I have a saying that goes: "An hour's sleep is an hour wasted." If that is anything to live by, this weekend was pure magic.
It began after school on a friday. I was wrecked from the week's teaching (or in my case, not teaching much... but I was still exhausted), and I came home as soon as I could to take a nap. I very rarely nap. I wasn't destined to take one this day either. Soon after I had taken my pants off and went to bed, my doorbell sounded. It was my neighbour, who we shall call, say, "Timbo". He loudly announced it was "beer o'clock". (I technically had no beer, but "wine o'clock" doesn't have the same ring to it.)
My original plan was to go to basketball practice, and get a few drinks at a local bar before sinking into the best sleep imaginable. Perhaps, due to my sleep induced vulnerability to suggestion, "Timbo" managed to convince me to instead travel to Takaoka, the closest decent town, to go to some bars and check out a Brazillian club where girls can enter for free if they wear short skirts.
Soon, it was "gin & tonic from a litre bottle o'clock", as we caught a last train to Takaoka. This trip was the worst idea ever. The first bar was full of people, but there was conveniently a free table next to the other token group of foreigners. This phenomenom is referred to as "being put in the Gaijin Corner". It happens Japan-wide. You will always be put next to the other foreigners, despite our mutual dislike for each other.
The next stop was the Brazillian club, which was closed. Plan B was a different club, but this was completely dead. Infact, the whole city was dead. If we had of wanted to go out in a dead city, we could've stayed in Tonami. We did meet 2 guys who offered to buy us a beer, presumably because we were interesting. I can milk my foreigness for beer. Only, once we sat down, they patted their pockets and said they hadn't enough money. Then, one guy started showing signs of unstableness, and he kept touching our thighs. "Timbo" and I knew what we had to do: run. We threw our share of money at them and exited the bar sprinting away like there were police dogs chasing us. We took another walk to confirm that Takaoka city was officially closed, and hailed an expensive taxi back home.
Finally, after 3am, I drowned in my well deserved sleep.
At 7am I was rudely awakened by the alarm of "Timbo"'s cellphone which he left behind in my apartment. At 10:13, I was permanently awoken by a peppy message "lets go to the beach". So, 5 of us drove out to the deserted beaches of Toyama bay. It is not summer yet, but this May weather feels like a hot New Zealand summer to me. It was a brilliant day, despite the state of the beach. The Japanese appear to have no concept of "keeping a beach clean". I swear, 7 metres away from our spot, was a toilet brush. A toilet brush! I didn't sleep at the beach, but this was almost as relaxing. I also attained a satisfying sunburn. Yes, in my eyes, summer is here already. The water was also filled with jellyfish. I didn't mind. It's summer. We had a good swim together.
After dinner, I went to some friends' house to help them light a bonfire and get told off by their neighbours.
After that pointless ordeal, I was sober driver to go to a reggae club night in another neighbouring city. Even sober, it was a good night out, but this may be slightly skewed because of contrasting this with the previous night. I wanted to get home around 2am, the reason for this being: I had a basketball tournament to star in. I ended up being 4am.
My alarm was set for 6:30, on purpose.
This basketball tournament was part of the Toyama prefecture City Government Sports Day. Various sports were played, and as the city ALT, I was asked to play for them. The guys from City Hall are gold, so I agreed. Apart from one other young guy, all other teammates were over 30 years old, unfit smokers, and played about once per year. This all equated to me getting only one 5 minute substitution over the three games. Since the level of basketball was lower than I usually play, this wasn't so much of a problem, and it was more fun to get my teammates involved. I mean, they only play once a year. I did though, accidentally score 27 points in the 2nd game.
The final, (yes, we made it to the final) was a tough game. Everybody was completely nailed by this time, and the opponent's best player and I cancelled each other out. We ended up with a halftime score of just 15-15. This may have been the ugliest half of basketball ever witnessed. But we pulled away in the 2nd half, en leu (*french) to becoming the Toyama Champions...of the 6 city councils that entered teams...Well, at least it's something.
Sorry for the long detailed explanation of the whole weekend, but I was simply re-creating the extreme feeling of needing sleep.
Of course, it wasn't over yet. We had to celebrate becoming the Toyama Champions (of the 6 city councils that entered basketball teams). This involved a lot of beer, and sake, and I also vaguely remember drinking shochu. Usually the term "free drinks" in Japan is a euphamism, but I wasn't allowed to pay. It's a great group of guys, and I was happy to hear that since we came in the top 2, we will enter our team into a tri-prefectural tournament in August.
Remember, this was a Sunday night, and I possibly don't remember coming home, supposedly at midnight. Sleep had finally caught up to me, but with 4 periods of teaching 6 and 7 year olds in the morning, I couldn't catch up with sleep.
I think I finally proved my theory wrong.
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