Tuesday, I was invited along for a day-long bus trip to see “important places of interest in Komono” along with 40 kids (grade 1-6) and 10 adults.
First stop was at a fire station, where we saw the “119” emergency call center, the workings of fire trucks, and all the equipment fire-people wear. We then got to ride in the crane/ladder thing on fire trucks and took us 30m in the air (about 100ft).
After that we went to some barbed wired off small building in a small forest. Inside were lots of clay pots and pieces of pots that dated over 1200 years old. While interesting, I was more concerned with what seemed to be old pieces of a shrine and big clay protectors.
Continuing up the forest road there was a shrine on the hill. Then we walked even further, uphill, in the hot hot heat. We finally arrived at an air conditioned building where we enjoyed our lunches and relaxed. Outside you realized we were up the side of one of the mountains and could see the whole town!
[VIDEO] -pending. Youtube is being mean.
The guy talking in the background is Chris’s supervisor. He’s really goofy and scattered brain and he was talking about how cool I look in my big (Elvis) sunglasses. So I captured him on the film as well. I showed it to him and he yelled KOWAI! (SCARY!). Indeed.
After that we went to a place that raises tanago which my dictionary translates as “a Japanese bitterling”. I have no idea what that is, we just saw a bunch of little fish and clams. Not sure why this place is significant, its in the middle of nowhere. but it had a cool name“
Then we went to the coolest place of the tour, a town cultural center 45 minutes away in the area north of Komono in Kuwana. (Yea, I thought it was about Komono too). We go and listen to a guy talk about the peninsula were on, and the rivers, and geographical stuffs, boring. THEN we get a ticket with a number on it and go to another stainless steel-clad room. We were going to MAKE our own NORI (the sheets of seaweed you use in sushi)!! A mix of water and seaweed was give to us in a wooden box and we dumped it on a mat with a wooden border. You pull up that border and presto! A perfect square!
Mine when it was done!
Then you put it in a machine than in 2 seconds sucks out all the extra liquid. Then we gave that to a lady and put it in these drying boxes with a big wheel to set them on inside. While they were drying, we watched a video of the history of the town and how people lived pre-and during the war. I felt really ashamed and hoped the kids wouldn’t come after me for being American. Then there was a walk through tour of old tools and old houses, before and after tsunamis and earthquakes, etc. We were then led outside, into rows of plants. What is going on? WE’RE GOING TO PICK PEANUTS!
Peanuts grow underground, so we rooted a section and picked all the peanuts. They aren’t really ripe until October, but we can still roast them. Chris gave me her bag of peanuts, so now I have 2 bags of peanuts I don’t know what to do with! I may have to buy a food processor and make peanut butter!
I was very obviously tired and hungry by the end of the day. I was about to go to bed at 10 when I caught glimpse of a ridiculous show called “Choui Waru”= “Very Bad!”. This group of too-cool tough guys called Lincoln(?) are given 2 situations where they can do whatever they want. One of them will go in and be “bad” and the others watch backstage and hit a button on how “cool” they are for being bad. The rules were the people in these situations had to act like they weren’t even there.
The first situation involved an important business meeting. A large oval meeting tables and probably 12 important people discussing important things. Things that happened included:
Playing guitar in a guys ear, rewriting on the wipe-board, spitting marbles, licking faces, placing pants on their important papers, cutting holes in their clothes, napping in the middle of their meeting table, laying the business men on the table, and my favorite, a guy coming in in a Speedo with a Golden Retriever, doing stretches on the table in front of peoples faces, then having the dog lick his chest. How they could not laugh or be disgusted is beyond me.
The second situation they upped it. It was in a men’s shower room. Let me explain the set up of Japanese locker rooms and etiquette. There is a main room you come in, with lockers and benches and maybe a small area of snacks. You disrobe here, then enter another section where you wash down. You sit on a little stool (like an upside down bucket really) and you have a little mirror, shelf, and a shower hose next to that. Just rows of them. There is also a couple of Jacuzzis in there, and you MUST shower before getting in one because it’s shared by the community.
So the set up is, a couple guys are in the locker area, about 5 or 6 guys washing, shampooing, and brushing their teeth.. maybe before a trip to the Jacuzzi, maybe after swimming.. etc. There is one guy relaxing in the hot tub. Did I mention EVERYONE IS NAKED. What went down:
Throwing pies at people.. then taking a picture with his cell phone, placing all the milk on its side, looking up the locker-men’s towels, cannon-balling straight into the hot tub, Placing a tea bag in the hot tub, slapping people, flipping toothbrushes around so they were brushing with the wrong end, throwing underwear, lubing up in shampoo and placing the stools at the other end of the shower, then being a human bowling ball/slip-n-side into them (he was going really fast actually and crashed into the tile wall!!) and my favorite: Turning all the stools around so all the guys sitting were facing in a circle (still scrubbing, they have to keep doing what they were doing) then this “cool guy”, hands on hips, standing proudly in the middle of them.
I really had to go to the bathroom while this was on, but I couldn’t go. I hadn’t laughed like that at TV in a really long time and really almost peed myself. I only wished I had a VHS to record it on, obviously it was important enough for me to share on my blog. I really hope these guys are on next week!
Obviously pictures and video coming next week.
Here`s the opening sequence to the show:UPDATE: I have found out that it is different every week. It is made by entertainers, for entertainers.
1 comment:
Tanago are an endangered species! There's a little article about them here.
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