A day in Kashima, Ibaraki

I never knew where this place was before or even that it existed. But I should have since one of my best friends lives there. I had to get up early today and since I slept late last night because I had just finished the Alchemist. I liked it. It wasn’t as powerful or as moving as I had thought that it would be, but still a good book and I’m glad that I followed the omen to actually read it. It was the only thing that I have really accepted from the “other” person who’s on my shit list now. She’s been a psycho stalker for years now, and well, she’s psycho.

I got up at 7:30am hoping to leave by 8:30am, but actually left around 9am because I hadn’t prepared anything to go on my little trip.

I went to Tokyo station and got really confused with my friend’s instructions. Things were starting to fall apart here and I was really wondering if I’d be stuck somewhere in the middle of no where because that’s where I’d be heading. The instructions said to go to Nihonbashi exit to the bus terminal, but that’s only for arrivals. I figured it out, with the help of the JR person. I found the right bus, I thought because my friend said to go to Itako station, but I couldn’t find an Itako station on the map, but I saw a Suigo Itako. That happened to be the right one, but I didn’t know that for sure until about 83 minutes later. I was reading a new book today; I started on The Richest Man in Babylon. It’s pretty good so far, but the English is funny since its way old English and I’m not used to it yet.

The first place we went to was the port. There was a minato park tower that overlooked the port. I mean no one was there except for the person who took the money from us. CFri paid for me, but I didn’t want her to. She said that she was happy that I came to visit her.

After that we went to Coco’s restaurant. They have a very large menu. I decided to go with the Fried Rice. It was pretty good and interesting how they made it.

Then after lunch we went driving around. We went to look at her house that she’s lived in all her life. Then we went to the Soccer Stadium for the Kashima Antlers. They are very famous and ranked number 1 in the J-League this year. I learned many things about the team, more than I ever thought that I would ever need to know. I learned that Zico came from the Antlers, first as a player and then as a Coach. Right now, Zico is really famous in Japan because he’s the coach for the national soccer team. Pretty impressive if you ask me.

Then we went to look at her high school, even though it was closed. Then we drove around some more and saw her junior high school and elementary school. We just drove by, not really stopping to talk to anyone or anything.

We drove around a little more and then stopped by Kashima shrine. It was pretty big. I enjoyed it and the trees there were pretty big, which reminded me about the Sharks in Okinawa in the aquarium because they were huge too. I really liked it, even though I’ve been to many shrines in Japan, there was something different about this one. They also had deer in a caged area, which made me feel sorry for them.

Then we drove around some more and stopped by Cheerio, which is a little shopping center for Kashima. It’s like one of the cities biggest mall. And in the middle of it was a mini Zico museum. I had to take a picture since it was the most interesting thing there was in Kashima by far.

Then we went around the mall talking about places we want to go to around the world and where it would be nice to travel to. There was a JTB store in the mall so we were browsing through the magazines.

We drove around some more and decided to go to the beach. We stayed there for a little bit after parking on the side of the road, not sure if it was legal, but it was only for a short time, so it was ok. The beach was very nice because there wasn’t anyone there. It was nice and much cooler than the rest of the day.

Then we drove around some more and couldn’t think of what to do next. We decided to go to Kimisu, which is a neighboring town and found a game center. We played two games, or rather, I played two games, and she only played one. We played the Taiko drum game and I played Time Crisis 3. I almost beat the first level, but I didn’t want to feed the machine anymore money. I only had to continue once, which is pretty good doing it solo.

At this time I heard a bunch of fireworks which was coming from the next area. It was big enough that we could only see a little bit of it. I’m sure it was pretty far, even though the sound was sounding like it was somewhere near. Then she drove me back to Suigo Itako bus station. We sat and talked for a little bit longer till the bus came at 8:20pm. I was reading the Richest Man in Babylon again. I got much further than I thought I would and since the English is pretty funny, I’m surprised that I’ve adjusted to it.

I got back to Tokyo station around 9:45pm and was able to catch a commuter rapid train on the Tokaido line to Ofuna. It was pretty fast since I got to Ofuna at 10:30pm. I grabbed dinner at Yoshinoya, since I wanted to get home quick and get into the shower. Then I came here to type this up. Even in the middle of no where, I was able to have fun and see many things. I’m glad that I was invited to see it, and I’m really glad that I went.

I also realized that it would be better to go on a trip with a friend, and not go alone since it would be cheaper. But I don’t really have a choice unless one of you would like to come with me to somewhere. I also have to remember Obon week is coming up so tickets will be extremely expensive and ridiculously over priced.

I also realized that I’ve known my best friend for about 3 years now. She’s only 21 years old, which makes her very young. I began to forget many things, which is something I deem as very scary.