah. On a pizza. I don't know about all of that. The rest of the pizza was pretty darned good. Also had some spaghetti, or spaghetti pasta with meat and a non-tomato sauce. Maybe butter sauce.
Oh, and asked for a vodka and coke. Got a tall skinny glass and I couldn't even taste the vodka in it. I think they must have put like a single drop of liquor in that damned drink. Oh well, know not to order that again there.
Then I got home and couldn't sleep. Finally went to sleep around 4 am. Woke up around noon. Went to the convience store to get some morning refreshments and hung around the apartment watching "Greek" on dvd. Such a good show. then I realized I was wasting my day away, and it was a beautiful day out today, no rain and not overcast for the first time in over a week. Decided must go out and explore Tsuruga.
So that is what I did. Walking shoes on. Ipod ready. Crap! I forgot my sunglasses. Walking shoes off. Run back to the bedroom, grab the sunglasses, put walking shoes back on, and away we go.
First I decided to walk to Tsuruga shrine since I knew where it was and wanted to check it out.
A shared garden. These are all over the place in Tsuruga. I think it is kind of cool that they set aside a place for people to do gardening.
No idea what those plants/vegetables are though. Some of the shared gardens are complete rice paddies. Next time I see one with a person wading through it I will take a picture.
A Japanese middle or high school, not sure which. Notice how run down and prison like it looks. Just like American schools!
The Gate to Tsuruga shrine from across the street. Note the foreboding clouds over the mountains in the background.
The gate up close. The blue tarps are covering stands that will soon be put up for Tsuruga festival which starts September 3rd. One of my students is dancing in it and I want to go, unfortunately it is in the evening when I am teaching. I think it goes through next weekend though so hopefully I will get a chance to check it out.
The shrine part of Tsuruga shrine. I got there right as this woman was finishing her prayer so I didn't get to see how to do it. Maybe next time.
I think these are prayers people tie to the lines. God I am so ignorant.
After the shrine I continued walking, further and further away from where I had previously been. There was a sign for the "Kensi Pine Forest" 3km, I thought I might try to make it there.
A statue. What are they? Earthworm collectors I think.
The artistic perspective. Yup, pretentious is my middle name.
What a cool building. Check out the ball in the middle of the two towers. Think that is the president or ceo's office? Or, could just be an observation tower. If I knew any Japanese I might be able to share. I kind of like guessing at what stuff is though. World is much more interesting this way.
Don't know if this registers at this angle, but that old man is on a tiny bike. I mean tiny. It is like a child's bike with with tall handle bars. And he was teetering and tottering all over the sidewalk. Bikers are dangerous here. I, of course, include me in the dangerous biker category, especially when I put something on the back of the bike. That extra weight that doesn't move makes the bike a lot different to ride and control.
Continue my walk...
Oh look, another prison. I mean school.
About a mile or so down the road (or 1.5 - 2 kms (grrr))
I found water! A river, and it looks like it leads to a bay! I am going to check it out even though it takes me away from the Pine Forest direction.
The river heading inland toward the mountains. Tsuruga is contained by mountains on three sides and the ocean on the fourth.
Slightly to the right of the last picture. Notice the cool cloud formation as it passes over the mountain. They have some of the neatest clouds here.
Speaking of which...
Back the way I came. Uh-oh! Those clouds are looking pretty dark over there. And I didn't bring my umbrella.
So, I walked about five minutes up the river, and lo and behold what did I see?
The beach! What little beach there is. These guys were just finishing up a cookout.
There were more people down the beach running on jetskis and having a bbq (which is what all Japanese people call eating at the beach, no matter what they happen to be eating i have found out).
Tsuruga Bay. The mountains even extend around the ocean here.
The panoramic view of the bay. The lovely shipping yard sitting off to the right of the beach.
After spending a couple of minutes at the beach and getting dirty looks from two old people I continued on.
After another ten minutes or so of walking I came across a sign for a temple. Well, you know I had to check that out.
Japanese architecture is cool.
I didn't go in. Not sure if I was allowed. And since i didn't see anybody around I decided not to chance it. Last thing I want to do is get arrested over here.
In the back of the temple is a large graveyard. The tombstones (or whatever they are called here) are all really tall and tightly packed together. And they all have spots on the front of them for people to light incense or candles as a way to remember the dead (I am conjecturing here). As a result, the graveyard was very nice smelling.
At this point I had been walking around for about an hour and decided that that was enough for the day. Besides, I had to go to the store on the way home and I wanted to get there before it was too late or I changed my mind. So, I headed back.
On the way back I saw a Tanuki statue. Ah Tanuki.
This is my favorite odd thing about Japan so far. Tanuki is a racoon god who is renowned for being a drunkard and never paying his bar tab. He is also often depicted as having large balls as you can see in this statue. I see these statues all over the place outside of restaurants and bars, and oddly enough, daycare centers (usually without the big balls though). Anyone who played Super Mario Bros. 3 might remember the flying racoon suit? Yeah, apparently the offical name for that suit was the Tanuki suit. Ahh, the things you learn.
So that was pretty much my Sunday walking around Tsuruga. I also went to the grocery store, but that is another post.
No comments:
Post a Comment