Yamagata-ken

When Pam and Deccy asked if I wanted to join them on a road trip to Yamagata-ken it quite honestly did not take too much persuasion to get me to say yes... I would have been doing nothing otherwise. So we headed out from my place - the day after Ros's bday party - fairly early in the morning. SOME people (who will remain nameless, right Rosalind?) almost physically shuddered at the thought of Pam, Deccy and me in a car together, thinking that there would constant chatter and brutal vying for "talk" time between Pam and me, for the duration of the trip... I must say, that even though our journey to Yamagata took (slightly - ahem) longer than anticipated, it was a totally cool roadtrip! Good conversation and about 7 hours of worth of 6 Degrees of Separation, which kept us sane and - surprisingly enough - quiet, as we contemplated how nantaka actor was connected to nantaka actress/actor within six movies or less... well we had to be quiet because Deccy got all twitchy every time Pamela and I deliberated out loud and disturbed his thought processes.

Yamagata itself is pretty enough, we stayed at a campsite close to Zao onsen (uh... is that Zao onsen campsite then?! I can't remember the name of the place), I only remember that reality for me set in then, as I realised that we would be CAMPING (I'd known it all along, but it didn't seem real to me until it got dark and Deccy started talking about pitching the tent), in the WOODS and that there would be spiders everywhere, but that we would not even be able to see them in the dark! Now, those of you who know me, know that I have a serious case of arachnophobia! I can't stand the hairy, 8-legged, bastards! Big (and they generally are HUGE in Japan), small, skinny, fat, they're all worth a screech if they come within a metre of me! Unfortunately, once I let on that I was afraid of spiders (okay, it was fairly obvious by the way I jumped and screamed everytime something brushed against me), Deccy and Pam started acting like total kids by going "SPIDER!" at random times, just to see me panic! Normal people out there are probably thinking it's a cruel thing to do... as a fellow normal person, I concur - it was a bastarding thing to do! Sighhhhhh... Creepy spiders aside, after pitching the tent we drove into Yamagata-shi in search of some nightlife. We went to sober (GASP) karaoke (I know many of you are wondering what the fuck sober karaoke is... it can be done guys and it can be as much fun as fall-down drunk karaoke)... The following morning we went to Lina Land, a theme park that should be called "Kitty-chan Land" it was so filled with Kitty paraphernalia. The trip back to Niigata was much shorter than the trip to Yamagata which is a good thing, cos we were pretty knackered by the end of it all! I had a great time... but I kept thinking in an Irish accent for 24 hours after that (bizarre)...

Piccies for your pleasure...

The Paparazzi Shot

Bringing out the frustrated musician in me

The following bizarre pics were taken in the morning at the campsite - while Deccy was asleep on the floor of the handicapped toilet (it was too hot in the tent)

Deccy's "what the fuck are you just sitting there for?" glare, as they battle to fold the tent (I was documenting the process for posterity)

Lina Land (aka Rina Rand-o)

The Japanese peace sign (don't you smile for the camera! Don't you dare!)Aghast at the thought of going on the tumble-dryer ride

My new friends, Jim and Bob