New Apartment

Hey folks, sorry again for delays. Finding internet here in my new home was a bit challenging, and, as is, is a bit of a 20 minute bike ride. At least until I can find a computer. Still debating whether to bulid my own or buy a used something. Decisions.

Nonetheless, teaching at the school now is interesting, of which I'll go into more depth later. For now, I will grace you with photos of my new place.


City, it is... the road is a bit noisy, but not too bad at night at least. Palace, I should say not, though my actual living space is decent, the bathroom is small for a japanese person, and the kitchen non-existent. But, I'll survive just fine.


Mine's at the back right. Walk is slippery as hell when it rains though. Hazardous.


The view from the loft. Yay loft. Though, it's too hot up there to live currently. I bought a fouton like thing and that's in front of the porch doors now. Works out reasonably well.


His new domain...

First Impressions

Are, generally, not my strong suit. I'm working on this.

Of the things that are bad to do in Japan, being late is high on the list of no-no's. So, what do I do on my interview day? Arrive two hours late to the interview with the board of education. I got lost on the train to get to the city the job is in (Fukaya, Saitama, Japan), didn't know about the transfer, had to backtrack, and then had trouble calling my pick-up. But, I did eventually get there.

And the interview went fairly well, at least after I explained how I got lost and it'll never happen again. Important cultural learning experience to be sure. Mostly I have to remember to talk slower and not use my extensive vocabulary. These are, after all, junior high students and I don't want to lose all of them the first day. So, I've got some homework already.

For Friday. I start Friday. Holy crap!

So, things are moving quickly. I'm trying to finish up anything else I'll need here in Tokyo (as much as I can manage) before heading out to Fukaya. The agency that helped me get the position has already found me a place to move into on Friday and will be fronting me the key money from my future salary, so that's pretty cool and nice. All I have to do is find a bike and a bed. I am pleased.

Otherwise, doing well. I did loose my wallet last week, which is the other reason I've been busy. I need to call the lost and found places again to see if it's shown up since, but so far no luck. Could've been picked, could've fallen out. Hard to say. Luckily I still have my passport and nothing entirely vital was lost. So that was fun.

And, along with the balloon thing from last post, in Yoyogi park the same weekend, there was also this rather extensive dancing display (Super Yosakoi Festival). Several dozen ameteur dance groups gave street and stage performances, much like the one below. It's an odd mix of modern and traditional stylings, I figure at least. Some were pretty decent, though some were quite ameteur. Enjoyable nonetheless.



My apologies for the video quality. I had to hold it above my head and it was hard... ;-) Does anyone else have trouble with the audio synching? The fans should pop out on the music cue if anyone is wondering.

Well, I'm off to check out a used english book sale (yay 30% off half-of-cover-price... needs stock up before I leave town... foreign books are expensive here), buy some more business wear, find some shoes, and a belt.

Oh, and on other notes, if anyone is interested in chatting me up online, right now I've got gmail and that's about it (schinji@gmail.com). And, if you'd like a postcard from Japan, just send me your address as well. I'll let ya know when I get set up for a Skype account.

Later!

Yes... King of Mouse! Not to be confused with the Rat King...

Japanese Fun Time

So, I suppose I could continue to apologise for not posting. I've been spending almost all my internet time, which is precious to me, on looking for a job here in Tokyo. Or necessary entertainment to stave off lonely depression. One of the two. That and many posts are still in draft phase and need some tweaking and adding to make them ready. I'm also still writing a lot from my time in Hiroshima to do it some justice. All excuses, all, but nonetheless, I hope to get to it fairly soon.

It does look like I have a job interview tomorrow for a possible ALT in Fukaya, Saitama, which is about an hour north of Tokyo and sounds like a decent position. We'll see tomorrow. If not that, some possible leads in a city called Toyohashi, which is somewhere between Shizuoka and Kyoto near the coast. Not quite as desireable as it looks like a conversation school with lots of kids. Hum. We'll see...

To keep you folks happy, though, I present to you this.



They had a hot-air balloon festival in Yoyogi park, and this is what they do at night. Amusing. It's like karaoke, but with balloons and fire... Enjoy.

More soon, really... I hope.

Briefs

Well, my apologies for neglecting the blog for so long. But enough of that.

I had the chance while on the train from Hokkaido to Aomori to write about three hours worth of blog posts... but that's a bit much to post all at once, so I'll be trying to split things up a bit and back post some stuff.

As for right now though, I'm in Hiroshima, generally being very warm and most as is the climate. Planning on getting to somewhere in Kyushu tomorrow, though, why I'm going even further south is still perplexing to me. Hopefully write more about the peace memorial on the 6th. It was pretty good.

And then, maybe some photos too... Easy to spend lots of time at these manga kissa without even noting it. Sigh.

Oh, and after all of that... I did manage to loose a pair of underwear. Washing machine ate it or something... ah well...

Koya-san

Got a late start on Monday (this would be the 24th now) but was determined to get to Koya-san on my pass, since it was close, and I wanted to go. Koya-san is a small temple community, or at least, was converted to one some time ago by Kobo Dashi. A big name in the analects of Japanese Religious History, I believe he originated the kana sylabary (in some respect) back in his day (though, don't quote me on that), and founded a sect of buddhism that centered around the teaching that enlightenment was possible within one's own lifetime. What I've read, at least in the guide books and such, has been cool. Right up my alley. So, yeah, why not go.

Course, it would've been good to know the trip took three hours.

Ah well, it was very pretty at least. Long, local trains from Osaka to Wakayama, and a number of other small cities to transfer and get onto a local train into the mountains, then finally up a cable-car to the top of this mountain plateau. Fun ride, though my JR pass only covered parts of it and ended up dropping another ￥1800 or so. In Koya-san, there's this gigantic cemetery with over 300,000 tomb stones leading up to the lantern houses before getting to Dashi's tomb at the far end of town. I believe the remains (ashes?) of Basho and some other poets are there, many monks, everyone who's anyone apparently. The temple was nifty as well, many lanterns, and very helpful monks who knew some english. Kobo Dashi is also apparently a patron of travelers (he was big on hiking around Shikoku apparently--hence the 88 temple pilgrimage thingy I may try and get to part of later). So, I paid my respects and got a Kobo Dashi protective amulet. It's very nice and blue... ;-)

On the way out, there was also a section of tomb markers devoted to, apparently, fallen members of companies. There was a Nissan marker, and a number of other corporate looking markers. I unfortunately couldn't find the one from the extermination company apologizing for killing hoards of ants. I did find the one with a rocket though, presumably a space program of some kind.

After trying to find some food in Koya-san, which was either too expensive, or not really vegetarian, I headed back for Osaka. I was intending to try out the hostel instead, but due to the time of getting back from Koya-san, only really had time to get back to the Capsule hotel for another night. Not that it was that bad. Hard to complain with a well attendended, free tooth-brushes, and a number of entertaining channels on the tube.

Osaka or Bust

Sunday I decided to finally head out of Kyoto with hopes of getting to Osaka and checking out their festival occuring fairly soon, and to just get out of Kyoto. Had to get going on the JR pass and see more of the country, as the cities were starting to get to be more of the same.

Got to a late start though, and wanted to hit up Nijo-jo (Kyoto's castle) before leaving, which I did, but had to hurry as they closed at 4 pm (yeah, real late start--I had some internet after getting out of the hostel). Very nice castle, enjoyabe difference to the temples. They aso had some mannequins that took the place of the shogun, daimyos, and other retainers of the period and such. Gave it an interesting, historicl, and more lived in and politically charged atmosphere. Had flashbacks to the many days of L5R LARPs done, with ideas of how to envision future palace settings. Ah, nostalgia for such underhanded schemes. Nonetheless.

Also, while I was at the coffee shop next to the Uno house getting some internet before shoving off, I noticed a small flyer for a local art exhibit of rather cute fairy artwork. It wasn't far from the Kyoto Station, so I decided to give it a check out. After eventually finding it (without too much trouble all things considered), a small artisans gallery had several paintings and postcards with the arstist on hand. Managed to get through the language barrier, had a smal cup of tea and cookies, bought some postcards. Very cute and pretty artwork (pics soon).

And then off to Kyoto Station and the activation of the golden ticket... I mean, JR Pass. Had to wait in line for a good while, but after it was all done, it is a joy. As long as I'm on JR lines, which is most everywhere, but not usually about half the subways around big cities, my ride is included. I bought the pass ticket in Hawai'i for around $530 or so (￥57,700 at whatever the going rate was), and I'll probably end up using it for somewhat more than that. I'm not going to keep track now, but it is very cool, and convienient if nothing else. Aparently, going from Tokyo to Hiroshima and back adds up to bout that much or more--which will at least be done. Yay.

Took a short Shinkansen to Osaka and was getting pretty late. Found the capsule hotel there and thought I'd give it a try since I hadn't yet. Best thing so far. It was fairly cheap at around ￥2700 and also had a very nice, two floor sento for only ￥500 more. Very nice indeed. Did that, found some food, and eventually passed out after watching the TV in my little cubby. Alas, this one, and most of them, are only for men. Decidedly men's club kinda feel to it though--and fairly quiet. A little too quiet actually, but that's Japanese culture for you.

Daibutsu (+pics)

Friday then, after a few hours of sleep and getting out around 10ish or so, I walked myself over to Kitano Tenman-gu, another temple in Kyoto, in the north west section of town. Luckily, the Uno House was more or less in the middle of town, and most things were fairly easy to get to. Also wandered, from there, to Kinkaku-ji, the entirely gold temple (gold leaf on laquered wood), which although impressive on it's lake, was very crowded as well. And, after seeing so many temples, it's along the lines of: "Oh well, this temple's gold... cool... (picture)... yeah, next?" Which is bad, so I needed to find a new way of doing things. Nice, but yeah, too many temples, and that's not including the little ones that are on every block or so.
Stopped off on the way through Funaokayama-koen (park and tempe), or was it Daitoku-ji. Pretty sure it was the former. Resisted against getting a pizza at Pizza Hut, and opted for some veggies and ramen. Still haven't had a good pizza in months. Probably better for me that way. The veggies nd ramen were probably the heathiest thing I've eaten here yet.

Saturday I made a day trip out to Nara, the prevous old capitol site of Japan. Got a day pass for the train as I was still waiting to activate the JR pass so as to use it to it's full potential.

Saw the Daibutsu and traveled around Nara park for awhile. Nara is the word for deer in Japanee, and there were lots of them. Had to be careful though, as I found out, even if you're just petting them, they'll nible on things, like my map, that didn't come away intact. God forbid you should try to feed them with the ￥150 food cakes that vendors offer; you give one out and the herd of them follows you until you run out and are obviously not carrying any more of themw, and even that doesn't always deter them. Several children were quite distressed and in the process of fleeing deer being a bit on the agressive side during my walk.

Big Buddha was cool, as well as the accompanying statuary (pictures, soon, I promise). Forgot to go through the Daibutu nose though; there's a hole in one of the pillars of the temple that is supposedly as wide as the buddha's nostril (yes, *big* buddha), and if you go through it you'll be ensured of englightenment. I forgot where it was and left before re-reading of its location. But, ah well. I'm still not too worried. ;-) Apparently it's a treat for the locals to watch big westerners try to squeeze through as it is, still, a fairly small hole.

Back to Kyoto and the Uno House. Caught another sento. A guy from New York was there and mentioned that on his previous trip through Kyoto there was a bunch of locals on the bank of the river for saturday night. So, went to that, and caught a group of rather talented fire dancers (poi and flaming sticks, though no swords or other implements I've seen used before), along with some drumming and some didjeridoo. Tried out the didj a bit after they were done, but that was about it. Caught some beers. Then the rain caught the rest of us and that was the end of it.

Mind you, these are in a random and mostly reverse order. No time to fix now.

Yet another. I should figure out what these are called sometime. I think they might actually be in the shot though.
Another statue in the area.
Nifty statuary near the Daibutsu.
That would be the Daibutsu. Looks smaller in the picture.
Nara in nara.
Happy teeth!
Best Engrish I've found all trip. Mind you, this was not an impressive car by far. Some kind of compact, ignorable type. Fantastic.
Kinkaku-ji in all it's magnificent spleandor.
So, funny story. Coming back from Nara I accidentally got on the Green Car train to make the return trip. Had to pay an extra 500 yen. Not horrible, but, Cthulhu got an extra special ride. Picture, 500 yen.

Karaoke (+pics)

Back in Kyoto, this would be Tuesday, the 18th of July (jeeze I need to update sooner), I went out with three french folk (one serving as tour guide because she'd been there before) and a lady from Indonesia. Hit up Tenryu-ji and Daikaku-ji, both being rather nice temples, the first with a fatastic garden (that I believe made it in the last photo UL). It was, however, extremely rainy, and not much fun on that regard, but by taking busses and limiting the amount of time we were acutally in it and instead inside a temple, it was sufferable. Vacation is hard, isn't it.

Back at the Uno House it was time for a Sento. Instead of getting to the onsen that was way on the other side of town, there was a smaller, but still quite nice one about a block from the hostel. Far more convenient. Several heavily tatooed japanese--I hear tell only the Yakuza really tend to get that. Got some internet as well.

Back at the hostel, however, the small group dining and social space was hoppin'. There was an older gentlemen, Miamoto-san I believe, who was keeping the social atmosphere going, not that that was generally a problem on the whole, and eventually got us into a small singing contest (I believe encouraged by one of the ladies from Germany) and to have a cup-drawn raffle for who should sing a song at the table. Did I mention some beers were involved? Fun time--the old guy realy likes to sing. When the house-crew finally shut us down at midnight, Miamoto-san suggested we go chat outside instead, where he proceeded to lead the lot of us down several alleys of Kyoto till finally finding a Karaoke bar to have us all pile into.

Thus was the first instance of what we later came to call Miamoto's Eleven.

I have now discovered why it is that the Japanese like Karaoke bars so much--they actually do it right. The space is much cosier and designed for keeping the group together. Everybody sings, not just those with the mic, and even if you don't know the tune (i.e. most japanese songs for me--which, alternatively, is probably the most enjoyable way to learn to read japanese) you hum along. The energy of the people is involved and far more centered than any karaoke experience previously, and they're all there to have a good time (with the music), which usually doesn't happen with the American style karaoke bars (since its more bar-centric I would say). The music selection for english songs was actually pretty sparse compared to the japanese songs, but with a healthy mix of both it was not hard to manage. Oddly enough, I found myself exceling at Under the Sea from the Little Mermaid (I can fake a good Sebastian rasta accent). Go figure.

We got out of there, to the pouring rain of dawn.

Went back and slept a bit at the hostel. Tried to get up earlier to catch some more groups for sightseeing, but the house has a day-close policy and everyone else had gone. Got myself a bike (which was by far the best idea for sightseeing yet) and took myself around to Eikan-do and Nanzen-ji temples. The latter was quite nice, and that's where I found the nice forested walk up the mountain (see photos and waterfall steps). Took a respite from the touristy places and a nice forsest hike, meditated a bit near a little cave up the mountain face as well. Looked a bit like a mountain hermitage spot, though only for meditation.

Back down the mountain, the temples were closed so I went around to find the philosopher's trail near by (something the guide mentioned was interesting) and in the process found a small temple or shrine or something devoted to, presumably deceased, animals and pets. Hence the hampster and cat statuary. The path itself was not much, a little path near the water viaduct, but I eventually lost it along with another tourist. Biked back home, caught some more conversation, and on to bed with some continued sleep deprivation from the Karaoke. This was also the one day it didn't rain since I got to Kyoto. A perfect day for sightseeing.

Thursday then was spent milling around with the two nice ladies from Germany (with blog) and a guy from Holland who were heading out the next day. This day turned out to be rainy as well, so some video games were in order. It actually took some time to find a place that actually had a DDR station, but we got that in, along with the guitar rockstar, taiko drumming game, and some mario cart extreme. Fun times. The drum set game (not taiko, not tried--way way too hard) is by far the most impressive though; one quite literally has to be very good at drumming already to be able to keep up with the game.

Got some time at a manga kissa. These are, by far, my second most favorite thing about Japan so far. They'd win out if they weren't so expensive, but you do get quite a lot as well. Internet and computer access, unlimited drinks (matcha latte is the best, and the corn juice is, well... interesting--all matter of carbonated sodas, coffee, and tea drinks, milk variations, hot and cold, most have slushies), PS2, games and movies to rent included (alas, most without english subtitles that aren't already american language movies), and most have showers and abilities to stay the night and be fairy comfy... oh, and manga as far as the eye can see... which I still can't read, alas. I updated the blog and applied for some jobs. Sending the resume out wherever it'll go.

Hung out for most of the rest of the evening, the group having planned on getting out to more Karaoke to see the folks off. Interacted with some dorm mates, a couple of highschoolers who didn't know much english, but nonetheless wanted to have their picture taken with me. Nice guys.

And then the return of Miyamoto's Eleven.

Soon, there will be photos of much repute... or something. But, as I have left the CD of archived photos in my other bag, you'll have to wait to see Cthulhu doing Karoke and eating pocky. Found out I'm also good at Bridge Over Troubled Water, at least, I think. Could've been worse. Good things to know.

Pictures!
Yes... *that* would be Miamoto-san.
Pocky... almost as tasty as devouring the world...
Cthulhu on the mic

Okay, so most of the other photos for Karaoke turned out poorly due to the darkness of the venue. But, ya get the idea.

Kyoto - Pictures 5

Okay, finally got the pictures in. However, running out of internet time, so the commentary will have to wait. Make up your own if you like. I'll get to them soon as well... sure... I... will...

Off to go check out Osaka's Tenzin Matsuri... (sp)... festival hopping... yay!

Next issue... capsule hotel... ;-)

***now with comments***


Ah! Sanders-san... in festival garb...

So, when I arrived in Kyoto that monday it was the last day of Gion Matsuri, the big Gion festival. So, many of these photos will be from that.


Hence, there was a procession of celebrants in traditional-ish garb going through the shopping arcade.


Sometimes... you just don't want to know... Japanese Richard Simmons?


More of the people going through the shopping arcade for the festival.


Miniature samurai altar thing.


An actual Gion float that is either stuck or abandoned. There were a few others around as well. Don't know why. Big.


One of the special floats. They shook these around with much vigor. Noisy. Shiny. :-)


The lanterns at the actual Gion temple lit.


I believe this is Tenryu-ji, or near it, in the rain. A small pre-garden before the temple. Very nice.


Me in the Garden at Tenryu-ji.


Nice close up of leaves in the rain.


Cute mushroom right off the trail.


Nice tree moss near the garden path. Ya know, I don't think I took many pictures of the actual temple. Ah well.


Dragon screen inside the temple.


Yay seiza.


Interesting red painting. The flash flare added nicely I thought.


I think this is at the Daikaku-ji temple. Lost track a bit. Gold tree screen.




Hares on the bottom of screens.


More of the garden around Daikaku-ji.


The crew that I went with to see the previous two temples.


I believe a stature of Kannon, godess protectorate. Cemetary near... someplace. Nanzen-ji I think?


Dragonfly near there as well. Bit of a hike up the side of the mountain, but nice.


Kyoto from that up-the-mountain-place.


Painting of many Buddhas.


Zen sand mound. I believe this was Eikan-do or Nanzen-ji again. Saw them both about the same time.


Dining room in one of the places. Eikan-do pretty sure.


More Eikan-do.


Aqueduct flowing behind Nanzen-ji. Notice the stick.


Behind Nanzen-ji there was this really cool forest walk up the side of the bluff.


Guardian stature near the forest temple.


Did I mention the part where it had been raining a lot. Well, there was a little waterfall here before that apparently. Now, it's taken up most of the stairs. Nonetheless, I went through that...


...to get here for this shot. Cthulhu likes to meditate under the waterfall as well.


Wandered around a bit after that and found a nice little temple/shrine to pets. This one's a monkey of some kind.


Cat shrine. Very cool.


Shrine to hampsters. That's a big nut.


More cat statues.


Really awesome engrish. This was not an amazing car by the way; small commuter at best.


Guitar rock game. It was harder than Guitar Rock Hero for the PS2, and way too short.


Obligatory DDR with some ladies from the Uno House.