夢の向こうまで。。。

Christmas Cookies

2011-12-28T13:57:00.006+09:00

親のクリスマスツリー。下にプレゼントが置いてある。

クリスマスの昼食。

感謝祭の食事と変わらないけど、

僕は感謝祭の日にいなかったからこんな料理にした。

七面鳥、じゃが芋（マッシュポテト）、小パン、クランベリー等。

母親の知り合いが作ってくれたクリスマス・クッキー

クリスマスに「ジンジャーブレッドマン」と言うクッキーは大人気だ。

今年妹は「ジンジャー（生姜）・ブレッド（パン）・マン（男）」じゃなくて、

「ジンジャーブレッドオタク」を作った。

This year my sister made a "Ginger Bread Urkel"

シカゴ風ピザ

2011-12-25T15:09:00.001+09:00

クリスマスの食事じゃないけどアメリカに帰ったら、すぐこれを食べた。シカゴ風のピザは普通のピザよりとてもデカイ。中にチーズ等いっぱい入っている。"Deep　Dish"(深い皿)で呼ばれる。

Food!

2011-11-29T23:05:00.005+09:00

和・英ブログを書くのはめっちゃ時間かかる。

食べるの方が好き。

最近食った奴を見せてやるぞ。

（ところで、「優しすぎる」何回も言われてるからもっと荒い言葉遣いにする。。。ぜ）

Writing a blog in English and Japanese takes a lot of time.

I like eating better.

Here are some pictures of things I've consumed recently.

七面鳥（Turkey)
インターネットで買うしかないけど作ったらたくさんの人が食べれる。
Buying online is the only option, but if you make it lots of people can eat.

http://www.themeatguy.jp/

苺・牛乳コーラ（Strawberry Milk Cola)
甘い物が気に入るなら、美味しい。

僕（ごめん、もっと荒くする）俺様はコーラあまり飲まんけど、まあまあ。

If you like sweets it's good.
I don't drink soda much, but it was OK.

独身貴族手作り料理：チーズがめっちゃ入ったナッチョスとベルギータイプの日本地ビール

Bachelor Royalty Homemade Dining: Super Cheesy Nachos & Belgian Style Japanese Craft Beer

フランス料理：うさぎ
このレストランの値段はちょっと高いけど、また行きたい。

美味しいし、雰囲気も悪くはない

French Cuisine: Rabbit

This restaurant is a little expensive, but I want to go back.

The food is good and the atmosphere isn't bad either.

http://r.tabelog.com/fukui/A1801/A180101/18000555/

うなぎピザ寿司・Eel Pizza Sushi

ピザのソース、うなぎ、溶かしたチーズ。。。寿司～～えっ？

まじで？

まじで！

これをまた機会があれば食べたい。ほんまに

メニューに普通のピザ寿司もある。

Yeah, that's right; pizza sauce, eel, melted cheese and it's sushi.

Honestly, given another opportunity, I would eat this again.

The menu also features standard pizza sushi as well.

http://maru.please-grp.com/storeDetail.php?4

持ちつ持たれつ： Persimmons a' Plenty

2011-11-08T22:16:00.002+09:00

果物が好き。

毎日２、３種類を食べるようにしている。

よく昼ご飯の果物の食べれない分を職場の周りの人にあげる。

今日近くの女性が、「柿が好き？」って聞いた。

「まあ果物なんじゃ。もちろん」

そして机の下から袋を渡した。

「昨日夫が柿いっぱいもらった。どうぞ」

自分の机に戻って、３０分もたたない内に他の部屋からだれが突然やってきた。

「いつもお世話になります。柿どうぞ」

パッ！柿を３個机の上に置いた。

（名前とかを覚えるのが苦手で実は「お世話になります」って言われたら、「すみません一緒に仕事したことありますか？」って聞きたかった。は・ず・か・し・い　まだ自分の部屋の職員の名前さえ覚えてない）

秋は素晴らしいだね

I like fruit.
I try to eat 2 or 3 kinds a day.
I often share whatever I can't finish of the fruit from my lunch with the people around me at work. Today a woman near me asked if I liked persimmons. As they are fruit I, of course, said yes. "My husband got a bunch yesterday. Here have some."

And she pulled a bag full of 'em from under her desk.

Then, not even 30 minutes after returning to my own desk someone from another room suddenly showed up. "Thanks for everything. Here have some persimmons"

Plop. 3 persimmons on the desktop.

I'm really not very good with names and such and actually when he said, "thanks for everything", I wanted to ask, "Have we worked together?" It was a little embarrassing. I don't even know all the names of the people in my own office yet.

Ah, but autumn is great, eh

小京都革命: Revolution in Little Kyoto

2011-09-24T12:12:00.017+09:00

サイクリングは趣味で、たまに福井市の近くの「小京都」で呼ばれる大野市へ行く。日本にいくつかの「小京都」はあると思うけど、大野市は自分の気に入りの田舎のお出掛けだ。自転車で山や田んぼを眺めながら落ち着く。

One of my hobbies is cycling, and I sometimes like to go to a town near Fukui City called Ono, which is also sometimes called "Little Kyoto" (Its temples and traditions are reminiscent of Kyoto according to some people). I think there are any number of "Little Kyoto" towns in Japan, but Ono is a personal favorite countryside getaway for me. Admiring the mountains and fields from a bicycle is very calming.

長年大野に住んでいる外国から来た友達は普通あまり町を出ないけど今年のお盆休みに仲間が一人も大野にいなかった。ということは、小京都は無防備になった。戦争戦略ゲームが好きな俺様はこんな機会を絶対に逃さないから、すぐ旅の準備をして大野を征服しに行った。

国、町等を征服するには旗が必要だからそれを準備した。下の写真は俺様の栄光の勝利の証拠だ。

Friends of mine from overseas who have lived in Ono for a long time usually don't leave town much, but this year during vacation time in August not one person remained there. This means that Little Kyoto was left defenseless. As a fan of war strategy games, I simply could not pass up this opportunity. I quickly prepared for my journey and set out to conquer Ono.

When conquering a country or a town, flags are necessary, so I prepared one. The pictures below are evidence of my glorious victory.

小京都は俺様のものじゃ！

これから大野に行く時ここで泊まる。

From now on when I visit Ono, I'm staying here.

俺様のお清水

My pure spring water

俺様の国際的に有名な半熟味付け煮玉子（越前大野駅の近くのラーメン屋さん）

My internationally renowned seasoned soft-boiled eggs (from a ramen place near the Ono JR station)

この寺町の写真をよく見たら、征服の道具が見える。

If you look closely at this picture of the temple district, you can see the instrument of my conquest.

俺様の里芋。

My satoimo fields.

俺様の山。俺様のお米。

My mountains. My rice.

俺様の不思議な橋。

My mysterious bridge.

俺様の置き忘れられた建設機器。

My misplaced construction equipment.

忙しい一日を終えて、この山葡萄で出来たワインを飲んでリラックスした。

After a hard day, I relaxed with wine made from these mountain grapes.

新しい帝王を祝う花火。

Fireworks to celebrate the new sovereign.

My New Job

2011-07-19T22:56:00.003+09:00

最近転職した。今の職場は昔お城だったけど、今ただのビルだ。

僕の机は最上階にある。普段の仕事は下の絵の通りだよ。

”Ｓｏｍｅ　ｐｌｕｍｂｅｒ”　＝　「配管工」っていう意味。

This is my new job. The location used to be a castle, but now it's just a building.

My desk is on the top floor.

Red Monster

2011-06-12T21:12:00.002+09:00

Last night around midnight I heard a strange noise out the back window.
Wondering what could be going on I leaned out and listened carefully.

My neighbor has a Tickle-Me-Elmo.

It may be rainin', but there's a rainbow above you

2011-04-07T22:31:00.002+09:00

Hello, family.
Hello, friends.

I'm still alive, and, no, don't worry, I'm not glowing in the dark.

I'd like to thank my parents for being very calm and encouraging over the past month.
Other ALTs were not put at ease by family screaming for them to come home.
I'm glad to say that I have sensible support and trust at home.
That actually makes me want to go back and visit a lot more than incessant, harried phone calls ever could.

This weekend some friends and acquaintances of mine are running in a 5k marathon to raise money for the red cross and orphans in the disaster area. Actually, ALTs around the country will all be running at the same time. The neat thing about it is that the portions for the orphans will be managed by Smile Kids Japan, a charity group founded here in Fukui by people I know.

If you'd like to help you can donate with a credit card or paypal account directly.
Each runner has a set goal to raise, but I only know the website for one of them: http://www.justgiving.com/ohannasaurus/
She's really close to her goal, but even if she reaches it, don't hesitate to toss some change into her account for the relief effort.

As for me, I'll be in front of Fukui Station with a group of local musicians singing Johnny Cash and other various old tunes that keep me popular with the over-50 crowd. Our donation box will be for the relief effort, of course, but you can't give to that online.

kittens

2011-03-17T21:20:00.001+09:00

Science is adorable!
(thanks Mark)

アメリカ大使館・A Message from the US Embassy

2011-03-16T15:00:00.003+09:00

今日アメリカ大使館からメールをもらった。
福島原発について、日本政府の反応と警告情報に賛成するようです。

I received this email this morning from the American Embassy in regards to the situation at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Facility. They seem to agree with the Japanese government's response to the situation and the information being put forth in Japan.

March 15, 2011 02:30

Today our hearts remain with our Japanese friends who, after suffering this devastating tragedy just four days ago, have to undertake recovery and reconstruction and address the ongoing nuclear emergency.

We understand that many of you are anxious and have questions in the shadow of the Fukushima emergency, since we are in the midst of a complex, constantly changing, and unpredictable situation. In this fluid situation, our commitment to our citizens is to accumulate accurate information and assess it sufficiently in order to make important judgments.

Since the first reports of trouble with the reactors, American nuclear experts have worked around the clock to analyze data, monitor developments, and provide clear assessments on the potential dangers. While at times we have had only limited access to information, I am personally committed to assuring that our experts have as much access and information as possible, and the necessary resources to understand the situation. I have personally been deeply engaged in these efforts.

After a careful analysis of data, radiation levels, and damage assessments of all units at Fukushima, our experts are in agreement with the response and measures taken by Japanese technicians, including their recommended 20kms radius for evacuation and additional shelter-in-place recommendations out to 30kms.

Let me also address reports of very low levels of radiation outside the evacuation area detected by U.S. and Japanese sensitive instrumentation. This bears very careful monitoring, which we are doing. If we assess that the radiation poses a threat to public health, we will share that information and provide relevant guidance immediately.

The United States will continue to work around the clock to provide precise and up-to-date information supported by expert analysis to ensure the safety and security of our citizens and to help Japan in its time of great need. U.S. citizens in need of emergency assistance should send an e-mail to JapanEmergencyUSC@state.gov with detailed information about their location and contact information, and monitor the U.S. Department of State website at travel.state.gov.

Volunteering in Tohoku / 東北ボランティア活動

2011-03-15T22:39:00.004+09:00

日本語が分かれば、このホームページを見て下さい。

http://info.pref.fukui.jp/danken/npo/060_sv/touhokujisin.php

The Fukui Prefectural Government is organizing volunteer trips to the disaster area as soon as it is deemed safe to do so, and the local needs are properly assessed.

Interested people should contact the Fukui East Coast Disaster Relief Volunteer Center (福井県東北地方災害ボランティアセンター) with the information below.

email danjoken-volunteer@pref.fukui.lg.jp with
1. Your name in romaji and katakana
2. Gender
3. Age
4. Address
5. Contact number/ email
6. Occupation
7. Languages you speak

Housing and such will be managed by the volunteer group. Volunteers will pay for their trip.

Important things to consider.
If you do not speak Japanese and/or cry easily please do NOT consider going.
This is a disaster area, and you may be exposed to some very dismal scenery.

If you easily are overcome by emotion it is not a good idea to go.
Also, if you do not speak Japanese you will not be able to communicate with most of the people involved in the volunteer trips. Although there may be work requiring little of language skills, explanations may take much longer and slow the process down.
We have all been affected by this, but please leave the local groundwork to people best suited for it.
Seriously consider how much help you would have to offer at the local site. There is a lot that can be done from home. You can use all the money you would have spent on the trip to buy necessary supplies and send them. You can give blood. You can give money directly to the Red Cross, and they will be very well equipped to use it properly.

There is a good chance the situation will not have calmed down enough to allow for citizen volunteer groups during our spring break period, anyway. I'm sure most of you in Fukui felt the quake tonight. Aftershocks are likely to continue for the next couple weeks. Also, the nuclear facility situation still remains volatile. Groups will not be allowed into the area until the search and rescue teams have finished their efforts to locate missing persons. After that they have to assess the needs, then make a call for volunteers. Once the call is made, the Fukui East Coast Disaster Relief Volunteer Center will begin calling up the people in their contact list.

Please consider using the money you would have spent on a 3 day trip to purchase necessary supplies for the victims. I understand the desire to go and do something right away, but if we really want to help we must consider how we can best use our abilities and resources to aid those in need.

献血・Giving Blood

2011-03-14T21:15:00.002+09:00

福井県赤十字血液センター（Fukui　Red Cross Blood Center).

http://www.fukui.bc.jrc.or.jp/prof.html

赤十字病院の近く（Near the Red Cross Hospital)

献血ホール「いぶき」	毎週／日～金曜日
	09：00～12：00（午前の成分献血は11：00まで） 13：00～16：30（午後の成分献血は16：00まで）

The part of the blood center that takes donations is called "Kenketsu Hall Ibuki" and it's open　weekdays in the morning and afternoon.

又は（OR)

献血バス（Blood Donation Bus)

http://www.fukui.bc.jrc.or.jp/sche.html

Below is the blood donation bus travel schedule.　It will be at Pario this Sunday from １０ー１７, and at Bell on　Monday from　１０：１５－１６：３０． The website above has contact information for towns around Fukui.

献血バスのスケジュール

15日	（火）	小浜市	小浜市役所【400ｍＬ献血のみの受付】	09:30～12:00 13:00～16:00
15日	（火）	越前町	宮崎保健センター	13:30～16:00
16日	（水）	福井市	経済連　総合施設センター	12:30～16:30
17日	（木）
18日	（金）
19日	（土）
20日	（日）	福井市	パリオシティ【400ｍＬ献血のみの受付】	10:00～12:00 13:00～17:00
21日	（月）	福井市	ベル	10:15～12:00 13:00～16:30
22日	（火）	大野市	福井県奥越合同庁舎	09:30～12:00
22日	（火）	大野市	ニチコン福井	13:30～16:00
23日	（水）
24日	（木）	勝山市	福井社会保険病院	13:30～16:00
25日	（金）	鯖江市	フクオカラシ	13:30～16:00
26日	（土）
27日	（日）	福井市	フェアモール　エルパ【400ｍＬ献血のみの受付】（西出入口）	10:00～12:00 13:00～17:00
27日	（日）	福井市	アピタ　福井店【400ｍＬ献血のみの受付】	10:00～12:00 13:00～16:30
28日	（月）
29日	（火）
30日	（水）	越前市	小野谷機工	09:30～12:00
30日	（水）	鯖江市	ワイプラザ鯖江店	13:30～16:00
31日	（木）

義捐物資の受付・Taking Donations

2011-03-14T21:01:00.002+09:00

http://www.pref.fukui.jp/doc/tihuku/gienbussi.html

---Dates & Times---
March 15th - 23rd
9:00 -17:00
Open on weekends and holidays

---What You Can Give---
1. Preserved foods (canned food, canned bread, crackers, cup ramen)
2. Bottled water (500ml, 1L, 2L)
3. Powdered milk
4. Diapers (for babies, kids and adults)
5. Blankets

For items 1-3, please try to give them in easy to pack, move, and handle pallets or cases. In any case, please try to make your donations easy to handle and transport.

---Places Taking Goods---

Fukui City
Fukui Kencho, 1st Floor Kencho Hall
Fukui-shi, Ote, 3cho-me 17-1
福井市大手３丁目１７－１　

Fukui Kenko Fukushi Center (Fukui Health and Welfare Center)
Fukui-shi, Nishikida 2cho-me 8-8
福井市西木田２丁目８－８　　

Sakai City
Sakai Kenko Fukushi Center (Sakai Health and Welfare Center)
Awara-shi, Togu, 2cho-me 21-17
あわら市春宮２丁目２１－１７

Ono City
Okuetsu Kenko Fukushi Center (Okuetsu Health and Welfare Center)
Ono-shi, Tenjin-cho 1-1
大野市天神町１－１　　　　　

Sabae City
Tannan Kenko Fukushi Center (Tannan Health and Welfare Center)
Sabae-shi, Mizuochi-cho 1cho-me 2-25
鯖江市水落町１丁目２－２５　

Tsuruga City
Nishuu Kenko Fukuishi Center (Nishuu Health and Welfare Center)
Tsuruga-shi, Kai-cho 6-5
敦賀市開町６－５　　　　　　

Obama City
Wakasa Kenko Fukushi Center (Wakasa Health and Welfare Center)
Obama-shi, Yostuya-cho 3-10
小浜市四谷町３－１０　　

１　受入物資
　（１）保存食　　　缶詰、乾パン、クラッカー、カップ麺
　（２）飲料水　　　ペットボトル５００ml、２リットル
　（３）粉ミルク
　（４）紙おむつ　　幼児用、大人用（袋入りの未使用品）
　（５）毛布　　　　未使用品

　　※（１）～（３）については、搬送・仕分けに便利なように、できるだけ箱単位でのご提供をお願いします。

２　受付期間
　　平成２３年３月１４日（月）　　　　　　　　１３時～１７時
　　　　　　　３月１５日（火）～２３日（水）　　９時～１７時

　　※ 土、日、祝日とも受け付けています。

３　受付場所
　○福井県庁１階　県庁ホール
　　　福井市大手３丁目１７－１　　（電話：０７７６－２０－０３２６）
　
　○福井健康福祉センター
　　　福井市西木田２丁目８－８　　（電話：０７７６－３６－１１１６）
　○坂井健康福祉センター
　　　あわら市春宮２丁目２１－１７（電話：０７７６－７３－０６００）
　○奥越健康福祉センター
　　　大野市天神町１－１　　　　　（電話：０７７９－６６－２０７６）
　○丹南健康福祉センター
　　　鯖江市水落町１丁目２－２５　（電話：０７７８－５１－００３４）
　○二州健康福祉センター
　　　敦賀市開町６－５　　　　　　（電話：０７７０－２２－３７４７）
　○若狭健康福祉センター
　　　小浜市四谷町３－１０　　　　（電話：０７７０－５２－１３００）

４　問合わせ先
　　　福井県健康福祉部地域福祉課地域健康福祉グループ
　　　（電話：０７７６－２０－０３２６）

Alive and Dry

2011-03-11T20:05:00.005+09:00

Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, "It is done." And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth.
--The Book of Revelations--

This morning I awoke to the sight of snow. A week ago I was able to walk outside in nothing more than a light jacket. "Oh, well," I thought, "just another strange spell of weather in Fukui."

At times throughout the morning it seemed an impassible drizzle of white was cascading beyond the windows. The gray reflections of the sky off the flakes were punctuated by occasional respites, and the fluctuations ended in an ominous clap of thunder sometime around lunch.

A couple hours later I shook.

It was a small shudder, and, noticing that no one else in the office was perturbed, for a moment I assumed it was just me. "Am I dizzy?" I wondered, "I don't feel sick."

Then, I heard another teacher speak out, "Is it shaking or is it just me?"
"Oh, good" I mused, "I'm not sick. It's just an earthquake."

"Just an earthquake" turned out to be the largest observed earthquake in Japanese history.

Various quakes have come and gone throughout the day along the eastern coastline and along with them, varying heights of tsunamis. Here in Fukui, we haven't experienced anything more than tremors, but that doesn't make the images on the news any lighter.

Reports have come in of waves higher than 7 meters (about 23 feet). Several million homes have lost power and a few factories have had major fires. We sat in the office and watched a boat crash into a highway overpass as people tried to drive away from the rushing water that had already cut off one exit. All the customers at an airport took to the rooftops as the entire complex was surrounded. A flood of dark, rubbish-filled destruction swallowed fields, greenhouses, homes, cars and streets as flames refused to be extinguished in the flow.

Thankfully, however, deaths have been relatively few. At the moment a few dozen people are unaccounted for.

Watching this all play out on the news I could hear the other teachers say, "But this is Japan!" and "Independence Day scenario".

Here's hoping Japan can raise up a few Will Smiths to bring a swift end to this wrath.

Go Team!

2011-02-13T10:13:00.000+09:00

Of Sweat and Shovels

2011-02-01T21:24:00.003+09:00

After a weekend of heavy snow, I decided on Sunday evening to shovel my parking area so that I wouldn't have to do it before work on Monday morning. It took 3-4 hours to clear it, but it looked nice and everyone could get out easily.

On Monday morning I woke up to this.

It's not actually my car. I took the picture from the Fukui newspaper's website. Anyway, I had to shovel again on Monday morning. I did, however, make it to work on time.

Work, by the way, is a school surrounded by rice fields. Those rice fields are now snow fields. I arrived to find the staff parking filled with snow and the principal and vice-principal outside trying desperately to clear walkways and enough parking for all the teachers. I spent all of first and second period helping them.

School let out early (one hour early) because it was snowing heavily (still). I was really happy about that, of course, because I had to go home and shovel.

Seriously, my shoveling muscles are gonna be ripped this year.
So then this morning I watch the news and read the front page article in the paper and find out that we're stuck in the middle of the biggest snowfall in Fukui City in 25 years!

How big?
In the month of January we got 119 cm (approximately 3.90420 feet) of snow, roughly 4x the average. Most of that seems to have come within the past few days. The main highway has been closed in areas, and even JR (the main rail line in Japan) has been forced to suspend service for the first time in history. 1,700 people were forced to sleep on stalled trains as the snow fell on Sunday night. As for my school stuck out in the middle of piles and piles of soggy, heavy snow: no after-school activities.

Ah, but that was just Fukui City. You see, with the mountainous terrain here, sometimes strange differences in weather crop up. The city of Ono, nestled comfortably in the mountains northeast of Fukui City received a teensy dollop more.

246 cm (approximately 8.07087 feet)
This January Ono set a record for highest snowfall in the city since people began recording snowfall levels 80 years ago.
Congratulations.

Ono, by the way, is the area in the picture with the Ron Weasley look-alike atop the blog.
I have a few more pictures here, here and here

2 AM This Morning

2011-01-16T12:03:00.004+09:00

It snowed a lot last night. This is the view from my flat at 2 AM.

This is what things looked like in the morning.

This is what I was looking at a little more than a week ago. I'll post more about that later.

ITT Technical Institute

2010-12-21T23:27:00.002+09:00

Are you unemployed or underemployed?
Looking to turn your career around?

I used to hear those questions often in between rounds of the Price is Right on daytime television as a kid. Never thought I'd hear them in Japan.

Yes, just last night as I was shopping in a novelty bookstore (comic book type novelty not leather bustier type novelty), the in-store broadcasting began playing an advertisement for ITT Technical Institute in English. I checked their website. They have no campuses in Japan.

It's like someone knew where I was planning to go this Christmas.

日本への質問

2010-12-15T23:56:00.003+09:00

日本へ

こんにちは。この間色々お世話になりました。本当にありがとうございます。だんだん寒くなっているけれど、かぜをひかないように頑張りましょう。では、お忙しいところすみませんけれど、ちょっと聞きたいことがあります。

なぜ「Last　Christmas」がそんなに好きなの？覚えやすいコーラスなんだけどさ～。他のクリスマスの歌もあるよ。何百年前からクリスマス・ソングのメロディーを書いている作曲家の中でWham！が際立つの？Wham！?　びっくりマークのせいかな？

まあ、悪いと言ってない。耳に残る。ただ、ちょっとクリスマス・ソングの知識を増やしたらいいと思う。
お願い

What Child is This?
I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas
A Baby Just Like You
The Night Santa Went Crazy

"Celine Dion (God, please forgive me)"

2010-11-14T22:00:00.008+09:00

I've been working on a bilingual post about linguistics (BORING!), but that's been taking a lot of time. This entry has nothing to do with linguistics.

My hard drive crashed last month.
I had it reformatted, and the computer was able to function again, but not very well. I lost everything I had on it, but most of the important things I had were backed up on other drives. It was only a matter of time before the hard drive broke for good, so I decided to buy a new hard drive and a new operating system to run on it.

Friday evening I installed the new drive as well as a Japanese language copy of Windows 7. Everything seems to be running smoothly so far.

I've been digging through old back up drives and transferring files.
In my old music collection I stumbled upon a folder of mp3's labelled, "Celine Dion (God, please forgive me)".

I've never been a true Celine Dion fan.
I was trying to impress a girl.
Thankfully, things didn't work out or else I wouldn't have been able to delete that folder full of Celine Dion mp3's immediately.
Who wants to keep that around?
It's just unnatural.

Anyway, deleting that folder immediately (Have I stressed the immediacy of the deletion enough?) led me to think about all the times when disappointment turns to joy. I believe the proper phrase is "blessings in disguise".

For example, the hard drive crash was a real inconvenience, but I now have a better operating system and 3X the storage of the previous drive. I also learned that it's not that difficult to tinker with the inner workings of a laptop.

Last February my old car broke down, and I couldn't drive for a few weeks. It was due for mandatory shaken (road worthiness inspection) in March and I was debating whether to pay for the expensive inspection or just buy a new car. I've shown pictures of that old thing on the blog before. It had spirals on it. Everywhere I went people stared at me. I decided to change. It was expensive, but now I drive a much more slick looking car with a sexy foreign name (Platz) and much better gas mileage. Also, when people stare at me now it's out of jealousy. As they say in Germany, "mein auto ist ein sexwagen".*

When I was accepted into the JET Programme, I requested to be placed in Nagoya. I really wanted to be there in the big city near all the places that first made Japan such a happy experience for me.
I was sent to Fukui.
The friends I've made here have done so much more for my confidence than any Celine Dion fan ever could. Granted, there have been a few "Celine Dion fans" and a few "Celine Dion incidents" here and there, but, on the whole, the people I've met here have been a huge boon for me. These days, I don't have to pretend to like anything Canada has vomited upon the lap of the music world to make cute friends. I'm happy as I am, thank you. Fukui has become a really happy place for me. I have the disappointment of not going to Nagoya to thank for that.

So, consider this entry my toast to blessings in disguise.
Ein Prosit!

*Don't worry grandma. That's a joke. The only other people I've seen driving a Platz have been old men. Sexy old men, of course, but probably not guys out cruising for broads. Also, the Platz is made by Toyota - not some slick German company.

「嵐からの隠れ場所」： Real Men Don't Wear Skinny Jeans

2010-10-29T22:12:00.009+09:00

（今回ハイパーリンクをたくさん入れた。楽しんでね）

中学校で働く。
中学生の時代は人生の中のとても面白いところだ。
一年生は元気いっぱいで、授業は大体楽しい。
二年生は自分の役割を探していて、まじめな勉強と幼い遊びの間にいる。
三年生は少しまじめ過ぎるけど、毎年三年生の中に知性か好奇心の輝きがある生徒を見つける。

面白いことは面白いんだが、ちょっと困るところもある。
I HATE ARASHI.
言っちゃった。
僕は高校時代から音楽に興味を持っている。
その「興味」に普通の女性より化粧するガリガリに痩せた男子のグループは一つも含まれてない。
ロック、ジャズ、クラシック、オペラでも聴くけど、中学生の憧れの歌手はなかなか～何といえばいいかな～中学生しか聴くことを楽しめない見たい。

確かに僕も音楽に興味を持つようになる前に。。。まあ、忘れた方が良いね。

「嵐からの隠れ場所」は自分の大好きなボブ・ディランの曲名なんだ。

今日の授業で普通の女性より化粧するガリガリに痩せた男子のグループからの隠れ場所を建て始めた。

学校に着いたら、生徒や先生はほとんどいないことに気がついた。遠足、職場体験で色々な所に行っちゃった（日本語をかなり分かるけど、仕事の朝礼の内容を全て聞き取るわけではない）。残りの生徒と一つの授業だけあった。残りの一人の英語の先生は「テスト終わったところで、復習のゲームなどでいい」と言っていた。
「任せて！」
中学校の授業はほとんど教科書通りにするけど、何ヶ月か前に音楽歴史のレッスンを準備した。１９５０年代と１９６０年代の有名な歌手の写真と歌を仕事のパソコンに保存した。今朝、「やっと、僕の番だ！」という気持ちで、生徒に本当紹介したいことを紹介出来た。

チャック・ベリーと、ボブ・ディランと、ザ・ビートルズを生徒に聴かせた。
ボブ・ディランの「風に吹かれて」は簡単なコードと簡単な英語を使って、深い意味を伝えているから、授業の中心にした。そのような曲のおかげで彼は「１９６０年代の若者の声」と呼ばれるようになった。嵐はいつか「日本の若者の声」となったら、僕はすぐ日本語の勉強をあきらめて、帰国するだろう。

生徒は昔の音楽はどう思うかよく分からないけど、一応ちょっとでも聴く機会があった。

今度ローリングストーンズにしおうか？

I wrote this blog in Japanese.
I probably made many mistakes.
It's about using music in the classroom and trying to introduce my students to something that isn't performed by prancing, girly men. There are some links to youtube videos throughout.

something magical

2010-10-22T21:49:00.002+09:00

My friend who used to scorn me about cleaning told me a few weeks ago, "once you finally clean your place, something magical will happen".

Well, I don't know if I'd call it magic or not, but having a clean flat has been a boon for me. I find my outlook has improved surprisingly well and it's easier for me to focus on important things like studying for a Japanese proficiency test that I'll be taking in December. A clean home helps center the soul.

I highly recommend cleaning to anyone who is undergoing a seasonal depression or just needs a pick-me-up. I was in a bit of a funk when I charged into my closet to face the monster, and when all the work was done I ended up feeling great.

Tonight I got a call from a friend saying, "I wanted to say this to someone who'd appreciate it. This afternoon I started cleaning and 5 hours and 9 trash bags later, I did it!"

Alakazam, indeed!

ダーリンは語学オタク

2010-10-18T18:34:00.006+09:00

As the picture to the left shows, I have cleaned my flat.
My friend who normally stops by and shakes her head in shame walked around taking pictures and said, "I need to show my boyfriend how a man's place should look".
Or something like that. Whatever the case, she wasn't embarrassed to be my friend anymore.

It wasn't easy.
For three years my primary cleaning method when people come over has been to throw everything in the closet, thus feeding a monster in the dark. Then, a few weeks ago I put on the Smashing Pumpkins two disk album, charged boldly into the darkness and faced the monster for the first time ever.

The monster's corpse took a great deal of effort to dispose.

So, now that my place is livable, I've once again started having people over for games and movie nights.

The last movie that I hosted was ダーリンは外国人 (dalin wa gaikoku-jin: My Darling is a Foreigner).
This film debuted in the spring following upon the success of the My Darling is a Foreigner books and manga. By the way, I didn't pick it out. I ask my guests to suggest films.

The title pretty much explains the story. Japanese woman meets foreign man. They fall in love and traverse cultural differences. Interviews with real life international couples were interspersed throughout the film.

It was a very simple film with sometimes very simple acting that reminded me a bit of educational English DVDs (hey, it's hard to find decent foreign actors in Japan). However, everyone who saw it at movie night seemed to think it was cute, and I thought it raised a very important point: language nerds can make really good boyfriends.

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that the lead male is a language nerd.
Yeah, that's right, he studies languages for fun and it's cool.
For the first time since WALL-E a film company has had the gusto to create a romantic lead I can relate to.

Did she choose a musician? No.
Did she choose a dancer? No.
Did she choose an athlete? No.
Did she choose some wealthy yuppy? No.
Did she choose some bad boy with a heart of gold? No.
Then what kind of man, what kind of man makes for an excellent boyfriend according to this film?
A LANGUAGE NERD!!

(not actually a scene from the film)

For so long you've been in rain, but now you're warm and dry.

2010-09-20T19:55:00.004+09:00

Having bumped into some Nanzan University graduates recently, I decided to send a message to my old friends from my study abroad experience and see what they were doing these days.

The first person to become a friend for me at Nanzan was a guy from an up-state New York dairy farm who listened to a lot of Stryper growing up. We both lived in Kasugai and took the train into Nagoya. He was a really light-hearted, nice, funny guy (still is), so it wasn't hard to get along.

I got a response from him today.
Apparently, he and his girlfriend in Kobe got married this spring.
I was going to go study this afternoon, but I felt so happy for him that I couldn't focus (granted, I'll take pretty much any excuse to lose focus on studies).

Sigh, my friends are starting make me feel like an adult.

I couldn't find any pictures of him from my Nagoya blog that seemed appropriate, but I did stumble across my host mother's advice on attracting women,
"In Japan we say that the most handsome men are standing in the rain and look angry."

Fukui gets a lot of rain.
I think I might start working on my scowl this year.

PS: The title of today's entry is from a Stryper song. No, I didn't know it. I had to look it up (honest).

Hamburger Land

2010-09-18T23:54:00.005+09:00

There is a new restaurant in Fukui.

Using the "4 Secrets of Delicious", as they call it, Hamburger Land boasts a seemingly bottomless list of options of sandwiches and burger varieties as well as shakes, nachos, fried onion peels and more. Also, they play Buddy Holly.

So, basically, someone made a list of things people from the States miss about greasy, roadside diner food and made it into the kind of restaurant you'd expect to see on the set of Back to the Future, complete with appropriate attire.

I went today for the first time.

I think it's going to be a good year for me.

冒険心: Let's Talk About Jazz

2010-09-13T09:54:00.009+09:00

「冒険に理由をつけると、冒険でなくなっちゃう。」
～植村直己

"If you attach a reason to adventure, it ceases to be one."
~Some famous Japanese adventurer (Uemura Naomi)

~~I don't know if the quote fits well with this entry, but I like it.

冒険心 (bou-ken-shin) = adventurous spirit
As I've said many times before, I rather enjoy travelling alone.
There are times when I just really need to get away or perhaps I just really feel a need to explore a new country whether anyone will go with me or not. Scotland, Italy, Taiwan and The Amazon Rain Forest are some examples of great adventures I've had on my own.

Really, there isn't always a clear reason. There doesn't need to be. Exploring is fun. Go! Such is the spirit of adventure.

Adventurous though I have been in travel, there is one particular area where I have never been very eager in boldly venturing forth - socializing. Compared to going outside and making small talk with strangers there are just so many more interesting things to do at home like sitting down, staring at the wall and not making small talk with strangers.

This summer, in spite of myself, I made a lot of connections. In a flash the number of Japanese names in my contact list seemed to double. Before I had the chance to stop and realize what was going on, I found myself inviting local acquaintances to ALT events by the handful. People have been making new acquaintances because of my efforts.

This wouldn't be that big of a deal except for the fact that I didn't have any new friends from my dorm my first year of college until 3 or 4 months into things. I tend to move slowly socially. As one teacher at my current school put it, "you are like dried squid. Not much taste at first but the longer you chew the more the flavor comes out" (yeah, squid and I have quite the history)

Since August I have been feeling strangely optimistic about the coming year. I have been feeling adventurous, even socially so. For probably the first time since moving here I have been going out on my own to places I normally only visit with friends. Specifically, I am referring to bars that play jazz music. Bartenders tend to be good conversationalists by trade, so inane small talk quickly evaporates into something better. In jazz bars they have the added bonus of smooth background music. When I go on my own I don't have to translate for any friends, and I can just sit down and have a slow, quiet chat with whomever I please. I've learned that it's actually not that painful to talk to strangers over a beer and a groovy beat.

When I venture out on my own into the night for my allotted 1-2 beers and 1-2 hours of socializing (talking, like working out, shouldn't be overdone) it increases the likelihood of 偶然 (guzen) taking hold of the moment. 偶然 basically means "random chance".

偶然の出会い
(guzen-no-deai)
The Chance Encounter: that moment when a couple people born on opposite ends of the Earth share a conversation and find some unexpected connection through music, travel stories, shared philosophies or any number of other possibilities. Or, perhaps, when a couple people who shared a friendly conversation one night in a bar happen upon each other just walking about one day and smile across the street.

As an introvert, I draw a lot of energy from being alone, yet I find these guzen-no-deai of late to be rather invigorating.

I think it's going to be a good year for me.

Pride and Peristalsis

2010-08-22T11:26:00.006+09:00

I started this entry a couple weeks ago, but didn't get around to finishing it until now (September).
Basically, I just wanted to post about a proud moment in teaching this summer.

There aren't any classes during the summer holidays, but we do have a few summer camps.
I went to a junior high camp one day this summer where one of the main activities was the creation and presentation of a skit. Each group of students had to write their own short skit in English based on a story from the ALT in their group about a "culture shock" moment.

The story I chose was from a trip with my Nagoya host family back when I was an exchange student 5 years ago. We spent a weekend in Fukui, oddly enough, and stayed in a ryokan (traditional inn) on the coast. The staff brought us all manner of delicious seafood, and the squid sashimi (raw seafood) was so fresh that it actually was still moving. My host mother and sister both freaked out and refused to touch it, but dear brave grandmother requested a pair of scissors from the server and chopped the last few breaths out of our dinner.

Well, the students in my summer camp group got to work immediately preparing the skit. By preparing the skit, of course, I mean preparing the costume for the person who was going to play the part of the squid (me). I got a squid-head shaped paper hat, ribbon tentacles and a sign on my shirt that said "squid" in case if no one could figure it out. They also made a pair of giant paper scissors for the grandmother, and when it came time to act out the story they actually hid a real pair of scissors behind the prop scissors and cut off my "tentacles". Compared to the other skits theirs was shorter and easier to understand. It also had a nice sense of humour to it.I got to spend a day being the English speaking squid for a group of creative young people, and, you know, I don't know that I could ask for a better day of teaching.

Sorry, I don't have any pictures.

I did, however, find this interesting fashion piece on the internet somewhere.

Don't worry, mom, my costume looked nothing like that.

Adventures in Socializing

2010-08-17T22:54:00.008+09:00

I was the president of the speech team in high school.
I've been a Co-President of FJET for more than a year.

I've performed and spoken in front of large crowds many times.
Put me in a group of unfamiliar people, however, and I often feel lost.

Sometimes it even hurts. No big deal, though.

It's just the way I am.

* * *

The Obon Season is wrapping up.

Obon is a time in August when people honour their ancestors and spend time with family.

This past weekend, the hottest couple in our Assistant Language Teacher community invited me to the Obon festival and a BBQ in their small mountain town called Ono (yes, the same as the woman who broke up the Beatles). Of all the people at this BBQ, I only knew those 2 (a Canadian and a Chinese/New Yorkian), but I figured it'd be a good chance to practice Japanese with their acquaintances and get out of the city (also a good chance to rub shoulders with two fine fellows).

All that the hot couple knew about the BBQ was that a hairstylist friend of the Canadian and his family would be there. When we stopped by the stylist's workplace to follow him out to the BBQ there were several young men standing around waving hello to the Canadian.
"OK," I thought, "it's just a small crowd. I can handle this. They seem friendly. Maybe I'll pretend to like baseball or something."

Then the worst possible thing that could happen to a shy little boy occurred - half a dozen attractive young women walked out of the shop.
"Crap!" I swallowed hard, "their girlfriends too!"
Yet somehow, they didn't seem like Fukui-style country girls to me.

* * *

I should clarify here that I'm not terrified of conversation.
I'm not terrified of new people.
It's just that no matter how much I travel, no matter how many people I meet, at my core there will always be a shy 6 year old standing alone at recess on the first day at his new school in his new home waiting for someone to come along and say, "Hello, you must be the new guy. My name is John but most people call me ...."
OK, well, I guess the name doesn't have to be John, but you get the idea. When it comes to socializing, I was born with a handicap but, thankfully, not a rare one. Mostly, I just feel nervous occasionally in everyday situations yet super calm on stage.
Go figure.

* * *

So, anyway, at the BBQ I found out that one of the young men was living in Kasugai, the city on the outskirts of Nagoya where I lived when I was an exchange student at a university in Nagoya. He just came in to see his family for Obon. So, we started talking about Nagoya and universities (he went to a different school than me) and I mentioned that I went to Nanzan University.
"Nanzan?" a few ears perked and suddenly a lot of people were looking at me.
Then a chorus of voices chimed in, "me too!"

As it turns out, I went to a BBQ off in the mountains in an agricultural prefecture only to bump into half a dozen city girls who went to the same university as me at the same time as me.
I did not expect that. Only one of them was actually from Ono, and the rest were just hanging out with her for the weekend.

Then later, when one of the guys asked if I liked watching sports, rather than the usual friendly lie (which always leads to a conversational dead end) I plainly spoke, "naw, I don't really watch much."
"Well, what do you do in your free time."

"Oh, you know various things. A lot of video games."
"Games, of course. You know, I studied computing in Osaka and worked on Final Fantasy for the Game Boy Advance."

So, take heart all ye shy folk out there.

Socializing need not always be painful.
Other Important Lesson learned:
Fukui may be a little known podunk prefecture, but it certainly has no shortage of surprises.

Stephen Baldwin Schadenfreude

2010-08-13T10:48:00.007+09:00

Every year new ALTs are sent off to climb Mt Fuji. After hours on a bus they have to spend an entire night climbing the tallest mountain in the country only to get back on a bus for another bum-bruising bus ride. It's a gruelling trip that almost all participants complain about afterwards, but, as one friend put it before heading home after 3 years here, it's a wonderful opportunity to bond with all the other new arrivals.

My first year I befriended my best travel buddy on the mountain. Then, my first year as FJET President, I decided to go again and rounded up the back of the climb with my future Co-President and one of the heppest cats to come from last year's group.

The night before the hike last year I visited a video rental store to prepare some entertainment for the long ride to the hike. I found some standard fantasy, cartoon and action films, but then something in the horror/sci-fi section glared in the corner of my eye and stopped me cold. I turned around to face the DVD that had just screamed up at me from the rack unaware of what awaited me...

...Later, when I presented the film options to the bus and asked people what they wanted to see a chant pounded from the back of the bus, "Shark in Venice! Shark in Venice!"

Shark in Venice, in case you aren't familiar with it, is the story of, well, a shark in Venice.
There's not really any more to say about the plot.
I highly recommend it to anyone who is drunk, high or suicidal. Seriously, one viewing of it and you will feel much better about your own life. "Gee, my family all died in a plane crash, my dog ran away and I lost my job at the 711 because of my drinking problem, but, hey, at least I'm not an actor in Shark in Venice!"

The poorly produced scenes of a shark attacking bystanders along the canals of Venice is rivalled in unintended humour only by the performance of the unshakably bland Stephen Baldwin. In hindsight now I understand that this was an excellent choice for pre-hike viewing because watching a Stephen Baldwin film is a lot like climbing Mt Fuji.

It hurts.

Stephen Baldwin ignites the part of my brain that secretly enjoys watching the pain of others (and experiencing the pain myself too sometimes). That is why I honour him today by making a collage of pictures I found on the internet. His films never fail to inflict mental cramps. Watch one for yourself or, better yet, tie people you don't like to a chair and force them to watch one.

* * *

The hep cat from last year's climb is going to ride the bus with this year's group (but not climb). This afternoon we're going to the video store to pick out films for the trip.
Pain is truly a wonderful way to bond.

Do Americans Dream of Obese Sheep?

2010-07-29T10:07:00.005+09:00

The first wave of new arrivals came in last night. They have two days of orientation in a hotel in downtown Fukui City before taking off for their new homes. Last night my trusty FJET Co-President, a few volunteers and I took them out to dinner. For the most part, they seem rather chill and quiet (or just jet-lagged - time will tell). Still, an evening of socializing with unfamiliar personalities must have really worn me out because when I went to futon last night I had one of the deepest sleeps I've had in quite some time.

Whenever I fall into a deep sleep my dreams become all the more tactile, and leave me feeling jarred when I awake.

"Hey, this isn't Northern Wisconsin!" or "Why doesn't this place smell like Nebraska, any more?"

Last night my dream involved Wisconsin family but, most importantly, my uncle's really friendly, gentle dog who, in reality, passed away several years ago. The entire family was there in my grandparents' house, but the whole dream centred around the softness of the dog's fur. I physically felt the velvet texture through my fingers as I pet the dog in the dream.

On a side note, before gathering in the house, we drove in a car with the dog and, of all the CDs in the car, she seemed to enjoy Gordon Lightfoot the best. I may not know much about dream interpretation, but this tells me that it definitely was not a dream about heaven.

Merica Day

2010-07-05T22:12:00.006+09:00

When I arrived at work this morning I received a pile of student writing to mark. In the pile was some poetry. They were free to choose their own subjects. "Life", "music", "soccer", "the moon" and several other topics made the list. One student decided to match her or his theme to the festivities simultaneously taking place thousands of kilometres to the West (remember, kids, there's a full day's time difference):

America.

Delicious food

and people are very fat.

Hamburgers, sweets, big food.

I don't want to be like them.

Round.

Harsh, but sometimes you need tough love to improve yourself.
Especially where weight loss is concerned.

Well, I want to end this post on a happy note, so here's a song to cheer you up from Hugh Laurie.

I Will Give My Brother-in-Law's Hand in Marriage to the First Person to Turn on the Air Conditioning in the Office

2010-06-28T22:19:00.005+09:00

He's not ugly.

He can actually be rather cute.

He likes cartoons and making things with duct tape.

He prefers women but has been known to marry men on Facebook.

He won the Indiana All-State Ron Weasley Look-alike Contest in 2007.

He finished 7th overall in the Tri-State Famous Wizards of Fiction Triathlon in 2009.

He can be all yours.
All you have to do is walk into the staff room at my school and turn on the air conditioning.
Yes, I know that Japan has some social rule about leaving it off until July, but look at the opportunity you have here!

Also, you'll be relieving a lot of suffering.

When the simple act of sitting at a desk to mark papers causes a person to break out into sweat, it's time to throw the social rule book out the window.

And pick up a great guy in the process.

This offer won't last forever.

ACT NOW!!!

The Proper Order of Things

2010-02-21T14:51:00.003+09:00

In the grocery in Fukui Station yesterday I noticed a nice pattern in the tea section.

Seems about right.

One Bad Habit Describes Another: Haiku Round 4

2010-02-04T20:52:00.005+09:00

puffs of fleeting smoke
cigarettes tossed to the wind
such is woman's love

Christmas Carols

2009-12-25T00:00:00.005+09:00

Seasons Greetings!
I feel like I have a lot of writing to do to catch up on the past month of events, but I'm very busy in the Japanese year end tradition of "Osoji" (the big clean). Seriously folks, cleaning up my flat is like a post-natural disaster effort. I may need to phone the national guard soon.

For those of you wondering, I have recovered from the "brainquake".

Now, to celebrate Christmas, here are a couple of carols courtesy of one of my favorite TV programs, Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Enjoy!

The Aftershocks of a Brainquake

2009-11-22T15:50:00.011+09:00

Japanese writing has its origins in Chinese writing. At the outset, all Japanese was written in the same pictographs that the Chinese used, and only scholars of the Chinese language were literate. Initially, the scholars tried to adapt the original Chinese readings to fit Japanese words, but this was inefficient given the vast phonetic and grammatical differences between the two languages. Eventually, the characters took on readings from the Japanese language too.

Thus, even today, to be fully literate in Japanese it is necessary to know several readings for each character. Although this is difficult and time-consuming, it means that a person with a good knowledge of the readings can guess the meanings of unfamiliar words heard in conversation much like a person with good knowledge of Latin could guess the meanings of unfamiliar words in English.

Chinese characters are known as "kanji", and an understanding of how they work is essential to learning Japanese.

Here are some examples:

地震 (jishin) = earthquake

地 (ji: earth/ground) + 震 (shin: a character from Chinese geomancy denoting thunder or shaking)

Now, for something out of recent personal experience:

脳震盪 (noushintou)

脳 (nou: brain) + 震 (shin) + 盪 (tou: to toss about)
What might a "brainquake" be? For now, I'll leave you to guess.

* * * * *

The accident mentioned in the previous entry occurred on Wednesday. We visited the emergency room that night, and the doctors told us that we could expect some soreness but we'd be all right. Nevertheless, the police called my co-president's school on Friday to make sure that we were doing well and indirectly requested that we visit a doctor again. Her supervisor took her to a local hospital that afternoon, and all was well. I was very busy, so I decided to put it off until the weekend.

The dull pain I experienced after my head collided with the seat lingered into the weekend with intermittent breaks. On Saturday (yesterday) I decided to go out and study a bit. I went to my usual study restaurant, got a table for one and ordered the drink bar (all you can drink tea, coffee, soda, etc). I hunkered down and opened the books like I've done many times before, but as I tried to focus I found my head started hurting and I became very tired. Eventually, I gave up and went home.

I attempted to study because I was supposed to take a Chinese proficiency test this morning. Figuring I had probably experienced a "brainquake," I decided not to overwork myself in a 2 hour exam and rested and went to the hospital again in the afternoon with my supervisor. This is where the knowledge of kanji comes into play.

Most language textbooks provide some basic vocabulary for visits to the doctor, but I've yet to come across one that has a section labelled, "a trip to the doctor after experiencing a head injury in an automobile accident". I guess they figure you'll learn it better if you figure it out for yourself.

Having only looked up one word before heading out ("brainquake") I was left to fend for myself when the doctor explained his brain science to me. OK, well, that's not entirely true. My supervisor was there, but she didn't explain anything to me in English until afterward. Based on what she explained I seemed to understand everything fairly well in spite of the lack of preparation my textbooks provided. Hooray for kanji studies!

So, basically, I experienced a "brainquake," but it was mild and there was no evidence of bleeding or serious damage. The doctor also told me that these things cause different problems with different people and the effects can last for more than a month.

I should be fine in time, but should anyone who reads this ever be in a similar situation, I would like to provide a list of useful vocabulary. Several of these words I have learned by conversation in the past few days.

1. 事故 (jiko) accident

2. 警察 (keisatsu) police
3. 保険 (hoken) insurance
4. 怪我 (kega) injury
5. むち打ち (muchiuchi) whiplash
6. 脳震盪 (noushintou) concussion
7. 吐き気 (hakike) vomit/nausea
8. 目眩 (memai) dizziness
9. 痺れ (shibire) numbness
10. 出血 (shukketsu) bleeding/hemorrhage
11. 集中する (shuuchuu suru) to concentrate
12. ぶつける (butsukeru) to bang/strike
13. アイスクリーム (aisu kuriimu) ice cream

I realize some of these words are scary, but they're important to understand when the doctor is asking about your symptoms. Due to #12 caused by #1 I have endured some difficulty with #11 and experienced a little bit of #5 and #6 and a whole lot of #13 (relevant to every lesson in every textbook of every language).

Collisions and Comfort Food

2009-11-18T22:01:00.006+09:00

I have two headaches right now.
The one in the front of my head is from eating ice cream too quickly.
The one in the back of my head lingers longer and, thus, requires a longer explanation.

As FJET Presidents, my co-president and I have to plan and organize various events. One of the biggest and most popular events of the year is a big pitch-in dinner in December called "Festivus". It's a holiday party between the American Thanksgiving and Christmas, and a chance for people from around Fukui to gather together and share a happy meal during a time when most of us are probably at our most homesick. We've been having a lot of difficulty finding a venue that has a kitchen capable of cooking at least 3 turkeys, is open on the only date possible in December and has enough room for 60-100 hungry people. After an hour of phone calls to more than half a dozen community centers yesterday, it seemed like we may have found one good possibility.

So, today after work the co-president (who, by the way, has the same name as my favorite Wisconsin grandmother and faithful blog reader) and I drove 40 minutes south of Fukui City in rush hour traffic to a town called Takefu to check the place out (We'd like to have it in Takefu or nearby because it's more centrally located in the prefecture than Fukui City). The place seemed feasible, but they've had some trouble with some group of foreigners before and were very hesitant to allow us to use their facilities. This is sadly a fairly common occurrence in Japan. Given the dearth of foreign residents here, when an establishment has a bad encounter with one group of foreigners, they often view all foreigners according to that encounter. This particular community center promised to call me back sometime soon with an answer regarding Festivus. My hopes are not very high.

We decided to ask about renting a room at this new department store in Fukui City after that. The place is a bit expensive and not as centrally located as a community center in Takefu would be, but it is nice. We returned to the city and were chatting about creative writing when the co-president, who was driving, said, "I don't think I could make it as a writer because my life has been too simple. I mean, knock on wood, I've just not had any real problems."

Shortly after that, while we were stopped at a traffic light, the patron saint of traffic safety decided to have a laugh at our expense. Although the signal was red, the car behind didn't stop until his fender was well within the boot of our car, causing us to ram into the car in front us and subsequently smash the front end of the car as well. Of the 3 cars, only the one in the middle (us) had any damage.

What followed was a lesson in the basic structure of responsibility in Japanese society. We had to call our supervisors from work, who came to make sure we were OK and help take care of insurance and talking to the police. They, in turn, called the vice-principals of our schools to let them know what had happened. The vice-principals, in turn notified the principals and the board of education.
The driver who hit us took full responsibility for the accident, but he didn't have to apologize only to us but also to our supervisors. Not only did he apologize, he also followed us to the hospital and brought along his supervisors from his company, who also apologized to us. Then, he paid our examination fees.

The doctor said we both seemed fine. We hit our heads on the headrests and are a little dazed, but we haven't noticed any significant damage besides that to her car. It's quite possible I may wake tomorrow with a terrible headache. I don't really know. Everything is a little odd right now. If any of this entry seems sloppy, there's a rather valid reason for it.

Whatever the case, know that we're not in bad shape, and everything should work out just fine. The co-president is back at home with her boyfriend to comfort her, and, as for me, well, I'm out of ice cream.

Cycling Scenery: Winery Visit

2009-10-26T22:36:00.004+09:00

A few weeks ago I spent a day cycling trying to find a winery I saw advertised while on a previous ride. The picture below illustrates what most of the countryside looks like out in the hills where I was wandering.
I did eventually find the place: Hakusan Winery. Wine really has no tradition in Japan, and this particular location has only been in operation for less than 10 years. Basically, they grow a few grapes in the hillside. Not much to look at, but still I had a nice afternoon ride, nonetheless.
Not much else to report. If weather allows, I'll be going back to this same area this weekend to do some hiking with an elderly couple that are friends with my Japanese instructor. I've never met them before. Should be interesting.

One last thing, a friend of mine wasn't updating her blog, so I did it for her. You probably don't know her unless if you live in Fukui, but, anyway, if you're curious, here's a link: friendblog

月既不解飲

2009-10-03T19:25:00.009+09:00

The moon, alas, is no drinker of wine

According to popular legend, the Chinese poet Li Bai drowned when, in a drunken fit of lunar love, he jumped into the Yangtze River trying to hug the reflection of the moon.

On quiet evenings sometimes I like to take walks along the bridges near me and look at the reflection of the moon in our small waterways. I have a strict no-alcohol policy on these walks.

I mention this because today in China it's time for the Moon Viewing Festival. The Moon Viewing Festival is that wonderful time of year when all Chinese people around the world look up at the evening sky and say, "hey, does that look like a rabbit to you?"

OK, so, maybe I don't know a lot about moon viewing in China. I do, however, know that I'm getting some free food (Take heed, America, befriend the Chinese and they will bring you moon cakes).

They also do moon viewing in Japan, and they even have a "moon viewing" burger at McDonald's sometimes (it has an egg on it). I don't know when the official festival time is, and I'm too tired to look it up right now.

Instead of culturally relevant information, I decided to celebrate moon viewing by sharing a video clip of one of the most poetically profound musical pieces about the moon I've ever known.

Enjoy!

What Would Justin Herman Do?

2009-09-26T23:17:00.010+09:00

If you knew Justin Herman you'd be in love by now.

* * * * *

Today I visited a city out in the mountains called Ono where some friends and I used to go hang out every so often. They've all moved away, but I had a moment to pause and reflect on all the people I've met since coming to Fukui (I was on a bicycle for a good part of the day).

When I stepped off the plane in Tokyo and met the other new ALTs that were bound for Fukui, for a variety of reasons, my attitude toward them was cold and distant. I was in Japan to learn Japanese. I was in Japan to make Japanese friends. I was in Japan to do any number of things except fraternize with a pack of mono-lingual twenty-somethings from English speaking countries. Needless to say, people didn't like me at the Tokyo orientation.

For a variety of other reasons, by the time I arrived in Fukui, my attitude changed. Over the next couple years I would come to learn just how unfounded my initial arrogance was and just how effective an afternoon tea with a friendly native English speaker can be to alleviate the stress and melancholy created by living far from friends and family.

Maybe I haven't made any really close Japanese friends. Maybe I haven't married that cute little local girl my relatives pine for. Maybe I haven't accomplished everything I set out to do at the beginning of this JET adventure. I don't regret it.

Relationships abroad begin and end unnaturally. We are tossed together into unfamiliar situations causing us to grow close very quickly, but, then, just as quickly as we meet, some of us jump away. There's a tearing sensation with every goodbye as people take off for divers corners of the globe - many never to be seen again. This tearing can cause depression and a desire to shy away from any new people that come our way. Why bother opening up to people when you know you're just going to have part ways soon anyway? This feeling was definitely a factor in my Tokyo reticence.

Once healed after the tearing, however, we learn to accept the ebb and flow of relationships, even in erratic circumstances like living abroad. We begin to realize that, even if we never see our old friends again, their influences remain indelible for a long time. For me, I can feel the influence of people I've met here in how I look at others, how I relate to people, how I talk about people, the interests I've developed (I tried hip-hop dancing once!) and even in the way I dress (there was a "fashion intervention" on my behalf in October during my first year). None of this would've happened had I stuck to my original plan and shied away from foreigners.

* * * * *

OK, back to Justin Herman.
He was part of the group of people that used to hang out in Ono with me. To put his personality in simple terms, he was the FJET puppy. Innocent, adorable, always happy to see people, never unfriendly to anyone, bounding with energy. He was everyone's little brother, and his smile was known to melt snow, ice and the heart of every man, woman and child within at least a 10 km radius.

Fukui is without its perky little brother.
In a post-puppydog FJET, I sometimes find myself asking the question, "What would Justin Herman do?"
He never said a bad thing about anyone. He always tried to cheer people up and encourage them. He looked pretty good in a dress and high heels at Halloween (I'm OK without emulating that one).

Justin is also an avid cyclist and once rode across the entire US for charity. So, this morning when planning to go out to Ono to see some friends the answer to "WWJHD?" was clear, "he'd cycle, of course!"
In July, I bought a really nice road bike from a leaving ALT, and I've been trying to get out around Fukui. Today, inspired by that puppy dog energy of yore, I ventured to Ono and into the hills near Ono to set a personal best for distance travelled on a bicycle in one day: 84.5 km (52.8 miles). It's not much compared to serious cyclists, but it's a lot for me, and I feel good about it.

The picture at the top is from the Ono area. I'm hoping to take some more scenery pics as I ride. I'll post any decent ones.
The figures on the bicycle are my travel buddies, Han & Leia. Someday, maybe I'll make a blog just for them.

It's Friday I'm in Love

2009-09-20T20:10:00.010+09:00

It's Sunday.
This past week Fukui celebrated the birthday of its most beloved Cure fan, so for the past 7 days I've been giving the brooding yet upbeat, femininely made up yet loved by women style of Robert Smith a chance. I guess there's worse music out there a person could obsess over (example).

soft and only, lost and lonely
At the school culture festival a couple weeks ago (here's a link to last year's festival entry) I got to decorate a room and prepare something to demonstrate for an hour and a half (there were about 20 rooms around the school with student and teacher prepared dances, science experiments, snacks, art displays, etc). I was given charge of the least used room in the school - the language lab. While cleaning I noticed that all the student work on the wall was from at least 6 years ago. Nevertheless, I pasted images of famous rock stars from the 50's and 60's all around and filled the room with the cheap practice guitars from the music room in preparation for a guitar lesson that many students and teachers seemed eager to see.

5 students came.
Two stayed the entire time and the others stopped in to say hi. I stayed at work until 9 PM the night before and arrived early on the day of the festival so that 5 out of 450 students could pick up a guitar and say, "wow, this is difficult!" I'm actually not that upset or disappointed. After all, boys don't cry. Really, I was just happy to be busy doing something creative. Maybe only one student actually learned a few chords, but maybe in the future when she's looking for a new hobby she'll remember that playing guitar wasn't impossible and give it a go.

i feel like i'm being eaten
Last weekend I got to spend two days in a mystical wonderland known as the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum. Then, early in the week I visited a primary school and the four kindergartners with whom I shared lunch discussed their favourite dinosaurs with me. It was a happy several days.

In case if I haven't mentioned it before, it should be noted that the first dinosaur fossils found in Japan were discovered in and near Fukui Prefecture within the last few decades. In the city of Katsuyama in Fukui they built a museum to celebrate the find. It's one of the most entertaining and engaging museums I've been to. Granted, I am partial to any establishment with animatronic thunder lizards, but, still, people who've been there with me have all been impressed.

I went one day with a newcomer who wanted to check it out and another day for a community picnic in the dinosaur themed park next to the museum. It's always good to have a place to make me feel like I am young again.

PS: in case you didn't notice, there are a lot of links to music videos in this entry.

七夕: Of Stars and Separation

2009-07-07T22:47:00.015+09:00

七夕

Tanabata
(The Seventh Evening)

July 7th is is "Tanabata", a day in which we recall the star-crossed fate of a heavenly princess and her beloved cowherd and celebrate that most Japanese perspective on romance, "love means never actually having to see each other".

Orihime (the star Vega), daughter of the King of the Heavens (the Universe), used to weave beautiful clothing next to the Heavenly River (the Milky Way). She was so busy with her work, however, that she was unable to meet a good man and fall in love. Concerned, her father decided to arrange for her to meet Hikoboshi, the cowherder (the star Altair). The two hit it off instantly and fell so much in love that they no longer performed their duties. Orihime no longer weaved her beautiful clothes and Hikoboshi allowed his cattle to roam freely across the sky. This upset the King of the Heavens, so he separated the two across the Heavenly River and forbid them to see each other. Orihime became despondent, however, and her father, not wanting to see her so sad, told her that if she did her work dutifully she and Hikoboshi could meet once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month.

It is said that the first time they tried to meet, the Heavenly River prevented them from being able to draw close to each other. Orihime cried so fervently that a flock of magpies overheard and came to build a bridge with their wings for the lovers to cross. This is why people say that if it should rain on Tanabata, the magpies cannot come and Orihime and Hikoboshi will have to wait another year to see each other.

Various places in Japan hold Tanabata festivals, but the most common way to celebrate is simply to write a wish on a piece of paper and hang it on bamboo. I get this impression that this custom is most popular with children in primary schools, but that doesn't mean that you won't see older people making wishes too (The 2008 Hokkaido G8 Summit, for example).

Somehow, it seems very appropriate to me that a festival about separated lovers should fall in July. Our contracts with the Fukui Board of Education expire this month, and most of those who have chosen not to continue working here will leave before August. Summers are always strange in Fukui. At the same time that we bid farewell to our old friends we welcome in a new crew of people - most of whom we will probably have to say goodbye to this time next year, anyway.
Sunrise, sunset, ebb, flow, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Black or White?

2009-07-02T10:22:00.004+09:00

More than 98% of the Japanese population is ethnically Japanese. A large portion of the remaining population is of other East Asian descent.

Needless to say, people notice differences in appearance.
Hair color, eye color, facial structure, facial hair, arm hair, noses, eyelashes and more can all be a source of curiosity when a Japanese person encounters a foreigner. Some of the most interesting conversations I've had about appearance, though, revolve around skin color.

Last weekend I was outside almost all of Saturday and Sunday cycling and practicing for an Ultimate Frisbee tournament. Both days were very sunny, and my skin naturally became darker as a result. Then, when I returned to school on Monday I had an amusing conversation with some of my more entertaining first year middle school students.

"Sensei," one boy asked (in Japanese), "are you Black or White?"
"White, of course."
"But you have Black people in your family, right?"
To which another boy chimed in, "only White people can have White kids!"
"Yes, but if a Black and White person marry they could have mixed kids."

The silly thing is, this isn't the first time people have asked questions like that. Here in Japan I have been Black, Brazilian, Spanish, Indian, Scottish (someone once even said that I had a "very Scottish face") and more. Such are the joys of internationalization!

You Make My Heart Feel Super Happy

2009-06-20T22:59:00.014+09:00

I just returned to Fukui after a couple weeks in the USA where I attended two weddings. In my jet lag I generally couldn't fall asleep until sunrise, and one morning I made a wonderful discovery in children's television (at 7 AM there just isn't much else showing). Ni Hao Kai Lan: a programme featuring an adorable 5 year old Chinese girl designed specifically to teach kids Mandarin and Chinese culture. In the episode I watched, we learned how to blow bubbles in Mandarin and about how we can still play games together even if we want to play different games (compromise, children, compromise).

At the end of every episode Kai Lan looks out to her audience and says, "You make my heart feel super happy"

I feel like that phrase is the most appropriate introduction to my experience back in Jesus Land.

* * * * * * * * *

I was born first.
There is, I believe, a rather rich potential for the study of the effects birth order on the development of a child. My position in the family certainly has come to define a great deal of my traits.

As first-born I, generally, do everything first. It is my job to venture out, discover the world and use my experience to guide the Little One. I'm the one who first learns that the world is a cruel place where people laugh at your accent, where intelligence and sincerity are mocked and abused, where physically attractive members of the opposite sex talk to you when they need help with homework but never call you up just to chat, where the self-absorbed and inconsiderate will always take far more than they give while the thoughtful and generous get taken for granted.

It has been my job to prepare the Little One for this world by tormenting her at every opportunity, thus, (admittedly unknowingly most of the time) teaching her how to fight, argue and stand up for herself.
I do things first. Then, when Sister finds herself in a difficult situation I can say, "Oh, I've been there before. This is how you recover from a heartbreak. This is how you deal with failure. This is how you handle embarrassment. This is how you handle success. This is how you ignore people who are cruel. This is how you give back to people who are kind."

Well, Little Sister up and did something first.
I don't think she understood the rules of birth order.

It's OK. I'm proud of her, anyway.

One of the most common compliments you hear relatives of the bride say at a wedding is, "Oh, look how beautiful she is. I'm so proud of her."
That is not why I'm proud of Sister. Well, that's not the main reason, I should say. Yes, she looked beautiful. Yes, I nearly bit off my own tongue to keep from crying when she walked down the aisle. I challenge you, however, to find a wedding where the bride doesn't look beautiful.

No, I am proud of the Little One for other reasons.
I'm proud of her because for every lesson I gave her on the cruelty of the world, she gave me lessons on the potential of human generosity. Even as I was deriding her teenage emotional outbursts as "illogical" and pining for a society based on Vulcan reasoning, she was teaching me how one unexpected hug could transform any given cloudy day into pure sunshine.

I am proud of her because she likes dinosaurs.
Allow me to clarify. I am proud of her because she likes including random dinosaurs in cards and dioramas that she makes for people who are important to her. I'm proud of her because the word "random" seems to come up a lot around her. I like random. I like surprises. I've learned that the ability to surprise someone can be much more vital a quality to have in relationships than any talent, than any skill, than any shared hobby, than even, dare I admit it, intelligence and logic. Sister surprises me.

Sister has suffered me at my most cruel and unhappy, at my most pathetic and embarrassing and at my most unsympathetic and belligerent. Yet, as I have travelled around the world and seen countless friends come and go from my life, she has stepped up to become my most reliable confidant. I am proud of her for her endurance, for her patience and understanding and for her never-ending struggle to force me to learn how to give "a real hug".

In the past couple years I have come to realize that every relationship in my life is influenced by the Little One. How I look at women, how I associate with men - it's all connected to Sister. Would she like the girls I hang out with, would she be able to trust the boys I see the most often, would she approve of any of the hypothetical potential romantic interests in my life? These questions are ingrained in my subconscious.

All in all, it was an excellent trip home. I was very happy to spend a day celebrating the Little One and her relationship with that Ron Weasley understudy whom I can now call "brother". I wish we could celebrate more.

Sister, you make my heart feel super happy!

God Save the Co-President

2009-05-31T22:03:00.006+09:00

Every year the city of Mikuni, in northern Fukui Prefecture, holds a festival in honour of my birthday. Naturally, they disguise it as a traditional festival in order to make locals think that it's about them, but everyone secretly understands that May 20th isn't the Mikuni Festival （三国祭） but rather, the Zachary Festival（ザカリー祭）.

Basically, they have these giant dolls in Mikuni that are abstract representations of my life story cleverly disguised in Japanese folkloric fashion, and once a year (my birthday) they parade them around town with great fanfare. This year the Zachary Festival fell on a Wednesday which is the day when I visit evening classes at a part-time high school. Thus, I was able to venture to Mikuni in the afternoon and bask in the springtime festival joys of sunshine and snacks on sticks.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

There are about 90 ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) on the JET Programme in Fukui Prefecture. In some form or another, all of them receive support from the Fukui JET social organization called FJET. FJET organizes the orientation for new ALTs and a wide assortment of activities throughout the contract year.

Depending on who is running FJET, the group has a different personality and reputation. At times it's been a center of information and aid for ALTs, at other times it's been rather chaotic. When I arrived I noticed that several people in the center of the Fukui social life were highly skilled in forcing others to look at them without doing any substantial work to merit that attention. There were power plays, friendship undermining gossip, completely unnecessary drama and a general fraternity party atmosphere, and my friends and I frankly didn't want to be involved.

Over the course of the past year, FJET has been regaining legitimacy among ALTs here, and, when we had elections in May, people actually wanted to participate. I am entering my third year in Fukui. I have a lot of experience in Japan, and I feel a strong desire to use my experience to help other foreigners enjoy Japan as much as I have. This is why I decided to run for president. The president's role is to be a level-headed center to the whirlwind of activities and information that flies around Fukui ALTs. It's a lot of work and a big responsibility, so there are actually two presidents to share the load of being the head of FJET.

I ran for the position along with a Scottish girl who grew up in Dubai. We won, and held our first council meeting last Thursday. Things clearly have changed in FJET since I arrived. I feel very confident in the group we have now. The people who have assumed responsibilities have done so because they are qualified and capable of working well together. I look forward to seeing what we can do throughout the coming year.

By the way, I added a link to the FJET website on the left of this blog. We're in the process of updating the introduction to the FJET committee.

Love Grows Under my Umbrella

2009-04-19T23:11:00.003+09:00

相合傘

I learned a fun Japanese expression the other day. When two people share an umbrella it's called, "ai ai gasa" (see above). The characters basically mean something like, "coming together under an umbrella". We get a lot of rain here. In fact, the entire month of June usually falls under the category of "rainy season".
"Ai ai gasa" isn't limited to shared efforts to stay dry. As one of the teachers at my school informed me, "little girls like to think that when a boy and a girl share the same umbrella it means romance". He told me this after half of our classroom rushed to the window to see a single female teacher sharing an umbrella outside with a man.

In the romantic instance of "ai ai gasa", it's possible to employ a common Japanese word play method and use different characters than normal. Instead of 相合傘 (coming together under an umbrella), we can write 愛合傘 (love meets under an umbrella) . Both are read as, "ai ai gasa".

For the record, the teacher and the man were fixing a fence in front of the school.

April Tomfoolery

2009-04-13T00:06:00.006+09:00

Happy Easter!

Look closely at what Jesus and his disciples are eating (click on it to enlarge).
It's a Japanese last supper.
I found this on a restaurant wall somewhere in Kyoto or Nara (I can't remember which) on a weekend outing a little while back.

I've been really lazy about posting lately. Sorry, Grandma.

This entry is just a note to say that I want to be more reliable.

For those of you capable of harassing me into submission, here are a few topics you can pester me into posting about in the near future:

Finishing up the Taiwan tea talks
Climbing one of Japan's 3 holy mountains back in October
Staying in a temple for a night to learn about meditation methods
Driving around scenic Southern Fukui (I saw monkeys)
a weekend trip to Kyoto and Nara (the crane picture is from Nara)

Life is decent. As the weather has warmed, I have begun cycling more and enjoying the lovely cherry blossoms for the brief period that they'll be in bloom.
Also, picnic season is upon us.
I like picnics.

台北: Formosa Entry #4

2009-03-04T22:14:00.014+09:00

The long overdue updating of my on-line travel journal begins.
The picture atop the page is from Eiheiji, which I visited in January.
For now, let's get back to Taiwan.

Previously, in Formosa entries I was wandering the hills near the city of Hualien on the East Coast. The Hualien portion of the trip was only a couple days out of a full week, but it was the most unique and exciting part of the journey. The rest of the time I spent in Taipei, Taiwan's political, cultural and economic centre.

Taiwan is not a large island. Next to Bangladesh, it's considered one of the most densely populated places on the planet. In spite of its small size, however, Taiwan has one very sexy, sexy global influence: half the laptops in the world are manufactured here.
A large number of computer chips are manufactured as well. Chances are, if you've owned a computer, you've benefited from the Taiwanese technology industry.
Rowrrr...
(that's an imitation of a seductive cat purr, in case if you couldn't tell)

So, how do you cope with such a dense population in Taipei?
Construct the world's tallest building, Taipei 101.*
The entire population of Rhinelander, Wisconsin, could work in this tower and there would still be positions available.

Taipei 101 is not only tall, it also can withstand powerful earthquakes, typhoon-force winds and Japanese tour groups.
It is considered one of the greatest feats of modern engineering.
Here's the view from the cafe on the 89th floor. Notice the mountains in the background. It's possible to take a bus into the mountains to a tea village that I will mention later. Remember that. It'll be important. You may want to have a notebook ready (but not yet - it'll be in a later entry).

Taipei has some great night markets. Meals, souvenirs, clothing, drinks and the ever-important snacks-on-a-stick are all available. Most of my time in Taipei was spent wandering around trying various foods in markets like this one and looking for museums.

*construction should finish this year on a tower in Dubai that will become the tallest building in the world.

Setsubun, Risshin & Formatting Updates

2009-02-12T23:02:00.003+09:00

Greetings all!
Sorry I haven't updated in a couple weeks. I've still got some things to share from my experience in Taiwan, and I recently spent the evening at Eiheiji learning zazen (meditation).

In the meantime, I've made some changes to the format of this blog. You'll notice along the left hand side that links to other blogs have changed, and you now can see a list of labels. I added that for easy archiving purposes. Now, if you want to see anything I've written about something like temples or festivals, all you have to do is click on the label for temples or festivals. I also inserted a translation service at the bottom of the page.

While looking through the archives I noticed that some pictures seemed to have disappeared. I checked my storage limit, and I really don't know why this has happened. While looking up the storage limit, however, I found out that all the pictures I post here automatically get sent to an online photo storage service. If I ever organize that, I'll post a link.

Now, on to some updates:

This is a photograph I took in January shortly after returning from my travels. We had a decent amount of snow for probably less than two weeks in Fukui City. Then, it warmed up just enough to change to rain, and all the snow disappeared.

I noticed something with the snowfall this year that I don't recall from last year - THUNDER. Turns out that Western Japan is one of three places in the world where it can thunder while snowing.
February 3rd was setsubun this year. (click here for old post on setsubun). It's the end of winter on the lunar calendar, and people celebrate by tossing beans to ward off demons. I decided to check out events at a local shrine but heard the wrong starting time and showed up just as it ended.The day after setsubun is called risshin. This is the first day of spring on the lunar calendar. I believe it snowed on this day last year.

花蓮: Formosa Entry #3

2009-01-30T23:12:00.011+09:00

Continuing with the Formosan photography sessions, here are some shots from the city of 花蓮 (Hualien).
Looks like the Jews were just a little misdirected. Should've fled Egypt a bit a further to the east.

When the Portuguese first spotted the island of Taiwan in the 16th century, they dubbed it "Ilha Formosa" meaning simply, "Beautiful Island". That name, "Formosa" (Beautiful), remained in common use even into the late 20th century. Not quite as epic as "the promised land", but flattering, nevertheless.
Hualien lies on the East Coast and serves as a point of entry into the Taroko National Park. The beaches are too rocky for swimming, but, on the other hand, the naturally occurring variety of colours in the rock and large reserves of marble make for some nice jewelry and statues.

Hualien is the origin point of Tzu Chi, a large international Buddhist missions organization that focuses on medicine, education and disaster relief. Due to its apolitical stance, Tzu Chi has been able to work extensively in mainland China in spite of often bitter political tensions that may prevent businesses and government organizations from venturing across the strait.

This picture was taken just outside of Hualien in the national park. Taiwan, like Japan, is filled with mountains and prone to typhoons. This trail used to lead to a natural hot spring, but rock slides and typhoons about four years ago have caused it to close. At the time of the rock slide, several people were actually in the hot spring and some of them were killed.

Beauty, it seems, is not without its dangers.

Scholarly Sci-Fi

2009-01-24T12:21:00.004+09:00

Taking a break from Taiwan for a moment, allow me to share a page from a commonly used junior high school English textbook.

Normally, each chapter in an English textbook covers some famous person who is famous primarily in the realm of text-book writing or a story that is either dull or depressing to most students. We've covered landmines, blind opera singers, pollution, the atom bomb, the changing of the seasons as an allegory for life and death and, oh, so much more.

This week, we came across a subject matter that I actually found particularly enjoyable.
To practice making comparisons the textbook asked,
"Who is stronger Godzilla or King Kong?"

On the next page, we encountered this dialogue:

q(^o^q)(p^o^)p

Taroko Gorge: Formosa Entry #2

2009-01-18T23:28:00.004+09:00

Here are some more pictures from the national park I mentioned in the previous entry.

This is the inside of the pagoda that you can see in the background of the temple picture in the first entry.

And here's the view from the top of the pagoda. A sign at the temple said that the Buddha statue holds a world record for being at the highest altitude of any Buddhist statue of that type.

我們都是一家人: Formosa Entry #1

2009-01-10T01:39:00.019+09:00

The holidays are over, and now I'll be posting about Taiwan over the next couple weeks.
I could introduce my venture with information about the island, but I decided instead to begin with the story of my first couple days.

I've been on many good trips by myself. I often find the solitude and freedom of traveling alone to be preferable to having to suffer the whims and whimpering of a group. With that being said, I also find that when you leave yourself open to adaptation and accept situations as they come, you never really travel alone. This trip is, perhaps, the best example of that to come from my experience.

The overall impression I had throughout my time in Taiwan was that someone had been waiting for me to arrive. Rather than a first trip, it felt like the island was greeting me with a hug and saying, "Welcome back. We've missed you."

Frankly, it caught me off guard.
Anyway, on to the first couple days (I insert spur of the moment thoughts in italics).

Remember, you can click on the pictures to view them in a larger format.
I arrived in Taipei in late afternoon, spent the night in a cheap hostel with no windows or shower curtains and skipped out early in the morning for the East Coast city of Hualien. Hualien is known to tourists mostly as the starting point for trips into Taroko National Park, a cascade of mountains and marble cliffs surrounding a highway that runs along a river gorge (these pictures). The park has also been home to a few of Taiwan's dwindling indigenous groups, some of whom were headhunters until the Japanese colonial government outlawed the practice less than one hundred years ago.

That afternoon I walked along the shoreline and tasted various delicacies on sticks at street markets. When I returned to my hostel I met my two roommates for the evening, an engineer from Singapore and a Guatemalan graduate student who is currently living near Tokyo. The next morning the three of us set out for Taroko.
The advantage to tagging along with someone from Singapore while in Taiwan is that Mandarin is an official language in both places. The night before our trek into the national park he was of great help in our trio's quest to sample food from every vendor that the hostel recommended.

At 06h30 we took the first bus up the gorge highway and began our day in Taroko. There's not much to say about hiking along the highway and side trails except that the scenery is wonderful and public transportation is hard to find. Sure, there are group tours you can take, but then you have to deal with group tourists.

After trekking at least 20 km (13 miles), we found ourselves tired and unsure of where the local buses would stop. We decided to try to hitch a ride to the nearest bus stop. After several cars passed us over the lad from Singapore reassured us saying, "Whatever you believe in just have faith. It'll work out."
Yeah, sure, who wouldn't want to pick up three strangers while driving in the mountains far away from the city?
Taiwan did not seem to understand my mind's intrinsic need for sarcasm and cynicism.

Shortly after my Chinese-speaking comrade's religious appeal someone did, indeed, stop to give us a lift. A woman, her husband and a friend pulled over, and, in the course of highway conversation, revealed that not only did they normally not pick up hitchhikers, but they also had passed over someone along the road just before finding us.

"This is fate," said the lady at the wheel, "we were supposed to meet each other."
Arrrgh, cynic senses are tingling. People just don't talk like this unless if...oh, no...it can't be!
I'm surrounded by Buddhist missionaries!

As it turns out, only the driver was actually a Buddhist missionary, and, technically she wasn't so much a missionary as a volunteer for a Buddhist charity organization that builds hospitals and schools around the world. Her husband, we soon realized was actually a Japanese man who spoke no Mandarin. They normally reside in Japan but had recently purchased a house in her hometown of Hualien and were vacationing for a few months.

She offered us the chance to stay at her place for the same cost as the hostel and promised to donate all the money to her charity. Although I had planned to return to the Taipei that evening, I altered my schedule to allow for a Hualien homestay.

That night, as we were sitting around chatting in a mix of English, Japanese and Mandarin, our generous host taught me the expression written above,
我們都是一家人: "we're all like one family"
This is nice, but, c'mon, you can't talk like that to people you've only just met. Can you?

The next day she drove us all over Hualien introducing us to snacks, drinks and scenery we would've been want to find on our own.

Having lived in Japan for a couple years, my standard expectations for polite friendliness to guests is rather high. I had read that Taiwan was one of the most welcoming places on Earth, but, given my experience in Japan, I figured I was prepared for it. Even so, my first couple days left me completely disarmed. As I sat on the train for Taipei after my time in Hualien I found myself shaking my head in disbelief.
This level of hospitality just can't exist, and, yet, in spite of everything evil in the news today, it does. Could there still be a few people out there worth believing in?

^o^

2008-12-25T23:51:00.000+09:00

Foreward to Formosa

2008-12-22T18:22:00.008+09:00

Years ago, when youthful curiosity still fueled ambition, and ambition still burned into life-altering experience, I embarked upon a legendary quest.
Though I knew it'd be a solitary venture, I firmly decided that to struggle alone and fail would be worth more to me than dwelling in in the festive company of the multitudes of the "never tried".

To be honest, I can't recall if it was sunny, cloudy or rainy on the day when it all began. The weather brought no portents, which suited me just fine. If I was going to be working alone, it was best that others not receive any clues regarding the immense, impending change in my life. Standing sentinel across the way from the brick-walled location of the coming catalyst, I discretely darted my eyes left and right until I felt certain that no one was following.

Without allowing a moment to reflect, my left foot stepped down from the pavement to the street below. The right followed in kind. No thoughts, no emotions, no regrets. My body would see me accept this challenge whether my mind wanted to or not. I didn't realize exactly what my feet were doing until my hands had pushed open a simple glass door and the sound of bells awoke my cognitive senses. By then, it was too late to turn around.

A middle-aged Chinese man leaning in a chair in the corner looked away from the small television in front of him to see who had arrived. As I drew closer, he swiveled the chair to face me and arose so that he could match my gaze at equal height.
"Welcome, welcome," while his face was displaying a broad smile for all to see, his hands secretly slipped me a piece of paper. I glanced at the paper, then back at him, then at the paper again.

"have you decided?" the friendliness he displayed in his tone masked an impatience only I could read. I looked at his face and paused before answering. His smile did, in fact, seem genuine. Perhaps he really did have no idea what a large role he was playing in my destiny. Perhaps he didn't care.

"Yes, I've decided," I spoke to him plainly all the while attempting to hide great eagerness.

"I'd like a bubble tea, please"Bubble Tea is a dessert-like Taiwanese drink combining tea, tapioca pearls, a wide range of flavors and milk. The restaurant I frequented in my university days probably had a least 20 different flavours ranging from plain milk tea to kumquat and kiwi. I vowed to try every flavour before graduating, and, having failed in that quest, must now endure a pilgrimage to the island birthplace of my beloved beverage: Taiwan.

I'll fill you in on cultural/historical details later. In the meantime, please enjoy this video clip of Taiwan's most treasured historical cultural anthem:

Exam Over

2008-12-15T21:36:00.003+09:00

The test is over. Now, when I sit in front of the television nibbling on soybean snacks I don't feel guilty about it.

I won't know the results until a card arrives via postal service in February. As for how I feel about my performance, I really won't know until February. Could've gone either way.

The above picture is from a big winter light show in Kobe I visited the weekend of the exam. Yeah, it looks nice, but I had to stand in line for 90 minutes to get there. Such is Japan. Once something is labeled as a nice tourist location it no longer becomes an easy, comfortable visit. The herds of human cattle inhibiting pure enjoyment of the scenery will cause even the most docile of visitors to fantasize about elbowing elderly passers-by in the jaw like a toothless Canadian hockey hooligan desperate for the winning the goal in a match no one outside of Ottawa is going to watch anyway.

"Men that hazard all do it in hope of fair advantages"

2008-12-01T11:53:00.023+09:00

"Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth,
The better part of my affections would
Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still
Plucking the grass to know where sits the wind,
Peering in maps for ports and piers and roads,
And every object that might make me fear
Misfortune to my ventures out of doubt
Would make me sad."

I keep a copy of The Merchant of Venice with me. I don't think it's my favourite Shakespeare play or even my favourite comedy, but it always seems to creep into my mind at odd moments. Perhaps it's the history involved, perhaps the debate on anti-semitism, perhaps it's because I was able to imagine being in the play when lost in Venice a couple years ago (see above photo).

A bow-tie aficionado professor of mine used to say that Merchant offered many lessons on romance: Bassanio broke all finances to reach Belmont and solve a seemingly impossible riddle for Portia while Lorenzo and Jessica secretly slipped out into the night for a forbidden, inter-racial engagement.

As for me, however, I never notice the romantic endeavors in these tales so much as I do the friends who support the famous fools. Sure, everyone remembers the name of Romeo, but I'd rather be Mercutio - the loyal buddy who takes a sword in defense of Romeo and maintains a good sense of humour even in the face of death. In Merchant, yes, it's true that Bassanio hazards all to reach Belmont, but, he's actually traveling at the risk of the financial health (and, subsequently, the very life) of his friend Antonio. Antonio is the character I end up admiring as I read. He is melancholy, yet he finds solace by investing everything he has in his best friend's happiness. Although he may lack the whimsical witticisms of Mercutio, he faces the prospect of dying for his comrade with enviable dignity.

I guess what I'm really trying to say here is that lovers are boring.

Next Sunday, I take level 2 of the Japanese proficiency exam. It's the second highest level. Most graduate programs in Japanese require a knowledge at this level. It can also raise the prospect of gaining employment in a Japanese company. It's a very difficult test. I know some people who speak Japanese rather well but haven't passed even after a couple attempts.

I wanted a quote about "hazarding all" to reference going after this exam, so I plucked something out of The Merchant of Venice. The rest of the above is just the inane ramblings that jumped into my head once I opened the book. You see, whenever I have work to do, like studying for an important exam, I often resort doing anything and everything my mind can muster to distract myself.

I've been busy the past month. I've had to step up my study time, prepare several presentations and begin teaching Japanese to the new student at my junior high. A boy from the US has come to live with his father who is about to marry a woman in Fukui. His birth mother, who remains back in the states with his siblings, is Japanese, but he doesn't speak any Japanese. His father decided it would be good for him to take a year to get to know his mother's home country. This means that my school has to figure out how to accommodate a student who really can't take exams and do homework like the others. Part of that process involves me becoming a personal Japanese tutor.

In my remaining free time, it's been the usual mix of science fiction and Bollywood (still dreaming of the day that the two join together). Things are good. Sorry I haven't written much. I've been busy, and I've been lazy. I promise more this month once the test has finished.

Now, to close on a line from Merchant to help inspire me onward to the test,

"Well, if Fortune be a woman, she's a good wench for this gear."

(did you know that Fortune was a redhead?)

October School Life

2008-10-27T23:20:00.006+09:00

Remember a while back when I said I was going hiking at one of Japan's 3 holy mountains? I have some pictures from that trip ready to post, but I'm just not getting around to it yet.

Instead, here are some school related pictures. Last Friday I went along with the first year students on a trip to the nearby city of Katsuyama to visit a temple/shrine called Heisenji, a castle museum (castle built in the last 20 years or so) and the Fukui Dinosaur Museum (only dinosaur museum in Japan)
It was raining that day, but I really liked what the rain did for the atmosphere at Heisenji.These two pictures here are mobile phone photographs of an art project the entire school made today with the help of a famous local artist. We took big rice bags and wrote wishes, wants and desires on them. Then, we turned the bags inside-out and piled them together to make this particular art thing.
Some people wished for peace, prosperous future careers, happiness for friends, etc. As for me, my wish was in French, and that's all I'm willing to say about it public
And, finally, a Halloween greeting from your friends at the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum.

Speaking of Halloween, I finished the costume with a little help from a friend on the trousers, and really had a go of things this weekend at a Halloween Party that honestly was much to crowded and poorly lit for my tastes (left really early) and the International Festival at the International Center (much better lighting and atmosphere so I stayed all day for that one).

Abu really hit it off with the ladies and left me alone for a while to fend for myself with a sometimes violent little girl desperate to prove to herself whether or not I was the real Aladdin, but, save for some minor shin abrasions, the day was fun. My Fukui host family was there in the morning, and Abu really got on well with the little boy.
So, what I've learned this weekend is that if I want to get people to like me, all I really need to do is be more like a monkey.

Thomas & Tanka

2008-10-16T21:22:00.008+09:00

In Japan, certain ages are lucky and unlucky. For children the years 7, 5 and 3 are important (in a good way). They refer to it as "shichi-go-san" (seven-five-three), and, basically, it means that families have professional photographs taken and visit a shrine when their children are 7, 5 and 3.

In Fukui, many of us signed up for "host families". We don't actually ever live with the families, but we do have dinner and go to events together. My family is a neurosurgeon, his wife, a 7 year old girl and a 3 year old boy. I had dinner with them last Monday. The girl has taken a real liking to the card game Uno, and the boy, who has only begun speaking in full sentences recently, doesn't seem like he would be sick of Thomas the Tank Engine even if it were the only programme running on television for the rest of his life. For those of you who've never played Uno with Japanese children before, here's a synopsis of the evening:

Player 1: The 7 year old - must win against at least one parent before game can end
Players 2 & 3: Parents - happy the kids aren't making a ruckus
Player 4: Me - happy that we're playing a game that won't require any instructions in Japanese
Wild Card: The 3 year old - wants desperately to be involved in spite of the fact that he has no idea what's happening.

The wild card jumped into my team (literally). In working together with him, I learned that all the trains in Thomas the Tank Engine have a number, because he would look at my cards and say, "ooh, yellow Thomas! Red Percy!" He also was very swift to notice when one of the cards didn't look like the others, "ooh, a black one!"
Then, having anounced all my cards to the other players he blurted out the sweetest little irony I've heard in a long time, "it's fun when everyone plays together!"
Yes, fun, fun fun.
^o^

In other news, the teachers in my visiting school have been writing poems to display for next week's culture festival. Unfortunately, I won't be able to see the festival since it's not a day of the week when I normally visit the school, but I was asked to write something. The format was Tanka (短歌), which is similar to Haiku but longer. Haiku works in a syllable count of 5-7-5, and Tanka is 5-7-5-7-7.

Here's what I wrote:

父の庭　 chichi no niwa
かぼちゃのそばで kabocha no sobade
剣になる　 ken ni naru
ひまわりの茎　 himawari no kuki
相手を叩く aite wo tataku

I made a rough English translation following the format too:

A sunflower stalk
that swings like a katana
strikes my opponent
next to all of the pumpkins
within my father's garden

Halloween

2008-10-11T01:22:00.005+09:00

Yes, I did go hiking and camping last weekend.
Yes, I do have many pictures from the Japanese Alps to share.
No, I haven't transferred them from camera to laptop yet.
So, in the meantime, let's talk Halloween.

Today, I went cycling around the city to various "Recycle Shops" to try to find the parts to a costume I've been wanting to make since I was about 8 years old. Not much luck yet, but I have found some inspiration on the internet to keep trying.

Here it is:

Halloween does not have a long history in Japan, but, since there is no shortage of people who like seasonal treats and costumes, it has been growing in popularity the past few years. I don't believe there's a trick or treat custom, but stores do decorate a bit.

In terms of mythology beyond the commercialization, Japan already has the Obon Festival in August for honoring deceased relatives.

Represent!

2008-10-08T14:06:00.002+09:00

Back from the mountains.
It was a really great escape that I'd been needing for some time, but I'm not going to talk about it just yet. For now, I'd like to let you know about some Fukui Prefecture Pride.

The Nobel Prize in Physics was just given to Yoichiro Nambu, graduate of Fujishima High School here in Fukui city.

Here's a link to a NY Times article on his work: Three Physicists Share Nobel Prize

In other news, Sarah Palin's famous Tina Fey style glasses were manufactured right here in the city of Sabae, eyeglass making capital of the world. I don't know about Tina Fey's pair yet.

New Season Old Pictures

2008-10-02T23:23:00.004+09:00

You may have noticed a change in the picture atop the page. I've decided to make that seasonal. Yes, I know, Han Solo and Princess Leia being swallowed by a squid snack doesn't bring up memories of hot cider, jack 'o' lanterns and hay rides, but it reminds me of a fall 3 years ago when I first came to Japan.

I've considered making a separate page someday just for pictures of Han and Leia and their travels. I'll wait and see what the adoring public thinks about that. Speaking of the "public" that reads this, how are you doing, Grandma?If you read the previous entry, you'd have noticed that I mentioned working at a junior high school instead of a high school. That's because I changed schools after summer break. Essentially, I have become Fuji Climbing Partner (took over her job).

I now work at an academic middle school 3 days a week and a non-traditional high school 2 days a week. The middle school feeds students into the more academic high schools (there's an entrance exam for high school and university in Japan) which feed students into universities. The high school is the polar opposite of the environment in the middle school since it was designed for students who couldn't make it in a normal setting. One is academic, busy and filled with high expectations and stress, and the other is relaxed, slow-paced and not even filled at all (class sizes range from 1-20 students). So far, I really like both schools.

I'm feeling really confident this time around. The schools are new, but the work and location aren't new. I'm feeling more and more comfortable here, and learning some useful Japanese in preparation for a big proficiency test in December. I don't know my chances of passing the test, but, at least, I'm learning.

So, what are these random pictures?

The one right above with all the orange is from a shrine in the hillsides in Kyoto. I went on a final big outing to Kyoto with a few of my closest friends in June. Future Wife, Fuji Climbing Partner, The Artist and his Wife. All names that won't be appearing much anymore. This particular shrine is famous for its hundreds of Tori (the orange shrine gates) that wind all around a pathway into the hills.

The two mountain photographs are from near the city of Ono in Fukui prefecture. I went hiking with some friends late in the spring. Everything was perfectly clear on the way up, but then a couple people (Kanji Fiend & company) had to complain about how clouds always blur the peaks of mountains when they go hiking, and, lo and behold, the way back down the mountain turned out just like they expected.If all goes as planned, this weekend I'll go hiking again. This time, I'm going after Tateyama, one of Japan's three holy mountains. The other two are Fuji and Hakusan. Hakusan is actually located here in Fukui Prefecture, but I haven't had the chance to go yet.

We Can Do!

2008-09-25T13:27:00.025+09:00

Imagine, for a moment, if you will, a place beyond reason and understanding, an existence beyond the confines of space and time and, yet, somehow, withheld in the visible universe. Imagine, if you can, the inside of a black hole turned inside out and made to rotate counter-clockwise on a 45° axis.

Now, picture a typical rice field just outside of a typical Japanese city. In the middle of this seemingly average rice field, picture a typical academic junior high school filled with several hundred typical academic junior high school students.

It is September. The now golden rice field is ready for harvest, and the entire population of this seemingly average academic junior high school are in the gymnasium awaiting the opening ceremony of their annual culture festival.

Suddenly, a volley of severed, "bloodied" baby doll heads shrieks down from the rafters, sending the 12 year old cross-dresser on the gymnasium stage fleeing in mock falsetto terror.

Does the student body run away?

Do they scream in horror?

Do they even realize what frightening danger is upon them?

NO!

No one runs away from the culture festival. Yes, the severed heads are alarming, but the students know there is a simple way to avoid calamity in trying times.

Yes, that's right. It's time to crack open the peach of happiness, for inside the peach of happiness lies Utopia.

Can the karate master crack the peach? No.

What about the master swordsman? No.

How woeful are we!

Won't somebody come and open this peach so that we all can find Utopia?

Wait a minute, I know. No one can open the peach of happiness working alone. Only by combining our efforts will we be able to reach the creamy Utopian center.

OK, everybody, let's work together and escape our troubles. Remember, direct objects need never fear abuse here, for in Japan, as the culture festival motto states, We Can Do!

PS: a bit of friendly advice, don't look up pictures of peaches while at work. typing, 桃 (the Japanese word for "peach") returned many surprising, scantily clad results. I think I've stumbled upon a euphemism.

The View from Agrabah

2008-08-22T08:01:00.004+09:00

Outside my kitchen window lies a rooftop, accessible only to me, that I've come to nickname, "Agrabah", since it reminded me of Aladdin. As you can see in the picture, the highway below leads directly into the sunset over the mountains outside the city.
I didn't ever venture out on the roof much until the spring holiday period when all my friends were off traveling with significant others. They're all gone now, but I did have a somewhat eerie voice mail message waiting for me when I returned to Japan from a friend asking if I was back yet (the friend was no longer in Japan by the time I got the message).

Anyway, it's a new year in Fukui with new and unfamiliar people wandering about the city. Don't know how many of them I'll see with any degree of recurrence, but, if nothing else, I will at least have Agrabah this year.

bye bye

2008-07-18T14:38:00.011+09:00

Today is the last day of classes for schools in Fukui. This means that for many ALTs (Assistant Language Teacher) it is also the last work day in Japan. The vast majority of my friends here will not be in Japan anymore after I return from my brief sojourn in the USA. For this reason, every evening lately has been filled with final meals, cups of tea and air hockey death matches.
One last chance to get enough people together to order that 3,800 yen (36 USD / 18 GBP) parfait.
One last chance to take that 70 something year old Calligraphy instructor out to the Hawaiian restaurant that serves hot dogs longer than the average human shin.
Then, comes the goodbye at school. I'm not leaving the country, but I am changing schools. I had to give a brief farewell address (in Japanese) during the closing ceremony, and the students gave a brief thank you reply (also Japanese) complete with a bouquet of flowers. I wish more people would be open to giving flowers to men.

Sometime after the ceremony, a male student I've spoken with a few times outside of class shook my hand and prodded me with one of the only phrases in the English language that I can't fake.

"I love you," he said plainly (I think most people here know what it means but don't understand how strong it is). Noticing that I wasn't quick to respond, he pointed to himself and said, "now me"

"Uh, you're a good student," as much as I wanted to make him happy, I just can't use that phrase flippantly. Nevertheless, he smiled and we parted amicably.

Tonight, there is a party to celebrate the end of classes and beginning of the summer holiday season. I will have to give another farewell address to the teachers, some of whom, I will probably still see from time to time throughout the coming year. Many schools are holding parties tonight in the area near Fukui station. After the parties, many ALTs are meeting near the river that is near the station for another part of a series of final farewells. By the numbers, more than half of the ALTs in Fukui are leaving in the next couple weeks. My friends will be returning to San Diego, Albuquerque, Colorado and other places without any concrete plans except the search for work and/or graduate school.

With all the coming and going, sometimes it can feel like travel and the phantom friendships that develop therein toss a person about like a bathtub rubber ducky caught in a hurricane on the open seas. Here's an excerpt from the Dao de Jing by the ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi that has helped me stay somewhat grounded:

The sage experiences without abstraction,
And accomplishes without action;
He accepts the ebb and flow of things,
Nurtures them, but does not own them,
And lives, but does not dwell.

Positive News

2008-07-16T09:52:00.002+09:00

So, turns out that the Dawn Treader was not broken as I had previously surmised. Going against some advice I had received (and accepting other contradictory advice), I decided to boot it up one last time to see if things were really so perilous. Using a television as a secondary monitor revealed that there were no serious problems, and, after leaving it running for a while, the primary monitor functioned normally as well.

In other words, I have some posting to do. There are some pictures I want to put up, and I will get around to it.

The problem, you see, is that I just found out today that The Who and The Guess Who are two completely different bands. Some of the lyrics in "Pinball Wizard" are making more sense to me now, but I still have so much to sort out. This may take some time. I just feel so disorientated, and, well, rather dumb at the moment.

Dawn Treader now Treading Water & other updates

2008-06-24T14:51:00.003+09:00

The Dawn Treader (my laptop's nickname) has encountered some humidity related problems recently that may be rather costly. Basically, the graphics card is no longer of use, which means I can't view anything on the monitor. This means that I won't be using a computer at home until either I pay a hefty sum for complicated repairs, or just buy a new laptop. I have some pictures from my digital camera I'd like to share, but I don't know when I'll be able to do that. I have pictures from hiking in Fukui and a trip to Kyoto over the weekend to celebrate the end of a year spent with people who will be leaving in August.

In the meantime, here are a couple of mobile phone photographs from a primary school I visited a couple weeks ago. The first picture is the view from the room where we held classes all day.During recess time I played dodgeball with the kids. Dodgeball seems to have different rules than what I remember. When I was a kid, if the other team hit you, you were done for that game. In Japan, however, getting hit means that you become confined to the outer rim of the court. You have free movement to either side, so long as you don't enter open play and you can pick up stray balls and throw them at the opposing team from the opposing team's side. If you hit one of them you get to go back into open play. Teams win by forcing all of their opponents out of open play.
There is another rule in elementary school level dodgeball that seems to make it necessary for the entire team to target whichever member of their opposing team happens to be teaching English that day. I don't think it's a written rule, but people seem to obey it eagerly.

This second picture is a small graveyard next to the school. The school is high on a steep hill next to a shrine and a graveyard overlooking the sea. In total, I think there are probably around 50 students (grades 1-6).

In other news, my sister and some bloke I don't know will be visiting this week. After a weekend of little sleep in Kyoto, it looks as if I'm only going to get more tired. Hopefully, she won't steal any of my dinosaur toys. I hate it when she does that.

Support Your Local Conbini

2008-06-03T17:12:00.008+09:00

While royals blood lines were spilling over in conflict in England and France and Martin Luther was sparking divides in the German church, another feud was taking place in Japan for control of the countryside. Feudal lords and samurai family clans fought, dealt and swindled to maintain their borders and expand their influence throughout the land of the rising sun. Fiefdom consumed fiefdom, important figures rose and fell in influence and war was the only lifestyle that entire generations understood. Names like Oda and Toyotomi reached a level of prominence rivaled only by the emperor, and, finally, at the turn of the 17'th century peace was achieved when the entire country came under the power of the Tokugawa clan.

Likewise, today in Japan a "warring states period" is upon us again. This time, however, the struggle is not for political authority but, rather, commercial success. The names involved are not those of warrior clans. They are names like Sunkus, Family-Mart, 7-11, Circle K and Lawson.

This is a war of the "conbini" (convenience store). Regional alliances are fierce and unyielding. Success of one conbini in one prefecture does not always cause success in another. Although, at a glance most conbinis seem to offer the same myriad of useful services (groceries, bill paying, postal service, color copier, event and airline ticket vending, magazines, etc) subtle differences in their supplies and strategies are key to understanding the potential outcome of this war. I've included a few pictures to help illustrate:A prominent member of the Circle K Clan pauses for a moment to reflect on the successful defense of Fukui against the 7-11 invasion in the famous Omelette-Rice Battle of Obama in 2003. To this day, 7-11 forces have yet to make any advances into the Fukui Prefecture. Circle K's frequent border patrols and heavy reliance upon civilian militias and unusual occult mysticism (click here for video) is believed to be the main cause of 7-11's failure in Fukui. Where Circle K's successes have come on the arms of military strongmen, Lawson's successes have come through the aid of an austere, nearly-pacifist, religious appeal. If Circle K is like Alexander, Lawson is like Gandhi. Due to this peaceful approach, artists and the Literati have thrown almost exclusive support for Lawson. Above you can see a famous painting now on display in the Aichi Prefectural Art Museum in Nagoya portraying the Lawson clan in a state of heavenly enlightenment.

What Western observers would perhaps find to be the most foreign tactic employed by Lawson clan members is also their most effective: personal warmth and kindness. Just today, I was recruited to their ranks by such efforts. I have done my best to remain neutral thus far, but this afternoon as I made a purchase at the Lawson across the street, the clerk dug around the lottery box on the counter when no one was looking so that I could pull out a winning ticket and obtain a free ice cream.
Lawson for life!
The Holy Sprite of Communication in this Lawson propaganda advert is exclaiming, "I'd rather die young whilst shopping in a Lawson than live forever near any of its competitors"

Fun with Polka Dots

2008-05-20T15:37:00.002+09:00

The other day as I was about to park by the grocery, I noticed that there was an open space next to another Nissan March of a very similar color to mine. Guess which one is Purin.
I can't help but imagine the tears of jealousy raining from that other customers eyes as he or she returned to the car only to find such a more stylish sibling automobile in the next spot over.

Are You OK? FIGHT!

2008-05-15T22:29:00.008+09:00

One idle spring morning as I was engaged in a typical post-work day "rush", I realized that it had been more than 6 months since the last time I did any form of exercise. "This is not good," I whispered to myself, so as to avoid fully arousing myself from a mid-afternoon nap. "I should do something," I muttered quietly this time fully awake but not wanting anyone around me to realize how much of my day is wasted on writing an inner monologue, "whatever shall I do?"Then, suddenly, I remembered something! Every May my school hosts a 10km (6.2 mile) marathon. I could plan to run in that marathon. This would give me incentive to work out and an opportunity to bond with my students while running together around the school.
Oh, it seemed like such a good idea.
Yes, I trained hard. Running 4 or 5km a few days a week with some students from the Kendo club. I even used Google maps to plan 5-7 km runs around Fukui City. I was getting in shape and feeling good!
The week before the race was strangely cold and dreary for May with clouds and rain, and on my last practice run before the race my new running shoes become terribly soggy. But come marathon morning all was sunny and delightful. We couldn't have planned for a better spring marathon day.
The starting pistol fired, and off I ran with a herd of more than 350 high school age boys. I kept pace as best I could, and when I felt I was nearing the end I still managed to maintain position in the top 3rd of a pack of very athletic boys in the prime of their physical health.
Unfortunately, what my body felt to be the end of the race actually turned out to be the halfway mark.
Soon, I found that my students were finally eager to speak with me in English outside of class. Conversations usually went as follows, "Oh! Hello, Zachary! How are you? Bye Bye."
At one point as I passed one of the teachers standing by the course to direct students and traffic, I was encouraged by some very typical Japanese English.
"Zachary, Are you OK?"
"Yes"
"FIGHT!"
"Fight," indeed, I did! (much to the joy of all natural Japanese red heads)
I finished the race far from that top 33% position I once held but still far from the bottom (a lot of students walked). In so doing, I came to understand the Japanese expression 足がぼうになった(ashi ga bou ni natta - "my legs have become like sticks"). Although my body felt wonderful, perhaps even euphoric, for a few hours it seemed like my feet had fallen off, leaving me to walk on sticks.
Shall this endeavor lead into greater things?
Meh, we'll see.

More Kobe Area Photographs

2008-05-08T23:48:00.008+09:00

Now, time to post a few more pictures from my spring holiday in Kansai (the region with Kobe, Osaka and Kyoto). I should have posted these a month ago, but, well, springtime makes me feel lazy.These first few are of the temple grounds of Engyouji. Engyouji is a mountain temple complex near Himeiji Castle (pictured in the "Sadness of Spring" entry). While Himeiji is a popular tourist spot with crowds year-round, Engyouji's semi-remote terrain makes for a nice escape from the crowds. Travelers can reach the grounds via a somewhat pricey tram, or they can hike for an hour or so (provided they can find the trail). I rode the tram up and hiked down.
Engyouji's claim to fame, besides its centuries old history and beautiful mountain scenery, is its use in the film The Last Samurai. I think most of the film was shot in New Zealand given that the ubiquitous power lines and concrete embankments in Japan make it really difficult to find any place that still looks completely natural, but a few scenes actually were truly Japanese.
Engyouji has a few trails leading around the mountain. It takes a decent bit of walking to see all of it.
Finally, a bit of splendid news. On my return to Fukui, I decided to spend a day in Kyoto admiring the sakura, since Kyoto is in between Kobe and Fukui. While there, I managed to do something by myself that a friend and I only daydreamed of achieving together last fall. I found the Philosopher's Path!

For a recap of why this is significant, look back at one of my entries I wrote after my first trip to Kyoto in October. Here
Yea, though we did wander many a good hour, our efforts were in vain as the Philosopher's Path refused to show itself. This time around, large swaths of flower viewers and large markings labeled "Philosopher's Path This Way --->" made the journey all the easier.

Now, all I have to do is discover the Umeda Sky Building in Osaka and my list of painfully easy to find popular Japanese tourist destinations that have thus far eluded me will be restored to zero.

神戸: Kobe

2008-04-27T21:18:00.006+09:00

The sakura have mostly been gone for a few weeks now. No more hanami, but at least everything here has started turning green. Now, it's high time I shared some of the pictures from my excursion into the Kobe area nearly a month ago.

Having 2 weeks of free time but not much cash, I decided to keep the traveling simple by visiting a friend in Kobe and wandering around the Kansai region (the area just south of Fukui that includes Kyoto, Osaka, Nara and Kobe) for as long as the 4-day Kansai train pass would allow me to wander.Here we see the lovely port city of Kobe from above. I really liked Kobe. It offers easy access to both mountains and coastline as well as all the commodities of a major metropolitan hub.
Among the most essential commodities, of course, is Bubble Tea - the Taiwanese tapioca pearl tea sensation that is a favorite drink in China Towns the world over. You can't see it in this picture, but my friend and I bought matching Kung Fu shirts here. That same night we also watched the Stephen Chow classic Shaolin Soccer.
Not only does Kobe offer mountains, a port and bubble tea but also some of the finest creepy modern art this side of Dali's twisted time piece.
The best part of Kobe, naturally, was the colorful restrainless chair lift that takes sightseers up and down the mountain overlooking the city. Sure, the seats never rise more than a couple meters off the ground, but, still, in the States this sort of ride is a lawsuit in waiting.

That's my friend taking a picture of me in the picture. Someday, I think I may create a photobook of pictures of people taking pictures.
Some background on the friend: a few years ago we both lived in the same city outside Nagoya while exchange students at Nanzan University. Since we lived in the same city we also rode the same train to school. We even ended up testing into the same Japanese courses. He was really the first friend I made in Japan outside of my host family. Although he grew up on a dairy farm in upstate New York (not the city) - a part of the world I've never seen, "Battisti" and I managed to connect through a mutual interest in the Japanese language and a love for all things Stryper.

For the sake of personal embarrassment, I shall provide links here to a couple of pictures from my old Nagoya blog: A B

Silent Spring: Polka Dots and Face Paint

2008-04-21T22:38:00.007+09:00

This is my car. I've had it since early March. It is, in fact, a March - a Nissan March. I got it in exchange for 10 Spanish lessons from a Japanese girl who gave it this "unique" paint job one day because she "just felt a little bored". I've decided to name it "Purin" (poo-reen) after one of my favorite Pokemon (called "Jigglypuff" in English), since, well, let's face it, anyone driving this car belongs in a cartoon - probably solving mysteries with an anthropomorphic dog.

So, anyway, five people dressed as mimes pull into a McDonalds in a polka dot car at 7h30 in morning. As they drive away nibbling on hash browns and sipping coffee one of them comments, "I feel like we're in a commercial".

No, friends, this is no commercial. This is a car rally!
Every year, the JETs in the southern section of Fukui prefecture plan and host a day long scavenger hunt automobile adventure requiring that participating teams pay a small fee for supplies and dress in matching costumes. Cheapskates that we are, my team waited until the night before the rally to decide on costumes, and that decision took place in a 100 Yen store ($1 store or 50p store depending on your currency of exchange).
200 yen later (roughly 2 bucks or 1 quid- again depending on currency of exchange), we each had enough makeup to satisfy the costume requirement. A few of us also couldn't resist the chance to carry a cane all day and ended up spending a grand total of 300 yen, but how else can you continue the classic mime tradition of breaking the legs of the competition?

By the end of the day, the cheap make up started flaking off a couple of us, making mimes into zombies - especially the one on the right. He doesn't have a nickname yet, by the way, so I'll call him "Canadian Zombie" for now.
This is team nostalgia. Classic 80's and early 90's children's television programming and one of my favorite costume designs. behind them you can see one of the members of the nearly all male team kimono.
One of the great things about driving around Southern Fukui all day was discovering all the nice coastal scenery. Although we all live in Fukui, that doesn't mean we get around to see each others' areas much. On standard highways it takes at least an hour and a half to reach the rally starting point from Fukui City, and the final ending point is at least another hour and a half from there. It's faster by trains, but tickets cost more money than people are willing to spend for casual sightseeing.
The rally came to a close south of the small fishing town of Obama. As you can see, the townsfolk have a peculiar interest in the outcome of this year's US Presidential election.

By the way, all pictures but the one of Purin are mobile phone photographs. That will explain the lower quality compared to typical fare.

We finished 7th out of 16 or 17 teams, but I don't know how we ranked overall, since there were more than 90 questions, quests and posed photographs to accomplish throughout the day for points that will tell the ultimate winner. The most important thing we brought home, however, had nothing to do with the rally itself and everything to do with the wide-eyed, open mouthed expressions of shock and awe of every driver who pulled up to a stoplight only to look to his/her right and notice a polka dot car full of mimes (mimes listening to Muddy Waters, Phil Collins and Tears for Fears cassettes at that)

漢字とかな： Japanese Writing

2008-04-17T21:33:00.021+09:00

I've recently begun private lessons in Chinese and Japanese. A large portion of both involves writing, and my homework requires a lot of memorization - an old technique I'd almost forgotten since the atrophy of my mind began with all the wasted free time at work. Now, I'd like to share some insights into the tedious work of achieving literacy in Chinese and Japanese. Don't worry if any of this gets confusing. Japanese students spend 6 years of primary school, 3 years of middle school and some of high school learning this stuff. I'm sure it's the same in Chinese speaking countries.

漢字： Chinese Characters (read "kanji")
The Japanese had no writing system until delegates from China introduced their ideographs about a millenium and a half ago. The characters taken from Chinese are not phonetic (ie. not an alphabet), but rather represent an idea. Some resemble images, some are abstract images of the ideas they convey, but most seem rather arbitrary. A few examples:
木：　tree
森：　forest (a gathering of trees)
女：　woman, 　子：　child, 　好：　good/like (woman and child)
魔法：　magic (how could you make a picture of magic?)
凸凹：　bumpy/jagged (no, not tetris - these are actual kanji)

So, anyway, the Japanese took on this system of writing which required a knowledge of several thousand characters for complete literacy. This was great for scholars who already spoke Chinese, but did little to help anyone who spoke only Japanese since the two languages are very different in grammar and pronunciation. Thus, the debate began regarding how to properly read the characters. Characters which originally had one reading in Chinese then took on a Chinese and Japanese reading in their new island home. Some characters even developed several readings.
examples:

南： south
original Chinese reading: nán
possible Japanese readings: nan (from Chinese), minami
(this kanji is pretty standard fare - 2 common readings)

not all kanji are so simple, however:
生： life
original Chinese reading: sheng
a few possible Japanese readings: sei, i, u, nama, sho, ki, ha, o
(a bit of an extreme case, granted, but not unusual)

Generally speaking, kanji use their Japanese reading when used by themselves, but when combined with other kanji they take on their Chinese reading (which often sounds little like the actual reading used in China today). Of course, there are exceptions (no need to waste time on that here).

Kana
From the kanji Japanese scholars went on to develop two more writing systems called Hiragana and Katakana. The Kana systems together form an alphabet-like syllabary (mix of syllables) of 46 characters each (92 total).

ひらがな： Hiragana (The characters read "hi-ra-ga-na")
Used for native Japanese words not written in Kanji or any time the Kanji cannot be recalled.
カタカナ： Katakana (ka-ta-ka-na)
Used for words taken from foreign languages (not Chinese) or to draw attention to a word

Here's an example of the same word in all 3 writing systems:
残忍： atrocious/inhumane (kanji "zan-nin")
ざんにん　(hiragana "za-n-ni-n")
ザンニン (katakana "za-n-ni-n")

All three systems are used simultaneously. Thus, a typical sentence looks something like this:
ブラピの映画を見ました。 I saw a Brad Pitt film
ブラピ： "bu-ra-pi" (katakana nickname for buraddo pitto - Brad Pitt)
の： "no" (hiragana)
映画： film (kanji)
を： "o" (hiragana)
見ました：見： kanji for "to see" / ました： hiragana "ma-shi-ta"　

Note that the above sentence has no subject. Those usually aren't necessary. It could just as easily be translated as "You saw a Brad Pitt film", or "we saw...", or "he saw...", etc.

Chinese - Japanese
A person who is fluent in Japanese can read and understand a good deal of written Chinese and vice-versa. It's possible to understand the meaning of kanji without knowing their readings. Thus, even though Chinese and Japanese cannot speak each others' languages, they can make themselves understood through kanji - usually. The Chinese write only in kanji, and many of the kanji that they use are written in a different manner or are entirely different kanji from what the Japanese would use.

Even within Chinese speaking countries different kanji are used. After WWII, the communist government on mainland China decided to simplify the Chinese writing system in order to encourage literacy, but Taiwan and Hong Kong were not under communist control and did not follow along with the PRC. This is why you'll notice "Traditional Chinese" (Hong Kong & Taiwan) and "Simplified Chinese" (the mainland) whenever you see text translated in Chinese.

Here's an example of how Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and Japanese compare:
"Hello, teacher! Are you listening?"
TC: 老師好 ! 　　　　　您聽不聽？
SC: 老师好！　　　　　您听不听？
J: こんにちは先生！聞いてますか？

Finally, a word on "inspirational" kanji. Perhaps you've read in an email forward or heard from some public speaker something about dual meanings of Chinese characters. For example,
"in Chinese 'opportunity' and 'struggle' are the same word", or "the Chinese write 'challenge' and 'opportunity' with the same character", or, perhaps, "in Chinese 'Wisconsin cheese' and 'heavenly substance delivered to man on the wings of Pegasus' are the same character" or "the Chinese say 'California cheese' and 'tasteless imitation of real food' with the same word" or any number of similar things. Well, I can't confirm or deny any of this (pretty certain on the cheese ones though), but I did discover an inspirational kanji on my own while studying this week.

介： The Chinese character for "mediate" is also the character used for "shellfish"
紹介： introduce
魚介： fish & shellfish

Knowing that made my studies feel all the more worthwhile this week.　　

The Sadness of Spring

2008-04-09T22:30:00.011+09:00

If you come to recognize no other kanji (Chinese character) that I've ever written on this blog, at least get to know this one:
桜：sakura (cherry blossom)
Last week the cherry blossoms began blooming across Japan. I took the above picture at Himeiji castle, near Kobe. The blooming of the cherry blossom is, perhaps, the most important natural phenomenon to occur in Japan. Sakura is a proud cultural symbol that figures prominently in music, literature and artwork. Newspapers and newscasts give predictions of when the blooming should begin in various parts of the country, and people step out in droves to delight in the newfound springtime beauty.
花見： hanami (flower viewing)
A group of tourists enjoy hanami along a river in Kyoto.

The arrival of sakura marks the end to the long, cold, wet, miserable winter season. As one of the most easily recognizable symbols of Japan, it brings much happiness with its beauty, but also a tinge of sadness. The blooms only linger a couple weeks. Thus, although their arrival is a joyous occasion, those who view them do so understanding the oft clichéd phrase that all good things

must end someday.

梅花： Plum Blossom

2008-04-05T21:49:00.004+09:00

While driving back from Sumo in Osaka, my entourage and I stopped at a shrine on Lake Biwa, Japan's largest lake. I thought I'd share a few of the pictures.
The plum blossoms had just begun to bloom. That's a tori, the name for a shrine gate, in the background.
The highway splits two of the tori.
Here, the two passengers of my car (oh, yeah, got a car in March - will show a picture sometime soon) sit and admire the tori. Look closely and you'll notice that it's in the lake itself.

Haven't quite given these two nicknames yet. Let's see, the guy on the left is in my calligraphy class and well-versed in various Chinese characters, so I'll call him Kanji Fiend. The girl on the right just started driving after coming to Japan and nearly killed me in October, so I'll call her New Driver.

相撲: Sumo

2008-04-02T23:42:00.005+09:00

A couple weeks ago I had the chance to attend a Sumo tournament in Osaka. Tournaments are held in Osaka on the weekends of March and in other months in Fukuoka, Nagoya and Tokyo. This first picture is the part of the tournament when the wrestlers are introduced to the crowd.
Sumo is believed to have origins dating back a couple thousand years, but its current form developed predominantly in the past couple hundred years. The rituals at Sumo tournaments rely heavily on Shinto beliefs and traditions, and the Sumo lifestyle is strictly regulated by the Japan Sumo Association. Currently there are less than 1,000 professional Sumo.
The winner is the Sumo who forces his opponent out of the ring or on the ground. Even though most matches seem to end in a brief burst of force, there are actually dozens of recognized techniques that a Sumo may use to force an opponent out.

The Sumo league is divided into an East and West division with the top wrestler from each division carrying the title of Yokuzuna. In spite of the fact that Sumo exists almost exclusively in Japan, there have been many foreigners in the league. The 2 current Yokuzuna, for example, are actually Mongolian. There is also a very successful Bulgarian who is quite popular with the ladies. Foreign sumo take on a Japanese name once they're accepted into the league.
Here you see an example of the Shinto influence on the sport's rituals. The sword is one of the three imperial emblems (the emperor, once believed to be descended from the sun goddess, is also closely tied with Shinto). Before each match the Sumo toss salt on the ring to purify it in Shinto fashion.

All in all, I'm glad I spent a day at the tournament. It's not something I'd do very often, but it was a good experience. The atmosphere for most of the day was very relaxed, but as the higher ranking Sumo began competing the audience gradually became more and more excited.

I was able to take a few videos with my digital camera. You can find them on youtube by looking up videos under my username: huancaina

Or, you could just click on these links:
Yokuzuna Hakuho
Yokuzuna Asashoryu
"Robocop"
I have a few others posted as well. Just look around if you want more Sumo.
As you can see in this photograph, Sumo are normal blokes with the same interests as anyone.
Anyone with a strange affinity for naughty cartoons is also included in that aforementioned "anyone"

白川郷: Shirakawago

2008-03-30T01:17:00.005+09:00

A few days after the festival in Nagoya, a friend and I ventured into the mountains to experience a taste of traditional village life. Nestled in a valley in Gifu Prefecture, next to Fukui, lies Shirakawago - a collection of thatched roofed houses that have been declared a World Cultural Heritage Site by the United Nations.
Although Fukui was warming to nice spring temperatures, the mountain village still had snow and a chill in the air. There isn't much to say about the village except that it's quiet, peaceful and scenic. People who live there seem to enjoy tending to tourists' needs, managing agriculture and owning dogs. Really not a lot to do in the area for anyone with an itch for livin' la vida loca.We stayed the night in one of the houses. this is the main room where we ate. The fire pit in the middle is the traditional means of heating houses and cooking meals. We used an electric space heater in our room. Although the village experience may not sound very exciting, it was a great escape. Day after day going to a job with no work was wearing on my nerves, and the hot bath and quiet evening away re-energized me just in time to take on spring break.

NOT SAFE FOR CHILDREN festival

2008-03-27T23:38:00.004+09:00

A few weeks ago, my favorite little former host sister from Nagoya turned 10. Conveniently, many girls here in Fukui really wanted to go to Nagoya the weekend of her birthday, so it wasn't hard to fill a car with people for the journey over. The Fukui girls, however, had no idea any birthdays were taking place. They had an ulterior motive: a 2 meter long, wooden ulterior motive.

WARNING: the pictures in this entry probably aren't so great to show the kids (even though many children were at this festival)Every year in spring a couple of shrines in Nagoya host festivals in celebration of fertility just in time for spring planting. One festival takes on a female theme and the other has a male theme. The male themed festival draws in the largest crowd, including the most packed group of foreigners I have ever seen in Japan (what does this say about the collective maturity of we non-Japanese residents, I wonder?)
There is food (pictured above) to match the theme, and a small parade. During the parade, people marching hand out many cups of free sake to onlookers and encourage some good luck pats on various wooden "structures".
The festival ends when the "structure" enters the shrine at the end of the parade. At the end of it all, the Western onlooker can't help but laugh at the large gathering of pale skinned persons and lament the great shame we've been taught to render our own bodies. Would this festival be so intriguing to us if we didn't deem it so naughty? The Japanese don't seem to find much offensive about it.
Now, to make up for the strange pictures above, I've added a nice sunset photograph from the Oasis structure in the Sakae district of Nagoya.

夢：Dreams

2008-03-17T22:19:00.006+09:00

I went to Nagoya over the weekend. I'll put pictures up sometime, but before I do I must warn that they will not be safe for work. This particular Shinto festival had a peculiar theme. More on that later.

For several straight nights I've had dreams that I still remembered the morning after - a rarity, indeed. I've decided to share a couple of them.

一番目：　日本語の夢を見る (Dreaming in Japanese)

I had a dream entirely in Japanese. I'm fairly certain it was correct Japanese as well, since everyone spoke very slowly. I was on a train and the popo was like all up in ma kool aid cuz I be one bad cracker brotha yo. So, anyway, yeah, these policemen on a train were trying to make me pay a fine because I didn't have "xyz". I don't remember what the word was, but I do remember knowing for certain in the dream that "xyz" was something that they made up thinking that I wouldn't understand Japanese. The man was tormenting me because I wasn't Japanese. I asked what "xyz" was, knowing it to be something fake, and they gave me a lousy explanation that even people who don't know a word of Japanese would've figured out to be a lie. The dreamed ended after I yelled at them very angrily.

二番目：　春の危険 (Springtime Hazards)

My friends and I for a couple years would play this betting game every spring. While everyone else was picking which college basketball team would win the championship, we'd gamble on which one of us would be the first to fall for a girl in April. The April Thaw was and remains one of the most feared times of year. It's sadly already begun drooling it's pungent toxins over me while I sleep in defenseless dreams.
I and a group of anonymous associates were sneaking around in the dark with loaded guns until we came upon a small group of people in a lit area and surrounded them. Having captured them we believed ourselves to be successful until the small group's larger group of associates jumped in from the dark and surrounded us at gunpoint. Not really understanding why we were in armed combat or even why I needed to be carrying a gun, I blindly grabbed a girl from the inner circle that we had previously captured and used her as a hostage to force everyone to drop their weapons. Once that was accomplished, I yelled out, "what do you want?" to those who had previously captured us in hopes of reaching some sort of peace agreement. Then, to my surprise, the girl that was my hostage turned to me and said "this is it". All those military tactics were little more than a sheepish conspiracy to set me up with that girl. We started dating after that.

Speaking of arranged meetings, tonight I had dinner with a Japanese family near my regular school. A woman in her 50's who used to work at my school started studying English a few years ago to keep her mind active, and, since my predecessor is busy with his girlfriend she decided to invite me over for dinner with her husband and niece. She said when she was exactly my age family friends arranged for them to meet and things have worked out very well over the past 30 years or so for the both of them. I don't think their arranged meeting required a hostage crisis though.

The Monkey's Paw

2008-03-12T20:03:00.008+09:00

I remember reading this story in high school once about a man who finds a monkey's paw that grants him wishes. This would seem wonderful except that the monkey's paw granted wishes rather literally. Thus, when he wished for the return of a dead friend he found himself terrified by the scuffling of what seemed to be a reanimated corpse knocking on his front door.

Today I held a monkey's paw.
When I was a child the people who fascinated me the most in my community were the immigrants. People who for usually economic, social or political reasons could not return to a land that figured frequently in their stories and imaginations. There were the Hungarians across the street who clung fiercely to an accent even decades after leaving their homeland. There was the lady from the Dominican Republic who wished to teach her daughter Spanish so that she could have someone to talk to in her native tongue. I still feel indebted to the Cuban who taught me Spanish for 3 years for her encouragement in my pursuit of all things foreign. Finally, who could forget the men at the local Mexican restaurant who, when interviewed by high school Spanish students, said the most difficult aspect of living in the US was their lack of proper paperwork?

I was fascinated by them, in part, I think because I wished in some way to be like them. Halfway through my first year of primary school my parents decided to move to a state where we didn't know a single person. Shortly after arriving my new classmates greeted me with what would become one of the only bad memories from my childhood - ridicule. Apparently, to people in Indiana people from Northern Wisconsin pronounce words in a funny manner. In response I vowed never to claim that place as home, and Indiana never gave me much of a reason to forsake that vow. Even in high school, years after my efforts to hide my accent had all but made it disappear, people knew me as, "the guy from Wisconsin", or simply, "the cheesehead" (there also was a period in mid-elementary school when a couple friends referred to me as "the Canadian" and chose to ridicule me as such but I have done well to suppress that memory).

Here is a picture of the area near where I was born:
Here is the area near where I moved at the age of 6:
Is it any wonder then why my imagination and identity centered around a place where I knew I would probably never be able to live again?

So, why then would I want to be like an immigrant? People already laughed at my accent. Why couldn't they be laughing at a foreign accent (foreign accents carry the added bonus of being multi-lingual)? My family had to travel long distances to visit relatives. Why couldn't we be visiting relatives in a foreign country? 10 hour drives to Wisconsin for my dad's side. 15 hour drives to Nebraska for my mom's side. Instead of two long car rides, why not just have one long flight to Hong Kong, France or Costa Rica?

Such were my childhood musings. Then, in the summers between university classes I had the chance to work with Latino agricultural workers and witness life for some of the poorest and least-educated immigrants in the country. Whenever I find myself struggling with something here in Japan I usually think of them and fight through whatever linguistic or cultural obstacle may be presented. If a Mexican who doesn't know enough English to ask directions to the supermarket can have a satellite dish installed that receives 3 dozen Spanish language channels surely I can manage a simple bank transfer without any help!

Returning to the monkey's paw. Today I applied online for auto insurance. Relying heavily on online translation services, I forced my way through it only to find out at the end that I had to telephone the company. Upon calling I quickly realized how inadequate my Japanese was for the task after the employee told me the application would be impossible to complete and requested that I give up. I began learning Japanese at a university ranked among the top 3 in the US for East Asian studies and spent 3 hours every morning in intense Japanese grammar sessions in Nagoya one fall. This rejection humbled me dearly, and, yet, somewhere deep inside I felt like it was an experience that I had wished for at some moment in my life. As a child I just thought I was pining for multi-culturalism and multi-lingualism, but being an immigrant also includes frequent stares, an incessant inability to fit in and unnecessary searches by policemen who seem to feel that anyone with a beard must be a bicycle thief (the beard is gone now, but really I think they were just jealous).

Looking back, I'm really glad I never wished for the return of any of my dead pets.

My Flat

2008-03-09T11:53:00.003+09:00

Haven't updated in a while, sorry. I'll be getting to that this week. In the meantime, here's a picture from my flat here in Fukui City. Mother has been harassing me about this since the fall. I finally caved. Here you go!

First Nations and Tight Accommodations

2008-02-26T21:15:00.008+09:00

Another neat spot South of Sapporo is the Ainu museum, which, unfortunately, seems to be more of a large flea market of repetitive wood-carved souvenirs than an actual museum. They do, however, have some nice traditional huts on display and it is possible to learn a little about Hokkaido's native people, the Ainu.

The Ainu, before intermarrying and hiding their identity to avoid discrimination, were physically, linguistically and religiously completely different from the Japanese. Never great in number, estimates say that today roughly 50,000 people have two ethnically Ainu parents and several thousand more are of mixed lineage. The vast majority speak only Japanese, as Japan's rush to catch up with the Western democracies in the mid-18'th century brought in a wave of ethnocentric lawmaking. Only recently have Ainu begun to speak out about their heritage and gain rights and recognition.

Two side notes: 1) Many city names in Hokkaido derive from the Ainu language.
2) I had a really nice potato and salmon soup at the museum. I mention this because, well, I like salmon and that potato in my soup was probably the best potato I've had in Japan. The food in Hokkaido, in general, was some of the best I've had since coming here.
This hut is called, "The Next House". I've no idea why.
Changing the subject abruptly. Here are a couple pictures of the capsule hotel where I stayed during my last night in Sapporo. Each one of the capsules in the picture above is one bed for one person. Personal belongings are stored in a separate locker room. The picture below shows the inside of my capsule (the box in the corner is a television).
The capsule hotel really wasn't cheaper than staying in a youth hostel. In fact, it was a little bit more expensive. Why bother? Well, the capsule hotel also doubled as a spa with indoor/outdoor hot springs, saunas and cold springs. I spent probably at least 3 hours moving in and out of pools with Infectious Laughter, shooting the breeze about the relationships that have formed and deformed since coming here, the people who are staying another year, the people who are leaving in the summer, the people who spend too much time listening to tawdry Japanese pop-singers, the people who crack their eggs on the narrow side, the people who crack their eggs on the wide side and all things Fukui.

Turns out, most of the people who've appeared on this blog won't be on it at all next year. They're moving on with their lives, reconnecting with significant others and venturing beyond the confines of this little island we've come to call Fjet (Fukui JET).

Infectious laughter also taught me something about the US Presidential election. It seems the town where he's residing in the Fukui prefecture has a preferred candidate. Click here to read about whom the citizens of Obama, Japan would like to see elected.

One of the JETs there has made some videos and posted them on youtube. I haven't watched them yet, but, she seems much less objective than the article. "In Obama, for Obama" I believe is the catchphrase. Personally, I'm more of an "In Fukui City, for whomever won't cause the country to self-implode"

地獄谷： Hell Valley

2008-02-23T23:25:00.009+09:00

Just look for the demons along the highway south of Sapporo to find your way into an area known as Hell Valley.
It's earned its nickname from the naturally boiling sulphuric ponds nestled in the mountains. Volcanic activity is responsible for the steam rising from the snowy hills you see in the picture below. The gases released in said activity also give the area the distinct aroma of a log cabin in Northern Wisconsin full of deer hunters shortly after Thanksgiving dinner.
In spite of the smell, the neighboring town of Noboribetsu (登別) is a bustling vacation spot for those interested in spas and hot baths.
While walking the pathways of Hell, I couldn't help but notice all the snow and ice around me calling back to all those times someone has said, "it'll be a cold day in hell before I go out with you," or "sure, I'll give up my serious relationship with Ian and marry you just as soon as Hell freezes over!"
Ahem, looks like fate has dealt me a fair hand in this one.
For all the talk of volcanic activity, however, anyone with the patience to wait until just before sundown, when all colors fade into a blue-ish gray, will see the real cause of the mix of snow and heat.

チョコレートの工場: The Chocolate Factory

2008-02-19T18:13:00.007+09:00

Not mentioned in the guide book ,but surprisingly worth a look, was the factory where the most famous of Hokkaido "omiyage" (souvenirs) are made. 白い恋人 (shiroi koibito), or "white lover" as it is often improperly translated to the delight of puerile native English speakers everywhere, makes a very fine chocolate product at this very factory easily reached from the Sapporo subway system.

Outside the factory lights, snowmen and singing animatronic machines were in great abundance. The official factory tour was closed by the time we arrived, but the gift shop was still open. Entering through the side door, which apparently is normally just an exit, we were able to see the whole factory for free.
And what a factory it was! Everything a 7 year old could ever want in a chocolate factory without the creepy little green men singing songs about bratty children turning into giant blueberries (they did, however, have creepy singing robots). This place features a toy museum, collections of antique cocoa and coffe cups, a lounge, many strange decorations and the soothing aroma of chocolate in every nook and cranny.

That's right, Abraham Lincoln, Ludwig Von Beethoven and Pinocchio all take a break for chocolate in the White Lover Factory.

Elegant 19th century European style architecture and classical artwork made this building one of the most interesting and unusual I've seen in Japan so far. Oh, yeah, and they make chocolate here too.

Other Scenes in and Around Sapporo

2008-02-18T23:16:00.006+09:00

One of the great things about this trip to Hokkaido was the very little amount of planning that I had to do to prepare for it. I tagged along with Fuji Climbing Partner who doubles as both a good trip planner and a non-obnoxious travel buddy. In travel, it generally doesn't take long for some people to get annoying - especially, close-minded people, morning people, late-morning people, mid-afternoon people, late-afternoon people, evening people, excitable people, outgoing people, friendly people and people who put salt on their watermelon slices.
Thankfully, Fuji Climbing Partner was none of those things in Hokkaido.
This was a museum entrance before the snow fell.
According to her guidebook, this outdoor museum is one of the best sites in Sapporo. It's a collection of buildings important to the island's young modern history. Japanese people didn't settle here much until the mid-19th century. At one point while walking around and not seeming all to eager to stop everywhere one of us turned to the other and asked, "so, you into architecture?"
"yeah, me neither."
Lots of snow in Sapporo.
From the snow festival. Apparently the train wasn't running, so instead of fixing it or just leaving it alone, they had a man push it around the track.
Definitely the angriest meal advert I've ever seen. Can you imagine the Colonel trying to fry one of these without losing a few fingers?
In my last night in the area (Fuji stuck around another night or two), we met up with Infectious Laughter and German Speaker in a very active part of the city that featured some other ice sculptures. This picture is not of an ice sculpture, however, but rather that one wonderful display of hair on the right side of the photo.

雪祭り：Snow Festival

2008-02-16T18:40:00.007+09:00

Time to start posting photographs from 北海道 (Hokkaido), the northernmost of the major Japanese islands and proud home of nearly 6 months of winter weather annually.Every year in February, Sapporo, the capital and largest city of Hokkaido, hosts a Snow Festival. For one week, people pass through the city in droves to see the many snow and ice sculptures. The main section of sculptures took about 1-2 hours to see, but there were other smaller displays in other parts of the city.

International superstar Al Gore!
There were a dozen large sculptures like this one and many dozens more of smaller ones like the Al Gore above.

This one follows the design of Inuyama Castle, a national treasure not far from Nagoya.

Several of the large sculptures also featured a stage with entertainers or games.

A Rhinovirus Requiem: Haiku Round 3

2008-02-13T12:41:00.004+09:00

I took a couple days off work and spent a long weekend in Hokkaido, the northern island, to see the Snow Festival and a few other things. I'll begin posting about that later in the week after I've organized my photographs.

In Hokkaido there is snow for, on average, half a year. The snow, however, differs from the snow in Fukui which is usually wet and slushy. Hokkaido is cold, but it's a drier cold than Fukui, so it's easier to handle (at least it seemed so while I was there). After spending a weekend wandering outdoors in Hokkaido and returning to the wet muck of Fukui and a flat with no central heating, it was inevitable that some kind of virus would at least attempt to disrupt my senses. While walking around a classroom this morning feeling as disorientated as a fish in the desert I thought of a few words to describe my physical status.

Cold chest, fever mind
Internal antipodes
Of water and flame

Supernova flare
Fades into icy blackness
Soon to burst again

The Spread of VD in Japan

2008-02-11T12:01:00.000+09:00

While thinking about posting an entry concerning VD in Japan, I decided to use the first photograph from my experience here that entered my mind.
Unfortunately, this is the most tantalizing image I had available.

Anyway, Valentines Day, like any other easily marketable holiday with gift-giving traditions, has spread like a viral infection throughout the world, and Japan is no exception. It hasn't been a direct translation, however.

In the west VD generally involves the male buying flowers, composing songs, reciting poetry and engaging in any number of corporate sponsored acts of chivalry which the female will repay with little more than a smile and a "thank you". In Japan, however, girls take the lead for VD. That's right, shy, mild-mannered, small-footed Japanese girls step and out make their affections known by buying chocolates for the men in their lives. The more expensive the chocolate, the bigger the intentions and the happier the chocolate maker. A boss or co-worker generally will receive cheaper candy whereas close friends and koibito (恋人= sweetheart) can expect better.

For those who think it odd that February 14'th is reversed and girls go unrewarded for their kindness, take heart. The effects of VD linger! One month later, on March 14, men who have received chocolates return the favor. This holiday is known as White Day.

Coincidentally, this year, VD falls on the same day of the week that the original Battlestar Galactica series airs on my cable. So, in celebration of that alignment, here's a little Sci-Fi humor.
I'm sure most of us in this country who get the joke here will have no expenses to worry about come White Day. ^o^

Setsubun & Central Heating

2008-02-05T09:28:00.000+09:00

Around this time of year is the Japanese tradition of 節分 (Setsubun), "the turning point of the seasons". Based on the old Japanese calendar, this is when winter became spring. At some point people realized that it was still snowing heavily and decided to adopt the more accurate Western calendar. Anyway, during the last day of spring the tradition has been to throw roasted soybeans around the house and outside the house while saying, 「鬼は外！福は内！」 (Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!). This means, "demons out! blessings in!" It's a fun event for families with small children to celebrate the purging of bad luck and hopeful arrival of new spring happiness. I think it's a bit like Easter egg hunts in the States in that people remember doing it every year when they were really little but tend to stop once they get older.

Central Heating for all practical purposes is non-existant in this country. At school each room has its own kerosone furnace called the "stove" (word taken from English). My desk is close to "the stove" in the teachers' room. The computer I use is right next to it. Often teachers who don't even use this room will pass through and stand next to it to warm themselves. They don't do anything but stand, and since it's right next to me I always feel like I'm being watched. Really creepy, actually. I'll just be minding my own business reading the news or preparing a Spanish lesson for this girl I've been coaching in Spanish lately and, all of a sudden, one or two people will be standing right over me. Then a conversation begins and one or two becomes two or three and two or three becomes three or four. I've reached a point now when I realize that every time a Japanese person laughs it's not necessarily about how silly I appear, but I still feel on edge whenever they whisper.

Winter Holiday 7: 金沢 (Kanazawa)

2008-02-03T19:39:00.000+09:00

This is the final post regarding my winter holiday wanderings.
After returning to Fukui, I still had one or two more free days before work started, so a friend and I decided to venture a bit north to the Ishikawa prefecture and explore "Little Kyoto" (Kanazawa).
Kanazawa has several nice areas for walking around and/or shopping. This is an old geisha district. A couple friends once came here in the fall to try to find a geisha house, but they failed.
We, however, did not fail! The first excursion of the new year was a glaring success. We found everything we wanted to find - a stark departure from excursions of 2007.

There weren't any geishas inside the house, but we were allowed to wander around and admire the Edo period (17-19 century) style design.
Kanazawa features gardens deemed the 3rd most beautiful in Japan (they like making lists about such things here). Normally such places would be very crowded, but in early January most people seem to prefer staying indoors.
Other than the geisha district, there is also a samurai district with traditional Japanese architecture. Nice place to walk.