August 8, 2005

What a weekend!!! Had so much fun over the past few days – totally reminded me of my party days at Ottawa U. After putting out an APB for a place to stay in Gifu-shi so that I could enjoy the festivities, my girl Christina hooked me up with her comfy sofa bed for the weekend. When I arrived on Friday, we did a bit of shopping, ate at a “Chinese” restaurant, drank some alcohol and talked and talked and talked. On Saturday, we made our way to the Gifu JR station to hook up with other JETs to go on a walking tour of the city. After nearly an hour of waiting for stragglers, we were off. Walked the streets while we got to know each other. Met a couple of cool girls from Canada, one from B.C. and the other from Thunder Bay (Canada gurls rock!), and conversated with some peachy boys from all over the world. After a couple of hours and a food break, we made our way to the fireworks where we met up with even more Jets, and I think there may have been 40 of us in total.




After the fireworks, we walked like what seemed like days to Bar Leon, a Peruvian bar near the JR station. Along the way, there were jokes with a suave Scotsman, laughs with an awesome Canuck, and deep convos with a sweet Texan (“Chris – when referring to women’s undergarments, do you say panties or underwear???”) At the bar, I downed several T&Ts (Tequila and Tonics) in rapid succession and proceeded to show them Japayooky girls a thing or three on the dance floor. Without getting into too much detail, I had tons of fun, danced a lot, made some friends and laughed my ass off (for the unrated version, email me).

The original plan for the evening was to take the last JR train back to Christina’s place and call it an early night. Fortunately, that didn’t happen, and around 2 a.m., me, Christina, Chris and Ed piled into a cab and went to her apartment. I woke up the next morning with a wicked hangover, but an allover good feeling. Mmmmm. So much fun.



As I was making my way home yesterday, 2 foxes crossed my path and wigged me out. I was too slow with the digi cam, and unfortunately, they got away. Just happy that they weren’t bears!

Anyway, this will be an easy breezy week as I only have to work for 3 days (2 of them are half days), and then I’m off to an overnight conference and then immediately after, a sleep away camp. **Sigh** It sure is hard to be a JET right now.

I just got back from picking up a few things from the grocery store, including cereal (wish me luck!), and I passed by the gas station so that I could get oil put on my brakes. After a game of charades and wild gesticulation, I got what I wanted, and now my brakes don’t squeal when I’m going down a hill at 60 km an hour. Another day, another mini-victory.

One last thought – Junichiro Koizumi, the Japanese Prime Minister, is one good looking mama jama.