It sucked a little bit this year because May 2nd, a Monday, was not a holiday so I had Friday-Sunday off, worked one day, and then had Tues-Thurs off with work on Friday. Some companies are nice and you will get the non-holidays off at well but at school we get enough time in the summer as well as other days like sports day, culture day, etc. That was ok because I didn't have the money this year to do anything big (last year I went to Korea and the year before we went camping in Miyazaki, the southern tip of Japan's big islands).
Motoaki had to work at an art show so that left me free to do it up, and up I went. Starting with the three day weekend I went to Nagoya to visit my friends Justin and Adam who used to live in my area but transferred to the big city life. Nagoya isn't as famous as Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima, Kyoto etc but it is big and, due to having Toyota nearby, it has a lot of foreign influence. This is good for those of us who have gotten past the "I want to do everything Japanese-style." I mean, I like living here but on vacation I like to step out of that.
I drove to Nagoya with Amy, Chie, and Rena three girls who live in my area and who are all fairly used to Japan. Chie was born here but raised in New Zeland. Though she is pretty non-Japanese, she grew up with a Japanese mother and trips to Japan so she doesn't care about seeing temples and doing tea ceremonies. Rena is from Thailand but she is an engineer for a Japanese company and she has lived here a looong time. Amy is from America but did a study-abroad at a Japanese university. It was a good group in that we could focus on fun and relaxation rather than site-seeing.
Though there is a lot of great stuff to see and do in Nagoya, we ended up spending our time clubbing, eating foreign food, and shopping. I spent WAY too much on clothes but I did stick to the cheap shops so it wasn't too bad. And in my defense we found Zara (like an upscale H&M- my friend Bud showed it to me in Europe and now I visit it in Japan) and Gap- aka stores that carry my LL size.
It was especially good to see where Justin lives and where he hangs out. He and I were pretty close in Tsuyama and we keep in touch by calling and emailing. I also met up with him in London as he was there over the winter break as well. Justin is a bit naive and sometimes you kind of have to yell at him, but he is great fun on a night out, has good tastes in shops, and is great for gossip.
We also got great food in Nagoya due to the foreign influence found there. Though Justin is from England, his mom is Filipino. Thus, he knew of a great Filipino restaurant in Nagoya. When we first got there we were a bit nervous as it was a hole in the wall down a back alley and the food was just sitting out in big platters on a counter (not under any heat lamps or anything). But Justin was really excited and we didn't want to hurt his feelings (he had been telling me about this place on the phone). I was extra nervous because I am not good with spicy food and though I can manage it, I haven't been a big fan of other Asian cuisine like Thai and Korean. However, once we got over the fact of how mom'n'pop the whole outfit was, the food tasted great. It reminded me of something you would find in Hawaii or even Iowa- a lot of pork, vegetables, and more sweet than spice. I wish I had taken a picture but recently I have been failing on the whole photography thing. With facebook it's too easy just to wait and get the photos off of what other people post.
Justin wanted to make up for it the next night by taking us to a place that was supposed to be like TGIFs but was actually the Japanese version of Hooters. Why he and his friend thought four girls would want to go to a place called BJs is beyond me, but if you are a guy and are in Nagoya, you might want to check it out. BJs is set up to look a lot like Coyote Ugly only with more seating. All of the Japanese waitresses are dressed in daisy dukes and small tops and are all about 5'8 and only 110 pounds. They were cute and they weren't too flirty or cheesey (although that could be due to the fact that we were a bunch of girls). Of course, the highlight was when the "featured" waitress came out in an even skimpier outfit and did a pole dance. I will give her credit- the pole reached from the bar up to the ceiling/second floor and she went to the top. We laughed about it and clapped along but I wouldn't go again.
Probably the best meal, though, was something we found by accident. Adam was trying to take us to a cheap pizza place but when we got there it was closed. We decided to wander to find something else and stumbled upon a Hawaii place that had a good decor and AMAZING avocado burgers (the tuna/rice/tomato/avocado salad also looked amazing, but I was on vacation). I did get a picture of it as I wanted to make Motoaki jealous (I know, I know, what a witch...).
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