Today, one of my third year students won 2nd place at the high school national championships. 2nd in the nation! crazy cool

EDIT: The pictures are up!

今週末はすごく楽しかったよ！

It was one of those take-a-weekend-by-the-horns-and-ride-it, or take-a-n00b-by-his-handle-and-pwn-him weekends. Started off very healthy: three hours of soccer with the Indonesians in my Japanese class on Friday night. Met Nick (of Kyushu trippage) at the Mexican restaurant for dinner (after riding a half hour to Fujieda). After that, the weekend became acutely less healthy.

Nick and I went to a bar for a few hours and ran into an already drunk (and therefore both outgoing and slighty perving) Canadian. He was the first guy I met who was not an Enlgish teacher: a temple carpenter! We stayed out till 3 or so and then I rode back.

Saturday was lazy at my house. Then, I went to Shiz for a great DJ event - Yossie (’yoshi’) and his posse were bringing out the funk and soul. A good long dance that was: 10:30 till 3 (again!). Aroop even had a guest spot and sang 3 of his own songs. They were really good, too!

He and I got a ride back to my place from one of his friends, and we went to the 24hr greasey spoon for breakfast. We finally turned in after 5 (and after the sun had started to rise - なつかしい！). I woke up at 10 to shower and care for my massive blister acquired during the soccer games (I padded it for the dancing at the club and very little pain what so ever).

And then we headed to the Sapporo beer factory in Yaizu. Turns out this Sunday was the one day in the year that the brewery opened its vatts to public and sells its beer really cheap. Aroop and I called a cab and went down to meet others who were going. The outdoor festival ended at 3pm, so the party moved to a bar (which was owned by a person in the group’s friend). After we were finished there (and good and hungry - only a muffin from the German bakery around the corner for brekkie), we all went to an izakaya for dinner.

Madness, and photos, but later. I’m gonna go collapse now.

I was a half an hour late today for a waste-of-an-afternoon regional meeting because I was playing in the gym with the 3G class. nuts

Wednesdays are always hit and miss. Today was good. Classes on my busiest day of the week weren’t that bad, and in fact some were quite responsive.

On the train to my Japanese lesson, I had a foreshadowing experience for the lesson. As I got on, an old woman sitting on a seat pulled a boarding high school girl toward her and continued to berate her on her appearance (which was normal - even more modest than at my school). At the same time, some SuiKou boys got on. They rolled their eyes when they heard the lecture.

I was quicly reaching a boiling point to this woman’s hostility, watching the girl stare at her shoes and remain quiet. The woman further goaded her by insulting her intelligence: “Why can’t you reply? Even children could understand my simple explanation. What’s wrong with you?”

This tirade went on for I don’t know how long, I got off at Fujieda to do some price shopping (for DVD burners - prices fell US$40 during the last 3 months). I was only on board for 6 minutes, had I been going on further down the line, I’m pretty sure the woman would have more to complain about than a school uniform. Rude Americans in particular.

Bullies piss me off to end.

This was foreshadowing my lesson because the one thing I wanted to say (Just because you’re older doesn’t mean she has to listen to you.) was the one thing I didn’t know how to say. I could’ve told her to speak more kindly, to be quiet, to not be rude, but I wanted to address her arrogance.

(un)Fortunately tonight’s lesson was just the piece I needed. But the next time that happens, old mean ladies beware!

And the lesson was good, too. The Indonesians in class invited me to play soccer with them on Friday! Nice. Back on the open field; after both toenails had difficulties, I’m able to lace the cleats once again.

I went to the big baseball game today - the equivalent of CU vs CSU (sans the drinking, riots, sluts, drugs, and rudeboys). So depending on your take of things, it was either enjoyable or it utterly missed the point of sports. You can guess my perspective.

At any rate, Yaizu Suisan (my school) played Yaizu Chuo (the other school). This was the 42nd annual game, Suikou with 16 wins in the past. Not too favorable, tho we did win the last 2 years.

Japan has indeed placed its own marks on the sport. The beginning is not the national anthem, it’s a few speeches, bows, and followed by the complete introduction of every member on both teams. The baseball game is not the only spectacle to watch - the cheering squads and school spirit are highly celebrated. In fact, I got lost in the cheering and forgot to pay attention to the middle bit of the game.

Cheering squads are, of course, different. Male only for starters. And cheers generally include the school song or “Go <player’s name>” or “Let’s go! Suikou!”. The band also plays and tries to keep everyone in time (while having the same inner syncronization issu: the cheering squad leaders.

Also, there isn’t a 7th inning stretch. Instead, there’s a 5th inning tidying of the in-field. Every player grabs a wooden rake and levels the dirt.

As far as the playing is concerned, Chuo started off with the lead (1 - 0 at the end of the 1st). Suikou made a comeback in the 2nd with 2 runs. Then it was scoreless until the 8th, when Suikou got another run. And in the last inning, Chuo grasped the win (final 4 - 3) with 2 runs (one an in-field homerun from errors - d’oh!). However, our pitcher was strong, and so was our first basemen, who often executed skilled double-plays.

I had a blast, and the new PE teacher took me to the diamond and back. Earlier this week, I asked him if there was a bus going from Suikou to the game. He didn’t know, and deferred to another teacher who said maybe another teacher was going by car from Suikou. The next day, he said he was driving, and I was welcome to come with him. Very kind - volunteering to drive me around even tho it was out of his way.

よし！ Possibly the smoothest update I’ve ever done. The phpNuke guys have really done good work in streamlining the process.

Hopefully none of you even noticed! Tell me the changes you see… More to come!

Okay, so I’m gonna add some photos to the gallery, make some toast, and then upgrade the software on the site. Jumping from nuke 6 ten 9 to nuke 7 ten 6 with security patches to stop these bots from joining the forum. Oh, and if I deleted any real accounts, ごめんね！

To my defense, you never responded to the alert emails sent way back in March. It’ll only take you 15 secs to make a new account, and since your account was quite literally dropped from the database, you can have the same username!

Don’t worry, I’ve backed up the db, and I’ve set up an equivalent server on my laptop. I’ve tested the upgrade locally, and I’m gonna practice a few more times and then go world wide!

So I leave a trail of fire … Jump over to the gallery to see a larger shot. Duing lunch yesterday. Close to my house, too (less than 200m!).

Also witnessed my first high school break-up yesterday. The girl was completely shattered, and I was dreading having to do a reading test that day. The guy was looked like he just kicked a puppy. But, I’m not sure if it went down that way.

School today was rather uneventful, for a Saturday, but yesterday more than made up for it. I bought some strawberry jam from the 2nd year class; the 2B homeroom - the course where students learn how to cook, can food, and do other food prep. It tastes like it should!

If my life was an RPG, I’d totally pwn you by now. This week has been the week of LEVEL-UP!

Yesterday, my Wednesday evening Japanese class returned from its April holiday. A whole new group of people, and only a few familiar faces. The class began about 30 strong, but after aisatsu, the two senseis split the class into two groups: upper and lower. Aroop and I made the upper cut!

Our class began with conversation: What did you do for Golden Week? We talked to eachother, with help from a native speaker, for about 20 minutes or so. In my small group there were 2 Indonesians and one Nepali. I got to know them a bit, which was nice. The rest of class was practicing proper verb changes - one of my weakpoints (にがて).

And tonight was the first iai class after Golden Week. Mizuno-sensei, who led an iai seminar in Kyoto (!) during Golden Week started instructing me directly, instead of going thru Fukushima sensei (a Yaizu Suisan English teacher, who’s go-dan in iai and nana-dan in kendo, and in the top 100 in the nation). He taught me yonhonme - the 4th form. The seating style (すわりかた) is very painful right now because it’s so new. Hopefully, my ankle will get stronger.

Kyushu Tour (29 Apr - 06 May 2005)

Day 1: 29 April

Aroop, Nick, Kaz, and I plan to take an early local train to meet our shinkansen that will take us off Honshu. But, things get off to a bad start: Kaz and Nick oversleep. Aroop hides Kaz’s tickets at Kanaya station while I hold on to Nick’s (he called to say that he was already on his way). Aroop and I get on the right train, Nick is one train behind, and Kaz cannot find the tickets at the station.

We wait for Nick at Toyohashi station, his train arrives, and we continue on together for Nagoya. Kaz, still in Kanaya, cannot find the tickets, so he tries to get them reissued, using our ticket’s serial numbers as a guide for the train station master. After an hour, he has no luck and gives up. US$450 dollars lost. He cannot come.

At Nagoya, Nick again gets on a different train - this time he’s on the right one, and Aroop and I are on the wrong one. Nick beats us to Fukuoka by 20 minutes. The nozomi was fast, and sleek.

Once in Fukuoka, we get some station-side ramen and find our ryokan - a Japanese inn. Once in our rooms, we set out to walk around. First, we went to the Asian Modern Art Museum - one of the few places in Japan where you can see art by the East. Most of the other museums try to collect Western art. After we had our fill of high culture, we went for dinner.

The city is large, but the night life is relatively close together. We tried in vain to find a few places that we read about and settled for a bad izakaya. The river through the middle was wide and lively, and there were small mini-cart-restaurants lined along part of the banks. We hung out for a while and moved on. Another hour or so of wandering and we were finished with the night life.

Day 2: 30 April

In the morning, Aroop and Nick managed to break a paper and wood door by having a small pillow fight. They repair as best they can and pray the master won’t see the damage. Before pushing on to Nagasaki, we decided to look at Canal City - a large shopping center with a canal running through the middle. Not much but shoppers, tho we did see a wedding portrait being taken, and a strange carnival acrobatic show.

The train to Nagasaki was very comfortable and quick. We arrived and the sky was beginning to cloud up. We check in to our hotel and then push off for the south part - where the English lived when Nagasaki was first opened as a port. We saw the largest cathedral in Japan, many old houses, and Nick was saying that they were making a museum/attraction out of things from his grandmother’s house.

I liked the city views (as it was on a hill) and the outdoor escalators - a surprise indeed. The gardens were green and full of flowers - a welcome change to Japan’s mostly paved/bricked public spaces.

As the sun was setting, we wandered to Chinatown and ate a superb dinner. Two different plates, plus dumplings and egg rolls. At nigiht, we tried a jazz bar, but it turned out to be empty (a common theme in places we’re discovering). So, we made for another place that seems pretty loud. A funk dance night. After paying the cover, Aroop and I headed to the dance floor for a while. Nick got sleepy and left early.

Day 3: 01 May

On a day dedicated to filming (interviews on tea), it was raining. nuts. We went to a few small spots on our way out to the atomic bomb site - a memorial for 26 martyred Christians (when Christianity was banned in Japan), a shrine, and a temple with a 45m buddha statue.

Finally, we went to the atomic bomb site. There were a few memorials - one for the exact hypocenter, and one for the 10’s of thousands of people that died (over 70,000 instantly, and another 70,000 during the years after). The museum was top. Excellent descriptions (in English) and many informative exhibits. They described the bomb’s workings and destruction, the effects on the buildings, plants, and people. There were short videos made by survivors, too.

The place was solemn, but full of hope. We left for Peace Park, and saw the famous statue and fountain.

Tired from walking, we returned to the hotel for a rest. Nick stayed in, so Aroop and I got some Indian food at a place down the street.

Day 4: 02 May

We get up early and take the first train to Kumamoto - our short stop on the way to Kagoshima. We saw the only two things worth seeing - a garden made to be a minature of the old Tokaido road between Tokyo and Kyoto and one of Japan’s larger castles. The garden was nice, as most of the Tokaido is in Shizuoka - there was even a small Mount Fuji! We never went into the castle because we were short on time, but the pictures from the outside still came out good!

On the train towards Kagoshima, Aroop and I hatch a plan to take the shinkansen, something our rail pass won’t let us do. One station has both the shinkansen and the local without any separation, so we used our pass to get in (and even the turnstyle guard waved us through!). We get on the shink and the conductor comes by to tell us it will be an extra US$58 to ride it to Kagoshima. We speak only English and agree to get off at the next (and only other) stop, Sendai.

Like we planned, we got off at Sendai having cut 2 hours off our journey. The turnstyle guards wave us through and all is well!

In Kagoshima, we check in and rest for a bit. Aroop and I take a long walk up the hill to see what we can see - but it’s still overcast and cloudy. All the way up the hill, a group of cats followed us. We deduced that they lived there - as they all looked alike and were rather mangy. At the top, there were a few romancing couples and few strange loners. The cats went for the garbage bins and we followed them for a while.

Kagoshima has a nearly constantly active volcano - Sakurajima. “Jima” means “island”, but the last volumnous erruption made the island a penninsula. For decades, people have lived there (about 20,000), and there are regular 24hr ferry services. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see the volcano or island/penninsula because of the weather.

We head down and find a Vietnamese restaurant - guaranteed our most flavorful meal during the whole trip. We meet up with Nick later, but the izakaya night life is again a bit lacking.

Day 5: 03 May

The weather cleared over night, and our plans of going to Sakurajima we better off! We got a ferry over around midday and looked at the map. The ‘island’ is about 50km in circumference with a few hot springs. We decided to walk to the best looking ones - Furusato Onsen. It was a 9km walk along a highway in the hot sun and high traffic. Not very enjoyable, but certainly tiring.

There was an hour wait to get in the onsen, but once we were inside, it was the most relaxing part of the trip. The onsen was outside, on the rocks were the volcanic rock met the ocean. The springs were hot and beautiful. We stayed there for at least an hour. After we were finished, we didn’t feel any pain or fatigue!

When we returned to the main land, we decided to find a festival that was happening, “An Art Lover.” It was great, but small. Only a few hundred people were out, but the different stages were playing great music (reggae, jazz crossover, and other electronica). We took in the random gathering of people as a summer refreshment. After it closed down (rather promptly at 9pm), we got some okonomiyaki and turned in.

Day 6: 04 May

This was the day we reserved a car, as we were driving to a nearby national park to walk around it’s volcanoes. Aroop and I chose a route that would take us to the top of highest volcano (still under 2000m) and show us some crater lakes. It was about 6km long and very tiring. For me, the scenery was rather boring, and not nearly as grand as Tongariro - I guess once you climb the best volcano, all the others seem dull (so I won’t be going up Fuji any time soon).

The return route was nearly all stairs! Many were well rotten and shakey or bendy. After the long descent, we returned to the car and headed back to Kagoshima. Returning the car early (and the guys were surprised, and thot we had problems), we decided to forgo dinner for Miyazaki - the city where a night train would takes us back to Fukuoka.

Miyazaki was a stange place. It felt like a hick town compared to Kagoshima (the best place to go out in Kyushu in Aroop’s and my opinion). It was like Longmont - dirty and rough. But, we found a good Asian fusion restaurant and ate some Malaysian curry. Back to the station for our 11:45pm night train - 6 hours of joy.

Day 7: 05 May

Struggling to sleep, we arrive in Kokura, a shinkansen stop, at 5:30. We wait for the shink part to open and get on a train for Hiroshima. We arrive before 9 at the hotel. Obviously, our room wasn’t ready, but they agreed to store our bags for us while we toured a bit.

So, we went to Miyajima - a place famed for it’s floating temple entrance (torii). It’s floating because it’s built in the water, but water only submerges the base when it’s high tide. During the last typhoon season, it was destroyed, but I guess they’re used to rebuilding it.

We took a ferry to the island (it is miyajima) to see tame dear walking the streets of the 20,000 large town. A walk around the side of the island brings you to the temple that the torii allows passage to. We go in and snap a few photos. After, Aroop and I decided to use our 2 day pass that we bought earlier to go up the ropeway. The ropeway is a cable car that goes to the top of the island’s mountain. Supposedly, there were monkeys to be seen!

We get up to the top, but a sign tells us that the mokeys have gone to the forest to eat. nuts. We walk around at the top, and decide to climb to the other moutain peak - it’s only a 25 minute hike. The other mountain has a temple on it and a good observation platform. We passed the temple and continued up, on our return, we noticed that the top of the temple had a cool fire at the top (something that we didn’t notice before).

But, it turned out that the fire wasn’t meant to be there. The temple master noticed and tried to figure out a way to stop this fire, on the top of temple, on top of a mounain, with no fire department… You can see where this is going. People refused to call the fire department in Hiroshima for a good half hour. At this time, half of the people watching (like Aroop and I), and the other half trying to put out the fire. One guy climbed a tred to throw buckets of water on the fire. Others brought out too short hoses with too little flow to (not) spray the fire.

I noticed the surrounding trees were turning brown and black, so I decided to leave once the first tree caught on fire, as this was quickly approaching dangerous (being from Colorado, you know about fires and trees and forests). It wasn’t too long before pieces of the temple were falling off or collapsing, and the fire grew with each breath of new air. At last the first tree went up in flames, and I convinced Aroop to leave with me.

To our amazment, the car operators were still allowing people to come up to the mountian - something quite opposite common sense when an imminent forest fire is on your hands. But, we head down while others are going up. During our descent, we finally hear and see helicopters with buckets! They finally realized the extent of the fire and called the Hiroshima fire department.

Aroop and I snack on some udon in a shady outdoor restaurant on the island before heading back toward the hotel. Once in our rooms, we took much needed showers (no shower on the night train!) and walked around the festival that was going on outside. We snacked on samosas from a booth and found some pop group we never heard of (D51).

As it was closing, we headed out for dinner. I chose to try the original okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki was created right after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima - people baked cabbage, eggs, and flour for food. Soon, they added other things as they became available.

I found a place that was equivalent to Fort Fun’s Big City Burrito - a line out the door, the chefs working fast, making your food right in front of you on the large flat grills. It was delicious and better than the okonomiyaki I can get here in Yaizu.

I met up with Nick and Aroop at an Irish pub (they wanted fish and chips) and we headed off to find another place to relax. After trying another empty music venue, we went to an equally empty bar with a view. I left early and went to the hotel; I was exhausted, but Aroop and Nick pressed on.

Day 8: 06 May

This was another day scheduled for interviews, but again it was rainy (the storm followed us from Kyushu). We went to the Hiroshima atomic bomb museum and saw much of the same things that we saw at Nagasaki. However, Hiroshima’s museum was was bit more tourist friendly, as the city is more frequented by tourists.

The Atomic Dome was a good visual - one of the only buildings that remained standing after the bombing. It was directly under the hypocenter and saved by the city a few decades after. They reinforced the walls so that they would remain in their damaged form for others to see later on.

Finally, midday, we started the 6 hour journey back to Shizuoka.

end

The best city was Kagoshima by far - the most lively and youthful of the places we visited. Everything is very close by, too. I’ve put up heaps of photos so go and enjoy! All of the cities we went to had trams, something that Shizuoka lacks. We realized that Shizuoka isn’t suck a good place for living. The best thing about it is how connected it is (so, in other words, the best thing about it is that you can get out of it easily).

And now it’s back to solid work till the term ends - no holidays for a while! uf.