nothing to prove

gavinator round 1

That's right Gavin came to Japan! It was his first time out of the States and I was definitely glad to be the one to show him around! I ended up taking the bus for the first time to Tokyo which was great because it was like 3000 yen cheaper than the shinkansen but a few hours had to be added to the time it take to get there. That was ok thought because Gavin didn't come in until 2:30pm or so I thought. I took my time getting there only to find out that Gavin had arrived an hour early! So there I was standing around waiting for him to come through the customs gates when he surprised me from behind. Being away from someone for three months really does make you miss them and seeing him again took my breath away. It is the first time in my life that someone has traveled across an ocean to see me, it was a great feeling. So we took the limited express train back to Tokyo, Ueno to be more specific, and then caught the shinkansen back to Tsubame-Sanjo. I tried my best to keep Gavin awake to avoid jet lag but in the end I let him doze on the shinkansen, it is a two hour ride after all. That night we made some spaghetti and called it an early night.

The next day we had to get up early because Gavin came to work with me at Nichu that morning. Fridays are nice here because I only have a half day. We ended up only having one class but it was fun having Gavin give a self introduction and playing jeopardy. We headed back to my place and took a nap. I forgot to mention that I was sick the whole time Gavin was here, something I ate in Hong Kong I guess, so add that on top of our love for sleep and that equals lots of sleep. Anyway tried to salvage the day so we left for Mount Yahiko, which is the local mountain and shrine. We took the ropeway up the mountain which was basically because I couldn't find the road to the top. It was worth it though. The view was amazing!



That night I started in on having Gavin try Japanese food so we started with okonomiyaki, a Japanese vegetable pancake. We went to a place called Monja, one of my favorites. The best part about this place is you make your own food and you sit at the grill. Gavin was impressed by it and wanted to bring it back to the States but I guess it will have to stay here for the time being. At these restaurants being able to use chopsticks is pretty important but let's just say at this point he hadn't mastered them so we had to ask for a fork. It was hilarious when they came back with a little kids fork so that is what Gavin ate with for the night. To top it all off we had a chocolate crepe which was absolutely delicious.


Despite Gavin not knowing how to use chopsticks before coming, he sure picked it up quick! In fact the very next day we went to a famous ramen restaurant, named Komadori, and he was determined to learn how to use them. First I used an old trick that I think my grandparents taught me, fold up a napkin and use a rubber band to keep it wedged between the chopsticks. That way someone, in this case Gavin, can just pinch the ends of the chopsticks and it will grab food. Screw that! After 5 minutes with the beginner chopsticks Gavin started to use the normal ones and we couldn't even tell. Way to go Gavin! Everyone was impressed since it's not easy to master chopsticking, if you ever try it you'll know what I am talking about.


Before getting lunch we had actually met up with Emily, Melissa, and Kate to visit the Maki Winery. It was raining in Sanjo but not in Maki so the view was beautiful. There is actually grass at this place, you would be surprised and how rare grass is in Japan, and it has a fountain and great little restaurants to wander through. For some reason the winery was being difficult with us and it seemed like we couldn't eat, drink or sit anywhere that we wanted to. In the end, we decided to do some wine testing since all else had failed, but of course we had to do it standing up. Despite all of that we enjoyed the testing where we got a small glass of wine for 100 yen, a little less than $1. Great wine with no food was interesting but thankfully Komadori wasn't far away.


The last night we were in Sanjo we met up with a few people for dinner and later more people joined us for drinks. For dinner we went to a place called Tonkatsu Sanjo which oddly enough serves tonkatsu, also known as breaded pork steak. After a good meal we headed to the Sanjo bar district called Honjikoji and a bar called Banana Boat. Great name but the reason we usually go there is because large groups can easy get in, it's not the busiest place. Plus all the uncovered particle board and the unusual decor doesn't exactly attract the masses but the drink specials are good. Sadly, we couldn't do nomihodai (all you can drink) because it was a Saturday but that didn't stop us from drinking. After some socializing and a few drinks it was decided that we should just nomihodai at karaoke.


Off to Manekineko (lucky kitty) Karaoke we went. It started off a bit slow but after everyone got in the room and had their drinks in hand things went a bit smoother. At one point any song put in took around an hour to be played. Things like that don't really matter when people are drunk and singing in a small room with friends. It was great to have Gavin there though because he can actually sing. Not that everyone else can't but I am personally a little rough around the edges in terms of singing. Eventually we headed home and took the Sunday to catch up on sleep and finish watching the first season of Nip Tuck, which I highly recommend. The rest of Gavin's trip is to be continued...

posted by Aaron @ 11:54 PM