Tuesday, April 29, 2008

The end of a journey, the beginning of a new adventure

I am sick today and my head hurts so this entry may be a bit convoluted. I am at work nonetheless and ‘ganbaru’ing along (trying hard). I suppose I don’t need to be teaching you Japanese words all the time, as I learnt from recent family visits it mostly goes unread; I suppose the writing process is always evolving.

I only had two classes last Monday, giving me time to write my last entry and give my mom a reason to stay at my house and explore my little town for a while; of which she found some neat shops and souvenirs. Before I left she instructed me to harvest details concerning a student’s concert that was rumored to occur Tuesday; information plucked from the interrogation of some mandolin players the week before. Well when the day was out, said students came to my desk and asked if we were coming to the concert. I guess there was no ‘school-concert’ per say as much as it was a private concert for my mom.

Well that was a downer, disappointing those students. Not to mention the time I had to break the news to my mom when I got home: “Oh no! Now I don’t want to go back to the school, I feel so bad.” I asked them if the concert could possibly be moved to Wednesday instead. They had to ask their teacher so it was left up in the air.

Tuesday was normal: mom did teaching, watched club and ate ramen. My sister Melissa and her friend Christine were coming in from Kyoto on Wednesday, so my mom picked them up at the bus stop and took them out to my school in Ina, Yayoi. My little car had trouble holding their large luggage, forcing us to drive up with the hatchback open as they held their bags from falling out. Either way we got to the class and Melissa and Christine got a taste of their first teaching experience.

Unfortunately they couldn’t come in early enough to visit my 3rd years as that would have been a much better first impression; instead they got some 1st years that were too excited from a room full of foreigners to work too hard. Melissa got a good laugh at my self-introduction, mostly the part where I talk about her ill-conceived nickname, “Mel” (It’s a nickname for Melany). Either way when it was the girls’ turn to get up, they weren’t naturals like my mom, Susan. They were nervous, giggling, and then easily tempered when the students couldn’t understand their strange speech; Melissa going so far as banging the chalkboard with her fist on the question she was talking about. This later garnished me more undeserved praise for having patients; of which I don’t really understand, as I’m not a very patient person. I value my time too much, which may be a character flaw.

The end of the school day came quickly enough, and they got to try the Japanese Tea Ceremony. My mom stayed back as far as possible, lest she risk the possibility of being included in drinking the tasty green stuff. We learnt that the band concert was in fact on for Wednesday so we rushed to that after. We got there and the room was very much set up for a performance with 40 to 50 people jammed in this little room… and 4 chairs sitting empty at the very front.

We proceeded to get an hour-long private concert, of which our jaws were dropped for most of it. Susan and I heard some of the songs last week, sure, but that didn’t make them any less wonderful. Melissa was incredulous of their talent, reciting from her band experience and how it took a year to learn that awful “let’s go band” song. Half way through the performance mom kept begging them for a CD that she would “pay whatever you ask” for and “play at home all the time.” Needless to say it was a great time.

Wednesday is a traditional food outing with Neal, and we went out for sushi train at Kappa Sushi. We ate ourselves stupid and had a great time. The plan originally was to bus back to Kyoto on Friday, but having been in my part of the woods for a couple hours left the girls with a thirst for more; plans were quickly made to stay until Sunday.

Thursday I went to work while everyone else went to Ina to meet up with one of my teachers for a day out. They saw the new hospital in Ina and mom quickly changed her opinion of the health care system here. The poor teacher Ono sensei however was interrogated because of the sudden unexpected appearance of 3 foreigners that were taking pictures of everything; they thought they were with some kind of journalist group. They did other things like shop and have Japanese home-style lunch so you’ll have to ask them more on that I suppose; sounded like a good time either way.

They got back as I was getting off work and I managed to talk them in going to the Onsen (spa). I had been working on my mom to go for a long time, but I understand it is scary to go alone for your first time. Now Melissa and Christine were here to put the peer pressure on. Mom was laughing so hard about the situation that she cryed the whole car ride there. She was so nervous and thought it was so funny. I went in alone and had one of my best Onsen experiences yet, possibly because I was alone for the first time in one.

These places are made for relaxing, so the talking and stressful neighbors can be difficult I suppose. I went to the outside bath and found it much hotter than normal, almost scalding. It wasn’t long before I heard loud giggles and voices of complaints on the other side of the wall. “If you don’t move you won’t burn as bad” was among some of the tips I had thrown out; possibly breaking any kosher law set up for those facilities. Either way it was funny hearing the “k I’m moving, everyone look away” requests.

After burning badly, I sat on a nearby bench and just watched flying carps strewn over the nearby lake. It had rained that day so it was cloudy, but there were puffs of smoke rising from the trees, as it seems to happen when rain comes. It was beautiful. I made my way inside later and sat under a waterfall, massaging my back. Then later I drifted over to a bubbling area and floated in its massaging grasp for a while. Again, one of my better experiences, and to my delight the girls liked it as well. It would have been even better if they weren’t stressing each other all the time with giggles and nervous stares.

We went out for ramen with Jake and Junko after so the girls could try Japanese Ramen. After the delicious meal, we trekked to a local pub called “The Oread” where the guy running the place translates music for Sony (perhaps you remember from an earlier entry of mine). The owner treated us to live music and wonderful company; it is a delightful little place.

On Friday I got up to work while everyone else slept in again, much to my rabid jealousy and grumbling. They joined later though and had a real treat with my 3rd years; they had a great time answering and giving questions. The girls got a good tip on shopping at a nearby mall and got directions on a map how to get there. After the class they took up the tip and went out shopping for a bit, but came back in time for clubs again.

The girls shamelessly asked for kendo sticks, the expensive kind everyone is surprised that my mom got. The club couldn’t part with more new ones so they got used ones, but they were still happy; they even got to try them out on the students. Later we watched archery where Christine got an arrow for a present, then later we went to watch soccer and baseball but were careful not to mingle too much, less they get a soccer ball as a present or something considering the current trend.

We were happy to know a work party was happening that Friday and made our way out there. We were treated to a room of 2nd year homeroom teachers, of which most didn’t know English. I heard then nervously asking each other when and if Uchiyama sensei would join us. The way homerooms are split up, is a teacher from each of the faculties heads a room and is basically those given students ‘parents’ for the duration of their high school career, and Uchiyama sensei, my caretaker, is from the English faculty. We did ok though until she showed up with my limited Japanese and gestures.

The food was tasty and the drinks were plentiful. The girls picked a seat near the portable heaters and didn’t move far from them all night; in fact they migrated closer as the night went on. They learnt how to never pour your own drink and how to say cheers among other things. I got them to try chu-hi finally, a nice little treat Japan offers. Before I knew it I was trying to keep up with Melissa… or maybe I just thought I was trying to keep up with her, but either way we were drinking fast and amassed an impressive collection of empty bottles in front of us.

Christine kept trying to buy the tracksuit off the one teacher's back but couldn't due to sentimental value (Wedding present from a Student) and got information where to go to buy a school uniform. When all was said and done at the first party I begged everyone for a “nijikai” (second party) with good results (a teacher later told me I was screaming on the streets for karaoke). The phones came out and the other work parties were called to rally supporters; I also messaged Jake and Junko to join and then the shenanigans were in full swing minus mom who went home on the account of fatigue.

We went to a nice little bar where most of the next 2 hours were fuzzy, something of a first for me, as my memory is always good the next day… with few exceptions. Together, and with the help of others and clues strewn about, we were all able to piece together parts of our escapade. First off, the drinks got stronger: I was on to so-chu (different from chu-hi; drank mostly with water similar to sake) while Melissa was on to straight vodka (confirmed from my co-worker last night, she probably doesn’t know that yet) and Christine was on to straight whiskey (confirmed by Jake after Christine wondered if her drink was strong or not).

I quickly gave up on the karaoke machine because I was given the Japanese songbook and not the English one, and I traded stories with people around me. While Christine and Melissa were friendly with our company at first, they quickly attacked the microphones. Melissa started off with 2 Brittany Spears songs, and she jumped up and down screaming in excitement. Once that was done she sang (with help by me on many occasions) no less than 4 Bon Jovi songs in a row. We were singing so bad we got mad at the karaoke machine a couple times for playing the songs “at the wrong speed” and whatever excuses we made. Christine played a video she took on her camera the next day, and all 20 seconds of it was incomprehensible loud noises courtesy of the speakers bent to Melissa’s foul bidding; we honestly couldn’t make out a word minus the laughing.

I think there was food… there most likely was and I probably ate it. I saw later on my phone that the girls tried a number of times to call Canada from my cell phone; luck for me they were unsuccessful. I heard many times last night now surprised everyone was about Friday: “They are so strong! They drank so much!” Of course no time that good can pass without any repercussions. Christine was sick for most of the day Saturday, I had a bad headache and Melissa was groggy. Plans to see Matsumoto castle were eventually swept away in place of 2 or 3 movies and whatever else we watched while lying on my floor, but we were all happy though as we knew it was worth it.

When we did go out, we went shopping at a nearby place I hardly knew existed although it’s apparently immensely popular. For the first shopping trip, Christine stayed at home and I slept in the car while Melissa and Susan did their thing. I woke up to see Melissa talking with 2 ladies outside the door so I worked up the strength to stumble over and see if they needed translation help; what little I can give I guess. It turns out Melissa was scouted by these two ladies and they asked her to do modeling work for them.

That’s right; in my little town Melissa got a job. Emails were exchanged and they talked mostly to me and Susan even though Melissa was standing right there; somewhat dazed from the hangover and all the events that were unfolding. She was given pricey sunglasses as presents to try out and said she would return next year sometime as she was off to Kyoto Sunday. Either way that’s pretty cool; I’m a little sad I didn’t get a job too but let’s blame it on Melissa having longer hair.

Later on in the day Christine was feeling well enough to get out of the house so they all went shopping again for another hour or so at the same store; I played games in the car. They spent time packing for home with much difficulty as they bought so much and things like their kendo sticks were so big. They took a football-equipment-like bag of mine that I came to Japan with and still had trouble packing everything in. I made a quick supper that everyone enjoyed and we relaxed, enjoying our last night together. We got some company late that night, as rumors of how cool Susan is have been running around, so Jake, Charity and Jon came over for a short visit.

Sunday came and it was time for them to leave. Mom was strong and didn’t cry so I’m very proud of her; I still remember how hard our goodbye in Vancouver was last year. I proceeded to clean my house for the next couple hours and spent the rest of the day sick for the first time in the 9 months I’ve been here. Just simple flu symptoms I guess: sweats, headache, sore muscles… I was so stubborn to not go to bed though as there was so much I wanted to do with the free time I suddenly had after 4 weeks or so: gaming news to read, cartoons to watch and so on.

I was feeling a bit better Monday, but not good enough to post this “on time” it seems. I have no idea when my next entry will go up (maybe thurs?), as I’m off on a camping trip in the deep south of Japan (12-hour drive! We’re renting a 9-man van!) It should be fun, I don’t like talking about future plans but hopefully that teaser will help you with the long wait :)

"Better by far you should forget and smile than you should remember and be sad." -Christina Rossetti

tnoy

Monday, April 21, 2008

Can I have a helping of encore?

The weekend was just starting it seemed but here I am, full circled back to Monday. I’m glad I cut off when I did last time as last Monday something absolutely amazing happened and I didn’t want to rush through it. It all started when a student was asking if we knew what a mandolin was. We were like “Mandarin? Like Chinese?” One thing led to another and we happened upon the music room where the club practiced mandolin, guitar and cello. So a mandolin is like mini guitar with a half-egg like main body.

We wanted to hear how it sounded so 5 or 6 students broke out into a little song for us. That was cool enough for us as it had a good beat. In the next room we wanted to hear some cello, but something got lost in the translation/crazy gestures I make. Before we knew it, the music building was stirring like a beehive and the place was quickly transforming into an orchestra. They set up 30 some chairs for their band to sit on, then 2 chairs right in front for our own personal show. This was exciting enough and they quickly were organized and ready to perform, but when they actually played… wow that was something else. We were absolutely engulfed in euphoria of amazing music.

I never really heard anything like it before, but it worked so well. The first tune they played was a happy upbeat song that had everyone swaying back and forth. It was easy to oversaturate them with well-deserved praise and compliments, and our sheepish inquiry of an encore was well received; we were afraid of looking greedy after being given this gift of solid gold. The second tune was a slower; heart-pulling one that actually got me chocked up it was so beautiful. I was smarter and took a video this time and can only profusely apologize to you about my camera’s poor quality sound recorder. It was difficult to film as like I said, there we were front row, like 1 or 2 meters from their instruments as they played beautiful music for us without a composer or sheet music to help them.

We quickly exhausted all compliments that we could summon from our blown minds and they wanted to play one last song for us. This one came from an anime and certainly was lively. A teacher showed up later and took our picture with the band and we parted ways, trying not to look greedy after being greatly humbled by this unspeakable act of kindness; such an act is undeserving of us mortals.

We walked around and mom got to see Japanese soft tennis, and also a practice session using those traditional Asian string instruments. They’re hard to describe as they’re made of long strings, sit on the floor and are played slowly. You’d know it when you saw it.

We made the journey out for some delicious sushi train again and ate to our heart’s content after journeying through another park and temple that were graced with the presence of blooming, beautiful cherry blossoms; the ground covered pink in soft pedals. The next couple days were kind of like the last. We watched more school clubs (saw kendo finally), went out for tasty Japanese food like ramen (eating out almost every day), and taught similar classes, as it is the beginning of the school year. One day I ‘made’ supper that was quick and easy but still somewhat impressive for mom so that scores me some brownie son points I guess.

We had been getting a lot of rain, but on the sunny days it wasn’t too hard to give myself a kick to get outside and just gawk at the massive trees and their blooming pink wonder. A number of classes seem to go outside to take advantage of this weather, causing us to have some interesting conversations with the kids while we stroll the grounds, as they don’t like talking so much when they’re in class.

On Wednesday mom was treated to trying out the Japanese tea ceremony. We did the cookie and bowing and all that formal stuff… awkwardly on a chair. Traditionally you sit on your knees but that’s ok. Mom tried to pawn off her tea on me, but I more or less told her I wasn’t going to drink it for her and to suck it up, as it was only a couple sips anyways. If I had known she would be that scarred from drinking tea I would have helped her out, as for the next hour or so she wanted to puke. Even now when you mention it to her she gets shivers and gags. I think it’s actually pretty good tea; not great, but good.

We went out for food with my good friend Neal and had a great conversation for hours over tasty Chinese food. They have restaurants here that make me feel like I’m back in China the food is so tasty; I can’t remember if I ever got that feeling back home but most likely not. One dish was chicken mixed with cashew nuts covered in tasty sauce; another was marble chilly tofu among other tasty dishes.

On Friday mom got a tour of the nearby hospital that is a 3-minute walk from my house. I believe Jake was saying something about how the hospital would be closed soon as a new one was opening elsewhere, which might explain some of the equipment that my mom saw. She was thoroughly impressed with the people and the tour as her one-hour visit stretched over 3 hours… and I taught classes at school. Ah well, they’re a lot better now that I’m mostly back into the swing of things. It was rather stressful those first couple days, especially when I felt I should be entertaining my mom. I gave her puzzles to work on during downtime so we can both relax. I almost got her hooked on those “nanogram” puzzles and they’re lots of fun, more than sudoku anyways.

Well remember how I was complaining what a long week it was? That was because I had a very busy schedule, and a 6-day workweek. I was really disappointed I had to come in Saturday, as I had a martial arts festival I really wanted to attend; I was to participate in things like Judo, Kendo and some other strange arts I hadn’t heard of. After working out the math it simply wasn’t a good idea to go, so we took advantage of the great weather and went on a road trip to Ina instead. There we had sushi train again, this time at a different restaurant that has greater variety and cheaper prices. We ate so much that we had to take a nap in the car after before we went anywhere; enjoying the sun beating down on us.

We then went out to Takato, a place they say is maybe the 3rd best place in Japan to see the cherry blossoms. The park was huge, the traffic was great, and the sights were splendid. We were a little sad we had eaten so much, as we were so stuffed we couldn’t even nibble on some of the plethora of festival food they had going on. Right away mom was taking pictures of all the different foods and stands and sort of ignored the pretty pink trees. We watched this one stand in particular for a good ½ hour or so, intent on buying one to take it home for later consumption. On the 11th hour though when the money was in my hand and I was next in line, mom saw the person-in-front-of-me’s bounty. I guess it shrunk a bit and changed color, but either way it wasn’t hard to make us lose interest because of our full bellies and lethargy.

We still had a good time walking around and looking at the trees. There is only so much I can write about them; they are beautiful. We watched a bad movie at home and went to bed early again, trying to rest up with what little weekend we had left. On Sunday we went out to Shiojiri for baseball again as mom loves that stuff. Our team won the first game but got crushed in the second game and it was rather hard to watch, even with the high caliber. We watched a couple movies, “Cloverfield” and that new “Rambo”. I thought they were really good if you haven’t seen it yet yourself.

And so here I am at work again for another week; the last week with my mom you could say. My sister, Melissa and her friend Christine are coming to town so things should be lively here soon enough; gone are the days of all-day video games for a good while now it seems.

"Few of us ever live in the present. We are forever anticipating what is to come or remembering what has gone." -Louis L'Amour

tnoy

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Today’s tip: Your mom can get you out of work

Well, school is back in full swing so time and energy is low, I’m having one of my more difficult times since being here, forgetting important stuff constantly and just being sluggish. Anyways, mom got settled in pretty quick at my new home and felt a lot better about me being here; something about having to see it for yourself before you are really convinced. I have a nice house, a fuzzy cat, friendly neighbors and beautiful surroundings. I make sure to point out snow-capped mountains on the horizon whenever they are visible; I love those things.

We went out for ramen at a local restaurant where she met Jake and Junko, my friends living in my quiet little town of Tatsuno. Mom liked the ramen so much that we went back the next day for some more, at which some students were waving to us. I’m not sure if they are even from my school, but we exchanged some quick hellos. When we were finished they had prepared a tissue pack for us. Written on the package was “take me to your country, I love you” along with drawn flowers and such. So, mom invited them to live with her in Canada, much like she invited Junko the night before and a couple other people; before long she realized “I got to be careful! I can’t have a million people staying at my house.”

Thursday was our first teaching day, and there was nothing to do! It was great for getting errands done, introductions and settling in after the long trip. When Friday came and its two classes mom was ready. Her first class in her teaching career saw students who were shy but happy to see her. It was a little shaky, but great for her first go I thought. The last class was with my best 3rd year students, and she had them eating out of the palm of her hand for the whole class. I’m excited for this year, as that class is made of some of the most enjoyable students I have in Tatsuno. They speak up, they try hard, and they generally just love me.

We spent time after school watching the various club activities and having fun conversations. The captain of the ping-pong team got the nickname “boss” from my mom, a member of the kendo team gave my mom a bamboo sword that they use, and the crazy soccer players cheer at my mom and not only me now when they see us in the halls.

Friday night we went out to Ina for a welcome party. Mom was put in the middle of the table, and before the night ever really started some of my coworkers could tell she would be the life of the party. She talked up a storm, got after me for my face turning red from alcohol, and made fast friends with everyone. “You sure are quiet tonight Tony” was one comment I heard. Ah well, I loosened up later from the constant “he’s my boy” (not a man) comments and was teaching slang like ‘beer gut’, and later ‘geek’ as mom proclaimed me to be. I love those parties and am confident everyone had a good time. When it was over, we had an hour left until our next train, so Kasuga-sensei and the new teacher Momose-sensei treated us to ice cream at a coffee shop to help pass the time; great people.

During our mingling with the clubs, we found out about a baseball tournament that Saturday. When my mom heard that, the slate got cleared pretty fast and there we were Saturday morning watching high school teams battle each other. I had watched a bit on TV when I got here last year; their big yearly tournament. Seeing it live was something different as it was really exciting. They did 9 innings in a little over an hour and it was great; no 3-hours-of-balls-scratching you get from watching it on TV at home. Here they RUN out to the field and things move VERY fast. Heck one time the pitcher got in 3 warm-up pitches and the first batter got a hit before the announcer finished introducing the starting 3 batters.

Some pitches hit a couple batters and it looked painful; near us they had players with those speed monitors tracking the ball’s velocity. So when the struck batter walked to their base, a teammate would be waiting nearby with a can of freezing or something. They would spray the sore spot with a thick white cloud and they seemed better after that quick first aid. Bases were stolen, some home runs were hit over the monstrous fence, and parents were giving out free coffee, cider and snacks every 7th inning. It simply was a great day out; our team didn’t win any unfortunately, but we still saw exciting baseball.

I can’t believe I put ‘exciting’ and ‘baseball’ together after all that garbage I saw in Canada; the contrast is that great. After the game the players would bow to each other, bow to the coaches, then bow to the audience. There were no angry people (that we could tell) and golden sportsmanship all around.

We were bushed after a day in the sun watching baseball (ya we suck) so we both slept for a couple hours when we got home; and ended up being late for supper at my caretaker’s, Uchiyama-sensei. She invited us out and after coming to pick us up as I forgot the map she made me at work. She also had directions in there saying “700m” and in my absentmindedness thought we needed to be there at “7:00”. Anyways, we enjoyed a wonderful meal at her fabulous house with her delightful family. We met her mother-in-law, who was her neighbor, and she made wonderful crafts that I can’t quite explain. They were like art you hang on the wall but looked similar to quilt pictures. Either way they were beautiful, and my mom got one as a present; She’s getting her fair share of those.

It was a great night out and we even learnt a Japanese card game. The next day we went out to Matsumoto to see that famous castle they have out there. There was some slight rain but we toughed it out and mom got to see the inside of a castle and not the inside of a museum built inside a castle. It was a little busy but still interesting to visit; it was beautiful to look out from the upper floor at all the cherry blossoms that were blooming. Later on we did some shopping and ate some of those tasty fish-looking stuffed pastries and canceled out on a couple diner invites so we could go get some sleep; exhaustion being the enemy, much like it is to me right now.

Ya I should end this early, as I’m not really doing justice to many of the great things we have been doing; hopefully I can get back to the Monday-as-usual business soon. I simply don’t have the time and definitely don’t have the energy; having someone being so dependent on you and stuck on your hip is not easy, but you need to cherish the time you’re given right?

"Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint on it you can." -Danny Kaye

tnoy

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

A somber reminder of a simple message

Those shinkansen trains are fast, such a comfortable ride too. Sorry for the updates being off schedule and what not but this is something of a vacation.

Hiroshima is a beautiful city of over one million people. I think they had a subway system of which I’m familiar with now, but they also have something I’ve never seen before. The directions to our hotel, or more accurately our ryokan (Japanese style Inn) involved the use of these lovely street trolleys. They were intimidating at first but oh so cool when you got on. It followed street lights and traffic like other vehicles and did a nice little cruise around the town at street level; very convenient for the friendly locals to point out places of interest as you coasted by.

After leaving our bags at the inn, it was a quick 2-minute walk to the peace park; practically under the hypocenter of the atomic bomb dropped 63 years ago by the Enola Gay. We saw the sakura starting to blossom, but there were still people out picnicking under them. Apparently the season here is much earlier than in Tokyo, as they were in full bloom the day before (almost 600km away). Near the northern most part of the park we saw the famous A-Bomb dome as it is now known. Once an Industrial Promotion Hall has become a desolate reminder of humanity at its worst. Most of the building was blown away, leaving the imposing ruins seen today.

Among other things in the park we saw the Children’s Peace Monument where Sadako Sasaki tried to fold 1000 cranes, wishing it would help cure her of her leukemia; she died when she was 10 and her classmates and the country have been folding cranes in her honor every since. Behind her statue were cases full, absolutely packed with paper cranes. Most were tied on strings, but some were glued to a backdrop making colorful mosaics, praying for a peaceful world. Nearby was the Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound where tens of thousands of the victims were cremated en masse. Near that area was a monument to the Korean victims, as 1 in 10 of the victims were Korean slaves from the Japanese occupation. There were many more peace items around the park from a peace bell (when you hit it, you strike an atom) to various other statues dedicated to either the Red Cross for helping survivors or certain people who began distinct peace movements.

There was a lot to take in, but we wanted to see the museum before it closed as the theme for most of this trip became trying to beat the seemingly universal “closed at 5” scenario. I have been told from countless people this was one of the best museums they have ever been to and I don’t think they are far from the mark. Inside was a plethora of interesting information and we took our time soaking it in. There were videos, diagrams, and explanations from what an atom is, to what radiation does among countless other things. I spent a lot of time just looking at the pictures and models of before and after the explosion and was sickened by the shadows human bodies left on buildings as they were killed from the intense heat.

There was simply too much to be shared here, absolutely amazing. It proved a bit much for my mom, as she had to leave a bit early with tears in the eyes. When I came out of the museum I noticed mom made 3 new friends again while she was waiting for me; a father and his two sons in his family business. Two of them were electronic engineers like me while the other was a lawyer and they were in town on business. We got some advice on where to go and heard other stories about the disaster like how the river was filled with bodies as they looked for a drink, dehydrated from the intense burns covering their bodies; many accounts related it to a death march. Not many pictures exist right after the disaster as the surviving photographers were too shaken by the carnage to snap photos, and artistic pictures made from survivors are of somewhat crude child-like detail, which inadvertently makes the horror more profound.

So anyways we were treated to a special Hiroshima treat by our new friends. It was similar to Teppenyaki in Regina but had a different name. The chefs cooked right in front of you still and it was really tasty. After the meal, mom and I went back to the park to get some night photos of the park as the points of interest were illuminated. Oddly enough the city’s baseball stadium was build kind of close to the dome so it was a little distracting with the cheers and excitement while walking through such an ominous place. Since then we’ve kept an eye out at attending a baseball game, but no luck so far.

The ryoken was a very nice place, rather comparable to my house, but still a great setting to experience Japanese style accommodations; the price certainly was right! Instead of rushing off right away in the morning we returned to the park, but this time in went to a new museum that opened 5 or 6 years ago. This one was built underground and housed accounts from the hibakusha (Atomic Bomb Survivors). Far underground they built a large room. In this room was a panoramic view from the hypocenter where the bomb exploded, and the view was build with 200,000 tiles; one for each person that died from the bomb in 1945.

In the middle of the room was a pedestal clock stuck on the time 8:15. Many clocks were stuck on that time, as that was when the bomb exploded. On that pedestal was an ever-flowing water fountain for the people who died begging for water. Off from that were many televisions always cycling through the many faces and names of the victims, and near this was a library where thousands of hibakusha would tell the story of that fateful day through their eyes. The accounts were long and heart wrenching so we watched one or two each.

I’m sure that’s enough doom and gloom for now, but I could go on for a long time of all the things we saw in Hiroshima. When we were done we headed out to catch our train to our next big destination, Osaka. This large city prides itself in being the “off-cousin” from the rest of Japan. People are really friendly and everyone is a comedian. It was late when we arrived so we really just checked in then strolled around Dotonbori during the night. This is the lively night district according to my book and the sides of the skyscrapers surrounding the lake were covered in large, bright signs. Coasting down the rivers were people in slow moving tour boats or something and it was cute to see them slowly approach, then explode with smiles and cheers when they were close enough to wave to people watching them from the bank 1 meter away.

Like most of the cities we never had much planned, but the book suggested seeing the castle as it is pretty during the spring with the sakura. Well the sakura was pretty alright and the castle looked impressive enough from the outside, but as I heard in the form of warnings from other JETs it’s not a lot of fun. The place has been rebuilt 3 times and is mostly concrete now. The insides are more fancy museum than castle and the majority of the information was about a long list of different rulers, generals, and other stuff that made our eyes glaze over quickly. We still enjoyed the beautiful view of the city from the highest floor though.

Some other things the book suggested were some museums, ranging from human rights to history. One on old Japanese farmhouses in particular caught our interest so we headed out. These exhibits were imported from various places in Japan and were a real treat to see, from the dirt floor kitchens to a house built a couple meters off the ground to keep rodents out among other clever motives. It was really cheap to get in and many of the people there were content to nap on the benches under the cherry blossoms on that lazy, warm spring day. We saw many artists making paintings of the old houses and various other things. In one house children were learning how to make flour out of soybeans with big heavy rock grinders, while in another house they were learning how to make household items like coasters.

That was most of our trip to Osaka I guess, we were pretty tired from pushing ourselves so hard at this point; we spent more time sleeping in Hiroshima that one night than 2 nights in Tokyo. Like they say, after a vacation you need a holiday.

We went to Kyoto the next day, it being a Monday now. The stupid book didn’t give much advice past “plan as many days here as possible” and “among New York, Paris and London, everyone should see Kyoto before they die.” I closed the book soon after that; it did a good enough job of making me regret my last 8 months stuck in my little town in Nagano. It was raining the only day we were there so most of the places it had suggested were unavailable now anyways with everything being outdoors and since my sister Melissa is coming to this city we didn’t want to do too much that mom would have to do twice.

We borrowed some umbrellas from our ryokan (Japanese style inn), this one felt like a family’s home with the pets and little girl running around. We had no real destination again but seem to find cooler things when we wander anyways and Kyoto is a great city for roaming as you find so many treats down side roads. We happened upon one of the larger temples (among the 2000 strewn about the city) and walked for hours through many red toris set up, it was amazing to see.

It was really relaxing and I love soft rainy weather in Japan. The air was fresh and it wasn’t crowded. We wandered for hours even when we left the place, finding neat things here and there until we needed to get indoors and somewhere dry for a while. I saw a random department store on my map and vaguely tried to go there, but we ended up in a different store that was large and impressive anyways. There were 14 floors or so and each one amazed my mom. One was for cosmetics, one for woman’s bags, etc. This place was somewhat standard to me at this point, but on the roof we found a helicopter pad, which we both found really cool. People watching is always fun, mom was getting help for some items and was often distracted by how pretty this one girl was. Soon enough the questions steered away from the product to “are you married? No? Neither is my son! He's right there...” and other heavily suggestive comments pointed in my direction. No pressure there at all… thanks.

We bought a cake when we were there as a present for the ryokan family. Mom was half hoping we would all eat some cake together, but when we left they gave her coasters as a present instead. Mom still wonders how that cake would have tasted… but the family loves us now. When we walked away for our train station, they were still standing outside their house, waving goodbye to us with both hands until we were out of sight, a little over a block away.

Well now it was Tuesday and we were in the last city of our trip, Nagoya. Apparently it’s the 4th largest city in Japan and it is a rather nice place. After mom shopped for a bit, I talked her into going to the aquarium, apparently one of the biggest ones in Japan. For 2400 yen (about $22) we had all day passes for the aquarium and some neighboring attractions, which included a 7-story observation tower and other museums.

We did the tower first as the weather was good. I always enjoy a good view like that high up. Mom watched a group of suits formally entered a business boat before taking off for the ocean and fraternized with the glorious lifestyle they were living. Next we went to an Antarctic museum aboard the Japanese ice breaking ship The Fuji. I guess Japan made their first Antarctic trip with the ship we were touring through and it was pretty neat seeing the place; I’m sure my sisters in the Navy would have liked it anyways.

The last museum we went to was something of a maritime one, where it showed the history of Nagoya’s port among other cool exhibits like large model ships that were used in the past and today, and how the port has changed the last 60 years from construction. It boggles my mind how they expand out onto the ocean like that and install massive factories on what used to be coastal reefs and meters of ocean water.

We went to the biggest attraction, the aquarium last. We were treated to a spectacular dolphin show, where tricks and underwater video were shown, then re-shown in slow motion on a massive screen in the background. The dolphins did cool tricks and were even trained to bow to the audience; vive le Japan! The show was so good we could hardly believe a half hour zipped by when it ended and we were left starved for more.

This building was really cool, just the atmosphere and the monstrous tanks. In the second building of the aquarium there was an Imax screen (after we watched penguins swim around). The first show we saw was just an anime that we couldn’t care less for, but the next one was “Ocean Oasis”. Sure we didn’t know what was being said, but it was still an impressive show of various nature shots and wildlife blown up on the monstrous screen.

Alas the place closed at 5:30 and we had some delicious sushi train for supper to close off this great vacation. Today, (Wednesday) we are on the train headed for my hometown and I braved motionsickness on this heavily rocking train coasting through the mountains to write this. If I had to do the vacation over again, we would visit fewer cities, as a lot of time and money was spent on just getting from point A to point B. I guess I was feeling pretty ambitious, having been cooped up in my little town all winter. Now mom begins her rural Japan adventure :)

“Kiss a nonsmoker, taste the difference” – Neal Murugan

tnoy

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Pink dandruff is cute

My mom, Susan, arrived on Tuesday, April 1, after 2 or 3 hours of delays. I guess her plane had extra fuel and had to circle the airport a couple times before they could land, testing the limits of her motion sickness. So not much happened that day as it took me almost an hour to find the hotel and however long to travel to Narita airport, which is a good trip out of Tokyo. On the way back, after her first train trip in all of Japan she did something I haven’t done in the 8 months I have been here yet; she picked up a young, attractive and available Japanese girl.

I was walking over to see which train we needed to transfer to when I realized mom wasn’t with me. I looked back and saw what was going on: “you are so pretty!” and “come visit me in Canada!” was expressed among other show stealers. I was rather beside myself at what was going on so I was tongue-tied for most of the spectacle, although mom left a couple windows open for me to jump in and work my magic, which consisted of awkward pauses and her checking her watch. Eventually she had to go and I had to explain to mom how at least 80% of the girls here are pretty so don’t worry about that. “I’m jealous of your people skills” was all I could say.

It was nice to see Japan from a fresh perspective again as being here has made me desensitized to some of the crazier things. “Wow so many people are wearing masks!” and “he’s wearing all pink!” were pointed out early on, at what otherwise would have been business as usual for me. We found a good sushi train place, had our first tasty meal, and then called it an early night.

We both didn’t have much for plans, but I had something of a travel brochure I picked up and now a new Lonely Planet book good for traveling. We started out the day by taking a trip to Asakusa temple, which was further than we thought and were almost immediately derailed by a nearby flea market. This was a first for both of us and we both perused to buy gifts; I half hope to have birthday gifts for the siblings by the time she leaves as she can take them with her. Alas we couldn’t spend all day there even though it would have been easy and we made our way to the large temple.

I was put into the teacher position and explained how these places work from my limited knowledge base. A fountain outside is used to dip water out, wash the hands, and then sip from to wash your insides. Then there was an incense drum where we watched the locals cup the scented smoke and pull it to their chest and heads, then breathe some in for perhaps another form of cleansing. Before all that we went and got our fortunes at some of the many stands set up. We put in our 100 yen, shook out a stick from a big container, and then searched for the numbered box we had drawn. Mom got mediocre luck, while I got the worst/lowest kind of luck.

My fortune had wonderful things like “marriage and employment are bad”, “that lost article will not be found” and “your trip will get harm on the way” among other things. Luckily the Japanese way to rid yourself of this new found curse is to tie it to a nearby tree (in this case rack) and hope the bad luck will stay with it and not follow you. Tying this piece of paper proved difficult but I was determined to leave it behind. It tore 3 times trying not to be tied and eventually I left it dangling from the bar, as I wanted none of that. The temple was large and beautiful and there were so many people. Sakura (cherry blossoms) are large, pink, beautiful and seemingly everywhere.

While we were there, mom befriended another local and got some help looking at jewelry. We browsed for a bit and later it was suggested to us we could also find more jewelry at Akihabara. A sly grin took residence on my face. Ah yes, akihabara; or akiba for short. “Electronics town” they try to call it, but we all know that is were the otaku (geeks/nerds) go to hang out to buy anime, pornography and play video games. I know a handful of people who would punch me for taking my mom there, but this is fate right? At the very least let’s call it a cultural experience.

So we went out to akiba and were graced by the young ladies walking around in maid outfits (and unfortunately coats due to the breezy weather) and the large, sexually suggestive, cartoon women hung from banners well over 5 stories big down the sides of buildings. Mom could tell I was having fun, but I could tell she was wary. I think the first shop we went in was easy enough to point out some of the perverse stuff to be found here at the hands of an animator, then explained how the general rule of thumb was the higher or lower the floor, the more twisted and warped it became. *cough* tentacles *cough!* *cough!*

Nah I didn’t tell her about the tentacles, you don’t have to either. Needless to say she wasn’t really up for a second store, but still wanted to find some jewelry. So I took her to maybe the biggest department looking store I could find in the area and said we should just explore this. This building was extremely tame compared to the others, half of the floor being akiba fun and the other half being like wally mart. I was surprised that we did in fact find some jewelry, but you can probably guess it was somewhat low grade. We continued up and mom got to see what a Japanese arcade looks like, what a maid cafĂ© looks like, what kinds of cosplay costumes they sell (“Patty would love this for Halloween!”), and the numerous you-need-to-be-over-18 areas; of which we never entered.

After I bought a Super Mario toy or two and mom got a vague idea of what the area was about, we next went to Ueno and the nearby park. There are many museums here and even a zoo, but neither of us were in the mood for that kind of brain simulation and sat by watching a nearby vendor making takoyaki (squid balls) for an hour or so, grateful to find a place to sit for a while in a country where benches are really rare. When feeling returned to our legs, we went through the park and experienced the beautiful sakura, softly raining pink petals among the many visitors on this sunny day. There were families and friends sitting out and having picnics in the shade of pink. Food was eaten, stories were told, and lots of sake was drunk.

It was so beautiful and we walked around for a long time; mom even got a picture with some ladies dressed in full kimonos. There was a street performer using a wooden puppet on strings to play out songs on a violin. After this adventure we went back to the hotel to relax for tomorrow’s early day. We got bowls of ramen at a nearby shop and were impressed by the normal locals and their “only high school” level of English.

We got up really early Thursday, like 5:15 am early. We rushed out to the fish market but of course missed out on the wholesale auctions that took place. This fish market in Tsukiji is quite the tourist draw now, it feeds millions of people a day. We bumped into a German tour group and were lucky enough to follow them to the action as this place was rather large and somewhat dangerous with the sharp knives and speeding carts zipping all over the place.

We saw all kinds of seafood, from tuna larger than me, to people opening and cutting out clams from a huge drum of shells. One thing that disturbed me was the processing of some live fish. (warning: possibly gruesome) What they did was cut into the neck on one side, possibly dislocating the spine from the brain, then cut into the tail. Once that incision was made they would grab a steel wire and jab it down the vertebrae. The fish would jerk violently during this process but be completely motionless after. I can only speculate it’s to destroy all the nerves so the fish doesn’t flop during later processing with a sharp and dangerous knife, and the veteran at death’s dinner table was very fast and precise; most likely from years of experience. It was that wire the bugged me.

Other things weren’t so gruesome as I’ve experienced more than one beef butchering back on the farm. I was confused as to why they would freeze the tuna before cutting it on the biggest band saws I have ever seen. I suppose maybe it’s to help with the removal of the vertebrae later as a person held the fish while another took a large 2-handed axe and chopped it out.

But for those of you with weak stomachs perhaps that’s enough, but we were hungry after this gruesome spectacle :) We had skipped breakfast and it was maybe 9 in the morning at this point. There was something similar to a flea market next to fish market and we got some fish-paste like greasy food. It wasn’t too enjoyable, but luckily there is always a nearby convenience store in Japan where we could throw it out and buy something acceptable for consumption.

The shopping district of Ginza (means silver in Japanese; really high end place) was in walking distance so we took a stroll in the general direction, stopping when we saw a bench and taking a nap. We resumed activities around 9:30 but couldn’t do too much as everything in Tokyo/Japan likes to be closed until sometime after 10. We found more coffee for me so I wouldn’t be so grumpy and partially to kill some time until the stores opened. We went into the apple store and browsed some of the newer goods and I got a piece for my laptop that will help me give video lessons for English classes now.

In Ginza, a rather large station, we decided to activate my mom’s JR pass. For those not familiar, tourists (not residents like me) can buy this pass outside of Japan, then get unlimited access to JR railroads (not private lines like in Tokyo); a pass that pays for itself after one or two trips on the fast shinkansen (bullet train). In short, get one! :) So anyways we couldn’t activate it here, we had to go to Tokyo station.

Luckily it was one stop away. We followed the map and walked for around ½ hour trying to find somewhere to activate it. We were turned away from at least 4 or 5 tickets booths in different areas before we finally found the place; a tiny corner office with the JR pass exchange advertised in little letters.

Annoyances aside, we got the pass then bought a ticket for myself at a little over $180 to Hiroshima for Friday. I was shocked to find out we couldn’t get reserved seats and were put in the first-come-first-served area. I had never taken this train before and I sure didn’t want to stand for 5 hours straight on a train (Chris and I have done it before in China... it just ain’t right) so there was a feeling of anxiety for the rest of the day.

We pushed that aside and went out to walk to the Yasukuni shrine, the super controversial one where class-A war criminals are immortalized and praised. I was warned by a fellow JET to be on the lookout for the fascists driving around in a black van, and be wary of the museum’s propaganda saying how WWII started because Britain wanted to control the world or something; so early on I told my mom: “if something bad happens, we don’t know a scratch of Japanese, alright?” Naturally, she was safe, but I could get in trouble.

Luckily, that account wasn’t fully accurate about the propaganda, and possibly unlucky because the shrine and museum were a full 2 train stations away from where he said, making the walk that much more arduous when I opened up my Lonely Planet book and found a map. I couldn’t find it in there earlier as well because the spelling was slightly different… so perhaps we went to the wrong place? I heart indexes.

Anyways it was a long journey. We stopped for ice cream where mom got boring vanilla and I got risky “sakura” flavour and mom got immediately jealous because it was so tasty. Then we got some sweet potato from another nearby vendor and munched on that. Later on the walk we took what looked like a graveyard detour, but were immediately treated to a spectacular stroll through cherry blossoms.

If Thursday’s sakura was just “good” then this was magnificent. The trees were out in full bloom and instead of light rain from the pedals it was almost pouring. Pink petals were in people’s hair and the nearby lake where couples were out rowing boats down the stream covered on both sides by large blooming pink trees. It’s hard to describe something so beautiful, this picture can say more than I ever could.

It was a good long walk and there were many people out enjoying the view; even people with high tech cameras just filming the pedals floating in the water or taking close ups of the pedals. At the end of the path we were near the museum. I was still a little panicked by John’s words of warning but wanted to see the museum anyways. Mom was tired so she sat it out but regretted it later when I emerged over an hour later and shared stories.

Some parts of the history presented was cleverly worded, sure, and other more inglorious things were left out, but the scope of knowledge and things on display were just amazing. They had the emperor’s sword that he gave to his Marshal samurai for over 2 years, armor and paintings of epic battles and lots of history, including scrolls written during those times. This shrine is apparently really, really old, as it not only memorializes those Class-A war criminals, but of the many samurai and other war heroes hundreds of years old as they were presented somewhere among the sea of faces of what had to be over a thousand pictures displayed in later rooms.

Overall it was really interesting and had large world war 2 items on display, including a one-man submarine/torpedoes for suicide runs that could sink a destroyer, bullets for battle ships that were larger than me, artillery cannons from the battle of Io Jima with DEEP gouges in its thick steeled body from attacks and full sized airplanes that were used. Absolutely amazing; I partly rushed through it because my mom was waiting outside but I think I may go again someday.

We spent our last night in Tokyo in Shinjuku at a fast food restaurant where I showed my mom you could buy your meal coupon from a vending machine, give it to the waitress and receive your meal really fast and leave whenever you like as it has been paid for. We walked around and mom “gooked” at more people (gawked? I think mom made ‘gooked’ up) as fashion really is something else here and I don’t mind as the girls are so pretty.

If getting up at 5:15 was early, we got up at 4:45 this morning to make sure we could get seats on the train. I caught up a bit on sleep this morning, but thought we could save time by hopping on a train that left ½ hour earlier when we had to transfer in Osaka. I believe we are on a slower train, as we should have arrived in Hiroshima an hour ago. No worries, it gave me time to write this up.

"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it" -William Arthur Ward

tnoy