where cider meets condensed milk: Mount Daisen

where cider meets condensed milk

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Mount Daisen

Hey hey, we're on Daisen! For those of you that don't nihongo o hanashimasu, that means "Big Mountain." The weekend on the mountain included middling snow, one very cool Meet The Jetsons chairlift (with space-age windscreen), one Botox headband, and one evening of getting sucked into a Kochi-style drinking ritual with some teachers that covered several rotations of the following topics:

--Japanese sake
--War
--Kendama (a children's game involving a wooden ball on a string attached to a mallet)

My Japanese vocab on the topic of war is limited: "It's bad," and "Bush is not very good in the head." At least kendama is easier to explain. ("I can't do it. Because of the sake. I am not very good in the head.") So, that was our night. The next morning the two teachers looked wrecked and wouldn't acknowledge our existence in the dining room. In their defense, they are country bumpkins who said they see a gaijin about 3 or 4 times a year. In their non-defense, I hate the Fight Club rules about drinking gatherings. Back home, talking with strangers is called "making friends." In Japan, it's an exercise in pretending you exist in two different dimensions. And it is CREEPY.

I had to warm up with the sunflowers on the beginner slope before we moved to the more difficult area, where the mogul skiers and daredevils and big boys play. Also, that's where all the attractive men were hiding. I bet Bruttney impressed them with her sexy stolen skipants. Step aside, fancy-haired snowboarding boys, the Kibichuo Idols have arrived! And only one of us knows what she's doing, so we're going to need some open space on this here slope...

posted by Raychaa @ 11:03 PM

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