Sunday Lunch at Mum 'n' Pops.
Last Sunday headed out to the 'burbs of Kumamoto for some home cooked sunday lunch love. Dave, one of the dudes I met on the course who is from Tokyo, boarded with a host family for the duration of the course. We met his host mum on the final day of the course, and she invited the english students gang (Dave, Myself, Mari and Marcus) out for Sunday lunch. Of course, we obliged. Turned out to be possibly the best sunday lunch ever. You know things are looking good when you're greeted with this:
A 2 litre can of beer. Boo Yah! HOW GOOD IS THAT - BEST COUNTRY EVER! Kind of puts those 375ml thimbles you p.ss weak aussies refer to as 'stubbies' to shame, really...
So mum keeps on bringing out the food. What a spread it was. She laid out about eight different dishes on the table, the pick of the bunch was the fish caught the day before by pops. It was awesome. Also tried a few local specialties, including Basashi (again). Never would have picked it, but raw horse meat (with a little bit of soy and ginger) is actually pretty tasty. Pops kept the beer flowing, as apparently it's rude for your guest to have an empty glass. Being the quintessential guest that I am, I accepted every time. After lunch he whips out the Nihon Shu, a japanese rice wine. It was good stuff.
So after a couple of hours of eating and drinking, it was Samurai time. Pops goes out the back and returns with a $10,000 katana that his grandfather bought 8000 years ago. OK, may not have been quite that old, but it was at least a little bit old. After a quick lesson on how to handle the little beauty (1) it was time to unleash the ninja within. Check it:
The thing was pretty heavy, bloody sharp and very, very cool. No prizes for guessing what I want for christmas.
We wound it up shortly after, and after thanking them profusely for everything, it was time to head off. We then cruised up to a Buddhist temple which has some pretty decent views of Kumamoto.
Next up was Round 1 - a five story entertainment complex that has like a gizillion things to do. Amongst other actvities it has bowling, baseball batting cages, massage chairs, air hockey, mini motorbikes and 3 dollar beers. We hung out there for three hours and pretty much played everything. Finished up the session by playing 'UFO Catcher', that game where you have to control a claw to try and grab a prize, which no one ever wins. Except Max Danger, of course, the boss of Round 1.
Winning some chocolate bar and a fan that looks like a teddy bear definitely called for high fives all round.
To wind up the day it was off to another Nova teacher's going away party, luckily I didn't have much cash left on me so couldn't do too much damage. Massive day though, good times. I think I also have to get into the habit of taking some pictures with other people in them, just to prove I'm not hanging out with imaginary friends...
Thanks for the feedback on the ethical dilemma. I'll pass it on to my friend. The wife in question hasn't been coming to classes lately so there's been no real updates. Overall most of the feedback fell into the 'if it feels good, do it' category, but there were a couple of wise warnings that it could get pretty messy. I think I agree - dealing with chicks is confusing enough at the best of times, add extra complications and you're playing with fire. Turns out that he recently hooked up with a hottie bartender (which incidently, one of the other nova teachers was also having a fair dip at) so the wife isn't so much of an issue at the moment. Triangles, triangles.
I'd better run, got to improve my jap skills. Finshed the three week intensive course last Friday, although unfortunately doesn't feel like a great deal sunk in, so have got a fair bit of work to do to learn it all properly. I'm finding it a little bit frustrating not being able to talk to people, want to turn that around as quickly as I can. Been a little bit more relaxed this week though because I don't have to go to school in the day then work at night, so I've been focusing on perfecting my sleeping in technique.
Take it easy and talk to all you dudes soon,
Max
(1) Odd fact #1 - the correct way to grip swords and cricket bats is very similar. Form a V with your thumb and fingers, line both hands up and clasp.
A 2 litre can of beer. Boo Yah! HOW GOOD IS THAT - BEST COUNTRY EVER! Kind of puts those 375ml thimbles you p.ss weak aussies refer to as 'stubbies' to shame, really...
So mum keeps on bringing out the food. What a spread it was. She laid out about eight different dishes on the table, the pick of the bunch was the fish caught the day before by pops. It was awesome. Also tried a few local specialties, including Basashi (again). Never would have picked it, but raw horse meat (with a little bit of soy and ginger) is actually pretty tasty. Pops kept the beer flowing, as apparently it's rude for your guest to have an empty glass. Being the quintessential guest that I am, I accepted every time. After lunch he whips out the Nihon Shu, a japanese rice wine. It was good stuff.
So after a couple of hours of eating and drinking, it was Samurai time. Pops goes out the back and returns with a $10,000 katana that his grandfather bought 8000 years ago. OK, may not have been quite that old, but it was at least a little bit old. After a quick lesson on how to handle the little beauty (1) it was time to unleash the ninja within. Check it:
The thing was pretty heavy, bloody sharp and very, very cool. No prizes for guessing what I want for christmas.
We wound it up shortly after, and after thanking them profusely for everything, it was time to head off. We then cruised up to a Buddhist temple which has some pretty decent views of Kumamoto.
Next up was Round 1 - a five story entertainment complex that has like a gizillion things to do. Amongst other actvities it has bowling, baseball batting cages, massage chairs, air hockey, mini motorbikes and 3 dollar beers. We hung out there for three hours and pretty much played everything. Finished up the session by playing 'UFO Catcher', that game where you have to control a claw to try and grab a prize, which no one ever wins. Except Max Danger, of course, the boss of Round 1.
Winning some chocolate bar and a fan that looks like a teddy bear definitely called for high fives all round.
To wind up the day it was off to another Nova teacher's going away party, luckily I didn't have much cash left on me so couldn't do too much damage. Massive day though, good times. I think I also have to get into the habit of taking some pictures with other people in them, just to prove I'm not hanging out with imaginary friends...
Thanks for the feedback on the ethical dilemma. I'll pass it on to my friend. The wife in question hasn't been coming to classes lately so there's been no real updates. Overall most of the feedback fell into the 'if it feels good, do it' category, but there were a couple of wise warnings that it could get pretty messy. I think I agree - dealing with chicks is confusing enough at the best of times, add extra complications and you're playing with fire. Turns out that he recently hooked up with a hottie bartender (which incidently, one of the other nova teachers was also having a fair dip at) so the wife isn't so much of an issue at the moment. Triangles, triangles.
I'd better run, got to improve my jap skills. Finshed the three week intensive course last Friday, although unfortunately doesn't feel like a great deal sunk in, so have got a fair bit of work to do to learn it all properly. I'm finding it a little bit frustrating not being able to talk to people, want to turn that around as quickly as I can. Been a little bit more relaxed this week though because I don't have to go to school in the day then work at night, so I've been focusing on perfecting my sleeping in technique.
Take it easy and talk to all you dudes soon,
Max
(1) Odd fact #1 - the correct way to grip swords and cricket bats is very similar. Form a V with your thumb and fingers, line both hands up and clasp.
penned by Maxi at
11:43 AM
2 Comments:
you may not be up to scratch with you Japanese language skills but by God your bs skills are impressive !!! some things never change ! Keep well & maybe see you in a month.
Gen
By
Anonymous, at 16:18
Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills.
You know, like nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, computer hacking skills...
By
Anonymous, at 17:28
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