re: Stacks

So I'm finally getting around to posting about 網野!

This is a gig that ドン does every year.  It's this beach clean-up weekend event thing at 琴引浜 in northern 京都 called はだし, meaning Barefoot.  Let me tell you, this beach is beautiful, but there's a lot of trash that washes up from off-shore fishing, shipping, Korea and China.

The weekend began Friday evening.  Jen and I went to class, raced home, packed, and biked out to Sunday practice place, 西陣.  Biking with heavy bags is super hard.  It's this precarious balancing act that tips every time you turn a corner... or hit a bump... or shift your weight.  Somehow we managed.

At 西陣 we met up with ひらく who showed us how the way to bike to Ritsumeikan.  It's not too far actually.  We parked our bikes there, then walked to the parking lot of 和風さと restaurant.  We were some of the first ones there.  にゃんちゅ was our driver for the evening.  Once everyone else arrived, we loaded up and headed out.  During the ride we got to talk with some of the other new members.  にっしー、ひらく、えっちゃん、and 二号 all rode with us.

The drive took a good 3 hours.  We stopped once for food at 天下一品 (otherwise known as 天一), this ramen place that has super good really thick broth.  It was about midnight when we finally arrived.

Some of the older members had gone earlier to clean up the place and set up.  When we came in they made some more food and we had a bit to drink.  I kinda knocked out after a bit because I was super tired, but there were quite some antics going on.  ひらく、nicknamed ガンダム because he's built like a freakin Gundam, ended up getting super drunk after like a couple beers (surprisingly light-weight) and sleeping in the closet.

Later on that night everyone else arrived and the antics continued.  It was really quite fun, even though I was dying.  The room we were in was really just one giant tatami-mat room.  They just laid out a ton of futons and everyone just slept where they wanted.  When people started to crash, the partiers moved to one side of the room.

The next day we woke up early, had breakfast, cleaned up the beds, and walked down to the event.  The ladies helped stuff bags and collate pamphlets for the event coordinators, while the guys went down on the beach to set up the stage for the concert.

Before lunch we registered for the beach run.  You could do a 2K (all in the sand), 4K (also all in the sand), or 8K (part sand, part mountain).  Jen and I were the only ones to register for the 4K from ドン.  I won't say it was a mistake, but we really should have listened to にゃんちゅ when he said it was super しんどい。

At any rate, we grabbed a light lunch from the やたい set up in the parking area.  There was all kinds of good food, but we didn't want to be running on a full stomach.

That turned out to be a good idea since I felt quite close to vomiting what little I did eat at about the 800M mark.  Running in sand is the worst idea ever.  Jen and I were the last people for the entire race.  One of the event coordinators ran with us giving us tips and cheering us on.  This guy was probably in his late 60's and super out-pacing us.

We ended up coming in last in the 4K group, but within our subdivision of women ages 18-30 we were first and second...which makes sense seeing as we were the only ones in that division!

Our prize for coming in first and second was a box of freshly caught fish and a backpack.  Then on top of that they had a raffle.  Jen ended up winning the biggest prize: a 10kilo bag of really expensive rice.  (She still hasn't eaten it... I don't think she knows where to start!)

That evening we went to a nearby onsen to clean up and relax.  We went in two groups, so when everyone got back, we all shared a meal of curry.  Felt like family.

The next day was the same morning routine, but when we went down to the beach, it was to pick up trash.  We found some random stuff.  I found a lightbulb, Barbie arm, and full glass bottle of water.  Jen found a pair of glasses.  There was a lot of trash on that beach.  Trash like you wouldn't believe.

Lunch was at the やたい again.  We had some 取り放題焼きそば (all you can carry Yaki Soba).  It was super cheap and super delicious.  We ate while watching the concert.  It was 4 hours long.  They had a mega line-up-- ドン was amongst them.

That evening we drove home.

I never got to go swimming, but that's okay.  I got to dip my feet and got kinda tan (even if it was a farmer's tan), which was fun.  I missed the beach.

It was an awesome weekend.  I feel like we got to talk to some of the other members we don't usually talk to--broke down some walls.

I also learned that I never ever want to run a 4K in the sand again.

Good weekend, for sure!

Love until later,

Caitlin D.