The rest of the trip barring saturday and sunday

It occurred to me I should probably talk about the rest of my trip, and let you all know I was safe and back in the US.

On Monday, I changed to the ryokan because it was cheaper, closer, and more comfortable. The only down side was that it had a curfew and it's sometimes a pain to share bathrooms. I then headed into Kashihara to do some work, and did the same Tuesday morning. In the afternoon, I headed to the conference to register then hung around chatting with some Japanese archaeologists before the welcome reception began. I then networked with more people while getting progressively drunker since there was plenty to drink but not a lot of food. I then went with a group to a bar for more drinks and food. Consequently, I barely made it back to my ryokan before the 11pm curfew and I had to hurry to take a very drunk bath/shower before the bath was closed at 11pm. It took me quite awhile to sober up that evening, I suspect because I was mixing drinks rather indiscriminately and eating some pretty weird food combos on top of that.

The next day, I took my time getting to the conference and pretty much stayed there the whole day. I had lunch with one of my Korean colleagues and his wife, introducing them to okonomiyaki (which you can pretty much assume I ate every other day for the rest of the trip). In the evening, I left the conference slightly early to head into Osaka where I met a Japanese colleague and his wife for Kagoshima style (ie pork) shabu shabu, which was utterly amazing and delicious. I've never been able to afford to have it in Japan before so wow.

On Thursday, I had to wake up early to get a fellowship application done, then I presented in the evening. I got some good advice on how to continue my project. After that was the banquet. It was Chinese food with fruit, though I mostly raided the vegetarian table once I was sure they'd had their fill. They broke open a barrel of sake right in front of us and handed out souvenir wooden cups to drink it from. That was some very tasty sake. There was a performance with musicians in Heian period costume and a dragon dancer. Not sure what exactly it would be called. I networked a lot, then headed home around 10pm, feeling rather exhausted (probably because I was stressed about presenting).

Friday was the last day of the conference. I networked some more and stuck around until the end. I could have gone out drinking with people afterwards, but I was just feeling over-socialized so I headed off to have some ramen for dinner before heading back to the ryokan to relax.

Saturday was the field trip to the Japanese swordsmith. I had made friends with a Japanese archaeologist who happened to be on the trip so we spent most of the time chatting and showing around a German colleague of ours. Much to my shock, the bus dropped us off outside of a shrine I had visited my first time in Nara. Or rather, I ate the famous higashi somen there. (You may recall.) Down a path to the side of the shrine was the swordsmith. They first demonstrated forging, then quenching the sword and I got to examine a completed one. It was really cool. We then had an hour for lunch at the shrine. If I'd known, I would have planned to eat there, but since I'd brought my own lunch, we ended up in a little eating hall instead. From there, we drove to one of the more famous tombs, Kurozuka kofun - it had all the bronze mirrors in it which proved there was official contact with China during the period. My Japanese friend had excavated it in his early years so we got a personal account of the excavation. From there, we went to a famous shrine whose name I can't remember, but it houses the famous seven pronged sword given from Korea to Japan during the Kofun period. Not that we got to see it, but still. The shrine was very pleasant and had tons of roosters running around for some reason.

We headed back and I had to run off, back to my ryokan. I grabbed my things, checked out then caught the bus to the train station. From there, I headed to Kyoto, then caught the Shinkansen to Tokyo.

Saturday night, Sunday and Monday

Before I jumped on the shinkansen in Kyoto, I bought a bento so that was dinner covered. I had actually made good time and expected to get to my hotel around 10pm. I needed to hope a train to Ueno and then Kashiwa from Tokyo station though, and then I discovered that Kashiwa station was hopelessly confusing at night, plus it was raining so I ended up taking a taxi to go a very short distance, but it saved me from dragging my luggage everywhere so it was worth it.

Kashiwa station is about a half hour outside Tokyo proper by train, but I chose it because it makes it very easy to hop on the train going to where the hombu (main) dojo for Bujinkan is which means I made it to training with plenty of time though the rain from the approaching hurricane did make things a bit wet. I trained with a young woman from Brazil. She was a green belt so I had to keep showing her things, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing since it made me relax. We trained with sai for the last half of the class (using our thumb to imitate it when we didn't have a sai handy) which I'd never done before that was cool. The idea was to use the point to guide the person into whatever position you wanted them to be in, just not forcing it. While I was doing it to my partner, the soke (grandmaster) saw me and said "good", which is pretty much the highest compliment you can get. I blushed and bowed, and rode that high right into the 5th dan test which happened a few minutes later. This time, it was even easier to sense the sword. I closed my eyes and there was darkness and then behind me I saw a slash of white light. I don't recall rolling, but I was suddenly further away and the soke was saying, "pass".

I pretty much spent the rest of the day insanely happy. I registered my 5th degree black belt, then ended up hanging out with a 10th dan and his students who were visiting the area. I hadn't realized there was a tabi shop near the train station there, but it was still a little more expensive than the ones I bought in Asakusa at the beginning of the trip. I had lunch with them, then headed back to Kashiwa where I showered, marveled at being a 5th dan, then finally got my stuff together (weatherproofed as there was a hurricane) and headed in to Akihabara. There, I treated myself to whatever I wanted (within reason) from the various anime stores which is how I ended up with a Natsume Yuujinchou figure, and doujinshi as well as many other small figures/keychains/cell phone danglers from other shows. My only limit really was that despite the fact that most of these stores were selling $100-200 figures, about half didn't accept credit cards and I only had about 5000 yen on me to last the rest of the trip in cash. Around 8 or so, I decided to head back to Kashiwa. I had dinner in a kaiten sushi place where I pretty much stuffed myself with eel and salmon. I then headed back to my hotel to plan out my trip home.

Monday, the hurricane really hit Tokyo. The rain was coming in sideways and the wind was insanely strong. I stayed in my room until checkout at 10am, then stored my luggage. I headed to the nearest post office to mail in my fee for the 5th dan test. My flight wasn't until 6:50pm so there was no point in heading to the airport until early afternoon at the earliest so I wandered around. I hit the 100yen store and bought a better umbrella at 200yen, but when I stepped outside, the wind hit it and turned it inside out then ripped the cover off and it blew away. I laughed a lot. So I kept using my dinky little 100yen umbrella I bought in Nara and that one was fine. I then discovered a Hobby Off on the top floor of the shopping center which was pretty much heaven. I bought tons of One Piece and Rurouni Kenshin and other anime merchandise (mostly keychains) though I found a Natsume Yuujinchou figure for $6 which was a companion to the one I'd bought in Akihabara so I pretty much had to buy it. I bought a pastry in a nearby cafe, then had the rest of my lunch in the kaiten sushi place again. I treated myself to some expensive eel which was fatter and I guess that did make it taste more delicious.

I picked up my luggage from the hotel, packed in the 100yen and Hobby Off buys, then headed for the train station. The trains were all delayed by the hurricane, but this worked out well for me since I had a hard time changing trains and lines in the time allotted while carrying two heavy bags. I've never been on a train that had to slow down so it wasn't blown off the tracks before though. I made it to the airport and of course found that my flight had been delayed by two hours. I had checked in the morning and there hadn't been a problem, but the delay didn't surprise me. I shrugged and checked in but found out that the delay meant I'd miss my connecting flight and that I'd be getting in to Madison at 11:30pm not 7pm. This meant I had to try to find a new ride home but everyone was still asleep in the US so I sent explanatory emails, ate dinner, then headed on through the security check to wait for the plane. It ended up boarding an hour later than they said, and then once we were on board, we waited another hour before we were able to take off. I watched a travel network show while we waited, then Life of Pi while eating dinner. I was lucky to have the seat next to me free, so I settled in against the side of that seat with an extra pillow and took a 4 hour nap. I then rewatched part of Monsters University, dozed for a half hour, then gave up on trying to sleep and read some articles I needed to. Then they served us breakfast, and we arrived in Chicago. In Chicago, I had to pick up my bags then take them through customs, then drop them off again which was ridiculous.

I was then left to my own devices for three or four hours waiting for the plane. I got a drink at Adaigo tea because I adore their fresh teas, then bought dinner. I found a place I could plug in my computer. My phone refused to work at all, saying there was no service despite all the data being turned back on now that it was in the US. As a result, I had to call everyone using skype which meant most of my friends didn't pick up. About 10 minutes before my flight boarded, I finally managed to reach one who agreed to pick me up for the airport. The airport isn't that far from my house, but the GPS sent us the wrong way so I ended up not getting home until 1am on Tuesday. And yes, I went to class at 11am that day. It took me about two weeks to get over the jetlag.