internet possibly back for me by the end of next week. till then.

Ice Sculpting Contest in Nagoya, Japan. Specifically at Oasis 21. I came upon it after leaving Starbucks and shot some video on my cell phone. Probably the video quality doesn't do it justice, but it was pretty impressive in person.

Thanks to those who commented on the previous post. Feel free to add your two cents if you haven't already, and maybe I'll come back to it with a follow-up sometime. For the record, I'm not worried about my future or anything; just curious to see how things will all pan out for us all, economically, and what that means for people like me.

I have been feeling a bit de-motivated, tired and distracted the past couple of days, though. I think I just need to re-adjust to school again and get back into a groove. Sometimes vacations don't seem worth it. Anyway, prayers are appreciated; it's going to be a busy next couple of weeks.

See you next week. That's a wrap for now.

"Tenmusu" es onigiri, o bola de arroz, relleno de ebi tenpura, o tenpura de gamba, y... ¿Por que no se llama tenpura oniguiri? Pues no lo sé. Pero como me explicó mi amiga Aiko, "ten" viene de tenpura (obviamente) y "musubu", que significa atar, amarrar, algo parecido al significado de "nigiru", que es agarrar, moldear. De hecho, a veces al "onigiri" se le llama "omusubi". 

Después de la lección de japonés culinario que acabo de soltar, sigo con la historia, por donde iba?... Ah si! Compramos nuestros onigiris en un puesto de la calle de camino al Castillo (siempre tienen mejor sabor que los del conbini). Además de tenmusu, me compré otro de "unagi" (anguila)... Me encanta la anguila! Las vendedoras eran muy simpaticas y cuando lei "ebi ten" (en voz alta) me dijeron "sugoi" y chapurreé  un poquito de japonés con ellas (es que a mi cuando alguien me dice "sugoi" ya me cae bien de por vida). Despues de reponer fuerzas y hacer un poco de turismo, nos fuimos a Kyoto.

"Tebasaki", son nada más y nada menos que ¡alitas de pollo! Pues vaya cosa, pensareis... Pues estan deliciosas, tienen un sabor muy especial gracias a la salsa que llevan.  Las comimos en Yama-chan, que es una cadena de restaurantes especialistas en este plato.  La imagen de este restaurante es un señor, que por comer mucho tebasaki, se le quedo el cuerpo de pollo (no me lo he inventado, lo juro, lo podeis ver aquí, mientras aprendeis la forma de comer las alitas). Ésto es lo que cené la última noche que pasé en Japón, cuando regresamos a Nagoya, ya que a la mañana siguiente tomábamos el avión para Madrid muy tristemente.

I f someone had told me that the second largest use of my free time in Japan would be riding around on a bike and taking pictures, I probably would have laughed until I cried and then directed them to my younger brother.

But. They would have been right.

About a week ago, I noticed that there was a river marked on my map of the neighborhood. It was just beyond the department store I go to, so I knew that it was close enough to bike to. 'River' in Arizona means 'large dry ditch between parts of town that fills with water every ten years and washes away anyone dumb enough to drive through it' so I was eager to see an actual flowing body of water up close.

First, however, I had to get up these stairs. After some thought, I fireman-carried the bike up, figuring that if the single Japanese couple around decided to tell everyone, nobody would believe them.

Most of these were taken from the large pedestrian/bicycle-only bridge that I crossed.

Despite the overcast skies, there were plenty of teenagers and a few families hanging out by the banks. No fishermen that I saw, though there was someone flying a remote control helicopter.

There was a soccer field with goalposts set up. Nobody playing though.

On the other side of the bridge was a neighborhood very similar to my own, though with no apartment buildings and more houses and small shops. This garden appeared to be shared by the residents of the houses surrounding it.

One more river picture.

On the way back, I took a different bridge than before and encountered a different staircase, that I wish I had known about before.

One specifically designed for people to roll their bikes up. D'oh.

Next post will probably be 12 on the 12th, or the Wheneverth. I'll be in Takayama, a nearby city on Sunday, so hopefully there will be plenty to show you guys.

Mini Monster attends a daycare and they apparently had their Sports Day this past Friday, but on Saturday, my host mom asked if I wanted to go with them to see the Montessori School sports festival. It seems that they were going to have a small event for prospective students (which Mini Monster is) and younger siblings of students.

Heck, why not?

The whole school was festooned with international flags and many, many parents and grandparents had gathered to see their kids compete.

I use the term 'compete' loosely of course. In the case of the races, a parent had to accompany each child to make sure that they ran in the right direction, didn't stop in the middle to dig in the grass, or start crying and refuse to continue.

They still did better than I would have expected out of a group of three, four, and five-year-olds. My host father asked if they had sports festivals in the US and I replied that I remembered doing similar things starting in elementary school. He asked about prsechool.

I spent the next ten minutes controlling my laughter and explaining the phrase 'like herding cats.'

This was the first event that started after we arrived at the school. Each team had to push a large ball down to the end of the field, around a cone and back. The first team to cycle through all of its memebers won. This was probably the biggest venue for confused crying and being tugged along.

Tug of War they could handle on their own, though there were a few mishaps. Check out the first dude on the green team.

They were really happy when they won. No prizes though.

One of the more amusing events was the mom's "egg" toss. Whoever got more beanbags into the basket won, with the moms of each class competing.

Mini Monster could have cared less. He was more interested in listening to his dad's mp3 player and trying to get through the gate you can see behind his mom's head. That, or stealing other kids' toys.

The prospective students and younger siblings event turned out to be a race across the field toward a student who was holding out a bag of veggie chips. Everybody "won" of course and Mini Monster got into it. His dad had been really afraid that he would be the only kid to not run, but he took off sprinting when he saw the incentive.

A bonus picture of everyone's stuff. This was on school grounds, but at least 100 meters and out of sight from the main area. Everybody just left their picnic lunch and ther stuff there, knowing that it would left alone. Amazing.

I tried to find some info on the web about Sports Festival, since most of what I know comes from manga and J-dramas. Kids Web Japan, an excellent site, didn't have a concrete definition, but you should check it and the adult version, Web Japan, out anyway. Wikipedia had a small blurb at the bottom of their article on Sports days.

En Japón, en cualquier restaurante (o en cualquier local) lo primero que hacen los empleados es recibirte con el saludo de bienvenida "Irasshaimase", y después te pregutan el número de personas que van a comer "nan mei-sama desu ka", a lo que tu contestas "hitori", una persona, "futari", dos, "sannin", tres, etc.

Nos sentamos en una mesa grande y rectangular en mitad del pequeño restaurante, junto a más gente. Los noodle bar son restaurantes de comida rapida, es decir, la gente se toma su tazón en menos de 5 minutos y se va, pero yo, aunque haya comido muchas veces, sigo siendo muy, muy, muuuuuuuuuy lenta, y mi compañero de asiento cambiaba... Pues... Perdi la cuenta de las veces.

A  ésto hay que sumarle que los japoneses tienen años de experiencia comiendo esta comida y  no salpican NADA. Nuestro sitio de la mesa tenia pequeñas gotitas y la camarera nos trajo una cajita de tissues al darse cuenta de la situación.

Y respecto a hacer ruido... Mi madre me daba collejas de pequeña por beberme la sopa de esa manera y ahora me cuesta mucho hacerlo de nuevo ¡como varían las costumbres de un sitio a otro!

Decidi no volver a comer ramen en público por el resto del viaje.

En la próxima entrada, hablaré de la comida típica de Nagoya.

Foto: Ramen Fuente: Wikipedia.

Cultural information awaits!

Ugh, have you noticed that I'm starting to use simpler English now? I tend to do that when I'm trying to speak Japanese. Blah.

I'm not feeling very confident about this, mainly because I hardly know any kanji. And, uh, here=OVER 9000 KANJI!!!11

I miss home.

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Our building is surrounded by many like it. Does everyone live in apartments here? I feel stupid.

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OH. MY. GOD.

So, out the balcony of our apartment, I happen to look down and see a black cat in the parking lot. I look away to call my grandma, and when I look back I see a calico too. Then on a wall I spot two more black cats, who are soon joined by another one with white paws.

It's times like these I wish I could remember to use cameras at good times.

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The sunrise here is different, too. I guess that's why they call it 'the land of the rising sun'. It's like this pink disc rises into the sky. It's beautiful, there's no other way for it. Except maybe eye-watering, but that's to be expected.

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Hey, I just noticed, the sidewalks are green.

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I did some experimentation today and discovered that none of my three belts is actually suitable for the job of holding my pants up. Darn you, small waist!

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While walking around Nagoya I learned many things.

1. Japanese people who look really cool in pictures are actually extremely intimidating (in a bad way) in real life.

2. Be careful looking at magazines unless you know exactly what you are looking at.

3. Sometimes it's better to take the long way to school.

We took the direct route to my school, which basically cut right through the Nagoya ghetto. Lots of scary people who, in pictures, I'm sure would have looked hot. As it was, I was scared stiff.

We were out fairly early, so that might have contributed. Thank god for police boxes or we probably would have gotten mugged.

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Have I ever mentioned that I love prunes?

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All my notebooks for school have the word Kokuyo in the bottom right hand corner. I never really cared for the Kokuyo gang, but this is pretty cool anyway.

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Cream horns are delicious, though, uh, the name...

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In my grandma's travel book, it says that Nagoya is uninteresting. No way! Uh, no sarcasm. Really. o.o;;

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I've made a decision. I'm throwing all my preconceptions out the meataphorical window. No matter how unappetizing something looks, I'm at least going to try to eat it. I shall go where the old Meshia never would have gone before!

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We went out to buy my uniform, which made me miss KHR. Frick.

It's awkward wearing a skirt, even though it's fairly long, I still feel naked wearing it.

We also went to the Nagoya TV tower. I could see so far, even though the day was kind of hazy.

Nagoya is a beautiful city. It's not too crowded.

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We went to the Matsuzakaya department store for lunch. Up on one of the top floors we went to a noodle shop and had kishimen, supposedly one of Nagoya's specialties.

I was very thirsty (it's sweltering here), so after downing two cups of tea and two glasses of water, I was ready for a bathroom break. Fortunately, they didn't have those horrible squat toilets. Unfortunately, built into the side of the stall was this... thing. No, monstrosity would be a better word. I can't describe it, so next time I go I'll have to take a picture.

Anyway, I had absolutely no idea how to flush it, so I just stood there for about a minute with a stupid look on my face before punching random buttons.

Okay, first, water starting shooting out of the toilet. Second, I knew there were people lined up outside waiting to go to the bathroom. I panicked and wracked my brain for a solution. Suddenly, I remembered that our toilet at home had two flush options denoted by two kanji; small and big. It just so happened that the console had a button labelled with the kanji for small, so I pushed it and THANK GOD IT FLUSHED.

Seriously, folks. If I want to take a crap, I just want to take a crap. I don't need water sprayed on my, er, privates, thanks. Jesus Christ, the Japanese take this high-tech thing too far. After the toilet incident, we went downstairs.

Let me tell you now, the basement of Matsuzakaya is now my favorite place in the world. Next time I go, I'm taking pictures of everything I can get away with. For now, I'll try to describe it.

Okay, ever been to a jewelry store? Of course you have. Now, picture those well-lit cases, with rings and necklaces artfully arranged on pedestals.

Now, instead of jewelry, picture the most decadent chocolates, the most elegant desserts, the most beautiful, mouthwatering, expensive-looking foods you've ever seen.

Oh yes. This, my friends, is what heaven looks like.

They had so much stuff. Never go to this place on an empty stomach, or I guarantee you you'll leave with an empty wallet instead.

Aside from desserts, they had croquettes, tonkotsu, yakitori, tempura, all at these little booths. So much stuff!

Further back we have a more grocery store type thing, with fish, vegetables, and the ubiquitous pickles.

I could have gotten lost and spent days in there, but my grandma insisted that we leave, promising another visit. Forgive me if I blow all my cash here, but if they have those little gift boxes of food, expect those for presents. Trust me, I've gotten them as gifts before, you won't be disappointed (I hope). Anyone who reads this (who knows that they're getting a gift from me), then comment on this telling me what kinds of japanese stuff you like/don't like.

If I were able to upload smells to my blog... man. That place smells amazing.

I love Japan.

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I went to dinner at this fancy place, pictures in previous post.

Also, today, I made my first social faux pas, the first of many, I'm sure. I was marveling at the camera thing that helps you park backwards in a relative's car, and accidentally said sugee instead of sugoi. I don't remember where I even heard that variation, but I said it anyway, and my grandma gave me a weird look, muttering something in which the only word I understood was 'otoko'. So sugee is masculine? I doubt it, but hey. She's the nihonjin, not me.

Here's a little guide to the pictures.

1. This little multicourse appetizer thing. Half the stuff I didn't know what it was, but I tried to eat everything anyway.

2. More flavorless appetizer-fixings.

3. Delicious sashimi. Probably my favorite course of the entire meal. Can't go wrong with raw fish.

4. -zelda treasure get music-

5. This was by far the worst dish. I hated it. It was hot and greasy and just... ugh. I'm so rude, but still... The big white thing was a daikon, fyi.

6. Raw foods.

7. You put them in the pot over the fire...

8. ...and then they bring you a box while you're waiting for it to cook.

9. Finally, something normal for a change! Ah, rice.

10. Cooked to perfection.

11. Cream stew. Pretty good.

12. Tea, a misleading teapot, and pickles. I figured out today that takuan are the only kind of pickles I like. Period.

13. That's the teapot. The soup that came out of it tasted like a less greasy version of the disgusting daikon thing from before. Ugh, what is this horrible flavour?!

14. A big copper thing of rice.

15. Turns out this rice ALSO TASTES LIKE NAST. I want to know what this flavour is called so I can avoid it in the future.

16. High res picture of delicious coffee and chocolate desert.

17. This picture is more to show you the weird shape of the spoon.

So, hungry yet?

La Corte del Distrito de Nagoya sentenció a seis meses de prisión suspendida por dos años a un sujeto que en julio pasado asesinó a puntapiés a un perro de raza chichuaha en una calle del distrito de Chikusa.

Se trata de Tanaka Yoshiyuki (44) quien justificó su accionar manifestando que se encontraba muy estresado por problemas laborales con quien minutos antes había sostenido una acalorada discusión aunque en un principio había dicho que atacó al animal porque "le causaba terror".

De acuerdo a las investigaciones, el pasado 13 de julio, el acusado se encontraba caminando en la vía pública detrás del animal de 4 meses de nacido valorizado en 310 mil yenes quien transitaba junto a su dueño. En un momento dado Tanaka Yoshiyuki quiso adelantar al animal pero no pudo hacerlo debido a que la correa que lo sujetaba de su dueño se lo impedía. Por ello, no dudó en aplicar salvajes puntapiés al animal provocando su muerte en el lugar.

Si bien durante la lectura de la sentencia el presidente del Jurado Noguchi Takushi condenó la agresión del acusado también destacó el arrepentimiento mostrado por el agresor, motivo por el cual le impuso una sanción suspendida.

Conocida la sentencia, el propietario del animal destacó la decisión de la Corte porque considera que se constituye en un precedente judicial para futuros agresores de animales.

EL DATO
El juez Noguchi Takushi que halló responsabilidad de Tanaka Yoshiyuki en violar la Ley de Protección a los Animales, dispuso que el acusado deberá indemnizar con 1 millón de yenes a los propietarios del animal.

Mata yasi!

© 2008 BLOG DEL PETA

Very little cultural information contained here, unless you want to know about Narita airport.

After this, it'll be Japan days, not Seattle.

We'll be transferring planes at Narita to Nagoya, which will take about an hour to an hour and a half. Compared to this, it'll be a breeze.

We're low enough that I can see definition in the water, but it's still just water.

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The waves on the water look like the skin that forms on soup when it sits out too long.

LAND HO!

Hello, Japan!

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By the way, happy birthday, Frankie!

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So, the airport. Uh... not much to say, really. Just your average run of the mill airport. There's a cafe that sells ramen and a news stand. In less than fifteen minutes, I'll be on another plane to our final destination. From now on, I'm operating on Japan time.

I wonder how the vp debate went?

Little japanese children are absolutely adorable.

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I don't see why everything's in English at the airport. It doesn't properly prepare us foreigners for the reality of a country that speaks another language. They should just have everything in Japanese and be done with it.

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This guy working on the plane got on the mic and asked us which state did not contain any of the letters from "George W. Bush". I said Indiana, and was awarded with a pack of cards. Um, thanks.

Actually, the magazine I was reading had advertisements for seafood restaurants and, lucky me, one of them was in Indiana. See? Those cheapo airplane magazines are good for something.

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When the plane took off, I fell asleep. After we got through immigrations, we were greeted with much enthusiasm by my grandmother's relatives.

The moment it was actually needed, all the Japanese I knew flew out the window, and I responded to everything they said with smiles and nods.

I fell asleep again in their car.

I'm at the condo now. It's pretty small, but in a good way. It's not cramped. I'm worried because the kanji in my textbooks are not furigana'd. Oh well.

I'm really tired, g'night.

Realmente gosto quando a internet consegue me surpreender. Hoje parecia ser mais um daqueles dias em que nada é diferente do outros dias, e já estava desistindo de achar algo legal que valesse a pena perder meu tempo quando vi um post legal no Sedentário e Hiperativo. O post era um link de outro blog, o Web Urbanist, que colocou alguns links com fotos de 7 Maravilhas Arquitetônicas Abandonadas da Ásia Moderna.

Sou fascinado com o passado das coisas que não me são imediatamente conhecidas, ruinas, mausoléis, tumbas, arqueologia em geral (graças ao Indiana Jones é claro) e mesmo nos jogos eu perco a maior parte do tempo lendo sobre a mitologia do mundo em que estou jogando, o que é muitas vezes bem rica, é só olhar um Final Fantasy  Tactics da vida ou o Lineage 2 que dá pra perder horas apenas lendo sobre o mundo sem perder o interesse.

Depois ver as maravilhas abandonadas, fiquei olhando o Web Urbanist até achar um outro post sobre Mais 7 Cidades Abandonadas no Mundo e a primeira delas me chamou muito a atenção: Gunkanjima - A Ilha navio de guerra. Acho que todos sabem que o japão é um dos lugares do mundo onde o m² é mais caro, e de repente saber que eles têm uma ilha com edifícios construídos e simplesmente largados me chamou muito a atenção, então fui olhar o histórico da ilha.

O nome verdadeiro é Hashima e ela foi uma mina de carvão de 1887 a 1974. Já foi o um dos lugares mais populosos do mundo e foi fechado graças ao crescimento do petróleo como fonte de energia. Durante muitos anos nada cresceu na ilha, que passou a ser chamada de Ilha sem verde, até que os moradores importaram a terra de Nagoya e plantaram algumas plantas e vegetais, tudo na ilha vinha do distrito de Nagoya por mar e se tivesse tempestades era comum os moradores ficarem sem suprimentos. A ilha já foi cenário para vários filmes e o acesso até ela é restrito. Durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial os japoneses levaram coreanos e chineses para trabalhar na mina já que os jovens japoneses estavam lutando na guerra, muitos deles morreram lá. Atualmente ninguém vive nela.

Hoje ganhei meu dia, porque achei algo tão incrível quanto isso. Aqui tem algumas galerias com fotos:

Yuji Saiga - Gunkanjima - Views of an Abandoned Island

Urban Exploration Resource

Hiroshi Taro

Of course, they immediately retaliated by taking pictures of me, so I guess they're okay with it. I'm eating black sesame seed ice cream here. Pretty tasty.

Like I said, though, still a bit confused. This is my host "mom" and the Mini Monster.

Mini Monster's main occupation, besides going to preschool, is dancing and singing along to the same boy band music video over and over. They're called Arashi and if I don't have that song memorized by the end of December, I'll be almost disappointed. Almost.

He also has a lifetime goal to see how many times he can sneak into my room. So far, Mini Monster - 3, Me - 25. I'm also experimenting here with Angella Dykstra's How To Take Great Pictures Of Your Kids, mostly the idea of putting the kid in the corner of the shot.

This shot is from yesterday. He was wearing khakis, a button-down shirt, a vest, a bowtie and suspenders when I got home, apparently because he had just finished his Montessori School interview. That's right, they interview three-year-olds at these fancier daycares. Oy.

Anyway, I didn't want to ask how it went, but as he was coming in the door he asked "Are you still mad?" and his mom replied "Not anymore." Ruh roh.

I got these two pictures before he decided that he was done. Took him about ten minutes, but he got it all off.

Lest you think this post was about the kid (so much easier to take kid candids than adult candids), I'll throw in some grown-ups. These are a few fellow IES peeps hanging out before going to Mama Mia! (in Japanese). The camera was behaving especially well that day.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=162849&l=efb84&id=647025531

(hold down the Shift key whilst clicking the link to open it in a new window)

(By the way, you don't need a facebook acct to view the above link)

I just bought a new camera today -- a new Canon one; will test it out in the coming weeks.

Day 2 of teacher training is in the books and I am burnt out, but steadily learning. There is a lot to take in; plenty of formalities to go over, what to do and what can't you do, etc. Practicums start at the end of the week. Oh boy, getting nervous!! I've met some nice friends who are in the same training group but unfortunately once training ends, we'll all go to our designated locations of teaching. Good thing for Facebook, eh? More to come in a few days. bye for now.

In the meantime, here's another video tour of my apartment. I've made some changes since the previous one, so I thought I'd show you around again. Enjoy.

Our first day we just had dinner at some tempura place across the street from our hotel in Tokyo (Shinagawa to be exact). We stayed in the Toyoko Inn which was right above the subway station, which was extremely convenient after those long days. The second we got off the train, we just went upstairs. The room was very quite so it was pretty much perfect. As expected the rooms are extremely small from what we're used to. It's not something that bothers me much, so I was fine with it.

The second day we went to Asakusa to see the Sensoji Temple. As you're walking up to the actual temple you go through this street of souvenir and treat shops. We ate lunch at some random noodle shop. Jeh and I can't read Japanese so we were having problems trying to figure out what's what. We accidentally ordered some HUGE noodle dish with a big bowl of dipping sauce. It was yummy, but not a favorite. We spent the rest of the day shopping in Shinjuku, then met up with Jeh's cousin who's lives there as a student to eat at a place called Issa. Pretty good food and drinks.

Our third day we went back to Shinjuku to shop some more. We ate at the mall there and I had my first omuraisu in Japan. It wasn't the normal ketchup omuraisu. It had a beef gravy on top of it. It was actually very delicious. Something I would definitely eat again. Later we met up with Jeh's cousin and her friend and went to Tokyo Midtown and saw a freakin' expensive mall. All the shops were extremely expensive, but it was pretty cool in there - very fancy. We had dinner at some place that specialized in Okinawa food. It was only ok, not something I'd eat again. The service was horrible. Even though basically all restaurants have that service button to call the waiter, it was the worst service experience we had in Japan. They took FOREVER to bring the food out to us, then the second we finished our last dish they told us we had to leave because there is a 1.5 hour time limit there....uh yea...we get rushed because they took FOREVER to bring us our food. Whatever, we were glad to leave. After dinner we went to Roppongi Hills (in Tokyo) which is like the nicest part of Tokyo. We went to the SkyAquariumII there and it's definitely one of my top two favorite places I went to in Japan. It's so amazing in there. It's in a skyscraper and the fish tanks are like art. There was this one part where it looked like a regular paper folding screen, but it was really fish tanks with fish swimming around in there. Totally cool experience.

Fourth day we shopped at a mall in Kawasaki all day, basically. Had Tempera Udon for lunch and curry for dinner and both were delish. The fifth day we headed to Kyoto. Our hotel was VERY fancy (The Hotel Monterey Kyoto) and they spoke pretty good English there. The rooms were small but much bigger than the Kyoto place. The bathroom was actually pretty big. VERY modern and the lobby was basically all black marble. The second we stepped out of our hotel that day, some random older lady stopped and asked us in English if we needed help. It was very sweet of her. We heard from other experiences that people are super nice in Kyoto. That's not to say that people are mean in Tokyo, but that's just from other people's experience. Anyway, she led us to this really good, small restaurant. I had tonkatsu and Jeh had this marinated beef dish. His was FANTASTIC. I crave it to this day. Mine was definitely delish, but I assume most tonkastu dishes in Japan would taste that good. We headed to the Kinkakuji Temple (The Golden Pavilion). Really cool temple that I would highly recommend to anyone going to Kyoto. You can't enter the actual golden temple, but even just the view from outside was really cool. At night we walked around downtown Kyoto and had dinner around there. We ate okonomiyaki (the Japanese pancake) and it was interesting. Not my favorite dish, but everyone else seemed to love it.

Sixth day we went to the Nijo Castle which was near our hotel. Part of the movie The Last Samurai was filmed in Nijo Castle. When I saw the movie again I was able to recognize the rooms they used from the painted doors. It's pretty cool there. You'll get a workout from walking around there. Although I think it was harder on us because of the heat. After that, we headed to Kiyomizu temple (The Pure Water Temple). We basically started at the bottom of the hill where the bus dropped us off, then we had to walk up a VERY STEEP hill to get there. Thankfully as you get closer to the temple the street becomes full of souvenir shops. So we got a lot of our souvenir shopping done there and gave us nice rests in air conditioning. We're sooo thankful that basically every store/building has air conditioning. After seeing the temple, we went to this place near the souvenir street that was famous for their soft serve ice cream. Their green tea ice cream was delish! Jeh had heard about Ponto-cho alley, which is known for geisha's to be walking around there. Very cool to walk around there at night, unfortunately it was much too hot for geisha's to be out and about so we didn't get to see any there. For dinner we finally found a ramen place. It was quite tasty, I must say. Much different/better than Samurai Noodle in Seattle.

The seventh day we had to leave Kyoto and head to Hakone. But we finally got to try a bento box from the train station, which we heard they were pretty good. I have to agree, they were. Hakone is more like the country side and you're surrounded by trees. The hotel we stayed was a very traditional Japanese Inn and was a Hot Spring based hotel (and smelled very old...yuk). They provided you with Yukata's (traditional Japanese robes you're supposed to wear around the hotel and as a pajamas). We had a traditional mixed with western style room. We had two twin beds and a large sitting room on tatami mats that Jeh's brother had to sleep on. They had the traditional set dinner time. You have to be there on time, and all the small dishes of food are already spread out for you waiting. Jeh, his brother, and cousin, all went to the hot springs a few times. I didn't have the balls to go. Interesting experience. Although Hakone was probably my least favorite place, I can't say it was a waste because it was definitely a good experience.

The eighth day we had breakfast downstairs of the hotel. A lot of fish was provided by the hotel for meals, I must say. We were all fished out! We started our long journey to circle Hakone - a popular tourist attraction. We stopped at the Hakone Open-Air Museum, which was pretty cool...and big. We had lunch there at the museum at one of their food restaurants. The buffet was actually pretty good. Then got back on the suspended Ropeway cars to finish the trip. We saw sulfur mines and stopped there to see the famous Kurotamago eggs (eggs boiled in sulfur hot springs that turn the eggs black). You can't cook them yourselves, but you can watch them cook it and you can buy it to eat it...ew. They say that eating it will give you 7 years longevity. Yea...there's no way I'd ingest sulfur cooked eggs. They say you can eat up to 2, but eating 3 is not a good idea. I wonder why that is... Anyway, to end the trip we took a little cruise on a black pirate ship, then bussed back to our hotel. An interesting experience, but not something I'd recommend to anyone, really.

Ninth day we left Hakone and headed to Nagoya to meet up with a friend who lives there. We checked out the mall Oasis 21...kinda lame, but the cool part is the roof. They have a big UFO-looking roof filled with water and is supposed to absorb the heat. Not sure it really worked all that well. Then we shopped at a bookstore (Maruzen). A pretty cool bookstore and had the book I was looking for. We met up with the friend and had dinner around there. We heard Nagoya was famous for their fried chicken wings. So he took us to a local place that specialized in it. It was DELICIOUS!!! They also had these chicken wings filled with gyoza filling. YUM! Then we headed back to Tokyo after dinner.

Tenth day was our final full day in Japan. We met up with some family that came to Japan with us and we headed to Akihabara (known for it's electronics, anime, and otaku stuff). We walked around there all day but never made it into a maid cafe...I'm curious what it's like. I think it's kinda creepy and dirty, but I suppose it's just like a Hooters - just throw in french maid fantasies in there and you got yourself a maid cafe. For dinner we had Shabu Shabu, which was pretty good. I still have to say Sukiyaki is my fave, but we didn't have the chance to try it out. That's the only thing that I feel like I really missed out on in Japan. Oh well, everything else was an awesome experience.

Our last day we went straight to the airport and spend most of the day there waiting for our flight. The Narita airport sure is big and has lots of stores and food there to keep you busy! Well that's our entire trip right there. I highly recommend Japan to anyone! I hope we get to go back again sometime!

In Japan, of course, 'home' is a fifty-minute (or more) commute and I've taken to making sure that I carry almost everything I could possibly want during the day.

Ha. Add my laptop to this and picture my back in fifty years time. From the back, left to right: blue binder for handouts (of which they are many), baby squirrel folder for Translation, red Translation workbook (may it die horribly), The Backpack itself, kitten folder for Japanese class, knitting bag, raincoat-inna-bag, purse with American wallet and spare pen, ibuprofen, Nintendo DS with kanji dictionary cartridge, name card for class, pencil bag, second wallet with passport and other important bits, as well as the bulk of my cash (muggers, take note), head scarf for windy days, coin purse, sunglasses, notebook for noting new vocabulary, notebook for keeping track of expenses (usually snacks), fan for days when the air conditioner isn't reaching your desk, enevelope with various maps (North Ward, Nagoya, Japan), folder with pending part-time job paperwork, planner/schedule book, Japanese textbook, notebook for random scribblings, notebook for Japanese, and kanji practice book.

All of this is occasionally augmented by the aforementioned laptop, my journal and/or sketchbook, camera, iPod, umbrella, and recent shopping acquisitions.

Anyways. I was loading my recent pictures onto the computer and came upon this:

Okaaaay. Nice, tree-lined street? Could be anywhere in my neighborhood and there was nothing particularly interesting that caught my eye. Then I clicked to the next picture.

Oh. Right. This was the photographic evidence of my walking past the sign for the inn that my dad hopes to stay at in November. Five times. Though, as you can see from the first picture, it didn't exactly jump out at me.

Finally, a request. Do any of you guys have any things that you want me to write in particular? Any topics or questions that spring to mind. I'm definitely okay with doing an occasional (or one-off) 'Reader's Questions' post. Please leave a comment, or e-mail me with your suggestions.

At this event had to participate the entire Japanese Gymnastic Olympic Team, but Kohei Uchimura couldn't perform because a back injury. But he talked to the audience and apologized, said he'll do his best for the future competitions.

Tomita Hiroyuki performed on pommel horse and high bar. He was supposed to perform on the rings but later on he switched to pommel horse with KoKi Sakamoto.  Tomita's performance impressed a crowd of 2,300 people.

The highlight of the event will be on Tokai TV( probably only locally ) on 12th Oct. 2008.

Big thanks to : kawaiiyoyo, mathilde, snoopyzlover for the information and pictures.

For more information and photos please visit Hiroyuki & Kohei Fan Cafe