"Monet is Big in Japan" Week 18 Jan 4th-10th

Sunday I set out for Nagoya to meet Gwenn and Derrick at the Nagoya City Art Museum for a Monet exhibit that had just opened.  The small museum situated in Shigawa Park next to the City Science Museum has a nice permanent collection of various artists from many different countries including works by famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera who I came to like after seeing his work displayed with his more famous wife, Frida Kahlo at the Philadelphia Art Museum’s Frida exhibit.  For the next two hours we viewed about 40 Monet paintings on display many of which were some of Monet’s most famous works.  Also interesting was each painting listing where it was on loan from.  In most cases the paintings were owned in permanent collections from larger museums all over Japan.  Only one piece was on loan from France itself and in some cases the pieces seemed to be owned in private collections or by large corporations like the Ashai Brewery and large Japanese construction firms.  I could not help but assume many of these were purchased during the high flying late 80’s and early 90’s when the Japanese economy was at its strongest and plenty of cash was on hand to plunk down several billion yen on a rare Monet.  After leaving the museum we headed out to Tiger Café in Fushimi for some coffee and sandwiches before going our separate ways home.  I finished the evening by meeting Akiko in Kasugai and grabbing some Indian food at my new favorite spot, Shanti.

     Monday I went back to Nagoya to check out the Midland Square Building across the street from the Nagoya station.  The building, which appears to be the largest in Nagoya, has an enclosed Skywalk on the roof from which I was able to see for miles as well as snap some great photos of Nagoya from above.  The building houses a modern movie theater on its 5^th floor as well as a high-end shopping mall on floors 1-4.  From there I headed back to Tiger Café for some coffee and to do some work online before closing out the night by meeting up with my new pal Garreth, my co teacher Sam, her friend Margot and Akiko at where else but out new hangout, The Hub.  Even better Garreth made many friends by drinking a little too much and wearing a cocktail shaker on his head as a hat and terrifying Japanese patrons by asking them to join him in a song he created about wearing a cocktail shaker as a hat all the while wearing a cocktail shaker for a hat.

     After another week at school I did the thing that has become most regular for me and headed to the Backbeat with Sam, Sayaka and Hiro for some drinks after work before stopping for a late evening meal at the 24 hour Chinese restaurant, Osho a few blocks from the bar before turning in for the night.  As always I went with my personal favorite, the “Kasugai Seto” consisting of still I claim the best gyoza in Japan, fried rice or “Cha Hahn” as it called her as well as a large bowl or Pork ramen.

  On Saturday after school Sam and about 15 friends as well as myself headed to Ozone to our friend Adam’s apartment for a house party he was throwing.  Adam who is from California plays professional basketball for the Nagoya based Mitsubishi Dolphins and his apartment as you would imagine is cavernous by Japanese standards boasting three bedrooms as well as a large kitchen.  For the rest of the night the group did what you would expect at a house party, drank, and played music with me getting some DJ experience on Adam’s large DJ turntables.  At the end of the night myself and two of my Japanese friends, Hiro and Yoshi split a cab back to Kasugai well after 2 AM to close out the week.

 

I Will Take That as a Compliment

This week while preparing a lesson on food I grabbed some plastic fruit and what I thought were small plates from the storage room to use during my baby lesson.  I thought handing the kids fake food on a plate would be a good way to show how to receive food etc.  As I walked passed my Manager she began laughing and asked what I was doing.  When I explained she took what I thought were plates and explained they were actually small toy cutting boards (who knew they made those) and showed me we did have real plates to use for the lesson.  She then said, “Brian, you always make us laugh with your actions that are both funny and ridiculous”.  Ok, thank you, I think

"Year of the Cow" Week 17 Dec 28th-Jan 3rd

Although I had been planning to travel to Korea over the New Year the cost, the crowds and the like had me deciding to stay close to home for the 9-day break.  On Sunday I traveled into Nagoya and met up with some friends for what was supposed to be a trip to a well-known Mexican restaurant that ultimately we found closed like a lot of things were over the holiday week.   Making a quick recovery we headed to another place nearby advertising tacos and beers of the world and although the food was hardly going to make anyone forget truly great Mexican food it was a nice change and I even happily enjoyed 2 cold cheap Budweiser bottles.  From there myself and my co-net Sam as well of two of her friends visiting from other parts of Japan headed back to Sakae and the safety of our home bar the foreigner friendly Hub, where Akiko met us after she finished with some work she had at school.  In another fortunate turn of events we ended meeting a guy named Garreth from Manchester, England.  We enjoyed some drinks and then headed to Big Echo Karaoke to close out the night with Garreth and I polishing off some smuggled in vodka we bought at the convenience store next to the karaoke bar.  As I write about this week please assume if a day is not mentioned I never left the comfort of my apartment and truly enjoyed the break either working on line, watching movies etc.  Although ultimately at the end of the break I had some guilt about not having done more I have to say it was enjoyable to just do little more than sleep in etc. after how hectic the last 4 months have been in Japan.  And hopefully all the places I have yet to see will fall into place and I will get there soon.  On Tuesday I saw off some friends who had planned a ski trip to Nagano as we had diner at an Indian restaurant in Kasugai of all places.  Although the Mexican was so-so, Shanti in Kasugai was outstanding and although the Japanese food here is wonderful it was nice to have good Indian food for the first time since arriving in Japan.  The following day I woke up late and headed to try out one of the very popular conveyor belt sushi places that are close to my apartment.  The chain, called Sushiro is one of the more popular in Japan and features 100 yen ($1.00) plates of sushi delivered on a huge belt spanning the entire restaurant.  While getting some strange looks when arriving on the crowded New Year’s Eve I sat down and enjoyed some very good and cheap sushi.  Strangely people keep asking how often I am eating sushi but this was only the second time I had eaten it since arriving in Japan.  With that said as good as this place was that is going to change as I had 10 or so plates, two Coke’s as well as some homemade Japanese cheesecake for well under 10 bucks, plus no tipping (sweet!).  For New Year’s Eve I headed into Nagoya to meet some friends at the station who were also returning from ski holiday in Nagano.  Once arriving at the station I met fellow teachers, Loren and Mike as well as some of their friends visiting from Canada and Australia before deciding to go back to the Hub for the New Year’s Eve festivities.  The Hub, which was staying open till 5am to ring in the New Year, was packed for the holiday and we met two other friends, Adam and Ray who were also there.  The night was like pretty much any other New Year’s Eve you might expect, plenty of drinking in a crowded bar the only difference being a small Japanese guy in a cow costume firing a confetti gun at midnight to ring in 2009.  The night ended somewhat early for me as I had a little too good a time at the Hub when I was the benefactor of many free drinks as well as shots of tequila from some Japanese guys we met at the bar (damn the Japanese and their friendliness ).  Not wanting to let them down I drank a little more than I probably should and parted with the group a little ill as they headed off to all night karaoke and I hopped in a cab for the 15 minute ride home to Kasugai.

     After staying home for New Year’s Day watching the party going on in Time’s Square with Anderson Cooper on CNN, I headed back into Nagoya on Friday to check out Oasis 21 near Sakae.  Oasis 21 is a large shopping complex with a glass roof deck and I spent several hours checking out the stores (Pokemon shop was a highlight), grabbing some coffee at the French bistro as well as taking some photos from the roof deck.

     As 2008 drew to a close I have to say the new year had me reflecting on the previous year and how it ended with me living in Japan.  If you would have told me at the close of 2007 this is where I would find myself I would have thought you were crazy, but now settled here with many new friends I have to say I am enjoying things quite a bit.  Also as many of you know my disdain for New Year’s Eve the last two have been some of my best, I rang in 2008 32,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean aboard a plane bound for Madrid Spain and this year found me half way across the world in a bar in Japan welcoming 2009, not bad.