It's hard for me to describe life here. At the risk of being too verbose, I will try to put into words the past 4 weeks...
When I came here, I was under the impression that Taisho was an all-business type of dude until the first time he snuck me a beer during lunch while Ryo was discussing with me my duties for the day. After Ryo left for his part time job Taisho gave me the cheekiest look I'd ever seen, and told me to hop into his car. (the fact that there is a beer tap at this place is badass in and of itself...)
That day we drove to his Udon Restaurant that he owns and operates in Hamada-shi (population 40,000), and after buying an apron and chef coat he told me that I'd be waiting tables for the day. We went through all the basic polite expressions that you use when working in a restaurant, and when opening time came I greeted customers and took their orders with a cheery "Irasshaimase!!!"
A few days later, just when Ryo was finishing another insightful yet boring description of the proper way to harvest a green bean, Taisho gave me the same goofy smile and I knew that something was brewing. "Nigeou!!" he said after Ryo departed. Nigeru is the word for "to escape!", but the way he said it roughly translates to "Lets get the fuck outta here!!" Taisho took me on a 2 hour trip through country backroads and tucked away mountain paths nestled in the rustic Japanese countryside. Afterwards I climbed trees like an adroit lemur and shook all the bayberries from them while Taisho stood beneath me holding a large vinyl tarp and wore that same goofy grin. We then fermented the berries and made a very delicious alcoholic drink that also takes on the most beautiful hue of the color red that I've ever seen.
We visited his friend, the badass honeymaker. I call him badass because when we went to his hive, this dude did not wear a bee suit. Apparently, 70 year old Japanese men that live in the country care less about being stung by a nest of around 300,000 bees. His lot was directly on the slope of a mountainside. I saw onions and garlic hanging on some bamboo poles near the structure where he keeps his machines. I look out in the distance and see nothing but groves of neatly planted cedar trees and plum orchards.
Taisho is now starting to be too good to be true. We meet a cute elderly woman (Taisho's age) at a weekend festival at the local beach, and she tells me I should come to her shop in Masuda sometime to play music. I say OK, thinking that I'll never see her again, but Taisho, after tricking his wife into thinking that we were going on a business trip to market the crazy-strong rice liquor that they make here, tells me that we are leaving that same night!!
More on this night and much more. I haven't updated in quite a while so left out a bunch of stuff. Tonight I played Futsal at the nearby Futsal park (a strange attraction in a town who's annual census reports a population of 1,589 people), and afterwards went to a newly acquainted friend's house for drinks. Am drunk now and cannot write much more without sounding incomprehensible. I have got a lot of catching up to do!
Good Night!
When I came here, I was under the impression that Taisho was an all-business type of dude until the first time he snuck me a beer during lunch while Ryo was discussing with me my duties for the day. After Ryo left for his part time job Taisho gave me the cheekiest look I'd ever seen, and told me to hop into his car. (the fact that there is a beer tap at this place is badass in and of itself...)
That day we drove to his Udon Restaurant that he owns and operates in Hamada-shi (population 40,000), and after buying an apron and chef coat he told me that I'd be waiting tables for the day. We went through all the basic polite expressions that you use when working in a restaurant, and when opening time came I greeted customers and took their orders with a cheery "Irasshaimase!!!"
A few days later, just when Ryo was finishing another insightful yet boring description of the proper way to harvest a green bean, Taisho gave me the same goofy smile and I knew that something was brewing. "Nigeou!!" he said after Ryo departed. Nigeru is the word for "to escape!", but the way he said it roughly translates to "Lets get the fuck outta here!!" Taisho took me on a 2 hour trip through country backroads and tucked away mountain paths nestled in the rustic Japanese countryside. Afterwards I climbed trees like an adroit lemur and shook all the bayberries from them while Taisho stood beneath me holding a large vinyl tarp and wore that same goofy grin. We then fermented the berries and made a very delicious alcoholic drink that also takes on the most beautiful hue of the color red that I've ever seen.
We visited his friend, the badass honeymaker. I call him badass because when we went to his hive, this dude did not wear a bee suit. Apparently, 70 year old Japanese men that live in the country care less about being stung by a nest of around 300,000 bees. His lot was directly on the slope of a mountainside. I saw onions and garlic hanging on some bamboo poles near the structure where he keeps his machines. I look out in the distance and see nothing but groves of neatly planted cedar trees and plum orchards.
Taisho is now starting to be too good to be true. We meet a cute elderly woman (Taisho's age) at a weekend festival at the local beach, and she tells me I should come to her shop in Masuda sometime to play music. I say OK, thinking that I'll never see her again, but Taisho, after tricking his wife into thinking that we were going on a business trip to market the crazy-strong rice liquor that they make here, tells me that we are leaving that same night!!
More on this night and much more. I haven't updated in quite a while so left out a bunch of stuff. Tonight I played Futsal at the nearby Futsal park (a strange attraction in a town who's annual census reports a population of 1,589 people), and afterwards went to a newly acquainted friend's house for drinks. Am drunk now and cannot write much more without sounding incomprehensible. I have got a lot of catching up to do!
Good Night!
posted by Alex Cruz at
11:22 AM
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