Hmmm...awkward camping trip

Sept 26 Saturday

Ugh...I feel terrible this morning. Against my better judgement, the night before I went drinking with 3 other middle school teachers and I drank ridiculous amounts of alcohol. Didn`t get drunk though! It takes a lot more to get me drunk, but I did feel buzzed. I started off with Ume-shuu on the rocks which I thought was a timid drink but all the other women were like "かっこいい!” Haha. Then I moved onto a jug of beer, then a bottle of sweet delicous white wine and ended with a bottle of red wine, which is what I shouldn`t have ended it with. I actually do not like red wine that much. I should`ve just ended with the bottle of white wine...but noooo I had to drink the red one too. Actually it was Iwata-san who ordered the bottle of red wine for me. I was like, dammnit, I dont wanna waste it after she ordered it for me so I drank it too. But I tell you these were the regular sized bottles of wine and I drank more than half of each bottle. The other women had some too, but I drank the most. I mean it may not sound like much, but the bottles totally killed me and made me sick. And today I have a camping trip with the 30 years old and under workers at town hall. They have it every year for us youngins. Luckily we don`t have to meet up until 1pm so I was able to sleep in majority of my dizziness and sick feelings. But I still had some when I met up at town hall. Man, I had even told myself that it`s better not to go, but as soon as I told Masutani-san about Mr. Wonderful she was like "Alright, girls! We`re going to go drinking tonight because there`s some good news!" I was like...all I did was like a new guy and now I`m here in the izakaya drinking till I feel kinda sick. WHY?! I don`t know, I just like hanging out with them.

ANYWAYS, today is the camping trip like I said before. I met up with the peoples in front of the town hall in the parking lot. And man, does everyone look so much cooler and better when not in their work uniforms which is not the sexy OL or hot salary-man suits. I was like...dude, the guys suddenly look hotter when before they`re really not. lol Everyone was so oshare/fashionable, and I was in a T-shirt and jeans and a thick jacket because what went through my head was "camping= outdoors, freezing cold, dirt, rugged lifestyle" So I dressed for what I thought was the occasion...which turned out to be very different from my image. I`ll get back to that later. Anyways, I bummed a ride with Tama-chan because she was the only girl driving, I liked her car, and we`re friends. haha. She`s the nursery teacher for my beloved Sakura-gumi/class. The camping site was in Sun Pillar Park in the city of Nayoro. It`s about an hour away from Kenbuchi and we took some really random scenic routes with no traffic lights. It was really nice and relaxing. The scenery was absolutley beautiful and I saw ponies!

We got to Sun Pillar Park and this park was GINORMOUS!! Like ridiculous huge! It had a put-put range/miniature golf, a yakiniku/BBQ pit, a fitness center and meeting hall, playgrounds..very many of them, and my favorite and first time ever seeing: fua-fua domes or the fluffy domes for a direct translation. These were white domes on top of grass that you can jump on! They`re like those giant blowup jumphouses that you can rent for a kid`s party. Except there were like 10 of these huge white domes just laid out together in one section of the park and there were a lot of kids and parents jumping on them. I took a picture which I will upload soon. It was so much fun looking!! I really wanted to go on them, but there was no time for that unfortunately.

We drove up to the camping location and I was like "あれ?/are?" There were no tents and stuff. Just large cabins/cottages. It kinda surprised me. Su told me then that we were staying in the largest cottage because there`s 20 of us. Yes, 20 people camping. lol I was excited because it`ll be my first time being in a cottage. The thing was 2 stories and the view was magnificent!! Absolutley breathtaking! We were on top of a very high hill so we could see all that was around us and the city below. The first story consisted of a large sitting room for everyone to sit around and chill, seperate men and women bathrooms, a kitchen, a shower room with laundry machines, and a cool looking TV. The second floor was a large room with closets that held futons and blankets. I was like "no way, all of us are going to sleep in this room? GUYS AND GIRLS!!??" Well, to tell you the truth, I really don`t care if guys and girls sleep in the same room as I`ve done that several times already with Vegas hotel rooms and when I was in Japan last time as well as when I was in Sapporo, but this is with guys I don`t really know and I don`t feel like really getting to know them. Because honestly, the guys at town hall aren`t exactly the greatest to talk to. I mean they`re all around my age and I really should try to be more interactive with them, but I still prefer the ocmpany of the teachers instead of them. The girls I don`t really mind hanging out with at all, but the boys are the ones hard to get along with in my opinion. I just feel really awkward around them and I dont know...there`s just something there that`s like a barrier for me to talk to them. So I stuck with the girls most of the time.

But, continuing the story, all we did was first put all our stuff away and then left to play put-put. The call it Park Golf in Japan though and it`s really popular to do here in Hokkaido. I ended up with Su and Hasegawa-san on my team for the game. Hasegawa-san is the one I don`t really want to interact with because I don`t like his personality. He`s crude and dirty and unrefined. And somehow he managed to become Uno-san`s bf. Uno-san is the cutest girl in the entire townhall. She`s small and petite, has a cute body and a beautiful face, wonderful personality, so why is she with him of all people!?? I just could not fathom how they got together...>.< Not the best couple in my opinion. She could do so much better. ANyways, Hasegawa-san won the game. Su kept making funny noises whenever she hit the ball...and she was the worst player, but I laughed so much whenever she played. It was fun with her. lol =P One of the guys on another team, Seiya, kept supporting me with cheers. haha. He`s the outgoing player type. But no worries, I`m not interested in anyone from town hall. =P

After put-putting we went to the yakiniku pit just around the corner to cook up some meat. I had so much good meats and an onigiri. And I smelled like it. haha. Then suddenly Uno-san got up out of her seat and went out. Tama-chan, Su, and I followed her out and found out that she was going to look for fireflies. Tama-chan knew the location and we walked around in the freezing cold where it was already dusk into a beautiful forest. In the forest was a cute little bridge with a creek running under it. It was a picture perfect beautiful scenery. I want to return back here again. Unfortunately, there were no fireflies because the water in the creek was too low. It needs to be higher and more for them things to gather. So we just went back. When it was time to leave I was stuffed in a car with all guys and just me and felt very very awkward. I didn`t really talk at all because I`m not sure what to talk about. Seriuosly, with the guys there`s always a lot of awkward moments. eheh.

Anyways, back at the cottage again and the view was absolutely beautiful!! I could see the shining lights of the city in the distance and the bright stars in the night sky. The cottage lights actually blended well with the scenery. I was entranced by the sight that I really barely talked to the other guys standing around me as we were waiting for the others to arrive so that we can go into the cottage. Seriously, the surroundings around here are an experience for the soul. So when when we were all inside the cottage we pulled up the tables and made one huge table for all of us to sit around and talk. I had a good chance to talk to all the girls and then some of the guys came over to talk to us too. I totally didn`t want to drink anything because of how much I had drunk last night. So I refused all alcohol that came my way even though everyone was like you should drink! >.< Hell no, no more alcohol for a little bit after what had happened last night. At around 12:30am I crawled upstairs to sleep in one of the 20 futons. I chose one next to Su and found out the next morning that Seiya had slept in the futon next to me. lol He`s not a bad guy so I didn`t mind. However, the pillow as terrible and caused me the inability to actually sleep so I drifted in between sleep and being awake for several hours.


September 27 Sunday
I got up at 5:30am(internal alarm clock) to get ready to leave because that`s when Tama-chan was leaving and I was going with her. I didn`t really want to stay an extra day.

When I was done dressing I went outside in the cold to fully wake myself up and breathe in the fresh air and take in the beautiful environment. I stayed outside for a good 10 minutes before Tama-chan came to get me and then went back in to say good bye to everyone. I was amazed because people were already awake by then. I was thinking "ugh, why do you guys wake up so early!?" lol. And then we finally left. In the car with Tama-chan we talked about so many things, in particular, relatinoships and love stuffs. haha. It was a bonding experience. I finally got home and just crashed because I was so freakin tired from not having properly slept after an activity filled day. Then after that I spent the day milling around the house watching Nodame Cantabile. Yes, I`ve been lazy but it`s because I`ve been super tired.

Otsukare-sama for reading! Seriously, pictures will be up soon. Thanks!