Weekend wrap

And what a big weekend it was, not least because we had a long weekend with a public holiday on the Monday.

But first of all, a weather update. Summer has arrived here with a vengeance. It’s been over 30 all week and of course ridiculously humid which makes it feel like over 40. Japan is in the middle of a record heatwave according to the news.

Just my luck eh. I’m a winter-lover by nature. I’ve never liked summer; I see it as an extended period of stupidly hot weather to be endured until normal programming resumes at the start of autumn. But I seem to have a knack of creating abnormal weather conditions wherever I go.

Let’s recap shall we:
• London, 1989 – record temperatures across Britain. (Also the sunniest summer on record.)
• Italy in 2003 – Heatwave across Europe; one of the hottest on record.
• Japan in 2010 – Record temperatures for early summer with predictions of hottest summer for 100 years.

Thanks alot, weather gods.

Even in February 2009 when I was in Tokyo visiting clients with plans to whip off for a couple of days of skiing…. you guessed it: record mild winter, no snow.

And while I’m sweating it out over here, back in Melbourne they’re having a wonderful cold winter at the moment, the lucky things. So you see, I seem to bring the heat wherever I go. I suppose it could be argued that global warming has something to do with all of this, but I refuse to let scientific theory stand in the way of a good conspiracy theory.

Ahem. The weekend wrap.

On Saturday morning I put Ruby on to her train for a two-day training camp with her soccer buddies from Hiroshima Sanfrecce. We actually missed the first train because our little local line was out indefinitely due to a landslide on the tracks caused by the torrential rain last week. Unfortunately I had no idea of this and we arrived at the tiny seaside station and waited for the train… and waited… and waited… until suddenly it occurred to me that the train was never coming, so we jumped in the car and did a mad dash across town with the Eggbeater engine screaming as we pushed it to the limit, screeching into the main station at Mihara only to discover that the train had been cancelled altogether and we had to catch the next one. Whatever, it all worked out in the end and Ruby had a great weekend, played heaps of soccer and experienced her first stay away from home in Japan.

On Saturday night, the three of us took the opportunity (i.e., not having Ruby around to complain about it) to check out a local fast food chain called MosBurger that Felix had been eyeing off for some time. It actually wasn’t too bad, in a fast food kind of way. I can report that MosBurger serves much the same plastic food as Maccas (NB: must try the Terikayki McBurger sometime), though the option of burgers made with rice patties rather than sugary bread buns at least represents a bit of innovation.

I’ve actually heard Japanese people defend fast food places like Maccas, MosBurger and KFC with the line that “at least the food is actually cooked right there and then.” And they have a point. Apparently there are now restaurants that are designed to operate with only one solitary operator in the kitchen. Presumably they just reheat and serve. Which makes the other chains look like fresh food champions in comparison.

When we got home on Saturday night I got a call from one of the dads who is a bit of a local legend because he’s president of the school council at the primary school, asking me to take part in a shrine-carrying ceremony the following morning. Not really knowing what was involved, I agreed to it on the principle that it was nice to be invited and nice to experience new and exciting things in the locality.

It turned out to be one of the most exhausting experiences in recent memory. The combination of searing heat (see above) and a bloody heavy wooden shrine with two kids inside chanting and beating a drum was more than I’m used to. Luckily I had to nick out for about two hours in the middle of it all because of a prior engagement; if it hadn’t been for that I probably would have fainted pathetically at some point. Luckily also I had to take the car, because all the other guys carrying the shrine were knocking back beers that magically appeared at every stopover point on the route. The first round came out at about 8:30 in the morning and there were new beers being handed around about every 15 minutes after that. As you can imagine this led to a very hot sweaty drunken group of guys by lunchtime, and the grand finale of the parade, which involved about 20 of us whirling the shrine around and around on its ten-metre sticks with the two boys strapped inside, was positively frightening. Somehow we managed to finish without incident. Tragically I have no photographic evidence.

After I finally got home that afternoon, exhausted and bathed in sweat, it was time to head to the beach. The crowds have finally arrived and it’s now officially a Scene, with people of all ages cantering and splashing or just hanging about looking cool. I had a bit of a nap while Felix demonstrated his impressive breadth of social skills, making friends first of all with some young children (building sandcastles), then with some Year 9 boys (playing catch in the water) and finally with a group of young men who buried him in the sand a couple of times. One of them had a few tatts which got me thinking because apparently the only people with tatts in Japan are the dreaded yakuza. Still, they were very nice with Felix; for instance, they didn’t bury his head. Just so long as they don’t try to recruit my son.

On Sunday night we had a group of friends from Okayama over to stay, the guys that we stayed with up in the mountains at Niimi back in Golden Week. Their daughter Chisato is exactly one day older or younger than Ruby (I forget which) so we’ve kept in contact over the years. It was nice to catch up again and we all went out for a meal of Okonomiyaki (of course!) and ate and drank and chatted and generally carried on. Since it’s the start of the school holidays I assumed they’d be able to stay for a few days, but the visit ended up being less than 24 hours because Chisato’s school has club activities scheduled every day during the holidays except for a four-day break in the middle (the week of 16-20 August being a semi-sacrosanct holiday when the entire country sort of goes to sleep). Which makes Ruby’s club look almost lazy; sure they practice solidly for the first couple of weeks but after that they actually stop altogether for about three weeks. Unprecedented stuff.

Finally to round off the big weekend we went to watch Felix play a match at his usual venue in Onomichi, about half an hour up the road. Tragically it was so hot and dusty that I totally forgot about my plans to pop in afterward to the cute little bakery just near the soccer ground where they sell really nice mini-croissants glazed with maple syrup. What a complete waste of a day. No, only kidding. Besides, he’s got another match there in a couple of weeks so all is not lost.