And yet another weekend Maruyama-san invited me to go to some random place outside of Ibaraki-ken (I forget the name) to see this really old sakura tree that had just come into full-bloom. So we went and it was a droopy kind of sakura, which looked awesome. We then walked around the mountain nearby and through the cemetery, which had really nice family plots. It reminded me of the panteón in Acámbaro and some Coptic cemeteries in Cairo. The place was very serene and the nature was clean. We hiked the numerous steps to the top of the shrine and after praying we ate some dango to regain our energy.
En route back to Tsukuba we stopped at a Mos Burger for some lunch. I had a spicy cheeseburger, fries, and a ginger ale, all normal-portioned i.e. small by American-standards. It was really delicious, and the interior design of the place was very nice, especially for a fast-food chain.
We then went to downtown Tsukuba to walk around and he showed me this hidden path that runs throughout the city and is designed for cyclists and runners and connects the university and several city parks. We walked to some of the parks and talked about Japanese politics, economy, and people. It was a very relaxed afternoon.
In the evening I invited Maruyama-san to Tokyo to accompany me to a concert. The concert was of Sawaka’s band Este a Oeste. Sawaka is an MIT alum that I met at the MIT dinner and since graduating from MIT she has been in Tokyo pursuing a singing career. She was born in Japan but was raised in Mexico, so she is trilingual, and the only Spanish-speaker in her band. Most of her songs were in Spanish, though she did sing a couple in English and Japanese. In the audience there was a group of people from a salsa club, so they were in the front dancing away to Sawaka’s singing. Dancing is not a popular activity for the average Japanese, and although some of the dancers were off-beat, they were trying, which is really the most important part of dancing. Clearly being the only foreign-looking (there were Chinese and Koreans present who are friends of Sawaka) and incapable of moving my feet to the beat, some random guy pushed me to the front of the room, among the dancers. I enjoyed myself, although I am not sure what Maruyama-san thought of it. First of all, this is the first time hearing this type of music, and since he doesn’t dance it is difficult for me to gauge whether his sitting next to the wall for the entire show meant he was bored or was absorbing the music in a non-dancing way. He claimed to have enjoyed it, but since the Japanese tend to be vague, indirect, and not show emotions, I can’t really be sure. After the show we congratulated Sawaka and the band on their performance, and although they were going out for dinner, we had to decline and catch the TX back home.
The following day I had a date with the Sakurai-family. Sakurai-san picked me up and after a quick stop to a bookstore we went to a park. Nene (10 or 11 yr old daughter), Yutaro (7 or 8 yr old son), and Hiro (5 yr old son) are really kawaii and were asking me how to say different words in English, most of which I knew. At the park there was a pond full of huge koi fish, which we fed. We also fed many pigeons that would eat directly out of our hands. The da was very warm and there were many families out enjoying the day. We kicked around a soccer ball, ran around the playground, played outdoor badminton, and threw around a baseball. We ran into another coworker and her daughter, and we all ate some takoyaki. Sakurai-san’s father joined us a little later and we went out for some sushi.
After lunch we drove to a nearby lake (the second largest in Japan, whose name of course I have forgotten). At this particular city there was a marathon or half-marathon happening and many people were running or cheering. We booked a tour on a boat around the lake, where Sakurai-san’s father used to swim as a teenager. During the cruise we fed the gulls, also directly from our hands.
When we returned to Tsukuba, Sakurai-san and the kids had to go back home as it was nearing the kids’ bedtime, so Sakurai-san’s father and I went to an izakaya for dinner. The food was of course all very good and I had some umeshu, which may be my favorite Japanese drink, although it is hard to decide. We talked to two of the waitresses who were university students (studying agriculture and soils) and friends of the Sakurai family who would sometimes go to their house to cut bamboo shoots. Once we had had our fill we left and Sakurai-san’s father called a cab to drive his car back, because you can do that in Japan.
Ima, sore dake desu. Zyaa, mata…
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