Kinki e ikimasho!

This weekend I went out to the Kansai region to meet up with some of the Stonewall kids. Here are the people I met: Doug, Rachel, and Sam. The four of us stayed by the lake in a ryokan-type setting, wind-surfed, kayaked in a gentle rain, went skinny dipping, ate snacks, drank Chu-hais and vodka on a deck, and talked until late hours. It was great to meet them, I had alot of fun.


This weekend, I went to Biwako (Lake Biwa) and had an awesome time. I met some really cool people and tried some new water sports including windsurfing and kayaking. I was not very successful with windsurfing, until the very end when I finally figured out how to keep my balance long enough to raise the mast and hold it without tipping over, while waiting for some wind to come and blow me somewhere.



By that time, though, our instructor grew bored of waiting for me to pose for the perfect picture.

I had often wondered if I had lost the will to seek good clean fun. You know, the type of fun that does not include an ice chest full of beer and/or other chemical forms of mood enhancers, and it has now been confirmed that I can indeed enjoy nice wholesome actitivies, and yes, even physically exhausting activities without the side thought, "you know what this activity is missing...? Beer..."
Even though I had my Enkai Friday night, and didn't begin my train excursion until about 11pm, and finally made it to Kyoto just fine by 10am, then onto the lake in one terribly exhausted piece. In a train station on the way to Kyoto, I saw this poster that cracked me up, expecially the part about comparing smoking in public to farting in public.

After windsurfing, we celebrated our nice day of activity at dinner by drinking Chuhai's, greyhounds, and ume wine, eating bar-b-que it yrself beef, fish and veggies, taking steamy hot showers with excellent water pressure, sitting in our pajamas on the deck overlooking the moonlit lake, drinking and sharing fun stories, ended by a surprisingly warm naked midnight dip into the lake.
It had been raining all week, and stopped from Saturday until Sunday afternoon, curiously right before we were to bring our kayaks in and have lunch. If that wasn't a sign suggesting this weekend was meant to rock, then i don't know shit....

PS. I am severely achy and scratched up from my continuous climbs upon that windboard and falls back into the lake. Also, kayaking appears to be an excellent source of exercise that has my entire back and stomach area all pissed off at me right now. I can't make any movements that doesn't hurt some part of my body. This is pretty interesting because it allows me to figure out what muscles do what during normal activities like walking, picking up a bag, going up stairs, settingly into bed, riding yr bike since only certain areas will feel sore as I do these normal everyday activities. This has motivated me to begin a real exercise plan that isn't directed at my mission to become healthy, but more at my mission to be better at these random sports activities that I come into contact with here. I want to be able to do stuff, and do them well.