The Perennial Tourist

The last two weekends have been great, mainly because I have pulled myself out of my apartment and gone out to experience different parts of Japan. When I arrived, I was all about touring, and seeing what there was. Unfortunately, I think many of us tend to establish a routine and pretty much stick to it. As one of my friends here said, I mainly just live in Japan. I don't really know the places to see. When I visited Tokyo a couple of months ago, a Tokyo native friend of mine took me to the Royal Palace and admitted that in her 62 years she had never been there before.Last weekend, my neighbors, L'Shawn and Doug had heard about a festival in a town about 1.5 hours away where they had floats with mechanical puppets on them. L'Shawn went on-line and found us a volunteer English guide, and away we went. What a delightful Sunday! The Japanese guy was beyond generous. He wanted to pay for everything including lunch and an expensive cake set in a ritzy hotel. He also batted a bamboo good luck charm my way when the folks on the floats were throwing them into the crowd. It is now hanging outside my house, bringing me good fortune as we speak. We also bought a cute little bottle of sake and walked around town drinking it. You're not in Kansas anymore. The town was located north of Kyoto on the shores of the largest lake in Japan, so it was truly lovely.The next day was a holiday, and though my school didn't observe it, I only had 1 class after which I ran out of the building and met my friend for tennis, lunch and an exhibition of Okinawan dancing. Very interesting, and at one point one of the dancers came down the rows of spectators, so I snapped a photo. That caused him to drag me out of my seat, hand me a drum and have me dance with them. As an Okinawan dancer, I make a good English teacher, but it was fun anyway.Yesterday, Saturday, I went out geocaching again with Jon. We went to a park near Suma beach. It was both lovely and odd. We took a ropeway (gondola) up most of the mountain to the park. At the top, there was another people moving device going up a bit further. It was kind of like a vertical bumper car set up. Quite different. At the top, they had an observation building complete with 1980's video games, a fascinating Rube Goldberg machine which we watched for about 10 minutes. Then we went upstairs to the snack bar and the 360 degree view of the ocean, mountains and beach. I told Jon I felt dizzy. He said he did too, and we realized the floor was moving. It was not exactly a ritzy hotel at the top of a skyscraper--it came complete with a statue of Snow White and 2 of the 7 dwarves. But it did have a great view. We hiked down the mountain, found the cache, and then toured the longest suspension bridge in the world. They have a walkway with some glass flooring, so you can look down to the ocean below. Quite impressive.Today I played tennis from 10 to 2:30 and am sore from stem to stern. Life is good.

The Long Break and the Health Check Up

I'll admit it. A full month of vacation with no real playmates to enjoy it with is kind of a drag. I started the month with great intentions, walking for 45 minutes in the morning in the hills behind my house, writing journals in Japanese and studying every morning, going to yoga or aerobics in the afternoons and then to Japanese classes in the evenings. That lasted about 4 days before I started getting lazier and lazier and lazier. Rockies' games on the internet helped, but they also made me lazy, as they don't usually start till 10 a.m. I went to Tokyo to see Scott for about 5 days, but at the end he was ready not to have Mom in his hair (or lack of it). There were a couple of bright spots when I went hiking with Jon in Kobe, and Hiromi, a former CSU student in Tokyo, as well as the day I struck out on my own and found 4 geocaches in Suma, a beach community in Kobe. Anyway, school starts on Monday, and I am happy to be getting back into a routine.
Last Friday, my college had a health check up day for faculty which I needed to attend. I started the day on the wrong foot when, with the help of an interpreter, I asked if they could check my blood for Thyroid (TSH) as well as the cholesteral, blood sugar that they said they were looking for. No, can't be done. I was a little rude, I guess, as it comes standard with blood work over here. I was also suspicious about them as they did not require fasting for the blood sugar and cholesteral checks. Oh well, on to the chest x-ray. It was in a health mobile in the parking lot, and I had to remove my bra. Fine. However, they told me not to put it back on, and the several other checks were all over campus. I had left my bags in my office, so I was left holding the bra, so to speak. I tried to hide it discreetly under my shirt, but I was feeling like a fool. After the blood draw and the urine sample, we went back to the parking lot to another health mobile where we drank barium and they checked my stomach (for what I don't know) by putting me in this fun house ride and barking orders at me in Japanese. It whirled me up down and sideways while the attendant kept trying to get me to put my arms in the right place. What I didn't realize until afterwards is that after you take barium, it's like the stuff you take before a colonoscopy. In short, don't stray far from the bathroom. A fitting end to my long break.

Trip to China

A package tour. Who knew it could be such a good time? At times you feel you are part of a cattle herd, but overall it was great. Nice people--23 in all. I know because our poor guide, Li, was always counting to 23. Highlights were climbing the Great Wall. I was one of only 6 who chose the steep side. It was less crowded and I refuse to give into little old ladyhood just yet. It was magnificent. It was also fun riding a rusted out old bike on top of the old city wall in Xi An after we toured the Terra Cotta Warriors site. And the 3 day cruise down the Yangtze River through the 3 gorges was delightful. I'm really glad I decided to join a tour group as I enjoyed getting to know the other folks on the tour. They were fun. And just so you know, I will not be eating Chinese food for another 4 months or so, as I definitely had my fill. It was good, but enough already. We finished the tour in Shanghai, which is an amazing, modern city. One of our guides told us that the national bird of China is now the crane (as in building crane) as the entire country is exploding with new construction and economic growth.

I personally added to the economic growth by buying a silk rug at the carpet factory, a pearl necklace at the pearl factory, a small jade violin knicknack at the jade factory, and a silk comforter at the silk factory. What a sucker! You have to bargain for almost everything, and there is a lot of stuff to bargain for. One thing that was a bit annoying was the air travel. I took a total of 4 in-country flights, and 3 of them were delayed--one for 7 hours! when I was alone, waiting for my flight to Beijing, I listened to the loudspeaker in the airport announcing flight after flight being delayed--not for weather but for too much air traffic. Can't they figure that out ahead of time? I was also dismayed to learn that the folks flying in from the states paid the same for their tickets as I did from Japan. My flight was 2 1/2 hours--theirs was 14 and they cost the same. It's not cheap getting off this island!

Anyway, I'm back in Japan and still on break. I don't go back to school until September 28, so I'm spending my time going to the gym, studying Japanese (the trip was great because I had 10 full days with no Japanese guilt)and exploring the mountains behind my house. I may figure out a couple of short trips before I go back.

Rules, Rules, Rules

I had a chance yesterday to be a full time member for one day at my gym (Cospa--Comfortable sports place).Because I cheaped out, I am a 90 minute member. I need to clock in and clock out no more than 90 minutes later. But for some reason, they let us stay as long as we wanted to on Saturday. Normally I go to a yoga class and then leave. But it was Saturday, I'm done with work, and I decided to really savor the place--check it out. They have a 25-meter pool on the 5th floor, and seeing that it's hotter than the lid of hell right now, I thought I would indulge, not without some trepidation, mind you. It has come to my attention that Japan is a very rule-bound and also rule-abiding kind of place. Some of the rules are posted (in Japanese) and others you just sort of have to know. Needless to say, a) I can't read the rules, and b) I am clueless. So anyway, I brought my bathing suit and my towel and proceded bravely to the pool area. I immediately saw a sign that I was able to interpret, that is a towel with a red X through it. OK, I couldn't bring my towel into the pool. what to do with it? Whew! I turned a corner and there were cubbies to put the towels in. I reached the pool and saw to my dismay that everyone was wearing swimming caps. I don't have one. I went to the life guard, who (will wonders never cease) spoke English! He had a cap to give me. Wow! Things were going well. I had just come from the yoga class from hell (I missed the 75 minute morning class,so I decided to go to the wimpy 45 minute class--who knew it was taught by a sadist?) I got into the lane which is reserved for walking. Me and all the septagenarians strolled along in the water for a while. Then I decided to try swimming. I crossed into the next lane and did a lap or 2 of crawl. Oh oh, here comes the lifeguard. Seems you need to swim on the right--don't know why as they drive on the left. So I got out. My shoulder was hurting anyway. They have a big hot tub and 3 interesting individual tubs with these apparatuses like towel racks arranged in a sort of S shape. You lie on them in the water. Interesting. Then there are showers that are on all the time that are sort of like Water Pik shower heads on steroids. They really drill into you. Anyway, enough of the pool. I proceeded on to the bath part of my club. It's just like the onzens, which have their own set of rules. I watch the women there, and they know exactly how to wash every inch of their bodies using basins as well as shower sprays. It's quite impressive, and I don't have the knack yet. When you have cleaned yourself entirely, you sit your naked body into the hot pool. Then you splash water from the cold pool on yourself. Afterwards, I went into the next room to dress. There is a centrifugal machine like we have in my club to wring out your swim suit. I did that, and a little old lady asked me if I spoke Japanese. When I said a little she explained that the rule is to rinse the suit out in the sink before you put it in the centrifugal machine. I keep screwing up! One of the hardest things is to figure out where you can wear your shoes, and where it is strictly forbidden. My friend Jon joined a different club, and they made him buy new shoes that had never been worn outside. At least I didn't have to do that.Last week we went out to dinner with our summer session students. We all got the 'set' that included cake. All the pieces of cake are wrapped in cellophane in Japan. Call me weird, but I don't like cellophane with cake, so I took it off and put it next to the plate. All the students were most amused. You are supposed to unwrap the cake and keep it resting on the cellophane. Gosh I wish I knew the rules.

Boat Ride in Arashiyama

Spent last Saturday in a wooden boat negotiating rapids down a river near Kyoto. Actually, I was just seated comfortably in the boat while the boatsmen negotiated the rapids. It really reminded me how much I love being out in nature. We even saw a monkey on the river bank! It's been hot and sticky here, but there was a cool breeze going down the river. I went with my good friend Akiko and her Iranian student Mr. Safari. It was nice to have Akiko translating the humorous patter of the boatsmen, as I am usually without a clue. There was a French family in the boat with us (along with about 8 other people) and I enjoyed speaking French with the dad. It made me feel like less of a 3 year old as, unlike Japanese, I can actually speak French. There was an interesting linguistic dynamic going on with that family. The mother was English, the dad French, and they lived in Paris. (Like most Parisiens, they were on their 3 week August vacation). The mother spoke only English to the kids (late teens, early twenties) and the kids answered entirely in French. The only time the woman spoke French was to speak to her husband. They obviously completely understood one another, so everyone was happy.
After the boat ride, Akiko and I did some unsuccessful geocaching along the river bank, and then we were told about a Buddhist temple straight up the mountain from the river. It was really steep, but very worth it. When we got there, we rang the gong 3 times each, listening to its lovely sound reverberating through the mountains. Then we continued on to the temple, which was small and a bit shabby, but with a million dollar view over the river, mountains, and the city of Kyoto in the distance. There was tea, and we enjoyed the cool air and the view, sitting comfortably for about 45 minutes. Then back down the mountain to the heat and crowds of Arashiyama (a bit of a tourist location.) Another great day!

Fireworks and Kimonos

August is fireworks season in Japan, and I went to the Kobe fireworks with my tennis friend and her husband last night. Hisako had bought us tickets, so we sat in folding chairs out by the port. Really quite civilized. The custom here is that many young women wear yukatas, which are summer kimonos, to watch the fireworks, so the audience is almost as colorful as the show. We lucked out, as it had rained earlier in the day, and it started sprinkling after the show, but it was clear and not hot. The unbearable heat I have been promised has not yet really materialized due to a prolonged rainy season this year.
Yukatas are on sale everywhere now, and they are pretty reasonable--about $50 to $80 dollars. I was thinking about getting one, but my neighbors have made comments that many western women look like stuffed sausages in them, which has dampened my zeal. However, I want to tell what I have learned about kimonos. On January 20, there is a ceremony for everyone who turns 20 that year. It's a sort of coming-of-age party. The girls wear kimonos and the boys wear suits. They all go to their hometown and listen to a city official, see all their old junior high and high school friends, and then go out and party. Anyway, the big deal is for the young women to get a kimono for the affair. Many of my students are now getting their kimonos and then having the requisite photo shoot that goes with it. So, I ask, "how much did your kimono cost?" The answers range from $5,000 to $8,000! This includes all the purses, hair flowers, and other stuff that goes with it, but wow! The kimonos that young girls wear have a special kind of sleeve, so they can't even wear them after they get married or turn 30. Akiko,the Japanese woman I have dinner with every Tuesday, has a 20-year-old daughter who went through that ceremony last year. She was planning on wearing a family kimono to the ceremony, so no big deal. Unfortunately, her daughter is fat, and when she tried on the kimono, it didn't fit. It was the last minute, so they had to rent a kimono. No problem. It was only $2,500 for one night! I used to complain about renting the boys tuxes for prom!
Another interesting thing about kimonos is that they are difficult to put on. My student says she stands with her arms outstretched while her mother dresses her. Akiko tells me that if you don't have someone to help you, you go to the beauty salon to have them dress you, and probably your hair as well.

July 4th weekend

Had a pleasant 4th of July weekend, a holiday which goes completely unnoticed around here, I might add. I went to a Mexican restaurant, which is quite rare here. The margarita would definitely not make it at the Rio, but as I ordered a large, halfway through I didn't care. After dinner, we went to Dotumburi, the neon capital around here and just enjoyed the commotion and lights. On Sunday, I went to play tennis with an informal group I meet on Sundays. There were only 3 of us, so after borrowing an extra player from another group to play a set, we left. The father and daughter pair I was playing with invited me to have lunch at their house. This was a first for me, and I had a delightful time. They eat on a low table sitting on cushions. Apparently, summer lunches in Japan consist mainly of cold noodles and a sauce to dip them in. We had somen (new to me) and udon noodles, a tasty dipping liquid and salad. I was told that you are expected to make loud slurping noises when you eat the noodles. One of the sons was visiting for the weekend, and he told me about an interesting festival in a town nearby. Think I'll check it out in August. Finished off the weekend with a haircut and a yoga class. Life is good.

Book Club in Japan

I have been missing my 2 book clubs at home, so I was delighted to see an ad for one in a foreigner magazine published in this area. I attended this afternoon, and had a great time. Unlike my clubs in Ft. Collins, this club was coed, with 4 men and 4 women. We met in a private room in a French restaurant. Very nice and not expensive.

There were 2 Japanese, 1 Brit, 1 Irish, 1 Scot, 1 Spaniard, a young man from Mississippi (could have fooled me--he didn't even sound American) and me. We were discussing a Japanese novel by Haruki Murakami, a very prolific novelist. I guess he is best know for Norwegian Wood. Anyway, we read A Wild Sheep Chase, an interesting if weird book. It was a great discussion. Of course, there is always the one student in class who feels it necessary to dominate the discussion, (the kid from Mississippi), but the disparate backgrounds made for a fascinating afternoon. I feel so fortunate to have met so many interesting folks here in Japan.

Tokyo Trip and life in general

Afew folks crossing street Wedding at the shrine

Freshly killed eel

I've fallen off with my blogs recently as, true to form, I have managed to schedule myself up to the gills, just as I did back home. Tennis twice a week, Japanese lessons 3 times a week, and I joined a health club. Anyway, I went to visit Scott 2 weeks ago in Tokyo. Got on the bullet train on Friday night after work and zipped up to see him. It took 3 hours and $275 to do this. (I later discovered I could buy slightly cheaper tickets at a discount shop, but you live, you learn.) His girl friend was visiting from LA, so I got to meet her for the first time. I liked her a lot. They took me to a Mexican restaurant Friday night. This might not sound that exciting to you, but believe me, it was a treat, margaritas and all. Scott's place is awesome, complete with a concierge, marble hallways and a night time view of Tokyo tower. It sort of looks like the Eiffel tower all lit up.

We got up really early on Saturday to go to Tsukiji, the Tokyo fish market, which I guess is the largest in the world. You need to go early to see the tuna auction. They have all these frozen tuna lying on the floor, with people checking the meat with a poker of some kind. Then auctioneers do their thing. It's kind of dangerous there with motorized carts buzzing around all over the place. I almost got run down a couple of times. Amy, Scott's girl, is a photographer, so she took about a million shots, trying to tell a story. It's quite an experience. Then walking through the market I saw more different kinds of sea creatures than I knew existed. We had the privelege(?) of seeing vats of squirming eels and watch the guy slit their throats. I guess you're supposed to eat sushi after you finish touring the market. Somehow, I can't bring myself to eat sushi at 7 a.m., so I grabbed a sweet roll instead.

Later that morning we went to the old part of Tokyo, Asakusa, and strolled around the souvenir shops (till Scott could take it no longer). I bought a Japanese geisha doll. Very pretty. We also had yakisoba for the first time in a traditional little restaurant. The center of your table is a grill. First we had okonomiaki, which is kind of a cabbage pancake. They mixed up the stuff, poured it on our grill and told us to flip it in 2 minutes. We made such a mess of it, that they cooked the yakisoba for us. (The neighboring table cooked their own.) They call it chop suey for the English menu, but that isn't exactly right. It was delicious, with pork, noodles, cabbage, and I don't know what else.

That night we went to a gaijin (foreigner) bar. Scott's got a sweet deal there. The brokers he deals with invite him to go out with them and then they pay for everything. Apparently, as long as they're entertaining clients, their company pays. So it's a simbiotic relationship. There were some interesting folks from the UK, Ireland and other parts.

The next day was a rainy Sunday. We went to the Meiji Shrine, walked through the park, saw a wedding, shook sticks out of a hole to get our fortune, and sat in a cafe watching enormous numbers of people walk by with their umbrellas. Then back on the train to go home. Great weekend.

Pictures for swine flu

Swine Flu

There has been no school for an entire week in either Kobe or Osaka, Japan because of a swine flu scare. Apparently there were about 123 cases of the flu in the area, which has a population of many many million, (I haven't looked it up--ok). Immediately, the city government decided to shut down all the schools, and for the first couple of days, the down town area of Kobe looked like a ghost town. Apparently the flu they have here is very mild, lasting only about 3 days, and they have regretted their decision for economic reasons. One industry which IS making out like a bandit, so to speak, is the mask industry. I was in a mall in Kobe last Tuesday, and I saw a long line stretching out into the hall of the mall at a drug store. I was wondering if there was a flu vaccine or something, but someone told me that they were lined up to buy masks, as many businesses had run out. In fact, the train is a little weird with about 80 to 90 per cent of the folks in masks. On a particularly long train ride the other day, I was contemplating the fashion aspects of masks. The woman sitting next to me was wearing a shell pink blouse with a matching pink mask. There were a few blue ones. Most are white, but you have your pleated ones, your square ones, your pointed ones etc. etc. This would be yet another accessorizing decision for me to make in the morning. I just can't deal with it, ok? Besides, I see no need to try to conform with all these conformists, as I don't blend in very well anyway.
Someone asked me what is going on over here. The problem is, I can neither read nor understand the news, so I go on a little hearsay from English speakers, and am more or less blissfully ignorant. I assume I resume teaching on Monday, but I'll wait to hear from my school, which occasionally remembers to let us foreigners in on what's happening.

Money in Japan

One of the biggest adjustments to life in Japan is getting used to the money culture here. The exchange rate is quite easy at the moment. A yen is about equal to a penny, so you just remove 2 zeros to figure out the cost. For example, you can get 2 large apples at my local store for 400 yen (that's right--4 bucks for 2 friggin apples!) At the same store, however, I can get a bottle of local wine for 295 yen ($2.95). This is not necessarily lending itself to healthy eating on my part.
What is difficult, however, is my own money habits. In Fort Collins, I used to carry $10 or $20 in my wallet and conduct most transactions with my debit card. Japan is still a cash society, however. A few touristy places like hotels and expensive restaurants take foreign credit cards, but almost everyone uses cash all the time. I have taken to carrying 2 and 3 hundred dollars with me now. I have a cash card to use at the bank ATM's to withdraw money. These atm's are a little picky, however. They're not open all the time (my local one doesn't open till 8) so if I want money before I go to an early class, too bad. What really gets me is that if you go in on weekends, they charge you extra for the transaction. (These ATM's have to get home to their families too.)
When I first got to Japan, I figured it would be like Europe--atm's everywhere that would take my US debit card and deliver money. Not so. The only place that would take a foreign card was 7-11 stores. Thank God for them anyway. Prices are interesting. Restaurants are not that different from the US. There are cheap ones and expensive ones just like home. At first glance, the price for lunch looks a little high in a normal restaurant. But it isn't really because there is NO tipping in Japan. The price listed is the price you pay. It's very refreshing, and makes going out to eat a lot simpler than it is when you're trying to figure the tax and tip etc. Prices at the grocery stores seem high, particularly when you have foreign tastes as I do. But produce seems over the top here. I don't care--I bite the bullet and buy those expensive apples and strawberries. A lot of the produce here is dressed up in little bonnets. I've seen that at home also, but it gets ridiculous here. I want to eat the melon, not take it to church. One thing that amazed me when I first got here was the price of rice. I figured I should get a bag of rice since my place comes equipped with a rice cooker. I think I paid $16 for a bag of rice(maybe 2 pounds)--maybe about twice the size of a bag I would buy at home. Not cheap at all, particularly considering it is the staple here. Anyway, I'm getting used to all of this, and I can almost understand what they're saying when they tell me the cost. Luckily, I have the cash register to look at to be sure. All a learning process.

Golden Week

It's Golden Week here. What that means is we have a five day holiday. Why that is, I don't know, but my policy is don't ask, don't tell. We went to Nara on Saturday. That's a small town about an hour or so away by train that has a wonderful pagoda and park, and a temple with the biggest Buddha you will ever want to see. The park is overrun by extremely tame and greedy deer, and it makes for a lovely walk (if you watch where you step). I got to browse in some fun touristy shops and came away with some cool Japanese paper dolls for my dining room wall. We had some great tempura for lunch, so were not tempted by the myriad of booths selling tasty items. All in all, a satisfying day.

The next day was festival day for Mikage, the town I live in. There were 5 floats representing 5 different neighborhoods. They mess around making noise in the morning, then from 6 to about 10 p.m. they parade around beating drums and singing some kind of chants. Some people are sort of pushing the floats, others are on top of them dancing with fans or feathers or glow sticks. Others are walking in front of or behind the floats, and each neighborhood has it's own pattern of kimono for the men. Lots of noise and spectacle.It was fun to watch for a while, but it got monotonous. I can only imagine how boring and tiring it would be for the participants to parade around for that long, but I'm told they are fueled by beer and sake.

Yesterday, we went to Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan. We only did part of it, as there is so much to see. But this was a completely different experience than Nara. We went to the silver temple (Gincacuji) first. The temple is no big deal, but the gardens are spectacular. I was reminded of stylized Japanese paintings I've seen where the forests are beautiful but quite unrealistic looking. That's exactly how the trees looked here! And the azaleas are still in bloom and awesome looking. Amazing place, but pretty hard for me to justice with my cheap little camera. Then we walked along the philosophers walk, philosophizing away. We started looking for geocaches, and we found 4 and managed to see some great old neighborhoods of Japan. Kyoto is famous for Maiko, who are apprentice geisha's, and I was hoping to see some. However, we were told by a Japanese gentleman that they were on holiday that day, so we had to be satisfied with some regular Japanese ladies in kimonos. I still have lots to see there, so I plan to return often. Beautiful place.

Helpful Japanese People

One thing that is beginning to amaze me around here is how helpful the Japanese are when you ask them for help. Yesterday I went to Osaka to the university of a friend of mine. It was quite far, and required a number of train changes, a subway and a bus. Meanwhile, I decided I needed something in the huge mall that is in the central station in Osaka. Someone told me to go to a certain store for gift bags. I asked another store clerk, and she walked outside her store into another one to show me where the bags were. I was having fun shopping around, and I realized I'd better get to the subway. I asked a janitor what direction the subway was. Instead of pointing me in the direction, he walked with me for about 5 minutes, making sure I got on the right one. His English was better than most of the folks around here. He wanted to discuss politics! Today I was looking for the international office in Kobe, and a young man not only walked me to the building, he rode with me on the elevator to the 20th floor! Amazing!
Another rather embarrassing situation pointed out the polite nature of these folks to me. I had gone to an onzen (hot springs) in Arima. They have a lot of products like shampoo, lotion, cleansing gel, etc. around for you to use to bathe before you get into the hot springs. So on Thursday, I went to a local onzen that a friend had recommended. There were a couple of caddies of products, so I carefully tried to figure out which was shampoo, and I proceeded to wash my hair. A woman came up and said (I guess) that here was the conditioner that went with it. I didn't realize until later that at this onzen you have to bring your own stuff. So instead of saying "Bitch, get your hands off my shampoo", she gives me her conditioner too. I didn't even figure it out till later, so I didn't apologize. Very nice people, these Japanese.

Birthday weekend

What a fabulous couple of days I just had! It began with a school-wide meeting at Kobe Kaisei College. An inauspicious beginning, one would think. I had to introduce myself twice, once at the combined meeting and again at the English Department meeting. As usual, everything but my introduction was in Japanese, leading me to believe that we (the foreign teachers) are cute little mascots for them, little more. But I met some really nice folks at the reception afterwards. One woman got her BA MA and PhD at CSU, and we had a lot of friends in common. I spoke with several others as well and set up times to meet. It's really important when you know you're only going to be somewhere for a year not to waste time in getting to know folks. It might be good practice for when I come home too.

After the reception, I received careful instructions from my friends and I boarded the train for Osaka to meet a former IEP student (Itsumi) and a former MA classmate (Beniko Mason) (from a very long time ago). Itsumi is working in Tokyo, and she had a conference near Osaka, so she invited me and Beniko to meet her there. Beniko took us to a tofu restaurant she is fond of. I wasn't that excited when I heard about it, as I don't usually fall over myself trying to get tofu. But this was an awesome restaurant! It was the old fashioned kind of Japanese restaurant with tatami mats and individual rooms with sliding paper doors and low tables with indentations for your feet. They brought us about 20 different tofu dishes in little round dishes and little square dishes, and little bowls. They had what looked like tofu popsicles, tofu pudding, tofu sushi, sweet tofu, salty tofu, tofu au gratin. When we came in there was a dish of uncooked tofu cut to look like flowers and leaves sitting in the middle of the table. It started looking weird, and I realized that it was cooking. We added a sauce and ate that too. We finished it all off with tofu ice cream, and then they came and kicked us out as we had been there for 2 hours. Our conversation was delightful as well. I loved the whole experience.

The next day was my birthday, and I had planned a geocaching hike with L'Shawn, Doug and Jon Watkins, my CSU friends. I really like to hike and don't know where to go, so the geocaching site helped a lot. We found our way to an abandoned railway along a beautiful river. There are about 6 old tunnels to go through. The cache was in the middle of the second and longest tunnel. We searched in the dark for about 30 minutes, counting railroad ties, looking for numbers written on the ties. We felt like Indiana Jones looking for the Lost Ark. Unfortunately, we came up empty. When I looked at the geocaching website, I saw that the cache hasn't been found for 3 years, so I think a muggle got it. But it got us to a really cool hike anyway. At the end of the hike, we had a beer at an outdoor restaurant overlooking the river. It really reminded me of the Poudre (a little wider, though). Then we boarded the train to Osaka where we ate at Bubba Shrimp, a most un-Japanese restaurant, replete with Japanese waiters who met us at the door with trivia questions about "Forest Gump".

Finally, Jon, who has been here for over 3 years and knows the joint well, took us to another part of Osaka which kind of looks like a cross between Times Square and Vegas. I think this is what a lot of folks think all of Japan is like. In fact, where I am it's very residential and calm, so I was a wide eyed tourist, taking in all the lights and the interesting array of people. All in all, a great weekend.

Trip to Arima Hot Springs and Himeji Castle

It was Easter weekend, and I didn't even realize it here until the president of Kobe Kaisei College told me. There were no Easter bunnies and pastel chocolates around to clue me in. Anyway, I spent the weekend as a serious tourist. I did go to mass in honor of my mother, but as it was all Japanese to me, I left early.

On Saturday, L'Shawn and Doug and I went to Arima, a town up in the mountains near here a la Estes Park. It has an onsen (hot springs) and is very charming. We took a cog railroad up the mountain, which put the one up Pikes Peak to shame. I didn't think the mountains were all that high around here, but I changed my thinking. The views from the car were amazing, with mountain cherry blossoms (a recurring theme around here). When we got to the top of the cable car line, we took a gondola up the rest of the way to the town. Really fun. You don't have to get there that way--in fact, we rode the bus home. There was a geocache at the end of the gondola line, and I picked up a little Japanese cell phone charm from that. We found our way into the town (with some difficulty) and had a wonderful lunch of curry udon noodles. Then I went to my first 'onsen'--hot springs. It was inside, not out, and apparently this one is famous for its dark colored water. First, you go to the shoe locker where you leave your shoes and get a key. Then you go to the locker room where you leave all your clothes and get another key. At onsens you have to go in the nude, so they are separated by sexes. When you get into the bath, you first must wash off at one of the many little sprayers located around. Then you get into the onsen. It was relaxing, though honestly, I prefer the outside ones like Ojo Caliente in New Mexico. It was a little like going to the hot tub at Miramont except for the naked part. I didn't mind being naked, as everyone else was too. And there were all ages, from little girls to old women. What did bother me was the dressing room where I noticed all the cute young chicks with their super fancy underwear, which was somewhat unlike my utilitarian duds. Anyway, we had a great day.

We finished it off by going to a sushi restaurant in Kobe. This one is a chain, and it's really neat because the restaurant is surrounded by a conveyer belt. Little dishes of sushi and a few other things, like chicken tenders, and desserts go around the booths. If you see something you like, you just grab it. At the end, they count your plates and give you a bill. That was a nice way for me to try different types of sushi, because if it looked too disgusting, I just let it slide on by. My dinner was very good, and it only cost about 5 bucks, which is a very good deal here in Japan.

I have been warned that the summers here in Kobe are insufferably hot and humid, so I decided I'd better do as much touring around as I can while the weather is still nice. So on Sunday I went to Himeji Castle, known to be one of the most beautiful in Japan. It is only about 40 minutes or so by train from here, and it has lots of cherry trees. So now's the time. I went on this adventure alone. It was fairly easy to get there, and again, I found a geocache. The castle was very crowded. I heard very little English around me, though. There was a German tour, and I saw some French folks in the gardens. But mostly there were Japanese there. The castle is 5 stories tall, I believe, and once we entered the castle, we had to take our shoes off. I didn't know about this, and I was wearing sandals. Therefore, I had to walk all around barefoot. The staircases in this castle are so steep, they remind me of ladders. It was hard work! When I finished the tour, I put my sandals back on, and noticed that I had 2 big blisters on the end of my toes. I was thinking that making people remove their shoes was an exagerration on the part of the Japanese; however, young women around here are very fond of stillettos, which they wear even to climb around the rocks of an old castle. Those shoes could definitely do a number on the wooden floors of the old castle.

Anyway, it's Monday and I'm back to work. That is definitely less strenuous than all this touring.

Transportation to school

The transportation system in Japan is slick, though I really haven't used a whole lot of different types yet. I have my Lagari card which lets me ride the train near my house, and I have a couple of bus cards for the bus to work. I think L'Shawn says you can get to work in about 35 minutes door to door if you need to. I only have one class which starts at 9, so I don't think I'll be in a time crunch that way. Anyway, to get to work, you have options. You can take the train for 1 stop and then get on the bus, which takes 25 minutes. Or, you can take the train for 2 stops and walk for 25 minutes. Or you can walk all the way, which takes about an hour. It's not particularly cheap to ride the trains, though I am oblivious with my handy card. L'Shawn said they figured out it would cost $200 a month to commute to work if you ride the whole way round trip.

For now, I am enjoying walking to work. The season is spectacular with all the cherry blossoms, and you see interesting sights along the way. Beautiful houses and gardens tucked in with more normal ones. And lots of narrow, winding streets. Yesterday, I saw a lot of people who were quite dressed up all walking the same way (not together). They all had darling little children with them dressed to the nines. One woman was wearing a kimono. Nosy person that I am, I dug out my little dictionary and asked one woman who looked nice if there was a wedding. She smiled and said no, it was a ?????? That's the problem. I can figure out how to ask the question, but have no idea what the answer is. Anyway, I asked at work, and they said it was probably a new school ceremony (translation). So it must have been the opening ceremony for either an elementary school or a preschool, from the looks of the children. On the first day of school, I sometimes took the kids to school, or at least walked them to the bus. This is apparently a much bigger deal here.

My house is right by the train station, which is quite handy. However, I often think, wow, the wind has really kicked up, only to realize that it's a train going by. Luckily, there are no streets near here that cross the tracks, so there is no whistle like there is at home.

So the commute is quite manageable. Most of my students have to ride the train between an hour and an hour and a half to get to school. That's because there is no dorm, and most students go to college in the general vicinity of their home, but that vicinity can be up to 2 hours away I guess.

Today we're going to take a train ride up the mountain to a village famous for its hot springs (onsen) More on that later.

Tennis in Japan

Well I had my tennis date today. It was awesome. To begin with, we played on a clay court, which was a first for me. It wasn't difficult to adjust to, though occasionally I felt like I would slip and fall. And the ladies were all fairly evenly matched. I was trying so hard to understand what they were talking about. Luckily, the scoring is all in English, and there were lots of "good shoto" to be heard in our match. The woman who invited me brought orange slices to share between sets. At the end of the match we took these rake things--they look like what they use on baseball fields, and we smoothed out the court. Then we took brooms to sweep the lines.

I had bought a pair of pants to play on Sunday, as I noticed that folks don't wear the same thing that we do in the states to play tennis. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that white was the color of the day. In fact, it was not easy for me to find pants to fit. I ended up with size men's O, which is one up from L. This did not make me a particularly happy camper. The blue pants I got were fine. But at the club I played at , everyone had long white pants, long-sleeved white shirts, white sweater vests and white jackets. And most of them were over 60 (or over 70). It looked like acres of white-clad old folks. I have to hand it to the Japanese--the elderly are very active.

I asked my friend about joining the club, but she said that you couldn't join for just one year. Don't know why, but I can't ask. There are rental courts for guests, though, so hopefully I can find enough games to make me happy.

After the match, my friend invited me for lunch. We went to a Japanese noodle shop. It was ok. Not fantastic, but ok. I think it was a pretty typical little Japanese restaurant, and I was glad I had her to interpret for me. Nice day. Now I have to go back to work tomorrow.

Bureaucracy

Dealing with governmental systems in Japan is not for the faint of heart. I'm exhausted today after getting a bank account, which took about 3 hours and 1 weekend to complete. To begin with, don't try doing it alone. You absolutely need a Japanese babysitter to hold your hand and do most of the actual work. Last week I went to the ward office (don't ask what it is as I don't know) and registered as a gaijin (foreigner), because I knew I would need to do that for the bank account (which I need if Iwant to get paid). They gave me a temporary paper and told me to come back in a month for the document. Last Friday I went with my Japanese babysitter to the bank where they told me that I needed a blue paper, not a white one from the ward office. So I trucked across town to get the blue paper. Couldn't come back to the bank that day as they close at 3. This morning, my babysitter and I went back to the bank with the blue paper and 3 other documents. Keiko filled out most of the information in Japanese. My date of birth was in year 22 of the emperor. Who knew? (Hopefully you can't figure out what year that is.) Anyway, I printed and signed my name, and they took the paper and we waited for 15 minutes. The banker came back and said that my name needed to be exactly the same as it was on my passport. I was perplexed. What was wrong? Apparently the passport has the name written in all capital letters. So we had to fill the paper out completly again, this time with my name in caps. Another 15 minute wait. The banker comes back to say that they want my last name first.
Another 15 minutes and I get my account. I'd like to get a cell phone, but I'm not sure I'm up to it. Meanwhile, the cherry blossoms are still lovely.

Geocaching in Japan

I believe my new hobby of geocaching will prove to be one of the best I could have for this adventure. I have already gone on 3 geocaching outings, and each time my friends and I have discovered really cool places we never would have found otherwise. The first time we found a cache near an interesting sake pickle shop. They had some pretty weird looking pickles in that shop (some of them disturbingly anatomical-like). On another day we found a cache at a sake museum and shop complete with free samples. It wasn't bad at all and the shop was charming. There was a cache near where we went for the hanami, but we couldn't find it. The best thing about this hobby is that I have a GPS. I have set my first waypoint as my house, and the second one as my school. That way I don't have to rely on 1) L'Shawn (my neighbor and co-worker)2) my lousy sense of direction 3) my terrible Japanese to ask directions or 4)all the mysterious signs written in Japanese. I can just pull out my little machine and head in the right direction.
I have included some pictures of the first caches we found.

Hanami

In the last 2 days I have participated in 2 hanami (cherry blossom viewing parties). The first one was during the afternoon. The cherry blossom trees along this river were breathtaking, and my neighbors and I went with a group of Japanese folks who volunteer at the international center and some Mongolian girls who are students at Kobe University. There was a ton of cute little packages of Japanese food and a little beer and wine. You set up your big blue plastic tarp, take off your shoes and you sit and eat ( a lot if you're me) and chat. These folks were delightful. They spoke a little English, and my neighbors L'Shawn and Doug( also from CSU) helped interpret. A lovely afternoon. I even got a tennis date out of the deal with a woman who looks to be about 70 and is approximately one half my size. We'll see how it goes (or if I can find the right subway exit).

Then last night some of the teachers and employees of Kobe Kaisei (my school) had a hanami party near the school. Same drill, lots of cute food, but this time there was considerably more emphasis on the drinking side of it. Lots of wine, beer and sake. It was really fun. I haven't been to a party like that in many many years. I think it was a good bonding experience for the teachers.

Trip to Japan

After a couple of weeks of very stressful moving (I don't get how some people move every few years), I finally headed out to DIA with the help of Eric my son, who dutifully drove me at 5:30 a.m. Apparently this was just a few hours before a big snowstorm in Denver. When I went through security, the guy checking was asking everyone in line, "Are you livin the dream? If you're not, you're in the wrong line." I loved it! Take a routine dull job and put energy and heart into it. It makes all the difference. And yes, I'm livin' the dream!
The flight to San Francisco was great. I had an interesting seat mate from Japan who had just attended the AAAL conference in Denver. I also met a couple of groups who were going to Japan. The trip from San Francisco to Osaka was less enjoyable, only because it felt like 4 days. (ok, ok, 11.5 hours) Watched a couple of movies, slept a little, studied some Japanese, ate pretty much non-stop, and then turned into a 4 year-old wanting to know "Are we there yet?" I asked my young Japanese seatmate how much longer it would be. His answer of 5 more hours was not well received.

I took the bus to Kobe and was met by 4 friends at the station there. We went to a cute bar for dinner (I think my third of the day) and had a great time till I started falling asleep mid sentence.

I've been at my apartment for about 3 days now and am getting it set up. It's not tiny as you might expect from Japan. It's quite comfortable, and my only complaint is that there is a 1 foot step up to the bathroom. I'm worried about breaking my leg in the middle of the night as I head for the john.

My learning curve is very steep at this point. One of the reasons I signed on for this gig is to stimulate my brain--learn new things. Good idea, but I'd like the new things to come in at a little slower pace. How to get the train. Which train to take. Where my apartment is.
I have been able to speak at a VERY basic level e.g. asking for a coffee shop as my coffee pot had not arrived yet. (Lots of them around, but they don't open till about 9 a.m.--what's the point?)
Trouble is, though I can speak a little, I can understand almost nothing. And the writing system doesn't help at all. My predecessor in the apartment left a lot of food (bottles of stuff), but I couldn't tell by looking what it was.

As I wander around the city, I'm using it as one big word puzzle. I am learning Katakana, one of the 3 writing systems in Japan, because it is the alphabet used to spell the many borrowed words (mostly from English). For example, in one store, I sounded out a word: a ru ba mu
which I finally worked out to be 'album' (it was the CD section of the store). So this is kind of fun, if you're not in a hurry.

So far I'm not in a hurry as work doesn't start until next Wednesday, when there is a ceremony to open the school year. I don't start teaching for a few days after that. The cherry blossom season is starting, and I'm looking forward to going to some lovely spots to view the'hanami'.

Think I'll go back to bed as I started writing this at about 5 in the morning. My friends don't get up till noon, so I'll need my sleep to go out with them tonight.