Hamamatsu - A weekend with Becky and thankfully no flying cockroaches!

[Elspeth's Deepresso coffee drink that made her VERY excited and yes, she kept the can!]

Last Sunday Elspeth and I caught the train from Kanayama station to Hamamatsu. It took about 2 hours and the train went through some really nice scenic areas. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Hamamatsu is a beautiful and big city (with great shopping, and FABULOUS food but more on that in a bit). Becky met us at the station and we decided that we'd have famous Hamamatsu eel for lunch.

Now Hamamatsu is known around Japan for its eel. When I told the Japanese teachers that I was going to Hamamtsu, they autmatically said - eat eel. Seriously folks, these skinny Japanese girls are experts on food! Elspeth is not really a fan of the eel and we had been joking about restaurant options on the train being eel, eel, rice, eel, eel and eggs, eel (Christopher - that was a Monty Python reference for you)(Spam, spam, eggs, spam, spam, spam...). Sure enough the restaurant served ONLY EEL. Luckily, it was SO good that even Elspeth liked it. I think that the freshness and the way it is prepared made a difference.

After lunch Becky showed us around Hamamatsu and we did a bit of window shopping. Then we hopped on a bus and went to her apartment. Now let me tell you a little story...During training we received a paper describing our apartments. Mine was slightly depressing - small, no closet space (a lie!) and no loft. Elspeth's was a little less depressing - small apartment, no closet space, sleeping loft. Becky's was unbelievable - 2 bedrooms, large closet, large kitchen! I was instantly jealous. When we left training I got an email from Becky describing an incident in her apartment. A large cockroach had been hiding out in the 'spare' bedroom (eeerr...her spare bedroom) and when she had tried to kill it with some bug spray it had flown up and into her face!! Instantly, I was glad I had my little box apartment. This weekend I got to stay at the 2-bedroom apartment and I must say it was really nice! She has two burners on her stove (cooking on one burner is ridiculous)(I am jealous) and I didn't see a single bug the entire time I was there! Her spare bedroom has a couch in it and we all decided that Becky's house is the party house.

We hung out for a bit and then walked to get some food/booze for the beach bbq that some of her co-workers and friends were having that night. We met Alana, the other foreign teacher at Hamamatsu and some of the Japanese co-workers. They drove us to the beach and it was so wonderful to feel the sand on my feet and hear the ocean. We ate lots of food, set off fireworks and talked. Great night.



Monday we slept in, ate suprisingly good pasta and then saw Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Oh, I must admit, I love Johnny Depp in those movies. He's so ridiculous and amazing. After the movie we all decided to get our hair cut, which was at first, kind of terrifying. The stylist was really nice though and spoke a little English. We were all happy with our cuts. We grabbed some wonderful sushi dinner at an izakaya and then Elspeth and I hopped on the train back to Nagoya.


The plan is to go back to Hamamatsu when the sea turtles hatch and you can help them get down the beach to the ocean. How cool is that?!?!?!