Kurasaki Day 2

So today started kind of rockie....as usual I didn't have any set plans of what to do or when so I was floating around till about ten or so.  I'd hoped to get on one of the gandolas early for a tour of the Bikan area via the canal...but realized after I'd been standing in line for 15minutes that you have to buy the tickets around the corner...not pay at the boat launch...silly me.  Of course I couldn't find it so gave up.  While wandering around I ran across a mini farmer's market, the people were really friendly and I bought some deep fried shrimp while I observed and chatted.  I then found myself back at the same little cafe I'd stopped by for lunch yesterday.  The owner remembered me, and didn't really let me order (besides what I'd like to drink) before bringing me breakfast...toast with jam and a hard boiled egg....yummy (again very cheap...450円).  Her English is decently good so I chatted with her for a little while and then continued rambling around the Bikan area. 

I had already come to the conclusion that some of the museums in the area warranted a look though, so when I passed by the Ohara Art Museum I went in...Totally worth it.  It's a private museum so I wasn't really expecting much, but they have an amazing collection...from El Grecko and Picasso all the way to one by Andy Warhol.  I stayed there for over an hour and then their attached garden for another half hour taking photos when I wandered to the Folk Art Museum just down the street.  Thinking back it probably wasn't worth it for that one, since you can see most of the stuff for free if you wander into enough of the shops in the Bikan area.  I was thinking it was going to be Folk Art from all around Japan as Kurashiki is famous for being a massive hub for warehouses that housed goods from all over Japan, but this museum was just examples of things from different artists around Okayama. 

While going into the tourist information center to figure out how to get to Kojima I found out that is where the boat tickets are sold....of course they were already sold out for the entire day, I'll try getting there early again tomorrow now that I know where to go! Last chance...if I fail again well pooh!  Anyways, the bus stop for Kojima was just down the street from where I was so I walked there and waited the 15minutes for the next bus, on which I first saw the people I spent the rest of the day with...of course I didn't actually talk to them...I got off the bus and went to the jeans museum in Kojima (the area is famous all over Japan for the hand made jeans).  The museum area was interesting, but I must confess I love wearing jeans but museums about them weren't nearly as interesting as I was thinking it would be.  I peaked into a few of the factories and saw how they would piece togther the ideas for made to order jeans. 

Which was cool, but afterr wandering around for a while I got bored and then caught a new bus to Kojima Station to head to Wa?? in order to see one of the 100 top views in Japan the 360 degree view of the sea and the entire length of the Seto Ohashi Bridge....and when I got on the Bus to Wa?? who should be sitting on the bus....none other than the women who'd been sitting on the bus right behind me from Kurashiki.  They imidiately started chatting with me and the daughter (age 26 which was perfect) spoke really good English, which I thought pretty disapointing at first since I love attempting to use my Japanese, but after about 5 minutes we switched to completely Japanese since her mom doesn't really speak English.  After finding out that I was without specific plans for the rest of the afternoon they invited me with them, which included an onsen (round 2 of nice to meet you, lets got take a bath together...will I ever learn?) I redily accepted and had a wonderful time.  They warned me that the onsen they were going to was going to be ￥3000 which is kinda expensive for an onsen, but not rediculous...and hey I love onsens so I thought it was worth it.  When we got there turns out the JR railway and bus tickets they had included the onsen for free and the onsen attendant just let me in for free too!!!  YAY!!  Thanks Yuka!

After about an hour at the onsen we got something to drink and then headed out to the bus stop to see the Seto Ohashi Bridge from the top of Wa?? where tonight they had a sunset festival going on...whoot good timing (I didn't know about it till Yuka and her mom told me about it).  Just when the bus should have been getting there one of the vans from the hotel where we were at for the onsen saw us and told us he'd give us a ride for free....score!  We spent the remainder of the day there eating and listening to the different music they had performing...from taiko, to folk music with shamisen playing to Japanese harps...and of course up to the top to see the sunset and the fantastic 360 view of the sea.  I remembered today was Saturday so kept them up there till it was a bit darker so we could see the bridge lit up...which only happens on national holidays and Saturdays.  They loved it (they didn't know about that)  and then we wandered back off the moutian to see more of the concert before catching the FREE (due to the festival) bus back to Kojima station.  Where we parted ways since our different hotels were on different bus routes in Kurashiki.  They might call me tomorrow to wander around with them again not sure...but I hope they do!

Yuka and her mom are from Kyoto and really want me to come visit whenever I have time!  Should be exciting...see more of Kyoto than just the tourist places!  I can't wait!

This picture was an absolute jem of perfect timing!!

Jess and I decided to go to the beach today to check out the waves our latest impending Typhoon might have been sending our way.  We weren't disapointed...they were massive and were curling...too bad as soon as the curls finished they drove straight to shore completely flat.  Jess and I did have a great time sitting only knee deep and letting the water alternately pull and push us in and out of the water.  Great fun for a few hours.  At least until like an hour ago when my eyes turned monster movie red and hurt like I was stabbing them with a fork.  Hopefully whatever caused this clears up by tomorrow morning.

kinda pointless

I know...not the greatest photo

So I noticed this while eating in the restaruant last night with the owner of Seiko Gakuen and her daughter, who I tutor in English every week.  What is the point of having both sides read in Celcius?  Isn't it kinda a waste of ink?

BBQ at Komatsu Beach

I like the way the Japanese think!

beetle shaped rafts?!...ummmm ok.

The crew

Yoshinagawa Matsuri (Festival)

Ahhhh...I love fireworks!!

Yochien at the Beer Garden

 

the partiers of the school...too bad everyone couldn't make it

Pretty much all of the teachers from the yochien (kindergarten) got together tonight to relax and have a good time as a unit after school today.  We met in the lobby of the hotel below the beer garden and all went up together at about 7ish.  Daniel and I felt extremely underdressed after arriving since all the Japanese teachers had dolled themselves up...something I didn't do deliberately since I figured it was a beer garden and I didn't want to be over dressed for and show up my co-workers.  Man was I wrong...they all looked SOOO beautiful. 

Anyways, after getting upstairs we realized they were the ones a tad over-dressed and Daniel and I fit right in.  from 7 till 9:30 it was tabehodai (all you can eat) and namihodai (all you can drink).  Something the Japanese don't think of as a challenge, but the rest of us do...I cleared 8 full plates while everyone else had 1 maybe 2, and Daniel had like 10 drinks while the rest of us were down at around 3 or 4.  We'd taken the train in together and were going to get back the same way after stopping at Ingrid's to say hi....so we had to dodge around the good intentions of our fellow teachers when we were offered a ride home...I'm not sure how they would have taken it if we'd told them we were going to go to a bar after just been at a beer garden for nearly 3 hours.  I'm sure they would be watching us very closely at work tomorrow at the very least!!

I get paid to do WHAT?!

Yes folks, baseball.  I not only got paid while sitting and watching a baseball game all day today, but had my admissions ticket costs covered by the school.  We lost by a failed plan to try and win in the 13th inning...which is too bad since it would have mean Seiko's team would have been the best in the entire prefecture and gone on to national finals.  But I think a 2-2 score all the way to the bottom of the 13th is a pretty darn good job!

On top of the awesome day of watching baseball on the clock...since the game went so far into overtime, we didn't end up getting back to school until 6:30, so the school gave us an additional 1.5hours of vacation time we can use anytime.  Talk about awesome school benefits!