Big city envy.

On the brink of morning rush hour we boarded the train for Niigata City, the capital and largest town in the prefecture. It’s a 2 hour scenic trip that runs along the coast and at times is bordered by mountains. [what i saw of it anyway…i slept quite a bit. it was 7 am!] We missed our connection in the city and caught a taxi to the prefectural education office. There were games and videos and other orientation staples. We headed downtown that night to a bar for group nomihodai and tabehodai [all you can drink and eat] for 4000 yen [about 40 bucks]. I was glad to discover there are other JETs who aren’t utter dorks…as a matter of fact, I’ve decided that I really like the Brits’ disposition. They have caustic senses of humor, they drink and party like champs, and they are all rather pleasant. You know we put a hurtin’ on the all you can guzzle…and on the free pool table. girl-power. It was the first time we’d been out dancing since arriving [our entertainment district in Takada is more bars and karaoke oriented]. A sentiment put forth by a friend we met in Tokyo was echoed…’I dunno if Joetsu-shi is ready for you two girls’. We danced and acted up until the ripe old time of
9 pm when the shuttle bus left to take us back to our free rooms.
The next day was more chatting and orienting, then we were bused downtown for a walking tour of the city lead by the older JETs. We’d buddied up to some of the second and third year teachers, all Brits, so we kinda stole off on our own. Lunched at a good Italian restaurant [tried the squid ink pasta which was garlic-y and salty. really savory. it left the most unbelievable black stain in my mouth. worse than eating oreos.] We had a wrap up orientation moment on the banks of the river [the largest in the prefecture] then Liz and I hit the shops. We’d decided we were staying for the night even if it meant sleeping at the park. After exhaustive and productive buying sprees, we used some hotel lobby bathroom to change clothes and, as the family says, bathe like whores. We squatted on the corner and did make-up and changed shoes before wandering into the bar district. We ran into some other JETs who had the same stick-in-town plan…except they’d scouted a place to sleep. There was more pool and a beleaguered trip to sing karaoke [we never made it]. Some chick offered us her place to stay before she left with a South African she’d met. We headed to her place, minus her…got some beer and sat up all hours with the cool Brits. The next day we all watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics before heading to lunch together. after that we went our ways. Liz and I headed to Toyano park where there was a soccer game going on. It took us two hours, a long walk and a 20$ taxi ride to find the place. It was a beautiful, traditional Japanese garden with playing fields on one end near the professional soccer team’s stadium. We did dinner, and nomihodai [guzzle] at an izakaya [a restaurant with a rowdy atmosphere where you order many smaller dishes to share] before hopping the 11 pm train home. Luckily when I snapped awake on the train, we were at the platform of our stop. If we had overslept, we would’ve ended up in Osaka. Save that for another weekend.