that I realised the front wheel of my bike had left solid ground and was plummeting headfast down a 3 foot drop into water. Oops. Not the way to start a tuesday morning. The reason that I left the pavement and fell into a stream (not my shoddy cycling of course) is that I hadn't slept well, was too slow to make breakfast, and so had to buy something at Lawson's which led me to the Board of Education where I saw the cleaner and waved hello with my left hand and steered off the pavement with my right. That's co-ordination for you. In a shock of movement, I scrabbled off my bike grabbing bag and gloves from the granny basket and landed on the pavement. Still, as I said to my supervisor "the day can't get any worse". And it didn't. I had a great day at elementary. The tumble must have shocked me as I agreed to play with the kids at lunch time (I forgot how much fun it is playing six-year old's games! Up that climbing frame, ho!) and then played funny French sports in clubs after school. And I enjoyed it. Therefore I must have some psychotic disorder and am checking into hospital this weekend.
The week had been a good one too- a few nights out including a trip to karaoke with Christine and LeeJay and then at the weekend, Doll Festival (O-Hina Matsuri- no, it's nothing to do with the Irish).
Dolls are big in Japan. Not in the size way- they're traditional and all girls are given dolls when they are born. A firstborn will get a big set based on the heirarchy of the old Japanese Imperial system- emporer, his wife, kids, servants, courtiers, stalkers, benefit fraudsters, drunken chauffeurs (oh hang on, that's the UK royal family), etc. And my town found a way to milk it! Yay for enginuity! From the 3rd to the 7th of March every year, Katsuyama's shops and houses display dolls in their windows amongst various other places. Many are old (we saw some from the 1930s), many are home made (little cloth ones hanging from trees like rapists in redneck land) and lots are hideous (the bigger they were the more they'd been molded out of plastic using the ugly stick). So with such a tempting proposition facing them, our friends Busty, Cho-Lyn and Claire came to visit Katsuyama.
They arrived on Saturday afternoon to be greeted by traditional spring weather (rain) and we looked around the town. It was great for me and Christine as often the shops appear to be closed, or simply their doors are shut, so we never knew what was going on. But at doll festival we were able to have a good old poke about. Some were great (the light shop where all the shades are handcrafted from metal and glass) and some were crap (the agricultural supplies shop- home to the world's biggest witch's brooms). Well, you can only look at dolls for so long, so we went and had tea in a shop that I thought was a house. And then Nao-chan met us and took us to Kamba waterfall (Kanba no taki). This was one of the most beautiful places I have seen in a long time. Still very wintery, it had tonnes of character, not to mention around 200 monkeys which were feeding, fighting and mating (as monkeys tend to do when people go to watch them). And to increase the "isn't it purdy" factor, it snowed thick and fast. Beautiful!
Nao chan then took us to Katsuyama's castle which was shut. It also wasn't exactly a castle, more a sturdy gift shop with old wooden fencing attached. I had been expecting archaelogical excitement and history, so Nao chan laughed when I commented "Is this it? It's not very old." Apparently the fences are 300 years old. My Dad needs to come and investigate. His fences rarely last 10 years. And in our now underwhelmed state we headed to a party at Nao chan's. 6 of us westerners, 5 Japanese and lots of food and drink in a very nice house is now my idea of a good time.
Sunday was a lazy day, LeeJay had tea at mine and then Monday we did revolving sushi and Karaoke. I think the whole cycling into the river may have been punishment for Karaoke on Monday night. I made my friends listen to me singing "no limits" by 2 Unlimited. Hell, I'm surprised they didn't push me in the river themselves...
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