Ryoushin no Ryokou Part 1: Gates

Above: Tori Tunnel - Gates of Fushimi Inari Taisha

As most of you are aware, my recent absence from the blogosphere is due to a birthday visit from dear ole Mom and Dad (in Japanese, the word for parents is written 両親, pronounced "ryoushin"). They packed their bags and braved a 14 hour nonstop flight from Atlanta plus an additional hour and a half flight from Tokyo, to my closest mainland airport, at Yonago for two weeks of sight-seeing and birthday celebrating. This was not without its complications, as they were unable to communicate in Tokyo their desire to check their baggage, and the non-confrontational nature of the Japanese led the airport security to just wave them through the metal detectors and x-ray scanners with a brief scolding and written notice, bags and all. Furthermore, their flight to Yonago was delayed. It was good to see them though, as they made their way through the arrival gate at the airport, and we soon caught a bus back to Yonago for the night.

The next day, as we prepared to board our train for Kyoto, we discovered that, despite what JR says about their rail passes, they can not be activated at any JR station, only a select few, with Yonago not making the list. I also found out that, when you advise your mom to bring money in the form of postal money orders, it's best to blatantly specify they be of the international variety, because plain old postal money orders aren't valid in Japan, or anywhere else outside of the US. Despite, these setbacks though, we were able to exchange some cash for Yen, and purchase 3 tickets to Okayama, where we would then activate my parents' rail passes so they could travel for free for the rest of their stay. Needless to say, all of this set us back a few hours, and we weren't really able to get much sight-seeing in. Though we did spend a fair amount of time at Kyoto Station, which I must say is a marvel of modern architecture, and we walked past Higashi Hoganji on our way to our hotel (more on the Hoganji Temples in the future). It was probably for the best though, as I think Mom and Dad were both still pretty tired from all the traveling they'd done, just to get to Kyoto. So at the end of the day, I introduced them to a classic Japanese dish, Okonomiyaki, before heading back to our very nice hotel for a good night's rest. First though, Dad and I donned our yukata and headed up to public bath on the top floor for a nice long soak in the ridiculously hot water.

The next day, I insisted on waking up bright and early so that we could see as much as possible, especially since, despite having studied in the kansai for 3 1/2 months before, much remained (and still remains!) to be seen. Of course, nothing ever really goes according to plan all that much, and we ended up boarding our local train from Kyoto Station about an hour later than I had hoped. To top it all off there was a very steady drizzle for most of the morning. Undeterred though, I led the 'rents off the train at the tiny Inari Station, crossed the street, and made our way toward an absolutely giant orange tori.

First Stop: Fushimi Inari Taisha
The orange tori is characteristic of shrines to the goddess Inari, a rice deity, often associated with foxes. Inari is one of the most popular dieties in Japan, with over 30,000 shrines dotting the country. (I've seen them in Buddhist temples, across the street from each other, and even multiple shrines to Inari on the grounds of other shrines.) Fushimi Inari, though, is the grandest and largest of them all. Originally dedicated as a single shrine in the 8th century by the Hata family, the complex now five shrines sprawled across Inari-yama (Inari Mountain). A 4km trail, lined with literally hundreds of orange tori gates and littered with stone foxes, connects the five shrines. Due to the rain and all the gates, the whole area past the entryway was rather dark, not to mention wet. So we hiked up to the 3rd shrine, near a large pond, and decided to call it a day there. It was nearing 10am by this point, and I still had an entire city to show, so we made it back to the station where we waited about 20 minutes for the next train to Nara...

(See all my photos of Fushimi Inari Taisha.)

Bledisloe

Lord Bledisloe, it seems, enjoyed 2 things in life: Rugby, and giant silver cups, like the one he donated to an annual tournament held between the New Zealand All Blacks and the Australian Wallabies, possibly the 2 best teams to ever play the sport of rugby. The four game tournament, now known as the Bledisloe Cup, has been played every year since the early 1930s, with venues alternating between the countries. Last year, all that changed when game 4 was played in Hong Kong. Wanting to make a tradition out of moving the 4th game, the decision was made to play in Tokyo. I, not wanting to miss what may be my only chance to attend a professional rugby event ever in my entire life, decided to ditch all of my Halloween plans and hop the first flight to Tokyo.

I stayed at a friend's house Friday night in Matsue. I walked to the bus station the morning of the 31st, eighty bucks richer from a poker game the night before and eagerly anticipating my first international sporting event. My plane touched down at Haneda Airport in Tokyo at 1:30. The gates to the game opened at 3:30, with kick off being at 5:30, so it seemed as if I'd have plenty of time. And then I realized that I was in Tokyo - a city whose infrastructure consists of a literal maze of more than a dozen subway and train lines. But, after two hours of map checking and second guessing myself, I had arrived at Tokyo's National Stadium, once home to the 1960 Olympic Games.

The first thing I did was head to the nearest merchandise tent since, let's be honest, anything rugby-related is hard to come by in the States. After 30 minutes of standing at a table so crowded I could only reach one unseen tub of merchandise with one arm, I walked away with a new Haka hoodie and an All Blacks Jersey, albeit not a great one, as there was no number on it, and being Japanese, was a little tight on me. Now that I looked the part of a mediocre rugby fan, I decided to grab a beer and what Japan thought were hot dogs and go find my seat.

Five minutes later I was on the 4th row from the front, within spitting distance of the All Blacks' bench. Now all I had to do was sit back and enjoy the show. Oh and take a ton of pics...


And a video...

The above is my attempt at filming New Zealand's infamous Haka - a traditional Maori war dance they often perform before their games. There are several variations, but this one was still pretty cool.

After the game, I braved the subway, now crowded with thousands of gaijin, and made my way to a wonderful hostel just east of downtown Shinjuku. There was a "Halloween party," as they called it that night, and I went as an All Blacks fan. I had a fun time and met some interesting people, but I didn't stay up late, as I wanted to give myself plenty of time to find my way back to the airport for my 10:35 flight Sunday morning. All in all, a great experience, though I am regretting not asking for Monday off so I could've done some more sight seeing in Tokyo.

Oki Dogo

So this weekend, I finally returned the favor and visited Martin out on Dogo, the largest of the Oki Islands, and it was quite the experience. I arrived Friday evening, on the very last ferry of the day, and was met at the port by Martin and one of his JTE's (that's Japanese Teacher of English in JET jargon). She dropped us off at his apartment, and then later we met up with her, 2 other JTE's, and Ellie, the other Dogo ALT, and the six of us enjoyed dinner at a great izakaya. Dogo is much more developed that any of the Douzen islands, with 2 super markets and a conbini, and they're constantly working on the infrastructure of the island; there seemed to be road construction going on everywhere. After a late night of karaoke, we returned to Martin's place for some much needed rest. I must say that I'm envious of the Dogo JETs and the great network of friends they have there. It seems that they are always busy hanging out with their English teachers, who, for the most part aren't much older than Martin or me.

The next day, we attended a community barbeque outside of Martin's apartment with his landlord and some of the other residents. It was a fun time, and we had some great food. It's been a while since I've had anything from a grill, and it was a welcome change of pace for my taste buds, even if it was whole squid and thin strips of beef instead of dogs and burgers. Once that wrapped up, we walked a few blocks up the road to a car rental place so we could do some sight seeing. I think I've been driving my tiny little stick too much, because driving an automatic felt weird the entire time. We didn't have much time, but Martin wanted to show me the Shirashima Coast, Dogo's answer to Kuniga in Douzen. After ten to fifteen initial minutes of confusion with our GPS, we finally found our way and made it to the coast line on the northern point of the island around 4 pm. Although there were no wild horses roaming this island, the views were nonetheless breathtaking, and I took a good number of photos.


Afterward, we decided to try and make it to the Dangyou Shrine and Waterfall. As I drove deeper into the island, I became increasingly aware of the magnitude of its size; it really is a large piece of land. As we neared the falls we entered what, at first glance, appeared to be an ancient coniferous forest. However, the regularity of the giant trees gave it away as being man-made. Martin explained to me that the particular type of narrow, straight pine had been imported to the island long ago to build up a strong spear-making industry back during the Edo Period. The forest was not alone in its magnificence however, for further up the road it was interrupted by a river, flowing from the falls. It seemed to have dried up to my eyes, but the river bed was rather wide and littered with large stones; as if it had been created as a channel for the island to discard its pelagic remnants after rising from the depths of the sea.
We arrived at the falls as the sun was starting to set. As we walked up a long gravel path in the dark forest, Martin kept daring me to tell him that the scene was not reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings, and upon reaching the falls he proceeded to hum music from the movie. I never was able to answer him. The dark forest, with it's tall trees was a sight to behold in and of itself, and the falls only added to it. You can see what I mean in the video below:



Afterward, we stopped by the main shrine of the island. It was dark by this time, but there were two stone lanterns burning in front of the shrine, which gave off just enough light to illuminate a massive tree at the front of the property. The tree, named the Yaosugi, was enormous, over a hundred feet tall. Which shouldn't surprise you considering it's over a millennium old. The tree was so large that metal beams are propping it up to prevent it from collapsing under its own massive weight. It was hard to get good pictures at night, but it was still an amazing sight to behold.


The next day, we woke at 8am in order to go sightseeing with Yoshida-san, I wonderful older woman who has had strong ties with Dogo's JET community since her daughter married a former ALT. She took us to see one of the island's most famous landmarks, Tokage-Iwa, or "Lizard Rock." This large rock formation rests precariously on a high mountain ledge and, to some ancient resident perhaps, resembled the form of a lizard, though I'm sure you'll all agree with me that it looks more like a woodpecker. Afterward, we stopped by another ancient tree, this one over 600 years old. The Kaburagi, as it's called, sprouts a new truck every hundred years or so, and is really a sight to behold. It's one of three or four such trees on the island. We ended the afternoon at Yoshida-san's beautiful, and very traditional, house, where she served us tea and Japanese snacks. I had to leave early so that I could make my ferry at noon, but the morning impressed me as eventful. Indeed my sightseeing for the whole weekend was short and limited when one considers the size of Dogo and the great number of sights contained withing. It just means I'll have to return in the near future to see the rest.

As usual, all my photos will be available on Facebook. Next weekend is Halloween. I will be celebrating by attending an international Rugby match in Tokyo being played by the teams currently ranked first and third in the world. Should be a fun time.

Island Life

So it's been a few weeks now since I've been off the island. Last weekend was a festival in Ama, at the Oki Shrine a few blocks from my house. I didn't actually make it to the main part of the festival on Sunday afternoon, but I did attend a takigi-noh play on Saturday night. Nohis a very traditional Japanese performing art, using intricate masks that dates back to the 14th century Muromachi period. The kanji for takigi indicate that the play is performed outdoors, by firelight, which really added to the atmosphere of the play. The experience was far more enticing than something you'd see on stage. I couldn't really understand what was going on in this play, but I think it had something to do with Go-Toba, who, as I've mentioned before, is enshrined at the Oki-jinja. Despite the language barrier, I still had a fun time watching the performers, especially in the second act, which used very traditional Japanese drums and flute to accompany several dances on the stage. Plus, despite thunder in the distance, the weather held out, and the cold didn't set in too bad.

Other than that, life's been rather slow. We had a four day weekend last week, and this week 1/3 of my school is off doing outdoor education. Meanwhile my JTE has had to attend conferences in Matsue, as well as classes at the high school, so I haven't really taught at all this week, outside of my elementary schools. I've used the downtime though to read up on my Japanese history and brush up on my language skills.


Oh, and I shot this video of my house. Enjoy.

The Jewel of the Okis

This past weekend, Martin, my Irish friend on Dogo (the largest of the Oki Islands) came to visit me in Ama. He arrived in nearby Nishinoshima on Saturday afternoon, and I met him there, where we decided to rent a car and go check out the nearby Kuniga （literally "joyful country," if you want some foreshadow) coast line. It was a beautiful day, warm, with a slight breeze, and only a few white clouds against a Carolina blue sky. We were really fortunate in that regard, because it had been gray and rainy all week in Ama. We had a map of the island, and I had a rough idea of where we were headed, as I had been there a few weeks previously to see a small concert with the two other Douzen JETs and Paul, the high-school ALT in the Okis. The view of the ocean from the road was incredible, and it only became more so as the road winded up the red cliffs that make up the Kuniga coast. In fact, we stopped the car on several occasions to take pictures. We realized though, that we had merely wasted our time once we reached the top of the tallest cliff in Japan, Matengai, meaning "polished cliff of heaven." I honestly think that it might be the most beautiful place God ever made. To my front was the beautiful sea that surrounds the islands. I was surrounded on every other side by rolling green mountains, dotted here and there with Oki cattle and wild horses. As we neared the edge of the impressive cliff, the view only got better, and when we looked down, we realized that we could meander down the left hand side of the cliff (note, it was a hill, not the cliff face), and see the wild horses up close. With every step we took, the view got better and better, and eventually Martin chimed in that this was certainly "the crown jewel of the Oki Islands," and I must say I agree.

What's really great about it all, is that even though this is a national park, with thousands of year visitors both young and old, the scenery was not polluted by such man-made obscenities as fences, warning signs, or safety barriers. This only speaks to the awesomeness that is Japan, and the common-sense approach they take to society. Whereas American's would be concerned that children and/or the idiotic would have run off into the pasture and been trampled by a startled horse/gored by a startled bull/fallen off a cliff, the Japanese didn't really seem all that bothered by it, and if anyone were to be injured here, I doubt they'd win a lawsuit. Anyways, back to Martin and me, after walking a considerable distance, we looked back and decided it was going to take quite an effort on our part to make it back up the cliff, so we stopped walking and turned around for a very daunting trek back to the car.


Afterward, I looked at the map, and noted a shrine with the kanji for fire in its name, and decided to check it out before we had to return our rental car. We parked at the bottom of a wooded area, grabbed some bamboo walking sticks from a nearby shelter, and proceeded to hike up a wooded hill. The dark forest was a stark contrast to the rolling hills of Kuniga, and our legs already were tired from our climb there. The trip was worth it though. We first caught sight of the outskirts of the shrine after about five minutes of hiking, when we stumbled onto a large Tori in the forest. Just beyond it, there was a clearing and a stone wall, which dated back to the early 14th century. Atop the wall was a courtyard and large building. We poked our head in, but saw nobody, so we continued to walk. In the woods behind the building, we came across the shrine, which was set into a massive hole in a stone precipice. In front of the shrine, two backpackers were talking to the shrine's priest. One of them knew a little English, and tried to explain to us the history of the shrine, which had something to do with three fireballs exploding from the mountain or striking the mountain, or nearby area, or something along those lines. I had a hard time following. But according to Yagi-sensei, my Japanese professor at Furman, "at the beginning of the Meiji Era, it was a Shinto Shrine/Buddhist temple called Takuhizan Unjyûji. Legend says that the enshrined Kami, Takuhi Gongen, rescued Ex-emperor Gotoba from a ship wreck. They built a bronze statue of Takuhi Gongen in front of the Beppu Harbor Terminal Building in Nishinomachi designed by a very famous manga artist Mizuki Shigeru, who drew a number of Yôkai (goblins) including Ge Ge Ge no Kitarô."

As the three men started to head back to the entrance, they motioned for us to join them, and as we approached the wooden structure, we learned it was the abode of the Shrine's priest. The kind man invited us in and showed us around. Furthermore he made us tea, and gave us free copies of a woodblock print of the shrine. I've long wanted a woodblock print, which is a traditional Japanese method of artistry dating back to the 18th century Edo Period. This particular print was done in the Ukiyo-e style, or "pictures of the floating world." Furthermore, this print, "The Torch Shrine in Oki Province," was done by the most famous artist of the Edo period, Ando Hiroshige. I was so overwhelmed with this stranger's generosity that we were a few minutes late returning our rental car.





After we returned the car, we hopped a ferry back to Ama, and attempted to catch the sunset at the Ama Lighthouse. You may remember my failed attempt to reach the lighthouse from my 5 hour trek I took soon after my arrival in Ama. This time I actually made it, be we just missed the sunset. We still saw some great views though, and afterward, we returned to the port area to enjoy some delectable Oki beef at a local restaurant.

The next morning, we headed over to Ama's kindergarten, where I had been invited to their Sports Day, which are big events in Japanese schools. This one wasn't so centered around actual sports as it was silly games that let the kids expend a weekend's worth of energy. Martin and I got pulled in to participate in a couple of events, including a beanbag toss, and a race among adults to complete tasks written (in Japanese) on a piece of paper. It was a fun day, and I got to meet Ama's local German, Frank, who moved here with his Japanese wife only a year ago. He speaks fluent English and seemed like a cool guy, and his young daughter was adorable. Martin and I had a great time. Once the festivities were over, we returned to Nishinoshima, where we'd hoped to catch the tail end of a town festival as well as some Kagura dancing, but we arrived too late. Instead we went back to Kuniga, where we laid down in the grass for a wonderful siesta.

All in all, it was a great weekend. Be sure to check out Facebook, where I have about 80 photos up from our adventures! This weekend is an Ama-wide sports day, complete with two days of All-Oki volleyball and tennis tournaments. Next weekend though, I get to see a traditional Noh play at Oki-jinja!

I'm alive, I swear it!

Sorry for the delay in posts everyone, Silver Week was a busy time, and as soon as I got home, I turned around and went back to the mainland for a speech contest. As I mentioned previously, I spent 5 days (well 4 because of the ferry schedule) in "lovely" Osaka with several of my Irish friends. And several of their Irish friends. And some more Irishmen who happened to be in Osaka. Anyways, I'm not a fan of that city. It was, and still is, quite dirty, at least by Japanese standards, and, despite its considerable size, there is very little to see or do there other than shop and party. My new travel guide had a few more notes on the place than my last one, so I was hoping to see at least a few new things, but alas, twasn't meant to be.

We arrived Saturday evening, after a 3 hour cross country train ride through the absolutely gorgeous countryside of nearby Tottori Prefecture, and a 45 minute Shinkansen (that's the bullet train to you) from Okayama to Shin-Osaka. After we made it to the hostel district, my friends and I went to our separate hotels, because by the time I was on board for the trip, their hostel was totally booked. Upon checking in, I learned that my hotel had a curfew of midnight. Please keep that in mind. After everyone got settled in and showered, we went to an Irish Pub on the north side of the city for dinner and a few drinks. Afterward, we hung out in near a zoo, till about 2 am, which then forced me to crash on the floor of Martin's tiny hotel room.

The next day, we got going around noon, with four of us heading up into the southern half of the city to check out the crazy stores in Amerika-mura (American Village). Apparently this is the same area I wandered around to find my Engrish shirts the last time I was in the city. It was much nicer during the day though, I must say. We even stumbled across a break-dancing contest. The real thing I was look for, however, was a Southern restaurant that the Atlanta JET alumni had recommended. After hours of searching, we finally found the place, only to learn it had shut down a year ago. In fact, nearly every place I had wanted to go to shut down during my absence from the country, including my favorite bar, the Peace Street Grill, where Sohei, the bartender put on spectacular flair bar tending shows complete with juggling and fire-breathing.

The Mexican restaurant that I knew was alive and well though, and we ended up having dinner there. Afterwards, we made it to our first real "landmark" in Osaka, Murphy's - Japan's first Irish Pub. Later we went on to Karaoke. I had the most Japanese experience of the eleven or so people present though, which forced me to be the go to guy for payment anytime someone left early or wanted another round of food or drink. This got very tiresome, but I still staid out till 6am. This time I made it back to my hotel in time for it to reopen for the day and actually slept in my own room.

After waking up and rendezvousing across the street at the good hotel, some of us decided to go to Den Den Town, Osaka's electronics district, before finally getting in some sight seeing. Some of you may remember that I've been here before, and walked into a two-story building totally dedicated to Gundam. Well I went back and bought two more models, after consulting with my students on which ones all the cool kids were after. We continued to walk around, and I eventually bought speakers for my iPod, and my friend Shane, having served three years in the Irish military, bought a replica Irish-made assault rifle, for airsoft competitions. By time we were done though, it was after 5. Meaninig all the sights were closed. So we instead headed back into the city for dinner and a final night of partying. I missed curfew again and had to once more crash in a friend's hotel room. I'm starting to think that it would be cheaper in the future to just split a single room with two people, as the hostel never really caught on to what was happening. By time I woke up, it was well after checkout, and time for Martin and I to head back to Matsue, so that we could catch a ferry the next day for the islands.

One word for Osaka: "Blingtastic!" (Pictured above: 2 Mercedes Benz Crystal Editions)

A mere two days later, I returned to Matsue for the annual Lafcadio Hearn Speech Competition. Hearn, an Irish writer, is quite famous in Japan, and in Matsue especially, as he lived there for a number of years. He was the first westerner to write about Japanese culture in Japanese, thus providing a new perspective on their history and culture. I had been coaching my student, Maria, for over a month now, and she has gotten quite good in her pronunciation and intonation; so good I felt sure she could at least get an honorable mention, i.e. 10th place or better, out of the 38 competitors. However, due to the ferry schedule, she had to go first, which I think always works against you unless you're the absolutely best competitor there. We had to leave after the fourth student went, but if they were an indicator of the quality of speeches to be given, I felt for sure Maria had this in the bag. Unfortunately, when we called in this morning to learn the results, we discovered that she hadn't even placed. The judges, it seems, were far more interested in showmanship, i.e. gestures and making a big scene out of the story, than they were in quality of English. I feel terrible for Maria, because she's such a great student, and her skill level is far superior to most 2nd years I've met or taught. She has one more year to go on the Junior High level though, so I'm hoping she can bring it home next year, and win a trip to Ireland.

Well that's all for now. After Osaka, absolutely everything has just felt like work to me. Even building my models or updating this blog. Blah. Now I have to remember how to do my job, at least until the weekend, when Martin comes to the Douzen islands for a visit.

Week in Review

So I know it's been a while since I've posted, and I apologize. I also apologize for once again having no pictures. I know I said that I was going to go check out Nishinoshima this past weekend, but I just never got around to it. It rained Saturday, Sunday was Ama Jr. High's school festival, and Monday I took my car in for its biannual inspection.

The school festival was pretty interesting. The school was divided into three groups, each with an assigned number of teachers. The students have been working since their summer vacation on self-written one act plays. I couldn't understand any of them, but they seemed interesting enough. My team's play incorporated a student, peter pan, cinderella, a not-so-evil witch, and a pig-man of some sort. I've no idea why, but it's not important. What is important is that my team won, and I'm confident that it was due in large part to my tremendous contribution of hard work and time spent casually observing from a distance and not actually getting involved. The point is we won the trophy. After the plays we were treated to presentations on Ama culture and ecology that several students would be presenting at a conference in Tokyo, as well as speeches from our two Japanese Language Speech contestants, and our one English Language Speech contestant.

I can actually say, in honesty this time, that she is very good, and has come a long way since I came in to coach her. She learns quickly, and has memorized her story in iambic pentameter with appropriate emphases, facial expressions, and hand gestures. The contest is in Matsue on the 27th, and she is the first of 50 entrants to speak before the panel of 5 judges. If she wins, she gets to go to a language camp in Ireland for a couple weeks (I doubt that I get to tag along though :( ).

After the plays and speeches and presentations, it was time for the folk dance. Why it's labeled a folk dance, I've no idea, because it had little to do with traditional Japanese culture (at least that I could see). It did however involve polka music and a circular group dance reminiscent of good old fashioned square dancing. I participated in this as well, but, because we were running early, they decided to stretch the 15 minute dance out to 45 minutes. By the end, everyone was panting heavily and sweating rivers. Because I didn't have indoor shoes, I wore slippers and ended up with rather large and painful blisters on my feet. Fun times though.

Since I spent all day at school Sunday, I had Monday off. I decided to use the time to get my car inspection and health insurance renewed, because I was under the impression it wouldn't take long nor cost much. That was on Monday morning. Tomorrow afternoon, 4 1/2 days and 100,000 yen (about a grand in USD) later, I'll be getting my car back. Nothing was wrong with it to my knowledge, that's just how they go about "inspecting" cars in this country. Did I mention the thing is rusting, the seats are falling apart, the a/c leaks in the car, there is no sounds system of any kind, and it's over 10 years old?

Ah well, tomorrow marks the beginning of Silver Week, a 5 day weekend of national holidays in Japan. Originally, I had planned to go to Nagasaki with some other JETs. However, the people with whom I really wanted to go decided that Nagasaki is too far away, and decided Osaka would be a better bet. So, despite having lived a half hour outside of Osaka for 3 1/2 months the last time I was here and being sick to death of the city, I will be leaving Saturday morning for Osaka. Not because I want to go, but because I want to spend time with fellow gaijin (that's foreigner in Japanese). It should be fun though, there are still some sights I haven't seen, and some others that I'd like to see again. Admittedly though, Nagasaki is at least 10x more interesting.

2 for 2

So I finally started teaching Thursday, although it was only with the 3rd and 2nd year students, i.e. 8th and 9th graders. Personally, I think it went really well, and my only real complaint is that my class room has no air conditioning/heating/ventilation other than an open window. We started off with a map of the US. I asked if anyone knew where North Carolina was, and of course, nobody answered, so I pointed it out and instead asked, "who likes basketball?" To which a few would always raise their hand, and then I would wow them by informing them Michael Jordan was from North Carolina.

Afterward, I just went through some photos I had brought along. I showed a pic of my house, which they thought was enormous, and my truck (because we don't use trains and buses in NC). I also brought my Panthers Jersey along, which they thought was pretty cool. The wow factor though, came from something I bought in Japan: a plastic Gundam model. Some of the boys almost fell out of their chairs when I pulled it out and told them I liked Gundam. To be fair to the girls though, I also showed a photo of me and Jenn and talked about her for a couple minutes. The whole class loved it and at the end of class we played Andrew Jeopardy for stickers. To sum things up, if you want to impress your students in this country, just bring a toy robot into class.

On another note, this weekend was the annual AJET meet the new kids camping getaway at Mt. Sanbe. Due to the ferry schedule, I decided it would be too much hassle to try and attend, so I staid in Ama, which worked out pretty nicely. Friday I met up with the JET who takes care of all the Oki highschools. He comes to Ama twice a month. It was nice to have someone to hang out with, and even more he knew some of the restaurants around town, and we ended up having Oki beef, which, in Japan, rivals Kobe beef. They export most of it from the islands to Tokyo, but this one restaurant sells it locally, and it was absolutely delicious.

Saturday, we met up with the two other Douzen Island JETs on Nishinoshima, which is about 10 minutes by ferry from Ama. Nishinoshima is the biggest of the three Douzen Islands, and has some beautiful scenary. I didn't go sightseeing, but I did go to the beach, which was beautiful. The water was pleasant, and incredibly clear. In truth, the only beach I've ever been to that compares to the beaches in the islands was at St. Thomas, in the Virgin Islands. Absolutely beautiful. After the beach, we met up with the rest of the JETs and their friends for a small community concert. The Englishman from Nishinoshima was actually the frontman in the main act (They did a lot of Bon Jovie). At the concert, I met the English teacher at Douzen High School. She just moved to Ama in January, and her English is incredible. Like me, she doesn't have many friends in Ama yet, and, also like me, she is a Christian. She was very excited when I asked her if she goes to church around here, and as it turns out, she does on occasion. So Sunday morning, we met at the ferry port and took the boat back to Nishinoshima for church. It was a fun time. The building was small, with only 6 pews and maybe a dozen or so people in attendance. I was able to sing along to most of the hymns, but I couldn't recite the Psalms or the Confessions of Faith. I also couldn't understand the sermon, which was based on Genesis 12: 1-9. Yuko had a hard time understanding too though, and she's Japanese, so I didn't feel too bad. After church, we returned to Ama, and I went back to the beach for the afternoon, while Yuko went home. She's getting baptized in a couple of weeks at a church on the mainland. The pastor is apparently from Minnesota and preaches in English, while his wife translates into Japanese. We have three consecutive days off work after that, so I plan on attending and then doing some more mainland sight seeing, though I haven't decided where to go yet. I think next weekend I will go back to Nishinoshima and rent a car to go view the colored cliffs, the ruins of a 13th century imperial palace, and some wild horses.

Temple Hopping

So today was my very first day of school. I did absolutely zero teaching, but I did give a brief introductory speech at the start of our opening ceremony. Afterward, I spent my day grading the sixth graders' spelling tests (abysmal) and surfing around CNN trying to find interesting articles for my adult class that I'll be teaching soon. At least that's what I'm going to tell anyone who asks why I'm on the internet all day instead of doing work. I also ordered a Denshi Jishou, or electronic dictionary, from Amazon Japan. The day went well, but I was kind of on my own, as my JTE (That's Japanese Teacher of English) has been in Matsue since last night. As you know, Matsue is a lovely city, and I spent a great deal of time there over the last two weeks. In fact, that's what this article is about. Matsue, Part III - Sunday.

So Martin, Leonard and I had to kill sometime between our 9am checkout of one hotel and our 3pm checkin at our next one. So I suggested we hit up some of the local temples and shrines. Martin, being a fellow history major, had no objections, and neither did Leonard, so we took off toward Tera-machi (literally "Temple Town"). This place was block after block of Buddhist temple, with a few Shinto shrines thrown in as well. As we wandered aimlessly about though, we started to realize that most of these were regular places of worship, in fact we didn't enter one of them because there was a service of sorts in progress. Furthermore, with the exception of one or two buildings, the temples were small and unimpressive. After about a half hour of wandering, we decided to check our maps, and hit up the big names to the west of the castle.

The first on the list was Tenrin-ji, renowned for having one of the 10 best views of Lake Shinji in all of Matsue. It was a hot day, and the stairway leading up to the temple gate was quite long. Luckily it was a shady area for the most part, and the view of the lake and temple grounds, as you can see, were absolutely gorgeous. Aside from the view of the lake (partially covered by trees this time of year) there was a massive cemetary at the temple, and it was kind of creeping us out. So on that note, we climbed back down the stairway, hopped on our bikes and set out for the next one on the list, was Daioji, a temple famous for its massive stone gate. On the way there however, we hit a snag, as we one, ran out of water with no vending machine in site, and two realized I had no idea how to read a map. Eventually we found a vending machine, and before you know it a, well a small shrine. It was pretty cool though, it was on top of a giant hill with an enormous staircase leading to the top. There was only one tiny building up there, but the stairs were too tempting not to climb.
That red dot is Martin.

Eventually we regained our bearings and made our way to a different temple on the map, Gessho-ji. This was by far the most impressive of all the temple complexes in Matsue, and was so big that they even charged a small admission fee. Originally a Zen Buddhist temple from the late 16th century, it had fallen into disrepair by the Edo Period. That's when the new feudal lord of Matsue domain, Matsudaira Naomasa, had it rebuilt and renamed, in honor of his mother in 1664. Falling Naomasa's death, his son and second lord, or daimyo, of Matsue turned the Gessho-ji into the family temple. It now hosts the graves of all nine generations of Matsudaira daimyo, a very rare case for temples today. Each of the graves has its own small shrine, which I found to be most interesting. Shrines, you see, are associated with the indigenous religion of Japan, Shinto, and are most easily recognized by their stone gates, called tori. Temples on the other hand, are Buddhist, and are marked on maps with a Buddhist peace symbol (ironically similar to a swastika). The ji in Gessho-ji denotes that it is a Buddhist place of worship, but each of the 9 graves within was made in a Shinto style, complete with 9 stone tori.
But unlike Western religions, Japanese religions can easily coexist, and it is quite common to find shrines on temple grounds, and vice-verse. In fact, on the other side of the temple grounds was a giant Buddhist statue. The graves were also surrounded by stone lanterns and moats, which really added to the atmosphere. Perhaps the most fascinating feature of all though was the giant stone tortoise at the heart of the temple. This thing was massive, and to make it even larger, it had an enormous stone pillar driven through its shell, to prevent it from awakening at night and rampaging around the city, as it did in the local folk lore.

After our visit, we swung back by the brewery to enjoy a nice summer ale before biking back to the hotel. We stopped at one more shrine, dedicated to Inari, a fox deity, but I was quite disappointed by it. Inari shrines are famous for their fox statues and orange tori gates, and while this one had hundreds of stone and porcelain foxes, the gates were scarce. So instead of writing about it now, I'm going to wait until I visit the major one in Tsuwano, where Leonard lives.

Anyways, I hope you all are enjoying the blog, and the layout I gave it. Check out all my pics on facebook, and please, please leave me some feedback. It's like getting mail, I love it.

Matsue Castle!

So after our week of study ended, Martin, Leonard, and myself stayed in Matsue until orientation began. We were kind of bored, so we decided to do some sightseeing over the weekend. The first day, we met up with a Matsue ALT, Shane (pictured in my last post) to go see the historic area around the castle, in the heart of Matsue. It was, needless to say, a great day.

The castle towers over the rest of the city, and can be seen for several miles, I first noticed it about a mile and a half away, close to the outer moat. It was built over a five year span from 1607-1611 at the beginning of the Edo period (1600-1868), and is one of only 12 original castles remaining in Japan. Of those 12, it is the third tallest at 30 meters high, and the sixth oldest.Interestingly, none of the stonework uses mortar. This is called the Gobozumi style.

The castle grounds were quite beautiful and sported great views of the city and Lake Shinji, as well as three restored turrets along the outer wall. Inside the castle, is one of the finest collections of Edo Period Samurai armor I've ever seen. Even better, unlike most other museums I've visited in Japan, this one allowed for pictures!

One of several suits of armor inside Matsue-jo's extensive collection.
There were close to a dozen suits, plus swords, bows, masks, and other samurai related material in the collection.

Matsue-jo (jo = castle in Japanese) also has an extensive moat network comprised of connected inner and outer moats that go out into the city for a mile or two. We took a sightseeing cruise along the moat after we saw the castle, and got even better views of both the castle and the surrounding town area, including the scenic Shiomi Nawate, a winding street that follows the northern shore of the inner moat and was at one time home to several important samurai families. The boat was small though, and some of the passages under the many bridges spanning the moat were so low that the canopy of the boat had to be lowered, forcing the passengers to lie down on the floor!

A crane along the banks of the inner moat. I snapped this shot during my boat ride.

After the boat ride, we decided to check out some of the sights along Shiomi Nawate, and wandered into the Buke Yashiki, a restored samurai residence, which was quite beautiful.

The Buke Yashiki samurai residence along Shiomi Nawate

Afterward, we walked on to the northeast corner of the castle district to hunt down a local microbrewery, and low and behold, if they didn't have one of the finest heffeweizen's I've ever had! All in all, a great Saturday, capped off with drinks and friends under the Red Umbrella.

Matsue

So I spent the last week and a half in Shimane's capital city, Matsue. Needless to say, I have hundreds of pictures and lots of stories, so I'll probably be posting up on here a few times in the next couple days to cover it all. Those on facebook can see all my pictures already, and if you can't see my facebook pics, good news, I've recently made myself searchable again, so go befriend me check out my adventures in all their photographic splendor!

Anyways, it took me 6 hours to get to Matsue from Ama, but that was because 1: the ferry stopped at 2 other islands along the way, and 2: I took the hour and a half long train through Yonago because I didn't realize their was a cheap 40 minute bus ride available from the port. I went down almost 2 weeks ago now, for a week of intensive language study. I didn't really learn anything new, but I did jumpstart my Japanese and I had a great time with some of the other JETs as well. After the class ended, three of us, myself, Leonard, and Martin, stayed over the weekend, because we live so far away, and had to be back Monday for 2-3 days of orientation. So I was actually there for a total of 12 days before I made it back to Ama. Great times!

The first night of having everyone there, we met some other Matsue JETs along the shore of Lake Shinji, to watch the sunset. The lake is the second largest body of water in Japan, and the sunset, as you can see, was quite spectacular, even on an overcast day. Afterwards, we went out to dinner, and later to Karaoke!

Pretty much every night for the last week and a half followed this pattern: Class all day, going out on the town with friends at night. Sometimes we went to the lake, others to Karaoke or bars, but usually to a meeting spot called the Red Umbrella, which literally was an enormous red umbrella with tables and chairs underneath. Another evening we went to a club for the new JET welcome party. I was late though because I went to an Onsen (hot spring) festival first with another ALT. We missed all the onsen being free, but still went to one for a half hour with a great view of the lake. I'm looking forward to going back to an open air onsen once the snow comes.

He was only behind that table because the bar was full

I also met an ALT with 10 years calligraphy experience. He actually wrote the wall scroll you can see hanging behind my friend Shane, in the picture above. (It says "Sake is the king of medicines.) He took me to a calligraphy class one afternoon after he got off work, which was pretty cool. It was almost like going to drug deal or mafia meeting from the movies getting there though. We were walking down a street and he just opened a random door to an old building. There was no light inside, and we walked down a hall covered in dilapidated doors and chairs until we came to an old creaky staircase. At the top was worn sliding door and behind that, an elderly calligraphy master randomly teaching a young Japanese boy the art of Shodo (calligraphy). It was pretty fun though, and afterward I bought a new set so I could start practicing after school in Ama. I might go over to the high school and see if they have a club for it.

Every night in Matsue was great, and now that I'm back home, I'm kinda lonely again. But work starts Tuesday, and I should start making more friends in Ama once I start getting out more. Although that may prove difficult since I bought a new couch in the city. Then again, it might be easier because I may be buying a new car next month. I'll be sure to let all of y'all know what's going on though. Oh, and I'll have more site specific posts up in the next couple of days.

Oki-Jinja

I ended my Friday afternoon off, with a trip to the Oki Shrine, or Oki-Jinja, a few blocks west of my house. The shrine is relatively new, but by far the largest on the island, and the only one where I have seen signs of worship, that is people actually praying or making donations, or selling souvenirs. Although the time to see it apparently is in the spring, when the cherry blossoms are in bloom, it was still a nice trip. The site doubles as a nature preserve, and the long gravel trail to the shrine was absolutely beautiful, not to mention peaceful.

Above: Walkway to the main shrine area.

The shrine is dedicated to the Emperor Go-Toba and was built sixty-five years ago to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the emperor's death. Go-Toba ruled toward the end of the 12th century, and was exiled to my island by the Kamakura Shogunate in the early 13th century, following the Jōkyū War. This shrine was built next to his house and burial ground.

Above: The main shrine. Below, Go-Toba's cremation/burial mound

It was a fun place to visit, and I look forward to many return visits. It's a very calm and peaceful place, and made all the more beautiful in the spring by its blooming cherry blossoms.

Across the street from the shrine, was the Ama Museum of history, which contained several interesting artifacts, many of which predated the Emperor's arrival on the island, including some 3,000 year old pottery. Unlike my previous visits to Japanese museums, this one, while not having any English brochures, did allow pictures. The best ones come from the 2nd floor exhibit dedicated to the late emperor.

Above: Emperor Go-Toba

Go-Toba was a man of many, many talents, including poetry and swordsmanship. The museum had many documents from his time, including some he wrote himself, as well as many blades he either crafted on his own, or had made by master sword-smiths.

Above: This document is over 700 years old and was written by the emperor himself. Those are his hand prints on the scroll.

Below: Katana blades crafted for or by Go-Toba

As always, you can see all of my pics on Facebook. On that note, it may be a while before I can update this blog. I leave for Matsue, the prefectural capital, tomorrow morning, and I'll be there for eleven days. I'm taking a 5 day long intensive Japanese course as well as 3 days of JET orientation. I'm kind of disapointed, I'll be missing a dance festival in Ama, but Matsue has some amazing sites, including one of the oldest castles in Japan, dating back to the early Edo Period. So those sites, plus being able meet up with friends for fun and karaoke should make up for it.

A Sunday Drive

Ok, so technically it was Friday, but that's beside the point. It wasn't a national holiday, but it is Obon, the Buddhist day of the dead lasting three or so days so I had the day off and decided to do some sight seeing around Ama. It was a beautiful sunny day, and I got some amazing pictures of some of the more notable features of Ama's coastline. I'm finally getting the hang of my car, and used it to drive to the Akiya seaside, where I took some more pictures of the beautiful scenery, you can see some below, and all of them on Facebook, in my "Views of Ama" album.

Mail

So, I've been told that my mailing address is quite confusing. That's understandable, which is why I'm about to explain it you now:

My mailing address. Send letters and post cards, **and packages** to me here:

977-1 Ama, Ama-cho
Oki-gun, Shimane-ken
Japan 684-0403

977-1 Ama [This is my Street address] ,
Ama-cho [This is my town name. Yes it's the same as my street address, the town is so small they don't need road names, just numbers. You still have to write this though]
Oki-gun [This is my district, sort of like a county in America],
Shimane-ken [My prefecture, or state name]
Japan 684-0403 [Country and zip code]


Please note I no longer have a seperate shipping address. All packages must be sent to my house, and if I'm not there, the postman will probably bring them to my school for me.

If anything changes, I'll be sure to let you know. If you ever want clarification, just click on "Mailing Address" in the contact info section of the blog, and you will be redirected to this post.

The Ketai

So, in a previous post, I mentioned my new cell phone, the NTT-Docomo N-01A. While it's already a year old in Japan, expect to see it hit American markets sometime in the year 3000, i.e. never. Why? I don't know the specifics, maybe it's because Japan's mobile phone market is leaps and bounds beyond the current demands of American users, or maybe most Americans, myself included, just wouldn't know what to do with the damn thing. I can't hardly get over the fact that it has 3 operating faces, touch, 90 degrees, and 180 degrees. I fully expect the next Terminator model to be based on one of these things.

Pictured above: The T-10,000,000

Need to check your email on the go? Not a problem. Want to listen to music on the go? Why not. Manage your bank account on the train? Sure thing. Lost? Just use the GPS. Need the weather report or a train schedule? Absolutely. You may be saying, "But Andrew, my current phone does all of those things." Oh really? Can you type in Kanji? If you're bored on the train, can you watch TV on it? If you need a price check at the super market, can you scan the bar code? Can you swipe it as a credit card, or lock it with facial recognition keys? Does it have Japanese to English and English to Japanese dictionaries? Can it scan signs in one language and instantly translate them into another?

No? I didn't think so. That might be half of the features of this thing. Like I said, I've no idea what I'm doing with it.

Kyanpuda Hoi!

So I've spent the past five days at Adobensha Kyanpu '09, that's Adventure Camp '09 for those who can't read Japanified English, and it certainly was an adventure. It started Thursday afternoon with, like all things Japanese, an opening ceremony, during which all the staff, myself included, had to give brief introductions. I couldn't really understand what everyone said, so I just gave the standard, "Good afternoon, my name is Andrew Hill, I am the new ALT...etc" speech that I've given a dozen or so times since coming here. Afterwords, the children were divided into groups and taught how to pitch their tents, and make bamboo torches.

The sea at night. Those lights are squidfishing boats

The group mind-set is very important to Japanese social behavior, and quite different from the individual-based societies of the West. Each group was in charge of taking care of itself throughout the camp, they elected a leader, and chose jobs, who would clean, who would cook, who would split fire wood, etc. Doing this both reinforced the idea of teamwork and acting as a group, yet still taught valuable skills to the individual children.

The next day, we were rained in and stranded at the Board of Education. We spent the day learning knot work, which I'll get into later, and whittling chopsticks from bamboo. I doubt an American camp, perhaps with the exception of the Boy Scouts, would let first graders split wood with small machete-like knives and then carve their own dining utensils with razors, but everyone seemed to know what they were doing here, and there wasn't one single accident the whole camp.

Raft Building

The following day, the campers boarded a bus which took them to the head of the trail for the small campground. I rode with some other teachers to a small marina and helped ferry in supplies. After all the supplies were unloaded, we had yet another opening ceremony, this one asking for the blessing of a local kami. Either a local priest or a school board member conducted the ceremony, which was really quite interesting to watch. I played along, clapping and bowing, out of respect.

Priest before the ceremony

After tables were built, tents were pitched, and lunch had been made, all the groups, staff included, set to making bamboo rafts for the main event of the camp, a race to the marina and back. I helped fashion the staffer's boat, and drew my face onto our flag, which looked pretty sweet. Needless to say we outdid all of the kids, in both size and quality of design. I spent the night in a crowded tent, then woke up at the crack of dawn.

Sunday the weather report didn't look very promising, but we got our rafts into the ocean anyway. When I say raft though, I really mean floating wood that you can cling to and rest your legs between fits of kicking. Four female teachers sat at the prowl, while Ko-cho sensei, the principal, stood on the only plank of decking on board and gave orders. Myself, and three other teachers held on and powered the raft the Flinstone way. Halfway to the marina, Ko-cho sensei offered me the helm, but the boat almost capsized from the rough seas shortly after, and we traded places again. The water was a bit cold, but the race was fun, and energizing. We let the lead student group win the race, and then came ashore in 2nd place. Over the next half hour or so three of the other four boats came in, while the crew of the last were brought in by motor boat, since their raft came apart at sea.

Building the staff raft

After lunch, we evacuated to the board of education, due to a chance of rough weather from the typhoon that grazed the western part of Japan last weekend. We were all safe, and the weather wasn't really bad at all. That night, we practiced some campfire songs, only two of which I could read, and only one of which I could sing: Kyanpuda Hoi, which roughly translates as "Yay, it's camp!"

The next day, we returned to the campground. The weather was the best I've seen since landing on the island (they've had an unusually long rainy season). The kids enjoyed some swimming while the staff dove for shellfish and passed the time whittling bamboo. (I now have my own set of bamboo chopsticks and a wooden spoon that I carved myself.) At lunch that afternoon, the staff made a special type of sushi, which I can only describe as sushi in party-sub form. If you don't know how sushi is made, you generally start with a mat of dry sea weed, then put rice and fish on top of it, roll it up, then cut the cylindrical sushi roll into bite sized slices. They did the same thing, but with a couple dozen pieces of seaweed, overlapping each other. Then all kinds of toppings were added to the rice, including the tentacles of a small octopus a teacher had caught that afternoon.

Makizushi!

That night, we had our closing ceremony, which began with a huge bonfire, lit by a light firework on a zipline. That was followed by camp songs, and skits. At the end, the bonfire had burned down, and the students stood in a circle with staffers and lit their bamboo torches. They then one by one laid them onto the fire pit to restart the fire.

Torch Ceremony

Tuesday was spent repacking. It was wet and cloudy the whole time, and to make matters worse, the ocean waves were now a couple of feet high, and we had to ferry out our supplies. While helping load one of the boats, I actually slipped into the ocean, totally frying my new iPod that Jenn had given me as a going away present ( ; ・). <--Japanese cyring smiley

Overall it was a great time though. I've thoroughly bored, and it was a nice change of pace. I got to meet and interact with my students, and now I'm pretty vamped for teaching. I also made several new friends at the middle and elementary schools, as well as the board of education, although I don't remember many of their names. Every night though, after a half hour long staff meeting, we'd have a small enkai, which usually translates to office party, though I'd characterize it more as sitting down and sharing a few beers with your coworkers.

During the enkai, I really got to talking with several of the teachers, since alcohol tends to boost one's confidence in their foreign language abilities, even if it's just a couple of Kirin Lagers. It was during this time, that I also got to try several new foods: Raw squid, fried flying fish, and not one, but two kinds of fish jerky. You read that right, fish jerky. The most interesting foods though were sazae, and awanbi. I wanted to include links, but I don't know that I'm spelling the names correctly, since google's not bringing anything up. Apparently they're expensive delicacies in other areas of Japan, but we ate them for free, the teachers simply put on snorkeling gear scraped them off the seabed. I'm not sure what sazae is, but think snails, on the ocean floor. Eaten raw.

Sazae

Awanbi might be a type of muscle, it was pretty tough meat. Awanbi livers on the other hand were incredibly soft and mushy. So much so that some of the Japanese couldn't even eat them. I tried everything, every night. Fun times.

As always, there are more pics on facebook. Look for more postings on my blog soon, as well as updates to contact info and changes to the layout. Sunday I leave for Matsue city, on the mainland for a week long language course, and prefectural orientation. I should have time for some good sight-seeing as well.