Bouncy Balls and Cover Bands

Sunday I planned to stop off at the Sweets Museum and possibly the garden before leaving Aizu.  By the time I got packed up and ready to go I was already running late without any stops.  I gave the tourist spots a miss and headed straight for Yamagata.  It took me about 3 hours and I had a lovely 1 hour nap in the parking lot of an apartment building near the station before being rudely awoken and told to move on.  I was in Yamagata to meet and stay with Jeff from New York.  Another host I had "met" online but never face to face.  When I first decided to try the couch surfing thing I decided that I only wanted to stay with females or people who had hosted a lot and been given good references.  Jeff was neither but somehow I still ended up there.  I have to say that I am glad I put my rules aside.

The first night was just chatting and the sort of gaijin chatter you expect here, or anywhere for that matter.  Jeff is an ALT so only works until around 3:30.  Monday morning I was none too lively and was barely even awake before Jeff got home.  That night we went to a cafe downtown and read Japanese children's books.  It was both entertaining and education and a lot of fun.  We then went to see the movie Silk which was terrible but still fun to make fun of.  It was men's night so Jeff's ticket was only ￥1000, a whole ￥200 off.

my Henkel

During this time I was madly emailing couch surfers all over Northern Honshu, as I had been for weeks, trying to secure a bed.  In the end nothing came through and I decided to stay at Jeff's another night.  Again, I'm glad things didn't work out as I had planned.  We decided to form a Cake cover band with his guitar, my cavaquinho, and both of us on vocals.  We decided that the first logical move for a Cake cover band would be to learn the sounds High and Dry by Radiohead, Blowin' in the Wind by Bob Dylan, and Wild Thing by Jimi Hendrix.  Having mastered those with solos, arpeggios, and crazy fly cavaquinho stylings we named our band and are currently accepting offers for tour dates.  Ok I made this sound really lame but it was the most fun ever!  I was literally crying I was laughing so hard and my sides ached.  I guess you had to be there.

At Jeff's I left my good Henkel kitchen knife, which he has promised to send me once I have an address.

Oh yeah and by the way, Jeff's aunt had sent him a huge box full of terrible cookies, bouncy balls, and stickers.  It was my goal to bowl a bouncy ball cricket-style through the cardboard box basketball hoop hanging near the ceiling.  After about a million failed in attempts which resulted in eye injuries, head injuries, and scaring the shit out of Byron for a very long time, I perservered.  Hence the bouncy balls in the title...