Apparently I have a thing for frogs. I've posted about them here and also here.
I made a recording of frog noises back during rainy season in Gyoda, but never got around to posting it. It's a noise that I find strangely compelling. Perhaps, along with the sound of squealing cicadas and the smell of damp tatami, it serves as a reminder of Japanese days past.
That recording you may find here: Gyoda Frogs
Contrast it with a recording I just made a few days ago in Massachusetts. These frogs are much bigger than their rice field compatriots, making them much easier to see. Don't let recording levels fool you; they actually manage to be quieter than the frogs in Japan.
Enjoy the natural ambiance here: Massachusetts Frogs Recording
Now if only I can get close enough for an adequate recording of the rather-elusive "peeper frogs."
UPDATE: I got a recording of the peepers! Oh joy, right?
Check them out: Massachusetts Peepers Recording
My family house used to have two enormous silver maple trees in the front yard. One of them had to be taken down a few years ago and my father had the usable wood milled. The color and grain of the wood is very striking, and I decided to make my follow-up to the Square-1 design out of this sugar maple. Not only would these two end tables serve as a prototype for the next iteration of the "Square" series, it would also be an homage to my childhood home.
I've made two tables, unofficially dubbed "river" and "tree" due to the color patterns. They're actually not the easiest things to photograph with a digital camera; there is so much pink and red in the wood that the whole photo tends to get tinted pink or orange. In trying to compensate for that hue, photo-editing software tends to wash out the colors of the photo. The result is such that the darker parts of the wood are a bit pinker in reality, and the lighter parts of the wood are a bit more white. I may be an amateur designer, but I'm no photographer!
I do love the color and grain of the Square-2 design, but I must admit that Square-1 was easier to work on; Black paint covers almost any mistake!
One of my favorite things to laugh about in Japan was the legendary status of the Tanuki. They're a fun little critter that is often described as a raccoon, though it's an entirely different animal. I've only seen one in real life at a zoo, and I wouldn't really know how to describe it other than "smaller and pointier" than a raccoon.
Anyway, legend has it (according to two Japanese people I know, so obviously it must be true what I say) that Tanuki are notoriously crafty. Certainly, Japanese folk tales featuring Tanuki do tend to accentuate the naughty things they do. Western raccoons are fairly naughty in real life, so I can see why Tanuki might be translated the way they are.
But I digress. The real reason I'm posting is to talk about Tanuki balls. I remember the first time I noticed them. I was standing outside a restaurant and noticed a statue of this weird owl/bear looking creature. I asked what it was, and I was told it was a Tanuki. I also asked why he had enormous testicles. Accordingly, I was told that his balls represented his enormous luck, and any restaurant that has a Tanuki statue was rewarded with good luck. So if you're ever in Japan, you'll see a lot of these guys around. You might even see some in the States.
Tanuki balls represent good luck with money (or so I've been told). It's interesting to note that very long hanging earlobes also represent good luck, I believe also with money. As such, you see a lot of Buddha/Hotei statues with very very long earlobes. I suppose we may further assume that hanging body parts in general provide good luck.
Recently I've been using my spare time creatively and (I like to think) productively. As one of my many interests is interior design, I took the time to brush up on AutoCAD and make some designs. Not only does this help me regain long-unused skills, but it results in an actual physical object! Quite the accomplishment, these days.
In any case, here is the result, dubbed "Square-1" and first in a series. It's the very first of its type and pretty much a prototype, but I gave it as a gift and it is serving quite well in its capacity as a coffee table. Have a look:
During the last few days of "Operation Bai Bai" in Japan I took the ridiculously-fast Nozomi Shinkansen (bullet train) out to Hiroshima for a day and a half. It was something I'd always wanted to do but had never gotten around to.
Hiroshima itself isn't much; all there really is to do is the Peace Park and other Atomic-bomb related stuff. Miyajima, with included Itsukushima Jima and Daisho-in temple was where it was at.
Click on the rugged picture of yours-truly for the gallery.
I love this season in Japan. It's just before rainy season, so the sky hasn't started dumping on us yet, the weather isn't ridiculously hot yet, and the rice season has just begun. The rice season always starts by flooding the fields and planting little ricelings (that's what Ilike to call them). What this means is that on a cool night riding my bike past the fields I am sole witness to thousands and thousands of frogs chirping their minuscule lungs out trying to find a mate. The sound is somewhat akin to "peepers" back home, but they frogs are less afraid than their cousins back home and will keep chirping even if you're nearby. Sometimes it's a wonderful experience just to stand there next to a field and listen to their drone. I've never actually seen one of the little guys until last night. Bonus: two of them!
Our final day saw beautiful blue skies and a village from the past. We headed from Iriomote back to Ishigaki, the main point for all ferry trips down in the Yaeyama region. From there we hopped off, bought tickets, and hopped right back on the same ferry for the ten-minute ride to Taketomi. At its widest point Taketomi is only nine kilometers across, and it's also one of the most popular tourist destinations in the area. You can imagine it can get very very crowded, but thankfully we were able to avoid most crowds because of when we visited.
To my dismay Taketomi's swimming/snorkeling isn't stellar, though the place makes up for it with other things to look at. The beauty of the central town is the main attraction on the island, and for good reason. The place we stayed at was no exception to the rule that residences on the island should use the traditional red-tile roofs, and the couple that ran it were fabulous. We checked out the tiny island a bit and did a tiny bit of swimming, then came back for dinner. There we met some other guests, with whom we later watched the sunset and went looking for fireflies. We found none of the latter, but we did get serenaded by the owner while we drank copious amounts of the local liquor.
Our second day took us to the "brooding jungle isle to the west," Iriomote. Even though I couldn't help but mock my guidebook's description, it really does brood. While Ishigaki had been colored grey by the overcast sky, Iriomote was covered with threatening rain clouds. The first sight of it gives the distinct impression of going to Jurassic Park or the island in LOST.
Iriomote has an area roughly the same size as Ishigaki, meaning it's a bit less than 300 square kilometers. Though that means it's fairly big, it has a population of 2200 and has only one main road. I can't tell you how many times I thought to myself "is this really Japan?" while we were there. The jungle is so widespread and the settlements obviously not, it reminded me of the mountain forest preserve I stayed at in Costa Rica. For this I fell in love with Iriomote.
We stayed at the Japanese equivalent of a bed and breakfast, where we met the French Bulldog "Guts." He was adorable in an ugly way, and some problem with his nose caused him to snort like a pig while he breathed. It was like having a furry little pig around all the time. In the morning we took a kayak/hiking trip to the tallest waterfall in Okinawa, Pinaisaira. Unlike my companion and everyone else who was there, I was determined to swim at just about anywhere I could, so naturally I swam at the foot of the fall. Here we had our first encounter with a very weird creature, something that looks straight out of prehistoric times. It's a half-frog, half-fish thing, and skips across the water on little leg/fins. I swear it's a perfect illustration of the halfway point in evolution between water dwellers and land creatures.
Before we left the island on the next day we rented motor scooters, which was perhaps one of the coolest things I've ever done. I can't express to you the giddy idiotic grin that crossed my face the minute I gunned the (miniscule) engine. In the short time we had the scooters we made good use of them, hoofing it all the way to the northern ending point of the main road. Can you believe it? A "main road" that just stops at a dead end, cut off by mountain jungle.
Near there was where we swam out to a tiny deserted island and explored some natural sea-carved caves.
This past week I spent a few days down in the southernmost part of Japan, a few small islands that are part of Okinawa known as the Yaeyama Islands. I'll be separating my accounts of trip by island. So to start we first stopped at Ishigaki, which is the main island of the group merited by the fact that it actually has an airport and a smattering of roads.
As a matter of fact, for the majority of the trip we found ourselves traveling beneath lead sky; the rainy season has just begun in Okinawa, and though we saw very little rain, the dark sky made for some less-than-brilliant photographs.
Ishigaki is seeing a major population influx, mostly in the form of retirees. New construction was everywhere, though for a while we thought it was buildings going to disrepair. Since not only during a slow season but also during the week, the place seemed desterted; it was great! We rented a small car and set about exploring the island. We took pictures for a very enthusiastic couple, found hairy (yes, really hairy!) crabs at low tide, ate Okinawan Taco Rice, and got sunburned. This is unfortunately where an unwanted guest, a hair of some sort inside my camera lens, made its first appearance. You'll see it featured throughout, much to my dismay.
I know I've been absent for quite a long time, but I've been insanely busy. Good friends have been both leaving and visiting, so I've had very little time for things like posting here. Well, the madness is over with nothing but (mostly) empty space as a replacement. I expect to be posting more now that I have some free time on my hands.
For now, make sure to check out a sampling of the pictures I took while my good friend Jansen was visiting. I've also figured out a way to easily add captions to my pictures, so be sure not to miss those!
As always, click on the thumbnail below for the full gallery.
Pete and I went to Korea for a short trip. It's very cheap (under $400) for airfare and hotel for 3 nights, and it's quite a short flight. Why not, right?
We arrived at night and had a hell of a time finding the hotel. The reviews of the hotel online weren't exaggerating when they said it's hard to find. We ended up being in the complete wrong part of the area, though luckily some weird guy on a bike decided he wanted to practice English with us and helped us find the place. Admittedly, there was a little suspicion as to why he was being so nice to us...
The second day we did a lot of palace/temple sightseeing. When in asia...
One palace you can only enter via a guided tour. Unfortunately, the English tours are rather few and far between, so Pete's stroke of genius was to take a Japanese-language tour. It worked beautifully. Coincidentally, the day on which we took the tour also happened to be Independence Day in Korea...Independence from Japan. So during the tour, at one point our tour was waiting for another all-Korean tour to exit a certain area of the palace so we could fit in. The tension was rather tangible, as many of the Koreans exiting gave the Japanese group the evil eye. In true Japanese fashion, however, our group seemed completely clueless.
The next day we did more palace touring, this time in the rain.
Highlights: Check out the colorful painting that is clearly different than Japanese-style historical architecture. Also of note is the bowl of silkworm larvae that is supposedly a "popular street snack." I can't see how it can be popular, as I ate one and it was...unpalatable, to say the least. Without further ado, here you go!
I know it's been a very long time since I've posted anything here. Sorry for that, by my life has been rather chock-full of business and crappiness (in equal measure, as a matter of fact).
To tide you over for now, here's a photo gallery of my trip back home to Massachusetts. Enjoy.
Last weekend I went to Hong Kong. It was a great trip, but oddly I found myself missing Japan intensely. I wonder how I'll fare when I finally have to leave Japan for good.
Highlights of Hong Kong:
- It was warm
- I got a pretty cool fake watch
- You can haggle for almost anything
- Lots of green in the middle of a dense city
- Lots of green outside the city
Low(?)lights of Hong Kong:
- Cantonese food is horrific
- Loud, dirty
- It was hot
- The foreigners in Hong Kong are by and large a much more irritating presence than in Japan (even Roppongi)
- 90% of the "culture" in Hong Kong centers around shopping
It was a great city, but it was refreshing for me to know what I really feel about Japan, knowing how much I wanted to come back to it. I don't think I'd really want to live in Hong Kong.
My friend was a most excellent host, and thanks to him I got to see and do a lot of things I'm sure most visitors don't do. It was also very interesting to see the dualities of the city through him.
Click on the thumbnail below for the gallery.
This past weekend, my school had its biggest-yet 文化祭 (bunkasai: culture festival). The students spent months preparing some very elaborate scenes as bases for their shops/gamerooms/etc. The results were quite impressive, something pictures can't really express. But I'm gonna show you pictures anyway.
Note: The people pictured in the thumbnail are not in costume. They dress like that normally for "fun." You know the drill. Click the thumbnail for the full gallery.
We had a small "League Retreat" over the past weekend. It was a great time; great weather, great fun, etc. Of course we can't really call it camping at all, because though we were at a camp ground, the typical Japanese "campers" usually end up in a cottage with full electricity, included futons, and often air conditioning and heating. Hardly roughing it.
Anyway, below is the thumbnail to the gallery. You know the drill. The pictures of the stream you see are pictures of the coldest water on Earth. I know because we went swimming in it. We coulda given the Polar Bear Club a run for their money I think. I wonder if the PBC members squeal like girls as much as we did...
Please also bear in mind that I have a pretty strict filesize limitation set on my pictures, so they can sometimes have some pretty nasty compression artifacts. Sorry about that.
Finally, credit for many of the pictures goes to Will, who is far more energetic about taking pictures than I am. You can find his own version of the gallery here.
Quite a few people in Japan have 趣味(shumi: hobbies). Often, these people are fanatically dedicated to their hobbies, and are quite skillful. We've taken up a hobby: golf! We don't have the dedication or the skill, but it sure is satisfying to smash four-hundred-something little white balls into green oblivion.
The most interesting part is where we golf. As Japan has little space to dedicate to such a space-hungry pastime, most people go to driving ranges, which are weird netted-in affairs. Inside, it looks like a normal driving range, except for the fact that the balls come to you.
Allow me to demonstrate (click on the thumbnail for a short video clip).
Coincidentally, this entry also marks the 500-post anniversary of shock-e.com! What that means is that I've been blathering on about things that bear little relevance to the outside world for not a small bit of time. Maybe more than 3 years?!
Sure, there are much more prolific "bloggers" out there, but I prefer to think that people who can write more than that are probably blathering about even less relevant things than myself. Amen.
...of rampant self-indulgence.
It'll give you the chance to:
a) Deride me publicly
b) See for yourself just what Japan has done to my sense of style
c) Gasp at my age
d) Laugh
I took a trip out into the Japanese "countryside" a few weeks ago, but I didn't have space on my server to post the pics. Well my hosting company finally came through, and I have the space to post. Relief.
Included in the gallery (click the thumbnail below as usual) are pictures of 黒部峡谷(Kurobe Kyoukoku: Kurobe Gorge), 立山 (Tateyama), 氷見(Himi), 金沢(Kanazawa), 五箇山(Gokayama), 高山(Takayama), 銚子の滝(Choushinotaki: Choushi Waterfall), and finally 松本(Matsumoto).
Please enjoy!
I don't usually go for Engrish-themed clothing...but yesterday I got one I couldn't pass up.
Click the link below (you may have to scroll down, as the weird part is at the bottom of the picture).
In Chichibu (the mountains that are the only thing worth mention in Saitama) there are plenty of places to get your nature on. I've been there in the past and I went again this year to get away from the oppressive heat and boredom in Gyoda. The pictures are nothing much, especially to those back home who are used to seeing trees and streams every day. You can, however, see a few pictures of me and get a look at how much I've aged in a mere two years since coming here. It's quite remarkable, really ... and kinda shitty.
I bought a shirt the other day (big-time sales here, woohoo!) and received some sort of re-usable bag with it. Whatever.
I was staring at it today in some sort of reverie, and realized it was supposed to be a word in English.
Can you figure out what it is? (Click the link)
Barring some early technical difficulties (failing CD players, skipping records, the like), I spun a pretty decent set at club 911 in the nearby town of 熊谷(Kumagaya). Please click the thumbnail below to get to the gallery.
Yesterday was certifiably the worst day I've had yet in Japan. Nausea, headache, email fighting, locking keys in cars, insomnia ... it had everything that makes a day shitty.
In one of the few five-minute spans that wasn't occupied by crap, I managed to escape to the nearby 麦 (mugi: barley) fields for some pictures. The colors aren't so interesting in photographs, but it was nice to get out.
And who can't feel warm and fuzzy for at least a moment at the sight of a bunch of ducklings!
Click on the thumbnail for the gallery...
My parents brought a veritable boatload of chocolate with them when they visited. One of the pieces was possessed:
Note: In the end, it was coconutty and delicious.
This past weekend I took a short trip to Okinawa with Roy and Pete. It was great fun, filled with sunburns, drinking in deserted bars, snorkeling, and of course searching for "beach bunnies" who weren't there. At least we had crabs...er...I mean we saw crabs. Hermit crabs!
As per usual, click on the thumbnail below for the full gallery.
My parents visited from the end of March into April. It was a great visit and we took a million pictures between the three of us. Here's the beginning of the set. It will be added to, so if you're interested make sure to check back over time as I hand-pick the best pictures to add.
Here it is, my most recent set of random pictures that make you say "what the hell?"
Of particular note are the "Eyelids fold" pictures, which advertise (for $150 no less) a medieval-torture-device disguised as a tool to give asian women a more western-looking eyelid. Some asian people don't have folds in their eyelids, a feature that is seen as distinctly western. This idiotic tool apparently gives them that.
Click on the thumbnail for the gallery.
Back in the day in 2001, I, my sister, and a few friends decided to do a spring break trip. This one forsook drunken sorority girls and tropical weather for rocks and sand. Arizona turned out to be a place of breathtaking beauty. I do, however, remember that I was shocked by the lack of trees, and even felt a bit claustrophobic due to their absence. After all, I grew up in the Northeast, where you can't go 50 feet without seeing at least a few trees.
I found the pictures archived on my computer, as I had long ago scanned them from prints. Keep in mind that the colors can be a bit weird thanks to the scans, and the pics aren't the best size. Regardless, they're pretty cool. Makes me want to go back. Ah, to be back in a place where you can look for miles and not see a single person!
Last weekend I went on a short trip with Pete and Roy up to the freezing country in the north known as 岩手 (Iwate). It was cold, kind of like home. In this cold, a tiny town has a festival every year involving dozens of near-naked men running through the streets having enormous bucketfuls of water dumped on them. It doesn't look fun, though you can smell the 酒 (sake) on them from meters away.
Here are the results of the journey.
Not long ago, I was terrified of public addresses. In high school I hated giving presentations, and during college I warmed up to it a bit but still found myself insanely nervous and sweating. Now, naturally, fate would have it that it's my job! And I think I do a damn good job too. I can sit there in front of a bunch of people talking about whatever with hardly a quiver of the stomach or a sweaty palm.
I've come leaps and bounds in the field of "public" urination as well. I don't mean peeing on people's driveways (no lawns here in 行田) but rather stepping up to the task of peeing while a bunch of people are watching you. It's called "Stage Fright" and I think a lot of men get it while sitting standing there trying so hard to pee at a urinal while everyone's waiting for their turn and watching like vultures. Believe it or not, this does happen, and it sucks. But I've conquered this too! Why?
I've wanted to write about this for a while, but haven't had the time really to go around taking pictures of my school's bathroom. I also didn't want to have to explain to any wandering teachers/students why I was taking pictures of the boys' bathroom. That would be weird. So today in the middle of a class period I snuck most stealthily to the bathroom and took pictures. Naturally one of the teachers caught me and literally was falling over in her weirded-out-ness. I explained, with as little blushing as possible, that at least at my high school we didn't have enormous picture windows in the door. Thanks to this viewport, I try to take my pee breaks whenever classes are in session, thus minimizing hordes of students passing by and peeping.
Stage Fright becomes a thing of the past when you have to pee at these for more than a year. Trust me, squeaking girls outside the door is a much tougher audience than a bunch of other men. Get used to that, and you're good as er ... gold.
Luckily, aforementioned teacher didn't see me taking pictures of the toilet stall itself. See, this looks like a relatively (if a little cramped) normal toilet stall, right? I guess it would be, if not for the ice they made the seat out of . The window open to the outside doesn't help matters. I've sat down to ... do my thing ... on occasions, and the cold seat was enough to prevent my thing from ever being done. It really is a sad state of affairs.
Finally, the piece de resistance. The depth of view in this picture isn't the best, but hopefully the included hand gives you some idea of just how cramped this stall really is. The tips of the fingers are touching the opposite wall, which just happens to be literally half an inch away from my knees. This is obviously a simulated situation, but believe me it's no different than the real thing (aside from frigid butt). It's not so much of a problem when you're actually on the john, but it makes the partial-disrobing process beforehand infinitely harder than I ever thought was possible in a "civilized" bathroom. I'm by no means a tall person. I pity anyone taller than I forced to use this thing. Sometimes I've actually given thought to standing on the toilet itself to get some more room. Before the actual deed, I mean.
In honesty though, as much as the toilet stall is cramped, I'm sure glad there's no window on the door. There are some things you just shouldn't have to do when a window is involved.
I'm back. I realize it's been a long time and my readers have just been absolutely slavering for a new post. That's right, slavering. You see though, the reality is that I do most of my posting in my short breaks between classes or when I have free time at work. Of course, I couldn't interrupt my movie or shopping marathons of winter vacation, could I?
This past weekend I went on a trip to 札幌 (Sapporo) and it was great. Lots of snow (totally nostalgic, there), beer, and hostess bars. Note that we didn't partake in the latter, though we had no choice about the former two. Not like there's ever a choice when it comes to beer.
To top it all off, we rode home on a Pokemon plane!
Pete also has a gallery entry (but you'll need a login to view it), as well as Will.
I just finished the majority of my Christmas shopping yesterday, trying to get significant and/or interesting things for my family. Below, you'll see just how interesting one of these things turned out to be. This is probably the coolest, weirdest wrapping job I've had to do yet.
Yeah, the Japanese characters are upside down. Oops. But it looks like a house with a chimney doesn't it!
The boneheads in charge of IT at the prefecture level (all high schools in Japan are controlled by their prefectural governmental ministry) run a content filtering app that I am constantly bumping into. Daily you can hear my curses when I'm (usually) trying to find something useful and run into this thing. The things that they do to "protect" the kids from the world, in the end, only manage to make school less educational and more ridiculous. Last time I was trying to find Halloween games to play with my English club. I was blocked from every page because the word "game" was included in the page. No games allowed in school! Enjoying even a moment of your class makes you weak and stupid!
Today I was looking up more about Nanking/Nanjing in thinking about a response I wrote earlier to Roy's comment. Apparently history is also a banned category!
Okay I kinda get censoring the violence part, but history? What the fuck?
We had a Halloween party (about two weeks too late, but whatever) for English club. The students carved a pumpkin (it's hard to get them here so I could only find one in the time frame I had), made Halloween cookies, and eyeball punch. It was a good and tiring time.
A few weekends ago we went to 焼肉 (yakiniku: barbecued meat) and the Japanese people in the small group (everyone but me) wanted to try some interesting things on the second plate. There were: pig's tongue, unidenfied cartilage, cow intestine, and cow ovary. Can you guess which is which?
I am all over the photo entries this week. Well, I guess it's more interesting for people anyway. Despite not many people knowing what it is or where it is, the town of Ashikaga (足利) has a lot going for it. It has Japan's first school (I think college, but I'm not sure), a bunch of interesting shrines and temples, and a really beautiful flower park. It's also just nice to take a walk around the not-so-busy streets.
Over time, I build up random pictures that I've taken singly but haven't been able to group with anything else. Like here and here and even here I've finally built up enough to group them together and label them as "Miscellaneous." To me, they're pretty entertaining. Some of them, I wish I had posted them sooner rather than forgetting about them.
We had a small 27th birthday celebration for my friend Naoki at a local Okonomiyaki (self-made fried thickass savory pancakes, if you will) place. I thought it would be a good idea to show off the kinds of things we enjoy eating sometimes.
I'll eternally think you're extra-special (isn't that reward enough?) if you can comment and guess some ingredients that make up this masterpiece.
Extra-extra-extra-special bonus points if you can figure out how one eats it.
Anyone who has lived in/visited Japan doesn't count (sorry, those 3 readers, no extra-special points for you this time)!
The black surface you see is a heated frying surface built into your table.
Yesterday Shinshukan (my school) had its big yearly sports festival. It was very fun and tiring for everyone. You can see quite a few different games/races here. Though the teachers weren't in the competitions (I wanted to be but there aren't enough young male teachers to make up a relay team), it was still a fun time. Classes today have been difficult for students and teachers alike!
My school had its yearly school festival this weekend. It was great fun. As you can see the students got totally into it! There were ghost houses, stores, movie houses, cheerleaders, dancers ... you name it!
Yesterday I announced that I was going to climb 富士山 (Mount Fuji) with Roy. Could that have just been yesterday? Seems so long ago.
We left Tokyo Thursday (yesterday?) night and traveled to the 5th station (about halfway up) of Fuji. We arrived at about 10:00PM and got going by a little earlier than 10:30PM. You see, it is somewhat of a popular custom to hike during the night to reach the peak and watch the sunrise. So we hiked for the next three and a half hours (it would've been three, did I not have weak chickenlegs) up some pretty steep volcanic scree. I can't believe grannies and kids do that hike, let me tell you.
The good news is that we passed pretty much everyone on the mountain. It became this kind of self-feeding obsession to not allow anyone behind us to pass us once we'd passed them. There were, naturally, other reasons I won't belabor. The end result was we got to the summit at around 2AM which is way too early. See it's friggin cold up there and waiting for two hours in near-zero temperatures with a whipping wind does not equal fun. So we spent two hours, me curled fetally in the corner of a stone wall and Roy sharing a tiny smelly public bathroom space with 6 other people.
We survived and the pictures prove it.
Let me give you a quotation from the Saitama Navigator book that every Saitama JET is given upon entering Saitama to live and work:
The Nakatsu River originates in Juumonji Pass at the border with Nagano Prefecture, forming a gorge of breathtaking beauty. The Nakatsu-kyou Gorge is claimed to be the best scenic spot in the Chichibu region of Saitama.
Today I went there and did a little walking around, preceded by a near-two-hour train ride which was followed by an hour-long bus ride.
Let me tell you, whoever wrote this book acts like (s)he's never set foot out of Tokyo. It was very pretty and all, but nothing I couldn't find back home in humble little Western Massachusetts. I don't even think this was a gorge. In fact, the only breath that was taken was my own ... when I dove into the river and my pants migrated to my ankles.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it. Swimming in "the wild" in Japan is a rarity, and it was nice (after being busted for swimming in a fishing area ... oops). And now I know not to fully trust this book of mine. I should've known when I realized it had completely omitted the part about the busride being an hour long.
But hey ... I did something with my day, and that's good.
Here's a posting of some of the typical things I see in a day. These pictures typify pretty much every single high school (and middle school) in Japan. I ordered the pictures such that you'll see them in the order that a typical student would see them as her day progresses. Of course, she'd only see my room if she actually liked English enough to visit it (which is a very unrealistic expectation).
I went camping with Pete, Nichole, Roy, John, and Wendy this past weekend. Tent-squatting snakes and frigid water notwithstanding, it was a great time. Probably the snake and the frigid water made it more interesting anyway! But I'll leave that for another time. I'm still tired and want to go to bed.
Some of the pictures are a little blurry or strange, but that's just a result of the camerawoman not knowing how my camera works. Good try Wendy! ;)
In response to the other day's self-indulgent-post-of-angst I give you a new, entirely different self-indulgent post.
This time, I got a haircut and looks smashing compared to the helmet-hair/receding-hairline look I was rocking a few days ago. In person it also looks strikingly Japanese. I guess that's not surprising, considering where I got the haircut ...
Feast thine eyes, and comment not upon the muscle-shirt, as it is simply my bedtime attire.
Ever had one of those days, where you feel and look your worst? Today is one of them. I demonstrate:
We had a hanami (Sakura-viewing party) during the weekend. It was beautiful. Here you go.
Dad left after a monumental visit with lots of rushing around and trying to see as much Sakura (桜, cherry blossoms) as humanly possible. It was great and very much worth it. So, to follow up and show you I was after all busy and not just a lazy blogger, here are the pictures. Note that Gyoda really does have pretty things! Imagine that! I am always surprised.
Also note that I have become a macro-lens addict. It just makes for such cool artsy-fartsy (or at least, my lame attempt at it) pictures.
