It's occurred to me that the weekends here are colorful and filled with
adventure. Today was another of those Saturdays. But before I get into
that, let me tell you about Friday. It's been about three months since I
got to Japan, and I hadn't gotten a haircut yet. It was time, let me
tell ya. My friend, Kenji, really helped me out and made me an
appointment. I met him at Momoyama Goryomae, and we went together to the
salon. Kenji helped me explain what sort of cut I wanted, and then
waited for me to finish.
First off, I got a shampoo. But not the regular kind. After she rinsed
my hair, the hairdresser set me up in this hair washing machine. I'm not
exactly how it works since I had my face covered, but it felt like
being sprayed by jets of water and shampoo. And that's probably what it
was, too.
The haircut was fairly uneventful, as haircuts go. I made small talk
about studying in Japan and whatnot. And then the hairdresser announces,
"I will now massage your head." You would think that a head massage
would be uncomfortable, but it wasn't. It actually was pretty strange,
but not unpleasant. And when she finishes, she puts a few finishing
touches on my hair, and then I get another shampoo (not by the machine
this time). Lastly, I get brought to this room where you're supposed to
brush hair or whatever off of your clothes, not that I needed to. The
whole thing was 4200 yen - costly, but hey, you only need a haircut once
in a while, and it looks pretty good, I think.
Kenji had a bit of time before he had to go to his part time job, so we
grabbed a doughnut at Mister Donut and caught up. I actually hadn't seen him
all week, so there was a lot to talk about. I told him about how I went
to go find his bike, which had been moved due to campus cleaning. Kenji
is a real joy to hang out with, being a mix of serious and silly, and
really good English skills. But since he had his job, I headed home for
the day, where I finally started the newly aired JoJo series.
On to today. I got up decently early, did some laundry, and called my
parents. Unfortunately, I had Rakugo practice, and at a different place
than usual. Still, rather than pay for the train, I decided to walk
there, which was really pleasant in the warm afternoon sun. Despite all
my practice, nobody seemed pleased. I think that because my English is
so natural, older Japanese people find it hard to understand. Oh well,
I'm almost done with Rakugo anyway. An hour later, I was about to leave
practice when the leader of the circle showed up, and demanded that I
practice once for her, but she made me do the whole entry and exit as
well as my skit. I wound up leaving 20 minutes later than I'd expected
and wanted to.
And so a late and slightly cranky Sam found his way to the train
station. From there, I made my way, by way of JR, to Saga Arashiyama
where I was supposed to meet Nick and his friends. While it was tough to
get in touch with them, I finally got a reply from Nick telling me to
meet them at Nison-in. I looked at the guide map, and started walking.
It was a beautiful area, almost like a fusion of old style Kyoto and
Okayama countryside. Maybe that was what old Japan felt like? Of course,
caught up in the scenery, I soon forgot which way I was supposed to go.
I walked past a bamboo grove, through a park, and alongside an apartment
complex. Finally, just when I thought I was lost for real, I saw an old
wooden sign with barely legible characters pointing out the way to
Nison-in. I followed it, which led to another sign, and then another.
Before I knew it, I was there in front of the main gate.
Shortly after, Nick showed up with the rest of the club. Everyone seemed
really shy, so I mostly tried to brighten the atmosphere by cracking
jokes in Japanese with Nick. A couple people laughed, so I guess it
worked. We toured the temple, which featured two golden Buddhist
statues, really old graves, and some incredibly fiery maple trees. The
scenery was stunning. At one point, I got into a conversation with one
of the guys, which was a lot of fun. It turns out that there are
Japanese people who prefer American cartoons to Japanese anime. I guess
the thought never occurred to me, because I was decently surprised to
hear this.
After the temple, the club leader asked if I wanted to join them for
dinner, which I did, of course. We rode one of the buses all the way
across the city to Kyoto University. Dinner, as it turned out, was at
that curry place that I went to with Haruhi back in October. As before,
it was really good, and we even got some special service - free mango
lassie. Ah, but I was in for a real shock too: it was the first store in
Japan I've been to where you can't pay with a 10,000 yen bill! I had to
borrow 1000 yen from Nick, since I had nothing smaller. Weird, Japan is
a country where large bills are common, so I figure this was a rare
occurrence.
We all returned to the clubhouse, which was pretty much an old storage
shed at the university. Still, it had real personality, which was nice.
Nick and I were among the first to arrive, and when we walked in, there
was one person inside eating dinner. She asked us which one of us was
Nick. Surprised, I asked how she knew about him,but it seems he had
written in their diary the last time he went. She was eating what looked
like a massive inside out sushi roll, which she referred to as a
California roll. This launched us into an amusing conversation about
American sushi culture, especially when Nick referred to the "authentic"
California roll, as if it were traditional sushi.
Little by little, the other club members trickled in, bringing with them
a bottle of umeshu and some beer, plus juice and snacks. Everyone sat
around, chatting and snacking and drinking. It was nice, just relaxing
like that. Then, one of the members suggested they revive an old
tradition. They dealt out playing cards, paired us up with the person
with the next highest number, and sent us to walk around the block. It
seems to be a "getting to know your clubmates" tradition. That, or
setting people up on dates. Anyway, I got paired with Shun, this
amusing, charismatic, and "not dangerous" fellow. We walked and made
small talk, nothing out of the ordinary. It was a lot of fun though.
When we got back, I tried to draw America in the club's logbook, which
didn't really come out so well. I talked a bit more, until it was time
to head home. I was invited to come back again, which I totally plan to
do. It seems like a good way to meet people, as well as get to see
temples around Kyoto.
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