The world is my trailer park.

Story Number Two

2009-12-12T20:13:00.008-07:00

Okay, here's the second short story as promised.

Hopefully everything cut'n'pasted correctly -- this has been corrected so many times I now tremble at the thought of reading it once again...

買ってよ!
built by thom
repaired by 里未先生、えみ先生、剛先生、and 里未先生's mother

　　ある町に、甘やかされた男の子が大邸宅に両親と一緒に住んでいた。父親は事業で大成功を収め、家庭は非常に裕福であった。面白い事に、両親は銀行を全く信用せず、大邸宅内に設置された大金庫に財産を全て入れておいた。
　　ところが、親にいつも甘やかされていたので、男の子はお金の事など気にもした事がなかった。毎日毎日、テレビゲーム、おもちゃ、服など、ありとあらゆる物を両親に与えられていた。彼が欲しがる物は何でも手に入った。
　　それに加えて、男の子には執事がいつも付いて回っていた。シャワーを浴びる時、着替える時、トイレに行く時など、日常生活の全てにおいて人の手を借りて生活していた。だから、自分一人では何も出来なかった。
　　男の子は誕生日に「僕は今15歳になった。ガールフレンドが欲しいんだ。買ってよ。」と言った。
　　両親は顔を見合わせて溜め息をついた。そして、父親は息子の方を向いて説明しはじめた。「太魔(たま)さん、ガールフレンドは買えないものなんだよ。人間だから。」
　　「嘘!」と叫んだ。「執事は人間だよ。パパは僕に彼を買ってくれた。ガールフレンドも同じだろ。」
　　それは、ちょっと違いますよ...」と、母親は穏やかに言った。「恋人は、欲しいからと言って、手に入るものではないんです。互いに惹かれ合ってはじめて、恋人として成り立つんですよ。」
　　「じゃあ、僕を欲しいガールフレンドを買ってくれよ。」
　　父親はまた溜め息をついた。「そんなに簡単じゃないんだ。女の心を勝ち取らなければならない。私はそれを買ってやることは出来ない。それは太魔さんが自分一人ですることだ。」
　　「何だって?」と男の子は叫んだ。「自分で?嫌だよ!」
　　「だけど、そのうち太魔ちゃんは何かを自分一人でやってみた方がいいと思います。」と、母親は言った。
　　「そんなわけない...」と、男の子は独り言を言った。

　　男の子は執事に運転させた。行き先は美人の店員が働いている近くのコンビニだった。執事にソーダとチョコレートを買わせた時、男の子はリムジンの窓からその美しい女の子を何回も見かけた。
　　コンビニに着いてすぐ、男の子は車から降り、初めてコンビニに入った。言うまでもなく、執事と一緒だった。
　　「なんだ、これは?床がベタベタだよ。」と男の子はぼそっと呟き、足元に用心しながらレジに歩み寄った。
　　美人の店員は二人に気付き、「いらっしゃいませ。」と声をかけた。男の子は執事を突っついた。
　　「えへん...」と、執事は咳払いし、「私(わたくし)の坊っちゃまは貴方を恋人にして下さると仰っしゃっています。」
　　「何?冗談でしょう?」と、美人は返事した。
　　「冗談ではございません。」
　　「じゃあ、あなたの言う坊っちゃまって?」と、信じられない様子で聞いた。
　　執事は男の子の方を向いて、畏まって頷いた。男の子は片手を挙げて軽く振った。
　　美人は顔をしかめた。「ゲ。あのデブ男?話にもならないわ。」
　　男の子は顔を真っ赤にし、「デブって?誰がデブ?」と叫んだ。
　　店員は「あなたはデブよ。デブ、デブ、デブ...」とからかった。
　　「デブじゃない!お前は貧乏。貧乏、貧乏、貧乏だよ。」
　　「何ですって?」美人は少し混乱した。
　　「聞こえただろう。お前は貧乏だよ。貧乏な怠け者だよ。」と、男の子は大声で言い返した。騒ぎに気付いた客はレジの方向を眺めていた。
　　「怠け者って?私?」
　　「そうだよ。貧乏な怠け者だよ。コンビ二で働く人は貧乏な怠け者しかいないんだよ。」と、男の子は激怒した。
　　美人の店員は背を伸ばし出入り口を指差してから大声で、「出て行かないと警察を呼ぶわよ!」と言った。

　　男の子はまた執事に運転させた。行き先は美人が監視員として働いている近くのジムだった。以前から執事がプールで泳いでいる時、男の子はプールサイドでその美人を何回も見かていた。
　　着いてすぐ、男の子は車から降り、ジムに入った。言うまでもなく、執事と一緒だった。
　　いつもの様に、男の子はプールサイドでソーダを飲みながら、執事がプールで泳ぐのを見ていた。しばらくして、監視員の交替の時間になり、美人が現れた。
　　男の子は飲みかけのソーダをサイドテーブルに置き、手で美人の監視員に合図した。
　　彼女はすぐにやってきて、座っている男の子に、「どうなさいましたか。」と、心配そうに聞いた。
　　「僕はたくましいよ。ほら、見て!」と言い、泳いでいる執事を指差した。プールの方を向き、「おい!もっと早く泳げよ!」と叫んだ。
　　美人は困惑の表情を浮かべた。
　　「見て見て!僕はこんなに早く泳げるんだ。お前は僕みたいなたくましい男が好きだろう?」
　　美人は不安そうに執事を見、「あの...」と呟いた。
　　「でも、それだけではない。」男の子はプールの方に両手を振り、口笛を吹いた。執事は太魔が座っているプールサイドに近付いてきた。男の子は「僕が合図するまで、水中で息を止めててよ。」と彼に命令した。
　　美人な監視員は従順な執事をじっと見つめた。「何、これ?冗談でしょう?」
　　「冗談じゃないよ。僕は10分ぐらい水中で息を止めれるよ。見て見て!」と、男の子は自慢した。「僕はたくましいんだから。」
　　「10分ぐらいって?あなた、おかしくない?あの人、止めさせなさい。」美人は必死になり、「もう十分じゃない?早くあの人を止めさせて。あなた、無責任だわ。」
　　「無責任って?誰が無責任?」と、男の子は叫んだ。
　　「あなたは無責任よ。あの人を止めさせなさい。」と、美人は負けずに言い返した。
　　「無責任じゃない!お前は男みたい。男みたいなんだよ。」
　　「何ですって?」美人は少し混乱した。
　　「聞こえただろう。男みたいなんだよ。女性はそんなに筋肉質なはずがないよ。」と、男の子は言い放った。泳いでいた人達は泳ぐのを止め、プールサイドの方向を呆然と眺めていた。しかし、美人の監視員はそれらを無視し、プールに潜り、執事を助け出した。
　　美人は男の子を睨み、「出て行かないと警察を呼ぶわよ!」と、大声で言った。

　　「ちぇっ...」男の子は自宅に帰る途中で、リムジンの窓からぼんやりと外を眺めていた。すると、突然ある物が彼の目に止まった。
　　男の子は運転手に「止まれ!」と叫んだ。執事はソープランドの前に車を止めた。店の看板には「コンパニオン・ガール:1時間=¥5000」と書いてあった。執事は何も言わずに頷き、リムジンから降り、ソープランドに入った。
　　数分後に、執事と女が出てきた。彼女は赤いミニスカートと白いチューブトップに黒いピンヒールを履いていた。執事は運転席に戻り、ソープ嬢は車の後ろに乗り込み、男の子の隣に座った。
　　「あなた、太魔ちゃん、ね。あたし、巨乳子。」と、チューインガムを噛みながら言った。
　　「うん...」ジロジロ見ている男の子は何もはっきり言えなかった。
　　彼女は、「じゃあ、現金で払ってね。わかった?」と続けて言った。「それから、変な事はダメよ。まだ若いからね。」
　　男の子はこくりと頷いた。

　　すべては5日ぐらいうまくいった。毎晩、就寝前になると、太魔は大金庫に巨乳子を連れて行き、父親にそこで現金を渡させた。男の子は大分幸せになったが、時々彼のガールフレンドにイライラさせられた。大邸宅の裏口と大金庫に関して、しつこく聞かれることに疲れてきたからだ。いずれにせよ、ガールフレンドが出来たので心は満たされていた。
　　しかし、6日目の朝、皆は巨乳子が消えていたのに気付いた。男の子は大金庫が設置された部屋まで必死で走ってきた。両親は泣きながら、鍵が壊された金庫の前に立っていた。丈夫なドアは開けられており、中には何もなかった。
　　「僕のガールフレンドが逃げちゃったよ。早く、執事に新しいの買いに行かせてよ。」と男の子はねだった。
　　「ごめんなさい太魔ちゃん。彼に給料をこれ以上払えなくなったので早朝辞めていきました。」と母親は説明した。
　　「何だって?」と男の子は金切り声で言った。「じゃあ、お前が買わなくちゃいけないんだよ。早く。」
　　父親は空っぽになった大金庫を指差した。「でも、お金は全部盗まれてしまったんだ。もう買ってやることは出来ない。」
　　「構わないよ。僕のことを考えてよ!」とわめいた。
　　「でも、お父さんとわたくしはこんな状態では何も出来ません。」と母親は言った。
　　「アア...」男の子は部屋を飛び出し、台所の方へ走った。そこで、大きな包丁を手に取り、大金庫の部屋に戻った。
　　包丁を見た途端、母親は「太魔ちゃん、何をしているの?」と、青ざめた顔で言った。
　　「包丁を置きなさい!」と父親は命令したが男の子は包丁を更に強く握り締めた。
　　「置かないよ。」
　　母親は必死になった。「私たちは本当に何も出来ません。代わりの執事とガールフレンドを買ってやれないのです。信じて下さい。」
　　「大丈夫。そんな物はもう欲しくない。今は新しいパパとママが欲しいんだ。でも、それは自分一人で出来るから。」

Back in Canada...

2009-12-08T17:26:00.017-07:00

On Sunday I left Fukuoka behind, only to be greeted by -23 degree weather in Lloydminster. Yay.

Here's a summary of what happened after the translation disaster...

The following weekend, myself and another student were given a guided tour of Dazaifu. This included visits to Tenman-gu shrine, several eateries, and our guide's sizable house featuring a very European theme. I was hoping we'd get a chance to mosey around the Kyushu National Museum, but that didn't happen.

The shrine was extremely busy due to the in-progress 7-5-3 Festival. Many small children in kimonos were being feverishly assaulted by parents armed with digital cameras. The kids didn't stand a chance.

At one restaurant we ate freshly made umegaemochi, and at another we were served a mostly traditional Japanese meal, and by traditional I mean the several-hundred-years-ago sense. (Lots of root vegetables.) Both were very very good. The umegaemochi restaurant is famous throughout Japan and had a ridiculously long line-up trailing down the rain-moistened street. Fortunately, we had purchased special train tickets that included a meal coupon allowing us to avoid the queue.

Some chrysanthemum bonsai thingy on display at Tenman-gu Shrine.
(click to enlarge)

A traditional garden behind a Buddhist temple built around 1275.
(click to enlarge)

The following Thursday, myself and three other students were treated to four free tickets to see day 12 of the Kyushu Basho. The tickets were 11 300 yen apiece! Needless to say, they were excellent seats located very close to the center ring.

(click to enlarge)

The next weekend I was given a guided tour to several used book stores, and returned home with 20 volumes of novels, short story collections, and essay compilations. At one shop I managed to find one of those infamous "revised history textbooks", but my faithful guide would not allow me to purchase it, referring to the authors as Nazi-like.

I actually wanted to purchase the book, partly out of curiosity, but also because this textbook is somewhat of a rarity. Very few schools actually used the book, and I've read that large quantities of unsold copies were destroyed, making it a kind of collectible novelty. For the record, it would seem future textbooks may be heading in an entirely opposite direction.

----------

On a closing note, I'd like to put in a brief note regarding Wahaha Japanese Language School.

As stated earlier in the blog, this is a sort of break-away school that emerged from GenkiJACS. I had found my previous years at GenkiJACS to be worthwhile, but in 2008 it was subtly apparent that the school's character had changed for the worse. Perhaps it was due to the increased number of classrooms, students, and teachers, but the overall instructional quality had become uneven. Although instructors from the previous two years were still as good as ever -- if not better -- the newer staff was a bit of a crap shoot.

In addition, the class sizes have been slowly increasing over the years, progressing from the initial four-to-a-class to the currently advertised seven students. (I've heard unsubstantiated reports of eight or nine in a class...)

Wahaha is more like the oldskool GenkiJACS, but better. Everything felt more personable and friendly.

For example, my total visit to Wahaha was four weeks, whereas my total visits to GenkiJACS add up to 12 weeks. My aggregate time at GenkiJACS featured three dinner parties, one gōkon (an awful experience, to be sure...), two student-organized parties, and only one field trip that was organized by a single student.

There was supposed to be another school-organized field trip, but that was a bust. I was informed they needed a minimum number of students or the trip would be canceled, and by the time the deadline had passed, the sign-up sheet remained disappointingly empty. I assumed a no-go. However, unbeknown to myself, the staff -- accompanied by family and friends -- went anyway. Hmph... A student trip turned into a staff get-away.

In summary, GenkiJACS equated to 12 weeks and seven events, three of which were student organized. In comparison, four weeks at Wahaha resulted in five dinner parties, three field trips, one field trip/lunch party combo, and two guided shopping tours. (One for used books, the other for Christmas presents.) All 11 events were organized by the school. Eleven! That's five more in one-third the time.

The only downside is they don't have a great number of students. I want to attend next year, but will they still be around? If you've reached this page via google and are thinking about a Japanese Language school, please please consider Wahaha. Thanks.

Coming soon, my second story. (Just after I complete a few edits...)

A Mistake in Translation

2009-11-26T21:32:00.012-07:00

My first full weekend in Fukuoka was spent translating the Lloydminster Wikipedia entry into Japanese. This was an assignment I came up with myself, and thinking it would be a good learning lesson, suggested it to several instructors.

My plan was to write a Japanese version over the weekend, then bring it into school on Monday to be corrected with a teacher during private lessons. But by early Saturday morning it became apparent this was not going to be a good idea.

The problem lay in the source material: it is incredibly poorly written. Even if aesthetic issues are ignored, the mind-numbingly poor content alone is enough to cause brain fluid leakage.

For example, there are four paragraphs under the "geography" heading. The first describes Lloydminster's political geography, specifically the dual-provincial status. So far acceptable.

However, the next paragraph tangents slightly to discuss other Canadian cities that span provincial borders, with Lloydminster taking a back seat. This is then followed by information regarding "legal matters" and how they are affected by the Alberta/Saskatchewan border. (Examples include daylight savings time and election schedules.) Finally, the section is concluded by a paragraph that almost (but not quite) resembles a rant on no-smoking bylaws.

Nowhere in "geography" is it mentioned that Lloydminster is located in the Canadian Prairies, nor is it mentioned the city is built upon marshland. Perhaps I'm too much of a traditionalist, but my narrow belief is physical geography deserves far more attention than no-smoking-by-law geography, election schedule geography, and other-cities-for-comparisons-sake geography. But perhaps that's why I'm not a professional writer.

As you can tell, translating the article became quite a chore. "History" is poorly thought-out, "demographics" contain endless meandering statistics that would be better served in chart form, and "economics and taxation" lacks proper research.

What can I say... Wikipedia isn't all it's cracked up to be. (And before anyone asks, I don't intend on contributing a better English article. No offense to my coworkers, but I don't fancy the idea of spending generous amounts of volunteer time thinking deeply about Lloydminster.)

I finished as much of the translation as I could for Monday, but early in the first class it was obvious to both the teacher and myself that this was not a useful undertaking. Thanks to some quick improvising on the part of the instructor, we moved onto something else that was a million times more meaningful.

However, I did promise to write a short story for Tuesday, and on Monday night I managed to do just that. This proved much more worthwhile.

After two classes of revisions, here is the finished story:

弁性と人生

cobbled together by thom

edited by 里未先生 and 順子先生

　　あるコンビニの棚にミニクイ弁当が住んでいた。いつも暗くてベタベタな隅に座っていて、上品な弁当に囲まれていた。徐々に、隣の弁当は買われて消えてきいき、ある日一弁(一人)になった。
　　「なんで誰も僕を買わないのか?なんで...?」とすすり声で言った。「優しい買い主(飼い主)が欲しい...」
　　その時、デブ男がコンビニに入ってきた。棚に歩み寄って、隅に残っていた弁当を見つけた。「何だ、これは?ひでえ!」と叫んだ。
　　デブ男はミニクイ弁当を数秒眺めてから、「しょうがねえ...」と呟いて、乱暴な手付きで棚から取り出した。

　　デブ男のアパートに着いた時、ミニクイ弁当はウキウキした。「やった!新しい住家が出来た。どんな所なんだろう...」と思た。しかし、デブ男がドアを開け、一緒にアパートに入った途端、ミニクイ弁当はあまりの光景に愕然(がくぜん)とした。床はゴミと漫画と雑誌で埋めつくされ、部屋中に悪臭が漂っていた。
　　デブ男はミニクイ弁当をテーブルの上に置いて、フタを外した。でも、箸を握った途端、ミニクイ弁当は大声で「箸!?何をするつもりか?」と言った。
　　それを聞いたデブ男はあっさりと、「食べるんだよ。だって、弁当だろう?」と返事した。
　　「ダメ!生きたいよ。生きたい...」
　　「うるせえよ。」と言って、箸で少量のご飯を摘んだ。
　　「痛い!」
　　「うるせえよ。」とまた言って、箸を口に近付けてご飯を食べてみた。「ゲ...腐ってる。何だよ。騒がしい上に、腐ってやがる...」デブ男は立ち上がて窓からミニクイ弁当を放り投げた。
　　ミニクイ弁当は道路の上に横たわった。「弁性って何だろう?」と思った後に、人間の影とアンモニア臭に覆われた。
　　影は、「メシ... メシだ...」と囁いた。見上げると、ホームレス男が手を伸ばしてミニクイ弁当を拾い上げた。
　　「お願い、食わないでよ。食わないで。」と慈悲を乞った。
　　「でも、ハラへった...」とホームレス男は返事した。
　　「僕は、生きたいよ。生きたい...」
　　「でも...」ホームレス男は少しためらった。「じつは、ながいあいだトモダチいねえんだ。ダレもアイテにしてくれねえんだ。トモダチになってくれんか?」

　　それから、ミニクイ弁当とホームレス男は親友になって、日々を一緒に過ごした。本当に仲良しだった。しかし、陽光がさんさんと注ぐ日、ひどく飢えて衰弱しきってしまい、ついにホームレス男は公園のベンチから立ち上がられなくなった。ミニクイ弁当はようやく理解した。
　　「お前は、友愛の為に自分の命を危険にさらしている。本来ならば、弁当達は人間の為に自分の命を捨てなくちゃいけない。わかった。それは僕の使命だ。僕を食え...」とホームレス男に堂々と言った。
　　そして、ホームレス男は食べ始めた。
　　「うまい... ゲ... ゲ...」
　　彼は倒れて死んだ。
　　急に、警官が木立ちから現れた。「逮捕!逮捕!」と叫んだ。「この野郎!この腐った人殺しめ!」
　　ミニクイ弁当は刑務所へ引きずられながら、「弁性はわかった。じゃあ、人生って何だろう...」と途方に暮れた。

fin

Stay tuned for a wee bit on my trip to Dazaifu, some photos of the Kyushu Basho, and hopefully another short story that most visitors to this blog probably can't read.

2009-11-12T04:15:00.011-07:00

Saturday, November 7th

After arriving early at Hakata Station, I decided to aimlessly wander around the in-progress renovations as an attempt to kill time. Giving up, I leaped aboard the subway and headed toward Tenjin. Once there, I meandered in the general direction of my apartment.

Finding my accommodation was far too easy. I had arrived 45 minutes before the scheduled meeting with the school representative who would handover the key. But true to trip form, she showed up 30 minutes early, which equated to only 15 minutes of suspicious loitering on my part.

Surprisingly, the apartment turned out to be somewhat spacious by Japan standards. And just to rub it in for those back in Canada, my arrival in Fukuoka was greeted with sunny skies and 25 degree temperature.

Sunday, November 8th

Another day of nice weather, but rather uneventful in the adventure department. Excitement was limited to the purchasing of school supplies, three language guides, two Yukio Mishima novels, and a collection of Hoshi Shinichi short stories.

I contemplated bringing home a $100 23-volume box set of complete Astro Boy reprints, but decided it would take too much luggage space. However, I still might change my mind as buying them individually would cost about three times that amount. For the unaware, most of this year was the 80th anniversary of the birth of Tezuka Osamu, so there's quite a variety of special box sets adorning the shelves.

Monday, November 9th

The first day of classes, and in keeping with the flow of previous days, everything went smoothly. Surprisingly, my weakest area -- listening -- has improved dramatically since this time last year. How is this possible without conversation practice? Beats me...

Needless to say, reading remains my strength, and that too has improved.

For those not in the know, and despite intentions to the contrary, this year I am NOT attending school at GenkiJACS. Instead I've enrolled in what could be described as a break-away school called Wahaha Japanese Language School. Several of the staff are already known to me from previous visits, and even many students are GenkiJACS refugees whom I've met before. I'm not sure why the split happened, but it does make one scratch one's head in wonderment.

Tuesday, November 10th

This turned out to be an interesting day. While still in Yokohama, I received an email from the school asking if I would like watch sumō wrestlers practice and eat. The invite didn't sound overly interesting, but I accepted.

Skip ahead to Tuesday...

We met outside the school at 9 AM and split into two separate groups of male and female students. I drove with a husband/wife/infant combo (wife is the neice of one of the teachers) and the only other male student -- a German who has a knack for hideous facial expressions. Curiously, the female students rode in a BMW, which are rather pricey vehicles in Japan. This struck me as something worth noting.

I soon discovered the sumō practice building was located north of Fukuoka in the city of Kitakyushu. The drive up was a mix of cityscape and countryside, but to be honest, the farming areas more closely resembled Canadian cities in terms of density. Not what I'd consider agricultural land.

I sat in the back seat with the mother and infant. The mother did not wear a seatbelt and the infant sat in her lap rather than a child safety seat. This is normal in Japan as only front seatbelts are required by law. I've been told the reasoning behind this is highways have a maximum speed of only 80 km/hr and seatbelts aren't considered important at that speed.

We arrived at a nondescript single-storey building, which turned out to be two buildings with a roof covering a pathway between them. One side contained the practice dohyō, and the other contained the kitchen, showers, dorm, etc..

Immediately after exiting the cars, strict instructions were given: Don't make any noise during the practice.

We walked inside the building containing the dohyō, and sat down -- either cross-legged or seiza -- on a wood-floored stage, similar to what one might see in a typical elementary school gymnasium. However, instead of parents seated below watching their kids perform up on stage, we sat up on stage and watched the sumō wrestlers practice below.

The practice itself was rather interesting. Rote stuff included those leg-raising things sumō is famous for, pushing a partner across the dohyō, and other tit-bits.

However, most of the practice consisted of drill matches, whereby one obviously stronger partner would continually chose others to wrestle. Often the higher ranking sumō would stay with one specific wrestler for several matches before selecting a different opponent. If the next challenger did well enough, they might be rewarded by being picked for many successive matches.

After a challenger sumō was either knocked over or pushed out of the ring, the wrestlers in waiting would immediately ask permission to be the next opponent. "O-negai shimasu!" More often than not the current opponent would be reselected, leaving the others patiently waiting off to the side until the next opportunity arose.

The thanking of both opponents and trainers appeared to be strictly enforced, with a more formal bow reserved for the latter. (Five trainers stood attentively around the outside perimeter of the dohyō during the entire practice.) In addition, any chatty people sitting on the viewing stage were immediately scolded.

Four of the wrestlers wore white belts, the rest dark green belts. It was apparent the former were top ranked sumō, as they were clearly larger and stronger. Several of the lower ranking individuals were having a really hard time, and one was puffing and panting so hard, he looked ready to pass out at any moment -- and once nearly puked.

While waiting for a chance to spar, the wrestlers would do a variety of other exercises, including several core exercises using what looked like a medicine ball. I later discovered this ball was in fact made of stone!

When the practice had finished, we wandered outside and took photos with a trainer (a former yokozuna) and one of their top wrestlers (a Mongolian national).

At this point I still wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but did notice the guy with the BMW had brought boxes of produce along with him. As it turns out, we were going to eat with the sumō!

(click to enlarge)

While the food was being prepared, the four top guys hit the showers and then proceeded to have their hair tied up in the traditional style. The lesser wrestlers then had their chance to bathe.

Following this, we were lead to the dining room, which was layed out in a typical traditional Japanese manner. Two planks lay on the floor as tables, and pillows were carefully placed alongside for seating purposes.

The lower ranking wrestlers served the food, and everyone was merry...

Actually, no. Everyone was nervous.

It had now become clear that this was a privileged experience. If you look again at the photo above, the scruffy guy watching the hair cermony is reportedly a famous mangaka who had come as a special guest. (I don't know his name, but he specializes in food manga.) So, yeah... Top sumō wrestlers, top comic book author, and a handful of stinky foreigners. One Yen to whoever can figure out which category I fit in.

Diagonally across from me sat one of the top sumō. I didn't know what to do in terms of etiquette -- which in this setting is very strict -- so I just nervously munched away.

After he left, I had a bit of a broken conversation with BMW-san and the head coach. Finally everything became clear:

The guy with the BMW is the husband of the sister of WAHAHA's founder. For one month before the Kyushyu Basho, this particular heya stays at this building owned by BMW-san's business. Furthermore, BMW-san is the head coach's golfing partner. A-ha... now it all makes sense.

But wait, there's more! The head coach is not only a former yokozuna, but is in fact the top guy for the Sumō Association of Japan. That's right, he's the top sumō administrator in Japan, which in turn makes him boss of the entire sumō world. (I didn't find that out until during the trip home.) All in all, a very privileged experience.

If you're interested, here's an English link to the heya in question:

http://sumo.goo.ne.jp/eng/ozumo_meikan/sumo_beya/musashigawa.html

To see profiles of the top four wrestlers, scroll to the bottom and click on the relevant links. The lower ranking wrestlers have no additional information. Sorry.

(click to enlarge)

Back in Japan...

2009-11-10T03:20:00.008-07:00

It's time once again to revive this blog and entertain random readers with somewhat embellished tales of semi-adventure.

Wednesday, November 4th

This year's trip to Japan began in Yokohama, where I was fortunate enough to receive a tour of the Kenwood offices, and managed to get a small glimpse at the engineering magic behind their two-way radios. The visit only lasted about two hours, but I still managed to glean some useful information.

Unfortunately, I don't intend to divulge much of that information here, as it's probably of no interest to the public-at-large. However, when I return to Lloydminster, I'll be sure to share my tales with all relevant co-workers.

My stay in Yokohama was just two nights, so apart from the Kenwood tour, there's not much to report. However, it's almost worth mentioning that my hotel accomodation was rather upper-crust, and I felt more than a bit out-of-place. (Shin-Yokohama Prince Hotel -- 40 storeys of earthquake-proof snootiness.) To be honest, the staff was very friendly -- it was more the clientèle that was out of my league.

Friday, November 6th

After Yokohama, I hopped onto the Shinkansen (N700 series) and headed towards Kobe. Once there, I met with an email friend and promptly hiked up Mt. Nunobiki, which lies directly (and I do mean directly) behind Shin-Kobe Station.

Part way up exists a series of waterfalls, the largest being this:

(Click to enlarge.)

The motivation for this excursion was to find a GeoCache location for a co-worker. I'm happy to report the effort was a success, and the hippy teddy bear that accompanied me from Lloydminster now has a snug new home, suspiciously resembling a Tupperware container.

After that, I was taken to see a Japanese garden complete with a display of entries from a chrysanthemum cultivating competition. Some of the winners looked like plastic plants, yet they were most definitely real. I also found it quite amazing how a single flower can be trained to bloom in such vastly different ways, sometimes giving the appearance of different species.

Following a trip on Kobe's extremely well-used train system, we walked around the harbour area where an important discovery awaited...

When I was younger, West Edmonton Mall had a couple of ball-sculptures located at opposite ends of Phase I. Something similar currently exists somewhere in WEM, but the original ones disappeared some time ago. Well... I found one nestled inside a shopping mall near Kobe Harbour. The paint was new, but it was definitely one of the original ball-sculptures that I spent many hours observing in my youth. Quite an unexpected surprise.

The next morning, before leaving for Fukuoka, my email friend and I took a ride up the Kobe cable car and visited the Nunobiki Herb Gardens.

(Click on image to enlarge.)

(Click on image to enlarge.)

Saturday, November 7th

Following that little adventure, I once again jumped onto a speeding Shinkansen (N700 series) and headed towards Fukuoka...

HDR Kanji

2008-10-13T10:20:00.002-06:00

Yes, it's true. Yet another departure date draws near. This time next month I will once again be landing in Fukuoka in a desperate attempt to improve my Japanese language skills.

New features include: An enhanced vocabulary, expanded Kanji capabilities, speedier comprehension of grammatical constructs, and an Asus Eeepc 1000.

I intend to use the latter to assemble some HDR photos. Exciting.

Uneventful weekend

2007-05-21T00:56:00.000-06:00

Well, the island outing island *did* happen, but not for me. The rules were: if enough people sign up, the trip would be a go. But enough people did *not* sign up. What I wasn't told is they decided to go anyway. Apparently everyone waited for thirty minutes on Saturday wondering where I was before leaving. Hmm... My mind reading skills seem to be a little weak as of late.

Friday's meal was at a different restaurant than last year -- more expensive, less food, not as good, and the entire six hour ordeal was exceedingly boring. At least it was fake Japanese seating, with a hidden hole underneath the table.

I tried to do some laundry on Saturday morning, but my in-suite washing machine leaves much to be desired, such as an agitator. Quiet though it may be, clothes do not emerge from this machine in a cleaned state. Yes, an agitator makes a world of difference.

(If you are wondering how a washing machine cleans clothes without using an agitator, wonder no more. The answer is: it doesn't.)

Also on Saturday, I bought a junior high school reading-level novel called "majo no takkyuubin", which roughly translates to "Witch's Home Delivery Service". This was made into a Miyazaki movie entitled "Kiki's Delivery Service". You may have already seen this film; I haven't.

It's Monday, so that means new students. A little more crowded this week.

On a side note, I noticed an Air Canada jet had it's front landing gear collapse on itself. My Air Canada flight from Vancouver to Oosaka was aboard the most beat-up piece of shit I've ever had the displeasure to fly in. While accelerating for takeoff, the entire body began creaking in a disconcerting fashion, the painted-over rust spots on the wing weren't exactly comforting either, and only two out of the four "economy seating" toilets were working. Are they still Canada's most hated corporation? I sure don't care for them much. But more importantly, will I make it back alive?

Sit still, dammit!

2007-05-18T00:14:00.000-06:00

Today is several student's final day, so we are all off to a traditional restaurant later this evening. I presume it'll be the same place as last year, which means two hours sitting in seiza (正座) position. Ouch...

Not too much to report. Today was techno music day for the school children. The weather isn't particularly sunny, but still quite warm. However, I stand out as being the only guy wearing shorts and t-shirt. Most Japanese men are wearing full business suits -- I don't know how they do it.

Maybe, just maybe, if enough people are interested, a group of us from the school will be visiting some island in the Fukuoka bay area. It's twenty minutes by boat and apparently quite picturesque. I'll be sure to take my camera, so if this outing is a go, expect photos on Monday.

Oh, and I went to some monstrous book store on Wednesday. Several stories in height, with each floor easily being the same size as larger bookstores in Edmonton. They sure do like their books here in Japan.

Shh...

2007-05-17T02:14:00.000-06:00

Sorry I've been so quiet. This evening I have quite a bit of homework to complete.

Looks like a trip to Reigando is arranged for next weekend.

No photos until after the weekend.

2007-05-14T21:51:00.000-06:00

I suppose it's time something was added to the blog.

This time around my apartment appears to be a wee bit larger. Not much larger, but enough to make a difference. There are two sliding doors that lead to an L-shaped balcony overlooking both an elementary school yard, and the wide-open girl's entrance of the school gymnasium. I guess this is what happens when everyone lives within millimetres of one another.

During late morning of my second day at the apartment, while trying to organize my belongings, the doorbell rang. (All apartment doors lead directly outside, and therefore easily accessible by anyone.) I opened the door to find myself being ferociously attacked by two Watchtower wielding Jehovah's Witnesses. However they managed to find their way into Japan I'll never know.

Every morning at school the children do calisthenic style exercises while accompanied by J-pop music. A dark side of this are the militaristic chants being forcefully recited. However, if you listen carefully, many kids deliberately chant too late or too early or perform other "this is pointless" protestations.

Pretty nice weather -- I've already given myself sunburn.

On Sunday I watched a bunch of sea hawks at Ohori park. They were grouped together, sunning themselves on a picturesque tree. Personally, I was under the impression that hawks, falcons, and other birds of prey tend to be territorial. I guess sea hawks are an exception.

Yesterday, while walking around Tenjin, I had the displeasure of hearing the loudest busker in the world. He was crouched in the shadows, strumming on a guitar, and screaming some very, very off-key lyrics. Pedestrians and onlookers were tittering amongst themselves, while other buskers looked rather annoyed that they could not be heard under this nasty wailing.

To be truthful, I'm not sure if anyone was actually busking. There was neither up-turned hat nor open guitar case in front of any of them. Perhaps it was simply a case of "something to do".

The usual assortment of street artists were also present. In fact, I'd swear there was almost double the amount from last time I visited.

School is definitely a lot quieter than last September, but the busy season will be fast approaching, or so I've been told. Other students include a Nova Scotian, Chilean born Norwegian, some woman from San Fransisco with a Japanese name and unidentified accent, a young woman from Singapore, a young German martial arts guy, two old Australian women who only talk to one another and ignore everyone else, and a few other unidentified people in higher classes than myself.

Until next time...

Stay tuned...

2007-05-09T09:59:00.000-06:00

This blog has recently been recovered from cryogenic sleep. Please stay tuned for more content. (Give me a few more days...)

Thanks for reading.

2006-10-16T11:46:00.000-06:00

I have arrived safely in Edmonton. The return voyage involved one train, three planes, one car, numerous escalators, some walking, and plenty of sitting, all of which took roughly 32 hours without any sleep. I woke up this morning after an eleven hour snooze that somehow felt like four.

The stop over in Seattle was my first exposure to North American "cuisine." After six weeks in Japan, it has become really noticeable that the stuff we call food is pretty awful. I could've killed for a bento box.

It's just above freezing in Edmonton, with a light wet snowfall. (Although it's not cold enough to stay on the ground just yet.) Today I'll go and see the Trailer Park Boys movie, tomorrow I return to LLoyd, and Wednesday I restock the fridge, remove six weeks worth of dust, and perform other "welcome home" chores. Thursday is back to work, bright and early.

Until next time, thanks for reading.

And so it ends...

2006-10-13T20:06:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow morning I catch the early-ish train to New Chitose Airport and begin my triple-flight return to Canada.

As a closing note, I'd like to write about the Japanese language school I attended in Fukuoka. It's worth mentioning because I thought the teachers were very good, and had a nice relaxed environment.

During my four week stay I received instruction from roughly eight or nine different teachers. This mix was a definite plus, not so much due to different teaching styles, but because it exposed my ears to various speaking voices/styles and added variety to each day. In addition, new students began every Monday, followed by new "graduates" every Friday, which maintained a constant flow of new faces each week. I met people from Germany, Sweden, Austria, Swizterland, USA, Malaysia, UK, Russia, Italy, Hungary, and maybe somewhere I've forgotten.

The only bad thing was an ever-changing timetable. Sometimes classes wouldn't begin until the afternoon, which can ruin a day. It's much nicer to finish early and have the rest of the day to do whatever.

Having said that, if anyone else is interested, their website is: http://genkijacs.com/

I'll only post once more in this blog, and that will simply be to say I landed safely back home. Sayonara!

Winding down...

2006-10-12T21:08:00.000-06:00

I have to admit, this final week in Japan is a bit more low-key than previous weeks. Probably just as well -- my knees are beginning to ache from all the long hours of walking.

Yesterday I visited the Sapporo clock tower and learned a little about the history of the city. After that, it was gift shopping, which I still haven't finished. Two of the gifts I had ideas for quickly became nightmare missions. But in the end, I was successful.

Now for the rest.

This photo is from yesterday, but wasn't uploaded due to neglect on my part. Inside the botanical garden grounds was a small taxidermy museum. Nothing too exciting: Some bears, wolves, birds, etc..

However, the above "Giant Japanese Salamander" really caught my attention. I put my umbrella (about 80 cm long) in front of the glass to provide a sense of scale. That makes the Salamander roughly 90 cm in length!

I haven't completely deciphered the Japanese information card, but did notice it mentions Fukuoka prefecture. I wonder where they were hiding...?

A clock mechanism inside the Sapporo clock tower. As it turns out, Sapporo city has only a 120 year history. The Meiji government tried to accelerate development of the city by sending many students abroad to study in Europe and especially the US.

This explains why Sapporo has a more "Western" feel to it's design. Roads are on average much wider than other Japanese cities, a grid system is used, fire hydrants are above ground (in other cities they are under manhole covers), and many other small details.

And the weather's beginning to feel a lot like Canada.

Thunder and lightning, very very frightening.

2006-10-11T19:39:00.000-06:00

Yesterday morning I awoke to a sudden crack of thunder, and opened the curtains to discover a rather heavy downpour. Following a small breakfast, I wandered off to the internet cafe -- taking as many covered/underground routes as possible -- and once again attempted head-to-head battled with blogspot's wonderful image related features.

After emerging from the "media cafe" darkness, I found the rain had stopped, and subsequently decided to visit the botanical gardens. Not the most exciting adventure, but at least it was something.

Shortly after entering the gates. It was rather cool, damp, and cloudy outside. While some of the pathways were made of fine gravel, others were simply dirt. As you can no doubt imagine, these dirt trails were rather muddy due to the heavy morning rainfall.

A handheld manual control macro shot. It took several attempts to get this one right. My camera's image stabilizer feature only works up to a point, after that a tripod becomes necessary. In this instance, I was the tripod.

The same species of plant I saw on Maruyama trail, except here the pods have not opened. I wonder what lurks within...?

A nice little bridge in the middle of the gardens.

They did have a rose garden section, but most of the flowers were wilting -- it is late in the season afterall. All the same, I managed to find a couple of nice specimens.

Not much in terms of image composition, but the mix of colours are nice-ish.

A rickety wooden walking trail along a swampy section. There were some frogs, but they were too quick for me to take any photos. Sorry.

The old man and the mountain.

2006-10-10T19:58:00.000-06:00

Here's the Asama shinkansen train sitting idle at Nagano station. Seconds after snapping this photo, they began boarding. Minutes later and we were off.

Sorry, no photos from neither Morioka nor Hakodate. To appease the masses, here is a funky looking building near downtown Sapporo, located just a couple of blocks from this internet cafe. I assume rain water drains out through the nostrils, partly because of the water stains, partly because there are two holes on the bottom of the nose.

As a side note, I must mention Sapporo uses a grid system for it's roads. Although a few minor streets are not labeled, navigation is similar to Alberta cities.

Sapporo TV tower. It is possible to ride the elevator to the top, but I haven't done so yet. Most Japanese cities have TV towers. I get the impression cable TV doesn't exist, as most hotel TVs use UHF signals.

Starting my ascent of Maruyama.

Along the path were many small numbered statues. The last one I remember reading was 73. Near the start of the trail there were multitudes grouped together, which would have made a nice photo. However, many elderly people were praying in front of the statues, and I didn't want to be rude. Luckily, most people seemed to turn back half way up the climb,so I had the rest of the trail mostly to myself.

Somebody has his/her cheeks stuffed for winter.

And so it continues... (Ten points if you can spot the other hiker.)

Damn, another 225.4 millimetres until Maruyama summit. Do you think I can hold out?

The view from above. I wasn't alone up here. In addition to other hikers, there was a hawk being bothered by several ravens/crows.

Later on I managed to get a photo of this viewpoint from the ground. Unfortunately, it's a poor photo.

Starting the descent. Notice the strange plant growing from behind the stump. What can it be?

This is what it can be! An alien species from another planet. I really have no clue what this is.

And down we go...

The forest floor was covered with these small bamboo plants.

At the bottom, near Maruyama zoo. After taking this photo, some old man approached me and we attempted to have a chat. He didn't speak English, but is studying Spanish, has been to BC, the wind knocked over the tree, and I should go and eat at as many Sapporo restaurants as possible. That's all I could understand.

After Maruyama, I climbed up to some memorial park. At little disappointing as the path up was mostly paved. Below is a fountain, but obviously it's not turned on.

Here's the view from below. The fountain is still not turned on.

Another day, another mountain.

2006-10-09T23:52:00.000-06:00

Today I did some hiking up Maruyama (Round Mountain) just to the west side of Sapporo. I took plenty of photos and chatted with some old man the best I could.

As it turns out, I will be posting more images afterall. It dawned on me last night that GIMP didn't install because I didn't install GTK+ first. (The error message was in Japanese and I didn't quite get the meaning.) Today I tried again just for kicks, and lo and behold, I now have GIMP. Of course, my camera cable is still in the hotel, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow. (I came to the internet cafe straight from the mountain.)

It's rather odd, however, that the internet cafe doesn't prevent people from installing programs. Maybe there's no way to stop this from happening in WinXP...?

Last night everything on TV pretty much exclusively involved discussing North Korea's nuke test. Let's just say that action was very unpopular in Japan. Other news items included images of typhoon damage on Hokkaido's east coast. I originally wanted to travel to that area, but I changed my mind for obvious reasons. It looks pretty messy out there.

Oh, and there was special showing the top 100 TV Anime programs of all time as voted by a bunch of Japanese television personalities, one of whom was "Hard Gay." If you don't know who he is, just search You Tube. At any rate, number one was Lupin the 3rd! I didn't realize the TV series began way back in 1971. Wow. (For Lloyd residents not in the know, I have a couple of DVDs and one manga anthology in my apartment. You may borrow if you wish.)

Until tomorrow...

Ramen for breakfast, lunch, and supper.

2006-10-08T23:12:00.000-06:00

Hmm... This internet cafe has no photo editing software installed, and unlike the other places from previous days, it's locked down so I can't install the GIMP or anything. This means no photos. They come out of the camera at three megabytes a piece, which I think is a little too large for general internet viewing. You'll have to wait until I return to Canada to see more images.

Today I haven't done much of anything, and don't plan on doing much of anything. I did, however, do my laundry. The laundromat I used was a complete dive. Five tiny capacity washing machines at 500 yen a pop! My machine shook like crazy when in spin mode. After that, I stuffed my clothes into one of three HUGE driers. I'm not kidding when I say I could've climbed in them. At least the drier was only 100 yen for 10 minutes, which was surprisingly enough time. (Video games and slot machines were also present.) You should have seen the waiting chairs -- I think they were stuffed with dead cockroaches. The mouse traps all over the floor were also a nice touch. This place belonged more in a down-and-out US city neighbourhood than in Japan.

Here in Sapporo there is a ferris wheel on top of a downtown building. I think the building in question is eight stories high. Kind of a strange place for a ferris wheel. Today I'm going to locate the entrance.

Sapporo Ichiban!

2006-10-08T01:54:00.000-06:00

So, I'm in Sapporo. The train from Hakodate was diesel powered! Smelled like it too... However, the scenery more than made up for the fumes.

I have to admit, after the less-than-hospitable atmosphere of Hakodate, I didn't exactly have the best night's sleep. It worried me that all of Hokkaido would be like Hakodate. But, I was wrong. So far everything in Sapporo is just fine. I'm even going to get my laundry completed!

After getting off the train I headed straight for the "tourist information" window. For the previous week I just wandered around randomly and choose a cheapish looking hotel. (Exception = Nara) But because Hakodate was less than inviting, I decided to play it safe and ask someone for accomodation advice.

The Japanese woman at the counter spoke Canadian English with a slight Japanese accent. Strange. As it turns out, she lived 12 years in Canada: four in Vancouver, and eight in Medicine Hat! Wow. Unexpected. (For the benfit of non-Canadian readers, Medicine Hat is located in Alberta, the same province I live in.)

At any rate, I'm staying in a Japanese style room. The couple who own the place have been really helpful, even allowing me to check-in early. (They were in the middle of cleaning and technically "closed" at the time of my arrival.) Seeing as I'm staying a full week, I think I should try and write a thank you note in Japanese, or something along those lines.

Weather is still poor. Rain is now light to none, but the wind is still quite gusty. I might not get any new photos for a day or two. Tomorrow I'll post my only shinkansen photo.

Beyond Nagano

2006-10-07T03:10:00.000-06:00

The weather took a turn for the worst on the third day in Nagano. According to the news, two typhoons are working there way up near the East coast of Japan.

I rode the Shinkansen to Morioka, which turned out to be super friendly place. I wish I had decided to stay another day. But I figure one week in Honshu, one week in Hokkaido.

I stayed at a worn out hotel run by some super-friendly old guy. He was very suprised to see someone from Canada. After checking in I went to find food. The restaurant I choose was also super friendly, and I had the opportunity to speak plenty of Japanese. True most of it was basic stuff such as, "I'm from Canada. Yes, it's cold in winter, etc.." But hey, at least nobody tried to speak English, which was a welcome change. I liked Morioka.

Today I took the shinkansen to Hachinohe, then the super-duper slow train to Hakodate. The train was extra slow due to flooding in fields that the tracks went through and as a result was more than an hour late. However, after the tunnel to Hokkaido, it went back up to regular cruising speed. The Hokkaido tracks followed the ocean, and wow, there were some large waves.

Hakodate is not very friendly. The first hotel I visited kicked me out! My umbrella also crumpled in the strong winds. And it's quite cold. And I really need to find a laundromat soon.

Tomorrow, Sapporo.

Nagano, part 4 of 4

2006-10-07T03:02:00.000-06:00

Heading back on the trail.

Near the end of the trail was this old grave site. About 50 metres later I wound up in a very small farming community.

There was yet another temple near the bus stop. While waiting, I took a small visit. It had these extremely steep stairs. Several elderly people looked as though they were about to have a heart attack after reaching the top.

Some statues near the entrance of a temple in Nagano city.

Nagano, part 3 of 4

2006-10-07T02:52:00.000-06:00

The view looking from the other direction. You can see some small farming communities in the distance.

Here's Something-Ishi in all it's glory! Looks to be in a slight state of dis-repair...

After descending for a short while, there was another pond. Unlike the previous body of water, this was only accessable by trail. I had it all to myself.

One side of the pond.

And the other.

Nagano, part 2 of 4

2006-10-07T02:46:00.000-06:00

Here's the pond behind the trees. There were several elderly people scattered around this pond, painting pictures and drawing sketches. (A paved road also lead to the pond.)

After the pond, the trail began to lead upwards...

Nothing special about this photo, other than I managed to capture a bee in action. After this I also managed to snap an image of some yellow snake. However, it was only the back -- I wasn't quick enough for the head.

Here's the path continuing to lead up into the heavens.

Ta da! At this point I'm almost out of moutain. This was called Something-Ishi. The "something" is the Kanji I couldn't read, the "ishi" means rock.

Nagano, part 1 of 4

2006-10-07T02:33:00.000-06:00

Here's the entrance to the moutain trail. As always, it's guarded by a couple of lions. Inside the red gate are two wooden statues. I have photos, but they won't be posted here. Sorry...

Here's what the trail looks like after the gate. These are huge Japanese cedars. I do have one photo with a couple of people in the image to give a sense of proportion, but this photo is nicer.

After reaching the temple at the top, I walk back halfway and then proceeded on this path. It was very lonely, apart from all the bear-warning signs.

I was expecting to find a Jizo statue or two on the trail, but instead found two of these. Whatever they are, they're not Jizo statues of samurai movie fame. A bit disappointing.

A little later down the trail, the winding stream I had been following lead to an open part of the forest. What could be behind the trees?

Kyoto, part 2 of 2

2006-10-04T22:39:00.000-06:00

Another view from even further down the trail.

The next temple over. This one had several buildings one could enter to view some old scrolls and wooden statues. One of the statues I recognized from history book photos. However, as you may have guessed, photography was not allowed inside these areas.

Another view of the grounds.

This is from the other side of Kyoto. I passed through the Old Imperial Palace on my way here. While the palace was disappointing, this pavillion certainly wasn't. Yes, the top two floors are covered in gold leaf. It's much more impressive in real life, but here's the next best thing.

Another photo, because one is not enough.

This place was absolutely crowed, so I could only photograph the gold building as it had a little area set aside for just this purpose. (I lucked out and managed to avoid having too many people in my shots.) The rest of the trail was too much of a mad house to take any images. Tripods and group photos were prohibited, probably because such activities would result in even more chaos.

Kyoto, part 1 of 2

2006-10-04T22:28:00.000-06:00

After previewing last post, I found the white space was all messed up. Looking at the HTML, it seems as though blogspot decided to add a bunch of open and close paragraph tags that were cancelling each other out. Blah...

This is the pillar base from a temple very near the hotel I stayed at in Kyoto. Yes, the same temple were I partook in a Buddhist ceremony of some sort.

This is photo of the 11 storey Kyoto train station. Like many major stations, it also houses a department store. Well, two department stores in fact. And also like many major Japanese shopping plazas, it's not entirely enclosed indoors. As you can see in the photo, the people standing on the escalators are also holding umbrellas. Have you ever ridden an escalator in the rain? I have.

From my second day in Kyoto. This is the entrance to a series of buildings scattered along a mountain path. It was very busy and therefore impossible to take photos without somebody else in view.

Just after the main entrance. Fairly busy for a Monday.

The same building from the previous photo, but from part way along the path.

Nara, part 2 of 2

2006-10-04T21:52:00.000-06:00

Wow, blogspot just gets worse and worse. I used to be able to upload five images at a time. They didn't come up in the order I would choose, but at least it was somewhat better than doing it one at a time.

All of a sudden, for this post (the previous was fine) I have to do it one at a time. It still shows space for five files, but after it has finished, nothing appears, neither in preview nor HTML edit. So these five were done one-at-a-time. However, looking at the file names in HTML edit, it seems as though the two previous attempts *did* work as the file names have been renamed to reflect this. Yeesh...

Another photo of the big Buddha.

One of two medium-sized wooden statues near the back of the building.

Sunset at Nara. At this point, many tripods suddenly appeared. I guess the Japanese are avid amateur photographers. Some of the most state-of-the-art digital SLRs were on display.

An old bell in an old building. Five points if you can spot the German tourists.

Inside the gates from part one. I did take a photo in daylight, but the nighttime image looks far more interesting due to lighting.

Nara, part 1 of 2

2006-10-04T21:36:00.000-06:00

Seeing as blogspot is truly annoying when using pictures, I'm going to split today's photos into groups of five.

Here's a super-duper old tower in Nara. There were actually several super-duper old buildings in this small area, but this was the most interesting one photographically.

Here's the gate that leads to the world's largest wooden building. As you can see, the tourists in Nara span at least a couple of species.

Here's the approach to the world's largest wooden building. Inside it houses a big bronze/gold Buddha statue.

Here's the Buddha statue in question. Unfortunately, this photo completely destroys any sense of scale. It was difficult to get the entire statue in frame, so this was taken from just outside the main doors, in front of an incense table. But to give you an idea, if I stood on his shoulder, my head would only reach halfway up the statue's head.

In an attempt to illustrate scale, this is one of the two much smaller statues that flank either side of the big Buddha.

Take a Ride On The Danger Bus to Kuma Land

2006-10-04T03:41:00.000-06:00

Oh poop, I was planning to get a start on burning photos and whatnot this evening. I remembered my camera and CD-Rs, but forgot the USB cable... Tomorrow, tomorrow.

Today I hiked about four hours in the mountains at the suggestion of a hotel clerk who does not speak English. My most successful use of Japanese yet.

To get to these trails I took a city-style bus that drove on the narrowest and windiest mountain roads I have ever seen. Some sections of the road were so narrow that the bus entirely filled the pavement width. Bear in mind, these are TWO-WAY roads. Yeesh. I'm amazed the driver managed to get around some of those steep hairpins. (Most grades were labeled at 10%.) There were several close calls with oncoming traffic, which is particuarly crazy considering this is an hourly bus, seven days a week!

Getting out of the city and into the mountain country was a welcome change. The first path I followed was a larger, more popular trail that lead to a mountain shrine. (Yes, yet more shrines/temples.) The second half of the path was flanked by what I think are large Japanese cedars. Behind the shrine was another trail that lead to the summit of the tallest mountain in the area. I really wanted to climb all the way up, but thought it might not be a good idea seeing as I wasn't properly prepared for back-country adventure. (Personal saftey and all that.) Having said that, it didn't look too tricky as I tried wandering up for a few minutes.

After visiting the shrine, I back-tracked half-way to another smaller path that lead to still another shrine, some ponds, and many trees. Just before I entered this path, an Australian couple decided to head down it on their bicycles. Then I entered the path. "No bicycles allowed." Admittedly the sign was in Japanese, but the kanji compounds for "bicycle" and "prohibited" are so commonplace around Japan there really was no excuse.

As it turns out, bicycles were banned not because of the shrine or anything, but because the first portion of the trail was rather unsuitable for most novice cyclists. (And trust me, they weren't experienced cyclists.) Judging from all the foot prints beside the bicycle tracks, I can only assume they had a really crappy time. And I bet they didn't/couldn't read all the "kuma" warning notices that had been freshly posted all around the trail.

Other than those two, I saw noone else on this trail for about three and a half hours. Not even a kuma, although I did see a snake. Perhaps the kumas were happily munching away on two Australians to notice little ol' me. All the same, to be safe I constantly whistled to keep the hidden kumas away.

About two thirds of the way I almost ran out of mountain. Near the summit of this lesser peak I was treated to a nice view of the surrounding area. Photos tomorrow, I promise.

After that, I wound up in a *really* small farming village that looked extremely confused to see a foreigner in their territory. Perhaps they were expecting a kuma. I soon located the "main" road, found yet another temple, and then waited for the danger bus to take me back to Nagano.

So, here I am. Camera, CD-Rs, no cable. I swear I'll get it right tomorrow.

kuma = bear

Where oh where can the little Thom be...?

2006-10-03T02:19:00.000-06:00

Leaving Fukuoka on Saturday morning proved more difficult than expected. In the past four weeks I've managed to grown attached to the city. It only hit me a few moments before leaving the apartment for good. Approximately half-way through the third week I developed a real feel for the city and was beginning to become part of it.

*sob*sniff*

It's strange. These final two weeks of "random" adventure feel as though they should end with me returning to Fukuoka to finish what I began. Instead, I'll be heading back to Canada.

It was pretty painless to swap my "Rail Pass Exchange Order" for a genuine rail pass. The shinkansen itself was also easy to figure out. I read all the Japanese notices about destinations, departure times, and tracks. However, just as I deciphered it all correctly, the sign switched to English. Oh well...

The train departed five minutes after boarding, and in a short while I was in Shin-Osaka. From there I switched to an older shinkansen and headed to Kyoto, which was the first stop.

(For the interested, the first shinkansen was a "Hikari Rail Star", and the second a plain "Hikari".)

After arriving at Kyoto, I transfered to the slow conventional Nara train. These tracks were not as well labeled, so I had to ask some station worker, in Japanese, which train went to Nara. He understood me right away, and I understood his answer right away. No problems. Yeah for me!

Nara itself was noticeably quieter than Fukuoka. (Overall noise levels of traffic and whatnot.) The town backed into a mountain, but the other direction lead off into endless concrete. From the second last stop before Shin Osaka all the way to Nara was endless -- and I mean endless -- buildings. I've never seen anything like it in my life. Quite the contrast from bus trip from Lloyd to Edmonton, which is endless nothingness.

Finding a hotel in Nara was brutally difficult. The very nice lady at the information booth called around several places trying to find somewhere with vacancy. I ended up in a traditional Japanese Ryokan for 4200 yen. Not bad. After dumping my stuff off, I hunted down lunch. If you guessed ramen shop, you guessed correctly.

I had the "stamina" ramen, and asked for an extra big bowl. It was 2 PM and the last meal I ate was breakfast at 8 AM in Fukuoka. After finishing to pay, I turned around to notice wall behind me was a huge bookshelf of manga. Interesting... I made a short comment about this in Japanese to the owner's wife.

After that, it was sight-seeing. From 3 PM until dark I managed to see everything in Nara. So many things so close together. Over 90 photos. Damn, I'm going to have to burn another CD-R soon.

The weirdest thing about Nara were these ultra-tame deer that roamed everywhere. Children could pet them, people would hug them (or in one case slap them for trying to eat some woman's food), but generally they just got in the way of everyone. It's weird, wild deer in Canada wouldn't let you get that close. In fact, it would be dangerous to do so. It took me about an hour to finally get used to these ultra-tame "wild" deer.

After seeing all the 700 AD buildings and the ultra huge bronze/gold Buddha statue in the largest wooden building in the world, I got to see/hear a free outdoor concert. As it turns out, that weekend in Nara was a high-school and junior high-school band festival. So that's why all the hotels were full! School kids, teachers, parents, etc..

I wanted to stay in Nara one more day, but it wasn't a sure thing due to vacancy issues. As it was, I could only stay at the ryokan for one evening. Sunday's weather made the decision for me -- it was pissing it down with rain.

I hopped on a morning train and headed for Kyoto, found a hotel near-ish the big station, and managed to snap some photos of the nearest temple before the rain got too hard. I then entered the temple, which despite being an historic landmark, was still in use. Yes, I partook in a Buddhist ceremony of some sort. I didn't really know what they were saying, or what was going on -- let's face it, my knowledge of religions is pretty slim -- so I just copied everyone around me and tried to be as respectful as possible. (Photos weren't allowed during the ceremony.)

After that I wandered around, checked out another manga store, and found some stuff to eat. Yikes, Kyoto is expensive. At Hakata station in Fukuoka I could buy a decent handmade bento box for 400 yen -- or cheaper near the end of the day. Sunday's supper cost 1 850 yen!!! Admittedly, it was a bit more than a bento box, but even so, it would've only been 800 yen in Fukuoka.

The Kyoto hotel I stayed at had complimentary internet access. (On a nice wide-screen monitor.) Most of what I wrote above was completed on Sunday evening. However, blogspot completely borked itself and I could no longer log on. Luckily I rescued what I typed in the cache and emailed it to myself to save for a later date.

On Monday I didn't get a chance on the computer due to many other people taking advantage of the free access. Same thing this morning. Damn, damn, and thrice damn.

I visited three nice historic sites on Monday, one of which had many buildings hidden along a forested mountain path. Very nice, but unlike Nara, they charged big yen to enter. Same for the next temple, which also had some very old scrolls and wooden statues on display and consquently charged even more. Be warned: Kyoto is an overpriced tourist city. Nara is cheaper, quieter, and MUCH nicer. (At least Kyoto labels almost all of its streets. Although the signs themselves are sometimes very well hidden.)

Nobody I spoke with in Kyoto recommended seeing Kyoto Palace. (The old imperial palace before Edo/Tokyo became the capital of Japan.) Strange... Seeing as it was on my way to another historic site, I decided to visit. Now I know why nobody mentioned this place. Despite being a World Heritage Site, they won't let you see jack shit, and Jack left town. I did, however, get to laugh at some tourists who accidently triggered the electric eye alarm system. (You can't go within a meter of the walls that hide the historic buildings, let alone go inside.)

After that it was the Golden Pavillion, which is, well, a golden Pavillion. Mostly wood, but the top two floors out of three are covered, and I mean COVERED, in gold, and I mean GOLD, leaf. Yeah. Quite the sight.

By the time I returned to the hotel I had walked 7 hours straight. Ouch.

Following a very good night's sleep, I popped on a 10 AM shinkansen with the thought of visiting someplace with a nice view of Mt. Fuji. Well... I hopped on the wrong train. It was the right direction, right type of train, but for some strange reason it made all stops up until Nagoya -- one third of the way to Tokyo -- and after that it didn't stop until Shin Yokohama, just outside Tokyo. Oh well, I couldn't see Fuji anyway due to clouds. At least I got a chance to talk a mix of Japanese and English with some Japanese buisnessman, and he taught me some kanji.

At Tokyo I decided to switch to the Nagano Shinkansen, and here I am, at an internet cafe in Nagano. Looks like I can burn CD-Rs, which is a very good thing as I have already taken 200 photos since leaving Fukuoka. One gigabyte doesn't get you very far these days. I even resorted to slightly reducing the photo resolution to save memory card space because I didn't know if internet cafes allow CD-R burning. (I've never been in a place like this before.)

Keep in mind, this is a Japanese style internet cafe. I just went for the cheap "open desk", but you can get a private room where one can read manga from the book shelf, get food, watch videos, take a shower, and even sleep. But you're supposed to be quiet, which is something the German couple beside me fail to comprehend.

----------

I've just checked and this computer has image editing software. This means I will upload photos. Not today, as my camera is in the hotel. Not tomorrow, as I'm going hiking in the mountains -- if it doesn't rain. My stay will be three nights. It's a nice quiet town and surrounded by green mountains. I just hope nobody thinks I'm carry pot just because I'm Canadian.

Here we go!

2006-09-29T02:30:00.000-06:00

And so, part two begins.

Tonight I clean up, do laundry, and get a good night's rest before heading off towards Nara tomorrow morning. I don't know when I will next get online...

Party time!

2006-09-28T02:16:00.000-06:00

This will be quick. I've got to go back to the apartment to get ready for a "going away" party. It's the last week for several students, including myself. Until tomorrow...

Two-wheeled Litter

2006-09-26T21:52:00.000-06:00

Today I saw the bicycle parking police in action. They were driving around in a large flat-bed truck, stopping at regular intervals to cut the locks off improperly parked bikes. These bicycles were then thrown onto the flat-bed and hauled to places unknown.

All over Fukuoka there are paid bicycle parking meters -- everywhere else is off limits. (Probably another one of those "keep the city clean" schemes.) The problem, in my opinion, with this enforcement of bicycle parking by-laws is there simply isn't enough legitimate parking available. Improperly parked bikes out number properly parked bikes by probably three to one. All marked areas are full to the brim. I only wish I had my camera to snap a photo of the truck. It was overflowing with bicycles to the point of absurdity. There's going to be a lot of pissed off business men at the end of today.

In other news, here's Sunday's photo adventure...

Here are the insides of Japanese garden that was 200 yen to enter. Considering all other historical sites were free, this came as a bit of a surprise. However, 200 yen is pretty cheap so I'm not really complaining.

Some stones balanced on top of one another. At least I assumed they were balanced and not glued together. I didn't attempt to knock them over to find out for certain -- that might not have gone over so well.

A large stone lantern thing near the beginning of the pond trail.

The view from the backside of the pond. It was a very sunny day and most photos were taken while standing in the shade, which resulted in overexposed backgrounds. A nice side effect of this is the surrounding apartment buildings are completely washed out of view.

Another photo of the pond. It was full of koi, but no turtles.

Getting near the end of the trail. Notice how my keen photographic skills completely blank out the background apartment complexes.

A nice photo of the pond. Unfortunately, one apartment building decided to make a guest appearance. I guess it wanted it's fifteen minutes of fame.

Not a whole lot of shaking going on!

2006-09-25T21:50:00.000-06:00

I woke up at 7 AM this morning to some slight bed shaking. Or was it the entire room? Maybe the entire building? All of the above! Just some minor tremors -- nothing to get all shook up about.

The tremors only lasted a few seconds and rather weak, but were still followed by even shorter and lighter after-shocks. Only us students said anything about it. I guess everyone else is acclimatized.

Today I only posted Saturday's photos. I don't plan on any trips for the next few days, so the weekend images will be spread out over today and tomorrow.

On Friday I explored the town night life with several classmates. We decided to going bowling, which I haven't done since I was eight or something. In summary, it's not anything I intend to do again in the near future. The only memorable moment was climbing into a bowling pin mascot suit. I'm still waiting for those photos to be emailed my way.

After bowling in the high-tech bowling facilities, we were given free passes for one attempt at a UFO catcher machine and a handful of gambling tokens. I won a Snoopy toy and then proceeded downstairs to the uberlame gambling area.

Following that, we visited some dance club playing "salsa" music, which, as it turns out, has nothing to do with nacho chip dip. This music sounds remarkably similar to the built-in demos one finds in super cheap Radio Shack synths. Ugh... On the other hand, the club was located on the seventh floor of a multi-storey office building. This floor looked like a strange combination of an office building basement -- exposed "guts" covered in spray-on fire-proofing and painted black -- and an outdoor patio. All businesses had outdoor patios, glass doors, fake flower beds, etc.. Very interesting.

On Saturday, I wandered off the to the Zoo and Botanical Gardens.

Along the way I passed yet another shrine. Some sort of drum banging was going on, so I didn't venture too far into the grounds for fear of being kicked out. Near the front entrance was this tree growing into an overhead "rack", thereby creating a shaded area.

Some sort of monolith. Don't ask because I don't know, but here's a picture anyway.

The first building. In typical fashion, it featured a thick rope attached to some sort of bell.

As I approached the zoo I found a watchtower. Here's the view from the top. Japan in all it's high-density glory. Ten points to whomever can correctly count all the buildings.

Minami-Koen was a more of a running course than a park. A bit disappointing, but I took a photo to prove I was there. (It was still a bit messy from the typhoon. Fallen branches and all that.)

An orchid at the botanical gardens. Normally the Zoo and Gardens are connected by a small natural walking trail. However, it was closed due to typhoon damage. As a result, I had to leave the zoo grounds, whereby a construction worker gave me Botanical Gardens reentry ticket. I then walked along a carefully marked residential street to the main gardens entrance. Slightly interesting.

The Gardens themselves were nowhere near as interesting as some of the free temples. However, the indoor greenhouses had some interesting flowers. There was a rock wall with many orchids hanging down that looked quite nice, but due to compact viewing area, I couldn't get it all in one photo. Instead, here's one orchid.

A well-weathered moth sitting on the top portion of some doorway. It was rather large. (The moth, not the doorway.)

Here's inside one of the greenhouse areas. You can see the beginning of the orchids on the right. The red thingy trees were really neat. I also took a picture of a venus fly trap. Unfortunately, the photo looked great on the camera's display, but when I downloaded it to the computer it became apparent it was quite out of focus. Damn...

Another one of those days...

2006-09-25T01:39:00.000-06:00

I just finished another one of those four-hour-straight thingies that begin at lunch time. Damn, I'm hungry. As a result, most of the weekend photos will have to wait until tomorrow.

I was bit late finishing class today. It was a "field trip" to a manga store. A four storey manga store. And then another manga store. And then a bookstore, at my request, where I purchased my very first Japanese novel. In truth, it's actually a collection of short stories by an apparently well-known author. The teacher said she began reading his stuff in Junior high, but some of the "wit" was lost on her until she got older. Sounds like it could be an interesting read.

I've only been speaking Japanese for three weeks now, and it's about as good as one can expect for three weeks worth of effort. (Not that great.) But my reading has improved rather surprisingly since coming to Japan, despite a lack of any extra effort. I think even the teachers are surprised at my reading skills. (Although they couldn't believe I wanted to buy a novel...)

I went to the Fukuoka Zoo and Botanical Gardens on Saturday. It was a very sunny day with not a cloud in the sky. (Unfortunately this means the photos don't look especially wonderful due to harsh midday shadows.)

The zoo itself was depressingly tiny. Not in terms of animals -- they had plenty. But the cages were horrifically small. I think the above rhino photo sums up how all the animals felt. They had a Canada goose held in a small cage that was only waist height. Pretty iffy, considering they fly thousands of kilometres at altitudes of hundreds and hundreds of metres.

After the zoo, I visited the Botanical Gardens. (Photos come tomorrow.) Following that, I sort of got lost. (Wandered off the school-provided map.) Not much of a big deal as I immediately found my direction shortly after realizing I was no longer on the map. During this meander into the unknown, I found a neato little water sculpture in front of some women's clinic.

On Sunday, I visited some old restored building that had be turned into a Japanese Garden. The koi in the pond seemed mighty hungry, and much like the pigeons from last week, they were expecting me to feed them.

Tune in tomorrow for plenty of photos. (My flash card is now full. I really must get a CD-R or two..)

This space left intentionally blank...

2006-09-22T01:15:00.000-06:00

Didn't do anything exciting yesterday. Sorry... I'll try harder on the weekend.

Cheese and Fruits

2006-09-20T20:58:00.000-06:00

I didn't go anywhere special yesterday -- most places within reasonable walking distance have already been explored. Oh well. Next week I'll attempt a few after-school subway trips and see where that takes me.

This photo is from the trip to Yufuin. It was uploaded yesterday, but didn't show up in my blog for some reason. There were four statues in total, the other two being Mickey Mouse (why???) and Doraemon. They were located directly behind an iron fence, so I had to push the camera between the bars to get a decent photo. Sure they're cheesy, but still very Japanese. (With the exception of Mr. Mouse, which is not Japanese and out right lame.)

Actually, the Totoro is pretty cool...

Higashi-Koen was pretty disappointing, with the exception of the above statue and accompanying shrine. Other than that, it looked like any old city park complete with skateboarders and annoying off-leash yappy mini-dogs.

Getting closer... I had to fight off hoards of killer pigeons to get to the statue. As soon as I set foot on the premises, swarms of them encircled around me with a hungry look on their faces. It's strange there were so many pigeons, especially considering all these shrines/temples also have numerous cats wandering around.

Here's the protector of the pigeons up close and personal. He's rather tall.

Another one of those spiders. Focus is good this time, but because I used the macro function, hand movements were magnified. A tripod would've been mighty useful. All the same, much better than the previous attempt.

I saw this fruit growing on some tree. They were everywhere. The fruit begins growing at the bottom and works upwards until it looks like a thin bunch of red grapes -- except all fruits are conjoined. Ten points if you can guess why I took a photo of this particular specimen...

Communication Delay

2006-09-19T23:40:00.000-06:00

Sorry about not writing anything yesterday, but I was tired from Monday's onsen trip and didn't wake up until 9 AM. Not much of a problem as school didn't start until 12 noon. However, Tuesday consisted of four straight hours of class without any lunch break. Eating breakfast at 9 AM and then eating lunch at 11 AM before leaving for school wasn't going to happen. I need more than two hours between meals. Unfortunately, this meant when 4 PM rolled around I was more than a tad ravenous, and immediately ran off to find something to eat. Blog be damned.

Saturday I didn't go anywhere particularly special, instead opting to aimlessly wander around before doing laundry and groceries. I did, however, visit what I thought was an arcade, but turned out to be a cleverly disguised pachinko parlour. Lame.

Sunday was a complete write off due to the typhoon. Monday's onsen trip, however, was great.

Originally, eight of us planned to visit the onsen, but three didn't show despite having already paid in advance for the bus tickets. This left a Swiss, a Swede, a Malay, a German, and myself. The three who didn't show up were all American. I'm not sure whether this is a coincendence or not...

The bus left at 8:25 AM, and took about 2.5 hours to arrive at the destination town of Yufuin. Some very nice scenery on the way, especially considering we took many backroads due to major highways being temporarily closed for typhoon clean-up operations. (On a side note, Japanese "expressways" are all toll boothed.)

The town itself was quietly nestled in the middle of some very green mountains. The main drag was a bit touristy, but picturesque nonetheless. Many onsens littered the town, and in the end we decided to visit the one furthest away from the bus station.

Unfortunately you can't take pictures of the onsen because people bathe naked. But wow, it was very nice. It had separate men's and women's baths, which is pretty much the norm, and each of these had an indoor and outdoor bath. I stayed in the outdoor one, watched some red, yellow, green, and blue dragonflies, looked at the mountains, and just generally lolled around.

Although the indoor bath was more of a pool, complete with tiles, the outdoor bath was made of large boulders. Nice.

The entire building was very traditional, including a traditional Japanese vending machine used to buy entrance and towel rental tickets. Sliding doors and half-height curtains were also a common sight.

Inside the change room were notices in English reminding customers to clean themselves thoroughly before entering the onsen, and then use the provided wooden mini-buckets to splash yourself with onsen water a few times before entering the actual pool.

It's interesting to watch the Japanese wash themselves beforehand. You'd think their life depends upon it or something. I swear the guy beside me was going to scrub himself until his skin started bleeding. Oh well, when in Rome...

I scrubbed myself silly, but when entering the outdoor pool, all the Japanese men immediately got up and left for the indoor pool. I guess I'm just an unwashed heathen!

Crossing a bridge while on our way to the onsen. Although it doesn't look it, this is shorts 'n' t-shirts weather. A slurpee would've been nice too, but they don't exist in Japan.

On the other side of the bridge I spotted this insect. This is the only photo that came out in focus. It looked very nice when flying, but...

Almost there. This was a pond outside some sort of food store. These sharks are apparently used for caviar. The shop owner was also quite interested in meeting five different people of five different nationalities at the same time.

A nice country road, just wide enough for one compact car. The onsen is hidden in the trees ahead.

Water fresh from the mountains. Many of the town gutters had onsen water flowing through them, but the above is cold.

Some nice plants in somebody's backyard. A few houses had their own personal onsen in addition to flowers.

A rice paddy we passed on the way back to town.

Trees grow like this naturally in Japan, I swear.

This dragon was resting in it's own personal onsen at the side of the road.

Walking through the city down a street with no name...

2006-09-14T23:22:00.000-06:00

No photos today, so instead we shall discuss Japanese streets.

The first thing one learns about Japanese traffic is that cars run on the left side of the road. After figuring out that small detail, one will begin to notice an almost complete lack of road names. In Japan it is common for only major roads to be named. To add to the mystery, streets that do possess names are rarely physically labeled. Such signage is instead reserved for major intersections, and even then a sign may not give away the street name -- if one even exists. (eg. "Intersection in front of Nishi-Koen main gate.")

Minor roads do not have names, but may possess street numbers based upon intersections with named roads or obvious geographical locations such as temples, train stations, etc.. (eg. watanabe-dori 1st street, watanabe-dori 2nd street, etc.) However, these numbers are only reserved for medium-sized roads. Small roads, which are common, don't have any name or number, and are found squished inbetween numbered streets.

All buildings are named, which helps somewhat, but it's very common for businesses to provide small maps on their promotional material to help potential customers. Japanese people are very good with directions and reading maps -- it's a basic survival skill in this part of the world.

Another way businesses try to attract customers is too have employees stand out on the sidewalk handing out freebies, pamphlets, or simply shouting out the specials of the day. This is very important for shops that are not on the ground floor, which accounts for probably half of all business. (The strangest freebie I was given was contact lens cleaning solution.) In some cases, a brow-beaten salesperson has to talk into a microphone and constantly announce specials to anyone and everyone. This only happens at larger stores and is amusing at first, but soon becomes tiresome, and then outright obnoxious. It reminds me of the people who work the games at K-days.

Businesses on the ground floor have employees clean up the sidewalk and gutter every morning. I guess this is where the litter goes. Even still, late at night the only litter one can find is cigarette butts.

Speaking of which, Fukuoka has some anti-smoking-while-walking police that wander around in dark blue uniforms, fluorescent green vests, and white gloves. Both eating and drinking while walking are already considered rude in Japan, and it seems they're trying to get people to think the same way about smoking. Many smokers have a tendency to stop outside convenient stores to light up, continuing on their way when their cigarette is finished.

Another street-side sight is older men peeing. Anywhere and everywhere. Off bridges, in parking lots, anywhere. They don't even try to conceal it. However, this custom seems to be lost on the younger generation, in part due to anti-public-peeing campaigns. (I've only been told about these campaigns, never seen any.)

By far the most common sight on sidewalks are strange fluorescent yellow stripes than run dead center, occasionally intersecting with other yellow stripes at bus stops and crosswalks. The stripes are built of square tiles laid end to end, each having three or four raised humps. (Something like mini speed bumps running in parallel but orientated 90 degrees.) The tiles found at stripe intersections have many small circular bumps, as they do at cross walks. These yellow tiles can also be found in subway walkways.

If you haven't guessed it already, the stripes are intended to assist the visually impaired. I haven't noticed any blind people yet, but even I can follow these humps and bumps without using a cane. Its very easy to feel them underneath my sandals. Pretty clever.

Speaking of which, as per ancient Japanese tradition, being a masseur is still a job for the blind. (Fausto Coppi had a blind masseur, didn't he?) According to a classmate, the local masseurs are very good.

Another strange thing one will encounter on Japanese sidewalks are parking lot attendants. Here they dress very officious and help guide cars into lots by politely stopping the constant pedestrian traffic. They accomplish this with the help of red-flashing mini light sabers, much like airport runway staff use. These people are all over the place, and they also help out at construction sites. They take their job very seriously.

Although walking puts you in the majority, there are still some strange pedestrian traffic control designs. The worst of the oddities are found around smaller intersections. For example, an East-West walkway across a major-ish road will have full pedestrian lights on both sides. But if the North-South walkway is across a smaller road, there may be no pedestrian lights whatsoever, despite having full automobile control signals. (You've really got to look out for these. Just because there's a marked walkway with no signal lights, doesn't mean you have right-of-way.)

Even more bizarre is when one side has walkway lights, but not the opposite side. Or still more bizarre, and unfortunately common, is when one direction has a pedestrian light, but the opposite direction SAME SIDE has no light. This set up is common on one-way streets, but can be found elsewhere.

Well, that's it for another week. Three day weekend coming up, so you'll have to wait until Tuesday for updates. Nagasaki is off, but the onsen is on. I'll be talking photos outside of the city for the first time. And I must remember to burn what I already have to CD-R.

Catwomen Vs. Cakebird

2006-09-14T02:32:00.000-06:00

Yesterday after school I spent a night on the town with several classmates. We saw live eels for sale, street artists, musicians, portable ramen stands, and many drunk salary men. We also saw this woman dressed in a french maid costume, complete with cat ears. She was on the second floor of some building doing random poses in front of a mirror. Not for just a few minutes, mind you. I'm sure if we left and came back an hour later she would've still been at it.

We also saw a monkey for sale in a pet store. If you thought Canadian pet stores had small spaces for animals, you ain't seen nothing yet. The monkey was definitely less than happy.

A class mate bought these bird cakes and brought them to class today.

This weekend I'll be heading off to some onsen (hot springs), and hopefully on Monday (a Japanese national holiday) I'll be visiting Nagasaki. But right now I have to go do laundry.

Clip-on Kimono

2006-09-13T02:27:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I did the tea ceremony. From what I could understand, in the distant past tea was only accessible to select few people. As a result, some complicated procedures developed around the serving of tea. However, it eventually involved into something along the lines of perfectionism even in simple things. At least that's my take on it.

Apparently genuine Japanese tea houses have a tiny crawl space that is used as an entrance. No doors. The idea is total isolation from the outside world. I guess Sumo are exempt from the tea ceremony.

Here I am getting all dressed up for the occasion. I don't look much like a samurai. Maybe they should've done my hair in a top knot. One of the girl's kimono had a clip-on bow for the back of the obi.

Here's the class stirring up some trouble.

This is what the tea is supposed to look like -- all bubbly. The instructor made this, mine turned out rather murky.

The continuing adventures...

2006-09-12T00:09:00.000-06:00

Because Japan is so densely packed, it's easy to miss interesting places. Many temples are well hidden behind multi-storey apartment complexes. On Sunday I was attempting to visit Higashi-Koen (East Park) and overshot my target. However, it didn't really matter as there was still plenty to see.

On my way back I stumbled upon a rather sizeable Buddhist temple grounds. It was built in the 1100's and is still in use today. (Some more modern buildings have been added.) I casually noticed the main building peeking out between some apartments, and then proceeded to locate the main entrance, which proved a challenge. As it turns out, it was hidden on some narrow residential back street.

Here's what one sees right after entering the gate. I was pretty much alone at this point, but soon afterwards an art class comprised of seniors arrived to sketch the grounds.

The bridge leading to the main building. In the pond below were some more turtles. I didn't see any signs of fish. Perhaps they had been packed into bento boxes.

Here's the main building in all it's glory.

A second building behind the main structure.

A fancy gate leading to some area off-limits to the general public. What could be hiding behind?

A hidden area a little ways away from the main grounds.

Some nice little thingy. It was in an area filled with a Zen rock garden. Obviously walking on the combed gravel was not permitted, but still I saw two Japanese women casually stroll across, nonchalantly disturbing the patterns.

I found a big pointy gate that lead into the forbidden area. I stood up on on the the metal struts, adjusted the external viewfinder on my digital camera, and lifted the camera above my head to photograph the secret from beyond the wall. Ta da!

Another off-limits area, although the public was allowed to look, so long as they didn't enter.

I saw this spider on another temple grounds near my apartment. The auto focus didn't work, so I tried manual. Unfortunately, the viewfinder is so low resolution it's difficult to know whether or not my focus was correct. It wasn't, but at least you can get a basic idea as to the colour patterns of the spider.

That's it for Sunday, now I'm off to do the tea ceremony at school.

The Secret of the Garbage

2006-09-11T03:06:00.000-06:00

I spent many hours wandering around this weekend. Most of Saturday was very rainy, eventually forcing me to spend 30 minutes in a Shinto shrine waiting to see if the rain would let up. It didn't.

It's not cold rain like the prairies, so I wasn't shivering or anything. But keeping water off my camera was quite a problem. At Nishi-Koen (West Park) it got so heavy I gave up on photos. I'll return tomorrow to snap what I missed.

Today I've only posted Saturday's journey, with a special guest appearance from some insect friend that flew into my apartment on Friday.

Friday night, while I was eating instant Ramen, I heard the fluttering of wings behind me. Was it a small bird? No, it was this rather large insect. (About twice the mass of a Great Diving Beetle.) It was dark outside, the light was on in my room, and the sliding doors were wide open. Pretty obvious why it found it's way into my room.

After taking this image, I turned my light off and batted it outside. Haven't seen it since.

This utility pipe stretches across a canal. Here's how they keep people from climbing on top. You'll also notice a drop of rain on my lens. I didn't notice until next photo.

Suburbia in a densely packed Japanese style. Must be the wealthy side of the city due to the complete absence of apartment complexes.

Here's where all the garbage goes: On the beach! The beaches were an absolute mess. It had stopped spitting by this point and was about 32 degrees outside. Practically nobody was on the beach. No wonder. Yuck...

On a side note, what sort of creature enjoys human garbage, lots of moisture, and warm temperatures? Cockroaches, of course! I found many on the concrete "groins." (I think that's what they're called.) Unfortunately, it was hard to get a good photo as they ran away as soon as they heard my footsteps.

These fruits were growing on bushes along the beach. I confess ignorance as to their species.

Here's the start of my journey in Nishi-Koen. At this point the rain was getting rather heavy. Keeping the camera dry became quite the challenge.

It started to thunder and lightening near the top, so I took shelter in a public washroom. Here you can see a Japanese style crapper. (Urinals are elementary school style, stretching right to the ground.) Interestingly, the handicap washroom is western style.

When the rain became really heavy, I sheltered in a shrine complete with Coca-Cola benches. I guess I'd better start drinking more Coke products otherwise I'll never get to heaven.

On the roof of the shrine was this image. There were also many pigeons enjoying the shelter.

It felt like I was in a samurai movie, talking shelter in a roadside shrine while pondering my next move. (Should I continue in the rain, or not.) Ultimately I headed back into the wet.

This is the view from the shrine. Notice the lovely Edo period Coca-Cola bench.

My friends for thirty minutes.

When I reached Ohori Park, the rain had lessened and this guy came out to greet me. Some kid then rode by on his bicycle, stopped, and put the turtle back into the lake.

Ohori park.

I tried to photograph a crane in flight, and this is the best I managed. A bit blurry, but oh well...

Stay tuned tomorrow for Sunday's photos...!

Twisting in the breeze.

2006-09-08T01:26:00.000-06:00

Nice and sunny and hot today.

I've been struggling with the horrid image editing software that has been installed on this particular school computer for too long now and have resorted to installing the GIMP. Hard to imagine a day when I would be glad to use the GIMP over other image editing software. (Some Google Picasso thing, which is truly awful. Actually, blogspot is also pretty awful when it comes to handling images. Google should stick to search engines.)

Visited the really old shrine yesterday. Pictures follow. Over the weekend I will not have internet access, so don't expect anything until Monday.

I've noticed many bicycles have Louis Garneau written on the frames. Are they just stickers, or does Louis Garneau make bicycles? (For the uniformed, L. Garneau is a Canadian cycling clothes manufacturer.) It could just be a sticker as I've also seen "Chevrolet" bicycles.

Speaking of bicycles, everyone has both their seats and tire pressure really low.

Cell phones are extremely common, but they are rarely used for talking. Instead, people use them to text message, and do so anywhere and everywhere -- walking, sitting, or even cycling.

Multi-storey buildings that are under-construction are usually covered in some sort of condom. (It's not latex, but kinda looks like a condom.) A nice way to keep construction areas clean.

New buildings also seem to have complex foundations, probably due to seismic activities.

This was at the entrance to the shrine. Looks neato, but up close it's actually just cast concrete and quite new.

There are several buildings on the shrine grounds, but I think only a few were from the 700's. This one for sure, as it was guarded by security cameras. I couldn't get back far enough to take a picture from the front, so here's the next best thing.

In front of the old building was this old-school fountain.

And in the fountain pool lives these koi.

Here's some sort of mini-shrine next to the previous building. I had to duck to get under the gates. At the end is a very thick rope attached to some sort of bell. I can't tell you it's exact function, but these do seem to be regular features at shrines. Maybe Google can give you more information. (The search engine, not the image editing software.)

Here's a peeing statue. Mannequin Pis Japanese style.

Don't know. Looks fairly modern. Perhaps it's used in parades.

Another entrance. Exciting, eh? (And another thick rope attached to a bell inside.) This building was under renovation. Doesn't seem excessively old.

The front of the building.

Some water thing. I saw one person go and take a drink and do some praying.

Here's some funky public statue. It's articulated at many points. Quite interesting to watch it move in the breeze.

The birth of a free handout.

2006-09-07T00:29:00.000-06:00

During the day it's very common to see people handing out various items from various businesses. These range from fans (very useful during the hot midday sun), to tissues, to generic run of the mill pamphlets. It's important to say "no" from time-to-time otherwise one could end up completely overloaded with freebies.

Yesterday at lunchtime I was offered a Japanese newspaper. Two or three people per corner were handing them out with gleeful enthusiasm. I took one, explaining (in Japanese) that I couldn't read Japanese very well. He happily said it didn't matter because there was plenty of photos to look at.

As it turns out this, was a special edition announcing the birth of a new heir to the Japanese throne. It was quite a big deal and interesting to be in the middle of it all.

Yesterday I managed to vist two temples on the way home. I'm pretty sure both were temples, and at one I even saw two Buddhist priests. (The big temple from two days ago was shrine.) Today I hope to visit a very old shrine built in the 700's.

Okay, here's a photo of a turtle as requested. The river in question is built-up right to the very edge. No grass banks here, just concrete. Several of these turtles could be seen paddling around the edge, along with a lonely crane, many smaller fish, and the occasional silhouette of larger fish.

This is some sort of grave site a few blocks from my apartment. There are several of these burial sites nestled right up against various types of modern buildings.

Same grounds, just right next to the graves. There are four buildings on site, but most are close to skyscrapers, so the photos just looked plain ugly.

Here are the inside grounds of a second temple. It was open but completely deserted. I wasn't sure if it was okay to be inside, but nobody said anything. (Not that there was anyone around to say anything...) This temple was smaller, but much nicer.

Have you ever seen a toilet that needs to be plugged into a power outlet? Well, now you have. But wait! It's not just a toilet, but a multi-function bidet! Yes, multi-function. Front, back, cold, warm, strong, weak, spray, stream, etc...

Picture This

2006-09-06T00:33:00.000-06:00

The rain in Fukuoka is very warm -- at least compared to prairie rain. I am now the proud owner of a two dollar plastic Japanese umbrella that everyone and their small-sized dog owns. When it rains, many stores put these cheapies out front for forgetful pedestrians to purchase.

Another common pedestrian tool is the towel. Japanese use it to wipe the sweat off their brow, and to keep rain off their head -- at least until they can get to the nearest shop selling umbrellas. Many people are seen walking around with a towel wrapped around their neck and shoulders.

Yesterday I walked around for three hours and visited the Fukuoka castle ruins. Not much is left in terms of architecture, however it makes for a nice and sizeable tiered park. It also accommodates about six (that I counted) homeless residents. (These photos didn't turn out too well. When I get some good pictures of the fancy blue tarpaulin shelters I'll be happy to share.)

Please click the images to see larger versions.

Here's a nice looking tree. It's located on the second tier of the castle ruins. If you look closely, you can see two manga comics wedged in the trunk. One of the few instances of litter in this city.

Not too exciting, but here is an ashtray made out of a tree trunk.

Trees and whatnot growing by one of the tier walls. Stone markers were everywhere. Some were large, such as this one, others were small. The latter variety were placed in front of young trees. I have no idea what any of them said, but I think they were names due to being mostly four kanji in length.

Up until this point I had not seen a single insect since arriving in Fukuoka. In this park you can hear them up in the trees, but there's still nothing to be seen. They were loud and everywhere, but it actually sounded pretty cool. Super surround sound!

I did eventually see what may have been the insect in question, however it was squished dead on a sidewalk just outside the park exit. It was quite huge.

Here's some sort of watch tower. It's on the third tier. Below to the right on the second tier are two very elaborate blue tarpaulin shelters. (No photo. The owners were outside enjoying the sun and I didn't want to invade their privacy.)

Some red fungi. They stood out and I haven't seen any such fungi since.

Here's what's left of the castle. A little disappointing, but the trip up was quite nice. (About five tiers up.)

Here's some temple. Or is it a shrine? I can't remember, but it's not that old. 1500's, methinks. I'll check my literature this evening. (Temple = Buddhist, Shrine = Shinto)

Same thing, just close up.

The rocks are "combed" Zen style. I didn't know if it was okay to walk on the rocks, so I meandered around the edge. A little later I watched two people wanderer over the patterns, thus disturbing the Zen patterns.

Another view from the side shortly after someone disturbed the stillness of the pebbles.

Two of these guys guard the entrance to the temple/shrine grounds.

Here's the entrance just before the pebbles were rudely displaced. Obviously the stone guards aren't doing a good job.

Here's some mini-shrine/temple near the entrance to the big shrine/temple. What's inside is actually kinda disappointing. Some pop bottles (deliberately arranged) and a mini-mini-temple.

Yes, this is a bamboo forest. Small though it may be, I've finally seen/touched living bamboo. One of the strangest plants in existence. And you thought prairie grass was long!

I stopped my foot voyage at this park. It's home to the Fukuoka modern art museum, as well as hundreds of competitive runners in training.

Well, that's all for now. It's raining today, so I probably won't take too many photos. Sorry about that.

(For the record, when I hit 650 megabytes, I'll burn all images to a CD-R and mail it back to Canada so you can see the images which are not on this site.)

Litterbox

2006-09-05T00:22:00.000-06:00

Class is finished for the day. One of the tasks was to visit a post office and discover costs to send letters and whatnot to various worldwide locations. I wound up purchasing a postcard and will mail it back to Edmonton. Unfortunately, it's a bit on the plain side -- blank, in fact. I guess it's a "provide your own image" type of postcard.

Fukuoka is very clean, including the city streets. It's very difficult to find any litter, which is surprising considering it's also very difficult to find garbage bins. *Really* difficult. There are far more public waste bins in Lloydminster, yet Lloyd is a litter haven. Where does the garbage go?

Anyways, off on some sight-seeing adventures...

The long noodly appendage of the Lawson.

2006-09-04T19:02:00.000-06:00

I arrived at school a little early today, so here's a photo of the view outside my apartment. Yes, it's a ramen noodle restaurant. These things are everywhere. There's even one on the first floor of my apartment complex. Pretty cheap too.

Another type of abundant store is the "Lawson" chain of convenience stores. There are at least three within one minutes walking distance from my building.

After school I'm going to do a little sight-seeing. (I've decided not to workout while in staying Japan so I can have more time wandering.) This means more interesting photos tomorrow.

Hmm... The school clock has the Big Ben chimes. Not sure why.

Homeless crane meters

2006-09-04T00:28:00.000-06:00

Okay, I'm here in Fukuoka trying to figure out this keyboard.

The airplane trip (x3) was awful, as predicted. It was more than 24 hours before I finally managed to get some sleep.

It's very humid and hot. Not that I mind, but I sure do sweat a lot.

The apartment is pretty much as expected, sans food preparation/eating utensils, although plates, bowls, etc., do exist. The toilet slippers are pink and feature a silhouette of a little boy peeing.

Outside my window are some interesting parking meters. The car drives over a metal plate that pops up, prohibiting the driver from backing out. A timer automatically starts and only stops when the fee is paid, at which point the metal plate lowers, allowing the driver to leave.

Vending machines are everywhere, as are bicycles, scooters, and pedestrians.

In terms of wildlife, several cranes live in nearby vicinity, as do untold numbers of crows. These crows look like Canadian crows, but their crowing calls sound more like a crow gargling water.

Insects don't seem particularly common, but the same can't be said for the homeless. Or so it would seem.

I don't think there are too many homeless, but their existence is quite different than in Canada. They build make-shift shelters in public parks and under bridges, often made of blue tarpaulin. You can't miss them. Some of these tents are quite elaborate. I'll try and get some photos.

The behaviour of the homeless is also different. Basically, you don't bother them and they won't bother you. Children often play with their parents in parks inhabited by homeless. The different parties never say a word to one another. It's all very odd. No panhandling or anything.

I've also seen a few turtles and some fishes of various sizes. (They won't live long in this country of seafood.)

Temples abound, but are often hidden between modern buildings. Somewhat odd see something built in 700 AD next to something built in the 80's. Restaurants are very common and quite cheap, considering. I found a veggie one under the shinkansen train tracks.

Tonnes of other stuff. I'll save some for the coming days.

Nara-kiri

2006-08-27T18:16:00.000-06:00

I managed to accomplish some last-minute travel-related shopping this weekend.

At one particular retail outlet, the woman womanning the till mentioned living in Japan for 12 years. (Presumably teaching English; She didn't elaborate.) While generally agreeing that avoiding the larger cities of southern Honshu was a good idea, she did, however, recommend giving Nara a visit.

Nara is the capital city of Nara Prefecture, features several World Heritage sites, and is only a 30-minute train ride from the Kyoto shinkansen station. It has a population of roughly 360 000.

Here's a lovely link that features interesting information and pretty pictures. On the right hand side you can navigate through different Nara areas, each having several pages to click through. It's seems nicely jam packed, so I'll be sure to visit.

Welcome to the vivisection amusement park!

2006-08-20T19:15:00.000-06:00

Not much to report on, I'm afraid. Only five more days of work left until final departure preparations.

I did, however, learn that during World War II, Fukuoka was the setting for some vivisection experiments on captured US pilots. Click here for more thrilling info! Thankfully times have changed, so canceling my trip for personal safety reasons will not be necessary.

On a completely and entirely 100% related note, it looks as though there's an amusement park on the outskirts of Fukuoka. I'll be sure to visit one afternoon.

I am a consumer whore. And how!

2006-08-12T15:27:00.000-06:00

Last weekend I popped on over to Edmonton and purchased a few consumer commodities: A new pair of sandals, a new pair of joggers, and a new digital camera. I also ordered my Japan Rail Pass, which arrived on Friday. [click thumbnail]

More perceptive readers will notice an origami crane overlooking the Rail Pass. It was included with the package -- a nice touch, methinks. (Origami is similar to the demoscene, but for paper instead of computers. Some say it evens it predates the C64 by a few years.)

How to travel from "Point A" to "Point B" on only 500 yen a day.

2006-07-29T16:37:00.000-06:00

It has come to my attention that most people reading this "blog" have no idea what my plans in Japan might entail. To alleviate the problem, here is a basic plot outline:

After nearly 24 hours of travel -- involving two cars, three airplanes, and copious amounts of aimless airport wandering -- I end up in Fukuoka City. This can be found on the northwest corner of Kyushu Island. (Southern Japan.) Thanks to my natural inability to sleep on a moving airplane, I expect to be rather tired and confused upon arrival. (In the Village...?)

For the month of September I will be staying in Fukuoka to receive several weeks of Japanese language instruction. It's a private school that teaches everything from conversation skills, reading/writing, culture, and whatever else the paying customer desires. Even an organic farmstay course -- perfect for the unwashed hippy in all of us!

It's interesting to note that government-run language programs in Japan appear to restrict enrollment to either university students with good credentials or business people who need Japanese for work-related reasons. Others who want to learn strictly for kicks -- such as myself -- are excluded entry from these schools. But hey, alternatives do exist, as I have discovered.

While staying in Fukuoka, I'll hopefully manage to make some weekend get-aways to Shikoku Island. (Directly east of Kyushu Island.)

Once October rears its ugly head, I'll be hopping onboard the Shinkansen and heading towards northern Honshu. (The main island.) By "northern Honshu" I mean the less densely populated regions past Tokyo. I have no plans to visit Kyoto, Kobe, Osaka, or any other massively built-up area. (Fukuoka excluded, obviously...)

After the initial quick dash, my traveling pace will slow down as I meander my way towards Hokkaido. (That's the not-quite-so-populated island up north.) This portion of my trip is entirely unplanned. The towns I visit and hotels I sleep at will be decided on-the-fly. A bit of randomness will be fun, unless my Japanese languages skills prove less than impressive, in which case I shall have a self-inflicted nightmare scenario on my hands.

My final destination is Sapporo, flying back home from New Chitase Airport just outside of this city. The return trip will once again consist of roughly 24 hours of cars, airplanes, and aimless airport wandering.

I'm sure Lloydminster will be waiting to welcome me home with the fresh scent of hydrogen sulfide and the constant rumble of overloaded semi's.

The world's most luxurious shoebox.

2006-07-25T19:36:00.000-06:00

It's a well-known fact that Japan is wee bit cramped when it comes to living accommodations. Come September, I too will get to experience this shoebox lifestyle.

Here's the apartment location that I will be living at for the Fukuoka portion of my Japanese adventures:
Google Map

Not only is it right next to the railway station, but is also fairly close to Fukuoka Airport, which means ear plugs are a necessity if I intend to get any sleep whatsoever. Some square-shaped beaches are also within reasonable vicinity, but I suppose in Japan everything is nearby, especially when compared to the Canadian prairies.

I'm guessing the two seemingly elevated pair of railway tracks are for the Shinkansen.（新幹線）Woooooosh! (Tha'd be the bullet train to you silly Westerners...)

For the interested, here is more info on the apartment building itself:
Noah's Ark Hakata Ekimae

Feel free to click on the pictures to see some slightly larger pop-up images. You'll notice the incredibly spacious bathroom/kitchen/foyer combo. Oh well, it's not as though I intend to stay cooped up in an apartment during my stay. Out and about is where it's truly at! Things to do, things to see...

Oh dear, here we go...

2006-07-22T17:10:00.000-06:00

Yeah, this is my "blog". Currently not much more than a place holder, but come September this will become a somewhat daily log of my [mis]adventures in Japan.

In the meantime, I suppose some test posts are in order, especially concerning photos and Japanese text. Can it be done? And if so, am I a competent enough to figure it out?

今日はとても暑いですよ。

Err... Did that work? Local survey says "yes". International survey says...?

Now all I need is a new digital camera that exceeds the 1280x960 resolution of my current hand-me-down. Not that I'm ungrateful for the camera, but today's technology achieves so much more. 1285x965 should do the trick nicely.

Comments are open to everyone, although I hope controls exist that allow me to delete spam posts and other assorted nasties.

Hum dee dumb.