rockin' the nihon

today money bought me happiness

2007-03-06T21:22:00.000+09:00

and no, i'm not mistaking happiness for mere enjoyment. today really made my hike way out here to the japanese boonies seem less of a waste of time than it thus far has been: i was really getting tired of seeing all sorts of cool stuff i could be doing, but having it closed either because it wasn't yet april or because the winter was too warm. there's nothing more downheartening than doing what i seem to love most (travelling) and having all the gems of the places just out of my reach. until today northern japan has been largely like this.

i'm in abashiri, in the north of northern japan, and this town came through for me at the eleventh hour. at first i was really pissed because the ice-breaker cruise i was psyched for was pointless due to there being no ice (bloody warm winter), but later today i was able to don a dry suit and go for an 'ice walk' (apparently there was ice in this one bay where it was too shallow for the ice breaker to go). this meant scrambling over the drift ice, which toppled and see-sawed beneath me, swimming around in near-zero degree waters, try to not fall off my chunk of ice (don't i look like a super hero in this photo?--->>) as waves come crashing in, and jumping from floe to floe doing my best to stay above water (and occasionally not - whereupon a just slid in and bobbed around for a while). if you've ever watched the MXC skit where people have to run across a pond on rocks which may or may not give way, resulting in hilarious bails - that's just what this was like. some of the pieces appeared small, but turned out to be enormous, while some were just the opposite and dumped me straight into the sea. i got to give my waterproof camera a good test drive, and it performed admirably.

this is where it got really good: hearing the sound of all those huge chunks of ice crash against each other was impressive - such deep, throaty thwocks coming from all around me as i heard the waves rolling in had me grinning from ear to ear. i got to hop all the way out to the edge where the ice stopped and the open ocean began (also where the waves made the ice chunks especially tippy) and gaze out over the bay, with the snow-capped mountains in the distance, and not a single manmade sound to be heard. talk about an ideal setting, one that i'm not likely to encounter again. there was also a tiny island nearby made of crazy hexagonal formations of volcanic rock that i was able to have a quick scramble over. when my guide said it was time to head back to shore i made sure to take the longest way back i could think of. i was actually sweating by the end of it after all that swimming and hopping around.

the rest of the day was spent at museums that were actually worth going to: i got to see the old prison that abashiri is famous for (it's apparently noted as being especially cruel due to the harsh winter cold), and it actually had english information plates. man those old time criminals had to do a lot of manual labour in flimsy grass shoes. the gift shop there featured all sorts of things made by the inmates, so i thought that made for a pretty cool souvenier.

the other museum of the day followed today's ice theme: the museum of drift ice. apparently the sea of ohkutsuk (in which i was just swimming) is the planet's southernmost sea where salt water freezes. it happens here because, if you look at a map, it's enclosed by islands (making water circulation happen much slower), and it's also apparently relatively shallow (and thus less heat is able to get trapped beneath the surface, causing the water to drop in temperature faster). i thought that was kinda cool. certainly explains why there was ice in the bay and not out where the ship sailed: there was a rock shelf about 4 feet under that stretched way out from the coast. by the way, in the above photo i'm holding a frozen towel which the museum staff hand out soaking wet just before you head into the minus-17 degree room. they recommend you twirl the towl around like a lasso, and it turns out like this. good times. side note: the seal is stuffed, and suffering from a vandalized arm...

so with that i leave you to ponder: with all the opportunities money opens up, might it just be that, spent properly, money can buy happiness?

genghis khan is delicious

2007-03-05T01:55:00.000+09:00

a hokkaido speciality, when the japanese think of 'genghis khan' they think lamb meat. you cook it yourself over a grill with veggies, much like yakiniku. on my days in sapporo i got to experience the genghis with a rockin dude named matsuhiro that i met at the hostel. he just got back from bali, and is soon off to sudan where he is going to volunteer his dentistry expertise. rock on man. long live the khan.
by they way, note the grease-spattered bibs. they even had us put our stuff in plastic bags - guess they know it's a messy affair.

the ainu

2007-03-05T01:12:00.000+09:00

well, i didn't get to see the volcanized houses: closed after all. so were the walking trails at the to of the volcano. and the ainu museum at the bottom. and the glassblowing lessons. all available in april. bugger that.

so instead of spending the day there, i hitchhiked my way to the train station (buses don't run till, you guessed it, april) and went to shiraoi, where there's a whole ainu village set up. for those who haven't heard of the ainu, they're the indigenous people of northern japan, and like most indigenous people they too got served by the more technologically advanced culture encroaching on their turf. one difference though: the japanese didn't put them onto reservations. instead, they usurped full control over their trading (previous to this the ainu did a lot of trade with the japanese, as the only other close civilization are soime remote russian islands) and limited what tax funding they could receive.

this village turned out to make the whole bunk day worthwhile: there was a talk about traditional ainu ways and language, followed by traditional dance, song, including their musical instruments (one of which is like a jew's harp). all of this took place inside one of their huts, made as it has been for ages. there were legions of salmon drying in the rafters, a fire in the pit, and all around the bamboo-straw (i have no idea what the real name is) thatched walls and roof. very cool. afterward i paid another 500yen and took a lesson in how to make said jew's harp-like instrument (called a mukkuri). although we did use modern chisels to carve it..... afterward there was a museum full of english explanations (when the native language isn't even japanese, it would seem you get a world of options - chinese, korean...) and plenty of old articles, like a dugout tree trunk boat and tools. it really is amazing how similar the culture is to native north american trends: they're animistic, and base a lot of respect for each other and nature on the belief in the presence of a spirit in all things; their decorative pattern resembles the haida ovoids (though it tends to include a single coninuous strand weaving its way around the pattern); they depend much on hunting & gathering salmon and forest plants.... i also scooped a book with english/japanese translations of some of their traditional stories. it's such a potent way to learn about a culture through its legends: they always expose most encouraged values, daily activities, religious beliefs, specialized activities and language... it'll make a great alternative to the book of old japanese stories that i've been working through.

tomorrow i intend to take the long bus up north to abashiri. let's hope it's open before april.

professional snowballing

2007-03-05T01:10:00.000+09:00

yes, indeed it exists, and those involved are trying to make it an olympic sport. one of the few things not happening in april, instead i missed seeing the tournament by a week. but, i did run across the macabre-looking field on my way to the mountain mentioned above. here's what they're all about: http://www.yukigassen.jp/english/index.html

my wallet hurts

2007-03-05T00:43:00.000+09:00

i'm beginning to figure out how to live cheaper in japan. key points: 1) wherever there is one, sleep at a manga kissa (those peculiar but convenient as hell comic cafes where you can rent a little cubicle for any length of time - i've got one rented for 8 hours right now - in which you can use the net, play games, watch movies, sleep, read from their enormous comic library, and also available is food, showers, and everything!) - or instead, for sleeping arrangements just take the night bus (night trains are rare); 2) take buses instead of trains whenever possible - they're always cheaper, and often take the same amount of time as trains; 3)using this one discount ticket i managed to find (seishun juhachi kippu) you can use one multiple times in one day, but only on the slooooooowest trains, thus the way to do that is stop partway along your journey, see some stuff while taking a break from the train, and continue on. 4) of course there's hitchhiking - i've been getting promising reports from other people about hitchhiking success, so i'm keen to get that rolling - and it's a superb way to meet people and practice my japanese.

and about using my japanese, though i find i don't speak it as frequently when i travel (often i'm just walking around alone, and i don't have family and friends to go home to at night), i am finding that my kanji (character-word) recognition is improving. having to read so many signs and place names is really helping. so, that somewhat assuages my fears that hanging around so many international hostels and walking around by myself would lead to a disuse of my freshly learned language. sweet.

winter woes

2007-03-03T19:51:00.001+09:00

note: if you're going to travel japan in the winter do a lot of preparation. for example, despite that hokkaido is all about the winter (from snow festivals to sub-zero miniskirt fashion) so many places are simply closed; and when i do research whether somewhere cool is actually open, i arrive to find activities truncated to walking around the outside of buildings covered in snow-protection straw coverings, instead of being able to enter and try archery or see a martial arts demo. the most irksome thing is that since transport is cut to a minimum it's not unusual to wait an hour or two for the bus or train. kind of frustrating, but i'm rather making it out to be worse than it is: i've been able to try woodcarving, tour the old sapporo beer factory, check out plenty of local foods, and if today's preparations come to fruition, tomorrow walk through a village warped and twisted by a volcanic eruption in 2000.

it was really great to walk the snow-covered streets of sapporo where winter truly comes (unlike vancouver where, this bizarre year aside, winter is just a longer, rainier autumn).i really do long for a good ol' ontario snowbank in my back yard.
i've got another 5 days of the glorious snow till i flee to where winter never really comes: okinawa. from furthest north to furthest south, to where hopefully things aren't closed for the bittersweet season.
in the mean time, i'll probably keep ya posted in all the free time i've got at train & bus stations!

kat-ventures

2007-02-24T18:26:00.000+09:00

so i just finished 2 weeks of travelling with kat, and it was a load of fun. kinda bumpy at times, but what travel company isn't? after her safe arrival to tokyo (after the bloody hour train ride from narita airport) we wandered around Asakusa for an evening stroll, hunting for some good japanese food to start off the experience. we decided on yakiniku, which is cook-it-yourself meat, with a grill on every table and a plate of the meat of your choice. we rented the deluxe suite of k's house hostel so we could live luxurously for the first night (worked out to 48 bucks apiece. not too shabby). on the first morning we woke leisurely and headed to denny's for a traditional japanese breakfast. yes, denny's. over the next 24 hours we checked out ueno park, the crazy fashion of harajuku, the busy shibuya, and the 45th floor of the metropolitan tower in shinjuku. we started off the next morning by checking out the madness at the Tsukiji Fish Market. i still found it nuts to be in the presence of so much fish going so many places at once. here's an update to my previous fish-cut-by-bansaw shot: enter giant axe and piles of frozen corpses. we grabbed a plate of maguro sashimi (raw tuna), hit up a convenience store for some wasabi and soy sauce, and had an outdoor picnic in a nearby park. next we jumped on the monorail for a cheeky ride around odaiba, from which you can see a lot of downtown tokyo (it was cheeky because we bought a ticket for the next station over, but took the train to the end of the line and back before getting off). we decided fleeing the big city was a good idea, and so headed for enoshima, a town barely on the map just west of Kamakura. it is a tiny island with a cool shrine, awesome ocean-side walks, and a totally wild park decorated by 'mirrorbowler', a group that uses disco balls, candles, and various other trippy materials to create psychadelic environments. all the photos for that are on kat's camera. there was arcade-style mariokarting, bewildered pachinko playing, and a long walk on the beach - trying our hardest not to be blown over by the insane wind. the crowds of surfers were loving it, however.

next stop: hakone. the lonely planet called this place a 'tourist mecca', and were pretty on the ball with that - there were some sweet sights to see. unfortunately we were plagued with bus shortages, gondolas under repair, and an excess of volcanic gas (see photo, left) rendering the hiking trails unusable. this didn't stop us from eating the local delicacy, black eggs, cooked in the sulphuric waters of the local volcano's hot springs.

we got to check out great views of mt. fuji;

ride on a gaudy pirate ship;

play on giant net structures;

crawl around in a fiberglass tube-maze (these last two were at an absolutely fantastic outdoor art museum with everything from rodin to lorne harris to people you've never heard of);

wear some old japanese armour (at a village designed after the old straw hut style where we also watched soba noodle-making, and checked out some traditional paper and silk work);

that's all the net time for now. i'll update again when i can.

photos for 'off the map again'

2007-02-24T17:20:00.000+09:00

hangin' out with some of the enormous trees at a shrine in Shuzenji Onsen.

pottery, japanese style: on a hand-turned wheel. since it apparently takes about 3 days to fire, dry, etc., they send it right to your house. booya. i can't wait to see what the finished product looks like....

what would Canada Village be without a beer? Just don't mention the fact that the cup is advertising american beer...

soaking in that rotenburo at the top of the ocean-side cliff. i had the place to myself for most of the time - an entirely unbelievable experience.

the granddaddy of engrish. leave a comment on what you think this note means. someone actually left a handwritten piece of paper with a real translation on it, so once i've gotten a few good guesses i'll reveal the big secret...

i can't quite figure out why this boat has all these huge light bulbs strung up. open sea grow op? seriously vision-impaired fisherman? i'd love to hear your guesses.

lazily fishing off the globby volcanic coast of Jogasaki.

a better view of the Jogasaki coast. note the hexagonal rock near the water. very similar (though less spectacular) to the Giant's Causeway in Ireland.

the gorgeous cherry trees blossoming at the top of mt. nesugata in Shimoda. the view was spectacular, the aroma powerful, and thus the atmosphere rather peacefu.

here's the cannon they had constantly trained on Commadore Perry's fleet when he arrived in the 1800s and had Japan open its borders. Shimoda is rather proud to be the town where this happened.

someone actually spent the time to knit a toque and make a cloak for this little statue. incredible. and this is by no means rare: every one of these statues i've seen is dressed similarly. they're statues of jizo, the protector of travellers and children. so, cheers to you, jizo, i respect and thank you for your work.
see? i wasn't kidding. rather less elaborate jizo clothes, but nonetheless all garbed.

that crazy ferry that zipped us smoothly over the whitecapped ocean waves to Oshima. that fin in front pivoted down to become a water ski sorta device.

the main crater of mt. nihara, the active volcano on Oshima. if you look close you can actually see wisps of smoke in the bottom of the crater. the colours were just brilliant!

my ferry 'seat', with comfort beer. 'e' class all the way, baby.

off the map again

2007-02-11T12:14:00.000+09:00

back on the road again - and it feels good. my first week was a waiting period before i met kat in tokyo (which'll be happening in about 2 hours - booya), and i decided to drop off the map and head to some small towns on the izu hanto (izu peninsula). this place is known for its onsen (hot spring baths), its wild ocean coastline, and its fishing. thus, much of the last week has been spent soaking in spring water hot enough to skin a rhino. there's something to be said about wandering around a steamy room (or outside grotto) with a bunch of other naked men. no one's got anything to hide, everyone just wants to relax, and so the atmosphere is simply peaceful and refreshing. i experienced my first true public bath: an unmarked hut in the middle of town that i had to ask a few people to find. you just walk in, make sure you choose the 'men' door, and drop 'em. since i went in the evening, the place was full of middle aged locals coming for their daily baths (in this town many people don't have their own). it was like running into a bear in the forest: they were more startled by me than i was by them. this was in the town of shuzenji onsen.
day 2: i headed for dotomburi, known for its completely mad coastline, and this cave that left a great big skylight-hole in the mainland. it's got huge rocks jutting out of the ocean, a rock-bar (as opposed to a sand bar) heading to a big foresty island, and most importantly a 'rotenburo'. this translates to 'open air bath' - and it was one of the coolest experiences ever: it was a small hot spring you have to climb up a rocky embankment to get to. the bath is actually perched right on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea. it's outside, so you can soak and watch the clouds roll by, wave at the tourist boats - and while i was there - see the landscape and water turn orange with the sunset. i was the only one there for most of my visit, so i had ample time to sit and gaze.
day 3: in the town of shimoda i stayed at this incredibly cute ryokan (traditional japanese inn), where a cute old lady showed me to a cute japanese room with fresh tea and sweets awaited me. this town is noteworthy because it is where commadore perry landed in the 1800s and created the treaty that opened japan's borders after hundreds of years of isolation. there is a mountain called 'nesugata yama', which means 'mountain shaped like a sleeping person'. a cable car took you up to the top where a panoramic view, a photography museum, and an oldschool temple waited. there were cherry blossoms in bloom, and so i had the opportunity to sit on a bench under them and just take in the scent. i must stop and remark here about that: the smell of this place was spectacular - flowere were absolutely everywhere, and so my nose was just twitching with delight (including discovering a 'pineapple sage' named for the strangely tropical-fruity aroma).
i hopped on the train to go to jogasaki coast, where more crazy coastline rock formations awaited. this time it was all volcanic rock, melted and twisted into bizarre shapes, including some hexagonal formations like at the giant's causeway in ireland. very cool.
day 4: i got up to watch the sunrise, explored the park, then grabbed the crazy hydro-foil ferry to nearby ooshima (big island). this ferry had fins on the bottom that lowered into the water and essentially water-skiied you across the ocean. it was a really choppy day, so the waves were pretty big, but on this boat we skimmed across at 90km/h, smooth as a highway. it was astounding! ooshima is known for its active volcano, which last erupted in 1986. even now it's smoking and steaming like it's about to belch forth again. but i didn't actually see this until the next day. i must have a whole herd of horseshoes shoved so far up my rear that i can taste iron: the day i arrived was the 50th anniversary of the town, and so everything was free - hot springe, rotenburo, museums, the lot. bonus.
day 5: this is my day of volcano-climbing. my ferry to tokyo was at 3 o'clock, so i had plenty of time to wander and take my time. it was really spectacular to see all the twisted, lumpy rocks lying where they poured forth from the volcano mouth, and creating these long streams of piles of black lava. it looked like a moon landscape.
at 3 i jumped on the ferry to tokyo, which turns out to be as stratified as japanese society itself is: i bought the cheapest ticket, and thus was confined to a big room on deck 'E' whose floor was sectioned off in duct tape rectangles - each numbered for a passenger. i was #810, and so i sat on my piece of floor, bought some beer from the nearby vending machine, and listened to tunes until we arrived.
here i am in the mega-metropolis again, checking out the lights, skyscrapers, and crazy fashion of tokyo. in 5 minutes i'm off to stroll through the fancy shopping district (intending to buy nothing but a new journal - my other one is full) before i make the inconvenient train ride out to narita airport to meet kat. everyone marvels at how efficient tokyo's subway/train system is - but i argue the opposite: there are 2 subway companies, each requiring separate tickets; the JR trains, again, are separate; the ferry port doesn't have a subway or train stop near it; and the biggest airport is over an hour away, with no direct train to it. bugger all that - this is no efficient system.
hate to end with a complaint, but my net time is almost up.
cheers, all.

oh, if you're wondering at the lack of photos: it's going to be tough to upload them at cafes etc., so for the next while its text only. i'll fix that when i can - trust me i'm itching to.

-jesse

Bird Flu Be Damned

2007-01-24T12:03:00.000+09:00

Yes, raw chicken is indeed considered consumable here. the place my host family took me to specializes in chicken - and you have to have a special licence just to serve it raw. i have no idea how they avoid avian flu, salmonella, or any of that, but if anyone is a specialist at raw food, it's certainly the japanese. except mushrooms: they refuse to eat mushrooms raw. other than that, i've eaten raw pretty much anything i can think of - including horse! although i have yet to try raw pork...

and this particular dinner was a part of a japanese traditional 'kaiseki' style: they serve everything on separate little dishes, all specially chosen and arranged for optimum aesthetic and palatal impact. it's an incredibly in-depth, esoteric art form, of which i'm pretty much entirely ignorant; but it looks gorgeous! and is always delicious... anyways, this particular restaurant's kaiseki was a chicken theme: you got your grilled chicken, breaded chicken, soup with chicken, chicken on a stick (with salad etc. stuffed between, of course. no one eats as healthy as the japanese. must be why they have the world's longest life expectancy), and how could the meal be complete without RAW chicken? so, on the plate it goes. i made sure to have telling photos taken. they say scottish cuisine must have been created based on a dare; well, i'll bet in some ancient lore anthology you'll find the scots pitting their iron stomachs against the japanese.

and on another note of peculiar cuisine habits, have you ever heard of such a thing as all-you-can-eat cake buffet?? the japanese girls at my school love it! there's an italian restaurant near school that offers this thing after 3pm daily, and for some crazy reason the girls, instead of being worried about getting fat after a full meal of solely CAKE, are all for it! unbelievable. we're headed there today.

so, these things compounded by the propensity to slurp up noodles at alarming rates, shovel rice straight from bowl-to-mouth, and a furthermore brow-raising love of raw eggs, certainly make it a lively experience to tuck into a meal with the japanese.

itadakimasu!

a bloody bugger

2007-01-24T11:38:00.000+09:00

while wandering nagoya we thought we'd donate blood. i've long wanted to in japan, but missed the clinic at my school. as it turns out, they don't even want my blood! anyone having been in europe for longer than 6 months is rejected on account of mad cow disease. so strict! in canada they're only worried about england from 1980-1996. they gladly took cleo's blood, however. the photo here is of Yamaguchi Sensei bashfully translating for cleo all the unnervingly personal questions that come along with blood donation. neither cleo or i are shy at all, so it brought a grin to my face seeing how he reacted to having to ask his students (i was questioned after cleo) whether they've slept with multiple partners in the past year; do they have any veneral diseases; have they ever had gay sex....

at the end of the day, i may be mad - but that didn't come from the beef. well, i guess this means there won't be any sick japanese kids running around with a little piece o' jesse coursing through their veins. upon reflection, is this really a bad thing?

東京！(Tokyooooo!)

2007-01-04T23:02:00.000+09:00

So, as per usual, this trip took place long before I write this: on Nov. 25^th, the 3 of us made the leap of faith into an unorganized, independent, week-long trip to Tokyo. We just hopped on the Shinkansen and arrived to find our fortunes. I love travelling this way: it always makes for a memorable impromptu experience.

tokyo lives up to its reputation as bustling, sprawling, and diverse. The home of cutting edge technology alongside ancient temples. The day before we left we still hadn’t even planned when exactly we were leaving, but it has all come together. Thanks to okasan’s research we found a convenient shinkansen and fantastic hostel.

After rocketing there in an hour and a half (6 hours by bus) we disentangled ourselves from the shinkansen network, only to plunge immediately into the subway, whereupon we realized that the legendary efficiency of the Tokyo transit system has some brutal flaws: it is owned & operated by several different companies, and thanks to good old fashioned private-interest capitalism, their lines don’t jive - you have to buy a different ticket for each company’s network. I sometimes wonder where the Japanese tax-yen goes: transit and health care are privatized, school is expensive, and all the highways are toll roads. Anyways, we made our way to the hostel to drop off our bags. It’s called K’s House Backpackers and we were pleasantly surprised to find a brand new (opened in June), comfortable, friendly place. Fully recommended. It was already afternoon so we decided to stick close the hostel, which was in Asakusa. This was by no means a sacrifice, as Asakusa is chock full of narrow-alley markets covered pedestrian shopping streets. This one crazy road had all old-school stalls on either side, and a massive gate & lantern at each end. This place knows more ways than a carnival to say “tourist trap”, but there were some pretty cool souveniers to be had. I picked up a flag that has Japanese/English phrases on it. Matches my Scottish one.

The hostel map said there was a street with “cheap restraints”, which we assumed was henglish for restaurants. Turned out to be that kind of restraints all right, but definitely not cheap. We ended up eating at a chain restaurant called “Yoshinoya”. びみょう。。。

Upon our return to the hostel we struck up some lively conversation over cards with some Aussies (surprise surprise. I really think there are more aussies abroad than in Australia), a South African, a Pole, and a few Japanese. What a fantastic place it is that the entire globe can play cards around one table. We picked up some gloriously cheap Japanese liquor (350ml of gin for 5 bucks at your local convenience store. Another reason to love Japan). Good intentions to go out after building a nice buzz disintegrated into a full out house (hostel) party. Cleo and Chris ended up signing out early, both sick from the consumption (and I don’t mean TB). I don’t know whether it was the conditioning I’ve had from the daily beers with my host father, but I kept on rockin’ till almost 4am.

DAY 2: Thursday.

We slept in, lazed about…recovered (can you blame us?). This was unfortunately followed by a breakfast at mcdonalds. I think this is the first time I’ve eaten mcdonald’s in a bout 2 years: the reasons I don’t eat there were reconfirmed, even in on the other side of the planet.

Next desitnation was Hibiya Park to check out a chrysanthemum exhibit (I had no idea they were so bloody huge and exhuberant! No wonder the Japanese call fireworks “flower fire”, with these monsters to inspire them), then wandered the palace “gardens”. The quotations serve to say that by ‘gardens’, they mean ‘enormous gravel-covered square with vast expanses of golf-green grass & tailored trees, the latter behind a teeny fence and “do not enter” signs. Such a waste! It would make such excellent picnic & leisure space, but of course the Japanese prefer to have it looking prim and perfect – which means no trampling feet or grubby hands allowed.

Following this was Akihabara, the electronics motherload district. Picture streets lined with 8 storey, neon-filled buildings, shoulder-to-shoulder people, and vendors selling anything that has batteries or a plug. Superbly impressive, though the prices weren’t as low as they are fabled to be. I bought a godsent external hard drive for my computer, and Cleo bought 3 digital cameras. Close your gaping jaw – one for her, one for her parents, and one for her boyfriend. Along the way we encountered this 3 storey, absurdly narrow mall-sort-of-thing that sold bits of electronics – so many teeny resistors, plug ends, copper wire, circuit boards….it was nuts. You could build anything that requires electronics from this little hole-in-the wall place. As a tourist it’s a bit frustrating to know that interesting places like this exist all over the place, but they’re so hard to find. Usually it’s a wrong turn or some free-time-wandering that does it.

Next stop: Shinjuku – the glitzy, flashy, 10-storey-video-advertisement-filled shopping district. Shitloads of people spending shitloads of money on mostly clothing. Quite a wander-and-gawk experience. We did this with Bibi, the Polish girl (who works as a fashion merchandizer in New York. Very glamourous).

The evening was once again spent drinking at the hostel (though not so much as last night). We met a new couple of Aussies (who were obnoxious twits) and played some international UNO (that’s UNO with various rules followed by players from a bunch of different countries). This was a 4:30 am bedtime. Had some excellent conversations with Nick & Dave (the Aussies from yesterday). They’ve been living in Japan for 3 years and speak fluent Japanese. Very impressive to hear them talking with the locals. Jesse is jealous.

DAY 3: Friday.

I was keen to head to Jinbo-cho, which is the bookshop district (just think: a whole DISTRICT for books! Fabulous!), so I got up early. Upon going downstairs, however, I was asked by Bibi to help her find a computer in Akihabara. I wanted to hunt down a few more things (namely a camera case and some sweet speakers that cleo bought. Very similar to my gullivers ones, only better…), so I thought this would be grand. That’s spontaneous travel without a little shuffling of plans? So, after a most excellent Denny’s breakfast (in Japan Denny’s is a stylish, healthy restaurant. The Japanese are surprised by the sorry state of the North American conterparts) we set off, gawking at the tiny computers with built in webcams, fingerprint ID, instant card scanning (a Japanese function which shows up on cell phones – just touch it against the designated spot and bam! you paid)….Bibi was a little swamped with options and price range, so she just jotted down some numbers instead of buying. I managed to completely forget my speakers.

After Akihabara I puttered over to Jinbocho to check out what a book neighbourhood looks like. I expected all sorts of specialty book stores – sci. fi buffs, art book shops, history specialty shops, etc. – but was surprised to find just row upon row of generic bookshops with no apparent niche. Towers of sketchily-stacked books seems to be a phenomenon that transcends culture and geography. Makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I picked up one more book in the set of bilingual books I’m collecting: a collection of Japanese myths, then headed onward to to meet up with Chris & Cleo in Shibuya, the other quintessentially-tokyo, flashy shopping district. It seemed that Shibuya had more REALLY upscale shops than Shinjuku. Our mission, however, was to head to a reputedly impressive Escher exhibit that I had no intention of missing. Cleo was interested, but was rather puzzled at my excitement about his art (despite being regaled by the Aussies, who told us about this exhibit, and who were more thrilled than I was). Chris had no interest, so the 2 of us headed inside. Let’s put it this way: it was 2:30, and we intended to fit the exhibit between then and a 6:00 visit to Tokyo Disneyland (yeah, yeah, I could go to Disneyland at home, but can I really: how often do I go to the states?). Cleo, too, loved the Escher so much that we didn’t even leave until 7:15. Disneyland never happened, and the reason for it, as far as I’m concerned, is a rather fulfilling one. I got to see some of Escher’s sketchbooks (which explain how he designs his regular-division-of-the-plane patterns), and the audio guide was a Nintendo DS! So sweet: this gameboy-like thing has one touch screen and another regular screen, so you can have explanation/menu on one side, and a zoom-able picture on the other. Genius. It allowed you to look at all the pages of the sketchbook, not just the one it was opened to in the display case.

Right: no one wants to hear about Escher. Once we were done with the sweet sweet Escher exhibit (heh heh), Cleo and I wandered the Shibuya night, and came across the busiest pedestrian intersection I have ever seen: I’m sure that more people cross the intersedtion in one light-change than live in my hometown. The lights don’t even allow one direction of traffic alongside pedestrians: they had traffic do their thing, both ways, then unleashed the horde of pedestrians, completely enveloping the pavement between the lights. On one of the 10-storey tv ads was a live camera feed of the intersection, so we could see ourselves waving, larger than life!

We next hit up the 45^th floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Building, which offers a free view of the city (rather than the tourist trap that is Tokyo Tower, which charges), then took our protesting legs back to the hostel for an early turn-in in preparation of the next epic day:

DAY 4: Saturday.

I’ve never seen so much fish carnage in all my life. Tsukiji Fish Market is quite an experience, and it’s no wonder they call it “the belly of Japan”: if it came out of the water, it is brought, butchered (or not), and sold here; and we all know how much the Japanese like seafood. Health Canada, however, would certainly have some stern words for the place... And these guys don't mess around: they fly down the narrow alleys on their weird 3-wheel motor-dolly cars carrying stacks of styrofoam fish containers. It's dangerous as hell - i saw my life flash before my eyes numerous times as someone whipped by within fishy inches of my nose. We met my teacher, Yamaguchi Sensei, here. It was kind of amusing to see this bookish, cinema & arts buff gingerly making his way through the bloody bustle of Tsukiji Market. This definitely is a quintessential Japanese experience, one which was Yamaguchi Sensei’s first. Below is a tuna being cut with a band saw. Sushi, the traditional way! When we'd had our fill of fishy smells and death-defying experiences, Cleo was keen to check out the Museum of Emerging Science, and I think Yamaguchi Sensei was too politely-Japanese to say that he had no desire to go, so off we went. It had a rather interesting exhibit entitled “6.5 billion survivors”, and addressing how we can possibly live with so many people on the planet. They gave a surprisingly hopeful view of genetic modification, one which could be possible to achieve if it weren’t for a prevailing global capitalist interest: instead of thoroughly researching the field and developing strains which are sustainable & healthy (or even finding out what kind of effects they can have), corporations are instead focused on quickly patenting new technology and extracting maximum profit from it. Were profit not a factor, this industry would have the potential to gain a lot of credence by then being free to collaborate across the globe – creating the possibility of chain-reactions of breakthroughs, rather than hording them for one’s own company. Capitalism: so bittersweet.

Maybe after I get over my rant I can continue to say that we hopped on the monorail back toward downtown. This monorail is sweet: it’s high above ground, and goes over Tokyo Harbour, so you have a clear view of Tokyo’s core (even a smoggy glimpse of Mt. Fuji in the distance). Finally we got to Yamaguchi’s intended destination of Asakusa’s Senso shrine. Leading up to it was the crazy tourist trap area i mentioned at the beginning (this time shoulder to shoulder with people). Like all the shrines I’ve seen so far it was dominated by a crowd of people chucking money into a giant bin so they can pray. I donated a 100yen coin to get a fortune that basically told me everything I do is wrong (the headline was simply “bad fortune”). Terribly amusing, since up till now everything has been going pretty right. Maybe I’m due for a karmatic reversal. Out front were 2 essential shrine-features: a fountain where people pour water on their hands & faces to cleanse themselves before praying; and a little hut where they burn heaps of incense whose smoke people scoop and kind of bathe themselves in.

I finally found some engrish that was not so abhorrently expensive: I bought a sweater and a jacket (which actually came with a matching t shirt. Bonus) that say, respectively: “responsibirity; real seculity; dairy; keep hold lock on the all of flour. Shining, attractive ‘fruit cake’ just you taste its smooth, that makes you smily! And happy!”, and “the manie road food tasty. Many stores are collected”. I wonder what meaning they were shooting for…

We then parted ways with Yamaguchi Sensei and prepared for the calm before the storm: a quick nap before a bunch of us stormed a Roppongi club. One thing I can say is that clubs everywhere seem to be the same: loud beats, expensive booze, and too many people. The other thing I can say, on that note, is that Japan seems to be pretty flexible in the area of maximum occupancy. I had no room to fart, let alone dance! We had two options of returning to the hostel: take a taxi, or wait till the trains started running again at 5:30. after 6.5 hours of dancing and struggling to move around we discovered we had chosen the latter. What a night. As an individual experience, a real rush. Wouldn’t want to spend my regular weekends doing it though…

FINAL EPIC DAY: Sunday.

The hostel staff were kind enough to let us sleep in till after 12:30, whereupon we struggled into consciousness and packed up. After breaking our fast with some curry we headed to Asakusa Bridge to catch the water taxi down the river towards Tokyo Station. To be sure, we weren’t the giddiest bunch that day, but after some food and a shower we felt up to the task of some more sightseeing. Our final destination was Harajuku, the more alternative district, it would turn out. Man, I wish we had gone earlier!: every weekend the ‘cos-play zoku’ come out from their regular student lives and dress up in crazy expression-starved clothing (costumes?) and meet in the park here (cleo got some good photos, but i don't have those yet). Harajuku is also good for cheap shopping, querky stores, and peoplewatching. Definitely going back. We were supposed to catch a Shinkansen back to Toyohashi at 7:00, but didn’t even leave Harajuku till 7:30. such a cool, querky place, I could’ve spent ages there.

The return was a real gong show: our tickets didn’t include the Shinkansen surcharge, so we had to pay an extra 30 bucks; chris managed to lose his ticket between the surcharge-acquiring machine and the gate (after about a half hour the station folk printed him out another copy); the train we caught went as far as one stop before Nagoya, and by this time it was past 10:00, and so getting close to last train time (as after arriving in Toyohashi Cleo and I had to head to Okazaki, and then to Toyota). We all managed to squeak into our last trains home, but it doesn’t even quite end there: on the bike ride home my backpack’s rain cover drawstring managed to get caught in my tire and rip right off; my umbrella (it was raining) broke, and so soaking, I get almost home only to be nearly hit by a car. I can tell you, bed felt awesome that night.
So ends our superb Tokyo trip in a blaze of frustrated exhaustion.

富士山 (mt. fuji)

2006-11-29T17:48:00.000+09:00

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

2006-11-20T18:26:00.000+09:00

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

2006-11-20T18:12:00.000+09:00

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

2006-11-19T18:10:00.000+09:00

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'

2006-11-17T22:42:00.000+09:00

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

2006-11-17T10:49:00.000+09:00

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

2006-11-17T10:45:00.000+09:00

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

2006-11-14T21:45:00.000+09:00

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

2006-11-13T22:41:00.000+09:00

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)

2006-11-13T19:28:00.000+09:00

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

2006-11-10T22:27:00.000+09:00

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

2006-11-08T21:47:00.000+09:00

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

2006-11-08T21:40:00.000+09:00

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).

t.p.

2006-10-20T09:52:00.000+09:00

all who occasionally use only one square of toilet paper, hands up.....
i thought not. honestly, why do they make the squares so bloody small? it's always 'pull one down, fold it over the next' in the very least. and if it should rip along the first perforation, well now its integrity is compromised, greatly increasing the threat of the dreaded mis-wipe. here the japanese actually do something bigger. t.p. squares are twice the size, and with the wonders of the bedet, one sheet is frequently enough. someone's gotta think of these things.

i dreamt of gulliver's

2006-10-19T14:47:00.000+09:00

i had a dream (that one day every valley shall be exalted....no, no..) that gullivers was no longer as it is. i indeed had a dream in which fraser had redirected the focus of gulliver's as a travel accessory & advice shop into a barbecue house. we're talking sizzling grills, meat on spits, and fraser sweating and running around giving people advice about the best way to roast spare ribs. and the best part is that carey was back, having decided that this new direction was indeed worthy of her investment. a couple days later i had a sequel dream in which gullivers specialized in audio-visual electronic equipment. i must've seen about 60 different kinds of video monitors in there. every kind of tv you could want, and every kind of tv with a canada flag on it.....

挙母祭り　(koromo festival)

2006-10-19T14:06:00.000+09:00

koromo is the name toyota city had before the motor company moved in and made it flourish. a few weekends ago we (nobuko, cleo, and my host siblings) headed to a local park for a festival happening there.
you can see me here making glass beads and eating dead-fish-on-a-stick. that fish came from the river running through the park. things with faces are always tastier when you know where they come from - i can eliminate any ethical nagging in the back of my mind. there was all sorts of traditional stuff: tea ceremony, pottery, some awesome weaving and fabric dying, and later on was a good 3 hours of music.

there was a didgeridoo artist (whom i later talked to and played with), a mexican band, an ocarina band, and finally an all female tyco drum band. only the most traditional imported music for a traditional japanese festival! as the didgeridoo guy (mishima) was playing the moon was rising over the mountain behind the stage through the misty clouds. it was quite eerie to see/hear.

誕生日 (birthday)

2006-10-19T13:58:00.000+09:00

my family was kind enough to have a little birthday dinner/cake/gift opening on my birthday. considering how this was a week after i arrived, i found the gesture incredibly outgoing. so, nobuko and hisao - thanks! the day before, during one of our investigatory conversations, nobuko (my host mum) asked me what my favourite colour was, and i replied forest green (midori). so when i opened my gift on the 5th i was surprised that she had indeed gotten me a gorgeous forest green sake set. she apparently, however, had asked me about my favourite colour after she had bought the gift, so i merely missed the relief on her face when she discovered the couldn't have chosen a better colour. we duly introduced the vessel to its intended contents immediately afterward. happy birthday indeed!

bowwwwwling!

2006-10-19T13:45:00.000+09:00

doing nothing halfway, the bowling alley by our school is enormous and glitzy. two floors of bowling and another of arcade games. during your bowling game you can choose a song to have played, like a video juke box. i'd like to poll the audience: what do a baboon and bowling have in common? ask the japanese, cuz i had no idea why the nature channel was on during our game.

and after the bowling we hit up a tyco drumming arcade game. kinda like pa rappa the rapper, if you've ever played that, but you have to hit the drum in the right spot/way instead of hitting the right button on the controller. good times y'all.

sustainably wasteful

2006-10-05T18:52:00.000+09:00

i can't decide whether the japanese are commendably sustainable or deplorably wasteful. everything here has more packaging than a kosher supermarket, yet they meticulously recycle. the roads are just jammed with cars, yet so many run only on motorcycle engines. are these people concerned with saving the planet, or is it that their density is so high that without such measures the place would be a dump? i'll let you know if i figure it out.

beer food

2006-10-05T18:47:00.000+09:00

the japanese have taken the glory that is beer to the next level: in a liquor store you can buy your booze, then pick your favourite munchy from the "beer food" aisle. there is actually a distinct category that is "beer food". i love it. you've got your various nuts, your cheese sand, your dried fish.....it's an enlightened society where you can drop by the liquor store (or convenience store, or grocery store....) and pick up a 6 pack of brown pop and some octopus jerky.

word on the street

2006-10-05T18:37:00.000+09:00

i've found it quite startling how spotless everything is here. the streets are barren of trash, and unnervingly few trash cans. beyond garbage, there are 9 types of recycling (not including batteries), so you need a bloody degree just to keep on top of that.
the cars are, predictably, largely quite small (heh heh). the thing is, though, that those that aren't small are monstrous minivans. pickups don't even exist, even pimped out lowered ones. one thing that is universal, however, is that all the cars (and monstrous minivans) are disproportionately tall and skinny. there's no way this kind of headroom is needed for any asian. and being so tall and skinny, they all look so awkward and boxy, zipping aroung on the wrong side of the street.
also predictable in the town of toyota, yet worthy of a moment to stop and go "hmm", is that everyone owns a toyota. i guess it would be accurate to say toyota owns everyone, as all these cars are bought with employee-discounted toyota paychecks.

like a schoolboy

2006-10-05T18:19:00.000+09:00

school has begun. and it is just as everyone has been telling me: all the students here (95% women) gawk and giggle, then ask if you can teach them english. never has it been easier to get girls' phone numbers (even after telling them i've been with my girlfriend for 2 years), yet so bloody difficult to find my own number in my new keitai (cell phone). i call my host brother, masato, my keitai sensei - cell phone teacher. on these bloody phones you can watch tv (and there's a tv guide available), email (texting doesn't exist - it's all considered email), chat msn style, listen to the radio, scan bar codes which tell you the company's web site, and my phone even has a built in magnetic thingy that works as a credit card, charging to my phone bill. unreal. not to mention most of the menus are in japanese, even on my bilingual phone.
walking into the cafeteria for the first time i felt like i was the star attraction of a freak show. the room didn't quite go quiet, in fact i'm certain it got that much louder. teeny-bop giggles will do that.
our first class went well - modern japanese society. we'll be studying post war modernization, which means we'll be reading '60s manga and watching movies, analyzing for cultural and technological developments. my kind of class.
i also found out today that the 3 of us have to prepare a halloween party. the japanese don't celebrate halloween, so it's all up to us. i guess this also means that we can create whatever bizarre "traditions" we want.....
other than that it's business as usual, as usual as you can call a class with only 3 of us in it. no less than 4 different japanese classes, history, and society. bring it on.

the beauty of a park

2006-10-05T18:12:00.000+09:00

i was taking a stroll through the local park. let me tell you, the mosquitos are pitfully tiny, but equally voracious. and my body is not desensetized to them: i am an itchy boy. this park is quite massive, but one thing i'm discovering (and already knew, i just hadn't put it together) is that the japanese idea of a park isn't pristine forests and babbling brooks; it's tennis courts and gravel squares and concrete enclosed streams. sure there is tons of foliage and green space, but it's all tailored. it's wrapped and pruned and carefully selected. i understand the aesthetic - it really is beautiful to behold- but it doesn't have that feeling, that sense of vibrancy that i'm filled with when i walk through the back forest in violet hill or stanley park. this only goes to solidify my maturing belief in something that nature possesses which is far more than meets the eye. i think that this meticulous tailoring is present not just here, but in everything they create - and this is where their famous diligence comes into play. it is the possibility for any endeavour to become an art, be it designing a compact house, the world's most comfortable toilet (yes, i'm still on about that. the seats are even heated, and it'll blow dry your butt after you bedet yourself), or arranging flowers. thus, when you take on an endeavour in japan you do it with every ounce of energy and experience you can muster. how many other places have lifetime employment? they want someone who's been doing the job for 30 years, because all their experience is in that field. in the case of living with nature, however, the japanese need to read up on aristotle a little: there is, somewhere, a golden mean between tailored beauty and natural beauty that does not exist here. it can be noticed by one who is used to something a little less cultivated and a little more powerful.

day 4

2006-10-05T17:52:00.000+09:00

my host family is quite young. and because they are young they don't serve miso soup, eggs, rice, and various pickled substances for breakfast. nope, it's good old fashioned toast and cereal. suits me fine - i was a little worried about rice for breakfast. only all the cereal boxes available are tiny. and the options are frosted flake style or granola. two most excellent choices, to be sure, but limited in scope.
i hadn't considered how tiring it would be to constantly be struggling to communicate. both my host parents speak a decent amount of english, but that still doesn't make it a breeze.
and it's hotter than david hasselhoff's swim trunks here. i sweat at least a little all day, though i can't quite tell the difference between my sweat and the tangible humidity. i can see why the japanese bathe daily. remember "pocari sweat"? well, it's turned into quite the amusing family joke. after explaining to them what "sweat" is they too understand why the concept of drinking it really gets me going. so now when i come home sweating from the heat and the uphill return bike ride i'm not just sweating - i'm pocari sweating.

day 2

2006-10-05T17:34:00.000+09:00

awoke bright and early, but not bright enough that i missed my first waking sunrise on japanese soil. compelled to go for a walk at a jet-lagged 5:30am i made my way downstairs in the miniscule elevator of the okazaki grand hotel (not to be confused with the okazaki new grand hotel - much newer, much fancier, next door). i knew i'd have to talk to the reception guy, which pursed my lips after my first cultural mishap last night (the 3 of us - chris, cleo, and i - wanted some dinner, and so headed to the hotel restaurant. with no waiter only a group of japanese businessmen, and a japanese menu at hand we wondered what restaurant-entrance etiquette was. do we take a seat, should we call out, are we expected to conjure a waiter with a subconscious message of repeated bird-like bowing? no idea. luckily, at this point the waiter turned the corner and presented us with our very first bona-fide language gap. nishio sensei, who had picked us up at the airport was gone and had only told us to sign the bill after our meal. was it already ordered? were they expecting us? after telling the waiter who we were [in japanese - booya!] and seeing a blank stare i realized he did not. no worry, out comes the english menu). but back to the situation at hand: descending in the elevator i prepared a speech for the receptionist-cum-waiter informing him that chris and i only had one key for our room, and asking if i could have a second one so i could go for a walk while he slept. meeting him i say as much, and he calls over another man, hands him a key, and heads back in the direction of upstairs. "no no no" i say - and try to clarify. enter circus music, for the next two minutes were spent bumbling through each others' statements. finally he puts the key away, apparently understanding, and i bid him good morning. i walk toward the door only to discover that no, he wasn't heading back upstairs originally, he was taking me over to unlock the door to get outside. so it begins.
our hotel is right on the river, and the sun's orange voice echoed across it, intensifying as i walked along. this town, okazaki, is apparently a small one but it still has 20 storey buildings; and i'm not sure what constitutes the edge of a town because, much like england, civilization just keeps going wherever it is habitable. it seems fashionable here to don your suit and walk about the town windmilling your arms - a good morning stretch, methinks. anyways, between last night and this morning i can tick many things off my mental scavenger-hunt list: karaoke bar, beer & cigarette vending machines, a temple & castle (yet to be explored), a squat toilet (sans toilet paper).... but what i most anticipate is a good old fashioned japanese breakfast.

starting again from the beginning....

2006-10-05T17:27:00.000+09:00

day 1:
how appropriate that we approach the land of the rising sun surfing the sunrise. from the humid seats of UA flight 831 it's been morning all day. the airplane is like an airlock into all things japanese - japenese newspapers offered by japanese stewardesses, japanese safety announcements, japanese mums bouncing screaming japanese babies, english movies and japanese subtitles - i can feel my mind starting to accept that this medium will soon be normal, not some curiosity encountered in class; not some distant committee accepting my half-witted assignments over cyberspace. it's real now. i'm 10 kilometres above the pacific, moving 800km an hour, i've eaten the ginger-chicken-on-rice brunch, i've felt the tears of my lovely kat against my cheek.... this more than any day feels like, as mom said to me so many hours of morning ago, the first day of the rest of my life.

first mobile post

2006-10-02T16:01:00.000+09:00

oh, what technology can do: i posted this from my phone.

bathroom

2006-10-02T14:44:00.000+09:00

not to be confused with the toilet room, or the room with the sink, towels, and washing machine.

if you look, you:ll notice that this whole room is a shower. i was a little hesitant at first because i wasn:t sure if it was kosher to spray water all over the floor. i saw no other way, and there seemed to be a drain, so away i went. note the herbal essences shampoo. god bless globalization (or should god bless it?...)

kitchen

2006-10-02T14:29:00.000+09:00

kitchen. tiny dishwasher; huge sink.

the height of civilizataion

2006-10-02T14:21:00.000+09:00

and here it is: the most advanced piece of technology around. this toilet is, as they say, da bomb.

on that panel on the right are the controls. on top are the flush options, :large: or :small:; next down are the bedet options: small, large, female (shoots water a little further forward. eliminate wiping!), and heated air dry. the red button stops.
it:s even possible to adjust where the water shoots, and how hard.

and, to top off your excretion experience, when you stand up the fan automatically picks up speed. i wish i had to go 10 times a day. come to think of it, this toilet is a good incentive to drink more beer......

japanese squatters

2006-10-02T12:12:00.000+09:00

this here is a genuine, bona fide public squat toilet. i thought it rather ironic that a nice fat maple leaf was sitting inside.

this toilet shouldn:t be confused, however with the one in my family:s home.......

pocari sweat

2006-10-02T12:10:00.000+09:00

imagine a place where skin excretions are in high demand as an energy drink....just kidding. this drink actually has nothing to do with sweating. nonetheless i find it terribly amusing. it:s turned into a bit of a phenomenon in my house: whenever i (or anyone else now) come home all sweaty, it:s not just sweat anymore. now, we:ve been pocari-sweating. good times.

kendo shiai

2006-10-02T11:59:00.000+09:00

this is masato (number 85 on the right) sneaking in a good shot under his opponant:s guard. we went yesterday to his kendo shiai (tournament) in this huge gym loud with the sound of cracking swords.

pate kanpai

2006-10-02T11:56:00.000+09:00

man, was this a great night. we bought fresh sashimi from down the street and had a feast. hisao:s holding up a piece of cracker with genuine canadian salmon pate. note the terribly amusing fish head. we stayed up late into the night talking about language and our respective cultures, drinking plenty of beer and wine.

sweet home toyota

2006-10-02T11:28:00.000+09:00

welcome to my room. i was rather surprised how big it was: 6 tatami mats. there:s a closet, a door to the outside, and a window near the floor by my bed. the doors and windows are all paper and wood. it:s the only room in the house that is like this, however. i sleep on one of those fold up futons. pretty comfy.

inanimate introductions

2006-10-02T11:09:00.000+09:00

if ever i forget anyone:s name i have this door to keep me from losing face. it has the whole family:s names (masato is the 12 year old son, and kei is the 10 year old daughter). i don:t yet know, however, why there:s a union jack....

host parents

2006-10-02T11:06:00.000+09:00

here are nobuko and hisao takahashi, my most generous host parents. nobuko works at a hospital reception desk, and hisao works as a designer at (surprise!) toyota. i think he designs the navigation computers. they:re a cool bunch and have helped me incessantly since i arrived. cheers to the takahashis!

renovation reservations

2006-10-02T11:05:00.000+09:00

right behind my head is the hotel we stayed at. the sign below reads "okazaki grand hotel". at the top left you can see the aptly named, fancier "okazaki new grand hotel". i guess they just couldn:t be bothered to renovate. i thought it appropriate to add a wee peace sign, but the powers that be decided it should be mostly cut.

first contact

2006-10-02T11:03:00.000+09:00

here are the host parents with us in the foyer of the hotel in okazaki.
from left, top: chris:s host father, chris, nobuko (my host mother), myself, cleo, cleo:s host mother, (bottom) chris:s host mother, ayumi (nobuko:s friend). i can scarcely believe that of all these people no one was tempted to make a peace sign.
this morning we, the students, were getting ready in our rooms when a call came up. it was the receptionist talking a mile a minute, something about having to leave at 10:00. as it was 10 i said, we:ll be down soon. that wasn:t quite it, i guess, as a new voice came on. this was yamada sensei (behind the camera for this shot). he seemed rather peeved that we weren:t down there yet. so, i told the others, and we hustled down - only to be asked to sit and wait while he sorted out our folders. the world famous "hurry up and wait" syndrome. not the first meeting i had expected. after a good 10 minutes of sideways glances and small giggles we were asked to come over and make introductions. it:s all downhill from here.

a warm reception

2006-10-02T11:02:00.000+09:00

this is nishio sensei. he picked us up at nagoya airport. he:s quite a perky, funny guy. ironic that he:s going to teach us how to wield a bamboo sword - kendo style.

somewhere over alaska

2006-10-02T11:01:00.000+09:00

don:t we look excited? this is the first plane i:ve been on (a 777) that had tvs in each seat. it had tons of headroom. unheard of. the 11 hour flight was pretty long, but we slept, watched any of quite a selection of movies, read, or just gazed off into space. for me it was mostly sleeping. actually, i had the best plane sleep ever on this flight. it did help that i was up all the previous night dealing with my retarded computer