The Mikasa

Located south of Tokyo, the city of Yokosuka doesn't have much to offer the normal tourist. Luckily, I am not a normal tourist, so I had a great time in this naval oriented town.

Yokosuka has a long history of ship building, indeed William Adams, the inspiration of the character in the Novel Shogun, lived and is buried in in the city. Yokosuka is still heavily involved in the defense of Japan. The city is has both a major American Navy Base and a Japanese Self-Defense Force Base.



I arrived to take a peek at the battleship Mikasa, a museum ship that has been preserved in a small park along the waterfront. The Mikasa is a rather important icon, as in addition to being the flagship of the Japanese fleet in the battle of Tsushima in the Russo-Japanese War, it is the last remaining pre-dreadnaught ship of the line.



There exists an interesting progression of design, from the broadside cannons of the ironclads of the late 1800s to the turreted main guns of a modern battleship. Ordered from Great Britain in 1898 and delivered to Japan in 1900 after three years of construction, Mikasa was a masterpiece of state of the art naval-design, but she exists as a transitional form. She has two large turrets, with 12-inch guns, but maintains a rather extensive broadside of smaller caliber artillery as well. This design was soon made obsolete by the launch of the HMS Dreadnought, the first "all big gun" battleship that disposed of the broadside armaments for larger numbers of larger guns mounted in turrets.



While the technology is interesting, the history is fascinating. The battle of Tsushima is one of the most lopsided naval victories in History, ranking with the Greek victory at Salamis and the English triumph at Trafalgar. The Russian Baltic Squadron dashed around half the world to relieve the besieged Pacific Fleet in Port Arthur. Port Arthur fell before they could arrive, yet they came on anyway, and right into the teeth of the Japanese Battleships.



Despite having more heavy ships, the Russian fleet was demolished, losing eight battleships and 5,000 men to Japanese losses of only three small torpedo boats and 116 lives. This marked the end of the war, and in many ways the beginning of the end of Czarist Russia. While the actual revolution would wait, unrest at home and a marked decrease in international prestige, as well as the loss of two major fleets, put the Czarist government on notice.

The actual museum ship was fantastic, many of the guns could be handled, and you could aim at sailboats in the harbor. Almost everywhere on the ship was accessible, and they had some good history lessons, in case you didn't know about the background of the Russo-Japanese War. For a naval buff like myself, it was a perfect day out.

Meiji Jingu, Harajuku, Free Hugs and Farewell

One of my reasons for barreling down to Tokyo all in rush was to see Michael, as it was the big Kiwi's last weekend in Japan. We tried to meet up at the big fireworks display on Saturday night, but crush of the massive crowd made a meeting unlike, and the crash of the local cellular network made a meeting impossible!



So we met up the next day for a slice of heaven at Wendys (chili cheese fries), and a traipse about Tokyo. The destination in mind was Harajuku, land of a thousand fashion disasters. Harajuku has become a destination of both those who want to see, and those who want to be seen. Unlike the usual expression of this dynamic, Harajuku is all about Gothic fashion, the more outlandish the better. And as we found, it was also all about free hugs.



Right next door to Harajuku is the massive Meiji Jingu, a paradise of trees in the heart of Tokyo. It had rained quite heavily that afternoon, so the early evening sun slanting through the trees made for an amazing sight.



We boys met up first with Mikes friend Waka, and then with Sachiko when she got off of work. After enjoying Meiji Shrine and the adjacent Yoyogi Park, we decamped to Outback Steakhouse, for the first steak to grace my plate since Zach and I went last October. It was delectable, to say the least.



Then it was time for some farewells, as Michael caught the night bus back to Kanazawa. By now, he is back in New Zealand, and itching to come back to Japan already!



Bye Mike!

Childhood: Revisited

On a bit of a whim, I flew to Tokyo last weekend. I flew out Saturday afternoon, on one of the typical All Nippon Air 747s. When selecting my seat, I was afforded an unprecedented privilege, a seat on the upper deck. Now, it wasn't a 1st class seating area, really it was pretty much the same as the main deck, only shorter. However, the chance to sit on the upper deck of a 747, that was really cool, certainly an event that thrilled my (rather vocal) inner 10 year old.



While reading the paper on the 45 minute flight, I noticed a small article about a model train show in Ginza. I knew I'd have some time to kill on Sunday morning, so I kept the article and made plans. The Japanese model trains were pretty interesting, but as with anything in Tokyo it was a madhouse. I can take the pushing and shoving for about 10 minutes, before I feel the need to start knocking heads together.



Walking along the road in Ginza afterwards, I saw this toy store. Anybody that knows me knows that I was in the store for some time after this photo was taken. They had every Lego set imaginable, and I'll admit the temptation to dust off my credit cards was present, and strongly so. Certainly if I was 15 years younger, this place would have been pure paradise on earth!

Next: Fireworks, Rain, and those crazy Harajuku girls.

Summer at Last?

If there is one weather change between Denver and Kanazawa that drives me crazy, it is the rainy season. While Kanazawa has more than its fair share of precipitation anyway, between mid June and late July the rainy season brings even moisture than usual.



Actually, this year hasn't been as bad as last year. I recall a period where it rained nonstop for over 5 days, almost causing some flooding. While we didn't have any truly torrential downpours, it has certainly been gray and humid enough to keep me indoors much of the time.



That helps explain a distinct drought in my blog update schedule, I simply haven't been up to much of anything lately. The earthquake scotched a quick trip to Tokyo, and aside from another birthday party and a few couchsurfers, I have led a pretty boring life.



Luckily, the sun started coming out this week, even if just for a bit, and everything is picking up for August. Uchinada beach my be no Phuket, but it is better than no beach at all!

Japanese TV and other interesting tales

Japanese TV is... interesting. The sheer profusion of crazy game shows and the willingness of people to be subjected to extremes of pain and suffering make for very entertaining viewing.



This particular clip features a human tetris game, and if you fail, watchout!



This one is even more painful. Say the tongue twister correctly and all is well. Mess up and get a mousetrap like smack to the groin. Ouch!



Perhaps the best of the bunch, this famous feature from the same show as above furnishes contestants with hilarious situations, and then requires that they refrain from laughing. So much as a giggle and you get smacked across the rear, hard!



Some may remember Jared, who pops up in this video advocating a new and improved handshake. May we all find happyness and luck with the...SLIDING HAMMER!

Kamakura in a new light

I had fun with this picture, swapping in a new sky and tweaking the colors. It doesn't quite look real, but it does look undeniably cool.

Kamakura Part 2

So, I've been in Japan almost two years now. I've seen a lot of temples. Temples in Kyoto, Koya-san, Nagoya, Kanazawa and more. In one respect, there is only so many ways to make a temple distinct, and after a while they all rather blend together. That said, there is still something profoundly enjoyable about temple hopping. At least, I think there is.



It's a damn good thing I think so, as Kamakura is about as full of temples as any other city I've seen. Luckily for me, most of them were really nice, with big beautiful gardens and majestic wooden buildings. Of course, they still kind of all ran together in my mind, but I still remember having a fantastic time, once it stopped raining.



After a snack of sweet potato ice cream, we rented bikes to make our temple hopping easier. While you'd think this was a fantastic idea, it turned out a little less so. For one, the main drag was so packed with pedestrians that our bicycles conveyed almost no speed advantage. For another, the massive hills that dot the city made me cry tears of pain and suffering as we labored our one speed POS- 9000 bikes up the severe slopes.



Often enough we opted to just walk up, and sometimes down, the forbiddingly incanted inclines. However, navigating the pleasantly wooded lanes and byways provided a very engaging and fun day. No stress, no recriminations, just wandering up and down and around the town, viewing temples, sweating up the hills, and blowing by startled pedestrians on the down slopes!



I did have one goal that day, to see the Zeniarai Benten Shrine. For one, I wanted to get a little Shinto equal time in all the Buddhist temple viewing, and for another, it sounded pretty interesting. It took us a lot of biking up and down hills to find it though, as the map wasn't terribly useful, and I'll admit even with my excellent sense of directions, I got turned around a few times. Oops. If we hadn't found it by the last draining hill climb, I'm sure Sachiko would have tried to box me about the head with her umbrella. If she had the energy. It really was quite the ride, and the afternoon had been turning rather sticky.



The shrine itself was worth all the sweating and wandering it took to find it. We had to walk down a long tunnel through the rock to a delightful little open area surrounded by high ridges. After offering a sacrifice of incense you enter a little grotto and wash your money in the sacred spring. Then, after you spend the money it will be returned to you double. Unfortunately for myself, I only had about 237 yen in my pocket. Next time I'll bring a whole barrel of 500 yen coins!



While there was going to be some sort of festival later on, we both decided that it was high time to beat feet back to Tokyo and get some dinner. The long days hard walking and biking had taken quite the toll on us! All in all, it really was a fantastic weekend in a fantastic little city.

Kamakura Part 1

To celebrate my Birthday, and get out of Tokyo for a while, Sachiko and I decided to go to Kamakura, a very pleasant seaside resort town about one hour south of Tokyo. I couldn't take the night bus because of timing issues, so I 'had to' ride the Shinkansen for the first time in almost a year. I love the shink. Though the Hakutaka limited express from Kanazawa to the transfer station was a bit trying. It was an early train (7:09) and most people wanted to sleep, well except for this one 70+ old lady who was literally bouncing off the walls like a caffeinated squirrel. It was like she was 5!



Kamakura itself was glorious. Nestled between a pair of ridges, with a third smaller set of hills bisecting the town, the whole area is drenched in green. It is a very nice contrast the Blade Runner aesthetic of Shinjuku. We spent the first day kicking back on the beach, its still the rainy season, so it was a little cool for beach going, but not too bad. Certainly, the water was a lot warmer than it is off the coast of Mendocino county! We saw a lot of sea life, tiny clams, a crab, a jelly fish, some fish in the water, and even some worms living on a plank that had washed a shore.



After a delicious, and huge, dinner of Yaki-niku we meandered down the beach at night, a pleasant cap to a fantastic day. The next day dawned... dark and stormy. Perhaps not stormy, but it was certainly raining. Despite the rain, we had a great time checking out Hase-dera, a famous Kamakura temple with a huge statue of Kannon, Buddhist deity of mercy. The gardens surrounding the temple were amazing, some of the best I've seen. Waterfalls, caves, ponds, paths, bamboo, everything you could want in a Japanese garden.



Even tadpoles who are half frog, or is it frogs who are half tadpole? I had never seen this intermediate stage before, so I thought that was pretty neat.



The next stop was the Daibutsu, a giant Buddha statue built in 1252 during the Kamakura Shogunate, a brief period when Kamakura was a major political and military force in Japan. This smaller statue was inspired by the truly massive statue in Nara and is a mere 13.35 meters tall, compared with the Todai-ji statue at 16 meters. The Kamakura Daibutsu used to be indoors, in a grand hall similar to the one in Nara, but in 1495 a tsunami swept away the hall, leaving the 93 ton bronze statue unharmed!



Next: Kamakura Part 2.. After lunch! ;-)

Well it's My Birthday Too Yeah!

Wednesday, July Fourth Two-Thousand and Seven dawned bright and... Wait, no this is Kanazawa! It dawned cloudy and rainy, a travesty to Fourth of July parties all over the prefecture. We had hoped and intended to go to the beer garden, on a rooftop downtown, but it poured rain ALL day, making that a chilly and impractical selection.



So instead it was off for Shabu Shabu and Sukiyaki. I do so love this food. Being that it was a weeknight, they gave us the nomihodai (all you can drink) course for two hours for 200 yen. Yup, thats one dollar and fifty cents, all the beer/ wine/ chu hai/ and sake you can drink for two hours. Wow. The beef was excellent, and the company fantastic.



I got some pretty cool presents, ranging from a photo wheel (shown here, note the concentration on my face) to fireworks, to some whiskey. Yikes! The restaurant even threw in some free cake. Travis and Dan threw in some punches, 26 to be exact. That hurt!



After leaving the Shabu Shabu place, we strolled down Katamachi to take cover under the blue bridge and light off some fireworks.



A good time was had by all, even with the rain. I was touched that everybody made it out on a weeknight, and we had a great time.

Another Year Older and Deeper in Debt...

Life is what happens when you are making other plans. -John Lennon

Yeah, it is a rather cliché quote, but it does accurately sum up my situation. Birthdays are usually a time to reflect on the year before, a day we can really mark the passing of time. As I sit and ponder, I realize that Everything Has Changed, Again.

Now obviously, on July 4th 2006 I expected and embraced changed. After all, the year before I had elected to move all the way across the world to Japan. I KNEW that my life would be altered in ways I couldn't even comprehend.

But, this year, I'm still in the same country, the same city, and even the same job. Yet everything else has changed. Out of three coworkers, two are new, I have a new apartment, a new girlfriend, and a raft of new friends. In fact, since Liz has to work late, there will be NO overlap between the attendance at last years party and this years. In one year, almost everybody left.

I'm not getting all emo though, just, pondering. Pondering my past, and my future.

Happy Independence Day everybody!

Yokohama

A few weekends ago I was off to Tokyo again. This time accompanied by Mike, who had a couple friends he wanted to see, and a few clubs to visit. The first day we just bummed around Tokyo a bit, wandered Ueno, ate some delicious Korean food and generally just hung out.



Sunday we headed to Yokohama, the second largest city in Japan (popuation 3.6 million), and a powerhouse port town. Yokohama is also home to the Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Japan, and home to one of the fastest elevators in the world.



We decided to visit the Landmark Tower first, as that was closer to the train station. The elevator was indeed so fast, that your ears pop on the way up! The views from the top are spectacular, but would have been more so if the air was a bit clearer. We could barely see the towers of Tokyo, a mere 18 kilometers away.



Looking straight down was more like seeing the world from a low flying airplane or satellite than a building!



Notice, a 45 minute wait for Cold Stone Creamery. Now I like ice cream just as much as the next man, probably even more, and even I could never justify 45 MINUTES! for Ice Cream!?!?! I'm sure its delicious but seriously. At least the Wendy's next door was considerably less busy, and pretty tasty in its own right.



I managed to get Sachiko to pose with this cute Hard Rock Cafe bear.



Our next stop was China Town, the largest of several in Japan (prominent others in Nagasaki and Kobe). The sights and smells of Chinese cooking enveloped us, and we rather regretted our rash decision to indulge in chili cheese fries at Wendy's.





For a light dinner we stopped by Yamashita park and demolished cheese and crackers and a bottle of New Zealand red wine. The park was glorious, if a little bit chill, for June.





Michael then went back to Tokyo to see a friend, so Sachiko and I went to the Amusement Park to ride the Ferris Wheel. The views of Yokohama at night from the top were spectacular.



And that was it. We caught the train back to Shinjuku, and I hopped on the night bus back to Kanazawa, another fantastic weekend was over.

Food Food Glorious Food

That picture proves that I am going to culinary hell. I used chopsticks to cook taco meat. Talk about culture clash. The tacos were pretty good though.

Pepsi just released a new drink, Pepsi Ice Cucumber. Yeah, cucumber flavor. Actually, the mix isn't as atrocious as might be expected. I rather liked it, but certainly haven't been in a rush to drink a second one...

I had the most awesome potato chips today. Wasabeef. Wasabi Beef flavored Potato Chips. Wow wow wow. Its like heaven on a chip. Better living through chemistry!