Sunday, November 21, 2010

Garish Galavanting in Gifu

Now venturing into October, the oppressive summer heat has finally given way to comfortable fall temperatures (and for Ogaki, fall temps are generally highs in the mid 60s-mid 70s). I didn’t have much planned for this weekend, as the rest of my October was booked up already, but I got a last minute invite from Naomi to hang out on Saturday in Gifu for the Nobunaga festival. We had plans to go to a Kimono show, but both Naomi and I showed up late, so we only caught the second half, but it was still cool. I particularly enjoyed one lady’s kimono that was a red base featuring black clouds with gold lining. There was also an impressive performance where a dozen or so ladies came out in their white under-robes and then did choreographed movements as they simultaneously and methodically put on their kimonos…by themselves. Dang ladies, kudos to you. After that we met up with Regina and her friend Eirik (from Norway) who happens to be traveling the world after graduating from university. We wandered around before finally settling on a place for lunch that Naomi used to frequent. They had a really solid “house bento” with little bits of everything: meat, fish, jellyfish, potatoes, salad, rice, miso soup, egg, konnyaku, and a few other things as well. We then strolled one of the main side streets (yes, I realize that phrasing sounds odd) and stumbled upon a trio getting ready to play some Brazilian music, so we grabbed some beers from a nearby street vendor and watched the performance.



For the last song, they brought in a singer. I assumed she was singing in Portuguese (it was supposed to be Brazilian music after all), but I couldn’t pick out any words and it didn’t “sound” like Portuguese. So I asked Regina, who is Brazilian, if it was Portuguese. She replied with “Isn’t it English?” Umm…no. WTF? What mystery language was she singing in? Despite Naomi’s insistence that it would be “rude” to ask, I decided to go up and get an answer. I made sure to butter her up with compliments before politely inquiring as to what language that last song was in. “Oh, it was Portuguese, couldn’t you tell?” I played it real stupid saying I’d never studied European languages and have no idea. Then I went back and told Regina the news. Needless to say, she was surprised. It can’t be a good sign when native speaker can’t recognize your pronunciation. This is also why, although I enjoying studying languages, I hate starting a new one up because I know I must sound absolutely god-awful to a native speaker, and I feel bad making them listen to me.

Eirik and I posed with this random old truck


We meandered further and ran into a shop that sells donuts with a potato based batter. Naomi recommended them, so we all tried one. Not bad, but there was no sweetening, and the batter itself didn’t have much natural sweetness to begin with, so in my mind, it was struggling to be a donut. At the same time, it perfectly fits the traditional (read: old people) Japanese palette, which tends to prefer a very subtle sweetness, rather than knock your socks off sweet as hell frosting and filling. At the same time, I see plenty of old ladies at Mister Donut. I just know I often hear people complain of things being to sweet, which is somewhat rare in the States I think. We made our way over to Yanagase, the struggling, one-foot-in-the-grave shopping district near Gifu station and I was surprised to see that, thanks to the festival, it was actually pretty packed with people. Apparently that was one of three or so days out of the year where it doesn’t look like a ghost town.

Naomi had mentioned a place that does handmade pork dumplings, and I have passed the place many a time (it has always been closed, or has a ridiculously long line), so I was eager to try it. None of us were too terribly hungry when we got in line, which was fine, because we waited over an hour to get in. And we had arrived right when they opened. With the initial rush in, the line shortened a bit, but then you have to actually wait for people to eat their meal. And with only 2 tables of 4 and maybe 8 counter seats, it was slow going. Like ramen shops, though, the rule of “the smaller the seating capacity, the better the food” applied here. We got to watch one girl making the dumplings through the window, although she seemed less than pleased to be at work. I imagine that has to get pretty dull and monotonous after a while.

I find her facial expression in this shot rather poignant.



When we got close enough to see into the entrance way, I noticed one table of 4 was taken up by a group of 3 ladies who had been there since the place opened. It seemed to them it may as well have been an episode of Sex and the City-chatting, giggling, sipping leisurely from their beers.

Now, nothing wrong with them having a good time, but they were completely oblivious/inconsiderate of the fact that there was a huge line of people waiting outside. Again, with so little seating, it’s like a ramen shop-you get in, you enjoy your food at a reasonable pace, and you get out. I was staring daggers into them as they ordered more food and we were still waiting just outside. Anywho, we finally got in, and yeah, those were some freakin’ awesome dumplings. The things squirted with yummy meat broth/grease when bitten into, and tasted wonderful. Worth the hour long wait? Close. Seeing as I wasn’t hungry when I started waiting in line, and the weather was nice and I could chat with friends, it wasn’t so bad. But I wouldn’t be braving the line myself or in winter anytime soon. The real kicker is that when we got up and left, that table of ladies was still chatting it up. They had even ordered dessert while we were eating. I remember seeing the single dessert item on the menu and thinking, “who the hell orders dessert at a place like this?” Looks like I have my answer.

We ventured out for a few drinks after that, and due to the other three people in the group, we decided to go this wine bar, which looked a bit fancy to me from the outside, but there was a sign outside for glasses of wine at only slightly exorbitant prices. We entered the place and I immediately knew we were in way over our heads. Thankfully nobody else was in the bar, and they surely would’ve been offended at having to breathe the same air as us riff-raff, especially me in my “Cake is Awesome!” T=shirt.

I'm pretty sure this is the epitome of being classy:


The dude working the place was super classy, and was very patient with our boorish behavior. We ended up sharing a bottle of the cheapest stuff they had (which still was not anywhere near what I consider “cheap”) and then were informed that there was a table charge on top of that. So much for the sign outside, geez. Now, to be fair, the table charge did include a couple snacks. Two paper thin slices of some fancy salami, and crackers with three pieces of cheese. Now, the cheese was amazing, don’t get me wrong, but totally not worth the table charge.

Okay, getting a little more classy...

When he brought out the cork for us to sniff, we all just looked at each other, deer in headlights, before starting to laugh at the absurdity of the situation we had gotten ourselves into. And again, the guy at the store was a total pro about it. We made a running gag about how we had to act “sophisticated”, with Eirik and I having a mock conversation about “the riveting polo game at Liverpool the other day” etc etc. In other words, we were failing miserably at our goal. Again, my T-shirt, and Regina’s baseball cap weren’t helping matters. I’m not sure I could ever be filthy rich. I hate uppity places like that. The awesomely delicious food I can get behind, but the atmosphere is suffocatingly stiff. We made it work, though.



We moved onto a more relaxed bar for a much cheaper drink and then hopped to one of Naomi’s favorite bar/cafes. I made the mistake of assuming the fact that I ordered “draft Guiness” from their menu to mean it’d be coming from a tap. Eirik’s eagle eye, however, caught the guy behind the bar pouring our glasses from a can and then using some tap-looking machine to top off the foamy head. Really? You’ve got to kidding me. I was a bit miffed, but Eirik was outraged. If he knew more Japanese, he probably would’ve given the bartender a piece of his mind. I, however, decided I didn’t really feel like making a scene in this otherwise chill bar. And then I had one of those “you’ve been in Japan for too long” moments. If some bar in America tried to pull that crap, I wouldn't this twice about "disturbing the harmony" to complain about the fact that I'm getting ripped off. That doesn’t quite work over here, sadly, and I don’t think those are the kind of international relations or cultural exchanges that the JET program has in mind. After that, we finally called it a night. I made sure to take a lazy Sunday since the rest of my October weekends were already booked.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Artsy Fartsy

The last weekend in September I didn’t bother planning any travel since two big art/technology exhibitions being planned by my school took place. I figured I’d have to work a ton, but it turns out they hired outside translators for it, so I ended up only having to go in a couple hours on Saturday. I’m not complaining, but if Gifu Prefecture is wondering why it has so little money, here’s a prime example. You’re already paying me, here’s a grand opportunity to use me, and yet you hire outside people. Now, I couldn’t have been everywhere at once, so some outside help was necessary, but I barely did anything during the five days of the exhibition. It worked out well, since my friend Erica was crashing at my place that Wednesday, and was now free to hang out a bit. She got to Ogaki in the evening, and we immediately grabbed a late dinner. While listing off possible places to eat, I mentioned the 50s Diner in Ogaki that has burgers, fries, shakes, etc. The minute I said shakes her eyes went wide “Shakes?! We’re going!” Okay, done and done. She seemed lost in another world when her Choco-banana shake came, and that point I realized how much I take for granted the fact that there is an old-school 50s burger joint right here in Ogaki. Although she is in a considerably larger city, no place serves shakes. An in general, for its size, Ogaki has a lot of Western creature comforts available. I can get taco spice and tortillas, along with Cherry Coke and A&W Root Beer at Kaldi’s (an import food store), there’s a Subway in the mall south of town. Not to mention the giant mall complex Loc City right by my apartment. So, in a word, I’m glad I got the placement I did. Ogaki is a easy town to live in, and when I need a shot of something nostalgic from home, there are methods available. Some, I realize, aren’t so lucky. That being said, there is still plenty I can’t get over here, Glass Nickel’s Fetalicious pizza being one of them, that I am looking forward to eating while back home.

After indulging in some Americana, we decided to hit up the game center, which, to be honest, despite being a 3 minute walk away, I hadn’t really played many of the games there. Sure, I’ve been dragged in for purikura (photo booth), and we hit it up back at the beginning before Street Fighter 4 and Tekken 6 came out on PS3, but this time Erica and I hit up a bunch of classics, including air hockey, hoop shoot, a couple light gun games (Time Crisis 4, anyone?), Taiko Drum Master, plus a crazy game where your throw plastic playpen balls at moving targets on the touch sensitive screen. The game has you competing against each other, so it wasn’t long before Erica and I just started throwing the balls at each other. You don’t get points that way, though, you just get weird stares from people.

Despite my decidedly intense game face, Erica whooped me in the Buzz Lightyear(!) themed air hockey.



Erica, gangsta as always. "Yo chief, can I hold my gun like this? It looks so cool!"



The weird yet fun playpen ball touch screen game. Have at thee!!



The next morning I took Erica back to the station and stupidly didn’t bring an umbrella. As luck would have it, the skies opened up halfway to the station and we got thoroughly soaked. Sad panda.



Due to my now soaking clothes and, more importantly, shoes, I decided to stay in most of the day instead of heading to the art exhibition (had the day off for Autumn Equinox). So it was a lazy day, I watched a good chunk of the sumo tourney coverage, and once that was finished, headed out for some special performances occurring downtown as part of the exhibition. Now I’ve never been the most artistically inclined person, and my ability/willingness to “appreciate” art is modest at best. Now, I’ve certainly enjoyed plenty of art in the past, but most of the time that is because it is visually interesting, or I can recognize the talent needed to create the work. One thing I have a hard time getting behind, and maybe I just haven’t seen the right performer, is interpretive dance. There was a trio of interpretive dancers accompanied by a violinist performance on/around the main stage. They were trying to be “modern” or “edgy” or something, as the violinist merely drew the bow once, and the note was fed into some electronic repeater. So the background music just consisted of a few cycled, shrill violin notes. One of the dancers especially I couldn’t figure out, as she just seemed to be writhing around like a fish out of water on stage at times. That was interspersed with other random spastic movements as she moved to and fro. If that’s all it takes, I could be a freaking interpretive dancer.



Anywho, I wasn’t exactly impressed with that, but I should have waited, as the next performance, by some of the students at the school, made less sense, and required even less skill. A dozen or so of them took the stage in some half-baked costumes probably designed by throwing crap from the closet at a wall and seeing what sticks.

Wow.



I wouldn’t be so critical, but this is quite possibly the school’s biggest event, and this is a big performance event within that larger event. In other words, a time to put the school’s best foot forward. The school was/is in a battle to stay in existence. It needs to justify its importance to a cash-strapped prefecture and this exhibition was supposed be an important part of that justification. Instead, I saw costumes that would be laughed out of most Halloween parties, with each of the students in this group simply banging on random objects posing as instruments, and then screaming unintelligibly with no rhyme or reason. Guess what? If I was a prefectural bureaucrat, I would have just found some wiggle room in the budget. Harsh? Probably. Realistic? Absolutely.

To its credit, after this there was a taiko drum performance on the sidewalk by a local group, which was entertaining.



Then there was some little troupe of hippie performers that make music with bamboo instruments. It was a little mini-workshop where kids could participate and bang on the bamboo. A really solid idea, except for the fact that I couldn’t hear a thing thanks to the construction guys tearing down the metal stage. With pipes clanging against the ground constantly, and guys whacking at them to loosen them from the stage frame, I couldn’t help but concentrate on the noise and my impending headache rather than the neat workshop. Someone couldn’t have had them hold off? I imagine, though, that the stage builders didn’t give a crap and just wanted to get done and home. Yeah, I’d put money on that.

That Saturday I was supposed to help interpret for one of the foreign artists at the technology exhibition, so I headed out a little early and stopped by the art exhibition downtown to check it out. The school has a group that does TV programming for the local cable channel, and some of that was surprisingly funny/interesting. I didn’t get to see everything before I had to head to the tech exhibition. One of the foreign artist pairs had a table on the exhibition floor, and was supposed to be doing a workshop from 4-5pm. There was no actual workshop, so I just ended up standing around the table for 2 hours, occasionally helping people engage with the project, but mostly doing nothing, especially since there was another guy on duty, essentially doing the same thing.

The tech exhibition, though, had some cool stuff, so I returned (off –duty) on Sunday to just check out all the other tables. There was a bike that had LEDs built into the spoke area of the wheel, and when the wheel rotated, the LEDs formed an image or simple animation. Neat! There was also a series of live musical performances and workshops with unconventional self made musical set-ups. I checked out one such performance, and although walking in halfway through, I immediately got into the music. It was some solid techno, only made better (worse?) by the amount of Pikachu paraphernalia on stage.



I also stumbled upon a neat project where a pong game system is hooked up to a pair of jeans, and you move the zipper up and down to move your paddle on the screen up and down. It was definitely more difficult to control using the zipper, but my natural video game ability came through and I became the first person to actually win my match against the computer paddle. Woot!



There was some cool liquid art as well as a group of knitters with some impressively complex-looking creations. And I thought this thing was just plain neat.


One guy had built an Othello-playing machine comprised mainly of LEGOs.



Then I came upon a table with a project that is distinctly, and damningly, Japanese in nature. There was a waist and pair of legs (stuffed, I imagine) sitting in seiza sytle (knees together and bent) on the table. The legs were wearing a standard skirt from a school girl outfit. Then there was an iPhone with the picture of an animated school girl from the waist up. They had designed an app/system so that the iPhone is wirelessly connected with a fan/air burster hidden underneath the skirt. The harder one blows into the mic of the iPhone the more air gets shot up. Blow hard enough, and the skirt flips up, revealing the panties of these stuffed legs. Only in Japan.



I couldn’t help but think how much further ahead they’d be on the woman front if they had taken all that time they used to design this pointless system and actually used it to interact with the opposite gender. They tried to get some 10-12 year old looking kid to do it, but the kid was understandably wierded out and refused to. Good choice, kid.

I ended up getting roped into helping one of the foreign artists around the show floor, but I eventually got out of there and back home. Hakuho racked up a 4th straight undefeated sumo championship, and is on course to break the all-time win streak record come next tourney in November (starts in just over a week!). That should be exciting!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Gluttony and gaming in Osaka...with Sarah!

Yes, yet another post!! I know, it's like Christmas in October. Also, Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Now a few posts earlier I was lamenting the exodus of people from Ogaki, but thankfully Sarah was just moving to Osaka, and not out of the country. And even more fortunately, Osaka is only a couple hours away by train, which makes it an easily doable weekend trip. So I decided to head down the second weekend in September, essentially just to hang out, but Sarah’s stories of a lunch buffet that included gelato didn’t hurt matters, either. So I hopped on the train and made it to the Nakatsu subway station where I met Sarah. We dropped my stuff off at her place and promptly headed for the lunch buffet. It was solid walk, but I think that’s necessary before such gluttony. There was a decent spread of proper food, but the real attraction was the 6 or so flavors of gelato, which were also all you can eat. I quickly found that the passion fruit flavor was easily my favorite, but the black tea flavor was also really tasty, and the yuzu (citron) flavor was decent, if not a little weak. I of course ate too much, but it was yummy… and crowded. There wasn’t much room to work with anyway, so getting to the food was a chore at times. I think one of the things I’ll notice most when I’m back in the states is the sheer amount of space, especially in stores. Aisles with elbow room, for starters.

One of the neighboring stores is advertising... puddung cake? I think I'll pass.


We wandered the mall area of the same building a bit before heading over to America village, which is sort of the kooky, hippie district of Osaka. And we got a healthy dose of the kooky.



Exhibit A: This girl's outfit.



This area also features lanky robot lamp posts. Eerie, yet kind of awesome.



We sat down on ledge in the little center square/park area and a few minutes later, some guy comes past in a huff, turns, and then sets his backpack down next to mine, saying “sorry, excuse me”. Then, like clockwork, he starts asking us questions in English. Okay, another random dude wanting to practice his English a bit, nothing too odd there. But there was something off about him…especially when he asked the random question “Do you know David Bowie?” Well, yeah, I know of him, he’s got solid music, blah blah blah. “Oh really?!” And then he proceeds to pull out and show off a new David Bowie T-shirt and a Bowie patch for his backpack. Okay, buddy, you like Bowie…a lot, settle down. At some point he asked where in America I was from, and when I answered Wisconsin, he reacted as if he knew where it was. I highly doubt, considering he responding with “Oh, so you know the Battleship Wisconsin, right?” “Umm…no?” He couldn’t believe I didn’t know and then proceeded to tell how it was the most powerful battleship in the world at its time, and that it was at Pearl Harbor or something. At which point he started talking about Pearl Harbor, and used hand motions to mimic the bombs dropping…complete with explosion sound effects. Really, dude, really?! I truly think there was something a little off in this guy’s noggin, so I just took it stride and didn’t really say much in return, but I couldn’t help thinking how ridiculously offensive it would be if it were the other way around. Something tells me it wouldn’t go over so well if started talking to some random Japanese person about the war and then start acting out the dropping of the a-bomb with sound effects. After that awkward bit of conversation, he finally decided to leave.

Of course, it wouldn't be America in Japan without a mini version of the Statue of Liberty.



Not too long after that, another guy asked if he could sit next to us, and starting talking to us in English. His English, along with his level of sanity, was a marked improvement over our last random encounter. We ended up speaking a mix of Japanese and English, and learned that our new buddy Shun lives in Tokyo and works as a highway engineer. Damn, so not only is he sane, but he actually pretty dang smart. He was complaining that Osaka was boring compared to Tokyo, which I guess if you are used to Tokyo, any place seems slow/boring in comparison, but really? Osaka is no slouch, and Tokyo sure as hell isn’t the be-all-end-all. He offered to get us a beer from the convenience store when he went to grab a snack. We politely declined, had some semi-decent conversation, and then Sarah and I decided to peace out before another random person came to join us.

We then stopped at a Village Vanguard store, the same eclectic store chain where I picked up the Pia-no-Jac CD a number of posts ago. This time I was taken in my the genius marketing of a beverage called Curiosity Cola. Yes, I felt like a giant tool being sucked in by such an obvious ploy, but couldn’t help purchasing it out of, yes, sheer curiosity.



It ended up being tasty, with a bit of ginger flavor mixed in, so no regrets. We stayed awhile in the store, mainly listening to various CDs at their listening station. Sarah checked out the Disney rock and punk cover CDs, none of which she cared for too much. I stumbled upon a solid techno artist by the name of De De Mouse.
I realize techno isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I'm throwing in a link anyway. No video, just audio. It's a long song, but listen at least to around the 2 minute mark if you want a idea of what his sound is like. Sadly, my favorite song isn't up on Youtube to link, oh well.



After this we headed over to a park and plopped down for a break, just doing some people watching. It was getting dark, and we were getting hungry, so we wandered back to Shinsai-bashi, where they have a giant covered shopping arcade. On the way there we passed by an unfortunately named curry joint.

No guys, this is not at all what you think it is.



Since one good all you can eat buffet deserves another (and we wanted pizza), we went to, that’s right, good ol’ Shakey’s Pizza and Buffet. Sure, they had their share of odd Japanese style toppings, but they put out plenty of “normal” pizzas, so we gorged ourselves on those. Also, it was by far the cleanest, brightest Shakey’s I’ve ever been inside. With our stomachs bursting we headed back to Sarah’s apartment. In her infinite wisdom, Sarah picked up an old Super Famicom (Super Nintendo) shortly after moving to Osaka. Even more importantly, she had Super Mario Kart! So…that was pretty much Saturday night, racing through to Gold Trophies in all 4 cups on 100cc mode. Good times, that game never gets old.



We grabbed some breakfast the next day before deciding to head out to Den Den Town, which is Osaka’s electronics district, to check out the used game shops and see what we could find for her Super Nintendo. We stopped at one place, but it was somewhat overpriced and we didn’t find a ton. We grabbed lunch at a Chinese restaurant and then headed out to another store Sarah said was cheaper. There we stumbled upon some gems. Namely, Sarah picked up Super Mario RPG on the cheap, and I found Hook, which is based off the early 90s Peter Pan movie of the same name. I remember playing it at Mary and Joe’s once a long time ago, so it has some nostalgia value. I was pleasantly surprised to find the game holds up well over time with some solid platforming action. Maybe not quite as difficult as it was for me back then, seeing as I beat the game back at Sarah’s place in around 90 minutes. But those were 90 minutes of fun, and the game cost only 300 yen, so I really can’t complain.

We also found The Very Hungry Caterpillar in Circle K/Sunkus!! He's the mascot for their autumn "Delicious Bread Lifestyle" ad campaign.



Sarah also purchased a game called Little Master, simply because it had an endearing angel-winged kitten on the cartridge label. We played that for about 3 minutes before decided it was crap. Again, only 100 yen, not a big investment. Then Sarah started in on the gloriousness that is Super Mario RPG. Sadly, it came time for me to catch the train, but we stopped at a curry place nearby the station for dinner first. This curry was a much deeper brown than any Japanese curry I’ve had before, and had a distinct flavor that I really can’t liken to anything, but it was good and I’d definitely go back. It’s honestly the first J-curry joint I’ve gone to that isn’t Coco Ichiban (giant chain). I’ve also decided if I ever become a rap artist, that is going to be my name. J-curry, recognize. Sadly, it was then time to part ways. Not for long, though, as I’d be briefly stopping in Osaka the next weekend.

*Update: It turns out there actually is a Battleship Wisconsin that existed during WWII, and it was actually one of the last and most advanced built by the Navy, so the guy wasn't talking completely out of his arse. He was still batshit crazy, though.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Cookout and microbrews in Shiga

Now we transition into September…and summer was showing no signs of slowing down, which was just as well, since my friend Corey back from Tokyo Orientation had invited me out to the Shiga prefecture welcome barbecue. A few days beforehand I find out Corey won’t actually be there until later in the evening. Thankfully, I had told Rachel about this, and she also had met someone from Shiga at Tokyo Orientation and gotten an invite, so we had a contact person, making it slightly less awkward that we were crashing a Shiga event. After transferring trains at Maibara, we sat down only to have a large group of foreigner get on the same train car as us. And dang, the once silent car was suddenly filled with boisterous conversations. I can definitely understand how that would annoy Japanese people, and was slightly embarrassed. At the same time, it was refreshing to hear that much life on a train. Japanese trains tend to be eerily silent, unless you hit a pack of drunken businessmen heading home late at night. There are certain aspects of Japanese society I prefer, but in terms of speech volume in public spaces, I side with America in being a little less circumspect on the matter. Rachel and I had an inkling that that group of foreigners was headed to the same place we were, but we stayed back from the pack a bit once in Nagahama, as we figured it’d be a bit awkward to introduce ourselves without our contact person. “Where do you live in Shiga?” “Actually, we’re from Gifu.” “oh… so what are you doing here?”

Also, this amazing stained glass window was in Nagahama station.



At least that’s how we imagined the conversation would go, if not worse. Unfortunately, we hung back too much and lost the group down a sidestreet, so we wandered aimlessly a bit once we got to the park before finding the barbecue. It just so happens that the park is right on a lake, so the view was lovely and the weather ended up being perfect. We found our contact, chatted a bit, and then started joining random conversation, at which point we inevitably had the conversation I detailed above. But everyone was really cool about, especially once we explained our connections. I was taken aback by the sheer numbers, there were probably a good 50 people there. Apparently Nagahama city has 30 JETs just by itself. In comparison there are maybe 15 JETs between the western region of Gifu prefecture and Gifu city itself. It was bring your own food, and unlike Rachel, I was not prepared, so we went to the grocery store near the station where I picked up some chicken skewers and “American Cola” (yeah, that was the name of the drink), and Rachel grabbed some ice cream. We headed back to the site and grilled up our grub. Partway through the afternoon, a few folks started tossing around a Frisbee, which quickly morphed into a pick-up game of ultimate frisbee, which I hadn’t played in forever and was an absolute blast. On the back line of one of the “end zones” was a little raised flowerbed with a brick border/enclosure, and there was also a small, stout little tree with some rather thick branches. Why do I bother telling you this? Because at one point I was in the end zone and starting running a crossing pattern along the back line as the frisbee was tossed my way. With my eyes squarely focused on the task at hand, I didn’t notice that one of the those thick branches sticks out into the end zone, and I ran full speed into that sucker. I didn’t hit the ground, but my feet did leave the ground for a second just due to momentum. I thankfully had my arm in front of me, so it took the brunt of the damage, but it was still a hell of a hit, and horribly embarrassing. Again, everyone was pretty cool about it. Brief update, the cuts and whatnot I got from that tree have left scars, that thing means business! As further testament to how much of an ass this tree was, it took out someone else later in the game. I tossed the frisbee for the end zone, and it was carrying a little too far, but one guy was making a great run for it until he, too, ran smack into the tendrils of this sylvan warrior. He took the hit higher up and fell flat on his ass, it looked as if the tree just up and clotheslined across the chest, a la pro-wrestling. This also made me look like less of a doofus for having run into it before, woot! I was not done injuring myself, as I apparently turn into a dog when a frisbee is thrown and see nothing else around me. I was again running for an overthrown frisbee and tripped over the brick border of the flower bed. I stayed on my feet and it wouldn’t have mattered, but since I wore sandals that day, which are not conducive to playing ultimate, I went barefoot for the game. As luck would have it, the toenail that I have previously had turn purple from injury twice (of which one of those injuries led the nail to fall off completely), again took the biggest hit, and is now again about ¼ purple. The poor dude doesn’t get a break. Thankfully it didn’t really hurt that bad and I was able to keep playing. Earlier on in the game, I had noticed two of the guys on the opposite team doing some handstands and other capoeira-esque movements while waiting for the kick-off. So during one of the lulls in the game, I asked them if they play capoeira, and they DO!! Talk about random encounters! They were pretty psyched as well, and after the ultimate game dissolved, he broke out his iPod w/ speaker deck, put on some capoeira music and we had a little impromptu capoeira session. Really coincidental, and really awesome. We had grand plans to get together some weekend day and train a bit, but fall has quickly descended and people be busy, so I’m doubting it will happen this year. By this time, it was getting dark, and Corey had arrived from his school’s Sports Day (think Field Day from Franklin Elementary School, but for big kids, too). I also ran into my friend Matt from when I studied abroad, who also just so happens to be doing JET in Nagahama. So we got to catch up as well.

Matt, Rachel and Marcus!



I was pleased when the plan for the evening came to involve drinks at the local microbrewery, which Corey had talked up a decent bit. I was excited to have some Japanese beer other than Asahi or Kirin, which in my mind aren’t much better than Bud/Miller Lite. It was called Roman Brewing Co. and they had a full-blown restaurant attached to their building. It was a classier place with wood tables and chairs, and the beer lived up to Corey’s hype. I didn’t care as much for the Nagahama Ale (which I heard one other person complain was “too hoppy”), but was a huge fan of the Kurokabe Stout and their seasonal ale. They had stills visible behind the bar and just the whole microbrew culture reminded me a lot of Wisconsin.

Feels like home!



I was never a huge beer drinker, and still really am not, but I have grown to have a certain appreciation for darker beer, as well as a curiosity to try various microbrews. The night was a lot of fun and I met a lot of cool people in Shiga. Hopefully I’ll be seeing more of them over the next year. After a few drinks, some went on to another bar, but our last train to Gifu was calling, and I didn’t feel like pulling an all-nighter, so we called it a night.

The next day we headed to downtown Ogaki where every first Sunday of the month in the summer/fall they have a little flea/farmer’s market with some local performers.

Checking out the local Ogaki spring water...refreshing!



A few of the JETs from the Gifu city area came into Ogaki as well, and we strolled up and down the main drag, and even caught the “samba parade” which consisted of four women in carnaval outfits attempting to samba in giant platform heels with a few guys drumming the beat behind them. One of the things about Ogaki I do really like is that there is at least a little bit of cultural diversity with the sizeable Brazilian population.

It also doesn't hurt when cultural diversity looks like this.



And Ogaki has a guy wearing a tiger mask playing a guitar, you don’t get much better than that.



After that, we grabbed lunch at a small Italian place before parting ways for a lazy Sunday.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Fireworks, Obon, and Noh...ahh, Japan.

I left the last post commenting on the new year and new people, and one of the big events that generally brings everyone out of the woodwork is the huge fireworks show on the Nagara river in Gifu city. This year was just as impressive as last. The tarp was pretty much in the same place, and I swear I bought kakigori (snow cone/shaved ice) from the same dude last year. A fireworks show this awesome is a tradition I could get used. And this year I went out in a yukata, so that was good fun. I think I mentioned this last year, but it bears repeating, these fireworks absolutely blow anything I’ve seen stateside completely out of the water.

It attracts quite the crowd...



My badass red and black yukata, plus some badass new Gifu JETs!



Then that Tuesday there was the work orientation dinner. All the English teachers get together for some team teaching workshops, etc, and then go out for dinner. I signed up to join the dinner portion, but then completely forgot about it until I got a call from Erin 7 minutes before it was supposed to start…in Gifu city. So I bolted to the station on my bike, had good luck with the train times, and made it to the restaurant only around 20 minutes late. The food and drinks were only just starting to come out, so the timing worked out quite well. It was all you could eat or drink from a selected (and pretty varied) menu, and I made sure to get my money’s worth. It was a raucous time and I was glad to see all the new people from orientation again as well as the veterans.

The next weekend Naomi and I went to visit Vitor...and the beach! We grabbed the train to Toyohashi, where Vitor lives, and immediately hopped in his car to drive an hour to Tahara, where the beach is. One the way there, we stopped for lunch at a place Vitor insisted we go to for their famously massive tempura rice bowl. The picture below was the smallest size they had.




I could barely finish mine, but it was pretty amazing. They also had some delicious fried chicken wings. Everything on the menu looked scrumptious. Needless to say, I'd like to return someday. We headed onward and had an awesomely lazy afternoon on the beach. The day was cloudy, so not too warm, but that also lulled me into not applying sunscreen that often, so I ended up getting sunburned. We had fun playing in the sand and generally goofing off. This beaches also had some amazing smooth rocks, some even with flatter edges, so I grabbed a few for my berimbau.

So international it hurts!



For any guys with ideas of skinny-dipping, this sign kindly reminds you to keep thine phallus in thine drawers. (Or some enterprising English speaker scratched off part of an "o", either way, worth a laugh)





The end of a lovely day!



The following weekend Naomi needed a few “rent-a-foreigners” to help promote the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperative) meeting in Gifu in early October. This was at an Obon dance event at an elementary school in Gifu. They gave us yukata (summer cotton kimono) to wear for the evening, along with some tea and onigiri, which always helps. We had a group of 6 or so foreigners, hailing from a number of countries and at one point we got up on a little stage, gave self-introductions, and one of us spoke briefly about APEC.





That was it. After that, we just did a bunch of traditional Obon dances, and far and away my favorite song for Obon is “Harukoma” (“Spring Foal”). Below is an old video from up in Gujo-Hachiman, where they stay up all night dancing on a couple selected days. The video quality is bad, but it has the best audio I could find. I also love how you can hear the old grandmas singing "harukoma" in the chorus, it lends a certain raw authenticity and is endearing at the same time.




I pretty much just love this picture of Naomi.



They were giving out prizes for dancing, or essentially for looking like you were having a good time and getting into it. I’d figured they’d pick a token foreigner for one of the prizes, so I had a 1 in 8 shot, not bad odds. Anywho, due to my amazingly awesome dancing, I was selected. The rest of the night I got to dance around with a medal around my neck stating how much I rock.



Anywho, I had missed out going up to Gujo-Hachiman this year, so I was glad to get to do some proper Obon dancing and help out Naomi at the same time. After the event was over, a couple of us went out for a late night snack and complain about work session. I was pleased, though, as the pasta I got was really quite good, and I had a coke float with it, which is pretty hard to screw up.

The following weekend there was a torchlight Noh theatre performance outdoors on the Nagara river. I had updated the English handout for this year and translated the plot summaries of the plays and actor bios, but I doubt anyone looked at it because it was already pitch black when I got there. I had literally rushed straight from work and even then missed the opening music performances. Thankfully I got there just in time for the start of the first of two major plays. I had never seen Noh before (aside from a brief video clip back in Ancient Japanese Lit. at UW), but knew it was even harder to understand than Kabuki. The first play, though, was in the comedic style, Kyogen, and ended up being halfway intelligible at times. The following play was serious Noh, and aside from a random word or two, I couldn’t understand a thing. It was quite a cool experience, though. Robert, one of the new JETs, drove all the way down from Shirakawa village (a good 2 hours, at least) for these performances. He didn’t have a place to crash, so I offered up my place. He drove myself and Rachel back to Ogaki where we grabbed dinner at a rotating sushi place I hadn’t been to before (Robert insisted it was the best of the big chain restaurants). It was quite good, indeed, and afterwards we dropped Rachel off and then chatted and exchanged Youtube video recommendations before heading to bed.

I had to kick out Robert relatively early in the morning, though as I was heading into Nagoya on Saturday for a variety of reasons. I met up with my friend Kevin, who I studied abroad with at Nanzan University three years ago, and who is a new CIR on the JET program in Nagoya. It just so happens that he lives right by the one Pizza Hut I know in Nagoya where you can eat-in. It is attached to and shares dining space with a Mister Donut (dangerous, I know). We ostensibly met up to have donuts for “brunch” but we were there talking for quite a while and at one point we both sort of glanced over at Pizza Hut, at which point there was no resisting. So we followed up donuts with greasy cheese pizza, and it was everything I thought it would be. Kevin had to head to a barbecue event and I was to be meeting fellow Gifu-ites in Nagoya station for a little walking tour for the new folks. It was great to talk with Kevin at length again and hear how he is settling into work. I’m horrible at keeping in touch with people, and it’s always reassuring when you can pick up right where you left off with a friend. The walking tour was decent, but not too many people showed up for it. I did end up trying an “ice cream donut” though, in the underground mall/maze in Nagoya station, and it was pretty darn tasty.

After checking out the station area, we hit up Osu Kannon, which is always good for some nostalgia value and T-shirts with bad English on them. The real crowd from Gifu joined us in the evening for the beer garden, but that is exactly when I peaced out, as I had a capoeira practice with a meeting afterward that everyone was supposed to attend. The next day I chilled in Ogaki and biked down to the mall on the south end of town where they have a…SUBWAY! Sadly, the sandwich I got wasn’t all I had built it up to be. The bread was a little dry and the “cheese spread” was super fake. I’ll have to go with one of the standards next time.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Orientating the Newbies! (No, I don't care if that's not a real word.)

After Maria left, Sarah wasn’t too far behind, as she was moving to Osaka only a couple days later. For her going away dinner we decided to hit up a new place that we had long been meaning to try. We grabbed the bus down to the AEON mall on the southern end of town to this restaurant that let you add on all you can eat Belgian ice cream to your meal for a little over $2. That is essentially the whole reason we went there, but their regular set meals ended up not being a bad deal, either, including all you can eat salad and curry in addition to the main dish. I did have a little bit of salad and curry, but I wasn’t about to fill up on those when I had ice cream available. They had eight flavors, plus they rotated in new ones when, essentially, Sarah and I finished one of them off. It was a solid place, and a shame we found it so late in the game. Thankfully, that upcoming weekend provided me with proper distraction from the fact that Maria and Sarah left Ogaki, and that Jon would soon be gone as well. What distraction would that be? The Tokyo Orientation for new JET program participants! I had to go through it last year, and decided to apply to volunteer as an assistant (free trip to Tokyo and time out of the office? Um, yes please.) I also was assigned to help give a presentation with 2 other people on “How to Make the Most of Your Time on JET.”

Random funny Engrish: Mmm...ethnical tuna.




I got into Tokyo Saturday morning and headed to the hotel for a debriefing meeting. It was certainly interesting to see the other side of this massive orientation and all the planning that goes into it. When coming in as a new JET, I was far to jetlagged to appreciate the logistics behind the orientation, and really just wanted to get to my new home. After some assembly line labor making bags of materials for new JETs, I grabbed dinner and then headed off on a bus with a bunch of other TOAs (Tokyo Orientation Assistants) to a hotel near Narita airport, since I was assigned to help greet and herd new arrivals at the airport for most of the next day. My hotel roommate ended up being one of the people I was to be giving the presentation with, and he’s a pretty cool guy, so that worked out well. We had been previously informed that this hotel had alcohol vending machines, so a few of us decided to grab a beer and hang out a bit. It somehow came to be that our room was where everyone gathered, with random people joining in as the night went on. We started out playing various card games, including one I hadn’t heard before, called Kemps. Essentially, you have a partner, and you establish a secret sign/gesture/posture. Then everyone draws 4 cards, and through swapping with the deck and cards face up on the table, you try to get four of a kind. Once you achieve this, you do the secret signal, and if your partner notices and shouts “Kemps!” you get a point. If you are doing the secret signal and someone from the other team recognizes it as a signal, they can shout “block kemps!” and then they get a point. You can really mix it up by faking a signal, since false blocking comes with a point penalty. Anyway, it was a fun game, one I’ll be trying to spread to others no doubt. Then at some point we shifted to Egyptian Rat Slap? (it goes by a ton of other names as well). I was quite excited since I used to play it with friends back in high school sometimes. It turns out my skills haven’t deteriorated, as I won every game. After 3 or so games in a row, the group decided to handicap me by not dealing me any cards, so I had to “slap in” to get cards, and I still managed to win. I think that is what I’m going to do when I’m old and need to keep my brain and reflexes sharp, just obliterate everyone else at the nursing home at this card game. And of course I might as well put a friendly wager on the board to makes things interesting. “Oh, what now, Eunice?! Looks like I get your pudding for a week!” The only problem will lie in my hip breaking when I try to do a celebratory dance. Aaanywho, enough gloating, back to the hotel room. Cards wound down and we just began talking. And it was refreshing since we were actually having intelligent conversation about different global issues. One guy in particular seemed to pride himself on using plenty of vernacular during said semi-academic discussion, which led to gems such as “political economies be mad trippin’, yo” To be fair, I’m not sure if he threw in the “yo”, but I think it adds a little something extra. Also, randomly at some point in the night, we figured out that close to half the room could speak at least some degree of Mandarin, so I got to dust off my horribly rusty Mandarin and have a really basic conversation, which is always fun, if not a little depressing since I know I’ll never be able to put in the time to properly learn that language. Alack, alas.

Corey (roommate) and I were thankfully not on the early shift, so we still got a reasonable amount of sleep. In fact, the two of us were also assigned to the same station at the airport, the escalators! We had one other guy with us at that post, and our job was to direct folks onto the elevator, explain how to ride the elevator with their carts (which have awesome magic breaks so you don’t even have to hold it going up the escalator, something we had to reassure many a skeptical person on). We also had a sweet sandwich board sign explaining the carts that we took turns wearing and jumping around like idiots in. For just standing around all day, time went by quickly, genki (“energy/spunk”) levels never went down, and it was a lot of fun. That probably had to do with the fact that both of the other guys working the station were cool to hang out with. And to show you just how cool, here’s a picture of Corey imitating a hot dog statue.



Why the statue looks so happy to be slathering condiments on itself knowing it will soon be eaten, I’m not sure. I found out late in the game that I was actually going to be leading one of the buses of new JETs back to the hotel, so I had to leave Corey by himself (the other guy had left to lead a bus even earlier). Thankfully we had little book with what to cover on the bus ride back, because I wasn’t listening closely to the explanation the day before since I was initially marked as having no bus to lead. So I winged the whole thing, and managed to collect all the necessary forms, allay any fears, and make sure everyone knew what was happening over the next couple days. I also triple checked their forms, seeing as due to jetlag/incompetence, many people neglected to sign their form or mark a box despite me explicitly telling them to do so on the bus. Oh well, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. I was on one of the last buses back, but managed to latch onto a group of other TOAs going out for a late dinner. Unlike the group I hung with at the hotel, I didn’t nearly as much care for this group. Being late, only a few places were open, and we settled on this place where we had a whopping 15min before last order. So there is a rat race to get our orders in on time. I don’t care to be rushed and was taking my time in looking at the menu, which apparently one of the other guys took to mean I can’t understand the menu, and started explaining what stuff was to me. It might fair assumption on his part, but it was still horribly insulting, especially considering the condescending manner in which he said it, as if he was babysitting me. Not to mention he just looked like a tool, but hey, I’m not bitter about it or anything. The next day we had a prefectural meeting and I got to meet all new incoming JETs. Everyone seemed pretty chill and nobody was freaking out, so that was a plus. Most of them had actually been to Japan before, so that made my job relatively easy.

Then I got together with my presentation partners, Corey and Cat, and we went through and timed it a couple of times, and just then just chatted for awhile. Later in the afternoon we gave our presentation, and despite being the last time slot, when the greatest number of people skip or sleep through the presentation, we not only had a solid number of attendees, but they were engaged and asking questions, it was awesome! One person even came up to me at the end of the presentation to just thanks us for giving it. That really surprised me, but I was glad to see people got something out of it.
After that was the welcome banquet, which is actually a really nice spread. Sadly, the lines were ridiculous for the first half, and I had to interpret for some government branch head the second half so I didn't get to eat a ton. And when I say interpret for the gov't dude, I basically mean I talked to him. Most new JETs don't have the balls/interest to come up and talk to one of the bigwigs, so I sat and chatted with him a bunch.


Then at some point I ran into Erica in the hotel!



After the social experiment gone bad that was the previous night, I didn’t really feel like going out on the town and plopped down to watch some TV, at which point I found some science show with an some old dude explaining atomic energy distributions, so I geeked out a bit watching that, and realized that I have pretty much forgotten any and all science vocab in Japanese. Yikes. I finished out the night with some Zelda on my DS.
The next day I helped run small group workshops for the new CIRs. We did some impromptu speeches, and then had a workshop where we divided them up based on what type of workplace they were assigned to. Like last year, I didn’t really have a home in this workshop since I’m pretty sure I am the ONLY CIR to be working at a university. So I wasn’t too much help other than piping in once or twice with some advice on interpreting for extended periods of time. That night I met up with Corey and Cat and a few others. This night turned out much better than the last, again, due to solid company this time around. We stumbled upon this omlette rice place that was underground. It didn’t have much of a store front on the street, so we were really surprised to get downstairs and find the place decorated like an old American country home. All the waitresses had on red and white checked aprons, it was like something out of the twilight zone. I was really psyched though, when my meal came with a dinner roll, scored, with butter melting inside. Mmmm…I hadn’t had a dinner roll in forever. Sounds simple, but it was soooo good. We were then going to meet up with some of the people from Corey’s prefecture at Hub, a chain bar. However, this chain apparently has 5 locations in the Shinjuku area, so after searching a bit, we end up at the wrong one. After getting a map to the other locations and consulting with Corey’s friend, I figured out which one they were at.

So we wander over to the correct Hub and meet up with everyone. It also turns out that today is 30% off drinks for Hub card members, and one of the guys in the group had made a card to take advantage of the deal, so the beers were only moderately overpriced, which was nice. I had a dark and tan at Corey's suggestion, but then for the second drink decided I prefer to have Guiness by itself rather than mixed with another beer. We had a rousing good time at the Hub until they closed up (and at a surprisingly early hour, considering this is Shinjuku we're talking).

We wandered around some more, looking for any places that were still open, and while considering our options at a major intersection, a random, college-aged Japanese dude came up and started talking to us English. We chit-chatted for a bit before inviting him to come along with us to our next, as of yet unknown destination. After some searching, we found a place open late, and headed up for a drink and some light snacks. Kazu, our random new friend, was indeed in college, but I think he said he dropped out, and he has aspirations of becoming a professional baseball player. Yeah, you and every other Japanese guy, buddy. I didn't want to burst his bubble, but I'm pretty sure Japanese society will do that quickly enough. Anywho, being an student/ex-student, we paid for his drinks, and decided to eventually end the night at some point between 2-3am.





The next morning simply consisted of meeting my fellow Gifu people in the hotel lobby and catching the train back to Gifu. We grabbed lunch in Shinagawa before getting on the bullet train and were having a rousing conversation on the way back. Now, we we're being a little loud, and one of the new girls had a particularly loud voice that must have carried pretty far, because some guy up to her and start explain how she was talking to loud, and launched into a condescending explanation of how the curve of the train makes her voice carry more, etc. Okay, fine, not the most polite way to go about it, but whatever. Then, though, she told her she should buy something to eat or drink, so she could keep her mouth busy (and thus not talk), and as he walked back to his seat sarcastically offered to buy her something to drink. Wow, what an ass. If I hadn't technically been representing Gifu, I would have probably told him off for being such a jackass about it, and now looking back, wish I had anyway. Oh well. I felt bad for the new girl, who was obviously taken aback by the whole thing. Thankfully, people in Gifu-ken are nicer than that guy.

I got off the bullet train at Nagoya, while the rest of them continued on to prefectural orientation. I contemplated hanging around Nagoya and maybe grabbing some ramen, but I had my suit and luggage with me, and really just wanted to head home. That day also happened to be Jon's last day in Japan, so when I got back to Ogaki, I went out to dinner with him and Rachel. We went to that same yakitori place we went to for Maria's last dinner, since Jon is quite the fan of that place, as am I. It was good fun, but it also obviously sucked to see Jon go. Rachel and I vowed to hang out more and Rachel, as our RPA, also resolved to create more events for JETs in our area. I picked up a few things from Jon’s apartment that he was going to toss (including a microwave, woo!), and then I headed back to my place. Ogaki was now pretty much empty, but I tried not to dwell on that too much. It’s a new JET year, with new people!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

A second helping of Japan

In early July, Maria once again saw fit to grace the island nation of Japan with her presence. This time she flew into Narita, so I took a few days off to pick her up from the airport and gallivant around Tokyo. I took the night bus into Tokyo, and arrived in Shinjuku ass-early in the morning (that’s about 6:30am-ish). Maria wasn’t arriving until 5:30pm, but thankfully, my friend Molly just happened to be visiting Japan and was in Tokyo, what timing! I was meeting her sometime late morning, so I still had a few hours to kill. I bummed around the Sumitomo Insurance building near our drop-off point, munching on a bag of Ritz cracker cheese sandwiches (yes, they have those here!) before heading to Shibuya, where I would eventually meet up with Molly. Shibuya has a gigantic intersection where one of the cycles in the light rotation is green light for pedestrians from all directions. It is quite the free-for-all and there happens to be a Starbucks nearby with second floor seating that provides an excellent vantage point for all the chaos. I felt bad staying as long as I did when seating is at such a premium, but I nursed my dark mocha chip frappacino for over two hours until Molly and her beau, Eliot, showed up. I had no plans for the day, so I left it up to Molly. We ended up heading back to her old study abroad stomping grounds and eventually wandered into Village Vanguard, a chain of stores with a bunch of random kitchy stuff, import snacks, indie music. We spent a good long time in there, especially in the music section where they have multiple listening stations. I had long been eyeing up an album by Pia-no-Jac, a piano and cajon duo (get it? the name is Piano forwards and cajon backwards, clever!), but at over $20 for a CD with only 6 songs, it was a bit hard to justify (music prices here are ridiculous!). I had Molly listen to a bit, and she immediately liked them, so we decided if we each bought a CD and swapped songs, it would be easier to stomach. So I picked up their CD First Contact, with one of my favorite songs of theirs linked below:



After leaving there, we headed back to Shibuya and stopped for lunch at some British style pub. At that point it was about time for me to start heading to the airport, so I headed out (we’d be seeing Molly later again).

While waiting at the airport for Maria, one of the security guys came up to me with a sign in English saying for heightened security reasons blah blah blah they are checking people’s papers to make sure their visa isn’t expired and that they are in the country legally. He asked if I could speak Japanese and then went through the 20 questions and I had to write down my information. He was super nice about it, and we chatted a little bit, but still, when you get down to it, he asked to see if I was legal based on the color of my skin, which is pretty similar to what everyone was up in arms about in Arizona, but nobody even bats an eye over here. Granted, with a population as homogenous as Japan’s, racial profiling might be a little less avoidable, but nobody ever talks about it, and to be honest, most people don’t ever think about it because it doesn't pertain to them. There certainly wasn’t probable cause to question me other than by looks. Speaking of which, maybe he should've questioned this dude...J-fashion at its best/worst.



After a little morning waiting, Maria finally came through customs! We headed back into Tokyo on the train, dropped our stuff of at the hotel in Ikebukuro, and then hopped a train back to Shibuya to grab dinner with some friends, but only Molly and Eliot ended up being able to show. We went to a nicer izakaya for a couple drinks and some snacks, but it hardly was a proper dinner. We called it a night after dinner since everyone was pretty tired, especially Maria after the long flight over. Seeing as that wasn’t proper dinner, though, we stopped at a noodle shop on the way back to the hotel. With a pound of noodles in my belly, I was now ready to zonk out. A decent night’s sleep was necessary to properly enjoy…the Studio Ghibli Museum the next day!

A bit of the funky architecture of the building.



We had tickets to enter the museum at noon, so we were able to somewhat take our time before grabbing the train to Mitaka. For those who don't know, Studio Ghibli has produced some of the most famous and beloved animated movies in Japan. Director Hayao Miyazaki is pretty much an animation god, and has his hand in a lot of what Studio Ghibli does. Famous titles you might recognize include My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Howl’s Moving Castle. Or maybe you don't recognize them, in which case you should fix that, ASAP. You don't need to be familiar with Japan to enjoy the incredible storytelling and imaginative characters. I’m a fan of their work, and I daresay Maria is an even bigger one, so the museum, at least for us, was pretty freakin’ awesome. Everything on the premises had a fantastical feel to it and decorations almost all had something to do with one of the movies. There was one particularly cool piece that involved a bunch of figures lined up in a circle, when the platform rotated and a strobe light kicked in, the figures appeared to be animating in place. The calculation involved in putting that together boggles my mind. They also have a giant, fuzzy, plush Catbus that you can enter and play around in…if you are a middle school student or younger. Booooo! I really wanted to go in the catbus…oh well. Photos were also prohibited, but I wasn’t walking away without a picture of the catbus…that’s where the stealth of the iPhone comes in handy. Oh yeah, I’m just checking my missed calls, honest. A bit blurry, but yeah, awesomeness.



There are also animated shorts only available to view in the museum. The one showing that day was about a puppy who got lost and had a night adventure before finally finding home in the morning. It was a little too over the top with its cute factor for my taste, but the animation was still excellent. On that front, Ghibli can do no wrong. It rained on and off during the day, but it was an awesome time nonetheless.

I want characters from Princess Mononoke stained glassed on my door. Badass.



Don't worry, he's a FRIENDLY spiky giant robot.



The next day we went to this mall area in Odaiba, mainly to go a place called Muscle Park. This is an amusement zone with various games and activities. We went there specifically because one section of the place has a mini-obstacle course that is straight out of the show Sasuke (Ninja Warrior in the US). After armchair quarterbacking the show for so long back at the Mound House in Madison, we had always wanted to give it a shot. Just as I suspected, it’s a heck of a lot harder than it looks. I managed to get through the arm bike decently, but could only barely hold myself up on the Cliffhanger. The Salmon Ladder also kicked my butt, and I got half way across the pipes on the rings before falling. All in all a humbling performance. Maria followed me, also with very little success. But I will still continue to judge those who get out on the sextuple step. Despite failing horribly, it was a ton of fun.



Maria challenges the rings



We then headed over to Harajuku, essentially to people watch. Harajuku is the district of Tokyo where a lot of the crazy J-fashion you see is born and where it flourishes the most. Thus you are guaranteed to see some characters as you stroll down the main drag. After grabbing lunch and then happening upon a chocolate smoothie/shake thing at the Godiva chocolate store (soooo goooood), we met up with Maggie, our friend from capoeira back in Madison, who was studying abroad in Tokyo at the time. She had a friend with her, and we decided to all head to nearby Yoyogi park to just chill for a bit.

Me and Maggie!



Maria and Maggie!



We found gazebo to sit under, and were chatting about our observations regarding life in Japan, etc. Out of nowhere, some dude asks if he could take our picture. Umm…I guess? But this wasn’t just stay where you are and I’ll take a candid. He wanted us to get in different formations and spacings; it ended up being a much more elaborate deal than I signed up for. And why us? Because we’re foreigners! The guy had a whole stack of postcards? with pictures of foreigners having fun, hanging out, etc. It was kind of weird. I definitely felt a bit like an animal at the zoo, and didn’t appreciate it.

It also just so happened that Norio, a higher cord from our capoeira group, started teaching classes in Tokyo this year, and, according to Maggie, was having class that night. So we spontaneously decided to drop in on his class. It was a lot of fun training with Maggie again, and great to meet Norio, who was more than pleased to have some new faces around. Finally having a class with my own group again, though, made me realize how much the style of the group I’m training with in Gifu is affecting my capoeira. This is necessarily a bad thing, but this gradual change was just suddenly brought to light, especially Maggie even commented to me, “wow, your ginga (basic stance/movement) has changed a lot”. It was weird, but I had this immediate negative reaction to that statement. I wasn’t sure why exactly at first, because it’s not as if I had gotten worse. I later realized that I felt there was a negative insinuation that I was now “different”, since my basic movements being somewhat affected by this other group’s style. Anywho, probably overthinking that one. Capoeira was a lot of fun, but sadly we had to cut out early to catch the overnight bus back to Nagoya so I could head to work the next day.




That Saturday there was an international exchange in Gifu that I had helped plan and did some translating for beforehand. I also was the English interpreter that day, so Maria came along as one of the participants. It was at what used to be an old merchant’s home and was built over 100 years ago. It is now a makeshift café and antique/knick knack shop. The event consisted of a calligraphy workshop, a short tour of the building and then a very quick “tea ceremony”. I was kind of flying by the seat of my pants the whole time, and I think half of the volunteers were, too, but we made it through. The tea ceremony left a bit to be desired, with 7-8 people crammed into the room at once and extraneous noise it was hardly Zen, but the tea still tasted yummy, so I shouldn’t be complaining. I just think I’m getting a little more picky now that I’m taking proper lessons.

I think I'm just going to try to embarrass Maria as much as possible by loading this post with pictures of her. Calligraphy!


After hanging around for the café’s supposedly famous donuts (kind meh, actually), Maria and I, along with Sarah and her friends in town from Nagoya, headed to Natural Café, which is this chill little café that happens to be nearby the old merchant house. I had a tasty caesar salad with fresh salmon and then some chocolate caramel volcano-esque thing that was super yummy. Sarah was still on her one-month dessert challenge (no dessert for a month), but I, being the enabler that I am, managed to convince her it was one of those situations where it was socially unacceptable to not have dessert (which was a loophole she had written into the rules). Chalk up a win for me. After parting with Sarah’s friends, Mari a and I decided to check out a little history at the local museum in Gifu park (that and Maria heard you could try on kimono there). Sadly, it was an epic fail in that we got there too late in the day and they were done letting people try them on. Boo.

The next day we had fully intended going to the Nagoya sumo tournament with Jon and Sarah, but we all ended up bailing because the sumo website said they were sold out, which should have absolutely not been the case considering the Sumo Association was in the middle of a huge scandal involving wrestlers illegally betting on baseball and a few retired guys having ties (albeit with a few degrees of separation) to organized crime. I guess maybe the scandal had the reverse effect, and it was still the first day of the tourney, and thus a Sunday, so that didn’t help. Anywho, we bailed on that and had a generally lazy day instead, nothing wrong with that. Also, due to the scandals, NHK decided to not broadcast the tournament, so we couldn’t even watch it at the apartment. Boo.

Although this could almost be its own post, I will try to sum it up in one, gigantic paragraph. Halfway through that week, I went down to Kyoto since I had been invited by that old business buddy of my dad’s to come see some festival and stay the night at his place. I got there, sat his office/house a bit, and then we went to a Korean barbecue place for dinner…where he and I split a bottle of wine. I think I mentioned last time that this guy likes to drink, but I’ll mention it again, just to frame things. His work buddy left and so he’s showing me around these old alleyways that have historical artifacts on display for this festival.



At one point, he starts talking about some foreign students he has hosted and how they were very picky with food and wouldn’t try certain things. At which point he asked if I eat sushi, to which I said, “of course, it’s delicious.” Seeing as we finished a solid, and rather heavy, meal at the Korean bbq place, I was not expecting him to then suggest we hit up a sushi place, but that’s just what he did. So after walking a bit more, I was eating sushi and having a couple glasses of whatever type of shochu (potato liquor) he was drinking, Kurokame, I think. I didn’t really care to drink it, but I didn’t want to be rude. Sushi and alcohol have proven themselves to be a bad combo for me in the past, and that trend wasn’t about to change. Ten or so pieces of sushi later, I was beyond stuffed, which he must have taken to mean I had plenty in my stomach with which to absorb more alcohol. We then went to 3, yes 3, different little snack clubs, the whole time I’m attempting to not fall too far behind him drink wise. The ladies at the first club we went to did not have your standard Japanese woman’s frame. They had broader shoulders, wider hips, but weren’t what you would call fat, at least not in the states. But not too long after getting in he asked where the young pretty ladies were because he didn’t want me to get the impression that J-women were all fat like them. After doing a spit take with my drink, I immediately began trying to smooth over that horrible comment, telling them I thought they looked great, blah blah blah. I honestly can’t believe he had the balls to say something like that. And at the same time, I can. These snack clubs are often frequented my members of the “old boys club” if you know what I mean. I was horribly embarrassed, but of course they took it in stride and continued to pour the drinks. The second club we stopped at actually had a lady or two originally from China, so I got to practice my now practically defunct Mandarin. The third and final club had some karaoke at it, so I pulled out one of the older classics, and it scored big points. All of this was over a large span of time, so I never felt too terribly drunk, but I was definitely in bed the entire next morning, and barely felt like eating come afternoon. On the other hand, this guy in his 60s was up at 7:30am and fine after taking a bath. He even went to a meeting at 11am, which is just absurd given how much he drank. The guy is a freakin’ professional and could probably give your average Wisconsin alcoholic a run for their money.

I was incredibly glad to be back in Ogaki after that ordeal. I took a decent chunk of work off after that, and Maria and I managed to make it to the sumo tournament finally. We headed down to the venue in Nagoya. It was kind of fun watching Maria’s reaction to first seeing sumo wrestlers in their causal robes just strolling around the Nagoya Castle grounds. Heck, I’m still impressed when I see them in person, it’s hard not to be. After watching the scrubs a bit, we took a break at lunch and hit up the infamous ramen shop I love, and then headed back to the venue for an afternoon of sumo. Tickets might be a bit pricey, but it is so worth it my mind. Thankfully, Maria agreed. It’s hard to tell how people are going to react to sumo, seeing as there is a lot of downtime between the action, especially in the higher ranking divisions. After that we had dinner at Flour, an awesome Italian place I went to back when I studied abroad. They have this amazing 3-layer chocolate mousse dessert covered in chocolate ganache. It is super rich, and quite possibly one of my favorite things. Ever.

Not having actually planned what the heck we were going to do during the chunk of time I took off of work, we decided to take a day to actually plan a bit. We decided to use Kyoto as a base, and also hit up Nara and Osaka.



We hit up a few of the sites in Kyoto, and my mom and sisters might be particularly interested to know that we went to that little café/dessert place in the area with all the old shops that was in the guidebook but was closed on the day we tried to go there. It was primarily shaved ice, and green tea flavoring was 1 of 2 choices. You could then add on red bean paste or rice paste chunks if you were feeling fancy. It was certainly tasty enough, but I wouldn’t say you missed a ton. The building apparently is super old, so the inside had some charm, and the walls were covered with various stickers from Geisha that have come over the years, so that part was neat. We went to the place with the 1001 Buddha statues, which was just as impressive the second time around. And we also found a neat little café to grab food at on the way there. We also found this shop along one of the main drags...

Get over yourself, Kyoto.



The next day was Osaka, but we really didn't have a ton planned other than go to Dontombori, a famous street/area in Osaka to have some takoyaki and okonomiyaki, which Osaka is famous for. Before we headed over there, though, we decided to go to the Umeda area and try to find the Sky Tower there. We thought we have oriented ourselves correctly and saw what looked like the top of the sky tower building. After much wandering through the oppressive heat, we finally arrived and took a seat on the first floor for a breather. We didn't see any signs for the the elevator to the top. In fact, what drew our attention was some crazy, ornery old guy throwing a fit about something to the lady at the information desk. He had a younger relative with him and was arguing with her, and the lady at the desk was caught in the middle and had no clue what to do. We decided to give her a break from the crazy dude and ask about the elevator. At which point she tells us this ISN'T the sky tower and that we should've gone in the exact opposite direction from the station. She opened up a drawer and gave us a map with directions from the current building to the sky tower. Well, that means we aren't the only idiots to make that mistake. Having already walked a good 20 minutes in the ridiculous heat, we decided to give up on the sky tower and head to Dontombori via subway. We stopped at a place for the requisite takoyaki and okonomiyaki, and then strolled around, stopping at the billboard before heading down a near endless shopping arcade.

What happens in Osaka, stays in Osaka.



One of the places was even using Spiderman to pimp their shaved ice. Maria wanted a picture, so I grudgingly obliged. Plus, Spiderman rules. Except for emo Peter Parker in the third movie, he was a gigantic bag of suck.



Even just having walked around, Maria was able to get a sense of how Osakans are different from your standard Japanese folk. A little more laid back, a little more talkative, and in my mind, a little more fun and interesting. We had heard from a friend that there was a "spa world" in Osaka that was running a deal where it was only 1,000 yen to get in, and they have a bunch of different baths modeled after different countries.

Maria wanted to hit an onsen again while she was back, and this ended be a pretty decent substitute to one in the mountains. There was an Asia floor and a Europe floor, each assigned to a gender for a week or two at a time. I had the Asia floor, which of course had some Japanese baths, but then also had a Persian inspired one and along with a few others. There were a number of saunas, including a salt sauna, which was a first for me. I saw some dude before me running around like a maniac, and then up getting in myself, realized that was because the salt is (duh!) really freakin hot. I did one quick lap before getting the hell out of there, and even then my feet felt scorched. No more of that for me, thanks. They also had a Dr. Bath section, which had a series of baths featuring different elements from the periodic table. Hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen...I think. Anyway, they were purporting some health benefits for each one. Uh huh, sure guys. It was still nice and relaxing, though. And the kicker is that they had a flat screen HD display with a baseball game going on. That could get dangerous. If they had been showing the sumo tourney on that TV, I might have been in trouble. The place had a lounge room outside the bath area, along with separate floors with restaurants, etc. It was essentially a whole little resort wrapped in one building. Not a bad deal for 1,000 yen, but both Maria and I agreed the regular price of around 3,000 was a complete rip off. After some thorough relaxation, we grabbed the train back to Kyoto.

The last day of the excursion we went to Nara, the old, old capital of Japan., which is now famous for free roaming "wild" deer (they are completely used to all the tourists).

I was pretty much waiting for one of the deer to maim her camera.



Although apparently the deer only like to attack little girls and old ladies.



When we went to get an area map from the tourist info center, the older lady who gave up the map started explaining every site on the map, including its history, along with a suggested path and walking times. Talk about service! After what was probably 15-20 minutes worth of directions, suggestions, and explanations, we were on our way. We stopped at Todaiji, the largest wooden structure in the world (I think?) that houses a giant Buddha. For one reason or another, picture taking is actually allowed. Maria found it odd/disrespectful, not to mention hard to take in the majesty of the thing with various camera noises and flashes interfering. I’d have to agree. Some things should just be enjoyed in the moment. The picture won’t be nearly as impressive as the actual experience or memory, guaranteed. What really gets me, though, is the souvenir shops just around the backside of the giant Buddha. I understand the desire to sell tourists random crap, but they could have at least put it somewhere else on the grounds. You don’t need to have it in the same room. Whatever transcendent awe you may have been riding is immediately snapped when you see the rotating rack of postcards. We walked around a bit, up to Nigatsudo, which has a nice view of the city, and then to Kasuga Shrine, which has a ton of lanterns. After dinner, we grabbed the train back to Ogaki.




Now Maria's trip was pretty much coming to close, sadly, so we wanted to get together for dinner with Jon and Sarah one more time before she left. With Jon on his low/no carb diet, we decided to head to the local yakitori (grilled chicken) place. Maria had never been, either, so it was a solid choice. We had leisurely dinner, and managed to try all 3-4 of the desserts on the menu between all of us. Jon even splurged for one of his last green tea ice cream cones before leaving Japan. It was a lot of fun, but also bittersweet knowing that Maria was leaving the next day, and that Jon and Sarah would be moving out from Ogaki very soon.

The next morning I took Maria to the airport, which, in a word, sucked.