Hirosaki.

Early as always, we wake up and load the van swiftly. Breakfast this morning comes from the convenience store; we are on the move.

While we are driving, we make our way through the beautiful mountains of Aomori prefecture, and eventually pop out into the countryside. 

One thing that you should know about northern Japan is that it is famous for it's apples. And due to this fact, apple orchards cover the landscape of the rural areas.

We made no stops along the way - we were on a mission. The tournament had already started, and we wanted to make sure that we arrived there with enough time to practice.

Slowly, the buildings began to rise up more frequently as we neared, and the sights became familiar as we drove deeper and deeper into the city. 

Until finally, we were in front of the tournament grounds, needing a place to park. Now, normally this may cost some cash, and we might look for another place to park, but Masahiro just used his superstar status and said that he was attending as a guest of the tournament. Resulting in us getting a free prime parking spot near the front entrance. Life is good.

It is eleven o'clock. The senior and junior classes are playing right now, so I have got some good time to practice; maybe until around two thirty or so.

I feel horribly underprepared this year.. but then again I feel the same way every year. Perhaps that's just how it's always going to be.

Before I sit down to practice, to my surprise, I run into another gaijin. His name is Dimitris and he is greek. I've seen him on YouTube before, so it was cool that he managed to make it out all the way to Japan. Also, while we are standing around talking, another gaijin walks up and introduces himself. Now, at this point, I am really surprised, because this is just unprecendented. The second gaijin's name is Josh, and he is living in Japan doing graduate work for his academics. The craziest part of the situation is that he is also playing in the tournament! That makes for even more foreigners this year! Wow! Things are changing my friends!

Anyway, after the meeting and greeting is over, I plop down, set my kitchen timer, and start warming up for the stage.

The time passes quickly, but I am used to the routine by now. I make it to the backstage just at the right time and do my best not to be nervous.

Fending off my nerves comes fairly easily though; maybe it's due to my last two years experience? As each player ends their performance, I move another seat closer to my turn in the spotlight.

My turn is up, my will is strong, and my resolve is unwavering.

The rest is history.

[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u--ki9-XVCA ]

When I strike the final notes, a wave of relief washes over me. One down, one to go.

Once I'm finished playing, I put my shamisen away (not wanting to play it at all for awhile) and go for a walk in the park. What's cool this time of year in Japan, is that it's "Golden Week"; in which many fesitvals are going on around the country. In in Hirosaki particularly, the Sakura Matsuri is important because the park that the festival is held in is famous for all of its cherry blossoms. To celebrate during this festival, many little shops and carts are set up all around the park, and it's a lot of fun to check them all out. There's lots of food stands selling Takoyaki, Yakisobi, and other grab and go foods, as well as games.

Masahiro joined me on my walk, as well as Machida (a shamisen maker, who is a friend of ours) and his two kids. It was especially funny because his kids seemed oddly entertained by me. I don't if it was because they thought I was cool or just because there was a novelty of me being a foreigner. Either way, we went for a walk.

Masahiro wanted some Takoyaki especially, so we went out of way to find a stand that met his standards. Eventually we found one that had fresh, whole octopi, which I suppose indicates

 delicious to Masahiro, because that is what we went for. Now, personally, I wouldn't have chosen them, but he bought some for me, so, as it was only polite, I dug in. They were sort of gross, but they didn't taste bad at all. Eat a whole octopus dipped in batter definitely is not something we do in America very often.

We ate a couple more things, strolled around, played some games, and then went back to tournament to see the results for C class (me), and to see B class play (which Mike was in).

The results were, that I didn't win. Sigh.

Looks like it'll have to be next year.

We spent a few hours hanging out around the park, and waited for the results of Mike's class. Unfortunately, it looks like neither of us practiced enough this year but then we eventually 

packed up our things and went out to eat at our favorite after-the-tournament dinner locale: Bikuri Donkey! (Bikuri means "Surprise"... don't try to make sense out of it).

Along with Machadi and his family, we also invited another shamisen player that was at the tournament, who we know from YouTube. He had actually ridden his scooter all the way up from Tokyo to be there. It took him six days to travel. I don't know how he managed it wtih a shamisen in his lap the whole way.

After dinner we checked into our capsule hotel, tired and beaten, but with high hopes for the day ahead.

One of the cool things about Japan, a lot of the hotels you check into have onsens; which are hot spring bath houses. This hotel in particular happens to have one, and every year we always go to this hotel and kick it in their onsen. It's very relaxing.

After that we grabbed a snack at the bar and went to bed.