Today was the prefectural conference that was held in Nagano, the capital city of the prefecture, and the site of the ’98 winter Olympics. The conference was quite entertaining and did not feel long at all. The sessions were a bit repetitive to what I had already learned but well it is always good to get a refresher on information. The highlight of the whole thing was doing the chicken dance. Why was this the highlight, you may ask? Well, while several people were embarrassed to be doing it in front of other people, I did my best chicken dancing since probably 4th grade because all I kept thinking about was that I was getting paid right then and there to do the chicken dance, lol. Yah, so far my job is pretty damn sweet.
Next we went to Zenkouji Temple, located in Nagano. It was being setup for Obon, which is a festival to acknowledge the return of the ancestors to their hometowns. We had several high schoolers from the local high school show us around and explain the various parts of the temple. It was really neat having them there to talk to and get our information from and it gave them practice with English. Also, there is a neat little underground passage to the temple that is pitch black and there is something you must do in order to come out more pure than when you went in. I will not tell you what it is so as not to spoil it if you ever go there. :P
I didn’t do what I had to in order to be more enlightened and pure but I must say just being in a pitch black and nearly soundless environment was really relaxing. I would have liked to spend more time in that condition, just thinking and making sense of things in this world. Maybe I will go back and see if I cannot camp out in that tiny little tunnel, hehe.
Later, we went to the Smile Hotel, which had a restaurant that was all you can eat and drink. Needless to say I ate a lot and drank a lot too. Yet, I did not have as much to drink as some people and this made for a very entertaining evening. Many pictures were taken along with the occasional kanpai (“cheers”). I made myself this really neon green drink that caught like wildfire with several people. Apparently people like the drinks that I mix together. Maybe I should consider bartending and focusing some time in making good drinks. Oh, wait, what am I saying…that is NOT me!
So many of us were not content with just ending the evening as so we all went for some crazy karaoke action. My first time doing karaoke in Japan and let me tell you it is fan-tas-tic~~! We had like 15 people in one room singing out hearts out to some classics. I definitely have to do this more often.
Finally after an evening of eating, drinking, singing, dancing, and carrying on (all for about $50), I crashed at another JET’s place in the city. She lives in the housing that was for the Olympic athletes, which was kind of cool for me because I slept where potentially some gold medalist had been. That is kind of exciting to think about.
Speaking of the Olympics, it kind of sucks watching them in Japan because I don’t understand half of what is being said about the athletes and they focus on the Japanese athletes all the time, how selfish of them, lol.
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