Shogun!

Woke up feeling wretched -- sore throat, sneezy, tired. But must. Push. On. We stopped at a drugstore and picked up allergy medicine (thank goodness for Mayu's electronic dictionary, which translated "antihistamine" for me -- of course, "histamine" turned out to be "hisu-ta-min" in Japanese) on the way to Okazaki, where Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu was born.

If you ever read James Clavell's Shogun, or at least seen the miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain (not as the shogun, but as the hapless westerner stranded in Japan), you sort of know who I'm talking about, because the ruthless Toranaga in the novel is based on Tokugawa Ieyasu, who conquered rival shoguns to create a 250-year-long Tokugawa family shogunate. He was freakin' brilliant. And scary -- Lonely Planet reports that he once had a wife and son executed for political purposes. According to Mayu, his nickname was Raccoon, because of the circles under his eyes. Well, you'd have circles under your eyes too, if you were keeping an iron grip on a nation.

We first went to a museum detailing Tokugawa's life, which, between the occasional English explanation and Mayu's translations, gave me a sense of who he was. We then went to the castle (reconstructed) where he was born. Outside the castle, a stone tablet was inscribed with "The Deified Ieyasu's Teachings on the Conduct of Life." I'll reproduce part of the English translation, which I rather liked, here:

"Man's life is like going on foot a long way bearing a heavy burden, with no need to hurry. Remember that absolute satisfaction is denied mortals, and you will contented. ... Be severe in criticizing yourself and be lenient with others. To fall short is better than to go too far. A man should know himself! Even the weight of a dewdrop bows down a blade of grass."

Yeah, not all of it makes sense, but the parts that do are cool.

As we checked out the exhibits in the castle, I started feeling more and more tired, the kind of exhausted fatigue that bodes ill. Hm. Maybe it's not allergies, I thought. Maybe I'm actually sick. Thus ensued another trip to another drugstore, where a nice pharmacist recommended something in a blue box that really did the trick in the long run, but in the short run -- well, let's just say that I'd really like to go back to the outdoor hot springs that Mayu took me to after the drugstore, because from what I remember, the scenery was beautiful, all pine trees and mountains, but all I could think of when I was soaking in the warm water was how much I'd like to go to sleep. And how utterly, utterly tired I was.

Luckily, after a few hours I started feeling more myself, and by the time we rolled into Nagoya (the castle and the springs were in towns an hour or so away), I was at least partly functional again. We went to a restaurant/bar place to meet a few people from school, among whom I was most excited to see Masaru, the Japanese chef I hung out with last summer. I last saw him in December, and since then haven't really kept in touch, but I was really happy to see him, and to meet his girlfriend again, a Korean-Japanese (Korean by descent, living in Japan).

Miyong, another Korean-Japanese who graduated with Curly last year from our language program, was also there with her Korean boyfriend, visiting for a few days, and we had a really nice time eating the wings that Nagoya is famous for, and chatting about this and that. Masaru is working as a chef in a hospital, making food for patients. His girlfriend is a nurse (at a different hospital, I think). He'd like to get married, but she doesn't want to rush things. He showed me a picture of him and his surfboard (on his camera phone, natch), and scrolled back to show me an old photo of him and KB, horsing around at our level 4 excursion to Suwon last year in the spring. I asked him if he still kept in touch with KB -- no.

We said goodbye around midnight, and I was really sad to see Masaru go. Who knows if I'll see him in this lifetime again, I said to Mayu as I watched him and his girlfriend cross the street and vanish. We are earnest, I believe, about meeting up again in five years as a reunion, the ragged group of us who shared class time together at one point or another in the past two years. But who knows where the next five years will take us?

Miyong and her boyfriend were still up for something after we said goodbye to Masaru, so we headed to a ramen shop and chowed down. After that, we headed to Don Quixote. You heard me. Don Quixote is a large chain store that sells everything from yukatas to cameras to clothes for the penis (no joke) to rice. Huge, messy, crowded, weird. I bought a hairdryer and a straight iron. Mayu bought a car air freshener in the shape of a black and red skull, and something so that she could play her CD player in her new used car. I forget what Miyong and her boyfriend bought. It was 2 am when we checked out.

Mayu, champ that she is, drove Miyong and her boyfriend home. She got us home to Toyota by 3:30 am or so. We went to sleep around 4.

Quite a productive day for a sick person.