ERIK IN JAPAN - MEMOIRS OF A GRINGO

2010-01-13T21:44:00.002+09:00

adventure

2008-08-10T11:41:00.001+09:00

Just want to tell everyone that we are ok after being stuck in the heart of the tropical storm that has torn apart the area of Sapa and Lao Cai. We tried to take a train out of Lao Cai but the train tracks and all roads out of the area are blocked by landslides. Trying to get to Hanoi by bus but it's currenly broken down. Will write about this one more later!

Vietnam

2008-08-07T23:14:00.003+09:00

Here I am writing from the mountain village of Sapa in the far north of Vietnam, just a few marathons away from China. Met my mom last week in bustling Hanoi, spent our days there enjoying water puppet theater, chewing on braised frog legs and noodles, quaffing bia hoi in the beer halls and defending ourselves from various scamsters and hawkers. Finally escaped on a long overnight 9-hour train to the villages up north where we have encountered truly undeveloped rural life, beautiful handicrafts, torrential rain, rugged peaks and most impressively the tribal dzao and Hmong tribal folk who make and peddle their handicrafts throughout the streets and deep rice-field strewn valleys. Yesterday we were invited into a home where an old grandmother and her Hmong daughter hosted a meal for us after we met the daughter's crazed out curly-headed gnarly hippy American fellow. Our hike today down the mountainside from the town was worth it after fighting off the stomach monsters. Indescribable views were doubled by the beauty of the villagers and the crafts they were making and selling. These are amazingly strong and resilient people and they make me feel like a straight-up wuss. Coming from Japan it's nice to see a different part of Asia which is completely unique, and its contrast with the country I've been living in reminds me of the completely special place Japan has in the universe too.

Mom's holding up well and is gearing up for her new adventure, just trying to figure out what she's gotten herself into this time. I'll try to post more. Next up is the rocky Ha Long Bay.

Leaving Las Tokamachi

2008-07-19T22:49:00.003+09:00

Sorry I haven't updated this thing. It seems that the more exciting and amazing experiences I have had in Japan, the more mundane they have become in a way. I think that's when you know it's time to try a new adventure...when even the crazy stuff becomes an everyday thing and it isn't appreciated as much as it should be.

Well the time has come and I'll be out of here in 3 days. I think part of the reason I haven't posted here in a while was being in a bit of a funk about finally leaving here and also my mind sort of left this place a little bit when I signed the papers to finish out my contract. But these last, long, tedious goodbyes have definitely reminded me the outstanding quality of the experience I've had here and the amazing nature of the people I've come to know. I will miss the kids the most as they are the most down to earth and I got along with them the best out of anyone in this country. So I will certainly be back here someday and the first people I will keep an eye out for are my students, even the crappy ones. I will miss them and I will miss this town and my friends. The term "second home" is overused sometimes but in this case it makes sense. It is the one place I've lived the longest continously outside of Chimayo and as different as I was, I was welcomed and absorbed into this community.

Starting Wednesay I'll go on a month long trip about Asia, hitting northern Thailand, a bit of Malaysia, and 2 weeks to see mom in Vietnam. If I can swing in a Hong Kong visit that would be cool too. I'll be back in Tokamachi for my 5th and final summer festival, then back in New Mexico around September 1. And after four years I've been thinking about all you friends and family I haven't seen and that I have been so terrible about keeping in touch with, now I really wanna spend some time with you. So put the beer in the fridge and keep a cold one for me. Preferably a Tecate, cut up some fresh lime. I'm coming home!

Spring

2008-04-20T16:40:00.002+09:00

Sorry for the lack of posts. I haven't been feeling so excited about telling everyone about the cool things I'm doing, now that I know I'm leaving soon. It's a bit of a bittersweet feeling but I'm enjoying it while I can and having lots of fun. It's cherry blossom season and today I found a tree in full bloom on the edge of the rice field near my place today. Spent some time relaxing underneath it and just enjoying the moment.

Since I last posted pics, done lotsa fun stuff. It's much easier to try this web album thing, so click on the link to check out a few pics from the winter and spring.

http://picasaweb.google.com/myweinerhasafirstname/RandomBlogPicsPostedApril08

Otherwise I have been busy preparing for a music concert. I have been studying the shakuhachi, a traditional bamboo flute. I only have wooden ones though because the bamboo flutes cost as much as a car, but the learning is coming along. Sunday I'm part of a traditional music group doing the musical accompaniment for a community play. I'm joining a group with my teacher and another shakuhachi player, two shamisen, drums and some elderly singers. Not exactly a ripping rock show, but I think it's pretty cool.

errrrr...

2008-03-26T14:59:00.002+09:00

I haven't forgotten about the blog. Just not much new recently, or not as exciting as getting attacked around a raging fire. In the past couple months these things have happened, and I'll be putting up some pics soon: Aunt Susie and Uncle Tim came up to visit for a night and we took in a ryokan - The snow festival was actually snowy this year, a bit too much actually - I skied some nice powder - a couple nice trips to Tokyo and an LC alumni event - I decided not to recontract and I'm leaving Japan in four months.

Pics coming soon.

Dosojin Festival...

2008-01-16T00:22:00.000+09:00

Tonight was January 15, night of the annual Dosojin fire festival in Nozawa Onsen, Nagano. It stands out as one of my favorite events of the year. It is something you will never experience in any other part of the world. It is always such a cleansing event for me after the New Year.

I have written about it before I think...the madness, the sake, the fire, the chaos. This was my 4th time in a row, I haven't missed one since I've been here, and it's always been an important tradition. I'm not sure why. But you can't argue with tradition, however new or ancient. Tradition defines people more than you think. Sometimes tradition has special meaning to you, and sometimes it just makes you feel good and secure.

We had arrived just in time...the fireworks were exploding, the 42-year-old villagers were atop the heap of towering wooden logs, the 25-year-olds down below protecting their elders as is the usual custom. The other villagers were preparing a separate bonfire in which they lit torches to attack the column of wood towering over everyone.

We had positioned ourselves so we would be close to the edge of the line of torch bearers. It would become a flow of fire and chants, old as the the Shinano river. The roaming men with sake bottles tied around their necks were pouring it into my mouth until it overflowed onto my coat and down my shirt.

At first the children of the village were given a first-hand chance to run with a flaming torch towards a group of screaming men, trying to incinerate the old guys above. Normal childplay.

During this 'practice' time I befriended a local villager who was keeping the crowd at bay. I told him how much I loved this festival.

"Do you wanna try it?" he asked me. "COME ON!"

"Really?" I thought...it was my understanding that local villagers only should take part in this festival, but I had seen the occasional foreigner years before wandering down the path of flames. I thought that perhaps every year some outsiders were allowed to participate as 'special guests'. I expressed my reservations but he insisted. I admitted it was somewhat of a strange dream of mine to take part in this ritual...and thinking it might be my only chance to be in a Japanese fire battle, I agreed.

He ordered me to strip off my coat and my hat because they might get incinerated, and duck the rope with him. He handed me a bundle of dried reeds which would become my torch weapon to attack the standing tower of wooden logs (with drunk men on top, taunting me to try to burn them to the ground, with local chants).

When the children finished their enthralling encounter with fire and danger, the 'real men' went running and raging toward the main bonfire, lighting their torches. I was pushed into the fray. I lit my torch as naturally as I could and started a charge towards the defenders of the wooden tower, like I was in an Olympic stadium starting the ceremonies, or a villager trying to kill Shrek. All I remember was flames, punching, screaming, crunching. One of the defenders had defeated me and extinguished my fiery weapon. I had to move to the side of the tower to recive a new bundle of dry reeds.

I reached up and the second I caught a new bundle flying through the air, I heard an angry scream to my right. I looked over to see spit flying and teeth gnashing as an open hand connected with the side of my face. A large drunken local punched me in the head like Mike Tyson trying to win the heavyweight belt. My winter hat flew off my head and my ears started to ring.

All around me was fire, heat, shouting, anger, swirling animosity. It felt primal. I felt as though the universe was being reborn in my own Big Bang.

"FUCK OFF! IT'S A JAPANESE RULE! GET AWAY!" He screamed at me in Japanese. I was stunned and not sure how to react. The beating had knocked all words and logical thought out of my consciousness, Japanese, English or any language.

I knew immediately that I shouldn't have ducked those ropes, invited or not. This festival was not mine to participate in. I had known that it was only for locals, but felt like I had priveleges after being invited in. Every day you feel like an honored guest here, and I had naively thought that as usual I had special access because I was a foreigner and perhaps exempt from the rules. I tried to explain that I had been invited there and hadn't snuck in as they thought, but my brain was ringing. I put my hands up and backed off, but was pushed hard away from the fire. Some other guys had to hold the first guy back from going at me further. Another man in a helmet screamed at me and elbowed me in the ribs. "JAPANESE RULE!"

I had gotten stuck between the rock of hospitality and the hard place of traditionalism --- and traditionalism won with a fist to my head.

Something about big fires brings out the angry caveman in people, and though I had been pumelled by them , I was actually invigorated. Never had I seen a Japanese person stand up for something as fiercely as those men had, drunk and violent or not. Never in this country have I experienced such anger and commitment. I immediately gained a great deal of respect for those who stand up for tradition and loyalty. That was not my place to be. That was not my event. I guess I had felt some kind of entitlement for being there a few years in a row and felt that being invited in was some kind of reward, but hundreds of years of tradition should trump that. The man who invited me in to the chaos was either too eager to share his culture, or too eager to see my get decked by the Hulk.

Soon after I saw another foreigner get pushed out. "Japanese only!" they shouted at him.

"FUCK YOU, you racists! You are fucking racists!" he shouted back. "Can you believe these racists?"

It was his first time there and he had only been in Japan for a few weeks. He had ducked the ropes and hadn't been invited in.

I grabbed him by the shoulders and held him back from swinging at the locals. "Listen, it's tradition. You have to be a local. This isn't racism. It's just fucking tradition. Relax".

Eventually he got the point. This is not a college application, this is a mountain fire festival. No affirmative action here. This is a place were tradition actually still drives the community, so respect that. No matter how much a foreigner wants to have an authentic Japanese experience, this is not our place, and this is not our time. We can gain respect through our humility and willingness to understand, but we cannot expect to be fully embraced in situations like this where the bloodline goes back ages. It's just the truth and those who scream racism are simply making themselves look as narrow and blind as those who might actually be racist.

I watched the flames burn down and the tensions subside with the heat. Everybody was smiles and cheers as the embers burned their sorrows into the moonlit night. Amongst those embers were the remnants of my hat, my meager sacrifice for a healthy and happy 2008 in this place I know and love, but will never be my own...

The local stuff...

2008-01-10T22:32:00.000+09:00

There are a millions interesting things I could write about over the past couple months, including a trip to Okinawa for Christmas to see the fam, a nice Japanese New Years in Tokamachi, some good skiing and some good times.

But I'll just write about what I did this Thursday night, tonight. Nothing interesting, just a night across the street.

My car was parked in again so instead of going out for dinner I skipped over to the very local izakaya. It had been a long time. I'm usually not sure what to expect when I go in there. It is usually a crapshoot of local izakaya food - like whale blubber or pig guts - or a strange conversation or experience. But that's what makes it worthwhile. It's always something to remember.

I went in and only one guy was sitting at the counter, the owner and president of my favorite sake company, Tenjinbayashi. He is an older man with a sullen face, and always looks lonely. I've never seen him accompanied by another person. He is outwardly gruff and cold looking. The wrinkles in his face are deep and his eyes are heavy and sunken. He is not someone you would approach from appearance alone.

Yet I've always liked him. He seems like a very natural man to me. There is no outward illusion or effort. He just is who he is. My main memory of him is when he gave my dad and I a tour of his factory. He wasn't outwardly friendly but just showed us around. He tried to explain things to me that he knew I probably wouldn't understand. At the end of the tour he gave us a sampling of his finest sake, then gifted me with 4 bottle of his finest reserves, worth hundreds of dollars. He was a kind man who didn't care if he was seen as so. His actions were what spoke.

Tenjinbayashi is the local Nakajo firewater and it's made down the street. It's the only stuff I ever bring home. It's turned into a fierce and heartfelt brand loyalty.

Recently I realized that I've been living in the Bordeaux of Japanese sake and I don't know anything about the stuff, other than the tours of the local brewery. So I found a book about nihonshu in English and started to study up on it. I learned some terminology and the different kinds of sake there are out there. I didn't know it, but the world of sake can be as over detailed and snobby as the world of wine.

When I saw him in the bar I wanted to ask some questions like a student meeting a master. We exchanged New Year's greetings because it's been a while sinced we drank together. After that I started asking about this type and this type of sake. What rice is it made from? What's your specialty? What are you drinking now?

I had ordered a beer but of course he had a flask and cup of sake in front of him, and I was thinking it was probably the good stuff. He was a brewmaster and owner of a well known sake company, he must know what he's doing.

"Nah, I'm drinking the cheap stuff! No one around here can afford the stuff I make," he said.

I was surprised. The stuff he was drinking probably came out of a box. It was like a master microbrewer drinking Bud Light.

"Fair enough," I thought. Even the cheap stuff is pretty good when it's warm. He ended up treating me to four flasks of it (that's why I like going there...one way or another there is always free sake in my glass). I ate some local fare with it and started talking with him. With local older guys in an izakaya, it's not so much talking as listening. Depending on how thick their dialect is, it's not so easy to understand. Older guys seem to have their own garbled language, and when they've been drinking it sounds like they are speaking with a mouth full of burning hot peanut butter.

What I like about the sake guy is that he talks to me like a local. Part of the problem with talking to locals is they assume you only understand 5% of what they are saying, which is sometimes true, but they let the differences in our race backgrounds precede the possibility for natural conversation. I always appreciate it when people talk to me like they don't care where I'm from; Mr. Sake-man always talks to me like he talks to his old drunk friends, and I enjoy it. I don't always understand, and it often turns into background noise as though his words are coming from a distant radio, but I still nod and agree and somehow we communicate. This is real local Japanese inaka life. We ate and we drank and we carried on. We laughed even if I didn't quite know what we were laughing at.

After hours of this I walked home through the thick Nakajo fog. The cheap sake clouded my head like the thick local accent he spoke. He was just happy to have someone to talk to and share his company on a foggy weeknight, and I guess I was too.

in my eyes

2007-12-03T00:02:00.000+09:00

There are moments when I wish there was a machine that could transport what I see through my eyes in this country to people back home. I wish I could open my eyes at any random time and have other people see the strange things I see, especially people who have never experienced Japan. I think they wouldn't know what to think.

There were several of those moments this weekend, a classic inaka countryside Tokamachi weekend.

I open my eyes on Friday night and I'm in Akiyamago way up in the mountains with the old fishing club guys. We are renting a cottage up in the cold, drinking beer that is cooled in the snowpack and sitting around a campfire. It's 10 guys who are feeling lucky for the chance to be away from their jobs and social and family pressures. We are full of chirashi sushi and grilled mochi. Our bodies are warmed because we just snuck into the rotenburo outdoor bath which is sitting on the edge of a cliff. As we stumble through the snow, I spill my sake all over myself and the guys laugh at me. We jump in the steaming baths, and looking at the stars someone mentions it's the first time they've seen Orion this year. Another mentions how calming it was to see the first snowfall. These guys love the outdoors as much as I do. I close my eyes.

I open my eyes the next day and I'm hiking through the woods. I'm with Kanazaki-san and he's teaching me how to hunt for edible mushrooms to cook in miso soup. We are only finding every kind of mushroom that will kill us, but finally find some tasty nameko mushrooms growing on a fallen log. There are only about 20 but it's a nice crop. They are slimy and look like slugs' asses but I pick them anyway. I close my eyes.

I open my eyes the next day and it's 8 a.m. A guy I don't know is offering me a beer backstage at a local traditional music concert that I´m volunteering for. I accept because there is no other choice (though I rudely refuse the cigarette), and it marks the first time this year that I've had dried squid and Asahi Super Dry for breakfast. As I enjoy breakfast, I close my eyes.

I open my eyes and there is fake dry ice fog pouring around my ankles. I am holding on to a pine tree prop. A bunch of screaming men in feudal style kimono are running around in front of me, swinging swords. One of them whizzes by my ear. At stage left are a dozen old women with their faces painted white, wearing colorful kimono and strange hats. They wave at me. On stage right are a couple of my students waiting to do their dragon dance. I close my eyes.

I open my eyes and I'm standing surprised on stage with a spotlight in my face in front of hundreds of people and a microphone in my face. Unbeknownst to be, I'm suddenly interviewed by the event's MC in some kind of difficult Japanese. I came to volunteer backstage but because I'm the foreigner there, I'm automatically the special guest, even though the mayor and some famous musicians are in attendance. I answer in one word sentences, not quite sure what the question was. Some people are silent and some people laugh. Not a very good sign. I still don't know what's happening and they push me off stage. I close my eyes.

I open my eyes at the after party and I've just finished playing percussion with a group onstage. A very elderly woman in a kimono is saying something to me, about 2 inches from my face. She is speaking with vigor and she nearly spits in my mouth. I have to focus and keep nodding and accepting the beer she is pouring in one glass as my other hand accepts sake poured by an old man wearing a leopard print headband on my left. He is saying something too, about how I should find a wife because I'm getting old, and he makes me chug the sake before I can put the cup down, which is immediately refilled anyway. These are my new friends. The mayor is now doing karaoke on stage and everyone claps. A guy who looks like the Japanese Harry Caray is eating some fish.

The weekend's done and I'm going to bed, I'll close my eyes hoping to dream of something slightly ordinary.

I farm rice because I am.

2007-10-23T23:19:00.000+09:00

It's the peak of the rice harvest up in the mountains and a week back I was blessed enough to finally do something I've always wanted to do...cut rice.

May not sound too enthralling to the average 21st century dude, but it's something I've been meaning to do because it is such an important part of Japan. Not just rice, but the role that the cultivation of rice plays in the whole national identity and source of Japanese cultural traits that have been developed for ages.

There are lots of things about Japanese culture that can be explained by one important point, and that is the emphasis placed on social harmony and a group mentality. Half the things that used to drive me crazy in this country make a lot more sense to me now that I realize they are done so as not to upset other people or the social balance of harmony and group interdependence. That's why people stay at work till 9 p.m. (not cuz there's lots to do, but cuz there are other people still there), that's why people show emotional restraint instead of saying or doing something brash, that's why people stay silent instead of expressing themselves as individuals, that's why my students won't answer a question unless they have a conference about it with friends first. And ultimately, this group consciousness goes back to the time when people worked together and really depended on each other to put out a good harvest. Cultivating rice and cultivating it well as a group is often what has made Japan Japan. Everything is done as a group, for the group.

So that's why I wanted to do it. I wanted to check out the roots of the culture. And I was lucky that my good old friend/Japanese mama Haruno Sato and her husband invited me for a harvest, along with my 9 old Nonaka students (this is the school that shut down last year after 130 years or so of being open).

So this is how it went down...I met the kids at the Sato's 250-year-old Edo period home, which at one point housed a family of 20 people 100 years ago but has dwindled down to the old couple and a 92-year old Grandma. This family and this home was one of the very original Niigata mountain families, and that house and their bloodline in the area is as old as the hills. I was told I am the first foreigner to have stepped foot in that house or those rice fields in hundreds of years.

They took me way up a dirt road into the hills and a clear, beautiful fall day. Even way up into the reaches of these little valleys, every tract of flat land is used for rice farming. To my right were a bunch of rice fields that had been freshly cut, and to the left were a bunch that were ripe for harvest. These were the Sato's rice fields. I asked them how long they had had any of the given rice fields, and I was told as long as the family has been in the area...they have been passed down to each generation for 250 years.

I was given a pair of gloves and a freshly sharpened sickle, as were a bunch of hyper elementary kids. I was told to start in the corners and start cutting each clump of rice stalks by hand, the traditional way. The kids got interested when they saw me doing it and they all pitched in, swinging sickles and evacuating frogs from the mud along the way.

Soon after, technology took over and Sato-san drove the Combine harvesting machine in. This essentially did the work of 100 people in no time, cutting the whole field with precision within about 15 minutes.

And of course because I was the guest, and perhaps because he didn't know better, he invited me up onto the very expensive machine and taught me how to drive it. I put my hat on, sneered a little, and got to work on the big rice zamboni.

Before long I had cleared the rest of the field, the rough grains were poured into a truck, and it was time to eat. They ended up building a fire in the middle of a cleared field and cooked a huge barbecue feast out in the open as we enjoyed the sunlight. I played with the kids between cooking sessions, and we feasted on meat and veggies and fresh miso soup until we almost popped. Then we played rice field tag and rice field baseball. It was an awesome day.

I learned that what we had harvested will most likely be kept for their own consumption, given to neighbors, and then the rest sold to Japan Agriculture as the famed Koshihikari brand, the most famous, delicious and expensive rice in Japan that only comes from this part of the country. Rice of this quality is prestigious and is no doubt what has bouyed this family and whole community over so many centuries.

Here's pics!

fishing

2007-10-05T22:07:00.000+09:00

Last weekend I took my 2nd trip with the local 'fishing club', which consists of a bunch of older married guys who use the excuse of fishing to get away and drink beer and eat all the fish the one or two guys who actually fished had caught.

Yes, that's fresh, and yes, I ate that. Kiss me.

Getting the catch ready to grill around the fire. That image of a bunch of fish head first around the fire, on a stick, is a standard local sight.

2007-10-05T21:10:00.000+09:00

GO CUBS GO

Artsy Schmartsy Kyoto Pics

2007-09-26T23:57:00.000+09:00

More Artsy Kyoto Pics

2007-09-26T23:55:00.000+09:00

Wabi-Sabi in Kyoto

2007-09-25T18:35:00.000+09:00

posting up

2007-09-20T17:40:00.001+09:00

When I was home this summer I talked to lots of people who said they either read my blog, or want to. Never realized people read this thing other than my mom. So part of the reason I haven't written so long is that I felt the need to write things I think other people will find interesting, even though I don't think they are that special anymore...and there's just a million things I've been doing recently, so if I write about just a couple, then the other ones get left out, and I hate being so exclusive. So looks like what I'll have to do is just start posting about occasional random happenings and thoughts, otherwise I'll never get anything done.

SO...

Let me tell you about fireworks. Fireworks in Japan are a religion. They are less like the omnipresent, calm and peaceful shinto and buddhist religions, and more like the world's fanatical fundamentalist psycho religions. People here do insane and ridiculous things to see fireworks. They will stand in sideways typhoon rain. They will sit in muddy rice fields. They might even resort to violence, including pushing and trampling. I've been poked in the ribs by countless old lady's umbrellas at fireworks shows, and for good reason. The fireworks are pretty impressive and they'd rather be damned than let some tall foreigner block their view.

Recently I finally got up close for the Katakai fireworks, which sports the biggest firework in the world. The shell for the thing is like 5 feet in diameter and the explosion is almost a freakin' kilometer across. On top of that there are a million other huge, loud, booms and pretty colors. With a smile on your face and a beer in your hand, it is the epitome of the Japanese summer.

Here's some pictures from August and September: Obon, a ryokan trip to Gunma, festivals, fireworks. Summer around here is the best. Actually, summer everywhere is the best. Unless it's winter, that's the best too. Actually I like fall. Anyway, pics...

i'm here

2007-09-02T13:04:00.000+09:00

Hey no posts in a long time! I'm alive and the trip home was stupendous. Back into the swing of things here.

The point of this post is to tell you not to give up on my blog. I will update with real posts soon. I will!

coming to america

2007-07-11T00:38:00.000+09:00

very very excited for a long trip home. i'll be gone from july 12-august 5. call me at my momma's place if you wanna hang out!

Yippeee!

Jeez I gotta write more

2007-06-27T22:08:00.001+09:00

I don't post too often on here anymore, which is too bad, because I realize that this is really like a diary for me for this whole experience. I have never in my life been able to keep a written diary of the cool shit that I do in my life, for whatever reason if not for the hatred I have for my own handwriting. So, I'm gonna keep up with the digital writing more, whether or not it's interesting to those who read it.

I'll write about the past few weeks. My mind has been totally consumed with going home for the first summer in several years. It was great to go home in winter, but summer is a whole different...well, season. But it's obviously a different feel, a different place, and a different attitude in summer. Lots of things to do, weddings to go to, music and opera to see, outdoor places to eat burritos and drink cerveza, and fish to catch. New Mexico is plain rad in the summer.

I've been feeling restless and getting the travel bug, which is a weird feeling to have when I'm living overseas on a foreign travel experience.

But in the meantime I've kept myself pretty busy teaching some lessons, hanging with some kids, and getting some fishing. On Saturday I woke up at 5 a.m. to drive up to Akiyamago with a very hungover and amusing Tamura sensei. After getting lost a bit and then finally finding our spot, we hiked down to the Nakatsu river where the access point was at a ryokan run by an old woman. We thought we could by our license for the day there (all fishing licenses on rivers in japan are bought privately, since each river is run by a private management club). But she told us we had to get it elsewhere, and that we had better buy it, especially because a poaching foreigner fishing the river might piss off the river keeper enough that he would take my fly rod from me and snap it in half. So we tracked down an old guy in the next village, slapped down 500 yen, and we were safe.

The fishing was slow because some weirdo had fished the river before us, meaning that he woke up at 4 am just to beat us. Then, as usual, the skies opened and we got poured on and drenched to the point of hilarity. But at least I got a couple iwana.

Later that night I had dinner with Tamura sensei and his awesome family. They are himself, his wife Kimiko, and his two daughters Mugiko and Asako, who are both my students. Also, there is a 'crazy old timer Grandpa' as Tamura sensei described him, which was true. He would interrupt our regular conversation and shout in Japanese things like 'What the hell are you people talking about? Where is this guy from anyway? Let's drink." and such.

Then the next day I spent time at the karate dojo of one of my elementary students, whose mother invited me to watch. It was very cool, and several of the kids in the dojo are top-ranked in the nation, which for Japan, I think is pretty good. They were honored to have me there and each student performed their kata for me, right in front of me. It was amazing to see the kids goofing around during drills and just being the childish kids I'm used to seeing, and then once the sensei shouts the command to begin meditation focus before the kata, their focus cues in and the kids get intense. After meditation their eyes opened, bodies tensed up and their eyes focused on me intimidatingly, enough to give me chills. The shift in their spirit is like night and day when they start their kata until the final bow, when they crack a smile and go giggling off. Those goofy kids have a lot of hidden mature strength and focus.

Here's a couple pics from the weekend, and some goofing off pics from when Debs passed through town. Fun night out!

Some thoughts and pics...

2007-06-11T22:54:00.000+09:00

Here's a couple pics from Golden week...first part was Tokyo, second part a road trip up to Take's! Domo, Take-kun...
Otherwise not much is new. Took a daytrip to Yokohama to see a Hawaiian boat this weekend, been fishing a few times, and otherwise just digesting my final decision to stay here another year. It's strange to be so comfortable here now, considering that I came here essentially to be uncomfortable. So, I'm planning a trip home to balance things out...I'll be home for three weeks from July 15-August 4, so if my peeps back home read this blog anymore, save the freaking date!

Sky bar enjoying a $16 martini, Shinjuku

A small portion of Tokyo from above

Sea of Japan coast

Da boys

Onsen of the year...Bandai region, Fukushima

Bittersweet

2007-05-24T16:53:00.000+09:00

This past weekend was bittersweet.

The sweet: I was invited by a former teacher to go up to the mountains in Nagano for some small stream flyfishing, not something I knew I could do around here. However, it's as popular as it is back home. I'm kicking myself for not finding this out in the first 3 years I was here, but now I know, and I'm going again on Wednesday. The weekend was great...it was a fishing 'club' of 10 or so guys who get together every once in a while to go up into the mountains in the spring and harvest wild vegetables, drink beer and whiskey, sit in hot springs and fish. We got a cottage way up in the peaks of Akiyamago. That day, Tamura sensei and I fished the Kitano river for small iwana and yamame, which are small wild Japanese mountain char and brook trout. I caught 3 yamame and he hooked 3 iwana, which we brought to the cottage for dinner. After I was introduced to everyone, they all suddenly disappeared with bags and came back a bit later with the bags filled with green stuff. It's sansai season in rural Japan, and I was treated to loads of fresh mountain veggies, which were eaten raw, boiled, or fried up in tempura. There was loads of beer and a nice onsen, and lots of fishing talk. It was the quintessential inaka mountain guy weekend.

The bitter: I carried a heavy heart for the weekend after getting some very sad news. At the end of the day, I received a phone call from another former teacher. She called to ask me about the 'incident' involving a teacher from one of my main schools. I didn't know anything about an 'incident', so she explained to me that a couple days earlier one of my teachers committed suicide. I didn't know about it because I had been at different schools at the end of the week. He was a young guy, and a good guy. I really liked him and he was one of the only non-English teachers to speak with me regularly. His English was great and he was a homeroom teacher. I don't know a lot about the circumstances, as it isn't being spoken of. The students were told that his heart failed and he died of natural causes, even though the truth is being reported in the news. I came to school Monday and everything seemed to be completely normal. Everyone was genki. The only reminder I had was an empty, cleaned out desk next to mine. Everyone is trying to pick up and move forward. It's so difficult for everyone, and hard for me to know what to do...there are levels of the Japanese language for every situation and I haven't the slightest clue how to correctly express my sorrow and support. I will probably never speak about it with anyone other than the English teachers, in private.

This weekend was so full of contrast. I was getting to do something that I loved, with life and greenery and rain and wild fish and fresh water and rugged beauty everywhere. I was very lucky, and life felt like such a positive thing. With the frightening rate of suicides by young people in this country, I felt the urge to communicate life's immediacy to my students ... that taking your own life - regardless of how complex and difficult to understand the motives for such a thing are - is never the right choice. I suppose at that time the school was right to put the focus on mourning for their teacher and not on teaching the students a lesson, and I respect it, but I'm not sure that it was right to alter truth when there is an opportunity for these kids to face and try to understand something so saddening which has just hit close to home. I just hope that's a dialogue that will be opened in Japan as time goes on.

It's such a heavy and sorrowful situation for the school and students, the truth is it's beyond what I feel I can grasp or be a part of as an ALT. I feel the desire to talk about it with the kids and the teachers and tell them how sorry I am, but I have to respect their desire for privacy and quiet, internal grieving. I guess the best I can do at school is just to keep the kids smiling.

I'm Alive

2007-04-26T16:49:00.000+09:00

Yah so it's been a bit...

The biggest thing in the past month or so was a quick trip to Hawaii with Yuko and her sister Yoriko. Good fun! Lots of shopping, but that's what I get for going with two Japanese girls. However I did get some good family time with Zen and Rain and Sis and Ray. Good times.

But above all, the most important part of the trip was when I learned that pineapples do not, in fact, grow on trees. Nor do they grow underground like potatoes. Now I know.

Nonaka Shogakko

2007-03-27T23:26:00.000+09:00

Last friday was the closing ceremony for one of my favorite elementary schools, Nonaka Shogakko. Nonaka is a very small mountain community halfway between Tokamachi and Shiozawa. The entire school has 8 students. I have a great relationship with the school and hold it very close to my heart, as I've always enjoyed the students and the honest inaka atmosphere, plus I took my mom their for a visit and they welcomed her with open arms.

Nonaka is the latest casualty of Japan's rural population decline. The school is closing for good after something like 130 years. At one point in the late 1800's, the school had over 120 students from Nonaka and other surrounding mountain rice farming communities. I didn't know it but at one point after the Meiji Restoration, Niigata was more populous than any place in all of Japan, including Tokyo and Osaka. Now, Niigata has become that broken-down but good-hearted area that won't ever reach it's bustling days of long ago, like an old gold mining California ghost town. Rice and kimino production are more mechanized, young people are fleeing for the cities, and the population is just simply fading.

Hence the closing ceremony of Nonaka, done for good. It was a special event and the national television stations were there, but I attended the ceremony just as I'd attend any other...thinking I'd sit with the teachers or the parents. But for whatever reason, probably just because of the mutual respect that I've developed with that school, they included me as a special guest of honor. There is a special table for such people at all school ceremonies...it's on the left side of the stage as you walk in, in front of the red and white banners hanging throughout the gym. It always has a large white tablecloth, and it's always full of old, suited, occasionally distinguished men. So, they put me 3rd in line with the Board of Education cronies, the head of the PTA, and other community leaders. Seating order at such events is a crucial indicator of prestige and community status level, and somehow I ended up 3rd in line. Like I said, I guess the school really respected me, or just thought it was super cool to have an American dude at their special ceremony, but either way I thought it was pretty kind of them. I didn't get the sense that they were trying to show me off as their foreigner arm candy, I really felt like they were proud that I had been part of their community and educated their kids.

Here's a picture with the 8 last Nonaka students and their parents and community. It's a great school with a great history and it's sad to see its doors locked up forever.

Outsider

2007-03-20T15:12:00.000+09:00

There are certain things that are addictive about Japan...

And one of them is being an outsider. I think many foreigners complain that life in Japan is difficult because they are always seen as an outsider, based on their nationality and background. They get frustrated that they are never accepted as insiders no matter how long they have lived in Japan or how well they speak the language. Japan is an exclusive place and an exclusive culture. What was it, only 150 years ago that they came out of a period of complete state-controlled isolation? You will always be welcomed warmly here, but unless you are of the Japanese bloodline, assumptions will be made about you. You are a book that will always be judged by its cover.

In a way, for me, I thrive on being an outsider simply because it gives me a feeling of comfort.

Growing up in Chimayo, New Mexico, as a white, blonde-haired kid was nearly the same experience that I'm having now. I was a minority. Northern New Mexico also has a somewhat exclusive, deep rooted Hispanic and Native American culture. Anyone who is white or black is immediately considered an outsider. It frustrated me more than anything when a local asked me "where did you come from?" I wanted to scream out "I'm one of you". I explained that I was actually born and raised not far from them.

It drove me crazy, but over time it became a pattern that I associated with my own identity. When I went to college in 90% white Portland, I felt a bit of an identity crisis as I, all of a sudden, wasn't so unique anymore. And now that I'm back in that pattern of being stared at, of being different, of people judging me by my cover, it's frightfully comforting. Only this time, I really am the outsider, and I have no problem with the cultural ostracization. I have a better tolerance for it than many people who didn't grow up as a minority. So each time a kid or an old woman stops, stares and points, I just wave and say hello with a tinge of nostalgia.

Working culture

2007-03-08T16:09:00.000+09:00

March is the season of graduation, coma-inducing allergies and lots of free time at work. So, I sit around and think of things I should be doing other than sitting around, and yesterday, I promised someone I would do a traithlon. Someone remind me I said that so I can actually start to train. But, I can't really swim, and I don't have a bike. So maybe I shouldn't have made that promise after all.

Tuesday night was the graduation enkai with many of the teachers. I realized that one of the teachers wasn't there, and that I actually hadn't seen her in long time. I asked someone about it, and he said that she had been hospitalized due to exhaustion from work. She is younger than I am...

This is the 3rd or 4th time I've heard of a fellow teacher actually having to be hospitalized due to overworking. It's always junior high teachers, and the ones that work at larger schools.

I tried to explain to him that this kind of epidemic is one of the most maddening parts of Japan for me. The working culture and the commitment to the group are admirable at times, but it also leads to people not having the ability to look out for their own needs, wants, and health. Teachers here don't take their paid vacation unless they have to. Instead of using their allotted sick days, they use a paid vacation day if they are sick, and they are usually near death before they actually make the decision to stay home.

Many teachers often complain that they are not happy, and they are too tired, and they work too much. They are in this situation because they are appeasing the working culture and making sure they aren't being seen as lazy or a strain on their coworkers, which is partially because of the nature of where they live, but I also believe it's a choice.

I was told that the government is actually finally considering changing labor laws to make sure teachers have the appropriate time off, which I suppose helps. But the government shouldn't have to be making laws to force people to be good to themselves. That is a very personal decision, and ultimately your own happiness is in your own hands. But, I guess that's just my Western mind working...

Nice to meat you too!

2007-03-01T10:48:00.000+09:00

Graduation is coming up soon, and many of the students that I am closest too are leaving, which bums me out because they are such good kids.

However, the thing I do like about this time of year is the ego boost and laughs I get from their goodbye message cards. Each class usually makes a plaque and some cards for me with notes from each student. Among the notes to me from Minami's 3-1 class:

I like Erik because Erik likes me -Michinori
I am Erik. Ok. No reason! -Yuma
I love Erik. I was born to love you. - Yuka
You're my sunshine! -Yosuke
I enjoyed English with Erik. Shank you. -Momoko
I love you. I love me. -Masa
Someday please tell me how to play dunk. - Takuya
You are toilet paper juggling very well. -Eri
Please take me to America to see Weezer live! -Yui
I love you. I need you. I want you. Thanks. -Satsuki
I am gentleman. Erik is English. -Takanari

and my favorite...

I was glad to meat you. -Miki

Niigata puts the NO in SNOW

2007-02-18T20:14:00.000+09:00

OK, well I'm done with the book and the war thoughts and on to other depressing topics, including the disastrous winter that has beset us.
Niigata is such a land of extremes, it's freaking extremely extreme. In the 2.5 years I've been here, we've had Japan's largest earthquake in years, record setting snowfall, and now a year later, a record setting winter drought. Things always have a way of balancing themselves out here, but in a dramatic way. Not only is Niigata Japan's Punching Bag, but also its Drunken, Bipolar Drama Queen.
Since I've been back from my good trip home, things have been fine and mellow. The lack of snow has made me grumpy because it means less skiing. I really took the last two years for granted, and I'm silently reliving my year in Taos, where I was punished in a similar fashion by whoever is supposed to be on winter shift up heaven's way. I've been offered a 4th year on JET, which I've been mulling over, and consequently questioning what I want in life, which can make a guy pretty preoccupied and crochety. But the good times have been rocking lately, with a dubtastic Nagano birthday party, a rare party night in the city for the conference (I yelled "BIG BOOTY" and clapped a lot, mostly), fun times with my kids and a snowless yet enjoyable snow festival.
More on life in Japan later, but I took like 600 pictures back home, so I should at least post a few.
This is me, my friends and family, and the best place on earth which is New Mexico:

At Carolyn's wedding, the newlyweds in the middle between me and Kyle.

My main man, Ely

That is freaking blue

That is freaking cute, Rain.

That turtle is freaking huge, Ian

That woman's jacket is freaking awesome, Britten!

Me and my bro and my mama on our home hill

John Hyson, natsukashiiii, my tiny grade school where I did a lot of my childin'.

hiroshima

2007-01-28T17:16:00.000+09:00

Let's talk depressing...

I've just started reading a book called Hiroshima by John Hersey, which is a first-hand account of 6 survivors talking about their experiences in surviving the 1st atomic bomb dropped on Japan.

I don't know a lot about the war or the politics or the circumstances surrounding the apex of the war in 1945, but I do know that before so many people start arguing about whether or not the bombs should have been dropped, and figuring out who should have surrendered when and what the main goal of the atomic experiment was, they need to read books like the one I'm reading. War is fueled by the basic human instinct of a group of people trying to protect their own interests, and these interests are elevated to a point where they supercede the understanding of what human life is. People are using other people's lives to prove a point or to protect something they have been led to believe as important.

I remember as a kid interviewing a family friend who worked in weapons development up the road at Los Alamos National Labs, where the atomic program was developed. I asked him what were his and his colleagues' feelings and reactions when they heard about the explosion in Hiroshima. He said that it was happiness that everything went off successfully and as planned; it was these people's life work, soul, time, energy that went into the making of the bomb, but that they hadn't realized what a loss of life it would cause and that it would be used to that extent. They were following orders and were working in the interests of their government, and this had supplanted any real understanding of its effects on human life, on human skin and bone, on a creation of loss and suffering.

I think now in the information age we have a real opportunity to overcome that disparity between personal interests and the reality of war by using media the right way. But the media is too afraid and too controlled to present the realities caused by people's decisions and idealistic battles. If the media could just be used in a way that presents a more human side of things, people would realize that all this suffering just ain't worth it...

Just my thoughts. I wish people would read more books like the one I'm reading now, and begin to understand the results of everything they are so proud of.

there and back

2007-01-18T19:00:00.000+09:00

Wow, since the last post a while ago, I've been there and back. It was my first trip home in two years and for the first time ever in my life, I felt a little foreign in the place that I hold closest to my heart. I guess that goes along with being so far away for so long, and just culture shock in general. But it was a fantastic trip, and I got persective on friends and family that I never realized I would see. Amelia is like twice the size and twice as sweet as before, Zen is some kind of superhuman 2-year old, and I met Rain for the first time ever. I realized I like being an uncle, and I'm not ready to be a father (no, I'm not saying I'm actually about to be one or anything).

The first memory after the long flight home was landing in O'Hare Intl Airport in Chicago, the end-all metropolis of Middle-America. I had the worst culture shock since I was attacked by hare krishnas in LA on my way back from Australia. I've forgotten what an overwhelmingly humungous, angry, rude, mean spirited and cocky people Americans can be. I think I've come pretty accustomed to the immediate respect and formalities you encounter when you meet someone in Japan. But, I also did appreciate being able to just strike up an informal conversation with the cashier lady, I can just be like "Yo, hey Merry Christmas!" and she's like "Thanks hun, it's gonna be a Merry Christmas, mmm hmmmmmm" or the gas station guy that said "Hey you look like my friend Bob!" So it all balances out.

Getting home was great and the normal xmas eve party was great. The juice box sake that I brought was a big hit. Nobody got hurt jumping the fire this year and Santa came as usual. However, in a blasphemous break from tradition, I was forced into some kind of cruel Growing Up Land by not being given a stocking for the first time in my life. But, again, it all balances out...the babies had massive stockings and they were super happy...the Christmas morning torch was passed on to the next generation. So be it, I guess.

My friend Carolyn's wedding at the Loretto was great, and made even funner by the record snowfall that came that night. Nearly 3 feet of snow fell in Santa Fe over a couple days, which caused hell for a lot of people, but created the best ever wedding night fun by allowing me and my friends to have a drunken snowball fight with the bride in her wedding dress and high heels. That was highlight reel good times.

The snow allowed for a couple days skiing with family on my home hill in Los Alamos, helping the kids make their first snowman, and smiles all around.

Jake's New Years party was great and was made even greater by the good fire and the fact that I smeared everyone and took all their money in the poker tournament. Twice.

I ate amazing thing I haven't eaten in years and I remembered why I once thought that the taste of good green chile can actual put you in an induced state of deep spirituality and belief in a higher power.

Ely and I caused some mischief for old times sake and it was good to see him. I pretty much saw most people I wanted to, except for a few people. Everybody at the party of course and all the old family friends and vatos. I got to play scrabble with Britten and her worthy fiance Brooke, I saw Yvonne holding things together at the museum, Anna at the wedding, I saw Becca and her funny-accented fiance Ross, I saw Kim and Ian (they've been giving speed to their dogs and steroids to their tortoise), I bumped into old camp friends, saw my opera friends and colleagues. But the majority of my time and energy went into the kiddies...luckily Jess and Ray came out from Hawaii so all three of my nieces were around. Man, kids are awesome. And crazy.

I'll update what I've been up to in Japan since my return, but I'll tell you about what I'm doing for my birthday on Saturday...me, Lopaka, Martin and 4 Japanese friends from Tokyo will end up in Hakuba, Nagano, for skiing and live Japanese reggae music. Yes, it's Reggae Snowsplash 2007. Woooo. Check it out www.reggaesnowsplash.com

Pics of Christmas Past and Reggae Future to come.

not OK Computer

2006-12-14T17:52:00.000+09:00

Ok it's been a while...sorry about that. Part of the reason is that recently my computer has been in very poor health, and is currently clinging to life support under the care of the great Dr. Martin. Hopefully it will pull through and then I'll be able to keep up the blog and keep up with people too.

In other news, I'm going home in a week. Out of control! It hasn't dawned on me yet. I'm going to be such a whackball. But going home is long overdue and I can't wait for the friends and family.

In sad news, it hasn't been snowing at all and the ski areas won't open.

I have 6 bonenkais/christmas parties over the next 4 days. It's crazy crunch time.

As a final note, I have continued my quest to become a 7 year old Japanese girl and I spent hours yesterday learning origami from an actual 7 year old Japanese girl. I can make a heart, and a box, and a little dancing guy. Oh, snap! I'm awesome.

雪がふろよ

2006-12-03T00:04:00.000+09:00

雪

First snow of the season tonight.

Had a dump back home in New Mexico too.

Glad the forces of nature can be in sync to bring everywhere the gift of snow.

Tonight I had a nice meal with the Ota's, drank a beer to celebrate the first snow, and drank some sake from a big 4 liter box.

Can't believe another winter is upon me again, here in snow country. It's amazing how much everything changes here when the snow comes. Not only the landscape, but also the heart and attitude of the people. People become much heartier and tougher. The beginning of snow season makes many here look to the future with heaviness, because they have to dig in their heels for the long haul. I think I'm secretly resented for rejoicing in the snowfall, but you can't deny it's beautiful.

I'm going home in 3 weeks!

I saw me a tree!

2006-11-20T17:02:00.000+09:00

So many of the pastimes in Japan revolve around the seasons, and just looking at things. In the winter, you watch the snow come down. In the spring, you look at the cherry blossoms. In the summer, you look at the flowers and the fireworks. In the fall, you look at the leaves changing (kouyou).

Kouyou is exactly what I did all weekend. I call it 'old man fun time'.

Those young crazy city folk don't get this kind of thing. But, city folk don't really know what trees are anyway.

It is nice to help get in the right frame-of-mind for winter. When you live in one of the snowiest cities on earth, you kind of have to mentally prepare yourself for winter like you're about to play in the Super Bowl or something.

Saturday, up to Akiyamago, a steep canyoned valley with small onsen dotting it all the way to the top. Took one onsen and looked at more leaves. Puuuurrrdy colors. There was snow up high, and I touched and subsequently ate the season's first snow out of a parking lot. It wasn't too tasty, but I had to follow tradition.

Yesterday, went to momiji-en (Japanese maple park) in Ojiya. Nice park, small and maply.

Nice weekend. I'm old.

The Mexico of Asia

2006-11-20T09:27:00.000+09:00

I was talking with a college friend yesterday and he said something that was very true:

"The reason you like Thailand so much is because it's the Mexico of Asia"

...and he was totally right. Thailand is the Mexico of Asia, and that's why I feel a certain affinity with the place. My guess is that anybody from the American southwest who visits Thailand will probably feel immediately comfortable there as well. The attitude and lifestyle are similar, it's cheap and delicious, and you the street culture and market culture are the same. Makes me feel like I'm down in Mexico again in a psychadelic version of the markets of Morales or Oaxaca. But mostly it's just the disposition of its people, with a laid back style that contrasts with the rigid atmosphere in Japan.

So what's Japan? The Canada of Asia? I think so...

Sadness

2006-11-17T21:00:00.000+09:00

Two different social epidemics have saddened me lately, one here in Japan and another back home.

Lately there has been a rash of suicides by young students in Japan, most recently one here in Niigata.

Also, another major drunk driving accident in New Mexico, killing 6 people including an entire family of 5.

Both incidents are representative of social problems that plague both areas. New Mexico has had such a huge problem for so long, and has recently had the worst rate of drunken driving related fatalities in all of the United States (goes hand-in-hand obviously with one of the highest per capita beer consumption rates). Japan has nearly zero alchohol related traffic deaths in any given year. Why? Because Japanese laws are strict. People here drink more than New Mexicans, but there is a zero-tolerance policy in place. Even one sip of beer will put you over the legal limit for driving. There are taxis in even the smallest of rural towns, and a general culture of safety and designated driving. I used to criticize the zero-beer law, knowing that I could trust my own judgement as to whether one sip of beer would impair my driving or not. But I think I'm buying into it, as it's obvious that there are too many people in the world who can't see the difference between a sip and a 12-pack.

As far as Japan's problem, the suicide rate is extremely high. America's is not, comparably. Why? That one is more complex, but Japan has a long history of being a 'suicide culture, in which suicide was seen as something that was an honorable solution to a problem. I can't say I understand it. I think this article sheds some light though... http://www.espacoacademico.com.br/044/44eueno_ing.htm

The recent student suicides were all connected to cases of being bullied. There are bullies in schools all over the world, and lord knows I was tossed around school more than a few times. But Japan's problem is very serious...and in my opinion it comes down to lack of teacher intervention. Because you know what comforted me? I knew that if a teacher saw me getting bullied, he would run over and at least stop it, if not grab the kid by the back of the hair and drag him to the principal's office where he faced sure punishment. Or I could tell my parents who would get involved with the teachers who would keep an eye on the situation. There is an active culture of discipline and communication in the academic world back home that I just don't see here very often. I can't tell you how many times I've seen bullying and teachers who turn a blind eye to it. It's so disturbing. Most notably, I was walking down the hall with a teacher. Some students were pushing and tripping the mute girl, Nanae. The teacher continued walking. I stopped and shouted at the kid, and smacked him on the head so he knew what I was getting at. There is little I can do other than that as I'm not a teacher with power, and can't even communicate to the kids in a functional way. I raised a stink about it, and the principal asked me about it...but nothing was ever done. It is a culture that tends to avoid confrontation, but confrontation is the only way to ease Japan of its bullying problem.

In Japan, there is a very strict rule about drunk driving and a culture that is careful about its consequences, and back home there is not. Hence, New Mexico has a problem. Back home, bullying surely exists, but punishment is strict and if seen, it is confronted. In Japan, it is not. Hence, Japan has a problem. For me...I obviously agree that turning to suicide is a poor choice...but if I couldn't turn to my parents or my teachers for help, I suppose my options would be more limited. The teachers MUST get more involved and learn to create a culture of direct confrontation in schools when it comes to bullying, regardless of how much it disturbs the daily social peace.

I didn't exactly think that through too well, but needed to rant. Just my two cents.

bangkok pics

2006-11-06T21:37:00.000+09:00

a week in bangkok

2006-11-06T00:08:00.000+09:00

just back from my week in Bangkok. Originally I had just planned to go to for a break, get in some good eating and relaxation and visit a dentist (sounds sketchy but it's not).

The week ended up being absolutely incredible. The first time I went to Bangkok last year I spent time with some other JETs (Pam, Deccy, Yamagata Kristin) and it was fun, but we were just in transition down to the southern beaches. My attitude towards the city itself was not entirely positive; on the surface, Bangkok is just another huge city that stinks, screams at you and makes you feel like you've just smoked a pack of cigarettes from walking down the street. It has great temples and the cheap shopping and food is out-of-control, but if you are going somewhere like the beach the next day, you probably can't wait to go.

But this trip, I got to know Bangkok in a whole new light (no, not that kind of light. I stayed away from the ping pong banana shows and most everything else scandalous and eye-opening that the city is known for). I ended up falling in love with the city because I saw parts of the city that the normal tourist just never gets to. I spent the majority of my time in back markets selling food of every imaginable taste and color, the side streets and chopshops of Chinatown, and the waterway canals of old Bangkok where people still move and shop by long-tail boat. I ran into festivals with no other foreigners, and went to bars and restaurants that were the same. I ate street food that I would normally be afraid to touch. A big reason for all of this is that I quickly made friends who were locals...from just chance encounters in bars where the person wanted to show me around next day, to a guy just helping me read a map and then we end up in a taxi boat cruising the canals of the fruit plantations. As with anywhere, having a local show you around is the key to travelling right. But I just hadn't expected that on this trip so it was a nice surprise. I made a couple of Thai friends that I will keep in touch with.

Anyway, I'll probably be back there before all is said and done. More pics and stories to come.

Wakey Wakey Eggs and Shakey

2006-10-16T18:16:00.000+09:00

Earthquake in Hawaii!

Random! Just got off the phone with Jessica and everyone is OK, the babies are ok and no damage to their place. It was fun cuz I got to share earthquake stories with a family member. Glad everything seems to be fine.

Nothing much else is new. I hope that coup business in Thailand is settled cuz I just bought a plane ticket. Bangkok in two weeks! All you can eat Thai food and cheap (G-rated) massages! And good dentists too! Wooooo!

in the countryside, i chill with da grammas and da snakes

2006-10-10T23:30:00.000+09:00

So I've been in Japan over 2 years now...and it's funny the natural progression of how you observe life in the Japanese countryside as the the experience continues.

In the beginning it was the biggest, most obvious things that made me wide-eyed...the language, the food, the temples, the general atmosphere. But over time you begin to be amazed by the more subtle parts of the culture, all in finer detail. It used to be one whole day that I would look back on and break it down into smaller compartments that amazed me...the festival I saw, the weird thing I ate, that work party I went to. But recently these things are less immediately impressive and I've begun to look back at smaller, singular events, and break those down into smaller and smaller pieces until one 5-minute exchange has the same amount of sensory information and impact that a full day used to.

You begin to think less about the actual things that happen here, and more about the way that they are done. Today...the weather was great and I went out to just walk around the neighborhood down roads that I never checked out, and went into shops and places that I often overlooked.

On the way home I stopped to say hello at my student's family's place. It was the first time I just popped over unannounced but they demanded that I stop by anytime so I thought I had better obey.

The person who opened the door was the Grandmother, at least 80 years old (so, the exciting thing I'm going to talk about today is me talking to an old lady for 5 minutes. Yes, that's right. But she was awesome.). When she saw me her eyes widened and she immediately dropped what she had in her hands and fell to her knees and bowed as though I was the Emperor. She immediately began apologizing for the fact that my student and the rest of the family weren't home, but only her. She went off in more Japanese that I couldn't understand because the heightened level of respect she was showing me was reflected in the level of her spoken words. I tried speaking back at the same level but I just don't have the vocabulary, so the whole exchange was backwards...the elder, the matriarch of the whole household was bowing with her nose to the ground over and over, apologizing in the most formal of words for the fact that she was the only one home, while I was speaking in plain Japanese and not bowing as low as she, as that would have been physically impossible. She apologized and bowed over and over, berating herself for my own bad timing and throwing her heart out in the open.

I know it seems like nothing special but it really affected me for some reason. It wasn't the fact that I was just hanging out with an old Japanese lady that was unique, but instead the form and flow of the conversation and the overwhelming humility permeating the whole situation stood out the most. The form of the greetings, the way the apologies were given and the deepness of her bows were all done with such exacted grace and purpose. Form is in important word here, and style over substance is the rule of thumb.

On a random side note, as I was leaving for the walk I hung with a big snake who was squirming around outside my apartment. He was pretty big and cool looking, and I knew it wasn't a mamushi (Japanese viper, poison baddie) so I decided to get a closer look. I tried to move him so he didn't get squished but he got kinda peeved and started coiling and making mean "I totally wanna eat you" faces at me. Anyway we stared at each other for a couple minutes and then i picked him up and put him in the garden where there aren't little kids running around to scare.

Later I showed a picture to a Japanese friend and he was like "holy crap! did you touch that thing? you could die!" "uhh, i thought only mamushi were poisonous" i said. "yah, but also yamakagashi snakes, they have back fangs so they have a harder time getting their venom into you and they're not too aggressive, but those things are dangerous. geez, that's a big one. "

OK, so add that to the list of things that no one told me about, especially when I asked "ARE THERE POISONOUS THINGS AROUND HERE?". Nope, just mamushi and those huge centipede things, they said.

So, new note to self. Stop playing with poisonous beasts.

Here's my pissed off friend...

Here's some info I found about the snake. To you other JETs, avoid. It's not just mamushi. Yamakagashi also equals bad news:

"In Honshu don't step on the " Mamushi" AKA the "Japanese pit viper" and the " Yamakagashi" AKA the "Tiger Keelback". Both have lethal venom, but the Mamushi is the most likely to kill as it has front fangs and the Yamakagashi has rear fangs. Yamakagashi live around my house, but they are of little concern as they are quite gentle creatures. Mamushi are not so polite. You may be able to get anti-venom for Mamushi from a Police box (Koban) if there are many mamushi in that area, but best go straight to hospital. Yamakagashi anti-venom is only available from the Japan snake centre, but you will have more time to have that delivered."

If I start having dreams about cabbage and snakes and nice old ladies, it means it's time for another trip to Tokyo.

My dive

2006-09-13T21:11:00.000+09:00

Occasionally i'll walk up to the very local izakaya called Wakamatsuya in my neighborhood for some drink and grub. i like to go there for the local flavor, and to try to work on a little Japanese. the problem is, everyone in there (usually all 3 of them) are always so wasted drunk that they have trouble speaking Japanese themselves. so usually the pronuncuation I learn in there ends up being a little on the slurry side. i ate some fried pork, boiled tofu, pickles and a bowl of something on top of rice while i tried to talk the latest topic and listen in on what they had to say. amongst tonight's conversation, loosely and probably mistakenly translated:

-"Yah, I"m glad Princess Kiko had a baby boy. We need a male emperor..." said one guy. "Why?" I asked. "Because, that's how it's always been. See, the imperial line goes back thousands of years unbroken..." "But there have been female Emperors six times in Japanese history I just read" I said. "Uhhhh?...Oh, well, yah only when there's no other choice!" said the drunko.

-"Hey Foreigner Sensei, remember when your Dad drank here? That guy was massive. He was like, this tall, and this big. He was like a K-1 pro wrestler. He was scary at first but he was nice. Is he in the mafia? It's nice to have a large dad."

-A drunko explained American history to me. "America doesn't have an emperor, they have a president right? Because 400 years ago a bunch of guys got together with some Indians and then the Indians helped them and then they thought 'who should be King?' and then they said 'Let's vote for a president' and then they made 5o states to vote for him and now they have Bush."

-"Hey you better come to the festival in 2 weeks because my friend wants to make you drink a bunch of sake and if you don't come he'll knock down your door"

He he, good fun. The beer is really cold, the pork is extra greasy, and the drunk rice farmers are extra amusing.

some pics from Tokamachi Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial

2006-09-05T18:06:00.000+09:00

Rice Field Disco Fiesta 06

Something's different

forest of 20,000 handmade bead flowers

The people have spoken?

2006-08-28T23:42:00.000+09:00

Part of the problem of living in Japan for an extended period of time is that if you're not careful, you can be overcome by a feeling of 'dumbness' that goes along with speaking simplified English all day, being unable to read anything around you, and just being separated from everyday critical thinking.

To help get my brain/intellect/ABC's back into shape, I've started ordering some books online. I decided to jump into the MLA 100 best novels list (an idea I stole from Sarah) and so I've ordered a few of those. Here's the list:

http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html

But can I just rant about that MLA list for a bit? The MLA board seemed to go over the novel genre and pick out what they thought had outstanding literary value and quality, and those books made the Board's List. You know, your James Joyce and Hemingway and Steinbeck and Salinger (the list isn't perfect though, and it is short on female and non-American authors). But then for some democratic reason they opened up voting to the general public and allowed for a Reader's List, and guess what topped the list; 7 of the top 10 books are either by Ayn Rand or L. Ron Hubbard. BLAH! I mean, regardless of how you feel about their literary writing, the votes were obviously not cast on a literary agenda. Who did the voting here? Rush Limbaugh and Tom Cruise? Yah, real balanced voting, People. There's a reason why the public of today shouldn't be allowed to vote sometimes.

some more recent pics

2006-08-21T00:03:00.000+09:00

chisenji temple's graveyard busy at obon

more fireworks

a local nakajo festival, local dancing

taking good care of the gravesite, this is yoshiko's great grandparents'

some recent pics

2006-08-20T23:55:00.000+09:00

miss hawaii 2006 at the hawaii festival in yokohama

i had a fun night of fireworks with some of my favorite nakajo kids

shrine during obon (japan's version of day of the dead)

ohaka mairi, visiting and praying at your ancestor's graves. this is yuko's grandparents' grave.

Espanola is .... special

2006-08-11T10:19:00.000+09:00

One of the positive - and potentially negative - parts of living in Japan is that you become somewhat sheltered from all the daily screwed up things that happen in places where people are less law abiding and more prone to violence (usually a bad combo). For instance, northern New Mexico, particularly the town of Espanola which is down the road from where I grew up. Espanola is not a big town, probably half the size of Tokamachi, but I would say it has 5000% the crime and drug rate (probably less alchohol though). I was checking out our old local paper, The Rio Grande Sun. Occasionally I read the depressing and equally amusing random police blotter. Some excerpts from this week:

• 12:47 a.m. - A Las Lomas Apartments resident said some children he did not know were getting drunk in his apartment and he was just trying to sleep.

• 10:58 a.m. - A very delusional bearded man wearing a blue sweater and blue pants was talking to the robotic horse in front of Center Market, a caller reported. The man was starting to scare customers, the caller said.

• 6:30 p.m. - A man said a couple of guys pulled their guns on someone at Wal-Mart. The gun-wielding men were driving a jeep, the man said.

• 6:41 p.m. - Two drunks were sitting near Calle Redondo with an 18-pack of Bud, according to the dispatch log. They were trying to stop vehicles and get inside, according to the dispatch log.

• 6:45 p.m. - A West Bond Street woman called dispatch to say she was bleeding from the head.

• 6:48 p.m. - A Calle Redondo resident said her neighbor stole $30 from her friend and threatened her friend with a crowbar. The victim said he had just wanted his money back, and he got it back.

• 7:06 p.m. - A Calle del Pajarito woman said her neighbors were sexually harassing her. She told dispatch "they want to sex their women."

• 7:37 p.m. - A woman at the Dollar Store reported another woman was calling her bad names and trying to start a fight.

I mean, huhhh? This is just daily stuff. I think I had erased all that kinda stuff from my memory. The Japanese are occasionally criticized for being afraid to travel to or live in foreign places, but sometimes I can definitely empathize...It's such a far cry from the coccoon of safety that is rural Japan (don't get me wrong though, Japan has its fair share of social problems, which I won't get into now. But never once have I had to worry about getting a gun pulled on me at Jusco).

Sorry, Shamu.

2006-08-09T09:13:00.000+09:00

Yo Japan, you know I love you but you drive me crazy sometimes.

Will you please explain to me how, up here in my mountain town in my tiny local izakaya bar that only seats like 7 people, a bunch of whale chunks ended up in my miso soup last night?

How's that whale research program going?

Perhaps what I unknowingly ate was from one of the 1,238 whales taken under your scientific research permit last year.

The Japanese claim that whaling should continue because it is an important part of Japanese traditional culture (and it's tasty, they say), and that criticism is hypocritical coming from anti-whaling nations like the U.S. who allow subsistence-based traditional whaling in small Native populations.

Obviously there's a difference between a small isolated group of Inuits legally taking 5 whales a year, and a country like Japan who is taking 1,000 whales under a dishonest research permit loophole. Groups like the Inuit take pride out of communally hunting the local whales themselves, and using the whale amongst their own local population. Certain parts of the whale are given to elders of a certain rank and used for special ceremonies. And maybe is what whaling was in Japan long ago. But there is no tradition in the modern Japanese way of using commercial vessels to hunt whales 5,000 miles away, only to use commercial distributors to scatter whale throughout the country at high prices until it ends up in school children's lunches in the form of minced whale burgers, or in my miso soup at the izakaya last night.

But at least they're not wasting anything. As the old Japanese proverb goes, "There's nothing to throw away from a whale except its voice."

happy anniversary to me

2006-08-01T14:21:00.000+09:00

Today marks the two-year anniversary of my first day in Japan.

Two years! And I'll be staying at least one more. A few days ago I signed my contract for my third year. I'm locked in.

-Warning, the following is just a personal statement of justification-

My feelings about the whole thing are mixed. The fact is, I would have to leave my job and apartment and life in Tokamachi today if I hadn't recontracted. And it feels good to know that I am not ready for that yet. Had I decided to stop JET, my experiences here would be cut short. I wouldn't have had that crazy weekend in Tokyo and Yokohama. I wouldn't have eaten that world class sushi for lunch today. I wouldn't have had a rural onsen after work. I won't have had all the awesome things I will do over the next year. I won't have had the opportunity to see the strange beauty and culture and language and humor that I see everyday. And my income would have stopped.

But of course I'm missing home, and it's been far too long since I've been home and seen that familiar beauty and culture and language and humor. I'll get home soon for a visit but my mind gets distracted with wanting another trip to Thailand or Hawaii or Okinawa where I can do the beach thing but see Tim and Susie and my sister and see Zen and Rain, or go somewhere new like China or Vietnam. By staying, I've given myself the opportunity to go all of these places. And I wouldn't be happy knowing that if I left I wouldn't have the money or location or job or schedule that gives me the space to do all this.

But of course my heart aches for things and people in New Mexico. The people and life and places back home haven't been forgotten. If anything, I'm more aware of them now than I ever was. In fact, I think people around here might be tired of hearing me brag about them...

But I'm really quite enjoying extending my young 20's as long as I can. Don't worry though, I'll know if and when my time is up. I won't be 'that guy'.

How long will I stay here though? Longer than one more year? Your guess is as good as mine. When I came, I only thought it would be a year. Now it's three.

Does this make me an ex-pat? I don't think I'm at that point...yet.

highway through heaven

2006-08-01T00:36:00.000+09:00

OK, so it ended up being a 'leave at 11 PM, get there at 7 AM' trips, mostly because of the complexity of the sadistic gaijin trap that is the Tokyo expressway system, combined with sleep deprivation. we stopped by akasaka to pick up kaori about 3 AM and headed out to her place towards yokohama, but spent 3 + hours driving circles not only around and through tokyo, but slicing up up and away and above tokyo. the tokyo expressway system is an incredible magical hovering heaven-like concrete monstrous motor speedway jamboree that allows you to drive (hover, really) at high speeds within just a few feet of the craniums of sleeping tokyoites. as the sun started to rise, we had a beautiful view of tokyo tower. we absorbed the sunrise wandering lost through the world's largest metropolis, tightly packed with rows and columns of humanity-filled concrete. we saw bright lights, sea scapes and brick jungles, and sky scrapers. we were tired and delirious. i think lopaka started talking about rainbow monkeys.

we finally got a map, but it didn't help until i had an hour to process its info. the maps are useful to those people who can read kanji and what not, but to us single-alphabet lame-brain country-bumpkins, a map of any tokyo highway or train system looks exactly like a complex computer generated fractal pattern.

one of the the most entertaining and equally frustrating parts of finding your way around japan is asking the helpful locals, who should be in the know, but are either flustered by having to speak to a foreigner, or just flustered in general. each of the 6 convenience stores we stopped at gave us different directions, until they finally just told us to go to the police box where we found 2 of the most harmless looking cops standing out front, holding their flashlights and waiting for the phone to ring (probably with a report that another umbrella has been stolen from the train station). we asked them the way to shinmaruko (kaori's hood) and they giggled like my junior-high students. they conversed about it for 10 minutes and then pointed in one direction with a shrug.

when we finally got into kanagawa we stopped an old man taking out his morning trash and asked where shinmaruko was (it was just down the road at that point). the conversation between kaori and the old gentleman went something like this:

"excuse me, how do we get to shinmaruko? it's nearby here."
"shinamaruko? i think it's that way"
"really? we just came from that way"
"oh. wait, SHINmaruko? there's no such place called shinmaruko. it doesn't exist."
"yah it does, I live there!"

Anyway, the Hawaii fest was fun. pics to come.

Luau in Yokohama, hula party yea!

2006-07-28T20:43:00.000+09:00

Tonight Lopaka and I randomly decided that we will drive to Yokohama. There is a Hawaiian festival there. And seeing as to how Lopaka is Hawaiian, and how I've been there once and got a tan, we decided to make the trip. It'll be one of those 'leave at midnight, get there at 4 A.M.' random road trips that I won't be able to do for much longer. Getting old, and all.

So I'll be gone for the weekend. Not much else new to report. Signed my contract for my 3rd year. I've suddenly become one of 'those' JETs.

To keep you entertained in the meantime, here are some random pics from Aubrey's trip.

all in one day, we went up to akiyamago, onsened, and went to the local festival in my area that was in honor of my favorite shrine. all in all a crazy day.

this is how high the snow was this winter in akiyamago

random pics from last few months

2006-07-24T16:56:00.000+09:00

Jizo statues

in Kamakura

Sushi that, biznatch

"Matsushima, ahhh, Matsushima, Matsushima, Matsushima! " - Yes, it's Basho's most brain-farty haiku

random pics from last few months

2006-07-24T16:53:00.000+09:00

thousands of origami cranes for good health and wishes and other swirly stuff

Ely and I with Take and his brother, mother and father up in Miyagi

speak, monkey

Me and Dad at hanami (cherry blossoms)

supergalactic Thursday

2006-07-13T09:50:00.000+09:00

No classes today!

err, I guess I haven't really written a whole lot lately about what I've been up to for the last couple months, so how about a random mention of anything mildly interesting...

I think I mentioned Ely's trip was fun, but I'll reitterate that it was awesome and we did a million cool things.

Haven't mentioned Anna's trip yet...

Anna's trip was rad, because we went and did a million other cool things in Tokyo like checking out huge tapeworms at the parasite museum, went to a pro Japanese baseball game, and ran away from a drunk guy who was trying to lick my face. Then we came up to Tokamachi where we went up to the mountains and checked out some local stuff, and watched some soccer. Fun trip!

Recently the heat and humidity of rainy season has been off the charts. It's so humid, when you tear a piece of paper, it just sort of falls apart. I strip down and take a cold shower after work. My hair is attempting to be curly. I'm probably gaining weight just by absorbing moisture via osmosis. I opened a can of potato chips and they quickly turned to mush. I feel like I'm breathing mud.

Last weekend was awesome, saw Lopaka run a marathon (nice work), swam in the ocean, ate 2 cheeseburgers (rarity), went to a ninja fun house, and went to the movies. Last night I payed $15 to sit for a beer.

I'm having lotsa fun with my students and I've started doing pen pal stuff with some of them, which is forcing me to write some in Japanese. I did calligraphy for the first time yesterday and I was terrible at it.

I went to Niigata City with Yuko and family, and went to a good fish market where I bartered over guts and tentacles.

Russell was really ill but he's pulled through. Go tough guy.

I think Aubrey's coming to visit in a couple weeks!

More random pics soon...

random pics

2006-07-02T23:40:00.000+09:00

on my 10,000th birthday

sarugecchu, me and ely

in tokyo

some of yuko's hawaiian quiltwork

"Football" and its repercussions

2006-06-30T11:19:00.000+09:00

Well, long time no post, gomen ne.

Truth is there's not a lot to report. Anna's trip was great. Pics to come!

World Cup Soccer has started and is already into the quarterfinals. I've gotten less sleep because of the whole thing. And, I've had to pick my way through figuring out who to support. Who I wanted to win in order of preference:

1. Mexico
2. Japan
3. England
4. Italy
5. Ukraine
6. USA

I know, I know, you can't do that, you say. Your allegiances can't span so many continents. But, only 3 of those teams are still playing, and they are all European, so that narrows it down. And by default, England is my top choice. I know my football obsessed British friends, foaming at the mouth and possessed by some strange demon during world cup season, will be very happy when they eventually win.

Go England!

OH right, and this whole soccer thing landed me on national TV in Japan. Was just talking to my buddy Take way up in Miyagi-ken who says 'Oh, by the way, we saw you on TV the other day'. Random. See, back in 2002, Tokamachi was the host city to the Croatian team when the world cup was held in Japan. So, Japan and Tokamachi happened to be grouped together in the first round this year in Germany. Meaning that there was supposed to a conflict of interest of who to support for Tokamachi people, but if you are Japanese and you support Croatia just cuz they trained in the mountains near here, then you are weird, in my opinion. Nearly everyone cheered on Japan at a big screening event for the Croatia-Japan match, where Martin and I and Amity and Keiko wore blue and sat in front of the NHK camera and drew attention to ourselves. And then we were on national TV.

Otherwise, it's hot, the cops yelled at us in the Jusco parking lot for skateboarding, and I'm still trying to figure if I can get home for a long visit this summer/fall. It's just plain been too long.

10,000 days old

2006-06-04T21:18:00.000+09:00

I guess the short answer as to why I know it's my 10,000th day birthday is cuz I'm a nerd, but I guess it's cuz someone showed me a website a while back and I marked it down. So, Wednesday I'll be 10,000.

I think there are lots of websites out there but check this one out cuz it gives you lots of different totals for how long you've been alive.
http://www.timeanddate.com/date/birthday.html

It's like, totally, like, June already and stuff

2006-06-01T22:57:00.000+09:00

Man, I really gotta keep up on this blog thing. The weather's been good, things are all thick and green again, and I'm surrounded by mini lakes of flooded rice fields again. Hot, humid, rainy season is soon upon us. The air conditioner in my car is dead. I'm worried.

School has been a blast lately and I've been having a lot of fun with my kids. I played hours of dodgeball yesterday and hours of basketball today, and a few days ago I played 'oni', which is the Japanese version of tag, but 'oni' really means 'devil' or 'demon', so instead of being 'it', you are the devil, and you chase people around, screaming. Sounds really satanic, but actually, it's just tag.

Speaking of things demonic/divine, we saw the Da Vinci code on Saturday cuz it was Yuko's birthday, and I actually really liked it. I didn't read the book so that probably helped. Also, I know very little about things Christian, other than from growing up in catholic New Mexico, where you learn that there are infinite ways to airbrush Jesus onto the hood or your car, or tattoo him onto your shoulder. SO when Yuko asked me to explain the history of Jesus Christ, western divinity, the apostles and Mary Magdalen (who's name I had originally confused with Bach's second wife, Anna Magdalena), I did the best that a half-Jew living in Buddhist Japan could do; I researched it on the internet and reported back later.

P.S. Anna's coming to Japan Wednesday so that's awesome! Will probably meet up in Tokyo. Also, I will put up pics from Dad's and Ely's trips soon.

P.P.S. I'm turning 10,000 days old on Wednesday and I'm going to celebrate.

Gay, blind, whatever

2006-05-17T21:39:00.000+09:00

I'm posting this in honor of Jodi, who always blogs about funny New Mexico things like local celebrities (she met Ron Bell! Read all about it http://jodigwen.blogspot.com/2006/05/singing-in-rain-today-due-to-series-of.html), and also because her super nice husband Neil used to be a TV news reporter in New Mexico. And also cuz she's like one of the only people who comments on my blog regularly. Other than you, Kat. And Kelly. And Anna and Carrie and the guy who wants to refinance my car loan. And 4 other people.

Anyway, this is a little slip-up by another news reporter back home. Oh, New Mexico...

http://www.hedonistica.com/media.php?path=/videos/but-hes-gay.wmv

I think I win...

2006-05-14T03:02:00.000+09:00

...the ALT prize for teaching at the smallest school in all of Japan.

So, the other day I started at Nakajo Elementary, just down the street. In the afternoon, the kyoto sensei (vice-principal) says "oh, you'll go teach at our branch school now in the mountains!" Thinking it's one of the tiny mountain schools I go to occasionally with a mere 10 students, I asked "Uh ok, how many students are there at this school?"

"ONE" she said.

One? That's right, the entire school is one student, Kaho-chan, and one teacher, Yamazaki sensei.

Thinking it was a joke, we drove up into the the hills, the craziest 40-minute drive to a school EVER up a one-lane, earthquake damaged road. We ended up in the bustling metropolis of trees and terraced rice fields surrounding Karekimata elementary, an old, full-sized wooden elementary school built long ago. The dozen or so inhabited houses in the village have old-style thatch roofs and broken mud walls, both damaged by quakes and the 15 feet of snow that smothered the mountains this winter. There was still a foot of snow on the sports field outside the school.

Kaho is a 6th grader and will graduate to Nakajo Junior High next year. She is this school's last student ever. The school will close after she leaves.

Geez, talk about population decline, a recent problem in rural Japan...this school educated 30 or more kids in the old days. Last year the school had four students - three 6th graders, including Kaho's sister, and Kaho as a 5th grader - and attendance at the school has dwindled just as the population of the town has.

The only people there in the village now are Kaho and a few families of elderly folk, about the same ratio as down in Tokamachi, where young people flee the heavy snow and conservative ways of inaka rural Japan for the flashy lights and jobs of the city.

When I arrived at school, Kaho and her teacher were playing a game of cards and staring at each other. I can't imagine how sick they must get of each other, and how much she longs for another kid to talk to. Thank god she has a dog. But she was cheerful, and shy at first. After teaching her some basic English, she warmed up, and we easily became friends.

After waiving goodbye and telling Kaho that I'll be back to teach her in a month, we started the trek back. Just down the road from the school, we stopped to say hello to a police officer on a motorbike, who came up to the village from Tokamachi to patrol god-knows-what. I think he was actually delivering mail too.

I will go up there many more times to teach Kaho, except in the winter when the road is often impassable and they are isolated from life below.

Next time I teach, I should smuggle her a print-club machine, or a candy bar, or a friend to play with...

Kaho and Yamazaki Sensei

The two-story Karekimata elementary school, complete with classrooms, full-size gym with gymnastics gear and wooden basketball hoops, and one student.

2006-05-09T16:30:00.000+09:00

Ely's gone back home yesterday and the weather's turned warm all of a
sudden. Trying to get back into the reality of life again after 10 days off
travelling around with my buddy. We went up to see Take, and among other
things, we:

-saw a samurai battle in Yonezawa
-onsened in egg smelling water
-drank a beer on the beach in Matsushima
-had a few nights out in Tokyo and slept in tubes
-saw the big crater hole inside of a volcano named "Okama" (if you know
Japanese, that's funny)
-saw the monkeys and Zenkoji temple in Nagano

I don't have a lot of energy back at school and a lot is on my mind with
being kinda homesick but wanting to be here at the same time. Classes are
OK, and today we did a lesson on "I like ___" and "I don't like ___". I
decided to show them a bunch of different samples of different styles of
popular Western/American music (here it's pretty much all J-pop) to see what
they liked and didn't like, and threw this together.

Rock
"Hard to Handle", The Black Crowes

Hard Rock/Grunge
"Smells Like Teen Spirit", Nirvana

Metal
"Fuel", Metallica

Punk
"Tough Guy", The Beastie Boys

Country
"Folsom Prison Blues", Johnny Cash

R & B, Soul
"I Got a Woman", Ray Charles

Blues
"There is Something On Your Mind", Buddy Guy

Jazz (Vocal)
"Autumn in New York", Billie Holiday

Jazz (Instrumental)
"Giant Steps", John Coltrane

Hip Hop/Rap
"Oh My God", A Tribe Called Quest

Electronic/Beats
"Kalifornia", Fatboy Slim

Funk
"Atomic Dog", George Clinton

Reggae
"Buffalo Soldier", Bob Marley

Ska
"Lyin' Ass Bitch", Fishbone

I thought they were pretty good examples ... anyway, surprisingly but also
not surprisingly I guess, it was the Coltrane tune that seemed to get the
highest ratings :)

Other than that, things are slow...but at least my students are keeping me
entertained, particularly the spikey-haired chunky kid who puked all over
his friends in the lunchroom yesterday - he was totally entranced by my
blonde arm hair today.

Erikku papa

2006-04-25T20:12:00.000+09:00

Dad's gone back home today after his 11 day trip...it was a good time. Here's the short list of the dids...
-Karaoke and snack bar and local izakaya with local drunks and rice farmers
-fresh sushi...and by fresh i mean still alive
-brought dad to school for show-and-tell
-something like 10 onsens, including a trip up into the far reaches of Akiyamago with Lopaka
-A day in Obuse in Nagano
-hit Nikko (i love that place) complete with fancy ryokan
-dinner with yuko's family
-Tokyo for a couple days, hit Asakusa, Shibuya at night and got tickets to Kabuki theater
-a day in peaceful Kamakura (I really like that place a lot!) with Yuko too
Those were the highlights. Pics to come later.
Ely shows up on Thursday to Tokyo for some kind of Golden Week craziness! Yowza! Yooppeee!

random pics from February and March!

2006-04-04T23:47:00.000+09:00

my students love me

Hina Matsuri dolls

An entire ski area was lit up with candles in Nakasato for the local festival. I ate rabbit there.

at the Kashiwazaki fish market

There's a little baby named Gouta down there somewhere

this is sushi

Extra green beer, extra gross beer for St. Patty's

Emura Sensei, my favorite principal, retiring

The English ladies of Minami Junior High. Ms. Kawase is moving on WAAAHHH

Junichi and Hiroko, green booger monster enthusiasts

Katsu's last night in Japan at Karaoke

Sending Katsu off to Canada, at Narita airport in Tokyo. Katsu ganbarre!

Mom at the snow fest

Mom chilling with the oyojis

Mom and a big snow monkey

Cutest green tea serving kimono girl EVER

Snow tea ceremony

tea ceremony

The sisters out in the cold

Tokamachi snow fest main stage. The top row are all my girl students dancing in Kimono, from Minami

mom rockin' the snow tunnel

The champion of the snow sculptures

snow ikebana

Me and a monkey

monkey 1 and monkey 2, baby monkey

Mom and a monkey

Susie and the leaning monkey

Clean, warm monkeys

At the kimono factory

Mom 1, Aunt Susie 0

more random pics

2006-04-04T23:38:00.000+09:00

kampai at the ryokan

Ryokan in Shiozawa

mum skiing with Nozawa town behind

mom in the fog, weirdest skiing conditions ever

at Yuzawa station

Mom teaching at Minami!

mom doing Indigo dye workshop

My students are happy!

at Nonaka shogakko, tiny elementary in the mountains

Doggie diaper!

lack of posts

2006-03-30T00:28:00.000+09:00

OK, so I haven't posted much lately partially cuz my Board of Ed got quite psycho on the control of internet access for teachers...meaning that during work not only can I not access my blog, but I can't do email, read the news, or play cribbage. How do they expect me to be productive?

But I shall overcome. New posts and a slew of pictures coming soon. Honto!

Goodbye Mizusawa

2006-03-20T09:04:00.000+09:00

I just got out of my farewell ceremony at Mizusawa Junior High. After April, they are changing my schedule around a bit to take the load off of me and Nate and distribute it evenly amongst the new ALTs in Tokamachi who have fewer schools than we do. The positive is that I will have 2 junior highs instead of 3, and Mizusawa was the most difficult in that my class scheduling was through the roof with at least 5 classes a day there, so this will even out my workload. The negative is that the younger kids at this school were some of my best friends, and I will miss their cheering me up and their energy in the classroom.

The farewell ceremony was outstanding. The kids are really the best part of my job and I feel such love for them even if they drive me nuts sometimes. They made a massive banner above the gym stage for me in English. The ceremony started with the principal doing some blah blah blah speech, and then me giving my long difficult speech in English which no student understood. Then, 10 students came up on stage and faced me and bowed and smiled. The first one was Sai (Yuko's cousin, human version of a cute little anime character) who, after fumbling with the microphone, gave me an elaborate goodbye with English she learned from Yuko. Then the mic was handed down the row as each kid gave a heartfelt goodbye in broken English like 'Thank you for Erik' and 'I much enjoy Erik class' and 'We very love Erik!' with the occasional glance to notes written on the hand. I was handed flowers and an envelope which contains cash money donated by all the teachers in the office. I bowed a million times and as I was leaving the gym, they yelled 'stoppu!' and I stopped and turned around. All the kids started running around and getting into formation and they brought out a conductor's stand. The group leaders ran out front and started screaming chants and waving their arms as the entire school joined in unison in a school cheer and dance just for me. The boys pumped their fists in the air and their girls swayed side-to-side with their hands on their hips, and they belted the most off-tune yet rambuxtious fight song all staring at me and smiling. It was followed by a rhythm cheer with clapping that went something like "oi oi Erikku! eh eh Eriiiiiiikkkkuuuuu!' and I was led out of the gym with all the students jumping and clapping in a frenzy.

I love that school!

And sometimes this country makes you feel like a rock star.

Happy White Day

2006-03-15T00:04:00.000+09:00

My White Day was rewarded with lots and lots of white. We are getting what is most likely the final, tremendous snow dump. Last night I skied but was sidelined with old man back pain, so hopefully tomorrow night will be a little better.

Was just driving home and marvelling at how overwhelming the snow here can be, and how much of a part of my life it has been over the past year and a half, to the point where if it snows 5 feet in one day, the reaction is no different than opening the door to a sunny day back in New Mexico. It has become commonplace and a part of me, and if I ever leave here I'll miss it as much as someone from NM would miss the continuous sun.

I'm drinking some hot sake now since it is winter and Mom and Susie didn't help very much to finish the 2 liter bottle of local stuff that I bought just for their visit. I was tempted to try to use the sake flask and cup that I bought on Sunday - I kid you not, it is made entirely of dried squid and smells like rotten scum. But, I bought it because, well, it was a sake flask WITH CUP, and it was made of squid, and you can eat it when you're done with it.

I bought it at the Kashiwazaki fish market when I went there with Yuko and family. Yuko's sister just had a baby boy (Gouta) and Osamu's parents came down from Akita to meet their new grandson, so we went to buy fresh fish for dinner. By the end of the night I had consumed no less than 14 different kinds of fish in raw, baked, grilled, soaked, salad, and soup form, but mostly raw.

In other random Japanese culture news, I am learning the game of Go (igo?), which is the oldest board game known and is an old Chinese strategy game that was transferred over to Japan which adopted its own rules. Very soon I will be playing it in the park, drinking tea and stroking my beard.

Also, I went to Minami's graduation last week, and although I went last year I was amazed by it again, because it truly does highlight the difference between Western and Japanese educational standards I think. The ceremony itself is so, so formal, and not at all a celebration of accomplishment. It is merely a symbolic and slightly emotional goodbye to friends and teachers, and a chance to display military-like group discipline (which the Japanese are masters at, unlike individual discipline, which is a joke). But there was no sense of accomplishment...back home graduation is your chance to celebrate the fact that you 'survived' school and met the challenge, and to let loose and smile and have people cheer for you. In Japan, this is not possible as there is little challenge related to school other than the national and high school entrance exam testing system, which is the focus of all studies here. The next day, a student at Mizusawa refused to take a speaking test with me (after destroying every worksheet I gave him for weeks) and left without even trying, reminiscent of many other students who simply don't care because there is no motivation to achieve success in anything not directly related to test scores. He will likely continue to do that for the rest of school, but he will absolutely graduate, and when he graduates he will be praised just the same as the exemplary student who put out effort and actually showed improvement in intellect and character.

In other fun news, my dad's coming for 11 days in April, and just before that I'll take a trip somewhere, maybe Hong Kong!

I swear to you I will put photos up soon. Sooooon!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-03-03T14:14:00.000+09:00

It's been a while...

February was thunderously great! It was all about snow, skiing, friends and family. Of course the most eventful part was my mom's and Aunt Susie's visit. It was great all around, and it was a great time to be here as there was lots going on with the snow festival. I saw things I've always wanted to see, and much of what we saw was as new to me as it was to them.

The only downfall was we had a lot of rain, but just one snowfall - blah!

Won't go into all the details but just tell some of the cool stuff we did...

Mom came in Thursday, and Friday night we went to the opening of the Tokamachi Snow Festival, walked around in the snow, drinking sake and eating weird things on sticks. Susie came in the train Saturday and we checked out all the incredible snow sculptures and shows, then the big show Saturday night (not bad, podunk town!) The part my mom loved best was driving to the little community areas where old folks sat around gleaming at their sculptures, handing out free mountain food and sake, being more outgoing than usual and displaying that local Japanese charm and hospitality. Sunday involved more of that, then taking an afternoon trip to see the monkeys in Nagano! So many crazy monkeys! Monday was a really cool craft museum in town I've never seen, and we got a private tour of a kimono factory and my mom saw all the cool weaving/craft stuff she wanted to. Monday night we stayed in a cool mountain ryokan in Shiozawa, ate some real ryokan food and onsened until we couldn't think straight. Susie left Tuesday and my mom and I got Yuko and went and did a crafts workshop and made some Japanese indigo fabric things. Wednesday we payed a visit to some schools and then went to Matsunoyama for some more onsen (by now we had onsened in 4 different places)! Thursday we went skiing in Nozawa but were hit by some strange conditions, but we onsened in town and enjoyed that little haven. Friday was "bring mom to school" day, and I brought her to Minami where we did some team-teaching together and ate with the kids. Friday night was dinner at Yuko's, and Saturday was another day skiing, and into the night also at Ishiuchi Maruyama. Hit Mion onsen on the way home and had a good lunch the next day on the way to bringing mom to the train station for her trip back to the airport! Yoshi! Good stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pictures on the way!

I feel like using a lot of exclamation marks!!!

I think it's because I've been signing my students' yearbooks all day! I have to say stuff in simple English like 'You are a crazy boy' and 'Thanks for trying to speak English!'

Graduation is Monday. Should be fun!

yowza

2006-03-02T19:01:00.000+09:00

Holy Slam Dunk, it's March?

I guess I should probably update.

One update, coming up. Sooner or later.

THIS AND THAT

2006-02-15T18:49:00.000+09:00

OK I haven't posted for two reasons, one because I've been busy with fun things and boring things too, and two because my mind has been clouded with long term decision making stuff that hasn't been sorted in the least. When you mind is stuck on something and it isn't settled, you'd rather hold out before reporting to the world. However I have nothing to report and nothing settled so let me tell you some random news:

1. Had a rad weekend in Nozawa Onsen, my first full weekend of skiing, went with Debs, Martie and Keiko and got a little minshuku in town. I do love that town and the snow was good. It's really warm all of a sudden now and it's raining right before the snow festival this weekend. Arrr!

2. I passed my Japanese proficiency test, not in any emphatic way (69%), but enough for the pass. So I'm proud of myself, but also pretty sure that I filled in the right multiple choice squares at the right time to help me that much more...meaning that luck maybe had a hand.

3. MY MOMMY'S COMING TOMORROW. And my Aunt Susie too on Saturday! Not quite sure what we'll do, just check out the snow festival and hit the onsen and a ryokan for a night.

4. My new MP3 player is pretty.

5. I WANT MORE SNOW.

Overall just looking foward to family coming. It'll be the first time someone from the Motherland will come up my way (Susie and Mia came from Okinawa a while back). Ely reports that he'll make it here in the spring. Insane!

2006-02-04T14:05:00.000+09:00

OK I'll update...not much to report here...just waiting for things to happen...slept in before some night skiing tonight (it's some kind of dumping outside!) and just thinking a lot about decisions. It's hard to plan much from Japan, because you are rarely bored enough to think much beyond the present.

Also just getting excited for Mom and Susie's visit in a couple weeks. They'd better bring a snow jacket.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Sake it to me, baby

2006-01-29T22:55:00.000+09:00

OK so this week was pretty uneventful other than the meeting in the city. I didn't ski at all this week except for a half-day today. Anyway, one very cool thing last week was after school me, Debs, Kaori, Kaori's dad, Lopaka, Russel and Chiharu had a tour of a small sake company in Kawanishi. The company is called Matsunoi (Wishing Well) osake, and Kaori's dad is buddies with the CEO so he gave us a tour then a feast with all you can drink fresh sake. Twas fun! I'd like to say I learned something about how to make sake, but not really. Still, very interesting, and tasty.

2006-01-29T22:50:00.000+09:00

RICE RICE RICE RICE RICE

2006-01-29T22:49:00.000+09:00

The CEO, Furusawa-san, operating some huge important machine that basically just washes rice

2006-01-29T22:44:00.000+09:00

The CEO explaining something, i think saying 'I'll let you come up here, but don't drop your f***ing camera in this barrel or you'll ruin everything'

2006-01-29T22:41:00.000+09:00

washed rice, chilling out in a pile on some wood. i think what's actually happening is more important, something about millet or fermenting or huh?

2006-01-29T22:40:00.000+09:00

mmm...soon-to-be-drinkable rice mush

2006-01-29T22:36:00.000+09:00

Chiharu tempting death. apparently if you fall in to that huge blob of fermenting rice goo, the first breath you take would be of lethal gasses, meaning instant death. i guess there are worse ways to die, but drowning in noxious rice paste doesn't sound too good.

2006-01-29T22:34:00.000+09:00

this guy is the brewmaster, getting ready to serve up some freshly brewed raw sake. he's been making sake for over 50 years.

2006-01-29T22:33:00.000+09:00

Our group minus Kaori (taking the pic), and our big feast.

2006-01-29T22:31:00.000+09:00

It was a beautiful, 90-year-0ld traditional rural Japanese home. I had been in another house like this in Kawanishi before too and I really like the architecture, the old-style screens with the big butsudan. There are huge huge vaulted square ceilings in the two main rooms too.

2006-01-29T22:30:00.000+09:00

that's right, that is a big bucket of fresh sake. this is the 'keg' of rural japan.

2006-01-29T22:28:00.001+09:00

eventually as the night went on and the cold nama sake was surrendered to the cheaper, warm regular sake, pictures started coming out like this...

2006-01-29T22:28:00.000+09:00

...and this

2006-01-29T22:27:00.000+09:00

...and this

2006-01-29T22:25:00.000+09:00

OH, and I went skiing today half day at Cupid Valley towards Joetsu. My first time there and I liked it. Had the feel of Pajarito (my home hill) cuz it was smaller and laid back. Blue bird sunny day, some powder to be found. The occasional fresh tracks too!

Ni hao are you?

2006-01-26T15:41:00.000+09:00

At the conference party (which I thought was fun, yay for drink coupons!), Kelley taught me Irish. Dias guid es moratatu! (errr? huh?) Erik is anum dum!

Then the next day, I learned Mandarin Chinese. Ni hao!

I'm not sure which one will come in the most handy down the road, but I'm betting neither.

This is me putting off recontracting decisions.

birthday fun

2006-01-23T00:10:00.000+09:00

I did a lot of relaxing trying to fight off a little cold...but basically my birthday was awesome. Martin's birthday is the 21st so we celebrated together like last year. Went to Tanto with Debs, Martin, Lopaka, Nate, Yuko, Kaori, Keiko, Katsu, and some Japanese teachers that Martin knows. We went to Tanto for food and beer and then off to Yamane, the only bar in town with a pool table. It was a great night and I feel happy that I've been able to fall into a group of friends that remind me that all though I miss my friends back home in a heartbreaking way, the people I've found here are a real blessing. They brought out the 'youngest child' birthday boy in me by lavishing me with fun and silly gifts, from sake and mickey mouse underwear and candles and fun cards to flying pirate games and snacks and foot massagers and a 3-piece grey geriatric pajama suit called "The Governor," complete with vest. I get it guys...I'm older than you. Har.

This afternoon I was particularly Japanese, spending hours at the onsen, sitting in a hot bath in the dumping snow, watching sumo in the lounge, eating noodles and drinking tea, and finishing Memoirs of a Geisha (I liked it). Then when I drove home my whole car and headlights got caked with frozen ice and snow, and I spun off the road and slammed into a huge icy snowbank, leaving a very cool carprint. Consider it a mechanical snow angel. So that was the most exciting part of my day, other than ordering an mp3 player with my xmas/birthday money - thanks everyone! (but it's not an iPod, I decided I'm anti-iPod and I got something much, much cooler).

Off to the city for the annual mid-year conference for two days tomorrow. Will get a hotel in the city with some other ALT's after a party at Shame. While I don't look always look forward to the conferences, I usually come away with something useful and it's nice to be in the city for a couple days.

But I think I'm ignoring the fact that my recontracting decision is due in a few days. I have no idea what to do.

2006-01-20T09:58:00.000+09:00

It's my birthday. Love me.

FIRE FIRE FIRE

2006-01-19T22:10:00.000+09:00

Last weekend I drove with Lopaka, Breccan from Ojiya, Debs and Katsu to Nozawa Onsen across the border in Nagano for my favorite winter event, the Nozawa Onsen Dosojin Fire Festival. There is no way to describe an event like this to someone who has not lived in Japan. To the uninitiated, it looks on the surface like a bunch of crazed, drunken men with flaming torches, trying to kill each other. Which is pretty much what it is. But I remember Debs saying "This is so Japan". I found myself nodding in approval without knowing why. It just makes sense.

Personally it is a comforting and important event for me because it is essentially the Japanese version of Zozobra in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which I went to every September until I left for college. Zozobra is a longtime tradition during the 300-year-old or so Fiestas de Santa Fe, which is a special New Mexican event celebrating the reconquest of New Mexico by those wily Spaniards after they got their asses deservedly revolted on by the Pueblos. Anyway, the point of Zozobra is to stand in a field in front a huge massive angry puppet named Old Man Gloom, who represents gloom and all sorts of nastiness. We drink beer and then swear at him while a bunch of weird cult-like things happen until he blows up in flames and we all dance around and cheer. To a New Mexican, it's completely natural. To a non-native, it's a bit odd: I remember taking Paul Grosfield and Sarah to one a few years ago and they were like "You people are crazy!" But basically, it's just a way to lift the year's troubles and glooms and send them scurrying away in the form of flames and ash. If you wanna see pics of the flaming beast, check it out http://www.zozobra.com/gallery3.html

The Nozawa Fire Festival is similar because it is ultimately about burning away evil spirits from the past year (it's always on January 15, which is a day in which fires are burned all over Japan for that purpose, part of starting the new year). The details of the two may be different, but the overall sequence of events is the same: start with some small fires, build it up with people doing some weird chanting and running around, and then the climax with setting the main object aflame.

Anyway, instead of just describing the Nozawa festival with words, I'll shut up and post some pictures.

2006-01-19T21:55:00.000+09:00

Here's the whole scene. I'll try to explain. There is the huge shrine on the left, made by local trees. Up top are drunk 42-year-0ld men. Below them are drunk 25-year-old men, who are defending them from the other men of the village, who are all wielding flaming torches. The guys with the torches want to set fire to the big shrine because that's the ultimate goal of the festival. They start smacking the defenders with the flaming torches and throwing the torches into the middle of the shrine. The defenders fight back by swatting the torches away or punching the other guys in the face, or just pushing them over. The guys on top who are about to be set on fire laugh and taunt the torch bearers with songs and clapping. Eventually the guys on top evacuate, the guys on bottom - covered in black soot and blood - make friends and move into the crowd, and they bring in a larger fire to start the shrine ablaze.

On the right are these cool poofy shrines made by families of the village who have given birth to a baby boy within the past year. Eventually they are torched as an offering of sorts.

Wanna know what else is cool? See all those people's heads below me? That's how much taller I am than everyone. Yay for me.

2006-01-19T21:53:00.000+09:00

The St. Bernards of Japan, these drunken fellows make their way through the crowd with 2 liter bottles of sake tied to their necks, forcing sake down spectator's throats.

2006-01-19T21:51:00.000+09:00

Torches in hand, stumbling to battle

2006-01-19T21:50:00.000+09:00

I'll call this the source flame just cuz it sounds cool. Anyway, this fire is lit towards the back of the crowd. This is where all the bloodthirsty villagers light their torches before they attack the young guys at the bottom. Eventually it's pushed up to the shrine and used to actually set it on fire.

2006-01-19T21:48:00.000+09:00

The source flame, a shrine and a lantern that reads "Nozawa Onsen" something-or-other

2006-01-19T21:47:00.000+09:00

After the 42-year-old drunkards evacuated and escaped with their lives, they pushed the source flame closer and used it to light the shrine

2006-01-19T21:45:00.000+09:00

The main shrine finally gets going. Burn!

2006-01-19T21:44:00.000+09:00

Some of the banners getting torched

2006-01-19T21:42:00.000+09:00

At the moment the weight of the bonfire gave way and collapsed, I snapped this picture of the massive explosion that ensued. I am about to be smushed by hundreds of people as they try to dash away from the flames.

2006-01-19T21:41:00.000+09:00

One of the shrines being offered up

2006-01-19T21:39:00.000+09:00

Us with the remains of the burning heap behind us

UNCLE POWER

2006-01-18T14:52:00.000+09:00

I have so many nieces! I've decided to just start a number system to keep track. Anyway, please meet #3!

Name: Rain Elana Brooks
Birthday: January 12, 2006
Weight: 7 lbs, 8 oz.

Woo! She's cute! Nice work Jess and Ray! Good effort on the birthin', Jess! Wooo!

There's Zen (#2) meeting Rain (#3)!

More nieces:

Here's Amelia (#1, on the right) having besitos with Zen (#2)!

2006-01-16T12:31:00.000+09:00

the all-important first bowl of New Year's soba