The 6 Billionth Voice

Caulking

2010-09-18T20:46:00.000-07:00

Currently, I am living in Davis again and have been trying to get the house ready to sell. Step One: caulk all the cracks in the walls and around the windows so that the ants stop coming in and dying inside my fridge. Dead ants in the fridge every morning is not a good way to start the day. I am about one day's work away from being done.

Boring update, but it's better than nothing.

Skydiving

2010-07-26T09:25:00.002-07:00

It was just time. Time for me to jump out of a plane. Here is the crew that did it.

Here is me exiting the plane. Interestingly, there is no sensation of falling because the wind is so strong. It actually feels like swimming in a pool where the tiles on the bottom of the pool look like farm land. It is a very surreal experience.

I don't think I got an adrenaline rush until the parachute opened. Just kept thinking "Man that looks like the ground. Nah. It can't be the ground. Ouch, this wind is pushing my glasses into my eyeball. Oh right, that is the ground. Cool."

I have already purchased a second ticket to go again.

Currently Updating to Twitter

2009-03-15T19:29:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody. Haven't had time for a while to do a full blog entry, so Twitter has become a stop gap measure. Please feel free to continue to follow along.

To the right
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My Solo Trip to Honolulu

2008-12-22T21:25:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow Yuri comes to Hawaii. Perhaphs I need to explain myself a little better than that. Yuri came to visit shortly after I moved to Napa. She applied to Napa Valley College and got in. Then she decided to come. So for the last two months she has been in Japan trying to get her life squared away enough so that she can go on another adventure. It is a tireing thing to do. She flys into Honolulu tomorrow with Eri, Kentaro and Sayaka. So I am going to go surprise her at the airport.

Flew over with Dad this morning.

And then began to walk around Honolulu.

I think I really like Honolulu. This is the first time I have really been alone with the city, and on closer inspection, I think I could live here.

Starting tomorrow I will be traveling again.

Things I need to get off my chest

2008-08-25T23:11:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. Chances are that, by now, due to the lack of regular activity, you have stopped regularly checking my blog. This is my own fault. I have been so busy working and sorting out numerous other important things in my life, that I simply haven't had time. Ironically, this is probably the period of my life when I will look back and wish that I had kept more regular notes. I have had many incredible experiences over the last several months, and many would have made good stories. Unfortunately, I will probably not get the chance to tell them here anytime soon.

But I do need to talk to you about some other stuff. Several things have been happening to me recently, and I really need to put them into words so that I can come to terms with them. Here is one of the big ones.

The Story of my Dog
We were on our way to Fukushima, driving along Route 4. Traffic was heavy, and the road was thin. It was raining and there was a little bit of thunder and lightning. Yuri had just finished asking me what twilight was, and I responded by saying "Right now." Suddenly, traffic slowed down in front of us, and we noticed a big, dark colored mut dog limping up the side of the road. I noticed that blood was pouring out of his mouth. I made Yuri stop the car, and ran back to see if the dog was ok. He wasn't. He was limping up the road and into a forest, but was unable to step up out of the street and onto the sidewalk for some reason. Trucks were coming within one foot of hitting him. I tried to coax him out of the street. He wouldn't come. I tried to push him on to the sidewalk. He tried to bite me. He walked a little more and began to lose his balance. He stumbled into traffic. A truck stopped just before hitting him. I pushed him out of the way of the truck and he laid down on the curb. Yuri showed up and I told her to call the police. She called. The police said they couldn't help. We called vets. The vets asked if it was a stray, and we said we didn't know. We couldn't get close enough to see if there was a collar. The vets told Yuri that they wouldn't treat the dog if it was a stray, and that it was past business hours. By now it was dark. Yuri went back to get her car, and I stayed and held an umbrella over the dog. Trucks and cars sped by, inches from hitting the umbrella and the dog. I waved at passing cars. At first urging them to slow down, but soon I was begging them to stop. If someone would just stop their car, I would be able to throw a blanket over the dogs head and lift it on to the sidewalk without being hit by a car or bitten. Hundreds of cars passed. No one stopped. Finally Yuri showed up, again. Together we were able to stop traffic long enough for me to lift the dog on to the sidewalk.

And then I began to realize how bad the situation was. The dog wasn't fighting me anymore. And it's body was racked by spasms evert 10 breaths. All I could do was pet him and tell him that he was good. Yuri called some more people. Finally, a girl parked her car, and the two of them began to call. Then the police showed up, most likely because someone had seen me crouched on the edge of the road acting strangely. The police were not impressed that all of the commotion was over a dog. We finally found a vet willing to take a dog who had no identifiable owner, and was willing to work after business hours. I lifted the dog into the back of the car of the girl who stopped. The police were nice enough to make sure we got to the vet. The vet took the dog out of the car, and put him on the operating table. We then discovered that his abdomen had a gash in it as big as my fist. I sat in the chair next to the operating table and stared into the dogs eyes for several minutes. I couldn't look away. I have seen death, but I have never seen death look back. It changed something in me, but in a way that is neither good nor bad. While I looked into his greying eyes, I saw what looked like calmness. Relief. Not quite satisfaction, but relief.

The vet made us leave, and we went to Eri's house. We got a phone call about an hour later saying that the dog had put up a good fight, but there was nothing the vet could do. Then lightning struck the powerlines outside of Eri's house, and the lights went out. I didn't sleep that night.

I learned something. But I am having trouble figuring out what it is. Part of it is the satisfaction of knowing that I really did all I could do. Part of it is the realization that all I can do wasn't enough, and there is nothing to be satisfied about. Part of it is seeing that, in fact, my high school psychology text book was right, and that the average person will not go out of their way to help a stranger. And part of it is knowing that, if I ever see someone or some creature in distress, I had better offer help, because chances are that no one else will.

None of these are really positive lessons. But there is one inspiring thing about this story. Even though he had been hit by a car so hard that his abdomen burst open, even though he was coughing blood, his tail and legs were all shattered in multiple places, even though he had to walk uphill, inches from the cars which had just hit him, at night, during an incredible thunderstorm, the dog kept walking until his legs literally collapsed. He even tried to get up several times, while I was petting him waiting for Yuri. He was trying to get home. And when I looked into his dying eyes, I knew that he was a good dog.

And at least I was able to tell him that he was a good boy.

Hokkaido Trip, First 10 Days

2008-07-19T19:31:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it isn't as easy to post from the road as thought it would be. But here is the rundown of my trip so far:

Day 1: Boarded the ferry in Nigata. Steerage class, of course, so slept on the floor of a big common room. Ferry was actually really nice.
Day 2: Arrived in Otaru at 4:30am. Walked around Otaru for the next 9 hours. Once the shops opened at 10:00am, went to a Kamaboko (Fish Cake) factory and had fantastic kamaboko. Then went to a music box factory, candy factory, cake factory and various other shops. More Koreans and Chinese tourists in Otaru than Japanese tourists. Drove to Sapporo. Went to cookie factory. Stayed to a net cafe inside a shopping mall.
Day 3: Didn't sleep very well in the net cafe, so went back to the car and slept in the parking lot of a shopping mall. Slept very well. Woke up, walked around Sapporo. Saw Ainu exhibit, Sapporo city hall, central park, Sapporo University. Ate Ramen for dinner and drove to another net cafe.
Day 4: Worked at the net cafe. Got a little sleep. Woke up, drove to a park and slept some more. Went to a milk factory. Ate the best pudding I have ever had in my life. Went to Sapporo beer factory. Went to Kirin beer factory. Went to Salmon park. Drove into the mountains. Got really lost in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone reception and a half tank of gas (road was closed, even though it appeared on the map). Got un-lost. Parked in a parking lot for a public park. Slept.
Day 5: Woke up, went to space museum. Went to Ainu museum. Had the curator of the museum give us a private tour. Helped him translate some of the exhibit descriptions into English. Left just as hundreds of high school students showed up. Drove and drove and drove and drove. Went to "Hell Valley" at Noboribetsu onsen. Took a very hot bath at a very small bed and breakfast style onsen. Drove to Muroran. Ate dinner on the dock and slept in the marina parking lot.
Day 6: Drove to Date. Got a tour of the local history museum by the curator. Drove up to Lake Toya (where the G8 had been one week before). Saw that the place where the G8 meeting was basically an inaccessible fortress on a hill. Saw the 40 year old volcano next to it. Drove and drove and drove. Arrived in Hakodate. Went to Kelp factory. Ate kelp ice cream. Went to downtown Hakodate. Found a watch on the ground and turned it into the police. Got a recommendation from the policewoman for a Ramen shop. At the spiciest Ramen on my life. Walked around Hakodate at night. At 10:00pm, drove to the top of Mt. Hakodate to see the night view. Slept in the car at the top of Mt. Hakodate.
Day 7: Walked around Hakodate some more. Went to another Ainu museum. Had another museum curator give us a tour. Drove to the old Hakodate fortress. Drove south. Stopped in the middle of nowhere and went to the hottest onsen I have even been to (other than Kusatsu). Drove to the tiny of Fukushima, famous for its dried squid and sumo wrestlers. Slept in the parking lot of a Sumo museum.
Day 8: Went to Sumo museum. Went to Seikan tunnel museum. Drove to Matsumae. Saw Matsumae castle. Drove. Drove. Drove. Got on Freeway. Drove. Drove. Got off freeway at Yubari. Slept in parking lot near freeway exit.
Day 9: Toured Yubari. At a mellon. Drove to Asahikawa. Stayed up all night working in a net cafe.
Day 10: Went to Asahiyama zoo. Drove to Wakanai. Camped on a hill over looking the town.
Day 11: Toured Wakanai. Ate Russian food. Worked in the car. Went to an onsen. Drove to Sarufutsu.

And that brings us up to now. We are, as I type, driving along the north coast of Hokkaido.

Wild Animals seen:
Foxes - 12
Deer - 4
Bears - 0

We are going into a place that supposedly has the highest density of brown bears in the world, so hopefully that last number will be going up.

Hokaido Roadtrip, Shupatsu!

2008-07-08T11:59:00.000-07:00

Shupatsu is what you say in Japanese when you set off on a journey.

I know. It's been a really long time. Things in my life got, and continue to be, busy. Plus, now I work on the computer, so I when I am on the computer I feel like I should be working. So my posts are going to be short for a while.

What happened? The short version. Kira and Ryan came and visited Japan. Went to the US to help Mom and Dad. Y came. Trained myself to be a webmaster. Missed Y, and came back to Japan. Applied to school. Was rejected. So know I am spending as much time as I can with Y before my visa expires and I return to the US to work with Mom and Dad.

In Japan I have had some adventures. BBQ in Nagano. Saw a Kamoshika at Shima Onsen. Carjacked by a monkey in Nikko.

And now Y and I are setting off on a month long road trip that should take us through most of northern Japan. We got us at 3:30 this morning so that we could make it onto the freeway before 4am in order to take advantage of a 40% discount. Today we will arrive in Nigata, board a ferry and sleep on the floor with the other ferry passengers durring the 17 hour trip to Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan. The Alaska of Japan, in a way.

I bought a mobile phone internet plan, so I should have internet for most of the trip. Expect updates. However, since it is mobile phone based internet, pictures are going to be a little difficult. I'm still figuring that part out.

Please, spread the word. The adventure never stopped, but the story begins again!

My Last Days in Shibukawa

2008-03-19T02:19:00.001-07:00

Well, there hasn't been a post for a while. Sorry about that. Thanks for not giving up on me. The truth is I became so busy that I simply did not have time to finish this post until long after the date.

So here it is. The end of my story in Shibukawa.

Here is a picture taken of my very last class. As the time for me to leave got closer and closer, I got more and more nostalgic. I was on the verge of tears at the end of nearly every class.
I had a rather large lump in my throat by the end of this one. Here is the classroom, empty after my students had all left.
And here I am saying goodbye to the librarians at one of my schools.
And saying goodbye to my Japanese class.
I have thought and thought about which stories to tell about my last 3 weeks in Shibukawa. I could tell about how I got thank you cards from about 1000 of my students. I could tell you how I acted in a farewell performance for the 6th year students in one school, and I broke down crying in front of the 6th grade students in my other school when one of my students read me a thank you letter which he had written in English. I could tell you about the last day of cleaning the school, and the last night of cleaning my room. I could tell you about how the teachers at my school bought me running shoes. I have lots more. But I only have one story to tell.

Everyday I rode my bike to school. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays I passed an old man who always sat on the side of the road. Every time I passed him I said "Good Morning" in Japanese. Every time he heard my "Good Morning" he looked surprised and mumbled something. Finally, on my last day in Shibukawa, after I said "Good Morning" he stopped me. "Are you Japanese?" he asked. I looked closely at his face for the first time. His eyes were gray and white and looked in very different directions. This man, I realized, was blind. "No," I replied, "I am from Hawaii." "Oh," the man answered "Then you are an English teacher at the school." I told him I was, and that it was my last day. "Well thank you for always saying 'Good Morning'." He said as I mounted my bike. I saw a glimmer of something in that moment. I had actually had an effect on the town of Shibukawa, perhaps. Maybe I had actually made a difference in people's lives. As I rode away I though to myself "I did a good job."

えいちゃん (pronounced "A" chan)

2008-02-06T00:06:00.000-08:00

When I knew for certain that I would be moving to Japan, almost 2 years ago now, I drove with mom and dad down to Kona and spent an entire day buying souvineers from Hawaii that I could give to people who I met. We wandered into one shop which sold lots of stuffed animals. I Decided that it would be a good idea to buy a few Hawaiian stuffed animals, just in case I met anyone with small children. I bought a shark, an octopus, and a manta ray.

Months passed. Eventually I arrived in Japan and learned that I would be teaching grammar school, a worrying prospect since I had almost no experience with small children. I was told by my vice-principal that I should come up with a lecture which would introduce myself and the place where I came from. If I had something from Hawaii, the kids would love to see it. Well, aside from dozens of key chains, macadamia nuts and coffee, the only "Hawaiian" things I brought were an aloha shirt, a Hawaii state flag, pants with fish on them, and my stuffed animals. All of which I brought to first few classes. In the second or third class I ever taught, I ran out of stuff to talk about with about 15 minutes left in class. Embarased that I had no other plan, I looked into my suitcase and saw the manta ray. I pulled it out and tried to explain (my Japanese was barely passable at the time) that if anyone raised their hand to ask a question, I would throw them the stuffed animal. I began to swing the manta ray by the tail, and the class perked up. 15 minutes ended in no time.

Throwing the manta ray into the audience soon became a feature of all my intro classes. And the rougher I threw the stuffed animal, the more the class laughed. I began subjecting the manta ray to various kinds of tortures, from playing soccer with it, to using it as a pad when I sat down in class. The more slapstick the routine, the more the kids laughed, and the easier class was.

And yet, while class grew easier and easier the more I abused the manta ray, my experiences outside of class grew more and more difficult. Students began to slap me, kick me, punch me, kancho (made famous as the "1000 Years of Pain" by the anime Naruto) me, and attack me in horrible new ways that only the innocent mind of a child can devise. My only recourse in these attacks was to stand there and take it, unable to even scold the children (since I was not yet capable of speaking the language).

It was not long before I noticed the similarity between the way I treated the manta ray stuffed animal and the way I was being treated. I decided to cease the slapstick routines, and, within a month, the student's abuse of me also (mostly) stopped.

It was at that point that I realized that the manta ray stuffed animal was very important. I began taking it to school with me everyday. I began addressing it as "my friend" in front of the kids. I encouraged them to be nice to it, and I gave it a name: えいちゃん (like the letter "A" + chan), which translates as "Little Ray". That December I returned to Hawaii for Christmas. Knowing that I had come to depend on えいちゃんin class, I went back to the store with the stuffed animals and bought a spare to ensure against the very likely possibility of えいちゃん disappearing.

So for an entire year, えいちゃん and I have been partners. She comes with me to every class (and the days she doesn't come tend to be rough days for me). She is my bomb when we play timebomb. Her tail is my microphone when students want to say something. She waves her fin and says "hello" and "goodbye" to the students whenever she makes an appearance. She is my example of a friend. She is the prize for all my games (more on that later). She is my ALT (Assistant Language Teacher, what I am supposed to be).

And this is what has happened to her. Here she is side by side with the spare manta ray, which I have not used in class even once.
She has become real. That color is from being rubbed against the cheeks of hundreds of children. From being squeezed. From being chewed on. From being hidden in my shirt, only to emerge halfway through class to the elated shouts of my students. From being used as a hat. From accidentally being tossed into the sink. From being loved. And when you look in her eyes, she looks back.
And what have I become? I can't be so presumptuous as to assume that I am real too. Even if I have parts that move, or am shinny (mostly on my head these days), or can do tricks like talk, or write blog entries about things being real, doesn't make me real. I really don't know if I am real or not. But I did notice something recently, something which had changed. This next picture is one of the prizes that I made for my kids. When they win any sort of contest in class I sing part of "The Overture of 1812" and produce one of these from my pocket. On the back I write "Prize!" and then explain what the prize is for.
Then the other day I noticed, that I did a really good job making this stamp (it is, by the way, a stamp I made from an eraser). So I made another, and that was pretty good too. Then I tried drawing something, and I was good at that also. Then I made a website, and I thought I did a rather good job (you can see this website at http://nekolove.xenfree.com . It is a mobile phone website, though, so on a computer it will look tiny). The point is, I don't think I have really gotten better at any of this stuff, and I don't think that everything I do is great. But being a grammar school teacher has forced me into situations were I really just need to be good at something (like drawing or singing or dancing or sports or making pleasent conversation in another language with parents who hate you) so many times, that, at this point, I don't think about how I might not be able to do it, I just patiently sit down and do a good job. It is a funny feeling to suddenly believe that, in fact, you really can do anything you set your mind to, even if you are already 25. This must be how dad feels.

And it's all because I too have had the privilege of being rubbed on cheeks and squeezed and chewed on and tossed around. And loved. And when you realize that last part, it makes it really hard to leave. I have decided to offer the unused manta ray (who is longing to be real too) to the teacher who will replace me in April. えいちゃん and I want to stay together, since we are off on our next adventure, who knows to where yet.

And finally, here are some pictures on last weekend.

Outdoor onsen during snowstorm.
For some reason, after the outdoor onsen during a snowstorm, Yuri wanted to eat ice cream. So we did.

January's Leftovers

2008-01-31T04:47:00.001-08:00

So, here are the pictures of Disneyland. As you can see, winter rains couldn't stop us! (Though they did make us stop to eat/warm up more than Yuri would have liked.)
Here is the Japan-only Christmas Haunted Mansion ride. Japan loves the Nightmare Before Christmas.
And here is something amazing that I saw that I had to show the world. Japan is the land of vending machines. This much you know. Now you may have heard of vending machines that sell everything from canned soup to used women's underwear (the later no longer exists, by the way). But this is the most amazing vending machine I have ever seen because it is not only bizarre by American standards, but also a really good idea who's time is past.
This vending machine sells fresh eggs. It is located next to a chicken farm in Gunma-machi. As you walk by, you can pay an insanely low price (I think it was something like 10 yen for an egg) and buy individual eggs. The eggs don't drop out, it works like a newspaper dispenser. And the eggs are fresh, having been laid that very day. This vending machine, however, seems to be one of the last of its kind. The problem with vending machine eggs is that eggs are really hard to transport without something to put them in. You can't just put them in your pocket. Still, the idea of fresh eggs from a farmer you know stirs the nutritional romantic in me.

So on to other stuff. What have I been up to? Well, aside from teaching, I have been trying to learn how to make multilingual websites, edit photos with the GIMP, write programs in PHP, design websites with CSS, etc. Basically, I am using the cold winter weather as an excuse to stay inside and work on some of my nerd skills.

Maybe my best day of teaching

2008-01-18T04:55:00.000-08:00

So, last weekend Yuri and I went to Disneyland. No pictures. No story really. But I'll never forget it. By the way, if you decide to go to Tokyo Disneyland, go during the winter, during a rain storm. You only have to wait in line for 45 minutes for the best rides.

It's been a long time since I have written about work. I mostly don't talk about work because of privacy issues, but also the majority of the time work is almost the same everyday. With a substantial number of quirks of course.

But the thing about working in grammar school is that it is never the same, and when it is good it is amazing. Today was one of the amazing days.

This week has been rough. I have been exhausted all week due to my late nights, long hours and cold weather. Wednesday was like a fight to stay awake. On Thursday I had people asking me all day if I was sick. So I got alot of sleep and went to school on Friday with a simple goal: get through my 5 classes (the rare maximum number) and go home. I got the school, prepared my classes, found my happy place and went to class. I think I did OK during my four back to back hours of teaching. During that time I sang the ABC song no less than 18 times (not an exaggeration), asked "How are you?" maybe 120 times (roughly) and said "Hello" even more times than that (since I say "hello" to every student I pass). Finally, it was lunch time. I ate silently at my desk in the teachers room and helped myself to a second helping of pumpkin soup. I cleaned up my tray and went to the hand wash area outside to brush my teeth.

As I brushed, I heard what sounded like a stampede headed my direction. I turned around to see a tide of about 20 Third Grade students swarming around me. I stood there stunned, my toothbrush hanging out of my mouth. The students stood there smiling then asked if they could sing Edelweiss for me, at which point they began to sing Edelweiss in English. Cornered, I did the only thing I could do. I spit, washed my toothbrush, and used it as a conductor's baton. To my surprise, the kids actually followed my baton! 15 more kids showed up and began to sing in the back. The first set finished and the kids asked me to conduct again. This time I warmed them up and really got into it. Keeping time with my brush, I used my hands and face to encourage the kids to express more emotion, or quiet down. Behind all the kids, a second grade teacher had shown and was grabbing passing kids and bringing them into the hand wash area to add to the crowd. After singing the song as a big group, all the Third graders broke into small groups and I went through and practiced with them in small groups. I passed the entire remainder of the lunch break conducting kids singing Edelweiss with my toothbrush. Then the bell rang and the kids dispersed. At that point I almost cried. What I saw was beautiful. Maybe my best moment as a teacher.

But I have to say maybe. There was that time I dressed as Santa and went around giving everyone cards, then ran to eat lunch with a class, who, as it turned out, had skipped lunch so that they could write thank you cards to me in return. Or that Fourth grade girl who had developed a phobia of school and refused to go to normal class, but wasn't afraid to go to my class. Or the special needs boy who loves my ABC flashcards so much that he comes to me at lunch every Tuesday and goes over the ABCs with me. Or the two pre-school girls who feud over me. Or the seriously ill girl who thanked me for trying to cheer her up by reading her a picture book (it turned out she had gone blind temporarily).

No, it is true. While my life may be headed in a direction that is not teaching, there very little doubt in my mind that I will become a grammar school teacher in the end. There is simply no job I could ever do that would be more important.

Yuri's Trip to Hawaii

2008-01-04T02:36:00.001-08:00

A lot has changed recently. What follows is one of the smaller changes. This month's post will not be about me. This post is about Yuri's trip to Hawaii. I just happen to be the one behind the camera in most of the pictures. However, before we switch over to her, I have an amazing story about me.

So I flew into the Big Island, had dinner with Grandma Mary and Grandpa Clay (who I was very glad to see), got up early the next morning at 5:00am and drove to the airport to catch a plane to Oahu, where I was meeting Yuri at about 7:30am. I checked to make sure I had my wallet several times. I knew for a fact that it was on the passenger seat next to me. Yet somehow, when I got to the airport, my wallet was gone! I searched everywhere, to no avail. Finally, with only 45 minutes before my plane took off, and with no way to contact Yuri (who honestly, would have had a great time even if I had never shown up), I panicked and called Grandma Mary with instructions to bring my passport and whatever cash she had to the airport as fast as possible. She got there just in time, I ran through security, got to the gate and relaxed. About one minute later, security showed up at the gate and announced over the loudspeaker that they were looking for me. They had found my wallet. It was lying in the middle of the road. Not even in the parking lot, but the middle of the street. To this day I have no idea how it got there.

On to Yuri. Yuri arrived in Honolulu, we rented a car...
And went to the USS Bowfin museum at Pearl Harbor. Here I am with an ICBM. Observe the hand sign.
And Yuri on the deck of the USS Bowfin.
It was very interesting going to Pearl Harbor with Yuri. She really wanted me to take a picture of her with this suicide submarine because her grandfather had been in the Japanese navy during the war and when she got home he would want to see the photos. It kind of moves me to think that, when grandparents were our age they were enemies, but 65 years later we are touring Pearl Harbor together. Time changes everything.
Saw a Zero...
And the Mighty Mo.
Yuri really liked the Battleship. Maybe because she has a lot in common with it.
This is the place where Japan surrendered to the United States.
After Pearl Harbor, we went to visit the Hitachi Tree in Moanalua Gardens.
And take a rest.
That afternoon, after another nap, we strolled down Waikiki and saw the sunset.
The next day we went to Nu'uanu Pali...
Ate Spam Musubi...
And got lost in the maze at the Dole Pineapple plantation.
So, that evening we flew into Kona, and met the family for dinner. Then went to the house and met Portia.

The next day we saw three whales just off the shore
Here we are going for a run at HPA.
The next day we went snorkeling and saw this three finned turtle.
I also took this picture, which is the last photo my camera ever took. Even though I did everything right, my waterproof camera stopped being waterproof and was destroyed. Luckily (thanks to Yuri's expert advice) I have a full warranty, bought the camera with a credit card that had insurance and was able to save the memory card. Hopefully I will be getting a new one.
So I borrowed cameras for the rest of the pictures on this post. Shaved ice at Anuenue Shaved Ice in Kawaihae...
The Pertoglyph Park in the Puako forest...
And a shot to show how beautiful Hawaii can be in the winter.
Here is Yuri, having completed decorating the Christmas tree.
So then Kira, Ryan, Yuri and I decided to take a trip around the island. I was feeling much more adventurous this time than usual, so I made some random stops that turned out to be very good choices. This is a free coffee tasting bar in Kona that I stopped at on an impulse.
Pu'u Honua 'O Ho'onaunau.
Impulse stop number two: a pretty good fruit stand.
And then we went to South Point to jump off the cliffs.
Me, midair. Too bad it is all washed out.
Me and Yuri in the water. She jumped too!
Some other Japanese tourists were there watching and were very impressed by Yuri's courage.
Here is that scary, scary ladder.
The bakery.
Kilauea. (These are all places in previous posts, if you want to know more about them try doing a search of my blog.)
Steam vents.
In front of Halemaumau.
So, with the four of us we actually had the courage to go to the very back of the Thurston Lava Tube at night. Yuri was small enough to actually crawl and touch the end of the cave.
So, I had planned on camping, but since we didn't have a tent I decided we didn't need one. Unfortunately, I forgot to tell Kira that we didn't have a tent, just a tarp. Then it started raining. She was, understandably, a little irritated with me. The end result was that Kira and Ryan slept in the car, and Yuri and I slept outside. It was raining. The wind was blowing. But it was warm, sort of dry, and you could see the stars as you fell asleep. I honestly have never slept better in my whole life. Well, the 3 hours that I was actually asleep for, that is.
So the next day we began to drive home. Kira and Ryan had us stop at this natural pool that they knew about. We hiked down to it, and concluded that the water was flowing just a bit to fast for a swim to be a good idea. Kira said she was going to go the the bathroom, so I started back to the car. Then Kira and Ryan went swimming anyway.
So I took pictures.
We found this cool Banyan Tree...
Near Akakakakaka falls.
The next day we flew Ryan to Honolulu.
It was Yuri's first time in a small plane.
On the way back we went to Molokai...
And Yuri got to try flying the plane!
Here we are the next day with Cina and Chenzo at the Hilton.
Saw the dolphins.
Rode the Rhinos.
Debated with the Nene.
Here is Yuri throwing away garbage at the Puako Transfer Station. How many Japanese tourist get to do that!
Here is Christmas morning.
All the stuff.
Grandpa Clay.
Grandma Mary.
Kira in a Pikachiu costume.
Portia with a Santa Hat. Man did she hate this part.
Two days later we met the Bleechers up in Waimea for a hike. First we hiked to the back of Waipio (which was clear for the first time I can remember).
Then the next day we drove up Mana Road and went to the Douglas Memorial and the Hakalau Bird Sanctuary.
Saw some rare native Hawaiian birds.
Saw some nice forests, and had a scare about the car.
Two days later, we went to Kona and went to Scandanavian Shaved Ice.
I ordered the most expensive thing on the menu: the large with everything on it.
I was as big as my head, proven by the fact that I could put my hat on it. That was a lot of shaved ice. I will never order that much shaved ice again, but I am so glad I did it!
Me at a party, wearing Grandpa's bowtie.
Mom dancing.
McManus and Bleecher families at Paniolo for breakfast.
Yup. And that is a photographic version of Yuri's trip to Hawaii.

I think I do have to talk a little bit more about myself, unfortunately. There have been some major developments in my life recently. One of them is that I have developed a serious, serious intrest in web design. I just built my first website using nothing but notepad++. So you may see a format change on the 6 Billionth Voice sometime soon, since I will finally know how to edit the HTML and not just input text.

And once again, thanks for reading!

Looking for a Lemonade Recipe

2007-12-12T17:09:00.001-08:00

I can't hide the fact that the last month has been the worst of my life so far. Just 39 days after Grandpa passed away, Grandma passed away also. I guess I should have expected it. They lived for each other. Grandma and Grandpa, I love you both. Take care of each other.
So things are a little tough. A lot of lemons recently. We tried various things to take our mind off it. Visiting my grandfather's birthplace in San Francisco.
Celebrating Hanukkah with Ya and Josh.
These are the Lakas we made...
Our Menorah...
Ya and the Gelt-a-sarus-sock.
Lock lips with Gelt-a-sarus-sock...
Watch him dance...

Ride the Murder Mystery Train...
Here is a video of the Murder Mystery Train.

And doing what we need to do.
At this point, I we are just hanging in there until Christmas, when everyone, including Yuri, comes to Hawaii. We'll be making lemonade.

Gunma Kenmin Marathon #2!

2007-11-09T00:36:00.000-08:00

As I have stated many times, I have gotten really into running in Japan. You may remember that I did a costumed half marathon in May, and a 10 k last year. Well, I had so much fun last year that I decided to run the Gunma Kenmin Marathon one more time. I trained very well, and was in excellent condition to run the race. Then I had the experience of the second half of the month of October, and all that conditioning went right out the window. I wonder if there are any studies that show how much muscle is lost during a trans-pacific plane flight. Now what if you make that trip 4 times, get sick, don't sleep more than a few hours for days at a time, increase your intake of junk food by 1000% and excercise a total of two times during a 3 week period. You get weaker. I can assure you. Still, after October, the physical punishment of an untrained for half marathon didn't seem so bad. So on November 3rd I showed up at the race. Yuma-chan, the mascot of the prefecture where I live, was there to greet me.
Here I am at the starting line.
My goal was two fold. I wanted to be the first foreigner to finish, if I was going to finish. I also wanted to pretend that I was Pac Man and gave myself a point for every runner I "ate" by passing. I started off at a nice jogging pace in the middle of the pack, and then started to speed up by the 3rd kilometer. Soon I was racking up the points. At around the 8th kilometer I hit "the Wall". Way too soon. Still, I didn't see any reason to slow down. With winter on the way I am not going to be able to run until spring anyway, so what did it matter if I got slightly injured during this race. After 14 kilometers my muscles reached the limit of what I normally ask them to do. Oh well. At around 17 kilometers I spotted a foreigner in front of me, and I set out to pass her. I did. I finished the race with no energy left, using the last of my energy to go to where Yuri was waiting and telling her to prop me up against her body because I was about to faint and I didn't want it to look like I had fainted. I didn't want to get in an ambulance again.
I re hydrated, walked to the car (which took me an hour, and it was only a km away). We went to eat, strecthed, took a nap at 4pm and didn't wake up till 7 the next day when I discovered that I had pulled both of my hamstrings, my glutes, my calfs and had done something bad to the bone in my right shin. It was awesome.

Now all of this injury stuff may seem bad, but you have to consider this fact:
Previous Half Marathon Time: 1 Hour and 55 Minutes
Gunma Kenmin Marathon Time: 1 Hour and 40 Minutes

A 15 minute improvement. Holy cow.
In the end I was the first foreigner after all.

TV
By the way, here is an interview of me at the Heso Matsuri which took place back in July. I finally got it online!

October 2007

2007-10-27T09:09:00.000-07:00

That was one heck of a month. Man.

Well, I was able to convince my employer to give me the last of my vacation so that I could go and be at Ryan and Rebbeca's wedding. So I took off on the 12th of October and got sick on the plane. Got there on the 12th, visited with Grandma and Grandpa, then returned to SF to prepare for the wedding. It was great to see everyone, despite being both sick and jet lagged. The wedding was on the 14th and it was very nice. And it would have been the subject of a much longer post, if not for the other events of the month. Before I move on though, congradulations Ryan and Rebbeca!
I arrived back in Japan on the 16th and went to work for two days. Then, on the morning of the 19th in Japan I got a call from my mother informing me that my grandfather had passed away in his sleep. I imeadeately packed a suitcase and headed back to the airport. I arrived in Napa on the afternoon of the 19th. My mission for the week: to play with my little cousins as much as possible and to record as many stories of my grandfather's life as I could. So, on Saturday all the kids (everybody minus Oriana and Josh, who were still in transit) went to a Milo maze/Pumpkin patch in Davis to get lost and to pick out pumpkins. I wish I hadn't forgotten my camera. Anyway, we had fun in the maze. As far as the pumpkins went, Chenzo and I went a little overboard. He used his money to buy the biggest pumpkin in the patch, and I bought about 6 pumpkins so that everybody could have one.
This was my one dollar pumpkin.
So the next day Chenzo, Josh, Nick and I carved the big pumpkin.
This is how big it was.
Smaller pumpkins had been carved on the previous day. Josh.
Tara.
Nick.
Me.
Chenzo.
'China.
And the big one, done.
Then we laid them out by the tree in front of the house.
Here they are at night.

It also happend to be Kira's birthday, so we made a cake and cut it with the Sonic Blade (Trademark).

Well, the rest on the week was consumed by planning the funeral and trying to collect as many stories as possible. Here is everybody at dinner on Tuesday, the night before the funeral.
Thank you for everything Grandpa. Love you.

Studying and.. Fishing.

2007-10-07T15:52:00.000-07:00

So, a quick update on recent events. The big news is that my Japanese proficiency test is only 2 months away, so I am beginning to study twice as much as I was. I have new motivation to pass. If I do pass I can attend Japanese university, though whether I will or not is still to be decided. I am actually in a very easy place mentally at the moment. There are a lot of things that need to be decided in the future, but none of those decisions can even be made until after December, so for now I just have to memorize. Very not stressful.

Physically I have not been doing so well. I got my arm yanked at Kindergarten last week (which happens an average of 20 times a day I would say) but this time something went *ping* in my shoulder. Two days later a small pain began in my shoulder. That small pain turned into a big pain in my whole back. Soon that back pain turned into crippling neck pain and I had to take a day off of work to go to the hospital. Got some powerful Ben Gay like medicine from the doctor and most of the pain went away. A little is still lingering, but it is tolerable.

So basically, I haven't been doing much but study, go to Sports Day (I went to 4 Sports Days in a row) and stretch my back. Then this Saturday I went on my first excursion in a long time... fishing.

Now, I remember going fishing with Grandpa Clay on Caples Lake with his big boat and having a great time not catching any fish. I also remember going fishing on the rocks by the Manta Ray viewing area at Mauna Kea and having a huge Eel slither across the rocks at my feet. Those are the two times I remember fishing, and neither of them involves catching fish. Well, this time I went fishing with Yuri, Eri, Sayaka, Kentaro and Hide on Lake Haruna. Our goal was to catch fish since we had already bought the supplies with which to do fish tempura.
We rented some of the ugliest paddle boats in the world...
And began to fish. I mistakenly assumed that this fishing expedition would be like my other two experiences where we gave up or got bored within two hours and went to a restaurant that served fish.
Not so. Six hours later we were still on the boat. I got a chance to take 2 very peaceful 2 hour naps.
After six hours, this is our catch. Now, I know they may look small, but this is actually the size of fish that we were fishing for.
In the end we had enough for tempura. Fishing in Japan. Now I've done it.

Back to Japan, With Grace and Drake!

2007-09-11T01:54:00.001-07:00

Hey folks. I know you have been waiting for a while. A little over half a month actually, since the last post. Thanks for sticking around.

I have been in Japan for one year now. It was one hell of a hard year. I can't believe I did it.

Anyway, after the Ecuador trip there were a few days in California and Hawaii. However, since my photo taking finger was still injured from the Ecuador trip, few pictures of that part exist. Here is one of me and Nick kayaking.
And Nick's response to our trip.

Hawaii sure is beautiful.
So basically, I came back to Japan and staggered around for a couple of days trying to beat Jet Lag. During that time I went to a really cool festival in Takasaki with Yuri and Kentaro, but I forgot to bring my camera again. Sorry!

The big news recently, and the reason it took a month to update this blog, is that my non-Japanese friends are finally starting to visit me in Japan. The first was Grace, who came to Japan on a four day trip with her sister. We met in Shinjuku...
And ate Monja Yaki, Japan's most disgusting looking food. Emphasis on the "looking", it is actually quite scrumptious.

Grace and I were only able to hang out for a night, but I am really glad that she was able to come. She promises that next time she will come to Gunma so we can do some onsen.

Grace's trip prepared me for my first real guest, who flew in all the way from California for my birthday. Drake arrived at Narita Airport to find that I had prepared in advance for his arrival.
Would you rather be picked up at the airport in Japan by a man in a suit and white gloves, or by a white guy dressed in a 1000 yen samurai costume who attacks you with a plastic sword as you leave security? I thought Drake would like the latter.
He did. By the way, if you come to visit Japan and schedule your trip on a day that I can come to the airport I have an even better costume planned. I'm dying to do it, so please come!
After the airport stuff was all squared away Drake, Yuri, Keiko and I all went to a feudal Japan themed restaurant in Shinjuku.
Where we ate food. Food you don't eat every day.
Here is my small but fantastic birthday party.
The nabe.
Drake brought noise makers from the US. They were a source of wonderful entertainment.

Keiko may have gotten injured in this next video.

And here is Drake becoming a yet to be named superhero.
My cake!
Good birthday. After the party we had planned to go to Karaoke, but since everyone was really tired (except Yuri who is never tired, except in the morning) we decided just to go to a Manga/Internet Cafe and get some rest. Here is the inside of Cafe Seeds in Ueno, my recommendation if you are ever looking for an Internet Cafe to sleep in. Clean, friendly and around 2000 Yen for the night with free rental movies, manga and flat mats to sleep on. Showers cost 300 yen for half and hour, and towels, tooth brush, soap, razor and shampoo are all provided.
The next day we got up and went to Asakusa. Drake got his fortune told at the temple behind Kaminari-mon and ended up with the second worst luck you can get (I never get my fortune told unless things already look bad and even bad luck sounds good). We faithfully tied it in front of the temple and left it to the Buddha to work out for us.
Then we went to my favorite ice cream shop in Asakusa (the one which sells Natto Ice Cream).
They sell many odd flavors other than Natto. Drake got beer flavored ice cream. It was made from real beer and was actually alcoholic (1%).
Then we went to Akihabara. By the way, here is the ramen vending machine. Hot ramen in a can from a vending machine. The laziest Japanese food ever. You only need to pop the lid and chew.
Drake, who loves building things, was in heaven in Akihabra.
And we found some very interesting stuff.

This too.

And where else could you find a picture of Hello Kitty with the Jaws of Life?
After spending most of the day in Akihabara, we went to Ginza, and from Ginza went to Tsukiji. The fish market was closed on Sunday, but some of the sushi shops were still open. The Hawkers outside the sushi shops in Tsukiji are very aggressive, by the way. In the end we went into the restaurant with the most relaxed hawker. Good choice since the place we went to had a chef that was hilarious and wouldn't stop trying to crack jokes, even to let us eat.
When we did manage to chew in between his incessant teasing, the sushi was good.
And I tried the expensive fatty tuna. This nigiri sushi was 800 yen for one piece. Good, but not as good as the Chuo Tuna, the one that is only 400 yen a piece.
After escaping the clutches of our chef, we went back to Gunma.

The next day Yuri took a day off of work and drove Drake around the Takasaki area. After I was done with Kindergarten, I met them and we went to Okonomiyaki. Everybody made something. Drake made the Okonomiyaki. I made the Monja Yaki. And Yuri made the waitress cook the Hiroshima Yaki for us.
After Okonomiyaki Drake and I went to Pachinko, the Japanese version of a slot machine. Having now done it, I can tell you that Pachinko is not worth your time. It might be more rewarding to walk into the pachinko place and just had your money to someone that works there because at least then you could have a conversation. Needless to say, Drake and I lost and lost fast.
The next day Drake went to Tokyo, and when I got off of work we met in Shibukawa and went to Soba with Yuri. We ate at the best Soba restaurant in Shibukawa and had Wasabi Soba with real Wasabi. Incredible. Real Wasabi is very, very rare. In fact, you can't buy it at any supermarket or vegetable stand in Shibukawa. It has to be ordered from Nagano.
On Thursday a typhoon hit Gunma, so Drake and I went to Keiyaki Walk. We went to the game center and waited for Yuri. When she arrived she found a few coins laying around and put them in a "metal game" machine. The three of us played the game and ultimately won the game, hit all the jackpots and got a huge pay off. All in Namco Land tokens which have no monetary value. Much more fun than Pachinko. Drake rode Pikachu.
Then we went to Kappa Sushi.
The Typhoon dropped a ton of rain on Gunma and passed directly over Shibukawa. School got canceled the next day as a result. Here is how much the Tone river flooded. That used to be a park.
It never looks that big. But Gunma was the epicenter of the storm, and of all the provinces in Japan suffered the most damage.
We spent my surprise day off going sightseeing.
On Saturday we began to drive to Tochigi. Here is an ancient tomb which was discovered recently. Gunma appears to have had a thriving culture over 1500 years ago.
Then we went to this reconstructed Edo period village. Tried the stilts.
I was no good.

Not as good as Nikko Edo Mura, by any means, but not as broken.
The optical illusion house.
The leaning house.
Here is a fun video. I have a good camera.

After that we picked up Waka and went to Ashikaga in Tochigi. There we visited the first university in Japan, built over 1000 years ago.
Beautiful grounds.
Me doing a Kanji test.

And at lunch shortly afterwards. This picture needs explaination. Drake was taking a picture of me pretending to pour water on Yuri. In the process she bumped me and I actually did.
On the way to Eri's house in Tochigi we stopped at Joyful Honda. Now, I have always thought that Joyful Honda was a car dealership, but it turns out it is the largest sigle store that I have ever seen in my entire life. It is like a Home Depot, Costco, Target, Tokyu Hands, Pet Store, and a mall food court all stacked on top of eachother. I have never seen a store this big.
When we got to Eri's house we ate Gyoza...
And went to Karaoke.
Then set off fireworks in the parking lot of a theater.
The next morning's breakfast. We ate...
Then went to Nikko.
I am so pleased that I finally got to go to the famous part of Nikko. I have wanted to go to Toshogu Shrine for a whole year now. Sadly, the old buildings of the shrine had so much mold in them that I spent the entire time sneezing.
Here is the famous monkey sculpture.
Preaty bulidings.
One of the most photographed things in the world.
Main gate.
And the waterfall just up the hill. Lots of water since the previous day was a typhoon.
On Monday Drake went home after spending a total of 10 days in Japan. It was great. I have been feeling a little bit like I am living two lives recently: my Japan life and my US life. These two lives feel very diffrent to me. Diffrent friends, diffrent daily routine, even my personality changes in the diffrent context. The fact that I am simultaneously living both these lives has been a source of stress to me lately. Drake comming to Japan helped to tie those two lives together a little bit. There is a little bit more continuity between my lives, and it comforts me. Thank you Drake.

Ecuador

2007-08-20T19:40:00.001-07:00

The wait is over! The post is done. And Ecuador was great! Yes, I lucked out and got to take a trip to Ecuador with my parents and sister. It will probably be our last family vacation together just because it is getting to complicated to have vacations at the same time. But you never know. Ok, so this blog is the longest I have ever done, with over 100 pictures and several videos, but don't worry, it is also organized into chapters to make it easy to read.

Day 1 - In Transit
Actually took more than a day thanks to the international date line. Flew from Narita to Houston, Texas where I met up with my family in the Houston Airport. Went to a seafood restaurant where my sister decided to get a salad. This is what passes as a salad in Texas. Every time I come back from Japan I am shocked by the amount of food that they serve in restaurants in the US. So was my sister.
Flew from Houston to Quito, Ecuador. Slept.

Day 2 - Quito City Tour
We were met by Luis, who ended up being one of the best guides we have ever had, and began our Quito city tour. Here is the group in front of one of the senic overlooks of Quito. Quito, by the way, is a high altitude city with parts of the city over 3000 meters. This made it hard to breathe and very cold.
Here is a major church in Quito. Notice that instead of gargoyles there are Galapagos Iguanas. The other gargoyles were also animals native to Ecuador.
This is the main square of the city, an architectural relic of Spanish colonial times.
One of the streets of the older part of Quito.
Another major church.
A view of downtown Quito from the top of a hill. Old and new buildings are quite close together as you can see.
And a part of Quito that wasn't on the city tour, but would have been interesting to go to.
America is hardly popular anywhere at the moment. This was the jovial graffiti, the other graffiti I saw on occasion was "kill the Yankees". Still, people were nice in Ecuador. I never had a problem.
Here is the Equator. Didn't think it was a physical line in the sky, did you?
And here is the family, all of us with one foot in the northern hemisphere and one foot in the southern hemisphere.
Here is a guy weaving. As it turns out, in this part of Ecuador, weaving was traditionally men's work. Women were supposed to carry things.
Day 3 - Cuenca and Cajas
So the next day we flew to Cuenca, a city in a diffrent part of Ecuador, but still high in the Andes.
A church.
The flower market.
The main church, based on Notre Dame in Paris.
Inside. This is not what I expected to see in South America. This church was huge.
Cuenca is famous for making Panama hats, which, despite the name, come from Ecuador. These hats are all hand woven by indigenous people. Weaving a hat can take anywhere from a day to a month depending on the quality of the hat.
Here they are bleaching.
The hat store room. As it turned out, this factory was one of the major suppliers for Hermes.
These are the raw, untrimmed and unpressed hats.
After the hat factory we drove up to 4000 meters to go for a very difficult hike in Cajas National Park. This is the continental divide of South America.
Me in the Andes. Totally out of breath. My family made fun of me for wearing my bandanna this way, but I didn't get sun burned!
A wild Llama!
Sunset over Cuenca. Right after this we saw a guy jump out of a bus, punch a time card and jump back on a bus. The bus never stopped going full speed.
Day 4 - Ignapirca and Cuy
The next day we left early in the morning to go to Ignapirca, the major Inca ruins in Ecuador. On the way we saw this town, in which the major industry had been mercury extraction. I would have liked to have known more about it, but it wasn't on the tour.
Typical Andean countryside. Farming up a hillside is the only way to do it here. Some of the hills that had fields had to have had a slope greater than 45 degrees.
A house under construction. Time for a story. Ecuador is full of houses under construction. This is because a huge percentage of Ecuador's male population leaves the country to work abroad. Usually in New York or Spain. Let's focus on the United States. It can costs up to $12000 to get into the United States by way of Mexico. Once there, men don't leave very often because it is so hard to get in again. Rather, they work and send whatever money they can home to their families. With this money, they slowly build a house. The whole time they are gone, running the family is in the hands of the women who got left behind. Farming, raising children, maintaining the house, all these tasks fall to the women. Sometimes the children have no choice but to help with the farming, which means they can't go to school. Yup. Few problems in the world are local.
A more ancient construction. Ignapirca.
The Incas selected a good place for their major temple in Ecuador.
The temple of the Sun. Observe the stone work. The stuff on top that does not fit perfectly is reconstructed.
Here you can see how solid the temple is. That tiny hole in the bottom right of that rectangular alcove is where somebody used dynamite to try to blow a hole in the temple walls. They thought there was gold on the other side. Hardly a dent.
Here is a guy who lives in New York visiting his family. Observe the traditional costume of the women.
Alright. Now a little story about me. I used to take Spanish. In fact, I took Spanish for 4 years in high school. I was actually able to converse in Spanish before I took Japanese. After Studying Japanese for 3 years I have lost the ability to speak Spanish, but I can still understand around 40-50% of what people are saying when they talk to me. Why I try to talk, however, only Japanese comes out. Not very useful in Ecuador.

But there is still one word that I learned in high school Spanish that I can say with ease: Cuy. I learned Spanish from a Peruvian woman, and one time she told us that in the Andes people ate Cuy, and that it was delicious. Since that time I have always wanted to try Cuy. So much so that a major reason I wanted to go on this vacation was to try Cuy. My family did not share my enthusiasm for trying Cuy, but I persisted because I knew if I didn't try it I would regret it. So finally, on our last night in Cuenca I had the travel agent call a Cuy restaurant and order us a Cuy. Here are the Cuy roasting on the spit.
And, at long last, after waiting 8 years, Cuy.
Here I am, happy with my Guinea Pig.
My high school Spanish teacher wasn't wrong. Cuy was delicious. It tastes like a really juicy, very tender Turkey. I really, really liked it. In fact the whole family did, and for the rest of the trip, whenever we thought of Guinea Pig our mouthes watered. If you go to the Andes, you should try Cuy.

Day 5 - On the way to Otovalo
We flew again from Cuenca to Quito, and again met up with Luis. Here are the Andes from above.
Well, we were all very tired, and the car ride was long, but along the way Luis stopped in little villages that were famous for certain things. This village was famous for making figurines out of "bread". All the figures shown here are made out of a mixture of flour, salt and water. Basically Play-Doh. There is an edible version, but only at certain times of year.
Kind of creepy.
Oh, and here is Highway 1. The Pan-American Highway. If you kept driving the same direction you would eventually end up in San Francisco.
A Llama and it's mama.
So that night we stayed at this very interesting hotel. Part of the hotel was a 400 year old estate that had been inhabited by the same family until the last hundred years. It was basically a huge piece of property with very old buildings. The other part of the hotel was 10 years old. However, the 10 year old part somehow looked similar to the 400 year old part. We stayed in the "Monastery" part of the hotel (the new part, which was built because the English owner had once been a monk and always wanted his own monastery).
The grounds were huge and full of secrets. This is the secret passage that we discovered. It lead to a secret meeting room. There were dozens of hidden alcoves and places to hide in this hotel.
One of the rooms.
A well in the middle of the gardens.
The dungeon underneath the main house. At one point this was used as a cage to keep "wild animals" in, whatever that means.
The English guy who owned it had collected dozens of clerical robes. Here are just two.
And he also commissioned a native Ecuadorian artist to draw a mural depicting heaven and hell. He showed the artist some pictures of medieval European depictions of heaven and hell and said that he wanted something like those. So the artist drew George Bush, catholic priests and the hotel manager in hell, and filled heaven exclusively with indigenous Ecuadorians.
Day 6 - Otovalo Market
The next day we got up early and went to go see Otovalo Market, the largest craft market in South America. On our way we stopped at the Otovalo Animal Market, notable in my memory because it restored my commitment to vegetarianism.
At least we saw people in traditional dress.
Anyway, here is the start of many pictures of Otovalo Market.
Rope.
Gourds.
Handwoven scarves. About $3 a piece. Ecuador uses US Dollars, which made things easy. Unfortunately, since everything is so cheap, the fact that we had mostly $20 bills became a problem. Shop owners would have to borrow money from their neighbors to make change for us.
Table cloths.
Pants. By the way, this is the traditional costume of Otovalo.
Here is a video of Otovalo.

Hammocks.
An interesting thing about this market was that it was so big and there didn't seem to be that many tourists (in general, Ecuador had very few tourists). Some places of the market even seemed deserted.
Me wearing "The Mask of the Devil", made of yarn and used in local religious festivals.
A busier street.
After the market we went to a very scenic volcano. This volcano had collapsed and the crater had become a lake. We decided to hike to the other side of the lake.
Easier said than done, since the altitude was over 13000 feet.
We were exausted when we got to the top, but were pleased to learn from Luis that we were the only tour group he had ever had who had walked for more than 10 minutes.

On the car ride back to Quito we asked if we could stop by an electronics store to pick up a card reader for the camera. Then Luis began to test us on all of the names of the places we went and the things that he told us. Well none of us remembered the names (I swear they all start with "C"), but when it came to facts we got every one. We all had a good time, Luis relishing in how much we had forgotten. Then we asked him a question: where are we going? He had forgotten. Here is Luis, one of the best guides we have ever had.
Day 7 - Arrival in the Galapagos
We flew from Quito, in the cold highlands of Ecuador, and flew to the Galapagos, tropical islands which turned out to be almost as cold. We were met by our next guide, Juan Carlos, and met the people who would be joining us on our tour (7 from Wisconsin). Then we jumped into the Galapagos version of a Taxi (a white pick-up truck).

My first impression of the Galapagos was "this is just like Hawaii". Same type of vegetation, same type of landscape. Soon, two major differences appeared. The Galapagos is really, really cold (despite being on the equator), and it has interesting native wildlife. Here are some Marine Iguanas sitting on a rock wall on the island of Santa Cruz.
And a sea lion in a boat. Lots of sea lions.
This is a bird called a Blue-footed Booby. Stupid name, but an awesome bird. All the white is bird poop.
This is why the Galapagos is cold enough for Sea Lions, Seals and Penguins (yes, penguins, though we didn't see any). There is a current of cold water which follows the sea floor at the equator. The Galapagos is in the way of this current, so it brings the current to the surface. This means that the water around the Galapagos is both nutrient rich (because all the good stuff has been sinking to the bottom of the ocean) and around 60 degrees since it hasn't seen sunlight for months. We were expecting a regular tropical island, and brought light clothing. I ended up wearing almost all the clothes I had all the time. It stank when we were done.
You get some funny cactus at the Galapagos.
These are Galapagos Tortoises. Galapagos Tortoises are now so endangered that they don't let them reproduce in the wild any more. All Tortoise eggs are collected and hatched in captivity. Baby Tortoises are very vulnerable, but once they get to a certain age they become invulnerable. Plus they live for 150 years. But the little ones are squishable, so protection is important.
Lonesome George. He is also the last male of his species. Hence the name. He is one of the only animals on earth to be declared extinct while he is still alive.
Here is another Tortoise. The shape of the shell is indicative of the vegetation of the island that the Tortoise comes from.
Land Iguana. Fatty.
Giant Tortoise. Ugly.
Tourist. Stupid.
I shouldn't be derogatory towards the subjects of the photos I took. This bird for one was smart. You know how the Darwin finches all have different bills designed for the specific food that they eat? Well this is the Darwin Snickers finch.
There, now that maybe you have laughed, back to the boring stuff. Cacti. And by boring I mean spectacularly beautiful.
Just like this beach. Finest sand I have ever felt.
Rocks. Or not. Look close and see if you can find something.
Marine Iguanas.
Godzilla!
Cute little suckers.
So, it goes without saying that Soccer is huge in Ecuador. Even in the Galapagos, Soccer is huge. Here is the victory parade when the closest professional team won a big game.

Day 8 - Hike n' Bike
So, here I am, living my dream, being a tortoise.
How great would it be to be a Galapagos Tortoise? Live for 150 years or more. Short of humans, nothing can kill you once you reach a certain size. And, going this fast is considered speedy. Very relaxed life, if only you had the cognitive capability to appreciate it.

Here you can get a sense of how big they are. You'll see this picture again come X-mas since it will probably become the family card.
After seeing tortoises in the wild, we took a hike to the top of the island of Santa Cruz. Native vegetation everywhere. Wind and rain. Felt just like Hawaii actually.
And then we rode bikes.
These are the Taxis which followed us. All Taxis in the Galapagos are white pick-up trucks.
Day 9 - Boat rides that weren't fun, and swimming that was
So we were on Santa Cruz island, the most populous island on the Galapagos, and we had to get to San Cristobal, the capital. Right now the airport of San Cristobal is under repair, so we had to take a 2 hour boat ride through heavy seas to get there. A little rough on the people from Wisconsin who were traveling with us. We didn't really do all that well either. If I had been on that boat for another hour, I too would have been feeding the fish. Here is dad, braced for the journey.
But we got to San Cristobal. Here is a pelican.
Now, our hotel in San Cristobal was nice, I thought. Of course, I can overlook details like this.
It was kind of funny. When my sister went to flush the toilet, water poured everywhere. There were other problems like 30 gallons of hot water for the whole hotel, windows that didn't shut, leaks coming in from the floor above, etc, etc. The people were nice, and I have stayed in much worse. Here is the little town.
An example of Ecuadorian construction. I am terrified by Ecuadorian construction. If they have a medium sized earthquake thousands are going to die because the buildings are so poorly built.
The island of San Cristobal was famous for its Sea Lions. They are everywhere, including the center of town.
So, part of the package tour that we paid for included a Kayak trip. So, even though it was stormy weather, gosh darn it, we were going Kayaking! I was freezing cold, so I put on all of the clothes I brought, including my rain coat.
Observe, the horrible Kayaks and the storm we Kayaked in.
These Kayaks were not fun at all. They were an awful design. There was no way to paddle the Kayak effectively with two people. My sister and I kept trying, but mom and dad gave up and dad paddled while mom just sat there.
At least we saw one cool thing while Kayaking.

Here is the beach we stopped at. Covered with Sea Lions.
Males fighting.

A little baby.
Well, we went for a little hike and ended up in a little bay with cliffs. Those of us who wanted to swim (me, the guide and two others) got in the water. The guide and I swam over into a little cave and were looking around when suddenly a 300 pound very territorial male sea lion swam in after us and started telling us to leave. In my experience, it is never a good idea to turn your back on an animal, so I started backing up, preparing to leave through the one way out of the cave. I was filming the whole time. When I turned around the guide was no where to be seen. That is when this happened.

After being charged and kicked by an angry male sea lion, I decided to turn my back and leave as fast as possible before he could block my only exit again. It was a really amazing experience.

Day 10 - Snorkeling with Sea Lions (and Sharks?)
The next day we took a small boat out to a place called Kicker Rock, shown in this photo.
Kicker Rock is no where near land. Maybe a mile or two away from shore, and the water is very deep, cold and murky (10 foot visibility). While we were getting ready for the dive, Juan-Carlos, our guide announced that we would be seeing Sea Lions, and maybe Hammerhead Sharks. We got in the water and sure enough, Sea Lions appeared.

Things were alright, until we went in between those two rocks. At that point the Sea Lions suddenly disappeared, the water got murkier, and it got dark because it was in the shade. In short, terrifying. We all couldn't get out of the water fast enough. Sadly, for some of the folks from Wisconsin, this was the first time they had been snorkeling. We were quite happy to say goodbye to Kicker Rock, despite its beauty.
We ate lunch then went to a bay where we saw a male Frigate Bird puffing up his neck pouch.
Then some of us got back in the water for more snorkeling. Then this happened.

Here is the same baby Sea Lion that kissed my camera nipping at my sister's fins.
And a Marine Iguana underwater.

Here is dad getting out.
From there we Kayaked again, this time into the wind so it was even more unpleasant. Upon returning to port we found this bizarre statue in the middle of town. "Poaching make Hulk mad!!!" was all I could think.
To give you an idea of how normal Sea Lions are on San Cristobal, here is a video of toddlers playing on the beach, feet away from adult Sea Lions.

Day 11 - Isabella Island
The next day we took a plane to Isabella island. Isabella had the smallest town of all, and streets made of sand to boot.
Here is some awesome ceviche! The best I have ever had.
A flamingo.
More tortoises in another breeding center.
Here is a bird of some sort doing something that probably comes naturally.
That is the town in the distance.
This is a place where white tip reef sharks come to nap.

Half an hour later, we went snorkeling about 500 feet away from this spot. It's alright. White Tips are not dangerous unless you provoke them.
I suppose the sharks also like this spot because they can get an occasional Iguana snack.
Here is a mother Sea Lion who was protecting her pup. Beautiful isn't she?
Heron and Iguana.
Sea Urchin.
Turtle
Why are Blue-footed Boobies so cool? Watch this video and find out.

Here is the shower head in Dad's room. Pro: first hot shower in Ecuador. Con: touch the head while wet and you get zapped!
Day 12 - Horseback Drive
So the next day we went for a Horseback drive up to the rim of a volcano. Here I am on my horse.
Why do I say horseback drive? Well, these horses were not happy horses. They were not going to move unless they had to. So the cowboy, the guy in the back, had to beat them to make them go. And they didn't walk. They either stood there, or galloped. Whenever the cowboy came close they would gallop so they would not get whipped. Once they got far enough ahead they stopped until the cowboy came again.
My family had a horrible time. But quite honestly, despite the atrocious treatment of the poor animals, it was still the most positive experience I have ever had on a horse. It made me interested in giving happy horses another chance. We dismounted and hiked to a recently active volcano.
Day 13 and 14 - The Return Journey.
Getting to California from Isabella island took over two days. Here we are at the start of the journey (the boat part). This is right after leaving the harbor. Now Isabella doesn't have much of a harbor. It is just a natural little bay. It is very shallow, and the waves that break across the bay are huge. To get out of the bay we had to wait till high tide and then ride the boat over the waves that were about to break.
So here is the transportation I used to get home. Each thing I mention is I thing I took to another thing. Car-boat-boat-boat-truck-boat-bus-plane-plane-bus-hotel-bed-taxi-plane-plane-plane-car. Glad when it was done.

And there it is. My trip to Ecuador. Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post. Writing it took a really, really, really long time. Just doing the pictures took 4 hours. The movies took 3 and writing the thing took another 5 or 6 hours. Now I am off to enjoy my last night in Hawaii. Tomorrow it is back to Japan and back to work. It feels like time, to tell you the truth. I miss my kids. They are more fun then any of the wildlife I saw in South America, but sometimes just as wild.

Heso Matsuri, Hey!

2007-07-28T18:17:00.001-07:00

So, I have to begin with important information. I will not be in Japan starting tomorrow. I will be in another place. I will leave exactly where as a secret for now. Anyway, I'll be in California starting on the 13th of August. Sorry about the late notice, but plans came together rather last minute.

So on to a very quick account of my recent activities. Jeff is leaving Japan, so we went on one last trip. To Kusatsu.
And this time, for the first time I tried the Kusatsu baths. Over 45 degrees C with a PH of 1.5! Boiling acid basically. It hurt very badly at the time, but felt really good when the pain went away two hours later.
And here I am at the Heso Matsuri, the big festival that my town puts on once a year. Shibukawa is the belly button of Japan, so lots of people get faces painted on their chest and dance down the street.
Showing here. I got a kappa.
I danced with a large group of foreigners, and got interviewed by the TV News.
See, the mouth is supposed to be the belly button, then you put this hat on and it should look like really short person.
When a really short person actually puts on the hat, there isn't much left.
Here I am dancing. Now why is this fun? Well, I thought it was cool to go dancing down the street with a Kappa on my face, but most of the other people were having fun because of the beer, which is supplied by the city and is consumed frequently furring the dance. However, no one informed my that the parade that we were in would go on for 2 hours. Very sore today.
And here is Shibukawa, the belly button of Japan.
Alright, sorry for the rushed blog entry, but I really have to go get packed.

Nikko Edo Mura

2007-07-22T17:43:00.001-07:00

Well, my one month summer vacation finally started. Hooray!! If you thought summer vacation was great as a student, try summer vacation as a teacher. I have to say, I was feeling a little worn down toward the end there.

Saturday saw me head to Tochigi-ken once again with Yuri, Kentaro, Sayaka and Hide. My Japanese has been very weak for the last month and a half, probably because I have been so tired, but being on a trip with all Japanese speakers and without school to worry about on Monday, my Japanese came back with a vengeance. And it is a good thing it did, because the place we were going was Nikko Edo Mura, a.k.a. Edo Wonderland.
Let me tell you a little story about Japan. This story is about the bubble. In the 1980's and early 1990's Japan was on top of the world. There was tons of money to be spent. Or at least that is what people thought. And that money got spent and mis-spent by private organizations and city governments. Well, the Japanese economy shrank, and now there is billions of dollars worth of poorly thought out, half-finished, or unmaintained stuff all over the country as a result of this expansion and subsequent contraction. One of the things that got built literally all over the country during the bubble was theme parks. Almost every city you go to has a theme park. Shibukawa has one, and Shibukawa only has 85,000 people. Lots of these theme parks went out of business. Some are still around. One of these is Nikko Edo Mura.

Nikko Edo Mura is a medieval Japan themed park where actors run around dressed as people from that period. We were greeted by a rough looking samurai that promptly drew a real looking sword and started slashing at us. In a sense it is like those places in the US where volunteers dress up like they are from the old west and walk around town, except these actors were paid. Now, I had been under the impression that we were going to Nikko to see the tomb of Tokugawa Ieyasu. If I had understood before we went that we would be skipping a trip to the tomb, a World Heritage site and one of the most famous places in Japan, and instead paying $40 to go to a fake Japanese village where actors pretended to be samurai, ninja and geisha, I would have passed. But I'm glad I didn't. While historically inaccurate, fake looking and dilapidated, Nikko Edo Mura has a world class crew of actors. It is better cast than any movie, TV show or play that I have ever seen.

(I have no idea why the rest is underlined. Sorry, Blogger still has some issues.)
Nikko Edo Mura is basically a series of plays that you go and watch. All are based on history, but liberally stretch historical fact in order to make the experience more enjoyable. For example, in the first play, one about the old Red Light district in Tokyo, one of the actors came out on stage and asked for a volunteer to be the customer. In Japan, no one volunteers. So then he said whoever met his gaze would be selected. I thought he said whoever didn't meet his gaze would be selected, so I stared right at his as hard as I could and before I knew it I was up on stage as the customer. And looking quite terrified as I had only a vague idea what he was saying (they sometimes use very old words at Nikko Edo Mura, and if I haven't ever heard it before I don't have much of a chance of understanding).
Well, he put an awful hat on me, told me my one line, which translated as "What the hell is this!!?" and told me to look rich and grunt a lot. Done and done. Hard to keep in character though when the women dressed as a geshia starts to ask you questions and expects a response.
At those times I just tried not to smile and grunted.
Very fun.
Our group and the cast.
This was the next play. Hilarious. The story was the Shogun needed a body double, and the only look alike was this Kabuki actor, who was very hard to teach manners to. The old man in the back fell down in exasperation every time the actor said something outrageous. So every other line.
This is one of the haunted houses (there were three haunted houses at Nikko Edo Mura, and they really were the weak point of the experience).
This is another.
Here is the live combat show. Very, very, very well done.
As you can see.
And here is the villain of the Ninja show holding me hostage.
Me in the Ninja house.
This is the part of Nikko Edo Mura that they occasionally use to film movies and commercials. Rather dilapidated, sadly.
And the final play, "Playboy Kin". Absolutely hilarious.
At the beginning of every play the actors handed out white sheets of paper, then in the middle they explained that these sheets of paper were for wrapping money in to throw at the actors. Which we all did with relish at the end. Here is the closing ceremony. Maybe half of the staff of the park assembled to see us off.
Everybody at Nikko Edo Mura seemed to be trying their absolute best to make sure the guests had a good time so that we would tell our friends and they would stay afloat. Even this really strange mascot.
Unfortunately, Nikko Edo Mura is one of those places that has no appeal if you don't speak Japanese. There is no English in the park.

As a parting shot, this how cheap Japan can be in the countryside. Whole cabbages for 8 cents.
I guess no one wants white produce.

Karaoke, Taifun and Earthquakes

2007-07-18T03:07:00.001-07:00

First of all, I have to start yet another post with the assurance that I am alright despite being near the center of natural disasters. There was a Taifun that hit Japan, and it wasn't really that bad (it was nothing compared to the Tornado) up here in Gunma. Then, the next day there was a major 6.7 earthquake about 80 miles from where I live. It was a 4 in my town and my house shook like crazy for about 20 seconds, but there was no damage.

My story begins with my trip to the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo the weekend before last.
Ghibli, if you are not aware, is the movie studio responsible for Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and my personal favorite: Naussica of the Valley of the Wind. As such, I was rather excited to go. There was a problem, though. Another famous animation studio also has a place that you can visit, and that place is called Disneyland. Now, I knew not to expect Disneyland, but even when you don't expect Disneyland, Disneyland already raised the bar. And it raised it high. I don't have any real complaints about the Ghibli Museum except the fact that that is all it is: a museum. And, it isn't really a museum about Ghibli, it is a museum BY Ghibli. About half of the exhibits are not Ghibli, although they are still interesting. But the salsa dogs were fantastic!
I guess this epitomized my disappointment. I expected Ghibli to pay the same attention to detail in their museum as they did in their movies. But in the end it was just a building, and at the end of the day I could help but look at this plug and think back to the custom made, medieval style wooden doors that housed fire extinguishers.
By all means, go to the Ghibli museum, but you don't need to spend more than an hour.
After Ghibli, Yuri, Eri, Waka, Honda-san and I went to Shibuya (one of the largest nightlife areas in the world, if not the largest) for dinner. It was there that I saw this sign.
We ate at a restaurant which had a "Prison ER/Torture Chamber" theme. An interesting experience, but the food was not that good.
But then we went to Karaoke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love Karaoke!!!!!!!
I made up a dance for "Macho Man" by the Village People. This is everybody dancing a dance I made up to another song.
After doing Karaoke till 1 am, we had no choice but to sleep at a net cafe (a really good deal, by the way). Then I got up a 5 am and went and got in line for Krispy Kreme. "So what, Krispy Kreme." you might say. But here is the catch. There is only one Krispy Kreme in all of Japan, and people line up for 4 to 8 hours to get a batch of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Even though I got to Krispy Kreme around 5 am, I still had to wait an hour once it opened. I got 24 doughnuts. 12 I shared with Yuri and her crew, and the other 12 got taken to the ALT meeting on Monday. By the way, the Shibukawa chief of police came to our meeting, had a doughnut, and looked like the happiest man on earth. I guess police are the same everywhere.
After doughnuts I went to the TEPCO museum. TEPCO means Tokyo Electric Power Company, the largest power company in Japan. I went wanting to learn more about alternative fuels and renewable energy, but as it turned out, TEPCO was using the museum to make a big sales pitch for nuclear power as the green energy of the future. Here I am in front of a giant turbine.
And here is Yellowcake. Wow.
I have to say, TEPCO made some good points. Indeed I agree that nuclear power could be a good environmental alternative if it could be trusted to be safe. TEPCO's museum said it could. But then, during our earthquake this week, TEPCO's Nigata plant (the largest group of reactors in the world) had a fire which they couldn't put out, and suffered a radioactive leak, which they took a really long time to tell anyone about. Naughty, naughty TEPCO.

Good museum, though.

Rafting and Canyoning in Minakami

2007-07-02T05:42:00.001-07:00

What do Japan and New Zealand have in common? Aside from being island nations of roughly the same size, not much. But there are places in Japan that remind me of New Zealand. Minakami is starting to.

Minakami is one of the hot spring towns in Gunma (there are about 4 really famous hotspring towns in Gunma). These towns have each developed their own character. Ikaho feels like Gormenghast, Kusatsu feels like Switzerland, and I haven't been to Shima Onsen. Minakami, feels a lot like Queenstown in New Zealand. The reason for this is the large number of outdoor activities that one can do in Minakami. Hiking, Camping, Rafting, Kayaking, Paragliding, Canyoning, Caving, Mountian Biking, Skiing, Snowshoeing, Fishing, with Bungie Jumping starting next year. Another reason is the high concentration of Kiwis in the town.

Anyway, enough comparison. On to the story. Well, last year Keiko and I had so much fun rafting down the American River that we decided to go rafting again this year. However, Keiko discovered a company that would let us do rafting and also do something called "Canyoning", which from the photos online appeared to be floating down a river and sliding down waterfalls. Anyway, we signed up, and when Manabu got sick at the last minute, Yuri took his place.

Rafting was fun. Keiko and I did basically all of the rowing since three of the people in our raft were American high-school students (we were in the English speaking raft), and Yuri, for everything she is good at, is not good at rowing.

It was near the end of the rafting trip that Keiko learned that Canyoning involved not only sliding down waterfalls, but jumping off of them as well. We then learned that she was very, very afraid of heights. Still, she stuck with us and decided to do the canyoning anyway. Here is our group for canyoning.
Me floating down a river.
Me waiting to go off the big 20 meter (60 foot) waterfall.
Me about to go down.
Me going down.

Me jumping off of a cliff.
And our group photo. Keiko on the left, Yuri on the right.
Keiko made it through canyoning, and our plan is now to go back to Minakami and go caving in August.

Back to the States for a Week

2007-06-29T03:19:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody, I made it back to Japan safely (though exhausted). I want to start by saying thank you again to everybody who took care of me during my trip. Since I don't live in the US anymore, coming back is actually a little bit difficult. No car, no cell phone, and no residence makes meeting up kind of hard.

And on the subject of the difficulty of returning to the US, let me share a little story with you. So I just got off the plane (after a 19 hour journey), and was on my way out the door at customs when a TSA officer walked up to me and said "Hello, sir. Where are you coming from?" "Japan." I replied, sleepily. "How long were you there?" "Um, six months." Suddenly the officer got a devilish grin. "You've been in Japan for six months with only a backpack?" He said, but I got the feeling that he was already preparing the standard line "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to come with me." I blurted out "I'm only back for a week for the wedding..." The devilish grin evaporated. "Oh, you live in Japan. Have a nice day." I staggered out the doors of immigration, met my family and demanded burritos asap. Burritos were soon provided.

Well we went to visit Grandma and Grandpa, then headed down to good old Davis. In Davis I met up with Drake, Ralph and Diego, and we all headed to a party on top of the Physics building roof, where I met up with Ken, Bryn, Kyle, Rachel, Kari, Hope, and many others. There was tons of great food, and I had a fantastic time.
You know it is a good sign if you haven't seen friends in a year, you show up one day and it is like you never left. Well, fortunately that is the feeling that I got from everybody this trip. I also had no idea that so many people have been keeping up with my blog. Hearing some of the things you guys had to say about this blog was really encouraging for me. Thank you so much. Here is some of the awesome food.
Well, after the party I went home with Ralph and Diego and hung out at Ralph's house. When everybody but me went to sleep around 4am, I walked back to Kira's house and crashed on the couch until 7am, when everybody started getting ready to go to Kira's graduation.
UC Davis Commencement is so boring that it would have put me to sleep even if I hadn't been exhausted from being in front of a class for 5 hours every day the previous week, lethargic from traveling over 19 hours to be there, sleepy from only getting 3 hours of sleep and jet lagged. Good thing I brought a pillow.
Kira graduated. Every day brings a new surprise, doesn't it. After she walked across the stage and got the piece of paper that said her diploma would be mailed to her in a couple of months, I went to Drake's party. There I met his dad for the first time (Drake has been trying to get the two of us together for about 5 years now).
You might ask, "Did you have reverse culture shock?" Well, only one thing really shocked me. The size of the portions in America. I ordered a side salad at Pluto's and I just about couldn't finish it! Look at this table of food! These would feed a party of 25-30 in Japan. In the US, this was for a party of 15-20! Amazing. And that burrito I mentioned before? It nearly broke me when I ate it. To go from Japanese portions to American portions is a big shock. Japanese portions usually leave you saying "Aw, if only there were jut a little more..." and American portions leave you saying "Ahh! Ohh! I can't believe I ate the whole thing! I feel like I just ate a delicious rubber boot..."
Anyway, enough on food. That night I hung out with Ralph some more. We went to Slide Hill Park, and I did what I always wanted to do. And it was scary. I wouldn't do it again.
The next day I met up with Rachel and had another burrito. This time, I couldn't finish it. That evening Rick and Sean came down, took me to dinner, then ice cream. Then we met up with Ralph, went to Rick's house in Colma, and played Guitar Hero late into the night.
The next day Ralph, Sean and I went down to Davis. Sean went off to wherever it is that he goes, while Ralph and I caught the train down to San Jose. Our train was substantially delayed by the fact that the train in front of us hit a person, who they referred to as "a trespasser". We got to SJ, met up with Diego, ate at his favorite sports bar and went to his house (which was REALLY CLEAN, a fact which made me very proud of him). Again we chatted until chatting could not keep us conscious, went to bed and woke up. The next day I had breakfast with Diego, then went to Berkley to visit briefly with Olivia. She bought me Indian food, and I learned that she is planning of coming to Japan to teach as well! Best of luck, Olivia! Let me know how else I can help. Then I BARTed over to San Francisco and met up with Kerrie and Mary. Had ice cream at the regular place that starts with a G. Had Mexican food in the Castro (not exactly renowned for it's Mexican food, but they had a bathroom). Then drove up to the top of twin peaks, which I have never been to.
And got a group photo.
We spent the next 2 and a half hours looking all over San Francisco for a public restroom. We finally found one in this Chevron station. I just realized one major downside of converting the country to electric cars, which is one of my current goals. Gas stations will go out of business. And then where would we pee?
That night I stayed with Oriana and Josh and tried to impress on Oriana how much I loved the sweater that she knitted for me (I wore it every day of the trip). The next morning Josh took me to the airport.

I have another interesting TSA story. While standing in line for the security checkpoint, a guy tried to cut in line about 6 people in front of me. When a TSA employee told him to go to the back of the line, he pretended not to hear. Without even giving a warning, the TSA employee called security, who came, handcuffed the man who was now pleading to go to the back of the line, pushed him up against the departure screen and patted him down. TSA hauled him away. As if seeing someone get arrested for cutting in line wasn't enough, one minute later got to listen to the speech of the guy explaining the procedure for getting through the security checkpoint. What happened to the guy that was there 3 years ago, who cracked jokes and made light fun of the whole process. The new guy seemed to be an ex-Marine, very impressed with himself, and was not funny: "All liquids must be in a 1 quart bag. Amounts over 3 ounces are not allowed. This Aloe skin cream is over three ounces. Try taking it through. See what happens." Very unprofessional. No, juvenile.

Anyway, amazingly I got to Hawaii without being arrested. Here is uncle mowing the lawn, in preparation for his daughter's wedding.
The BBQ two days before the wedding.
The engaged couple, living in a temporary fish bowl.
The rehearsal dinner. Delicious.
So mostly by this point I was so exhausted that I spent a lot of the time sleeping. As a result, there are no good stories until the day of the wedding itself. Lisa, the bride, seemed quite nervous, so Kira took control of the situation and became Lisa's personal assistant. Ryan, Rebbeca and I, meanwhile, went to get the cake.
And I carried the cake all the way from Kona to the house. That is the story.
Beautiful day for a wedding.
Lots of hard work paid off.
Very nice set-up.
Here is Lisa in her wedding dress, having her picture taken.
It as a little bright, as you can see, but everybody is having a good time.
Jim and Lisa walking down the aisle.
Bobby.
And they are married.
And the paperwork makes it official.
So we began the celebration. Here is the cake.
The newly weds.
The party.
The Dancing!
And the flower toss. This got a little violent.
And that is the short version of how Lisa got married. Congratulations again, Lisa and Bobby, and allow me to share with you some of the things I learned this trip: 1) Great friends stay great. 2) Americans eat a lot. 3) Don't mess with the TSA! I'm convinced they have gulags somewhere is Montana.

Kanazawa/Concert

2007-06-07T03:29:00.001-07:00

If you haven't noticed, I have developed something of a pattern. Every other weekend I seem to be taking a massive trip, having a good adventure and then resting the next weekend (when is when these posts mainly get written). Well, the weekend before last was one massive trip, and the adventure continued through the week. So, be sure that you don't have any other pressing business before you read this post, as it might take some time.

Well, I need to start by mentioning that Yuri has an identical twin sister named Eri. When you have a twin, it seems, it only makes logical sense to celebrate your birthday together. Since you are two people, it only makes logical sense to have a birthday that is double the intensity of a normal birthday. In other words, a huge trip got planned, and since all of the planning was done in Japanese, I agreed to go without really knowing what was going on or where we were going.

On Saturday morning at 5 am, Yuri, Eri, Waka, Sayaka and I left Takasaki on our way to wherever it was we were going. We drove past Miyogi-san and into Nagano, where we stopped at a rest stop. While everyone went to the bathroom I met "White" who was the friendliest little goat I have ever met. White acted just like a black lab and loved being petted. It made me want a goat.
Well, as it turned out, our destination was Kanazawa, which is north of Nagoya on the Sea of Japan. On the sea means fresh seafood (something almost impossible to find in Gunma). Yum.
We went to a fish market then checked into our Hotel, a cute little bed and breakfast named Petite Ivy. Then we took a walk around Kanazawa. As we walked the streets of the surprisingly intact old town (American bombing during World War 2 leveled all but a few Japanese cities) I remembered that Kanazawa was the one place that I had planned to go to before getting sick with Salmonella back in the summer of 2005. Fantastic! We happened to run into a free tour, and amazingly, the guide spoke very good English. Because I was there he conducted the rest of the tour in English, which both annoyed and amused the rest of the tourists in the group (all Japanese). Then we stopped for macha ice cream in a cute little shop. Here is Eri waiting for her ice cream.
Well, the next stop on the list was the Hyakumangoku Matsuri. "Hyakumangoku" translates to 1 million "koku", a medieval Japanese unit of rice measurement. 1 koku is essentially all the rice that an average person consumes in a year. In other words, in medieval times Hyakumangoku was a very rich area, since it gets its name from what the land was actually worth. Here are some of the tens of thousands of people lined up to see the parade.
This is a Shishi, a lion. My response was "really? Um, Ok."
These are fire fighters from all over Kanazawa. I couldn't figure out why they were carrying hooked poles at first.
Here is a Kabuki actor.
This guy is holding a treasure box on a pole. Oh... how embarrassing.
Lots of Samurai. About 500 actually.
A general.
This is what the poles with hooks are for, to hold the ladder for the acrobats.
Wow. 30 firefighters doing acrobatics on ladders in front of a castle. Not something you see everyday.
Incredible.
Here are those samurai in front of the castle.
And some of the thousands of dancers in the street on the way back to the hotel.
Ah, the hotel. If you ever go to Kanazawa, you must stay at Petit Ivy. While materially it is little better than the Best Western, the service is the best I have ever seen. Really. The best service I have ever had, and I have stayed in my fair share of places with good service. Basically, the hotel was what in many other countries you would call a Bed and Breakfast. The guy who worked reception came out to greet us in his cook's outfit carrying a knife, all ready hard at work at the night's dinner. Dinner, by the way, was supposed to be at 8, but we ran very late and ended up arriving at 8:45. Everyone who worked at the hotel (all 3 employees) stayed extra late to serve us our food, which they were still happy to present to us. The dining room had three tables and a bar, and felt like the inside of a beautiful boat. All of the walls were wood paneled and covered with a nautical theme. Very well decorated for a hotel that can't have had a very big budget for decoration. Here is the first course, clam chowder like soup cooked inside an apple. Fantastic.
And the hotel employees even went out and bought Yuri and Eri and birthday cake. A huge one. We decided to share it with the guy at the bar, who was the only other person in the restaurant.
We went to sleep and came down again for breakfast. Had breakfast and talked with the couple next to us. As it turns out, the couple next to us was also from Gunma, but moved away years ago. They had been married for 50 years. It was a fantastic breakfast, despite the lack of natto (which it seems is not as popular outside of the Kanto region).
The view from our room. The pillow can be seen at the bottom of the picture.
On Sunday morning we went to visit a temple which has the nickname "Ninja Dera" or Ninja Temple, for all the traps and countermeasures which it has built into it.
As it turns out, the Lords of Kanazawa were very smart men. They found it was better strategically, to appear weaker than they actually were. As a result, the castle was small in comparison to other castles, but the area surrounding the castle was filled with temples that were designed to hide troops. If an army invaded, the defending army could easily flank them as they attacked the castle. But the smartest thing that the ruling Maeda family seems to have done is not get into a war in the first place. They seem to have gone out on a limb to have good relations with most sides before and during the Edo period, and as a result became second only to the Kanto in terms of wealth for a period of history. And in Japan, wealth was soon followed by places to spend that wealth. Here is tea we had at one of Kanazawa's surviving tea houses.
Returning to the hotel for one parting shot with our host.
And of to Korakuen, one of the most famous gardens in Japan.
A twins moment.
Me having gotten too much sun.
Kanazawa Castle. The black dots are tiles, meant to strengthen the walls against gunfire. But in fact, some of the tiles are fake. They are only one layer thick, so you can stick a musket through and fire. A rather unpleasant surprise, and another example of the cleverness of Kanazawa.
That night, we ate a rather expensive meal at a seafood restaurant. And what do you think this is?
Puffer fish eggs. Yes, that's right. Eggs from the super toxic Fugu. "Now, Trenton", you might say, "Isn't the ovary the toxic part of the puffer fish" The answer is yes. And so is the skin. And the eggs. But, somehow somebody figured out (I don't know how) that if you leave puffer fish eggs fermenting in Miso for 5 years they become 99.9% non-toxic. Go figure. I wouldn't eat this particular dish again, but as a one time food it is not so bad. These squid, on the other hand, were.
But no matter, the Kanazawa trip was great.

Now, fast forward to Tuesday. Jeff, Yuri and I leave Shibukawa at 4:30, park the car in Saitama, get on the train and make it to the Tokyo Dome just in time for a concert.
The concert is great. Tokyo Dome has over 10,000 people on the stadium floor alone and probably another 25,000 in the seats. A 60 foot LED screen shows us the stage.
During the encore, about 5,000 people get out thier lighters.
Amazing. By the way, this is what we saw:
School the next day just never seems to end.

Just an update, for those of you that don't already know, I am comming to California on the 16th of June. Be sure to contact me so that we can hang out! Hopefully see you soon!

Miyogi-san, Motorcycles

2007-05-25T04:54:00.000-07:00

Well, it seems I have not had enough of Annaka since I was back there again this last week. This time for hiking, not running. Miyogi is one of the famous mountains of Gunma, and a glance through these pictures will tell you why.
The whole mountain is like a natural castle. Some amazing erosion has taken place. In fact, it felt a lot like Guilin in southern China, but less crowded, less polluted and less touristy.
There were some really fun parts of the hike where the way up the mountain was to shuffle along a cliff while holding on to a chain.
And other parts where you used the chain to pull yourself up.
We didn't find our way to the top (stupidly we left the map in the car), but saw beautiful scenery regardless.
And ate Yokogawa-eki Kamameshi on the way back.
After the hike, Yuri, Kentaro, Hidechi, Sayaka and I went to see the motorcycle races in Isesaki. Everyone decided to make some bets "for fun" except me (since I didn't even know the word for odds in Japanese I would have been making totally random guesses).
My impression of motorcycle racing? Mostly boring, quite uncomfortable (adults are usually polite enough not to stare at me, but not at the track apparently, and absolutely filthy. I have no desire to go back, but it was a fun experience.
Tons of other stuff happened this week, but since it is all work related, none of it is going on the blog. Suffice to say that this week I made what could turn out to be major breakthroughs.

Annaka Tooashi Marathon

2007-05-14T03:24:00.000-07:00

Well, for several weeks I have been training for the race I ran last weekend: the Annaka Tooashi Marathon. The Annaka Tooashi Marathon is one of the oldest foot races in Japan, with a legendary history stretching back hundreds of years to when the local king ordered his Samurai to run from his castle to the gates of a garden 20 kilometers away. These days it follows roughly the same course. Over the years, the race somehow became a costumed marathon. So, when I was preparing for the race, I not only had to get my body ready for a 20km run uphill, but I also had to make my costume. While I had been planning it for weeks, it came together, like usual, the day before. Here it is, my Kappa costume.
A Kappa is a monster from Japanese legend that lives in ponds and pulls people under if they go swimming alone. They have a bowl of water in their head which is the source of their power. If this bowl dries up they could die. They also love cucumbers.
And have a shell like a turtle.
My costume was a big hit. But not because it looked great. Almost everything I used to make the costume was real food (seaweed, pigs ears, fish paper, cucumbers, nori, etc.) so I smelled like a Kappa would. In fact, I smelled so bad that as I walked by I caught the attention of this reporter, who then interviewed me for his newspaper. I am still looking for the article.
Here are some shots of the other people who ran the race.
Great costume, but 20kms in this is hard.
Me and the Monkey King.
Yuri's friends, who also ran the race.
Castles running by.
Samurai...
Kama-meshi lunch box...
Hamtaro...
Daruma-san Kyodai...
Well, as it turned out, my costume was a big hit, and was selected as one of 10 winners for "Best Idea". My time was also not all that shabby. Out of the 2000 or so people who ran, I placed 90th. I also felt great when I had finished and it didn't hurt nearly as bad as I thought it would. Here is my trophy.

All in all, a fantastic race. If you happen to be in Gunma, you really should go to see the Annaka Tooashi Marathon.

Happy 2nd Birthday, 6 Billionthvoice!

2007-05-11T03:16:00.000-07:00

Oh my, things have been so busy lately (see the previous entry) that I almost forgot to wish the 6 Billionth Voice a happy birthday! Here's to two years of keeping me on track and encouraging my adventures! Thank you to all of my readers. I'm sorry that things have been a little irregular recently, but after this next week things should be back to normal.

Aloha!

My Golden Week, Almost Went to OZ

2007-05-11T01:50:00.000-07:00

Golden Week is a set of one three day weekend and one four day weekend that often becomes a 10 day vacation (a lot of people get "sick" on Golden week). As such, everywhere is crowded. It is one of the only times that some families can spend time together since some jobs require parents to work late into the night, and some jobs also require them to work weekends.

So what did I do? Well, for the first part of Golden Week (the three day weekend) it rained like crazy, so I basically stayed inside and read entries in Wikipedia. On Sunday I went hiking with Steve, the other guy in the area from Hawaii. We compared alot of notes and are planing several outdoorsy trips. Monday turned out to be beautiful, so I got up at 9am and started running from Shibukawa to Takasaki. Something like 30km. I have never run that far before. It took me three hours and by the end I was toast. It got to the point where even my cheeks were sore from grimacing. I called Yuri and asked her to save me, and she arrived in her car with a towel and a bottle of water. I spent the rest of the day feeling great.

The next day was not so good. I had class, plus intense muscle pain. Still I managed to get through the next two days.

Then on Wednesday night, the real adventure began. Having missed the train, Yuri came to pick me up. We then drove to her house in order to meet her friends at midnight. At midnight we started driving to Chiba. I made two wise choices that night: 1) I slept in the car. 2) I bought food in the middle of the night when we stopped at a rest stop. We arrived in Kisarazu, Chiba at around 4:30. About 4.5 hours too early for our planned activity: clamming!

Clamming, as it turns out, is a huge activity in Japan. Just the kind of activity that Japanese families enjoy. Because of this, even though we arrived at 4:30, one parking lot was already full. When the gates opened at 9am, we waited about 10 minutes. This is what the clamming beach looked like at 9:10!
I guess another reason that clamming is big here is that red tide had not really affected Japan to the same extent as the US. Here is my haul.
Here is everyone else digging away. I figured out a method really fast and was done about 1 hour before everyone else in my group.
So clamming was fun, but the fact that no one other than me had had the foresight to eat breakfast and no one but me had slept, the 3 hour search for a restaurant that followed was probably not as fun for everyone else. That night we went to Tokyo, ate Okinawan food, and parted. Yuri and I crashed at a great Net Cafe in Ueno, and the others went back to Gunma. I went to sleep right away, and Yuri stayed up to watch a movie.

The net morning Yuri and I got up. Sure enough, she was sick. Little food, little sleep, cold water, etc did the trick. We decided that we would be going back to Gunma rather than staying another night. Still, never one to let a slight fever slow her down, Yuri and I spent the morning visiting the Sumo district of Tokyo and seeing morning practice.
This was classic.
Here is Akebono's hand.
After dropping off some vegetables, Yuri and I went to see the Vienna Boys Choir in concert.
Poor kids.
My assessment of the Vienna Boys Choir (V.B.C.)? Technical masters with beautiful voices, but they didn't have much emotional impact. They didn't seem to like very many of their songs. The few kids songs that they sang (during the 5 encores) were very good though, and it was clear that they enjoyed these songs.

We met up with more of Yuri's friends at the V.B.C. and decided to go to dinner together at a Aladin themed restaurant in Shinjuku. I forget what it was called, but the waiters and waitresses (who were amazingly good looking) did magic at the table. After dinner we all went to Odaiba and went though the Ninja house, like a haunted house, but for ninjas. The rotating room is shown below. This room was amazing. Incredible vertigo.
This is the view from Odaiba.
Before heading back to Gunma we had a bowling match, in which I took second with a score of 118. My best game ever.

So finally, after much delay, we headed back to Gunma. The next day we had a BBQ and cooked up the clams that we found. Good fun, but no good for Yuri's cold. Finally, on Sunday we rested.

This week at work somehow ended up being a really tough week. I had one kid literally stand on his desk and rip his clothing to shreds in the the middle of my class. Other things happened in class this week that almost match that in jaw dropitude, but I don't remember too many of them because one event over rides everything else that happened in story telling value.

On Thursday, I rode my bike through a tornado.

Allow me to tell the whole story from the beginning. I have been becoming more and more concerned about the environment, as well as more and more frugal. I recently decided to ride my bike to school whenever possible, both to save a measly 180 yen each way and reduce electric consumption just a little. Besides, it's good exercises. Well the first day I rode my bike was Thursday. Thursday morning there were clouds in the sky, but they looked like the same haze that has been in the air for the last week. After finishing my draining class and around 3pm, I looked out the window and noticed that half of the sky was dark green and brown, and the other half was grey. The vice-principal at school told me to get home before it rained, so I left work a little early. The first part of the ride home was fairly normal. I was in a hurry to beat those green clouds home since they looked a little dangerous, so I went as fast as I could. About 1/3 of the way into my trip, things started getting weird. The first thing I noticed was that the wind changed directions. Birds started flying around randomly, seeming kind of like they were panicked. Lightning began in the clouds above. Light rain began to fall. 2/3rds of the way through the trip, things got really, really insane. The air pressure changed (I have no idea if it dropped or rose, just that I felt a change in my ears). Winds started to blow randomly. Hard rain began to blow so hard it hurt. I saw one small dust devil. It was around this time that I started to have a really bad feeling. About 30 seconds later I came to a place where the winds was blowing vertically, rather than horizontally. I rode my bike right through, but just as I passed the wind strengthened and knocked a metal pole out of it's concrete hole. Tree branches began to fall all around me. As luck would have it, I was on a road with no shelter, so I did the only thing I could do, which was ride my bike as fast as I could. I made it home in record time to find that the storm had blown open my windows (which I had left unlocked) and the rain was pouring into my house. I cleaned up the mess and took a rest. Later that night I got an e-mail from a friend in Tokyo who had seen on the news that a Tornado had touched down in Shoebox, ripped the roves off of 11 houses and knocked out power for 2500 homes. When I asked about it at work today, one of the teachers said she had seen the tornado, and pointed to the direction I had been and said it had been roughly around the time that I would have been there. Man am I lucky. I nearly went to Oz.

April 2007

2007-04-23T05:58:00.000-07:00

This is a catch up blog. A ton of stuff happened, and I had almost finished a massive 5 page entry compleate with philosophical insights, when I accidentally selected and deleted all of my work, and then Blogger was nice enough to autosave. So, lots of stuff happend, and it was all way cooler this this entry makes it seems. For starters:

I went to Disney Sea.
With Yuri's friends.
It was cool.
I had a fantastic time.
The next weekend we went to the "Insect Forest", which is an insect zoo.
It was great.
We had fun.
Both of us.
Then this week I went to a BBQ on Saturday...
Bought another pet...
And then had a picnic in the park on Sunday.

And all of it was great, and deserves an individual blog entry, but I'll just have to try my best to remember so I can tell everybody in person.

By the way, I am comming to California on the 16th of June, will be staying for 5 days and want to see as many of you, my friends as possible. If you read this, please contact me and let me know your schedule.

Kyoto, Kusatsu with Mom and Dad

2007-04-09T05:11:00.000-07:00

This post is very late. But there is a good reason. It took me about three days to write it. So do enjoy.

So, I mentioned before that I was going to be going down to Kyoto to meet up with mom and dad. Well, I did. And here is the story. On the 28th of March, after staying over at Manabu's house again, I caught the very first train from Tokyo to Kyoto. Not the Shinkansen, mind you, but the slow train that stops at every station. To give you an example of how long it took, I boarded the train in Harajuku at 4:30am or so, and I got off the train in Kyoto at 1:30pm. Now why would anyone in their right mind choose to take a 15 hour trip over a 2.5 hour trip? Three reasons. 1) It saved me over $100. 2) The view was better. 3) It makes a good story. On the way I studied Japanese a lot, had some private time to think, slept, saw Sekigahara, Mount Fuji, fields of tea, and took the train though Seta station. Unfortunately, the train did not stop in Seta, so this is all I saw of it.
I arrived in Kyoto and walked to the Hotel. Upon discovering that mom and dad had not yet arrived, I bought a Bento and went to eat by the river. Great looking cherry blossoms...
Great looking Bento.
Here are mom and Dad after arriving.
More Kyoto cherry blossoms.
Our first day together consisted mostly of us trying to find a place to eat. We eventually walked all the way to Gion, and ate some mushrooms which mom raved about for the entire trip. Then we went home for an early bedtime, everyone exhausted from the travel.

The next day we rose early, walked to Kyoto Station and had a gigantic western style breakfast. It probably would have been a shock to my digestive system if not for the fact that I ordered green tea waffles.
We then caught the train to Himeji, which you may remember from my blog posts from late July 2005. Great castle, horrible zoo. Well, we only went to the castle this time.
After Himeji we went to Osaka to visit Osaka Castle. Unfortunately, dad's back had been hurting all day, so our stay in Osaka was cut a little short so that we could get back to Kyoto and the hotel in a hurry.
But not before stopping at Kaiten Sushi. We went to a place in Kyoto Station that actually was a horrible Kaiten Sushi place. At one point I ordered Sake, and they brought me this. There was also no selection. Still, since it was mom and dad's first experience with Kaiten Sushi, I think they had a good time.
The next day Ann had arranged for us to have a guide take us around Kyoto in a private car. The following are pictures of places that he took us. Gion...
Ginkaku-ji temple (famous for it's moss and rock gardens).
Our guide made me pose for this picture because this is the place where tourists always have their picture taken.
And this is a view that tourists also take pictures of.
And here is another thing that is photographed all the time.
But when I took a picture of the "very annoying mosses", he seem confused.
Basically, our guide was a serious man who didn't seem to have a whole lot of experience deviating from the standard tour. So after Ginkaku-ji, I asked him to take us somewhere where he rarely got to go but loved. Some place not on the bus tour. So he took us to this old house, which also had very well kept gardens.
Not to mention a little house for the Koi!
Then we drove for over an hour to get to a Soba restaurant and at green tea soba.
Then to this temple...
Which is the one on the 10 yen coin.
Here is a slight photographic accident.
This is the standard tourist shot at Inari Jinja, famous for over 1000 tori gates. It turns out that all the gates are donations from businesses praying for good luck. Note to self, if you become a god, be the god of finance or business.
There are so many gates that it is not really like being outside. More like being in a hallway. By the way, if you are going to be anywhere in an earthquake, this is probably the place to be.
Here are all the donations. Most are from the last 5 years, which means these get replaced all the time.
And that was our tour. Mom and dad enjoyed it, but in retrospect we might have been better off getting an enthusiastic driver who spoke Japanese and having me translate.

The next day we went to Nara.
Back to Todai-ji. Still amazing, though much more crowded this time.
With cherry blossoms that look like fire.
At the tourist information office, Dad asked if he could ride the deer. I have tried to explain to him many times that sarcasm doesn't exist in Japan. Maybe it finally hit home when the woman at the tourist information office replied, panicked looking: "No! You can't ride the deer! They are god's animals!" Rather than telling her that he was joking, I told her that he was drunk and that he wouldn't be riding any deer. This is as close as I got myself.
Now I have remarked about the beauty of Japanese gardens before (nothing compared to actual nature, but still neat because of the fact that they are so well kept.
I always imagined a haggard old man raking the leaves every day, contemplating the impermanence of the world as he picked out blades of grass one by one. This wrecked it for me.
Our lunch in Nara was Okonomiyaki, which is one of the Japanese foods that is very hard to find outside of Japan. We walked into a great little shop. Not crowded. Good food. A kind middle aged woman who was so thrilled that we were there and gladly explained every step in the process of making Okonomiyaki. And a female Korean student working her first part-time job in Japan who had trouble both speaking Japanese and making change, who blushed every time she did anything wrong, which was all the time.
Then we took a taxi to see the ancient tombs of Nara. Now these tombs consist of nothing more than keyhole shaped islands in man made lakes. Because Japan's imperial family is essentially a single dynasty, these tombs are the tombs of the ancestors of the modern Japanese emperor, and as such, have been off limits to humans for over 1500 years. Normal humans are not allowed to set foot on them, much less disturb them in any way. As a result, these tombs have reverted completely to their natural state. They act as a shelter for hundreds of cranes, storks and herons. These birds, since they have a refuge which humans have not touched, have flourished and now grace the surrounding area with their beautiful shapes. There should be places like this sprinkled though out the entire world, I think. Places set aside for nature to recover, where humans are not allowed to go, ever.
That night, mom and I arranged for Dad to have a massage to help his back. In the meantime, mom and I went to visit Kyomizu Tera...
And ate lots of Tofu, the food which Kyoto is famous for (which makes sense for a city inhabited by so many vegetarian monks).
Early the next day we went to Nijo-jo palace, ran through the gardens, tried to be the first in line to get in the buildings themselves, but failed, then sped to the front of the pack, all so that we could hear the squeeking of the Nightengale floors un-interupted.
We then checked out of the hotel, went to the station, bought Eki-ben and boarded the Shinkansen for Tokyo. Here is Dad's Bento. He ended up with the weird one.
The trip back was eventful. No sake for Dad's back, ice cream that was too hard to eat, and me losing my ticket only to be waved through by the guy at Takasaki station (because Gunma is great). But the highlight of my trip was when, on the train back to Shibukawa, we ran into two of my recently graduated sixth year students on the train. I told them that the people I was traveling with were my mother and father. They understood that part. Then dad started to speak. 'Oh no,' I thought 'He is going to ask them if he can ride the deer or some other stupid joke and they are not going to know what he said and they are going to get embarassed and feel like they haven't actually learned any English and give up before they have even started!' "Is Trenton a good teacher?" Dad asked. They looked at eachother, though for a second and said "Yes." And at that moment I couldn't wait to go back to work.

That night we had dinner with Kano-san and his family. His daughter just became a teacher in Shibukaw, too, so maybe I will be seeing more of her. I translated alot and got very tired. We kind of just dropped in unannounced on the Kano family, which was totally my fault and I appologized for about 6 times. Kano-san told me "It's no problem" 5 times, and the last time said, "Yeah you kind of screwed up, Trenton."
The next day Yuri, having just finnished her training period, became a full-time employ of her company, a fact which she celebrated by taking the day off and driving us to Kusatsu. Kusatsu is Gunma's most famous onsen,, maybe the most famous onsen in Japan. Here we are bathing our feet...
While we ate Oden (which I didn't tell mom and dad that I have never eaten before because it is the Japanese equivalent of the hot dog at 7 Eleven that has been in that heater for who knows how long).
This is Kusatsu...
Filled with minerals that make it a base strong enough to corrode copper...
Stinky...
And over 90 degrees celcius.
Also a cute little town.
Where we ate soba...
And onsen tamago (eggs).
One of the attractions of Kusatsu was the Reptile Garden, which aslo had monkeys...
Llama...
Lemurs...
And fish that eat the dead skin right off your body.
It was, in my oppnion not nearly as bad as some of the other Japanese Zoos I have seen. While some of the exibited animals looked really sad, and one was dead, most of the animals, especially the monkeys, looked like they had enough space and were satisfied. Still, this zoo is not a reccomendation. I didn't want to cry after seeing this zoo, but I sure wasn't impressed. They really need someone to donate about 2 million dollars for renovation.

We then went to the traditional bath stiring dance. The traditional way of lowering the temperature from over 90 degrees C to something that won't kill you without diluting the theriputic chemical mix of the water.
Then we, ourselves, went to an Onsen. Kusatsu does have great water, I have to say. Sparkling clean, we returned to Shibukawa and introduced my parents to Kappa Sushi.
And had them eat raw horse meat without telling them what it was.
By the way, raw horse meat is not a recomendation. It is flavorless.

The next morning I litterally threw mom and dad's bags on the train to Tokyo as it was pulling away, only to follow them several hours later when I found out that I was, in fact still on vacation even though no one had told me. And the rest, as they say, is history.

"Almost Spring Break" Trip

2007-03-26T19:26:00.000-07:00

Last week Wednesday was a holiday. It is a shame that they couldn't put off that holiday until Monday so that Friday was my last day of work and I got an extra weekend of Spring Break. However, the holiday was the first day of Spring, and even though temperatures returned to a winterish state, the first day of Spring is always March 21 (except when there is a calendar malfunction, which does happen). Anyway, no work Wednesday meant that Tuesday became Friday. Yuri, Jeff and I went to a place in Takasaki called "High Times" and played darts and billiards. Jeff, as it turns out, is a dangerous man when you give him darts. His aim is splendid.
But he doesn't look cool while doing it, like I do. Observe the Mona Lisa picture in the background. Hence the name of the restaurant.
Here is billiards. I lost, but not before putting Yuri out of the game. Hee.
Maybe because I defeated her, she decided to put on the replica suit of armor in the bathroom hallway and stab Jeff.
Here is another interesting thing about the restaurant. This is the desert I got. Bread with sugar. I though it was french toast and was all excited. No luck. Plain white bread with sugar.
The next day Yuri took me to the local Hawaiian food restaurant. I was squealing in excitement.
I ordered the Kalua Pig. Well, it was good, but I have never had Kalua pig cooked in Soy Sauce before. I don't know it it really counts as Kalua Pig.
Next we picked up Yuri's friends Kentaro and Jack and began to drive up Haruna. On the way we stopped at Chikyu-ya and saw the worlds biggest silk doll mobile.
This is Jack.
Here we are at the entrance of Haruna Shrine.
Jack and a likeness of him.
This is how cold it was up on Haruna, still.
Even the waterfalls were frozen!
The main shrine.
The gigantic rock above the main shrine that looks as though it could fall at any time.
The intricate carving beneath the shrine.
And the Buddha, who also is a celebrity chef. Haruna Shrine was amazing and is now one of my favorite shrines.
Here is the sunset on Lake Haruna.
And all the bread I bought for our very cold picnic.
Here is the group.
And Totoro bread.
Afterwards we went to dinner in Keyaki Walk, saw a movie filmed in Maebashi and went to the batting center. Here is Yuri slugging away.
Friday was graduation at one of my schools.
Very long ceremony, but not hot like in Hawaii. Here is one of the classes lined up for a picture.
And the bento that came afterwards. This was the best boxed lunch I have ever had.
So, then on Saturday Yuri and I went down to Tokyo to meet one of her friends who was coming from Korea. In Ikebukuro we stopped at the Disaster Preparedness Museum. Here is the sign we discovered in the bathroom. The fact that there is a sign means that there has been a problem in the past.
Here is the museum. We got to do the earthquake simulator, but we didn't do much else because we ran out of time and it seemed like they didn't really want us there.
Here is Meiji Jingu, where we met her friend Shin.
And these are the Korean girls that we met at Harajuku station and tried to give a tour to.
This is the flea market we helped them find.
Ahh, yess. Nice doll, huh. We saw it in the Tobacco and Salt Museum. That's right, the Tobacco and Salt Museum.
Salt.
Salt.
Tobacco.
What is the relation between salt and tobacco? Who funded this museum? It is in one of the more expensive parts of Tokyo and only charges 100 yen for admission! Somebody is laundering money or trying to get a tax write-off or something. Here is the smoking section of the Tobacco and Salt Museum.
Once we found Shin, we went to Akihabara and went to a Maid Cafe. A maid cafe, by the way, is a restaurant where Japanese style nerds and geeks, called otaku, frequent. The waitresses are all young, attractive women wearing Maid costumes. Their job is to serve you food, and also to make you feel good by talking to you and laughing at your jokes. You can play Uno or Go Fish with them if you pay another 300 yen. Pictures are strictly prohibited. It is basically the PG rated version of the PG-13 rated Hostess bar. My impression? The girls were cute (but just cute, none of them were my type) and the food was bad.
We then ate some sushi, cruised though Yodobashi Camera Akiba, and went to the R/X rated part of Japan: Kabuki-cho. Kabuki-cho, along with Roppongi crossing is one of the seedy places in Tokyo where you really should be careful. We really wanted to see what it was like though, so we went and walked around.
Kabuki-cho was definately not my thing, but I am glad I got to see it. Especially this. Observe the picture of Prime Minister Abe, who has embarked on a new nationalistic campaign to inspire patriotism in the Japanese people. This poster states that Japan is a nation that wants to create. I don't think he expected this kind of irony.
Alright, sorry for the grammar mistakes and spelling mistakes, but I'm in kind of a rush. I'm off to Kyoto to meet Mom and Dad!

Buds, Bees and Bands

2007-03-16T02:42:00.000-07:00

Japan has started to seem very normal to me. I look at my life here and I say "Yup." Things seem fairly normal. This is good for me, because it means I am fairly well adjusted, but bad for you, my readers, because it means that some of the things I do seem normal to me even though they would be very interesting to you. For this, I appologize.

Well, lets get started. Last weekend I went to a plum forest to see the plum blossoms bloom.
And sure enough, they were beautiful. Although, on one side of the plum forest was a grove of bamboo. I really liked the bamboo. The plumbs were alright. I guess it's just that an entire forest of plums makes plums a little bit boring. Still, fun, and a must do at the end of winter in Japan.
Here is a hardy old tree at a shrine that I went to afterwards. Planted about 1000 years ago.
A neat little modern rock garden in Fujioka.
And the first silk factory in Japan. Quite famous in Gunma and about to become a World Heritage site. It was kind of neat. The tour guide was in a little bit of the rush, but the grounds were big and it was kind of fun to see brick work in Japan.
The cool part was the silk cocoons.
Afterwards, Yuri and I went to Takasaki station, bought edible bees and ate them. Edible bees are not bad, but there was nothing amazing about them.
The next day we went to Maebashi's new mall. There didn't seem to be any interesting stores, and it was packed with people. Give it a couple of months to cool down and I'll go back and check it out again.
Then we went to Brigg's (the ALT that teaches in the school next to mine) concert. He has been starting a band and this was the first show. This is the singer from the band before his. Their music was just screaming, and this blond guy was crazy or drunk, so in sum, it was quite odd.
Here is Brigg's band. On Friday his lead guitar player and singer broke his collar bone and ended up in the hospital. Brigg decided to go on anyway. He did a really good job making up for the lost member.
And after the concert Yuri and I went to Keyaki Walk again and ate at a shop where the gimmick was "all you can eat bread". Maybe this doesn't sound that exciting to someone in the United States, where you bread will be refilled as many times as you want (within reason), but in Japan, this is an exciting night out. I tried all the bread. The best was the Sunflower Bread.
Coming soon: Mom and Dad visit Kyoto!

Winter gave up, not me

2007-03-05T04:00:00.000-08:00

My dear readers,

Yes, I am back after a two week absence. Trust me, I did not give up on the blog, it's just there has been nothing to report for two weeks. I went to Tokyo last weekend, but it was mostly because I had to. I have discovered that I don't really like Tokyo and I really only go if I want books or to see friends. Gunma is much more my pace than Tokyo.

Speaking of Gunma! Winter had it's final counter attack this last week, but seems to have finally slunk away in defeat. The Ume flowers are blooming and spring is, effectively, here. I have begun training again and have decided to enter another marathon (which, as I have stated before means "long race" in Japan). This time, in costume. It felt great to run again. So good that I ran to Gunma Soja, a full 11 kilometers away.
On the way, I also saw this. A chicken farm covered with lye to prevent bird flu. Nice.
I have also turned into a raging enviromentalist. Something in me snapped and I turned into a tree hugger. I have gone back to being a social meat-eater, but private vegetarian, and have started using my garbage to grow my own vegetables on my air conditioner (which I will not be using).
Fluffy by the way is doing well. Look and Fluffy's beautiful mushrooms!
But yes. I have big plans on the horizon, so please keep checking!