A Tale of Ordinary Madness:

Spring has Sprung!

It's time for Hanami, or flower viewing. I'm STILL on spring break. Which is good, but I was sore about it in the beginning~ the day before it started i get told, offchance by one of the teachers not even from my company, that i had the next 13 days off. WHAT?!? I mean, that's a NICE surprise, but i shouldn't get my 2nd largest vacation as a surprise.
Anyways, I kicked around for a few days doing not much, then decided to up and go somewhere.
Got on the train. Ended up in Okayama.
So, I was waiting to hear from Mat. I wanted to visit his country hovel out there, but he wasn't feeling like checking his email, so i was stuck in Okayama city for a night. Shouldered my giant rad backpack (thanks maresa) and hit the bars.
Funny story, I got about 4000 yen of free drinks from a girl! Hah
So, she was talking to me, and being SUPER flirty. We sang duets on the karaoke machine, and everything. I was buying her drinks, feeling good about myself. Anyways, later on, when i was drunk, she mentioned something about leaving to meet her boyfriend, or something, and i was angry. I called her a liar, for letting me buy her all those drinks, and for being so flirty when she had a boyfriend. I said but it's okay, it was nice to meet you and you're welcome for the drinks, in my cold disappointed attitude i have sometimes -- that one that really hurts girls feelings when i'm not trying to. Anyways, she covered our tab, which must have been pretty lofty. Thank god. The next day i felt pretty guilty about it, but not TOO guilty.

So, the next day, I tried like hell to win robert a mario question mark block from this stupid machine, but couldn't do it.
Finally, Mat called, and i went out to his country home to spend a couple days.

Crazy, so, he lives with his girlfriend in her dad's old house, neighboring her parents house. And good thing, because they have no electricity or running water in that old place. Which is really awesome, and a cool way to live for awhile, but i couldn't tough it out. And those walls are japanese style, which means they are literally paper. During the winter, when it's freezing here, i have NO clue how they got by. He said it was hell, that doing ANYTHING was soooooo difficult, and they ended up spending most of their time at the parents house.
I can't get you to understand how cold it must have been. Also, being in that big room is freaking SCARY at night. Sooo creepy, he was telling me about how the night before his girlfriend was out, and he had to go to sleep alone and was horrified.
Anyways, enjoy this video tour. Mat is also a vegan, so, throw out your respect to the man.





Mat's House Tour on Vimeo

oh yeah, together we went to Naoshima, which is like... art island. Check that webpage. It was really awesome. I took a crapload of pictures.


Finally, Hanami. Which was yesterday. Which was so fun~ jerico invited me along, and we partied it up with this super hip group of kids, and a heck of a lot of cuuute girls. It sounds pretty pathetic, but i was/am pretty excited about it. I only hang out with 48 year old men anymore. I'm serious~ kids after high school and before marriage don't live in Kumano. Contacts in Hiroshima are always "busy". Anyways, it's been sort of a tough couple months for me.
Last year, I had this sort of fiery energy-- ANY little ammount of time i had off, which wasn't a lot, i desperately and actively pursued fun. Justin once gave me a little speech along the lines of partying -- he said he will always go out when invited. Even if you don't want to, because you might end up having a great time. You'll always have tests, and homework, or be tired, or hungover. Right? It's true, those things are neverending, and not what i want to base my actions around. But I almost ignored those words, which would have been awful, and i wouldn't even know it!
This year, my job is freaking great, but i don't feel like doing anything anymore except coming home and drawing, or reading.
Anyways, I went, met cool people, had a blast.





Also, I made my first money panhandling! After the party, I'd missed the last train/bus, and was deciding what to do, and i was pretty drunk so i ended up sitting in front of the convenience store playing my harmonica with my hat out like a dork, and some dudes tossed some money in, then brought me inside and bought me booze (that i definately didn't need at that point)
But, we hung out drinking outside the convenience store, and i was drunk enough to give them a little concert.
Good times this spring break, except the small fortune i've spent. Ouch.

Comment for me.
-D

posted by Dan @ 2:37 AM