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estebanana -> RE: In progress: Last guitars before leaving to Japan. (Apr. 30 2013 0:44:25)
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Bill,
We've been here for a week, my tools will arrive in three weeks. Our vacation starts today. it is "Golden Week" in Japan, a few holidays crammed together to make a week of national holiday. I've mellowed considerably in the last few days as I'm not under the gun to produce. Getting acclimated to the town of 25,000 on the edge of the East China Sea; I'm THE only non Japanese person here. Kind of special, but also kind of odd.
As for the food, Oh my goodness, I'm in heaven. We went to an izakaya two days ago and the ladies who run it looked at me and asked Yuko if I could eat non western food, she said oh yes he can eat. The meal was a seven course blitz of local seafood beginning with boiled snapper ovaries. The first course was fine, I think Scandinavians eat fish ovaries...the sashimi here is fresh, I mean fresh. We had several kinds and it was interleaved with savory egg custards and vegetables.
There is a breakwater which protects the two river mouths and the Old Port and New Port sections of town. There is a large fishing fleet and the break waters that protect the harbor extend half a mile out to sea. They provide a great place to fish where you can catch squid, aji ( horse mackerel) and lots of tasty ugly fish like cabezon, not sure what they call it in Japanese. The fish markets here put anything you've ever seen to shame.
We went to the A to Z store, a big corporate store like Costco that sells everything from cars to cabbage under one roof. The sad phenomena around the world today of the mom & pop stores getting pushed out by these mega stores is happening here. Still it is rural here, with much more natural land than in other parts of Japan. The countryside has both open grassy meadows and low mountains full of pines. There is a lumber yard back on the highway coming into town that has some Cypress like lumber which I will investigate soon. There is also a preserved Samurai home open to the public about 20 clicks back and a hand maker of feudal style battle helmets, he sells mostly to the film industry.
In an hour or so we leave for an over nighter to a ryokan, country inn, with hot springs and more food. Once we get the wifi working when we return I'll take some pictures about town. It's difficult to slow down and de stressify, but I'm resolved to do it....ahh hot water...
The times I flew to Spain, to Madrid, to catch the AVE south I always said "Ok this time the taxi driver will not get the better of me fare wise" They won every time. Well Japan has its "highway" men too, but not taxis, Solaseed Airways nicked me for a 100 bucks to carry on my guitar after it was confirmed by a phone call it was under the maximum size. When we boarded the flight was half full, and the over head bins almost twice as long and deep as my case. I was less than amused, and the Japanese flight attendants were so smiley and polite as they strapped my guitar in next to me, giving it the window seat no less, saying it was safer and better for all. It took me 15 minutes to accept that I can't do anything about it. I remember a similar bus trip in China 20 years ago. I guess I'm not in Kansas anymore.
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