Joy...Fun...Seasons in he Sun!

This past weekend was my friend Michelle’s birthday party on Shikoku. It was on Friday and I wouldn’t have been able to make it there in time for the party so I went to the Sanin Beach Party in Tottori instead. My friend in Saga drove and I was originally going to ride with them but her car was already full and she said it would take her like 8 hours to get there. It takes about 4 hours by high speed train. I left directly from school and my first train (which was to take me to the high speed train) never came. So about 45 minutes after my train was supposed to come, I hopped on anther rapid and they reissued my ticket for the high speed train. Long story short…It took me almost 7 hours to get there. Some other friends of mine already had tents so I crashed with them the first night. By the time I finished the second to last leg of the trip, the trains had already shut down. So, I scoped out 3 other foreigners at the station and we all split a cab.

I was a bit surprised when I got to the beach. For one, I thought the venue would be much bigger and that there would be more Japanese people there. It looked more like a foreign English teacher party. Secondly, they played techno the entire night…as in until I went to sleep at almost 5 am!!! So while a group of friends smoked hookahs at the hookah bar, I talked to the vendors who was French. Instead of dancing, most people were down on the beach where all the tents were. Jon (another really cool person I met at the beach who was also in the tent) lent me his flashlight services and we headed down to the beach too. The people whose tent I crashed in had fireworks so we set some off. The tent was HUGE so we started calling it “The Hotel.” It could fit like 9 my-sized people/6 adult-sized people comfortably. We all tried to get some picture of the sun rising over the beach but there were just enough clouds to make that a failed attempt.


At about 8 am, I was wide awake. When I stepped out of the tent, I noticed that everyone else (even the severely hung-over) was too. That whole circadian clock thing is amazing. There were food vendors there so for breakfast I had a tandoori chicken skewer, a rice ball, and miso soup. I wasn’t full so I also at two chicken kebab sandwiches being sold and another stand run by the French guys. Sounds like a lot right? Well everything was Japan sized and the kebob sandwiches weren’t really sandwhiches per se. Chicken was stacked and roasted on a spit like the lamb for gyros. The chicken, raw cabbage, tomatoes, and salad dressing were wrapped in a flour tortilla. It was a good variation on a theme I guess.


A group called Capoeira Aché Brasil gave workshops and a performance in the afternoon. So, after watching the first workshop and giggling and feeling like 5th grade groupies/stalkers with some of my new homies about how cute the instructor was, we decided to take the second workshop. It was so much fun, but knew I would be hurt in the morning. The weather didn’t get that hot so I only spent a few minutes in the water with one of the people from my cab ride from the station. My friend from Saga and her crew finally made it in. That evening the music finally changed so everyone headed to the dance floor. DJ Kaori, who was featured on the party’s flyer, came on at 8:30. She’s and ok DJ but it dawned on me that I knew what songs came next. Instead of displaying her mixing skills (if she had any), she played a lot of prefab mixes and just scratched to transition in between the songs. Everyone rushed the dance floor to see her so I moved to the back where I could breathe. There was an elevated log in the back where people had been sitting so I stood on top of it and had my own little party. All the drunk folks were walking by and asking, “How are you staying up there?!” every few minutes. A few even tried to climb up but eventually ended up back on the ground. ..HILARIOUS! By about 12:00 I was dog tired and the DJ was doing more singing than DJing. I think she may have been promoting her new cd or something. So, I went back down to the beach, collected my belongings out of Hotel Tent with the help of Jon’s flashlight, and went to sleep in the tent of one of my people from Saga.


Sunday morning I was back up at like 8, which never happens without an alarm clock when I’m at home!!! The inside of the tent was HOT! So, I threw on my bathing suit and ran into the water. After swimming a little, I ate breakfast (rice ball, banana, and green tea from a convenience store down the street) and talked to Sai (the guy with the sweet mother and sister who I met in Atlanta before coming here) and Rachel (another teacher from that area who I clicked well with) who speaks French. The capoeira group was back, and so was all our giggling. So, Rachel and I decided to take the workshop again and giggled some more. The group is from Osaka and we’ve already planned a trip there to take some classes next month, which I’m sure will result in MORE GIGGLING!!! I can’t wait! After playing on the beach (Bogus Yoga with Theresia and Counterfeit Capoeira with Yuki), the ladies from Saga and I went to lunch. Then, they dropped me off at the station and got on the road. My first train left at 6:15 and I got home at 10:45. They didn’t get home until almost 5 am!!! As you can imagine, I’m more than happy that I decided to dish out the funds and take the train! I did one load of laundry, did my hair, and took my poor tired self to bed!