You don’t make friends with salad (try cake! ^_^)

I wanted to go to China last weekend to visit my good friend Chris, but in the end it would have been too short for the price tag and hassle involved (sorry Chris). Plus I found out recently I probably wouldn’t have gotten in due to needing an entry visa from my embassy or something; something I never looked into at all. A trip for another day I guess.

I’ve been making good use of my new playmate, Barbie. One day she cooked up some fish and hotdogs, the next day some burgers. I invited my neighbor out for some but he declined, stating his current physical shape as the reason. A BBQ is just more fun with more people. The students are writing tests this week so it’s been slow for me; another reason for the China trip but ah well. On Wednesday while I was bumming around with nothing to do, I happened to drop by students playing baseball for gym class. They had a big, soft ball and were just out having fun. I’m not sure if they were even keeping score.

So I sat down at watched them for a bit under the hot sun. I seem to draw attention wherever I go which is alright; as long as I’m not too tired to flash a smile or a wave I figure. On thing lead to another and before I knew it they asked me to bat! I was surprised, but delighted to be able to pick up the bat again. Of course I swung at the first pitch, and unfortunately it smacked into the ground and went out to 3rd base. At first I didn’t even run I was so disappointed; I wanted to bat again and make the ball soar. Soon enough I got the gist that I should be running and reluctantly put down the bat half way to 1st base.

It wasn’t long before I made my way around the bases later, and I did some showboating before I tagged home base. Some students told me I was a good batter, but I knew it was a crappy hit. Either way I couldn’t communicate my disappointment and left it at that, hoping they would call me up again. Class ended before then, but I may stalk the fields a little more often now.

Later in the week when I went home early I ended up baking a cake. I found a banana bread recipe and used my big oven. It took a while to cook unfortunately, so by the time I got to the school most people had left. I gave out cake to people I saw, but still left with a lot of cake in my hand. On my way back home, my neighbor was out doing gardening or whatever so I gave him a piece. He looked happy and so was I, and I went home. I was home for maybe 2 minutes before I saw him through my window walking around looking for something.

I went out to see if he was alright, and he invited me over to his house for tea! I should have done this earlier as I’ve been living beside him for 10 months now but didn’t even know his name. I got ready, grabbed the cake, and headed over. They have a beautiful house, and the living room was really well decorated; with a samurai armor display and large, elegant Japanese dolls in glass cases. When I pointed out the armor and said it was really cool, they asked if we have it in Canada. I assume we have shops that may sell such items, but other than that, no, Canada doesn’t have samurai.

We talked mostly in Japanese, so you can imagine it was rather difficult for me. I went in feeling like I could understand what they were saying, but not at the same time; as if I was half expecting subtitles to show up under their faces. Things I understood ranged from the wife, Sakiko, having a younger sister, to their grandchild being allergic to eggs and therefore couldn’t have cake when he came home from school, as he would break out with rashes. She did most of the talking while the Grandpa that invited me over, Maiya, spent a large amount of time thumbing through a basic Japanese-English phrase book; mostly in vain.

They gave me tea, and they gave me snacks. I was there for maybe 2 hours and my head was hurting from all the conversion work it was doing. I haven’t really studying Japanese since I burnt out from it shortly before my mom arrived; the motivation just isn’t there unfortunately and I’ve forgotten many words. Either way, they were saying to each other how much fun they were having talking to a Canadian, and before I knew it they were inviting me over for a party. They were going to give me a big steak and other tasty Japanese food… how could I say no?

Unfortunately, they wanted to do it on Sunday, and I had prior engagements I had to attend to. They said we could reschedule to sometime next month, and I told them I would check my schedule to see what days were free. I got a picture of them, got some chocolate and soup as gifts, and went home to rest. I won’t tell you too much more about that Friday night, as it mostly involved playing an online game with my brother John for a really long time; let’s just say I woke up around 6 or 7 p.m. Saturday.

Let’s just say I knew it would be a rough day by how I felt when I woke up… well the 6 hours that remained of that day anyways. I showered, missed my train, and went out late for a poker party that started at 8:30 in Shiojiri. I was working out excuses for why I couldn’t go; half of which I thought were pretty good with how crummy I was feeling. I’m glad I kicked myself hard enough out the door though. I had to transfer in Okaya and I went to reach for my phone to double check what time it would arrive to see if I had time to eat supper quickly. But I couldn’t find my phone.

Uh-oh I thought, finally waking up more and more as I panicked looking for the thing. When did I use it last? Where could it be? I searched the ground, searched the train (end of the line, so it was just sitting there still) and asked the conductors and ticket booth people; all in vain. In less than I year I might have to buy a 3rd phone now.

I filled out a missing item report, grabbed my train to Shiojiri, and prayed that Charity would still come and pick me up even though I never responded saying if I was coming or not. Luck shined on me a little that night atleast, as she came and got me as I was working out in my head how and where to ask for Internet access in Japanese.

Still feeling down I began to abuse alcohol; that coupled with the only thing I really ate being that small supper I mentioned earlier. I tried to put it out of my head and enjoy myself though, and sat down for some poker. I had a really great time with that and ended up getting second place; I was doing good until they upped the blinds to a point where you had to throw half of all your chips in just to meet the blinds; forget betting or anything like that. The game ended and I had a great couple of hours of dumb luck and taking other people’s chips; I personally knocked out at least 2 or 3 people. (Get a straight on the river? Don’t mind if I do)

That night there was more of that African drumming at a different venue, but I wasn’t too thrilled about going, as I had seen them perform the previous week already. On Sunday there was also a large International event going on in Nagano, but instead I opted to join my newfound poker buddies on a road trip to Karuizawa.

Since there were six people, we piled into 2 cars. We had some walkie-talkies for the trip and they were used quite frequently, mostly for smack talking and things of that nature. Sometimes they were really useful for things like figuring out which way to turn next. I was content with snapping pictures of the landscape as it rolled by; I love spring.

I guess Karuizawa has a rather large shopping center. We browsed briefly through some of the many stores, but my interest dropped off dramatically when I saw some simple shirts for over $100. The boys decided to check out a nearby illusion museum while the girls did their thing with the shoes and… whatever girls do when it comes to shopping; I’m not going to pretend to understand.

Us manly men went to the museum, but almost never went in because of the $15 admission. I didn’t care, but the others bit their tongue. Inside we were treated to various 3D paintings. I wasn’t feeling too inspired or else I would have posed more, but we still had a good time working our imagination and angles to make it appear that we were interacting with these vibrant pictures. There were many pictures that required you to move from one side of the room to the other to see them move or change shape, while others mainly got you to pose.

I was mostly interested with the last floor, where they had an altered room to make one person look huge while another person looked tiny. We all took our turns with various poses, and the final room was one that was upside down. Things were tied to the roof, so it looked like you were on the ceiling. Jake jumped a couple times to make it look like he was hand-standing on some furniture among other poses. (it looks better if you flip the pic)

We had a great time then headed back to the shopping district. We went into a foreign import store where they had boxes of kraft dinner for over $3 each among other goodies. After we went to an Italian restaurant where I had a paper-thin pizza I wanted to weep for. That pretty much decided it for me; I am going to have to throw a pizza party with my oven sometime (to be continued!).

We all went home, enjoying playing with the walkie-talkies again. When I got home though, my dumb cat somehow ripped the label off my BBQ sauce and spilled ½ its contents over my rug. I was not a happy camper. Luckily the rug is mostly black; some of the white flowers just have more of a brownish tune to them now.

"Many say I am just one to try. I say I am one less to quit." -Diego Marchi

Anthony

Give me gas, or give me death

“The makeup style we don’t want to see popularized this year is ‘make-up on the train.’” Followed by a picture of someone increasing their image with makeup while decreasing their image to everyone around them. I think I pointed out the absurd signs on the trains before, but I still get a kick out of their simplicity and this one was new to me.

Tuesday started off as another day lacking sleep when I heard a bit of a commotion. Down the hall form my new (shared) office, Tatsuno was holding a bit of a welcoming party for visiting Thai students. “Japan is a popular place to visit on school trips” I was informed after I watched the festivities. The room was a bit small, but Tatsuno still warmly greeted the visitors with some incredible choir, taiko (drums) and singing. Later the guests returned a dance and song in kind, wearing nice red dresses. I happened to grab a couple videos of the event.

I couldn’t spend the day bumming around with them like I did in Yayoi a couple months back because I had classes. In one particular class I’m still new and crazy enough for the 1st years that a student had her cell phone out and was snapping pictures of me walking in, before class started and she would have to put her camera away. It was a bit weird, as I never really had a chance to smile or pose which I do with a lot of enthusiasm.

That day I had my first English club too with 4 Tatsuno students. We didn’t do much other than discuss what they wanted to do this year, play a name game and then a card game. Either way it was fun and a nice trend I hope continues in Tatsuno.

With my English club at Yayoi, we finished watching the SpongeBob movie a bit early so we played card games. I taught them the game 99 and things were going smoothly until one of the students told me out of absolutely no where: “My name is Eri.”

Ah crap. The thing I dread most at school: breaking kids’ hearts because I can’t remember their names to save my life. After a couple awkward exchanges, I saved face by playing a name game with them as well. I explained that you use the first letter of your name you pick another word, for example: “Tony Tiger.” So then Eri picked “Eri Example” right away. Cute.

Other students weren’t as lucky and had to pick a word with a different letter. There were some safe words like music, sky and night, but others were more fun like ‘Maid Mamika.’ I asked her if she was otaku (gaming/anime nerd/geek) and it was pretty funny but was happy she tried something different and cool. Before long I was being accused of being an otaku again, so I explained that while I know what otaku is, I don’t understand it, as it is a Japanese thing. (I didn’t play the cat-card this day [my cat is Otaku])

So they decided to test me: “Do you like Anime?”
“Yes” I replied
(laughter) “otaku! otaku!”

Who’d have thought such an exclusive and cool club had such a low admittance fee? I’m in baby! Oh yea ^_^ I wonder if I should change my name like doctors and professional engineers; be like O. Tony before I become Tony P.Eng or even Dr. Tony. (PHD anyone?)

We had more fun exchanges, like instead of calling Eri ‘Eri Example’ I would say ‘Evil Eri’ using new vocabulary I taught that day. Also ‘Music Mito’ put her name into an electronic translation dictionary and the only spelling close to it in English was Mitosis… so now she’s ‘Mito Mitosis.’ We had a lot of fun, and better yet I remember all their names now! …Atleast the students that were there. Some students where absent as I found out when Eri then made a sheet for me with a picture of everyone who’s in English club on it. It isn’t really to scale as I look like a handsome Godzilla with a full head of hair, although to Eri maybe it’s to scale, as the “small” note beside her caricature is fairly accurate. Good times; I had to post the picture they made me because it’s too cool.

On the note of clubs, last weekend was the start of their big prefectural tournaments. This is like the season’s end tournament… during what I consider the start of the season. The school year started 2 months ago, and already these tournaments are what the whole year is about. After, they may play some exhibition matches and whatever, but the 3rd years are busy studying for tests to get into university, leaving the second and first years to carry the torch… until next May I guess.

I suppose soon the TV will show nothing but high school baseball nonstop for the next 2 months (jealous mom? ^_^) When I got here in early August it was still showing the final stages of the big baseball tournament and it was being played even in the teachers room all day. My TV hasn’t been plugged in since… October maybe; whenever I upgraded my gaming center.

My latest wave of homesickness has to deal with barbecue. BBQ floated in my mind like those lazy clouds on the warm spring days we’re having. The hills are so green and I guess Japan has a word for the spring colours, “new green” or something it translates into. Anyways, I was telling people how back home you have BBQ three times a week minimum and how when you walk down the streets you can smell BBQ everywhere… and thus a distant look in my eyes would appear, my mouth would water and my mind would go to happier places where I’m dressing my juicy burger with all the fixings.

I guess this zombie condition of mine had an effect on my town mate Jake, as he sent me an email Wednesday: “why don’t we have a BBQ at your place this weekend?” There are very few times when you can be slapped with such pure, unadulterated logic you have to shake your head for building the prison your mind was just in. “That’s an amazing idea!” I responded, losing my zombie-stare ability (-2 attack, +3 charisma) and gaining a fiery resolve (+1 intelligence, +4 spirit)

The hunt for a BBQ fitting of a girl’s name was on.

I was fortunate it rained that morning so I drove to work. Neal cancelled on lunch so I drove around to many different, large stores trying to find a gas grill to saturate my heavy desires. What I found out quickly enough was Japan loves its charcoal.

Store after store, I was turned away empty handed. I was not going to settle for some coal burning liability dinosaur tool; the time it takes to start, the uneven uncontrollable flame, the mess and waiting for it to burn out. Neal sent me an article on the difference between gas and charcoal. Gas had a plethora of good points, trumps if you will, and the only point you could maybe say was positive about charcoal was “smoky flavor.”

How sad. I had charcoal BBQ (not mine) on my Kyushu road trip down at the beach, but there wasn’t much for flavour at all in the plain meat thrown on the grill. You want flavour? Try using spices, try using sauce, buy smoked meat or something; just don’t throw out some garbage argument that only holds merit through debate based purely on opinion (my burger has +5 smoky goodness than yours! Neener). Oh if you have a charcoal grill at home, I’m sorry but we can’t be friends.

Haha I’m strangely passionate for my gas grill, it might be the redneck in me. I’m just playing but ya, charcoal sucks; so were my options for finding a gas grill it seemed.

On my 3rd store or so I got some results. They had a gas grill, but it was like 15 x 25 cm. It was hardly big enough to cook 2 burgers at the same time, and it was $50. Let me tell ya, the temptation to buy it was there, and it was a strong one. I somehow pried myself away to look around some more, but all in vain. They said if I went to a sports store I could get a slightly bigger grill, but it looked like that small green gas burner dad would bring on our ice fishing trips; we never used that baby much back home and it was not meant for grilling.

Defeated, I went home. The next day Neal talked me out of driving ½ hour North to look at the sports store’s grills, and to instead drive ½ hour South back to Ina and look around with him. Either way we were going to get some tasty eats so I was in. A lot of it was a replay of the day before, and we actually sparked a heated debate between 4 employees on the existence of these magical grills that feed on propane. We couldn’t tell what they were passionately arguing about, I can only assume it was about how dominant gas is over charcoal, but we felt we should get out of there before we were sucked in.

Our last store, our last option, was more of the same. I asked again anyways in my crude Japanese, and surprisingly the lady led us to something new, something different. I suppose it’s a gas grill by definition… but by itself it’s not much more than a grill. You needed to have a portable gas burner for this baby to work; or just a gas stove. I had one at home already and my options were less than poor; openly contemplating shipping something in over the Internet. For $20, I gambled and gave the grill a go.

It’s hard to describe but hopefully the picture does that for me. It’s circular and it needs water inside it around the center (I’m assuming so the metal’s temp doesn’t get above 100). You put it on a portable gas burner. I was worried the flames wouldn’t get a chance to lick the glistening burger above, but it does, and it does a great job of spreading the heat out; even leaving that wonderful checker look from the grill on the seared goodness.

I prepared all kinds of condiments, bought all kinds of supplies. I built my burgers ground up the way I liked them with lettuce, cheese, onions, pickles, dripping with BBQ sauce and mustard; and I sat out on that nice, hot, sunny day with a cold beer in one hand and a dripping, tasty burger in the other. Now that is living, it had been too long my old friend.

When we were done cooking, we turned the gas off! Brilliant! If someone wanted another hotdog, I heard a couple “is the fire still going?” from their brainwashed, in-Japan-too-long lips, and I would laugh at them and tell them to flip the switch ^_^ Also brilliant. It took no time at all to bring them back out from the darkness in which they camped out since coming to Japan; gas is divine. “At first I was like ‘why gas’ but now I want one” said one enlightened partygoer. We cooked up chicken burgers, bean burgers (Jake is a vegetarian), veggies (like eggplant; I didn’t try it), hotdogs and that big potato dish we had back home all the time. It was glorious.

It was not all fun and games I guess, I worked for 7 hours straight since I woke up at 7:30 in the morning getting things ready. I cleaned the house, made the potato dish and desert, did laundry, showered… I didn’t even eat until that first burger in the afternoon, but it was all worth it and I’d probably do it again; just not for a couple days as I’m still tired. Also the grill is a bit convex because of its circular shape, so you have to be a bit careful that the hotdogs don’t roll off.

So ya, I had friends over on Saturday for a BBQ party. Jake, Neal, Matt, Jon (shiojiri), Jessie and I ate until we could only move enough to play the video games in front of us. We played some of that new Grand Theft Auto 4 for PS3, and Smash Brothers for the Wii. I was content sitting there in a daze, tired from the day’s labours. We had a little episode where my cat, Otaku, ran out of the house, but luckily he came back an hour later. I gotta watch those open doors a lot more closely now with the BBQ.

The fun was short lived I though, as that night there was a talent show in Matsumoto. Jake, Neal, Jon and I headed up and watched locals perform whatever. Jon from the South sang some brilliant classic songs, Noboru played some guitar, and a bunch of girls performed The Vagina Monologues among other shows like African drumming, spoken word (on poetry maybe) and more musical numbers. A JET from South Africa even performed a dance for us that celebrated the end of the Apartheid, of which was really powerful and really neat to see.

The last train home for me left at 9:41 and I was beat after such a big day that I went home and missed out on the bar party after. There will be more parties, no worries. I hope everything is going good back home and you’re making use of the nice days and plentiful propane goodness ^_^ Oh any my BBQ doesn’t have a name yet, any suggestions? I’m leaning towards ‘Barbie’…

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today." -Franklin D. Roosevelt

tnoy

Where did my stomach go?

Today started off as another busy Monday with me trying to find time for this casual writing. Priorities are always in order for me though, with classes planned, worksheets made and students taught. The first lesson was a little shaky with stone-silent students (if paper rustles a bit that’s nice, it’s better than feeling like you’re in a serial killer’s basement) but the second class was going a lot better as it usually does when the between-class tweaking is performed. I was walking between the rows while the students were practicing reading dialogue to each other, completely casual and helping them with pronunciation and encouraging the slackers to try.

Then it happened.

The room got oddly silent; everyone at once almost instinctively sharpened their senses. I felt a low rumble in the floor. ‘A train’ I thought right away, but I had enough time to realize the nearest train station was a half hour walk away downhill, this one didn’t ‘feel’ quite right. Then all at once the rumble turned into a roar, and it very clearly went from one side of the room to the other in a split second. The windows rattled, the desks moved, my stomach dropped and the students screamed.

I froze looking out the window, almost expecting the Earth to open up and eat me. When I managed to pull my deer-in-headlights gaze away from the windows that angrily rattled at me, I quickly looked at the ceiling. ‘What can fall on me?’ thoughts quickly changed to ‘where do I run and hide?’ That desk at the front of the room is empty; it might be able to fit me.

Some students started holding each other’s hands, eyes fearfully darting around the room. Will there be an aftershock? What happens now? After what seemed like a long time of screaming and confusion, Matsushima sensei came to me and told me we just had an earthquake. “There have been a lot lately, mostly around Tokyo” as I suddenly remember my friend Lester’s email a couple days back wondering if a particular large one killed me.

Of course my thoughts turned to California and how ‘the big one’ will knock it into the ocean; I’ve heard similar things regarding the whole of Japan. I somehow kept my cool although I was cold all over. When I was at the board I realized I was rather moist, perspiration gathering everywhere. Class continued all right as if nothing happened, even if I remained uneasy. When we got back to the English room the TV was on and reported a 3.7 quake. I thought Nagano was fairly safe, but later found out it really isn’t, as a big fault runs below us; the California scenario flashed through my mind again. Neal sent me a text saying, “I’ve never seen a wall bend that way before.”

And that’s my first earthquake experience, it happened today during my 3rd period before lunch. I can’t really top a story like that, although I fully planned to announce how I had an amazing weekend of doing absolutely nothing, except gaming and cartoons when I hadn’t fought myself to get up and make food or something. I will just talk about things in general I guess now that things slowed down enough for me to catch a breather after a month and a half of life in overdrive.

Last year at Tatsuno and Yayoi alike, there wasn’t really anything you could call an English club. Sure we had a Christmas party and that one interesting welcoming thing when I just got here, but I hardly think that counts considering how school clubs here are a daily thing. Imagine my surprise when Yayoi not only restarts the English club this semester, but there are 11 new members from all grades (only 1 boy too). If that was crazy enough I found out students were asking around in Tatsuno of all places. This school is somewhat small with most clubs suffering from too few participants. The kendo and judo club having 3 members each, while boy’s volleyball has 6 or 7, just barely enough for a team.

I have yet to meet with Tatsuno’s club (tomorrow may be the first) but I have met with Yayoi’s a couple times now. We have had a couple fun outings, playing games and hanging out. I managed to borrow a projector for my computer so we can watch movies and shows; moving me closer to the time when I can finally do some video lessons I hope. I learned a lot during the test run, like showing movies with subtitles and bringing external speakers, as the Mac is a little quiet in a classroom. Today we will (try) to watch the SpongeBob movie at the students request, although I’m not sure how good it will be with all the non-English going on in that movie and not too subtle jokes. Ah well it should be fun.

After watching an anime, Keroro Gunso (My mom, Susan watched it too; she scored some brownie points with the students) the students tied the show’s nerdy character to me after I professed my affection of his evil and we had some fun inside jokes. I somehow managed to teach them to play rummy, much to my delight as I haven’t played in so long; my Grandpa still being the best player I know. Anyways I crushed the students and did the nerdy characters' laugh when I knew the coming of my wrath was near. The students typed into their translators and learned the “Tony is up to no good” phrase; It was used several times as I proceeded to give no mercy, I had so much fun.

Not only am I teaching them stuff, but they are teaching me as well. They taught me a slang term that is really popular right now, but next time I’ll have to bring paper and a pencil to record what it is so I can study/memorize it later. This club stuff is all new to me so I can’t give many details, as far as I can tell though it lasts an hour maybe and I have a budget of roughly $20 for the year. I most definitely will do a cooking class at some point; I've got a hankering from some banana chocolate chip pancakes (me and my cravings eh?). We will cook it from scratch of course, as I heard Japanese pancake mix has a lot of sugar. I've been told it’s ok to ask the students to throw money in as well should we need it, although I’m not sure how I feel yet about asking students to bring money.

Well if that wasn’t fun enough, I finally kicked myself hard enough to play an old passion of mine, volleyball. Passing the ball hurt a lot after being dormant with it for so long, so do the muscles. I half-hope the English club in Tatsuno is an hour as well so I can continue with volleyball now that I finally feel like I’m ‘in’. I’m sure something will work out either way, as either girls or boys are playing until 8 most, if not all days. A huge difference I noticed right away was the presence of the managers. We didn't really have to run after our balls much or much to that affect as the two girl managers did all those little tasks for us.

The first day of volleyball the boys where there for only an hour luckily (they came back an hour later) but I was visibly finished for the day. Friday was a little more casual, calling on me to do a lot of serving in particular. I sent those boys running and flying all over the place; I think my float serve somehow improved. This practice lasted two hours and I lasted until the end, pleasantly finishing up with some hitting practice. I pounded the ball a couple times and shocked a bunch of people; I'm surprised I can still make my 200+ pound frame jump 10 feet in the air, although I know I can do more. Unfortunately though, it seems at my age I may just be chasing my prime; it's easier to recognize my limits.

It’s such a good feeling to go and do something. One of my ‘crazier’ (for me) students was catching on to my routine. “I’m sleepy,” I told her one-day and she called me on it. “Tony! Always sleepy!” and I realized she was right; this isn’t healthy., another reason I’m excited to be active with volleyball again. My ‘crazier’ students are getting more bold. “I love you!” is being shouted out much more frequently and sometimes it’s followed by a kiss being blown into the air. It’s all in good fun I think, but I wonder if I should worry about inadvertently getting in trouble. I think my teaching skills have come a far way, things are more natural all the time. I'm happy to be making an impact on tomorrow's leaders and my overall job satisfaction has been increasing as of late.

My cat is still getting fatter; I’m not sure what I can do about that. I need to be taking it to the vet at some point in the near future I think, if it is a boy it may start ‘spraying’ or trying to get out to do a different type of spraying. If it’s a girl it may go into heat and then it’s pretty much bye-bye when she runs away to find boys. (Girls I tell ya) I still have fun playing with it, although it is getting bolder with its meowing, much to my annoyance. At least it lets me sleep uninterrupted now; I’m not sure how it finally learnt to shut up at night, perhaps its half-asleep angry owner got up too many times.

It's been really cold lately, and I'm all out of kerosene. I'm still waiting for that happy medium, but at any rate this is better than sweating up a storm. If you really want to hear about my weekend, I went home after volleyball Friday and didn't leave the house until work this morning. I played games until 5 in the morning Friday night, 2 in the morning Saturday and until midnight Sunday; super hardcore hermit style.

"As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

tnoy

Kyushu Road Trip 2008!

Me: “I won’t be online in a while, we’re renting a 9-man van and going on a 12 hour road trip down to Kyushu for the weekend”
Brother John: “Cool. Don’t get eaten by any bears.”
Me: “Heh ok. I’m sure it’ll be all right, I hear bears here are small. haha”
John: “I had a dream you got eaten by a bear though.”
Me: “…oh”
John: “Ya, just don’t sleep under a tree alone. That’s how it got you.”
Me: “…I’ll keep that in mind”

Armed with my new life saving knowledge and over-bear-ing fate, I hopped into a cargo van that had been outfitted with 2 benches to accommodate a total of 9 people. With me were Charity, Ross, Matt, 2 Ericas, Jake, Jon and Noboru from Australia, Scotland, England, Canada and America respectively. Jon outfited a Japanese sign to tape on the side of the van; literally translated: “Kyushu going! 20 heisei year” (the Japanese calendar uses Emperor’s names as the years, it is currently the 20th year of Heisei). That sign basically means Kyushu Road Trip 2008. Japan is broken up into 4 main islands and the furthest one to the southwest is Kyushu.

After everyone got off work Friday we met up in Matsumoto to load up the van. We would be driving all night, so we got some snacks and stuff including alcohol for the trip. It’s something of a novelty for me to drink in a vehicle, something entirely legal in Japan so I wanted to give it a try. I found out the next day though that sitting stagnant for hours with alcohol in your body is really bad for you as I found out with the heartburn and other cramps that coincided with being folded into a box shape for hours on end. This cargo van and its removable benches weren’t really built for this kind of action, especially from people as tall as me; my knees are still a bit sore today.

The space for cargo was fantastic though, and it didn’t take much uncomfortable squirming before longing eyes stared into the back carrying big foam futons for the camping. A system was quickly developed where people could take turns crawling in the back and laying down, providing much appreciated relief as the 2 left on the bench could stretch, even if just a little bit. This went on all through the night as we got to Beppu around 8 in the morning and paid over $200 on the road toll (the guy working there had a priceless expression when he saw the total).

Beppu is one of the larger tourist draws of Kyushu, sporting many vents from a nearby volcano. I got my first good whiff of sulfur coming off that expressway; it’s a mixture of pickled and rotten eggs. The city sure looked pretty though with all the smoke rising in different places. After a quick bite, we wanted to go to an onsen (spa/public bath) to freshen up, as the van was a bit funky. We went to Takegawara Spa, a place where they bury you up to the face in hot sand; it was very relaxing. I felt sorry for the workers though, as they were sweating quite a bit over this hot patch of sand with their shovels in hand to bury you. I said “this feels great” in Japanese only to get a sad, silent response from the tired, sweating worker, and then I felt bad. It was a great experience though, even if that sand was hard to wash off later.

We explored the area, seeing things like the nearby beach on the Ocean and a shopping district with numerous seedy venues easily accessible. One of these venues that caught my attention was branded “Playstation” with large vivid paintings of video game characters. My limited translation ability picked out you could view various levels of cosplay, up to the “super cosplay” package or whatever which was $300 for 50 minutes. My curiosity is still running wild here as nobody had any ideas what it could be, I wonder if google can help me out later. We all figured if you are paying that much you are getting more than a ‘show’… perhaps Vegas style.

One of the town’s big draws were these natural vents they called Hell in Japanese. There were at least seven prominent areas to visit ranging from boiling grey mud, to a 200-meter deep pool that was cooking hard-boiled eggs, to gassy vents, to dark red swampy stuff and a real life geyser. In the summer there were pictures of children standing on the monstrous lilly-pads that grow near these infernos. After however many Bugs Bunny cartoons I was beginning to think geysers weren’t even real. I guess this one is really famous because it blows quite frequently; once every 25 minutes shooting boiling water 20 meters in the air, and it lasts about 5 minutes. Every event had a lot of steam rising off, and many danger signs and barriers warning to the effect on how things were always around 90 degrees Celsius.

It was also explained on some signs how these hot springs were great for exotic wildlife to thrive, creating an excuse to shoehorn in a Zoo with things I hadn’t seen before like a Hippo and Flamingos, and other things Japan doesn’t even have like crocodiles. It’s great being with people of all different backgrounds too as Erica from Mississippi would tell stories of how these crocodiles regularly eat joggers, and Charity from Australia would talk about how she’s knifed and gutted wild pigs before.

Of course with the different backgrounds come the different accents, and I think my hearing may be rather bad.
Matt (British): “Alright we can head to this city’s volcano, Aso”
Me: “Why is it called asshole?”
Matt: “It has the biggest rim” (perhaps not hearing me)
Me: “Um… I guess that makes sense…?” and left it at that.
I made many blunders during the trip, maybe the most humorous being when Matt said “I went to San Francisco” and I said, “You went to Samurai Disco?” It sure sounded cool.

In the end (no pun intended) we never went to Mount Aso, instead opting to drive to a camp site and start setting up our tents while it was still light out. The tourist help shop we visited said we were crazy to want to go camping before July, saying everything was closed. So to get information we reworded our questions, which got us results. “If it was July, where would we go?”

Of course when we got there, there were many people and many tents, not closed at all. When Japanese people camp, they gets very elaborate as there were pretty sophisticated systems set up, like different kinds of burners and whatnot. As the sun was setting I was treated to a spectacular sight: there were so many jumping fish. Back home you maybe heard a ‘plop’ or whatever and never really see the fish. Here, fish were jumping quite often I even got a picture or two of them a half meter out of water just off the beach.

It seemed many people left at sunset; I suppose it did get a bit on the cold side. We had a roaring fire on the beach though and bought a $20 BBQ. We used driftwood along the coast as fuel and had a great time listening to the ocean and watching the fire. We had all kinds of different meats and veggies and wine. I was rather exhausted from a night of mostly non-sleeping so I was in bed by 10 unfortunately. Before going to bed though, the tide went out pretty far, so I went out for a quick walk to see it. This was new to me and very cool.

I had a better view in the morning though (Sunday), and there were many people out on the exposed mud digging for clams or whatever they were doing. Fascinating stuff for someone like me, I definitely want to live near the Ocean for a while some day.

We packed our stuff and went for Onsen again. We went somewhere more modern this time and I bought eggs to cook while I was bathing. It was cool carrying around the bag with me; the desk lady said they would be cooked in 15 minutes. I have a suspicion the eggs were hardboiled already as I’m not sure the water was hot enough to boil an egg. Either way it was tasty, even if the egg was odd. Perhaps it was free ranged? The ‘white’ of the egg was a maroon colour. Also at this Onsen were those steam boxes you sit inside that I also had also only seen in cartoons before. It was neat I guess, if not a little hard to breath at times with all the steam coming up around your neck.

We headed out for Fukuoka this time, a rather large city to the North. We were more interested in nice beaches as last night’s rocky coast and cool waters left us longing. During our random driving we accidentally found a rather popular tourist attraction. Two large “married” rocks were out in the ocean where you could watch the sun rise (or sun set?) between them. It was a beautiful site so we stuck around and snapped some pictures.

We set up tent a little further down the coast and got settled for the night near a beautiful golf course on the mountains lining the ocean. Needless to say we didn’t get much done that day, although our drive through Fukuoka passed a harbor or two where I saw some really cool things like tugboats and large freighters being constructed on land. It was another enjoyable night with merry making and fireworks, but it was cut a bit short by rain, perhaps before midnight.

It gets pretty windy on the beach, as our straining tent testified. Some people woke up wet and packing the van was a little complicated; trying to keep the wets and the dries separated. We went for onsen again somewhat to my disappointment as that day we were headed to Nagasaki, where the second atomic bomb was dropped and I wanted to get as much out of it as I could.

I found it a bit weird there, as they had black shampoo and black soap. I gave it a try anyways, and found a bunch of my hair immediately fell out, making me a little sick in the stomach as I washed it out immediately. This brought up the larger issue at hand if I should start shaving my head for the rest of my life. Everyone offered to help and said it would look good; I’m just not sure if I’m ready for that level of commitment, or even being a skinhead from now on. The day is approaching I suppose; everyone said I would look badass, but they’re also saying I’m a giant; things I don’t necessarily agree with. I suppose I was the tallest person there and I weigh almost twice as much as a couple people. They tell me I make Saskatchewan sound like this magical place of giants with nightly auroras and insane weather; I guess at least I’m not making Sask sound bad anymore.

That aside, we made it to Nagasaki and I was treated to sights of those lovely streetcars again like Hiroshima. Nagasaki is an incredibly beautiful city. We went a little fast through the museum but it was still really interesting and sad again. There was a clump of melted glass with human bones stuck inside from the heat, and many disturbing/shocking photos from the massacre. It was interesting that I was at Hiroshima a month earlier as I could see the differences and similarities a lot easier. It was extremely interesting and I’m glad I went, I won’t talk too much about it like last time though as it really is devastating.

A short walk outside got us to the hypocenter, where the bomb exploded directly above. A large black monolith was erected here along with a tombstone with the number 143,124 (people) on its side. The cathedral up the hill was destroyed, but a large beam still stood and was relocated nearby; the angels’ faces charred black from the heat. There was a display down the stairs where the ground was left as it was after the bomb, and it was just a mess looking inside; roof tiles and kitchen dining sets were among recognizable pieces all crushed together, everything else was ash. Another short walk got us to another park where more statues and such were set up. It was built on top a site of a former prison, where its .25-meter thick reinforced concrete walls were reduced to rubble; no one survived from that building, “only the kitchen chimney remained standing.”

At the end of this park was a large statue of a man, erected by the city in 1955. He looked a bit like Zeus and was called “The Peace Statue”. Another short walk up the hill got us to the rebuilt cathedral where the pope visited a number of years ago. The terrain is vastly different in Nagasaki with the hills and whatnot, which is probably why more people survived even though the bomb was stronger. The outside of the cathedral had pieces of the rubble from the original, and the inside was very beautiful.

Nagasaki was maybe the highlight of my trip and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there; too bad it is a 12-hour drive away and the toll is $200 one way; if I ever go back I’ll have to fly I think. After some delicious Indian food we were on the road again for another all night endurance test; we squished 4 people spooning heavily in the back this time on the futons.

We went to a famous Onsen (again) on the way home, this time in Nagano-ken. This place is famous because it is natural (so it smells of sulfur) and it is mixed. Boys and girls can get naked together and mingle in this white water treat. Poor Jon forgot to take off his jewelry and the sulfur turned his silver items into a copper color in a minute or two; I’m not sure if he got it cleaned up yet. The water was a bit cooler compared to other onsens, probably because this one was all natural; the threat of it turning into sulfuric acid always in my mind should the volcano decide to burp or be grumpy.

How the mixing worked was you got into the water through something of a private doorway. Once you stepped in, the white water had very low visibility so you were covered. We all hung out together for a good while, as the lower temps didn’t force you to get out right away without risking fainting or anything. Now I can say I bathed naked with men and women alike ^_^ Everyone’s eyes were on Jake and Charity, the only two dating couples as their close nature, lovey-dovey stage reeked of shenanigans and we didn’t want to get in trouble. It was all in good fun though.

That hill had many onsens, as I found out while snapping pictures of a waterfall; nearby it was a bunch of naked people. Whoops. It was a lovely drive through the mountains as we made our way back, the 9 of us almost ate 100 plates of sushi at a sushi train restaurant and went home; Ross and Charity had to work at 5. In those 4 days we drove over 3000 kilometers and had a great time, and a bear didn’t eat me. It’s shocking how time flies, what with Jake leaving in 3 months along with others; time moves on.

“Why buy a dog when you can bark yourself” –Erica Pyle

tnoy