November, and beyond

November didn't happen. I'm almost convinced of that. I mean, I didn't blog during that month, so it must not have happened.

I was in Hawaii for Halloween, and then the election. Don't know about you, but I'm very excited about the possibilities, about how our country might get back on track, get back to being respected and liked, not feared or hated. There are a lot of people who dismiss what other countries in the world think of us, but that's a poor attitude: we are the richest and most powerful country, so we should act kindly and with leadership, not arrogance. Anyway, I think Barack Obama is the man to get us there. And he's from Hawaii.

The other very cool thing that happened in Hawaii was that my niece was not afraid of me. She actually sat in my lap and watched TV the first night I was back! It was so nice. She's so adorable! I can't imagine what it'll be like when the next one is born! Two of them! What will I do with that much cuteness?!?!

Returning to Japan, I had to get cracking on work, preparing for a visitor at the end of November, and another in December. It's been busy, but not so much that I wasn't able to hang out with Jessica 1 (so designated because the second is also named Jessica). She hung around Kansai most of the time, making just one short trip up to Tokyo while I visited some friends in Hyogo and went rock climbing outdoors in Gifu (more on that soon). We made it Kyoto one day, going to Fushimi-Inari Shrine, which I'd never been to, but very famous for the innumerable torii (orange-red Shinto gates). We also trekked over to Tofuku-ji, but it was mobbed, the Japanese maples in full color there. For me, and for Jessica 1, I think Fushimi-Inari was by far the better. I'm going to have to go back to get some pictures.

Jessica 1 departed yesterday. After 12 days with a guest, my apartment seems strangely quiet now. But I'll soon have another guest, Jessica 2, so I probably won't get used to the apartment being just me again until January.

So, rock climbing outdoors...the place is called Fukube, in Gifu prefecture. It's apparently quite a famous place, and I can see why: there are tons of boulders around, numerous problems to climb. I was invited by my friend Kohei, who speaks fluent English; he drove and two other guys from the gym and me all went out there, three hours each way. It was Sunday on a three-day weekend, so it was crowded! I hadn't been climbing much since I got back from the US, so the skin on my hands had gone soft...not what you want when you're climbing real rock. After about four hours, my hands were just raw. I couldn't do more than just hold onto stuff before it felt like needles in my finger tips. So, I'm hitting the gym and trying to rebuild my callouses. I was only able to finish one real problem, but I still really enjoyed it...being outdoors, it was nice just being there, even if I couldn't climb very much.


This is the one I was able to do. Not too bad, got it on my third try or so. (Click for larger image.)


This one is called something that translates roughly as "Burn your biceps." I got a little farther up than this guy is pictured (he's a friend, Daigo, and he was able to finish it), but I couldn't make it up. Maybe the next time...

I was invited to go again, though this time to a place called Toyota in Aichi prefecture. Should be fun!

Only other news right now is that I've got a plane ticket to Thailand on the 23rd, but I'm a bit worried I won't be able to get there as the protests have shut down the airports in Bangkok. I'm hopeful that they'll resolve the problems soon...if not, I'll probably stay in Japan, maybe go climbing with the same guys...

My friend Jessica 2 comes in next week Wednesday, so I'm busy at work, getting stuff prepared. Between that and climbing, I'm pretty busy. But having fun.

Seattle: October 2008

Well, I'm about set to leave Seattle, 8:15 AM flight tomorrow morning. This has been my fifth or sixth, maybe even my seventh time here. It's a good city, maybe even a great city, although I'm really not fond of the prevalence of precipitation that the Pacific Northwest gets. Still, Seattle has a lot going for it. Two things that make it a far more attractive place to me than some of the other places I've lived: first, the landscape has a lot of hills and trees, and second, it has character in its neighborhoods, its abundance of independent coffee shops, restaurants, and retailers. The people are rather progressive as well (yes, you can probably read that as "liberal"), or at my friend's friends are. It's got a lot to offer, including a lot of rain, but I do like the town...could even see moving here for a stint some time in the future.

Got in Sunday, tired, but the weather was sunny and clear and it was just a good day to be reunited with one of my oldest, best friends, Cat. I won't kill anyone with too many details (as I'm sure I've done in the past), but Cat did manage to take off some additional time from work (she just got back to work after having surgery for breast cancer). We hung out with her friends, went to a pumpkin carving party, walked around the Seattle Art Museum Sculpture Park, had coffee and breakfast in eclectic, interesting joints. It was great. Great weather, great places, great sights, but most of all: great company.

Just for a little background: Cat has been my friend since our junior year of high school (graduated the same year, but from different high schools). We've kept in touch, but not well the last few years. The last time I saw her was probably 2002. A L-O-N-G time ago. Too long.





Earlier this evening, my last, we went over to one of her friend's homes for dinner. A very nice, very good, very simple dinner was made: salmon, salad, couscous, bread. Then, when dinner was finished, we watched Obama's 30 minute infomercial, which was surprisingly good, I thought, although the music was overdone. (I hope he wins. If he doesn't, I may never return from Japan.)

Tomorrow I head back to Hawaii. A week there, then back to the job. What a great job, that I can take time like this to hang out with old friends and family.

Aloha.

Riding in Japan

So, I covered some of this in my post entitled "FINALLY," but I thought I'd share a bit more about riding in Japan.

I've now gotten mostly used to the Japanese signs, stuff painted on the roads, weird placement of traffic lights (occasionally hanging over the oncoming lanes of traffic, initially giving me the impulse to move over to the right lanes), etc. I've even adapted quite handily to the prevalence of motorcyclists and scooterists (I made that word up) to squeeze down between lanes at traffic lights to get to the front. I'm sure my renowned impatience is partly to credit for my quick adaptation, but I've also had to fight my desire to avoid tickets. I'm not sure I'd get a ticket, since 99% of bikers do this, but I'm not sure it's technically legal. (In my defense, I'm not sure it's ILLEGAL either, since my "Rules of the Road" book says, riders "should not" ride between lanes, but not that they "may not.")

Getting used to riding on the left is a done deal. I think I'll be able to slip back into right lane driving without a problem, but I guess we'll see when I get back to the US.

As for navigating semi-long distances, I've found that it's not that bad. The minutiae are harder, the finding of a small road (almost none of which are named or even designated by number) or small building (again, not numbered in sequence). I've got a road atlas for this area, but as with anything, it's a compromise between size and detail. I'm pleased with what I have, as it's been sufficent for me to visit my friend in the countryside of western Hyogo prefecture, as well as getting around the city. So far, so good. I think having driving across the US a few times has helped, as I've gotten the hand of plotting a route out in my mind, remembering major road numbers and turns and landmarks, and then going.

The ride back on Tuesday was pretty bad, in the rain the whole way, and a bit of traffic at the end. In addition, I was taking an alternate route to try to find a cheaper way of going, but I didn't quite understand the instructions I'd been given and didn't manage to get off the expressway and ride parallel to it, so I ended up paying two more tolls than I should have. Oh well...I'll have to figure it out next time, as it would take a bit longer but save me about $15 each way.

The weather is perfect right now for riding: cool and dry. Right now, for the next straight week we're forecasted for SUNNY in the low 70s. PERFECT. If that holds, I may go for a ride next Tuesday and/or Wednesday.

Finally, I also bought a second helmet so I can take passengers around. This is technically illegal, since they've given me this ridiculous rating where I'm not quite at the one year mark of having a license....this is all tied to the snafu I had in exchanging my Hawaii license in Virginia, where they didn't notice my motorcycle classification. Anyway, I've been riding long enough, have packed people around without problem before on bikes a lot bigger, so I think I'll be fine. And it'll be fun!

10 days to my trip to Seattle and Hawaii! Looking forward to it.

Rant: Costco in Japan

It's an unexplainable phenomenon, but the Japanese become completely different people when they enter Costco. Or most of them, anyway. Usually, they are--in appearance and behavior at least--the soul of manners, of consideration, a model of being polite. But when they walk through the doors of that warehouse, a transformation of unknown cause occurs, and suddenly they are boorish. I don't know any other way to explain how it is that there and only there have I encountered Japanese people who seem to have nearly no consideration for the other shoppers around them. They take their huge carts, walk down the center of the aisles, stop anywhere they want, their carts helter-skelter, as if there were no one else around.

For those of you who've been to a Costco (most of you, I think), you know how big the aisles are, so you know that if carts are stopped along either side, another can pass easily through the middle. And there are usually two major "thoroughfares" leading from the from to the back, which can proabably accomodate four carts abreast. Along these larger aisles, they often set up food sampling stations, no big deal if you pull your cart into an aisle and go back for the food...but here, no, let's just stop and get ours NOW. And a big F-YOU to everyone who's behind me.

It's almost like, in this small, magical world that could, really, be called "Little America" (it's laid out just like Costcos back home and even the signs are in English), the Japanese who visit become not Americans, but what they think Americans are like at their worst. Or something. I don't mean to disparage Japanese people, who, as I've already said, are usually the most polite people you'll meet. But I've never encountered anything like this at the eight or so Costcos I've been to in the US.

More to come.

FINALLY

I FINALLY passed my motorcycle license test! Talk about major, MAJOR relief. After I failed for the fourth time, I knew that I was just doing something wrong. I couldn't blame the bike anymore, since I'd had my bike, which was the same model as the test bike, for over a week. I thought a lot about what I'd done when I rolled off that little platform, and I realized that I'd been looking down at it. Well, in the safety class I took, the instructor told us, "Look down, fall down," and that's what I was doing alright. Well, I didn't fall down, but sure enough, I rolled right off that dang platform. So, for the next week, I practiced: I found a small street right next to the train tracks, put my bike on the white line, kept my eyes straight, and practiced. It's amazing how simple it is to start and go straight, even slowly, when you're not trying to do that. Try and suddenly it seems ten times harder.Anyway, after a week of practicing, I went in, got over that bridge, and the rest was easy.

I was so elated that the next thing that happened didn't get me down, although on any other day I probably would have been incensed. I finished my test at 10 AM, was told to wait by a window. After 20 minutes, they brought us in, gave us yet another eye test (as if my eyesight might have deteriorated in the preceding seven days), then were told to go to another window...but not until 12:45. Luckily, I'd brought a book. So I go to a sushi place, have lunch, read, read, read. Then, at 12:45, I go the window, get a piece of paper, the gist of which is that I can now come back at 3 PM to take my picture. Why in the world I couldn't have my picture taken at 1 PM is a mystery no one, anywhere on the planet can solve. So, another two hours, I get my picture, then another 30 minutes waiting to get the license. All told, I was there for 8 hours. Unbelievable. But I've got it, and rode to work for the next three days, and yesterday, after the kids program, I rode here, to my friend's house in western Hyogo prefecture, about 80 miles from Osaka. It was a bit cold, but a nice ride once I got out of the city area.

In other news, I'm taking a trip back to the US at the end of this month. I'll start with a short four-day trip to Seattle to visit my friend Cat, who's having surgery to remove cancer next week. I've not seen her in FAR too many years, one of my best friends from my high school years...she went to UH Lab, in Manoa, and I used to cut school sometimes to go visit her, and we'd walk over to the Pizza Hut (when it was still there) and have lunch. Anyway, I'll stay with her from October 26th to 30th, then head to Hawaii for a week. It's going to be awesome.

"How can he do this?" you ask? Well, 10/27, 11/1, and 11/3 are holidays for me, and as I have class only on Monday, Friday, and Saturday, that means that if I reschedule classes for 10/31, I get 12 days off. SWEET!!! So, I'm taking it and running. Well worth the hassle of rescheduling and of busting ass to make sure I have lessons planned for the days right after I return.

I've been a bit swamped with work lately, as things are still settling down and I'm getting used to being back at work, which is why I'm only just now posting about passing that test. I think by the week after next, I'll be fine. This promises to be a fun semester, with guests coming in November and December, my trip to the US, and some kind of trip for the winter break, though I'm not sure where yet.

I hope you're all doing well.

Aloha!

School begins...ugh

Well, here I am, back in the grind.

School got rolling again on Friday, a full day for me with three classes, and a short lunch meeting. But it was followed, inauspiciously, by the kiddies on Saturday morning. I'll start there, since you'll want me to get my complaining out of the way first.

We've changed up the program, so it's a lot different now. Whereas before I was stuck with the lowest level kids all day, now I get each of the three groups for one 50 minute period. The rotation means I don't get stuck with the same kids all day, which is great, but the change in schedule and the rotation of kids makes for a stressful day. I'm sure it'll ease up soon, when things become more familiar, but it's tiresome all the same.

My university classes, on the other hand, are looking to be the most promising so far. I was slated for two, but picked up another when I was asked by a colleague if I'd teach a small group of exchange students from Korea and Taiwan. I agreed and am glad I did, since they are all really motivated and try really hard. It adds to my workload a bit and takes time in my schedule, but I've still got four days off a week, so a little extra work isn't so bad. I hope to take these students on a few field trips (in lieu of class time).

My other two classes seem to have good students and aren't so big as to prove terribly difficult to manage. I predict a busy but not so tough semester, where my university classes are concerned.

This fall is looking busy, though, in a fun way. I've got two visitors on the agenda, friends from Virginia, one coming in late November and the other coming in mid-December. That'll keep me well entertained! Possibly another friend from Hawaii might visit in January.

Sooner than all that, however, is a rather suddenly planned trip to Seattle and Hawaii at the end of this month! As my schedule has worked out, with Monday and Friday classes and the kids on Saturdays, at the end of October and the first week of November, I have two Monday holidays in a row and a Saturday off from the kids. That means that rescheduling one day of Friday classes gives me 12 days off. I'm taking it and running! I leave Japan on October 26, arrive the same day in Seattle, where I'll visit my friend who's going fighting breast cancer. (Her tumor has a name, and she's kicking it's ass.)

My friend, however, already had plans to go to San Francisco for the Halloween weekend, so I looked into flights and found (through a bit of research), that there was no difference at all in staying in Seattle for four days and returning directly to Japan (in which case, because of the date change, I'd still miss work that Friday), or flying from Seattle to Hawaii to stay for an extra six days. So, heck, I decided to hit Hawaii for a while! I'll stay there from the 30th until the 5th, arrive back in Japan on the 6th, and be back to work on the 7th. Sounds like a great plan to me!

That's it for now! Hope all is well with you!

Aloha,
chip

Motorcycle!

Friday afternoon I got the call from the bike shop letting me know that my bike was ready for pick up the next day. Unfortunately, I already had commitments at work for the next morning, so I couldn't go straight there as I would have liked. Instead, I went in the afternoon, arriving in the heat of the day, around 2:30. Bike looks as I remembered, it started right up, and the mechanic/salesman gives me the tour which was, 90%, unneeded. However, I did learn that what I thought was a lock for a side panel actually allows the seat to be taken off to find a (tiny) storage space...might be big enough for my rain gear... Anyway, I mounted up, illegally, since I've still not got that damn license here, and started the ride home.

My first comment, and the most important, is that I need to get used to riding a sports bike. The power band for these bikes is in much high revs than I'm used to. To give you some idea, the tachometer redlines at about 12,000 rpms, whereas most regular bikes, if they had a tach, would redline around 6 or 7000. So, when I was shifting by sound, it was too early for this bike, and it didn't have the kick I wanted to accelerate, but if I waited a bit longer, until the revs were around 3500 or 4000, damn, 400ccs felt fast. Those four cylinders are going to be a lot of fun to let out when I get to a nice empty country road.

Second comment: It's a different experience driving down these major roads than it is walking along them. There are so many more signs to pay attention to, many unfamiliar, and the roads themselves are unfamiliar. The signage along the buildings is colorful and plentiful, and I'd never realized that they are really meant to be seen from the road, as I suddenly felt assaulted by the plethora of signs. Crazy.

Third comment: It took me about an hour or more (not exactly sure) to drive about 15 miles because of traffic lights and such. Yet I made it nearly home before I got a little lost. Not bad for having only looked at a map of the area and been told which route numbers to take (which are not always so easily visible).

Fourth comment: It was hot.

Fifth (and final) comment: Damn, I love riding. I'm going to resist taking the bike out for long rides until I have my license, but that's all I'm thinking about now: going off into the countryside, maybe around Lake Biwa, finding the smaller, not so busy roads. I can hardly wait.

I was going to wait a while to post pictures of me with the bike, but in the middle of writing correspondence, I needed a break, so I decided to go take the following pictures. By the way, the jacket is new, bought just for riding this bike...I like it a lot, though: it's a warm-weather jacket with a liner that zips in...hopefully will take me through November...

A little more vacation

Tomorrow I go in for my third, yes THIRD, attempt at the motorcycle test. I failed again last week. Terrible. Hit a cone in the first 30 seconds. I'm hoping tomorrow will be that "third time's the charm" thing, but if not, well, I'll wait two weeks before going again.

Two weeks? you ask. Yes. Because, you see, I've bought a bike, which I'll get my hands on this weekend or next Monday or so. Then I can actually PRACTICE riding, on the same bike they give the test on as it happens.




It's a 400cc four cylinder engine: the Honda CB400 Super Four. I'm really, really, REALLY looking forward to getting it, taking it out for practice rides (not very far, I don't want any police problems), then getting my license...then going for some long rides.

The reason I don't have it yet is that in Japan after you buy the bike, it has to go through an involved inspection which takes a while to get done, apparently, so I put money down last Thursday, and I think I'll get it this Saturday or early next week.

This past weekend I went to an aikido training camp. We practiced for about four hours Saturday afternoon, then another two or three Sunday morning, then took our "tests" for rank (assuming I passed, which I think I did, I'm now third rank, two below the first degree black belt...not a big accomplishment, but then I'm not studying aikido for ranking either). After the tests, we practiced for another hour or so. This all took place on a short weekend trip to Fukui, which was where I visited back in January. It was considerably cooler there than in Osaka, which made practicing much more enjoyable, though I was still sweating profusely.

Picture of a student taking her test.


Now I'm back in Osaka, with another two weeks to go. I'm still climbing a lot..in fact, I think I'll head up there now...

Adios. Aloha. さようなら。

Motorcycle test

After getting back to Japan last week Monday, I went to the Japanese DMV (called something else), inconveniently located about an hour and a half by three different trains and a nice 20 minute walk. I signed up to get my motorcycle license, scheduling my riding test for today. Just for the record: I already have my license in the US, but they make you take an abbreviated test here in Japan anyway.

Well, I failed spectacularly. Ok, not spectacularly, but I failed, dammit. For those who don't know, in the US, the test is fairly simple: you demonstrate the ability to do things like weave between cones, get up to a certain speed and then brake within a certain distance, ride properly through a turn, etc. In Japan, the test is much harder. For one, it depends on what size bike you want: you can get licenses for 1) mopeds, 2) up to 125cc bikes, 3) up to 400cc bikes, and 4) unlimited. Not only do you ride different bikes for the test, but you do a different route (don't ask me why; seems to me like you should do the same course just on different size bikes). Well, I'm an ego-maniac, so I thought I'd just go for the unlimited license. The test is a bit harder than the others, but this way I can get any bike I want, though I plan to stay in the 400 cc range. The course includes a cone weave, a fifty-foot ride across a one-foot wide platform raised about two inches (and stay on for a certain amount of time), an S-curve and two-right angles, as well as a thirty-foot ride over these metal bumps about three inches high which I think are supposed to replicate rail-road tracks, though I've seen any tracks raised like that. The funny thing is I failed on what I thought would be the easiest part: the raised platform. Rode right off the damned thing about five feet into it.

Frustrating as all hell, because I now have to wait a week to take the test again. In the meantime, I have no way to practice, which is really the worst part. It's not just that I need to practice these skills, but I need to get used to doing them while also practicing road rules, like looking and signaling, because unlike the US motorcycle tests, Japan also tests those things as well.

Well, I don't feel too bad: out of about 12 guys, only one passed. And I was one of about five guys to go off the platform. Cest la vie. I think I'll do better next time, if only because I won't be so damned nervous.

Other than that, I've been rock climbing a bit, going in for a few hours a couple of times in the last week. I live about 10 minutes from the gym by bike now, which is so much better than the 45 minutes or so it used to take, walking and riding the train. I probably ride my bike a few miles a day right now, going to the station, market, etc. I need to make sure that I don't get lazy when I get a motorcycle.

Hope all is well...Aloha.

Back in Japan!

Five weeks went by snap-quick. I had delusions of grandeur that I could blog weekly while I was home. . .just like I thought I’d really put some hours in studying Japanese and rock climbing. Didn’t do much of either, and I didn’t even get out hiking except for a short little one. And yet, I don’t feel like I missed out. I spent a lot of my time with family, hanging out with my dad or brother or niece, or some combination thereof, and this last week I was on Kauai with just the family. No, I may not have done a lot when people think of Hawaii, but for me, it was plenty.

I’ll briefly outline some of what happened. In early August I went to the Big Island with my dad, where we rented Harleys (as those are the only bikes for rent; I would have preferred Hondas, or anything Japanese for that matter). We rode from Kona up the coast to Kohala and Hawi, then over the Saddle Road to Hilo. We got up to Kilauea to see where all the vog (smoke from the volcano) is spewing from, then rode up the Hamakua coast to Honoka`a and Waimea, got caught in some pretty heavy rain, and then finally back to Kona. All in all a good trip, a nice opportunity to spend some time with my dad.

Back on Oahu, I continued my quest to buy lots of stuff. I bought what is probably 15 or 20 pounds of used paperbacks to get me through the year ahead. I got a toaster oven (less than half the cost of one in Japan) as well as hot water pot and a new motorcycle helmet. The new helmet will go with the bike I plan to buy sometime in September, as soon as I have my license in Japan.

I got spend time with my brother, too, getting schooled in ways to train/exercise, and finding out how not-so-great-shape I’m in, although I keep up alright with him running. I also got to bond with my niece. Ava is a little darling, soon to have a younger sister sometime around the new year. Although I’m the last person on the totem pole in the family—the list is usually: Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, Papa, and then, maybe, Uncle Chip. And while that list didn’t change much while I was back, I did finally get to the point where she stopped saying “I don’t like Uncle” and actually came to me voluntarily and wanted to play. Of course, that was only on the second to last and last day, but still, it’s something.

Kauai is country. It’s a small place, but it’s fantastic. My dad and step-mom have a house in Kapa`a, maybe a mile from the ocean, just a short drive to Anahola beach. I love going there and just relaxing. If I could find a good job there, I might consider moving. . .

I’ve got another five weeks or so until classes start up again. I plan to do a lot of rock climbing, reading, exercising, and getting that motorcycle license and buying a bike. Be sure I’ll post about getting a bike when that happens. These five weeks will disappear soon, too, I know, and I’ll be in my second year in Japan.

I hope all of you are having a good summer. Aloha.

Back Home

Well, it's Friday night, or the wee hours of Saturday morning, to be accurate. Just got in from hanging out with some old, good friends, the best kind of friends, the ones who know you and have known you since far enough back to understand who you are now and how you came to be that person. Lea, her husband Mike, and Andrew. I've known them about half my life.

I got back here Tuesday morning, arriving at 8 AM, which was a little Twilight Zone-ish, since I left Osaka on Tuesday morning at 8 AM. Of course, that was before I crossed the international date line and all, but still. Didn't do much for the first three days, just sitting around the house, hanging out, trying to 1) recuperate from my jet-lag, and 2) readjust to not drinking coffee. Maybe I shouldn't have done both at the same time, but I think that now, after three days, I'm doing ok.

I've seen a lot of my family, and of course my niece! She's as adorable as ever, and thanks to Skype, she recognizes me and isn't so timid about being around me. She takes a while to warm up, of course, and still prefers her mom, dad, grandma, and grandpa to me, but I can accept that. The little tyke is amazingly cute, though!

Today I went out, did some shopping, trying to buy some fun/throw-away reading material for Japan. Paperbacks there run $10-15, so I'm hitting the used bookstores like a maniac. I'll give them another run through before I depart.

Haven't hit any beaches yet, but will do so next week for sure...and try to get on some real rock for some rock climbing exercise.

B-U-S-Y!!!

Wow, it’s been a busy two weeks.

After that amazing hike, I returned to a short few days of work and getting ready to move to my new apartment. Although I’d tried to get some packing done before Naomi came to visit, like most people (I know, at least), I waited until the last minute to really pack. That meant an evening of climbing followed by about five hours of packing. . .which made it about 4 AM before I got to sleep that Saturday night. Waking up at 8, I finished up and waited for my friends to come help: Scot (colleague), Moto (another colleague) and his friend Maki (whom I’d never met, what a nice guy).

Maki had a large van and Scot had a small one, so between the two vehicles, we got most of my stuff here in the first trip. After it was all unloaded, we figured we could do the rest in one trip in the van, so Scot went home. We got the rest of the stuff and by 5 PM I was alone with a lot of stuff to put away. I got a good bit of it done that night, but I couldn’t go past nine or so, and crashed.

Then I was in the last week of school, so between work and trying to spend time with Naomi before she left, I had little time to finish putting my place in order. Nevertheless, it’s done now, or is for the time being. I plan to buy a bed and mattress when I return, and that should pretty much complete my apartment.






The area I now live in is called Kigawa. Here are some interesting tidbits about it:
- It’s about a 15-minute walk from Shin-Osaka station (which is a big station one stop from Osaka, and where the Shinkansen, or bullet-train, stops).
- It’s rumored to be a Yakuza area. . .but so far, I haven’t seen any scary looking guys wearing shades and driving large, black imports. I’ve been advised that, when I introduce myself to my neighbors (which I’ll do when I’m back from Hawaii), I should do a pinky check. That is, I should check to see if my neighbors have their pinky finger, since some Yakuza don’t.

Tomorrow I head out to Hawaii for nearly five weeks! I can hardly believe I’m done with my second semester teaching. Amazing how fast time goes by. With my new contract just signed last week, I’ll be here another year, probably two more, maybe more.

In Hawaii, I’m looking forward to:
- seeing my niece and spoiling her rotten before I leave
- visiting friends and family
- motorcycling around the Big Island with my dad
- hanging out on Kauai for a week
- trying to climb the rocks at Waimea Bay
- eating shave ice at Baldwin’s in Waimalu

Probably some other stuff, too, but that’s what I’m thinking about right now.

Well, I’m off to meet friends for something to eat. See some of you soon! Aloha!

The Japan Alps

My friend Naomi came in from Hawaii last week Thursday for a two week visit. On Sunday morning we woke up at 4:15 to get an early start on the long journey to Nagano Prefecture. From my town, we had to catch a train to Shin-Osaka, get our tickets and hop on the bullet train to Nagoya, about 45 minutes away, then switch to a regular express train for a two and a half hour ride to Takayama, a town known for a quaint area with historic houses and shops. From there, we had to take two buses before finally arriving Kamikochi, the jumping off point for the circuit we'd decided to try. All told, it took us until almost 1 PM before we were ready to hit the trail.

We snapped a picture and headed out along a path that also doubled as a small road for supply and maintenance vehicles. We set a leisurely pace, enjoying the much cooler temperature and lower humidity of the mountains, the clean, clean air, and of course the nearly constant vistas of the range of mountains rising above us. We were, for this part of the journey, walking up a valley.

We strolled along the trail/access road, but stopped after about three hours, already tired after the early start, worn out by sitting on trains and buses.

Our plan, at this point, was to do what would normally have been a three day circuit, if one was able to start the first leg at an early hour, in four days. We would travel light and stay in huts spread out fairly regularly along the multitude of trails that wend their way along the valleys and ridges of this amazing national park. Huts provide a place to sleep with the option of meals, but for a pretty hefty price at roughly $90 a night with the meals. Still, we didn't have to carry a tent, nor sleeping bags, nor food for four days. Our route would take us up to Yari-ga-take, a peak of 3180 meters (10,433 feet; fifth highest peak in Japan), on the second night, then from there we would continue on to Hotaka-dake (third highest at 3190 m) for the third night, from where we would descend back to Kamikochi on the fourth and final day.

Well, the second day dawned early, the sun rising around 4:30, but breakfast was served at 6 and so we didn't get out of bed until around 5:30. We ate a traditional Japanese breakfast (rice, miso soup, fish, egg, veggies) and were on the trail again by 7. We had broken up the first leg of the journey, a 17 kilometer (10.5 miles) leg, that supposedly takes 7-8 hours. Well, we'd done three hours already and figured we could lick the rest of it in a leisurely 5 to 6 hours. How wrong we were.

The main problem as that we were hiking probably a month before most people go through there, so the guidebook gave a low estimate for time. Either that or they were talking about very fit hikers. See, there was still a lot of snow deeper in the mountains. Although the wide and easy trail/access road ended there at the hut where we spent our first night, a rather easy path continued for another two hours or so. But from the next hut, the trail gets steeper until it comes upon the ruins of a hut that was wiped out by an avalanche some time ago. From there, the trail goes very, very steep. In what I would guess is the last three miles of the hike, you gain nearly a mile of altitude. And there were large patches of snow to ascend as well. All this took its toll on us. We slowed to a near crawl. Around this time we met a Swiss man, also half Japanese as it turned out, named Kenji, and we finished the ascent together. (Probably lucky for us, as we had neglected to bring a good map and may have taken the wrong path...maybe...more on our unpreparedness later.) The total time for our second day was 8 hours. So, to finish the 7-8 hour leg took us 11 hours. Crazy, but true. I may have been able to do it faster, maybe even in the 7-8 hours claimed in the book, if I'd been alone, but it would have been harder, much harder, and I felt near exhausted as it was.

After much slipping and sliding, we arrived at the hut on the top of the mountain, just down from the actual peak. Naomi was exhausted, done in, so I climbed the peak with Kenji and, as the clouds broke and closed, I managed to get some spectacular shots of the valley on the far side. Without a doubt, one of the best hikes I've ever done, one of the top experiences I've had in Japan, or even in my life. It was a difficult ascent, but worth it.





Now let me digress for a moment. How unprepared we were... I did both days of this ascent wearing only shorts and a t-shirt. In spite of a dreary forecast, the sun was out for much of our climb and I wasn't cold for longer than a few minutes at a stretch. But I forgot how easily I burn when I have no tan to protect me, and I've been indoors of late, rock climbing in a gym. And with all that snow, with hours spent on or near the snow, I was getting blasted by sun. So I got burned on my lower legs, my forearms, and the back of my neck (I did remember to put sunscreen on my face). Stupid #1. The next thing I did was to forget to bring more food along. The farther along you, the farther you get from the base, the more expensive things get. By the time we reached the peak, a bottle of water (500mL) was about $3.50. Snacks were equally high. Stupid #2. Then there were the old running shoes I was wearing, instead of real hiking boots...preferably waterproof, given the snow we were hiking on for much of the ascent. Stupid #3. The last thing was to wear shorts instead of my zip-off leg hiking pants...and to not bring rain gear for my legs...you'll see why in the next paragraph. Stupid #4.

The night we spent atop the mountain was not quiet. A storm came in, complete with thunder and lightning, and the rain was still falling as we woke the next morning, at our breakfast, gathered our things, and finally started out. With the weather being what it was, and given how tired we both were at this point, we opted to turn back the way we'd come, descend all the way back to Kamikochi in one day, get the buses back to Takayama and spend a day there relaxing. We figured the down would be faster than the up, so it would take us maybe 8 hours. Wrong again.

Kenji was heading out at the same time, so we started our descent together. But with stiff legs and a cold rain, the going was slow and Kenji soon decided that he could sort of "ski" down the snow much faster than we were walking down the rocky path. Soon he was hundreds of meters ahead. We gave it a try ourselves, but after a few falls and a rather uncomfortable attempt to just slide down on our butts, we opted to just walk down the snow...which is very slow going. We walked on rocky patches where we could, but up toward the peak, there was more snow than rock, and it took a long time. And as we went on, we got more tired and moved slower. The cold didn't help at all. At one point I was freezing, though not worried about my health, as it wasn't that cold, just miserably uncomfortable. If I'd had hiking boots and rain pants, I would have been fairly comfortable. As it was, I fantasizing about a hot bath.

(Note: no pictures could capture the rain and cold, so I've not included any from our descent, of which there were unsurprisingly few, given the rain.)

When we finally made it down to the hut ruins and thus the end of the most difficult part of our descent, over four hours had passed instead of the two I'd hoped. We completed the rest of the trip in another six hours. The rain stopped and the sun even came out a bit, but we were just tired, tired, tired. We got the last bus out that would make the connection we needed to get back to Takayama.

We stayed the night in a Best Western there, which was distinctly (obviously) not Japanese but very comfortable and, as an unexpected bonus, had an awesome breakfast buffet included. We walked around the town a bit, checking out the morning markets and the old, historic homes and shops, before I caught a train back to Osaka just before noon.

As tired as I felt, or maybe partially because of that, I had one of the best experiences of my life. That was a phenomenal hike, spectacular beauty, wrapped up in a true challenge. Those views would still have been beautiful, but not nearly so much had I not had to work so hard to see them. Absolutely wonderful.

I hope I can go there again next year, do the full course or maybe even a longer one...maybe even get really crazy and camp it, with a tent and food and all that...

Climbing, apartments, and visiting an old friend.

Hello. Greetings from the increasingly hot and humid land of the rising sun. It was actually chilly last night, which boggles my mind, as I don't recall it ever being even cool in June from the last time I lived here, but I'm not complaining, just observing. I know it'll be disgustingly hot and humid when I get back from Hawaii in late August, so I'm enjoying this fluke of pleasantness.

I finally got around to taking my little point-and-shoot to the climbing gym and took some pictures and even a video. You'll have to check out the video on my flickr page, as I don't want to upload that twice.

As with all things done regularly over time, I'm getting better at it, though I can't really claim that I'm always satisfied. I have my good days, when I accomplish a lot (which means I learn some new technique, or make marked improvement in a technique, or else when I'm able to complete a route or problem I'd not been able to do before), and of course the bad, when I'm just too tired, or else just can't, for whatever reason, seem to complete anything. But last week Friday and Sunday were very good days for me, in terms of learning and problem solving. Just to refresh the memories of those not so familiar with climbing: bouldering is not climbing long, typically high routes, but is about solving "problems," which are short but often require power or great technique or both in order to "solve" them. So on Sunday, I was able to "solve" quite a few problems, some of them in the "middle" difficulty rating. Considering my two months experience, I'm quite happy with that progress. That said, there is still a lot of improvement I want to make.


I'm also in the process of looking for a new apartment. I think I found the one for me. It's essentially a one bedroom located about a 15-minute walk from Shin-Osaka station, which is a major station in the area (a primary stop for the bullet train as well as local trains and even subway). It has a relatively "large" living/dining room, as well as what is known as a "unit" bathroom, which is a typical American-style bathroom, which has the toilet in the same room as the shower. For most Japanese, this is undesirable (a cultural thing), but for me, I don't really care either way, although I think I increasingly like the separate toilet idea. My agent is in the process of negotiating or finalizing details with the landlord, but I think I'll get the place...I'll have to move in about two weeks, a bit of a pain in the backside, but not too bad. The biggest problem is that my friend Naomi will be here and I'll have to neglect her for a bit while I pack and then move. On the upside, my friend Moto has a friend with a kind of delivery truck, and they're going to help me move, perhaps along with Scot, another colleague.

Finally, I went to visit an old friend I met during my last tenure in Japan, a Kiwi named Heidi. (For those of you who may not know: Kiwi = New Zealander.) Heidi lived in a different town than I did, but she was such a lovely person, so kind and fun, that I always held her in high regard. She is also friends with Aaron and Lisa, my friends in Colorado, and was at their wedding, which was actually the last time we saw each other, an almost unbelievable 6 years ago. She married a Japanese man a few years back, has had two cute little kids, and they are all now living in Shizuoka (home to the famous Mount Fuji, and well known in Japan for growing tea). I went up for a quick one-night stay, mostly just to catch up and meet her husband and kids. It was really great to see her and to chat the hours away, and to see that she's doing so well. Her husband is a very nice guy, speaks English quite well although he's a bit on the quiet side. Her kids are very cute. The older, a boy of three named Tetsutaro, Tetchan for short, is quite fun and treats his sister with great generosity...I imagine my brother was the same way. The youngest is one and a half year old named Mary, who surprisingly took to me fairly quickly. It was a nice visit, very nice to reconnect with old friends. I look forward to seeing them all again, perhaps in September...


Aloha...

Two sort of funny things

I'll start with the one that just happened.

As I think I've mentioned, but perhaps not, I'm moving out of my apartment now because it's 1) too expensive and 2) while I enjoy the large size, it's really bigger than I need and costs a lot to heat/cool. And besides, my town is convenient for work and daily life, but not much fun. So I'm looking for something fun.

Two weeks ago a friend took me to an agency to look at some apartments, just to get a feel for what's out there. Today I called the agency to see if I could go look at some places again. The man starts rattling off in Japanese and I can't understand half of what he's saying. This of course irritates me, not because he's doing anything wrong, but because I've now been here almost 10 months and feel I should understand more. I manage to tell him I want to speak to the guy who took me around last time, and I can sort of understand that they'll contact me again. Of course, I know why I couldn't understand what he said: he was speaking keigo. Keigo is the elevated, very polite form of Japanese that people use with others of higher status or, in this case, customers. I don't know any keigo, and believe it or not, the words are very, very different.

When he calls back, he again starts rattling off in keigo, and I had to ask him to speak "normal Japanese." And presto, just like that, I could understand maybe 75% of what he was saying. I shall have to remember to do that from now on. Frickin' keigo.

The other funny thing is the picture below. You may have to click on it to get a larger size so you can read it, but I saw it while walking in Osaka last Monday and was damn happy I had my camera. Why it's there, I haven't the faintest idea...and yes, it's hanging on the side of a building for everyone to see, though most people probably haven't the slightest idea what it says.

The rainy season

but not yet. It's supposed to be now, or about now, but so far we've had a few rainy days and that's it. I'm not complaining, I know it'll come. It's just a matter of time. And while it's not here, the weather's been pretty nice. Last night it cooled down into the mid 60s, and it's hovering around the low 70s now...very pleasant.

I have a friend, Naomi, coming to visit me soon. She'll be here from July 3 to 17. Right now we're planning a trip to the Japan Alps for a bit of hiking and soaking in onsen. I'm hoping that the aforementioned rainy season doesn't hit full swing while we're out hiking. For this little trip, I plan to cancel my classes for a day, forcing me to reschedule them during a late time slot that no one will attend. Oh well... Anyway, it'll be nice to have a friend visit and nice to get into those mountains that I've not yet gotten around to seeing.

The last few weeks have been occupied primarily with:
1) work
2) rock climbing
3) studying Japanese
4) all the other stuff (reading, watching movies, aikido, working out, sleeping, etc)

Rock climbing has become a big hobby of mine. When I recently had a five day break, just after my last post, I climbed three times and found that I going once a week wasn't going to cut it. So I'm now going Wednesdays and Saturdays. And I've gotten some students interested, so it looks like Saturdays will be group days. I've only been climbing a month, so I should be more patient with my progress, I think, but I want to do more difficult routes, and for that I need more strength and more endurance. Patience, Grasshopper, patience...

In other news, I started looking for a new apartment. Last week Sunday a friend took me out with an agency (don't know if you can do it yourself, but I certainly can't with my poor Japanese). We saw a couple of places much closer to the city, none of which I was in love with, but I could certainly appreciate the incredible convenience of living near Osaka (say twenty minutes door to city center) and a major train station. Still, I've not quite decided in what area I want to live, so I need to see more stuff. I'm planning now to put all of my stuff in my office for the month that I'm back in Hawaii so as to save the rent money, then find a place quickly when I get back, or possibly have it already lined up before I leave.

That's it for now. Aloha.

Halfway

Well, we are halfway through the semester. It's strange, as here I don't hear much about midterms and such, and so I actually had to count up the weeks remaining to find out that I've got 8 weeks left. EIGHT! Yeah! And, to sweeten things up just a little, I don't teach the kids this Saturday AND I've got Monday off (school holiday; when the school was founded), which means I've got five days off in a row! Yeah! I think I may visit my friend up in Shizuoka (the prefecture which is home to Mount Fuji), and then spend a few days rock climbing.

The last two weeks have been fine, if very normal. Work, studying Japanese, exercising, reading, watching movies, rock climbing, aikido, and a bit of hanging out with friends........In spite of the majority of that list being made up of leisure activities, I DO work, and it DOES take up quite a bit of time. I just have a lot of time left over...the benefit of being single with no kids.

Short as that is, that's it!

Getting into the swing

It's really a pity that I've got that one class that just hasn't gelled. I'd hoped that they would by now, and there's still a chance they might, but...at least not so many are showing up, which means I don't have to deal with quite such a large group of unruly kids....now they're a slightly smaller group of unruly kids.

My Thursday, Friday, Saturday block is about to begin. It's my busy time, from tomorrow morning until Saturday afternoon. Of course it's not all work, or not work-work. I have my Japanese lesson tomorrow afternoon, then aikido in the evening. Friday I'm swamped with classes, ending with those unruly kids I mentioned. Then on Saturday, of course, I get smacked with the little ones.

Let's talk about those kids. I've got two very different ones this term. One is a demon. On the first day of the term, when I had a sub, he bit the sub's thumb. Last week he was drawing a picture, just scratching his paper with a pencil until it was half black with the graphite. "What's that?" I asked. "Jikoku," he said, which means "hell." The kids either has some issues, or he's Satan's spawn. Another, a little girl of 8, I think is an angel...well, a mischevious angel. She's so quiet and pleasant, does what's she's told, tries hard, plays well with others, and is just plain nice to have. If I could have a classroom full of her, I would be a happy teacher.

In other news...I went rock climbing again today. I decided I like it enough that I should just bite the bullet and buy shoes, because that way I can buy a month-long membership and go whenever I want, whether it's for an hour or two or all day. I'm going to try to go 6 to 8 times a month...we'll see. If I go at least 4, I come out ahead over paying each time, so I'll at least get my money's worth.

Today, though, my elbow started hurting. Strange...I had to stop after a few hours as I just couldn't hold onto anything anymore. I'll go again on the weekend, I think....see how busy it is...

Hope all is well with you folks.

Rock climbing: second time

I got back a while ago from my second day of rock climbing, but went for a short run before blogging it. (On a short side note: I've only done short runs since getting back to it after my cold (which still lingers, though in very small coughing fits).)

I went to a different gym this time, as it's much closer and I wanted to see what it was like. For starters, it's much smaller, almost entirely for a type of climbing called "bouldering." Bouldering differs from regular climbing in that the goals are not so high (no ropes) and instead of routes, you do "problems." (This is what I've read on the internet.) There are hundreds of holds bolted to the wall, most marked with one or more colored strips of tape (I think I mentioned this last time), marking the problem.

For the first hour or hour and a half, I climbed by myself, negotiating laterally across the wall along a kind of route, just above the well-padded floor. Then I ate lunch and came back for another three hours or so. At this point, though, another climber, a Japanese man, started working on the same lateral route, and we began chatting a bit about how to get past one part. (That is, I tried in my poor Japanese to understand what he said and to offer my own suggestions.) Then another climber started working with us, although he was more experienced. It was fun, and a good work out, both for my arms (which are not nearly so sore nor tired as last time) and for my Japanese.

One amazing older woman, maybe 50 or 60 (I'd guess 60ish), was climbing and doing so very, very well. I was very impressed. Very. I hope I'm that strong and agile when I'm her age. She was intrigued by me (being the only white person there) and chatted with me a bit.

I'm definitely going back next week...might even buy a month membership, which will save me a bit if I go at least 4 times.

Fun, fun, fun. In a few months, I hope that my arms will be able to keep up with my legs for endurance...

As I don't have any pics from today, I'll post one from last week: King (there for perspective) and me in a position I actually later sort of got into (difficult to explain).

Golden Week Party!

On Saturday I had another party at my place to celebrate Golden Week...or just to make use of my large apartment. This party was a bit different, however, in that I was able to bring together different groups of friends: from school, from Kyoto, and my former student who just got married.

Altogether, there were twelve people. Back: Miguel & Kayo (Kyoto), Mi Jin (friend of Mike's), Daryl, Yuka, and some guy.
Front: Daniel & Kurara (just married), Mike, Kathy, Brian and Wil (Kathy's son and daughter-in-law)

It was a very fun party and I think everyone got on very well. Mike and Yuka entertained us all as a kind of comedy duo, with Mike spurring on Yuka to disclose information about her love-life, later even adopting the persona of an interviewer on a tv show with a panel audience. Quite funny. Here's a pic from that part.


My apartment really is great for entertaining, but really is too big for just me. So I'll probably be moving this summer, something a bit smaller and definitely cheaper. Maybe closer to Osaka. I'll still be able to host visitors, but just not in so spacious an apartment.





Tomorrow may hold another day of rock climbing for me...there's another gym that's closer that I want to check out, see how it looks. I may go there, but we'll have to see what I feel like, as it's my last day before going back to work on Thursday. (BOO-HOO!!!)

Be well. Aloha.

Golden Week

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we're in the midst of Golden Week, a week wherein 3 national holidays fall roughly together and grant us a nice if a little early respite from classes. This is a HUGE travel season for the Japanese, so ticket prices are crazy and everywhere you go it's crowded. So I try not to go out too much now. That's how I ended up rock climbing yesterday when I should have been in class, and taking a nap today when I would have been teaching. :)

Tomorrow I'm having a little party at my place...should be fun.

Hope you are all enjoying May!

Getting active again...it hurts!

A week after my miserable foray into tennis, I finally went to the gym for the first time in weeks...maybe a month. I'd been running a few times during that hiatus, but not since school had begun and I'd gotten sick. I was surprisingly able to pretty much do my same work out (pull-ups, sit-ups, back extensions, dips, squats), but running was harder...I only did about a mile and a half. So sad. Although I do still (even now) have this cough and so my lungs are still a bit sick... Anyway, went jogging the next day, did 2 miles, felt alright, posted an ok time. But I could feel it in my body the day after, Wednesday...muscle aches like I'd not had in a while. Ouch! My abs still hurt a bit today.

Yesterday, I went rock climbing! That was a lot of fun. I have only done it once, with my brother at an indoor gym in Hawaii about 10 years ago. Yesterday we went to an indoor gym in Osaka. My forearms started getting tired about 30 minutes in...it only got worse. Mine still feel exhausted today. Those pros must have forearms of steel. Anyway, I don't have any pictures of myself climbing, but when I get some from my friends, I'll post them. In the mean time, here's one of the group: King (nickname, student), Kote (student, but also works as my assistant in the kids' program), and Kelsey (colleague).



If you look at the picture, it might seem like there are a lot of holds, and there are...but you might also notice the colored tape next to holds: those mark "routes" that you take up the wall, using only holds with that color/shape marker. MUCH harder when you do this.

I loved it, though, and plan to continue doing it a few times a month...maybe then if I move to Colorado I can climb some real rock! :) Expect to hear more about climbing.

Tennis: I suck

Woo-hoo! Two days in a row!

Well, I'll keep this brief. I played tennis with some colleagues after work today. I'm not a sports-guy, never have been, left that to my brother a long time ago, but damn, I suck at tennis. Seems I remember playing a long time ago and actually being able to get it over the net fairly consistently, but I seem to have lost more hand-eye coordination than I would like to think. Ugh. This is what it was like.


NET. NET. NET. SWISH. NET. NET. SWISH. hit. SWISH. NET. NET....

Yeah, I'm going to go try rock climbing next week.

School begins...I get pissed off. Is there a connection?

So I'm going to TRY to be more diligent here, and post more regularly and cut down on the length. But I think I said that before. Anyway, here's to trying.

I got sick. Came back from the wedding feeling kind of blah, throat a bit sore, but not too bad, and then Monday I woke up and it had gone full-blown. I was SICK. Sore throat, coughing up nasty yellow mucus. YUCK. It sucked. Made it through work on Monday, stayed home that night, stayed home all day Tuesday (in spite of it being a PERFECT spring day), and on Wednesday morning went to the doctor's. I hate the doctor's but I went.

This guy asked me what was wrong (in English), I answered in English and Japanese. He asked if I had asthma, I told him yes. He listened to my chest, then to my back, then he prescribed me medication. The whole took less than five minutes, and I would have been satisfied if he'd given me antibiotics, but he gave me medicine that helped...until my cold morphed and went into my sinuses. So then I had medicine for my cough but not my congestion. I've been dealing with it since, and I think it's about done, but one week is just too long for me to be sick.

I haven't run in a week and am feeling out of shape...I think tomorrow, though, I'm going to play (or try to play) tennis with some friends.

Anyway, back to the title of this post. I have freshmen this term. I had freshmen last term, too, but in much smaller numbers (half) and second semester, so they'd gotten a little used to college. The kids I have still think they're in high school. So I had to give them a wake up call. Last Friday they wouldn't listen...wouldn't quiet down so I could give them instructions, so I hammered them with homework. I know in retrospect that that is a very high school teacher thing to do, but if they're going to act like high schoolers... In any case, I think it worked...they seemed more subdued and ready to cooperate. I hate doing that kind of thing, I really, really do. But sometimes kids leave no choice. The class is too large, over 25 (which is HUGE for a language class), and I just don't have the time or patience to babysit, especially since this class is being taught in sync with other sections and we need to move at a very specific pace.

But my other two classes are good, so I think this will be a good term, once I get these freshmen wised up.

Hope you're all well....Aloha.

A visit from Dad; school begins...again. Then a wedding!

My dad arrived here on April 3rd, which means that he left Hawaii on April 2nd. Originally, he was going to leave on the 1st, arrive on the 2nd. So when he updated his travel plans to me, saying that he was leaving Honolulu on the 2nd and would then leave Japan on the 11th, I thought: "Ok, he pushed back his return date." So, on the evening of April 2nd, around 8:30, I started to wonder where my dad was. Around 9:30, I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what could have delayed him so much. At 10:30 I was about to write an email to my brother to see if he knew anything...but luckily held off. About 11:00 or so, it finally clicked that he was leaving Hawaii on the 2nd. I was a day early.

The next night he called me from the airport, then showed up an hour or so later on the bus, dropped so conveniently at the station only minutes from my apartment. Hawaii is 19 hours behind Japan, or 5 hours ahead and a day behind; whichever is easier for you to get your head around. In either case, he was tired as it was about 1 AM Hawaii time, so he went to bed early, though of course he'd be up early.

The next day was the opening ceremony for the new semester at my school, so I had don my black suit and off we went. My dad tried to catch some Z's while I was attending the ceremony. The only interesting thing at the ceremony was the performance by the university cheerleader squad, which, aside from the language, could have been imported directly from some Asian-dominated town in the US, so perfectly did they smile and cheer and give that all-too-familiar "cheerleader nod." You know the one.

That evening we met up with my friend Yuka and the three of us hit a great udon shop in Umeda, quite famous (if getting into the Lonely Planet Eating section counts as fame). After a tasty dinner, we headed over to Osaka Castle for some nighttime viewing of the cherry blossoms, which were just hitting their peak. Amazingly beautiful. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera, and though I used Yuka's, I couldn't get all that I wanted...but there's always next year. We walked a lot that night, exhausting my dad completely, although he never complained at all.

Saturday was a take-it-easy day, so went to Costco for lunch, dropped by two hardware stores, then home. Easy-peasy.

Sunday we headed to Okayama, to Shiraishi Island for a little quiet relaxation time. We took the Shinkansen from Shin-Osaka to Okayama City, 45 minutes, a local train to Kasaoka, another 45 minutes, then a ferry, 30 minutes. We checked into the Villa and found that there was a Danish girl, Marie, staying there as well, just the three of us. We got tipped off that the next day might be rainy, so we headed out immediately to check out the beach (so-so, but then I'm a harsh judge, coming from Hawaii and all) and hike up the mountain to the observatory. The weather was perfect that day, with a strong wind and lots of sun. The following day it did rain, and rain, and rain, but let up enough in the afternoon that we walked down to the beach with Marie to check out the low tide. In Hawaii, the high and low tides are not so drastic, but farther from the equator, a drop of several feet is normal, so we got to see a lot more of the beach than we had earlier. Some kids were digging out some kind of shellfish, but what exactly they were, I don't know. Long and skinny and cylindrical like a cigar. Our last morning there, we took out some bikes and rode around the island. Aside from one rather long and steep hill we had to push the bikes up, it was a pleasant ride.

The next day, Wednesday, was my last free day. We took in a bike ride in Ibaraki, going first to a great sushi place (of the conveyor belt type) and then the Expo Park, or Banpaku, which I've written about before. We caught what was probably the last day of the Sakura Matsuri, or Cherry Blossom Festival, and enjoyed walking the grounds and taking in the beauty of the trees and their fragile flowers.

Then school started. Luckily I only had one class first thing in the morning, but other work required that I stay on longer, so I didn't get home until after lunch. That first class was great. 7 students, mostly higher ability levels. Unfortunately, it was downhill from there. Friday brought me back to reality. My first class was a TOEIC prep class; that's a test designed to see how well people can use English in an international setting, for work and such. I had over 45 students. It's since been trimmed to about 32, but it's still a big class. My other class was noisy...very noisy. They are all freshmen and obviously still don't realize that they are in college now...I'm going to have to teach them. SIGH.

My dad and I had lunch on Friday, then said our goodbyes, as I was leaving directly from school for my friend Kurara's place in the countryside for her wedding, and my dad was leaving that evening for Hawaii. He got out on his flight just fine. I had by this time started to feel a bit under the weather, a bit of sore throat coming on. But I was the wedding photographer, so I had no excuses, just had to push through.

The Shimizu house, which was always full of life, hit new highs this weekend. Daniel had five relatives in for the wedding--his grandmother, mother, aunt, uncle, and his uncle's fiance--not to mention Kurara's brother and two sisters, brother-in-law, two nieces, two friends from Canada, and me. And her parents. FULL HOUSE. But in a good way. Spanish, English, and Japanese...and that may have been the only time I have ever been called on to be a translator...what a poor job I did at that!

The wedding was at 1 PM on Saturday, so that morning I was up and shooting whatever preparations I could: Kurara's make-up, Daniel looking for something, Kurara's mom putting on her kimono, etc. We hurried off, went to the chapel place, and I got set up: one camera with a flash on a tripod, another held in my hands for close-ups. The service was bilingual, with a priest from the Congo (yes, in Africa) presiding, speaking both English and Japanese (the guy speaks 7 languages). It was nice, though with my duty as cameraman, I didn't get to listen as much as I wanted.

The picture session afterwards was a flurry of confusion, with most of the set shots we wanted to do tossed out because of how late everything was running. But we mangaed to get in some lovely shots in any case, but after what felt like only a few minutes (but was probably more like 30) we moved on to the reception. There was a nice buffet set out, a lovely cake made by Kurara's younger sister, and even a short song and dance later on.



I had the good fortune (actually Kurara's good planning) to get seated with six of my former students, all classmates of Kurara. It was so nice to see them again, grown and mature, one of them married and pregnant, others working, one still studying in a master's program. It was really nice to see them after so long.

Although I was busy shooting pictures all day and so didn't get to enjoy the wedding as much as I would have liked, I felt good knowing that I was doing it as a gift, giving them something I hope would be good, something I hope will stay with them throughout their lives together.

Now it's back to reality. That cold that I felt coming on the day I left for the wedding went full-blown, into my chest, so that I now have a sore throat and a gross cough. YUCK. I hope to kick it by the weekend, but two days of rest have only helped a little...got some meds from the doctor today, but no antibiotics (dammit!), so I'll have to wait for my body to beat the cold on its own.

I hope all of you are well. Aloha.

PS: To steal from the Daily Show: Here is your moment of Zen:

Sumo! A party! Seoul!

A few weeks ago now, on March 16th, I went with two friends to the Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka. I think (though I'm not sure) that this is one of only two Grand Tournaments each year. My co-worker Kathy got tickets for "box seats" from a friend, so we went and took along Yuka, a staff member at OGU.

We skipped the early rounds, which I'm told are less exciting, and showed up just as those were ending and preparations were made for the top-tier fighters to begin. The arena is huge, seating thousands, and although I've always found watching sumo to boring when on TV, I found it exciting and a lot of fun live. Of course, it might have helped to be sitting where we were, only 30 or 40 yards back and just a little above the fighting platform...but I think it was just the energy in the place, the feeling of increasing tension as the fighters got ready, the excitement of the fans. I think it's probably always that way when there are many spectators watching a sport.

One of the perks of sitting where we did was that you get food and omiyage (gifts/souvenirs). You get A LOT of food, and a lot of omiyage. The food consisted of a bento (boxed lunch) in plastic, octagonal boxes; a bag of three mikan (mandarin oranges); a box of gourmet sandwiches; boiled soybeans; and some sweets. The omiyage had a towel, tea cups, handmirrors, chocolates, and rice crackers.

So to describe a round to someone who's never seen it... Sumo wrestlers fight on a raised platform within a circle perhaps 15 feet across. Women are not allowed on the platform, so all of the fighters, judges, maintenance people, and sign holders are men. The fighters go their corners, which are not opposite each other, then go through a ritual of stepping up to a line to face each other. They do this two times before finally settling in on the third time to actually fight. They both touch the ground with both hands and then lunge at each other. I'm not sure, but I think junior or lower ranked person touches both fists to the ground, and then the senior or higher ranked person touches one and then the other; the fight begins when the last fist touches.

I saw some great matches, though I can't remember the names of the fighters. The two champions, or Yokozuna, both gave great performances. The one who lost the final round the following week is probably the favorite, and his fight lasted for over a minute, and it got everyone quite tense. The Yokozuna who won the tournament was in the news a lot recently because he broke protocol and took an unauthorized trip back to his country (Mongolia). That said, he's a strong wrestler and quickly and decisively beat his opponent, and, if I saw correctly on the news, defeated the other Yokozuna for the championship in another sound victory.

There is so much tradition and ritual here that I know next to nothing about, but it makes for a fascinating afternoon...and while I didn't watch any more of the tournament on TV, I would certainly go again if the chance came to sit in similar seats.


The following Saturday marked the last day for the kids program, and to celebrate that but also to say thanks to the student volunteers who help us in our classes, we threw a small party at my house for them. Or at least that's how the idea started for me...but as it turned out, all of the staff assistants who came were leaving the program. So sad! One of the teachers, Kathy, couldn't come as she was leaving for Hawaii that evening, and one of the staff assistants couldn't make it either as she had to attend a wedding. But all told, Jean and I were there, as well as (the staff assistants) Yuka (going to graduate school), Hiromi (also going to grad school, but in the US), and Noriko (cut as there are two people from her department working for our program), and six students: Akiko, Kotaro, Yuki, Keishi, Tatsuya, and Kote.

We had salad, pasta, and hot dogs (I didn't eat the latter), then apple pie from Costco (that sucker is HUGE! and CHEAP! only about $9). Then we played a few games, one of which is just hilarious...I cried, I laughed so hard. The game has one prop: four stockings sewn together at the toes, which are then pulled completely over the heads of four people. These people then pull and tug until they rip themselves free. I'm not sure how to go about judging who wins, but I honestly haven't laughed so much in a long time...it was hilarious to watch. I later put one of the stockings on my head and created one of my favorite pictures of myself.

It is sad, sad, sad to see those three staff assistants go...they are invaluable to the program, to us teachers, and they were so good with the kids. Only one of the four who were here when I started will continue, and as of right now, only one more has been added. So now two, maybe three if they get one more person, will have to do what four did before...it's going to be hard on them, as they handle all of the administrative duties.



Finally, Korea! On March 24th, I left on a noon flight to Seoul to visit friends and take in some sights. All told, I got together with nine Korean natives I met while I was in Virginia. Two were classmates in the linguistics program, and the other seven were students at the ELI where I taught. Some of them I had seen as recently as last June, while others had been back in Korea for a while and so I hadn't seen them in over a year.

I got to Kansai International Airport (KIX!) around 11:30, which gave me almost two hours before flight at 1:40. So I checked in, then decided that I should change money there, so that I could more quickly get moving once I got to Seoul. Little did I know that the exchange rates would vary so much. In Japan, I got about 875 Won to the dollar, whereas if I'd waited, I would have gotten 975. For that first three hundred bucks or so that I changed, I lost about $30 in that ill-advised exchange. Dammit! Well, now I know: Wait till you get to the country where it's CHEAPER before exchanging; they'll give you a better rate.

Anyway, I arrived in Seoul in the afternoon, made my way to baggage claim, then I was off to find the place where I could rent a cell phone for my stay. I'm glad a friend of mine asked me if I would have a phone, otherwise I wouldn't have thought about it, but it was easy as pie, and cheap, too, at only about $3/day. Of course outgoing calls were about $0.50/minute, but if I asked my friends to call me, it was no problem. I got a phone, got on the bus, then headed into the city. The ride was about an hour, and I took it in in silence, or with the hum of the bus and chatter of Korean on the bus's TV; when I travel, I try to avoid listening to music so that I can get a fuller sense of the place. As my friends had warned me, the air over Korea can be murky with dust blowing in from China's Gobi desert (I think). It had the look of smog, though I don't think it was; as I recall, Beijing had much the same kind of dust (albeit worse) when I visited there in March of 2002.

The bus dropped me in Insadong, a touristy "traditional" area, around 5:30. I found my accommodation without too much trouble, following the map and directions from their website, which proved far more reliable than the map in my guidebook. (I've loved the Lonely Planet Guidebooks since my last stay in Japan, but lately, after my Tokyo trip and now Seoul, their maps have been irritating me with inaccuracies.) The guesthouse, Beewon, is a decent place, great for the price and location for most people, I think. I slept in a dorm-style room, 4 beds, and paid just under $20 a night, so about $140 for the whole week I was there. It was clean, although it lacked that REALLY CLEAN feeling I felt at the ryokan in Tokyo (which, to be fair, was more than twice the cost, although that was for a private room).

I wandered a bit, found a tofu restaurant to eat in (listed in my guidebook), and felt culturally inept as my food came and I was forced to peek at the guy next to me to see what I was supposed to do with everything. It wasn't that complicated, but they brought me a bowl of boiling tofu-stew (I don't know what to call it), a pot of rice, some different types of kim chee and veggies, and a raw egg. I figured the egg would go in the stew, but I wasn't sure and didn't want to embarrass myself too much, so I side-eyed the guy next to me and sure enough, he broke the egg into the stew. I followed suit, and soon was munching on the spicy and hot tofu and broth and rice. Not my favorite meal, but a good one.

I then went in search of something else I'd read about in my guidebook: a DVD bang. This is a place where, for about the cost of going to a theatre, you can get a private room and watch the latest (and some older) DVDs on a large projected screen (about six feet across) while you recline on a sofa. This wasn't that appealing in itself, but it's a great place to watch Korean films with English subtitles; in Japan, finding English subtitles on Japanese or Korean films is tough. And anyway, it's a unique thing to do.

The following day, Tuesday, I met Hye Young and went to have lunch and then walk about. We had a tasty red bean soup, then walked past the President's Blue House, past Gyeongbok Palace, over to Insadong (where there are a lot of traditional shops and goods mixed in with the gimmicky tourist stuff you find in all cities with decent tourism. We made our way down to a rather recent city improvement called Cheonggyecheon, a river walk that cuts through the city center, north of the Han River. From there, we went to Namdaemun Market, where I looked around a bit at the massive amounts of stuff they have and resisted buying any of it. I saved shopping for another day, when I wouldn't have to carry it so far. We made a short detour to Myeong-dong, a modern shopping area with upscale shops and countless youths crowding the streets. We had to meet up with Peter, another former student (though these two didn't know each other). Together the three of us went to dinner, finding a little Japanese restaurant (I know, but it was convenient, and we just wanted to eat), then caught a bus up to Namsan Tower, which offers great night views of Seoul. We made plans to meet again on Thursday and go to an amusement park in Seoul called Lotte World.













Wednesday I started with a walk along the river Cheonggyecheon, going all the way to Dongdaemun, another market. There I found a stall which custom made name stamps of the same sort used in Japan. On a short side note: The hanko, as it's called in Japan, that I received when I came here in September had my name, Nakagawa, written in katakana, which is the writing used for foreign words. I know I'm a foreigner, but my name is not, and so I've been wanting to replace this hanko with one which has my name in kanji, as I feel it should be. So, I took this opportunity to have a cheap one custom-made for me while I watched. The girl put the characters into a computer, adjusted the size, then set the machine to work, and in about five minutes, I had my new hanko. I'm looking forward to using it. I puttered around that market for a while, then moved back to Namdaemun where I bought some DVDs, on whose legitimacy I'll make no comment. I eventually met up with Eugene and Kyunghwa, two more former students, near Ewha University, where we had a nice meal at a small Italian place, then walked around the unversity, Kyunghwa playing tourguide. We ended up in a teashop, where I had a nice if a bit unusual chamomile milk (like tea, but no water, just milk).

The next day was Lotte World with Peter and Hye Young. Now, I've not been to an amusement park in some time. The last time was Universal Studios Japan in 2002, and I didn't really get to ride anything that day, it was so crowded. So before that was Knott's Berry Farm, 1994. Yeah, that long. And while Lotte World isn't the biggest or best Korea has to offer, it was a lot of fun. It wasn't so crowded when we got there around 2 PM, so we only had to wait 30 minutes at the longest for any of the rides. Taking advantage of this, we rode a few of them two times. My favorite, without a doubt, was the Gyro Drop: about fifty people sit in a circle facing out; the mechanism then lifts up about 430 feet (130 meters) while slowly rotating; then suddenly you just drop. That is awesome. I haven't felt so much like a kid in years. We spent the whole day there, riding different things, but that Gyro Drop was the best.

Friday I met with another friend for lunch, chatted for a bit, then caught a train to Yeoido, known as Seoul's Manhattan, with their financial center located there. They also have a nice park, narrow and long, a la Central Park. I met Jiwon, a classmate from George Mason, and the two of us went to dinner, then for a ride on a river cruise. The cruise was a mixed bag.

The night views from the river were great, but it was a bit nippy outside, even for me, but inside there was some kind of heavy perfume in the air that gave me a headache. This meant I had to keep going outside (ok, since I wanted to take some pictures anyway) and then coming back in. A bit warmer or no perfume and it would have been great.

I had a busy day lined up next. Saturday, I started with meeting Diana (former student) and her boyfriend.
We ate lunch at a fusion restaurant which served some kind of seafood stew inside of a small steamed pumpkin. Delicious, but SPICY! Diana works these crazy hours at an advertising agency, finishing late, late at night some days. I couldn't survive that kind of work environment very long...good thing I'm a teacher. They're a really nice couple, a lot of fun to hang out with. From there, I was off to Seoul's gigantic shopping center, Coex Mall, where I met Jiwon (again) and JeeHee (another classmate), had coffee and chatted, catching up on life and, of course, discussing linguistics a bit. They left me a few hours later, and around 7 I met Peter and Hye Young again, grabbing a bite to each at a Korean ramen shop before going to see a movie. The movie (Awake) was just so-so, but the company was great; I'm glad I got to see so much of those two; they're really nice, really positive people, a pleasure to hang around.

Although I was leaving Monday, Sunday was really my last day. June, a former student, had been gone on a business trip to Shanghai, so Sunday was the only day she could meet me. We went to have red bean soup (I really wanted to have it again), then found a cute cafe that served up waffles. After a couple of hours, I had to meet another friend, so off I went, out to east side of the city, nearly the last station in that direction that is still part of Seoul's metro. She had a car, so we drove out into the countryside a bit, along the Han River. It was nice to be outside of the city, to get the chance to see something beyond that, although it was a bit chilly and spring hasn't really come to Seoul just yet, so many of the trees are still bare. I think it would be a much lovelier place in May. We ended up seeing a movie, too, and this time we picked a much better one, Dan in Real Life: not the best movie, but fun and funny.



The next day I was off, on a bus to the airport, on a plane, on another bus, then showering and on a train to go to a friend's farewell party (the aforementioned Yuka).

But before I sign off, some general thoughts on Seoul. Having recently been to Tokyo, I'll draw some comparisons, but I'll have to draw in two other world-renowned cities, too: New York and Beijing. Seoul, like New York, varies greatly depending on what part of the city you're in. Of course that's probably true of Tokyo, but not in the same way. In Seoul, near where I was staying, there were a lot of older buildings, small back alleys, tiny shops, food stands that get setup at night and are gone in the morning, and a lot of litter; but in other parts, it was spotless, clean, modern. It reminded me of walking through, say, parts of Brooklyn, then jumping the subway for Mid-town, that's how different it could be. (I don't mean to sound like I've lived in New York, but I think I've spent enough time there to make an apt comparison.) Seoul is a city with a lot going on, with many areas, all different. In feel, I think it was closer to Beijing or New York than to Tokyo, and that surprised me, though I'm not sure why.

Compared to Japanese people, Koreans are more straightforward, or so it seems to me. Koreans tell me that they are quiet and shy, but I swear they've never faced a classroom of Japanese kids. That's quiet and shy. Koreans will walk down the street and hug and maybe even kiss a bit, a lot more like what I'm used to in America...you wouldn't see that in Japan, except very, very rarely. The Koreans I met who spoke English, aside from my friends, were very friendly.

I don't speak a lot of Japanese, but what little I do speak is MILES ahead of NOTHING, which is what I know how to say in Korean. I'd forgotten what it was like to be at Square One, not even knowing how to say "please" or "water" or "excuse me." I left Korea knowing only about four words. Sad, but true. It made me grateful that I can at least speak SOME Japanese, and not NONE.

Well, this has dragged on a lot longer than I thought it would, and I'll be surprised if anyone who gets this far did it in one sitting. Sorry about that. I just didn't really have time between the party and my Seoul trip to update this.

My dad is on his way here now, on a bus from the airport, so I'm going to get going so that I can meet him at the train station. Take care! I hope you are all well.