Friday, July 16, 2010

Crazy 3 prefecture weekend

Last weekend was so crazy I'm still recovering!

First a map so you understand what I'm talking about. The yellow part is Tohoku (North East).

The prefectures are, from top to bottom, left to right:

Aomori

Akita Iwate

Yamagata Miyagi

Fukushima

I live in Iwate. It's the biggest on the mainland and 2nd biggest in Japan, behind the megaloth island at the top, Hokkaido. For an idea of size, the whole of Tohoku is around the size of West Virginia.



First I headed down to Shichikashuku, South Miyagi, for a friend's goodbye party. Since I live on the Northern border of Iwate, that's a 6 hour journey, but I cut it to 2, with this- max speed 275 km/h



I went to say goodbye and Happy Birthday to my girlfriend Phelia. Apparently I got jokes noone else did....


Phelia's Japanese friends did a drum show for us.


I got 4 hours sleep and headed back to my prefecture, for a wedding party. I didn't go to the actual wedding- that is pretty common in Japan.



Then I went to a club event. Several of the ALTs here have been DJing, and now all of them are leaving. I'm partying with my Bolivian-Japanese bff here. Our conversations are hilarious to onlookers because we argue loudly in whichever of 3 languages we feel like.


Then we got 4 hours sleep and headed up to my town to pick up my neighbours. They were at the Goshono Jomon site, where some of the earlier people in Japan lived.
(Aside: I left and went to a beer garden while writing this post. In Japan there is no such thing as one party, there's always an after party. Sometimes there's an after after party, and an after after after party, so I'm full of liquor - all you can drink all night for $20 plus karaoke- so I really hope the rest of this post makes sense :) )

Inside the hut


Outside with bff


A Jomon hut


Then we drove to Shingo in Aomori to see the Tomb Of Christ


According to the Japanese, Jesus Christ did not die on the cross, since his Japanese brother Isukiri casually took his place.


This plaque from Israel acknowledges that the Japanese say they have the body of Christ.


In front of Isukiri's grave with bff and Yuria.


In front of "Christ's grave"


My neighbours posing as Christ's family


Bff has too Mommies!
t

I'm the Queen of the World!


This Christ was brought to you by Coca Cola!


Afterwards, we headed to kaitenzushi, back in my prefecture, Iwate. Kaitenzushi is sushi on a conveyer belt.


Here's hamburger sushi.


And the menu, and 8 million kinds of sushi. The most expensive cost about $1.60 USD for 2.


14 hours sleep over 3 days. I'm still exhausted, and seeing as I've just got in from drinking and karaoke (we tore the house up with We are the World, Fat Bottomed Girls, Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend, and others- I did even did two songs in Japanese!) this weekend does not really look that much better.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I had no idea that the Japanese have a Tomb of Christ! That looks like a hell of a weekend -- get some sleep!!

Marsha Sigman said...

I am tired just reading about this weekend! There is no way I would have had the energy to do all that!lol It looks like fun though, except for the food cause I don't do sushi but I want to pose with you as Christ's family. That is awesome.

Also love party pics!

Claire Dawn said...

Marsha, I don't like sushi either, but you live in Japan long enough...

Natalie Aguirre said...

Great pictures. I loved the Jomon Hut.