Inaka Life in Japan

"Green Tea Monkey"

2006-06-19T14:58:00.000+09:00

I recently found out that there was a fellow "Inka" blogger working as an ALT with roots in Greensboro. Here is her blog, you should check it out. She's quite witty, and says a lot of the things I tend to glaze over about Japan.

Matchamonkey

Memoirs of a Mustache

2006-06-05T23:41:00.000+09:00

So, starting at my middle school's graduation, I decided that I would stop shaving. Of course the purpose of this was to grow a beard, but since almost no Japanese man has one, it was quite a source of controversy at school. I got comments ranging from, "Are you sick?" to "You look tired." to "I get a bad feeling from you..." Yes that's right, my scruffiness was on every teacher's lips and no one knew what to say or do. Luckily for us both, we had a bit of a break between semesters and I was able to grow it out a bit more. When I got back, the comments changed from "You look tired", to "Not kakkoi" which means "Not cool".

Its hard to do the right thing sometimes. What is right is not always popular, and I had taken it on as a kind of personal quest for the kids of Fukushima to know what it looks like for a man (a real man) to have a beard. Sure, Clem teaches at one of the elementary schools on the island, and sure his beard is way more thick and luxurious than mine, but he doesn't live on the island. I have gotten reactions across the board. From young kids running from me in terror, to kids running right up to me and tugging on my chin hair, to just getting moderate stares in public. Some of the middle school girls thought it was cool, while others couldn't even talk to me without laughing. What a rollercoaster ride of attention!

Now, this is not the first time I've had a beard of this length, but it very well might be the last. Dorothy, bless her heart, is not fond of the beard. Seeing on how I will be marrying her in less than a year, I doubt it will ever resurface. Yep, this two month stint was kind of a hippy binge, a bachelor party for the face, a secret self indulgence of whiskery significance. Dorothy, of course, is not alone in the disdain for the beard. About 95% of all women I've talked with about it agree that "No beard" is the "Go beard". Oddly, though almost 100% of heterosexual men love it. They find it a icon of manliness, a symbol of significant maturity; something they can aspire to grow themselves. But, when everything is said and done, I'm not too interested in impressing straight men. So I shaved.

Well... I didn't shave. My friend Jill did. I made a deal with her this past weekend and if all conditions were met, SHE could shave it off, along with my hair. What better place to do this than a two day rock festival in Oita prefecture! So that's where we headed. Around midnight on Saturday night, slowly but steadily, the beard came off. Luckily others were there to record images for posterity. Hope you enjoy the shots as well as the new, clean cut, buttery smooth, bristly headed Mario.

Me and Jill at "Concert on the Rock".

A side shot of the beard.

Leah and I act like pirates in front of our tent. By the way, my sis made the shirt I'm wearing.

Final shots of the beard.

A little off the top please!

Jill misses my beard entirely and goes for the eyebrows...

Trimmin'

I watch as my masculinity is shaved away.

Ittai!

A progress report.

The "mustache game"

One of those shaver commercials.

No beard, but still a full head of hair.

Jill contemplates what hairstyle to give me.

A bit off the sides.

Jill gets distracted and starts taking pictures of mukade outside the bathroom.

Tadaa!

Japanese Patrick Stewart

2006-05-22T00:22:00.000+09:00

Back home, I think a lot of people look like famous people. But, my friends don't usually agree with me. We just got a new councilor this month at our middle school. I really think he looks like Patrick Stewart. Can anyone back me up on this?

Ninja Town- Lost Heritage, or Rightfully Buried Blemish?

2006-05-16T17:29:00.000+09:00

A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to go to a little place called “Ninja Mura”. That means “Ninja Town” for those who don't speak Japanese. This place must had been quite something in the olden days of the early 1990’s, but is now nothing more than a hollow shell of what it once was. For me, it was a dream come true. I like abandoned places, I like Japanese themed stuff, and I love ninjas. I think I was a ninja at least two or three times for Halloween growing up. Thanks to the local Army-Navy surplus store, I didn’t have to travel the orient to be one; it only cost $30 and a parent’s permission. I think any guy in my age group could say that he saw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles growing up and can remember how hot a topic it was when we learned Vanilla Ice was going to make a cameo in the sequel.

Unlike the fleeting fame of the Ninja Turtles or even the slightly more prolonged fame of Vanilla Ice, everyone has enjoyed the idea and concept of ninjas over the ages. The appeal of the ninja is timeless: like a 1990 Romanée-Conti La Tache’s perfect articulation of aroma and flavor, Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince’s insight into “everyday politics” which was preeminent in leading primatologists to help coin the phrase “Machiavellian Intelligence”, Marcel Duchamp’s The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even and its profound insight into male and female desires that inexplicably force suffering on the other, and (most notably) Coheed and Cambria’s newest album: Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume I whose prog-rock sounds and avant-garde concepts unfortunately just end up making it sound like their last album: In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3.

What was I saying? Oh yes, ninjas rock. They have inspired comics, video games, toys, costumes and youth of all ages around the world. I suppose they might be seen as somewhat of a blemish on Japan’s history but, if someone makes a cute theme park about them and makes sure the ninjas are depicted as fun loving colorful midgets with heads that look slightly like squids, people are sure to forget about all the actual murders that occurred.

Thus was the case until the early 1990’s, when I’m guessing Ninja Mura closed its doors. It is connected to an adjacent place called Rekishi-no-machi (History Town) that is now being fixed up as an antiques village. As a side note, I bought a camera at this antiques place that I managed to break within 24 hours (scroll down for more details). Yet, Ninja Town stays abandoned. Strewn about are the various games of chance, tabi slippers, faded admission tickets, partially dismembered mannequins, and rope climbing courses that resemble an ewok village. Gone are the real ninjas, with a mangy dog as the only guardian of the various buildings. Gone are the spectators whom would rise to thunderous applauds for the conclusion of what I can only imagine would be a spectacular display of “ninja theater”.

Yes, all that remains are the memories… and the nostalgia for what once was the inaccurate and romanticized depiction of a now obsolete culture of assassins. Enjoy the pictures.

See more pictures of Ninja Town HERE

I bought a camera, I broke a camera...

2006-05-09T17:21:00.000+09:00

This past Golden Week, when I went to Ninja Town, there was an antiques village next door. So, Phil, his dad, and I headed over for some post abandoned theme park celebration. There I found a Minolta "Uniomat" Rangefinder camera. It was in good condition and came with its own leather case and strap. I picked it up for about $15 and thought I'd give film a shot again. Basically, since May of 2005, I haven't shot a single roll of film, and I wanted to see if I had been missing something. So, I got a cheap roll of Fuji 100 ASA color film, cleaned the camera and popped it in. Over the next 24 hours I used up the film. It was at a waterfall in Maebaru that I got to the end of the roll, so I rewound it on the spot, took it out and put it in my pocket for safe keeping. Then I put the Minolta "safely" back in its leather case and slung it over my shoulder.

Then, right as I was walking by the stream that the waterfall fed into, the leather strap gave out and snapped in two places, severing the camera from my person. I watched as it hit the ground and I remember thinking "Oh, there goes my camera on the ground... I should pick it up." So I reached down slowly, but right at that moment it rolled down to a lower rock. I thought "Oh, it's on the rock now, I'll just get it..." So I reach down and just as I do, it rolls right into the water and sinks about two feet. Bubbles rose. I fished out the camera and it was, of course soaked through completely. Water gushed out of it. I have to say that I was a bit disappointed, but the thought of my brand new digital SLR being at the bottom of the river made me think "Hey, maybe it was fate why I got this camera and decided to leave the Nikon home today." Either way, I had salvaged the film mere moments before, and I wasn't going to get all that upset until I saw the pictures. You may ask if the camera was salvageable at all, since it was mostly a older mechanical camera. Well no, not really. The lens was a fixed 45mm, and water got inside the elements, effectively clouding up the lens like a non-waterproof watch face when it gets wet. Plus, the lightmeter is now completely shot.

I got the pictures developed yesterday, and I have to say that though the pictures have charm, I think I got about what I paid for. This was no Leica, that's for sure. Plus, it made me remember how expensive film can be. I got small prints of a 24 roll, with the optional $3 CD and it cost me about $15. Add in the $4 for the roll of film, and you have more than the price of the camera. I did some minor levels adjustments in photoshop and that's it. Keep in mind that the CD scans you get at the 1 hour development places aren't the best. But, the actual prints didn't look much better. So for what its worth, here are the best of the shots I took in the 24 hour span of owning a working rangefinder. Enjoy!

P.S. I'm sooooo happy I went digital.

Sports Day and some disappointment

2006-05-08T11:08:00.000+09:00

If you were to learn anything about Japanese school life, it should be about "Sports Day". I feel that it is a good representative of the ideals which Japan tries to impress upon their youth. Without being too longwinded, I will try to explain:

Once a year, all schools have a sports day. Elementary, Middle, High school. All of them.

Students will practice for as much as two months beforehand for this one day.

Sports Day in itself is comprised of very few sports. Mostly running various distances, marathon-type stuff, etc.

There will be choreographed dances or other skits.

The school is divided into two teams (with names of colors) and pitted against each other.

Some teachers will also run and participate.

It is very militaristic. This includes marching in unison, shouting and chanting, and even some "sig heil" style salutes.

They usually fall on a weekend. But since all teachers have to go to it, you get a day off during the following work week. This day is called "Daikyu".

My middle school's Sports day is next week (Mother's Day), and I have to say my feelings are mixed. I think it will be fun to see the kids get riled up and excited, fun to run some short races, and photograph most of the day's events. But, today I got a bit disappointed. You see, I was put in charge of helping the teams paint their panels. These are basically large square boards that each team paints a inspiring mascot or exciting picture to boost team moral. Last year's designs consisted of Hokusai's "Great Wave" woodblock print, and a sweet spider panel. This year, since I was told I was in charge of the panels, I got really excited. It's been a while since I have had a chance to work on a project like this and I was looking forward to working with the kids and having a fun day of painting.

Well, things don't always work out the way you want them to, I guess. I came back to school today, the first day after our Golden Week vacation, to find the panels already completed. I had talked to the students right before the break, saying that I wanted them to come to me with some sketched ideas, but no one did. Apparently, they came into school during Golden Week, on a day I was actually in Fukushima, and just did it with some of the other teachers. No one even gave me a ring to see if I was around.

Now, I know that its silly to be upset about this. I don't think that I'm really upset at all. Just really really disappointed. Maybe I'm getting old (!) and take more offense to things like this, but why give me the responsibility if its won't be honored. I don't have much that I do at this school. I teach about 10 classes a week. I help correct my JTE's grammar and pronunciation. I read a lot of blogs on the internet. This was one of my few chances to really prove myself as a teacher at this school. Be a part of the "team" and do something that I was good at doing. We'll see how Sports Day goes, but as of right now, my enthusiasm for it has been crushed and now it just seems like an obstacle standing in the way of my weekend. Basically, something to prevent me from traveling anywhere significant. More and more I feel like a ornament hanging on the Japanese Christmas tree. I hang around and look pretty. I don't support the tree, and I'm not the shining star on top. I'm not connected to a string of lights that all work in unison. Just hang and look pretty. I wonder how many other JETs feel the same...

Am I out of line here?

Ninja Town Preview

2006-05-07T23:49:00.000+09:00

Whew! Golden week was a multitude of picture taking events. I have a lot of sifting, sorting and editing to do. One of the highlights from the week was "Ninja Town", which is an abandoned theme park near Fukuoka. Here's a nice preview shot. More to come soon!

Gunkanjima Preview

2006-05-02T14:52:00.000+09:00

Last weekend, despite being an illegal abandoned ghost island, I made it out to Gunkanjima. I'll write more about it soon, but here's something to whet your appetite.

Okinawa Baby!

2006-04-15T13:57:00.000+09:00

For those of you that may not know, I went to Okinawa during my spring break here in Japan. I went with two of my good friends here: John and Jill. Japan Airlines has this sweet deal with birthdays, so because it was John's birthday on April 3rd, we all got tickets for roughly $200. So, here's what happened.

MARCH 31st
A Friday. John and Jill arrive at my place around 8ish. They decided they would spend the night since we had to be up at 6:00am to head out to the airport. When they arrived, I presented them each with a present. You see, I had been helping clean out one of the school locker rooms and found three old volleyball uniforms. I was lucky enough to be able to nab them, since they were just going to throw them out. My vice principle's only stipulation was that I couldn't wear them around here. Okay, fine. But Okinawa is a long way away and certainly no one that would know us would be there. So, I showed them the goods, and they loved them. Of course we were so excited that we all had to try them on and take pictures. We didn't get to bed so early after all.

APRIL 1st
We started the day off right the next morning by not leaving on time. This may have had something to do with me, but I think I'm going to blame Jill and John too. We left my house around 6:50 and our flight left at 8:30. It takes a little over a hour to get there, so I figured we would still be okay. Well, half way there, I realized that long term parking is a 10 minute bus ride from the international terminal. So, when we got there, we had to park in short term parking. I'll tell you how much this cost later, but suffice to say we made our flight. Of course we were wearing the uniforms and we looked like some kind of important volleyball team from the Ukraine, so one of the check in ladies hurried us through security and stuff. No sweat. We were some of the last people on the plane, but we made it in time, and still in good spirits. Domo-Kun came along, too.

We touched down in Okinawa around 10:00am and wandered around the terminal for a while. We eventually bumped into another ALT friend of ours who lives on Iki (an island to the northwest of mine). So, we talked to him and his girlfriend (who was visiting) for a while and headed down to baggage. Here they are. Aren't they cute?

Next, we headed over to get our rental car. I'm not really sure of the model type, but it was a Mazda. I was really surprised that they would rent such a nice car to a bunch of rag tag gaijin, but, it is Japan and Japan is very trusting. After a brief overview on what would happen if we got into an accident, they turned over the keys and showed us how to work the GPS unit. By the way, the car was approximately $240 for 5 days. That came out to roughly $90 a person after adding in gas. Not a bad price at all. Of course, if we crashed the car, it would be an additional "outrageous" fee of $70 per person.

If you look close, you can see the Navigation system in "Video Game Mode". Courtesy of Mr. Durso.

Jill suggested that since we were in Naha already we should go to Kukosai-dori. A famous strip in Okinawa. Thus we headed.

We were feeling a bit hungry around 3:00pm, so we hit up this place. Not bad if you get chicken or steak. Awful if you get ribs. John found out the hard way. When we went, we were the only ones in the restaurant so they doted on us somewhat and tried out their English. They were very surprised that John wanted to eat ribs for 4-5 people and get appetizer stuff, etc. He ate them all, of course, but it's a shame that they weren't very good.

This is a type of Okinawan sake that is made from (you guessed it) poisonous snakes! Prices start at around $80 and climb into the several hundreds. The one on the far left has two snakes in it and costs roughly $450. Just think of the snakes as really expensive tequila worms.

John's coconut bra is actually two tiny ukuleles.

Lots of street vendors selling various handmade knicknacks.

After leaving Naha, our first stop was the west cape, slightly north from the city. We basically just wanted to see a beach. It was low tide at the time, and all the tide pools were filled with these gross sea cucumber things that spewed out white stuff if you touch them. Domo-Kun joined us.

Like Hawaii, Okinawa was home to a host of tropical plants, including pandanis. It was the first time John had seen such a "naughty" plant.

Before we left, we were also able to take part in a beetle love-making session. John has an eye for these kinds of things.

After soaking our feet in the sweet sweet Okinawan sand for a while, we decided to find a campsite for the night. Our intention was to camp every night and save a boatload in hotel fees. At first we thought our plan was doomed. The only reservation we made at all for the trip was the rental car (which if worse came to worse we could have slept in), and we only had some written directions that Jill had printed off the internet. Well, at the first campsite we went to, the couple running it said not only was that beach closed for the season, but that they didn't think many other campsites would be open. Finally they gave us directions up the road a few kilometers to "Inbu Beach", saying that it was maybe our best bet. So, we headed up the road as the sun began to sink. After a while we found it, and boy I've stayed in some "rustic" places before, but this one took the cake. It wasn't even so much that it was secluded, without water, or whatever. That's fine, if where you're staying is beautiful. Well, looking towards the ocean it was, but everything else, like most of Okinawa, was severely rundown and in need of repair. But beggars can't be choosers, and I kind of like the texture of old buildings and stuff. We tried to find the office to pay, but the workers had already left for the day. We decided to set up camp and pay the next day before we left.

There were a few other campers that night, including a navy man with his family. I asked him if there were any good restaurants around he and he spent the next 30 minutes giving me the same directions about 15 times. He was a bit drunk and awfully nice, so I forgave him. But the restaurant he was giving us directions to was literally about a 5 minute walk. I preceded to set up the tent since John and Jill had gotten into a deep conversation about God while I was talking to the drunk guy. Domo joined me though.

The entrance to the beach. I think it probably was supposed to mean something else, but I later found out from a Japanese friend that "Inbu" is Japanese for the "genital region" of a person. Perfect. We stayed at "Crotch Beach"

This was the playground at our campsite. Other than this "Tetanus Slide", there were the "Rusty Nail Monkeybars", "Jagged Little Swingset" and "Sandbox of Glass". We were home.

John and Jill have deep conversations while I struggle with the tent and talk with drunk navy men.

"Domo! Domo!"

After pitching the tent, we headed off a couple miles south to see the sunset. Then, we decided to go to that restaurant that navy guy recommended. Well, no go. The place was packed. So we wandered a bit down the road and came across what seemed to be more of a house/shack, than a restaurant. We like these kind of things, so we headed in. 3 hours later, we ended up coming home. The nice folks of Okinawa like to talk and make friends and we made several that night. In fact we were invited to a BBQ along the coast the next day. Right next to where we were camping. We walked back to our tent exhausted, and ready for bed.

APRIL 2nd
I almost considered leaving the fly off of the tent since it was turning out to be such a nice night. I am so glad that I didn't. It rained all night. Luckily our tent, which was donated to us by the lovely Kate form Kawatana, held up quite well. No one got wet. The only person who really had problems was John, due to his not bringing a sleeping bag or pad. It got a bit more chilly than I think anyone expected. We woke up in the morning and decided that since it was raining a bit still that we'd have a drive around the island that day. We checked to see if the party was going ot happen, but the beach didn't look very populated and it was still drizzling a bit, so after lunch we hopped into our Mazda and headed up past Nago. We were driving around the midwest cape and spotted an aquarium. It looked interesting, but we weren't sure if we would go. Plus, Jill has an unreasonable fear of aquariums and large fish. We had almost written off going when Jill mentioned that she read it was the second biggest aquarium in the world (not really helping her cause). We were going to the aquarium.

The grounds of the aquarium were large. There was a botanical garden and a few "show" tanks where dolphins and such would perform acrobatics "a la" SeaWorld. We didn't seem to be there at the right time for the shows, so we took a couple pictures of the dolphins swimming around and then headed inside. The name of this place is "Churaumi Aquarium" and its main feature is the whale shark tank. Now, I've had a long standing fear of sharks. Up until two years ago, I would have my mom check the swimming pool for sharks before I could get in, etc. This fear, however, compelled me to read a ton of literature on them when I was in elementary school and I now know every little thing about them. All this notwithstanding, I have never been to a more awe inspiring aquarium. The main tank is so large, they are able to have 3 whale sharks swimming around. Add a school of giant rays, several schools of smaller fish, some nurse sharks, a few other weird fish like remoras and you've got a sight to behold! I'm not going to post all my aquarium pictures here. If you want, you can check my flickr site for some more at http://www.flickr.com/photos/origamikid Here's a taste for you, though.

Entrance to the aquarium.

Coming soon to DVD. We took Snoop Dog and gave him a camera. Then we stuck him in nature during spring break. Now you can see all these crazy turtles take their shells off and show us what they've got!

Pardon the composition of this shot. I handed my camera to a guy shooting with a Canon 20D, so I figured he could center the shark jaws. I guess I should have known something was up when he was trying to get pictures of sharks with flash through the glass... *sigh*

This is the main tank. When they feed the whale sharks, they all "stand up" and hover vertically in the water. Quite an incredible sight.

Some sort of new species of shark. There have only been three or so found ever. I forget the name, but it has something to do with its giant mouth.

After we left Churaumi, it was getting close to dark, so we decided to hit up an A&W for dinner. We were all very excited to have delicious burgers and root beer floats. For anyone that doesn't know, root beer is very rare in Japan, and A&W can only be found in Okinawa. Unfortunately, the lady misunderstood John and gave him a Coke float. Then, Jill told the lady she would have the same thing as John, so she got a Coke float. I got a Root Beer float and it was delicious. Suckers.

We headed home and played some cards and went to sleep. This time we arranged the bedding so John would be a bit more comfortable.

APRIL 3rd

John's birthday. It was a gorgeous day, so we figured we'd drive over to the east coast, find a quick bite to eat and then drive up along the coast all the way up to the northern point. Well, it didn't start off so great. It took us forever to find a restaurant that was serving at 10:00am. And then it took a while to even find a convenient store. Finally, at a Family Mart, we got our food and tried to find a beach.

I don't think the beach we got to was really any kind of tourist beach, but we liked it just the same. We ate and went exploring along the rocks. After we got a ways away from our car Jill and John decided they wanted to hop into the water, So, we stripped down to our underwear (Jill had a swimsuit on) and got in. When we first arrived at our swim spot, not a person was in sight. But, by the time we left, there was no less than 4 fisherman hanging out on the very rock where we left our clothes. I had a chat with one of them as I tried to put my shorts and shirt back on. I asked him about the possibility of sharks, and he said there was. Great. It was getting to be around 3:00, so we decided to pack up and head out around the coast. Not before we got a shot with Domo-Kun, though.

We befriended a dog.

We headed up along the cast and checked out the more undeveloped areas of Okinawa. Very beautiful. The drive just felt good. Good weather, good tunes, and beautiful scenery. We were making our way up the coast to the northern cape, but along the way we stopped at a few sights as well.

Along the east coast

Landlocked boats in a small town.

One of the many dams in Okinawa.

A sign next to the dam lookout. Can you find the terrorist in this picture?

These windmills are awesome, we had never had a chance to get so close to one before. The speck at the bottom is Jill.

Finally around 5:00pm or so, we reached out destination, Cape Hideo. We hung out there for over an hour taking in the sights and chatting with people. We saw two other English teacher there and ran into one of the guys we had talked to at our Saturday night restaurant. He invited us to come stay at his place that night and it did sound quite tempting. You see, by now, John and Jill were starting to realize that they were badly sunburned and sleeping on the ground just wasn't appealing to them. The man told us that if we wanted to, just go back to the restaurant we met him at and the owner could tell us where his house was. We never took him up on the it, but it sure was nice of him offer. Since it was starting to get late, we hopped in the car and started going back down south along the west coast to try to catch a sweet sunset.

After the sun had set, we went back into Nago for dinner, since it was John's birthday. It was because of him that we got cheap tickets, so we treated him to a steak dinner. Originally we were going to rent a Ferrari for him for 6 hours. But it was kind of expensive (go figure) and it wasn't a convertible. Plus, if we wrecked it, we'd be screwed. So, we opted for a steak.

When we got back to the tent and John decided that he was so sunburned that he wasn't going to sleep in the tent and opted for the car, though, not before he and Jill took turns slathering aloe all over each other's back.

I should also mention that we had packed up our tent earlier in the day just in case we found another place to camp when we were driving around. Well, we never found one, so we went back to Inbu for the night. The problem was that since all the campers had left that day everything was kind of "locked up". So we sort of "broke in" and set up our tent again in the middle of the night.

We played a few rounds of a card game called "Casino", and went to sleep.

APRIL 4th

We woke to find a mini modeling shoot going on outside our tent. Two younger girls maybe around 13 and 15 were posing for a man with an expensive camera. I'm still not really sure why they were doing it. Maybe they were family and were just shooting for fun. But, they had two very expensive cameras as well as an underwater video camera. Plus it looked all very planned. I told Jill that they were making a karaoke video, but she didn't agree. I guess we'll never know, but it was very weird and they really had no reservations about shooting only a few feet from our tent.

John woke up feeling awful from his sunburn, and because he slept in the car at an incline his feet had swelled up pretty bad (apparently something that happens when he gets sunburns). We took showers, etc and packed up the tent. After his and Jill's terrible night, we decided we would find a suitable hotel in Naha for that night since the next day we were leaving out of Naha to come home. We figured that the best way to cure a bad night of sunburn would be to go get crunk on pineapple wine, so for the morning, we headed to the Nago Pineapple Park. This very place gives you the opportunity to ride around on driverless "robot" go-carts, see lots and lots of pineapples, check out a very oddly place collection of shells, eat your fill of fresh pineapple, and get blitzed on pineapple wine. All for the low low price of $5. I only got to really enjoy the first three things, as afterwards I had a case of the runs and spent most of my time looking for a clean bathroom that wasn't occupied. I never found one. I did get some nice shots of the flowers on the grounds and stuff, though.

From the pineapple park, we started heading towards Naha and hit up BIOS on the way. This is Okinawa's biopark which includes a riverboat tour, lush grounds with many tropical plants, some animals, and gift shop where you can buy prize orchids. It was a good time and plenty of great photo opportunities for me. While we were there, our friend Aki called Jill. Aki is working as a flight instructor in Okinawa on base. He told Jill earlier that he could probably get us some free seats in a training craft so we could get a nice aerial view of Okinawa. Well, when he called, there was apparently only room for two people, so one of us would have ot stay behind. With no one wanting to leave an odd man out, and not really wanting to play Jan-Ken-Pon (Rock Paper Scissors), we decided to opt out. Man, that would've been cool, though. We hung out some more at BIOS and played around on their playground and check out the petting zoo. Apparently American and Japanese petting zoos are different, because I've never seen animals chained to umbrellas in the middle of fields before. Weird.

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We left BIOS and hit up a place called Shakey's Pizza. Apparently this is some kind of chain in America, but I'd never heard of it. John ordered first and he ordered so much food that the lady thought that he had ordered for all of us. If I remember correctly he got a large pepperoni pizza, some onion rings, and garlic toast. He went back and got a coke. The pizza was good and very satisfying. Finding good pizza in Japan is somewhat of a struggle, because Japanese cheese is just not very good. After that we wandered to the video game arcade upstairs, where I played a boxing game where one actually has to box. John and Jill played a rafting game where you actually have to paddle, and a Taiko drum game where you actually have to drum. Seeing a pattern here?

Though I faired better with this game than my real attempts at boxing, I was still really tired after round one.

We eventually left as it was getting dark and started to head into Naha. They wanted to get a hotel room due to their sunburns and Jill's guidebook had several listed. She read off the descriptions of many hotels and we, not surprisingly, chose the quaintly described "bottom of the barrel" Okinawa Guest House. After much searching, we found the place by accident. Words cannot properly describe this place, but I'll give it a try. When I said we wanted to stay there, the guy running it said he had a room for the three of us, but it might be a bit small. John and Jill were in the car, but he led me upstairs to show me the room. All it was a was a bamboo loft in a tiny room that you had to get to by stepping on a cinder block and going through a window. When I asked him about parking he pulled out a yellow piece of foam core with a map drawn on it. The map lead to the parking lot, and we were supposed to stick the map on our dash so we wouldn't be towed. When I came back down and got in the car, I was laughing so hard I was crying. Jill got a shot of that. Once we settled in, we headed up to the community room on the 3rd floor to talk to other Guest House roomies. Two Japanese guys (who we think were gay lovers), a girl our age doing fish parasite research from Norway, and us. John played guitar, we folded origami cranes and had a pretty good time. After a while, other Japanese folks trickled in and started making some food. I wandered to the roof and got a few shots of the surroundings. By the way, this place was 1,500 yen a night, or about $13.

This one is for Dorothy. She thinks I don't cry enough.

Thirteen dollars a night.

Some vending machine right beside the Guest House.

APRIL 5th

We woke the next morning to the most beautiful sound I have ever heard. Try to imagine a firebell ringing and then imagine it right next to your ear when you are in a deep sleep. Okay, then multiply it by 5. That's what we started hearing around 8:00am every 20 minutes or so. By 9:00 it was every ten minutes. Apparently the Guest House was next to a parking garage and every time a car came or left it would make this wretched noise. We got up, Jill took a shower, and John and I went to the Lawson's near by to get ingredients for French toast (we just felt like French toast). After that we turned in our sheets and headed out to Shuri-jo (castle) This is an old style Chinese-type castle that was obliterated in WWII. Luckily they rebuilt it and now you can pay a lot of money to go see a lot of nothing. Don't get me wrong, it was cool. But, I would have been just as content to not even go in. I couldn't take pictures inside and everything was written in Japanese. But, on the plus side, I got a sweet hat that says, "I'll Be Pork, Camp-R" with a silhouette or a flying pig with a halo. That hat, combined with my aviator sunglasses, newly grown beard, and a camera with a large lens made me look pretty awesome (shady), but I persevered with it through the end of the trip. Also, while we were there, I saw an Asian version of "The Edge" (guitarist from U2).

Sketchy McGee and his big dumb friend Hank. Hank likes flavored ice.

It was getting late in the day and we still had to return the rental car and catch a flight that day, so we left and headed to lunch... In a treehouse! We saw it when we first flew in and decided we had to have at least one meal there. It was a plethora of Asian cuisine and good lunch prices. I had Thai curry. While we were in the restaurant it began to pour, signifying that it was our time for me to leave this little island and return to my (smaller island). We returned the rental car, much to the relief of the workers that had rented it to us, caught the shuttle bus back to the airport, got on our plane, and left. Definitely a good trip. When we arrived back to our car, we got the final total for our five day "short term" parking. It was $120. The guy did a doubletake when the price came up on the screen. To put it in perspective, we could have stayed at Okinawa Guest house for a week for the same price. Our car had more expensive lodgings than us.

The End!

More pictures at http://flickr.com/photos/origamikid/sets/72057594100137765/

Graduation and my Apologies

2006-03-15T09:52:00.000+09:00

So first off, allow me to apologize for my tardiness in posting. I have had a wonderful 2 months and wish I could document everything, but the fact is if I were to go back it would just get me further behind. If you are itching for pictures, you could check out my flickr site which is updated much more regularly: http://www.flickr.com/photos/origamikid

Monday was graduation and I took a few pictures. I thought I would write an entry about it since it is quite different than what we have in the states.

First of all, you might have noticed that I said graduation was Monday, March 13th. This is not a mistake. Japan has the most screwed-up school calendar year that I can think of. Graduation in mid-March, but school keeps going for the 1st and 2nd graders. They finish up at the end the month. Then everyone has a break for about a week and a half. At this time, 3 or four teachers are transferred out of schools, uprooted from the city they live in, and placed somewhere else. I think the reason for this is that they don't want (?) teachers being at a school for more than 4 years. WTF?

So some teachers move out, and we import new teachers and start the "new" school year off on April 6th. Less than a month later is Golden Week. This is a string of Japanese National Holidays that basically give you a week off. Then, school is in session for two and a half more months and then they have summer break! This starts at the end of July (when I will be leaving to come back to America and the new ALT will come in). Kids are off for a month, although teachers still come in for some of that time. Then, in September, things pick back up again. There are the occasional single day holidays, but things stay pretty steady until around Christmas and New Years. Then kids have another 2 weeks off or so. They get back in January and run straight through (more or less) to graduation in March.

Maybe it's just that I'm used to the American School system, but this schedule just seems weird.

So, more about graduation. It is a very solemn and tearful event. The homeroom teachers promenade down the isles, leading their respective graduating classes into the gymnasium. All things are coordinated. Standing up and sitting is to the point of an almost military fascism. How do the students achieve such accuracy? Practice. They have an entire day dedicated to practicing for a graduation that lasts roughly an hour and a half. The Principle gives an address which he reads off his notes made on an accordion-like stock of paper. The students are individually called up to receive their diploma, and bow to the principle. After all students are called, the head of the Board of Education for the area gets up and makes a speech which is also written on the same style of folded paper. Then the PTA head comes up and does the exact same thing. After all this, the kids sing a song that has a typical Japanese bittersweet taste. The student council president comes up and gives a tearful goodbye speech (written on the same paper), and the kids sing another bittersweet song.

By this time, everyone is crying. I must say that I teared up when the class rep did her speech, but I did not bawl. Maybe if I could have understood more than the 50% that I caught... Anyway, the waterworks are flowing and the last bittersweet song seems to put everyone over the edge. After the song, amidst a pattering of sniffles, another PTA rep gives an address (same paper) and breaks down in the middle of it. I felt sorry for all the kids who had to be perfectly rigid during the entire ordeal. But, I guess that's all part of Japanese graduations.

The PTA woman finishes up and we all sing the schools anthem. Then the graduates process out to thunderous clapping. After they leave, they all go up to their classrooms to cry and congratulate each other. They also get their things together and pack up because that is the last day they will be at the school. The only other time they came back was briefly the next day to for each student to announce to the teachers what high school they got into and were going to be attending. (That's right, there are entrance exams for High School).

Once everyone is ready, the graduates process out the front doors of the school and are handed tulips and they exit. They walk between two lines of teachers parents and students and mill around at the end for photos and general congratulations.
After that, they all head home.

So that, my friends, is a Japanese Junior High School Graduation. I hope it has been enlightening for you.

And now, pictures!

NEW PICS ARE UP!!!

2006-03-01T23:11:00.000+09:00

Okay, it's true. I've been completely slack on my updatings of the last couple of months. For that I am sorry. But here's the good thing: I went "Pro" on my Flickr site. Gone are the days of only being able to make three sets and have 200 pics viewable at a time. So, go on over and check out some of the sweet stuff I've posted. There are now sections for various artworks I've done and I've returned a lot of the earlier Japan pictures. There is plenty more to come, so check it in about a week and you'll be able to see pictures about my life back in the States. Hope you enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/origamikid

New Pics Posted!

2006-01-06T11:18:00.000+09:00

There are a few doubles of what I've already posted here, but check out:

http://flickr.com/photos/origamikid

You will see a few pictures from Beppu, Aso, and Nagasaki. I'm running out of room on my flickr account and debating about buying a "pro" account. It costs $25 and lasts for a year. I get Unlimited posts, would get all the other pictures I posted back, and I can make a few more sets. (If you're not pro, you can only make 3) This would mean that I could start posting my manhole cover pictures that I've been collecting since I got here. What do you think I should do?

The Galluccis came, the Galluccis went...

2006-01-05T14:40:00.000+09:00

For the first time in my life, I was going to be out of the country for Christmas this year. I can only imagine how depressing it would have been if my family hadn't come here! Both my parents and my sister arrived at 10:00 pm on Friday Dec 23rd, and left January 3rd.

(By the way the picture above is me with my family and Mrs. Kamogawa. She has been invaluable in helping me make travel arrangements, mail packages, and make puchases on the internet. She studied abroad in Alaska for a little while. Many thanks to her!)

We had a blast! (And definitely pushed the boundaries of my little house to its limits.) We traveled a lot around Nagasaki Prefecture, and Fukuoka City. (Which included much driving). Then we all flew to Osaka for a 2 day layover's worth of sightseeing. Some of the highlights include:

Going to a Dutch-themed amusement Park for Christmas Day.

Attending Catholic Mass on Hirado Island.

All singing "White Christmas" during the Karaoke portion of my school's end of the year party.

Seeing the Nagasaki Peace Park and surrounding bay area.

Shopping in the Sasebo arcade, and eating very spicy Indian Food.

Climbing the tallest mountain in Hirado around sunset on New Year's Eve. (Incidentally the furthest west you can go in Japan without having to take a boat).

Playing Jenga and watching wacky Japanese TV on Ikitsuki at CJ's house for New Year's countdown.

Almost being homeless in Osaka for 2 days.

Climbing the Garden Observatory Building (or whatever it's called) and seeing Osaka by night.

Mom finally being able to go into something because it wasn't closed for the New Year (We went up Osaka Castle).

A very expensive cab ride to the airport.

Me taking the "Slow-Boat" back to Fukuoka.

So, without further ado, the pics! If one strikes your fancy, click on it... You'll get a bigger, brighter, more detailed version!

These were all shot with my Sony V1, but I'm going to look through my parents pics to see what I want to post.

The first picture I took of my family. On Christmas day, we go visit a Buddhist Temple. Go figure...

Madeline standing next to "jizo". They are memorials erected for children that have died. Of course Madeline didn't know that, so she gave them a quizzical look. Thanks Madeline... ;)

I think Mrs. Kamogawa took this one and the next.

We all got up and sang "White Christmas". Everyone complimented us on our excellent English pronunciation.

This is the smaller (and at that time, closed) castle in the area of northern Kyushu. The girls in the picture are the perfect example of winter style in Japan. Fairly short skirts, boots, and a sort of wool trench. Seriously, everyone has these.

Madeline being goonie on the Karatsu beach wave breakers.

I was able to sneak a picture of this girl in a kimono at the Nagasaki Peace Park. In front of the group is a place where people bring thousands of cranes to wish for peace.

This obelisk is at the epicenter of where the A-bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Pretty powerful.

We took a glass elevator all the way up this building and then went across a giant escalator to get to the top. The view of the city from up there was fantastic. You can see the escalators if you look carefully. They are the two cross pieces shaped like a "V" at the top near the circle.

View from the top. This is the best of many tries, and I still got some glare from the window.

Madeline in front of Osaka Castle.

Emperor and Empress Gallucci.

I thought the bathroom of our hotel in Osaka was so cool. I had Madeline come and stand in the tub so I could get some fun pics.

I took this in the cab on our way to Kansai Airport to see my parents off. The sun was just beginning to set behind Osaka's heavy industries.

-Well, that's all for now. I have some other waaaaaay outdated pics that I still need to post if I can get around to it. Dorothy is coming in 3 days, so you can bet that I'll be posting lots of pictures when she gets here.

Happy New Year!

2006-01-05T14:17:00.000+09:00

The new year has rolled over. Welcome ot the year of the dog! I know I haven't posted in a while. My computer was broken for about 2.5 weeks, and while I'm able to make posts of a general nature from other computers, I can't bring you the wonderful pictures that everyone really wants. I know my writing skills are somewhat lacking... Anyway, I have a few days before Dorothy comes, so I'm going to "Get to it" and try to catch up.

Cheers!
~Mario

Optimus Prime Part IV: Return of Prime

2005-11-22T10:38:00.000+09:00

What do you do when you have a monstrosity of a costume cluttering up your apartment all the time? Why, wear it into town, of course! These are pictures of me in the Prime outfit hanging out in the neighboring town of Imari. First, I went outside the "Best Denki" which is an electronic store chain here in Japan. I stood outside perfectly still and then would bow to customers walking in or out. I got a lot of great reactions. Although some responses were nothing more than a quick nervous glance, others would come up and talk to me. Some even took pictures with me. When the Best Denki workers started closing down the store, they all came out and took pictures with their cell phones. Some mid-20 year old guys in an SUV were very interested and would occasionally honk at me. Every time they did, I would do a short jig. This seemed to make their night. After Best Denki closed, I went into the neighboring "Mr. Donut" and ordered my favorite: Golden Chocolate!. Unfortunately due to the costume restrictions I could neither eat the doughnut, nor sit down and relax. I did greet a few customers though, much to the dismay of the Mr. Donut staff. Then, I went into the 100 yen store which is basically the Japanese equivalent of the dollar store. Did a little window shopping, but didn't get anything. After that, I stood next to a row of vending machines, hoping to catch people coming around the corner off guard. It worked. Some guy was sitting in his car watching the whole thing and really getting a kick out of other peoples reactions. He even called his friend and gave him a play-by-play as I was doing random stuff. The best part was when a Japanese-looking William Shatner came up to me hoping I could calm his crying baby. I only made it worse as the baby was terrified of me. The kid will probably grow up to have some unfounded fear of robots... Enjoy the pics!

Oh, I added the glowing eyes in Photoshop. I would have liked to have done that for the actual costume, but I really have know idea how I would have gotten it to work with the resources I have. Also, I have to give credit to Jill and Kate for taking pictures of the event. Word up! (miss you already, Kate).

Optimus Prime Part III: Teachers in Disguise

2005-11-22T09:53:00.000+09:00

On Halloween day, I wore the Prime outfit to school, all day. I even wandered down to the city hall and paid my water bill. The school nurse here at the school took pictures of me the whole time. Unfortunately, the picture of me shaking hands with the mayor was accidentally deleted. Hope you enjoy the remaining pics, though! Incidentally, I all these shots were at Fukushima Junior High (7th-9th grade equivalent in America). Above is me and my Japanese team teacher. She was a witch, I was a robot, and we had the kids play Halloween games in English.

Clockwise from left to right: The school nurse Ms. Satoda, Ryuichi, the music teacher Mr. Yamaguchi, Prime, the Principle Mr. Nagao, my team teacher for English Ms. Matsunaga, and one of the PE teachers Ms. Yamada.

I think the last one is one of my favorites because its such a crappy picture. Here's this poorly lit photo of some Japanese students and BAM, Optimus Prime is in the background. I'd be really hard to "photoshop."

Optiumus Prime Part II

2005-11-11T14:17:00.000+09:00

So, here are some selected pictures from the Hirado Halloween Extravaganza! (that's what I'm calling it)
Other than one of the legs coming apart after 2 hours and a lot of paint flaking off, I think it stayed in pretty good shape!
Enjoy!

Me with John.

When I walked in, the DJ put on Mr. Roboto by Styxx. I slowly walked to the center, and then started bustin' a move. (Mostly doing the robot). People went nuts, American and Japanese alike.

Prime stops of a photo "Op".

Jill, DJ Ichikawa, and Jill's school supervisor. Prime in the back.

Leah (an ALT from Scotland) and her visiting friend, Jillian. The Scots love Prime...

Taking the helmet off and ordering a beer.

Optimus Prime can turn into a robot, a semi-truck, and a coffee table.

Kent was already very drunk by the time I got there.

Kanpai!

Prime Time.

Drunk Prime.

The helmet makes its way around the club.

More helmet mismatching.

Chibi Prime

What can I say? It got hot in there. Not surprisingly, Jill got cold and put on a cow outfit.

Um... What?

2005-11-11T14:14:00.000+09:00

Once again, it's a small world. I just found an Optimus Prime outfit that went for over $1000 on ebay. The weird part? The seller was from my very own Greensboro, North Carolina. See for yourself.----->Click Here!

Optiumus Prime Part I

2005-11-11T10:59:00.000+09:00

Over the past three years, I had toyed with the idea of making an Optimus Prime costume for Halloween. Unfortunately, I always think about it all to late, have no time, and end up being something else. This year was the same, except despite the lack of time, I still decided to try to make it.

The goal: Finish the costume by Friday October 29th. Since there was a Halloween party in Hirado that night, I had to get it done extra early. For anyone that knows me, this was obviously going to be a challenge. I got a few cardboard boxes from the junior high thanks to the groundskeeper Mrs. Kamogawa. She was more than happy to empty packets of paper in the stock room so I could have the empty boxes. She got really excited when I said, "I was making a robot out of them." Cost of the boxes= ¥0.00!

I didn't really start on the costume until the week of the party. (That Tuesday night, to be precise). I drew up some simple schematics after looking at the surprisingly vast amount of homemade costumes on the internet. One of the main features of most of the costumes online were the size. Many people actually looked out through the chest window area and made a dummy head. Then, they either wore stilts or risers to give them an 8-9 foot height briefly thought about this, but after factoring in maneuverability, the fact that I would be at a party in this thing (probably drinking), and that I normally hit my head on Japanese doorways, I stuck with keeping it my height.

Tuesday night I built the entire chest portion (minus the shoulders). I was actually very pleased with how quickly the costume was coming along. This was good, because I had to go to conference that Friday and wouldn't be able to work on it Thursday night (I was staying at my JTE's house). That left Wednesday night, some of Friday night, and Saturday during the day to work on it.

At that point my estimates were: Wednesday night: Arms and smokestacks. Friday night: Head and start on legs. Saturday during the day: finish legs, and 2-3 hours for painting.

Wednesday night. I fiddled around with the arms for too long, trying to make a joint mechanism for the elbow. I got too frustrated and started working on the head. For the base structure, I used a construction helmet and some safety goggles. I taped the goggles onto the helmet and started building up cardboard around it. Cost of the hardhat=¥1,750 Cost of the goggles ¥700. (about 108 yen to the dollar). This may seem like a lot, but I was originally considering buying a kids toy helmet that already had a very similar structure. The only problem was it was kind of small, and about ¥3,000. I was very happy to find the construction helmet/goggle combo at a lower cost. One of the biggest problems I encountered with the head was the tape. I was using cardboard packaging tape with a waxy back. While this makes it very easy to get the tape off the roll, it prevents the tape from sticking to itself. It was late, and a very long drive to a hardware store, so I had to make due by strategically placing the tape so it would support the cardboard and attach at multiple points of the helmet. I really had no idea what I would do when I needed to paint everything, as I was now fairly sure that the paint wouldn't take to the waxy part. I decided to worry about that later. I finished up that night with most of the front of the helmet done, including that Mohawk looking thing that Prime has on the top of his head. I was running behind schedule...

Thursday night. I took a break. There was a conference I was going to early on Friday morning. It was a ways away, so I had dinner and spent the night at Mrs. Matsunaga's house, as it was on the way. I ate delicious sushi and sashimi, whilst pondering how I was going to get the costume done in time.

Friday night. I got back from conference way later than I thought I would (9:00ish), plus I was totally burnt out from not having a break all day. I worked a little bit more on the arms and finally got them working. I decided to attach the upper arm to the torso portion with a hinge. This allowed me to get the torso on as well as provide maneuverability. I also, I don't have to figure out how to slip on a shoulder unit while I'm in the costume. With the torso on, I have very little reach, and this method allows me to get completely dressed by myself. After slipping on the torso, I can then slip on the forearm boxes with the gloves. Of course, I would have to put my legs on before any of that. I worked a little bit more on the head but got frustrated because everything was coming apart due to the weak tape. I went to bed around 2:00am with very little done.

Saturday. I got up around 11:00am and got right back to work. After a while, I figured that driving out to get some better tape would actually save me time in the long run. On my way out I ran into my neighbor Mr. Shoji. I told him what I was doing, and he offered me some Japanese style duct tape (thank God). I went back inside and finished the head in less than an hour. (There is something to be said for having the right materials). At this point, I figured I should start painting base coats since I would only have about 3 more hours of light. I started with the head. Masking off the goggles and mouthpiece, I first hit it with some spray paint, hoping the duct tape would take well to the paint. It didn't work perfectly, but the sun was able to kind of flash-dry it in place, although it did bead up a bit. While I was waiting for that to dry I started on the forearm bracers. My suspicions were confirmed when I saw that the paint was not taking at all to the packaging tape. Suck... I also had some poster paint but it was water-based, so I knew it wouldn't be any better. I lugged the torso outside and started to paint that while I thought about what to do. Now a lot of ideas were running through my head; things like going back to a hardware store and getting some oil-based paints. But, I realized that I was just making it for my friends and I and that I wasn't going to be entering in any contests. I decided to screw it, and just paint it as best as I could. While everything was drying, I started on the legs... I had played around a bit with them during the week, hoping to make them elaborate with the vents and wheels and everything. Given the time restraints, I decided that having legs at all would be better than cool legs that were half done sitting at home. I made them simple and improvised a little. I KNOW that Prime's legs don't have yellow vents, and I KNOW that they have wheels, etc. If I had any inkling of keeping this costume for a while, I would have made them that way. But, there was a good chance that the entire costume would have gotten destroyed that night, and I really didn't care. (By the way, all these disclaimers are for those real Transformer nerds that have googled "Optiumus Prime" and found this blog).

Well to make a long story short, I finished the costume around 10:00pm, drove out to Hirado over an hour away, and partied till 3:30am. I made about 75 people's night, and created about 300 photo opportunities. I'll let you read "Part II" for more about that night. By the way, there are 4 parts so far, so keep your eyes peeled.

A breakdown of the total cost:

Boxes ¥0
Hard hat ¥1,750
Goggles ¥700
Spray paint (¥600 x5) ¥3,000
Poster paint ¥2,000
Boots ¥800
Rubber Gloves ¥400
Tape ¥500

Total ¥9,150 (117 Yen to the Dollar= $78)

Plus I paid ¥3,000 for "all you can drink" at the club.

Makin' Sashimi

2005-11-02T09:58:00.000+09:00

In America, a Home Economics teacher would never think about having students prepare raw fish in class, let alone eat it afterwards. I don't think the American students would eat it anyway. Not the case in Japan. Last week, a famous hotel chef came to the second year students' Home Ec class and gave a demonstration on various ways to prepare Aji (a Japanese fish that has very dense meat), and Ika (Squid). I was also able to attend and even participate a little bit. I was actually surprised how easy it was for me to chop off a fish's head and skin it, and gut it (I'm talking about mentally, physically it was still very difficult). Back in 6th grade, I almost threw up when I had to dissect a squid. And in 5th grade, I did throw up when the teacher dissected a starfish. But this time, it was no problem (I think this might partially be due to the year in college I spent dissecting cadavers). Below are pictures that Mrs. Kamogawa took with my camera of me "in the action" any pictures that don't have me in it I took. Let me just say that after everyone was done, it was a feast. I never ate so much calamari in one sitting.

The ingredients

The master

The students rear back at the first slice.

Frying up some Squid

I give it a shot.
Cutting off the head.

Getting to the meat

Making it pretty.

Slicing and dicing

Laying it out.

My humble finished product

The masterÂ’s display

The students get to work.

****Edit Note! **** Sashimi was spelled incorrectly for the longest time in the title. My mom caught it (of course), and so now I've fixed it. I hate that, of all people, I'm the one spreading incorrect info about Japan.

Living the Sci Fi Dream

2005-10-27T09:24:00.000+09:00

Flash back to 1989: Back to the Future Part II. Being only 9, I was amazed at the flying cars that run on garbage, hoverboards, hologram "Jaws", and fully automated gasoline stands. Although the year 2015 seemed like a long way off, I couldn't fathom any of these technologies coming to be.

It seems as though we are stepping into the future.

Instead of Mr. Fusion to run our cars, we will soon see an influx of Hydrogen Fuel Cell cars. Unlike electric hybrids, these cars will have full-out racing performance potential. Mazda has recently showcased their RX-8 Hydrogen edition at the Tokyo Motor Show. When running on hydrogen, these cars will give off little more than water vapor. Unfortunately, the dirty little secret of hydrogen is where the hydrogen comes from. Oil companies are clamoring to make the switch; burning fossil fuels to make hydrogen, instead of just putting it right in your car. Many of those in the Blogosphere (that's right, I said it), believe that this switch could prove fruitless, unless we are using renewable resources to make the Hydrogen. Things like solar and wind power are best bets. Right now it looks like 90% of Hydrogen will be made through the burning of fossil fuels, 10% through nuclear power and 0% through renewable resources. I guess those oil tycoons just aren't ready to throw in the towel.

Instead of flying cars, we will have cars that drive themselves. Stanford Racing Team's "Stanley" won the DARPA Challenge recently, collecting $2 million in prize money. The challenge, issued by the US military, was to have a car navigate a 190 mile stretch in the Mojave Desert. The catch was that the car had to be unmanned, nor driven remotely. In order to collect the prize, teams had to finish the course in under 10 hours. The fastest car, of course is the winner. This years race was quite an improvement on 2004's. Last year most cars only got 10-15 miles, and some as little as 5. The practical applications for this kind of technology are quite vast. The military can use these kind of dummy cars to follow other soldiers, or use them on their own for reconnaissance work. Cars can be equipped with sensors that let the driver know if they are erratically changing lanes, or even correct their steering to prevent accidents. I don't know if we'll ever get to the point of starting the car and taking a nap while the car drives (the cars in the tournament went an average of 20 mph), but we may soon see this in even the most mundane of cars. Remember, for a long time seatbelts and windsheild wipers weren't manditory on cars.

You can read more about the race and see pictures here: http://news.com.com/2300-11394_3-5892103-2.html

I don't know if we'll see a hoverboard any time soon, but we may be seeing holograms. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prize to Americans Roy Glauber and John Hall, and to Germany's Theodor Haensch, for studying light and harnessing lasers to create a "measuring stick" to gauge frequencies with extreme precision. Basically what this means is we can now measure frequencies within an accuracy of 15 digits. This also means extreme control over light and light frequencies. Can anyone say hologram TV? Even one of the prize winning scientists think its possible. I wouldn't throw out that High Def TV yet, though. This technology is far in the future.

On a bit more of a distopian note, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone company has developed a headset that is a mild form of mind control. It was developed to make video games more "realistic", and involves an electrical current "messing with the delicate nerves inside the ear that help maintain balance." It is said to have a similar feeling to being drunk, or melting into unconsciousness when under anesthesia, except its more definitive and really feels like someone is reaching out to your brain to control you. Scary! "Nippon Telegraph & Telephone" is the top telephone company in (you guessed it) Japan.

Finally, have you heard what NASA is up to? They're having an open contest to see who can build a self powered robot that can climb an elevator of galactic proportions. NASA is toying with the idea of making a "Space Elevator" in which a ribbon would extend from the ground, and reach up to space. Made from carbon-chain nanotubes, the 8" ribbon would be stronger than steel, allowing robots to ascend to the space station carrying supplies... Are you kidding me? Not that I don't want it to happen, but this idea not only seems quite "out there" but very impractical. It reminds me of reading "Battle Angle Alita" growing up. In this fictional future world, there was a fabled "floating city" that was suspended above the earth by a large shaft cutting through the atmosphere and counterbalance in orbit. Sound confusing? Well, its almost the same as what NASA is trying to do.

I guess that's it. I just wanted to talk a little bit about some of these things. It seems like a lot more breakthroughs are happening these days.

Ton Ten Ton

2005-10-26T15:33:00.000+09:00

There is a famous festival in Imari every year called Ton-Ten-Ton. On the surface, it looks like any other festival in Japan: Lots of street vendors selling food and tickets to games of chance, tons of tough looking High Schoolers with shaved eyebrows, and High School girls wearing their school uniforms even though its the weekend (with their skirts hiked up, I might add).

So, yes, on the surface, it may seem like an everyday run-of-the-mill festival. But look a little closer and you will see something quite different. Ton-Ten-Ton's roots are based around the feudal struggle between the commoners and nobility. It culminates in the smashing of two shrines together (each one representing their class), and seeing which one falls into the river. The smashing begins with a lot of trash talking between the two sides. Most of what they were saying was completely unintelligible to me because everyone was so drunk. Basically, some guy would get on top of one of the shrines, yell some stuff, and then a bunch of guys would go jump in the freezing river for fun. After their friends drag them out, they lift up the shrines and run into each other; trying to flip the other's into the river. This actually goes on for many hours, since the shrines do not flip into the river right away. If the peasants shrine gets flipped in, then the nobility will have a good harvest. If its the other way around, the peasants will catch lots of fish. The name Ton-Ten-Ton is derived from the sound that the drummer makes as the shrine align each other to commence flipping. Very dramatic.

It made me cold to see those guys jump in the river, but I gotta admit, it was fun as hell watch.

Enjoy the pics! (Also, I apologize in advance for the crappyness of the pictures. Most of them are stills from my digicams video function.

The calm before the storm.

Parading around. This part was very much like a WWF match.

Some trash talking in action

They start to crash together.

A view from the bridge.

Starting to tip in.

Dragging the shrines out.

Ikitsuki

2005-10-26T14:57:00.000+09:00

Last Saturday, Jill CJ and I all went to the island that CJ lives on for a bit of a tour. Earlier that day, CJ and I had checked out an abandoned factory and it ended up being perfect weather for sight seeing.

Ikitsuki's name is composed of two kanji: Iki or 生 which means life , and tsuki or 月 which means moon. Put them together and Ikitsuki's name figuratively means "Breath of the Moon". I think that is one of the coolest meanings for the name of a place. Incidentally, Fukushima means: Fuku or 福, and Shima 島 or -Hence "Good Luck Island".

Because Ikitsuki is pretty much on the other side of the world, we didn't actually get into Ikitsuki until about 2:30 or so. I can't imagine how CJ managed to get out to Imari so early in the morning. When we got there, we immediately headed out for the west shore. Now, growing up in NC, I was used to fairly big waves. When I got to Japan, I was actually quite surprised how calm the water was. I guess this is mostly because there are a lot of barriers (man-made and natural) which keep things pretty calm. Well this day on Ikitsuki was like being back home. The west side is right on the ocean, so the waves were very big, (good enough for surfing I'd reckon). It seems like every island in Japan is slightly different. Even ones in the same prefecture like Fukushima and Ikitsuki. Whereas Fukushima is very forested and mountainous, Ikitsuki seems to have a lot more open fields and shrubbery. It is also known for its cliffs which run along the western shore. Sadly, these cliffs become a very attractive place for people to come from all over Japan to commit suicide.

Unfortunately we only got about 3 hours of exploring in before the sun went down. Once it did, we headed over to Allee's in Himosahi for "martinis and gangster films". Neither of these things really happened, though. The girls decided to organize the party with the theme, but after actually trying a martini and watching the first 20 minutes of Scarface, they turned things over to more delicious and lighter material (burgers and Aqua Teen Hunger Force).

Enjoy the pics!

My Friend John

2005-10-26T14:38:00.000+09:00

This is kind of a side note, but I have a very hilarious friend here in Japan named John. I hope you can appreciate these pictures.

I wanted to make sure that I gave Jill credit for some of these (since she always gets on me about it), so Jill took both of the ones with John in the wheelchair.

Imari Factory

2005-10-26T14:00:00.000+09:00

My, its been a while.

Of course, this is due an excess of pictures and info that I need to post.

This past weekend I did quite a bit. It all started out with CJ (an ALT who lives on Ikitsuki) calling me up at 4:30am on a Saturday morning. We had decided that we would go check out an abandoned factory on the Imari-Matsuura border. We met up a little after 5:00 at the Family Mart, ate some breakfast, and heading out of the building.

I won't lie. We decided to go early so we would have the cover of darkness. We weren't sure if it was illegal to be poking around, but we didn't want to take any chances. Once on the grounds, the sun would come up, and we would be able to investigate our surroundings more thoroughly.

After a quick slip under some haphazard barbed wire, we headed into the main warehouse area. The building was old and had been abandoned for some time, because most of the ceiling was gone and you could see up to the second floor. We were comforted by the fact that it was hard ground beneath out feet and not some creaky floor. As big as the place looked from the outside, there was only a very small portion that was walkable. The rest was completely overgrown with trees and vines. After wandering around the inside and the perimeter a bit,the sun began to rise, and I began to take pictures. I brought a small backpacking tripod and a shutter release cable, knowing that most shots would be low light, and require as such.

After closer inspection of the place, we decided that the building probably had frequent visitors due to the worn pathways through the foliage. We also found a much easier way to get in which involved us simply walking through an opening in the fence. I'm guessing that the building was built sometime in the 1930's (if Japanese industrial architecture is anything like American architecture). I have no idea when it was deserted, though. By the amount of growth in the place I would have to say at least 20 years, although I feel like I'm pretty bad at that kind of guesswork.

Below are the fruits of my labor. We scooted out around 8:30am, and took a drive around the countryside at early morning (which was beautiful) and then headed over to Jill's house which was nearby. (We planned on taking a nap because we were all going to CJ's island that night, but we just ended up watching "The Thomas Crowne Affair" and eating chocolate chip pancakes).

Look Who's Talking Also

2005-10-13T00:38:00.000+09:00

Last Friday I was extremely tired. I got home from work at 5:00pm and decided to take a nap. When I woke up it was 7:00. I couldn't figure out why it was still light out. I checked the clock again... It was 7:00am. During that time, I had a roller-coaster of dreams, but I could only remember one vividly.

This dream was an extended preview for the next sequel in the "Look Who's Talking" franchise. This one was called "Look Who's Talking Also." It starred Ed O'Neill (Al Bundy from Married With Children) and Mary-Kate Olsen. This time they tried to up the ante by digitally placing the actors' heads on babies' bodies. Watching it was like watching a "Mini-me" version of Ed and Mary-Kate run around getting in mediocre exploits. The tag line for the film was "The movie we never should have made!" and was directed by the director of "Son of the Mask." Incidentally, "Son of the Mask" got something like 2.8 stars out of 10 on IMDB.

Most of the dream was a drawn-out preview of the movie showing the weird adult-head babies doing something cute and then a *ding* sounding after they smile (a la "Because of Winn-Dixie"). Other parts were interviews with the director talking about the movie and really playing up how terrible it was. He seemed to have no qualms about telling everyone not to come see it.

I have to admit, if someone honestly said that the current movie they were in sucked-ass and isn't worth seeing, I actually might go check it out. (I mean, I saw "Torque" in the theater).

Well, over the past couple of days, this dream kept getting into my head, and so I thought that I would be proactive and do something about it. I made a poster for the movie. I've included the posters for the first three legitimate "Look Who's Talking" movies to give you an idea of the flavor. My poster is completely hand drawn (not that I really wanted to do it that way, but all the pics on the internet weren't high enough resolution). Hope you enjoy it. As always, you can click on the picture to get a bigger version. Cheers!

Gunkanjima　　軍艦島

2005-10-11T23:24:00.000+09:00

Could this be the next BIG adventure for the "Hokusho Pirates"?

(Hokusho Pirates is a tentative name...what do you think?)

Hashima, aka Gunkanjima, was once the site of Japan's most densely populated city. Built on top of what used to be a small reef, the island was used to get to underwater coal mining areas from after WWII-1974. In 1974, Japan switched from coal to cleaner burning natural gas. People got everything they could pack on their backs, and took off. The island has been deserted for over 30 years now...

What we are talking about here is a veritable motherload of adventure. A ghost island. I mean this is any pirates dream. Where is it located you may ask? Off the coast of the Nagasaki Peninsula, right in my back yard...

See its exact location here: http://www14.big.or.jp/~kawamura/m-city/english_about_g.html

This illicit island has apparently been the source of legend in Japan, a salaryman's secret daydream fantasy. Because its so close, I don't think I'd ever forgive myself if I didn't try to get out there. People that have been out there report back that it is "like a time-capsule preserving a plethora of appliances, personal items, and architecture from the 60's and 70's." There was everything anyone needed or wanted on the island: movie theater, hospital, barbershop, apartments for everyone, schools, etc. Take all these things plus 5,000 people, pack them tightly around coal mining equipment in a space little more than five football fields long, and two football fields wide, and you've got Gunkanjima. The actual name of the island is Hashima, but it got its nickname "Gunkanjima" because its silhouette looks like a great battleship on the seas. In fact, during WWII, American forces actually fired on the island, thinking it was indeed a battleship blocking their path.

I'm not sure on the specifics, and most people seem to be very secretive about how to get out there, but I am going to do my best to make a trip. You, the viewer, will of course be showered with photographs.

For more information on Gunkanjima, follow the links below. I realize I ripped off these pictures from peoples web sites, and I am truly sorry. I did it just to prove my point about how much it looks like this island rocks. Once I have my own pictures, of course, this will be of no consequence.

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/saiga/yuji/index.html
http://www.uwosh.edu/home_pages/faculty_staff/earns/hashima.html
http://www.nagayo-net.com/~gunkanjima/
http://unya.raindrop.jp/gunkanzima/welcome.html
http://www14.big.or.jp/~kawamura/m-city/english_photo_gallery.html
http://home.f01.itscom.net/spiral/hashima/hashima001.html

Some of these sites are in Japanese. Some of you may not know Japanese, or your computer might not be able to read Japanese characters. For this I suggest google translator:

http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en

If that doesn't work, clicking wildly is always a best bet.

Murphy Brown

2005-10-11T22:35:00.000+09:00

Anyone born before or in 1990 will probably remember the TV show Murphy Brown. It ran from 1988-1998, making it a fairly venerable sitcom for my generation. I happened to be watching an old tape of some episodes that where (graciously?) left by a previous JET participant that used to live in my apartment. So far from the collection they left behind, I've gathered that they like: The Simpsons (good choice), Danny DeVito, Aikido (many home-made Aikido tapes), Kevin Klein, and Montana (the state, not the football player). Of course, Murphy Brown goes without saying.

Now, at this point, I bet you wonder where I'm going with all this. "Yes," you may say, "Murphy Brown was a good/okay show, but so what?" Well lets just get right down to brass tacks.

I was watching the season premier from 1996, and I got to wondering, "What were all those actors doing now?" The show ended in '98, so I thought that I'd peep in on IMDB.com (Internet Movie Database) and see what our fave cast was doing.

First off, Joe Regalbuto (the guy who played Frank) is looking pretty busted...

Secondly, if you haven't seen it already and don't know, Candace Bergen played a fairly large role in the 2000 "smash hit" Miss Congeniality (actually a "pretty O.K." movie). More recently she's been in Sweet Home Alabama and A View From the Top.

But lastly, I wanted to talk a little bit about Faith Ford, the woman who played Corky Sherwood. I was surprised to find out that she was in The Pacifier recently (no I haven't seen it). I saw a few pics of her on set, but I thought there might be some better ones elsewhere, so I "googled" her... Look, I don't know what kind of people have the time, or even the desire to put together these kinds of websites, but they exist.

http://www.hard-to-find-actresses.com/misc4.html

I felt like an absolute stalker glancing through the site. Someone sat down and took still frames of her on Murphy Brown and various other miscellaneous movies and TV shows and set up a gallery of her. That by itself is not too suprising, but it was the captions that got to me. Comments like "showing some leg", and "I like her in glasses". I slowly started to realize that whomever had put together the page was writing a "stalker-esque" type inner monologue. There are probably about 30 pictures of her in a night-gown from an episode of Murphy Brown. Lots of comments on these like "looking sexy on the bed", "a clear shot of her panties", and "a collage of that wonderful scene." I was pretty floored. Not so much that someone would make those comments, but to make them over practically nothing. You can see the link here:

http://www.hard-to-find-actresses.com/murphy.html

I really don't get it. I mean, sure, Faith Ford was (and is) an attractive woman, but she never even hinted to a bit of sexuality on Murphy Brown. This last one is my absolute favorite. It's from some old movie she did when she was younger. This caption goes with the picture below it:

"If you look closely, you can make out her breast and a nipple in silhouette as she bends over."

WHO SITS AROUND AND PUTS THIS STUFF ON THE WEB!?!?!?!
Alright, I've said my peace...

Mukade Strikes!

2005-10-06T00:16:00.000+09:00

I can deal with most bugs. Sure they're not pleasant, but I can deal with roaches, crickets, and beetles. I've even grown fairly tolerant of spiders recently (due to the frequency of their visiting my home). I still stand firm in the fact that my number one most feared creatures are scorpions, but I think I just found a close second. In Japan their name is "Mukade", and they are centipedes. As I write this, I have just now finished dealing with one of these horrifying creatures. You may ask where I found her? Well, only in the place where one is most vulnerable, the shower.

Now, since I've moved in, the light in my shower hasn't really worked. You can turn it on, but its a fluorescent bulb on the fritz and flickers. So, unless I feel like having "dance party Japan" when I take a shower, I usually leave it off. Now, there is a little light that comes through my shower door from the next room and usually this is enough for me to find soap, shampoo, etc. It is not, however sufficient for the systematic hunting and killing of centipedes. I got in the shower, just like normal, and out of the corner of my eye saw what looked to be a very fast slithering shadow. I thought perhaps my eyes were playing tricks on me, or I was merely casting a shadow on myself inadvertently. But, sure enough, I saw it move again. I immediately hopped out of the shower and went and got my headlamp flashlight. There, on the floor of my shower was about a 5" long centipede. I think it was very confused why it was all wet in there all of a sudden. I probably went through 4 or 5 objects in my house before I settled on the end of a mop handle to try to kill it. For a brief minute, I actually considered taking it captive and pitting it against the hunter spider I've captured (more on this at another time). But, I then came to my senses knowing that I could never fall asleep if I knew it was alive somewhere albeit under some kind of Tupperware container.

So I killed the sucker. Well, I'm assuming its dead. Its head was still wiggling back and forth when I flushed her. The reason I know it was a her is because when I started stabbing at it with the mop handle, eggs come oozing out of it. I know there's really no way to determine it, but it was probably the grossest thing ever. As far as dangerosity goes, they are poisonous. You won't die, but they have a nasty bite. Plus there's the Japanese rumor that they can kill babies.

But it's dead now, and first thing tomorrow I'm going to get a light for the shower. I've included a picture for everyone's vicarious viewing pleasures. I didn't have the presence of mind, nor the patience to take a picture myself, so what I've included is a stock photo approximating its appearance. Hope you enjoy it. I'm off to bed now!

Pirates! Part I

2005-09-27T17:07:00.000+09:00

This is the follow up to the last entry. Yes, I own an inflatable canoe. Yes it is sturdy. Yes, I bought lifevests. And yes, mom, Pirates do travel in canoes... They do whatever they feel like.

All this fuss about Pirates has probably been due to the recent celebration of "Talk like a Pirate Day", which was Sept 19th. I was off of school that day, due to it coincidentally being "Respect for the Elderly Day" in Japan. Jill, John and I all went out in the canoe (which we named "S.S. Boat") and pirated out along the islands in the bay area between Fukushima and the mainland. I don't know if Pirates are allowed to say that things are pretty (other than wenches), but I'll say it: "It was gorgeous!" Some islands had caves, and others had small bay areas that looked like an island from the Goonies, or any other Pirate type movie.

I think another contribution to my thirst for Pirating (and playing the accordion), is the intense reading of "The Pirates! In Adventures with Scientists." Quite an hilarious book, to say the least. It takes place in the mid 1800's and speculates what would have happened if Pirates had boarded "The Beagle" in search for booty and unexpectedly finding Charles Darwin himself. Of course Darwin's theories in the book are quite different from real life. One of his theories include his belief that if you dress up a chimpanzee and teach him how to be a gentleman, then he can become an active member of society. In fact, he believed that this "Man-Panzee" (as it were) would be indistinguishable from regular humans (except for he fact that he has to talk with flash cards). I loved this book, and thought it was hysterical. I found it funny but, the bad science in this book would make my mother cringe in disgust (for the record, she hates the Pokemon movies, too).

So, all these doings of things in a piratical nature led me to the creation of this map. I hope you enjoy it. It is a hand drawn map of Fukushima; colored in Photoshop. In the upper right quadrant, you can see our route to the islands we went to. You can click on the picture for a larger size.

Canoe

2005-09-21T11:47:00.000+09:00

I bought an inflatable canoe. I am a pirate. More to come in a few days.

Melon Ice

2005-09-14T16:03:00.000+09:00

Melon is a favorite flavor in Japan. They have melon ice cream, melon soda, and melon bread. This was one kids journal from summer vacation. I think it pretty much explains itself.

Also, you can click on the image for a larger size.

Peacocks, Waterfalls, and Donkeys....

2005-09-13T16:13:00.000+09:00

I went to a Peacock Park this weekend. Now, when I say Peacock “Park” one might automatically assume that there is a park that exists where peacocks roam around and you can feed them or whatever. This peacocks park is located in Kawatana and is incidentally what the town is known for, I figure, its got to be good, right? Well, If you want to see about 200 scraggly foul looking a few days from death, I would highly recommend going to this place. No free roaming peacocks, just one giant pavilion-type cage where they all just kind of muddled around. What do you get when you put this many peacocks together in one place? One awful smell, that’s what. I only saw about two birds that actually had tail feathers. One interesting part was that there were also a few albino peacocks in a separate cage. Albino peacocks remind you why peacocks can be beautiful: Their feathers. Without colorful feathers a peacock looks more like a glorified turkey than anything else.

Not as cool as you would think.

On deaths door...

One ugly bird!

By happenstance, Kawatana is also near Higashisonogi, which has many beautiful waterfalls. Some friends and I went on Saturday and swam in the cold, cold mountain river. There was a rope that you can swing out on, but my fear of heights came through and left me merely taking pictures of others swinging. The waterfalls were very beautiful and the area was fairly deserted. Afterwards, whilst looking wet and bedraggled, we went to Bikkuridonki (a restaurant) for coffee, and dessert. Bikkuridonki literally translates into “Donkey Surprise.” I think they should start franchises in the States: Its delicious, cheap, and has an irresistible name. Americans would love it!

Beautiful!

Jill swinging into the pool. Hmm... looks dangerous.

Donkey Suprise! Jill on the left, Kate on the right. Incidentally, the menu folds out like a Catholic Confessional.

Sky Perfect TV

2005-09-13T15:51:00.000+09:00

Japan does weird things to your TV watching habits. Pretty much anything that is in English is fair game. This includes infomercials, bad movies, movies you saw last night, and sports. Now if you’re reading this and you know me, you will be surprised to know that I watched an hour and a half of soccer, yesterday I watched women’s college volleyball, and have been known, on occasion, to frequent the golf channel. Walter’s been inadvertently paying for my satellite TV for the past two months, and just realized it. This means at the end of the month, I will be faced with a choice: Either start paying for shows I wouldn’t normally watch, or cancel satellite TV all together and actually do something worthwhile with my time. It's a toss-up, really. I’ve fallen into the dangerous trap of reacquainting myself with an old friend: Television. Any thoughts on what I should do?

Elections

2005-09-12T16:30:00.000+09:00

Well, Monday finds us with relatively the same Japanese government. Yesterday was election day for the Japanese parliament. I don’t pretend to understand the processes of Japanese government, but suffice to say, its pretty similar to what they had 4 years ago. Japan’s Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi (who looked a lot like Richard Gear 4 years ago) decided to hold a surprise election and dissolve parliament after facing many suppositions that he wasn’t living up to his promises of change. Well, that apparently set him off. He fired the entire parliament and held elections. Surprisingly, this is exactly what the public wanted and rallied giving a landslide victory to Koizumi giving him 296 of the 480 seats in the lower house of parliament. That roughly works out to a 61% approval rating for him and the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party).

After asking around a little bit, I found out that people were a bit disappointed with the outcome. Koizumi apparently has a mind geared towards war and the changing of the constitution that was set up after WWII. Also, now that his approval is reaffirmed he will begin the privatization of the postal system. There are some pros and cons to this from what I have heard. One pro is that it will reduce the amount of government in people’s lives (a goal that Koizumi is constantly striving for). The cons, however, are many. Privatization of the postal system means privatization of the bank accounts linked to the postal system (my account is through the post office). I would also cancel the government-backed insurance of one’s account. Up until now, if someone were to steal money from the Post Office, the clients money would be reimbursed. After privatization, this would not be the case. In fact, many lost their entire life savings in the 90’s when Japans economic bubble burst and private banks started going under. Another con would be the problem of “unprofitable” rural routes. If you are trying to make money at a business, why would you even set up mail boxes, office, etc. at anyplace where you would get a low traffic volume?

Things have been fairly good in Japan for the last 4 years, so we'll see if things end up ok. Perhaps that's naïve of me, but I really don’t have a choice. After all I can’t vote like in the States.

Bush on the left, Koizumi on the right. This can't be good...

The Schools...

2005-09-09T11:54:00.000+09:00

So about my students and the school:

I really like Fukushima Middle School. But, honestly, I haven’t really taught there yet. Last Friday was the first day of class for me, but all grades were taking tests. Pretty much the only thing I did was give the oral portion of the tests. The students were nice and very well behaved, but I don’t really have a feeling for how the classes are going to go yet. This week was a bust, because half the students were on field trips, and half were doing some kind of “life learning”. This is where each student spends two days at various shops and businesses around the island and then has to write a report their experiences. I didn’t teach those days, but I was able to go around to all the businesses and see all the kids at work. Some of the highlights included two of the kids using a giant fire hose, and a middle school girl selling a bottle of whiskey to a customer. I think their alcohol laws are much more lax here… I was riding around with Shoji-sensei the PE teacher, who also happens to be my neighbor. As an extra bonus we got to drive around in his Skyline GT R (picture below), and even let me drive it to a couple places! It was my first time driving stick in Japan (the shifter is on the left) so it got a little hairy at times, but over all a very fun ride. (I mean, this thing has got 400 horsepower and can go 0-60 in 5.2 seconds, how could it not be fun!)

Here's a couple of pictures of Mr. Shoji and the students working with the firefighters for the day. Mr Shoji is the one flexing his muscles.

Once I’m on a regular schedule, I will be going to Fukushima elementary school on Tuesdays and Yogen elementary school on Thursdays. This week, however, I went to Fukushima Elementary for my welcoming ceremony. I told them a little about myself in both English and Japanese then played violin for them. It was hard to think of anything good to play that would be short and sweet, but I eventually settled on the National Anthem (America’s, not Japan’s). afterwards, I got to teach my first class! They were fifth graders, and they were all very genki (full of life). If all teaching it going to go as well as this, then I’m in for one great year!

Next week I’ll go to Yogen Elementary for my welcoming ceremony there, and play the violin as well (same song). I’ll post something about that after it happens.

Magic Eye

2005-09-09T11:53:00.000+09:00

Ever since 6th grade, I haven’t been able to see those stupid magic-eye things. But I’ve been sitting around the office looking at these magic-eye fans and I finally got it! I can now proudly say that I can see a teddy bear, two penguins, and a turtle! (As unrewarding as this may seem), I am extremely excited! Once I could see it, I (of course) wanted to know how it works and if I can make my own. “Magic Eye” the company does not sell software that you can make your own creations, but I did find a German program that will run on windows. I’m actually much more worried about the program being in German than anything else. Whilst doing my research, I also found out the reason that I probably couldn’t see them for so long. According to magiceye.com, “People with impaired depth perception or people who have one eye which is extremely dominant (as in amblyopia) will have more difficulty seeing the image.” I’m going to go ahead and write this one off on my left eye dominance (which I’m now beginning to think is much more dominant than any normal person’s). Anyway, we’ll see if I can make any magic eye pictures myself. If I can, and you’re able to see them on computer screens, I’ll post them.

My Car (in America)

2005-09-09T11:45:00.000+09:00

Just thought I'd post these for comparison. This is was my car back home: a 1988 Toyota Corolla.

My Car

2005-09-09T11:08:00.000+09:00

I’ve made many friends here, both Japanese and American. Now that I’m driving around, I’m able to see them all much more frequently, as I am not dependent on the ferry, or other friends to drive me. Posted at the bottom is a picture of my car. It's a Toyota Mark II, which is quite a step up from the Toyota Corolla I had back in the States. (Sorry mom, I know it was free, and you know I loved that car!) I think I have resigned myself to the fact that I’ll always have a car with a scrape on the back-side. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, I was not responsible for the damage to the Mark II. That was all Walter’s doing.

I've Survived!

2005-09-09T11:07:00.000+09:00

Well, now that I’ve been here over a month, I figured it would be about time to write a little bit about Japan. I hope this can entertain some people (especially fiancés at work with nothing to do).

So far I’ve survived sweltering heat, massive spiders, and a very large typhoon. For those concerned, the typhoon was pretty much a bust. Strong winds, and constant rain only led to a complete dissemination of the storm over Kyushu. I felt a little over paranoid for driving into town to stock up on canned goods and filling all the water bottles I could find with filtered water. But, in light of Katrina, one can never be too careful.

Pictures are here!

2005-08-17T10:18:00.000+09:00

I posted some pictures on Flickr with the intention of putting them up here. But I've decided that I'll never catch up with amount I already have. So this is what I'm going to do: I'm going to start putting posts up here on September 1st, because that is the day I start teaching. I will put the occasional picture up to illustrate my point, but if you want to see all the pictures, check out my flickr account. The address is:

http://flickr.com/photos/origamikid/sets/19834/

~or~

http://flickr.com/photos/origamikid/

Go to the second one if you want to see all pictures; not just Japan related ones. Or you could just click on the link ot the right-------------->

Send me an email if you'd like:

origamikid@gmail.com

The Best,
Mario

I've started a Japan Blog

2005-08-10T12:23:00.000+09:00

Well, instead of constantly emailing friends and family pictures from Japan, I thought I'd post them instead. Stay tuned for updates!