Sunday, Jan. 25th, was Gaylyn's last full day in Japan and it was (she has since written me an email telling me this) her favorite day here.
Yamashita wanted to take us out for a day of sightseeing and exploring, so of course, I wasn't gonna stop him. I truly thought that hanging out with him would be good for Gaylyn. It's not everyday that one gets to hang out with someone from a different country in that person's country. The two or three times I have hung out with Yamashita have been some of my best days here and I come away from them feeling as though I actually am doing something many will never get to. So the plan was for him to pick us up at 10:30am and then drive south towards Minobu.
So at 10:30am Gaylyn, Amy and I met him up the road and piled into his car. It was only the four us because, and this is quite funny to me, his wife was at home working on our Gaylyn-safe-dinner. Earlier in the week, at school, he had asked me if Gaylyn was liking Japanese food. I was honest with him, telling him that no, we were having difficulty finding stuff for her to eat. So he drilled me a little about it in attempt to find something that his wife could make for her. I told him not to go to all the effort, but telling Yamashita not to go the extra mile is like telling an eight year old boy not to splash in rain puddles, they just can't help themselves. So I told him all I knew and now, as we were out exploring, his wife was slaving away in the kitchen.
So we drove down to Minobu, same place I go every Monday, and looked for a place to eat. Yamashita was very concerned about filling Gaylyn's stomach even though she and I told him repeatedly to just pick any place and she would find something to eat. Unfortunately, Bakersfield, California is not the place to "discover" Japanese food. And what I mean by this is that all the Japanese restaurants there are of the (not sure about the spelling here) Benny-Hona type, meaning that some very skilled chef comes out and extravagantly cooks the food right in front of you on a hot table type thing. Gaylyn is very fond of that food and told me that she normally goes once a week. But as some of us know, that is not really all there is to Japanese food. In fact, those places are quite rare. So Gaylyn's impression of what the food would be like over here was a bit off the mark. Anyway, Yamashita found a little Italian restaurant and we went in. The lunch went well after he read the menu to us and we left there satisfied and ready to explore.
So we drove up the hill to the same place, almost, that I go every Monday. Up by my school is a very large, and quite famous, Buddhist temple called Kuonji. I'm not much into all the temple and shrine stuff but it really is quite impressive. It is big and the grounds are beautiful. Kuonji has a pretty famous set of stairs that leads up to it; famous due to the fact that it is a long set of stairs. I've only been to the actual temple one other time, my first day at Minobusan, and the school is right up there next to the temple, thus, I have never climbed the steps. So I was game to climb them on this day but unfortunately we took an in-car vote and I was beat three to one. So up the hill we drove and pulled into the parking lot. Then it was just a short walk up the rest of the hill and we were there.
So we walked around a bit and eventually left. Now I realize that I might be leaving out the description of what we did there, but just know that getting to temples and shrines is actually more fun than being at temples and shrines. Once there you walk around, look at the sights, and think to yourself, "Right....where to next?"
So after the temple we drove back north a bit to a gold museum. Apparently they used to, or still do (?), dig gold out of the hills around here. I had heard before I came here that Yamanashi was famous for grapes, wine, and gems.
So we drove on up to the place with Yamashita telling us that we?’d soon be panning for gold. I had no idea what he meant by this panning idea. Were we going to be in a mountain stream? Were we going to be able to keep it if we found it? Or was this one of those tourist slavery places I'd never heard about? I wasn't worried about it but I was quite curious.
So we went in the place and instantly I heard that mood/ambiance music that you might have heard if you've been to the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Outer Bay exhibit. It's the kind of music that's supposed to relax you, I think. The kind that you could probably play with no formal training at all. Just go buy a nice keyboard, turn the echo feature on, and start hitting notes slowly and methodically. It's utter crap.
But anyway, besides the music the place was interesting in that sort of I-can't-read-a-thing-so-I'll-just-look-at-the-exhibits-and-pictures way. Yamashita did explain a few things to us and it was all a bit interesting but I just wanted to get to the panning part. Truly the exhibits that showed how the gold miners lived reminded me of some of the way the Old West settlers must have lived. I've seen pictures and movies so I'm and expert, you know.
Eventually we got back downstairs and to the panning room. That's right, a panning room. No outdoors, no mountain stream, no freezing our hands in the water (it was heated), and no splashing Amy. There were long troughs of water, with lots of sand at the bottom, and a few flakes of gold. Very few.
So we each grabbed a plastic dinner plate, and started panning in the way the lady working the room taught us. She was quite nice, spoke good English, and was extremely gorgeous, so I played close attention. Scoop up the sand, swirl it around to get some of the water out, swirl more to get some of the sand out, get more water without spilling the sand, repeat, repeat, repeat until nearly all of the sand is gone and.......nothing. Get more sand, repeat steps two through infinity above, and.......nothing.
We were told we had a half hour to gather as much gold as we could. So I kept trying and finally got some. One flake here, one flake there, and after half an hour I had six whole flakes. Not too shabby, right? Well, not until the hottie came over to tell us time was up and then took our vials to count our flakes. Me, 6. Amy, 12. Gaylyn, 18.
I think it's safe to say that the only rushing I would have done in California in 1849 would have been to rush off and get drinks and food for my fellow panners.
So the lady gave me some consolatory rocks and we got out of there with the two girls I was with making fun of me.
After the experience which did not make me rich, we drove to a small shopping place so that Gaylyn could buy a few things for her people. The store sold mainly Japanese arts and crafts made from paper. It was impressive but like most guys, I did a once-through, and was ready to go within about five minutes. But, of course, this did not happen and I talked to Yamashita as we waited for the girls. So, soon Gaylyn got a few things to take back with her and we were off to Yamashita's house.
We arrived at his place around early evening time, maybe 5 or so, and as we got out of the car I told Yamashita that in America, when the man comes home from a long day out, he walks in the house and yells out to his lady, "Honey, I'm home!" So Yamashita in his great and fun way walked in and did just that to which Amy and Gaylyn told me to stop being a freak, and in Japanese Yamashita explained to his wife what he had just said. It was quite funny, if I do say so myself.
As always, Yamashita and the Mrs. welcomed us into their home with open arms and we were soon seated under the kotatsu with a large spread of food before us. His wife was quite nervous about our liking the food, but in reality she did great job and it didn't go unappreciated. Gaylayn actually liked much of it and Amy and I liked nearly all of it. I say "nearly all of it" because there was one thing that didn't suit me.
Upon arrival in Japan I and the many other newcomers were told that our students would ask us repeatedly about how we liked something called natto. Natto is a light brown, sticky substance made from fermented soy beans. Sounds ok, right? Well, trust me, it's not. Up until this day I would tell my students that "no, I've never tried natto." Yes, I was curious and was willing to try it, but I'd just never had the chance or taken the initiative to do so. So this evening Yamashita-sensei made a big deal out of me trying the stuff. He said, "Today is your natto anniversary."
So when we were seated at the table he pointed to a mass of rice and seaweed and pointed to the stuff near the top telling me, "Marcus-sensei, this is natto. Will you try?" "Ok," I said, "let's do it." At this point I should tell you that for the most part, the Japanese love the stuff and the foreigners don't. There are a few exceptions, of course, but I can unequivocally say that I am not one of them. The stuff was nasty and I had to take multiple gulps of beer to get the stuff down. And even then, it was hard. Luckily no one was really watching me too closely and didn't figure out that I was truly having a hard time. I just smiled and smiled, with beer and natto in my mouth, and tried not to make a mess on the table; the rest of the food looked good. So after that experience, I was in need of another beer and was soon packing that crap down into my stomach with food of the more tasty variety. But with all this said, I do think that everyone should try natto. It's fun.
So the rest of the evening was fun with much talking, much eating, and much drinking. Yamashita brought out a large bottle of expensive sake that apparently you can't get in our prefecture and we eventually polished the thing off. By this point we were all a little loaded and it was Sunday night, with a work day on Monday. But we kept going when he brought another bottle of sake, explaining that this one was good, but not up to the standards of the other one.
After a while he loaded that day's pictures on to his computer and printed them out for Gaylyn to take, he and his wife tore a map off the wall for Gaylyn to take home after we had both innocently commented on it, and the three of us helped him with a presentation he was going to be giving to his students' parents. You know, the normal stuff that happens when you've drank a few. I just hope our English for his presentation was ok.
Around 10pm it was time to go and he called a taxi for us. But first I asked him if he could somehow, while on the phone, arrange for a 5am taxi near my place for Gaylyn in the morning. This had been somewhat of a worry for me and Yamashita handled it all. I didn't exactly want to walk Gaylyn and her bags to the train station at 5am and then have to walk back, waste and hour or two, and then leave for work in Minobu. But the man handled it all beautifully and the taxi was right where it was supposed to be at that early hour.
So all is all it was a great day. Yamashita and I are already working on plans for both Amy's parents and my parents. He really is the nicest man on the planet, I think.