Week 51

A really fun week last week. I went on a trip, I had a party, and I played some games with friends.

Last Tuesday I woke up at a reasonable hour, moseyed over to the station area, and had some breakfast before meeting a friend and hopping on an express train  to Nagoya. Two hours later we disembarked and walked across the street from Nagoya station to the Midland Square building (the tallest in Nagoya) and took a walk around the observation deck. Having had our fill of heights we took the subway over to Nagoya's big shopping district (Sakae). We were a little baffled by the station sign at out destination as it read; "Exits 1-12 this way, Exits 2~11 that way." Evidently their sign maker didn't get that a dash does not act as a slash ("/"). After puzzling our way out of the labyrinth of tunnels we bee-lined it to a really tasty Mexican restaurant (that we'd both been to before.) After a filling lunch we shopped around for the rest of the afternoon. In the evening we had a few "street beers" while waiting for the venue to open. When it did open we met some more friends inside and waited for our favorite band to take the stage. I guess I really have become a bit of a groupie if I'm hopping on trains and heading 100miles just to see "The 50 Kaitenz" play. The band played a pretty good set and turned the stage over to another band (Kinoko Hotel) that were pretty good too. After the show our little group of friends all went out for the customary post-show meal. Once thoroughly fed and watered some of the friends we'd met through the band drove us out to their house on the outskirts of town and let us crash on their floor.

Wednesday morning everyone got a lazy start and eventually we all piled back in the car to take one of our friends back to the station so she could get to work that afternoon. The rest of us (who all had the day off) continued on to see Nagoya castle. The castle was more-or-less as I saw it the last time but it was nice to go through with other people this time. While we were climbing the main tower there was a decently sized earthquake a few prefectures over that shook things up. There were some none-too-silent thanks rased that we were in a reconstructed castle (not the original structure.) All castled out we returned to the Mexican place again for lunch (no, it's not that mind-blowingly good, but it's hard to get a good taco in Osaka [burritos are another story however]) Sated, we headed for the station and trained back to Osaka.

Saturday after work I stuck around for the school Christmas party. It was a fairly standard party: eat, drink, talk, play bingo and exchange "secret Santa" gifts, catch the last train home.

Last (Sunday) night some of the guys came over and we played board games all evening. It's been a while since we've gotten together and I think everyone had a good time.