Japanamation

Kyoto, Otra Vez

2006-04-12T13:14:00.000+09:00

Webbo (Paul Webb, also called Beautiful Paul) was leaving Japan and he wanted to go to Kyoto, so being the good friend that I was, I offered to go with him. Harry (Paul Harrington, or Tall Paul), also a bend-over-backwards kind of guy, secured a couple days off and came along. We rode the Shink down to Tokyo and then took a night bus from Tokyo stations.

Tokyo is always busy.

The bus was luxurious, as was expected. In fact it was called the Kyoto Dream bus.
Paul is a sleep-emailer. Very strange.
I got a total of 2.3 hours of sleep. It was that amazing. I don't think I had any dreams, unless it was about disembarking from such cramped quarters.
Kyoto station was still there; I know some of you were beginning to doubt.

We got to Kyoto at about half 5 in the morning. We got some breakfast munchies at a konbenii (convenience store) and grubbed down in a temple courtyard. We timed our trip pretty well so the cherry blossoms were beginning to show.

After breakfast we went into the temple and as fortune would have it, there was a buddhist ceremony about to begin. We sat down and listened as the monks chanted in Japanese and then sang a few songs. Webbo and I actually slept through most of it, but it was a sweet experience, nonetheless.

Afterwards, we headed up to the Imperial palace and peroused the gardens for a bit. We wanted to go to another part of the Imperial palaces, but you must apply for permission in person. So we set up a tour of Katsura Rikyu Imperial villa for Wednesday.

After checking into our hotel, we hired some bikes and started cycling toward Kurama Dera, about 6 miles out of Kyoto. While taking a slight detour from the main road, we happened upon this family at their little cherry blossom party (heretofor refered to as hanami). They were all lined up for a photographer, so I snuck up behind him to take a shot of my own. He was finished shooting, and the family caught sight of me and told him to move so I could take my picture. They were really nice; they tried to talk to me, but as I only know three sentences in Japanese, the conversation was shortlived.
We cycled for another hour or so, but had to stop when Harry got a puncture in his tire. We took a lunchbreak and boarded the train to Kurama-dera.
At the entrance to Kurama-dera.

The temple complex winds from the bottom of a valley to the top of the overshadowing mountain. It took us the better part of an hour to hike to the top. We got to the top about dusk, so on the way down, it was continually getting darker. I had had the forsight to bring along my tripod, which afforded us many exctiting low-light photo opportunities.

We left Kurama-dera, and cycled back to town, stopped for dinner, and then headed down to a nice area, where we thought we might see some quaint backstreets and such. What you see below is a nice little stream overcast with cherry blossoms.

Anyway, we had to crash, as it was about 1am, so we cycled back to our hotel, and got a short sleep before we hit the town for day two.

Harry had seen a flyer for an exhibit concerning traditional food from Kyoto, so he headed to the musuem early the next day. Webbo and I slept for a couple hours more, and headed out to Nijo-jo, the old Imperial castle.

It was pretty sweet, although we missed the real extent of the cherry blossoms by two or three days. Probably the coolest part of the castle was the old palace within, of which I neglected to take any pictures. The floors were made especially to make walking silently impossible. Called "mockingbird floors", they were specially designed to alert the Shogun of any intuders. Of course I tried to walk without making a sound. But it was only possible for a maximum of two or three steps. The sound was really unique, too; it wasn't like a squeaky floor, but somewhere between that and a hand-carved flute.

We met up with Harry for some coffee, and then headed out toward Kiyomizu-dera. Ben and I had gone up to the enterance to the temple in the fall, but thought that it looked pretty lame from the outside, so we didn't go in. However, I had since learned that we had missed the best part. As can be seen from the pictures, it's pretty sweet.

Here's some girls in kimono. They had just purchased their omikuji (fortune) from the temple and from their excited squeals they had all gotten good luck. However, it couldn't have been that good, as I didn't suddenly learn how to speak Japanese and go over to flirt with them.

Some more girls in kimono. The girl on the left is my future wife, by the way.

Day Three, we ditched the bikes, and took the bus. We were going to Katsura Rikyu and we had an hour to kill, so we walked to a temple just about a mile away from the train station. As it turns out, the five-story pagoda is very famous. Who would've guessed?
In typical little-kid fashion, this girl was utterly facinated by standing up to her ancles in a puddle with her waterproof booties on.

This is outside of Katusura Rikyu. we were on the far west side of Kyoto, but if felt as though were were in a totally different valley. The weather had been a bit drizzly, but it had cleared up, and I was reminded of Guatemala. Maybe it was that cool, fresh post-rain feeling, coupled with the surrounding grey outlines of the mountains, but whatever it was, it was sweet.
The villa was built beside the Katsura river, a little ways out of Kyoto (at the time) by the brother of one of the emperor's. It consisted of a villa, several tea houses, and a small shrine, all built around a spectacularly scenic garden. We were given a guided tour throughout the garden. I mentioned earlier about the requesting of permission. It was really strange. You had to have the special permission papers, and your name had to be on the list, and they wouldn't let you wander around by yourself or take pictures wherever you liked. (The English audio guides we recieved informed us that because the moss in the garden is "invaluable" flash photography is prohibited except in certain areas; apparently the moss doesn't grow.) It was like you were a privileged (but not honored) guest.

This is one of the tea houses. When I say tea houses, they would perform a formal ceremony of drinking tea. I don't really know much about it, but it was one of the things that Samurai and Maiko would practice to perfection. So while you're walking through the garden, you stop to have some tea in this amazing little house and look out over the pond. The luxury of the house is so striking. It's so delicate: paper windows, sliding doors, and tatami floors. Everything about it urges the tennant to take great care. And also it's so open. The doors and windows are huge, to allow a flow of light and air, and even were they to be closed, you wouldn't feel much protection from the elements, bringing one even closer to the magnificent garden around it. Sorry if I sound poetic, it was just really amazing.

The shrine.
Another of the tea houses.
This is the villa itself. On the flat grass patch in the foreground, they would practice Japanese archery (kyudo) and kendo.

This was the last of the tea houses, it was build in a sort of L-shape with two large windows at right angles to each other.
If you sit looking straight ahead, you see this small knoll with its shrubs and flowers.
If you then look to your right, you see this picture: the pond with a vague outline of a shore.
It was built so that the two windows would provide glimpses of two totally different landscapes, the first eluding to land and the second to the sea, as though you were seeing two pictures of two different worlds.

The pine tree on the right was planted so that one could not view the garden all at one time, thus "saving some enjoyment" for the visitor as he traversed the path around the pond. Those crazy Japanese.
That dude was stationed there so that anyone thinking of spoiling his enjoyment would immediately get scared and decide to walk the path around the pond.

After the villa, we headed to the other side of town for a little peak at Fushimi-inari Taisha, famous for it's hallways of torii that wind through the forests outside of Kyoto. For the layperson who couldn't figure it out, a torii is a gateway usually at the entrance to a temple or shrine. I believe they are meant to have some sort of spirtual effect, but I know not what. I do know that they use the red paint to scare away demons.

After the torii, we had to board the nightbus for Koriyama. Our time in Kyoto had unfortunately come to an end.

They call me the Hurricane

2006-02-15T16:12:00.000+09:00

That's what they call me when I'm boarding down the mountain. A behemoth of man hurtling at speeds and with a force no man has seen or even heard of before. Yesterday was my second attempt at snowboarding. and when I say attempt, I really mean supreme victory over the mountain.

Here's my new board. It's 162cm and extra wide. And sweet.

That's a picture of a hurricane on the board. That's kind of what the slopes look like, just with no ships and palm trees. But wreckage nonetheless.

There's Roy in the blue. That's Lake Iwanashiro behind him. It was a pretty spectacular day to go snowboarding.

Me and Webbosan before we made (one of) our triumphant decent(s) down the slope.
Webbo taking a break

Roy

Roy and Webbo
A parting shot, at day's end.

Russian Takuyaki

2006-02-13T21:40:00.000+09:00

Takuyaki is a small fried ball of bread and octopus. Russian takuyaki is a whole new world altogether. You order 6 at a time, and one of them contains not octopus, but a near-lethal dose of peppers,wasabi, or some sort of ghastly hotness. You go around the table and everyone eats one, hoping he or she doesn't pick the hottie.

Roy was the first unlucky soul. Poor guy looks miserable.
Tim probably had it the worst. He picked his up and accidentally broke it open, allowing him to see the fire within.
Of course, there was no backing down, so with great anticipation on our parts and even greater dismay on his, we watched as he amassed the courage to ingest the intestinal torturer.

Despite my insane hopes, there was no burning in store for me this night. Maybe next time.

Dave's Wedding

2006-02-13T21:08:00.000+09:00

Here's a few pics from from the rehearsal dinner, wedding and reception.

Justin Bland

Zack and Mel

Anna and Aaron

Aaron, Aaron, Aaron

Just before the wedding.

Just before everyone else recieved the Bride and Groom. I got to be the first. What a beautiful bride...and a handsome groom.
Inside the Reception. Dan, Beth, and Aaron Hendersons
Mesh.
Aaron having a chat with my mom.
Aaron and Blakers
Me and Dan
Nahsville's star songwriter, teamed up with the hottest J-Pop sensation. A virtual marriage of East and West. How apt.

Tokyo, continued

2006-02-13T18:15:00.000+09:00

Here are several shots we took in Ginza, the really upscale shopping district.

January 2nd is the Japanese shopping equivalent to the day after Thanksgiving, and shopping in Tokyo is the equivalent to absolute craziness, so combine the two and you've got a level of shopping and dropping that I never dreamed was possible. That's me in a store, taken by Tim.

That's Tim, in the same store, taken by me.
You can see in the pictures people packed in wall to wall, but what you can't see is outside people lining up to get in the store, waiting for someone to leave so there's now room for one more.

January 2nd is also one of two days in the year where people can go up to the Imperial Palace.

They handed us Japanese flags, and then ushered us through three security check points. Then we followed the masses of people walking up the hill toward the palace.

We wound our way through the gate, over the bridge, and then into this huge plaza.

When the place was just about full, the Imperial family came out, made a short speech and then waved for five minutes. The Emperor is the second from the left.

I know he saw me. How could he not've?

We went to a diner for breakfast the next morning. This dude was sitting next to us. He had these Gundam toys and a toy gun, and he kept talking to himself with the gun in his hand, and occasionally firing. I didn't know if I should be disturbed or amused. As it was, we had a difficult time not erupting in laughter.

Little girl on the train with her mother. Amazingly cute, and so, so tiny.

Tokyo

2006-02-13T16:47:00.001+09:00

Over the new year holiday, Roy and I went down to Tokyo. Here's a few of the highlights.

These are a couple of shots of Shibuya. It's a huge area for shopping and eating/drinking. In these first 4 pictures you can see the largest pedestrian interchange in the world. This mob of people amazingly fill and vacate the streets every time the lights change. It's quite a sight to see.

On the first two floors of the building saying "QFront," you can see the world's largest Starbucks. I didn't go there. Sorry, Cari. Maybe next time.

This is Roy back in Shinkjuku. Shinjuku is also good for shopping and neon lights.

That's me in Shinjuku. This symbol "カラオケ" means karaoke. See how many times you can find it on the buildings behind me.

Gas Mask, No More Gun, and Pepper Spray. Three amazing night clubs all in one building. How did we resist the urge to go in...?

This is the Park Hyatt Hotel, where they filmed Lost in Translation.
Here, it's the three tiered building behind the BMW building. We wanted to stay there, but I didn't want to spend my entire month's paycheck on three nights, so we settled for gawking around like a couple tourists. That's cool.

A shot of Tokyo, taken from the top of the shortest tower.

Fujisan, over Tokyo.

This lobby made several appearances in the film

A really posh wine cellar/bar.

Surprise! In the elevator.

You had to take one elevator up, then get off, walk through the hotel and then take another one up to the bar where Bill Murray and Scarlett Johanson meet in the movie. It's at the very top of either the second or third tier. Unfortuantely, when we got there, it was roped off while they redecorated for a New Year party. We peaked around the corner, but didn't get to take any pictures, or even really walk around and see the place.

Then we stopped off at Roppongi Hills, a really up-scale shopping area in Roppongi. This massive spider is out front. That's Tokyo Tower behind it.

Inside Roppongi Hills.

The bottom 5 or 6 floors were all shops and restaurants, but the top 20 or so were, I think, offices and condos owned by super rich people and celebrities alike.

Although it was his restaurant, Roy thought that his presence inside would put people on edge, trying to please him and make sure they always looked busy and whatnot. So we ate at a cafe downstairs.

The sun setting behind Fujisan.

Christmas Party/Christmas

2006-02-13T14:10:00.000+09:00

Here's a few pictures from our company Christmas party. We went to this really swank restaurant called EN. It was really good food, but small portions. Just an example, they brought out gelatinized champaign as an appetizer. We also had some sort of bread soup, and a kind of fish-pot-pie, which was delicious and crispy. Did I mention the food was really good.

From the left, this is Ashley, Jumko, Ruri, and Tomoe
Matt (also Canadian Matty or Red-haired Matty), Yuko, and Gina
Simon, Meyumi, and myself
Paul Webb (called Webbo) and Joanne's hair.
Not in attendance that night were Joanne, Paul Harrington (Harry), Paul Celenza (Paul or Big Paul), Ben, and Australian Matty.

We had a secret Santa gift exchange, and I drew Tomoe. I got her an American flag mug, and a picture frame with three different pictures of myself. She said it was the best gift she's ever been given.
This was what Webbo got. I'm not sure what to make of it. It appears to be a toothbrush with some sort of elephant attachment...or something.
Webbo and Meyumi supporting the West Side. I had to be true to my bloods, though, you know.
It was a formal-wear occasion, and despite the cold, Roy decided to wear his Kilt. You can't really tell from this picture, but the kilt, belt, and white shirt/no tie combo was really sweet-lookin.
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Christmas day, I went to the house of Webbo, Harry, and Ben. Ben was in Australia, but we really don't need him to have a good time, so we threw a small Christmas dinner party.

Here's Harry with the first round of food. Sushi, boiled potatoes and carrots, apples and pork, doritos,

and mashed potatoes and gravy (made by me).
The potatoes were really good, thanks to a tip I got off of Canadian Matty. I roasted some garlic in butter, then mashed them into the potatoes for a delectably mouth-watering finished product. The gravy unfortunately was a little off. I made it with the juice from the pork and apple. The apple itself just gave it a strange flavor, and for some reason unknown to me (possibly because of the sugar content) it went more like jelly than gravy. If anyone knows a good gravy recipe that calls for pan drippings from pork and apple, please share, because I would love to know; but as it is, I probably won't attempt that again.

Roast Chicken. Delicious. We decided to call it turkey, though, since it was Christmas.

Webbo in the kitchen

Harry and I with my homemade Eggnog. I'm not just being cocky here, it was delicious.

We had Christmas pudding last, made with fruits soaked in brandy, cake, and brandy. Harry and Webbo also put a penny somewhere in the pudding, and whoever gets it, gets good luck for the next year.

Then we poured brandy over the finished cake and lit it on fire. I honestly couldn't eat it, on account of the exceeding amount of brandy that jolted me with every bite.

But guess who got the good-luck penny...

Kyoto, part Duex

2005-11-29T22:17:00.000+09:00

Here's a couple pictures from Nanzen-ji. This was my favorite of the temples. Like I have said before, most of my pictures are on film and not on disk. So for now, just imagine...This first picture is of a small sub-temple or something off to the side of the real temple. It's taken from atop the gateway that leads up the main thoroughfare.This is the aforementioned gateway. When I first came upon this structure, I mistook it for the actual temple. Then I thought how peculiar this is, that there is nothing more than three large doorways. How little I do know about Buddhism, if this is a temple. I later realized that Nanzen-ji was just behind it, up the path a ways. The gateway is known to be one of the three largest gateways in all of Japan. You can ascend to a walkway up top for a great view of the city, and there is indeed a budha inside a small room in the upper portion.A couple pictures from Pontocho.

Not really knowing that much about it, it's hard to tell if this girl in kimono is a geisha. I saw a lot of people wearing kimono around Kyoto, and sometimes they have their hair done properly and sometimes they don't. Judging from the response she got from these other Japanese girls, I would say she is. She was really cute. Just before this, Ben stopped her and asked her if he could take a picture, and she just nodded, smiled, and waited. And of course, after we stopped her, these other girls wanted to take pictures with her, and started asking all sorts of questions. Really nice, and so tiny. Apparently, it's very rare to see geisha; most of my students are amazed when we say we saw a couple, and most confess they have never seen one in person. So, evidently, it's like this very traditional part of Japan, that was once open only to the extremely rich, and even now is very uncommon for the general populous to come in contact with.

Here's a couple geisha, though they're not wearing their make-up. To be honest, these two are kinda scary looking.Speaking of geihsa, I really want to see that new movie with Ziyi Zang. Rob, you know what I'm talking about.

Here's a caligrapher that was selling his work on the street. I took these pictures into class, and one of my student's exclaimed, "That's my name!" Kind of funny.We're still not sure what this street was, but it looked really cool, so naturally, we took it.Stumbled quite unintentionally upon one of the coolest temples, in my opinion. This is Kennin-ji, the oldest Zen temple in Kyoto. It dates from something like the 1200s. The whole complex is huge, with all sorts of buildings, with big rooms, small rooms, courtyards, gardens, and rock gardens. Not being able to speak or read, it makes it quite difficult to find out what all of these are used for, but needless to say, it's still pretty sweet.This picture would be really sweet if it weren't for those super bright flourecent lights. Pero, que sera sera.A smaller of the many rooms inside this temple complex. I love the tatami. I'm thinking that whenever, I move back to the states and settle down, I'm going to buy tatami for my house. It's so sweet. I'm also going to take my shoes off inside the house. I say that now, but we'll see what really happens.A couple rock gardens. Brad, wouldn't you love to rake this place every day?

Kyoto

2005-11-22T18:37:00.000+09:00

Definitely the highlight of my journey thus far. Kyoto is the Old Capital (but not the old, Old Capital; that's Nara); it was moved there in 784 and then moved to Tokyo in 1868. So for over 1000 years it was the seat of power in Japan. It is still home of the Imperial palace. Kyoto is widely known as one of the most beautiful cities in Japan, as well as its cultural heart. There are many craftsmen and artisans who practice traditional Japanese arts, and it has maybe the highest population of Geisha. (We saw a couple while we were there. Not totally dressed up, but you could tell, they were.) So in a city of about 1 and a half million people, there is a palace, a castle, and about 2,000 shrines and temples. It's also a great place for - take a gander - autumn viewing.

So, for maybe two months now, I've been hoping and wanting to go. I talked to Ben about it, early in October, and we decided to go together, but things kept coming up, and we kept pushing is back. I must say, I was afraid that it might not actually happen. But it did. We managed to nail down a date, did a couple shift-swaps, so that we'd have three days off, and bought our tickets. We took an overnight bus from Koriyama that left on Sunday night at 8:30, and got to Kyoto Monday morning at 6:30. It was sweet. Just kidding; it was miserable, but well worth it (We probably saved about 2 or 300 bucks, and considering the Shinkansen (bullet train) doesn't run throughout the night, we saved a lot of daylight hours, too.) The main problem was that when we got to Kyoto, we wanted to die first and see the city later. But there would be no dying. We found our hostel straight away, dropped off our bags and hit the town. We were staying only a block away from the Imperial Palace, and this is listed pretty high on the "Things to do," but when we got to a palace gate, there were police officers there telling everyone it was closed til Wednesday at 6 p.m. We were a bit distraught, but more confused, so we sat down to have a look and see what we wanted to do.

At this point in my writing, I realize that I'm becoming quite long-winded in the journal-style approach. So suffice it to say, the trip was excellent, I loved every second there, and as soon as I get a chance, I want to go back. I'll list the highlights for you, and comment on any pictures that I think need it.

Highlights of the trip:

Kinkaku-ji (The Golden Temple)
Ginkaku-ji (The Silver Temple)
Kiyomizu (a really big and popular temple, although Ben and I both concurred that it was crap.)
Nanzen-ji (one of the largest temple complexes, highly recommended by the Lonely Planet, and my personal favorite)
Kennin-ji (stumbled upon this one quite by accident, but it is the oldest Zen Temple in Kyoto. Lots of rock gardens.)
Shopping in the Teramachi covered market
handicraft market at Chion-ji
Pontocho (a small alley of a street, runs parallel to the river and has tons of old houses, shops and Geisha houses.)
A couple random streets we walked down that were similar to Pontocho (old, traditional architecture and stuff)
Eating at a Mexican Restaurant (average food, really good pico)
Eating at Wendy's
Eating at this French Bakery/restaurant, so good
Fish n Chips and a proper pint of Guinness at a British pub
Chillin' with Bush and Koizumi (the Japanese PM) while they were in town

Here's a couple shots of the train station, an architectural wonder in and of itself.
This is the outside of the Imperial Palace grounds. There is a large garden, much like Central Park, but a little smaller, and in the middle is the old Imperial Palace. However, it was closed in preparation for President Bush and Prime Minister Koizumi's visit.The Golden Temple
World Leaders
This is the Silver Temple. I actually prefered this one. The grounds and surrounding gardens were much nicer.
By the way, it's not silver. It was intended to be, but civil war broke out before it could be completed. I think I like it this way, though.I don't know if you can really call this a rock garden, but it was all gravel and sand, no glue or cements used. Pretty cool.This is really the only cool picture I got from KiyomizuHandicraft market at Chion-ji

Autumn Colors

2005-11-21T23:50:00.000+09:00

Japanese people can be quite peculiar. They are are enamored with all things naturally beautiful, to a degree that is much more extreme than anything in America. Every one of my students tells me how much they love the fall colors, and where great places are to go see the changing leaves. The will drive two or three hours just to walk in a park or take a few photos. They even have a word for "Autumn viewing." My Japanese teacher told me that next week, her photography club will go to a river that is "famous for" (that's a whole nother post) autumn viewing. In the States, people will definitely go to places that are known to be quite beautiful: Radner Lake, in Nashville for instance. But that's like everyone just generally knows that it's really nice, and a very small percentage actually go there. This is like everyone in the country talks about it, goes somewhere and wants to hear about places they missed. People even predict when the peak of the season will be, for best colors and contrasts, and apparently this season's been written up by a newspaper or website or something as being sub-par. To me it all seems somewhat strange, but to their credit, they do have a lot to be proud of.

That being said, I thought it was about time I broke out the old camera, and went on some "autumn viewing" excursions of my own. Anyway, here's a few pictures I took in and around Koriyama. It really is beautiful. Unfortunately for you, the best of my pictures I took with my SLR and not my digital. If I can upload some of my film-pictures to a CD or something, I'll see if I can post them.

After posting these pictures, I realized that there's not much autumn visible in them, aside from harvest-torn rice fields. Not to worry though; I've got plenty from Kyoto.

More pics

2005-11-13T02:24:00.000+09:00

A random statue, dressed up for the fall festival

A temple here in town. Burning leaves.

Me in front of a portable shrine

Kid's Sumo

2005-11-13T01:50:00.000+09:00

Sorry this took so long. I know you'll enjoy though.

Going to Kyoto

2005-11-13T01:46:00.000+09:00

Tomorrow me and Ben are going to Kyoto. Kyoto was the capitol of Japan before it was moved to Tokyo. The city has an enormous number of temples, gardens, as well as the old Imperial Palace. For a few pictures check out this link. In a few days though, you'll have many of my own photos to relish.

http://phototravels.net/kyoto/index.html

Pictures from Tokyo

2005-10-24T20:50:00.000+09:00

These are a couple of pictures of the mountains to the east of Koriyama, taken from the shink station. As you can see, the city itself is not the most aesthetic, but the backdrop is pretty nice.

Tokyo Tower

On a clear day, Fuji can be seen on the horizon, kind of under what appears to be mountain in the clouds. Hopefully I can go back on a good day.

This is the entrance to Sensoji Temple

The larger building to the right is the actual temple.

These are fortunes that people can buy. If you don't like it, you tie it to the rack and the wind blows away your bad fortune.

This is outside Shinjuku station.

Some Pictures

2005-10-11T20:42:00.000+09:00

Sorry about the wait, guys. Blogger was being incooperative and then the wireless internet that I was "borrowing" disappeard.

So here's some pictures from the izakia we went to on my birthday.

Tuna sashimi. It's soooo good.

Things you can't do in Nashville

2005-09-29T01:41:00.000+09:00

Tuesday, another day off, I got a great start to the day by skipping my Japanese class and sleeping in. About 1, I sauntered out of the house to meet my friend Ben for some galic ramen.

Now Ramen is quite the antithesis of the American dish you may know. The ramen you buy in the states is 1)cheap, 2)small, 3)not good or 4)filling in any way shape or form. Just some quick eduaction, for those who can't know this delight, Ramen is actually a Chinese dish. I believe it means Chinese noodles, or pulled noodles or something. These are also the places you may have heard about where you quantity of you slurps reflects on the quality of the dish. They start with these thick, long noodles that they've pulled by hand, and finish with this soup of noodles, vegetables, meat, egg (sometimes), spices, and all sorts of deliciousness. And it's so freaking hot. They bring the bowl out and it's just steamin away. We start digging in with chopsticks for the noodles/veggies/etc, and a big spoon for the broth; and halfway through, we're both sweating, faces red and noses running. It's fantastic. So a full bowl will last you all afternoon and sometimes late into the evening, and will run you about 700-1000 yen, less than 10 bucks. Not exactly cheap, but pretty good for what you're getting.

So when our bodies are wondering what to do with all this garlic and hot soup they've just been given, we head off to a temple to watch kids sumo. 4-6 year old boys sumo wrestling each other. It was probably the cutest thing I've ever seen, and definitley one of the most entertaining. I took over a hundred pictures of these little boys wrestling each other. So funny.

In the meantime, there's a fall festival going on to celebrate the beginning of autumn, so everyone's out in the streets with carnival style tents lining the road, and people are dressed up preparing for a parade with these huge wagon-shrines and small shrines that are carried by 10-15 kids. So while we're watching the kids wrestle each other, other people are bringing these shrines by the temple to get them blessed before carrying them into the street.

I apologize for the lack of pictures. I'm having trouble with blogger and/or my choices in web browsers. Apparently both Safari and Mozilla are inadequate to perform a simple task like loading pictures on the internet. Whatever. They'll get here soon.

On My Birthday/ Trip to Tokyo.

2005-09-29T00:37:00.000+09:00

So, Sunday was my birthday, as all of my real friends already knew. I had to work, but afterwards, we went out to dinner with some of the other teachers. There's a type of restaurant here in Japan, that is apparently pretty popular, as there are a lot of them, but I can't quite figure out what they're called. So you go with some friends, and they give you a room or table. There are no entres per se, and all the portions are kind of small, so everybody just orders a ton of stuff and you pass it around.

Some of the things that got passed around: tuna sashimi (that's just plain raw tuna, a little different from sushi, which has rice and other things); octopus in an egg dumpling (a sort of mini-octopus omelette); gyosa, which are kind of like tiny egg rolls, but less crispy; and many others. The winner for strangest dish of the night was raw octopus with wasabi. It was pretty disgusting. I've decided I don't like octopus, but I felt I had to try it. (By the way, if you're already grossed out, you might just want to skip to the next paragraph.) So they're about nickle sized, and in a bowl, and they could honestly pass for eyeballs. But not human eyes, they're too small. You grab one with your chopsticks, which is a feat in itself, as they're all slimy, toss it back and start chewing. Well, octopus is really chewy, so you can't really bite through it, but then there's this hard crunchy thing in the middle. So as you're chewing, the wasabi starts to burn your mouth and sinuses, but you feel you have to continue chewing because you haven't yet gotten to the crunchy bit in the middle. In the end, you just have to swollow it, having not really chewed it to a satisfactory pulp, and not being granted the satisfaction of knowing why this country loves octopus so much.

Sashimi on the other hand is sensational. You can get all kinds of sashimi, but tuna is possibly the best. It's dark red, almost purple, and oh so tender.

Monday, after a good morning of rest, I went down to Tokyo to meet Lorene and Randy. I rode the Shink (Shinkansen, or the bullet train) down for about 70 bucks each way. it takes about 75 minutes to get to Tokyo station. I get off the train, go down and greet Lorene and Randy. It's then that I realize that my digital camera has slipped out of my pocket on the train. So, thank the Lord, Lorene knew enough Japanese to get us back up to the platform and talking to an official who could help us find it. Lucky for us, Tokyo station is the last stop and Japanese people don't have a habit of stealing things like that. So they guy tells us he'll know if they have the camera in about an hour. We give him Lorene's number and head out to Tokyo tower.

Tokyo tower is kind of like the Eiffel Tower, but it's red and white and looks more like a radio antena. Pretty sweet though. You can go up to the middle deck and then up to the top and get some pretty incredible views of Tokyo. On a clear day (not this Monday) you can see Fuji.

By this time, we'd heard that they had my camera, so we went back to Tokyo station to pick it up, then headed over to Sensoji Temple. I wish I knew some facts to tell you about Sensoji, but for now know that it comes highly recomended by guide books and Nova students alike, as being a very beautiful place to witness Japan's Buddhist heritage. If that's not enough, apparently the temple is visited every year by many foreigners and Japanese.

From Sensoji, we went in search of English books. Lorene knew of a huge bookstore that had an entire floor devoted to English books, so we headed towards Shinjuku, which is maybe the largest train station in Tokyo. I don't know which one is larger, that one or Tokyo, but both of them are pretty huge. While we were in Tokyo station, Lorene made a comment, "it's crazy that there are probably more people in this station than in all of Tuscaloosa." Believe it, people. Believe it. Shinjuku was a mess. Imagine the largest mall or outdoor concert/sporting event you've ever been to and you have a picture of an average ten minute span in this place. It's absolute madness. But beautiful all at once. Seriously, it was incredibly busy, but something tells me I might really like to be living there. I'm crazy, I know.

Anyway, to wrap up the story, we got to the store at 8:05 and it closed at 8. So we went back to Tokyo station to catch the last train back to Koriyama. While it may seem that the whole day was a fruitless effort of trains, walking, and dodging people, nothing could be farther from the truth. I freaking love Tokyo. I think it may be my home away from home, and who knows, with time it may even pass London as "favorite city on the globe."

Pictures coming soon...

Cell phone

2005-09-28T23:39:00.000+09:00

I got a cell phone last week. It's pretty freakin sweet. The phones are actually a lot bigger here than I imagined. But I guess it's permissible considering all the things they can do. I paid less than $10 for my phone and about 40 bucks a month, and get 20 minutes of talk time, (I know, not much, but I'm only charged for outgoing calls) and unlimited emailing It also has a 1.3 megapixel camera on it, a video camera for video phone calls, and of course internet. And a huge color screen. Oh yeah, and it's got Blue tooth and an infrared scanner. So if I wanted to give you my info, I could just scan it next to your phone.

I haven't quite figured out the best way to call the states, yet, but emailing seems to work fine. If you want my number or my address, ask me, I'll give it to you.

Barbeque

2005-09-21T14:22:00.001+09:00

I went to a barbeque the other day with Robert, my roomate, and his girlfriend Yoko. We drove up to Fukushima city to one of Yoko's friend's house. It was a little random but really sweet. The Japanese people were so hospitable; they kept offering us drinks and food. They had all these questions for me (a couple of them could speak broken English). They asked me if I'd had this food called natto. It's fermented soybeans; it has a pungent odor, quite a bitter taste, and a very sticky, stringy consistency. So they ask me if I'd like to try some, and I'm like "sure," and quick as that they run off to get some. It was pretty disgusting. A little later they asked me if I'd had sake. I say no, so they run in the house and grab a bottle of sake. Then they find out I like spicey foods, so they run in and get all this hot stuff; they had curry popcorn and these hot potatoe chips called Mama Zuma's Revenge. What the heck. Anyway, it was really sweet. Their house was kind of on the edge of town, so there were these hills right outside their front door. I felt very much like I was in Guatemala on a misty, foggy day.

This was their front porch. It was tiny, and yet they somehow made it feel very comfortable.

This is the man and woman of the house

That's Robert in the yellow, if you couldn't guess. Yoko is the one nearest him.

Apparently, just through that fog, there's a big mountain that is famous for its cherry blossoms in the spring. They said last spring, there was a ridiculous amount of people that came to see it, something like 50 or 70,000. I can't remember exactly.

Natto

Mmm. It's so good.

And good for you.

Koriyama

2005-09-20T18:09:00.000+09:00

The tallest building in Koriyama is called the big-i. It's 10 or more stories taller than any other building and on top there's a big planetarium, so it looks like a huge lower-case i. It's kind of funny. Anyway, you can climb to the top and get a great view of the city and the valley.

By the way, in case it comes up in trivial persuit, or other life or death situations, it's the highest planetarium in the world.

The blue sign you see is for Nova. That's our building. We have the first two floors. I really can't imagine how much Nova spends on huge light-up signs.

Don't think I'm trying to be cool with this picture. I know it would be easy to think such. Anyway, though it may be very pixilated, the enlarged portion is my apartment complex.

Looking East

To the North

I'll let you guess

My place

2005-09-20T01:31:00.000+09:00

Pictures of my apartment. Or flat, depending on what country you're from.
Here's a rough drawing of the place. Not quite to scale, but you get the idea.

This is my room. They measure room sizes in tatami mats, those you see on the floor. One tatami is roughly 3ft by 6, and my room is 6 mats. So you can guess that it's about 9 x 12.

The kitchen/dining room.

The living room.

Waterfalls

2005-09-20T01:00:00.000+09:00

This was a natural stream coming out of the rock. The bamboo and tin cups are for drinking

This is Joanne; she's one of the teachers here. The other guy is visiting his girlfriend, also a teacher. Apparently, if you put a rock on top of the others without knocking any off, you get good luck. The bigger the rock the better the luck.

The ladies' fall. Sorry there aren't more pictures; it just wasn't as photogenic.

The man's fall. 30 meters wide and 10 meters high.

Five colored waters

2005-09-19T22:26:00.000+09:00

That looks like two mountains in the very back, but it's actually one volcano. I think it's called Bendai. It could be Bandai, though.

Welcome brethren

2005-09-13T15:34:00.000+09:00

Thank you all for taking such interest in me and my everyday thoughts, dreams, heartaches, and aspirations. It means a lot to me that you're going to bookmark this page and check it every day to see what adventures are unfolding in, Nihon, the Land of the Rising Sun. Here's a few pictures so far.