Shopping and Ultimate Frisbee

Made our first official group trip down to Beppu this weekend...a number of people had already had some forays into the nearby town, or had stayed there a few days before the Summer Gateway Program kicked off, but this was our first venture out en masse.

I'm still waking up early for here...which is both good - it means I shouldn't have issue making it to class - and odd...I'm so not the morning type (ask anyone I've lived with <__< ). Killed some time on the computer, chatting with people back home, to whom it was still Friday evening (whee timezones~), and sat about reading and such until around 11:30. Got my messenger bag with my reusable shopping bag, plenty of empty space, checked my spending cash for the buyings of stuffs, and headed out to the lobby of the AP House. 2 guys from the program are playing a round of pool, neither of which are very good at it (their own admission), so I get to sit back with a few other people waiting and we all get a few laughs. Noontime proper rolls around, and we head out front to the gathering crowd of people and our assigned APU buddies. Nothing against the guy I got paired with...he's a nice enough Korean exchange student, but he's a bit too much like me as far as quiet and kinda socially awkward, and his English isn't too strong...hopefully we'll be able to talk more as I get better at Japanese, and we find some common ground we share. I'm finding out how difficult I can be to get to know...but I get it honest! *points at Dad*

Anyways, we're almost a mob at this point, pushing about 50-60 people strong, and walk over to the bus stop. The first bus on our route stops...the doors open...someone says something to the driver (perhaps how many people we have in total), and the doors shut and drive off, leaving all of us out of earshot decidedly perplexed. It's not all bad though, as a really cool, possibly custom-built roadster comes up the mountain road past us, followed a few minutes later by a long line of bikers (one guy pondered what "Hell's Angel's" would be in Japanese), and finally another bus rolls along. Everybody boards, promptly filling the entirety of the bus, forcing a handful of people to stand the ride down the mountain. This entire time, my camera's remained in my pocket as opposed to in my hand actually taking pictures like I should be, so I miss the chance to show off the mountain scenery...this time. It reminded me a fair bit of Italy, with the curves, switchbacks, and general barreling-downhill-at-a-suicidal-pace feeling from sightseeing there.

Perhaps 10 minutes later we roll into Beppu proper, and disembark at the Kitashinden stop. There's a brief moment to collect everyone, then the march south down the street begins. There's a short stop at...I forget the name of the place right now, but it's your basic kinda general store... housewares, school supplies, snacks, drinks, sundries and such. Right outside, sharing a parking lot, is a full-on Sega store. Damned skippy I'm going back there on another trip on my own time. A little bit further down the road leads us past a McDonald's, where I can see by the menu they do in fact have Teriyaki burgers...I'm still not sure if I trust eating at any McDonald's though...

The march continues, taking us past a ramen shop, and a friggin' Korean barbecue joint that smells fan-@$*%ing-tastic, but alas, we are not to stop there today. However, right after it, Aya, one of the APU students who's pretty much guiding the whole outing, points out the "Heartland" store...liquor, beer, wine, and such. I think someone joked about going in...so we did. It's another place I'll have to go back to on my own time, to peruse the various wines at leisure. I'm walking by one of the coolers, and someone's buddy asks me if I drink beer. I'm actually able to respond, in Japanese, that I'm not terribly fond of beer, however whiskey is another story altogether. She gets a bit of a laugh about this, and I move on.

Whiskey happens to be just an aisle or so down, and I gotta say they had a better scotch and general whiskey section than I've seen some places back in the states. Also available for purchase were rather inexpensive fifths of rum, vodka, and gin - Matt picked himself up a bottle of Beefeater for roughly $12, which he was quite pleased at. However, also sharing the aisle was something of great interest and awe to all that saw it: a 4-liter bottle of Suntory Whiskey. Sweet. Raptor. Jesus. Part of me was indeed tempted to buy one, but knowing how fast I'd drink it...it'd last me a year, easily. Several photo-ops made, and the rest of the aisles perused, we all check out and move on.

We walk further down the  road, passing the Tokiwa department store on the other side of the street, and come up on a large building close to the beach: one of the local onsen (hot springs). Its name escapes me at the moment, and I didn't bother to take a photo, but we move on past it and walk down the sidewalk closer to the beach itself. Partway down there's something of a park-like feature, with several families picnicking and such, with some peculiar metal sculptures that seem to be fountains you can play in, as well as this statue. As we're still walking, I didn't get to stop and look closer, but it was still neat. Another quarter mile-ish and we're out of beach to walk on, running into a hotel that forces us to walk around to the street again.

Next down was what you could call a mall of sorts, though upon entry several of the storefronts were somewhat less than defined. The first thing to meet my eyes after walking into Youme  (the aforementioned mall-like apparatus) was a Japanese KFC There's a huge inflatable playground area between the escalators that a horde of little kids are having a ball in, and a yakitori stand grilling some very tasty-smelling stuff ahead. Aya tells us where the basic stuff is, such as the Hyaku-En shop on the 3rd floor (dollar store, basically), but also, towards the back of the floor we're currently on lies food establishments, such as a kaitenzushi.

For the unfamiliar, a kaitenzushi is pretty much your basic sushi restaurant, but with an....innovative food delivery mechanism. This place is delightfully inexpensive, with each 2-piece plate of sushi being just 100¥ apiece (it's still good, and quite fresh-made), brought to you on a conveyor belt. The sushi you see you want comes by, you just pick it up off the belt that runs by every table, and stack your plates. The faucet attached to the table is for matcha (green tea), which is provided gratis at many a restaurant. There's a little bowl of the powder, cups stacked up above the conveyor, and hot water from the faucet. Man...this place had some friggin' awesome unagi (barbecued eel), and strong-ass wasabi from packets on one of the plates on the belt. Aya told us you could also order stuff you didn't see on the belt, but on the picture menu just above out of frame, and we ate ourselves happily full. Not bad for 525¥.

Upstairs we go to peruse the shops, and see if I can't find a proper-sized pillow to replace the bean-bag (I s^#t ye not) one that I was given with my futon, sheets, and quilt. I have no luck in this endeavor, but I do come across a cool hobby shop with a crapton of models, figures, and other miscellany I'll be revisiting later. Then...the whole group coalesces again in the proper arcade dominating a corner of the top floor. I get some time in on the Initial D Stage 5 machine, knowing full well I'm probably never gonna see one of those beauties at home, watch some people playing Guitar Freaks, Taiko no Tatsujin (Taiko Drum Master), and other such predecessor games to Guitar Hero and Rock Band, before Aya pulls a knot of us over to one corner.

Here are a number of photo booths...but not your cheap little tinier-than-a-phone-booth-3-picture type ones, but bigass glamor shot deals. Huge banks of lights to give you the photoshoot feel with light coming from everywhere. We cram easily twice the capacity of one of those things of people, and take some shots. However, I and a few others who were too tall and had to be put to the back row weren't in every shot, simply having way too many people involved. Photos taken, Aya and one of the other buddies (whose name escapes me) go to the front of the machine where they let you...doctor the photos with hearts, glitter, or your own writing. It's cheese-tastic and fun.

Here's a bit of a closeup of 2 of the photos...I can be seen in the right one, the left one Sam ducked in front for the 'silly face' shot.

Yep...we're having way too much fun with this.

Perhaps an hour spent in the arcade, we muster the troops and head to the bus stop to go back. My knee's starting to complain for all the walking I've done, so I'm quite glad to get on the bus, get back to my dorm, and sit down for awhile before I pass out.

That was Saturday.

Today was lighter on the goings-on...I woke up moderately early, and lounge about on the interweb and gaming/reading a bit. A bit after noontime I pack up my book and a few other things, and head out to sit outside in the pleasant weather. I walk down the main campus thoroughfare from the AP Houses to get to the amphitheater. It's clearer today than when we did the orientation walkabout, so you can see a good bit of Beppu, and some of Oita city across the bay. I sit there awhile working on a kakuro puzzle and listening to my happy little mp3 player with the one earbud that's got a loose wire somewhere and sound kicks out occasionally, when I hear something from the field below. In addition to the group of people playing soccer off on the left (from this vantage point) of the field, is the sound of people yelling in English whilst playing frisbee. I need exercise, and I want to get to know more people to do stuff with, so I walk on down and am welcomed to join in. However, playing ultimate frisbee running the width of a soccer field at 3pm when it's close to 80 degrees outside...you get tired and thirsty pretty quick. The game lasts maybe half an hour after I get down there before one guy has to go take care of his laundry, and the rest of us are just tired. There's mention of trying again at 7 when it's cooler out, and to get the word out to whoever you see.

I stop in the co-op store on the way back and pick up some foods to tide me over until I can go shopping for groceries proper later in the week, and head back to the dorm to cool off for awhile. Relax, eat another of the really good apples from that makeshift farmer's market in front of the dorm, and unwind for a few hours.

About 6-ish I head back out, as I wanted to check out what the maps refer to as 'look out point' on campus, up above the soccer field next to the multipurpose one. It's not that great a view out over Beppu and the bay, but you get a great view of the soccer field, and a pretty schnazzy backside of APU.

 There's a pair of oddly-arranged benches on this 'point,' and an interesting little stone-and-cement inlay in the middle of the brick ring:

The view is kinda a polar view of the middle of the pacific, with APU written upside down from the perspective. Still neat though.

7 rolls around, and I walk down to the field where 3 people are tossing the frisbee about. I make a 4th, and gradually people start showing up until we've got a crowd pushing 20 people, with the entirety of a soccer field to ourselves. Awesome. We divide up into teams, lay out some people's packs along the sidelines for our goal markers, and kick it off. The fun part is that several people were unfamiliar with the rules of ultimate frisbee, and for some, this was their first time even throwing one. Nonetheless, it was a very entertaining hour or 2 before it got too dark to see even the white frisbee in the air.

As we're all walking back to the dorms, we start talking about doing this again regularly, as well as setting up a means to get in touch with people to simply do stuff with a plan, instead of walking out on campus until you see someone you know. To that end, people started setting up stuff on Facebook, propagating phone extensions and room number lists, so we'll be able to get the ball rolling and such. I for one am dying to head down to town sometime this week for the regional specialty, tonkatsu ramen, real ramen with a pork cutlet on it...Hell. Yes.

A shower, lots of online cross-chatting with people, and some things munched on, it's just after midnight and classes start tomorrow at 8:45...with 2 95-minute Japanese classes kicking things off, and a third for the day 2 hours following that. Oy. Light the fires, pressure cooker's a-startin'.