wandering in Mito

So there was a three day holiday this weekend, and it was going to be a busy one thanks to the double header of the Daisuki Ibaraki Festival and the Tsuchiura Hanabi competition. This is right after my big welcome reception Thursday night too. That was fun, delicious food that no one actually ate because they were too busy talking to each other. I didn't know how formal it was going to be, though, and I was a little under dressed. Luckily they liked my speech that I gave in Japanese. It pays to be conversational. Plus, afterwards I went over to this really classy looking bar with a new salaryman friend I made. I have passed by that place riding my bike down Route 6, and I always wanted to go in, after seeing all the bottles they have lined up on the shelves. The weird thing is, right after I went in for the first time, I got a text from Jay with a picture of some salaryman guy he met at HIS reception going on at the same time in Oarai. The salaryman wanted to know if I knew of a bar called Wild at Heart in Takahagi. Weird coincidence. Man... if you think about it it could have been extremely sketch. There wasn't any one else in the bar besides the bartender, who my new salaryman friend only called "master."

. . .

Except it was actually just cool. No menu, just a bartender who was fully stocked and knew exactly what he was doing. And a huge collection of classic rock and some older blues stuff. He had Howlin Wolf, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Zepplin. So I would definitely go back. But yeah, this is all just a digression, because starting Thursday night it was pouring rain, which graduated into a full fledged typhoon Friday. On Friday after school I went with the other teachers to watch out for the kids going home. Yatabe sensei just said "We have to protect them."

Unfortunately the rain flooded out both the grounds for the Ibaraki festival (which I didn't really want to go to anyway) and the Fireworks tournament (which would have been awesome). So here I was sitting on a three day weekend and no real plans. Felt like a big waste. Ended up meeting up with some JETs in Mito after dicking around in Takahagi. I've spent a decent amount of time in Mito now, but it's kind of a strange city to get a handle on. It's about the size of St. Louis population wise, and has a decent amount of interesting stuff there. I crashed at Dan's place with everyone else Sat night, after we all got lost looking for a bellydancing party (wtf) somewhere in Kairakuen, which is a pretty huge park. Took a taxi out from the station, asked the guy to take me to the location I received via text message, and the cabbie is just like "uhhh... why??" I arrived to a mostly empty parking lot and ended up walking back to the station. Turns out pretty much the same thing happened to everyone else. I blame society. Sunday morning everyone got up early to man the JET booth at the second day of the Ibaraki Festival, which was strange, I guess they just didnt get the email that it was canceled that day too (hahaha thanks Seth, that is the best excuse ever). So I just wandered around Mito a lot. Mito is laid out along one big street that goes out from the train station (inconveniently even in a big city like the capital of Ibaraki there's pretty much just one train station to use). There are all kinds of shops and restaurants along the street, for some reason including a lot of hip hop clothing stores that play taped American radio stations. Which is totally balls, because one played the American commercials too, including one for Taco Bell which made me insanely jealous and hungry. Before the stores open they are all shuttered, and the shutters had some pretty cool graffiti covering them as you can see here.

After walking down the main drag I decided to branch out a bit, and I ended up walking down a side street and finding the Mito History Museum. I didn't really see much in the way of exhibits, because I was just distracted by how fucking gorgeous it was outside. I chilled on a park bench for awhile and tried to figure out what the hell Haruki Murakami was trying to say in his book I've been reading called The Wind Up Bird Chronicle. Unfortunately all that graduating with an English degree really did for me was illustrate how little I comprehend of the literary value in most books. I'd rather not just read 800 pages and only think "oh, that was weird," but that seems to be the most prevalent thought after finishing anything by Murakami. Anyway, sitting on the park bench at around 10 AM, staring at the sky, I was dismayed that most of the time my thoughts were just turning to any one of the half dozen or so girls that, well, that I have been thinking about lately. For various reasons. Which ironically is what the main character in Wind Up Bird ended up doing most of the time. Eventually I wandered off and discovered that the History Museum butts up right next to Kairakuen, which is really beautiful when its actually daytime. I really like wandering around parks in Japan. Or just wandering in general. It's a good feeling to just see something you've never seen before, or just the opposite, to see something familiar after being confronted with so many strange things. Japan in general is definitely starting to just be familiar though. Mito functions much differently than Tokyo or Makuhari, but bits and pieces still link them all together.

Monday was the big day off, and I spent it chilling in Takahagi. It needed to be done, especially since wandering around a city like Mito goes hand in hand with spending money. Me and Tim decided to explore around the beach area, and ended up going out on a pier that was still under construction (gaijin smashing past several do not enter signs) and chilling on some giant concrete tetrahedrons next to some fishermen. Hey, at least we had an excuse for ignoring the signs saying keep out. In the end, I really enjoyed this weekend despite all of my plans for the fireworks and whatnot being canceled. It was good just to stay in Ibaraki and enjoy the local sights. Being on the beach in Takahagi was especially nice, because it felt like something I would do on vacation, only it's the place where I live. April said that JET is basically like a paid vacation, so I guess I would have to agree to some extent. It also goes to show that the more you plan for something the more disappointed you will be for it. So I should just stop planning anything for my birthday this weekend. Ha.