"And our friends are all aboard, Many more of them live next door, And the band begins to play...”
-Yellow Submarine, The Beatles

How quickly plans change when you’ve been drinking. Instead of going to Sendai and hanging out all night clubbing, Corrie, Eve and I have forsaken this plan in favour of the music festival in Fukushima. It’s an all day festival filled with Japanese bands in a mix of hip hop DJs, rock bands, and jazz musicians. Should prove to be interesting as the entire city seems to be going. And it’s always better than paying $30 cover charges to listen to trance and house music when you weren’t that into it in the first place.

“And we lived beneath the waves, in our yellow submarine”

Eve and I are still busy cramming final things to do into my last week and a bit in Fukushima. Last night we attempted to go to our beloved gyoza lady, but her small house with its counter only seats 6 people. Alas, by the time we arrived at 9pm, it was filled with businessmen and smoke. Plan B came into effect and we made our way to the downtown area for dinner and beer at an izakaya. One thing I am really going to miss is the Japanese style of eating. Imagine really cheap meals in appetizer portions that are shared by the whole table. And since all menus have pictures of the food (and sometimes they even describe it in broken English making the “Is it sweet or meat?” game redundant) you just point at the things that look good. By doing this, Eve and I ended up with 6 dishes ranging from a mango and avocado salad and salad rolls to gyoza and okonomiyaki (Japanese veggie pancakes).

After this, we headed over to the English school to chat for a while and meet up with Yaesu who had informed us of a DJ party at a local bar. We arrived to find out that we were only 3 of about 10 people in the bar. It wasn’t happening at all. But at least the music was more retro oldies that electronica, so we hung out for an hour, had some drinks, and chatted with the locals.

“As we live a life of ease, Every one of us has all we need”

Eve and I are still cramming in last minute things I want to do today: namely more rotating sushi, shopping, and dollar karaoke. And just to prove that our conversations are still enthralling after being together for almost 5 months…

Me: “Bananas remind me of Andy Warhol.”
Eve: “Bananas remind me of penises.”

All this while we were watching downloaded episodes of Big Brother 4 which really didn’t have to do with anything we were discussing. Even though Big Brother 4 was like 4 years ago, we don’t know who won, so don’t tell us! It’s what happens when we don’t actually get any TV here.

I also think I managed to stuff 60 lbs worth of my belongings into one small suitcase. My philosophy was to fill it with the heaviest things I own, leaving my huge suitcase for the lighter items, but still packing it full to get it to its 70 lb maximum weight with Air Canada.

“So we sailed up to the sun, Till we found a sea of green”