富士山 (mt. fuji)

a week or two ago my host parents were kind enough to take the whole family on a road trip to see mt. fuji. on the 3 hour drive there we stopped at the 'fuji safari park'. man, it was evil. one of those drive-through safari experiences. there were all kinds of animals, from giraffes to lions, etc., and they were all so dejected and skinny looking. let's just say that every car that drives through there is guaranteed a look at every animal. i felt like a complete sellout rolling through there and taking pictures.

the hotel we reserved was an experience: it was all traditional tatami and kneeling table style, and the beds were futons we pulled out of the closet. in order to set them up we had to clear table/chairs out of the room.
when we arrived there on saturday night it was rainy and incredibly foggy. we had no idea where fuji would be, and could hardly find the hotel entrance.


the next morning we awoke to perfectly clear skies and fuji sitting in all his/her majesty directly across from our hotel window (see photo). we leisurely spent the morning going for a walk, playing ping pong, etc. I had my first experience of a japanese traditional public (naked) bath, so it was weird seeing my host father (henceforth 'otosan' - 'father' in japanese), and other guests we had seen at breakfast, in a whole new light. i talked with otosan about how it's simply all in how people view the subject (be it nudity or fashion, etc.) - if everyone is used to it, then noone's going to gawk or anything. so, for this reason, i didn't feel shy at all about being naked around all these people; i did feel a little self-conscious, however, that i knew next to nothing of bathhouse etiquette. it was great just sitting in the skin-pinking hot water, letting the cold towel soak on my forehead, and gazing out the steamy window at snow-capped mt. fuji. it was while soaking in the bath i fully understood the alleged grace and serenity of this place.
after this we took a quick walk along the lakeshore at the base of the mountain (to the right is my favourite photo so far), but it was rather chilly so the kids wanted to stay inside and shop, which they did. so otosan and i took off and found some other cool stuff (namely the "forest park of literature"). the koyo (autumn colours) were absolutely fantastic (see below for evidence of much frolicking in the leaves) - really made me feel like i was back home at the cottage; then i looked in the distance and saw fuji, noticed all the signs were japanese, and thus woke from my brief reverie. when we got back to the car we were chastised for taking too long.
onward, up the mountain we went. you can only drive halfway up, and after that you have
to hike. the general norm seems to be that going to the gift shop equates to having climbed the mountain. you hear about how peaceful and enriching fujisan is, but this venture was unfortunately made anything but peaceful: again, the kids were cold, so my host mum (henceforth 'okasan' - 'mother' in japanese) got stuck with watching them while otosan and i ran as far up the snowy, icy mountain trail as we could in the half hour we were allowed (thus the rushed, somewhat anticlimax of the weekend). it was a little cold, but nothing like a good old fashioned lake vernon winter. to maximize our time we took a sketchy 'shortcut' to bypass the trail's switchbacks. i managed to scramble up to the point where the trees stop growing, and from there i marvelled briefly at where i was: the snow was being swept off the mountaintop by the strong wind; the sun was baking down, causing the blanketed ground to glisten, and making my left cheek tingle with warmth while my right tingled with chill; my camera cried out to me, "finish the whole roll!". it was glorious. despite all the snow, however, not a snowball was thrown. after returning back down an unintentionally modified version of our 'shortcut' we were again lightly berated for taking too long, and then promptly headed back toward home (watching charlie and the chocolate factory on the car's dvd player. in japanese. hilarious to see the mouthed words match the subtitles, but hearing something completely different). i learned later that okasan was quite angry at the kids for being cold, as she bought them warm jackets especially for this trip, and they forgot to bring them. it did seem a little out of character for my host mum to want to shop so badly.

i was rather surprised how impressed i was with fujisan (as they call it here). i can fully understand why the japanese have so much reverence, and find a great deal of inspiration in this mountain. its simple shape makes it seem so peaceful (which served to highlight the fact that i wasn't at the time - both because of the lack of time and because of my recent slip into a very scattered, breakneck-speed mindstate. so many things happening in so short a time are great fun, and work wonders for self development, but unfortunately this is at the sacrifice of practicing a still mind), as you drive away, fuji can be seen for hours. such a prominent feature, i imagine, to be like witnessing uluru (ayer's rock) in australia - a giant monolithic landform
amidst relatively flat terrain (well, in japan it's great big hills surrounding fuji, but they seem like bumps in comparison. fuji was the only feature with snow on top).
a memorable experience, to be sure. kat, hopefully i can drag you up there in the february cold for a second round.

japanese hippies

hippies do exist in japan! and by that i mean i met a bunch of cool people at the jazz festival in okazaki. we did some drumming on the street, then again in a park the next night. hiroki the didg guy told us about that park, and how every monday night people meet to play music, swing some poi, and generally have a good old fashioned tree-hugging time. it was indeed a good time. only downside is that there's no light to teach them hacky sack.


here's hiroki and me. he's a crazy dude. playing the didg is his full time job. amazing. he insists on calling me 'j' because saying 'jesse' is difficult for the japanese tongue. could it be that i end up with a nickname that sticks, even one so relatively unoriginal as 'j'?



here we have hiroki, yoshi, and myself rocking out. hiroki is your wandering music man - always has all sorts of instruments with him (including a japanese style jew's harp, claves, and the flute i'm lost in below, called a 'shinobue')

nagoya jo

went to nagoya jo (nagoya castle) the other day. actually, i went with the waitress i met at the izakaya to which we went with the band after the concert i mentioned a few entries ago. crazy how meeting people works in such a snowballing sort of way.
anyways, this particular castle got torched by the americans in '45, and was rebuilt sometime afterward. this means that the outside looks traditional, but the inside has an elevator. it's now only a tourist attraction, so inside is just exhibits about what what used to be - no rooms still done up all traditional style. the view from the top was something else.
apparently these golden fish (which are mounted on the top of the castle) are quite famous, and so there were all sorts of tourist-icons in the gift shop, and this inert kiddie ride. ah, the looks i got during the taking of this photo....

clapton is still the man

man, that guy still rocks ass, 30 years later. who'da thought i'd have to come to japan to see some genius blues music? there were 9 people on stage (clapton, slide guitarist, other useless guitarist, keyboard, organ, bass, drums, 2 backup vocals), though there was only one guitarist who could've easily been dispensed with.
though cameras were forbidden, of course i tried to take a photo with my cell phone, but was promptly chastised. unfortunately the photo is completely useless.
after the first 3 or 4 songs i was worried that he'd only play new stuff, maybe being tired of playing songs he wrote 30 years ago - but no, he came through with a pretty sweet setlist. the songs i knew were:
after midnight
tears in heaven
before you accuse me
wonderful tonight
layla
cocaine
encore: crossroads
it was cool: he sang them all slightly differently, different timing and stress, so it wasn't just like listening to the recording we've all heard a million times. not to mention the face melting solos. the slide guitarist was the man: steel guitar solos that would make jimi page smile. and the epic organ solos.....ah, hell - everyone had epic solos. and at one point everyone left the stage except clapton, he sat down and played some true acoustic: mic pointed at his guitar and vocals only. awesome. i recognized the song, but don't know the name of it.
once we left i bought a superbly expensive tshirt (3500yen) which has the japan tour dates on it. sweet memento.

after the concert we (my host father and i) went with his work buddies (his company did the sound for the concert, so they got free tickets. nice when tix are 95 bucks!) to a fancy ass dinner
where we had pufferfish sashimi - one of the most dangerous foods (pufferfish is fatally poisonous if not prepared properly - especially when it's raw, sashimi style), and a shiteload of other good food. i was eating with chief engineers and designers, for both toyota and lexus (which are the same company), and some from other companies i don't know. the toyota people were asked to watch what they talked about at the table because some of the people didn't work for toyota, and shouldn't be privy to toyota secrets before they're available to the public. boy did i feel out of my league.

after dinner we headed to a 'snack', which is like a tiny, back-alley fancy-ass little bar
(it seemed like one of those places that unless you'd been there before you'd never know
it existed. we went several floors up an elevator to get there, so no streetfront signage!)
where they completely spoil you with drinks (right down to refilling your glass
when it's half empty, wiping your coaster - you buy the whole bottle of whiskey,
and it just sits on the table to be used liberally), the 'waitresses' are like modern geishas -
they sit with you, make conversation, flirt, and basically treat
you like you are THE man. it's where the salarymen go to unwind after the long
slogging day. what happens at the 'snack' stays at the snack. of course everyone
speaks only japanese (or chinese at this place), so it was some good practice.
anyways, we got home at 4am this morning.
now that's what i call a party.

hand jivin'

i may be missing xavier rudd, but I'M GOING TO ERIC CLAPTON LIVE IN NAGOYA TONIGHT!!

booya.





cameras are strictly forbidden, however, so no visual mementos.

these tickets courtesy of the sponsorship of my host father's company (who designs the navigation systems for toyota). i raise my glass to you guys. kanpai.

i wonder if mr. clapton speaks any japanese......

toyota VIPs

we took a surprisingly interesting tour of one of the toyota factories. it was so official that we actually had our names posted in the foyer, with titles, correct spelling and everything. boy, did we feel like VIPs.
photos inside were forbidden, so i begrudgingly obeyed.
we were able to meet with yayoi, last year's japanese aichi gakusen student in canada, who helped out in our japanese class. she now works as a tour guide at toyota, but sadly only for the japanese tour.



but i did get to sit in one of their crazy one-person vehicles of the future! i was superbly disappointed to discover that a valid japanese driver's license is required to test drive one.

let's pile rocks for miso

one of okazaki's famous features is its miso factory. here they still make it in the traditional way, and this means putting a ridiculous amount of beans and salt and a few other other things into an enormous barrel, then piling 2 tons of rocks on top and leaving it for 2 years. after that you get your premium hacho miso soup. after the tour we had miso ramen, miso soup, miso ice cream, and miso beer. i like the way these guys think. actually, the beer didn't taste that much different from normal beer. another bizarre thing to tick off the list of things i never thought i'd try.
my big question was, where do they get all the rocks from? i mean, with all those barrels - and another storehouse next door - that's a lot of rocks. apparently the river nearby yields enough rocks to go around. it must be some poor sap's full time job to select only the finest rocks from the riverbed and haul them out.

horseshoe road

who knew you had to go to japan to see an oklahoman band? these guys're called horseshoe road, and played a gig in nagoya put on by the american consulate. it's oklahoma's 100th birthday this year, so everyone raise their glasses. this band truly rocked the house. it was grassroots/f0lk sorta music, and it was groovy as hell. even the japanese businessmen were clapping along and tapping their feet.
after the show we talked to the band for a bit, and i told them when they return to oklahoma they'd have a new fan - namely my dad who's living there right now.
after some chatting they invited us (myself, cleo, and my friend naho, who i met at the school festival - see photo in post below) to come with them for dinner. we trekked in the pouring rain to this izakaya where the techies proceeded to bust out their video camera, boom mike, and mixing board and record the dinner. it was messed up having a bright light shining in my eyes and a huge microphone looming overhead, periodically twitching in the direction of whoever was talking, while i ate my food. the band is making a dvd and they wanted to get some behind the scenes footage. as for introductions, on the right is kyle the fiddle player, who was massively hitting on naho, to his left; next is michael, the japanese-american consul who arranged this gig; then cleo; the light guy; the sound guy; brad the bassist; and finally me. after this we headed out to karaoke until some absurd hour. it was a solid impromptu night of indulgence and revelry.

y-o-d-a, yooooda

this one's for you kat. unfortunately, however, this little guy's a bit too big to bring home. he's all made of nuts & bolts & saw chains and stuff. most impressive - kudos to the artist.

学泉祭 (gakusen school festival)

welcome to gakusen-sai, the annual school festival. it's a saturday and sunday where the school grounds turn into a festival frenzy - everything from food booths and music to a comedy show and crazy after party. this here is our pancake booth, which was organized by the students in one of our english classes. we didn't sell a whole lot, but someone thought it was great because we won an award that gave us 10000yen (about a hundred bucks). it was rather hilarious (though tiring) to yell out to passersby (pankeki! go-ju en dake! sugoi yasui da yo! mepuru shiropu wa ichiban oishi!), alongside all the other booth people, trying to sell our wares.
and what would a good party be without the booze. like the rest of japan (where beer can be bought in vending machines and convenience stores), see below how lax the drinking rules are. in that photo we are in to school yard watching music on the main stage. i guess they're sympathetic because there's no on-campus pub. actually, the 3 people in the foreground-left i met not long before this photo was taken, and are all graduates of aichi gakusen. we've had some good times together since. it's crazy how meeting people snowballs - you meet one, do something with them and meet more while doing so.....already the network expands.....

if you wanna smoke, please go inside

yes folks, this really is a no smoking sign on the street. in restaurants, pubs, arcades, and various other indoor facilities, fair game. but heavens forfend - on the street??

halloween

oh, when one can be an utter fool and be considered brave and innovative. in japan halloween isn't really celebrated, so it's become a tradition at gakusen for the exchange students to organize a party. we o.d.'d on candy, watched scary movies (i know what you did last summer, and the addams family), played some games, and of course carved pumpkins. my outfit is my host mother's yukata, though the shoes are my host father's (hers were way beyond too small - boy it's tough to walk around on shoe-shaped two-by-fours all day). cleo came as just-out-of-the-bath, which was a bold, yet well received costume. the other person in this photo of 3 fine young ladies is aoyama sensei, one of our teachers, wearing her samba outfit.







next up is the photo i like to call "dochira", which means "which one?"













we carved some truly enormous pumpkins, and put several faces on each so everyone got a chance to get in on the action. after scooping out all the seeds i asked a teacher if it was possible to find some spices so we could roast them on a hot plate, which we did quite successfully. it was the first time most of the japanese students had tasted pumpkin seeds - and were noticably skeptical at first.

and here's the whole motley crew, well, all that were there at photo time.


and what party would be complete without ridiculous games. one of these was a make-a-mummy race (bobbing for apples was out due to an excess of makeup and enormous apples in japan). this was going great till the phone rang, and help had to be rallied to the cause.....

takahashi parties & beer

my family has thrown 2 parties now, and they're always a blast. let the image speak for itself. this is me, my host father, and his employee/friend. i would also like to take this opportunity to note that japan has different grades of beer dependent upon hops content - the lower the grade, the less tax, and the cheaper it is. alcohol content, however, is the same across the board, and flavour is only marginally different (unfortunately, however, japan is dominated by 3 kinds of beer - the same ones we have in canada - so choice is sadly limited).