ocean to mountains
Craziness continued with the return of Jamie to Kashiwazaki. A big party was thrown to celebrate both spring break (during which we all still have to work) and to welcome back the missing crazy. Running late as usual, I met the crazies in Nagaoka so we could all ride out to Kashiwazaki together. We arrived just in time to meet some of the others for the pre-party session in Jamie's apartment. Some of the girls got ready while we all drank and started the party chaos.
Then it was off to dinner at a local izakaiya (restaurant bar) to meet up with some more people. There must have been over thirty people in this one large room. Lots of food and drinking followed the initial welcome for everyone. Being the party planners that the crazies are, there were plenty of activities planned for the whole group throughout the night including but not limited to: sake bombs, beer bongs, chopstick races, and kings. After doing plenty of socialized and making a complete mess of the tatami room we left for karaoke. Nice Nice karaoke was great as usual and it was where the group started randomly splitting up for their respective beds. Mine was with Jamie and Liz for a night of getting comfortable together on a single futon.
Saturday the madness continued with Michelle singing throughout the apartment waking everyone up early in the morning. Apparently she had not gone to bed so a couple of us went to get some breakfast at McDonald's for everyone. We took our time there and once we got back everyone woke up to eat and watch the interpreter where everyone but myself fell back asleep. Finally we all got out of bed and headed to a ramen shop owned by our friend Hase. After chowing down, the crazies and I headed to the Kashiwazaki salt onsen for some relaxation. We spent a very relaxing hour in the hot spring we got out and headed back to Jamie's. I was going to leave but then I was challenged to a game of Monopoly. Anyone who knows me very well knows I can't turn down a game of Monopoly and this was no exception. It was an intense game full of screaming and dancing and in the end it was I who was victorious. Some people (Jamie) might not live that one down for quite some time.
The next day I was off to Shiozawa bright and early to go snowboarding with Asuka. Luckily I managed to get up plenty early on very little sleep and caught the train with lots of time to spare. We spent the day at Maiko and, since it is officially out of season, the tickets were really cheap. However the slopes were littered with little kids because it was the first weekend of spring break for the elementary and junior high schools. We still managed to make quite the day of it. Plus, it was probably the last time I will go snowboarding this season and I was kind of sad because I was finally starting to get the hang of it. Oh well, spring is on the way and there is always next year. Afterwards we checked out the onsen and then headed back to my homestay where the whole family was around for dinner. It was nice to see the whole family again, especially since it will be the last time for at least a couple months because of how busy I will be. I got back late last night stuffed with a slight buzz. Another successful weekend of trying to living it up to the fullest in Niigata.
posted by Aaron @ 10:27 PM
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