This weekend

This weekend was busy. Friday had a bonnenkai (end of the year party) with some town office people and my eikaiwa (english conversation) classes. We went to a great Italian restaurant and then to UtsuboMoon ("sea snake" Moon), this awesome little bar Shiro's friend owns. They had live music going on. One of the owners plays the bongos--total hippy--my kinda people.

Saturday morning I forced my hungover self onto an early train and Lauren and I descended on Rinku Town, a Western style shopping mall with American/Canadian stores like Northface and Gap. First stop, Starbucks. Then we headed to Kansai Airport Clinic to get the all important Malaria pills for India. There, a pamphlet informed us "We love kidney". 　　　
Next it was off to Osaka (closest big city) where we found a bookshop with some English books, and chilled at another Starbucks while we waited for friends Corri, David, and Dan.

Although we were starving after a long day of shopping we opted for a film festival of short independent films before dinner. The showing was in the tiniest little space alive, atop an equally small bar. Dan bought everyone shots of 40-year-old rum and we warmed up with some Jack and Cokes while we waited for the film to start.
Some of the films were really well done, and some, well.....let's just say if the people in some of the films can pass as actors then I belong on Broadway. And one film featured 5 minutes of people running in circles and the actors even had a hard time making that believable. But there were a couple really good ones. It ended around 9p.m. and we were all starving so we found a bar where we ate dinner. MMMM tomato pizza. By this time the last train had already departed and it appeared an allnighter in Osaka was inevitable.

So we found our way to this really chill absinthe* bar where we enjoyed a hookah and drinks. I was not in the mood to dance with the green fairy after a full day of shopping and little sleep the night before, but it was really fun to watch them prepare it with fire and everything, as last time I played with absinthe I just did straight shots of it--no hot water (can we say burning). Plan to return again soon--really great atmosphere.

Exhausted, we cabbed it to SPA WORLD where Corri and I introduced Lauren, David and Dan to the most wonderful place on Earth. It was 3:30 a.m. when we got there though so all the sleeping places were taken, so after some time in the hotbaths we found couches on one of the floors. Awkward night sleep. Absinthe filled David enjoyed the pajamas so much (that you wear while you are there) that he "borrowed" them and wore them home under his clothes.
The next day we ran into Pooh and Tigger chillin' in a coffee shop. After a bit more shopping (found i had a $60 credit on my electronics store point card so got a free card for my camera). I rode all the way home from Osaka (a $40 trip) for all of $5. Yeah cheating the trains. I cooked some Japanese nabe (a hot pot of tofu, noodles, and veggies cooked in seaweed broth) and fell asleep by 7p.m. !　　That was my weekend.

*Absinthe: alcohol that tastes like sambuca (drink that tastes like black licorice) made with wormwood, can make you hallucinate or give you just a very happy buzz. The wormwood version is banned in many countries including the U.S.