"We got everything and more than we had planned, more than the rivers that run the land, We've got it all in our hands"
-All for Love, Stong, Rod Stewart and Bryan Adams (!)

To continue on with my random weekend adventures, on Sunday, Eve, Takashi, Corrie and I went to the Musica Festa Fukushima which was held up on Mt. Shinobu in the city at a shrine. An odd place, but a nice setting none-the-less.
Corrie and I hit up a local café for lunch first since all we ever do is eat before meeting back up with Eve and her OM at our apartment. As we were walking to the mountain, Corrie and I were telling stories about Dinosaur Head. As we were approaching Eve’s school- a known Dinosaur Head hang out- I almost loudly announced, “I wonder in ‘Michal with no e’ is around.” We walked by and thought we saw him! Corrie and I ran back to have a quick look. We could see his giant head in the distance. We then ran away, not wanting to attract Dinosaur Head’s attention.

The festival was okay- not really something I was dying to see, but there’ snot much else to do in Fukushima and a concert festival is a concert festival. And it was one last Japanese experience for me. It started off okay- there was Soul Stew Man selling his soul stew out of a vat. There was a DJ set up in one of the shrine house. The main stage was the porch of the main shrine. I just kept thinking, “ I doubt the Catholic church would ever let a bunch of DJs play in front of their altar,” since it’s the same equivalent.

The first group was People under the Stairs from California who were terrible, but it was to be expected. After a few glasses of beer, we noticed another group of foreigners dressed up in costumes. They were half ‘70s style and half weird. There was Captain America in a sleeveless America shirt and really tight pants. I asked him if he picked up his shirt from a thrift shop. He said no. He brought it from home. And another 3 in long wigs and Hawaiian print shirts. One of them looked like creepy Chris aka The Bad Chris from film studies. Eve agreed with this observation. Some hours later after finding a random shark puppet on a stick and ingesting a bowl of soul stew, and suffering through Japan’s version of Bjork, a steel drum band came on. Since we had been drinking- who am I kidding? We’d be doing this if we were all sober at an Amish picnic- we were dancing around and being kind of crazy, jumping up and down. No one can resist the power of a Japanese steel drum band. Captain America came over to try to get Corrie and I to dance with him. Eventually he grabbed my hand and dragged me into the centre of the crowd where he proceeded to dance strangely and try to grind with me to the steel drum music. I thought he was gay. All was well until he grabbed my left arm and bit me. Yes, bit me. Hard. It was weird. Soon after that I told him that I had better go find my friends since we had been gone for half an hour.

After some more dancing, I met the Irish and was disappointed. I don’t care for him at all. A large group of us headed over to the local Indian restaurant owned by a friend and his wife: MaNa’s Rasoi for some late night dinner. Eve and her OM gave up after a while but Corrie and I decided to keep drinking at another bar- another theme of the week.

On the holiday Monday we spent an evening at the Round 1 entertainment complex in the massage chairs and playing Dance Dance Revolution. And another 45 minutes trying to figure out the elaborate and bizarre photo booths which lacked all manner of English instructions. Since this week was Eve’s birthday, we went out for karaoke on Tuesday before meeting up with a group of her French students, fellow teacher Dave, and Corrie for dinner at an izakaya which was a lot of fun, followed by drinks at a random hole-in-the-wall bar.

This weekend Eve and I are off to a hot springs resort- likely the first time we will see each other naked since there are no bathing suits allowed in the baths. Since we’re both blind without our glasses, we’ll probably stumble around a bit, so I’m sure I’ll be back on Sunday with lots of stories. We’re heading to Tokyo Monday night until I depart Japan for good on Wednesday….

"I'll make a stand, I won't break"