I just got back from my first trip to Niigata shi, the Big City. My guides were Tsuyoshi Watanabe and Naomi Tanabe -- two fellow office workers at Maki's Educational Board Office, who happen to have a lot of patience for a fellow with a very limited grasp of the local language. I spent last evening gathering some potentially useful phrases in hopes that they might save the day if I was in trouble. But my ability to see the future device ran out of batteries early on and I was cast into the abyss...
Anyway, we met across the street from my apartment at Old Faithful, a.k.a. '7-11.' Tsuyoshi drives a peppy little Mini Cooper -- it had a navigational system equipped with a television signal and DVD capabilities -- RIGHT NEXT TO THE STEERING WHEEL. I'll give him a large amount of credit for being able to handle that thing very well. Being able to drive in this country aside, if the Mets were on TV, I would be in a heap of trouble -- but I digress...
We headed off to Niigata promptly at 10 AM. It's pretty much a straight shoot from Maki on the 116 -- remember that if you're ever driving locally, OK? (^ ^).
After 30 minutes or so, I looked up from my trusty electric dictionary and noticed we had left the seemingly endless rice fields of Maki and entered Niigata, with its high rises and golf ranges. Moments later we had parked the car and ventured towards the train station -- I should have no problems navigating the schedule...
Well... Maybe just a few...
Thankfully, Naomi secured a schedule for me which was pretty detail-oriented. So after a few more beads of sweat, we ventured onward in search of an acoustic guitar -- a much needed tool for the classroom.
But first we had to traverse Bandai Bridge, the site of many summer festivals filled with dancers and bearers of lanterns. My two guides were kind enough to pose for the following shot:
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