Hey, I'm . . . somebody.

Goodbye Kittens

2009-03-25T15:56:00.003+09:00

It was so hard to give away the last two kittens. Kittens? Oh yeah, my cat had 6 kittens, and I wrote a post about it, but never finished it so it never got posted. I'll have to throw some pictures up here so you can see their absolute cuteness for yourself.

These last two were the only girls of the litter and I didn't want to give them away but had no choice. I live in a no-pets-allowed apartment, and my neighbors have been so great. I'm pretty sure they knew about the cats all along and never told anyone, but next month I'm getting a whole new set of neighbors and can't risk being kicked out of my apartment if one of them squeals on me.

So I put an ad in the paper on Saturday, including the address of the website with more details about them . I secretly hoped that no one would call so I would just have to keep them. Unfortunately several people called that very same day, and people are still calling so I added the info of the vet I go to on the website, because they have some cats looking for new homes. Both of my babies found new homes within 24 hours. Today I delivered them to their new owners.

I'm so worried for them. They cried the whole way to the meeting place, and Ruby (the black one) in particular is so afraid of everything that I hope moving to a new environment isn't too traumatic for her.

Both families seem so nice and I'm sure the kittens will like their new homes once they get used to their new surroundings. After living with them for 6 months and completely falling in love with them, I can't help but wish they were still mine. When the new owners came to get their new kittens and had gone, I sat in the car and cried for a half hour before driving home.

My birthday

2008-09-30T01:23:00.001+09:00

It was my birthday last month which wasn't a very big deal. Usually everyone's busy entertaining family because my birthday happens to fall during the Obon holidays, which is when the souls of your dead ancestors cross over into this world to be with you. Most people spend the whole time at home, but Hanae and Yoko fulfilled their family obligations on the first day and had the whole rest of the vacation free.

The original plan was to go camping, but it was so rainy the whole time that we ended up staying at my place where we watched 12 hours of "So You Think You Can Dance." What a fantastic show. Thank you so much Speck for sending those tapes. We LOVED them. Not only were the dances great, we got totally into certain contestants and were crushed when Dimitri got cut. And I couldn't believe how professional they looked week after week from only practicing for 2-3 days. I wonder if they happen to have a compilation of the season's dances on a single DVD.

After being trapped indoors for a couple days we felt the need to do something outside. The only place we could think of that would be fun in rainy weather was the aquarium, which is usually $20 a person but half-price during the week of someone's birthday!

I hadn't been there since it opened and was a little disappointed to find some things gone. I was looking forward to seeing the Clione again and the dozen sea otters have somehow dwindled down to only one. Did they die? Those were actually my two favorite things about Umitamago. I found a picture of Clione in case you've never seen them before. They flap their wings back and forth, hovering vertically like sea angels.There were a few new things that were nice, like the mother and baby sloth in the birdhouse. And like the walrus that swam up to the glass and sucked himself while visitors gasped.I also liked the new snake-like fish that bobbed up and down from their holes in the sand. When something scared them they pulled back into their holes at lightening speed, then slowly peeped out again after a while. Hanae spent her time pounding on the glass to make them zoom into their holes, and I'm sure we would have been booted out of the place if anyone had seen her thumping her fist against the glass. She continued to do this for roughly ten minutes.

Then we went to see the poisonous frogs, and she did the same thing except the frog cases were made of a much weaker plastic. There was an enormous booming sound throughout the hall when her fist hit the case and the whole thing shuddered. I'm so relieved the case didn't shatter. She stopped pounding things after that.In the area with the pool of sea cucumbers and starfish, Hanae was the only one of us brave enough to reach in and pick one up. Apparently they're slippery and soft when you squeeze them.I never realized how beautiful pelicans were. At least I think these are pelicans.The clownfish are always a hit. Everyone stands around the tank calling them "Nemo" as if that's what they're really called. Retards.I love how the lights in the jellyfish tank change and make them glow.One thing I'm pretty sure you won't hear if you visit an aquarium back in the States is a bunch of people admiring the fish while shouting, "Oh! Delicious! I wanna eat that one!" It kind of grossed me out. I was having a nice enough time watching the beautiful fish glide through the water and skillfully avoid one another while swimming in such a small space, only to have my thoughts interrupted by someone behind me talking about which restaurants cook them up best. Cultural differences, I guess.

We stayed until closing time and went back to the big tank after everyone had left. It was nice having the whole place to ourselves and being able to enjoy the silence. It felt like we were underwater with the enormous manta rays and long-nosed sharks. And since we had the enormous room to ourselves, we pretended that we were on "So You Think You Can Dance" and leaped around, twirling in circles. There were even cushioned chairs that were great for jumping off of and using as dancing props.

I don't know what this creature is called. I'm pretty sure it's one of a kind.It was a really nice, relaxing 4-day birthday. We also drove over the mountain behind Beppu to Yufuin, but that's a story for another day.

Blackberries

2008-09-29T15:44:00.000+09:00

Earlier I'd mentioned that the blackberry twig I planted last year bore fruit, but I never posted any photos. Don't they just look delicious? Every couple weeks I pick all the ripe ones and I've discovered a few things:

1) If you have to pull on the blackberry to pick it, it's gonna be sour. The ones that fall off when you touch them are really sweet.

2) Ants know which ones are sweet and usually get to them first, so you hardly ever get to eat the really sweet ones.

3) If you invite your friend named Yoko to come and visit, you will open the door to find her picking and eating all your blackberries.

Now you know about me and my blackberries. That is all.

Louis Vuitton wallet

2008-09-22T00:30:00.013+09:00

Japan is totally materialistic. I was shocked when a friend told me his Louis Vuitton sandals cost $700 and his bag was a couple thousand bucks. How could anyone spend so much on an accessory? Simply ridiculous! Then I started looking around and noticed that pretty much everyone has brand name bags, watches, clothes, jewelry and shoes. Even high school students.

In my mind, quality is more important than the name. I used to hate labels. I even blacked out the white logo of my North Face jacket so it would be less visible and only bought stuff if there weren't any visible brand markings. I hated being associated with the image that came with a brand.

Somewhere along the line that changed. Maybe because brand name labels are so prevalent in Japan that having a Gucci belt or Ferragamo keychain isn't anything special. Everyone has something brand name. I guess if everyone has it then there isn't much of an image associated with the name (or is the image normalcy?). So when a friend gave me his Louis Vuitton and Gucci hand-me-downs, I started using them without a second thought. One of the things he gave me was his old Louis Vuitton wallet (photo from website).I loved it. It's hard to find men's wallets that hold coins. It was sturdy, a nice size, held a lot of cards and retained its shape well. But after a couple years he wanted it back because it was in a lot better shape than the wallet he was using, so we traded. I didn't like the "new" one as much because the part that holds coins is on the outside of the wallet, and I had to open and close the button several times if I'm using/receiving bills and coins at the same time. Even though the "new" one had cost more (from the Louis Vuitton black Vernis line), it was just less convenient than the first one.Then I found out that last month Louis Vuitton presented a new line called "Damier Graphite" that uses a black checkerboard pattern instead of the traditional brown one. So sleek! It looks so much better than the brown, and I instantly decided to get the Damier Graphite version of the wallet that I liked so much. Never having bought anything from the Louis Vuitton store before, I was surprised to see that the wallet came in a little drawer-type box and was carefully wrapped in its own pouch. The receipt even came in a little envelope with a formal printout of the transaction - my name along with what I bought, where I bought it, and the name of the woman who sold it to me. The saleswoman carried my bag for me and accompanied me to the door, then bowed very low as I walked out. What service!And how much did it cost? More than I paid for my car, which either says something about the cost of the wallet, or the price of my car. It has a nice texture, feels sturdy, is a perfect size, and I love it. So now that I've bought something from Louis Vuitton, does that make me materialistic? There was also a bag that I thought was pretty cool but the price is way more than I'm willing to pay ($1600). But who knows, perhaps I'm becoming more materialistic by the day and you'll see my new bag pictured here in the future, like this guy.On a sidenote, I started thinking about the most expensive things I've ever bought. Here's my ranking of most expensive things:

1) Bright Red Toyota Corolla with 10-carat gold lettering and wood interior (I loved that car and had to sell it when I came to Japan)

2) Dell Computer with scanner/printer

3) Plane tickets (Thailand, China, Cambodia, Taiwan, Hawaii, Spain, etc.)

4) Louis Vuitton Damier Graphite wallet

5) Mitsubishi Toppo (my current car). I love how the back has a door, I can fit my folding bike in it, the side mirrors are huge like bus mirrors, and it has a high ceiling with a compartment to store stuff.

Cute Snake

2008-07-21T00:25:00.002+09:00

I just looked outside to see if the cat was by the window waiting to come in. I saw her tentatively creeping towards the corner of the garden so I went outside to see what she was curious about. It was a snake!

I pulled her back just in time. She had her nose forward, ready to sniff at it but the snake looked ready to strike. I carried her into the house and ran back outside with my camera but I couldn't find it in the dark. Too bad.

I don't think it was poisonous because mamushi are brown with triangular heads and this one was striped. It was pretty small, only about a foot long and as thin around as a finger. I wonder if there are other poisonous snakes in this area besides mamushi. I guess I should find out before digging in the leaves looking for it.

Oita Scandal

2008-07-20T20:33:00.011+09:00

I haven't had free time to do anything since my workload increased, and haven't even turned on the TV since March 14 - there's an old TV Guide sitting in the living room and it's opened to that page, so that's probably the last day I watched TV. But I turned on the TV this week. Why? Because I wanted to watch the news to find out more about what everyone's been talking about: how Oita is on the national news every day for having a corrupt government/education system. My little section of Japanese countryside has become famous throughout all of Japan!

In Japan teachers are respected and their salaries are quite good, so it's natural for people to want to become teachers. Unfortunately, only a handful of people are allowed to pass the certification exams because of the few positions available, and the hundreds that don't pass continue taking the exam year after year hoping to one day pass. I've known so many people who knew what they were up against but kept trying anyway. It's especially difficult to become a high school teacher; a friend told me that only one person can be certified as a history teacher when a hundred people take the history certification test. The competition is compounded by the fact that there is an age limit to be certified as a teacher. I can't remember the exact age, but I think it was around 30, meaning that you have to be certified before then or give up (although you can still be a part-time teacher without passing the certification exam).

In the time that I've lived here, I've come to accept that having connections is more important than having qualifications. I've talked with so many people who have their jobs because their parents were friends with so-and-so or because a current employee recommended them for the job. Of course everyone goes through the application process, but the ones who have connections are chosen for the position. I've come to accept this as a normal part of Japanese culture. I could tell you dozens of examples... friends who knew they wouldn't get the job before going to the interview because someone at the company already recommended their friend, or companies that place ads for job openings with the implicit understanding that priority is given to those with connections to someone already working there. Many places don't even bother advertising, but simply ask the current employees if they know someone. Of course giving priority to people you know is natural and happens all over the world, but to a far greater extent here.

And I always thought that using these kinds of connections were simply a part of Japanese culture. But it seems that I may have been wrong. Is this only a part of Oita culture?

The scandal that has been plaguing Oita for these past couple weeks is in regard to teacher certification. A woman was arrested for giving out gift certificates in exchange for her children receiving priority in becoming certified as teachers. Then investigators discovered that the officials in charge of certifying new teachers routinely gave priority to friends and acquaintances, which I thought was a completely normal thing to do and something that everyone already knew about. Apparently this isn't normal throughout the rest of Japan, because several of Oita's BOE officials were arrested and the rest of Japan appears shocked by this "scandal". The BOE officials from other parts of Japan have been saying things like, "The situation in Oita is simply unbelievable" and "That would never happen here."

Really? Is it only Oita that's like that? Could my view of Japan be totally skewed?

Since the "scandal" has come to light, investigators have discovered that about half of the teachers in Oita were certified because they had connections or gave gifts to officials. I don't want to use the word "bribe" because giving gifts in return for favor is a part of Japanese culture, and it's hard to distinguish when the line is crossed into "bribery". Perhaps it's just Oita where gift-giving is so freely done, but I do know that gift-giving is practiced all over Japan.

If you want something, it's quite normal to use your connections and say "yoroshiku onegaishimasu". There really isn't an English equivalent but in this case it could be translated to mean something like, "I trust that you'll treat me well" or "Please give me priority". And when you tack on Japan's gift-giving culture, it becomes really difficult to know what is "bribery" and what is an interaction between friends.

The investigators have stated that they're going to revoke the teaching licenses of those who are found to have used connections or "bribes" to pass the certification exam, but this is proving to be a difficult task because test results in Oita were deleted (apparently other places save them for 10 years). There is also a movement to have the certification of teachers be done in a way that isn't connected to the current Board of Education and can't be influenced by government officials.

It just so happens that the teacher certification exams were held this weekend. I guess this year everyone is on equal ground and no one can use their connections. Good for those with ability, not so good for those who were expecting to pass.

Having only ever lived in Oita, I've begun to wonder if what I think of as "Japanese culture" is really only the culture of my small section of Japanese countryside.

Here's one article about the scandal but it's only the bare-bones facts about what's happening. The news clips and long-discussions on TV are much more interesting.

One other thing I find interesting: my recent conversations with teachers almost always include some anecdote or information that would let me know that they got their certification without anyone's help. Yesterday a woman told me that she got her certification during Japan's "bubble period"; a time when there were so many well-paying jobs that few people aspired to be teachers and it was easy to pass the certification exams, suggesting that there wasn't a need for her to use connections. Another person mentioned how poor her family was growing up, suggesting that it would have been impossible to bribe anyone. I've been hearing lots of these stories lately.

Students have also been gossipping like crazy about which teachers probably used connections to get their jobs... "so-and-so isn't a very good teacher so probably passed the exam because of connections". Considering that half of them got their jobs through connections, I know a lot of people who are in danger of losing their teaching licenses. When school starts again in September, I'm curious to see who suddenly isn't there.

St. Louis News

2008-07-11T12:34:00.005+09:00

Before I came to Japan I lived in St. Louis, Missouri. I often think back on those times and wish I could relive them.

This week there was an article on a St. Louis news website that cracked me up. I'm not sure if the editor was ignorant or just plain mean, but here is the headline and photo beneath it:

Big chunk of history goes east
This deserves some kind of prize! If you feel like checking out the actual article it's about the baseball history archives being moved out of St. Louis to North Carolina. So if the article is about history archives, why does the photo focus on the woman in the background?

What a gem. I love news bloopers.

The hole has healed

2008-07-08T00:26:00.008+09:00

At first the hole in her chest was so deep that I thought it went into her lungs or something. Ever see those videos of when they put cameras down people's stomachs to look for polyps and stuff? The walls of the stomach look kinda moist and pinkish? That's what it looked like in her chest hole. But then the hole got shallower and shallower until there wasn't a hole there at all, and was just a bald spot covered with a scab. Then the scab fell off and the fur is slowly growing back. It looks like this now:It doesn't hurt her when I touch it, and it's pretty cool because you can feel the heat emanating from her skin. She must be burning up in all that fur. No wonder she sleeps all the time. I would, too, if I had to wear a coat around in this summer heat.

Lately she likes sleeping belly-up, probably because it's so hot lately. I've been taking photos of her crazy sleeping positions... here it looks like she's stretching, but she was passed out.Not very lady-like at all.She especially likes sleeping with her head resting on a bump in the blanket or on some clothes, and one day I found her sleeping with her arms pushed into the folds of the blanket.Sometimes when I look out into the garden she's waiting there for me, and gets up when she notices me peeking out the window. Sometimes she's sitting there with a friend.

The cat has a hole in her chest!

2008-06-21T01:02:00.003+09:00

Last week she was acting kind of weird but I couldn't figure out why. She wasn't coming to bed at night and I'd find her sleeping in places where she'd never slept before, like behind a pile of boxes or under the bed. She wouldn't let me pick her up and screamed at me if I tried.

A couple nights ago I came home to find pus on her chest fur. I figured she had a cold which is why she was so tired and acting weird, and her nose must have gotten runny or something. But then last night when I moved the fur away from the place she kept licking on her chest, there was a hole there!!!

Of course I grabbed the phone book right away and looked up a list of vets. A freaking hole in her chest! Not a good sign. I planned on taking her to the vet first thing in the morning, but was feeling panicky and got on-line to see what I could find.

It turns out "abscesses" are quite normal for cats. Really? With all the cats I used to have growing up, I've never seen a hole in any of them. Apparently if another cat scratches them and bacteria gets under the skin, their immune system blocks off that area and white blood cells rush in, creating a pus-filled ball that eventually bursts, leaving a gaping hole. It seems that once the pus leaves the body, the body can heal itself.

The different sites I found recommend taking your cat to the vet but once the pus ball has burst, you just have to wait until it heals. I felt much calmer after that, knowing that having a hole in her chest isn't life-threatening and that actually it's a sign that she's already on her way to recovery. So I didn't rush to the vet and went to work as usual.

When I came home she was back to her normal self; running all over the place and full of energy again. And the hole seemed shallower already. What a fast recovery. I'm so glad to see I was worried for nothing!

Polygamy

2008-06-17T15:46:00.003+09:00

Yesterday the topic of Mormons and polygamy came up in a conversation. The two mormons living in Oita City are extremely visible because they always ride around the city wearing white dress shirts and don bicycle helmets (people here don't wear helmets so if you want to stick out, wear a helmet). Every couple years two new Mormons come to replace the old ones to fulfill their missionary duties, and they always wear the same style of helmets and ride around the city on their bicycles so people probably don't realize that they're actually two new guys.

It seems some people have negative impressions of Mormons, but I've never met a Mormon I didn't like. They've always been really nice and considerate, and being Mormon didn't affect anything one way or another. In university I used to live with a couple Mormons, and they were so down-to-earth and friendly.

Apparently over the last couple years CNN has had a bajillion articles about the arrest of a Mormon leader and the disbanding of everyone on the ranch, but I just heard about it recently. The article I came across the other day suggested that the children were much better off on the ranch than being split up and sent to foster homes. I don't know much about the situation, but I found a hilarious video with a catchy tune that keeps replaying itself in my head.

2 months!

2008-06-15T23:33:00.004+09:00

Wow! When was my last post? Two months already! Time sure does fly!

For now here's a quick summary of what's been going on the last couple months. More details to come if I find the time... but given my track record we shouldn't get our hopes up!

My job at the high school changed a bit. The Japanese school year starts in April and when I came back from Taiwan I had a new schedule. I only used to teach students who were in the foreign language program, but this year they allowed students from other course programs to take my class as an elective. So instead of getting one new class to replace the graduating seniors, I got four. Also for some reason the different classes see me a different number of hours per week (one, two, or three hours) so I'm teaching them all at different speeds. It's been keeping me on my toes trying to remember who's learned what. Exams are at the end of this month and I'm already dreading having to write up so many different tests. Anyhow the lack of free time after I started this new schedule is the main reason for the hiatus in posting.

I'm still enjoying my evening job. I find so many things I want to turn into lessons. One of my new pasttimes is searching for weird pictures on the net and putting them on handouts... like putting photos of monsters on the lesson about pets or using photos of superbly fugly people for the lesson about using compliments to start conversations. With my busy schedule, this is how I relieve stress.

The cat is still as cute as ever. I never named her but a friend started calling her Chiro. I've been putting her out when I leave for work, and she comes running home when she hears my car pull into the driveway. It's the cutest thing, seeing her sprinting through the parking lot towards my car. During mating season in April and May I'm pretty sure all the tomcats in the neighborhood were having their way with her. She'd come home with the smell of other cats mixed into her fur. One time she'd messed around with a real stinky bugger, and I couldn't bear to have her near me because I couldn't take the smell. I had to give her a bath and she really didn't like that; she kept screaming the whole time like I was torturing her to death. Strangely she never got pregnant.

One of my best friends left Oita a couple weeks ago. We had similar schedules and were always tired from work, so sitting around doing nothing was always the best way to hang out. With other friends there's always something to do, or some kind of plan. I felt a sudden loneliness overcome me when I realized how I don't have anyone to just do nothing with anymore. I also realized that most of my free time was spent doing nothing at his place, so now that he's gone I'll have to muster up the energy to branch out and find new friends.

My apartment is cramped full of stuff. The friend who left Oita will be living in Britain for a year, and in the meantime needed a place to store all his stuff. I'm pretty impressed with how I rearranged my apartment to be able to keep most of his stuff out of my way, but I'm still wondering what to do with the washing machine, TV, and large stereo speakers in the middle of the kitchen. I foresee resigning myself to swerving around them for the next year.

I finally destroyed the thorn monsters. There were these really nasty thorn-covered bushes that sprouted up a couple years ago. Every square centimeter of every branch had dozens of thorns. The monsters even had thorns on their leaves. I let them be and the bushes just kept on growing until they were taller than me, and then their evil offspring started appearing all over the place. Something had to be done. I spent a couple days snipping them to bits and digging up their wide-spread roots. Whenever a baby one tries to take root I rip it out of the ground with a pair of pliers (even the darn babies are covered in thorns).

I bought 40 plants and made the backyard look nice. I'm most pleased with the herb garden because of how much better the pizza sauce tastes with fresh herbs, although the rosemary just isn't growing fast enough. I keep snipping off little bits and there's hardly any left. And today I just learned that having rosemary in the garden repels mosquitoes, giving me additional incentive to plant some more rosemary out back.

The blackberry bush I planted last year finally has berries! Up until April it looked like a twig sticking out of the dirt, then suddenly branches started appearing out of nowhere. Clusters of pink flowers blossomed, and now about 30 baby green blackberries are forming. I can't wait till they ripen!

Japan got dangerous. I haven't watched the news in forever, so my students tell me what's going on in the world. A man killed his neighbor, then cut her into tiny little bits, small enough to fit down the sink drain. At first I was simply appalled by the gruesome thought of slicing through bone and mashing up organs to stuff down the sink. Then I was impressed by the patience and determination this man must have had. Or perhaps it wasn't patience and determination he had, but just a little bit of crazy. In that case, not so impressive. And then a couple weeks later a man drives into a crowded Tokyo shopping area and runs over some people, then gets out and stabs people at random. Senseless violence. What is Japan coming to? Thank goodness guns are illegal here, otherwise it'd be as dangerous as America.

Wow, time really does fly by. It's way past my bedtime! That's all for now... nighty-night!

Taiwan Day 8 - Back to Japan

2008-04-13T01:59:00.008+09:00

I tried to see as much as I could up until the last minute. I lost time trying to find a traditional paper museum (I never found it) because the map in the guidebook had the museum I was looking for in the wrong place. I know you're thinking that I shouldn't blame the guidebook for my poor sense of direction, but I know it was the book and not me! The address of the museum just couldn't have been on the block it was marked on.

Miniatures Museum of Taiwan
I was surprised and sort of disappointed to see that most of the miniature houses on display were done by Americans. I was in Taiwan, so I wanted to see things made by Taiwanese people. It was still worth visiting though.

There were dozens of perfect re-creations of old-style homes and fantasy lands. My favorites were the European aristocratic miniatures.
Much more than the miniature homes, I was impressed by the eggshells. How do you cut such fine symmetrical patterns without cracking the shell? Nice.There were lots of these fairy-themed eggs, too.
Final meal
Everything on the plate is vegetarian! Really good imitations of meat, don't you think? The chicken nuggets were compressed tofu. The sausage was colored dough. The sesame chicken was wheat gluten. The pork slices were a kind of pressed starch. They were like little works of vegetarian art. And this restaurant was inside Taipei Main Station, so I could eat and then hop on a bus to the airport.
To Those Carrying Chickens:

Airport
There was a Hello Kitty section of the airport that was all pink. Even the phones and clocks were a part of the Hello Kitty motif! I saw a young guy taking and retaking photos of this section until he got the perfect photo. He gave me a look like, "Yeah, so?" which I found amusing.And that ended my trip to Taiwan. The flight is only two hours and it's pretty cheap, so I'll probably go again sometime.

Taiwan Day 7 - Taipei

2008-04-12T02:59:00.021+09:00

Nose-digging train lady
For some reason people in Taiwan thought it was acceptable to dig their noses in public. I don't say "pick" their noses because that's not what it was. They were really digging, with their finger way up in there and their hand swiveling around. And this wasn't the sort of sly, maybe-no-one-notices kind of nose-digging. I saw this in crowded markets with tons of people walking by, in the bus, on the street, in stores. Pretty much anywhere. What was really gross was that sometimes you see the moment when the finger comes out of their nose with a booger on it. They simply scrape it off their nail and let it fall wherever. Like totally make me barf.

The lady sitting next to me on the train was one of these nose-diggers. I tried to lean my body as far away from her as possible. I tried to distract myself and ignore what I could see from the corner of my eye. I tried not to think about where the resulting booger had landed. The train tickets had assigned seating and all the seats were full. There was no escaping from her.

I spent half the day on the train heading back north to Taipei. The nose-digger got off an hour before my Taipei stop.

Transsexual
The person who replaced her was a transsexual that wasn't fooling anyone. She looked like a man who'd thrown on a dress and was wearing high heels. I think she thought I was Japanese (actually for some reason I'm quite proud of myself for looking Japanese enough to fool people, quite a dumb reason to be proud). Instead of just starting a conversation with me in Japanese, she got on her cell phone and called someone who could speak Japanese and they had a short conversation. In all truth, I felt a bit uncomfortable which is why I didn't just go ahead and start talking to her.

The hostel
When I finally arrived in Taipei, I went back to the same cheap hostel that I stayed in before, and this time they had room in the main hostel. It was so much cleaner than the one in the other building, probably because the Taiwanese wife was in charge of this part. Her husband was in charge of the hostel I stayed last time, and I'm guessing he's not so into cleaning which is why it was so dirty and gross.

The toilet and shower were so clean, and indoors (not outside on the balcony). The rooms were small and cramped, but at least I know the sheets were clean because she gave me new ones when I arrived.

The atmosphere was much nicer, too. Adventurous young travellers roaming the globe who love meeting people and telling funny stories - that fit the image I have of hostels much better than last time.
Taipei's Longshan Temple
No one was allowed into the front gate and I had to walk through the side entrance. I wonder if this is because of the same belief as the temples in Japan, that the central walkway is where the god walks, and so we have to stay out of their way.Interestingly, this temple was multidenominational. The main god was in the central shrine, and there were 165 other gods in alcoves and smaller shrines all around the outer edge.Probably because of all the gods residing there, this temple had lots of places to place offerings.Really, I just couldn't stop being amazed by the carved pillars in temples.While I was wandering, women in robes lined up and entered the main shrine. The evening chanting was about to start!Hundreds of worshippers knelt or stood, and chanted for over an hour. It wasn't like the monotonous chanting that I'm used to hearing, it was melodic and more like a song. I stood in the crowd and absorbed the atmosphere. An old lady offered me her extra prayer book so I could do the chants as well, but I said that I couldn't understand Chinese. She gave me a look like, "Then what are you doing here?"I loved this temple. It was so noisy. There was the chanting, as well as people saying prayers and throwing fortune-telling blocks onto the stone floor (like the ladies in the photo). On the right in the foreground you can see wooden fortune sticks. People mixed them around and jumbled them up before pulling one out, adding to the noise and boisterous atmosphere. The temple wasn't somber and serene like Japanese temples, but a lively experience full of energy.
Shilin Night Market
The guidebook says if you only have one night to spend in Taipei, spend it here. I wholeheartedly agree. I was there until midnight and it was still jam-packed; you'd never know it was a Monday night. And it was full of locals there to have a good time, not tourists.It was totally fun being caught up in the flow of the crowd. I didn't expect to see so many carnival game booths mixed in with the food vendors and shops. I bought so many clothes and a few accessories (they were one-third the price of what I can find in Japan!).The food section had a lot of stinky stuff that I tried to avoid walking past. I did ended up getting this nice crunchy fried stuff wrapped in a sweet tortilla. It required some heavy pounding with a hammer!One section I really didn't like were the glass cages with puppies and kittens. They looked much too small to be away from their mothers, and some of them walked on still shaky legs. Is a spontaneous purchase at a night market really the best place to buy a pet?
Police Patrol
The alleys were lined on both sides with shops. In the center of the alleys, people had set up rolling carts or suitcases on stands or blankets piled with goods. This was illegal, which I found out when policemen occasionally rode their motorbikes through the alleys.

It was a domino effect. When someone down the road quickly grabbed their blanket up, or rolled their cart into the nearest shop, or snapped their suitcase shut and fled into a store... everyone up the road immediately did the same. They were anxiously keeping watch while bargaining with customers. You should have seen the speed with which they disappeared. They ran and shoved to get out of the way and hide. In less than ten seconds, the entire alley was vacant and everybody (including shoppers) waited for the policemen to pass. This happened roughly every thirty minutes.

Head Wound and the Amazingly Kind Girl
The most awful thing I saw happened on my last night near the Shilin Night Market. I saw a man (late 40s?) lying on the side of the road with blood oozing from his head. His face was badly scratched and there was blood sprayed across his shirt and stomach and the road around him. I think he'd been hit by a car and rolled a bit before landing face-up, spread-eagle and unconscious.

It had just happened when I turned the corner. I saw a fashionable young woman (early-20s?) with long, brown wavy hair in a white blouse and tall heels carrying an expensive looking leather bag run to where he lay and heard her shouting something, probably yelling for someone to call the police. Her boyfriend stood next to her not knowing what to do.

It was the first time I'd seen blood coming from a head wound. It wasn't like blood, but like bright-red gel.

A woman from a shop ran to the man with a box of tissues. Together they held tissues to his head wound and everyone in the area got on their phones. Taxis stopped to see if they could rush him to the hospital, but the man was totally unconscious. When people saw that everything possible was being done at the moment, they moved far away without gawking. It was unexpected and strange for me to see this. I think it was out of respect for the man, and so that the ambulance could go straight to him when they arrived without having to dodge onlookers.

The man started wiggling his head and attempted to get up. The girl tried to calm him while holding tissues to his head and her boyfriend tried to keep him from moving, but the man sat up. He staggered towards a taxi and she ran in front of it, blocking the door with her body and arms. She wanted him to wait for the ambulance. He was woozy and almost fell, so she held him close and leaned his head on her shoulder, covering her white shirt in blood.

She cared so much for this stranger. She stood there with him in her arms until the ambulance arrived and made sure he got on. I was worried for him, too, but wouldn't have gone through all the trouble that she went through up until the moment he left. It gave me another opportunity to see Taiwanese kindness in action. It made me want to imitate what I saw, and make kindness an instinct rather than an decision, like how I saw so many times in Taiwan.

Other small examples of kindness during my trip
In Changhua a university student saw me looking at train schedules and came over to see if he could help me. He didn't know I was a foreigner until I spoke English. When he realized I wasn't Taiwanese, instead of worrying about the communication barrier he continued to do what he could to figure out the schedules with me.

I saw a young woman in the train station find a wad of bills that someone had dropped. She looked around frantically, ran to a few people to see if it was theirs (surprisingly they all said no after checking their pockets) and then she turned it in to the man at the information counter. I believe in any other country, she or someone else would have claimed it as their own.

I'd dropped my wallet while getting a bus ticket, and no one stole it in all the time it took for me to notice it was on the ground.

On trains people always offered their seats to the elderly or people with young children. In comparison, on Japanese trains I often see people close their eyes and pretend to be sleeping, so they don't have to notice elderly people boarding the train. Sometimes women even put their bags on the seat so no one can sit next to them (of course they move it when someone asks, but that they do this in the first place bugs me to no end), and once I saw a woman hold her umbrella sideways in her lap so no one could sit on either side of her, then closed her eyes and tilted her head down when people got on the train. I never saw anything like this in Taiwan. People seemed to be looking around all the time, as if they were eager to give up their seats.

At the night market, people bought things from the man in the wheelchair even if they didn't need them. You could get tissues for free, but people were buying them from him.

In general, people tried to talk with me until they realized I wasn't Taiwanese and couldn't understand. It made me feel like everyone was so friendly there.

Taiwan Day 6 - Tainan and Nankunshen

2008-04-12T01:39:00.025+09:00

Taiwanese Literature Library
Built during the Japanese Occupation of Taiwan. I had no idea that Japan owned Taiwan and then gave it to China after World War II. Just another one of those things I missed from not studying in history class, I guess.
Confucius Temple
There was a pretty nice park surrounding the temple that I didn't spend much time relaxing in because I wanted to give myself enough time to visit another city at the end of the day (getting lost in Lukang taught me a lesson).One aspect of Confucian Temples that I find interesting is that there are no decorations on the walls and very little color adorning the temple. The shrines don't have any idols or images, and the main area is so simple.Even though it was Tomb Sweep weekend, the inner courtyard was so peaceful and practically devoid of human life (you had to pay to go in).The outer courtyard, however, was a different story. There was some kind of event going on where you could get all kinds of stuff for free (we like free).This was some kind of bean flour that they ground with twigs and what looked to be dried seaweed. You mix it in water and pour the gritty mixture down your throat. Doesn't sound very delicious? It wasn't.You could also make tea the traditional way, by rolling the leaves around with your palms until your hands turn green, then drying the leaves in the sun. I did it only to be polite because the ladies let me take a photo and then wasn't too thrilled with my new green hands.On the other side of the temple away from all the hubbub some people were having a lesson in Confucianism. I wish I knew more Chinese. When I say "more", I mean "more than nothing".It was probably the nicest place to relax in the city. I wish I'd had more time to just wander around enjoying the fair and seeing some of the performances.I don't really know what kinds of performances were scheduled, but it appears one of them had monks. Or monk-like creatures.
Lunch and my new friend
I ate at the same vegetarian restaurant as the day before (the one with stuff that looked like meat) because I was curious to see what else they had. This time I got an imitation of sweet and sour pork!While I was sitting there eating by myself, I heard the owner lady saying the Japanese word for "grandmother". I thought to myself, "Wow, Chinese sounds so much like Japanese sometimes." I heard her saying the same word over and over again. "Grandmother. Grandmother. Grandmother." Then I looked up and saw that she was staring straight at me, and there was an old woman sitting next to her.

The owner lady thought I was Japanese. The old woman sitting next to her could speak Japanese. I suspect she called the old woman to come to the shop to keep me company, since I was eating by myself two days in a row. I didn't feel the need to explain that actually I was born in America and now live in Japan, and I just played along and pretended to be Japanese.

The old woman had grown up during the time when Taiwan was owned by Japan and compulsory education was taught in Japanese. I have no idea how old she was, but probably very old. She was super friendly and kept asking me the same questions and repeating the same stories. It was fun talking to her, mostly because she seemed so happy talking with someone in Japanese and had a huge smile on her face the whole time. Every once in a while she translated questions that the young couple sitting at another table had about me, like if I was travelling alone and how long I'd been in Taiwan. I stayed and talked with her for half an hour after finishing my meal, and then really had to continue on my way. Talking with my new friend was the best part of my day.

Elementary School
I wanted to know what this building was because it looked so new and modern. A peek into the windows revealed small wooden desks and tiny wooden chairs. The building was new, but the furniture looked ancient. What an unexpected contrast.The large park was bordered on two sides by classroom buildings, and on the third side was this gorgeous building. The doors were open so I peeked in... it was the school gym!A stream ran through the park where kids collected tadpoles. Wow. Is this the School for Super Rich Kids of Tainan?
The Town of Nankunshen
Learning from my experience of being lost in Lukang, this time I wrote the characters for a temple I wanted to go to on a piece of paper so I could show it to the bus driver and get off at the right stop when we got to the town of Nankunshen. The guidebook said it was a 40 minute ride, so naturally I started getting worried when I didn't see any road signs for the city I wanted to go to even after an hour on the bus. Had I missed the stop or gotten on the wrong bus? When I showed the bus driver the temple name, he shook his head. That's all. I continued to worry.

It turned out okay though. The bus ride actually took 80 minutes so the guidebook was wrong, and the bus driver let me know where to get off.The guidebook said this temple is known for the exuberant displays of ritual devotion by worshippers that flock to the temple on Sundays. It was Sunday, but no self-mutilation or people screaming or convulsing. Shoot, I was really hoping for some craziness.

The woman is carrying a pair of those crescent-shaped fortune-telling blocks that people pray with and throw onto the ground. The yellow incense made this temple all smokey and stinky, too.The stone carvings on the walls and pillars gave it a real Indiana Jones feel, and the black soot from years of incense smoke was a nice touch. Someone threw some "ghost money" into the incense pot just before I took the photo. Perfect!Again, fascinated by the craftsmanship of carvings in stone pillars.There was a newer part still under construction. Beautiful setting, and all wood instead of stone.I wasn't sure if I could explore this area because of the yellow tape blocking the way. Usually this means NO ENTRY but perhaps in Taiwan this means "COME IN!" so I went under the tape and walked around.The doorways were all different shapes, looking somewhat traditional yet modern at the same time.From up here you could see how big the whole other part of the temple was, and in the foreground some of the new part that they're still digging up.
Ladies with snails
There were ladies with food carts at the entrance to the temple. Every one of them sold the same thing: boiled snails and green moss. I was the only person walking out of the temple at that time and had all of their attentions. They thought that calling to me and holding out a ladle of snails and green slimey stuff would make me rush to buy some, and I'm sure it just boggled their minds why this tactic wasn't working on me. I took a photo, but it just turned out too dark because of the way the sun was setting. Sorry, no delicious snail treats photo.

Coolest shoe store ever
Back in Tainan the parades were still going strong. I went shopping at a nearby department store that had some super cool shops, like this totally awesome shoe store. It took up the entire 10th floor. Club music blaring, velvet sofas, leather armchairs, and dozens of aisles of shoes on lighted platforms and in glass cases. The lighted stands were suspended from the ceiling on wheeled rails, and they automatically rearranged themselves every few minutes. Simply unbelievable.
Girlfriend, anyone?
The hotel phone rang. It was the old man from the elevator the previous night. "I introduce you girlfriend?" Persistent little fella. No, I really don't need a girlfriend tonight either, thanks for asking.

Taiwan Day 5 - Tainan

2008-04-11T23:48:00.026+09:00

Next Stop - Tainan 台南
This southern town is the oldest city in Taiwan, and was ruled by the Dutch in the 1600s (you can find a lot of ruins from those days). I absolutely loved this city, probably because I happened to be there during the "Tomb Sweep" holiday weekend and it was so loud and lively everywhere I went. There was a good mix of modern department stores and restaurants, with a ton of traditional temples thrown in between.

Altar of Heaven
This temple is unique because it doesn't have any images of the god. The original temple was built as a temporary measure until a proper temple could be built, 300 years ago. It still has a temporary feel.
Billboards
I found this fascinating, not because I felt the urge to see any of these movies in the run-down theater, but because each of the billboards are actually gigantic 4-piece paintings instead of posters! Do they do this for every new movie?
Matsu Temple - another one
The Matsu Temple in this city had a super gaudy entrance that made me weary of even stepping foot in the place.The inside turned out to be pretty plain, though.People prayed like this in all the temples. Sometimes they held long incense sticks, sometimes white and purple flowers, and sometimes two crescent-shaped red blocks that they held to their foreheads then threw onto the ground to have their questions answered. I watched for a while and couldn't figure out how to read the patterns.
The Official God of War Temple (Sacrificial Rites Temple)
I happened to be there during a service and from the name of the temple half-expected to find some kind of blood sacrifice on the altar. To my relief, it was just a guy giving a sermon while the massive crowd intently listened.
Chihkan Towers
This was a Fort back in the day (the Dutch day) to guard against invasion and when the Chinese took over they made it look real Chinese. There was a partially excavated entrance at the base that they left buried, in fear of causing the upper portion to collapse.The nine tortoises carried slabs covered in intricate Chinese writing. Too bad there wasn't an English translation included.I would have spent more time just relaxing in the park if I had more time, but there were too many other things I wanted to see!
Pig or Dog, you decide.
Dongyue Temple
The god here is in charge of deciding whether you go to heaven or hell, and the second chamber was apparently the path through hell. In hell, you can have the pleasure of hanging from a hook in your chest.Or having your stomach opened with a knife.Or having someone grind twigs into your eyes.Or being forced to drink boiling water.Or many other amusements covering the walls heading into the third chamber.

Lady Linshui's Temple
The front looked like any other temple, with ladies in the street selling flowers for you to offer at the altar. In the back there was some kind of ceremony going on. Four men held a portable shrine up to the altar, and another man held a chicken by its wings. Another man held a goblet under the chicken's neck. He had a long blade in his other hand, held it to the chicken's neck, and I ran out trying not to think of what happened next.
Food
It looks like chicken, but isn't. This vegetarian restaurant used wheat gluten to make it look like meat, and strangely feel like it, too. I'm not sure how I feel about making vegetarian food as meat-like as possible.
Parades
People were throwing firecrackers into the streets all day (and sometimes in front of passersby) and I'm positive I now have permanent hearing loss. I kept running into little parades everywhere I went. It was pretty dangerous; none of the roads were closed off and mini-parades hugged the edge of the road while motorbikes sped past. Eventually I saw someone holding a flier with the parade information and peeked over his shoulder. It was all in Chinese, what'd I expect? There were hundreds of groups listed. I think every temple, important family, artistic circle, and religious affiliate got a group together to take part in the event.While exploring the city I realized that the groups were following a set route that allowed them to worship at each temple, each in their own way. Some groups had dancers perform in front of the main shrine for several minutes with fans and swords, some had musicians that fervently beat on drums and cymbals, some carried portable shrines and violently swung them this way and that as if the shrine bearers were having seizures.Some groups carried ornate wooden structures that didn't seem to have any religious significance, making me wonder exactly who was taking part in the festival.Most of the groups carrying a shrine housing the image of a god did a strange two-step that swayed the shrine back and forth and made the streamers bob up and down violently. The beams were suspended by ropes to give the shrine extra bounce.When night fell, people got more rowdy and started lighting aerial fireworks in the road. Pedestrians (like me) had to keep an eye out for guys running away from boxes that spit out dozens of haphazard rocket-type flares. More than once I had to desperately flee from fireworks that had just been lit.The parades had started before I left the hotel at 9am, and were still going strong when I went to bed at midnight. Do people even sleep during Tomb Sweep Weekend?

Bar?
I didn't go in, but people were turning sideways to squeeze into this space between two buildings. Only one person could fit in there at a time and a few meters down I could see a door on the left. I should have gone in just to check it out, but my legs (and for some reason my back) were absolutely killing me.
Hotel Room Service?
When I got back to the hotel there was an elderly man sitting downstairs. I got my key from the front desk and he followed me into the elevator. He said, "I introduce you girlfriend." Um, no thanks. He was a friendly old guy, and I could only politely decline. Must have been like 90 years old. Just goes to show that you're never too old to be a pimp.

Taiwan Day 4 - Lukang

2008-04-11T00:22:00.035+09:00

Lukang Revisited
I couldn't let Lukang beat me, so I booked another night at the Changhua hotel to give me the next full day to explore Lukang. This time I stayed on the bus until we had crossed town and the small lanes became open roads. It finally stopped at the Lukang Main Bus Terminal.Yes, the building (I use the term loosely) that looks like an abandoned garage is the main bus terminal. Even if I had come across it the night before, I probably would have walked right by.

Living Treasures
Several shop owners have received "Living Heritage" awards for their skill and dedication in preserving old crafts. There are 36 such people in all of Taiwan, and 6 of them were in the small town of Lukang so I searched for their shops. Obviously receiving a "Living Heritage" award doesn't make you rich and famous.The shop in the photo sells handmade fans, and only encompasses the area of wall between the taxi and the orange crates. They were beautiful, but not as spectacular as I'd been expecting. I also visited the craftsman who made paper lanterns and the one who specialized in tin. Again, not as exciting as I was hoping, probably because I'd already seen the fascinating works of art at the Palace Museum in Taipei a few days before.

Food?
People were lining up at road stalls like this one. The shrimp were alive and crawling over each other. The smell of these kinds of food areas reminded me of rancid gutters and I tried to walk past quickly.If you can believe it, cars were squeezing through these same roads, too.I don't know what this green fruit is but I was hungry and everything else looked gross. The lady didn't look like the cleanest person in the world, and I worried about ingesting some kind of intestinal parasite or coming down with a severe case of diarrhea, but it turned out just fine. She sprinkled brown salt on it which tasted good on the mildly sweet fruit. The skin was wrinkly and the white part was the texture of something between an apple and a pear.If you can bring your eyes to focus on the dangling things on the right, you're staring at a bunch of pig faces hanging from a hook. Just walking through this area made my stomach turn.
The holiday called "Tomb Sweep"
It was an interesting cultural experience being in Taiwan on April 4th/5th. People buy stacks of yellow paper called "ghost money" and burn them, because you not only need money in this life, but in the afterlife as well. People were carrying home crates full of these large yellow bundles of paper to burn for their ancestors.You can buy them from ladies like this, or from shops with stacks of them wrapped in bales that were piled to the ceiling. A bale of "ghost money" apparently costs 500 Taiwanese dollars, or roughly $17 American (1700yen). Kind of expensive paper to burn if you ask me.Most people burned them in metal drums like this. Every home had a fire going in front of their house, and when the smoke died down they piled on more paper. At first I enjoyed the cultural smell, then after a few hours of being bathed in smoke wherever I went my lungs were in need of fresh air.Temples also had special structures to burn "ghost money" in, for people who didn't want to burn them in front of their homes all day. I wonder if this tradition is why all the buildings in the town were covered in black soot.
Matsu Temple
Temples for this god were in every city I went to (there are supposedly more than 500 temples dedicated to her on the island). She was a real person named Lin Mo that guided ships to shore in the 10th century, and after she ascended to heaven she continued to appear to sailors to guide them to safety. You're supposed to pray for her when you travel.This particular one is known for having a Matsu statue whose face has turned completely black from the incense smoke that worshippers carry. I watched carefully what people were doing. You hold three long sticks of incense and shake them toward the statue, as well as behind you, then move to each part of the temple and do the same thing. It was pretty dangerous with everyone carrying long sticks of lighted incense, but I escaped safely without burning an eye out.Again, impressed by stone carvings. It must be pretty tough making these 3-dimensional figures without accidentally lopping a head or arm off and having to start all over again. The back halls were full of these kinds of pillars. From far away they looked like some kind of golden decoration, but...A close-up reveals that each one is a golden image with someone's name on it, probably someone whose family paid the temple to care for their soul.There were also halls packed from floor to ceiling with these container-like ones, probably for people who passed on recently?I turned around and was startled by two demons. Was it sacrilegious to be taking photos around there? Just to be safe I waited until there was no one around to snap photos of stuff, probably making me look even more sketchy for standing around not doing anything in there.
Red brick homes
This town had a large number of brick homes, the entrances of which opened into small alleys like this one.Most of them had simple doors to prevent people from looking inside, but I looked in any that were open to see how homes were laid out. There was usually a large living room as soon as you enter the home, and an altar for their ancestors taking up almost the whole wall.I like the look of brick. Even if the house was crumbling and in a filthy neighborhood, there was a traditional feel that made it not so bad.Lots of homes didn't have a doorway leading to the road, but into a small alley that only pedestrians could use.
Longshan Temple
I found myself at the same temple that I wasted valuable time at the day before.It had a totally different feel to it in the daytime with children playing in the courtyard and running along the hallways of the temple. This kid had one of those big double-side tops that they swing around in Chinese acrobatic shows. He wasn't so good and kept flinging it across the courtyard.A tired old man even took some time to rest his feet from all the walking.
Folk Arts Museum
It took over an hour of retracing my steps through twisted alleys and going around in circles to find this darn place. The signs were terrible, and often pointed into the wrong direction. One sign actually pointed into the small space between two buildings that was full of weeds. And it wasn't just me that was lost. I kept bumping into the same Taiwanese people wandering the alleys; we were all looking for the same place. I finally spotted the large building over a wall, and circled around to find the entrance.It used to be the home of one of the 4 richest men in Taiwan, and is now full of old musical instruments, clothes, cooking utensils (I had no interest in any of those things) and several rooms set up with furniture so you could imagine how people lived back then (much more interesting).

The Symbol of Lukang
I got lost (yet again) and followed a really wide road thinking it would lead me somewhere (it didn't and I had to retrace my steps back to the cramped part of town). Lukang used to be a port full of deer, and along the big road I found a park. I found myself face-to-face with this butt-ugly creature. It was right there to greet everyone at the front entrance (or scare them away).This time, I made it back to the bus station on my own without having kind ladies drive me there on their motorbikes. And before dark, too.

Taiwan Day 3 - Changhua and Lukang (sort of)

2008-04-10T00:47:00.023+09:00

Next stop - Changhua　彰化
I headed south and away from the rain. It was warmer down here, and I could use some of the clothes I'd brought with me!

In a city of 234,000 people, I expected the train station to be big and modern, not cramped and dirty and full of sweaty taxi drivers trying to get you in their cab. They chew on betel nut and have rotten, stained teeth (those teeth that were still left). You could see the red juice oozing from their lips. From my bag they knew I was travelling and were all looking at me and shouting, but I didn't know how to say, "My hotel is right across the street" so I just smiled and shook my head as I scurried past.

In the evening this entire area was jam-packed with people on motorbikes waiting to pick up friends and loved ones coming home from work or school. The sound of so many motorbikes combined with the shouting of people calling to who they were waiting for was deafening, but it had that warm feeling of people looking forward to seeing those they care about.

The town itself felt like it had been left behind while Taipei had modernized. The plaster on the buildings was crumbling off and streaked with black pollution stains; the streets were covered in a layer of dirt and belting up in places; there were peddlers selling things from carts and men that looked homeless sitting around on the sidewalk. It reminded me of towns that I'd visited in rural parts of Northeastern Thailand, or the dirty parts of Tijuana, Mexico.

The Hotel
This town was so cheap! For starters, the hotel cost the same as the hovel I stayed at in Taipei, but I had my own room with a bath, a refrigerator, air conditioning, cable TV, and free long-distance calls. I loved the Taiwanese style of the room, and the lady at the front desk was so kind. She couldn't speak a word of English (I had the tourist office in Taipei help me make the reservation) so we communicated by writing things down on paper and I used my knowledge of Chinese characters to make out what she was trying to tell me.
Food
Interesting contrast from the day before. In Taipei there were lots of modern-style restaurants that had things like menus, waitresses, cleanliness. Here in Changhua there were lots of carts selling scary-looking food, and being vegetarian made it hard for me to just try things randomly. I memorized the phrase, "I'm vegetarian." and said it to a cart lady to see what she could give me, but she shook her head and pointed down the street. I walked a little further then asked someone else, who again pointed down the road. Eventually I ended up at a shop with this in front.Yes, it looks gross and dirty and not vegetarian, but the lady didn't point down the road when I said I was vegetarian, and the sign above the food had the Chinese character for "vegetarian" in it. I didn't know what anything was and the lady seemed to think that speaking extra loudly would make me understand, which I thought was kind of funny. Plus it was kind of chaotic with people ordering from all around me because there wasn't a line. Then she grabbed a handful of noodles and gave me a questioning look, so I smiled and said, "Yes!" in English. Then she pointed to the bubbling pot with all kinds of stuff in it, and honestly I had no idea what I would get but I said "Yes!" anyway. I got this:So cheap! It cost about $1.50 and was pretty good. In the left bowl, the red thing on the noodles that looks like meat is some kind of pressed and marinated tofu that feels like biting into bits of chicken. In the right bowl of soup, the stuff that looks like chicken skin and pork is made from the thick layer that forms on the top of soy milk when you heat it.

Behind the food cart was a small sitting area. I shared a table with a lady eating alone and watched her closely, copying how she ate. I used the sauce she used, mimicked how she put sauce in the spoon and used chopsticks to dip the noodles into it. She smiled when she realized what I was doing.

I discovered there were basically three things you could order here: a bowl of noodles, a bowl of soup, or a bowl of soup with noodles. For dinner I had all 3 plus another bowl of noodles and thought my stomach would burst (it actually hurt). All four bowls cost less than $3. You can't beat that.

Confucius Temple
I thought I couldn't go into the grounds because the giant front gates were closed, but there was an opening in the wall around the corner. It was so peaceful with no one around. Below on the left you can see the groundskeeper, who seemed to be keeping an eye on me, making me wonder if I shouldn't have been there.On both sides of the main temple were empty classrooms. The groundskeeper came in and stood at the back of the room to see what I was doing in there (pretending to be a good student).
Old Dutch Well
Hundreds of years ago the Dutch had control of Taiwan, and you can still find some remains of those days, like this old well. The guidebook made it sound interesting, but seeing a woman washing her clothes in it kind of took away from the historical experience.
Big Buddha
The third and final thing to see in this town according to the guidebook was the Big Buddha at the top of a hill. Instead of following the main road I walked up the dry riverbed and enjoyed the scenery.The Buddha was huge (in the foreground there's a man to the left of the tiger statue) but was pretty tacky up close. The pink base looked old and faded, and there were windows in the Buddha's back. You could go inside and see mannequin-like displays depicting the main points of Buddha's life, but the explanations were wordy and strange.Monkly dude chilling on the blue chairs.
Lost in Lukang 鹿港
I was finished seeing the main sights of Changhua, so I decided to catch a bus to the nearby town of Lukang to see some sights there before it got dark. Knowing Chinese characters really helped in getting the tickets. The bus station was absolutely packed, full of students who had just gotten out of school and people who were heading home from work. There were only two ticket machines (and strangely no ticket desk with a human to help out) with about 50 people crowded around them. Once I made it to the machine I only had a few seconds to get my ticket, and everything was completely written in Chinese. I pushed the button for Lukang, got my ticket, and stood in line to wait for the bus. It didn't come for a while, and at 4:30pm I started debating whether or not it was getting too late to explore another town, and if I should just scrap my bus ticket and try again the next day. The guidebook said it was a 30 min. ride to Lukang, so I figured there was enough time to see a little of the town before hopping on a bus back to Changhua before it got dark, like around 6:30pm? This was my first mistake: even the best estimate only gave me an hour to spend in Lukang, and I was assuming everything would go smoothly.

After an hour on the bus I started seeing signs that told me I was in the town of Lukang. The guidebook must have meant a 30min. ride if there are no cars on the road, so it was already dusk when I got there. When the bus made a stop on a wide road (well, wide enough for two cars to pass each other without one stopping to let the other one swerve around) the majority of the people on the bus stood up to get off, so I asked the driver, "Lukang?" and he said yes. That's why I got off there, too. This is what I saw:No English whatsoever, and nothing to tell me where to go. One of my problems was that my map was written in English, but the signs in the town were in Chinese. I could recognize the characters, but I didn't know how to pronounce them to find myself on the map. The sign says 三民 but which road could it be... Minzu? Minquan? Sanshu? Also, the signs were old and bent, and sometimes pointing in the wrong direction.

I followed the crude map in the guidebook and counted the number of blocks as I passed them, turning left and right where appropriate. But I never reached the temple I was trying to find. In fact, I'd been walking in a straight line for quite a while when there should have been cross-streets already. Mistake number two: I'd gotten off at the wrong stop, and was lost.

I retraced my steps and made it back to the bus stop that I'd gotten off at. In the distance I noticed an arrow-shaped sign with characters I recognized on it. It was the direction of a temple that I thought I wouldn't have time to see because it was on the other side of the city. So then I understood: I was in Lukang, but on the opposite side of the city that I thought I was in.

If I could make it to the temple, then I could find myself on the map and get to the bus that would take me back to Changhua. Hopefully before dark.

Lukang's Longshan Temple
I found the ancient temple and couldn't resist exploring a little. Mistake number 3: I spent valuable time looking around when I should have been trying to find the bus stop. At this point I still thought I had time to spare. At least it was beautiful, being the best preserved Qing Dynasty temple in Taiwan.I liked the pillars carved from stone. The ceiling beams were carved, too, and they were probably originally painted in bright colors.Gettin' jiggy with it.When I left the temple the sun was low in the sky and it would be completely dark within the hour. I made my way to the bus stop, but the roads were narrow and winding, and it was hard to tell what was an alley and what was a road on the map. After twisting and turning I had no idea which direction I was facing, but kept on my way.

You guessed it, I got lost again. I'd been walking for a half hour and the signs for Longshan Temple were pointing in a direction that I didn't expect the temple to be. I'd walked in a great big circle. So I set off again, this time at a faster pace because of lost time. Then it got completely dark, and I was still lost.

It was a small town, and there weren't any taxis roaming the streets like in Changhua or Taipei. All the signs were in Chinese. I started to get nervous. I didn't know what time the last bus to Changhua was... what if I missed the last bus back? Mistake number 4: I lost my calm. I started heading into the general direction of where I thought the bus stop was at a fast pace. And because of the winding roads and lack of sun to tell me the direction, I was just guessing.

Eventually it occurred to me to write down the Chinese characters of the bus stop I wanted to go to on a sheet of paper. I looked for someone to show it to, knowing that I wouldn't understand the directions they gave me anyway, but I had to try something.

A woman about my age had been selling flowers on the side of the road and was putting her things away. I asked if she could help me, and showed her the characters for the bus stop. She pointed, then frowned like she wanted to tell me something but knew I wouldn't understand. She paused for a moment, then said in English, "I bring you." I'd been walking for a while and knew the bus stop should be closeby, so I gestured that I could head in that direction and ask someone else along the way. But she repeated, "I bring you" and handed me a helmet. I got on her motorbike and we drove. For longer than I'd expected. And made lots of turns. Holy cow, I was really far from the bus stop. Apparently I'd been walking pretty fast because of the adrenaline in my system, in the wrong direction.

We made it to the bus stop and I hopped onto one of the last buses of the night. If it hadn't been for the kindness of the flower lady, I would never have made it to the bus stop and back to Changhua.

Taiwan Day 2 - Taipei

2008-04-09T20:13:00.021+09:00

The Palace Museum
I've never been impressed with Chinese art, and now I know why. During the cultural revolution, all the beautiful artifacts in China were destroyed. What I've seen up until now has been the second-rate stuff that survived the revolution. However, before the revolution when Chiang Kai Shek fled China he brought with him to Taiwan thousands of artifacts and works of art, saving them from being destroyed. Many of the best works are on display at the Palace Museum's permanent collection, and the rest are rotated monthly in the special exhibits on the first floor. Supposedly there are so many items in the collection that even if I were to visit every month for the rest of my life, I wouldn't be able to see everything. Naturally China wants them back, which is one of the reasons why it has been trying to take Taiwan.I was amazed. I couldn't believe my eyes. I kept asking myself the same questions over and over... How did someone make this? How long did it take? What tools did they use? There were a lot of things that I wouldn't have believed were possible to make, but they were sitting there right before me. Most museums are filled with things that are valuable because they're old. This museum was filled with things that were old, but valuable because they're beautiful.

I'm totally opposed to poaching elephants for their tusks, but I guiltily have to admit that the ivory pieces were by far my favorite. I spent almost thirty minutes staring at one piece in particular. It was a hanging ornamental decoration made of several ivory pieces, and the part I couldn't keep my eyes off of was an elaborately carved sphere the size of a baseball. It looked like a cluster of dragons and flowers laced together to form an ivory sphere. Inside the sphere was another elaborately carved sphere. The skill the artist must have had to carve designs into the inner sphere through the designs of the outer sphere without cracking the ivory was just mind-boggling. And it didn't stop there, there was another sphere within that one. In fact there were 17 concentric spheres, but you could only catch glimpses of the inner spheres through the carved designs of the outer ones. How does someone make something like that while keeping the outer spheres intact??? It may just be the most beautiful thing I have, and ever will see, in my life.

I also spent time examining the details in a collection of small ivory boxes. Each box was roughly the size of my pinky fingernail, yet had perfectly symmetrical patterns carved into them that you could view through a giant magnifying glass. It looked like the boxes were made of a mesh of white threads, except they were carved from ivory. Some of them were attached to chains made of carved ivory links, and each link was no bigger than a grain of sand. The links had to have been carved in that shape, not cut and glued together. How could anyone have the skill or patience to make such a thing?

There was a tiny boat, and inside the rooms you could see people having tea, or playing games on tiny tables. The people were smaller than a grain of rice. How do you carve such detail through a window the size of a pinhead? Resting in the center of the boat was a three-story pagoda with movable windows and doors, yet the entire pagoda was only the size of my pinky until the first joint. I just can't begin to describe the detailed designs.

There were a lot of other beautiful things made during a time when craftsmen competed with each other to create innovative works of art, like miniature bottles with elaborate scenery painted on the inside, using a tiny curved brush.

Obviously no photos were allowed, or I would have filled up my entire digital card in the museum. I would go back to Taiwan just to visit the museum again.

Falun Gong and Organ Harvesting
A few weeks ago while looking up news topics to discuss in one of my English classes, I came across an article about the illegal trade of organs. I learned that many poor countries have an organ blackmarket, and the article briefly mentioned that China sells the organs of executed prisoners.

Then through another article I learned that China executes more criminals per year than the rest of the world combined, many of whom were imprisoned for the crime of free thinking. Shockingly, many of the executions are carried out so that the organs can be harvested and sold to people in other countries looking for organ transplants. There was a detailed report about it on CNN with interviews of Americans who had gone to China for transplants and didn't know that people were executed to obtain the needed organs.

On my second day in Taipei, I met a woman who was handing out fliers. I said I didn't speak Chinese, so she gave me an English one. I briefly perused the flier while walking away, and when I realized that it was about protesting the executions and organ harvesting of political criminals in China, I went back to find out more. It turned out she spoke impeccable English and was from France, and was only visiting family in Taiwan for a short time. She wants people to know what China has been doing, and I had so many questions that she gladly answered. It must be hard standing out in the rain while people ignore you or take a flier just to be polite, so when I expressed interest she eagerly shared whatever she could.

She practices a meditation style called Falun Gong (like Yoga or Tai Chi) that became popular in China in the 1990s. The government banned it because it focusses on cultivating a spiritual mind, and arrested and tortured the leaders of the group in China. Some of them were cremated before releasing the remains to relatives, to hide the fact that their organs were taken and sold.

She explained that most Chinese people don't even know what their country is doing because of the suppression of information. The internet is monitored and sites are prohibited. Many of the Chinese people that she'd met had accused her of exaggerating or making up stories because they can't believe their government would do such a thing. They live in the bubble of information that the Chinese government has created and maintains. Many famous people from other countries are boycotting the Beijing Olympics because of China's record of atrocities on human rights, although I've forgotten the names that she rattled off.

Today I looked up a website with more information on Falun Gong and feel terrible for the people being persecuted as well as hatred towards a government that would not only allow this kind of thing to happen but actually implements persecution and torture. On Wikipedia it says

There are particular concerns over reports of torture, illegal imprisonment including forced labour, and psychiatric abuses. Falun Gong related cases comprise 66% of all reported torture cases in China, and at least half of the labour camp population. Since 2006, Falun Gong has alleged systematic organ harvesting from living practitioners, and an investigation led by two Canadian parliamentarians, David Kilgour and David Matas, has lent support to the claims.

I don't want to believe it, but all signs point to it being true. So what can I do? For now letting people know what's happening is a step. In class I'll share the fliers that she gave me.

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall
The enormous monument (the black dot at the base of the doorway is a person) is set in the middle of a garden full of winding pathways and ponds, which I didn't explore because of the rain. And actually that's not even the name of the hall anymore. Last year the government changed the name of the hall to the "National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall" as part of its plan to erase Chiang Kai Shek's name from all public buildings. I'm not sure why. For example, the Chiang Kai Shek airport is now called Taoyuan Airport, and on the airport buses you can see the outlines of where they scraped off the old name and painted the new one on.I love the sign near the doorway. Luckily, I was dressed appropriately that day.The star-shaped sun design of the high ceiling was pretty cool. Inside the vast hall was a gigantic statue of Chiang Kai Shek, and on the walls were the names of the people killed in the 228 Massacre. The names might only be a temporary exhibit, considering the way the flowers were plastered onto the wall and the names were handpainted, and also the names don't appear in other photos I've seen of the hall. I like the way the flowers were jutting out of the wall.So what's the 228 Massacre? I didn't know until I went to Taiwan. Shortly after the Republic of China gained control of Taiwan, a police officer used his gun to beat an elderly Taiwanese woman who refused to have her blackmarket cigarettes confiscated, and a crowd formed and someone got shot. An even bigger crowd of angry citizens formed, and on February 28, 1947 security forces were given permission to use machine guns against a crowd of demonstrators, which led to a period of martial law, the shooting of anyone who violated curfew, looting, rapes, executions, people vanishing etc. Talk of the incident was forbidden so the next generation grew up without knowing it had happened, and only recently in 1995 a public apology was given.

I was about to leave when I noticed an elevator hidden in the corner. The sign inside was only written in English, suggesting that it was meant solely for foreign tourists. As you know, we foreigners are filthy with disease.I hadn't realized it until I stepped out of the elevator, but the base of the memorial was 3 floors of additional rooms, with exhibits of Chiang Kai Shek's personal items (even two of his cars) and some rotating art exhibitions. Since I ignored history in school and don't know much about Chiang Kai Shek, seeing his old briefcase and uniforms wasn't very exciting for me.

Taipei 101
At 509 meters it's the world's tallest building, at least until 2009 when the building in Dubai is completed. I like the shape and how the lights are a different color depending on the day of the week. On Monday it was red. How do they make such a tall building withstand both typhoons and earthquakes? If Taiwan can do it, it's only a matter of time before Japan follows suit.You can pay to take the fastest elevator in the world and hang out on the observatory deck, but since it was rainy with little visibility, I didn't see the point. There's a separate door to get to the offices, which I found out when I tried to enter and a big scary guard stopped me at the door. He had a low voice and menacing face. I didn't need to speak Chinese to understand that he didn't want me going in that way.

Taiwan Day 1 - Taipei arrival

2008-04-09T17:19:00.013+09:00

I just got back from 8 days in Taiwan. Most people stay in Taipei a couple nights to see a few monuments, eat at the night market, then head back home. That's not good enough for me. When I travel I want to get a feel for the place; get to know the culture.

I was worried that the major holiday called "Tomb Sweep" was the weekend smack in the middle of my trip. I had planned to make my way down to the southern part of the country stopping in towns along the way, so as soon as I arrived I checked on train schedules. The holiday didn't affect my travel schedule much, and in fact Tomb Sweep made my vacation so much better. "Tomb Sweep" is a major cultural holiday where everyone goes home to worship their ancestors and spend time with their families, and because it's a holiday there was so much energy in the air with a ton of events going on. But we'll see more of that later. For now let me tell you about my interesting first day.

The Hostel in Taipei
For some reason my reservation at the hostel had been cancelled. I'd reserved for two nights through an on-line website then received confirmation from the owner, Raul, a Mexican who had moved to Taiwan 6 years ago. He wasn't there when I arrived, so his Taiwanese wife called him to figure out what to do. There was space in the other hostel that he runs so I went there.

I thought about what had happened. The website charged 15% of the fee for my two-night reservation to my credit card, and I was supposed to pay the rest upon arrival. The website probably takes the 15% as a cut for introducing their hostel, so by saying that my reservations were cancelled they can ask me for the full amount directly. I only lost out about $6 so it wasn't worth making a fuss over.

The place had character. It was on the top floor of a 9-story building, and set up like a small apartment with lots of tiny bedrooms coming off of a central, dirty living room. The living room was partly lit by a dim light bulb and the lack of light made the place feel like a hovel. The toilet was in the kitchen, separated by a curtain. The shower was in a plastic box on the balcony.

In the photo you can see a covering, but that's on the building next door. It was raining and sopping wet out there. The view from the balcony was simply ugly.There was a patch of hairy mould on the bed sheet. I didn't intend on spending much time there anyway and on the plus side it was close to the center of the city, but it was the perfect example of "you get what you pay for".

Hostels are usually full of young travellers eager to share their experiences, but the guys staying there were older than me and had been there for a while. It was a cheap place to live while they looked for jobs. I didn't feel like talking with any of them much, and only came back to the hostel to sleep.

Weather - cold and rainy
I thought it would be hot in Taiwan. I'd brought shorts and short-sleeved shirts, and the only warm clothes I had were what I'd been wearing when I left Japan. I ended up spending my first night shopping for clothes cheap enough that it wouldn't bother me if I never wore them again. Department stores were too expensive so I wandered alleys and popped into small shops until I found some long-sleeved t-shirts that I could layer under the t-shirts I'd brought. I wasn't too thrilled thinking about having to wear the same pair of pants for 8 days, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

And that's how my adventures in Taiwan began.

Haircut and Jumper

2008-03-31T01:19:00.011+09:00

I got a haircut today. But didn't I just get one a little while ago? Since I'm going to Taiwan for 8 days and will be staying in cheap hostels with shared bathrooms, I decided to get a low-maintenance do that I won't have to spend time on. I went to my hairdresser and said, "I might not be able to take a shower for the next week, so give me something that's easy to style."

This is what I got. I don't like it. He tried to keep it stylish which I appreciate, but now I've got widower's peaks. He cut that part extra short to emphasize the semi-mohican look and it looks like I've got a receding hairline. At least hair grows back.Oh yeah, so I'm going to Taiwan for a week. When I found out that my workplace is closed for spring vacation, I daydreamt about going to Italy or Egypt, but I was just too busy to plan anything and then all of a sudden the vacation was upon me. I didn't want to just sit around my apartment the whole time so I looked up some places to go.

Taiwan and Hong Kong were the best options - cheap and close, and signs are in English so travelling by myself with little planning would be okay. The bookstore didn't have any English travel guides for Hong Kong, so I got the Taiwan book and reserved a ticket. The travel agent told me to just show up at the airport counter and they'll print me a boarding pass. I'm a little wary of this ticketless system.

It's been a while since I've travelled alone. I booked a single room at a hostel in Taipei for my first two nights, and if I feel comfortable I'll try for dorm beds when I head south. I've got my heart set on some mountain temples in remote villages, but that depends on if I can get train tickets heading out of Taipei. I'll be there during a long weekend and everyone might be travelling.

To get back to the title of this post. After my haircut I went to see Jumper. You might be wondering why I've been seeing so many movies lately when they cost $18 a pop. My credit card is connected to the movie theater, so the more I use the credit card, the more free movie tickets they send me (I pay all my bills and buy all my groceries using this card). For the past five years I've been collecting these tickets, and they all expire this coming August. Thus, the sudden movie spree.

The effects were good but I didn't like the main character's personality. He was a bit too selfish and egotistical for my tastes. I wonder if that's how he's portrayed in the book, which I'll have to read simply because it's written by Stephen Gould. What a fantastic author. My first touch with Stephen Gould was through required reading at university, probably because he deals with topics related to science and technology and my university was overrun with pre-meds. I didn't realize he wrote fiction. Most of what I read dealt with evolutionary anomalies and biological hypotheses.

And that's all for now. Goodnight!

The Golden Compass

2008-03-28T00:28:00.003+09:00

Starting today my workplace is closed for spring vacation!! We don't get any national holidays but two weeks of spring vacation makes up for that.

After finishing some errands in Oita City I decided to check out a movie. The Japanese title was pretty dumb (Lyra's Adventures) but the Narnia-like smell attracted me to it.

I loved it. There were interesting side plots and secrets left untold. It not only kept my interest but pulled me into that world, and kept me wondering what life would be like having our souls beside us in physical form. If you check out the official site you can watch the first five minutes of the movie and learn a little about the world the movie takes place in.

When I got home I did a little searching to find out more about the movie and discovered that a lot of people didn't like it, simply because it wasn't loyal to the book. I guess some people are unforgiving of artistic liberties and don't realize that it's impossible to turn hundreds of pages of detail into a 2-hour visual story. Personally I enjoy movies more when they differ from the books because we aren't simply watching what we expect to happen, and have something to look forward to. Also if I've read a book before the movie, I don't want the movie to try and replace the images I had while reading the book, which are usually much better.

In any case, I'll try to find the book to see if it can answer some questions I had while watching the movie. And since the book is supposedly different, I'll probably be able enjoy it by itself as a separate story.

White Day

2008-03-14T22:30:00.008+09:00

In Japan there are numerous occasions where a gift is appropriate and often required, and today happens to be one of those times. March 14th is known in Japan as White Day, where men have an obligation to give presents to the girls that gave them chocolate on Valentine's Day (on which day girls feel an obligation to give chocolate to male coworkers, friends, etc).

Here's my rather bitter take on Valentine's Day and White Day.

In my humble opinion, gift-giving should come from the heart. It should be about generosity and sharing. I feel that if you give someone a gift and expect something in return simply because you gave them something, the focus turns away from the person receiving the gift and onto yourself, which makes the act of gift-giving seem a bit selfish. And for the person on the receiving end, having to give something because it's required of you makes gift-giving become a simple act of reciprocity, without any of the feeling that makes gifts special.

Having said that, there was one gift that I put some thought into. On Valentine's Day you see a lot of truffles, small chocolate squares and round bon-bons in pretty little boxes. For the most part you're paying for wrapping and presentation. In the case of a friend's mother, she gave me 10-pieces of individually wrapped chocolate that were tied into a stack. Each 2-inch square piece is a simple flat piece of chocolate mixed with a variety of unique flavors, and she chose that one because its originality and simplicity stood out from everything else in the store. I got home and ate the first piece thinking the tiny stack probably cost about $20.

I should preface this by saying that I spent the last month testing different chocolates to figure out what makes some more expensive than others, and after eating tons of chocolate that cost more than $3 a piece, my tastes have become sensitive to good quality chocolate. You'd probably think I was retarded if you heard how much I spent on this "taste-test" so I'm keeping that a secret. Anyhow, after eating the first piece in the stack, I realized that each piece probably cost between $4 and $6 and there were ten of them. Pretty shocking, but believable when thinking about how much this woman spends on other stuff (sometimes it's nice to have friends from wealthy families!).

Since she had spent time trying to find something original, I got something unique for her. If this were back in the States, I'd be weirded out thinking it was for a friend's mother, but since it's Japan that makes it okay. I found a store in Kyoto that sells a high quality tea called Uji Matcha and they were selling sweets for White Day. I had some delivered and got some for myself, too, because they looked really good and I wanted to know what makes Uji Matcha so good.White chocolate covered in Uji Matcha Tea powder. So nice! Not too sweet and the tea blends well with the white chocolate. They just melt in your mouth. Each piece is about the size of my pinky finger until the first bend. There were twenty in the small box and I greedily ate them all in one go.I absolutely love these! The outside is Cherry Blossom mochi and the inside is some kind of paste made with Uji Matcha. The tea is fragrant but not overwhelming. So smooth and creamy. Green tea usually has a bitter aftertaste, but this one doesn't taste bitter at all and is so good! I might have to order more before they sell out! (I won't tell you the price, because again, you'd think I was retarded.) They look kind of big in the photo, but each one is the size of when you put your thumb and forefinger together to make a circle. They come six in a box, and I forced myself to use restraint by not eating them all in one go. I gobbled up three yesterday, and just had the other three a minute ago.

Additionally for myself I got some Green Tea mixed with toasted rice (Genmai Cha) and flavored with Uji Matcha. I haven't opened the package yet but can't wait to try that out, too!

Warcraft

2008-03-10T23:44:00.003+09:00

I have the potential within me to be a total game nerd, but unfortunately lack the time to feed my game cravings and let them blossom into a full-blown obsession. I was in university when the Playstation came out and since I didn't even have a TV during those four years, I didn't have the option of rotting my brain through video games, and had to rely on simple alcohol. Then I came to Japan and bought a Playstation, but I couldn't play anything because of the language barrier so my Playstation got more use as a DVD player (game consoles and software are marked by region, so my Japanese playstation only plays Japanese games). I missed the whole X-Box rush that happened back in the States because it never made it over here.

Last night I was reminiscing about how back in university someone had installed a game called Warcraft on one of the computers in the lounge, which (to my downfall?) I discovered and became addicted to. I couldn't stop playing. I loved the thrill of racing to beat the computer... it was tough finding a balance between building up a camp and raiding nearby villages. I generally chose to be the orcish horde and crushed those pesky little humans. The voices of each character were also comical enough that I still remember exactly how they sound when you click on them. My favorite was the peon - it sounded like Scooby Doo was saying "Ready to wooork!"

So anyhow last night I remembered how much I loved Warcraft, and I looked it up. Apparently in 2002, Warcraft 3 came out and there was a link for a downloadable demo. As you can already imagine, the game freak inside me flared to life and I played for 4 hours straight. The demo had whet my appetite and I craved for more. I got on-line and was about to order the full version, but when I saw that international shipping cost more than the original game, the extension pack and two guidebooks put together, my dream came to an abrupt halt. It was fun, but not worth spending that much on shipping.

Then tonight I was talking to someone who happened to mention a game that he just finished playing. Warcraft 3!!! What a coincidence!!! He'll lend it to me next time we see each other. Now if that's not fate then I don't know what is. I'm meant to be a game nerd.

The nerd inside me shall live.

It's only a matter of time before my obsession completely overwhelms me and I become a true game nerd - the kind that's too busy to eat or sleep or shower because the game must come first. The countdown begins...

New pet?

2008-02-27T00:15:00.001+09:00

She was on the curtain when I came home, and I have no idea where she went. She's probably hiding somewhere behind a bookshelf. Or in the closet. Or under the sofa. But not in the bed, please.

Death Note 3 - L Change the World

2008-02-26T23:23:00.003+09:00

After getting my hair cut Sunday I hurried over to Wasada Town to catch this movie, and made it just in time for the previews (which I enjoy, although I sometimes regret that they reveal too much). I bought the book back in December on the day it came out and just haven't had time to get to it yet. I'm still impressed with how they turned the original books, primarily made up of logical arguments and deductive reasoning, into a movie. They were filled with phrases like "If this, then that. But if not that, then this." Then you have to keep those hypothetical situations in mind while reading the next 20 pages to find out what really happened. Anyhow I was impressed with how they made the movies.

Unfortunately the third movie was totally different. I was hoping for some of the wit and plot-twists that made the first two movies interesting, but this one had nothing to do with the mysterious death notes and the first half was poorly scripted. There didn't seem to be any motive behind the characters' actions, and they were violent or sad for odd reasons, or sometimes for no reason at all. The actors did a wonderful job playing their parts, but their lines were weird and the director needs to be fired.

The verdict: I should have waited for it to come out on video. And I'm hoping the book is more interesting.

At the end of a movie I usually wait until the credits finish rolling and the lights come on before I get up to leave. I know a lot of people do this, but I don't know why anyone else does. I do it because it gives me a chance to reflect on the movie and replay favorite scenes in my head while it's still dark and quiet, without any distractions. Occasionally there's an important extra scene at the end that most people miss because they're eager to leave, like in the X-Men. And this one, too.

Haircut

2008-02-25T01:31:00.010+09:00

I generally get my haircut every three months, and it was about that time again. I wanted to try something new instead of getting the same old thing, so I've been paying attention to everyone's hair and found a style I like:

Long bangs combed to the side, with short messy hair on top.

But how to describe what I want using words? That never goes well. When you're describing what you want, I suspect the hairdresser is already imagining what to cut and only half-listening. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I found this on-line and mailed it to my cell phone:

I like how it turned out! I have to grow my bangs a bit longer to get it how I want, but here's what it looks like now:
Since I was the last customer of the evening and the only one in the shop, the staff seemed a lot more relaxed and talkative than usual. The owner saw my boots and asked where I got them. He only wears boots to work because he can't stand it when hair gets in his shoes and pokes his feet all day. Then I looked around to see what kind of footwear everyone else had on, and one guy was wearing simple sneakers. The owner was like, "This guy always comes to work in low-cut shoes, and he usually doesn't even wear socks. Can you believe it?" Apparently the feeling of hair poking his feet doesn't bother him all that much, but it totally irritates his wife when he comes home and gets hair all over the place. Hmmm... behind the scenes stuff I've never thought about before.

My new favorite song

2008-02-21T00:04:00.002+09:00

After seeing KIDS last week, the theme song just kept replaying itself in my head so I looked it up. The refrain is totally catchy.

Makihara Noriyuki has a bunch of other songs out, but I never paid much attention to him when he appeared on music programs and stuff. It's amazing how much impact movies have on my attention. If it weren't for the movie, I probably wouldn't have even noticed this song.

I like the meaning of it. I believe the purpose of life isn't to leave our mark on the world, but to help others along on their way to doing good for themselves. The song sort of shares this sentiment. I think a lot of people enter the medical field because they have dreams of helping others, then unfortunately get caught up in the stress of life and the politics of the industry. I have no qualms about giving up that path. It might not be as hands-on as the medical field, but I love what I do now and know I'm affecting at least a few of the people I come in contact with. I can't say for sure, but I'm hoping it's in a good way!

I'm not so good at translating but roughly it says,

Fearless, I jump ahead in front of me.
I'm led by the path that I'm meant to follow;
it leads me like the dim glow of a firefly.
If I can't find a reason for myself to live,
I want to be the trigger that might bring about someone else's happiness.
That's why I will keep on living.

There were other videos on YouTube with better quality, but this one has the lyrics to follow along with.

How to eat sushi

2008-02-20T22:52:00.003+09:00

This was linked on a friend's blog and I loved it. It's a short guide teaching foreigners the proper way to eat sushi, and I can only hope to see someone following these instructions to a T.

If you want to see it without the YouTube mark blocking the corner of the screen, you can check it out here.

28 Weeks Later

2008-02-19T00:26:00.006+09:00

To follow with a similar title as the previous post, I've decided to review a movie I saw recently. The original film "28 Days Later" was great. After the Rage virus is released and we see a few scenes of people being attacked and torn apart, I love that the movie focussed on plot twists rather than becoming a simple horror flick with "the infected" ravaging the survivors.

The sequel 28 Weeks Later occurs after "the infected" have all died of starvation, and unfortunately is more Hollywood-esque. The first 30 minutes made me think a lot about how a country could be started from scratch, but after the virus infects the first victim the plotline becomes rather linear. Aside from the plotline, I did like how the scenes were well done and you can feel the characters' fear. If you're into horror flicks, it's worth seeing.

One Day Later

2008-02-18T23:16:00.003+09:00

Time heals all wounds, or so they say. I feel much more relaxed than yesterday and have realized a few things. I was under the impression that the plans had changed at the last minute, but actually they had probably changed a while ago and no one had let me know, probably because they thought someone else already had. It was just a bit of miscommunication. I can't blame anyone for this because I could be equally at fault for not having confirmed what time people were coming over.

One thing still bugs me though. The person who let me know about the plan changes apologized in advance, so she knew that I'd already prepared stuff. And even after finding out that I'd taken off work and had been rushing to get things done, her attitude was a simple "oh sorry about that" whereas most people would have asked if the original plan would have been better or at least mentioned the situation to someone else. She seemed completely indifferent to how inconvenienced I was. I keep recalling yesterday in the store when I asked, "By the way when did the plans change?" Her back was turned to me as she walked away, and all she said was "Before." This answer and attitude totally irritate me.

I'm pretty sure she's the one who wanted to go to the batting cages, which makes sense why she pretended like nothing was wrong and hadn't mentioned to anyone how inconvenienced I'd been. The more I think about it, the more her actions seem deliberate.

So that's my verdict on the situation. I don't want to fill up any more blog space with negativity and won't be ranting on about this anymore... unless something else comes up and I need to vent!

The birthday party

2008-02-18T00:16:00.011+09:00

Imagine this. Three weeks ago your friends say they want to have a pizza party at your place. The date is decided. You're quite busy and don't have much free time, so the day before the party you decide to cancel some lessons (we're imagining you have a job as a private tutor) to go home early and clean the apartment and get things ready... and in this case, taking off from work means you don't get paid.

At 11pm, you're just about to leave for the store to buy a few more things before it closes when you get a text message saying that the plan for tomorrow is to meet in downtown Oita at 1:30pm, go to the batting cages, then head over to someone else's place for dinner. What? You're confused, right?

So you send back a message asking if plans for the pizza party have been cancelled. The reply is that you always seem really busy, and with you in mind they decided to change locations, and sorry if you've already gotten stuff ready. What do you do?

You try not to get angry and casually mention that actually you had taken off work to clean the apartment and get everything ready. A half hour later the reply is, "My cell phone battery died so I'm writing from my computer account. Thanks for going so far as taking off from work to clean and stuff. I know we've been talking about having pizza at your place the whole time, but then we realized that you're pretty busy so decided to change plans. We should have let you know sooner. Sorry!" At this point, what would you be thinking?

Personally, I was pissed off. They had me in mind, so they tell me the plans have changed after I'd already gotten stuff ready? You mean to tell me that I took off of work and spent the evening rushing to get stuff ready for nothing? I was incensed. I considered not even showing up to the damn party. But I went anyway because I didn't want my anger to get the better of me.

Thankfully there was another foreigner there who I could talk to and get my mind off of how I felt. I spent my entire time talking with him because simply looking at anyone else put me in a bad mood. I really didn't want to ruin a birthday party. I shouldn't have gone in the first place.

After going to the batting cages we stopped off at a grocery store to pick up stuff to cook at our friend's house. I was standing next to one friend, and when I looked in the basket, there was a bottle of salsa sitting in it. I let it slip how I had actually bought that same bottle of salsa thinking that people were coming over. Then the words just came out... that I was pretty pissed that I'd found out the plans were cancelled after I had taken off work and had already gotten stuff ready. I could feel my blood pressure rising so I walked away.

A minute later I felt someone hug me from behind. It was a different friend. She said, "Sorry, we thought you were too busy so we changed plans." I guess word had spread that I was in a bad mood. But you know what? I don't care what the reason is that the plans were changed, I just find it extremely inconsiderate that no one bothered to tell me until the last minute. And did they really think that telling me at 11pm the night before the party would be appropriate? Any normal person would realize that this would be too late.

Everyone apologized. Sorry. We didn't know you'd already gotten stuff ready. We thought you were too busy so we decided to have the party at someone else's house.

Whatever. I put on my best happy face and said it was okay, that everything was alright. I suppressed my true feelings as best I could because I really didn't want to ruin everyone's day. But I did think about a few things. This situation came about not because of indifference towards me, but because of simple ignorance and a lack of common sense... a combination that leads to inconsiderate behavior and harsh feelings, whether or not it be unintentional. Do I really want to spend time around people who are this clueless? It's sad to say, but I really don't feel the same about this group of friends anymore. I don't feel as eager to hang out with them as I used to.

This just happened today and the irritation is still coursing through my veins. I wonder how long it will take for these bitter feelings to fade.

KIDS

2008-02-16T00:21:00.019+09:00

Sorry for the lag in posts. Busy, busy, busy! Working morning till night with only 4 days off per month (and no national holidays) is starting to take its toll, so I've given away a class to a friend and may have to start finding replacements for the others, ignoring students' pleas to continue teaching them!

A couple friends have their birthdays this month and they decided to have their birthday get-together at my place this coming Sunday, because they want to eat home-made pizza (did I mention I bought a pizza oven on New Year's Day?) and carrot cake (which doesn't exist in Japan - unforgiveable!). Dinner preparation will have to begin after everyone arrives, so I can spend the morning cleaning.... I only have time to clean on my 4 days off, so if I spend a day hanging out with friends or whatnot this place really turns into a dump. At least I'm HOPING this is a dinner gathering. If it's for lunch we might be in for some trouble. I'll have to send out a list of ingredients for people to pick up on the way here. The power of delegation!

In order to go shopping for birthday gifts I got friends to do my evening lessons for me tonight. Shopping went wonderfully and I was done in a little over an hour! This gave me time to see a movie called KIDS that's piqued my curiosity (hence the photo and title).

I like going into a movie without knowing anything about it. Seeing a trailer is sometimes too much information. I want to be surprised and thrilled while sitting in the theater without having any expectations. I chose this movie because the three main characters are played by three of my favorite actors...

Koike Teppei who I first noticed from his playful character in the series DragonZakura. There's something about the quality of his voice and the way that he talks that I like.
Tamaki Hiroshi who a lot of people say is super hot, but I just don't see it. The way he ends his sentences in a slight sigh kind of gets on my nerves, but he plays interesting characters so that makes him alright.
Kuriyama Chiaki who played the crazy girl with the spiky ball weapon in Kill Bill, among other strange roles. The first time I saw her was in Battle Royale, where she played a Middle School student that chases down her classmate and stabs him to death. I love that scene. Such a strong character. With scary eyes.

The premise is simple, but the complicated characters make for an interesting story, which is why I liked it. (Don't read on if you're like me and don't want to know details about a movie before seeing it). Three kids happen to meet randomly and become close friends. Sounds normal so far, right? From the start you realize that they're all kind of weird, then you gradually find out how each one has some kind of psychological hangup that has prevented them from ever making friends with anyone before.

The most interesting of the three is played by Koike Teppei, who moves to the small town to be close to his mother in prison. He can move things with his mind, and shortly after meeting the other two kids realizes that he also has the ability to transfer other peoples' wounds to his own body. His extreme sense of altruism and simple naivete cause him to start absorbing wounds whenever he finds someone hurt, leaving him with bruises and cuts all over the place. He then realizes that he can also transfer wounds to other people, and is convinced to transfer them to his friend's comatose father to save himself from constant pain (and to help his friend satisfy a need for vengeance from having been abused by his father).

This ability is what makes the story interesting, and is what made me think a lot about what the movie might be trying to get at.

Moral #1: All wounds heal, and we were meant to have them because they make us stronger.
Moral #2: Scars become a part of us and we'll miss them if they disappear.
Moral #3: We shouldn't hurt others, no matter who they are.

Pretty sappy, eh?

Just wait till the ending. It's your typical Japanese ending to a film, the kind that spends the last 20 minutes trying to make the audience cry. Come to think of it, that's a Hollywood staple, too.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T22:31:00.000+09:00

Last night I went back to the shrine that I'd visited last year. I wanted to return the omikuji or "written oracle" that I had been keeping in my wallet and pull a new one for the coming year. After holding onto it for a year you're supposed to return the omikuji to the shrine so the priests can burn them and release the luck gods . . . or something like that. This year I pulled a "No luck". . . shoot. So I followed the tradition of tying it to a tree to reverse any negative effect it might have on my luck. I don't really believe that these fortunes write my destiny, but there's no harm in doing it anyway :)

And on the way home, it snowed. More like a slight flurry, actually. But it was the first snow I've seen this winter (hello global warming?), and a great way to start the first hours of the new year. Incidentally it's the Year of the Rat, and I have no idea how that affects us. If you have time, check the placemat at a Chinese restaurant (I think that might only be an American thing... I've never come across that in Japan or China).

Then this morning I tried something new I've never done before. I got up earlier than my body wanted to (that's not the new part) . . . then drove into Oita City to be a part of the crowd of people eagerly waiting to rush into Forus (a department store in downtown Oita) the moment it opened.

Big stores prepare a limited number of special "Grab Bags" full of stuff that are sold for a super cheap price only on the first of the year, and you see scenes on the news of huge crowds fervently shoving their way into store buildings as soon as the doors open on January 1st. But there wasn't as big of a crowd as I was hoping to experience, and a quick walk to one of my favorite stores was enough time to get there before all the bags were sold out. And there were some "Agate" bags - a brand that makes a lot of stuff that I like! Last week I saw a sign advertising which brands had prepared Grab Bags and what kinds of things might be in them, and a lot of it was stuff I might not like. But finding Agate bags was a pleasant surprise.

There were red, white, black, and brown bags... supposedly each containing different styles. I took a moment to ponder which one to get, but not too long because wild hands were grabbing for bags and they were disappearing fast. $600 of merchandise stuffed into bags being sold for $100. I heard the clerk saying the brown ones had the most stuff in them so I grabbed one, figuring more stuff means a better likelihood of liking something in there. I'm not much of a risk taker and it seemed best to even out my odds than try for a bag with only a few items and having it be a hit or miss.

It was my first time and I had no idea what to expect. What if they fill the bags with junk that they couldn't sell last year? What if I paid a hundred bucks only to find the bag full of pink furry coats and shirts sparkling with glitter? So I only bought one. A brown one, the one sitting closest to me.When I got home I opened the bag to find that everything was brand new, and still wrapped in the plastic! I sort of assumed that stores sell them cheap because it's old stuff they couldn't get rid of, but looks like I was totally wrong!I love EVERYTHING. What a great bargain. Take a look at my spoils of war... What a cute shirt! The back says "Life works" in fancy calligraphic lettering, in case I ever start having suicidal tendencies. I absolutely love this one. In shiny gold lettering it says, "Mud looks good on me. Supermodels are hot. Yes. They're all beautiful and slim. Save a horse. Ride a cowgirl."Sexy clubbing shirt, if I ever go to Osaka or Fukuoka for the night scene.Nice versatile shirt for work or play! I'm not sure what I think of the wrinkles though. It was twisted into knots and tied up with a rubber band to keep the wrinkles, but I'll probably end up ironing it out.A wrinkly plaid shirt... and the perfect color! I donated all my flannel plaid shirts from my university days to the Salvation Army, and now that plaid is in again I regret having done so. Now I'm one step closer to having my collection reborn.A sparkly, glittery scarf is cool, but too dressy for me. I can't think of an occasion I'd wear it to. Probably the least useful thing in the bunch, but I still love it.A dressy velvet jacket that I could wear with the sparkly scarf, if only there were some occasion I could wear it to. Maybe I should try working part-time at a host bar.And for the final item... the one that makes the $100 price tag totally reasonable and the one I'll probably get the most use out of... the black puffy coat. It's just amazing. Last week I realized how popular puffy coats have become and started wanting one. I looked around in a few shops but didn't come across one I liked, and now I get the perfect one in a grab bag. The fur on the hood is just the right length and the perfect softness, too. Some of the ones I tried made my neck itchy or made me feel like an eskimo.Conclusion: Agate Grab Bags are fantastic! Well worth the money and I'm definitely picking one up again next year.

Actually I also bought a Grab Bag from the store next to the one that sold the Agate bags. They sold accessories. I've been wanting some kind of necklace... I figured leaving it to luck might be a great way to get something without having to shop around and deliberate over hundreds of pendants.

When I got home I opened this bag, too, and compared to my excitement over the Agate stuff this one was a total disappointment. It was full of stuff I'll never use. Sure it's a good deal for the price I paid, but if you can't use it it's crap; it doesn't matter how expensive the original price might be.

When am I gonna wear a pendant of a pot leaf?

Nice earrings. Too bad I don't have holes for them.

An unengraved pendant. I doubt I'll ever get around to having something put onto it.

As keychains go, this one's pretty cool. You can only see the front half of a person bending over, and the other half is hidden behind the cardboard. Too bad I don't use keychains - too many things on the ring take up too much space in my pocket.

A shiny linked chain, but doesn't match anything I'd wear. I guess I could use it with the velvet jacket and shiny scarf?

Back in university I seriously thought about getting a tatoo of the Mars-male symbol on my foot - the side facing you when you stand and look down at your feet, midway between the ankle-foot bend and the toes. Unfortunately (luckily?) the shops I went to didn't want to put a tatoo there because of the time it takes to heal (too much movement of the skin) and if the ink didn't stain well it wouldn't look very good, reflecting poorly on the person who inked it. So I remain tatoo-less. The downside of this pendant - it points downward, resembling the Venus-female symbol, or a flower. Too bad the link to the chain isn't in the middle of the piece.

Conclusion: Grab bags from accessory shops suck. Total waste of money. I only sort of liked one thing, and it would have been cheaper to just buy that one instead of a whole bag full of junk. And if given the option of choosing from among a bunch of other pendants, I'd probably find one that I liked better.

But aside from the accessory Grab Bag, all in all it was a great first day. I also bought a pizza oven (yes, it's just for making pizza and came with a baking stone!) and had a nice time people-watching at Park Place. I found some Mossimo Grab Bags there and even though I like a lot of what Mossimo comes out with, the $200 price tag was too much of a gamble for me.

That is all.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T23:46:00.000+09:00

It being Christmas, I decided to start using the bar of "Pine Tree" soap that I picked up from LUSH last week. It lathers into dark green suds and smells just like a wooded forest. It's a great scent, but at $7 a bar it's kind of pricey. Seven bucks for a bar of soap???? I know, I know, it's ridiculous and I was shocked by the price when I bought soap from Lush for the first time a couple years ago. Everything in the shop just smelled so good, so I bought a couple bars and couldn't bring myself to use them because of the price... I just occasionally sniffed them through the wrapper. But then a couple months ago I ran out of my normal bar of soap so I opened one up, and the delicious smell of lemon and honey clinged to my body for hours after taking a shower and I got hooked. It's expensive, but the strong scent is so delicious that it's worth it. So last week I went back to the shop and got a few more soaps, one of which was "Pine Tree".

So now I smell like pines.

Yesterday was nice. I was getting ready to leave to do some errands when I got a mail from a friend asking, "Are you home? Can I come over?" so I decided to wait until she got here. Upon arriving she said that another friend was on her way, and then a couple more were gonna stop by in the evening... so it looked like no errands were going to be done and I started thinking of what to make for dinner - turned out being Spring Rolls (we made them with cheese!) and Tomato Sauce Pasta (I thought everyone put sugar in tomato sauce but apparently not) - a weird combination but I get spontaneity points for throwing together a dinner for five on-the-spot.

Everyone showed up with cakes and presents and it turned into a Christmas party! It was great because I had everyone's presents sitting in the living room and was wondering when we'd be able to meet up. The cat had a great time, too. Everyone spent so much time playing with her that she passed out as soon as everyone left, and didn't wake up even when I pulled on her legs and rolled her around a bit. She always wakes me up in the middle of the night by biting my face so I figured it was time for payback. If I can't sleep, neither can she!

She still doesn't have a name and people seem to think that giving her a name is better than shouting "Hey, no biting!" at her all the time. There were some suggestions but we're still thinking on it.

Oh, and yesterday I heard her hiss for the first time! Chino was lying on the bed and the cat jumped onto her back, hissed ferociously at her hair, then grabbed a clump with her teeth and started pulling and tugging with all her might. I couldn't stop laughing while Chino screamed and the cat did her darndest to try and take a clump out. I eventually pulled the cat off and put her on the ground, but she jumped right back on the bed and made a dash for Chino's hair. No matter how many times I put her down, she immediately went straight for Chino's hair (I think the fur on Chino's jacket was the dangerous threat and the hair just happened to be in the way) so I ended up carrying her the whole time to prevent further attacks, and to prevent Chino from having to go wig shopping. It was so hilarious I couldn't resist a picture. Usually she's so cute and calm... and sometimes I find her in the strangest places. How did she get up there?

Beppu Fantasia

2007-12-24T01:37:00.000+09:00

I went to the Christmas fireworks at Spa Beach tonight. I always go with Kiyoko and Kayoko, and this time there was someone new named "Pinky" that Kiyoko works with. Seriously, that's how she introduced herself. She wore all pink... jacket, skirt, stockings, and bag. And not just any pink, but that obnoxious, fluorescent color associated with highlighters and funky hair. In my mind I instantly classified her as a weirdo, which was probably quite rude of me. But hey, I call 'em as I see 'em.

The fireworks were scheduled for 8pm but Kiyoko was worried about parking so we headed to the beach at 4pm (surprisingly lots of people were already there) and wandered around eating stuff from the food booths, then sat down right in front of the barge where the fireworks were set up. It was the best spot and we were determined to keep it for ourselves, sitting in the cold for hours waiting for the fireworks to start. Thankfully the main stage was to our right where some (not-so-good) bands played and kept us somewhat entertained.

If you can stand the cold, winter fireworks are fantastic. The colors are so crisp and clear... the smoke dissipates quickly in the cold air and you don't get that hazy look from all the moisture and pollen in the air during the summer. There were some new kinds that I'd never seen before... I especially liked the ones that start with an initial burst of color, then each little spark bursts again into another shower of color. The ones that suddenly changed course in mid-air like haphazard rockets were cool, too.

In Japan Christmas is more about romance and is spent with your significant other, which I find so exclusive coming from an upbringing where we spend it with friends and family and is for everyone.

I happen to have Christmas Day off and don't think it'd be right sitting at home by myself (or with the cat that has yet to be named) so I'll probably go out shopping for a coat. My North Face stuff keeps me warm enough, but after 8 years it's time for a change of fashion.

Word Game

2007-12-13T15:18:00.000+09:00

I stumbled upon this word game and got 26 of 33. The remaining 7 are bothering me and if I can't figure them out by the end of the day, I'll resort to internet searching to find the answers!

So far I can't figure out these...

***updated 11:10 p.m.***

6. 52 C in a P (W J)
Finally got it while sitting at my desk. Probably took so long to figure out cuz I haven't touched one in years!

16. 100 C in a D
Thanks, cyano... so true! I can't believe it stumped me!

19. 13 is U F S
Suddenly came to me while driving to work. I like this one - so creative!

28. 23 P of C in the H B
Given my major in university, I should have figured it out sooner!

29. 64 S on a C B
still no clue... 64 Seamen on a Communist Boat?
***Dec 23... I finally figured it out!***

31. 6 B to an O in C
still no clue... 6 Babies to an Oven in Cubes?
***Used the internet to find the answer... I've never played this game and don't know the rules, so would never have gotten it on my own...***

33. 15 M on a D M C
I got the first M, and google told me the rest. I never would have gotten this one in a million years.

I love it!

2007-12-12T23:47:00.001+09:00

A coworker introduced me to this hilarious program that teaches English through aerobics. It aired in the 90s and is another reason why I love this country! If you need more the program is called Zuiikin English and there are a bunch more videos on YouTube!

Careers

2007-12-06T23:57:00.000+09:00

A couple days ago I did a lesson about jobs and personalities in an attempt to help my high school students think about what kinds of careers they'd like to pursue. It got me thinking back to when I had to make that decision for myself.

I remember back in high school having to take a lengthy personality test that was then matched with people who answered the same questions on the test, and who are happy with what they do. The results were over 20 pages long and I remember the conclusion suggesting that I might possibly enjoy a career in Nursing or Medical Research. I guess I sort of followed that path by going the pre-med route and looking for Biomedical Research Positions after graduation, but I'm glad none of that turned out. I love what I do now.

Personalities change over time and I was curious to see what kind of career would fit my current personality. I found a short test and gave it a try. The site suggested these

Possible Career Paths:

Clergy / Religious Work
Teachers
Medical Doctors / Dentists
Alternative Health Care Practitioners, i.e. Chiropractor, Reflexologist
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Counselors and Social Workers
Musicians and Artists
Photographers
Child Care / Early Childhood Development

Looks like I'm currently doing work that fits my personality. It makes sense that I love what I do!

New Cat

2007-11-30T00:22:00.000+09:00

I used to think about how cool it would be to raise wildcats as normal housepets, if only they weren't so dangerous. Then last week I found out about this new cross-breed called the Ashera. They have leopard-like spots, are as big as a normal-sized dog, live for about 25 years and can weigh 30 pounds. The Ashera apparently is friendly and good with children, just like any other housecat, but a lot bigger. Unfortunately at $22,000 each they're a little out of my price range. I won't be getting one anytime soon, but thinking about the Ashera made me start thinking about how nice it would be to have a cat.

The more I thought about it the more I wanted one. With leopard-like spots. And preferably female so it won't spray all over the place to mark its territory. I used to think the cats running around my neighborhood had deformed tails until someone told me that they're supposed to look like that - Japanese Bobtails. They're kind of cute, so one of those would be nice.

Then yesterday I came home for lunch and was thinking about cats while walking to the door. I stopped to pull out my keys and out of nowhere a kitten came up and starting rubbing against my legs and purring. I bent down and it jumped into my lap. How weird that it showed up just when I was thinking about cats. In my 7 years here this has never happened before... the strays in the area are so skittish and run away as soon as they see me coming.

I couldn't believe how friendly it was and how it showed up out of the blue, just when I was thinking about what kind of cat I wanted. And in an amazing coincidence it was a short-tailed female, with spots. So I got to thinking... is this some kind of sign? Am I meant to keep it? I decided that if it came into the house, I'd keep it. So I put it down and opened the door. It came into the house.

She started crying loudly while rubbing against my legs. I figured she was hungry but there isn't any meat or fish in the house so I made scrambled eggs, which she seemed to like. She sat next to me the whole time I was cooking. Then after she finished eating she jumped onto my bed and fell asleep. I left her there and bought a kitty litter tray and some cat food. Then I went to work.

When I came home last night she was still in bed. I think she has a cold. Her nose is runny and she keeps sneezing, and she hasn't done anything but sleep the whole time (with an occasional trip to get some water).

Today I kept thinking how her showing up was like a prayer being answered. A prayer for a spotted, short-tailed female cat. And she's so friendy. Last night she kept trying to sleep on my face and today she stayed by my side wherever I happened to be.

But is this fate? Am I meant to keep her? Or could it be that she's so friendly and ran up to me because she's used to people coddling her... that she actually isn't a stray, but belongs to someone in the neighborhood and happened to get out of the house yesterday? Come to think of it she's a healthy size, so has probably been fed regularly. I'm not sure of what I should do.

Idea #1: Put her back outside to let her owner find her again, if she has one. But I worry about her getting run over or beat up by other cats or going hungry.

Idea #2: Just keep her. But then eventually I'll have to look for someplace else to live since my place has a strict no-pets policy.

Idea #3: See if someone else wants her. This doesn't seem like a good idea, since she might already have an owner and plus I want to keep her.

In any case I'll keep my eyes open for the next few days. Perhaps someone has put signs up in the neighborhood for a lost cat. Here are some pictures... you can see how her tail is short with a tiny bump at the end.

Summary of a month

2007-11-10T21:50:00.000+09:00

I always intend on updating this blog. When I have an interesting thought, or see a movie, or recall a noteworthy conversation I tell myself to take a minute to write it down. But then I log in to blogger and suddenly the idea doesn't seem as spectacular as I initially thought, or the conversation sounds dumb out of context, or for whatever reason the post is deemed unworthy of uploading. Or I log in and feel like I have to update posts chronologically, and since there are older posts that I haven't finished yet I should get to those first, but I really don't feel like working on them at the time so in the end I log out without posting a single word.

If I continue on this way I'll end up storing half-finished posts indefinitely, so let's delete all my unfinished posts and settle for a brief summary of some of the things heading for the garbage bin.

Chindy
Chindy died this month. He was my bright red Siamese fighting fish. Because he kept picking on everyone else in the tank, Yoshiko named him by combining the names of two friends who constantly pick on her (Chino and ... someone else). I used to keep photo records of all my fish, but it appears I don't have any of poor Chindy. I was going to flush him down the toilet, but decided that cremation had more dignity so he got thrown into the burnable garbage.

VISA
I turned in my application for a new VISA almost four weeks ago and it still hasn't been processed. I keep getting messages from the immigration office saying, "There's something we need to ask. Please call." When will the questions end? I'm beginning to wonder if my VISA will ever get renewed.

Ants
There were little black ants roaming the living room so I sprayed ant repellant all around the windows and doors. Strangely the spray didn't help and their numbers seemed to be increasing. Then one day I watered an indoor flower pot, and witnessed hundreds of ants clutching white babies rushing from the surface to escape drowning. The critters were coming from inside my apartment!

They were fascinating to watch. The soldier ants with big pincers climbed up the vines first to make sure it was safe, then caravans of baby-carrying ants followed. They made little clusters in the folds of leaves and stayed there for over an hour, waiting for the danger to pass. I guess they got tired of me watering the plant and disturbing their home, because after a week the entire colony had disappeared from the flower pot and I discovered they had moved to an aquarium full of dirt that I used to raise beetle larvae in. I put the aquarium in a plastic tray filled with water so they don't escape (no more ants crawling on me in the middle of the night), and have been feeding them cookie crumbs. I'm glad they decided to move to the aquarium. Now I can observe their burrowing and cookie-crumb-stashing through the glass.

You-me Town
You-me Town is the new shopping complex slated to be finished by the end of this month. I don't like it already. It's located where the main road heading out of Beppu toward Oita begins, and they've closed a lane of traffic during construction, meaning the drive to work has turned into congestion hell. It's the only road I can take to get to work, so there's no avoiding the traffic caused by this unsightly cube of a building that blocks the ocean view you used to be able to enjoy from downtown Beppu. Once the complex actually opens, I suspect the commute to work will take even longer from people waiting to turn into the covered parking lot. From the confines of my car, I will likely refer to these people as "bastards".

Facebook
I started an account after hearing about it from so many people. I registered my name and logged out without adding any further information. A week later when I logged in again I was surprised to find that old friends had used it to find me! And not just any old friends, they were people that I'd been wanting to find for years but hadn't had any luck through Google or Friendster or MySpace or whatever other method I'd tried, like the South African pen-pal I used to have - we finally met in London 12 years ago and lost contact after that, but she found me through Facebook! Facebook is wonderful. With Facebook, there is hope.

CNN
A coworker watches the program CNN 360 religiously on satellite TV and last month they asked viewers to send in video questions in response to their "Planet in Peril" series. She sent in a video and they incorporated it into the show this week! First they used it as an example of what kind of videos to send, then they used it again later in the week to spur the discussion held by a panel of experts. It's crazy to think that she was on a national American News program. Here's the first clip that was used on the show, and her comments on what she thought of the discussion program that used her video.

That's all for now. Hopefully my next entry won't take another month :)

I've been Japanimized

2007-10-01T12:47:00.000+09:00

When I first moved to Japan I noticed how Japanese culture was different from what I was used to. But after living here for so long, now it's Japanese culture that's become normal to me, and when I was back in the States I noticed how American culture was so different.

At times it was weird. Without realizing it aspects of Japanese culture have infused themselves within me, and I found myself having to readjust to life in the States. Sometimes it made me uncomfortable, but this wasn't a bad thing. It was just interesting thinking that what used to be so natural seems so strange now.

1) Food Size
One thing I'd forgotten about after living in Japan for so long is the size of meals in the States. I didn't finish an entire meal the whole time I was in Vegas. After an appetizer the size of a meal and then a family-sized meal meant for one person, there was dessert (which I usually ended up throwing away). Here's a photo of the dessert that came out one night after I thought the meal was done. I forced down a spoon of ice cream and had to leave the rest behind.

2) Strangers talk to you
It was weird having total strangers make conversation with me while standing in line at the grocery store or post office. I'd gotten used to the Japanese style of keeping to yourself. While standing in line waiting to get my driver's license renewed, the woman in front of me dropped some money so I pointed that out to her. In Japan it would have ended with a simple "Thank you," but the woman ended up venting to me about all the trouble she'd gone through that week after losing her wallet. I wasn't prepared to be bombarded with so much information and didn't know how to respond.

3) Waitresses save words
In Japanese restaurants menus are generally placed in your hands and the waitresses say something about the menu before letting you know when they'll be back for your order. There are lots of smiles and greetings, and confirmations of what you want. One morning in Hawaii my dad and stepmom took me to breakfast at Kenny's, their favorite breakfast spot. The waitress showed us to a table in the corner but my dad wanted to sit at a booth, so he just got up and moved us to where he wanted to sit. After we sat down the waitress dropped the menus on the table and walked away. I thought she was offended that we'd changed seats on our own and had gotten angry, which is why she simply dropped the menus on the table and didn't say anything when she walked away. My dad informed me that this is completely normal behavior which was confirmed when the waitress returned and was quite friendly.

4) People are loud
Whenever I heard someone shouting in public I instinctively looked around to see who was angry, but people tend to speak in loud voices and have conversations by shouting instead of moving closer. In Japan if your friend is sitting on another bench, you move to that bench to have a conversation, not speak loudly to each other.

5) Salespeople tell you stories
Checkout ladies make conversation with you and talk about other customers they'd met throughout the day. It was so friendly. I compared this to Japan, where checkout people repeat the price of each item you're purchasing as they pass it across the scanner.

6) Bus drivers get snippy
I found it interesting that bus drivers use their normal, casual voice to tell people to sit down or get behind the line or move on back. Stuff like, "Come on, people, I can't close the doors until you get behind the line." and "There's no more room, so the rest of you have to wait for the next bus." In Japan there would be much more apologizing and polite requests for everyone's cooperation.

7) Limo drivers are friendly
When it was time for me to leave Vegas my dad had the hotel limo take me to the airport. The ride would have been boring with me sitting in the back, so the driver told me to come sit up front with him. I can't imagine a Japanese limo driver asking me to come sit up front. Really talkative, friendly guy who just got out of the Navy last year. It was like a friend was taking me to the airport rather than being escorted in a limo. He talked about stuff like how it had only rained half a centimeter since January and there are limits on how much water they can use (but not for the hotels), about the countries he'd been to while on duty in the navy, and about how hard it is to make friends since he works the graveyard shift. It's a shame you always meet cool people while travelling that you'll probably never see again.
I only go back to the States when some special occasion arises. I started thinking that I should try and go back every year at least for a few days, just to keep in touch with the culture I was brought up in :)

Part 3, The Wedding and Hawaii revisited

2007-09-28T21:04:00.000+09:00

Time sure does fly! The new job is going well. For the first couple weeks I felt like I was drowning while trying to figure out what to do in all the classes, but things have settled down now that I know which books to use and where to find previous lesson plans. I'd actually written a couple blog entries but never published them... so here's the next one that was meant to be posted. A bit late but still meaningful to me nonetheless :)

The original marriage plan was to elope and pass through one of the drive-thru chapels in a limo, and be done with it in a few minutes. Unfortunately for my dad, too many people wanted to come and it turned into a normal wedding on the balcony near the waterfall of the hotel courtyard. At first it seemed like a good idea to have family present on the special occasion, but after a couple months of planning he started referring to it as "the damn wedding". Here's everyone who flew in!

The week flew by faster than I'd hoped. I'd met my dad's girlfriend before and like her a lot, although I have to admit I wasn't very impressed with my new stepbrother and stepsister. They're unemployed and live at home and leech off their mother. I couldn't believe how irresponsible they proved themselves to be when they missed the actual wedding and appeared after it ended, even though they were staying in the same hotel that it took place in. Additionally my stepsister's son (in the photo) was the ringbearer and was supposed to hand over the rings during the ceremony, and thank goodness my father had taken the rings out of the case the night before because he thought they might get lost. Otherwise there wouldn't have been rings at the wedding! They also lack adventure... they spent the entire week in the hotel room watching movies and never made it out to the Strip. My new family.
My dad wanted the banquet in the hotel restaurant instead of a banquet hall so that we could all sit close together and feel like a family. Everyone pigged out on steaks, lobster and crab (being the only vegetarian they specially made me pasta) and no one had room for the pineapple wedding cake at the end. The entire cake was packed in a box and sent up to the hotel room, to be eaten the next day by my stepbrother and stepsister who didn't feel like going downstairs for a proper meal at the restaurant.
It was nice to stop in Hawaii again after the fast pace of Vegas. Hawaii really is a beautiful place and it was nice to be reminded of that. It might be a while before I visit again, so I took photos of the house to preserve some memories. Who knows, the house I remember may change by the time I see it again - my dad was talking about how he wanted to renovate it now that everyone's grown up and rooms aren't being used.

My niece in the garage.
My sister decked out in all her gear in the front yard. The jacket has all kinds of metal strips embedded in it like armor in case of an accident. Safety first!
View of the house (right) from the hill in our backyard. My dad never got the sprinkler system fixed and the yard has become a plot of red dirt. Don't get the stuff in your clothes, cuz the stains are forever.
It was the first time no one was home to take care of Bubbles (12 years old). My sister's friend Molly came over to let her in and out of the house a couple times a day, but the day we showed Molly what to do Bubbles kept running away and I was worried that she wouldn't eat if none of us were around. Thankfully she looked just as healthy as when we left.And who knows when I'll see my brother again now that he lives on another island. When I left Hawaii he was still in Middle School and that's the memory of him that I still have. It's hard to accept that we've all grown up and gone our separate ways and that it'll be a rare occasion to have us all together at the house again. I took some photos of him while I had the chance. He's turned out to be one of the most gentle people I know although you'd never know it from just seeing him on the street.

It was a real shame that I hardly spent any time with my younger sister since she and her boyfriend went off on their own a lot in Vegas, and while I was in Hawaii they didn't stop by the house except to take me to the airport my last day. My older sister had taken time off work to hang out with me while I was there, and after spending time with her I realized that it's only in groups that she's annoying. She can be considerate and fun to be around one-on-one. It could also be that age has softened her. She smiled a lot more than I remember growing up.

We went to the mall in our city before taking my brother to the airport. I like what they've done with the place. The walkways are set up like living rooms and the baby strollers are shaped like cars.
I was hoping to hang out with old high school friends, but didn't have anyone's contact info and ended up wandering around Waikiki and Ala Moana on my own one day.
Rush hour traffic coming out of Honolulu can be horrendous so I made sure to wait until evening to head home. They've widened the section of freeway heading to my side of the island to 13 lanes (6 one way, 7 the other). The size of it is pretty scary after getting used to driving on the 4-lane Beppu-Oita freeway all these years.
It was hard driving on the right side of the road and I kept turning into oncoming traffic, so I asked to use my stepmother's car instead of risking an accident with my dad's Cadillac (he actually offered, but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if it got damaged). It took a while getting used to the huge tanker after driving my mini K-car for all these years. Thankfully there weren't any mishaps and I only got beeped at once.
Oh yeah, the final mishaps. I crammed all the heavy stuff into my carry-on and weighed my two suitcases after packing, but the scale at home must have been off because at the airport they were each over by a couple of pounds. It was a small enough difference that they could have let me pass through, but the one in charge of weighing the suitcases was a proud woman who enjoyed telling everyone to step back and repack. I opted to overpack one suitcase and pay an overweight baggage fee.

But when I got to the counter I was told that I didn't have a ticket. My return ticket was mistakenly torn out when I left Japan, and I had to get another one reissued (on the other side of the airport). It took an hour of running around and communication between the office and the ticket counter to get things sorted, and in the end they overlooked my overweight baggage fee because of the trouble I went through. This made me kind of glad they took the wrong ticket in Japan.

And my last photo... inside Honolulu airport. I like how there are several gardens to explore after you've already passed through security and have nothing to do but wait for your flight (and spend too much money in Duty Free shops). My Duty Free total = $250. Did I really need all the cleansers and exfoliants and lotions and cologne?

Part 2, Las Vegas and its beauty

2007-08-29T00:50:00.001+09:00

I got off the plane and found my father waiting with the limo driver. I foolishly expected it to be cool in the evenings, but it felt like a sauna even at night.
He always stays at Sam's Club because they treat him so well and remember his name when he shows up at the tables. And his personal casino host gave him an enormous suite free of charge! I was impressed by the bidet, jacuzzi in the bedroom, and the bar.
Since I'd come alone and hadn't made any hotel reservations, I expected to sleep on the sofa in the living room, but my dad had reserved a room for me at another hotel. We checked in and discovered they'd upgraded to a suite, free of charge! The room was way too big for just me and it felt like a waste not to share it with someone, but where do singles hang out in Vegas? I ended up not spending much time in the room anyway - there was too much excitement in the Las Vegas air to get any sleep!
The next day my dad, Yve, and I went downtown to register their marriage at the courthouse before the crowds arrived for the 7-7-7 weekend. It's a good thing we did! Over 40,000 couples got married that Saturday and everywhere wedding related was completely booked. Apparently there was a shortage of ministers and a lot of people had to decide whether to get married on 7-6-7 or 7-8-7. Luckily my dad had everything planned out 6 months in advance!
After getting their marriage license we waited at the bus stop to take us back to the Hotel Strip. The bus comes every 10 minutes, but we waited for over an hour in the 45 degree heat (113 F) and man you should have seen the grumpy, sweaty faces of everyone at the bus stop. And when the buses finally did start coming, they filled up with angry passengers and after the first few stops no one else could fit. They had to pass up everyone waiting at other stops, and you can bet those guys were even more peeved to see buses coming only to drive them by.

My dad was invited to play in a tournament so we headed to the New York New York hotel to get him registered, and in the few minutes it took for him to get things together, Yve hit a $4441 jackpot! Bells started ringing and the machine shut down while we waited for an attendant to pay Yve her stack of bills (the attendant who counted the bills out got a tip - I didn't know you had to tip the attendants who count out the money!).
The Strip was absolutely gorgeous. The hotels were enormous and it was like having whole cities indoors. One of the hotels even had a lion habitat next to the slot machines.

New York New York
Later that night while I was watching the news, I discovered that there was a shooting in the New York New York Hotel casino just a little before I was there. Too bad I missed it!

Caesar's Palace

Luxor
The inside was so cool! The building was a pyramid with rooms lined on the tilted walls, so the elevators went diagonally!

The Mirage
After the Siegfried and Roy White Lions and Tigers Show got cancelled because one of them got eaten, the hotel opened their habitat for the public to enter. It's amazing how many albino wild cats they'd collected over the years.

The Venetian
By far my favorite hotel. All of these photos were taken inside the hotel! People were lining up to take a boatride around the hotel, but I had fun watching free shows scattered throughout the different courtyards.

The Wynn
The newest hotel on The Strip and half of it is still under construction. It seemed to be for high rollers only... the craps table had a $100 minimum bet and there was a guy throwing around $5000 chips. I had no idea they even made chips in that denomination!

The Fashion Show Mall where I found a Lucky Jeans shop! I'd always seen Lucky ads in magazines and have wanted a pair for years but never knew where to find them. And lucky me, they were having a 75% off sale on the 7-7-7 weekend, so my new brown jeans with faded thighs were a mere 30 bucks!

Bellagio
After seeing the Bellagio in person I feel like watching Ocean's 11 again just to see if I recognize anything from the movie. The enormous glass flowers justting from the ceiling of the lobby were gorgeous. I caught several wedding couples trying to take photos but were having a hard time because of the crowds.

MGM
It doesn't look so big in the pictures, but I took a closer one near the lion where you can barely see some people near the base. It was enormous! This is the one with a lion habitat in the center of the casino.

I was looking forward to seeing a Cirque de Soleil show and my dad made reservations for KA, which is reputed to be the best of their shows to date. It totally lived up to my expectations. The show expertly incorporated acrobatics, martial arts, shadow puppetry, and even fireworks while developing a story, and the vibrant colors and use of light were simply stunning. The theater itself was equally impressive (it took 18 months to refurbish for the show) and completely lacked a stage. There was a gaping hole where the stage should have been, and the actors performed on a gigantic platform that swiveled in all directions to change your perspective. At times the actors were strung on cords and bounced off the vertical stage as if we were looking at them from above (excellent in portraying my favorite scene of the battle against the Fire Fairies). Words just can't express how beautiful it was. I'd have seen it again, if it didn't cost $150 a ticket. But it was well worth the price. (first two photos borrowed from a website)

I found a clip of KA that has one of my favorite songs from the play. If you find yourself in Vegas, definitely check it out.

Part 1, Hawaii

2007-08-23T22:52:00.001+09:00

Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes! I even got a comment from an anonymous! I'd pretty much assumed no one except for J & C & T were reading anything here. As promised here are some pictures of my trip with a little of how it went...

The morning of my flight I woke up early to finish packing and took a taxi to the Highway Bus stop. In the rush of getting everything together I completely forgot to make a reservation for the bus, but figured there'd be a few extra seats available. I was right, there were a few extra seats, but not enough for me. I was slowest getting onto the bus because of my two heavy suitcases, and everyone else got on before me. I was left on the curb all by myself.

The next bus came an hour later which meant that I'd get to the airport an hour before my flight. It seemed like enough time. It would have been enough time, except the bus stopped at the international terminal and my first connection was heading for Osaka from the domestic terminal. I bet it was funny seeing me rush with my two suitcases to the domestic terminal shuttle bus. But it wasn't funny for me. I was sweating like a pig and about to pass out from the heat.

I made it to the counter 20 minutes before the flight took off, and the nice woman rushed to get me processed in time. I made it! I got on the plane and let my muscles relax. Little did I know, in all the rush the nice woman took my return tickets instead of my departure ones, causing another worrisome episode two weeks later.

I'd forgotten how beautiful Hawaii is. The skies are so blue, the mountains so green. The constant breeze keeps it from getting too hot. As soon as I got off the plane I could feel Hawaii relaxing me. Even the drive on the freeway was wonderful.

As soon as I got home my sister wanted to go to the Taste of Honolulu event downtown. Top class restaurants set up stands where you could buy samples of their food, and it gave us a chance to try food from restaurants we'd never be able to afford. The small dishes were presented really well and looked so good you almost didn't mind spending $4 for a few spoonfuls of curry or a couple bites of pizza. Almost. Our 30 bucks didn't last very long.

I spent some time talking with this photographer who specialized in taking photos of Hawaiian beaches and waves. The colors were so vibrant and clear and I bought a small one for $12. When I got back to Japan I couldn't find it in my suitcase. Did I leave it behind? Did it fall out of my suitcase when I had to repack at the airport? Darn weight restrictions.
I love Hawaiian trees. They're so big and branchy and easy to climb. This one was next to the parking lot where we parked downtown near city hall.
The next day we drove out to the countryside somewhere past Haleiwa for a family picnic. I think it's the first family picnic I'd ever been to with my dad's family. They started having reunions a couple years ago because my grandfather was lonely and wanted to see his kids. I hadn't seen any of them since I was little and couldn't remember who was an aunt or uncle or cousin, let alone their names, but that's okay because they didn't remember me, either. The last time I saw my sister's kids, the youngest was a super fat sumo baby.

One thing I noticed was that EVERYONE has tatoos. You rarely see them in Japan because of the bad image associated with them, and it was weird being the only one who didn't have one.

I'd heard that my grandfather remarried a few years ago and his wife is much younger than he is. I was in for a shock when I actually met her, and found that she's even younger than me. Yup, I'm older than my grandmother. She's really nice and always smiling, and if I lived in Hawaii I could imagine us being friends. But there's no way I'd call her "grandma".

The next day my brother arrived and we visited the grave where my mother and grandparents are entombed. We did our usual ritual of giving beer to grandpa, coffee with cream and sugar to grandma, and gin to mom.
And the next day I was off to Las Vegas! More pictures to come...

All work and no play

2007-08-13T13:00:00.000+09:00

I finally have time to breathe! After getting back from Hawaii and Las Vegas I suddenly realized I had to prepare for a 2-week English seminar for Middle School Students. I thought the seminar was in late August, but I got a call saying it started in late July (I went into panic-mode for a little bit). I didn't have time to rearrange my normal lessons to make room for the seminar, so I did the seminar in the day, my normal lessons at night, and did makeup lessons whenever I could fit them. For 16 days I worked from 10am-10pm and thank goodness we have Obon holidays this week (3 days off to worship your dead ancestors) or I would be dead myself.

Incidentally the Japanese have a word specifically to describe death from working too hard (karoshi), which nicely demonstrates the Japanese ideal that work should always come first. It seems to be a given that work even comes before your own health and the school that held the seminar is a perfect example... the entire seminar was planned beforehand and each teacher had their own classes, and there was no room for getting sick because no one could replace you.

By the way the school offered me a full-time job starting in September and I decided to take it because my VISA expires in October, and they'll sponsor me for a new one. I debated on whether or not it was the best way to get a VISA but decided to take it in the end. Mainly I was worried that we don't get any national holidays or sick days or paid vacation, but they make up for that in the four weeks per year that the school is closed and there aren't any classes.

It's an English cram school and my work hours would be 4pm-10pm on weekdays. I'll have to keep working my part-time day job at the high school until the contract finishes, and I may renew that one in April if my health isn't suffering. I like those classes. I've also been letting my night classes know that I won't be able to teach them on weeknights anymore and have been looking for teachers to replace me. Unfortunately several of them don't want to switch teachers and I've foolishly begun to offer Saturday classes to students that seem most bothered by the change. Truthfully I love my students and don't want to let any of them go, but there just won't be enough time in the week to continue them all.

So starting September I'll be working roughly 55 hours a week. Holy smokes just seeing that number is making me worry. It's been easy filling up my schedule because I'm not working it yet, but we'll see how I feel when it actually starts. Working so much is pretty normal for most Japanese people, and now I'm truly becoming Japanese.

P.S. - photos from my trip in the next entry, I promise.

P.P.S. - Oh, I just remembered it's my birthday today! Happy Birthday to me!

Pitstop in Hawaii

2007-07-14T18:25:00.000+09:00

Sorry for not posting in a while... things got busy and I was stressing out trying to get everything together before I left for Las Vegas. On top of it all my car started having problems and in the end it totally broke down. I had to borrow a friend's car to get to all my lessons.

The wedding was great and Las Vegas was super fun. Just popping in so you don't worry that I was swallowed up by earthquakes! When I get back to Japan I'll fill in the details and post some photos.

A Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On

2007-06-08T00:02:00.000+09:00

I kind of like earthquakes. You suddenly hear a loud thump and feel a jolt like a car hit the house, then everything starts rattling and swaying like you're on a boat. I like how alive my body feels in that instant when you realize it's an earthquake and you sharpen your senses, trying to judge if it's a big one worth worrying about or just a mild tremor.

But the past 24 hours have just been nerve-racking. In the last day we've had 28 earthquakes all originating right here in Oita. Five were lvl 3, and five were lvl 4 on the Japanese Earthquake scale. I've given up picking up stuff that's fallen over because they'll just get knocked over again. (While typing the previous sentence we just had another one #29... I'm guessing lvl 2. I'm getting pretty good at judging how strong they are).

The biggest one I felt so far was this afternoon while I was at the high school helping a student prepare for a national exam. At about 5:30 a huge jolt rocked the school (I heard some girls screaming from somewhere). An image of being crushed by blocks of concrete flashed through my mind, but the student seemed pretty calm and wanted to continue studying. She figured that the school is a lot stronger than most homes and we were safer there than anywhere else. Unfortunately an announcement was made telling everyone to evacuate the school and go home - I guess it might cause problems if the school did fall apart and someone got hurt.

I'm telling myself that there really is nothing to worry about. Having so many earthquakes means that the pressure is escaping little by little, preventing a single massive shake that'll destroy us all. Here's to hoping. If this is my last entry, you'll know what happened.

Severed heads are really gross

2007-05-15T22:24:00.000+09:00

The big story in the news today is about a high school kid who killed his mother while she slept, cut off her head with a knife, put it in his backpack and carried it around with him as he walked around town, then took a taxi to the police station where he gave them her severed head. Now there's a boy with psychological problems. What would cause someone to do such a horrible thing?

The taxi driver said the boy didn't talk much on the way to the police station and the backpack left a brown stain on the seat - he said he spilled cocoa and tried to wipe away the stain with a wet rag. His teachers in school said he wasn't in any afterschool activities and was on the quiet side. There's so much speculation as to what motivated this kid to butcher his mother and the reporters even interviewed his classmates, who had no idea what had happened until they were surrounded by reporters. Actually it bothers me that the kids had to hear what happened from reporters. Reporters in general just bug me.

Something else that bothers me is the irrelevance of certain interviews that they've decided to air. They've been playing the same scenes all day so I guess they're getting desperate to show something new, but we don't need to hear a doctor explaining how easy it is for someone to cut off a head with a steak knife. FYI it only takes 10 to 15 minutes and if the person is still alive lots of blood will come out, so the good doctor says. Now why would they air something like that and make it sound so easy to cut off a person's head?

You don't hear much in terms of violence or crime here. There are far more murders in America than there are in Japan, but the ones here are just disturbing. When I first came to Japan people were talking about the middle school kid who killed his classmate and stuck the severed head on the entrance gate of the school. A couple months ago they were tracking a man who rode a bicycle and slashed random women with a long blade as they walked home from work at night. At least guns are illegal in this country. No need to worry about crazies with assault weapons.

Yuka's Wedding

2007-05-10T14:50:00.000+09:00

I've known Yuka the entire time I've been here. It's weird thinking that she's married now.

I went to a wedding when I first came to Japan and was awed by the formality and attention to detail. I liked the mix of Western and Japanese influence and how everyone has a role to fulfill as the wedding progresses. But now that I've been here for a while and have a better idea of Japanese culture in general, I couldn't help thinking of all the social pressures that affect how weddings are run. Yuka's wedding was beautiful and dream-like, which you can tell from the pictures. So let me tell you about the annoying parts.

In Japan there's a strong tendency to compare yourself to those around you and weddings are no different. No one wants to be known as a cheapskate, so weddings are always planned by wedding companies that offer meticulously planned "ready-made weddings". This makes it easy because a company does it all for you, but makes weddings all look the same when they follow the pre-determined wedding schedule. This is especially true when everyone from your workplace has to get married through the particular wedding company that your workplace does business with. Everyone in Moritaka's company (Yuka's husband) gets married in the same chapel and has a banquet in the same banquet hall. They all know how much everything costs and can compare it to their own wedding, so Moritaka insisted on having the lobster side-dish because there was lobster at everyone else's wedding, and they had to have name cards and wedding announcements printed on paper that cost $2 per sheet, otherwise people at work would think he's being cheap.

In my opinion weddings are about the joining of two families and those families should be the most important part of the wedding. It's just the opposite in Japan where families show humility by sitting in the very back of the banquet hall and put company executives up front. The company executives give the wedding speeches and talk about the wedding couple, which is unfortunate in Yuka's case because the executives of her company come from a branch in another city, and they didn't know her. The president of her company talked about how their company has been prospering over the last few years and gave details about future business plans. He was glad that Yuka will continue to work even after getting married, and hopes that she continues to support their business. Whatever. I was super irritated that one of the executives at the table directly in front of the wedding couple was taking a cat nap.

Moritaka works in a big company and because so many workplace-related guests had to be invited, fewer spaces were left available for friends and family. The fortunate 8 of us that Yuka considers her closest friends sat at a table in the corner of the room by the door where the food trays came out of. I didn't mind. We had a good view of Yuka when she walked by to take her place at the honorary table. It was better than the table reserved for family.

After the banquet we headed out to Shelter bar where friends who couldn't be invited to the wedding could come and congratulate the newlyweds. Moritaka has cool friends. They were super loud and it felt more like a bachelor party than an after-wedding party.

Now I'm done complaining. The parts I like about Japanese weddings that are different from American ones:
1) The bride and groom change outfits several times throughout the banquet so they look different in all the pictures. I'm sure it's expensive but they look so nice :)
2) The parents of the wedding couple go around and individually thank each guest for coming. It's so polite.
3) There's so much delicious food and they give you a box to take home leftovers with you!
4) Each guest receives a present. Yuka must have read my mind because in my package there were two cakes and a nice piece of pottery from the village of Onta. I've always wanted something from there!
5) Friends of the wedding couple are given time to perform something during the banquet. We used the time to individually wish them the best on their new life, and Chino sang a song. The groom's friends got on stage and did a crazy song and dance then dragged him on stage and threw him in the air a few times before letting him escape back to his table.

Gabriel Garcia Bernal

2007-04-25T14:06:00.001+09:00

Some years ago I went to see "Y tu mama tambien" when it came out in theaters and liked Gabriel Garcia Bernal's acting. He was really good at portraying friendship laced with jealousy. His Spanish is clear and easy to understand, or it could be that I just have a preference for Mexican pronunciation. I wanted to see more of his movies and went to a small video shop to see if I could find some, and here's what they had.

Dot the i was a disappointment. First of all it was in English which made Bernal's acting seem like crap. I had no idea he even spoke English, but he should stick with indie Spanish-speaking films. The movie relied too much on pulling everything together during the last 30 minutes, so for the first half I was wondering where they were headed with this and what was the point of the movie. I did like how it ended, but I felt bored too much of the time in the beginning.

Vidas Privadas ("Private Lives")had a terrible title in Japanese that made it sound like a porno - "Buenos Aires Nights"ブエノスアイレスの夜. I was so glad to see both Bernal and Cecilia Roth, who I fell in love with after her amazing performance in Todo Sobre Mi Madre, which happens to be one of my all-time favorite movies. I'd never heard of this movie before and was thrilled to find complex characters so emotionally distraught by their past experiences. Cecilia Roth is great for the strong female character role, who obviously has major psychological trauma. You find out about her past little by little, which creates a good pace.

Bendito Infierno was pretty good, and has a totally different title in every country which seems only natural for a movie filmed in 3 languages (French, English, Spanish). "No News from God" in Spain, "Don't Tempt Me" in English, and the awful title "Welcome! Heaven" in Japanese. I like the premise and found it humorous that English is the language used in hell. I showed this one in school and there wasn't enough class time to finish it - the kids hate me for turning off the video during a climactic scene 15 minutes before the end. I have the same gripe that Bernal speaks too much English, and the movie reminded me that Penelope Cruz was a much better actress when she stuck with indie Spanish films. I like the world this movie creates and how heaven and hell are earth-like places.

There were a few others that were already rented out so I'll have to go back some other time.

A little comment about phones . . . last week I wrote that cell phones dropping into toilets happens pretty often. Just yesterday someone told me that hers dropped into the toilet at work, and getting it fixed cost the same as getting a new one. Beware of toilets!

cough cough

2007-04-24T18:55:00.000+09:00

I was sick all weekend and had to get someone to do my classes Saturday so I could stay home and rest. I felt fine until the drive home Friday night when I started coughing till my lungs hurt and my head got so stuffy I couldn't sleep the whole night. I figured the splitting headache all day Saturday was just from not sleeping, but since it lasted until Sunday night I think it was because I had a fever (no thermometer in the house so I had to use the wrist-on-the-forehead maneuver which doesn't work when it's your own forehead).

So what'd I do all weekend? I stayed in bed watching Charmed episodes. When the show started 9 years ago I watched a couple episodes and wasn't really impressed, but a few weeks ago I found out it had run for 8 seasons. It must have gotten better for it to have lasted that long, so decided to give it another chance. Supposedly it's the longest running series featuring an all-female main cast, beating out Laverne and Shirley.

I'm hooked, but only because it gets better as time goes on. The first couple seasons are pretty shaky and the characters don't feel very realistic, as realistic as a story about 3 witches in San Francisco fighting demons can be. I mean, Shannon Doherty has a job in an auction house and is an expert on every painting, gem, statue, vase, weapon, and whatever other antique that comes her way and she's only in her mid-20s? Those guys on the Antique Road Show program are like 80 years old and experts in only one very specific field. And plus I don't like her anyway. Heard she's a bitch in real life and you can kind of tell by those permanent frown lines on her face. I was so glad when they killed her off.

It gets lots better when they add Paige - the social worker who quits her job and gets stuck at a temp agency. Now that's more realistic. Plus she's sexy. There's something about her mannerisms and way of talking that I like. Kind of a nonchalant easy-going attitude with underlying intelligence and sass.

But what I really love is that in every episode there's a guest band, usually someone I've heard of but don't know their music or know their music but don't know what they look like. And guest actors that I know from other shows, sometimes people I've completely forgotten about but recognize instantly, like the guy who played Jack Deveraux from Days of Our Lives (one summer I was home everyday and looked forward to that dumb soap). Seeing him reminded me of another character I liked - Austin Reed, who showed up in an episode a couple seasons later. How dorky can I get.

Then Balthazar Getty shows up in a recurring role. I remember having just read Lord of the Flies (have a boulder, Piggy) and then the movie came out, and I thought how amazing it was that we're the same age but he's this famous actor and I'm just an insecure middle school kid. I sort of admired him. I forgot all about that name but recognized it instantly during the guest credits. He looks so different I wasn't sure which character he was.

So anyhow that's what I've been doing with all my spare time these past few weeks - watching Charmed episodes. I like playing "spot the tattoo". The number of tattoos on their bodies increases with each season and I'm sure they wear those skimpy outfits just to show them off.

True love

2007-04-21T01:32:00.000+09:00

After having the same old phone for 3 years, I figured it was time to get something new. I went to the phone shop and had a look at the dozens of models display. The mini-TV phones were too bulky to fit comfortably in my front pocket. The new super-slim phones were pretty cool, but were so slim they seemed fragile. There were a few that looked nice, but the buttons felt weird or they make that clicking sound when flipped open (some people like that but I wanted something quiet). I found myself drawn to the Docomo F703i. So sleek, so shiny. But *gasp*.... they were sold out!!!!! I ended up spending the next 4 hours driving around to different Docomo branches until I finally found the model and color I was after. And it was definitely worth it. I absolutely love love love love my new phone!!!!!!!!

The F703i is the first waterproof phone on the market. Now I can play games while sitting in the bath (currently raising fish for the aquarium screensaver I downloaded). And no worries about walking in the rain or dropping it into the toilet! (never actually happened to me, but so many people have told me their phones died because of toilet incidents).
It also doubles as an ipod. I don't particularly need an ipod, but just to try it out I downloaded a few songs from Napster (2-weeks free service with purchase of phone - yay!) to use as ring tones. The great thing is you can set each person to a different ring tone, so I know who's calling or sending mail just by what song's playing. I love that part.

Mostly I love it because the outer shell is made of reflective glass. You can set the lights behind the mirrors to do different things, like tell you when there's a message or do funky patterns when you get a call. I've got mine set to display the time and do a funky light show in colored lights when I open or close it :)

And here it is! My new phone (color Lamp Black). Here's a before/after shot of the time showing up when I close it.

The unfortunate part is it cost a lot for functions I won't use. The camera quality is only 1.3 megapixels so I'll rely on my regular camera (7.0 megapixels), and I probably won't be doing much netsurfing on such a small screen. It'll mainly be used for mail and the occasional phone call. But I love the sleek black face and the hidden lights behind the mirrors. I'm such a sucker for design.

The screensaver aquarium looks so real (tried taking a photo but they kept coming out blurry). I downloaded a saltwater tank with some of those Nemo clownfish and a few blue ones for color. If they stay healthy for a couple weeks the site'll let me download something new :)

Chino & Yoko's B-day

2007-04-18T12:57:00.000+09:00

Last weekend Chino complained about me not having updated the blog in over a month. I suspect she was looking for pictures :) The Japanese have a nice custom of giving copies of photos to the people that are in them, and I used to be pretty good about putting together envelopes of photos. But I haven't done it for almost two years and have been getting flack about it. Hopefully uploading some photos will appease the angry Chino. (I do intend to burn photo disks . . . someday)

Chino (left) and Yoko (right) have their birthdays in the same month, so we did a two-for-one birthday special at my house.

Chino took this lovely picture with the carrots that sparked a "vegetable playtime" photo shoot where we abused broccoli and cabbages, proving that age is just a number and that some of us will eternally be young at heart (and mind). There are photos of myself somewhere out there, but you'll not find them here (^^)v

Yoko had brought a board game called "Blokus" that was pretty easy to learn and totally addictive. There are 4 players, each with their own tetris-like blocks. The goal is to place your own blocks on the board in patterns that prevent the other players from placing their blocks, until everyone is stalemated. The winner is the person who used up the most spaces on the board. I don't know where the game is originally from but it's worth picking up if you like board games. But moderation is definitely key . . . playing 4 hours straight is a great way to give yourself a headache.

I'm going to Vegas - probably

2007-03-04T13:59:00.000+09:00

I got a call from my dad. He and Yve are finalizing arrangements for their wedding this July, and were wondering if I could take off of work long enough to spend a week in Vegas for the wedding. It makes sense for them to have it there; it's like their home-away-from-home and his proposal to her last year was on a Vegas-bound flight (he said the flight crew was really nice and helped plan it out with inflight announcements and champagne, if anyone's thinking of proposing in the air). They booked the wedding chapel and banquet room for July 7, 2007 . What a cute idea . . . getting married in Vegas on 7-7-7.

Of course I'm going to the wedding. Work schedules are irrelevant. How could I miss my own father's wedding? Having said that though, I'm kind of worried about my schedule at the high school. The wedding just happens to be during final exams. For now my diabolical scheme is to give exams a week early during class time and leave the grades for another teacher to hand in for me. Mwah-ha-ha. No point in asking the school for permission only to have my request denied . . . I'm just gonna do it.

I like Vegas because even if you don't like gambling it's fun to just walk around and check out the buildings. Hopefully I can get tickets to Cirque de Soleil or see some magic shows. They always look so cool on TV. Oh, and dance clubs! It's been forever since I've been to a REAL club. I'll have to pack that shiny black shirt I got from Speck. Can't wait!

Red Riding Hood

2007-02-23T01:11:00.000+09:00

The lead singer of Sophia (Matsuoka Mitsuru) has been on a lot of variety and quiz shows lately. I like his style. Looks good for his age, too. The band's been around for longer than I've been in Japan and even though I'd known about them since shortly after I arrived, I realized that I have no idea what kind of music they play. So I looked them up on YouTube.

It turns out I don't like their music so much, but this video is fantastic. I like the twist on the Red Riding Hood story and how the red colors stand out against the background. But I wonder if people were bothered by the ending enough to complain about it. And what the hell are those weird naked things?

Speaking of controversial videos, I remember when Madonna's "Like a Prayer" video came out and people were upset about the burning cross. So tame compared to the violent gangster and sex-themed videos these days.

Our final class

2007-02-18T14:42:00.001+09:00

At the high school, the graduating students take their final exams really early so that if anyone fails, they still have time to do make-up reports and stuff in time to graduate. It's kind of a weird system because we still have classes after final exams. What are we supposed to do for those last two weeks? The Foreign Language Department decided to have a goodbye party in the Home Economics kitchen.Asep (the Indonesian teacher) and his wife guided the students with the dishes - Nashi Goren (spicy rice with egg and vegetables) and Pisan Goren (batter-fried bananas). The Chinese teacher (in the background) had her students make boiled dumplings.A few years ago I tried organizing a cooking class and it was such a pain getting ingredients together and making sure all the dishes went smoothly. I learned my lesson - this time I volunteered to be in charge of organizing the clean-up.
These students have been studying together in this class for the last three years and were taking photos while saying things like, "I can't believe this is our last class! We'll never be together like this again!" It made me realize how numb I've become to goodbyes. Over the past 7 years I've seen so many students come and go that I no longer feel anything when seeing them for the last time. I simply smile and say goodbye. It's kind of a good thing because I don't particularly like feeling sad, but at the same time it's kind of disturbing to think that I now have a heart of stone.

Sasebo

2007-02-17T00:21:00.001+09:00

The burgers in Sasebo are famous for being big and tasty, and Yoshiko wanted to eat one for her birthday. So we got on the freeway and drove 4 hours to Sasebo.
Yoko had a list of good burger shops and rumor had it that Kaya was a good one. Kaya turned out to be a roadside stand and cars were stopped along both sides of the road while people waited for their burgers. The shop's popularity was a good sign! We put in our order and were told that it would be ready in over an hour - the downside of going to a popular shop. (I have no idea why the sign says Stamina above the name).
Being a vegetarian I can't personally testify that the burgers were worth waiting for, but everyone seemed to be really enjoying them.
Other than the burger shop no one had looked up anything about Sasebo so we didn't know what to do next. There's an American military base there so we drove around the downtown area and played "spot the American" for a while before parking and walking through the shopping district.
Then we stopped at a cafe that had really great cakes and kind of an 80s feel with those plastic drinking glasses that you used to see in diners.

After it got dark we drove to the top of a mountain behind Sasebo to check out the night view. It was pitch-black and creepy. There weren't any cars near the nightview spot, but there were loads of cars parked close to the edge of the woods and not a person in sight. Where was everyone? The wind was freezing cold so after taking a couple pictures we hurried back to the car and turned on the headlights, and right in front of us there were 9 stray cats sitting in a line near the bushes. Totally weirded us out, but they were probably just using the bushes to block the wind.
I'm sure there's a lot more to do in Sasebo and it's kind of a shame that no one had looked anything up beforehand. At least we had a great time in the car! Note for the next roadtrip: bring diapers for Chino so we don't have to stop every 30 minutes.

The Right Wing

2007-02-16T19:48:00.000+09:00

The Japan Teacher's Union had a conference in downtown Beppu last weekend. I don't know much about what they do, but a few years ago they were in the news a lot for speaking out against the censorship of history in school textbooks. And I'd have to agree with that point of view; you can't pretend that wars and invasions didn't happen by taking references out of textbooks. Children should learn everything about how their country came to be - the triumphs as well as the mistakes.

Because The Japan Teacher's Union was gathering here for the conference, groups that encourage the censorship of textbooks were expected to converge upon Beppu as well to demonstrate against them. These groups are collectively known as Uyoku (literally translated as The Right Wing) and several people warned me about them.

"You should stay away from the downtown area this weekend."
"The Right Wing is scarier than the Japanese Mafia."
"It's better to stay out of Beppu."

Of course hearing those kinds of warnings is only going to make me want to go downtown and find out what the hubbub is all about. This kind of excitement doesn't happen in Beppu very often! Unfortunately I was pretty busy and didn't have the time. The closest I got to seeing any of The Right Wing was when I drove past downtown Beppu on my way to work.

Members of The Right Wing are notorious for driving around in minivans and buses with black-tainted windows and slogans painted on the sides, screaming their points of view through loudspeakers fixed on top of their vehicles. On my short drive past the downtown area I spotted over 30 of those minivans and buses, creeping along at a snail's pace and holding up traffic for miles behind. It was kind of like a picketing demonstration, except the picketers were in buses. From the loudspeakers fervent leaders were expressing their views, and I could hear the passengers' shouts of agreement in the background. Thank goodness I was on the other side of the road heading out of Beppu and didn't get caught up in all that traffic.

I don't understand why The Right Wing intentionally tries to be a nuisance. It doesn't seem like a very good tactic to spread their points of view. Everyone complains how they hate the loudspeakers, and I haven't yet met anyone who can tell me what The Right Wing is actually shouting about. Even if it's negative, I guess they want their presence to be known?

Plum Blossoms

2007-02-04T00:04:00.000+09:00

A couple weeks ago I was killing time in a garden store and spontaneously bought a Plum Blossom bonsai tree. It looked like a bunch of bare branches at the time, but in the past few days the buds have blossomed!The sweet scent emanating from the flowers isn't very strong, but occasionally I catch a whiff while sitting at the computer.

I'm not sure how long the blossoms last . . . probably not very long because they're so delicate and fall off at the slightest touch. Once the flowering has finished and the leaves start to come in, I'm supposed to cut off most of the branches to maintain the small bonsai size. Not really sure which branches to cut off so that it looks nice, so I'll probably end up asking around to see if anyone knows someone who cultivates bonsai trees.

I've always wanted a bonsai tree. This one's so perfect!

Happy Bar

2007-02-03T21:28:00.000+09:00

I rarely go out to bars these days, but "Happy Bar" sounded cool so we checked it out. It's run by a woman who's undergoing the transformation into a man. She/He had beard and if I hadn't heard she/he was born a woman, I'd never have known. (she-man not pictured) I had to wonder if she/he decided to undergo the change because there's so little information about lesbianism in Japan, and she/he thought that a sex-change was the most plausible option.
It was a sit-down bar with dim-lighting and a classy atmosphere, and they also served takoyaki (batter filled with pieces of octopus and grilled into spheres, then covered in your choice of sauces and toppings). Takoyaki is probably the main reason why Japan imports so much octopus, so much that some countries are over-exporting and depleting their octopus population to dangerous levels (I saw a program about the severe decrease in octopus off the coast of Africa). I ordered mine without octopus, which most people think is weird since takoyaki literally means "grilled octopus". Even so it was delicious. After having a few drinks and stuffing ourselves with takoyaki (or in my case spheres of pancake batter) we headed to another bar for a change of atmosphere. Gaucho looks like a concrete storeroom scattered with tables and chairs, and is usually packed on nights when someone's on stage, but it was a non-band night with just a small circle of guys relaxing with some beers and strumming on their guitars.

We found out it was Moritaka's birthday so a couple of us ran to a nearby cake shop and brought him back a strawberry shortcake. He and Yuka are getting married in a couple months. Here she is doting on him and looking all wifey.

what students do in class

2007-02-02T12:18:00.000+09:00

In a previous post I mentioned watching a TV program that described how our ears naturally degenerate with age and lose their sense of hearing. I couldn't hear the sounds that were supposedly coming out of the TV, and was slightly disturbed to find that I have the ears of a 50-year-old. But it turns out that the problem wasn't with me, it was that my crappy old TV doesn't transmit sounds in high frequencies!

Today while teaching, some students asked if I could hear anything strange. There was an ear-piercing squealing noise coming from somewhere, like a nail being scratched across a metal sheet. When I asked what that irritating noise was, they seemed surprised. One of the girls was using her cell phone to emit sounds in the range of frequency that only teenagers are able to hear, and they were testing it in their classes to see if the teachers could hear it. I have the ears of a teenager! What a relief. I had really thought that my ears had degenerated well beyond their years when in fact they're younger than normal!

Chino's prayer

2007-01-31T21:54:00.000+09:00

A woman at Sayuri's workplace told us about a shrine located on the edge of the village that is visited by women who wish to have children. If an unmarried woman visits the shrine, does that mean she has a better chance of getting some? Chino wanted to give it a try. It had already gotten dark but we went anyway.

The cover of trees blocked out the moon and stars as we followed the narrow dirt path that led to the shrine. It was quiet, dark and altogether creepy. I kept expecting something to jump out from behind a rock or peek out from behind the trees. Chino got on her hands and knees, crawled through the three stone arches, and stepped up to the stone idol. She put her arms around the idol, rubbed her body against it, and swirled her hands all around the top. In the daytime the shrine probably has a sacred air about it, but in the middle of the night with no one around, she looked like some kind of pervert.

Yup, it's a giant wiener.

Sayuri

2007-01-30T23:33:00.001+09:00

Sayuri moved back to her little village of Kunimi to live with her family. It's a couple hours north from here, and I haven't seen her in such a long time so a few weeks ago we made the trip up for a visit.

To put it bluntly, Sayuri is kind of ditzy. But that's kind of why I like her so much. Yuka, Chino and I were on our way up to Kunimi when we got a phone call from Sayuri saying that she was actually on her way down to Beppu, because her contact got lodged in back of her eye. Huh? I thought that was just an urban legend. It had slipped behind her eye the previous night, but she was tired and just went to bed (probably not the best idea, but oh well). It hadn't slipped back down by the time she woke up in the morning, so she had to go to an eye doctor to see if they could get it out. Unfortunately Japanese hospitals are closed on Sundays, and after calling around the only place that would see her was down here in Beppu.

The doctor told her that checking behind her eye for the contact might hurt a little, and she could grip the armrests of the chair if she needed to. Not a good sign. Then he lifted up her eyelid, shoved a cotton swab behind her eyeball, and swept it back and forth for ten seconds. Sayuri described it as the longest ten seconds of her life. The contact didn't come out, so the doctor suspected that there wasn't anything behind there, but if she felt she could take a little more he would push a little farther behind her eyeball to really dig deep. That's when she said, "Doctor, that's not funny." and left to meet us.

I've never heard of a contact getting so far lodged behind an eyeball that you couldn't see it. And if it did, I bet it'd hurt so bad you'd know it was there. Instead of going to the doctor to get a cotton swab jabbed behind her eyeball, searching around her pillow for a dried up contact would have been a much more painless and likely method of finding it.

Anyhow after Sayuri called to say that her doctor visit was finished, we worked out plans to drive separately and meet in Kunimi. Chino, Yuka and I continued on our way to Kunimi, but for some reason Sayuri had her mother drop her off at Chino's house. She called to say she was chilling in the living room with Chino's father, wondering where we were. So we turned around, picked her up, and finally made our way to Kunimi without any other stops.
Her workplace is a three-story house that serves as a gallery for traditional folding-screens made of silk. I figured they'd be expensive but my mouth dropped when she said they cost thousands of dollars each.

We could see pretty far from the third floor balcony. The village of Kunimi is surrounded by hilly countryside and it was nice for a visit, but it's too small for me to actually consider living there.
We grabbed the chimes (you ring them for luck) and jumped around like Chinese acrobats until Sayuri came to scold us. The thumps were reverberating throughout the house.

The Shrine in Saganoseki

2007-01-15T21:03:00.000+09:00

You're supposed to visit 3 shrines within the first 3 days of the year, but I only went to two. My second shrine visit was about a 2-hour drive south in a small fishing town called Saganoseki.

The god of this particular shrine grants wishes if you promise not to eat octopus for an agreed upon amount of time. This may sound easy to a person who thinks chewing on octopus tentacles is completely revolting (like me), but for the Japanese this is quite a difficult challenge. A couple years ago a friend gave up eating octopus for an entire year in exchange for a husband. She found a husband shortly thereafter, so our other friends wanted to try praying there, too.

Before walking under the arch-gate of a shrine, you have to purify your hands and mouth with water. This one had water flowing from a spiky metal dragon head.

I've never heard anything about it, but I'm pretty sure kicking someone in the butt on shrine grounds is just asking for bad luck.

Pray, Yoshiko, pray.

I didn't ask, but I'm pretty sure Chino prayed for a husband. The big smile Yoko has on her face is the same one she gets when thinking about cakes. Is that what she prayed for?

Happy New Year!

2007-01-14T23:48:00.000+09:00

I spent New Year's Eve in the Japanese way - no countdowns, no parties, no noise and no big hubbub. I went to my ex's place (we started hanging out again last month) where we watched TV for a while, then headed to a nearby shrine at about 2am when we figured the crowds had died down.
Yusuhara Shrine is just a short drive up the mountain in the outskirts of Oita City. I pass by the turnoff almost everyday on my way to work but I've never actually been there. I absolutely loved it. We parked in a field and climbed up the stone steps to the first gate (the upper photo). From there several paths led through the woods to the main shrine - most of them were pretty creepy at 2am, so we stuck to the one lined by lanterns that led straight up to the main entrance.

When I visit a new shrine I like to buy a protection charm from the priestesses selling them in the inner courtyard, but I passed on by when I saw the cheapest ones were 800 yen. I guess they must have had a tough year if charms cost double what I'm used to paying.

Usually you throw some money into the offertory box, ring the bell, clap your hands and make a wish for the coming year. But this one had a cool drum! I threw some money into the tray and gave a couple resonant thumps that echoed throughout the mountains.

Then like I do every year, I threw some money into another box and picked an omikuji. The dictionary says an omikuji is a "written oracle". It's a bound piece of paper that has all kinds of fortunes written on it and it determines your luck for the coming year. You can get them at any shrine, but the one you pull on your first shrine visit of the year is the most important. Some people like to swirl their hands around in the hundreds of omikuji fishing for the right one, but I figure the first one you touch is the one that's meant for you. I got a Daikichi! It's the best possible one you can get. Last year I got one that foretold a complete absence of luck, so I tied it to a nearby pine tree which helps to nullify the fortune.

If you pull a Daikichi you're supposed to keep it close to you. I've got mine in my wallet. Next year I have to go back to the same shrine where I got it from so the priests can burn it and release the fortune to let it go back to wherever it is that fortunes comes from. There are 13 specific categories on mine and the two I like best are:

Wishes: will come true as you hope for.
The person you are waiting for: will come for you.

I look forward to the coming year!

Allister & ElleGarden

2006-12-16T00:44:00.000+09:00

The concert totally rocked! We were packed in a small livehouse that only holds 300 people. I pushed my way close enough to get a good view while keeping away from the jumpers and crowd surfers. Ellegarden was supposed to be the main show, but I was more looking forward to Allister and wish they had more time. I absolutely love their music - it fills me with energy and my body just starts moving. And I still can't believe they came to Japan and played here of all places!

I was the only non-Japanese person in the crowd and I think the only one who knew any of their songs, which makes sense since they're American and were here as the opening band for Ellegarden. Allister played all the songs I was looking forward to hearing and after they got off stage I was hoping to get a chance to talk with the members, but they didn't come out to mingle in the crowd. Don't get me wrong, I like Ellegarden too, but a lot of their songs sound the same to me so in my opinion Allister is the much better band.

After the concert I went outside to the booths selling shirts and stuff. Everyone was congregated around the Ellegarden section giving me the chance to leisurely check out the Allister merchandise. Then when I looked up it was the bassist standing at the table! It took me off guard. I got so nervous that I couldn't think of anything to say and ended up blubbering a bunch of nonsense that probably made him think I'm some weirdo. I love these guys so much it was like meeting a superstar and my mind just went blank. What I wanted to say was "I absolutely love you guys and can't believe you're here!" but what came out was "You guys are good." He introduced himself as Scott and instead of saying "Nice to meet you" I was busy thinking "I know" and didn't even respond.

I ended up asking him how he learned Japanese (he did all the talking while Allister was on stage - his Japanese is fantastic!). He said after the band came to Japan for the first time four years ago he started studying on his own - must be some kind of language genius. He asked why I'm here and I muttered something about teaching English. I mentioned living in St. Louis and he said he's from Chicago. All in all it wasn't the conversation I wished I'd had and I felt like a dolt. And yes, I know putting them on a pedestal is dumb when they're just humans like you and me, but I really like these guys. And did I mention the lead singer is hot?

After my failure with the bassist I lingered around waiting for the whole band to come out so I could accost them and take a photo with them or something before they got into the van. A half hour of waiting in the cold passed. Ellegarden came out and went straight to their van, then waved to the few of us waiting outside from the van window. That's all? I would have stayed longer for Allister to come out but I had to rush to the train station for the last train back to Beppu. Darn.

Well, if the bassist is studying Japanese they must be planning on having more Japan tours. I just hope they come this far south again!

Tomorrow World in Japan?

2006-12-11T21:09:00.000+09:00

After yesterday's entry I got to thinking about how Japan and Korea are suffering from decreasing birth rates. There's all this hubbub about what's going to happen when the current generation retires, like how there won't be enough people putting money into the pension system to support all the retirees (it's already running out of money so pension checks are being reduced and cut).

America's birthrate is decreasing too, but there isn't much of a labor shortage thanks to the influx of immigrants. Japan is pretty xenophobic that way. People who aren't racially Japanese can't become citizens even if they were born and raised here, which seems so weird to me. There are tons of Koreans in this situation - they've spent their entire lives in Japan but aren't recognized as Japanese, and neither are their children nor grandchildren because they're racially Korean. I think the mindset of the people is changing and people are becoming more open to the idea of interracial marriages and having foreigners in their midst, but there's still a long way to go.

So how do you increase the population without accepting immigrants? The government gives monetary bonuses to families when a child is born, and a while back there was a mayor who suggested increasing taxes for single women as a penalty for not having children, which would be completely unthinkable in America (I picture rioting women burning the guy's house down). Call me crazy but I don't think that's going to solve the decreasing population problem. As if people are going to have children for a tax break, especially when educational fees and the cost of living totally outweigh whatever monetary bonus you'd receive.

The population decrease is easy to see in this area . . . schools are closing every year because there aren't enough children to justify a full staff of teachers, and some towns don't even have high schools anymore (the kids commute to neighboring towns). Take the school I work at for instance: ten years ago there were 400 students per grade. Since then the school has had to substantially relax its admission standards (there are some real lugnuts in class) while having a student body of only 160. There's talk about merging with another school across town that's having the same problem. If the two decide to merge there'll be 320 students per grade, but it would only be a temporary solution seeing as the population is steadily decreasing.

How can there be half the number of students in only ten years? It seems this area is additionally suffering from the emigration of people who move to big cities like Tokyo and Osaka to find better jobs, then stay there to raise families. From a teacher's point of view I'd have to support that move; children who live in bigger cities seem to get a better education. I know that sounds like a terrible stereotype, but it seems to be true - almost all of my top students are those that were raised in big cities like Fukuoka or Tokyo, then moved here recently. On the other hand my students on the lower end were all born and raised here. Could just be a coincidence though.

Anyhow I'm curious to see how things turn out. Forty years from now Japan might implode in upon itself from labor shortage. Actually if the ocean levels keep rising there might not even be a Japan in forty years, like the situation with Palau now.

Tomorrow World

2006-12-10T14:12:00.000+09:00

The previews looked interesting so I went and saw a movie called "Tomorrow World" (I think it's called "Children of Men" in the States, but I'm not sure). The premise reminded me a lot of one of my favorite books - The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

I won't give away anything that can't be discerned from the previews . . . No children have been born in 18 years, and naturally the world has had to change in order to accomodate this unfortunate circumstance. Then a pregnant woman is discovered, and it becomes imperative to keep her hidden from the government while trying to get her out of the country to keep her safe from the chaos. The movie takes place in England and we can see how the country has reacted, but I kept wondering how things came to be this way and how the rest of the world compensated for this change in humanity. I guess the movie itself was well made but I had so many questions that remained unanswered and left without any feelings of closure.

The previews for Aragon looked good so will probably check that one out in a couple weeks.

Nothing like the smell of gas

2006-12-09T03:06:00.000+09:00

Everyone complains about it and here's me saying it one more time: Japanese winters suck. It's not that the winters are very cold, or that the weather is especially terrible. Living in southern Japan means that winters are actually quite mild and we hardly ever get any snow, but thin walls, a lack of proper insulation and no central heating mean there's no escape from the cold. I come inside only to feel the same as if I were standing outside in the garden. In the beginning I relied on the electric fan heater I had set into the living room wall. I spent the entire winter trapped in the living room. Then last year I bought a carbon-filament heater (kind of like a long halogen bulb) for when I'm sitting at the computer in the other room, but that was a letdown. The heat is really concentrated and feels great, but only extends far enough to heat up half my body.

So this week I bought a new heater. I love how it looks! You fill it with kerosene and enjoy the warmth of an open flame. It's like having a portable chimney. And if there's ever a blackout, I don't have to worry about freezing to death because it doesn't require electricity! It even boils water for tea if you place a pot on top. The downside - having an open fire means I'm using up all the oxygen in the apartment and releasing fumes into the air. You're supposed to keep the window cracked to let fresh air in, but doesn't having an open window take all the heat away as well?

There was no crystal ball.

2006-12-04T23:29:00.000+09:00

It was nice to get out of the prefecture last weekend even if it was only just across the border into Kumamoto. My friends are really into fortune tellers (who I personally believe are all gypsy swindlers) and they found one that tells the future through "dowsing". They'd visited before to try a sample session, where the fortune teller encouraged my friends to buy special bracelets that match their auras. The bracelets were chosen through the mysterious art of dowsing, which can be explained as the scam artist figuring out how much someone is willing to pay, then letting their powers lead them to a bracelet in that price range. But my friends truly believe in these bracelets as being "chosen".

This time they wanted a full reading, so we drove 3 hours through the mountains and into Kumamoto Prefecture to get there. I went to a nearby cafe (the upscale kind with fancy desserts and all kinds of teas) to wait for them to finish and tell me all about the crazyman stealing their money. The fortune teller asked what they wanted to know, then started shaking his head back and forth while tapping his finger on the table (they were pretty certain he was calling forth his powers, and not afflicted with Parkinsons disease). If you ask me, the suggestions and advice they got seemed more like a counselling session than a reading of their futures . . . since you work at night you can use your mornings to find another job and supplement your income . . . you're not attracted to the man that is after you so it probably wouldn't work out . . . the 18-year-old doesn't seem to be a very good dating prospect . . . All stuff I could have told them myself, but without the head shaking and finger tapping.

I was only along for the ride but it was a nice day for a drive and we stopped off at a really nice restaurant on the top of a hill. They make their own cheese and use natural spring water. It was nice; spring water tastes kind of sweet and doesn't have any aftertaste.
The wood-burning oven was near the entrance so you could peek in and see the pizza baking inside as you walked to your table. And the food was good, too!
Just hanging out in the cafe.

Heroes

2006-12-03T00:51:00.000+09:00

I got a tape with episodes of the new TV series Heroes and am loving it. The theory is that the human race is still evolving and a few select people are discovering abilities that normal humans lack (the same idea as in X-Men but there's no mention of the mutant X-gene just yet). In a freaky coincidence I happened to catch a program on TV tonight about people with super enhanced senses - sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. These people could be the next evolutionary step.

Sight
The Masai tribe in Africa has super-enhanced sight. The men were pointing at zebras and giraffes that the cameramen couldn't see until they used binoculars, and they could see 1cm-sized pictures of animals while standing 35 meters away. Doctors tried testing their eyesight using the standard eyetest and they read the bottom line easily, even when the chart was placed at the opposite end of a basketball court. Not quite as good as x-ray vision, but pretty good if you ask me.

Sound
A blind man named Juan Luis uses echo location (like bats) to see the world around him. He was walking down the street making clicking noises and saying stuff like, "There's a trash can on the left, a parked truck on the right and a yard with a large tree in front." He can tell how high, wide, and hard things are by clicking his tongue. And he's not the only one! A blind American boy does the same thing, and runs around chasing his brothers and sisters without any problems. You'd never know he was deaf by seeing him walk down the street (without a cane of course) swerving around bicycles and people. Watching him spar in karate class was pretty impressive. And chase basketballs while rollerblading.

Then they tested an orchestra conductor who can hear everything at once. The 22-person orchestra played a 30-second piece, then played it again with 5 differences. I couldn't believe it! The two pieces sounded exactly the same to me, but he rattled off all 5 mistakes as soon as they finished playing. The cello played a note that was an octave different from the first time, the oboe skipped a note, the violin played a note in b-flat, the flute played a note softly. . . How could he hear it all??? They also dropped combinations of coins on the floor and asked him how much they dropped - a fun game to try at home. But quite impossible for normal humans.

At this point there was a break where they explained how our ears lose the ability to hear high-pitched sounds as we get older. They played sounds at a range of frequencies and what I heard (or actually didn't hear) bothered me. 60-year olds can hear frequencies up to 10,000 hertz, and the annoying, high-pitched squealing sound made me turn the volume down. The frequency that 50-year olds can hear was also loud and irritating, and thank goodness they stopped that one quickly because it was starting to hurt my ears. Then the 14,000 hertz frequency that 40-year olds can hear was white silence. I heard nothing. The previous two were ear-piercing, and then there was silence. I couldn't hear any of the frequencies they played after that. I discovered that I have the ears of a 40-year old. It explains why I'm having a hard time catching conversations in a crowd and have to ask to repeat what people say more and more often. I'm really quite disturbed by this, but apparently there's no way to reverse the process to make your hearing better. Very depressing.

Incidentally one of my students can hear dog whistles. I secretly tested her and she made me stop.

Smell
A normal human can distinguish 8 different scents if you mix them together. There are about 400 people on record that have the ability to smell a mind-boggling 200 scents (they work for perfume companies around the world). The interesting thing is that 25% of these people all come from the same village in France. They interviewed someone from the village, and when he was younger he liked to test himself by taking random mixes of scents and exactly reproducing them. He said that he can't stand going into cities because the flood and intensity of smells are sickening. When we were younger my sister used to complain about the same thing. I think she might be a super-smeller, too.

Touch
They interviewed a guy who has an amazing sense of touch. He can discern how flat a surface is, up to half a micron (5/10,000ths of a millimeter). They gave him a large, flat piece of plastic to run his hands over, and the places where he said were slightly raised matched up with the computer images. I don't exactly see how this could be used as a super-power, though.

The other people were mostly just weird. Like the man who sees colors when he hears sounds. Or the lady who can smell sickness off a person. Or the artist who sees everything in color - including black and white newspapers. The CAT scan pictures were interesting. Their brains were lighting up in places that shouldn't be active.

So I guess our species is still evolving and some of us are already super-human. As for me, I'm still waiting for those latent abilities to take effect. Any day now.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2006-11-23T13:51:00.000+09:00

If my sources are correct, today is Thanksgiving in the States. It happens to be a holiday in Japan, too (Labor Day). I was just sitting around the house because it's all rainy and cold out, then decided to get into the Thanksgiving spirit by making more food than I could possible eat and pigging out as much as I could. I pulled some carrots from the garden and added sliced eggs and cucumber to an enormous bowl of noodles. But that didn't seem like enough to make my stomach hurt so a few small cakes and a bread roll seemed in order. And to warm myself up a bit, a green tea latte (something new I had for the first time yesterday and instantly became my new favorite drink). It might not be a traditional Thanksgiving meal, but after finishing it all I went into the food coma that no real Thanksgiving would be without.

And I thought about the things I'm thankful for. Which turns out to be everything. I love my life. I love every day. Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if I'd chosen a different path or done something different, and I'm glad that this is how things turned out. All the things I've done have led me here. And it's such a great place to be.

Sometimes people ask if I regret giving up on a career in medicine. Not at all. If I'd continued studying, I wouldn't have taken the job in retail where I met one of my best friends, and wouldn't have lived with Aska nor met Ken - two people who played a vital role in fostering my curiosity about Japan. I wouldn't have applied for a job here and wouldn't be living this adventurous life making friends with people from all over the world. If I'd gone to medical school, I wouldn't have spontaneously thrown some clothes in the car one day and taken off for three months to drive around the States nor would have had enough free time to travel the world and leisurely explore countries that I've fallen in love with (you absolutely must visit Thailand and Cambodia).

I used to daydream about what it would have been like to have studied abroad for a year back in university. But that would have most likely been during my junior year, and I wouldn't want to trade all the memories from that one year: all the people I'd met and the experiences I had. That was the year I met so many of the people that I truly value and often think about (Speck included). I learned how to develop film and spent all that time in the dark room with Alicia, became friends with StevieD and Sona while volunteering at the orphanage in Tijuana, studied with the man who wrote Il Postino and got to examine records of plant species that Charles Darwin himself collected and catalogued. So I'm glad I didn't study abroad. The memories I made are too important to give back.

A few years ago I applied for a job and was devastated when I didn't get it. But because I didn't, I continued working at the job I hated and made connections with people that allowed me to have the life I live now. Thank goodness I didn't get that job. I was crushed at the time, but am so glad for it now.

Thinking about it now, if I could turn back time and relive my life while keeping all the memories I've made, I'd probably do everything exactly the same just so I can enjoy it all over again. Well, perhaps a few things would be different. Like, all the time I've spent playing video games could be used to play different video games. And if I could memorize a few lottery numbers before time got turned back that might come in handy. And I wouldn't leave the pots of dirt outside so they could harbor nests of centipedes.

Well, that's enough for now. Time to lie down and continue digesting. Yay Thanksgiving.

I can.

2006-11-20T01:35:00.000+09:00

It's embarrassing to admit it, but I'm a super-dweeb when it comes to Buffy. Are you mentally prepared to experience my dweebiness (is that even a word) at full force? I've been going through the series again (thanks so much for the videos, Speck!) and the episode where Willow turns Amy-the-rat into a human again hit home for me. I am exactly like Willow. Except for no magic and rats turning into humans and stuff.

Willow couldn't reverse Amy into a human because she lacked magical ability. Through time Willow continued to grow stronger, then one day realized she could and turned Amy into a human again. She could have probably tried sooner, but she'd been so used to not being able to.

After coming to Japan there were so many Japanese videos I wanted to see, but I never understood what was going on and always got lost because I lacked Japanese ability. I had to constantly replay scenes to look words up in the dictionary and was still confused. Going to the movies was completely unthinkable.

It's been over a year since I've watched any videos. Unless I have someone next to me to explain all the difficult bits, watching them is pointless. But I REALLY wanted to see Death Note and even though I'd be confused the whole time, braved the movies on my own (yeah, I saw it by myself - loner with no friends, poor poor me). Then halfway through the movie I realized, hey! I understand everything! So you see I'm just like Willow. I suddenly realized I can. And you're probably thinking this is a flimsy comparison, but for me this is life-changing. Actually not really.

This opens up a whole new world for me! I can go see Japanese movies now! And I can also rent those movies that I've been wanting to see but haven't because they're in Japanese. All those ninja movies. On top of being a Buffy dweeb, I'm going to become a ninja nerd. Oh I can't wait.

Death Note

2006-11-19T22:45:00.000+09:00

They turned it into a two-part movie! I missed the first part but went ahead and saw Part 2. The main plotline followed the book so I wasn't too confused, and I'm really glad they didn't just redo the book. The movie threw in new characters and had a different ending which was nice for the surprise value. The trailer is in Japanese but you can kind of get a feel for the weird characters and the funky Japanese style. (Light is the Killer, L is the genius investigator, and Misa traded half of her lifespan to gain the ability to know people's true names simply by looking at them).

Here's the short of it: Ryuk (a god of Death) is bored and decides to drop his notebook into the human world to see what happens. A high school student picks it up and discovers that if you write a name in the book, that person dies. He then decides to alter the world by killing off all criminals but unfortunately law officials consider him a mass-murderer and the attempt to hunt him down (and find out how he's killing people) commences. While they're trying to discover who he is, he's busy scheming how to get rid of everyone in his way without being found out. There are so many twists and turns to keep it interesting -- the kid's father is head of the team hunting down the Killer; another Killer emerges and tries to locate Light (Killer) to team up; the new Killer turns out to be a ditzy bimbo movie star . . . um, I guess it sounds kind of dumb. But really, it's a gripping story.

As proof of its popularity, they've decided to create a cartoon version as well. I'm quite upset that the cartoon isn't broadcasted here in Oita. Dear Oita TV, you suck.

I gave it a search on YouTube, and someone posted the first episode! It has English subtitles so I'm guessing it's being broadcast in other countries. You can watch it in other countries, but not in Oita. Really and truly, Oita TV, go to hell.

The first episode is split into three parts if you feel like checking it out. Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3

New additions to the family

2006-11-16T15:28:00.000+09:00

It's been about 5 years since I've bought shoes. I know my shoes are grubby, peeling, and ready for the trash bin but they're still wearable so why buy new ones? Shoes are for walking; life isn't a fashion show. (I know I'm kidding myself with this - life IS a fashion show). But something came over me yesterday. I walked past a shoe store and was called into it, then suddenly found myself heading home with two new pairs of shoes.

Before coming to Japan I shopped at cheap outlet stores and bargain basements and stayed away from name-brands because of what they signify. I don't even know what that means anymore. If you want nice things, buy nice things. I guess over the years Japanese consumerism and the worship of name-brands has been wearing me down like a file on a heinous toenail. With enough effort, even the ugliest toenail can become shiny and beautiful. Anyhow I got my shoes at the mall and threw my card down for the first two pairs I liked.

These are them (Did you know that grammatically this sentence should read "These are they" - how ridiculous is that.) The orange PUMAs were $60 and the black Adidas were $100. Back in university there's no way I would have paid $100 for shoes, but like I said I'm a toenail that's been filed down.

Speaking of shoes, last week I was watching my favorite program about rich people who have nice things when last week's guest opened her shoe closet to expose 288 pairs of shoes. The cameraman was astonished and began picking out shoes, asking how much they cost. Of course I expected them to be expensive, but I nearly pooped my pants when he pointed at a pair and she said $20,000.

Then they checked out the room that she uses as a closet. There was a bunch of purses lined up on the shelf, and she casually mentioned that the row of purses on the right side cost more than $100,000 each. That's when I really did poop my pants. So you see, Japanese consumerism is simply out of control. And that's why I didn't think anything of spending $100 on a pair of shoes, and in fact thought they were pretty cheap.

To compare myself to this woman, I decided to take all my shoes out and see what kind of collection I have. It's not enough to get invited onto the program just yet, but I'm almost there.

Please don't judge me by my footwear. I'm keeping the nasty old ones for when I go hiking or tromping through rivers.

And they couldn't find him?

2006-11-13T15:23:00.000+09:00

Ever hear that the government can spy on people using satellites powerful enough to read the license plates off of cars? Well now I believe it. I looked up the house I grew up in using a public satellite, and you can see the white Pontiac in the driveway and my sister's blue Trans-Am parked on the street. If we can see this much using a public satellite, imagine what they can do. The mysterious they.

But isn't this cool? I looked up Punahou School and Washington University and my old apartment and houses of friends. And the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty and the Great Wall of China. Man this is awesome. You have to download a program first then you're free to roam the world.

Damn cramp

2006-11-10T20:49:00.000+09:00

Just got back from the pool. In the middle of my 20th lap I felt a growing tightness in my calf that grew into a paralyzing pain. Probably would have drowned if I'd been swimming in the ocean. It's been over an hour and it still hurts, making me walk all gimpy.

The other day it dawned on me that swimming is just like meditation. You take a deep breath and slowly let it out, clearing your mind of everything and concentrating on minute physical sensations. The regular, timed breathing is so relaxing. For me it takes about 7 laps for my body to get used to the increased heartrate and find a good pace, then it just goes on autopilot and I get lost in my breathing rhythm.

Except today there were a bunch of people pushing themselves in my lane, so I kept up with them and ignored the tightness in my chest and arms. And then that damned cramp made me cut the workout short. Not enough leg stretches, I guess.

The good news is that after a few weeks of protein supplements, I'm not a walking skeleton anymore. There's a layer of something covering my upper arm, and I'm hoping it's a muscle.

Check me!

2006-11-09T20:59:00.000+09:00

I absolutely LOVE my hair salon. The 90 minute experience is worth every yen. Let me share.

The chair goes down so your head can rest over the basin. A thin piece of cloth with a dab of aroma oil covers your eyes, then a towel is laid over that to completely block out the light and leave you in darkness. You can hear birds chirping and the trickle of a river from the speakers near your head. While you're growing relaxed and enjoying the sounds of nature, the basin gradually fills with bubbles that rise slowly to your head so you never get that shock of hot water on your scalp. The bubbles are massaged into your hair for a calm, quiet shampooing. Then the fingers start gliding through your hair and begin pressing your temples, sliding along the sides of your head, pushing against your forehead and different points all over your scalp and neck. I wish that massage would go on forever. For the final rinsing water is slowly poured over your hair instead of an abrasive spray from those shower-head faucets.

The cutting is all done by scissors and an electric trimmer never touches your head. When the cutting's finished you get another delicious shampooing and a hot towel to clean your face. Then another, firmer head massage with something that smells minty. Sometimes I get a back and shoulder massage, too, but not this time.

When it was all done the staff stood outside to wave me off and bow. Back in the States I was paying 50 bucks for a regular shampoo and haircut, and this costs LESS than that!

Just to see what actually happened to my head, I took some before and after photos. Believe it or not, it takes time to make my hair look dirty. I found this great wax that makes it look oily and clumped together.

I swear I wasn't giving the camera the mack-daddy eye. It just came out like that.

Incidentally while getting the haircut my phone rang. It was an unknown Japanese cell phone number and when I checked the message it was Jean Muraoka from high school! Whoa, blast from the past. Apparently she moved to Tokyo two weeks ago and got my number from Gina Colburn. She obviously doesn't know how far down south I live since she asked if I could take the train up for a visit sometime. The train?

And I'm so glad cyano found this blog! In a crazy coincidence I've been trying to look him up recently!

I named her Martha

2006-11-07T16:15:00.000+09:00

The garbage men took Martha away today. It was her time. She was getting too wrinkly and spots of mould were collecting all over her body. Her sad face seemed to cry out to me, but that didn't stop me from chucking her into the burnable garbage. Goodbye, Martha. Have a nice burning.

Oh, us kids

2006-11-05T17:12:00.000+09:00

I went to a friend's house last night for a little get together, and we played a game that I have only played once and never thought I'd play again: Spin The Bottle. Oh boy.

It started off as a joke while the 8 of us were just sitting around wondering what to do when someone said, "Hey, how about spin the bottle?" and we all laughed when a bottle suddenly appeared in the middle of our small circle. To my surprise the bottle started spinning.

In the beginning it was just innocent little pecks on the cheeks and forehead. But since we aren't kids in junior high school a "mouth only" rule got formed. It was weird kissing friends. And watching friends kissing friends. It didn't matter who the bottle landed on, you had to kiss 'em. But surprisingly you get kinda used to it after a while and the rules evolved into 5 second make-out sessions the first time, and 5-more seconds added on everytime the same two people had to kiss. I think the longest anyone had to go at it was 15 seconds. You know, a second can feel like forever. Or sometimes not enough time at all.

It was such a great learning experience. I now know what a REALLY good kiss feels like. You bet I'm gonna try to copy it the next time I get the chance. There was actually someone there that I'm pretty attracted to, and when we made out it was really good. Oh man, I feel like I'm in high school.

Somehow or other Spin The Bottle got ditched and we moved on to another game that I'd never played before 'cause it's just too scary: Truth or Dare. We still used the bottle to pick out who we could abuse when our turn came around. It was kinda fun having people sit around in their underwear or make them reveal which one of us they felt like getting with most. The great kisser had to grope someone they wanted to feel up (me) and it ended with an amazing bite on the ear. Another great experience I intend on copying; that one bite felt absolutely insane. But I think the bottle liked me too much 'cause it landed on me like 5 times and the girl next to me not once. I'm a wimp and was scared to pick Dare each time mostly because I know what kinda dares I felt like making people do. When I finally chose Dare it turned out to be "Make out with someone you wanna make out with. Here's your free kiss card. Pick whoever you want." So of course I picked the ear-biting, perfect kisser. Too bad we live on different islands. Nothing further happened and I have NEVER had a one night stand but with this one, I don't care if that changes. If a moment ever comes, I'm just gonna have to take advantage of it. But who knows when (if) we'll see each other again.

Happy Halloween!

2006-10-29T11:23:00.000+09:00

I know it's technically not Halloween yet but it's Japan and no one knows when Halloween is anyway. I miss Halloween parties. Crazy costumes, walking around the town, fun cakes and treats.

A friend was having a little Halloween party for her students and I went to help out. The nostalgia of carving pumpkins . . . I had the kids make monster balloons and ghosts out of lollipops and tissue. Then made them put their hands into paper bags to guess what was inside. Most of the bags had simple stuff like pens, rubber bands, and bananas. I thought I could gross them out with a tupperware full of pasta and a little oil to make them slippery like worms, and another had a peeled grape. I thought the grape would feel like an eyeball or some kind of animal guts and gross them out, but they smelled their fingers right after touching it and realized what it was. Too bad.

We went trick or treating to a few houses that my friend had set up beforehand. She got friends in the neighborhood to prepare snacks for the kids when we stopped by. The kids knew that costumes were mandatory but some came in their regular clothes, so she ripped holes in garbage bags and told them to wear those. I guess it was a humiliation tactic so they'd come in costumes next year? When we were about to leave a couple kids looked like they weren't going to wear their garbage bags and she threatened them with, "If you don't wear those bags you know what's gonna happen, don't you." I guess the threat worked 'cause they wore those garbage bags. It's not the Halloween back home, but it was enough of the Halloween spirit to put me in a good mood.

Oh the days. Back in St. Louis I went to a party dressed up like Little Red Riding Hood and passed out lollipops from my wicker basket. Most people didn't know I was a guy. I guess they thought I was a really ugly Mexican girl.

Allister and a popping tire

2006-10-28T22:38:00.000+09:00

Alright so here's another entry after a whole month of nothing. Thanks to pandora.com I've come across a few bands that I absolutely love: Allister, Bowling for Soup, and Jettingham. So far I've liked every song I've heard by these guys.

Here are some YouTube samples:
Allister
Somewhere Down in Fullerton
A Lotta Nerve

Bowling for Soup
1985
Emily
Almost

Jettingham has already broken up and I couldn't find any videos of 'em. Too bad.

I was talking to Hiromi (the girl who's selling me her extra ticket to Elle Garden) and she asked if I knew a band called Allister. It was kinda out of the blue so I asked why she wanted to know. It turns out she'd never heard of 'em but they're touring with Elle Garden and wanted to know what kinda music they play. No way! I'm hyped up to get to see Elle Garden but TWO of my favorite bands? It's gonna be the best concert ever!

On another note my tire exploded today. It sounded like a gun went off and freaked me out. I'm pretty proud of being able to change to the spare all by myself. I made it to the repairshop and shelled out $200 for four new tires - I figured it was best to change 'em all just to be safe.

Since I was already there I asked for an estimate on my safety check since it expires next month. It came to a whopping $1400. Holy mackerel. When I saw the list of things they had to change to pass the safety check I had to wonder if it would be better just to get another car. But then figured $1400 is still less than buying another car so am going ahead with the repairs. Man, I'm gonna be poor next month.

Elle Garden

2006-09-20T00:52:00.000+09:00

They're playing here on December 16th and tickets went on sale last week. But I was too late! They're already sold out!!!

Luckily Hiromi bought two tickets and is willing to sell me one. She took all the best songs from their 5 albums and made a CD and copied all the lyrics for me. Hiromi's the best!

I need to eat

2006-09-19T16:24:00.000+09:00

Yesterday I saw a picture of myself and realized I look totally anorexic. Gotta eat more!!!!!!

Everyone's been telling me how skinny I am, but it never really occurred to me how awfully boney this body has become. Even today a woman I work with told me how her daughter thought I looked good before, but now I'm just too thin.

I'm worried about withering away into nothing.
That's why right now I'm eating donuts.