Jay's Japan Blog

Yeah, I know, I know...

2009-03-16T22:13:00.002+09:00

It's been far too long. I have been really busy, and well, I've just been living my daily life. I had a Japanese test in early December, so I spent most of the fall studying for the test. I needed 60%, I got 72%, not the best score, but I passed. I went to Nagano Prefecture (the same place I went last year) for 3 days of snowboarding. It was great, it snowed off and on the whole time we were there, so we had fresh powder every morning. In January, I spent most weekends snowboarding at the nearby mountain. By early February, most of the snow was gone, and that was it for snowboarding this year. Last week, I had my car inspection. Now, you might think it's mundane, but, remember, this is Japan. Most American inspection stickers are what $60 or so, if you don't need any work? Well in Japan, it's expensive. A LOT MORE expensive. My total....130,000 yen, or about $1300.00. No, that's not a misprint, $1300.00 down the drain. And this is normal, too. Why is it so expensive? 1. The government taxes the heck out of it...about half of the total is taxes. 2. They did do some work on it, about $200 or so, but still... and 3. The sticker is good for two years (only one year if it older than 10 years). A lot of people ask why the inspection is so expensive. The leading conspiracy theory is that the Japanese car companies' friends in the government made laws to make it expensive. The hope is that people would abandon the older cars, and buy new cars, so they wouldn't have to pay the inspection. I don't know if this is true or not, but stranger things have happened. Interestingly enough, there was an article about how young people today are forgoing buying cars. Knowing you have a $1300 payment every two years certainly doesn't help the matter.

Anyways, that's about all for now. I don't have much for pictures right now, but the cherry blossoms are right around the corner. I know I've been neglectful, but I'll be better. I promise.

Whew...It's Been Crazy Lately

2008-09-27T23:12:00.005+09:00

Hello everyone. Hope you all had a good summer. This is the first weekend in a while I've had a chance to catch my breath. Basically, let's recap from the last post.
As most of you know, I went back to the States for a week in mid-August. I saw a lot of people, but I also didn't get to see a lot of people I wanted to. Heck, I didn't even make it into Manchester at all. So sorry to all the people out there, I hope we can meet up the next time I come home (which I have no idea when that will be). America was a blast, it was great seeing people and showing Fumi around NH and Boston. She loved it there, especially Newbury Street in Boston. I gained some weight while I was there, eating all the bad American foods I've missed so much in Japan (steak tips, real pizza, Mexican food, etc). As good as it was in America, and as sad as I was to say goodbye to everyone again, I was still happy to be back in Japan. It's strange, as there are bad days when I get sick of not fully grasping what people are saying and what is going on. However, I'm not quite ready to move back to America.

I still have some goals I want to accomplish while in Japan. Obviously, get my Japanese to a better level. I also want to travel to more places in Japan (specifically, the islands of Hokkaido, Shikoku, and Kyushu). I want to study for and take the GRE while I'm here. And finally, well, I just like the area that I'm in. Inaka is a Japanese word that basically means countryside. It is usually thrown around in a neutral to negative way. When inaka is thrown around, it conjures up pictures of small towns with only rice fields and no stores, banks, entertainment, etc. Where I live is a little inaka, we do have stores and restaurants, but a lot of them tend to close pretty early.

So why do I like it here so much if it is tough to find things to do? Well, there are things to do, you just have to look. For one, I'm pretty close to some ski areas, so I do a lot of snowboarding in the winter. Two, it's beautiful here. I have the ocean and mountains all around me. Three, even though things in Japan are pretty expensive, my cost of living is relatively low. I live in a special teacher's dorm. that is subsidized by the town. I have a cheap used car that is good on gas. Since there isn't much in the way of nightlife around here, I tend to save money by not going out very often. I am pretty busy a lot of the week. I go to the gym about 4 times a week. I go to Japanese class 2 times a week. Most weeknights, I get home between 9 and 10. I've got time to read books and study Japanese. In short, things are pretty good.

I still can't believe it's been over a year since I arrived in Japan. I've definitely improved my Japanese, however, it isn't at the level I thought it would be after a year. I still have trouble making coherent sentences in conversations. I sound like a 3 year old when I'm trying to speak to people. Still, I can read most things on a menu in a restaurant, and function with everyday things like the bank, post office, grocery store, etc. I guess all hope isn't lost.

As for my exciting travels lately...sorry to disappoint, but nothing on that front. The past few weekends have been Sports Days at my schools. Sports Day is exactly like it sounds, it's a school-wide sports competition. There are 100 meter dashes, relay races, tug-of-wars, and cheering competitions. The students spend a few weeks getting their cheers ready. There's even a national holiday in October called sports day. Why is this taken so seriously here?

One of the teachers at my handicapped school told me. It came out of the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics. The 1964 Tokyo games were a huge point of pride for Japan. Most of Japan had been leveled in the war. The United States occupied Japan until April, 1952. So in twelve years, to go from a destroyed, occupied nation, to a fully restored member of the international community was amazing. This showed the world that Japan was ready to be a responsible, successful player on the international scene. We only need to look to the Beijing games a few months ago to see a modern analogy. China viewed the games as a chance to show the world it had arrived on the scene, and to show that it is now a Great Power.

So, two weekends in a row, I attended Sports Days (both on a Saturday). The Sundays were busy too. One Sunday, I had lunch at my Japanese teacher's house in Obama. There was a festival near her house, so we had lunch there, and milled around the festival afterwards. The next Sunday, there was an international festival. These festivals basically get the locals to meet people from different countries in a non-formal setting. I love going to these, as you meet people from around the world who you have no idea is living in the area. When you talk to these people, you get some amazing stories.

One lady I met was from Peru (who spoke fluent Spanish, Japanese, and English). Her mother was Japanese, but emigrated to Peru when she was young. However, the woman's mother never taught her Japanese. I was a little surprised, and asked why. The woman told me about about her mother coming to Peru 70 years ago or so. The woman's mother lived in Peru during the war. Peru was firmly on the Allies side during the war, so the Japanese community tried to hide themselves as much as possible, as they were worried about facing reprisals. They basically stopped speaking in Japanese, and spoke only Spanish after that. Fast forward to 1990. The Japanese Bubble Economy was about to pop, but it hadn't trickled down to the everyday worker yet. The Japanese factories were facing labor shortages, and needed to get cheap foreign workers here. The Japanese government passed a law that gave fast-track working visas to people of Japanese descent in places in South America. The idea was that if they were culturally Japanese, it would be easier for them to fit into Japan (talk about ridiculous reasoning, but that issue is another post for another day). So, she came here in the early 90's with her husband (who is Peruvian, he didn't look like he had a trace of Japanese in him) and started working in the factories. It's always great to hear different foreign perspectives on Japan than from just the local English teacher clique.

OK, I got some random pictures to post. Now that things have calmed down, I should be able to post more. Talk to you all soon. These were taken in Takahama a few weeks ago. I was on my way home from my visiting school, and it was a beautiful day.

Surfers. I always see surfers at this beach when I go to the schools. I would love to learn how to surf. Someday, maybe...

Surfers from the other side of the road.

I loved the imagery of the rice fields right next to the ocean.

Mountains, probably Oi, but it could be in Obama too.

Summer Time, General Update

2008-07-28T22:28:00.003+09:00

Well, it's looking like the weather in NH and Japan are eerily similar right now. Hot, humid, bad thunderstorms (no tornadoes, but there has been some bad flooding in Kanazawa). Right now is pretty quiet in Japan. The JET's who are leaving are gone, and the new ones haven't arrived yet. The people who are staying usually travel during this time. Originally, I wanted to go somewhere, like to Hiroshima or Himeji. However, that changed a few weeks ago.

Let's backtrack a little here first. I want to talk about getting my Japanese Driver's License. The DMV in America tend to be areas of massive bureaucracy, frustration, and expense. This is also true in Japan. The process seems simple enough, but it's far from cut and dry. First, you have to get your license translated into Japanese. Basically, you fill out a form with a copy of your license, pay 3,290 yen (about $30) and mail the form to JAF, Japan's version of AAA. About a week later, you'll get the translation back. Next, you have to collect documents to bring to the Driver's License Center so they can check your suitability to drive.

The documents were pretty straightforward: A copy of your passport, your original driver's license, the translation, and your Alien Registration Card (the same as a green card). The documents aren't enough, however. You also have to bring in a passport photo of yourself that was taken in the last 6 months. I don't know why they ask this, as they just put it in your file, and don't use it for the license. There are automatic photo booths all over Japan, and I stopped in there to get one. Cost: 600 yen, about $5.00. They also grill you about your driving history, driver's ed, requirements in your home state, etc.

I want you all to think about your driver's ed. courses. Who was the teacher? What was the name of the company that did it? How many hours a week did you practice? Did you practice on a closed course? What did the driving test consist of? How much did the class cost? How much did the initial license cost?

If you're struggling answering these off the bat, imagine what it's like when a bureaucrat is grilling you in Japanese (I obviously had one of the English teachers at my school there to translate for me). I knew the name of the company (Souer's Driving School), but everything else was, well, a guesstimate at best. I know there are stories where the driver's license bureaucrat doesn't like the answers, and they will request a document from the DMV in people's home state proving the requirements of driver's ed., and the length of time they have been driving. If you haven't already guessed, this form will be written in English, and that will also have to be translated. I got lucky, the lady was satisfied with my answers. So, next is an appointment to take the written test.

I came one week later to take the written test. This cost 2,400 yen (a little more than $20). The written test is a 10 question true or false test based on Japanese motor laws. It was in English, but the translations of the questions were, well, not so good. Basically, the criteria I used to answer was "Does this look/sound like safe driving in Japan?".

A little tangent: Driving in Japan is a little different than the states. Besides the obvious, driving on the left side instead of the right, there are some little (and big) things. No left turns on red (like right on red in the states). Speed limits are REALLY low (50 KM, or about 30 MPH on most roads, even country roads with nothing on it, and roads that would be considered highways in America). The speed limits are rarely followed, however. I've been driving at the speed limit in a two way tunnel, and had a guy cross the yellow line to pass me. The legal Blood Alcohol Limit in Japan is 0.00. If you are caught with a trace of alcohol in you when you are driving, you are SCREWED. You must stop at all railroad crossings. If you get caught driving while talking on a cell phone, you will pay a hefty fine (not a bad rule, I think). Safety is (officially, at least) crammed down the driver's throat from day one, more so than back home, in my humble opinion.

I passed the test. I made an appointment for the dreaded driving test. The driving test is 2,400 yen also. It is not like your test back home. Parallel parking, getting on and off the highway, and 10 & 2 have nothing to do with the Japanese driving test. First of all, it's on a closed course. The course is about the size of a football field, with a big oval outside track. On the inside are various small roads with s-curves, intersections, and the 'crank'. The crank basically looks like a Tetris piece, it is two 90 degree turns a short distance from one another. Second, the mentality behind the test is different than what you would normally think. The test is not to show your driving skills. They know you can drive. You've been driving in Japan for almost a year now. The point of the test is to show you can be a conscientious driver, driving in the Japanese style. Let's do a run through of the test.

First, the instructor will get the car and drive it around the track to test that it is working. Once he hands me the keys, the test is starting. You get a practice lap around the track to get a feel for the car, then you have to follow the course they give you (you receive a map when you pay the fee). Now, you might think you get in the car and go. WRONG. First, you must check in front of, behind of, and under the car. The point of this is to make sure there are no children/animals in the area. Next, before you open the door, do a quick check to make sure no bicyclists are rocketing towards you while you are opening the door.

Before you start the car, check the mirrors. Put your foot on the brake, pull down the parking brake, put on your signal, and drive your practice lap. Once you finish the practice lap, you can do the test. They will ask you to change lanes. They will make sure you check your mirrors, shoulders, that your turn signal was on for the correct amount of time. As you drive around, you will do the intersections (make sure the bumper does not go over the top edge of the white line when you stop), turns (keep the turns tight, and do mirror and shoulder checks for pedestrians, bicyclists, etc.), and driving (not too fast, not too slow, and checking intersections as you drive by, to make sure no one ran a red light and is barreling at you). The s-curve should be driven slowly, in the middle, and you can't go off the edge. The crank is a killer, as you have to make the turns tight, but try not to go off the edge (you'll lose points, but not fail the test, as I later learned).

The driving test is notorious for failing people seemingly arbitrarily. The JET that passes the driving test the first try is certainly remarkable; indeed, every year there is one or two that pass on their first tries, and everyone usually grills them on what to do. The average, however, is between two to three times, with some rare people taking it 4+ times. If you can't do it in 6 tries, you have to take the Japanese driver's ed. course, which is insanely expensive (around 300,00 yen, or $2,500.00 US). I passed the test on my third try.

There are some theories on why it takes a few tries to pass. One is that the Japanese want you to be humble. Others are that the Japanese have to take the same test, and practice the course for weeks before the test, so they know it inside and out. Why should you get a free pass when they have to grind it out for so long? These may be part of it, but my view is a little more cynical. What is one of the biggest things that explains a lot of rules and human behavior? The answer: money.

Remember the fees I was talking about? 2,400 for each test? Also, when you pass the test, you have to pay 1,750 yen (about $15.00) to get the license. Let's add it up.

3,290 yen to JAF for translation.
600 yen for photos.
2,400 x 4 (1 for written test, 3 for driving test = 9,600
1,750 for license.

Total: 15,240 yen (between $130 and $140).

Remember, this is just to get a license, this is not for driver's ed.

This is a typical scenario. In my area, there were four of us that had to do the full conversion (any foreigner in Japan for more than one year must do this, but some countries, like Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc. don't have to take the driving test).

This is a nice little chunk of change for the license bureau that is in a rural area. Remember, as people get older, many tend to stop driving. As the population shrinks, less people coming in makes it harder to keep the money flowing in. What better way to make some of it back than by failing people to make them take the test? The test is maybe 5 minutes at the most, so it's not a bad haul for the time it takes.

Anyways, this is just me rambling. Now, let's get back to the point: Why I couldn't go to Hiroshima or Himeji.

On the day of the 3rd (and final) test, I drove to the center with one of my English teachers. I've been having trouble starting my car for a while, I would have to step on the gas for it to start. Once it started, however, it ran fine. I wanted to have this looked at, but was going to wait until after I came back from America. I figured it might be a little expensive to fix, so I wanted to save money for America first. Well, he noticed this, and said "I will tell the vice-principal" (the vice-principal's father's car dealership is where I got the car from). When the vice-principal found out, he had me bring it down to the shop to look at. They thought it might be the carburetor (they were right). So, it was at the shop for a week, and fixed. It wasn't too expensive (23,625 yen, about $220.00), but that was going to be traveling money for the week.

So, rather than travel, I've been cleaning my place, reading, and getting ready to meet some of the new JET's this weekend. I wanted to have some exciting photos and new stories for the blog, rather than filler about driver's licenses and carburetors. Oh well, what are you going to do, huh?

This will probably be the last post before I head to the states. I hope to see as many of you as I can in a few weeks.

It's Almost Been a Year-Saying Goodbye to Friends

2008-07-08T20:50:00.003+09:00

"That’s the reality of expatriate life. Someone is always moving on."- Robin Pascoe

Time certainly flies by. I've always felt this, but it somehow seems to accelerated since I've been in Japan. I've been reflecting on on the past a lot lately. For example, 10 years ago, I was a newly minted high school graduate getting ready to head to BU. 6 years ago, I was BU alum living in Boston. Last year, I just found out I was going to Japan, and frantically trying to get everything ready before I left. It feels like ages since I've come here, and yet, it still feels like last week I was stepping off the plane at Narita.

Nowhere have I felt this acceleration more than this past week. The contract for JET begins and ends at the end of July/beginning of August (depending on when you came to Japan). A lot of my good friends here in southern Fukui are leaving Japan very soon. We had a goodbye party on the Fourth of July at a beach in Tsuruga. It was very fitting, as it was at that beach that I met most of the people for the first time last year.

The party was great, we had a BBQ, and Bill ordered Orion Beer (the beer from Okinawa that we have been craving since we left there). We even had some fireworks to celebrate the 4th. After the BBQ, we did a last bash karaoke with everyone. It was so much fun, we all had a blast.

It didn't hit me until sometime Saturday night that this was the last time we would all be together in the same place. It got me thinking about where my friends from 10 years ago, 6 years ago, last year, are now. A lot of my good friends from high school and college have scattered across the world, and it will be a long time when (if, in many cases) I see them again. It makes me sad to think that I've drifted apart from people like this, and it is happening again.

I just think back to some of the fun we had here this year, like meeting a Japanese baseball player in Osaka, the Tsuruga Festival, going to Tokyo to see the Red Sox, going to Kanazawa, or going to Okinawa. Those were some of the best times I've had here, and almost all the people I did these with are leaving. Some I will see back in America, but I'm a realist. I know what happens when people move far away and get involved in their own worlds (like me).

I've been terrible at keeping in touch with people, as I've just been generally busy. I go to the gym a lot, take Japanese classes, visit friends, travel, etc. Things like Facebook help a lot, but it's no substitute for being there. Eventually, the e-mails wind down as you start doing mundane day to day things and move on with your life. I know it's not just me that this happens to.

I guess that's why it hit me: just the general thought of people moving on, that one stage of your experience together (really, your life, I guess you could say) is ending, and a new one is beginning. It's a few weeks shy of a year in Japan, and I still feel like I'm adjusting and getting into a routine. Now, as I'm getting adjusted and settling in, half of the group is moving on, and I'm not ready for them (or me) to move on yet.

Well, even if I'm not ready for them to go, they are leaving, most within two or three weeks, but a few earlier. We will have a dinner in Obama next week (it's being labeled the Last Supper), but not everyone can make it. So, the BBQ was the last event where EVERYONE in the south got together. Then, everyone will ship off to the airports on different days, and that's that. A new crop of people will be coming soon, and the whole process will start over again. Next year, it will end again, with people moving on to the four corners of the Earth.

So, Amy, Tim, Paul, Lisa, Scott, Bill, and Tesni, this is dedicated to you. I've had some awesome and unforgettable moments with you in our short time together. I hope that wherever life takes you, you find love, happiness, good health, and success. Keep in touch, and who knows where we might see each other next? I know for Paul and Lisa, I'll see you when I come home in August. As for everyone else, that is certainly unknown, but you never know. It's a small world, and life can be pretty funny sometimes. I mean, 10 years ago, I never thought I would be in Japan. Who knows where we will all be in 10 years? Wherever it is, I hope we stay friends in the meantime.

"Why can't we get all the people together in the world that we really like and then just stay together? I guess that wouldn't work. Someone would leave. Someone always leaves. Then we would have to say good-bye. I hate good-byes. I know what I need. I need more hellos." ~Charles M. Schulz

"Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes." ~Henry David Thoreau

Sayonara, everyone. I'll see you on the other side of the ocean someday.

Golden Week 2008

2008-06-11T23:26:00.003+09:00

Hey all,

Yes, I know I'm behind on the posts. I've just been busy doing random things, such as trying to get my Japanese driver's license. This will warrant a post by itself, so by this time next week (knock on wood) I will hopefully have the license. Anyways, on to Golden Week.

Golden week is a series of holidays in a 9 day period in late April/early May. The whole country goes on vacation those days. For my first Golden Week, I went to a few cities: Kyoto, Kobe, Osaka, Nara, Ise. On Friday night, we went to Kyoto and spent the night there. The reason for this? The Red Sox themed bar called Fenway Park. A few of you sent me links to the story about the bar when the Sox came to Japan, and it immediately sparked my curiosity. Golden Week seemed like the perfect time to go.
The bar was great, the owner was cool and spoke excellent English. They had good Belgian beers on tap (a rarity in Japan), and generally looked like a hole-in-the wall, dive bar back home. It was great. The only down side was the pub food was Japanese style, which means things that shouldn't have tuna on it, like French bread pizza, did. (The Japanese take on pizza is a sight to behold. Mayonnaise, corn, tuna, mixed with sausage links. You can also get shrimp, squid, octopus, and I'm sure other things I haven't seen yet).

After Kyoto, we went to Kobe, and spent the day there. All the hotels were sold out, so we spent the night in Osaka (about 30 min. from Kobe by train). The next morning, we went to the ancient capital of Nara and spent the night. The next day, we got up and went to Ise. Ise was the last night of the vacation, after that, we boarded a train and went home. It was pretty exhausting (probably the reason why I got sick), but it was worth it. Now, on with the pictures.

Oh yeah.

Sorry about the blurriness. The photographer was a little tipsy when the picture was taken. The name of said photographer has been withheld to protect the innocent. This is one of the two owner/operators of the bar. Red Sox management gave him the sign.

The background is the DVD of the 2007 World Series, complete with Japanese subtitles.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is a Shea Hillenbrand shirt. The owner was a big Shea Hillenbrand fan. How random is that?

This is my face after trying the French bread pizza with tuna fish on it.

I can only make out half of this shirt. The first three characters are aka kutsu shita (Red Socks). I have no idea what the last two are.

Picture of Okajima when he came to the bar.

Kobe. First, it's pronounced ko-beh, not ko-bi. Kobe is an old port city southwest of Osaka. Kobe was one of the first ports to trade with the West after Japan was opened by Perry. Since then it always had a grimy, but cosmopolitan feel to it, as the port attracted a lot of industry and a lot of foreign workers.

In March, 1945, most of the city was destroyed by US bombers. After the war, the city quickly rose to the become the busiest port in Japan. In 1975, the city passed a resolution banning any ships containing nuclear material from the port. This was viewed by many as to be directed against the US Navy. The port would not be the busiest in Japan for much longer, though.

On 5:45 AM on January 17, 1995, the Great Hanshin Earthquake struck Kobe. The quake measured 7.3 on the Richter Scale, and heavily damaged the entire city. Over 4,000 people were killed and over 200,000 left homeless. The port was heavily damaged, so shipping operations moved to other ports in Japan.

The rebuilding began immediately, and Kobe recovered from the quake. Today, Kobe is known as one of the most modern cities in Japan. It attracts a lot of young people, and it is quite nice. I was disappointed I only was in Kobe for a day, I plan on going back someday.

Chinatown. Yes, Japan has Chinatowns too. On one hand I understand, as we have all kinds of ethnic neighborhoods in the States, even from countries close to use (think Little Havana, etc). On the other hand, there is so much shared history and culture between the two countries, it seems crazy that there is a dedicated section of the city for a Chinatown. It is almost like us having a Canadatown in New York.

Waterfront

We randomly stumbled on this. It was in a department store. These are cakes/gingerbread houses. We couldn't believe how amazing they looked. The church was my favorite.

Nara. Nara was the first true capital of the Japanese state. It was the capital from 710 A.D. until it was moved to Kyoto in 784. Nara has a lot of temples, shrines, and museums. We went to a few temples and two museums. It was fascinating to see thousand year old relics from the capital. This picture is from Kofuku-ji, the first temple we went to.

Nara is famous for the deer that wander around the areas near the park. There is a legend that a god arrived in Nara riding a white deer. The deer are believed to protect Nara and bring prosperity. I guess the prosperity part is true, as every year thousands of tourists descend on Nara and buy snacks to feed the deer. I felt bad for the deer, because even though they are regarded as holy, and are constantly eating food provided by the tourists, they look, well, stressed. They wander across heavily traveled roads, get chased by unruly children, and have to deal with the dogs that people bring to the park. Is free food and being protected from hunters worth all that? You be the judge.

Todai-ji Temple. This temple has the largest Buddha in Japan. The Buddha is massive. To put it in perspective, each finger is about the size of a person. The original was damaged in fires and earthquakes; this Buddha is actually smaller than the original.

Remember the Omizu-okuri in Obama? The water carrying ceremony at night? This is where the water allegedly comes to in Nara. It is called the Wakasa well.

Ise.

Ise (pronounced e-say) is a city in Mie Prefecture, which is south of Nagoya. It is very rural, but the town is home to the most important shrine in the Shinto religion. Near the shrine, there is a historic district that shows what a Japanese village looked like about 300-350 years ago. It was interesting; the buildings and streets looked cool. The funniest was a museum that was a miniature version of the town, complete with small mannequins dressed in kimonos. A little strange, but it was pretty funny.

Village entrance

Bring on the miniatures. The funniest is the geisha house with the drunk guys.

Ise-jingu. Ise-jingu is the shrine dedicated to Amaterasu, the sun goddess of the Shinto religion. Amaterasu is the most important god in Shinto, so naturally Ise-jingu is the most important shrine in Shinto. The shrine is so holy that you aren't allowed to take pictures of it. It is also torn down and rebuilt every twenty years in a spot next to where the old shrine is.

The area was beautiful. Japanese cities tend to be a lot less natural than people would expect. Almost all the riverbanks have concrete walls, and a lot of the buildings are big, concrete monoliths. It was so refreshing to see a nice green area with no artificial riverbanks or hulking concrete monsters. I know these banks have stone walls, but trust me, it looks WAY better than the stuff that lines every other river I've seen.

The water is so clear you can see the white fish in the river.

Everyone else was doing this pose, so I figured when in Rome...

Quiet path. It was strange how even though the shrine was packed with people, this little path had nobody on it.

This vacant area is the next spot where the shrine will be built.

Random chickens. Fumi says she has no idea why they are at Ise-jingu, she thinks as good luck charms.

And that was Golden Week. The day after I got home, I was really sick, and have been laying low ever since. Oh well, what are you going to do? I hope I get to travel in July, when the schools let out for summer break. Until then, have a good one, and I'll see you in August.

Finally, this is just a goofy picture. I certainly appreciate the Japan Post Office putting things in English for a small minority of people, but don't you think they could just do a quick spell check? This is a mail box in front of a convenience store in Takahama. Click on the photo to make it larger.

I Think I've Got the Black Lung...

2008-05-25T21:50:00.008+09:00

I know it's been awhile. No, I really don't have black lung. It's really just your everyday, ordinary whooping cough. Yup, there is a whooping cough outbreak in Japan right now, and it looks like I was one of the lucky ones to get it. Basically, I went around a few cities in Japan for Golden Week (a series of about 5 Japanese holidays in a 9 day span), came back home during the first week of May, and woke up the next morning with a fever. This lasted for about two days, the fever broke, but I've been coughing off and on since. It isn't that bad, I'm not turning blue when I cough, it's more annoying than anything else. Really, there isn't much I can do about it, just rest and drink a lot of fluids. It could take a while for this to go away, cases can last from 3-6 weeks, maybe more. So, again, sorry for not posting, but it's not everyday I get whooping cough.

Anyways, this is just a short post on hanami. Hanami means 'flower viewing' and the flowers are cherry blossoms. Every year, in early to mid-April, the sakura bloom in white and pink. People go to parks and hold hanami parties, which is basically bringing a blanket, a little grill, sake and beer, and you eat, drink, and watch the petals fall off the trees. It's good times really, and very beautiful. Next post, I will do my Golden Week trip to Kyoto, Kobe, Nara, and Ise. Until then, enjoy the cherry blossoms.

All these pics. are from Obama park in Obama in mid-April. It's great, right across from the ocean, just a pretty place. I later got depressed when I found out this is the spot where two Japanese citizens, out on a date, were kidnapped by North Korean spies in July 1978. They were forced to live in North Korea for 15+ years. It's weird how a lot of serene places have a dark history to them. Sorry to bring you down, I learned this right before I got to the park, so that was on my mind as I was there.

View of Obama from the top of the hill at the park.

Little shrine near the park.

Okinawa Pictures

2008-04-28T23:37:00.029+09:00

The trip.

We flew into Okinawa-honto in the late afternoon. The airport at Naha had a very old, gloomy feel to it. It certainly looked like a Cold War-era airport we came in to. We took a taxi from the airport to the hostel. The taxi driver was an old Okinawan man. He said he couldn't take us in front of the hostel because it was 'black market street'. Needless to say, this caught us a little off guard. When we got there, it turned out it was just a covered pedestrian-only shopping arcade. We think this is what he meant by 'no cars'.

That night, we went to Kokusai Dori to get some dinner. Everything seemed different from mainland Japan. There was graffiti (pretty rare on the mainland), trinket shops, music playing, the smell of food being cooked. It seemed so much more unrestrained and alive than the normally stoic, serious character of the mainland. There was also a much larger American influence here. Steak houses, taco shops, and ice cream parlors lined Kokusai Dori. We went to a cowboy styled steak house, where the TVs showed rodeos from years ago. The staff was shocked when we opened our mouth and spoke some Japanese.

Now, before you start getting upset that I didn't go for some culturally Japanese food, let me say that I have Japanese food and culture every day. Sometimes you just want a break and want a steak or a burger.

The next day, we rented a car and drove up to Nago to an aquarium. It as amazing, lots of tropical fish and weird lobsters and crabs, and, of course, whale sharks. We came back to Naha at night, went to a bar for dinner, and a girl playing traditional Okinawan music was performing. It was a good time.

The next day, we went sightseeing all over Naha and south of Naha. At night, we went to another bar, you can see the pictures below. The next morning, we hopped a flight, went to Ishigaki, got a boat, and went to Iriomote. We stayed one night on Iriomote, and went back to Ishigaki, spent the last night in a hostel, and went home the next day.

Phew, sorry it took so long. I just got back from traveling to Kyoto, Kobe, Nara, and Ise, so hopefully I'll have those pics, along with some cherry blossom photos, up soon. On an unrelated note, I'll be coming home to visit for a week on Aug. 9-16. If you want to hang out, let me know. I'll talk to you all soon.

Map of Okinawa-honto

Hilariously named store.

Kokusai Dori at night. This is the main nightclub area of Naha.

Kokusai Dori in the daytime.

A & W Drive-In near Nago. How insane is this? When was the last time you saw an A & W Drive-In in the States?

Nago Aquarium

Us in front of the octopus made of flowers

I think this picture gives a good idea of the size of a whale shark. This aquarium has three, none of which are fully grown.

Beach Shots near the Aquarium

Scott and I at the beach near the aquarium.

Sea turtles

Dolphin show

Shuri Castle.

Shuri Castle was home to the Ryukyu kings. It was destroyed and re-built about 4 times in it's 500+ year history due to fires and such; the last destruction occuring on May 25-27, 1945, by the big guns on the U.S.S. Mississippi and U.S.S. Colorado (the castle was being used as a headquarters by the Japanese Army). Ironically enough, one of the ships Commodore Perry sailed into Okinawa with was called the Mississippi.

Shuri was remarkable because it shows the Chinese influence on the islands. All the characters are read and prounounced in the the Chinese way, and the architecture is a much more Chinese style than a Japanese style.

This dragon's head is one of the few original items from the castle that survived the battle.

View of Naha from Shuri Castle.

Throne room of Shuri Castle

The Himeyuri Museum

The Himeyuri Corps was a nurse corps of 155 Okinawan schoolgirls. These girls were the were from two elite all-girls schools in Naha. They were forced into action by the Japanese Army right before the battle. Originally, they were promised not to be on the front lines, but as the enormity of the battle hit them, they were in the thick of it. As the battle dragged on, they were subjected to atrocious conditions in the caves where they treated wounded soldiers south of Naha. They were also employed to carry messages and supplies at night, so they braved going through the American lines each night.

Remarkably, there was only a few girls killed in the first 6 weeks of the battle. However, on June 18, the order was given to disband the corps. Confusion raged through the girls. Does this mean to surrender? Find their families? Kill themselves to avoid capture? Escape on their own? In the confusion and panic, many girls either killed themselves or were killed trying to flee to their homes. In all, 123 of the 155 girls were killed.

This memorial was amazing. It starts with the opening of the cave where they served at. There is a museum that lists the time lines of the battle and the girls' experiences. It was awful to see girls 14 years old (the same age as some of my students) that either killed themselves or were killed in the battle. The museum was very balanced too, not just an America-hating version of the past. They were careful to include the brutal Japanese Imperial Government's lies and decisions on Okinawa.

I only have photos of the cave, sorry. I guess that means you all will have to go and visit it.

Store outside the Himeyuri Memorial

Sorry about the sideways pic. This is the entrance to the Japanese Underground Navel Headquarters in Okinawa. This was very interesting, but seemed a lot more militaristic than the Himeyuri Memorial. Here is a good link summing up the headquarters.

Where some commanding officers of the Japanese killed themselves.

Talk about an understatement. "Not properly armed to fight" really means "sacrifice yourself in the name of the emperor". Utter insanity.

International Cemetery and Commodore Perry Monument

On our last night in Naha, we went out to a bar. We were the only customers in the bar, the only workers were two older Okinawan women. Shockingly, it was one of the best parts of the trip. They made some delicious (and kind of strange) food. We drank beers, and one lady got us to get up and dance Okinawan-style. Scott tried his hand at some music, too. They were so friendly, we had a blast just drinking beer and listening to them. We were sad to go, but the next day we left for Iriomote.

Scott enjoying some pig's feet (yes, actually pigs feet...I tried some too. It was gooey).

The bar lady teaching Bill to dance and Scott to play the sanshin. The sanshin is a three-stringed instrument like a guitar. On the mainland, it's called a shamisen.

Me playing some castanet-like thing

Iriomote Island! By far my favorite part of the trip. Iriomote is one of the southernmost islands in the Ryukyu chain. It is lightly populated (about 2,000 people year round), and has a sub-tropical rain forest. It is home to a lot of unique animals, the most being the Iriomote wild cat. It is rarely seen; many think it is extinct, but everywhere on the island has pictures or souvenirs of the wild cat.

We stayed in Uehara at a wonderful hostel. The staff came and picked us up at the ferry terminal, even though it's maybe a 10 or 15 minute walk away. We went to the hostel, dropped our stuff off, rented bikes, and rode to Star Sand Beach to do some snorkeling. Star Sand isn't listed on the map, but the it's near the tip of the northern peninsula west of Uehara. It gets its name from the fact that the sand is really dead coral, and it looks like little stars. The snorkeling was fantastic, we saw so many fish and cool things like sea cucumbers.

That evening, we had dinner at a great little restaurant near the port. Good food, good people, talking with the locals, it was great. The next morning, we got up, took a bus to the Urauchi River, and rented canoes. The Urauchi flows from the jungle. We canoed for five hours. It was so amazing. Little rivers flowed into the main river, so we went on the side rivers and explored. Mangrove trees, crazy looking birds, and black crabs clinging to the trees were everywhere. We all failed to put on sunscreen, as it wasn't too sunny to start that day. We got cooked, but it was worth it. We returned the canoes, got our stuff at the hostel, and took the ferry back to Ishigaki.
I was really sad to leave Iriomote, I really want to go back there sometime.

We didn't explore Ishigaki, as we got to the port in the late afternoon. By the time we checked into the hostel (after a minor reservation snafu), we got dinner, and being sunburned and exhausted, went back to the hostel for awamori time. It was put on by the hostel (free of charge! Yeah!). Awamori is the local sake, it is pretty potent and quite good. We spoke with the lady who runs the hostel (through Bill, our intrepter), where she told us stories about the bad old days in Okinawa in the pre-war years (see my previous post about this). It was amazing to hear history first hand from her, she was so friendly and outgoing. That night, we went to bed early, woke up the next morning, and flew back to Osaka.

I'm so glad I went to Okinawa. It was such a different side of Japan. Throughout the islands, I got the vibe that the people were less uptight, more friendly and down to earth than the mainland Japanese. I hope I get to go back to Okinawa some day, especially Iriomote.

Inside the lobby of the hostel

View from our room at the hostel

This is Star Sand Beach where we went snorkeling.

Our favorite restaurant. It is called Kake-ta. Basically, Kake is one of the cat's names and ta is hand (or paw, in this case). This place had 22 cats running around inside and outside. The food was great, we had some drinks and talked with some of the locals. It was so much fun, the warmth of the people here was fantastic. You can see pics of one of the cats.

Canoeing the Urauchi River

Mangrove Trees

Getting sunburned...

Triumphant

Exploring another little tributary

Wild Pineapple

Little Waterfall with Mangrove Tree

Scott

Okinawa Part Three: The Legacy

2008-04-28T21:41:00.006+09:00

OK, part three, where I wrap up the lecture and show the pics. If you haven't already looked, please see the comments section of my previous post. There is a very insightful post from a vet at the battle. Again, I got a lot of information from the books I mentioned in the last post, and from this website.

What did the battle mean for Okinawa, Japan, America, and the world? Plenty. As alluded to in the previous post, the battle weighed in quite a bit in the decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan. The war planners were dismayed at the ferocity of the Japanese defense. The images of the same kind of fighting involving the mainland caused nightmares not only for the soldiers on the ground but for the generals. At Potsdam, the Allies rejected a conditional surrender plan from Japan and called on a 'complete, unconditional surrender'. President Truman and the War Department felt something had to be done not only against Japan, but also as a warning to the Soviets for any future thoughts of conquest in Asia.

The American Presence

Driving in Okinawa, we were stunned by a lot of the sights and sounds. On the radio, we picked up Armed Forces Network and heard country and gospel music. There were American-style steak houses galore in Kokusai Dori, one of the main drags in Naha. There was Mexican food, and taco rice, basically tacos minus the shells on white rice (delicious, by the way). There were A & W Drive-Ins. When was the last time you saw a drive-in restaurant, let alone an A & W? How did Okinawa become a major American base and a bastion of Cold War era American culture?

As we know, the bombs were dropped, the Soviets declared war on Japan, and the Japanese surrendered. The American occupation of Japan would last until April 1952; however, the occupation of Okinawa lasted until 1972. Until 1972, Okinawa was technically not part of Japan. Even after Okinawa reverted to Japan, a massive American military base remained. Still, this doesn't address the root causes of the American presence.

The first reason is Article IX of the Japanese constitution, which outlaws war and having an active military. The constitution allows for a token self-defense force, which is pretty vague, as it doesn't give specific numbers or mandates for such a force. Through security treaties signed between the US and Japan, the deal is basically Japan, besides the small self-defense force, leaves itself to be protected by the US military. In exchange for this, America maintains many military bases in Japan, but the majority of these soldiers are stationed in Okinawa. Why isn't the responsibility more evenly spread through other prefectures?

The second reason is simple geography. I want to post the original map again to drive the point home.

See how close it is to Taiwan, China, Korea, and Russia? Okinawa is an unsinkable aircraft carrier, floating very close to areas of high US national interests. Okinawa served as the keystone in the Pacific bases during the Cold War. The question is now have we overstayed our welcome?

I'm sure you are all aware of the incidents of US soldiers in Okinawa and Japan. It's difficult to give a unbiased view, because if you're American, you point to the crime statistics showing that crime is dropping, the incidents for that many people in one area are pretty small, and that the vast majority of the soldiers uphold their duty with no incidents at all. This is all true.

This is cold comfort for the Japanese victims of the crimes, though. Think about being in their shoes. What if a group of foreign soldiers were permanently stationed near your house? They are probably young, single, and away from home for the first time. The complaints from the Okinawans mirror those of small towns with a large college student population. Noise, fights, vandalism, and just general drunk, stupid actions. Imagine if for years nothing was done about it, until relatively recently.

The case that really brought it to a head was the 1995 case of three soldiers raping a 12-year old Okinawan girl. Recently, their was another incident where a soldier allegedly sexually assaulted a 14-year old Okinawan girl (here is a link to the recent story). Pressure has been mounting to the US to quit Okinawa.

This isn't to say that every Okinawan hates America and the bases. Far from it. Remember, Okinawa was historically the poorest, least developed prefecture in Japan. The economic impact of the bases are enormous. The American personnel brings jobs and money. LOTS of jobs and money. Many locals have jobs because of the bases. It is a very ambivalent relationship with the United States.

So, what does the future hold? In my humble opinion, more of the same. While the military presence causes headaches for the locals, on the world stage, it can be viewed as almost a stabilizing presence. Memories run deep in East Asia, especially in China and Korea, of the Japanese army rampaging through their countries. If the US pulled out of Okinawa, Japan would wonder about America's commitment to its defense. This would probably spawn pressure on the Japanese government to fully rearm Japan. In turn, China, the rising power, would feel pressure to increase their military, which would make Japan feel nervous, which in turn would increase rearmament...

You see the point here. Nobody wants a new Cold War or an arms race in East Asia between two Great Powers. A regional war between China and Japan would be nothing short of catastrophic for not only Japan and China (remember Japan has nuclear power plants for peaceful use, if they felt threatened, they could probably make nuclear weapons in a matter of hours), but the US. The US economy is really tied to Asia, China especially. Any disruption in this would sink the economy, which isn't doing so hot right now anyways.

On top of the China/Japan dynamic is the China/US dynamic. Although I think it is very unlikely China would ever try to forcefully unify Taiwan, there is always a possibility. A massive US base sitting near Taiwan provides some protection to Taipei and would make Beijing think twice about being aggressive in East Asia. Deep down, I think all the countries in the region know and understand this, and that is why I think it is unlikely to change in the near future. Remember, these are just my thoughts and speculations; I encourage you all to chime in and let me know what you think.

OK, that's all for the lecture. Sorry for being long-winded; my hope was for you to get a better understanding of Okinawa. We visited a few historical sites, and it is difficult to explain without going into detail. I hope you enjoyed, and I will post pics in the next post.

Okinawa Part Two: The Meiji, Annexation, and the Typhoon of Steel

2008-04-26T22:16:00.006+09:00

OK, here is part two. Before I start, I want to let you know where I am getting most of this info. It's from two books, "The Battle of Okinawa: The Blood and the Bomb" by George Feifer, and "The Clash: U.S.-Japanese Relations throughout History" by Walter LeFeber. I highly recommend both of them.

Perry's gunboat diplomacy resulted in the Harris Treaty of 1858 between Japan and the United States. This formally opened Japan to trade with the west. The treaty, however, was quite unfair to the Japanese, it imposed massive tariffs on their exported goods, while next to nothing was charged for foreign goods coming into Japan. The opening of Japan resulted in disaster for the Tokugawa shogun (military dictator, basically) that was ruling Japan.

Japan was unified in name only, it was actually ruled by families and clans resembling England in medieval times. The extreme south of the Japanese islands, Kyushu, (one of whose ruling families invaded Okinawa) was never really integrated with the rest of Japan. The cities in the south were still refusing foreign trade, and firing on foreign ships. In 1864, a fleet of European (and one small American) ships shelled the city of Shimanoseki, the city that sat on the strait between Honshu and Kyushu. This, combined with a bad economy, lead to the Shogun's downfall in 1868. The Meiji Restoration (the Meiji was the emperor, it was supposed to 'restore' the emperor to the rightful power that was usurped by the shogun) was supposed to expel the foreigners and close Japan again.

The Annexation

Well, this never happened. The rulers (the emperor had nominal power, but the real power rested with politicians that pledged loyalty to him) saw what the West was doing to China. Japan wanted to join the West, but not the way China was 'joining' the West. Japan sought to rapidly industrialize, engage in foreign trade, and become a Great Power. One lesson Japan quickly learned is that the Great Powers had overseas territorial possessions.

The Ryukyus were square in the cross hairs of the Japanese government. The Kurile Islands, a chain of islands north of Hokkaido, were seized from the Russians in 1874. That same year, Okinawa was formally occupied by Japan. Japan also sent troops to Formosa (Taiwan) to punish them for killing survivors of a Ryukyu ship that washed ashore. The Ryukyus were one of the first targets of the nascent Japanese Empire, and became fully annexed in 1879.

Fast Forward

The 1930's brought Japan a military dictatorship and a brutal war in China. In Okinawa, the Japanese began a forceful policy to make the citizens 'Japanese'. Okinawa was long neglected by Tokyo after the annexation. It became the poorest prefecture in Japan. The citizens were not viewed as 'Japanese', as they spoke an almost different language, and became 'Japanese' (in name only) rather late in history. In the 1930's, Japan decided to make the populace proper Japanese citizens. Teachers were sent from the mainland to teach the propaganda of the military. The Ryukyu language was officially outlawed. Only standard Tokyo Japanese was allowed to be spoken.

We heard firsthand about this from an old Okinawan woman. She was the owner of hostel we stayed in on the island of Ishigaki. As we sat in the hostel drinking awamori, the famous local spirit, she told us stories about the past (luckily, my friend Bill has excellent Japanese, so he was able to translate it for us). She was a school girl in the 1930's. She told us one day where a boy was teasing a girl in the classroom. He pinched her and she said the Okinawan word for 'Ouch!' (sorry, I forget what the word is now). The teacher grabbed her, spanked her, and made her say itai, the standard Japanese word for 'ouch'.

These kind of actions crept into private life also. She told us another bad story. The crackdown was so harsh that anyone heard speaking the Ryukyu language in public or even inside their own home was subject to arrest. Grandparents were forced to communicate with their grandchildren with simple, standard Japanese, as all they ever knew was the Ryukyu language. They couldn't use anything from the Ryukyu language. Imagine how awful that would be? It pales in comparison, however, to what the people would endure for three months in the spring of 1945.

The Typhoon of Steel

The warm waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean are a fantastic breeding ground for typhoons, the hurricanes of the Pacific. Every year, from mid-summer until mid-fall, the Ryukyu Islands are battered from typhoons that come barreling up the East China Sea. Every time, there is some damage, but the people usually rebuild and move on, living little reminder of the past damage. This is not the case with the Typhoon of Steel.

The Typhoon of Steel is the name the Okinawans gave to the American bombardment of the southern part of Okinawa Honto in the Battle of Okinawa. Okinawa Honto is about the size of Long Island, so to have most of the battle concentrated in the southern half (where most of the people live) can give you an idea of the magnitude of the destruction. The Battle of Okinawa was the largest and costliest battle in the Pacific War. The battle is filled with mistakes on both sides that proved deadly for the civilians in the area. Pre-war American intelligence suggested that about 250 people* lived in Okinawa, when really the population was close to 475,000, 65,000 in Naha alone.

The Japanese long knew Okinawa was a possible target for the Allies. Only 340 miles away from the main islands, Okinawa was a perfect location as an airbase against Japan (and also for Taiwan, China, Korea, and the Soviet Union). Japan began to shore up the defenses of Okinawa in mid-1944, as the US was preparing to re-conquer the Philippines. However, this work was going not at a hurried pace, as most Japanese planners (and many American ones, too) thought that the island of Formosa would be a more likely target than Okinawa. However, a massive US air raid on October 10th convinced most people there that the Americans would come some time in the not-too-distant future. The digging of defensive positions in the limestone caves intensified, and would eventually cause great misery to the Americans and the Japanese hiding in them.

Operation Iceberg

In early 1945, the war was going quite badly for Tokyo. The Philippines were taken. Iwo Jima was about to fall to the Americans. On the night of March 9-10, the eastern part of Tokyo was leveled in firebombing by 279 B-29's. Around 100,000 people were killed in the resulting firestorm. Still, due to the propaganda by the government, the civilians and the soldiers on the ground were being told the war was going great, and that the Allies were being defeated everywhere. However, when the people learned the truth about the war, they didn't believe it. One mid-level Japanese officer at Okinawa was shocked to hear about the rout of the Japanese Navy at the Battle of Midway, which happened almost three years before Okinawa! Still, the people making the decisions never let the people on the ground know the true story. The people at the top knew Japan stood no chance at beating the Allies. Their only hope was to hold off the invasion of the main islands as long as possible to get some sort of a favorable settlement with the Allies. Thus, the decision was made to make a brutal last stand on Okinawa.

All the top commanders on Okinawa knew this was it for them, that this battle would make or break Japan. They also knew that it was unlikely they would win, and that they would fight to the last man before surrender. If defeat was imminent, they would take their own lives, to protect their honor. This view of suicide in the face of defeat would cause thousands of needless deaths for the Japanese. The soldiers were told to do it out of honor. The civilians were told to do it because the Japanese propaganda about the Americans. The Japanese were told suicide was preferably to humiliation, torture, and rape by the beastly American soldiers. As the battle came to it's conclusion, thousands of civilians killed themselves either by choice or by being forced to by the Japanese soldiers. The Americans saw a little of this on the island of Saipan in 1944, as civilians jumped off cliffs to their deaths rather than be captured. However, Saipan was lightly populated compared to Okinawa, and most planners on both sides seemed to forget (or not care) about the possible civilian consequences.

One thing about the battle is the almost complete disregard for the civilians by both sides. The Japanese evacuated the civilians from Iwo Jima before the battle, but was much more slow about it in Okinawa. Eventually, about 160,000 civilians were evacuated from Okinawa, but the Japanese failed to mark the ships as carrying civilians. US submarines and torpedo bombers were sinking anything heading towards Japan. Three ships were filled with civilians, mostly women and children in Okinawa, and headed for the mainland. One of these ships was sunk by a US submarine, resulting in over 1,000 civilians killed.

Certainly, the Americans wanted to rescue as many civilians as possible. However, as the battle grinded along, thousands were killed, as they hid in the same caves as Japanese soldiers. Japanese soldiers even began to dress as civilians, and when feigning to surrender, would pull the pin of a grenade and kill themselves along with some American soldiers, or hide a pistol and shoot as many as they could before being killed by American fire. After enduring these attacks, the Americans began to rely on 'shoot first, ask questions later', resulting in massive civilian causalities. After reading about the battle, I can't say I wouldn't take that approach either. What would you do if you were faced in that situation?

The Americans code-named the invasion of Okinawa Operation Iceberg. It began on March 25th with a massive air and naval bombardment of the southern part of the island near Naha. The bombardment lasted until April 1st, when the Americans began to land. The Japanese held their fire, as in Iwo Jima, and waited for the Americans to get comfortable. After a few days, the Japanese opened up and began almost three months of ferocious fighting. As the Japanese were giving their all on land, kamikaze attacks were wreking havoc on the Navy floating off of Okinawa. The Japanese were putting everything they had in the battle. As the battle dragged on, the Japanese, hiding in the caves during the day and attacking at night, became increasingly desperate. Most supplies had stopped moving, meaning few food, ammunition, and medical supplies for the wounded.

The battle dragged on until in mid-June, when the Japanese began to collapse. The months of shelling and bombing during the day and close combat at night wore the Japanese down to nothing. Both sides endured atrocious conditions during the fighting, resulting in massive causalities. On June 22, the American flag was raised on the southern tip of the island, but it was not fully secured until July 2 (If you want more details on the battle, I highly recommend the aforementioned The Battle of Okinawa: The Blood and the Bomb by George Feifer).

The Final Toll

The battle was the first battle in the Pacific where there was a large civilian population. The Japanese pretty much did fight to the last soldier, resulting in around 66,000 killed and 17,000 wounded, with 7,000 captured. The Americans suffered about 12,500 killed and 59,500 wounded. However, nothing would match the civilian toll of the fighting. Estimates vary, as all the records of the local population were destroyed in the fighting, but the most conservative is 75,000 killed and missing, with the generally accepted number of 150,000 killed and missing. Think about that for a second. 150,000 out of the 475,000 total population. Absolutely awful.

The southern portion of the island was devastated; nothing was left standing. It was nothing short of horrific for all sides involved in the battle. The battle resonated very loudly in Washington with the military planners. The Japanese were broken, but were not giving up. Germany surrendered on May 8th, leaving a burned out, starving country to stand alone against America, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand (the Soviets had not entered the war yet). If the Japanese fought this hard in Okinawa, the thinking went, imagine the bloodshed that would take place when the Americans landed on Kyushu?

President Truman went to the final big war conference in Potsdam, Germany, in mid-July with this hanging over him. He was seeking the Soviet's entry in the Pacific War. However, on July 16th, everything changed. While at the conference, two weeks to the day Okinawa was declared secure, the Trinity test in Alamogordo, New Mexico, successfully detonated the world's first atomic bomb. The Battle of Okinawa helped give birth to a new and more dangerous world.

Next, Part Three: The Legacy of the Battle of Okinawa

*This is wrong; I took a quote from the book out of context. I want to leave it in, however, as you should read the comment from Bill, one of the vets from Okinawa, who was kind enough to post here. I can only talk about books and the museaums I saw; it's different to hear from someone who was there.

Okinawa Part One: The Early History

2008-04-19T23:03:00.008+09:00

Hello, sorry about the delay, it's been crazy because of the new school year. I've had to go to goodbye parties and welcome parties for the departing/incoming staff, Japanese classes, etc. I wanted to make this a little more in depth, as Okinawa is so different and there are so many things I want to talk about, so I've decided to make it a few separate posts. Here is post #1.

First, Okinawa Prefecture isn't just one island. It's a chain of islands, much like Hawaii isn't just one island (remember this comparison to Hawaii, Okinawa is surprisingly similar in it's history to that of the Hawaiian Islands). Second, it isn't always called Okinawa. The chain is called the Ryukyu Islands; it is used interchangeably with Okinawa. Third, only the islands next to and south of Okinawa Honto (the big island where the city of Naha is) are Okinawa Prefecture. The islands north of that are part of Kagoshima Prefecture, which is on the southern tip of Kyushu, one of the four main islands of Japan. Check out the map below; I always think that when you talk about places in the world, you should try to have a map handy to get an idea of what defining geographic features are. Here is Okinawa's location relative to Japan, Taiwan, China, and the Korean Peninsula (Okinawa Prefecture is obviously the the ones with the red Ryukyu Islands next to it).

Here is a more detailed map with the larger island's names:

For our trip, we went to the main island of Okinawa Honto, where we stayed in Naha for 3 days. We then caught a flight to the island of Ishigaki, took a taxi to the port, and took a ferry to the island of Iriomote. We spent a night on Iriomote, then took a boat back to Ishigaki, spent the night there, then went home the next day.

As you can see, these islands are are closer to Taiwan and China then the are to Japan. This is probably the most important factor in Okinawa's history, culture, and language.

The Ryukyu Islands weren't part of Japan until relatively late in history. Originally, these islands were independent, then, in 1372, they became nominally part of China (nominally being the key word, they were for all intents and purposes independent of most authority, only paying tribute to the Ming Dynasty emperors to continue trade). These islands were originally called Loo choo (pronounced Lew chew), as that was the Chinese reading of the characters, where Ryukyu is the Japanese reading of the characters. The Loo choo islands were ruled by a king that resided in Shuri Castle in Naha (more on the castle later).

The 13th and 14th centuries were the high point of Loo choo independence and prosperity. It's location made Naha a perfect trading hub between Taiwan, China, Korea, Japan, and other countries from south-east Asia. It developed a culture that borrowed many things from China, but was quite different from the mainland. The language was quite different also. However, as with most small, prosperous, and lightly defended places, conquest and subjugation weren't far around the corner.

In 1608, Japanese forces from Satsuma (in today's Kagoshima Prefecture) invaded the Loo choo islands, and conquered them without much of a fight. The Loo choo people didn't have a military, so there was no way for them to resist the Japanese. The kingdom was forced to pay heavy tributes to the Japanese, along with the customary payments to the Chinese. This, along with other economic factors, began the decline of the islands' prosperity. However, change would soon rock Okinawa again.

In late May, 1853 a flotilla of four American warships (two being new, coal powered steam ships, the other two being older, wind powered vessels) anchored off Naha, which would signal the beginning of Okinawa being used as a pawn in the relations between the United States and Japan. The ships were commanded by none other than Commodore Matthew C. Perry, the Newport, RI native that sailed to Japan with the intention of opening up Japan to Western (read: American) trade. The so called 'Black Ships', because the older ships were painted black, and the steam ships belched black smoke, had stopped in Naha on their way up to Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to present the case for Japan to open itself to the Western nations. The United States and European powers had been trying to get Japan to trade with them for decades (Japan closed itself off to the west in 1635). Perry decided to make Okinawa a show for government in Edo. Knowing they could not resist Perry's gunships, the Loo Choo king has no choice but to let them land. On June 6, Perry came ashore.

Perry's heavy-handedness set the tone for U.S./Okinawan relations for the next 100+ years. Perry gave his sailors and marines a blank check to go anywhere and do pretty much anything they wanted on the island. There was a reported rape of an Okinawan woman by a U.S. serviceman, the Americans 'commandeered' any food they wanted, and there was even reports of an alleged flag-raising of the American flag on a hill in Naha, raising speculation that the United States was here to annex Okinawa.

However, Perry had bigger fish to fry, and soon left to sail up the coast to Edo. Perry did succeed in his mission of opening Japan, but his success caused consequences for both Japan and Okinawa that he could not possibly see.

Next: Okinawa Part Two: The Meiji, Annexation, and the Typhoon of Steel

Opening Day 2008, Tokyo

2008-04-05T13:56:00.032+09:00

Alright, here is part two of the Spring Break adventure. On Monday night, March 24th, Shannon, Lisa (my neighbor), Warren (one of the JET's in the area) and myself boarded an overnight bus in Kyoto and went to Tokyo. We pulled into Tokyo at 7 AM on Tuesday, and wandered around Tokyo before the Red Sox game. We stayed in the Asakusa section of Tokyo, which is on the north-eastern side of town. This was my second time to Tokyo, the first being my orientation when I first got to Japan. We went to see Tokyo Tower, the big electronics stores in Akihabara, and finally to the Tokyo Dome to see the game.

Tokyo Tower is the Eiffel Tower for Japan. It has been destroyed about 12 times in various Godzilla movies. It was a symbol of Japan's recovery following the war. It was very cool, however, the only complaint I had was that it doesn't have a wide open green space in front of it for picture taking. It is in downtown Tokyo, surrounded by buildings, so most of the pictures of it a partially obscured. However, the view from it was quite nice.

Akihabara is where there are tons of electronic stores peddling every kind of gadget you could ever want. It was neat, but not very photogenic. It just looks like all the other shopping centers in the major cities. What made it funny is the otaku. Otaku is a Japanese word for someone who is obsessed with something. So, Japanese people would consider me a Red Sox otaku. However, it has carried over to English, where otaku means the nerdy, animae (cartoons, the famous Japanamation)and manga (Japanese comic books) loving Japan-o-phile. Akihabara has the otaku of the latter kind. The shops are filled with figurines depicting various animae/manga characters, complete with topless ones for many of the girl characters. It's hilarious that there are actual serious collectors of this stuff.

Finally, the Sox game came.

The Red Sox came to Japan so Major League Baseball can continue to raise the profile of the game in Japan (the week before, the LA Dodgers played and exhibition game in China). Baseball has been wildly popular for over one hundred years in Japan, but it has been only recently (the past 15-20 years or so) that high-profile players from Japan have been coming regularly to the States to play baseball. This trip was about keeping that trend going, and selling MLB merchandise in Japan. And boy did it sell.

They were sold out of Red Sox hats at about 6:00 (the game started at 7:00). Matsuzaka shirts were flying off the shelf (at the bargain price of 4500 yen, about $45.00, for the same shirt you can get at any Bob's stores for about half the price). Programs were 1500 yen ($15.00), and any kind of Red Sox (and Oakland, for that matter) trinket was being snatched up by throngs of people. The folks at MLB commissioner's office, and the Boston and Oakland owners, were watching the money flow in with glee.

The game itself was OK. Matsuzaka didn't look comfortable, and he had to throw a lot of pitches during his outing. The Boston offense didn't do a whole lot against Blanton, the Oakland pitcher. It wasn't looking good for Boston when Brendon Moss tied it up. Finally, Manny drove in the game winning runs (we all thought it was a home run, but it bounced off the walls). The crowd went nuts when Okajima came out; he eventually got the win. All in all it was a lot of fun. Before and after the game, we met a lot of New Englanders around Tokyo. Some were from Rhode Island, some Mass, some from Maine, some from NH. It was a lot of fun.

We had another day in Tokyo, so we went to Tokyo Disney. I admit I've always had a morbid curiosity about going there. I want to see the Japanese take on the cheesy Americana that is Disney. It was much like the American one, except it was in Japanese. The park has two parts: Disney Land and Disney Sea. We went to Disney Sea, which kind of had an ocean/sea theme to it, but it mirrored MGM Studios (in my opinion). It was OK, not something worth going to again, but I am glad I crossed it off my list.

On our last night in Tokyo, we went to a ninja themed restaurant, and went out for some karoke. The next day, we took the shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. The ride was amazing, it was so fast and so quiet. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get to Kyoto, compared to the 7 or so it took by bus. We got back to Kyoto, and I took Shannon and a guy named Jay we met in Tokyo to Kiyomizu Temple. We went back to my place, and on early Saturday morning, I went to the airport in Osaka with Shannon. She went back to America, and I went to Okinawa, which is where this post stops. The next post on Okinawa will be big, so check back for it in a few days. In the meantime, here are some of the pics from Tokyo. I have a ton of shots from the game, so if you want to see more, just check my Facebook and they will be there. Enjoy the weekend.

Jay

The only decent shot of Tokyo Tower

The view from Tokyo Tower

Don't look down

Time for the Sox game

The Opening Ceremony

They sang both the Japanese and the American national anthems.

I thought this was cool. The Red Sox lineup in Japanese. The numbers on the side are the positions of the players, not the batting order. The names are: 1. Pedroia
2. Youkillis 3. Ortiz 4. Ramirez 5. Lowell 6. Moss 7. Varitek 8. Ellsbury 9. Lugo
Obviously, the Kanji characters for the pitcher are Matsuzaka.

The Man

O-KA-JI-MA!!

It's a tight game, folks. Us Boston fans are nervous.

Never heard of Brendon Moss until he became the hero.

These guys are getting the rally cries going (obviously Americans from Boston).

C'mon, Papelbon.

Red Sox Win!

Final Score: Boston 6, Oakland 5

Interviewing Manny

Interviewing the local boy. Okajima played for the Yomiuri Giants in the Tokyo Dome before coming to Boston.

Entrance to Sensoji Temple, Asakusa, Tokyo

Sensoji Temple at night

Lanterns

Tori Gate and Lantern

Cherry blossoms at Sensoji Temple. Don't be startled by the symbol on the left, it's not what you think it is. It is the symbol for temple, it is older and different from what the Germans used.

Garden at Sensoji Temple

Random pictures from Tokyo Disney. The mountain is the Central American themed area (with a mosque in front of it from the Middle Eastern themed area), and the canal is the Italian themed area.

Some hilarious Plaques from Tokyo Disney in the New England themed area.

Sumo Wrestling in Osaka

2008-04-04T10:27:00.019+09:00

Hello everyone. I am writing to you on the last day of my spring vacation. The weather is warmer, the cherry blossoms are here, and the new school year is about to begin. I am sunburned and tired, but very happy. The past few weeks have been exhausting, expensive, but very fun. I will break up the posts as there are a lot of pictures and things to cover. Let's start with the sumo wrestling.

On Sunday, March 23, my friend Shannon came to visit from the states (it was supposed to be Saturday, but Northwest screwed up and delayed the flight to the next day). Shannon, along with Lisa, Fumi, and myself, went to the last day of the last day of the sumo tournament in Osaka. The tournament lasts almost two weeks, but we wanted to go on the last day to see the crowing of the yokozuna
(champion). We got there in the afternoon, and watched about 12 fights before the main event. I liked it a lot. It was full of pomp and ceremony, and the fighters would try to psych each other out through stares. The fights themselves were over quite quickly (it was amazing if a fight lasted longer than a minute or two). Finally, the main event came.

I had been snapping pictures all afternoon, so I wanted to enjoy the fight, so that's why there are no action shots of it. I am quite happy I went, as it is one of the things I wanted to see when I came to Japan. For the next post, I will talk about my trip to Tokyo and seeing the Red Sox on Opening Day.

View from the nosebleed seats

These are the wrestler's names.

You can't see his face very well, but the guy in the blue isn't Japanese. He's from Bulgaria. There are quite a few non-Japanese in sumo. In fact, the final two wrestlers competing for the championship aren't Japanese; they're from Mongolia.

Action Shot

Throwing the salt is meant to purify the ring of evil spirits.

These banners are from the sponsors to say what the prizes are for the winner of the match. I think the Hello Kitty one is hilarious.

Little ceremony announcing the beginning of the final match

Announcing the fighters for the title match

Get ready...

Beginning of the final fight to be the yokozuna (champion)

Beginning of the award ceremony

Big trophy for a big man

Interviewing the yokozuna

Omizu Okuri

2008-03-14T21:48:00.007+09:00

OK, time for another long-awaited update!

Spring is here in Japan. The snow is all gone in my town. The coming of spring means one thing: cherry blossoms! In the next few weeks, the cherry blossoms will start blooming. I will definitely post pictures when the cherry blossoms reach their peak.
As for what I've been up to:

Last weekend, I went up to see some friends in the mountains in the northern part of the prefecture. I went snowboarding for probably the last time this season. It was awesome, there were eight of us, and it was a beautiful day. The downside was that I didn't put enough sunscreen on my face, so it got cooked. Still, it was a fantastic day of boarding, so it was worth it. The weekend before (Sunday, March 2), was great, too.

In the city of Obama, there is a very famous celebration in early March. It's called Omizu Okuri (Water Carrying). It is a very old Shinto celebration. The celebration gets its name from carrying some holy water from a temple in Obama to a river, where the water is then poured into the river. The story goes (I think, not much info is available in English, this is all based on translations from Japanese) that hundreds of years ago, the holy water was traditionally carried over land to the city of Nara, the old imperial capital, on the other side of Honshu. Due to fighting from a civil war, the roads to Nara were blocked. The people had a big ceremony and poured the water into a river, and, legend has it, reached Nara a week later.

The ceremony was amazing. Before the temple, we bought some torches from a stand. There was a procession to a temple. A little while later, a priest started chanting, and as the sun went down, they lit massive torches and started waving them around. They then marched to an area in front of the temple, and lit some massive bonfires. There was a little ceremony, then there were large torches (more like logs rather than torches) that were carried by people about a mile up the road to the riverside. All the people behind them lit the torches, and followed them to the riverside. It was amazing to see hundreds of people carrying torches along the roadside. When you reach the riverside, there are massive bonfires and another ceremony as the water is poured in the river.

Unfortunately, a lot of the pictures didn't come out too well, so you really can't see how big the fires were and how many people were at the festival. It was especially cool when walking on the road, all you saw were the torches moving in a line as far as the eye could see. It was definitely one of the best festivals so far, and I can't wait for it next year.

That's all for now. Next week is the start of spring break. I will be on the road a lot until early April (I will be in Osaka, Tokyo, and Okinawa, respectively). I will do a big post with all the pictures when I get back in early April. Hope you all have a good St. Patty's Day/Easter/Passover. I'll talk to you all soon.

Bill and Alcillena

Other JET friends: Leslie, Diana, Tim

The first procession to the temple. The pictures didn't come out too good as I was getting bumped all over the place by the crowd.

Here comes the fire...

The pictures don't do justice to how massive the flames these guys were waving around.

Bonfire

Alcillena and Bill carrying a big torch.

Lighting the torches

The only picture of the torchlight procession to come out.

Some pictures from the riverside.

All Over the Place

2008-02-22T00:04:00.002+09:00

OK, this post is going to be all over the place, so here goes.

First, on Monday, Feb. 11th, I went to Kyoto for the day. I went to Kinkaguji (Golden Pavilion). It is a Buddhist temple in Kyoto. It was destroyed in a fire in 1950, it was rebuilt in 1955. It is quite pretty, it is a nice green space in Kyoto (most of urban Japan is massive sprawl, so any kind of green space in a city is pretty nice). I've posted some pictures below.

Next, the snow. I know that there has been a lot of snow in New England lately. Well, I feel your pain (but secretly I am ecstatic as I am going boarding this weekend), as last week, it started snowing Wednesday night, and did not end until Sunday. I took some pictures of the aftermath on Sunday morning, all the locals say this is the most snow this area has got in a number of years.

Third, the area where I live in Japan has been getting a lot of press lately. Why do you ask? Well, the little city next to my town is called Obama. News stations for all over the world have been coming to Obama lately to basically talk about how the people want Obama to become president because they share the same name. I want to post a few links, because I think it is hilarious. Obama is a sleepy little fishing town. Us JET's are the most visible members of the very small community of foreigners in the region. As I said in a previous post, there are other foreigners around, but a lot are from other Asian countries, so people would assume they were Japanese until they opened their mouth and spoke with an accent (Although at one of my elementary schools, there are two boys whose father is Turkish. Talk about random; a small town in rural Japan has a Turkish guy living there. I never stop being surprised here). I've posted some links here for your perusal.

New York Times

Yahoo

All in all, it's pretty funny. I hope the people of Obama do benefit from this somehow. It's got all the problems of rural Japan that I've talked about. A lack of good jobs, young people leaving in droves, an eroding tax base, etc. There really isn't too much to see here for sightseeing, but if some of the locals can get some ideas and create some small businesses using (i.e. exploiting) the name of Obama, than more power to them.

Last, I am going to Okinawa at the end of March. Okinawa is one place I have always wanted to go to. The end of March is going to be insane for me. Here is the tentative schedule for March.

3/21 (Friday): Go to Osaka for the night.
3/22: Hang out in Osaka with a bunch of friends. In the evening, meet my friend Shannon at the airport. Go out and explore Osaka with a bunch of friends at night.
3/23: Sightseeing in Osaka, then go to the sumo tournament in the afternoon. Take the train home in the evening.
3/24: Go to school for the last day before the break. At night, go to Kyoto with Shannon, Lisa, and possible another JET, and take the overnight bus to Tokyo.
3/25: Arrive in Tokyo, and explore during the day. At night, it's off to Tokyo Dome to see the Red Sox.
3/26: Hang out and explore Tokyo.
3/27: Take the shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo to Kyoto. Go home, attend farewell party for the principal at my school, and rest.
3/28: Probably go to Kyoto for the day, and spend the night in Osaka.
3/29: Drop Shannon off at the airport in Osaka. Hang out for a few hours and wait for my flight to Okinawa.
3/30-4/3: Hang out in Okinawa. Fly back to Osaka on 4/3 and go home. Rest for a few days, and get ready for the new school year (the Japanese school year ends in March).

God, I am exhausted from just writing all that. I am really excited, though. I want to see as much of Japan as I can, and I love just going to different areas and exploring the sights.

I hope all is well with everyone. People have been asking me when I am coming home to visit. I will be heading home in mid-August for eight or nine days. I hope to catch you all then.

Kinkakuji

It's hard to see in this picture, but there is a pool of water underneath the (roof? thatch? not sure what you would call this) covering. Samurai used this water for their tea.

Samurai washed their hands at this waterfall.

Prayer Candles

Snow Day. Lisa's car.

Lisa is NOT happy about having to shovel.

The neighbors' cars.

Paul grew up in New York City. This is first time he's ever had to dig out a car. Again, they aren't very excited about it.

Snowy Mountain

Paul and Lisa digging out Paul's car.

Toba Elementary School. This is one of my schools.

Buried

Guess who is going to see the Red Sox in Tokyo?

2008-02-11T00:35:00.000+09:00

This guy right here, that's who. I got tickets for the Opening Day game against Oakland in March. Needless to say, after the Pat's flop/choke at the Super Bowl, I need some good sports news from the home front.

(On an unrelated note, did anyone else notice how the fortunes of the Red Sox and Patriot's have reversed in the past few years? This was the second year in a row of a Patriot post-season choke, and yet the Sox won the World Series and are looking like a strong team this year, too. The Patriots are what the Red Sox were a few years ago, top heavy on offense, but not enough of the intangibles to make a championship team. Just my humble opinion.)

Ok, back to topic. Yeah, I am going to see the Red Sox. I am insanely excited. It is the first time I have been to an Opening Day game, and it's in Japan. Talk about strange. The game is on a Tuesday night, but it is the start of Spring Break in Japan, so I get to go. That week will be crazy fun, as a friend of mine is coming to visit from the States. We will see sumo wrestling in Osaka that Sunday, and go to Tokyo on Monday for two days. It's going to be an unreal few days. There will be a big post with lots of pictures about that week.

Finally, as you all have probably noticed, my blog is riddled with spelling/grammatical errors. As I am an ENGLISH TEACHER, that is absolutely, utterly embarrassing. So, I am accepting applications for an editor/copywriter. Your compensation will be (approximately) 1 Yen a year, give or take 1 Yen and fluctuations in the exchange rate, with no benefits. The upside is you can use me as a reference on a resume (I edited posts for MAJOR international publication in Japan. How sexy does that sound on the ole' CV?). Seriously, though, if someone spots a glaring mistake (that means you Dave/Kevin/Pete/anyone else), let me know. It would be greatly appreciated.

As for this week, tomorrow is a holiday. I am going to Kyoto for the day. I'll post pics in the next week or so.

Have a Happy Valentine's Day.

Jay

Seriously? It's been a month?

2008-02-06T23:21:00.001+09:00

Hello all,

Well, as the title says, it's been a month since my last post. I had no idea it had been so long. Due to popular request (popular request being an e-mail from my mother and a sentence fragment/e-mail from my brother), I am posting a long neglected update.

What have I been up to? Well, pretty much just work and snowboarding. Japanese schools are on a different schedule than American schools. They use the trimester system here, so January was the beginning of the final trimester. It also is the shortest term of the year, from January to the end of March. So, they tend to cram in the exams, classes, and my visiting schools. I have been snowboarding almost every Sunday (except last weekend, when I went to Kyoto for the day). I'll post some random pics from around the area. On a sadder note, I went to visit all my small mountain schools over the past few weeks. They are all closing in March 2009. It's a shame, the kids are really fun and I love going there. The views are awesome, and I get to see monkeys (I know, it sounds like it is worse for me than the kids and the teachers at the affected schools).

Yesterday and today I went to two of the mountain schools; I got some pics of monkeys. The monkeys were at the school I was at yesterday, there was about 10-15 of them running around outside. The pictures aren't that good, but you can see enough to know that it is a small, furry creature running around. Today, I got some good pics of Aobasan (Mt. Aoba). It is called Wakasa-Fuji, as it looks like Mt. Fuji from a distance, and Wakasa is the name of bay that boarders our area. It was great, a small village above me, the mountain and ocean across, and it was so quiet. No cars on the road, no people around, just the sound of running water, birds, and the wind. It was pretty nice.

Anyways, it's late, and I'm tired. On to the photos.

Kyoto.

Yes, I know I'm wearing a Patriots hat. Yes, I know what happened at the Super Bowl. No, I don't want to talk about it.

Rich and I in Kyoto.

Monkey business. This was Tuesday at Otomi Elementary School, Takahama.

More monkeys! Look on the railing. Otomi Elementary.

View from the teacher's room of Hibiki Elementary School, Takahama.

View from 3rd floor of Hibiki Elementary School.

Aobasan, Takahama.

Tip of the village

Finally, this picture has nothing to do with anything. I just thought it was a hilarious van. Taken at a shopping plaza in Tsuruga.

Maizuru

2008-01-05T12:55:00.000+09:00

Happy 2008,

I'm reading a great book right now; I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Japan or Japanese history. It's called "Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II" by John Dower. I am a history nerd, and thoughts of the effects of the war and it's aftermath are never far from me.

Yesterday, I went down to a city called Maizuru (check out this article on the city, it sums it up nicely; I also got the film-noir feeling about the city). It's a small, gritty port city about an hour or so south of me. There isn't too much there; it's a Japan Self Defense Force Naval and Air base. It was certainly strange to see Japanese warships with the Japanese naval flag waving in the wind (the naval flag is the rising sun with the red and white stripes). Maizuru has quite a few of old brick warehouses near the port. It's pretty rare to see brick buildings in Japan. In one of these old warehouses, there is the "World Brick Museum".

I thought the museum would be about the history of the buildings and the city, much like the Millyard museum in Manchester. Nope, it was just as it said....a museum dedicated to bricks. They had bricks from the Kremlin, bricks from the Great Wall of China, bricks from Mesopotamia, etc. For the kids, they had puzzles to line up the bricks correctly, and mini-red bricks to introduce them to bricklaying! Talk about fun! Yeah, it was pretty cheesy, but the next museum was pretty moving.

Before I talk about the Repatriation Museum, I want to give a little historical background.

In "Embracing Defeat", one of the first things the author talks about is the status of Japanese nationals trapped overseas when the war ends. Following the surrender, there were about 6.5 million Japanese scattered around the various Asian territories that Japan had conquered. These weren't all just soldiers; they were families sent to settle areas in Manchuria, Taiwan, Korea, etc. You can imagine the dread that fell on normal Japanese families when the emperor announced the war had not gone in Japan's favor (he never used the word 'defeat' in his speech). Most of the urban areas of Japan were devastated, the government had stopped functioning, and there was no information from either Japanese or American officials.

As most of you know, the Soviets declared war on Japan on August 8th, 1945, between the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. The Red Army swept through Manchuria into the northern Korean peninsula (which of course gives us today's North and South Korea).
The Japanese presence was heaviest in Manchuria and Korea, as both of these were major Japanese colonies (Korea was formally annexed by Japan in 1910, and Manchuria was invaded in 1931 and re-named Manchukuo). It was estimated that around 1.7 million soldiers were captured by the Red Army by the wars end. These soldiers faced brutal conditions in Soviet prison camps, and the Soviets were slow at sending them back to Japan. Many were brainwashed by the Soviets to spread communist thought throughout Japan when they returned. The first P.O.W.s from the Soviets reached Japan in December 1946, well over a year from Japan's surrender (here is a good article about one soldier's experience in the Soviet prison camps).

Maizuru was the main port where all these former soldiers from East Asia returned. The Repatriation Museum showed the history of this, and it focused on the experience of these soldiers in the Soviet prison camps. There were clothes that the P.O.W.s used in the winter to keep warm, letters to General MacArthur pleading for information on loved ones missing overseas, copies of the Soviet propaganda that the P.O.W.s were forced to read in the camps, etc. It was moving to see grainy black and white photographs of families trying to find information for their loved ones.

America's history of the war is taught from our perspective, with attention paid to Pearl Harbor, the atrocities committed by the Japanese occupiers, the big battles at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and the atomic bombings. While all of these are true and certainly pivotal moments in history, it doesn't paint a complete picture of the war.
They aftermath of the war still resonates very loudly. We are on the edge of living memory (people who lived through these events and can recall them) of the war and the occupation. There is no question that the imperial government of wartime Japan was awful, with it's complicity in actions like the Rape of Nanjing, the Bataan Death March, using captured POW's as slave labor on the Burma railroad, the use of comfort women (women forced into prostitution from the occupied lands), Operation Golden Lily (the official policy of plundering treasures from Japan's imperial possessions), and so on. However, we don't see the experiences of the people on the ground, the farmers, workers, housewives, etc. It's good for me to see things like the aftermath of the war from another perspective, and to get a little more understanding of the true nature of the Pacific War.

The last boat of P.O.W.s came back to Japan from the Soviets at the end of 1949. There were more than 300,000 Japanese P.O.W.s still unaccounted for. Forty years later, as communism was collapsing, the Russian government announced the location of graves of around 50,000 soldiers that died in custody. However, that still leaves about 250,000 soldiers where their status is unknown.

Christmas, Snowboarding, 16-0, and other Random Stuff

2007-12-30T13:51:00.000+09:00

Happy New Years everyone.

Been a little busy here lately, still no snow down near me but there was more than enough in Nagano...

First, Christmas. It was alright; I went down to Osaka for the night. I did some shopping (got myself a nice digital camera). I went to Universal Studios Japan. It was pretty funny, it has the same cheesy-Americana theme to it as the other major theme in the states. HOWEVER, the one good thing they had was a brew pub with micro-brew beers. I had a big mug of red ale, the first time I've had something like that in a long time. Japanese beers tend to be light, they go good with light food, but as for a good, flavorful dark beer, it is tough to find. So, it was nice to have a little taste of home.

Next, Nagano.

I went up the day after Christmas. There were nine of us that went up. Nagano is absolutely beautiful. We had great weather, and it was great snowboarding. The new board was great, it is definitely the best board I have ever owned. I really needed that weekend. I have been feeling a little homesick/down lately, I think it has to do with the fact that I wasn't home for the holidays, and that it has been cloudy/rainy here for the past few weeks. I tend to get grumpy when I don't see the sun for a while. I love snowboarding, and it makes me feel refreshed whenever I go (mentally refreshed, that is; physically I was sore and exhausted)

Third, 16-0

As you all now know, the Pats went 16-0. Now, being in Japan, I couldn't watch any of the games. Even if I could watch the games, the 14 hour time difference usually makes it impossible to follow them. Well, the final game was a Saturday night game, so, it started at 10:15 AM on Sunday here in Japan. I just went on WBCN.com, and listened to Gil and Gino call the game on Internet radio. Close game as you know, but it was so nice to follow the game. I jumped in the air and pumped my fist when the Pats scored and Hobbs got the interception. All in all, nice to be able to hear the perfect regular season. Now, hopefully I can hear them in the playoffs...

Finally, random things.

I know I sound like a broken record with this topic, but again, another sign of the rural issues in Japan. They Board of Education is closing some of the elementary schools that I go to next year. It's sad, but I think small local school closings will accelerate over the coming years.

Enough of that. Happy New Year everyone, have fun, stay safe, and I'll post again soon.

Jay

Now, on to the pics from Nagano.

The view from the hotel

Some of the group. Kim is on the left. The guy in the center is my friend Aidan. He is from South Africa, so this is his first time seeing/touching snow.

Tori Gate with Snow

Sundown at the Tori Gate

Aidan getting ready

Sorry about the thumbs, I was taking the photos with my goggles on.

Aidan Snowboarding

Scenery

Links

2007-12-07T23:17:00.001+09:00

Hey everyone,

Not too much going on here. Winter is here, there is snow in the mountains, but none in my town. The ski resorts should be opening up in another week or two; which is good, as I am staring at my new 'board, waiting for the day I can try it out. Pretty quiet since my last post, I went out for karoke for my birthday (no, I am NOT posting any of the incriminating photos from that night). Other than that, just doing errands and working on improving my Japanese.

As the title implies, this post will have a lot of links I've been meaning to post for a while. The first is from a woman that came here back in October when we had the BBQ at my place. The woman's name is Danielle Cote, she is from Montreal. She is currently doing a bike tour of Asia/Australia/New Zealand. Two JETs (Maren and Jo) met her in Tsuruga (she also mentions Eben, another JET in our area) and brought her down for the BBQ. She kept a journal of her travels. It's all in French, but I think I got the gist of what she is trying to say (hopefully). She mentions the BBQ at the top of the page.
So, for those of you who are fluent in Francais, here is Danielle a Velo.

In my previous posts, I talked about the demographic challenge that Japan is facing in the future. The BBC did a great three part series on the issue; I can really see the consequences of this in the rural towns. I am going to another elementary school on Monday, this one will have a total of nine students. It's really interesting to think what Japan will look in in 25 years.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3 is interesting as it deals with the issue of foreigners in Japan; in this case, Brazilians. I remember reading somewhere that Brazil has the largest number of people of Japanese ancestry outside of Japan. I don't know if this is true, as I can't find the source now, so take it as 'a little bird told me'. There are Brazilians in my town that work at the factories here, although I haven't met any. Lisa, my neighbor, was friends with one of the Brazilian girls, but she went back to Brazil a few months ago. She had been living in Japan for ten years. Lisa said she was feeling pretty down in the dumps and wanted to go home for about six months. After reading this article, it makes sense why she felt that way.

Finally, the New York Times did a great article a few days ago about the growing divide between the rural and the urban economy of Japan. In my town, as in a lot of rural Japan, it seems most of the jobs are concentrated in areas like construction, fishing, farming, factories, and the government (although my prefecture has a very high concentration of nuclear power plants, so I guess there are some very high paying jobs for nuclear scientists/engineers). If someone wants a cozy office job, they will have to go to Tokyo/Osaka/Nagoya, etc. This article does a great job showing what issues the rural areas face.

OK, class, today's lecture is finished. Professor Jay is stepping off the podium, please e-mail a research paper on today's topic. Sorry for not having exciting pics this post, but they will be coming soon. For Christmas, I am going to Osaka to see Universal Studios Japan (it is supposed to be all decked out for Christmas with all kinds of Christmas music). I will come home for one day, then go to Nagano for a few days of snowboarding. You can be sure I will be posting those pics.

Have a good one, stay warm.

Jay

Kanazawa and Other Stuff

2007-11-27T21:22:00.000+09:00

Hello everyone,

Lots of pictures with this one. Last week was busy. I went up to Fukui for the 2-day conference that all the JET's in the prefecture were required to attend. It was helpful, but the best was that Friday was a holiday. A bunch of us went to Kanazawa, a city about 3 hours north of my apartment by train. We tried to get a hotel room, but there were NO available hotels in the Kanazawa area. So, we had to limit it to a day trip. The two things we got to see were kenrokuen and Kanazawa-jo.

Kenrokuen basically an old public garden on top of a hill. It is amazingly beautiful. The leaves were changing colors, and it was a crisp, cold fall day. There are a lot more pictures than these, I didn't want to post the 100 or so pics we took that day here. Across the street is Kanazawa-jo, which, like Osaka-jo, is a castle that has been restored and rebuilt. It was pretty cool, but the garden is definitely the highlight. After sightseeing, we went to a bookstore and spent a ton of money on books in English, then went out to a Mexican restaurant. We came back, and got home late on Friday night. Saturday, I did nothing but clean and read. Sunday, however, I bought a snowboard. It's a Burton Seven, and I've posted some pics of it.

Thursday is my birthday, so on Friday, I am going out to karoke with a bunch of people. Other than that, it should be a quiet weekend at home this weekend, which will help my voice recover from belting out songs on Friday.

Have a good one, I'll talk to you soon.

The ropes are to prevent the tree branches from breaking from the weight of the snow in the winter.

The Group

Kanazawa-jo

View of Kanazawa from Kanazawa-jo

Snowboard

BRR...

2007-11-18T20:22:00.000+09:00

Hello everyone,

How are you all? It's gotten pretty cold here in Japan, winter is definitely on the way (they are predicting snow here on Thanksgiving Day). So, normally I love winter, because I love snowboarding. However, one of the things that is good about winter is that you can come into from the cold to a nice, warm house/apartment, change out of your clothes, and relax. Well, in Japan, things are a little different, because, well, there is really no such thing as central heat in Japanese homes (and schools). They use space heaters here(which you have to turn off at night for safety reasons), so, needless to say, it gets cold inside your home/school. My apartment is on the ground floor, so it has been pretty cold in the mornings here. As I am typing, I am huddled around my little space heater and wrapped up in my blanket (which is nice, thick, and warm). Anyways, on to this weekend.

Friday, one of the JET's had a birthday party. Her mother sent her stuff for Mexican food; soft tortillas, chips, salsa, etc. We had a Mexican party, I haven't had Mexican food in months. It was AMAZING. You don't realize how something as simple as a flour tortilla can make so many people so happy. Saturday, another JET had a potluck at her place, again, with delicious food. Today (Sunday), however, was pretty cool.

Tsuruga had it's international festival today. I met a lot of foreigners that I didn't even know were around the area. There were people from Bangladesh, South Korea, and the Philippines. Each room had a different culture/theme to it, there was flower arranging, origami, tea ceremonies, etc. Our theme was Christmas wreaths, so I dressed as Santa. The Japanese adults seemed to like it more than the kids, but at least it made some people happy. In one of the rooms you could try on kimonos (for the ladies) and samurai armor (for the men). Paul (one of the JET's) and I got to put on the samurai armor; it was awesome. The Japanese people had a good laugh as two goofy looking foreigners strutted around wearing samurai armor. The pictures below were taken from a cell phone, so the quality isn't as good as usual, but you get an idea of the madness of the afternoon.

Anyways, this week is going to be a little crazy. On Wednesday morning, I have to go to Fukui City for a two-day conference. It will be nice to see a lot of the people I don't get to see to often, but it is annoying to go somewhere that is about two hours away to sit at meetings, panels, workshops, etc. The upside is that Friday is a national holiday, so I only have school Monday and Tuesday this week. I am going with a few other JET's to Kanazawa for the long weekend. We all have heard that Kanazawa is beautiful, so it should be a good time. I will post pictures of Kanazawa next week when I get back.

Have a good week everyone, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Ho Ho Ho

Samurai Madness

Osaka and Kyoto Trip

2007-11-11T00:35:00.001+09:00

Hey everyone,

Before I begin, I just want to let you all know I am a liar. I promised no more massive posts, and, of course, I go and do a massive post. So, I apologize. Now
that I have that out of the way...

Hope you all are enjoying the weekend. I know I am, as this week was pretty busy for me. It is a quiet weekend here, which is what I need. I went to Osaka and Kyoto last weekend, so I was pretty exhausted before the work week even began. Not that I'm complaining, I had a lot of fun that weekend, and it was worth being tired all week.
I put some links on for a little further explanation of some of the places I visited. I know it's Wiki, and those have to be taken with a grain of salt, but it saves me from typing more than I have to, which makes my life a smidgen easier (i.e. I am lazy).

I really like Osaka. This was my first real exploration of the city, and I was not disappointed. The city seems a lot more laid back than Tokyo, and just had a friendlier (is that a word?) vibe than Tokyo. We went did some shopping in a place called the American Village (how hilarious is that?). It was cool, I got some English -language books, a CD (TV on the Radio, if you don't know them you should check it out), and the best part...big shoes for my massive, foreign feet! The American Village reminded me a lot of the Village in New York, there were cool stores, bands playing outside shows, and, as a bonus, I think we saw pro-snowboarder Shaun White. Burton Snowboards was sponsoring an event, and as we walked by, we saw a Hummer-stretch limo with the Burton logo on it drive by. When it stopped at the light, someone with long, bright red hair, leaned out and had his picture taken. While I couldn't see the face, how many other long-haired, red-headed, Burton-sponsored, world-famous personalities, could there be hamming it up in Japan?

Anyways, enough of speculation, it's late and I'm tired. Thanks for reading, I'll be back soon. On to the photos.

Osaka-jo

Osaka-jo is a castle built by the shogunate. Don't be fooled, though, this was rebuilt a few times due to revolutions, world wars, and general neglect. However, it is an amazing green space in the middle of Osaka. When we went, it was in the middle of the autumn festival. There was food vendors, taiko drumming, and little street performers.

View of Osaka from Osaka-jo.

Near the hotel was Dotonbori, the cool entertainment strip for Osaka. The big crab is Kani Doraku seafood restaurant, I was told it is one of the most famous landmarks in Osaka. The closet thing I could probably relate it to is the Citgo sign in Kenmore Square in Boston, or the Hollywood sign in LA. It's funny how ads become cultural icons in cities across the world.

Kaiyukan Aquarium

This is the famous aquarium in Osaka. It was really cool, they had the typical aquarium stuff, such as dolphins, penguins, sea lions, seals, turtles, sea otters, etc. The signature draw of the aquarium, though, was a whale shark. It was still young, but huge, it was bigger than a car. Unfortunately, very few of the pictures of the aquarium came out, so I can't show you the whale shark. Trust me, though, it was amazing to see that thing swim by.

Clearly fascinated by bright, shiny things.

BIG stingray

I rode this monster. It is the Tempozan Harbor Ferris Wheel . It was cool at night.

View of Osaka from the ferris wheel

Kyoto

I didn't spend too much time in Kyoto, as it was Sunday and we stopped on our way home from Osaka. I really want to go to Kyoto more, as it is pretty close (about as far as Concord, NH is from Boston) and has a lot of Japanese culture. During the war, Kyoto didn't have any military targets, so it was spared of the bombing campaigns that flattened most of the other major cities in Japan. I will probably head to Kyoto again in the next month or so, so I can post more pictures for everyone then.

Kyomizu Temple

Kyomizu Temple is one of the most famous temples in Kyoto. It's on top of a hill, so it offers amazing views of the city. It is especially popular in the fall when the leaves change color. The leaves won't change here for another few weeks, we were a little early to the temple, but it was worth it. It was a beautiful autumn day, so basically everyone in and around Kyoto descended on Kyomizu Temple. It was insanely crowded, the streets were jammed with people walking up to the temple. It still was amazing to be there, though. I am definitely glad I went.

Jam packed

View of Kyoto

Ultra-Long, Triumphant Internet Post

2007-10-31T22:06:00.000+09:00

Hi gang, this is a pretty long post, but hopefully it will be the last of my long-winded posts.

I finally have working internet. I am a happy guy. I hope people are still out there reading this. Well, let's dive into the past few weeks. It's been pretty busy for me. I went to a local festival, hosted a BBQ (with the other JET that lives in my building), and have generally been keeping busy with work, going to the gym, and Japanese lessons. I went to my most remote visiting Elementary School on Monday. It is over an hour from my apartment, on the very southern tip of the prefecture. It has 6 students in the school. I got a little lost driving there, but a teacher from the nearby middle school was kind enough to show me the correct way (another JET was at the middle school that day... he said the teachers were talking about seeing another foreigner all day...you would've thought the locals saw Elvis with the way they were talking). I went to the Elementary School (Hibiki Elementary School), and had a blast, as I usually do when I visit the schools. The kids are hilarious, but it can be exhausting when they want to play with you and climb all over you. I played Halloween bingo with them, and had them say 'Trick or Treat' to me for Halloween pencils (by the way, thanks Mom, the Halloween pencils were a HUGE hit with all of the students). The best part of the day was, however, the monkeys.
Monkeys, you say? Oh yes. They have monkeys in Takahama (the town where my school was). Actually, I have seen monkeys at the school where I am based, but they were kind of far away and were promptly shooed off by one of the teachers here (monkeys are regarded as pests here because they eat all the crops). Right after lunch, there was a group of 6 monkeys playing on the soccer goal in the playground. I, of course, was freaking out, because A: There was 6 freakin' monkeys in front of me and B: I left my camera at home, like an idiot. The principal shooed them away, but it was funny how blase the people regarded monkeys in a playground. I guess I am the only one who saw the humor in the situation. One final note on why I am mad I left my camera at home: the school is stunningly beautiful. It is on top of a mountain, overlooking the ocean. It was a nice, sunny day, and the view was incredible. I will bring my camera the next time I go, and hopefully will have another nice day.

Kumagawa festival

On Sunday, October 14th, one of the areas of my town called Kumagawa had their annual festival. Kumagawa is exactly what I pictured of rural Japan. Bamboo forests, shrines, and beautiful old buildings. Kumagawa was originally established as an important post town during the shogunate. It was a stop on the old ''Mackerel Road', which is the main road that brought fish from the ocean to the imperial capital of Kyoto. Every year, Kumagawa has a festival to celebrate this history. Kumagawa was amazing, the best part is another JET came with her Japanese neighbor (who spoke excellent English), which was great in explaining what was going on. All in all, I really enjoyed the festival, I saw many of my students from my Junior High School, and enjoyed trying some of the local food.

Whew, sorry for the length. Now that I have internet, I can post more frequently. No more (hopefully) of these massive posts once a month. It's late here, I am off for bed. I am heading to Osaka and Kyoto this weekend, I will post pictures from that when I get back. In the meantime, Happy Halloween to everyone, and have a good one.

Storefront of Kumagawa

Bamboo forest

Street view. I really like the mountain stream flowing right in front of the houses. The sound of the running water must be very relaxing.

Buddhist Priest (I think)

Torii Gate to the shrine

I had to get a picture of this suit. Amazing.

Taiko Drumming

Buddhist Priests (I think)

Postal costume from the early 1800's

Garden

Picture-less Update

2007-10-08T19:18:00.000+09:00

Hi everyone,

I hope everyone is enjoying a nice long weekend in America. We also have a long weekend here in Japan, it's officially called Health and Sports Day. Not much going on here, just settling into the routine of school. My school's band had a concert yesterday, I went and the students were pretty excited that I went ('OOH, Jason-san!' was being whispered all over the place). I finally got a baseball glove of my own, I've been playing softball at the handicapped school that I visit once a week. The past few weekends I've gone to different parts of the prefecture visiting other friends in the JET Program. Last weekend was two straight days of karoke. I could barely talk by Sunday morning. This weekend was quieter, however, there was one great thing I saw on Saturday morning....game 2 of the Red Sox/Angel series! Well, most of it that is. It came on here at 9:30 AM local time (Japan is 13 hours ahead of the East Coast), it was all in Japanese, but sure enough, Fenway Park was on my TV once again. The reason why it was on is because Matsuzaka was pitching. He got yanked in the fifth, which was almost noon time here. The game cut out for a little bit, with NHK news talking about a typhoon hitting Okinawa. I figured the game would come back on, but it didn't until Okajima came in. Once Okajima was out, however, that was it. When the Japanese pitchers were out, they stopped broadcasting the game, which is a shame since I couldn't see Manny's moonshot. Oh well, the point is the Sox swept the Angels, now we just let the Indians/Yankees beat each other up and play again on Friday night (maybe I can see the game again on Sat. morning?). As much as I am enjoying Japan, I miss not being able to watch the Sox and Pats. Oh well, as long as they are winning it's all good. I hope everyone is doing good, talk to you all soon.

Gratitious Update

2007-09-19T20:31:00.000+09:00

Hi everyone, I apologize for the massive delay in posting, again, the spotty internet is killing me (hopefully there are people out there still reading this). This is a big post, talking about my past two Mondays. Things are going good for me here, I start Japanese classes tomorrow night, and I already have a tutor on the side. He is a retired English teacher/ principal that lives in town. He had me over for dinner tonight with his wife. He is very nice, he is going to help me with my Japanese, and I am going to help him prepare materials for his college English class that he will start teaching in a few weeks. His wife also offered to have me do Japanese calligraphy with her. These are exactly the reasons why I'm here, it makes up for frustrating situations where you don't understand what is going on in stores/work/train stations, etc. Anyways, I hope everyone is well, I will probably send out a mass e-mail shortly, so watch your inboxes.

Jay

Baseball Game in Osaka

So Monday, 9/17 was probably one of the coolest days I've had since I've been in Japan. Paul, one of my fellow JET friends, works at a middle school about 30 min away from me. One of his colleagues used to coach baseball. One of his old students is now playing professionally here in Japan. The players name is Arihito Muramatsu, he plays for the Orix Buffaloes, which is based in Osaka. He even has his own Wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arihito_Muramatsu

So two weekends ago, I was hanging out with Paul and his girlfriend Lisa (Lisa is the other JET living in my building), when he asked if I wanted to go to a baseball game with him and his teacher friend. Being a crazy baseball fan, and being that Monday was a holiday (officially it is called Respect for the Aged Day), I jumped on the opportunity, and so Paul, three Japanese teachers, and I hopped a train to Osaka to see the game.

What I didn't realize is that I would not only meet a player, I would get free tickets, AND a signed bat and ball!! It was very cool. Orix unfortunately is a lot like the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, a smaller market team that can't pay for too many top notch pitchers. They played the Lotte Marines, which is the team that Bobby Valentine manages (for all you fellow baseball nerds out there). I had a blast at the game, Orix won it in 12 innings. The game had almost a college football atmosphere to it. In Japan, the visiting team's fans usually sit on the third base/left field side of the stadium, while the home fans are scattered everywhere else. Each side had trumpets, drums, coordinated chants, big banners, etc. For the seventh inning stretch, many of the fans had blown up balloons, and released them all at once. It was a lot of fun, and definitely it will be one of my favorite memories from Japan.

Paul and I with Neppie, the Orix Buffaloes Mascot

Arihito Muramatsu Signing Autographs for Us

Paul and I with Muramatsu

Me with Muramatsu

Inside the Kyocera Dome in Osaka

Murmatsu Hitting Leadoff

7th Inning Stretch

Kono Elementary School

On Monday, 9/10, I went to my first visiting elementary school. I go to about 9 visiting elementary schools in the area. Most Mondays, I will be on the road at these schools. Kono is a very small school in Takahama, which is about 1 hour south of me. Takahama is the very last town in Fukui Prefecture, it is on the ocean and has many mountains/hills. It is quite beautiful there. Anyways, onto the school. Kono Elementary has a grand total of......4 students. No, it's not a typo, 4 students in the entire school. The school's faculty outnumbered the students. How can this be?

One of big challenges that Japan faces is that of simple demographics. In Japan, as in pretty much all of the developed/western nations, the birth rate is falling. In most of these countries, this is not a problem, as the birthrate is compensated by the influx of immigrants from the developing world. Japan, however, is different. Japan, for many cultural reasons, is reluctant to open it's doors to immigrants. That doesn't mean there aren't any, they are just much fewer and farther between than in other nations. So what you have is a baby bust. In the rural areas, people are moving out and going to the cities. This loss of people, combined with the fact that the ones that stay have fewer children, means that many rural areas are experiencing dramatic population declines. My town, Kaminaka, officially merged with another town near here, Mikata, to form Wakasa two years ago. The idea is to share resources so the local governments can save money. This is happening all up and down the prefecture. So, what you end up with, is that schools like Kono are going through a decline. Unless there is a sudden influx of students, it is possible that this school will be closed due to not having any students in the future.

Ok, enough of my boring pseudo-analysis. I had a lot of fun at Kono. There was a principal (kocho sensai), vice-principal (kyoto sensai), another teacher, the school nurse, and a janitor. As I said above, the faculty outnumbered the students. I did my self introduction in front of the students and faculty. I talked about myself, America, Boston, etc. During one of the breaks, everyone went to the gym where the students were riding....unicycles! I couldn't believe it; I have been told that this is very common in Japanese elementary schools (along with walking on stilts). At the end of the day, I gave the kids American flag keychains, they seemed pretty happy about it. The faculty was excellent, there were wonderful with the students and were very friendly and nice.

As I left Kono, I felt kind of sad. I go back in January for my last visit there for this year, but after that, who knows how long the school will last? It is a shame, as the school is on top of a mountain, probably about a mile and a half from the ocean, with a small group of excellent, dedicated teachers. You just got the feeling, on this beautiful late summer day, that Kono was in it's swan song, remembering a more prosperous past and reflecting on an uncertain future. As I drove away I thought about how many other schools in rural Japan are like Kono, riding out the days until lack of students and budget cuts shutter the schools forever.

Fun With Unicycles!

The Students of Kono Elementary

Tsuruga Festival and General Business

2007-09-02T21:42:00.000+09:00

I know it's been a while since I've posted, and I am sorry. I've been pretty busy, and I really haven't had much access to the internet. I got my hot water turned on and a cell phone last week, so things are slowly coming together, I hope to have the internet within a few weeks. Anyways, on to the fun stuff. Tsuruga is a port city about 45 min. north of where I live, and it's annual festival was this weekend. Japan is full of these little local festivals, there is one close to me in two weeks. It was good times, lots of good street vendors with excellent food. The Tsuruga festival lasts about 4 days, this is from the the opening day on Saturday.

Torii Gate for Kehi Shrine. Kehi shrine is a big shrine in central Tsuruga, it was the center of the action. It is where the parade began and where most of the vendors were.

The parade: the parade was one of the longest that I have ever seen. It lasted a good 4+ hours. Most of the groups/floats had music and would stop for performances.

The yukata: A yukata is a traditional Japanese robe that is often worn in summer festivals. It is cotton, so it is cooler and much better suited for summer than a kimono.

This float was really cool, the drumming was amazing.

The home front: due to popular demand, here are some pictures of the home front. My apartment still has a lot of trash from when I moved in, so I will send pictures of the inside when all the trash is gone. Now, I know you are asking yourself "Jay, why don't you stop being so lazy and throw your trash out?" Well, trash, or gomi in Japan, is MUCH different from America. They recycle here, but you need to separate EVERYTHING. Plastic bottles from everything else, aluminum cans from metal cans, newspaper from magazines, plastic containers (like for condiments and cleaners), etc. And, instead of having one set day a week, each item has certain days during the month when items will be sent out. An example is the first Friday of the month, you can throw out your plastic bottles. I guess it's better for the environment, but it is still annoying that you have to let your trash collect for a while before you can throw it out. Now, enough with my rant and on to the pics.

The view from my front door.

My car: Here is my baby. It is a used Nissan March. It has about 64,000 Kilometers on it. It is a white plate, which makes it nice but more expensive. Basically, there are two types of cars in Japan. A yellow plate is smaller, lighter, and good if you only use it to drive around your town and nowhere else. A white plate has a bigger engine, is a little heavier, and is generally safer than a yellow plate. The downside: it costs more to fill the tank. Gas is pretty expensive here in Japan (it cost over $50.00 US to fill my car), but where I am in a rural area I need to have a car. I'm glad to have a white plate because every Monday, I will be on the road visiting elementary schools around the area, so if it is bad weather a white plate is MUCH better than a yellow plate.

I'm sure you notice the avocado-colored box in the picture. That is my old washing machine (old as in I don't have it anymore and old as in it should be in a museum). That is the front door to my apartment. I bought a used newer model from the JET that is living in my building.

Fuji-San

2007-08-19T13:08:00.000+09:00

There is a famous saying in Japan: "A wise man climbs Fuji-San once. Only a fool does it twice." That statement could not be more accurate. Mt. Fuji was much more of a difficult climb than I had planned for. The trip was run through FJET (Fukui JET's, the little social org. for all of us in Fukui). As a foreigner in Japan, you pretty much have to hike Fuji sometime. It started out like a normal trail you would expect in the White Mountains in NH, but as you got higher, the trail turned into a use-your-hands-to-find-a-rock/metal pylon/chain-to-haul-yourself-up-the-mountain hike. We started at the 5th station, which is approx. halfway up the mountain. The summit is the 10th station. The popular activity to do (which is what we did) is to start hiking about 10 p.m., and reach the summit in time for the sunrise. Now, since this is popular, the mountain tends to be crowded, with Japanese and foreign tourists alike. When you start climbing on the rocks, it's pretty much a single file line of people going up, which tends to slow things down (not that I was complaining, it is pretty exhausting, and I was thankful for the breaks). By the time we reached the 9th station, dawn was breaking, and even though the summit was about 60 min. up, there was a MASSIVE line of people that stopped dead in their tracks to watch the sunrise, so the summit was pretty much out of the question. Not only that, but it was pretty cold and the wind was just howling up there. A 60-90 min. hike even farther up was not looking very good at that point. Still, I was happy I did it.

Then came the hike down.

The hike down was probably worse than the hike up. It is on a switchback (a trail that kind of zig-zags down the mountain) that was steep, full of loose sand, rocks, and gravel, and extremely slippery. I was fortunate that I only slipped and fell once, people were falling all over the place. You had to take it easy. It seemed to take FOREVER to get down. And, you are doing this in the sunlight, so you look down and see how far you still have to go (at least before the cloud line, as you can see in the pictures we are well above it). Fuji is an old volcano, and you can certainly see that in the last photo. It is nothing but volcanic sand and rocks. I have never felt more gross in my life as I did when I reached the bottom of Fuji. I was COVERED in dirt and dust (as was everyone else, which made a great 7 hour bus ride back to Fukui). It got in your eyes, nose, ears, it was everywhere. When I got back to my apartment, I took a shower, made some dinner, and went right to bed. I had never been so tired in my entire life.

So now, the next day, I am looking back on the whole experience. I don't think I have ever been as sore as I am right now. Every part of my legs, ankle, and feet are in pain. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Will I ever hike Fuji again? NO. In case I am not being clear, I WILL NEVER SET FOOT ON MT. FUJI AGAIN. I can cross that off of my list of things to do before I die, but like the saying goes 'only a fool does it twice'. I'm no fool; I've learned my lesson about Fuji-San.

The beginning at the 5th station

Me at the 7th station

We made it a little higher than this (to about 3400 meters, or 11,220 feet).

I know this picture is a little dark, but it gives a good idea what the hike was like. Darkness, steep, cold, while climbing on rocks. These are members of our hiking group.

Here comes the sun...

Delirious from hiking all night

You'll probably notice some spots on the picture...there's a good chance that is sand being blown around...the wind was BRUTAL

Dawn at Mt. Fuji

Sunrise Fuji

A taste of how desolate Fuji is.

Sightseeing

2007-08-14T18:03:00.000+09:00

Here are some pictures from a very famous Buddhist temple that is in my town. It is called Myotsuji Temple. It is made of all wood, it was originally built about 1200 years ago but has been rebuilt a few times due to fires. The current structures are about 700 years old. My supervisor brought me here with two of his sons. I don't think they get many Americans coming here because as we were in the main structure the priest came out and told me the history in English (my supervisor told me it was a first for him to see the priest speak in English). It was very fascinating, the legend goes that Lord Sakanoue, an early shogun (not of all of Japan, Japan was not yet united) had a vision and had the temple built. In the main hall, there are 3 large statues made of wood, the main one being the medicine Buddha, who is holding a bottle of potion in one of his hands. There are two other statues of famous Generals that flank the Buddha. It was a very cool experience having the priest talk to me (in excellent English I might add).

Some Pictures from Tokyo

2007-08-12T08:02:00.000+09:00

Prefectural night out: Went out with the group to a place called the Lock-Up. It is a gothic/dungeon theme place, where waiters put on masks, bang on the walls, and come and "attack" you by giving you high fives and hugs. The finale of the show is when a Britney-Spears schoolgirl outfit wearing waitress comes out and shoots the ghoul with a cap gun, all while yelling in high pitched Japanese. Needless to say, as the sake started to hit it got a lot more weird. It was pretty cool.

The view from my hotel room

Tokyo Drift Redux

2007-08-07T17:36:00.001+09:00

Alright, so it is about 5:30 in the evening here in Tokyo, a little recap on how the first two days have gone:

Ceremonies. Workshops. Panels. Discussions. All day, 2 days in a row. All while being jet lagged (Tokyo is 14 hours ahead of the East Coast). It was definately a bit of a grind. I did, however, find time to go out and see a little bit of Tokyo. We are staying at the Keio Plaza Hotel in the Shinjuku section of Tokyo. Shinjuku has a lot of neon lights (think Times Square). Words can't describe how massive Tokyo is. Today, on the 43rd floor of the hotel, we looked out the windows on both sides, and the city goes on as far as the eye can see. Anyways, back to topic. Went out for a little on Sunday, nothing too huge, dinner and a drink at a little place near the hotel. Last night, I went out with some of the kids that will be in my prefecture (think of a state in the US). It was good times, went to an Irish pub (how hilarious is that?). One thing that I have found here is that the liquor is cheaper than the beer. I heard that the malt is taxed heavily on beer, so that's why it is so expensive here. It was cool hanging with the people. I've meet people from all the US and the world (people in my group are from New Orleans, Washington DC, the UK, New Zealand). They all seem very cool and very fun. Anyways, I have to pack up and get ready to leave early tomorrow morning. I'll talk to you all soon.

Jay

Tokyo Drift

2007-08-05T20:45:00.000+09:00

Made it to Tokyo. Flight wasn't too bad, I slept through most of it. Right now, I am waiting to take a shower and go out and explore Shinjuku a little bit. I'll catch you all soon.

Jay

The Roar Gets Louder

2007-08-03T13:22:00.000+09:00

OK, I am writing this post on my shiny new Apple MacTop. I was able to connect to the net and register my warranty info (very huge). I am absolutely exhausted; packing is done, apartment is moved out of, all that's left is for me to sit around and wait. I'm kind of feeling like a person in a barrel about to go over Niagara Falls. Waiting and hearing the roar of the falls getting louder. In approx. 35 hours I'll be on the plane to Tokyo...where I will be in a country where I can't read, write, or speak the language. I will be driving a car while being functionally illiterate...should be quite interesting. Alright, I'm going to bed. It was good to see the Jodoin's tonight, thanks for the beer and pizza.

Thanks

2007-08-02T06:01:00.000+09:00

Just a thank you note to everyone at Merrimack Mortgage for last night. They took me out to Margarita's last night and gave some some wonderful gifts (alas, one of the gifts being a killer hangover this morning). Packing is still slowly progressing, due to the aforementioned hangover. The next few days should be interesting, I'll probably be offline until I get to my apartment in Japan. Keep in touch and I'll speak to all of you soon.

Welcome

2007-07-31T12:25:00.000+09:00

Alright everyone, here it is, the long awaited self-serving, gratuitously high minded, oh-my-god-I'm-going-to-Japan blog. This is just a preliminary post; I will post more when I have a few moments (I should be packing/moving all of my stuff out of my apartment and getting ready to go). I want to eventually post some photos of the Japan adventure, and do some general freaking out and panicking before I go. Now, a little about why I am going to Japan. I am doing the JET Program, and I will be teaching English in the middle schools in southern Fukui Prefecture. Fukui is #21 in the map above. I will be about 90 min. north of Kyoto, and about 7 hours or so west of Tokyo. I originally applied to JET as a backup to the Peace Corps, but it soon became clear the Peace Corps wasn't happening. I was an alternate; I didn't get asked to go to Japan for sure until mid-June, so I kind of had to scramble last minute to get things ready.

Speaking of getting things ready, I have to run. More to come.

Jay