Ohayo Gaijin

Home Again

2008-03-14T05:38:00.002+09:00

Lisa and I have returned to Florida as of August, 2007. We are Preparing to welcome our first child into the world in August 2008. We are working hard on graduate programs and such. Who knows where we'll end up when we finish that! Thank you t oeveryone who was a loyal reader of the blog. It was a real joy to post to it. We may have some updates on things to come, but for now, this blog is dormant. Feel free to email us if you have questions, requests or comments.

BIG UPDATE!

2007-07-03T15:37:00.001+09:00

Lisa and I were on TV over the weekend! We entered the Ito Tub Race on July 1st. Every year, the city venerates its river by sending hapless tourists and locals downstream in tubs made from halved sake barrels. Since i arrived in Ito, I have been dying to do this! Well, the day finally arrived on Sunday, and so down the river we went. Little did we know that the Shizuoka news channel was there taping our voyage. They got some footage, and reported on it in their "Around Shizuoka This Weekend" news segment. I ripped the video from their website and I proudly submit it to you for your amusement. FYI, we will be updating this entry with more pictures and footage later, so keep checking back.

Kyoto--The Bryan, John, and Amy Trip, Part 2

2007-06-27T22:55:00.000+09:00

Part 1 is here.
After the Tsukiji experience, the five of us boarded a Shinkansen bound for Kyoto. It was a beautiful sunny day and we got some great glimpses of Mt. Fuji on the way there. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Kyoto. It was nice, but the service was more akin to American than Japanese, which made it feel like not such a nice place. We did, however, have some pretty fun poker games in the evenings we stayed there. They had a full grocery store in the basement, so we would go down and buy a few beers, then sit in the lobby playing Texas Holdem all night. Good times!
On our first night there, we went for Indian food in downtown Kyoto. The first thing that struck me about Kyoto was that even though the city grid is laid out more clearly than Tokyo, public transportation left something to be desired. They have a subway/rail system, but it doesn't go to all parts of the city, and the stops can be quite far from each other. So we ended up doing a lot of walking.
The next day, we woke up early and got some shots of the sunrise over Kyoto. This was also the day that a 7.3 Richter earthquake hit near Kanazawa, About 300 Km from Kyoto. We felt the quake in our 6th floor hotel room. It shook us a little, but nothing really moved. Needless to say, we were freaked out since we were on the 6th floor, and the escape stairs in the hotel were a little difficult to navigate. Anyway, we went for breakfast and then decided to get our walk on all over Kyoto. We took a taxi to Kyoto station and began to look for sights. Unfortunately, I led the gang on a bit of a detour due to the fact that I misread the map of the station area. Once we got our bearings back, however, we found many of the historic sights in the city.
Kyoto is the historic capital city where the Emperor lived. Much later, he moved to Tokyo, but many of the castle areas and temples are still intact. One of the first stops on our walking tour was Sanjusan Gendo, where emperor Go-Shirakawa had his retirement villa built in the 12th century. This particular emperor was politically savvy. He retired from his reign, but retained a great deal of political power from behind the scenes at Sanjusan Gendo. Here are a few shots of the temple grounds:

They Didn't let us take photos inside the temple, but the inner area is impressive. There are hundreds of statues of the godd(ess) Kannon and also some statues of other gods and bodhisatvas famous in Japanese Buddhism.
The next stop on our walking tour was Gion, the historic Geisha district of Kyoto. In old times, Geisha were trained in many places, but now, the only major school remaining is in Gion. On our way there, we found some interesting historic sites as well, including this pagoda:
In the foreground are some decorations left over from the Girls' Day Matsuri (festival). They are representative of babies, and adorn the homes of many people around the day of the festival (March 3). The area surrounding this pagoda was chock full of ancient sites. We walked up this street to the pagoda itself and then wound around toward Gion, which took us through a lovely park near a shrine (note: in Japan, Shrines are always Shinto, and Temples are always Buddhist, but Buddhism and Shinto overlap a great deal). We saw a few people making wishes at a Jinja, which I captured on video:

On our way around through the streets, we caught glimpse of our first Maiko. Maiko are apprentice Geisha, and many tourists spend time trying to run them down to take their picture. The Maiko do not deliberately avoid being photographed, but their apprenticeship has them running from class to class and trying to make it to various engagements, so they are often seen hurrying (as quickly as possible in their full kimono) through the streets of Gion. These two were simply enjoying a trip to the temple nearby, and we caught them getting off of a rickshaw:

Later that day, when we arrived in Gion, I chased down another Maiko. I spotted her at the same time as an older Japanese woman, and we both ran after her together. As she rounded a corner, I shouted "Sumimasen!" (excuse me), but the Maiko did not turn around. The Japanese woman looked at me and emphatically motioned for me to call her again (she was too polite to raise her voice, but was happy to have a Gaijin nearby who could be rude for her). So I shouted again and the Maiko turned around. I bowed and asked her "Photo, onegaishimasu?" She looked serenely at me and held up her index finger, nonverbally telling me I was allowed only one photo. So I snapped away, as did the Japanese lady next to me:
That night, John and I went back to Gion and saw a Geisha show that was designed to display the ancient cultural heritage of Japan. There was an exhibition of tea ceremony, in which John volunteered to participate. Here's a shot of him drinking his O-cha (green tea):

Additionally, They had two dance exhibitions and a drama exhibition, along with a traditional puppet show that reenacted an ancient story in Japan about lovers separated by family obligations. The best part, in my opinion, was the Geisha dance itself. It is a marvel in many subtle ways. First, the Geisha's cosmetics and kimono are very detailed and precise. Everything about the Geisha is a deliberate attempt at beauty and serenity. Second, the dance itself involves movements that would cause the average person to fall over or at the very least get twisted up in the robes of the kimono. Here's a clip of the Dance itself:

On our third day in the Kyoto area, we decided to hop on a train and head for Nara, a short half hour ride to the south, where there are more historic temples. Nara is also famous for the deer that roam around looking for hand-outs from the tourists. Many vendors sell little deer biscuits for 150 Yen, and it's fun to watch the deer crowd around when someone starts feeding them:

The temples in Nara have many old statues depicting members of the Shinto pantheon, along with some of the overlapping Bodhisatvahs (non-Buddhist gods who later became Buddhist guides to enlightenment, e.g., Kannon). Here are a few shots from the temple areas of Nara:

The Last day before we went back to Tokyo, we decided to take in the political histroical areas of Kyoto--Nijo Castle (the Shogun's residence) and Kyoto Gosho (the Imperial Palace). The Imperial Palace grounds where huge, but rather unimpressive, as they keep the good stuff locked away. We didn't know that in order to visit said good stuff, you have to make a reservation in advance. So we strolled along the wide pebbled avenues and saw a few of the gardens of Kyoto Gosho before moving on to Nijo Castle. Here's a shot of the three bench warmers at Kyoto Gosho:
It was just beginning to rain, so we borought out our umbrellas. Fortunately, it was only a light drizzle, so the rest of the day wasn't ruined. Nijo Castle was pretty impressive. They had a full exhibit inside that was open to the public. The entire building complex was surrounded by hallways on the outside that had Nightingale Floors. The boards of the floor are made to squeak ever so politely under the slightest weight so that any guards can hear someone approaching their rooms. It's quite a clever design, for security and for the nerves, since the squeaks don't cause you to go mad listening to the hundreds of people walking over them. Rather, they make a pleasant noise that is loud enough to be heard, but soft enough to be ignored. Inside the complex were many displays that demonstrated what life was like for the Shogun and his attendants. After the castles, we decided to take in Kyoto's shopping district. We split up into groups and walked the blocks and blocks of fashion, souvenir, and Japonica shops. I finally managed to find a pair of sneakers that would fit me, and they were only 2900 Yen! I had been shopping all over Japan for size 29s (they use centimeters in Japan for foot sizes, and most Japanese shoe stores only stock up to 27 or 28 cm), so it was a great relief to be successful at last.
On our last day in Kyoto, we decided to check out the North side of Kyoto Station, which we had missed twice due to my confusion with the map. It's one of the largest train stations in Japan, and has an enormous shopping area. We arrived at about 10 am and spent a couple hours wandering the halls until our train arrived, and we headed back to Ito.

Friends in a Strange Land: The Bryan, Amy, and John Visit (part 1)--Ghibli and Tsukiji

2007-06-25T10:11:00.000+09:00

Immediately after the Parade in Harajuku, I hopped on the subway and went to Oshiage, where I boarded a Narita Express train. I got to Narita's Terminal 2 just after the gang's flight had arrived, and I waited excitedly for them to come out of immigration. I was holding a sign that said "Varnsen, Pennypacker, and Van deLay." It was the first of many Seinfeld references that would punctuate their stay in Japan. It was about 10:30 pm when we finally made our way back to Asakusa, and dropped off their things at the hostel, where we met back up with Katie. The 5 of us went out to wander the surrounding area for a bit, and settled at a noodle shop for some good eats. One of the things I love most about Japan is the preponderance of hole-in-the-wall eateries that are downright delicious. Ramen is not just a staple food, it's an art form here. Every shop has its own spin on it. This particular shop had noodles in a thick, spicy sauce--OISHIKATA! Everyone was pretty tired from the trip, so we went back to the hostel to sack out.

The next morning, we hopped on the metro for Ueno Park. We stopped at a Pronto coffee shop for breakfast and then wandered around in the park for a bit. Lisa was not scheduled to arrive until Tuesday evening, so we spent two days getting the gang acclimated to Japan and coming off of jet lag. I introduced them to convini food--onigiri, manjyu, and oden. We went to Shibuya, saw Hachiko (left--famous meeting place for folks in Tokyo), and watched a few thousand people cross the street for a while.
On Tuesday, Bryan and Amy decided to take a trip to Tokyo Disney, so John and I wandered down to the Roppongi area to visit Yasukuni Shrine, a controvertial spot in Tokyo, as it houses the remains of Japanese war dead, including the remains of about 1000 convicted war crimnals from WWII. People like the Chinese and Koreans have real problems with the Yasukuni Shrine because most of those war crimes were committed against their citizens, so every time a Japanese politician shows up to pay his respects at Yasukuni Jinja (Former PM, Junichiro Koizumi, was reviled by China for going every year), the Koreans and Chiniese voice their fears and protests that Japan is returning to an autocratic, militaristic style of government. This is because at a Jinja (shrine), the faithful pray for the blessings of the people interred there, and since there are convicted war criminals among the ages of other dead warriors, they believe the Japanese are asking for support, guidance, and blessings from them. It's a difficult situation for the Japanese, as the interrment of soldiers at Yasukuni also entitles their families to pensions from the government, so removal of the criminals would mean a legal wasps' nest, since the families of the dead would have no basis for receiving the pensions they have received since WWII. At any rate, the Shrine itself is a beautiful place, and houses some of the oldest architecture in Japan. John and I wandered around in the shrine, then ate lunch in a park nearby and walked back to the metro to catch a train back to Asakusa.

I hung out with John and Katie for a bit, then went up to Kaminarimon (thunder and lightning gate) to wait for Lisa to come out of the metro station. While I was waiting, I watched the glockenspiel above the tourist information office come to life at 5 pm. Bryan and Amy arrived not long after that, but, to my disappointment, they were not regaled in Disney paraphernalia as I had hoped. They did have a good time, but I was hoping they'd be otaku-ed out. Lisa arrived at about 5:30 pm, and we began to make preparations to return to Roppongi for one of my favorite Japan-dining experiences--Gingis Kan (Genghis Kahn). MMMM! All you can eat (Tabehodai) lamb and mutton, all you can drink (nomihodai) beer--It was awesome. We got pretty snockered and then went bar hopping a bit in Roppongi. We left early enough to catch a train back to the hostel and sacked out for the night. Well, all of us except Bryan, who wandered around Asakusa rousing up more fun. He thought we were supposed to go to Tsukiji fish market the next morning, and tried to wake us at 4:30 am (you have to get up early to see the auction). For this, Bryan received a fair amount of taunting from the rest of us. In actuality, we had planned to go to Mitaka to see the Ghibli Museum at 4 pm that day.
Bryan disappeared for a while, so we left him a note to meet us at the proper station so we could all go to Mitaka. Lisa and I then showed Amy and John around Shinjuku's Skyscraper district. Afterward, we got lost in Shinjuku station (as we always do--the place is HUGE), and were at risk of not being able to meet back up with Bryan, so we left another message for him to meet us at a different place. He wasn't there, so we decided that he would figure it out and went on to Mitaka without him. We did leave a note for him at the station taped to the steps with WInnie-The-Pooh stickers. Upon arrival in Mitaka, we boarded the bus that took us to the museum (they admit you to the museum in time blocks, so you can't miss your slot or you won't be allowed in. That's why we had to leave B behind in the first place.). On the way there, we saw our very own hung-over MacGuyver walking down the road to the museum. It was pretty amazing, and so was the museum. They don't allow photography inside the museum, but at left is a shot of John with the ladies outside next to a statute of a robot seen in Ghibli's "Laputa." We came back home and went to dinner in Asakusa, and hung around there for a bit.
On Thursday morning, we went to Tsukiji fish market. This is a truly remarkable sight in Tokyo. Billions of dollars go through here every year, and the auction process is a testament to the organization and detail-mindedness of the Japanese. When we arrived at 5 am, we were almost run down by the hundreds of transport carts (right) that men drive throughout the enormous complex, moving products from the docks to the shop stalls. The outer areas of tsukiji are the fish markets where literally tons of fresh seafood are sold every day. At left is a shot of some beautiful octopus I saw in one of the shops. Inside the auction area, there were rooms full of flash-frozen tuna, gutted, marked, and waiting to be bought. The various customers were wandering around checking the texture and flavor of the meat. The buyers include seafood shop owners, restauranteurs, and sushi makers (incidentally, some of the best sushi can be found in Tsukiji, since the majority of the fish came off of the boats only a couple hours before it was made).

At about 5:45 am, a series of bells began to ring, annoucing the opening of the auction. This was a chaotic time, as various auctioneers shouted for bids from the crowd of buyers. Surrounding the auctioners were talliers, writing down the names of each buyer and marking each fish as it sold with the name of its buyer. For all the chaos, the process was very fast moving and efficient. Here's some video footage of the auction in progress:

After Tsukiji, we went back to the hostel, packed up our stuff, and then went to Tokyo station to catch our Shinkansen for Kyoto, part 2 of our trip blog.

Top O' the Asa (朝) to Ye!

2007-06-07T14:55:00.000+09:00

That's right folks, March 17th is a day celebrated worldwide. Good ol' St. Patrick and his feast day are probably more effective than the UN at bringing nations together in a joyful atmosphere. Tokyo's St. Patrick's Day parade and celebration is no exception to this.

I was in Tokyo early, awaiting the arrival of John, Bryan, and Amy (Lisa was busy with work, and could not make it out to Tokyo until Tuesday). I had checked into the Sakura Hotel in Asakusa, and I was enjoying the golden dragon festival that was going on there. Here's is a clip of video from the festival:

I met up with Our friends Katie and Sean at the festival. We waited together for our friend Tom to arrive, and then we hopped on the Tokyo Metro headed for Ueno. At Ueno, we boarded the JR Yamanote Line and rode it around the ring to Harajuku Station. The cos-play girls weren't there, but the neighborhood was bustling with people preparing to watch the St. Patrick's Day Parade. I was completely surprised that Japan would even know what this day is, much less, have a parade to celebrate it. But sure enough, everyone in Harajuku had on green clothing, and lots of people were enjoying pints of Guinness sold by the street vendors. There were a bunch of other JETs there, and we arrived just in time to get a great spot on the parade route. Every Irishman in Japan appeared to be out for the parade, as well as a large number of Japanese fans of all things "Erin."
There were Irish Setter clubs, Irish wolf-hound clubs, Caeli dancers, jiggers, Japanese pipers' clubs, a few guys dressed up as St. Patrick, A few guys dressed up as Irish KISS, an Irish bartender wearing beer-goggles, A creepy older guy in a funny T-shirt, and even some green-clad cheerleaders from Senshu, a local high school. I felt as thought I was in a science fiction story, where the universe is the same, except all the people look different. I felt a sense of familiar comfort mixed with foreign curiosity. The two emotions mingled well together, and I helped them to get along by downing my share of Guinness. We had a wonderful time, and when it was all over, we still had time to walk around the shops of Harajuku looking for a non-existent Nathan's Hot Dog shop (finally, we settled for Wendy's burgers) before I had to hop on the train to go pick up Bryan, Amy, and John. I'll leave you with some video footage of the parade itself.

The Quest for the Lost Daimyo Stones (continued)

2007-06-04T09:23:00.000+09:00

Trackback here

During the months of February and march, I was working with an archaeologist named Hiro Sugiyama (right: A picture of Akira, Sugiyama, and me next to a cut stone in Usami). Frequent readers of the blog will remember that I was super-excited about this opportunity for me to get paid to walk around in the woods and look for ancient things. Sugiyama and I spent a couple of days each week walking along the beach or in the mountains around Ito, and we found quite a few stones from the Edo period.

So here's the background. Tokugawa Ieyasu became the first Shogun of Japan in 1600. He did so by defeating all opposition to his rule. The Shogun was the political ruler of Japan, while the Emperor stood as the symbol of the nation from his capital in Kyoto. Tokugawa needed to secure his reign as Shogun, which meant that he needed to make the daimyo ("dime-yo"--feudal lords) feel important, but also keep them working hard (spending money) so that they didn't get the chance to rise against him. So he commissioned enormous building projects in Edo. Tokugawa needed stone for the castles and their walls, so he ordered the daimyo to prospect, cut, and send stones for building by ship to Edo (Tokyo).

Sugiyama-san told me that the consensus is that there were something like 25 or 30 daimyo working the area around Ito and Usami. We found evidence in the form of markings on the stones of at least 7 of them. When the work crews found a stone that they wanted to use on the mountain, they would first score it so that they could cut it into manageable pieces. They used hammer and chisel to perforate a dotted line around the circumference of the stone. It looks like this:

Once they were finished with these marks, they would usually hammer tight-fitting wooden planks into the slots, and then soak them with water. Over time, the wood swelled, and eventually split the stone. Each stone was marked with the sign of the daimyo who employed the workers who cut it. There are many different markings, one of which was the mark of a daimyo named Mori. His symbol was the fletched end of an arrow. You can see it faintly here. I mistakenly used the flash, so the symbol is a little hard to make out:

Stones with this symbol were all over the mountains we walked on. Mori-san was very busy in Usami and Ito. Once the stones were cut, they were taken down the mountain and loaded on boats to be taken by ship to Edo. For some reason, a great number of stones were never delivered, and remain on the mountainside. I assume that Sugiyama is researching why this is so. Here's a shot of me clearing vegetation from some of the stones that were left behind. We spent a lot of time uncovering and marking the locations ofthe stones on topographical maps of the region. Here's acouple shots of me clearing the vegetation from a group of several stones on the mountain. You can pretty clearly see the markings on some of these stones. The view from the top of this mountain was pretty spectacular.

Here you can see Usami behind me, and Mount Fuji on the other side of the mountain:

We ended our trips to the woods in early March, as spring was beginning to break, and the stinging caterpillars came out on the trees. Next winter, Sugiyama-san will return to work in the woods of Usami. This turned out to be one of the finer experiences I have had in Japan. I was nostalgic for my years in the Boy Scouts, when I used to go walking in the woods, looking at sights both new and old.

日本春の桜--Japanese Springtime's Cherry Blossoms

2007-05-31T12:57:00.000+09:00

Around the end of March, the entire country of Japan begins to twitterpate. The weathermen start using a strange new map that looks like this:

These pink weather maps are not showing the patterns of the fabled Pepto Bismol showers. They are predictions of when the sakura (cherry blossoms) will be blooming in different parts of Japan. There are many folks in Japan who take vacation time to follow the progression of the sakura from South to North. They call it "Hannami" or flower watching. Luckily for us, the Izu peninsula is a Hanami capital in Japan. Thousands of people come from all over to Ito, Shimoda, Kawazu, and other destinations on our small peninsula just to sit under the trees, drink sake, write haiku, and enjoy the pinkness that surrounds them. It is truly beautiful, as the breezes tend to cause flurries of petals to fall to the ground, as if the countryside were having its own fertility parade.

Many of the sakura in Japan line roads and fields. A beautiful contrast to the pink of the cherry blossoms is the yellow of the rape blossoms. Rape blossoms are a form of canola, and are used as a rotational crop in rice fields.

One of the biggest Sakura Matsuri (cherry blossom festivals) is in Kawazu, on the southern part of the Izu Peninsula. Kawazu has a long avenue lined with sakura, right next to a river. So every year, the festival hawkers, food vendors, musicians, clowns, etc. line up along the avenue to celebrate the breaking of Spring. Japanese people lay out blankets and tarpaulins to sit on. They lie under the trees, take many close-up photos of the blossoms, and enjoy copious quantities of food and drink.
Here are a few shots of flowers from our springtime journeys through the Izu peninsula:
This is the river bank in Minami Izu.
A closeup of the sakura flower.
Lisa loitering under a sakura.
Paul frolicking in the canola.
Here is a video of Minamiizu's fields and flowers. (Note: this is my first attempt at making movies with soundtracks. I am so proud of myself! We had to remove the original soundtrack due to some serious trash-talking that was going on while Lisa was recording:).)

In addition to the sakura being in bloom, late March marks the beginning of a series of festivals culminating in the Golden Week holidays. On March 4th, Girls' Day is celebrated. In the weeks leading up to this festival, people decorate their homes and shrines in beautiful dolls made of paper, cloth, and ceramic. Ito City Hall has a lovely display of these dolls every year:

We took a drive around the Izu peninsula at the beginning of sakura season, and we managed to catch the former Prime Minister of Japan (Koizumi-Sama) outside a shrine in Shuzenji: As we came out of the shrine, we noticed an ebullient crowd of people had gathered, and they were all pointing and taking photos of this man:
Lisa and I had no idea who he was, but we knew that he was important, owing to the crowd and his pimped-out silk suit. We took the camera to some Japanese friends and asked them who he was. They shouted their excitement that we saw Koizumi-san. Apparently, he was a wildly popular PM in his day, and the Japanese call him the "Japanese Richard Gere." Can you spot the resemblance?

At any rate, Springtime is a wonderful time to visit Japan (although it's not as amazing if you haven't seen the other 3 seasons first). Most groups of friends and family go to or host Hanami parties, and there is a peaceful attitude in the air. The way they celebrate the flowers here seems to help illustrate why the Spring is associated with love.

Yuki Matsuri (Snow Festival) in Sapporo

2007-04-10T06:51:00.000+09:00

(Editor's Note: Lisa wrote most of this entry. I filled in some of the blanks--Paul.)
With generous Christmas gifts of several members of our families (you know who you are!!) and some scheduling help from my supervisor Kurigami-sensei, Paul and I were able to take a trip to the city of Sapporo on the Northern most island of Hokkaido for the annual "Yuki Matsuri" or Snow Festival. This might be a good time to have a little geography lesson about Japan. Paul and I are living in Ito, Shizuoka, Japan. Looking at this map, find Mt. Fuji. Directly below Mt. Fuji, or Fuji-San as it is known here, there is a tiny peninsula called Izu (it is covered by the final A in NAGOYA) Ito is half way down the East side of the Izu. As you can see, we are about 120 km from Yokohama, 150 km from Tokyo and from Tokyo, a brief 75 minute flight to Sapporo.

This snow festival is something that I read about way before I ever thought about coming to Japan, so I was really excited that we were able to make it up there.
We met up with about 25 other JETs in Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. This airport is very nice and relatively empty as it only deals with domestic flights. After the short flight, we landed in Sapporo. By the time we got our luggage and made it to the train bound for our hotel, the Fates had graced us with the magic of Sapporo…

Soon enough, we arrived at our home for the next few days, the Sapporo Grand Hotel. This hotel is one of the nicest in the city, and has a very Western feel to it. We went to our rooms, freshened up a bit and headed out to get a snack and see some snow sculptures.

Now, we made the journey to Sapporo for Yuki Matsuri, but the town is famous for several other things including ramen, fresh seafood (especially crabs), Sapporo Beer, and skiing. And we only had three days to do it all!!!

Since we were in Sapporo several days before the Yuki Matsuri actually began, we were lucky enough to see the “behind the scenes” of the construction of these amazing statues. In the following video, you can see the bulldozers, scaffolding, etc…

After our “removal” from Odori Park, we headed back to our hotel to meet up with the group and head to our dinner reservation. Our organizer, Grace, had made arrangements for us to eat at the Sapporo Beer Garden. Sapporo is quite well known for its namesake beer. In the mid 1800’s some German brewmasters came over and found wild hops growing on Hokkaido. The Duetsch taught the Japanese the secrets of brewing and the rest is history. The brewery now includes a museum and restaurant in the "Genghis Kahn" style featuring “nomi hodai” or all you can drink Sapporo beer and "tabehodai". which means all you can eat. Since it's Genghis Kahn style, the all you can eat is lamb or mutton. With all that alcohol and meat, is it really surprising that things get out of hand…

We spent the day Saturday seeing as many of Sapporo’s finest sights as possible. Since Sapporo was planned out by Americans post WWII, the city is laid out in a grid pattern that makes walking around a breeze compared to the ancient Japanese city plans commonly found in Tokyo and other major cities.

First stop, Observatory 38. This is the home of JapanRail's offices in Sapporo.

After leaving the JR tower, we headed to the fish market...
Here's a photo of our gang with one ofthe couples that runs a booth at the market:

The Sapporo Fish Market is world famous for fresh seafood, but the piece de resistance is the enormous crabs they have here (Mel's friend, Van, is holding one in the photo). They sell for anywhere between 2500 and 7500 Yen per crab. That's around 25 to 75 U.S. Dollars! Fortunately for us, the vendors are wonderfully nice, and easy with the free samples. The crab is delicious, and if I had 75 bucks to blow on a special dinner, I would definitely pick up one of these beauties. Here's a clip of how they look before they hit the boiling pot.

Next stop, Ramen Alley.
Ramen Alley is a really unique place in Sapporo. Granted, you can't swing a dead cat in Japan without hitting a ramen shop, but here in Sapporo, there are around 50 of them all packed into one little street. Each region of Japan has its own spin on ramen, and Sapporo's style involves miso (fermented bean paste--it tastes much better than it sounds), corn, and butter, along with that delicious crab meat. Here's a clip that demonstrates a master's craft for ramen:

Later, we wandered into a sporting goods store to buy some gear for skiing the next day and then stopped back at the brewery to see the museum and to do the tour. Here are a few shots of our stroll through that wonderful outpost of hoppy, Germanic goodness:

Day 2 in Sapporo was our big ski trip. Let me just get in a plug here for Japanese organization. We rented our skiis and other equipment at the hotel's front desk. By mid afternoon on day 1, the skiis were delivered so we could try on the boots. On the morning of our ski trip, the equipment was neatly stacked for us. We took it and walked a couple blocks to the bus stop, and our adventure began. I never felt so at ease with a tour service. Here's a documentary clip of our big day at Teine Skiing resort. It was Paul's first time skiing since he was 8 years old, and I was really proud of how much he learned in one day. But then, he did have an awesome teacher!

On our last day in sapporo, we walked around to take in some of the nearly completed snow and ice sculptures. Here are a couple of Paul's favorites:

It was really cool how they had made sculptures out of seafood frozen in ice! There were about 5 city blocks' worth of these types of sculptures along one of the main streets in Sapporo. This trip turned out to be worth every penny, and we brought back memories that will last a lifetime.

Bugs of Japan

2007-03-12T08:25:00.000+09:00

Spring is upon us here in Ito, so I thought it would be fitting to dust off this old proposal for a blog and make it an actual entry. For the most part, Japan's pests are quite similar to those found in the rest of the world. There are a few exceptions, however, which I will illustrate here. (Make sure you click on the pictures to enlarge them.)

When Lisa first came to Japan, she would call home to me and anxiously warn me about the bugs that lived in our apartment. As I listened to her fearful explanations, I silently vowed that when I arrived in Japan, I would learn everything I could about the critters, and then exterminate every last mother-freaking one of them. No one makes my girl cry, NO ONE!

Fortunately, when I arrived in actuality, I found that we were not as infested as I had feared, but I was amazed at the kinds of bugs that showed up around the joint. I almost had second thoughts about killing them--almost. Their forms reminded me of the selctive processes I studied in college that made their body shapes and appendages what they are. I marvelled at them almost as much as I loathed them.

My very first encounter with Japanese bugs was auditory rather than visual.

This is a video clip I took outside our apartment to capture the sound of the Japanese cicada-Magicicada septendecim ( Turn up your speaker volume when you play it). The sound was so very different from the American cicadas that I just had to save it for posterity. We didn't kill these, as they are fairly polite. They only sing during the daytime. If you enjoy Anime films, you will know that these sounds end up in a lot of Hayao Miyazaki's stories. They are almost characteristic of Japan's summertime, and I imagine that many people here associate the song of the cicada with the relaxing days of summer. In contrast to our next arthropod exhibit, the cicada is quite pleasant.

On my first morning in Japan, I woke at 4:30 am due to jet lag. I read for a while, and watched the sun rise at 5 am. At around 6:30, Lisa got up to start our day. I remember vividly the look on her face when she came running around the corner from our living room to the bedroom. She had a mission for me--KILL IT! I walked around the corner and found something I had never seen before outside of dreams and horror movies. I was face to face with a terrifying Jungian archetype!

The Geji-Geji
Scutigera coleoptrata
This little guy is a small sample of what I saw in our living room that day. I was in awe at the number of legs it had. I chuckled to myself when most of them came off after I smashed it with a shoe. You would think that the geji-geji was fast, but it seems that in actuality, all the extra legs get in the way. When you plug "geji-geji" into a digital Japanese dictionary, the phrase "house centpede" comes up. I am damn sure that when I am finished here, they will want to change their names. I kill them with extreme prejudice. This little guy was my first step into the surreal world of Japanese bugs. Before I get to the geji-geji's bigger cousin, I'd like to share with you what lives in the bushes outside our apartment, and above every driveway, and in every tree, and between every tree's lowest branches and the shrubs underneath it, and inside of phone booths, and pretty much everywhere there are mosquitoes, moths and other flying insects for it to eat.

The Japanese Golden Orb Weaver

Nephila pilipes
Japanese custom says that it is good luck to see a spider in the daytime, but bad luck to see one at night. Considering the unbelievable abundance of spiders in the country, I imagine that the luck pretty much balances out. Another frightening fact comes to you when you consider that their enromous population hints at an even greater population--their food. Most of my friends and family know that I have a love-hate relationship with spiders. I used to have awful nightmares about them as a child. As I grew older, I realized that they actually eat many of the disease vectors, and so I gained some respect for them. As long as they stay outside, I am content to let them be, unless of course I have to be outside in nature for an extended period, in which case I usually find myself killing them with extreme prejudice. The golden orb weaver in Japan is pretty similar to the "banana spider" common to the southeastern U.S., so it wasn't a shocking sight for me. What is interesting, however is their abundance in such close proximity to civilization here. They spin their webs on power lines, between buildings, under guard rails on the highway, in shrubs, inside telephone booths, and generally anywhere that a person hasn't walked in the last 45 minutes. here's a shot of the golden silk for which they are named:
I took this photo at a park near Okuno Dam in Ito. These webs are so prolific that pretty much anywhere you go, you are looking through one at something. As I said earlier, they are usually not a problem, as they stay mainly outside, but I pitty the foolish spider that makes her web above my head in the house. We had, at one point in the summer, 8 of these that I could count living in the bushes in front of our apartment. They string their webs between the azaleas and the large tree that shades them. Nothing, however, had prepared me for the legendary 8-eyed relative of the orb weaver that had caused Lisa to call me from Japan upset about bugs in the first place.

The Huntsman Spider

Heteropoda venatoria

Their scientific names comes from the fact that these spiders have their legs oriented more like a crab than a normal spider. This orientation makes them able to hoist themselves up into the corners of rooms quite well and wait there for long periods of time. The principal diet of these rather large spiders consists mainly of cockroaches. I am glad for their help in killing the roaches (gokiburi as they are called here), but when I think about the fact that thousands of roaches can be managed by 10 or 12 of these huntsmen, I can't help but immediately jump to the conclusion that no roaches equals no huntsmen, so I rush out to the home center and buy the strongest chemical insecticide avaialable. "Kill 'em all, and let God sort 'em out!" When Lisa first arrived at the apartment, one of these was waiting for her in the bathroom. Luckily, another ALT was present to help her, but the girl didn't kill the blasted thing. She shooed it outside! Of course, it came back, but by that time, I was there to exact furious vengeance and rightous anger upon it, like in the book of Ezekiel. That's enough about spiders, let's return to the geji-geji family, to have a look at his much more dangerous cousin.

One morning, I got up (near 4:30, as I was still jet-lagging) and decided to cook breakfast for Lisa. I went into the kitchen to put on a pot of water for coffee. As I was filling the kettle, I swear I remember hearing the shrill, chopping violin sounds that they always play in horror movies when the killer, or giant bug, comes onto the screen. Out of the corner of my eye, the drain cover on our sink began to move with undulating, hair-like appendages. The running water had disturbed an overnight resident of the drain sump:

The Centipede
Scolopendra sp.

I will spare you the other photo of this specimen that I took. It exposes the enormous chelicerae (fang-like teeth) of this stinging arthropod. Of all the bugs we have mentioned here, the centipede is the most malicious because it has a nasty bite. I have never experienced it, knock on wood, but I have heard that small children and the elderly can end up in the hospital after being bitten by a centipede. To date, I have found two of these inside the house, but I have since taken measures to prevent their reappearance. When I killed the one I found in the sink, I talked smack to it for about 5 minutes before finally flushing it down the toilet. Despite what you might think, running out of the kitchen to the backyard to escape the centipede may not be the best plan.

The Praying Mantis
Tenodera angustipennis

This 4 inch long back yard predator would often keep me company while I was hanging laundry. They don't shoo when you swat at them with a broom either. I think I heard it laughing at me one day when I tried that. I ended up having to physically push it off the railing. I actually grew fond of the praying mantis, just because it would sit and watch me with its head cocked to the side. It seemed to want to understand why I was hanging clothes (I always hanghe laundry, because Lisa doesn't like going out on the back porch). It surpised me one day when I tried to get it off the clothesline by flying to the other side of the porch. Fortunately, Lisa wasn't there to see that, as I think it might have been too much to bear.

There are a couple of other entries in bug log that are not offensive to my eyes, but I did think they were quite interesting to look at:

This is a 3 inch long caterpillar that I found on a walk to downtown Ito one day. I have not been able to identify it or the moth into which it transforms, but it has a cute little antenna on top of it's head. That, combined with it s size, made it photo-worthy.

This is a garden snail that I found after I parked the car on a rainy day outside the apartment. It's about 3 inches long also. I never saw more than just this one, so I had to run back outside with the camera before it went away.

That about wraps it up for the bugs of Japan. I waited until our friends and family had already booked flights to Japan before revealing this little tidbit. Hope they don't cancel their flights. Speaking of which, we are really looking forward to Bryan, John, and Amy's visit, followed by Lisa's mom and her sister Marcie. Anybody else who wants to come see us this spring or summer (if you can overcome your fear after reading this post) is more than welcome!

Yokohama: Japan's Other Biggest CIty

2007-02-06T17:43:00.000+09:00

A few weeks ago, Lisa and I went to Yokohama for a sightseeing/get out of Ito trip. It is just south of Tokyo (a 20 minute train ride) and holds about 3.6 million residents. It is actually the second largest city in Japan, but there is some contention between it and Osaka. According to Wikipedia, however, Yokohama has a million more citizens than does Osaka. At any rate, there is quite a bit to do and see in this city!

We stayed at a traditional ryokan-style hostel in the city's hostel village. This was a bit of a different experience from other places we've stayed in Japan, as there was a large transient population living in the area. It was clean and quiet, in contrast to the areas of the US that are mostly populated with homeless people. The staff at the Hostel were gracious and helpful.

Yokohama boasts one of the world's largest China-Towns. It is a beautifully decorated area with large Chinese-style gates at the ends of the main streets. We plan to go back there around Chinese new year, as I have heard the celebration is pretty spectacular. We ate dinner at one of the restaurants there. Unfortunately, we were starving when we went, so we just jumped into the first restaurant we found, but if we had held out longer, we would have found that there were 7 or 8 better restaurants than the one we chose.

On the second day of our trip, we took a walking tour from the hostel to the downtown area. It was about a 30 minute walk from the hostel to the city center, and we got to look at some of the beautiful buildings along the way. The shipping industry is huge in Yokohama, and there are three buildings associated with the history of trade in the city: Jack's, Queen's, and King's Towers. Unfortunately, the path we took didn't give us a good view of King's tower, and by the time we got back to that part of town, we were too tired to wander over to it just to take a picture.

One of the other major attractions in Yokohama is the 331 meter Ferris wheel, The Cosmo Clock, pictured here next to the Intercontinental Yokohama Grand Hotel.

The wheel ride gave us some pretty spectacular views of the city, and Tokyo off in the distance. We were lucky it was a clear day. Here's a shot of the famous Yokohama Landmark tower from the top of the wheel:

Here's another more artsy photo of the tower just outside the mall underneath it:

Yokohama's famous Bayside Park is a great place for a peaceful walk. There is a sculpture here of "The Girl With Red Shoes" which everyone seems to take pictures of when they come here. I didn't! Instead, I found this statue commemorating the friendship of the Girls Scouts of Japan withe the Girl Scouts of America:

Lisa also took a cool picture of the arches lining the pathway that leads out of the park:

That about wraps it up for this entry. We spent a few fun days and nights in this, "The Other City By The Bay" (side note: You gamers will be interested to know that The Bay Bridge here was the inspiration for the level of the same name in Sega's "Virtua Racer" game):

あけましておめでとうございま! Akemashite Omedeto Gozaimasu! Happy New Year!

2007-01-28T19:41:00.000+09:00

After a quiet Christmas, Paul and I were ready for a traditional Japanese New Year’s. In Japan, New Year’s is a much bigger holiday than Christmas. At midnight on New Year’s Eve, many Japanese people go to a shrine to offer their first prayers of the new year. We were lucky enough to be invited to spend midnight with Tomomi, a teacher friend of ours.

She and her family live very close to Ike Jinja (sounds like eekay jeenja) or in English, Ike (the name of the town) Shrine. We drove through crowds of people to get to Tomomi’s house, then walked the 5 minutes to the shrine just in time to hear the count down and see the fireworks. As soon as the fireworks were finished, everyone scurried to the shrine to offer their prayers. The huge crowd was festive, yet controlled. I think people were too preoccupied with the Taiko drumming to start a ruckus.

We waited in line for about 20 minutes before it was our time to pray. When it was our turn, we threw our change into the well, rang the bell, clapped twice, bowed twice, then clapped our hands two more times.

We then were ushered to the side where shots of sake were waiting for us. After saying hello to a few people we recognized, Paul and I were getting ready to leave when we were instructed to go back to the front of the shrine. Apparently, another Japanese custom is to throw out balls of rice dough, called mochi, into the crowd. If you catch one of the balls, it is said that you will be blessed with good fortune for the new year. This may be true, but I feel like I was lucky to CATCH the blasted thing. Those little balls are HARD! You’re lucky if you don’t get clunked in the head with one of those buggers. Well, we ended up with three, so hopefully we’ll be in good condition for 2007.
We got home from the shrine at about 2 am, so we hit the hay for a few hours, then woke up to take part in another Japanese New Year’s tradition. For many Japanese it is customary to witness the first sunrise of the new year. In our town of Ito, there are two mountains that have quasi ski lifts running up the sides so visitors can have a spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean, Ito, and on a clear day, Mt. Fuji. Toshi, my supervisor, told me that the lifts would be open New Year’s morning to shuttle people to the top of the mountain to see the first sunrise of 2007. Excitedly, Paul and I donned our warmest layers and were out of the house by 5:30. As we approached the parking lot, I was surprised to see so many people. I would guess there were about 200 waiting in line by the time we got there. The sun was set to rise at 6:51.

It was 6:47 when we got onto the lift. There was a little bit of cloud cover right at the horizon, but when the sun eventually broke through the clouds, the people started cheering and clapping. A surprising outburst of emotion from the Japanese! The large, piñata-like ball behind us burst open, spraying confetti and streamers onto the ground. It was great! We hung out on the mountain a bit then got in line to go back down.

Merry Christmas, Cowboy!

2007-01-28T19:38:00.000+09:00

Many of the other ALTs in the area had gone on trips over the winter break, so Ito was pretty quiet around Christmas. I really wanted to have a festive Christmas Eve dinner; something to remind me of Christmas at home with our family. Paul and I and our friends Aura and Blaise got dressed up and went to Cowboys Steak Saloon for a nice steak dinner. Let me tell you, this place is one of a kind. It’s pretty rustic, outfitted with swinging door, and decorated with all sorts of country western paraphernalia. We were a bit over dressed for the place, but it didn’t matter. The owner, known as “Ohara the Kid”, had spent some time in California and spoke a little English. The four of us all got the same thing, cubed steak, steamed bean sprouts and rice. Now, it was no Ruth’s Chris or even Outback, but it was pretty good for Ito, Japan. We finished our dinners and headed to our very own Baskin Robbins, only to find that it had closed about 5 minutes prior to our arrival. Grrrr… Merry Christmas anywho!

We Finally Sold Our House!

2007-01-27T16:20:00.000+09:00

On January 26th, 2007, our house closed, and we breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Up until now, most of our money was going to the mortgage, but now that the house has sold, we'll be able to loosen our belts a little and enjoy more of our life out here. Our realtor, Cara Ameer, of Lifestyles Realtors, Sawgrass, made this process go so smoothly. She did a really great job, so if anybody in Jax. is thinking of buying or selling a place, be sure to contact her. She made us a nice little slideshow to commemorate our first home. Here it is...

Christmas by the Sea, In Asia

2007-01-03T09:09:00.000+09:00

Just before Christmas, Lisa and I went downtown to the beachfront park in Ito to celebrate with about 5000 other fans of Christmas. They had typical festival foods, like Ika-Yaki, Yaki-Tori, Tako-Yaki, Yaki-Gyu, Okonomi-Yaki, and many others. Here's a shot of me eating my very first Ika-Yaki with a Kirin chaser:
Have you guessed what Ika-Yaki means yet? Keep thinking, and no, Dr. Freud, it is not something that usually comes attached to the human body!

Speaking of strange foods, a few days before we went to the fireworks show, Lisa and I had a Christmas Enkai (office party where everyone is allowed to drink and be comfortable) with some of the teachers from Yawatano Shou-Gakko (grade school). We went to an Okinawa-style restaurant. The early entrees were fairly normal, even by American standards: fried chicken, noodles, rice, sushi, etc. But then they started to get strange. This particular Okinawa-style restaurant specializes in two things: 1. foods made from a very bitter tasting cucumber called goya that has tiny bumps all over its skin and 2. sliced, sauteed pig's ear. The pig's ear was OK, but it was a little too cartilaginous for me, and I didn't like the bitterness of the goya, but everything else was good. I also kept getting my cup refilled with an Okinawa-style hooch called Awamori. It was a lot like whiskey, but not as oaky, and it packed a pretty decent punch.

I almost forgot to mention that earlier in the evening, Lisa bought me a 500 Yen santa suit. There were two children coming to dinner that evening, and Lisa had told the others that I would play Santa. Here are a few pictures of our friend Kaoru and me doing our best to pull off Santa and a reindeer:

The two little girls, Riko and Kako, were quite shocked when Santa and Rudolf came around the corner. Riko Jumped 3 feet across the room into her mother's arms. They were only able to receive the gifts we had for them after a good bit of coaxing. But once they realized we were the real deal, they commenced to opening presents and munching the candy inside them. After I went outside and took off the costume, I came back inside to eat. Riko kept eyeing me suspiciously all night, but I don't think she made me.

Fast forward a few nights back to the festival. Have you figured out yet that "ika" means squid? Anyway, after we ate strange food and had a few beers, we went over to the dance show. I have included here a highlight reel with some of the fireworks, dancing, and drunken commentary from Blaise and me.

So while we terribly miss our friends and family, we had a good time at Christmas. Love and good-wishes going out to everyone!

A Nihon Christmas Story

2006-12-18T19:35:00.000+09:00

I know it is not right to exploit poor, defenseless, innocent Japanese school children, but I can’t help it. I was born and raised in Cleveland. This is something that I have thought about doing since I applied for the JET program in November of 2005. What you are about to witness may not be funny to those people who are not from the land of Cleves, but it is my tribute to my beloved hometown and a movie that is as much of a holiday tradition in my family as “It’s a Wonderful Life”. Without further ado…

Thanksgiving in Japan

2006-12-18T18:45:00.000+09:00

Undoubtedly, one of the toughest times to be away from family and friends is during the holidays. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I think it’s because there isn’t a lot of hoopla around this particular holiday, just really good food and hanging out with people you love.
This year, even though we were missing home, we were lucky enough to be asked to two Thanksgiving dinners. The first dinner was on Thursday, November 24th, proper Thanksgiving Day. It was kind of strange because I had the day off work, too. Not because it was American Thanksgiving Day, but Japanese Labor Day. Regardless, no school means more time to eat. Another ALT in our town, Aura, was nice enough to invite us over to her apartment for dinner. Her mom, dad, and younger sister were visiting from California and brought a beef brisket and a turkey stowed away in her checked luggage. Oh boy! All together, there were going to be about 13 people for dinner. Our job was to bring the mashed potatoes. I had gone to the store the night before to buy the supplies, but for some reason the store was closed. No problem, I thought, I can go to the store in the morning. Little did I know that Murphy would pay me a Thanksgiving visit and would slap his law right across my turkey!
Most supermarkets in Japan open at 10:00 am. Aura had asked us to be at her place for noon. No problem. I was set to walk out the door at 9:50, when I heard voices outside. No it was not Murphy, but Asada-san, the housing manager for the Ito Board of Education. He and a crew of three other men came to put in our new bathroom window. To make a long story short, after some chit-chat, it was 10:45 before I got to the store. The line at the store was long; the traffic home was horrid; it took me forever to peel the potatoes; the water wouldn’t boil; the hand mashing was a PAIN; (mashed potatoes are not as easy without an electric hand mixer) needless to say, we were late. We got to Aura’s house about 12:40.
One of the things that was POUNDED into my head before I left for Japan was how the Japanese are a people of promptness. They are on time and they expect other people to be as well. Needless to say, I felt terrible. I apologized when I got there and the several Japanese people that were there, along with everyone else, were extremely gracious, but I still felt bad. (Oburr, if you are reading this, I am still sorry I was late!)
Dinner was being put on the table when we got there, but we had just enough time to make the international debut of a long standing Hudak Family Thanksgiving tradition; the shaking of the butter. It started at my preschool, Appleseed, but my family adopted it maybe 15 years ago and has been a beloved Turkey Day activity ever since. Fill a glass jar with heavy whipping cream, add salt to taste, and take turns shaking it until the cream actually “pop” into butter (just like the pilgrims did it!). The person holding the jar when that happens is the winner and usually gets a small prize like candy (just like the pilgrims did it?!) It was a great way to keep the kids out of the kitchen while my mom cooked.
Several of the other guests tried it, but they didn’t seem as excited as I was. Except, that is, for one of Aura’s mom’s friends. In her limited English, she told me that she wrote a newsletter to cancer patients and was going to write about the “magic cream”. It made me happy:)
The dinner was really nice with the brisket, turkey/ham, mashed potatoes, cheese, bread, cookies, seven-layer dip, and even a quasi-pumpkin pie.

We stayed for a few hours, but a food coma started to kick in, so Paul and I headed home relax in front of the TV.

Our second Turkey day was Sunday, December 3rd. Our friend Katie organized a Thanksgiving picnic down in her town of Minami Izu. Katie had been cooking like a crazy woman for days before trying to get everything ready. It's hard to prepare food for 15 with an oven the size of a microwave!

I was worried about eating outside, but it turned out to be a really nice day. We had dinner at a park next to a river. There was tons of good food and good company.

I brought the butter shaking here too and it was received with a little more enthusiasm...

It was a cool day, so to warm up and burn off some calories we started playing the unofficial national sport of Japan-dodge ball. Using two-liter bottles of pop, we made a court and had some pretty intense games.

We ate and played until the sun was getting ready to set, then we packed up our cars and headed back to Ito.

All in all, both Thanksgiving feasts were great and definitely memorable!

The Feel of Tokyo

2006-12-12T17:32:00.000+09:00

I logged into Myspace today and this video popped up. I think it totally captures all of the things about Tokyo that are amazing and foreign. At the same time, it captures the home-like feel of a big city. I am intrigued by this feeling. Anywhere in the world you go, a big city has certain sights, smells, sensations, and emotions associated with it. It could be because I've been watching a lot of "Sex and the City" lately, but I am wishing that Lisa and I had checked the "city" box on our JET applications instead of "suburban town." At the same time, I doubt that Tokyo would feel the same if we lived in it every day. I guess you could say that Ito is like New Jersey to the Big Apple. We have everything we need here, and the countryside is gorgeous, especially now that fall has taken a firm hold of the landscape, but Tokyo is just right-over-there! I think I just convinced myself that Lisa and I have a prefect arrangement. But if any of you come to visit, rest assured we will be making a trip to the Big Sushi!

On a side note, I am reminded of several conversations I have had or overheard lately. A lot of people today bash capitalism as the root of all evil. Let's face facts, though. Without a profit motive and free enterprise (cornerstones of said root of all evil), there would be no reason for so many people to gather in one place. Without all those people buying and selling in one place, there is no city. So if you Heart NY, or any other metropolis, tip your hat a little to the rat race, that economic system we sometimes love to hate, Capitalism.

Posted By:Myles

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

Oh, and let me just give a shout out to all my New Yorker Family, especially those who still live there--mad props goin' out to Staten Island Ronnie n' Alan WHAT WHAT!).

Comments

2006-12-10T09:01:00.000+09:00

Hello everyone! I just wanted to take a moment to tell you that we appreciate you reading our blog. Sometimes, though, it feels a little empty here. I was wondering if any of you would consider leaving comments once in a while. You don't have to gush about how much you liked it. A simple "Hey you guys!" will do. You could even share your own experiences that are similar. The reason I'm saying this is because the counters on blogspot are sketchy and don't often report actual numbers of people who have visited our blog. Also, like any good book, some of the coolest stuff is in the footnotes (or comments).

Some folks have hinted that they don't know exactly where to look for the "add a comment" button, so I have included some photos for you. At the bottom of every post to the blog is a bar that shows the date and number of comments. It looks like this:

Click on the word "Comments," and the pop-up window that results will have a space for you to type, an identity list, and a submit button. It's really convenient, because every comment you leave will be emailed to us. It also alleviates confusion, as some folks have emailed us that they loved soemthing in the blog, but since it's not tagged to a specific item, I have no idea which post they loved, so that I can write more about that. So, if you really like (or hate) something in the blog, feel free to roll on down to the comment bar and say something about it!

Dr. Jones, I presume? No, uh, Sugiyama?

2006-12-07T23:31:00.000+09:00

So, the other day I got an email from Lisa's supervisor at City Hall. He said that he might have some part time work for me, and that he wants me to come down to City Hall after I finish at Higashi Elementary School to talk about it. So, Wednesday, I finished early at school and walked the 500 feet from Higashi Elementary to City Hall. When I arrived, Toshi had me wait for a moment while he went to look for the people who needed to talk to me. About 5 minutes later, he came back to where I was sitting and said, "Ok, they are ready."

We walked into the lounge that overlooks the park outside Ito City Hall, and Toshi Introduced me to Sugiyama-San, who, it turns out, is an archaeologist. Sugiyama-San is doing research on the Edo period. Apparently, Ito played a large part in the power struggles that went on during the Edo period.

Back in those days, the Emperor of Japan was more of a figurehead who represented the Spirit of the Country. The real seat of political power was the Shogun's throne (pronounced Show-goon). One of the most Famous, and first Shogun to hold major power from Edo (modern-day Tokyo) was Tokugawa Ieasu. Tokugawa is the Shogun that befriended Anjin-San in James Clavell's Shogun, a book about the Edo Period, adapted from actual events surrounding the lives of Tokugawa and William Adams, who is quite famous in Ito, as it is where he docked his ship when he arrived in Japan for the first time. Apart from making Englishmen into Samurai, Tokugawa was extremely busy during his day. He militarily conquered many of the feudal lords of Japan and united them under one Shogun, himself.

In order to maintain their loyalty, Tokugawa set the Daimyo ("dime-yo"--Japanese Feudal lords, who controlled the Samurai) to a task. He commissioned the construction of a castle in Shizuoka called Sumpu Castle. Each Daimyo was bound by honor and threat of death to supply equipment and manpower for the construction of the castle and its grounds.

As it turns out, one of the Daimyo lived on the Izu Peninsula. This area has an abundance of strong stone, so the Daimyo set his craftsmen to the task of carving out stones for building. Another advantage to this area was its close proximity to the sea, so that the rocks could be loaded onto ships and sent to Edo (Tokyo) or Shizuoka, wherever the building materials were needed.

Apparently, each stone cut by the Daimyo's craftsmen was marked with a symbol, either of the craftsman or the Daimyo's family crest. These rocks are strewn all over the countryside in Ito and the surrounding areas.

So, starting in January, it will be my job to hike up into the woods in search of these marked stones. When I find them, I will have to note their location on a map and report my findings to Sugiyama-San, who will compile the locations for his research.

As they were telling me all of this, my jaw kept wanting to fall open on the floor, but I kept a fairly calm poker face. I will be working two days a week for about $60 a day doing something I have dreamed of doing since I was a kid. The whole time I was sitting there, the music you are now hearing was flowing through my mind! I was glad that there were no Nazis involved, and I already married my Marion Ravenwood (except her name is Lisa Hudak, but she's just as full of fire, and, dare I say, Spunk? HAR!)

So, that's the news. I am going to go play Indiana Jones--hopefully I won't be gored by any of the Inoshishi (wild boars) that are fairly common in the woods around Ito. Hopefully, I will have something to talk about in updates to this story. Wish me luck!

Second Anniversary Soak!

2006-12-04T08:20:00.000+09:00

A week before our second anniversary, a couple of my students (Yumi and her father, Seiji) invited us to go with them to a hotel near Shuzenji. Seiji is a retired businessman who spent most of his career managing and owning hotels. He and his family still own the hotel they took us to see. It was a beautiful place with ryokan and modern style rooms. Yumi did all the decorating when they bought the place, upholstering chairs and putting in new carpeting. Here are some pics of the interior:

On the left is a shot from inside one of the ryokan rooms. Tatami mats and low tables typify this kind of space. On the right is a pic of us with part of the Murakami clan. Left to right: Yumi's nephew, Keisuke, Yumi, I, Lisa, and Seiji.

The hotel was located in central Izu, and was right on a river with beautiful landscapes. Japan is an artist's paradise. Unfortunately we arrived after dark, so I couldn't take pics of the outside, but if any of you come visit, we will definitely go over there.

The Murakamis didn't know it, but they gave us a really great anniversary gift. The hotel has a private outdoor onsen. The Onsen is very traditional and luxurious. The Murakamis gave us a complimentary 45 minute soak in the onsen, and so we really enjoyed ourselves.

This is the stone floored shower area of the onsen. The wood stools and buckets were a nice touch. The bamboo walls and wooden support columns made it feel like we were stepping back in time.

This is the onsen itself. It was beautiful to look at, and even nicer to soak in. The wicker screens reveal a lovely view of the river on which the hotel is situated. The weather that day was cold and rainy, so the hot water made it rather foggy in the onsen.

And finally, a shot of us enjoying the hot water! The floor of the onsen was tiled with large flat rocks. There were also volcanic rocks used to make seats in the water. This picture was taken in front of a waterfall that supplied more hot water to the onsen. The chilly air above the water felt exhilarating in contrast to the heat of the onsen. We soaked for about 30 minutes, then got out and dried off. After we made use of the foot massagers in the changing room, we walked our highly relaxed bones back to the lobby and had some green tea. What a great day it was!

Fall Festival

2006-11-28T22:39:00.000+09:00

Every 15th of October, the Japanese gather in many towns to celebrate and welcome the coming of Autumn. In the northern territories of Japan, the leaves have already begun to change color, and the weather is starting to dry out and get cool. This holiday festival is hosted by the various cities' shrines in conjunction with various homes and businesses who sponsor parade floats. A few days before this festival began, I noticed that there were long ropes tied up just above head level and running the length of the streets in town. The ropes had jaggedly cut pieces of paper hanging from them. I asked around a bit and finally learned from one of the ALTs that these are a representation of waterfalls. The water pours down on your head to purify you. It is a common practice in Japan to pour water over the head of a god's statue as a way of requesting a blessing or good fortune. In the shopping district here in Ito, there are seven gods of good fortune hidden at various spots among the shops with little fountains and a ladle for each god's head. it's one of the many fun little walking tours you can take here in Ito.

So, anyway, on October 15th, we got in the car and drove about 45 minutes from Ito to a small town on the west coast of the Izu Peninsula called Toi. Toi, we had heard, was hosting a wonderfully large festival. It was a beautiful day, and the scenery on the way there was great, but when we arrived, there wasn't much of a festival going on. There were only 3 food booths, and no kids' games or anything. There was a large stage set up with a Taiko Drum section, so we watch a little bit of the shows. Here are a couple of videos from that:

Here is a bit of the Taiko drummers in action.

Here is a traditional Autumnal dance performed by one of the ladies' social clubs of Toi. I'm not sure what all of this symbolizes, but it is beautiful to watch.

Since there wasn't much going on at this festival, we decided to take in Toi's real claim to fame: The World's Largest Flower Clock and acupressure walkway. This was a bit like some of the spots in America--largest ball of twine, tallest cheese wheel, etc. The acupressure walkway was about 150 feet of sheer foot agony. Supposedly, if you make it all the way around (barefoot), you will increase your health and well being by a huge amount. I think the relief of no longer having jagged rocks poking into the bottoms of my feet was what they intended me to interpret as a general feeling of health and well-being.
Here are a couple of photos:

A bit disappointed by the meager faire at the Toi festival, we hopped back in the car and drove to Ito, which we had heard was not even celebrating very much. We were sorely mistaken and should have stayed in Ito all day! When we arrived back in Ito at about 5 pm, there were booths set up all over the central area of town selling okonomiyaki, squid balls, shrimp, yakitori, corn dogs, candies, toys, and all kinds of stuff. People were everywhere, and everyone was already drunk (everyone over 20, that is). Then we saw the parade floats. Before you scroll down to the picture, try to imagine the streets of Ito at dusk. Japanese people everywhere lines the streets, swaying back and forth to hold tight on their three sheets to the wind. Many are laughing, sharing a toast, or just catching up on old times with friends they haven't seen in a while. There is music everywhere, the smells of festival food, and excitement fill the air, and then the most beautiful procession of parade floats begin to pass by.
This Float is a typical parade float for festivals. It is entirely made of carved and inlaid wood, and covered in lanterns that I later found out bear the names of various sponsors for the float. I was in awe of the sight of these floats. It was like something out of a dream. An American Expat who lives in Usami was there and laughed at my response to what he called a very heavy commercial advertisement. He was right, it turns out that many of the lanterns have names for local hotels and tourist spots in Ito.

Here is a shot of the procession coming down the street toward us. The people on the floats are from various families and businesses, and they waved and shouted greetings to their friends and neighbors as they passed by. It was all great fun. Each group passed by a table at which were seated judges, but I am unsure as to the criterion for judgment. There were dancers like the ladies you saw earlier, and a number of other acts. The next thing we saw was the "portable" shrines. I put portable in quotation marks because these shrines are portable in the sense that they are not bolted to the ground, but it takes anywhere from 30 to 150 people to carry these things down the streets. Here's a video I shot of one of the shrines making its way down the street. I apologize for the sideways view. One of the reasons I have taken so long to post this is because i was looking for a video editor that could fix my error. I thought that the camera would automatically recognize "up" like it does for the photographs, but alas, no. At any rate, here's the clip:

Later in the evening, I got some footage of a portable shrine carried exclusively by children.

Later in the evening, I heard a bustle and strange noises and laughing coming from the crowd, so I nudged my way onto the street to see what was happening. Unfortunately, I didn't have the video camera ready for what I saw. At first, I thought it was a bunch of geisha pulling a parade float, but as they got closer, I realized it was about 25 Japanese men in drag, highly intoxicated, and pulling the heavy wooden parade float behind them in a flat-out run. Here's the only picture I got of them before they sped past us. It was a riot. Everyone enjoyed laughing at their friends, neighbors, and relatives dressed in drag.

So, that about wraps it up for the fall festival. The next big festival will be New Year's Eve, and i should have some good fireworks shots from that. Sayonara for now!

Playstation 3--Akihabara--11-11-06--Long Narrative PART 1

2006-11-12T13:01:00.000+09:00

***Before I get into this, I would like to take a moment to praise and thank Lisa for joining me in the authoring of this blog. You can see her entries with the tagline "posted by Risa Sensei" at the bottom.***

Our friend, Kessler, back in Jacksonville, desperately wanted to have a Playstation 3. As it turns out, the release date for the Japanese PS3 is a week before the US release, so if I could manage to get one here, Kessler would have it in his hands a few days before anyone in the U.S. So, last week, I took a recon trip to Tokyo on the Shinkansen (which incidentally, is *the way* to travel in Japan, and riding it makes me wonder why we haven't gotten with the program in the high speed train business in the U.S.). Here are a couple clips of the Shink (as we Gaijin call it) in action:

But I digress. Where was I, ah yes, the reconnaissance mission. I took the metro to Akihabara and found three possible places where I could pick up a PS3 on opening day. I asked everyone I could find who spoke English what the best strategy was, and they all said one of two things which I will paraphrase here:
1- I don't know, We have no information, etc.
2- Get ready to wait on line!

This trip was further clouded by the news that Sony was planning only to release 80,000 PS3s in Japan. Still, I decided that opening day for a game console as solid as this one seems to be would be an experience I shouldn't miss while I have the chance to see it in Japan. A week later, yesterday, I went back to Tokyo and checked into a ryokan in Asakusa. Ryokan are traditional Japanese hotels with a futon (pronounced "ff_tone," not "foo-tawn"--the underscore means that the sound is either diminished or absent) and tatami (no accent on the second syllable--so instead of "ta-taa-mee," it's "tata-mee") floors. I checked into the ryokan at about 4pm, and took a brief rest in the room. I had walked from Akihabara (Ah-K_ha-ba-ra") to Asakusa ("Ah-sah-k_sa")--about 40 minutes. Since the trains stop at midnight and don't start until 5am, My plan was to wake up at about 3 am and walk back to Akihabara so I could be at the front of the line. At about 5 pm, I decided to go grab a bite to eat. While I was out, I thought I would check by Yodobashi Akiba, the electronics store where I thought the chances were the best for getting a PS3, and see what was cooking there. I had checked a few of the fan-boy blogs and they said that the Japanese were not yet lining up in most places, and by the way they were written, the blogs seemed to suggest that this PS3 launch was no big deal for the Japanese. They were either mistaken, or intentionally misleading. When I exited the metro station in Akihabara outside Yodobashi Akiba, there was already a line of over 100 people at 6pm. The PS3 was slated for to begin selling at 7 am the next day, so I checked with the people waiting to make sure they were waiting for the PS3. Upon hearing confirmation of my fears, I uttered several expletives under my breath. The words of the hotel concierge echoed back to me, "If I wanted a PS3," he had said, "I would go to Akihabara tonight." Damn it! I rushed back down the stairs into the metro, flew over to the ticket kiosk and hopped back on a train to get to Asakusa. On my way back to the ryokan, I stopped at Family Mart and began to stock up on supplies, whisking them quickly off the shelves: pringles, 4 canned coffee drinks, 3 beers (by the way, there is no open container law here, and tall-boy cans are de riguer street gear for the partier), Pocky chocolate snacks (mmm), 3 onigiri (stuffed rice balls with a nori seaweed wrapper) a sushi bento, and a V8 for vitamins. I paid for the all-nighter supplies and ran back to the ryokan, where I snatched up my backpack, stuffed the supplies inside, filled up a water bottle, and ran back downstairs to check out. I wished I had stayed in Akihabara and seen the line developing so that I could've saved the 5000 Yen for the Ryokan. At any rate, it was nearing 6:30 by the time I raced out of the hotel back to Asakusa's Ginza Line Station. I hopped the Ginza line train. The two stops to Ueno station and subsequent transfer to the Hibiya line for Akihabara (another two stops) seemed to take forever. I stopped by the bathroom one last time before heading out into the Tokyo night to find the end of what I knew was going to be a long line. Check out Part 2 of the story HERE.

Playstation 3--Akihabara--11-11-06--Long Narrative PART 2

2006-11-11T21:49:00.000+09:00

Link to Part ONE
The line was now a snaking entity that began at the entrance to Yodobashi Akiba and wrapped around the metro entrance to end on the street corner half a block away. My heart sank, but since I had made a decisive move by checking out of the hotel, I figured I would tough it out. I think I should mention here that Tokyo is the safest city I have ever been in, which is really saying something given its enormity. I have seen people plop down for a nap in public areas with little fear of someone swiping their bags. The Police here are good at what they do, but they are a bit like the Maytag Repairman, and spend a great deal of time helping people with directions due to the dearth of real crime in the city.

At any rate, I hopped into line with little hope of coming out of Yodobashi Akiba with a PS3, and almost immediately, a security guard from the store (I thought he was a policeman at first, but then I noticed he had no pistol and the initials S.G. were embroidered above his badge, which was also embroidered on his crisply ironed shirt) began to raise his voice at me in a barrage of incomprehensible Japanese. I understood, "You...this...no! Why...you...here?" As you can see, my Japanese is improving, as I would have understood none of it when I first arrived in Japan. I responded, "pu-re-su-te-shyo-n-su-ri." He replied loudly, "This...no...you...no!" I responded, "Wakarimasen," and turned toward the others in front of me in line. The guard laughed when I said I didn't understand and said, "Wakarimasen! Ha ha ha!" He then began to verbally accost three more gentlemen who had now joined the line behind me. I watched them respond to the guard and did as they did, namely, stare off into space away from the guard and act like you didn't know he was talking to you when he taps you on the shoulder. Luckily for us, about 30 people showed up at the back of the line behind us just as he began to really let this other guy have it. The guard now began haranguing the people behind us. It wasn't long before the orders changed, because he switched from what I found out was "You are not allowed to line up here," to "Please move aside and don't block the sidewalk."

At this point, there were about 10 security guards walking around shouting for people to stand out of the way. I watched traffic go by on the street, and saw people gawking at us. Oh, great, I thought, I am going to have to camp out on this street corner tonight! Strangely enough, I was wrong, because the line began to move, and quickly so. We walked about 20 meters toward the store. I began to feel excited, as I thought perhaps the store had decided to open its doors early. Then I realized that ten more guards had begun to move the line up ahead so that it did not block the metro entrance.

I stood with the three fellows nearest me and tried to strike up a conversation, me in broken Japanese, they in broken English. When you say "Eigo o hanashimasu ka? (do you speak English)" to someone and he responds "Choto, choto, (a little, a little)" be prepared for choto to mean "not at all." So I broke out the Pringles and my dictionary and tried to make some allies in the struggle for a PS3. The guys around me were gemu-otaku (gamer fans). It turned out they were my age, and had been playing video games since way back. For those of you who don't know, Otaku can mean simply, "fanatic" or it can mean "nerd without a life whose only ambition is to be immersed in something inane." There are Anime-otaku all over Akihabara, some of whom dress up as their favorite characters. There are Otaku for every pastime in Japan, and last night, the streets were filled with gemu-otaku.

The line we were in was moved a few more times so that we now faced the street where we started and could sit down. I shot the breeze with the people around me as best I could for an hour or so, when, suddenly, the line began to move. Only it was the back of the line that was moving, and people were now running around to the front entrance of Yodobashi Akiba. My new otaku friends motioned for me to join them, so I grabbed my backpack and tried to haul ass behind the others. We turned right to pass under the railroad tracks and a crowd of about 600 people now met the longest line of bicycles parked on a sidewalk that I have ever seen. Of course, gemu otaku not being athletically inclined, they ran right into them, causing a huge ruckus, and I got to see the beginning of the bicycle domino course they had created. At this point, the crowd turned right and converged in front of the store.

I was pushed and carried through the doorway, security guards screaming at us the whole time. I had to ditch the half-eaten can of Pringles, as my hands were full with the dictionary and water bottle. Once I was carried to the escalator, I was able to put them away. The crowd, now about 800 strong pushed its way up six flights of escalators to where the PS3 display was. Security guards screaming the whole time to get out. Last minute shoppers gasped, gawked and laughed at the tide of 800 people now passing by them. I still don't know why the crowd ran into the store like that, but my guess is that someone started a rumor that it was on sale at that moment.

Once we were "escorted" out of the store as well as 800 people can be escorted by 20 security guards, we were formed into a line facing the south entrance to the store. At this point, I was separated from my otaku friends and I had to stand next to a Chinese man with horrible breath (who also spoke pretty good English). We were packed into the small corridor and told not to block it, so we were lined up about 6 abreast in the hallway and everybody's ass was up against someone else's pelvis. We stood there like sardines for about 45 minutes before the guards began to split the lines into two separate queues. At this point, I was pushed into the girl in front of me and had to make my apologies. It turned out hat she spoke English, and we became quick friends. Her name is Cathy, and her boyfriend's name is Takeshi. They were very nice, and we began to share stories, as we figured we would be standing close to each other for quite some time. Here is a picture of the line from where we stood.

After the store closed, the employees came out to help the security guards organize the crowd. They lined up surrounding each of the two masses of people and linked hands so that people would not run back and forth between lines. I still felt as if at any moment they would send most of us home and say that they only had 10 PS3s, so don't bother waiting. At about ten o'clock, things got really serious. The two lines were moved to the front (east) entrance, and then we were marched down into the 4th basement floor of the parking garage. They lined us up 4 abreast and gave each of us a ticket with a number on it. You can imagine how I felt when I got mine:

Seven hundred and fifty fucking six!? There's no way I'm getting this thing!

Next, they changed us from 4 abreast lines to single file lines and corralled us into the parking garage, where we all were relieved for a place to sit. I cracked open a beer, and ate my sushi. Takeshi went to look for food, but they weren't letting anyone leave the garage, so all he could fins was a drink machine. So, I gave him one of my onigiri. After a couple beers, and a 45 minute wait on line to use the bathroom (hey at least they had bathrooms!), I was feeling tired, so I rolled up my sweatshirt for a pillow and tried to catch forty winks on the parking garage floor.

Here's a shot of the inside of the garage:

Sleep was elusive, but I managed to doze for about an hour. I woke up at about 3 am, and watched Cathy and Takeshi play Pokemon on their Nintendo DS for a while.

At about 5:30, the guards and employees told us all to stand up and get back in our original lines by ticket number. Then, I saw two employees come out with bags of another type of card. Finally Cathy heard someone talking, and translated that they would be queuing us up for entry into the store. We were to go around a corner in the garage and exchange our tickets for what she said was a ticket that guaranteed you a chance to buy a PS3. I began to get excited, but my excitement was tempered by the fact that there were 755 people in front of me. The line oozed along, flight upon flight of people rounded the corner in front of us. Then it happened, our line began to move.

I began to smile as I rounded the corner, as I noticed they still had a lot of the new tickets left. The employees handed me a blue bordered ticket and said happily, "Roku-ju giga!" I looked down at the ticket and understood that they were telling me I had access to the 60GB hard drive PS3--the top of the line model. WOW! I was still skeptical about whether I would actually be holding one of those babies in my hands come opening time, but seeing the new ticket brightened my spirits a lot.

It also looked like a bunch of people before us had opted for he 20 GB machine, because I was now number 728! I began to really appreciate how they had run this operation. It started out very chaotic, but by the end I realized that the Japanese had this thing down to a science. The crowd was the most polite and good-natured crowd I had ever found myself in. There was pushing at the beginning, but it wasn't angry pushing. I never feared for my safety. At one point, I thought I was being pick-pocketed, but I looked down and noticed it was just someone's umbrella pushing against my hip. After that, I never felt worried about the type of people I had been thrown in with. At 6:45, the mass of people in front of us began to be moved to the elevators, and the crowd slowly shrank as people were transported to the first floor. I made it to the elevator with Cathy and Takeshi at about 8:00.

I was full of joy when the elevator doors opened, and there were smiling clerks motioning me toward the counter. They signed me up for a Yodobashi points card that gave me a 10% discount, and I approached the next empty cashier's counter. A beautiful black shopping bag full of electronic goodness was placed in front of me, and they showed me a list of games to choose from. I picked "Ridge Racer," "Gundam," and a Japanese RPG called "Genshu" or something. I paid around 90,000 Yen for everything, and then walked to the exit. It had begun raining, so they gave us all little plastic bags to put on our shopping bags. It was all very efficient, and I am glad I went through it. I walked across the street to Kinko's/FedEx and sent the new Playstation 3 to Kessler. If all goes well, he'll have it in the US about 4 days before its release there.

UPDATE--Kessler has received the PS3, and is setting it up in his house as I am writing this.

The Human Tsunami

2006-11-11T20:54:00.001+09:00

As we were following the clues for the scavenger hunt, we found ourselves in an area of Tokyo called Shibuya. Immediately we knew something was going on. There was an electrifying buzz of human activity around the place. People were waiting anxiously for something, but what?! I could hardly stand the suspense when it happened. The flood gates opened, the dam broke, the human tsunami hit. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of people all of a sudden poured in toward the ten of us, cameras and camera phones in hand, running and screaming like someone were giving away free sushi! It all happed so fast, I couldn’t even turn the camera on! Apparently there is some popular Japanese TV show called Kisarazu Cat’s Eye and the five very handsome young male stars were making an appearance in Shibuya near Tower Records. It was hysteria! Girls screaming and crying. Suddenly the proper and reserved Japanese (mostly women) morphed into a vicious, uninhibited mob! The whole thing lasted about 2 minutes. The five guys walked down the stairs and into a waiting van, and off they went. So there I was in the midst of this momentous moment in Japanese history, and not even a picture to show for it! But I do have a shot of the famous intersection outside Shibuya station where thousands of people cross the streat each time the light changes.

Akihabara “Costume Shop”

2006-11-11T20:53:00.001+09:00

After wandering though the Circuit Citys And Best Buys of Tokyo, I turned my attention to finding a Halloween costume. We noticed some “characters” on the street who pointed us into what we thought was the right direction. Watch as Paul demonstrates is mastery of the Japanese language and culture:

Following their instructions, we came to a rather large building and, sure enough, in the 8th storey window there were costumes. Eager to see if they had anything to fit us Westerners, we headed into the building and up to the 8th floor. As the elevator doors opened, I realized we had definitely stumbled into something quite different than we anticipated. The costumes, French maid, cheerleader, nurse, school girl, all seemed to fit a certain, how shall I say…theme. Upon closer inspection, I realized either one of two things 1) the manufactures of these outfits are disgustingly cheap and scrimp on material or 2) these outfits are see-through! Yes, we had inadvertently stumbled into one of Tokyo’s many sex shops. Maybe this is where they were hiding all the technology! Embarrassed and disappointed (Take your minds out of the gutter—Disappointed that we still hadn’t found a costume), we left to continue our search. It does make you wonder about the “characters” in the video… After hours of fruitless shopping, I decided I would simply wear the Minnie Mouse ears, nose, tail, and gloves I had found in the apartment and Paul would be the ever popular “Big Western Guy in Jeans and a T-shirt”. I think the true art of a Halloween costume is not in how much money you spend, but in how people react to you. Case in point: The old knife-through-the-head-band. It’s surprising, funny, gruesome…in a word-classic. I had more fun with that one scary accessory than I did with the whole hunt. Here are a couple of videos of the fun we had with this prank:

Katie tries to get a laugh out of poor Phuc, but he seems intently concerned with her health.

Melody Stealing the spotlight from the Harajuku Cos Play Girls
It might not work, so you can watch it HERE.

The hunt itself was difficult. I think our group was a little too big and people had different ideas of how they wanted to attempt it. Honestly, I didn’t care about the hunt. I just wanted an excuse to go to Tokyo, have some guidance as to some good places to see, and hang out with my friends. I was happy with the day. I got to see some really cool areas of Tokyo.

Our Trip to Tokyo

2006-11-11T20:04:00.000+09:00

On October 27th, Paul and I journeyed to the capital of Japan to take part in a Tokyo Halloween scavenger hunt hosted by a charity called Pepy-Ride for the JET members. This was to be our first big weekend trip since Paul’s arrival so I took “nenkyu,” Japanese for a vacation day, on Friday so we could extend it a bit. We left Ito at about 10 a.m. and reached Tokyo by noon. It really is so close! The people on the hunt arranged for us to stay at the Sakura Hotel. It is a hostel/discount hotel which is very sparce, but clean, which is all that really matters. We checked in then tightened up our walking shoes and set out to explore.
We first stopped and got some lunch at a supermarket close to the hotel. Supermarkets and convenience stores here all have bentos, or boxed lunches available all the time. It is made daily and ranges from sushi to sandwiches, from onigiri to ramen. It’s pretty cool. We at our lunch on the street corner (really no benches near our hotel), then walked to the Imperial Palace.
My Lonely Planet guide says that the gardens of the Imperial Palace are some of the most beautiful in the world. Unfortunately, it is closed on Fridays! Oh well. With Tokyo being so close, I know we will be able to see the gardens before we head back to the states. This picture is the moat around the Palace grounds.

After being denied at the Palace, we jumped on the Tokyo Metro and headed for Akihabara, a.k.a. “Electronics Town" (see picture below). Before I get into the adventures of Akihabara, let me just say that Tokyo has a fabulous mass transit system. Not only is it EXTREMELY convenient, but for a city of over 8 million, it is unbelievably clean. It is a testament to the respectful culture of Japan.
Anywho, back to Akihabara. We set out looking for a place that sells video games. Our friend Kessler back in Jacksonville had asked Paul to find him a new video game console that was being released in Japan. While Paul was fixated on video games, I was keeping my eyes open for a costume shop for the Halloween Scavenger Hunt the next day. This area is pretty amazing in that it is store after store of electronics. I mean literally, blocks of electronics stores. They all basically sell the same things, but it was still pretty cool. I have to admit though, I thought there would be more weird technology. The stuff we saw in Akihabara was normal, i.e. Cameras, i-pods, video cameras, etc. I had always had an idea in my mind that Tokyo would be filled with amazing gadgets like a toothbrush that plucks your eyebrows or a device that clasps a woman’s bra as it massages her back. But alas, I have seen nothing of the sort.

Here are some shots of Akihabara's video game arcades:

This is a 10 person linked soccer game at the Sega arcade. On the next floor, hey had a 10 person linked Yugioh quest rpg. The table tops in front of the people playing the game are sensitive to the magneticly imbedded Yugioh cards and the players can use them in the video game.

This is a guitar player video game with an actual guitar attached to it. It was featured in the movie "Lost in Translation."

The Joy of Teaching in Japan

2006-10-19T20:17:00.000+09:00

Teaching English as a Foreign Language is a tough, sometimes frustrating job. There are moments, however that make it all worth while. Aside from getting my students to pronounce my "Cleveland A" (It really does warm my heart), what you are about to witness is the highlight of my week...

Hanagasa Dance Festival

2006-10-16T20:18:00.000+09:00

Two weeks ago, the International Relations Committee in Ito helped to sponsor a festival for Haganasa Dance. Many volunteer dance clubs came out to show their stuff at the Ito Sky Dome (Sky Dome is like a shopping mall that is a long, covered atrium). They had traditional Yukatas (a light, summer version of the Kimono) and taiko drums to go with the music. Haganasa is a dance style where the dancers walk in line with decorative hats and they make stylized movements. I'm sure the movements have some kind of significance, but I couldn' find anyone to tell me about it. Anyway, this is a good chance to talk about the Japanese pentiant for celebrating.

There are many festivals throughout the year. Japanese people celebrate the changing of seasons, historical days, and religious holidays. They don outfits with bright colors and go out to enjoy each others' company. This is a good time to talk about a myth about the Japanese. I have heard it said that the Japanese are overly temperate and emotionally repressed. The large number of festivals throughout the year puts the lie to this statement. Japanese people enjoy a good party! Many of them drink like fish on these days of color and music. It was a relief for me to see that they can cut it loose as well as any Gaijin and better than some.

Here are a few pics of the festival:

This is a photo of the line dancers walking up and down the aisle in their Yukatas.

They even let the Gaijin join in the action! The International Relations Committee gave us all leis and Haganasa hats. Then they showed us a few steps and we jumped into the line and danced our way around Sky Dome.

The Dancing was great fun, and we got laughs and smiles from the other dance teams. They really enjoyed our willingness to join in the fun. Here are a few videos:

Here's the motion of the line dance.

These are the taiko drummers.

And, here is the goofy gaijin trying to do his best.

A Slice of Japanese Culture

2006-10-14T13:50:00.000+09:00

I have had requests to talk about the Japanese people, so I will use the event of the Haganasa Dance Festival in Ito to illustrate the cultural flavor of Japan. Our experience thus far is that the Japanese people are overwhelmingly kind-natured, and willing to meet you half-way and then some if you show the slightest effort at trying to integrate.

Many people will tell you that the Japanese are cold and distant. I think this may be the case in business, since the Japanese do not like to make decisions without a great deal of thought, and so they often come across as aloof or cold when negotiating. In their every day dealings, however, I have found the people to be gracious, and welcoming. They value politeness and harmony highly. As such, I have experienced things that would not happen in the U.S. For instance, if you ask a Japanese person if there is something available to do or to make, they will often offer to take you there, make it for you, or do it for you before you have a chance to say that you are only curious. Lisa and I have learned that we have to be careful what we ask about, because we will often find that the person we ask scurries off to take care of the thing we asked about. We find that humbly thanking them brings a big smile to their faces.

Bowing
Bowing is a common sight. Japanese use it in introductions, in saying goodbye, in saying thank you, and in apologizing. There are varying degrees of bow depths, which can be intimidating for an outsider, but the Japanese learn these bows from an early age. Basically, if you are bowing to a senior or superior, you bow low. You do the same if you are thanking someone or apologizing. I have found that it is possible to get into a "bowing loop" because the Japanese will always return a bow, so at times, you can get into an awkwardly long set of bows back and forth. The other night, I saw a group of businessmen leaving a restaurant bowing for like 2 minutes. Then two of the men got into a taxi, and the other two waited on the corner until the taxi pulled off, and continued bowing as the others drove away. People even bow from their cars if you let them enter traffic, or if they cut you off and want to apologize.

Bowing replaces handshaking, and can actually be a quite warm way to greet someone if done properly. That being said, I should mention that Japanese typically reserve physical contact of any kind for family and loved ones. At church, we offer a bow of peace instead of a handshake. If a Japanese person hugs you, you have probably saved the life of his child or something amazing. That being said, many Japanese enjoy trying to imitate Western greetings, and will offer to shake your hand, but as a rule, I don't offer to shake anyone's hand unless they do it first. I bow and say "Hajime Mashite [bow here]" to people my age, or "Dozo[bow here] yoroushiko onegaishimasu" to a superior. The first one is a general "nice to meet you," while the other is a humble request to look with favor on you from that point forward.

One of the major issues that Americans struggle with is the idea that the Japanese do not want to be an inconvenience to anyone, or to be inconvenienced by anyone. This is a very strong theme in the culture, and one of the main areas where it comes into play is with things like parking places. Parking places are very precious here,as there is a limited amount of space. People rent parking places for thousands of Yen a month, so if you park in a space that isn't yours, you can really stir the pudding. I have heard that businesses have feuds over who gets to use parking spaces nearby.

Maybe
In addition to the above, it seems that the Japanese find it awkward socially to say no. Often they will tell you maybe when the answer is definitely no. For example,
Paul: "Is the store open at midnight?"
Japanese person: "Hmmmmmm, maybe?"

EEEEEEEEEEE?
The Japanese have a funny way to express irony and doubt. They have a non-vocabulary sound that they make. It sounds like the letter A (which would be the letter E in Japanese) with a slight amount of U in it. For instance,
Paul: "I love sushi!"
Japanese: "EEEEEEEE?"
Paul: "Oh yeah, they have sushi restaurants all over America."
Japanese: "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE?"

The sound is not short. Depending on the amount of doubt or irony, they extend it. I have heard EEEs that go on for up to 2 seconds. It is also accompanied by wide amazed eyes. It sounds like this.

Unh
Another sound commonly heard in Japan is the unh. It is often used to indicate agreement or understanding. It is much like our "uh-huh" but shorter and it seems to imply more meaning. I have heard Japanese people pick up the phone and after the initial "Hai. Mushi mushi!" which means hello, the entire conversation is a string of these.

Domo, Dozo, Sumimasen, Gomennasai
Typically, the Japanese consider it rude to lose their tempers in public, so most of the time, you will find that they try to remain polite. This makes it difficult to determine if you have overstepped your bounds. The Japanese get around this by apologizing A LOT. Often, they apologize before they do something. Sumimasen is a word you often hear in Japan. It means many things. It can mean: Excuse me (if you bump into someone or would like to pass by), I'm sorry, or thank you (as in, I'm sorry I made you work so hard to please me). I also hear domo a lot. When combined with arigato, domo is a very polite way to thank someone. But I hear domo all by itself in common parlance. It seems to be a way to apologize and thank others for tolerating one's inconvenient actions. It is often followed by Hai, dozo. Hai dozo is a way of saying, "Don't worry about it, it's a gift to you" You can say Hai, dozo when opening a door for someone or giving them a gift, or when accepting an apology. This is so often said that it takes on a character like the EEEE? It can often sound like, "HaidooozooooooOOO," where the final OOs rise in pitch as they approach the end of the phrase. Gomennasai means basically, "Forgive me" and is used when you are late to arrive, or have caused a large inconvenience, like blocking someone's path with your car.

I have not experienced grudge-bearing here. It seems that if a proper apology is given, the Japanese are extremely tolerant. The only difficulty is knowing the things you may need to make a proper apology for doing. Basically, if you have the ability to treat others as if they are your guests, and try not to inconvenience any of your guests, you can really make a lot of friends here, as they do the same thing.

Garbage
The garbage system here is one of the most confusing things I have ever seen. The Japanese have a lot of enviro-whacko ideas ingrained in them (e.g. Kyoto accord), and as with all environmentalism, it isn't always backed by science. For instance, in a land so convinced that the earth is about to boil, it seems strange that they burn 3/4 of the garbage, much of which is plastics that release CFCs into the atmosphere. That being said, I think the main reason why the garbage system is so strange is because they really don't have a lot of space for landfills. So they separate their garbage into groups: Burnable and non-burnable. But it isn't that simple.

Non-burnable garbage is further separated into recyclable plastics, steel/tin, aluminum, glass, and finally, awkward things (couches, beds, etc.) There are different days of the month when the different types of garbage will be picked up, and it is considered very rude not to pay attention to these days. Burnable trash is picked up 3 times a week, but you can not put it out the night before. It must be placed at the pick up place no later than 8:30 am on the proper day. Also, the bags are specific to the task. You can not put trash out in a regular grocery bag, it must have a label on it that says it is burnable garbage. Most of the grocery stores use these, but some don't. The non-burnables are a different tale altogether. Glass, aluminum, steel, etc. are picked up twice a month on different days. If you have any awkward items, they must be broken down as far as they will go and you have to make special arrangements to have them picked up. This has been by far the most difficult aspect of Japanese culture for us to learn.

This post is becoming too long to talk about the dance festival, so I will get back here and write another one about Japanese fun and arts. Sayonara for now.

Fresh Seafood in Japan

2006-10-02T16:30:00.000+09:00

Last Friday, Lisa and I were invited to dinner with some of the teachers from Higashi Elementary, where I do part time team-teaching, and where Lisa was assigned all of last week. They gave us a map to the place, right on Route 135-beachfront. Luckily I can now read hiragana, because they labeled the spot on the map in romaji, but the sign out front was hiragana only: Haruhira Maru. We took the bus from our house because drinking and driving is strictly forbidden (In Japan, there is no legal blood alcohol level, so even if you have only one beer, you are considered to be driving uner the influence. The people are very conscious of it, and will remind you not to drive if you order a beer at a restaurant--ironically, there is no open container law, so you can walk around drinking all night if you like). Anyway, we arrived at Haruhira Maru at about 6:15, but couldn't see anyone from our group inside. Lisa and I began to question our ability to read hiragana, so we walked around the block and, unable to see anythign that contradicted our first impression, we returned to the empty Haruhira Maru. I went inside and tried to ask the server if this was, in fact, the right place. She said it was, and when I said, "Higashi elementary," she smiled and pointed upstairs. We were led to a room where all of our colleagues were waiting for us. The principal, assistant principal, and several of the teachers were all present. The room was a traditional Japanese retaurant-style with tatami mats and low tables (which make it difficult for a fatty like me to get comfortable).

The tables were already set with plates full of treasures from the sea. Here is what the place settings looked like:

After we had greeted everyone, we sat down in front of the lovely decorative plates full of sashimi and a large shrimp. We were exchanging pleasantries with everyone when Lisa suddenly flinched. I looked over and asked if anything was wrong. She quietly said, "I think there's something moving on my plate." Keep in mind that since we have been in Japan, we have been getting used to living an older apartment with slight bug problems (the topic of an upcoming post), so we both get the crawlies rather easily. That being said, just as she was telling me, I noticed something on my plate move out of the corner of my eye. As I turned to look more closely, the girl (one of the teachers) across from me began to wince in fear as she noticed something moving on her plate as well.

Upon closer examination, we all realized that the shrimp so delicately and beautifully arranged on our plates were all skewered, but still alive. Yoshimi, one of the 1st grade teachers, picked hers up for a demonstration of the movement capabilities of a skewered shrimp. Watch and be amazed, and listen for my maniacal laughter in the background.

Needless to say, this did not make it easy for Lisa (and, to a lesser extent, me) to feel good about eating a gourmet Japanese dinner. So we ordered beers all around, which came in 40 oz. bottles (we spilled a little for our homies). The asst. principal was in the mood to drink, and get others drunk, so he suggested I switch to Chu-Hi, a combination of tea and hard liquor (in stores, called "Convini" you can buy Chu-Hi, bu it's more like a wine cooler). It was quite good, and dinner flowed well from that point on.

So, after we all settled down, and some of the ladies moved the offending shrimp out of their direct lines of sight, the servers brought in the next course, tempura fried fish. A whole fish, battered and fried such that if you decided to eat it, you ate it all. It was actually quite good, and so was the sashimi. The little fish that was sliced up to make some of my sashimi was actually garnishing the plate (you can see him in the picture). They also had a personal barbecue setting for each person, and they lit sterno under it so we could grill our pumpkin, onion, peppers and squid. They also served enormous scallops that were delicious. In acuality, all of the food was wonderful, and to take revenge on it for scaring my wife, I ate the hell our of the shrimp that was trying to crawl off of my plate (Sebastian and Ariel would hate me!). After all was said and done, we exchanged toasts and thank-yous, and said our goodbyes. It was a nice evening after all. Please email us if you plan to visit so we can make reservations at Haruhira Maru!

Oh how the Japanese love to soak!

2006-09-24T22:57:00.000+09:00

温泉

This is the Kanji for "onsen" (pronounced "own-sen") , a Japanese hot spring. It is important to distinguish between an onsen and a regular public bath. Many people use the words interchangeably, but I have it on authority from onsen afficionados that only a natural hot spring can be called an onsen. I have no pictures to show, as I really don't relish the thought of having my ass turned into a convenient place for naked Japanese feet because I snapped a photo inside an onsen. Suffice it to say that you can easily imagine this without living color. Anyway, as hinted at above, onsen are naked public soaking baths. Lisa and I have been to the onsen a total of 5 times since we arrived in Japan. Now, before your dirty little minds get working, remember that it is highly illegal for members of the opposite sex to enter an Onsen together(unless you pay 1000 Yen per hour for a "family" room, or it's a REALLY remote place, I've heard). So there are two sides for boys and girls, respectively.

People make a big deal about how ritualized it is to get ready for onsen, but I haven't had a problem with it. I think there is something very relaxing about scrubbing every inch of my body and getting squeaky clean. Lots of men bring their whole grooming kit in and shave, brush teeth, etc. in the onsen's shower area. When I say shower area, it's important to remember that I don't mean stalls with standing room. There is a shower nozzle on the wall, but in onsen, you sit (or squat) to shower. They provide little stools, and so you bring all your stuff in and sit there and scrub up. In order to avoid offending anyone's sensibilities, follow three rules:
1. Do not swing your stuff around when you walk in--cover with a small towel.
2. Scrub completely, but don't be freakish. A good ten minute shower with soap all over you will do
3. Do not get soap or your wash cloth in the onsen.

So, basically, you just wash thoroughly, rinse thoroughly, and then walk modestly into the VERY HOT water of the onsen. It's a LOT hotter than any jacuzzi back home, so if you visit, be ready. It took me a few tries to get used to it, and I still feel a bit like I am boiling in the water. But what's fun is to get out and shower off with cold water until I feel normal again, then hop back in. I guess the longest I have soaked is 10 minutes, but I repeat the process of soak-cold shower-soak a few times in an hour. After an hour of this, I come out of the onsen cleaner than I have ever been before, and every muscle in my body is relaxed. The level of relaxation I get from an onsen soak is unparalleled by anything else I have seen that costs less than 5 Dollars. A massage is better, but costlier. The onsen Lisa and I go to is 200 Yen for an unlimited amount of soak time, and there's a massage chair (Like the ones at Brookstone) in the locker room! The hot water also has minerals in it so many skin blemishes tend to fade after a good soak. Anyway, it's really great to go to the onsen at about 8 or 9 at night, soak till about 10 and then go home for a really great sleep. So that's the blurb about the onsen. When are you folks coming to visit?!

Komouro Yama

2006-09-19T22:22:00.000+09:00

Last weekend we went to a place called Komouro Yama, which means "Little Omouro Mountain." The mountain itself is only about 500 meters above sea level, but it has a beautiful park surrounding it to which we will return in Springtime because all of the plants will be in full bloom. There were some wonderful flower arrangements at the top of the mountain as you can see here:

The park is a favorite place for soccer games and picnicking. On our way up, we saw several Japanese families sitting in the grassy areas reading and playing with the children. It was quite tranquil. One of the great attractions of Komouro Yama is the cable lift that takes you to the top. A ticket for round-trip is 400 Yen. The cable lift is a one-person ski-lift-type-basket that never rises more than 4 or 5 feet above the ground as it climbs the mountain. This is great for anyone who may have difficulty with heights. It takes about 3 minutes to reach the top, and the view of Ito is wonderful from the lift, but spectacular from the top. Here you see Lisa about to board the lift, and then up she goes! It was very peaceful here, as I said, and on clear days, you can see Mt. Fuji quite well. We are only about 50 miles from the mountain. Check it out on Goodle Earth if you haven't already. I believe I have sent most of our contacts the placemark for our house. Many of you said that Ito looks all fuzzyin Google Earth. If you want more clarity, tell Google Earth to use 3-D buildings so that you can see more clearly where we live, and then let it sit on that loction for a few minutes so that it can download all the pertinent information on the roads and such. Then, use the tilt/zoom option to position it so you can see where Fuji is (a little north and west of us). Anyway, I took some pictures of Fuji San (Fuji is so great a mountain that a simple "Yama" won't do, so they give it an honorific "San" title, litterally, "Honorable Mr. Fuji" UPDATE--Check the comments, as my Friend Aura has helped explain this anomaly in mountain nomenclature). In the picture I have here, Fuji is the dark smudge covered in clouds in the center of the focal area. Lastly, I have a picture, that I will attempt to retake in the Spring, as it should be dazzling. It may prove difficult, as I took this view while on the way down the lift. As you can see if you click on the photo, the lift path is lined with azalea bushes, and the fields down below that look so green will one day be on fire with the colors of spring. Can't wait! After we got off the lift, Lisa and I shared an ice cream cone. Another blog entry will have to recount the various odd flavorings the Japanese like in in ice cream. This one was flavored from some kind of red flower, but I don't know the name. It was tasty, but different. I will go back and take a picture of the flowers on the sign and maybe put them in a blog entry about ice cream flavors. That about wraps it up for this entry. Please feel free to email me with questions or ideas of what you'd like to see in the blog.

Usami Kannon

2006-09-11T20:50:00.000+09:00

Just north of Ito is a small suburb named Usami. When you are on the beachfront road in Ito (route 135), you can see a huge statue way up on a mountain that stands out as it is surrounded by forest. Today, I drove up there with Blaise, a guy who is in town visiting his girlfriend, Aura, who is a JET in Usami. The road to the statue is curvy and goes all the way up the mountain.

Presently, we arrived at the temple of Usami Kannon, who I learned is a Buddhist/Hindu hybrid of the Goddess of compassion and mercy. The temple was not enormous, but the grounds were. The whole place was filled with thousands of statues lined up all over. Each statue has a number on it. I can only assume that families buy a statue as a tribute to the dead or as a prayer for good fortune, and they decorate them. Addorning the trees and pretty much any small twig or wire are little pieces of paper tied in an overhand knot. I learned later that these are wishes for good fortune tied by the many Japanese people who visit this temple.
There are bas reliefs inside the temple buildings that have a very Indian/Thai look to them, as do many of the statues on the grounds. Apparently, the Buddhist and Hindu religions merged when they left India, and then commingled with the local religions of East Asia, making the modern product in Japan dificult to discern from where each symbol comes. The tour cost 300 Yen (about $3 US) and took about 20 minutes.

Here are some pictures:

This is the front of the temple complex after you come out of the entrance and exit the gift shop. there are about 7 buildings like these.

Here is one of the many sculptures at the temple. I'm not sure whether it represents a person or a god, but there were four of them on each of the corners of this building, each with something diferent in his hands, a sword, a quill and paper, etc. I couldn't see the other two up close because they were on the outer edge of the building. UPDATE--These guys are four kings who guard the cardinal directions and are protectors of Buddhist Law (Dharma). They are called Shitenno, and are part of the Deva class (the Japanese call them Tenbu--celestial beings)--Hindu gods and creatures who were enlightened by Buddhism. You can see here that the warriors stand atop demons called Jyaki.

Here is the First look you get at the thousands of little Buddha statues. You can see that some of them have been decorated. UPDATE--these are statues of Jizo, a very common manifestation of a Bodhisatva (not yet Buddha--they achieve enlightenment, but postpone their change to Buddha until all can be saved). He is a friend to all, and these statues can be found all over japan, but especially in temples and graveyards. His name in Japanese (Jizo) means either "womb of the earth" or "treasure repository of the earth."

This is a shot of a large bell like the ones you always see in those kung fu movies. Up on the top of the mountain is a smaller version, which I will hopefully link a video file at some point so you can hear its clear ringing tone.

This image shows a large Buddha surounded by some of the thousands of miniatures. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a photo that shows how overwhelming it was to be surrounded by these.

This fellow looks very jolly. I wonder if that's a barrel for beer in his hand. Note that many of the statues have enormous earlobes. I'm not sure what that symbolizes. UPDATE--This is most likely Hotei, god of contentment and happiness. The bag over his shoulder never empties as he feeds the poor with it. He is commonly known in the West as the fat Buddha or the laughing Buddha.

This is the view from the top of the mountain of Usami and the bay on which Ito and Usami sit. Breathtaking.

These are the Shichifukujin--the 7 gods of good fortune in Japan. More on them at http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/seven.shtml. There are smaller versions of these down in the Ito marketplace, and each has a fountain with a ladle so that you may pour water on their heads for a blessing.

Here is a view of the 150+ foot tall Usami Kannon. I was impressed with the way they captured the look of serenity in stone. Looking up from below, you really do start to feel as if everything is going to be ok. The whole place really tickled my Joseph Campbell bone, as I was noticing virgin birth themes all over the place, and there were many statues that resembled the many different images we have of the Virgin Mary. UPDATE--apparently, Kannon is more often represented as male, but in this and many other cases, is seen as a female. I have learned that this is fairly common in the Buddhist/Hindu tradition.

Finally, up on the top of the mountain, I found a very strange, but oddly familiar statue (of the Tenbu Pauli Gamobon) that I thought would be pleasing to your eyes as well. It would appear that even the Buddhists are Browns fans!

Part-Time Work--Not Too Shabby!

2006-09-11T20:30:00.000+09:00

Lately, I have been home most of the day, except Wednesdays and Thursdays. On Wednesdays I have a 4 year old little girl named Riko for a playmate. Last week was my first day. I met her mother, Noriko, at Izukogen Station, which is about 20 minutes south of Ito on Route 135 (its like Phillips Hwy or Pearl Road). She took me to what she called an "accomodation" which is like a restaurant/hotel for business people staying in the area. Her husband manages the restaurant, so the whole family has a small apartment within the accomodation. She took Riko and me inside and we settled into our 90 minute playtime. Noriko wants me to play with Riko and talk to her in English so that she will become as used to it as a native speaker. So we started with animal noises, and then Riko wanted to throw, kick, and hit a ball back and forth. It is such a relief to be able to just enjoy a child's company without having to worry about discipline or saying, "Pay attention" all the time. Noriko pays me 2500 Yen every week for playing with Riko. This week, I will meet one of Riko's playmates and we will all play together. It is a wonderful experience, and I am glad to be gainfully employed.
After plytime is over, I go home for a little bit and then at 6:00 I meet three ladies from the Board of Education in Ito. They each pay me 3000 Yen for 90 minutes of English lessons. Last week, we talked about restaurants and how to order food. This week, I think I will do business introductions and such. At 7 pm, Miyuki gets out a tea set and we all have tea. It's really enjoyable.
On the 2nd and fourth wednesday of each month, I meet with another lady from the Board of Ed. who has two middle schoolers. She wants them to improve with English, so I will start Wednesday tutoring them for 3000 Yen each per session.
On Thursdays, I try to go to free Japanese lessons offered by the Ito International Relations Committee. I go at 10 am and 1 pm, and I feel like i am learning a lot. I have learned a bunch of greetings and niceties, and am begining to learn how to use verbs. This Thursday, I have to have all of the Hiragana alphabet memorized in order. I have already doen a little it, and the letters on the signs are beginning to make sense. It won't be long before I can read a large number of signs in Japanese.
Hopefully, soon, I will start to fill up the other days of the week, but for now, I am glad to have something to do one day a week. Please feel free to email me, write, or call any time, as the times I am not working, it would be great to be in contact with my peeps back home.
Ja ne!

Shimoda and Higashiizu

2006-09-05T18:48:00.000+09:00

Last weekend, we drove down the coast of the Izu Peninsula with a few of the other JETs in our area. The coast is truly beautiful, as it is mountains that plunge into the ocean. On the way down, it was dark, but the next day we got some great shots of the Shimoda coast. Lisa's colleague from Ft. Lauderdale, Katie, was kind enough to let us crash at her apartment on Saturday night. Shimoda is a lovely beach town, and there is a surprizing number of Gaijin there. Aprently, there was a famous diplomat from the West who had his residence there, and the town has grown to be a place for foreigners to live. The festival was to celebrate the end of summer, and was very much like a fair or festival in the US, with booths selling all kinds of festival food, and trinkets for the kids. People were lighting off fireworks most of the night, and there was an air of cheerfulness to the entire place. I had eaten before we got there, so I didn't totally pig out, but our friend Melody, a tiny little Chinese-Cambodian from Long Beach, CA, ate enough for all of us. It was amazing. The girl weighs all of 99 pounds soaking wet, but ate her weight in festival food. I got away with a pan of okinomiyaki, which I think is Japanese for "kitchen sink" as it contains noodles, ginger, onions, peppers, fish, and a bunch of other stuff. Melody taught me a useful little phrase in Japanese: "Hai, dozo!" Which means something like "yes, after you." You say it when you open a door for someone or let them pass in front of you, but you also say dozo when you give someone a gift. So, we spent the night shouting "Haaaai, doooozooo!" to each other from across the fairgrounds.
Here are some pics from the festival:
This guy seems to be considering whether to have snails or a corn dog...

Here's Melody and Katie having a Yakitori swordfight
Here we have the gang: Lisa (jumping up on our favorite Brit), Tom, Stacy, and Melody.

And here I am with a plate full of okinomiyaki.

Here are a few pictures we took the next day (Sunday) on the Shimoda Coast:

The views from the highway were amazing, and we really enjoyed the drive. I imagine it is what the PCH is like in California, except the ocean is on the other side of the road. We drove home and spent Sunday afternoon relaxing and getting ready for the work week.

Shizuoka and Atami

2006-09-03T20:15:00.000+09:00

Ok, so let's talk about our first trips away from the apartment. Two days after I arrived in Japan, Lisa had to go to the capital of our prefecture, Shizuoka City, to meet with some of the other JETs who are similarly assigned to boards of education. We took the local JR (Japan Rail) to Atami, and then boarded the Tokaido line train to Shizuoka. It took about an hour and a half. Shizuoka is a lot bigger than Ito, so there was a lot more to see. Shizuoka is also much closer to Mt. Fuji, which is climb-able in the summer in case you're planning a trip to visit us. So, anyway, Shizuoka has a fantastic view of the mountain which we can only see on really clear days in Ito.

This is a picture of the capital building in Shizuoka where Lisa had her meetings. There is an a amazing observation deck on the 21st floor. I took the picture with Sumpu Castle in the foreground so that I could highlight the juxtaposition of the ancient with the new that is common all over Japan. While Lisa was in her meetings, I walked around the corner and found Sumpu Castle, a replica of the 15th century castle that was burned down in 1635. Here are a few pictures of the interior:

Here we have the main gate entering into the gardens and the view of a different gate from inside the structure.

Here are a few images of things inside the castle. First is a likeness of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, the man who ordered Sumpu castle built. Also included are the armor and weapons of a samurai warrior.
The streets of Shizuoka are lined with shops, most of which sell food, but there are a few good toy stores there as well. I took a few pictures for you action figure fans:

These are a few of the toys I saw in a shop in Shizuoka. There are Gundams and Transformers everywhere. The Holy Grail of Transformers right now is something called "Binal Tech" which is an original line of Transformers redone in metal instead of plastic. If you see anything in these pics you'd like me to nab for you, send money and postage, and I'll do my best.

The next thing we did was the weekend after Shizuoka. We took a trip on the JR to Atami to take in a festival celebrating the end of summer. Japanese people take their fireworks VERY seriously. While we in the States have a nice 30 minute show on Independence Day, the Japanese tend to have fireworks at every major festival and the show can last up to 2.5 hours. Here is a pic of Atami beach, where we watched fireworks. Unfortunately, none of my pics of the fireworks themselves came out.

The water in Atami was a bit chilly, but once you got used to it, it was quite nice. We were the whitest people for miles around. Fortunately, about 30 JETs showed up to this festival to represent the pale set, so we didn't feel so completely out of place.

I will leave you with an image from inside a famous 100 Yen store (it's like our dollar store) where they have all kinds of things for dirt cheap. Sayonara for now!

First Days in Ito

2006-09-03T15:57:00.000+09:00

My first Few days in Ito went quickly, as I had many things to take care of. I accompanied Lisa to the board of education in City Hall, where I met all the great people in the office where she works. Toshi is her immediate supervisor, then there are Miyuki, Naomi, Katsato, and a couple others. These people are really kind and helpful, and have made settling in to work life in Ito much more pleasant. Toshi took me down to the first floor of City Hall to fill out an alien registration card, or "Gaijin Card." this will serve as my identification while I am in Japan. Later in the week, I had an interview with the folks at Higashi elementary, where I will work part time teaching English starting later this month. The interview was strange, as Toshi and I were the only ones who spoke English. The interview was more of an overview of my obligations as a worker than a chance to get to know me better.
Another thing I had to take care of was to get a Han-ko. Han-ko are stamps or seals that all Japanese people use in conducting business. Mine and Lisa's look like this:
Any bank account you open, or contact you sign in Japan is not valid without a Han-ko stamped on it. Notice that names with Ls do not quite translate into the Japanese Language. Another peculiarity is that any foreigner will be immediately recognized on the Han-ko because they use Katakana to write the letters of your name. Katakana are the alphabet used in Japanese for words that come from another language like Ma-ko-do-na-ru-do マクドナルド(McDonalds). In Hiragana, McDonald's would look like:

Which you can see is distinctly different, but the presence of Katakana lets Japanese people know that this word is from another language. Anyway, we got our Han-ko and can now sign up for internet, cable, bank accounts, etc. That and a short day trip to Shizuoka to upgrade my Visa to a part time worker status was all I needed to be ready for work in Japan. Next up, you'll be seeing some work about our first tours to Atami and Shizuoka, along with, get ready, Japan BUGS! Sayonara for now!

1 week in...

2006-08-30T20:04:00.000+09:00

Ok, so I've been in Japan with Lisa for a week, and I already have buttloads of things to talk about here. I will get to each of them as soon as I can, but for now, I'd like to share some of my first impressions.

The flight from Jacksonville was easily and best described as LONG! I flew 2.5 hours from JAX to O'Hare in Chicago. Then, at noon, I boarded a 747-700 for the 12 hour flight to Tokyo's Narita Airport. Weird thing number one: when flying east at 560 mph, the sun never sets even though you have been in the air for twelve hours. My neighbor on the plane kept her window shade down most of the way, so it was like twilight in the plane. The movies were shit, and there were four of them. The only one I wanted to see was "Pride and Prejudice," but they replaced it last minute with "American Dreamz." Arriving in Narita, I was struck by how efficient everything was. I passed quickly through immigration, and the officials were quite polite. Then I went to the baggage claim, where my luggage had been circulating on the belt for several minutes before I got there. I was very happy not to have to wait four hours for my bags like we often do in the States. It was about 4 pm when I finally got out of the terminal and met my beaming bride, who had made a "Welcome to Japan" sign for me.

We walked together (after a long hello kiss) to the train station beneath Narita airport. The train arrived promptly at 5:20pm and a recorded female voice announced the name and destination of the train in Japanese. I remember feeling overwhelmed by the prevalence of the Japanese language everywhere (DUH!). I know that sounds stupid, but it really does strike you that you have no earthly idea what is written on the signs that jump out at you everywhere.

We rode the train from Narita to a station in a town called Ofuna (remember these directions if you plan on visiting us!) I was really being hit hard with exhaustion by the time we arrived in Ofuna, and my bags were not helping me to wake up (did I mention that I had a total of 150 pounds of luggage?) I kept falling asleep and slumping over in my seat, nearly injuring the tiny Japanese girl next to me. Interesting thing about Japanese life--In Japan, cell phones are really expensive, and yet people still have them. Instead of wasting minutes talking, they use them almost exclusively for text messaging, so the trains are full of people typing away on cell phones.

We dragged the luggage off the train and switched to the Tokkaido line train bound for the town of Atami. Once we arrived in Atami, we dragged the luggage out onto the platform and switched into an Ito line train which brought us to our new home city, Ito-Shi, Shizuoka Ken (Ito City, Shizuoka Prefecture). We finally arrived in Ito after 4 hours on the train, and Lisa's JET colleague, Kristin, picked us up at the station. We drove (ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE ROAD!) to a restaurant called Johnathan's, which is reminiscent of a Howard Johnson's. They have breakfast anytime, and paper hats for the servers. I ordered a curry noodle dish that was quite good, and Kristin introduced me to Fanta melon-flavored cola. Incidentally, adults in Japan drink either water, beer, or usually tea. Soft drinks are for children, and it shows, because many of them come out of the fountain looking like syrup, and can range in flavors from sweet to REALLY sweet. While I was at Johnathan's I sampled a drink that reminded me of a liquid Jolly Rancher--not so great for quenching the thirst, but wow, what flavor!
I fell quickly to sleep after we got to the apartment at 11 pm. Thank GOD the bed fits me. My feet don't hang over at all!

The apartment is small, but adequate. We have 3 rooms with tatami mats (meaning that we could put a futon down and be comfortable) and a kitchen, a shower, and a toilet room. Here's a diagram:

The bedroom and living room each have sliding doors to a closet space. They also have sliding glass doors out onto a porch where we hang our laundry. The kitchen has a gas range, a sink, a microwave, and a washing/spinning machine. There is no oven, and the water heater hangs on the wall in front of the sink. Incidentally, if you are looking for a new water heater, consider going with a Rennai tankless model. They can be outfitted for gas or electric, but what's really great is that they pump out hot water the minute you turn it on, and they never run out of hot water, because they work based upon coiled tubing wrapped around a heating element. The countercurent exchanges heat quite nicely, so the water actually heats as it passes through the coil of tubing, meaning there's no tank to break or pay to heat all day long. The water pressure in our shower is perfect, making shower time a fine experience, even though you have to stand on a wooden palett next to the tub. there are quite a few interesting bugs here, which I will discuss in another post, but since I have been here, we have seen fewer of them in the house, because we have puttied the opennings to the outside and put down chemicals to kill the little bastards (currently, we are in our third bug free day).

Jet lag has only been a small problem. the first two days I was waking up at the crack of dawn (which is about 4:45 am--that's when the sun begins to show light) Sunset here is around 5:30 pm, and from what I hear, it will get to be dark around 4:30 pm in the winter time. If you're interested in it, we are on the same latitude with North Carolina, so we should get a mild set of actual seasons.

That about wraps it up for this entry. Coming soon: Tours in Shizuoka, Beachin' it in Atami, and Jogasaki coast.
Sayonara!

Happy Birthday, Nihon Style!

2006-08-13T23:02:00.000+09:00

Lisa has been in Japan for over a week now. I am still here getting ready to move out of the house (I fly in on Aug. 22). We celebrated her birthday (Aug. 13) before she left, and her host family actually threw her a party on the 13th. They dressed her up in a kimono and even made a sign. Who knew that the Hudak family sign tradition had circled the globe!

Update--Lisa is on the ground in Nihon!

2006-08-07T20:30:00.000+09:00

Well, after about 24 hours en route, I finally made it to Tokyo! The flight was long but bearable (for those of you who are planning to visit). One of the first things I noticed here was how efficient everything/everyone is. From the moment I stepped off the plane, friendly people were telling me where to go, what forms I needed, where to put my baggage, what bus to get on, etc. Very good when your mind is in a total and utter daze. All of the members of the Japanese Exchange and Teaching, or JET program, are staying at the Keio Plaza Hotel in downtown Tokyo. There are about 3000 new JETs here right now, so it is kind of crazy. They have been treating us really well so far. Tonight is our official welcome reception. It should be fun. Last night a few of us braved the unknown and tried to find dinner. Tokyo looks like a normal big city, except it is very tall (no building height restrictions here) and obviously everything is in Japanese characters. There are TONS and TONS of huge neon signs that make it look like daytime. One of the neon lights led us to a ramen house for some noodles. For 1000 yen, we got a beverage (water) and a huge bowl of noodles, broth, bamboo, peas, and chicken fingers. I know the combo is a bit strange, but even more strange is that I had to eat with chopsticks--Something I have NOT mastered yet. Today and for the rest of my time in Tokyo, I will be in lots of orientation meetings. Good information, just a lot of it all at once. Wednesday I will take a bus to my Japanese hometown of Ito. I am very excited to get to my new 4 room (note: 4 room, NOT 4 bedroom) apartment. First though, one week of living with a host family who will hopefully be teaching me some useful Japanese phrases! So to everyone who gets this, I just wanted to say hi and let you know I am alive. If you get a chance drop me a line. Oh, by the way, our house is still on the market, so if anyone knows someone who wants a condo in Jax, FL let me know!

Hurry Up and Wait to Hurry Up Some More!

2006-06-29T08:59:00.000+09:00

Oh the waiting! It's almost July, and there is a little over a month remaining until Lisa flies off to Tokyo for her JET orientation. She has been assigned to Ito's Board of Education, and will be hopping around to the various schools in Ito. We have been in contact with the JET teacher whom Lisa will replace. It seems she has a few items of furniture lined up for us to buy when we arrive. The apartment is a cozy 4 room with a double bed (I think that means kitchen, bath, bed, and living rooms--wonder if there's a closet in there somewhere?). Anyone visiting will be on floor patrol, or perhaps staying in one of the fine resort hotels of Ito, which is known for its hot springs. The rent is looking like it will be much less expensive that we had expected. At any rate, it's still very daunting from where we stand.
We have yet to sell our house and a number of other things. We still have debt to be paid off, and I am pretty much in panic mode right now. We tend to alternate between panic and calm, and luckily, we've never both been in panic mode at the same time. Right now, Lisa is calmly painting base-boards and doors while I freak out and gush into the blog. My worries surround all the little details of getting there. I will have to fly out after Lisa, but the question is, "How much later?" It all hinges around the money we need to get off the ground. We've spent the past few weeks putting some final remodel jobs in on the house, which you can see below in all their glory (it's kind of like playing photo hunt at the bar, only there isn't a naked woman in the picture unless you look really hard!). We still haven't gotten our visas or my plane ticket. I still have no prospects on a job once I get there (although the JET people have assured us that jobs abound for native English speakers willing to work). We still have to sell a car, cancel DirecTV, cancel internet, insurance of all kinds, etc. etc. ETC.! Suffice it to say that it feels as though a giant has hurled me straight up into the air, and I am trying desperately to make my landing look smooth. Those of you who know me also know that I find it difficult to do such a thing calmly. I think I haven't been this stressed in planning since Lisa and I planned our wedding almost two years ago. I keep forcing myself to remember that all will work out for the best, and taking things one day at a time, but sometimes it really hammers me like it's doing now. I know what I need. SCOTCH. Signing out for now to run downstairs and grab a Dewars 'n' water. TTFN

Before & After

Future (Possible) home of Paul & Lisa's Japan notes

2006-06-12T15:56:00.000+09:00

Hi, Folks!
If you're here it means you got my email and decided to check out what I am doing here. So far, it's pretty limited, but if I get internet access in Japan, this place will be filled with pictures and news updates, along with my occasional rant. Keep checking back, or just tell your computer to let you know when this thing has been updated.
Sayonara for now!
Paul