Entries this day: Before_Ogawamachi Molly_Mail Ogawamachi_with_Ami

Before Ogawamachi

9:07am JST Sunday 3 June 2007 (day 13584)

I was quite happy to hear the て-form of certain verbs this morning. Particularly する and 食べる

Molly Mail

Hey Molly

Can you keep a secret from Will?  Not like, an uh-oh-secret, but a hooray-secret.

- - - -

No prob.

Is is about Ultimate?

- - - -

Yes.  But, if by "about Ultimate" you mean about flying plastic discs,
then no, it's not about ultimate.

And, if by "Will" you thought I meant your husband, then no, not about Will.

But if by "Ultimate" you mean my marble track, and by Will, I secretly
meant Maggie, then yes, that is the secret topic of this email.

However, if by "marble track," you think the marble track I loaned to
Maggie already, then no, not my marble track.

But if by "marble track," you mean the one I've nearly finished in
Japan, then yes, my marble track.

Specifically, I want to give it to her as thanks for watching my stuff
for 4+ years.

And by give, I mean "hand deliver," with my hands, on July 19th, 2007.

Will you be available to pick me up from my dad's house that day?

----

Summary: I'm coming to the US for a month, and it's an Ultimate top
secret.  I Will surprise my brother because he did the same for me in
Japan a few years ago.

Plan:  Suzanne will get me from the airport to my dad's house on 18
July.  You get me to you-n-Maggie's area for dinner on 19 July.  Then
Maggie drives me to Suzanne's on the morning of 20 July.  Suzanne
drives me to Austin to see Fred.  From that point on, many cats will
be out of many bags, but until then, please keep it under your hat.
(of our core college group, including ultimate, you are the only one
who knows.)

  Love Love
   - Rob!

Ogawamachi with Ami

2:36am JST Monday 4 June 2007 (day 13585)

Today was awesome. Video is in progress.

11:29am JST Monday 4 June 2007 (day 13585)

So basically, we went to Ogawamachi to make traditional Japanese paper and ride a long roller-slide of the type used for boxes in a warehouse. Except this one was 200 meters long on the top of a small mountain.

On the 70 minute train ride from Ikebukero (on the Yamanote Line) to Ogawamachi, we snoozed a lot. At one point I realized I had made a foolish mistake of *not* bringing the photos we had taken recently at the プリクラ, basically a cutsey photo booth for girls, but a great way to commemerate great days with friends in Japan. I'm glad we were able to find one in Ogawamachi (I guessed correctly, twice), so we used those photos in some of the post cards.

Super happy to Ami for having figured out the bus schedule and locations and prices and stuff for the day. I brought her the research material (from the day I was introduced to Ogawamachi on the PB GET Challenge last month or so) and she did all the researchin'.

At this paper-makin' place, we were able to wander around and pick flowers and shizzle with which to decorate the paper; we hadn't been able to do that at the other place, perhaps because we were a group of about 30 and needed to save time: the flowers had been picked for us. Nice to wander around with Ami picking flowers in the lovely sunshine.

Actually, I was a little bit less inspired to make art this time, but I certainly enjoyed hanging out with Ami. I hope-plan to post the pics soon.

- - - -

Bus back to Ogawamachi station, and then on foot to the roller slide place. We got driving directions, it seems; but we made it there in about an hour (as opposed to the advertised 40 minutes on foot), including walking up a significant hill, though it was just a good start compared to Hakone.

I'm putting together a video, which will relay tens of thousands of words worth of writing, but still won't quite capture the humongous fun we had. I would like to have been there with some of my crazy friends (and no one else at the park).. Jason Fricke and I could spend a day there no problem.

There's basically a 200 meter long wire-frame tube with warehouse style rollers along the bottom, so we can roll down on cardboard sleds. There are four turns, which eat some of the speed, but my god is that thing fun. The latter 50+ meters has no outer wire tube, so we can stand up and slide down on our feet. ( Oh, wait, that sign means we should *not* stand up and ride... Ooops! ) The wire tube makes the whole remainder of the thing easily climbable; we could do daring mid air tube transfers, or set up a pony-express style mail (Francois) pickup system, etc etc etc

Ami and I went down once, and I knew I'd be there for a while. I asked if they could keep my bag at the top, and they were like "no way" (and after a bit of discussion, I think they were simply worried that I didn't understand I would have to come back to get it. Wha??) but then they were cool and I left my bag at the top of the slide the second time we went down. Ami was ready for a break after that, so I had her stay at the bottom which is when she got the footage of me sliding down on my feet (though it was super closeup so my feet aren't visible the whole time).

Then I dropped her off at the break area and went about 3 more times using the ticket-pack I had purchased. 1200 yen worth for 1000 yen.

It was during those slides that I got footage of Francois sliding between my feet and realized a good way to get a vid of him rolling down "by himself"

Filled my camera to within three seconds of full, and then went down three more times trying to get the dramatization of Francois falling over the edge of the slide. It took three takes to take it, but I was happy to support the stunt rabbit

(to be continued)