#20260224

2/22(sun)

2月なのに春の陽気。全然寒くない。デンパークがわんわんウィークイベントをしているとのことなので遊びに行った。マナーウェアを装着した途端うんこし始めるななこ！うんこが潰れちゃう！！！

受付の順番待ちでも園内でもななこが可愛い可愛いと言ってもらえて飼い主ご満悦。そうなんだよぅ可愛いんだよぅ！でもどのわんころも可愛いのだ。それぞれの飼い主にとってそれぞれが世界一可愛いわんころであれ。

前日のワンニャンドームフェスではななこがビビっていたけれどデンパーク内はもりもり歩いたり走ったり。色んなわんころが居てもお花とか草なんかの匂いのほうが気になったのだろうか？兎に角ものすごく楽しそうに動いてくれたので嬉しかった。後ろ姿のお尻辺りから(🎶)というマークが見えるような！みちも私もななこも楽しい一日で最高🌸

2/21(sat)

ななことみちとワンニャンドームフェス🐕️色んなわんころを見られて面白かったけれど相変わらず物欲の無い飼い主たちなので結局何も買わず…。ななこはあらゆるわんころに怯えたり…。ただ天気がとてーーーも春で青空の下食べたローストビーフ丼が最高に美味しかった。最近のキッチンカーのクオリティってば凄い。ここがハイライト。

I am once again playing catch-up after spending a wonderful 2.5 days hanging out with Matthew in Ichinomiya and Takayama!

My travel from Nagoya to Takayama on the 24th was mostly good. I realized as soon as I got to the subway station by my hotel that I had made a foolish mistake of booking my bus to Takayama for 9:15am - because this meant I was taking the subway to Nagoya Station during rush hour. Trying to get on a train at 8:30am was bonkers! Particularly because I had my suitcase with me. It's only a carry-on sized suitcase, but the trains were packed full. I let 2 pass before I even attempted getting on one, and felt like a silly bumbling foreigner having the audacity to take the train at that time with my luggage. I made it in the end, but I have learned my lesson. Once arriving at Nagoya Station I tried to follow google's instructions for which exit to take to get to the bus station...except there was construction at the station and I'm pretty sure that exit was not accessible. I have a real hard time navigating if I can't see the sky, so I resolved to just get outside and reset from there. This put me out at a location a bit of a walk from the bus station, also with some confusing construction, so I ended up having to hurriedly walk for about ten minutes, rushing since my bus was leaving soon! I tried to give myself 30mins between getting to the train station and finding my bus but it ended up actually being only about 15. Thankfully, I made it, and managed to grab a konbini breakfast to eat on the bus as well. Phew. But boy howdy did I ever get sweaty rushing around.

The bus itself was uneventful. I spent most of it drafting my previous blog post (drafting some of it twice because I thought due to the reception Tumblr had lost the draft, it ended up getting recovered though), and watching the landscape. We were headed 2hrs north of Nagoya into the mountainous Gifu prefecture, so it was very beautiful, with more snow gradually appearing as I got closer to Takayama. Soon enough (just shy of noon) I was reunited with Matthew at the Takayama bus station! I met Matthew in the first year of my PhD at UVic, he was a Master's student in applied linguistics. I had not seen him since he moved to Japan a few years ago!! So I was so grateful that he was excited to host me in his town and show me around. And even more grateful that he had a car to drive us!!

We dropped off my stuff at his apartment (in nearby Ichinomiya) and rested for a little bit, catching up on what's been going on the past few years. It was nice getting to update him on all the UVic and Grad Student Society goings on, and hear how his job out here has been going. I truly came to Takayama with basically no plans, mostly wanting to see where Matthew has been living and spend time with him. He had all sorts of great activities to suggest, and places he wanted to take me!

When we headed back into town, we first stopped at Cafe Takayama for cheesecake and drinks (coffee for me, iced tea for Matthew). It was a nice way to start the afternoon!! We had a reservation for sushi at 6, and some time to kill until them, so we walked around Takayama's Old Town. It's a popular location for tourists, known for its wooden architecture and little shops selling local food, treats, and souvenirs. Matthew showed me his favourite bridge, and explained about some statues of two yōkai, Ashinaga and Tenaga (long legs and long arms, respectively).

I also saw some trees held up with that protective technique I had learned about the other day, yukitsuri! Matthew pointed out Sarubobo, local dolls/figures/charms for protection and luck. They are usually red, but different colours are associated with different charms. The name means baby monkey (saru = monkey, bobo = baby), which I learned while writing this originated from the dolls being given to pregnant people for luck since monkeys are said to have easy births. The sarubobo were everywhere! As statues, many kinds of wood figurines in a variety of sizes, popular characters as sarubobo (like Hello Kitty), even snacks shaped like them, and many many dolls. They are extremely charming! (the characters in the image below say "Hida," a nearby city in Gifu).

We poked around some shops, and then decided to go to the Retro Museum. I had read a blog about a 2-day itinerary in Takayama and this was one of the places mentioned. When we went it happened to be a bit crowded with a large group of friends, I guess it's good that the place is popular! It did make it a bit crowded since the rooms/hallways were pretty narrow. The museum had different rooms set up with an incredibly huge collection of retro furniture, games, decor, just so many things. There was a room set up like an old classroom (I made sure to graffiti a poorly drawn Canadian flag on the chalkboard); there was an attic with a whole bunch of old board games and video games (including a great collection of old consoles), covered in movie posters and other advertisements; a few sections were dedicated to old arcade games (some of which you could play! Some for free, and others cost anywhere from 10-100 yen (~10¢-$1)); a room set up like an old diner; one like a hairdresser; one like a doctors' office; a bunch of slot machines; an old telephone booth - it was very extensive! Matthew and I ended up playing Pac-man and a space invaders-like game called Galaga (I'd never heard of it), some air hockey, and a very old crane game that did not work very well at all. It ended up being a lot more interactive of a place than I had initially assumed it would be! I didn't take a ton of photos, since there were so many people, and I didn't want to catch them without their knowing.

After the retro museum, we still had a bit of time to kill, so I had my first time experiencing the sensory overload that is Don Quijote. It's a chain store that sells absolutely everything, but also throughout the store there are so many speakers playing clashing music, jingles, voices, everything. I had heard about Donki from many friends that have visited Japan, and knew I had to go in at some point, but holy moly it was even more overwhelming than anyone could have prepared me for. We did get a handful of fun drinks to have later, and some candies, so like, profit. But at what cost. (my sanity).

After that it was on to Hamasushi, the conveyor belt sushi restaurant Matthew had made us a reservation at. Also my first time experiencing that! There was so many options for me, I wasn't expecting it! The table had a very convenient little tablet and we ordered so much food. I was so excited!! Especially after a konbini breakfast and cheesecake lunch. I had cucumber rolls, radish rolls, natto sushi (fermented soybeans), inari pockets (sweet soybean wrappers), edamame, tempura lotus root, tamago (sweet egg omelette), and tiramisu and bracken starch mochi for dessert. I ate so much I felt ill after, but it was absolutely worth it. And it was a really good price!!

Though I felt like I could barely move after all that, we stopped by a grocery store on our way back to Matthew's to get some stuff for breakfast and dinner the next day. Finally back home, I changed into my blissfully stretchy PJs, and we sat down to watch some anime. I didn't realize, but Frieren season 2 is currently airing!! So exciting!! I totally forgot. We watched the last episode of season 1 to remind me what had happened (I was really confused since I thought some plot points I had seen were in season 2, but, no), and then we watched all ?6? episodes of season 2 that were out. Man I love that show... it's so emotional, in such a good way. I was very happy to get caught up on that. I know I am missing out on a bunch of my other regularly updating shows (Dropout, my podcasts), so making a dent on some of my media piling up felt good.