Rain, rain go away...

There’s hardly any point in reading the weather report for the whole month of June. It’s pretty much guaranteed that you will get rained on everyday. Welcome to tsuyu! Hope you have a kappa (condom-like, non-breathable, rubber suit to wear while biking, which may or may not keep you dry)

With rain coming down in sheets, severely limiting visibility and flooding the roads, it may seem like a less than opportune time to rent a car and test one’s ability to drive on the opposite side of the road. Blame our soggy brains, but the usual trio of intrepid explorers thought otherwise. True, I was very reluctant at first---but two wet weekends confined in my apartment made me change my mind. There’s only so much poorly whitewashed wall and tatami mat that can be appreciated before going insane. Let’s go!! Anywhere but here…

Starting out, looks like it's going to be a wet one to me!!
Luckily, Japan as a whole and Kyushu to an even greater extent, is pretty small. A few hours drive can take you to an entirely different prefecture and offer a glimpse of a completely different way of life.

Small car for a small country with small roads.
Different Area 1: Miyazaki-ken. In a nutshell--hilly, redicuously green, rivers at full capacity and swollen waterfalls, a random hostel and delicious cuisine.

Our main destination in northern Miyazaki-ken, Takachiho Gorge. What we might have seen in nicer weather...

...and the brown sludge we actually did see. The biggest disappointment? No boat rides. Next, we drove around to get a feel for the area. We stopped for a brief snack and consulted a poorly drawn tourist map to determine the next sights on the agenda. We picked a waterfall and senic overlook called something like "Sea of the Clouds." Since it was rainy, we thought it would be pretty impressive. The waterfall turned out to be way better.

The road to the watefall trail head was narrow and wind-y. I felt like I manuevered our little car over at least 2 huge mountains in the process. We chose Justin Timberlake for the soundtrack during this portion of the adventure, and thought we were probably the first people ever to listen to his music on this particular stretch of road. Taking "internationalization" to a whole new level.

We parked in a deserted parking area and took our umbrellas along for the very soggy hike to the waterfall. Water was running down the concrete stairs and it was rather slippery. Luckily no one slipped, and the somewhat precarious trip was definitely worth it. The waterfall, which looked pretty in the brochures was swollen from all of the rain and shooting out of its crevasse with a loud roar.

Not your typical hiking look.

This picture hardly does the watefall justice. Imagine an intense roaring sound and lots of spray.The "Sea of Clouds" lookout was the next stop. It was pretty, but nothing like the photos which showed thick blankets of clouds at sunset.

Yay for the self timer on Jamie's camera.Lots of driving, and a few u-turns later, we arrived at our odd little hostel at the edge of an odd little town that was already in the middle of nowhere. The building reminded me of my summer camp counselor days. The entrance opened up into a huge common room with a long table down the middle and a basketball hoop on the wall. There was an industrial kitchen behind the front desk and two hallways leading back to the rooms. The room looked like every other Japanese style hostel room I have ever stayed in, but the bathroom was an odd configuration and had the tiniest sink I have ever seen. The lovely proprietors, recommended a local izakaya for dinner and we set out to enjoy chicken namban, the local specialty of the region. A simple description is chicken tempura. I think the plate below cost 600 yen and tasted like twice that much.

After dinner we took in a odd play at the local shrine and headed back to the hostel for an early night. I think we were all showered and in bed before 10. There's really not that much to do in the inaka.

A final view of picturesque Miyazaki-ken before we head to Oita.

Totally different area 2: Beppu, Oita-ken--touristy with tacky themed steam vents.

Stop #1. Somewhat surreal monkey mountain. We hopped on a tram that took us up into the forest. We hadn't stopped yet when we saw the first "wild" monkeys. From what I understand, these monkeys are wild in the sense that they can walk away any time they want, but when you get fed three times a day by a man with a microphone, no one is going anywhere. The monkeys are very accostumed to humans, and you can get really close to them, as Jamie demonstrates below.

When it was feeding time, the monkeys came out of the forest in a disgusting rat-like surge, screaming and running all over one another and some small children that stood too close. It was a little disturbing in my opinion. The babies were incredibly cute though!!

Monkeys weren't the only animals we saw in Beppu. In the heart of the city are the famous "Hells" or natural steam vents that draw people from all over Japan to soak in their warm fabulousness. Since every steaming pond looks pretty much the same, enterprising people have added themes to a bunch of them, and for a special price, you can buy a booklet of tickets that admits you to each of them. We started out at the Umi Jigoku (Sea Hell) which had a lovely turquoise color and a quaint basket for boiling eggs sticking in it. While some hot springs are acutally this color, Lonely Planet informs me that the Sea Hell is dyed.

There were some mud spurting hells...

...and the graphically named Chi-no-ike Jigoku (Blood Pool Hell).

Even more shameful than dyeing the water were the "hells" which claimed the steamy temperatures were ideal for breeding exotic animals. It was really unfortunate to see very large animals like a hippo and an elephant in impossibly small quarters, but at the same time, I don't know when I will get to feed them again. That was kind of fun and really disgusting at the same time.

Hungry, hungry, hippo for real.

At the completely rediculous Oni-yama Jigoku (Devil's Mountain Hell) only trained professionals (i.e. a local high schooler earning minimum wage) were allowed to feed the animals, which were a variety of sullen looking crocodiles, caiman and alligators. The kid who feed them clearly loved his job and putting on a show, dangling raw chicken over a pool full of about 30 huge animals, causing them to climb on top of one another and smash into the concrete walls to get at a piece of the action. I could hardly watch the whole thing, convinced that he was going to lose an arm in the process.
We also made a brief stop at the Sex Museum, which was...an experience. The whole building was lit in soft pink light, and various dioramas and the porn theater made for an interesting soundtrack. The first floor was dedicated to small ceramic figurines in various positions, a large collection of wooden dildoes, and a section with life size replicas of large mammal genitalia. Upstairs was a collection of erotic prints with all of the crotches blurred out. If you are in Beppu and want to experience something other than the onsens, stop by. Do not however, make a special trip.

Thus concluded our brief weekend adventure that took us to two completely different areas of Kyushu via a completely different mode of transportation than we are used to. While we were in possesion of our little car with its fancy navigation system, we felt so adult and free!! Bad weather? Dark out? No problem!! We can conquer it all. As soon as we returned it to the rental place (conveniently within walking distance of the jutaku) we were reduced back to our normal, less glamourous and at times severely limited, bicycle riding selves. Sigh.

What am I [still] doing here?

As I approach month 11 in this crazy place called Japan, I find myself wondering "what am I doing here?" quite often. Like today, when I was riding my bike home, and a little old lady opened her front door to toss out the mop water and hit the front of my bike square on. I only got a few splashes myself, and was really too shocked to be the least bit angry. It was like a scene from a period drama from a previous century. Really, how many of you can say that has happened to you?

Or yesterday, when I was talking to the lovely Araki Junior High office lady, and she asked me if the steering wheels in American cars were set up differently from Japanese cars. Which side was the blinker on? What about the wiper control? I couldn't for the life of me remember. Yeah...I've been here that long.

Even if these moments happen a bit more often now that they did a few months ago, they are as always, tempered by entertaining moments, many of them involving my students (which is the best answer I can come up with at the moment to the above quandry.)

A few weeks ago, I taught 6th grade at an elementary school. I had taught these students before as 5th graders, and I asked if they remembered my name. They knew I wasn't Allison, and someone threw out "Johnathan" too before I wrote a "W" on the board followed by four blanks to jog their memories. Someone eventually remembered, but not before one kid shouted out "Wario!!" Yes, I am Wario. My go-kart is parked out front, and I shaved off the mustache before class.

At the same school, in a different class, I was giving out stickers to the students who volunteered their answers to a worksheet we did about the weather. At the end of class, a very persistant boy came up to me asking for more stickers in Japanese. I told him if he could say it in English, I would give him one. He couldn't figure it out, but he did call me beautiful, showed me that his eyebrows had been shaved off (?) and after a hint from a friend, said that I was "charming." Even my junior high boys haven't used that word yet! Alas, by this time there was a large crowd and I didn't want to give just him a sticker because then everyone else would want one too. I'm mean, I know.

Last week, I was as Tachiarai Junior High School, and the 8th graders were practicing the phrase "There is/There are" and simple prepositions (near, by, on, under etc) Their activity was to draw their ideal bedroom. Then they each picked one thing from their room to tell me, and I drew it on the board. There were some amazing things in the rooms to be sure...but the most unusual were a soundproof chamber, a 7-11, and a baseball stadium. Last Friday, I was scheduled at elementary school, and the lesson plan fax just said "Where is _____?" so I thought I would try and repeat the activity. In hindsight, it was rather ambitious of me, considering the 8th graders weren't even comfortable making the sentences. So after the first class, I dropped the sentence aspect and taught some furniture vocabulary and just let the 5th graders go for it. I liked their rooms even better than the 8th graders'. On the worksheet, I had drawn a rectangular room with one door and three windows. Most students stayed within these boundaries, but at least one added stairs to an upper and lower level, and a few added more windows. I was really impressed with the number who made toilets and shower rooms! I had sort of intended for those to be down the hall, but kudos for the kids being prepared. In my example, I drew an indoor pool and an ice cream stand in my ideal room, so there were many others with those features. I wasn't prepared for the dozens of room sized aquariums though, and the boats needed to get to from the door to the bed. Several girls drew large closets, one girl had a tree which grew every kind of fruit you could want, there was one bowling alley and a boy added a Shinkansen track. So much fun!

This week at junior high, my students lack of English knowledge actually came in handy. In 8th grade we filled a few minutes at the end of class with some Hangman. I had just won a round with the word "cloudy," and wrote up the blanks for the next word. Many times, the first three letters guessed are "s" "e" and "x" and if I am not paying attention, I will inadvertantly write "sex" on the board much to the delight of the boys in the class. Thankfully, this appears to be the only raunchy word they know, or at least know how to spell. My second word was "passport," straight out of the textbook, and after the normal first three letters were guessed, the next one was "a." Only the teacher and I seemed to notice what was on the board. It did seem to take an eternity for them to guess the other letters correctly though.

Today, I got to teach "vegetables" to 2nd grade elementary students. This is only the 3rd time since the beginning of the new school year in April that I've taught a class under 5th grade. I've missed the little ones!! While the lesson was pretty standard--introducing vocabulary, making them repeat, repeat, repeat and then playing some games; lunch was more memorable. First, I'd barely peeled the the seal off of my milk bottle when this crazy boy ran up to show me his empty bowls, and then proceeded to demonstrate how he ate so fast. Gross. The teeny boy I was sitting next to is a little behind the rest of the class, but soooooo adorable. He continually wanted to line up our milk bottles to see who had drunk more, and towards the end, insisted that we link arms and finish our lunches this way. I am not sure he would have suggested it had he been the one sitting on the left. Conveniently, his right arm was free to weild his chopsticks, while mine was now pulled down by his shorter height and trapped next to his body by his left arm. Luckily, I only had my rice left, and managed alright. If I had needed to eat my miso soup though, it would have been a disaster.

私はスポーツファンです。

I spent the weekend of May 31/June 1 braving the sun's harmful rays to support my favorite athletes--Keizo, my cute, professional rugby playing arm candy; and my cute, semi--uncoordinated Araki Junior High School students.

On Saturday, Jamie accompanied me on the trek to "Gurobaru Arina" to watch the Fukuoka Sanix Blues rugby team take on a team called the Liners. The train took an hour and a half, and the taxi to the arena took another 20 minutes and cost more than the train (at least one way.) How can the Blues have any fans when the stadium is so far out in the middle of nowhere, I wondered? The answer is, they don't really. The crowd consisted entirely of the players wives, their adorable children, aspiring junior high school rugby players, and two gaijin with nothing better to do than watch men in short shorts crash into each other on a glorious Saturday afternoon.

I had seen parts of a few rugby games in college, but can't say I ever really paid attention to what was going on. So before heading to the game, I watched Video Jug's (www.videojug.org) "The Armchair Fan's Guide to Rugby" to brush up, I mean learn for the first time, the basics of the game. Rugby is sort of like American football, with smaller players and way less padding. The scoring is pretty similar (5 points for a "touchdown," a chance to get 2 extra points after scoring, and 3 points for a "field goal" during regular play. The video said this is really hard to do, and after watching the game, it seems like being able to walk off the field at the end is somewhat of a miracle in and of itself.)


In action! The Blues were actually wearing yellow, since the other team had the same colors I guess. Keizo is the yellow person on the far right. He played very well, scoring the first points of the game!!


When all was said and done they lined up for their uber-Japanese bow. The Blues emerged victorious 56-24. Keizo has just spotted me in the stands and is sticking his tongue out above, but I don't know if you can see it--he's near the middle of the line.

Sunday's athletic event was of an entirely different nature. While the rugby game was a "short" (only when you are watching, I'm sure) 80 minutes long, Araki's "Sports Day" lasted close to 7 hours. The reader might recall a very early post about Kurume High School's Sports Day in September. Same idea, but a little different. In fact, when I mentioned how excited I was to see my first Araki Sports Day to my teachers, they asked if I had any idea what to expect. I told them about watching Kurume High School's, and they all kind of shook their heads, and told me not to expect too much from the junior high students. Everyone also wanted to know if we had "Sports Day" in the U.S. I had to say "no" and a few times tried to explain the number of lawsuits that would come about as the result of forced physical fitness in the hot sun.

The day began around 9 AM with a parade around the "field." The band lead the way, followed by the student council and each of the "blocks." At Araki, there are 4 classes in each of the 3 grades. For Sports Day and Culture Day, all the class 1's (7th, 8th and 9th grade) combine to form the yellow block, the class 2's form the blue block, class 3 is green and class 4 is red. On Sports Day in particular, it's a fight to the death to win events and points for your team. Four 9th grade boys are chosen by their peers to be "block leaders." They are popular, athletic and tend to be somewhat noisy in class. But it's nice to see them excell elsewhere, right?


The beautiful band girls (there are two, maybe three boys in there too.)

After the parade, the first event was the 7th grade relay. Here are the boys lined up for stage one: balancing a rugby ball on a platform while running around 1/4 of the track. Look how tiny the ones in the front are!! I've only taught two classes to each class, so most of their names are a huge mystery to me. I want to call the one second from the left Harry Potter though because he has glasses.

The girls rounding out the last leg of the relay with a "mukare" (centipede) race. Their ankles are all tied together. Surprisingly no one fell over.


Why the radio-led stretching happened after the first races of the day, I am not sure. I was the only teacher not participating though. I spent the whole week prior to Sports Day at my other junior high school so I wasn't around to practice with them. Hopefully next year's schedule will work out better. Note the principal's nicely neutral white jogging outfit. Hehe. I also wore a white shirt and some jeans, trying not to be prejudiced to one block or another (although I was a little disappointed that the yellow block didn't do better.)



Next item on the agenda, bamboo climbing!!



Now it's the 9th graders turn for the relay. Mako, Akiko and Rika all lined up and ready to go. I don't remember who was representing the yellow block because Tsutsumi-sensei had an unfortunate habit of getting in front of a lot of my pictures.


And the boys' leg of the race, pulling each other on tires.



Pyramid building. I don't know what this portion of the event is called, but it involves only the boys, and it demonstrates their team spirit. Unfortunately, after stacking themselves all up, the yellow block dropped their banner in the unfurling process. You can see it on the ground below. You can't see the enraged block leader on top of the adjacent pyramid though...whoops.


More boys activities. Weird cordinated areobics.


The girls program--dancing!! Unfortunately my camera died mid-way. (I really need a new camera, mine has no battery life anymore and the right side of the screen is going black. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated :-P)
And finally, one of the last events of the day was the "demonstration relay" (for a lack of a better name.) All the students put on their club uniforms and lined up. Not surprisingly the track team won, but I thought the kendo team (far right) was unfairly burdened because they had to wear their full uniforms, including long, wide pants and heavy breastplate as well as use their kendo sticks as the baton. So not surprisingly, they came in last.

In the end, the green block won. We then put away all the supplies and took down the shade tents. I went home and took a much needed shower before meeting the triumphant teachers for an enkai. The enkai was shorter than usual though because they were all exhausted from the weeks of practice. They also had Monday and Tuesday off for all their hard work, but yours truly had to go to work.

Yay for スポーツ！！！

Case of the Mondays

My alarm didn't go off this morning.

I got stuck behind slow old ladies at both the train ticket machine and the grocery store, making me almost late for two trains.

I bought the wrong ticket, then thought I lost it in transit.

I have blister on the bottom of my right big toe from playing a rather sweaty, thirty minute game of soccer with the 5th graders today.

Discovered a complete lack of decent snacks in my apartment.

Thankfully, none of these things are really the end of the world. I made both trains, playing soccer was a lot of fun, and I have to go to the grocery store later anyway if I plan on eating anything for dinner.

Speaking of food...I found this in one of the annoying free magazines that get shoved into my mailbox:

Of course the Japanese have the perfect (albeit inverted) food pyramid. For a while I have been saying that the USDA food pyramid should have a moat around it symbolizing all the water you are supposed to drink. Not only have the Japanese added a large glass of water on top, they have also incorporated the exercise component of a heathly lifestyle with a running person on top of their "Nutrition Cone" (which you may notice has no "Oils/Fats/Sweets" section...sneaky). I am not sure a country with so much soft cream and caffinated small children should be allowed to exclude that section on the food pyramid, but then again, Japan is all about appearances.

Need a custom paintball jersey?

Go here:

http://www.pbnation.com/showthread.php?t=2662656

Not in the market for a jersey? Maybe you'd like a t-shirt instead:

http://www.tropicalts.com/

Technology is great, allowing me to shamelessly promote my precocious younger sibling from thousands of miles away.

Keep up the nice work, lil' brother.

Okinawa ABCs (M-Z)

Mellow margarine
From the moment we stepped off of the plane, Okinawa was noticeably more laid-back and casual than the rest of Japan. Men were wearing aloha shirts instead of suits and Crocs seemed to be the footwear of choice for everyone (bonus points if the whole family was wearing the same color.) Even the condiments weren’t as serious.

Not so good beer
After a long day in the hot sun, what would be better than a nice cold beer? Not much, which is why the sub-sub-par quality of “Orion” was such a complete disappointment. Take the cheapest, weakest beer you can think of and add water following a 1-1 ratio. Now put it in a can with some stars on it, and you have “Orion.” On the bright side, it made the other Japanese beers which are normally just so-so (Asahi, Kirrin Light) taste practically gourmet.

The picture makes it look a lot better than it was thanks to the juicy, American-sized, blue cheese burger. A cheese other than the Japanese equivalent of Kraft singles? Heaven on earth! [Side note: My Japanese skills are improving and I can read some food labels, although maybe I don’t really want to know. I recently discovered that Japanese cheese comes in two types: hot for melting, and cold for cold sandwiches or serving with crackers. Does anyone else find this a little disturbing? Shouldn’t one cheese be able to do both?]

Okinawan soba
Maybe initially, hot noodle soup isn’t exactly the most appetizing meal on a warm day. But there’s a reason why it’s famous, and that would be because it is good. Instead of the thin, buckwheat noodles commonly called soba, Okinawa soba uses thicker, almost udon-like, white noodles. The noodles aren’t as starchy as udon though. Served in broth with some fish cake (better than it sounds, I promise) and a slice of sweet, marinated pork (with lots of fat) and some pickled ginger, it makes an excellent lunch or dinner. Perhaps the real reason I liked it was that I always had room for some beni-imo soft cream afterwards.

Purikura In an uncharacteristically slow Jamie, Allison, and Wendy fashion, it took us a whole day to find a purikura machine in Okinawa. Once we found one though, we found a whole “purikura house” and got to try out several machines, including a special Okinawa version that had Okinawa themed backgrounds and stamps. Fabulous!!

Quiet garden
On our last day in Okinawa, we took our time getting ready in the morning and checked out of our hostel, stashing our bags in a locker at the monorail station. We had some delicious breakfast sets at an Italian café (and the best part, soooooo cheap! Mine was 450 yen.) Then we said good-bye to Kokusai-dori and headed towards the Fukushu-en Chinese Garden. The garden was free, unless you wanted to feed the fish, and was a beautiful, relaxing spot to spend part of our last day of vacation.
Rope van
We saw this as we were waiting for the ferry to take us to Tokashiki Island for the day. Where does the driver sit?

Shisa
You can read all about the guardian dog/lions of the Ryukus here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shisa

You can look at the different varieties here:

In front of a house.

Many mini ones for sale along Kokusai-dori.

Recycyled roof tile shisa.
Tiny bathroom guardian shisa. It did its job; this was one of the cleanest public restrooms of the trip!

And, last but not least, Mexican luchador shisa!

Ta-ko-ra-i-su
Another “Okinawan” tradition that I took advantage of 3 of the 5 days I was there. Taco rice is basically ground beef seasoned with taco seasoning, lettuce, tomatoes and cheese topped with salsa served on top of a plate of rice. It tasted amazing, probably because it was so different from anything I have eaten in the last 9 months. I now have a use for the taco seasoning my mommy kindly sends me. Mmmmmmmm.

Umi
Technically, umi means ocean, which we saw a lot of, but this part is going to be more about the beach. Beach was a requirement for Allison and me when we set out to plan our Golden Week vacation. Initially, we wanted to go to Thailand, but when the cost of airplane tickets more than doubled overnight, we had to set our sights a little closer to Fukuoka. Okinawa turned out to be a pretty good place to be, and we got in 2.25 beach days.

Our best beach day was the one we spent on Tokashiki Island. The beach there had lovely, clear turquoise waters and white sand.

The second beach we went to was Emerald Beach (see “E”) which wasn’t exactly ideal, but way better than anything we have in Kurume (ha ha, nothing!) The last “beach” we went to can hardly be called such, and we didn’t even touch the sand for fear of disease.

Naminoue Beach is right in Naha city, and is little more than some sand dumped at the edge of the water below a highway overpass. Like Emerald Beach, the whole place was roped off with blue buoys, and the water inside of them looked a bit stagnant. We perched ourselves on a concrete wall to people watch instead and were treated to some highly entertaining “shows.” Off to our left, was a group of two guys who resourcefully used an empty chip bag to bring water up to their sand castle, which they built almost entirely with their feet. It also didn’t change shape or appear to get any bigger in the 30 we were watching, even though they worked on it the whole time. In front of us on the right were 6 guys who succeed in burying one of their friends so deep that he couldn’t get out without help. Later, a different group of guys about the same age (junior high or so) showed up in their baggy shorts and tight Under Armor shirts and not so subtly proceeded to check out the girls in the water. And the best performance of the day award goes to a “metabolic” (that’s how the Japanese refer to you if you are fat) boy who conducted solo synchronized swimming routines in the water, complete with dramatic hand gestures and splashes. When he tired himself out, we decided it was time to pack up, grab some lunch and head to the airport with all of the other tourists who chose Okinawa as their ideal vacation spot for Golden Week.

Vending machines
It makes sense that Okinawa would have even more vending machines than the rest of Japan because it is hot and sunny most of the year. Even so, isn’t this a bit of over kill?
Okinawa is probably the only place with protected vending machines.

Whale shark

(See "A" if you need more of an explanation.)

X-rated displays

[Allison has these pictures, and she is currently on another vacation]

Okinawans were a horny bunch. Or at least a lot more comfortable with the facts of life than the rest of Japan. In the carbon copy tourist shops along Kokusai-dori, there was a plethora of Okinawa themed condoms in various flavors; and the aquarium seemed to take a special pleasure in discussing every part in the life cycle of a sea organism. The tickets, which featured one of the whale sharks in cartoon form, had a rather detailed drawing of the whale's underside.

At the sea turtle pool, the ramp leading to the underwater viewing windows had been stenciled with the life cycle of a sea turtle. They started out very small and cute on the beach and made their way to the ocean where they grew larger and started humping.

The "Shark Lab" as it was called, also had a detailed display about shark reproductive practices. I actually did learn something though: there are two methods by which sharks can reproduce. One kind produces the egg sacks that you can sometimes see on the beach; while the other type has a womb where 6 or so babies are produced. The strongest two eat the rest. Talk about indigestion.

Yui Rail
Yui Rail is the official name of the monorail that runs through Naha from the airport to the castle. We rode it a few times; it was faster than the bus and provided nice vistas of the city. Our hostel was about a 3 minute walk, plus a 1 minute of stair climb from one of the stations.

Zamami
The island we didn’t get to go to. All of the boats were booked because it was Golden Week. The lady behind the counter brightly told us that there were openings on Monday to get out to the island, but no return boats. Kind of a problem for people leaving on Tuesday.