On kawaii and kancho

Oooof. Sorry the last post was so long! I'll try to be more concise.

Anyhoo, Thursday was another day of the kiddies, as Colleen (off of work because it's time for midterms at her school and she doesn't have any tests for the kiddos), Kyle and I joined Mike for his lessons at a local elementary school. But before we left the apartment, he had a warning: watch out for kancho. What is it?, you might wonder -- It's sort of an extreme wedgie, and apparently the kids love giving it, adult or no. Basically, to kancho you, a kid will clasp his hands together, stick out his first fingers and then try to shove them up your butt. For reals. I took care to walk holding my purse behind me, to serve as a make-do kancho shield, but as it turned out, even though the kids appeared to have injested five Red Bulls apiece, no attempts were made on our posteriors. That was probably aided in no small part by our decision to forgo lunch in the school cafeteria and the resulting playground time (during which many of the kids ride unicycles, apparently -- wow!) in favor of McDonald's. No, really. Mike wanted to try the shrimp fillet, and I was just excited about the thought of ice cream, as Kyle and I have been fighting nasty head colds since our arrival. McDonald's, was, well, McDonald's -- you have to give them credit for consistency, even if I was left scraping bacon bits off of my salad.

After lunch, we returned to the school and for more lessons -- we helped them with introductions, the alphabet, days of the week and a card matching game. The kids were super-kawaii -- cute -- during the games, settling any dispute with a spirited match of Rock-Paper-Scissors.

Later in the day, we headed to Colleen and Mike's favorite bar/eatery in Ichinomiya, where the proprietor, a guy in his mid-30s with surfer-feathered red hair and baggy cargo pants, mixed us drinks and made us dinner -- a huge salad, two kinds of pizza (including one with asparagus and eggplant, yum), two kinds of pasta, and for dessert, homemade mango gelato. The mango, he said, came from a friend -- and indeed, it must've been a very good friend, as, he told us, one mango costs about $100 in Japan. Ouch.

A good dinner deserves a good TV show, and we returned home to watch a copy of this week's episode of Lost. Yay for the internets.

We were fairly slow getting up this morning, Friday, but eventually headed out to Himeji, to see its famous castle, which is on the world registry of historic places (or something like that -- I can't remember the exact wording). But first -- and this seems to be the theme of this trip -- we headed out for food, finally opting for a homemade udon shop. As we ate, we watched the cook quickly roll out the udon batter and then use a special knife to chop it into uniform strips before rinsing the noodles in the sink. Yum.

Next up was the castle itself, a prime tourist destination. The castle -- which dates back to the 1600s and which was rebuilt in the mid-1950s -- was gorgeous. We toured the grounds before going up six flights of ever more-steep stairs, checking out historical artifacts along the way. We'd been required to remove our shoes on entering the structure, but the steps of thousands of people making this trip before us meant the wooden stairs had been worn smooth, leaving no danger of splinters. The top of the castle provided a panoramic view of the city and was a nice reminder of how modern life and history can co-exist.

After the castle, we headed out to a small park for some Japanese-style fair food. Kyle and Colleen shared some takoyaki (batter balls with diced octopus inside), while I opted for mochi (a sticky rice cake) on a stick. We did some shopping and then it was time for the main event -- Kyle and Mike's show at Cafe Ease.

Kyle was pretty nervous, but sounded great -- the cafe was small, but had a relatively powerful and clear sound system. His pop culture references and puns didn't quite connect with the Japanese audience, but elicited some laughs from the expats in the crowd. And Mike, welp, anyone who can seguey from Mims' "This is Why I'm Hot" to a cover of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" wins my undying affection. The Japanese acts -- whose names my overly tired brain is forgetting -- were also great, particularly the headlining act, which combined lilting lyrics with flute, sax and melodica. And again, we had an overly gracious host in the bar's proprietor, who gave me my berry liquer drink for free, among other things. I told Colleen and Mike that I was happy to be friends with such awesome people as them, because it meant they have ridiculously kind friends, too. (Hope that makes sense -- it's 2:30 a.m. here now. ;) )

Speaking of which, I should go -- we're getting up early tomorrow to head out to Kyoto. From there, we will visit Nara, after that is Osaka and finally, home. Not sure how much internet access (if any) I will have, but I will post something if I'm able. (And will try tomorrow morning to post some pictures, although I'm not making any promises!)