So, anyway, that was fun yesterday. I am probably going to end up posting the abridged now with less talk and more photos version, but the pictures haven't changed.

Wednesday

The morning after my fishing trip was another early one, Megan, Cory, and I got up and drove to the ferry port to head over to Hiroshima for the Hiroshima prefecture JET orientation. The first night we all went out, first to an all you can eat/all you can drink beer garden, then a club called Sacred Spirits. A lot of drinks were drunk, and a lot of people were hurting in the morning. Here is how my friends Emily and Byron spent their lunch break, and then most of the afternoon orientation sessions.


They were in the lobby, so I can only imagine what all the passing Japanese businessmen were thinking as they walked by.

Thursday

On Thursday I skipped a bunch of orientation sessions to go explore Hiroshima. I got lost in a giant department store, I saw some cool restaurants, I met up with Cory and Megan for lunch, and then I ended up in a giant arcade. It's called Round 1, and it's seven floors of games. Each floor is divided by genre, type of game, and so on. When I say arcade, it's not just video games, but video games plus bowling plus weird rooms that you can explore plus about twenty types of gambling, and a floor of photo booths that is women and couples only.


This is a seriously giant bingo machine.


The "Alien" theme slot machine/first person shooter.


This was something I had never seen before. On the screen is a horse race. It's a video game, with the latest graphics and everything, but no one is controlling it. The players sit at these little screens and place (real money) bets on the virtual horse race. There are dozens of these games, each one a little different. Some have the screen plus a little miniature track with horses on rails, some have everyone sit around a betting table. There's a lot of video game horse racing around here, actually. In a store that sells Playstation games, there were two entire shelves of horse racing games.


A pretty awesome chair.


Slot machines, I think. It was almost impossible to figure out the subtleties of all these games.


A bunch of Japanese boys, playing as a bunch of US Marines.

Saturday

We got back to Osakikamijima Friday night because Saturday was a festival. All week I had been seeing workers put layers of varnish on long wooden boats in preparation for this day. Each neighborhood on the island was represented with a boat, rowed by local guys. A taiko drummer sets the pace, and young boys in Shinto robes at the front and back of the boat twirl things in time with the rowing. They race around, away from the island and back, over and over again, shouting in time with the drum. Between races, they sing songs, drink sake and beer, and then go do it again.















This crazy boat was a part of the festival, but I'm not quite sure what it did.

That night, The boats all came to Tarumi ferry port, where they took turns trying to climb stairs. The drummer would start calling out and drumming faster, everyone would start rowing like crazy, and then the would go crashing into a steep stone staircase and the boat would slide up. At the peak of their climb sometimes the boat would capsize, or take on a lot of water, but they just pulled their friends back in, bailed out the boat, and did it again. Most of the boaters were so drunk that after they got out of their boats, they could hardly walk.




Through all this, the Tarumi ferry kept making stops, avoiding the boaters who would veer as close to ferry as they dared, never falling behind schedule.






There were fireworks - it seems like there are fireworks at any festival here. The displays go on for a long time, and they are often very close and very loud. Miyajima (an island nearby) has a display that goes on for two and a half hours.


After the fireworks, one boat just refused to quit. They must have hit the steps ten or fifteen times in a row.


Funny story about today. I was supposed to take my scooter test, but it turns out that my boss confused the English words for "Tuesday" and "Wednesday" so I missed the test, which was yesterday. Now they are sending me for a one day business trip to Hiroshima's equivalent of the DMV. I'll be back in two days, hopefully with some interesting stories.

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