(Day 7) Park-ing Lessons

Nearing the end of my first week here, I was extremely lazy today. After five days of go-go-go, I was very stop-stop-stop. But doing absolutely nothing would be a huge waste, so when Tomoko and Chobi (yes, he was very adamant about this) invited me out for a walk in the park, I was happy to see something of Japan that was not accessible by train. Also, I always get a large kick out being a passenger in the cars here. It’s lame, I know, but riding on the other side of the car never seems to get old to me.









It was very typical of the parks I always see in the many Japanese dramas I watch on TV. They always have these bodies of water surrounded by massive embankments. Not your typical Canada park, but that’s precisely why I’m here.





There was a track and field day being held at the park and Tomoko, Chobi and I waded through the hoardes of school children to find the path. We must have made an interesting-looking pair as Tomoko is old enough to be my Mother, but that just made it all the more fun. We had many interesting chats as we strolled through the park.




On the other side of that bridge in the distance, is Tokyo. From here, it looks positively serene.

The park was also home to a local gang…of cats. These wild beasts were impossibly huge and had nasty scowls on their face. All they needed were some pompadours and leather jackets and it would be a type of yakuza. Cat yakuza, that is. I’m not even joking.


We crept by as they slept.

There is interesting foliage to be found in Japan as well. I thankfully had the opportunity to question Tomoko about some of the more prevalent species of this flora.


This is suzumi…I think. I tried Google-ing it, but I got nothing except some strange pictures of half-naked anime girls. Not sure what that’s about.




This one I know – this flower is called “Tsubaki” and the first thing I associated it with is that shampoo made by Shiseido and their commercials where the ladies chirp, “Tsubaki!” at the end.


This is Chobi being very upset and refusing to face me.

The park was still bursting with Fall colors (ha ha – as I write this blog in spring) which is called koyo.



One of the scary cats from the cat gang awoke and was awaiting us on the trail when we were making our way back.



He attacked, but since he’s a cat, it was no thang. He was bigger than Chobi though, so things could have been fatal.

After my boring story about the park (seriously, as if I’m unaware that my walk in a park isn’t boring to you), Tomoko and I stopped at a Seiyu grocery store. Though this cannot properly be conveyed through a blog, Japanese grocery stores are so fun! I should forewarn though, that I like grocery stores anywhere.



I bought many delicious and healthy snacks to enjoy later, including a bag of chips where the potato is giving a lecture.



Once we arrived back at the homestead, Tomoko prepared a most delicious batch of zaru (cold) soba – one of my absolutely favourite Japanese dishes.











For dessert, I had the good fortune to try some Japanese doughnuts.


Yes, they were like doughnut buns filled with chocolate cream. After a stint at Tim Hortons, I’m kind of doughnut-averse. The Japanese versions tasted quite similar but, of course, were Japanese-sized. So I ate double.

Late afternoon, I finally got up enough gumption to venture out into the big city. My destination of choice for this later hour was the hub of Saitama, Omiya. I really had no plan when I got there, so I gave interest to every small thing that crossed my path. First up was a singing girl in the train station.



I’m not sure, but she might have been from Okinawa (Japanese island) or something. Really, all I could focus on was the promotional people for this girl mingling through the assembled crowd and handing them flyers with the singer’s info – and obviously skipping me. These sort of things kind of infuriate me, not that I wanted or could read the paper if I got it. But I don’t think it’s irrational to be upset. It’s like those promo guys on the street handing out packets of tissue and when I walk past, retract their arm, and subsequently, the tissue. I’m going to even go so far as to call it inhumane, like I’m not a person worth receiving free, 1-, maybe 2-ply tissue. I’ve had discussions with Mayuko about this and while she finds amusing, I can’t figure out what their issue is. Are they worried that I might become crazy and start talking to them in English and asking them questions about the object they’ve just handed me, like I think they’ll actually understand? I’m almost tempted to grab one and then start waving my arms and yelling things in English at them…just like gobbly-gook stuff. Give them a good scare that would actually warrant their behaviour. Perhaps someone in the past already did. But one night, walking around, there was a tissue-handing guy on the street who retracted their arm and I went for the tissue anyway and give them a big ol’ smile. He smiled right back and shouted, “Arigatou goziaimasu! (Thank you!)” Bizarre…I just don’t get it. But, I digress. I would have likely put the singer paper into recycling, so whatever.

Back to Omiya – I was here to wander and so I walked through some dowdy department stores, deafening dance-music-filled department stores, and goth-clothing-filled department stores. All within the same block.


Dowdy




Screamingly-loud


Sauna-hot

One of my favourite shops is Loft, simply because their logo is a very cool yellow and black and they sell so many things on floor after floor on top of other floors. And, like any good foreign consumer in Japan, I’m terribly amused by the packaging.






This baby be getting’ a facial!



After buying an inordinate number of items, I made my way back home for some glorious dinner foods. Today was another first for me – homemade oden. Oden is, according to Wikipedia,

a Japanese winter dish consisting of several ingredients such as boiled eggs, daikon radish, konnyaku, and processed fish cakes stewed in a light, soy-flavoured dashi broth.

Mostly though, it is always just scared me with this permeating fishy smell when I’m in convenience stores.





Some parts were better than others – like potatoes (like!) and the fish cakes (not so much like!) But having warm, homemade food in my belly is always nice. We watched a Korean drama on TV with Japanese subtitles (tres confusing pour moi) and that was it for my day.

My day was deliciously capped off when I turned my TV on in my room to find the music station was playing music for once! Not only was it music, but it was a group of hosts from a host club, who decided to form a boy-band and then dance really hard along to the music on TV! Best day of my life! What a ploy – host club men form boy-band, women watch and fall in love, women visit host club to meet singers and spend lots of ¥¥¥¥¥. Genius. Meet ‘Club Prince feat. Ikechan’!








Oh my goodness amazing. It will be a good night now.

Tomorrow is another crazy-exciting day. I don’t do much again all day but then Tomoko and Erin take Ueno’s Ameyoko shotengai. I know you don’t understand that, but trust me – it’s worth tuning in for.