Finally, Friday is here. The day went much better – I arrived at school on time, and my classes went very well. The students really got into the jack o’ lanterns today, and some of the other teachers were asking me about these strange orange faces that keep showing up around the school.
I was talking about my plans for tomorrow with the school nurse, and she mentioned that she will be climbing the same mountain that I was planning on climbing on Saturday. We decided to meet up and tackle it together. The weather had turned from cold rain to cool, sunny days. Perfect weather for hiking. I’ve signed up for a 40k hike next month, and then a 50k hike in Kobe in December. I need to get out on the trail and get in great shape!
Mr. Hayashi took off early today as compensation for a day a while back that he stayed late. He told me I could leave a little early today, since I was heading to Himeji to meet Carrie for dinner. Carrie had a late night golf lesson on the driving range at 9 o’clock, so we were hoping to sneak in a dinner before she had to meet her teacher. I snuck out around 4:30, and I was on the train and gone.
I’ve been to Himeji once before, but it still struck me as a shock walking around a big city after hanging out in Futami and Takasago all the time. I’ve been to Kobe lots of times, but we usually go into the Kitano district, which is a quieter area. Himeji was jumping, and everyone was dressed to kill for a Friday night. The Tigers were playing on TV, and everyone was excited about the “Nihon Series”.
I met Carrie at the most prominent landmark near the station – in front of Baskin Robbins’ 31 Flavors. Carrie had been to a Japanese food court that she had been impressed with, and suggested we head out there. It was a good walk, and we caught up on stories as we walked down the crowded sidewalks towards the illuminated Himeji Castle at the end of the long avenue. About halfway along we found the food court, and it was unlike any food court I’ve seen in America. There were many more restaurants inside, with plenty of tables spread out. There were televisions everywhere showing the baseball game, and the variety of food was excellent. Carrie and I surveyed our choices and decided to go with Indian food.
We had a couple of beers over a big plate of curry, rice and cheese nan bread, and talked about school, our adventures since our hike, and our plans for the next year. At some point we figured out that we’ve been here for three months – about a quarter of our year commitment has already ended. It came as kind of a shock to both of us – I certainly don’t feel like I’ve seen and done 25% of what I want to do in Japan.
Carrie went canoeing with some friends last weekend, and they ended up tipping in some rapids. Carrie lost her camera, her Gore-tex jacket, and one of her shoes. Everybody lost gear – I guess the rapids were pretty heavy duty. It sounded like a real horror story. She’s going to shop around for a new camera, which shouldn’t be a problem, but the jacket was really expensive, and it might be hard to find something like it here in Japan. Carrie is a pretty optimistic person though, and she was already in the “I can laugh about it” stage.
After dinner we walked out onto the castle grounds, and did a big loop on the grounds underneath the castle. I tried to take some pictures, but they didn’t come out at all. We agreed that it was just something you had to see for yourself. The castle is amazing by itself, but lit up at night it is even more dramatic.
We walked back to the station, and we each went our separate ways. I jumped back on the express train, and was home in about half an hour. I’m really lucky to be in a location where I can get to everything easily.
It was a great night and I feel very good going into the weekend. Tomorrow is a big hike, and then Sunday is the big temple festival.
