Cookout and microbrews in Shiga

Now we transition into September…and summer was showing no signs of slowing down, which was just as well, since my friend Corey back from Tokyo Orientation had invited me out to the Shiga prefecture welcome barbecue. A few days beforehand I find out Corey won’t actually be there until later in the evening. Thankfully, I had told Rachel about this, and she also had met someone from Shiga at Tokyo Orientation and gotten an invite, so we had a contact person, making it slightly less awkward that we were crashing a Shiga event. After transferring trains at Maibara, we sat down only to have a large group of foreigner get on the same train car as us. And dang, the once silent car was suddenly filled with boisterous conversations. I can definitely understand how that would annoy Japanese people, and was slightly embarrassed. At the same time, it was refreshing to hear that much life on a train. Japanese trains tend to be eerily silent, unless you hit a pack of drunken businessmen heading home late at night. There are certain aspects of Japanese society I prefer, but in terms of speech volume in public spaces, I side with America in being a little less circumspect on the matter. Rachel and I had an inkling that that group of foreigners was headed to the same place we were, but we stayed back from the pack a bit once in Nagahama, as we figured it’d be a bit awkward to introduce ourselves without our contact person. “Where do you live in Shiga?” “Actually, we’re from Gifu.” “oh… so what are you doing here?”

Also, this amazing stained glass window was in Nagahama station.



At least that’s how we imagined the conversation would go, if not worse. Unfortunately, we hung back too much and lost the group down a sidestreet, so we wandered aimlessly a bit once we got to the park before finding the barbecue. It just so happens that the park is right on a lake, so the view was lovely and the weather ended up being perfect. We found our contact, chatted a bit, and then started joining random conversation, at which point we inevitably had the conversation I detailed above. But everyone was really cool about, especially once we explained our connections. I was taken aback by the sheer numbers, there were probably a good 50 people there. Apparently Nagahama city has 30 JETs just by itself. In comparison there are maybe 15 JETs between the western region of Gifu prefecture and Gifu city itself. It was bring your own food, and unlike Rachel, I was not prepared, so we went to the grocery store near the station where I picked up some chicken skewers and “American Cola” (yeah, that was the name of the drink), and Rachel grabbed some ice cream. We headed back to the site and grilled up our grub. Partway through the afternoon, a few folks started tossing around a Frisbee, which quickly morphed into a pick-up game of ultimate frisbee, which I hadn’t played in forever and was an absolute blast. On the back line of one of the “end zones” was a little raised flowerbed with a brick border/enclosure, and there was also a small, stout little tree with some rather thick branches. Why do I bother telling you this? Because at one point I was in the end zone and starting running a crossing pattern along the back line as the frisbee was tossed my way. With my eyes squarely focused on the task at hand, I didn’t notice that one of the those thick branches sticks out into the end zone, and I ran full speed into that sucker. I didn’t hit the ground, but my feet did leave the ground for a second just due to momentum. I thankfully had my arm in front of me, so it took the brunt of the damage, but it was still a hell of a hit, and horribly embarrassing. Again, everyone was pretty cool about it. Brief update, the cuts and whatnot I got from that tree have left scars, that thing means business! As further testament to how much of an ass this tree was, it took out someone else later in the game. I tossed the frisbee for the end zone, and it was carrying a little too far, but one guy was making a great run for it until he, too, ran smack into the tendrils of this sylvan warrior. He took the hit higher up and fell flat on his ass, it looked as if the tree just up and clotheslined across the chest, a la pro-wrestling. This also made me look like less of a doofus for having run into it before, woot! I was not done injuring myself, as I apparently turn into a dog when a frisbee is thrown and see nothing else around me. I was again running for an overthrown frisbee and tripped over the brick border of the flower bed. I stayed on my feet and it wouldn’t have mattered, but since I wore sandals that day, which are not conducive to playing ultimate, I went barefoot for the game. As luck would have it, the toenail that I have previously had turn purple from injury twice (of which one of those injuries led the nail to fall off completely), again took the biggest hit, and is now again about ¼ purple. The poor dude doesn’t get a break. Thankfully it didn’t really hurt that bad and I was able to keep playing. Earlier on in the game, I had noticed two of the guys on the opposite team doing some handstands and other capoeira-esque movements while waiting for the kick-off. So during one of the lulls in the game, I asked them if they play capoeira, and they DO!! Talk about random encounters! They were pretty psyched as well, and after the ultimate game dissolved, he broke out his iPod w/ speaker deck, put on some capoeira music and we had a little impromptu capoeira session. Really coincidental, and really awesome. We had grand plans to get together some weekend day and train a bit, but fall has quickly descended and people be busy, so I’m doubting it will happen this year. By this time, it was getting dark, and Corey had arrived from his school’s Sports Day (think Field Day from Franklin Elementary School, but for big kids, too). I also ran into my friend Matt from when I studied abroad, who also just so happens to be doing JET in Nagahama. So we got to catch up as well.

Matt, Rachel and Marcus!



I was pleased when the plan for the evening came to involve drinks at the local microbrewery, which Corey had talked up a decent bit. I was excited to have some Japanese beer other than Asahi or Kirin, which in my mind aren’t much better than Bud/Miller Lite. It was called Roman Brewing Co. and they had a full-blown restaurant attached to their building. It was a classier place with wood tables and chairs, and the beer lived up to Corey’s hype. I didn’t care as much for the Nagahama Ale (which I heard one other person complain was “too hoppy”), but was a huge fan of the Kurokabe Stout and their seasonal ale. They had stills visible behind the bar and just the whole microbrew culture reminded me a lot of Wisconsin.

Feels like home!



I was never a huge beer drinker, and still really am not, but I have grown to have a certain appreciation for darker beer, as well as a curiosity to try various microbrews. The night was a lot of fun and I met a lot of cool people in Shiga. Hopefully I’ll be seeing more of them over the next year. After a few drinks, some went on to another bar, but our last train to Gifu was calling, and I didn’t feel like pulling an all-nighter, so we called it a night.

The next day we headed to downtown Ogaki where every first Sunday of the month in the summer/fall they have a little flea/farmer’s market with some local performers.

Checking out the local Ogaki spring water...refreshing!



A few of the JETs from the Gifu city area came into Ogaki as well, and we strolled up and down the main drag, and even caught the “samba parade” which consisted of four women in carnaval outfits attempting to samba in giant platform heels with a few guys drumming the beat behind them. One of the things about Ogaki I do really like is that there is at least a little bit of cultural diversity with the sizeable Brazilian population.

It also doesn't hurt when cultural diversity looks like this.



And Ogaki has a guy wearing a tiger mask playing a guitar, you don’t get much better than that.



After that, we grabbed lunch at a small Italian place before parting ways for a lazy Sunday.