Sentimental Rewind

Written March 12, 2006

Well, the essay for the contest has been e-mailed to the powers that be. Time: 8:51 a.m., 9 minutes before the deadline. I wouldn't say that it was my finest effort, but I wrote from the heart, and it was the best I could do considering my recent battles with writer's block and procrastination.

Yesterday morning, I awoke to find a message from Shun, a guy with a million megawatt smile and a heart of 24K gold. He apologized for not contacting me for such a long time. I wrote back and told him that he didn't need to apologize for anything and promised that if I won first prize, I would donate the 100,000 yen (around US $850) to the kids in Phi Phi, the inspiration for my essay.

Of course, when Megu picked me up at noon, my essay was only 2/3 done and I had a full day of activities scheduled.

The day started off with lunch at Mos Burger. It was Mos' birthday, so they gave all customers a cute little potted plant kit as a thank you present. Their katsu curry rice burger was AWESOME. It hit the spot after I spent most of Saturday sleeping and barely eating (I crunched on a dry mini-chicken ramen around 5 PM as I was IMing Shigeki...healthy, huh?)

After that, we made a brief appearance at the Hamada Children's Museum to attend the International Animation festival. We watched three short films from Russia. The Russian version of Winnie the Pooh was interesting--Pooh looked more like a Boris to me, and I couldn't understand a word he or Piglet were saying, but the storyline remained the same...Pooh getting into a mess of trouble while trying to get honey from a giganormous tree. Before hitting the road, we sampled the Museum Cafe's halo halo, a dessert from the Philippines which was a mix of vanilla ice cream, black tapioca, crushed ice, and mixed fruit.

From there, we headed east to Ohda to visit Ryo at the Mitsubishi dealership. We weren't sure if he was working because we wanted to surprise him and didn't call ahead to check his schedule for the week. When we arrived at the dealership, he was out on a sales call, but one of the other staff phoned him for us. We were offered apple tea and nikuman or anman (steamed buns filled with pork or sweet bean paste) as we waited, but as we were still full from lunch and the halo halo, we just had the tea.

Not long after, Ryo returned to base and gave us each a mini die-cast version of the new Mitsubishi i, the same toy he had given me for my birthday about two weeks ago. Then Megu decided to test drive the limited edition Colt and the i. It's a cute little car, but at around US $15K, it was a bit too much for our budgets. Unfortunately, he was on duty until 8, so he couldn't join us for our next two destinations--the hot rock sauna and Kukai, a ramen shop.

The hot rock sauna was amazing! The fee was about US$10, but we were given what looked like hospital scrubs to wear, towels and a half-liter of water with which to keep ourselves hydrated. Changing into the scrubs and grabbing comic books to pass the time, we spread out the bath towels on top of heated cement blocks. We then spent the next hour or so following this rotation: 5 minutes lying belly down, 10 minutes belly up, 5 minutes in the resting room, and so on.

Unfortunately, with snow in the forecast, the 5 minutes in the resting room went from 5 to 3 to 0 because it was just too chilly compared to the sauna room. After the two cycles, I didn't think I was sweating that much, but the third cycle really kicked the sweat glands into high gear. I didn't think I would be able to survive the last 10 minutes on my back. I was glad for the shower in the locker room, but I hear it's better for the skin to let the sweat rest for a while on the surface ("nature's cream"). No, thanks!

By the time we left the sauna, it was about 7:30. Ryo had recommended a restaurant for us to eat at, but it seemed like they were having a private dinner party, so Megu took me to her favorite ramen shop in Ohda. Boy, was the roast pork GOOD, but I didn't have my camera, so I couldn't get a photo of it.

When we got back to Hamada at 9, we decided to stop in at Cruise for a cup of fresh-brewed coffee. I've developed a dislike of canned coffee, and the coffee at Cruise smells so good, as does their curry, but we were still stuffed. When I got home at a bit after 10, I realized I still had to complete my essay. I knew it was risky to go to bed and try to wake up early to finish it, but I was too tired to put together any coherent thoughts.

Surprisingly, when the alarm went off at 3 AM, I wasn't too groggy, and after turning on some peppy background music, I started the conclusion of my essay. It all come together around 6 AM, and while I normally like to ask friends to proofread for me, this time, I decided to trust my own editing and let it fly when I got to school this morning.

I even had time to snap some photos of the SNOW! WTF! It's March 12th! I guess I should be glad that I didn't take my winter coat and scarf to the cleaners yet.