We're so eager, it's exploding! (literally)

Aizu has been getting some rain as of recent. There was a typhoon that passed over the southern portion of Honshu, although the Tohoku region got some remnants of the precipitation. It was especially raining on Thursday, which to be honest, was the worst possible day for it to happen. That was because I went camping that day.

Well, not really.

The reason I went camping was because the wind ensemble had scheduled a slot at an overnight camp for that day. However, even selecting this date was a challenge. Between outside work and people's travels, it's hard to agree upon a date where everyone, or almost everyone, can make it. Even I've been having trouble trying to arrange available dates, due to the batshit insane license conversion process. It's been very hard for us to schedule full ensemble practice at fixed dates, but now that the school festival is approaching, everyone is starting to make the time.

Only six people went camping Thursday night, myself included. And due to a scholarship ceremony I had to attend the next morning, I couldn't stay overnight, which was a bummer. However, that did not mean that I was with the group for a short amount of time. We actually played a gig earlier that day. Again, only six people, myself included, were able to attend. (One of those people actually had to leave, but another person showed up for the camp.)

The gig was at an assisted living facility outside the city center. The building's layout was a bit cramped, but we were able to fit all of our gear, and all of the tenants, in the same room. I played bari sax in a sax trio with two other members, and then swapped for my tenor sax as the other three members (French horn, bass clarinet, and drums) came on. The last time the group played a gig, I had an instrument introduction written on my iPad, but the recent iOS update wiped out my notes. Bummer. Another member filled in for me there. All of us played three songs together, and then played one of them again as an encore because the audience asked for one.

It basically says "members of the University of Aizu Wind Ensemble."

As we were packing up to make the trip back to campus, some other entertainers were about to go on. The first woman wore a kimono with a face mask on the side of her head and carried a pair of wooden blocks. I had no clue what she was doing in there, but I got to see two other entertainers get ready. Actually, I recognized that one of those entertainers was dressed for yasugi-bushi (安来節), which is a folk song and dance ritual that involves dancing with a basket and putting a coin over your nose. No, really.

After we brought all of our gear back, we parted ways so that the others could get some supplies. I ran some errands and then went to the campground, which was over in Aizumisato. Google Maps took me up a side mountain road, which meant that it was steep, narrow, and wet. I actually arrived twenty minutes before the original meeting time, which was then immediately extended by an hour. The additional break allowed me to relax a bit, and take in the incredible view while it wasn't raining.

Aizumisato in the distance

After everyone else had arrived, the park ranger took us to the log cabin nearby, where the others would be staying the night. It was one of two tatami-lined rooms with a shared kitchen. Outside on the front steps was going to be the location of our barbecue. Kaneta-san, another master's student part of the wind ensemble, got out a tarp from his car, and we used nylon to suspend it over the fire pit.

We used two small boxes of charcoal and a "starter tray" that night. We started out with two piles of charcoal: the tray on its own, and then a pile of already lit charcoal on a concrete block that Kaneta-san placed in the pit. To get the latter pile burning, we had to fan the pile to give the fire some oxygen. It took a while to get that pile going, but after a while it was starting to come along.

One of the others was constantly working that fan on the pit. The charcoal was really starting to get hot, but because it was cold and wet, we needed to keep going. However, I noticed that he may have been overdoing it a bit, and before I could say something, the charcoal exploded. Charcoal, and concrete, flew everywhere. Needless to say, he had to take a break at that point. (We setup that pile again on top of that block, but the charcoal exploded again after a pan was sitting over it for a few minutes. We ended up taking that concrete block, now with a giant crater about an inch deep, out of the fire and merging the piles together.)

My ears started ringing after that second explosion.

The entire evening was pretty lively. Dinner was barbecue beef and pork, bacon, baked potatoes, and yakisoba. It was my first time trying yakisoba, and it actually tasted pretty good. (I also tried, at the insistence of the others, Japanese mayonnaise. As it turns out, Japanese mayonnaise tastes sweet enough to the point where it tastes like mustard.) I ended up going angry gaijin on some moths the size of my fist wandering around the campsite and freaking out the others. Everyone [of legal age] was having liquor, but because I had to drive back that night, I couldn't have any. However, the others had kept me in mind while shopping and got me an extra-tall can of Asahi for later.

As dinner wound down and we were sitting around the fire, we started talking about cars. Kaneta-san told me that people in Japan like importing foreign cars, especially with large displacements, because the extra power and torque available on demand makes them feel cool. Ironically enough, I said, people in the states import smaller Japanese cars and sedans for the same reason. I took them through my car history; I showed them the picture of me sitting on top of my 3 at Mount Washington and standing on top of my Blazer during a snowstorm three years ago. I didn't have a picture of me in my Explorer, so I showed them a press photo. I told them that it was a 5.0 L V8, which they thought was cool, but then I had to explain the actual power output, which took away some of the cool factor. Regardless, we learned quite a lot about cars and each other.

Summer vacation is [finally] coming to an end. The Aizu Festival is this weekend, and I'll be sure to check it out. I also register for classes on Monday, and I have to make trips this coming week to the driver's license center (*exhales painfully*) and the immigration office. Then it's back to school the following week. But with the school festival coming up in two weeks, there's barely any time to rest.

And with that, life goes on.

-wp