Judy and the Dream of Horses

Being an American, I find it a little strange that the day before American Thanksgiving is a national holiday in Japan, suspiciously named "Labor Thanksgiving Day". I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth though, so I hatched a plan to drive out to Shichinohe to finally pay a visit to Mr. Leo Sylvester (pictured below with two of his students and a coach from his high school) on this auspicious occasion.
Leo lives in an apartment complex with two other ALTs (Eric and Carlo) as well as a bunch of other teachers from his high school who all seemed cool. Luckily for me, I found out that Japanese people spend their days off the same way that we Americans do: washing their cars and grilling up some meat. Natch!

Before the BBQ, we headed out to the Shichinohe Jusco to pick up some foodstuffs. Of course, we also perused the selection of Engrish clothing and found some real gems. Leo's visiting girlfriend Annie actually ended up buying the top one, it was just too good to pass up.


Unlike in the states, in Japan Kit Kats come in a variety of unusual flavors. Matt prides himself on being something of a strange Kit Kat connoisseur and recommended the wine flavor to us. Unfortunately, it just tasted like white chocolate with a hint of bitterness. It was no melon Kit Kat, that's for sure.

After the barbecue, we decided to go down to the Shichinohe art museum which was supposedly playing host to a huge Astroboy exhibition. Unfortunately, after paying the $5 admission fee we realized that the exhibit had since been replaced with an exhibition of crappy children's drawings. Great.

One of the drawings on display was of none other than Toby, a fellow Aomori ALT. You might not be able to read it in the photo but the title of the work is Yasashi ("kind") Toby Sensei. The kid did an excellent job of capturing Toby's mullet, if you ask me.

Perhaps the only interesting thing about the museum was that it was seemingly designed to be earthquake-resistant. Look closely at the lamps below and you'll see what I mean.

Outside of the museum, there was a park full of life-sized, plastic horses. Everywhere we went in Shichinohe, there were pictures and statues of horses, so obviously they've got something to do with the history of the town. We didn't see a single living horse, however.


One thing that's always upset me about Japan is the dire lack of turkey. I don't think I've ever seen any sort of turkey product, which is a real shame. The end result is that when it comes to cold cuts, your only choice is the Budweiser of cold cuts: ham. I did find out though that if deli-sliced human hands is your thing, Shichinohe's got you covered.