Tokyo: The Return Part 3 Ueno Zoo

Our second hotel was nearish to Ueno Park. One could say Ueno Park is the Central Park of Tokyo, there are lakes and museums and Tokyo's oldest Zoo. There are even a few shrines, and the battlefield where shogunate forces were finally defeated in the Meiji Revolution. As you can imagine,that is quite a lot for one park to hold. And its quite a lot to take in, so our goal was simply Ueno Zoo.





I visted Ueno in 2005 on a daytrip from Zach's homebase in Nagano, but I was glad to be able to return in the Summer and not freeze my toes off. This particular zoo is famous for a few things, but the star attractions are the pandas. While they are cute, I find the Red Pandas much more interesting, and cuter. But of course the really great thing about visiting a foreign zoo is the 'exotic' animals that hit a bit closer to home.






Like these cute little Prairie Dogs! Those left behind in Colorado may see them as pests or coyote bait but here in Japan they are fully kawaiiiiiii! (cue Japanese high school girls in unison). I'll have to admit the little buggers did warm the heart. But just a bit.



They also had this tree scaling porcupine. I had no idea that these prickly little dudes could climb trees. He looked a little cautious on his climb down from the heights.



This fellow is to be commended. He was so lazy that he just fell asleep with his head underwater. Never bothering to pull his bulk around, he'd just peek up from the depths every minute or so to take a breath then settle back down. Really that seems like more work than moving...





Pliffskin ploffskin...

Tokyo: The Return Part 2, Museum Hopping

When I told my students I was going to Tokyo 'On Vacation' they looked at me aghast. Tokyo is certainly not considered a viable vacation destination in Japan. You go to Tokyo on business, you go to Kyoto on vacation. That said there were a couple of interesting museums that I missed last time, one of them being the Tokyo Maritime Museum.



Needless to say a museum filled with model ships is not all that attractive to women, so I had to go it alone. Mo wandered off into Shinjuku by herself for the day. Like anything worth getting to in Tokyo, it was quite a trek to the artificial island that held both my museum destinations. Two subway lines and a docklands elevated rail later, and I was in the ballpark. The Tokyo Maritime Museum is pretty easy to spot, being shaped like a giant concrete ocean liner.



One of the more interesting exhibits was a display of the history of ships in the world in detailed model form. Many of the models were 1:50 or 1:60 scale, so you got a very good sense of how much larger ships have become lately. From the HMS Victory to the Brittanic to the supermassive crude oil carrier Universe Ireland. That particular model must have been at least 15 feet long, if not longer. Of course oil tankers do lack some of the mystique and beauty of the older ships. There were also demonstrations of ship design, construction and propulsion. In the submarine corner was a video periscope that you could use to peek at the neigboring water park.



On the second floor there where exhibits devoted to Japan's place in the sea. They had exhibits related to shipping, fishing, defense and the coast guard. Of course I went straight for defense. Using dozens of tiny models there was a visual representation of the entire Imperial Fleet of WWII. It was astounding, those little ships filled a very long case. Among them were some rather famous (or should I say infamous) names like the Akagi and the Kaga and the rest of the Pearl Harbor strike force.



The centerpiece of this part of the museum is the large and very detailed model of the Yamato, the largest and heaviest battleship ever built. She was commisioned a few days after Pearl Harbor, but despite supermassive 20 inch guns the days of the Battleship were over, as the Imperial Navy had themselves proved. She never sunk another ship and was herself destroyed by US Navy planes towards the end of the war.



On the upper 'decks' of the museum are an observation lounge and a mock ocean liner bridge. The best part of the bridge is the working radar display that allowed me to track the harbor traffic for a couple of minutes, and that was pretty fun. Next door
were two museum ships, one another Antarctic exploration ship that was equally boring to the Fuji that I saw in Nagoya harbor. The other was an old ferry that was the primary linky between Honshu and Hokkaido before the current tunnel was completed. It too was nothing terribly special, but next door was a pretty cool museum.



The Musuem of Emerging Technology is a science museum aimed at the younger set. Despite an emphasis on the 'hands on' (or because of it?) I found it fascinating, if a bit loud. The centerpiece at the moment is a traveling exhibition of a frozen mammoth skull. Rather disgusting but totally awsome. There was also a giant video ball showing weather sat pictures of Earth. It would display the last 24 hours of world weather in a loop, as well as land and sea temperature for the month. It was one of those things you could just stand there in a trance and watch for a good long while. There was also a demonstration magnetic levitation railway, a deep diving ocean research sub and some great space related displays. They had a wall with the photo and name of everybody who has visited space, and the best part is they had managed to collect signatures from a significant number of both astro- and cosmonauts. There was also a neat display concerning distance in the universe. It showed what was happening on earth when light left various stars and even other galaxies. From the Berlin Wall falling to the American Revolution to the Dinosaurs ruling the earth.

It was a great but exhausting day to be sure, and I will admit I had my fill of museums! It was time for a change... the zoo!

Tokyo: The Return Part 1

Last Tuesday I burned the last tiny bits of my vacation time for this year and took off for Tokyo with Mo. We had no specific goals, simply relax and enjoy the big city. While at almost 500,000 people Kanazawa is no slouch, it can be nice to sample the pleasures available with a population base of about 12 million.



Often when riding JR you have about 5 to 10 minutes to make your train transfers. Usually this is more than enough time as you can actually set your watch by JR timetables, they are that accurate. Well like I said... Usually. Our train was 20 minutes late pulling into the transfer station. Our connection, with our reserved seats, had left 15 minutes before. Alas!

Luckily JR arranged for everybody to get some space on the next train, and all was fixed.

Once in Tokyo we checked into our almost luxury hotel, and set off in search of some pizza.

Paris Hilton Attacks.

The next day, while searching Shibuya for a movie house playing Superman Returns, the dreadful visige of Paris Hilton appeared over the hustle and bustle. Oh yes, apparently not only is Paris insanely popular here, but she has a new album out AND came to Tokyo to promote it. We didn't hang around to watch the spectacle, but I'll admit I was tempted to see what the fuss was about.

Roppongi Hills

We finally found a theater, Roppongi Hills was showing Superman! I was interested as I had heard of the Super-Skyscraper that is Roppongi Hills but had never been to see it. Yup, it was a big building. Really big. Wow. Superman Returns was also a bit underwhelming. It was fun, but not really fun enough to justify the 1800 yen price.

Next: Ships!

Vacation!

Well I'm off to Tokyo this morning for a few days of fun in the City. It should prove to be a relaxing trip. It will be great to simply NOT be teaching for a while. No more classes no more books no more students dirty looks! Zach has made it back to Japan after his three months of backpacking through Asia. We went to the beach and he just killed the ladies...

Surreal

A definition of surreal: Sitting in a Japanese travel agency, in the swealtering heat of August, listening to The Beach Boys' Christmas Album. On repeat.

On the plus side we did get a good deal on Shinkansen tickets and hotels for Tokyo.

The Beach

So I think I finally figured out why Japanese beaches are so unimpressive. Between the rainy season all July, and jellyfish season starting in mid-August there is only about two weeks in which to enjoy the beach! I can now understand the tendency here to build waterparks along the waterfront!

All grousing aside, there was a bit ALT meeting down at Uchinada last Saturday. Once again thanking my lucky stars for the Sat-Sun off schedule, I snagged an invite and for the first time this summer got a chance to really hang out at the beach.



I'll admit, for a mountain man like me, for as unimpressive as the beach is, its still pretty impressive. Ok so there's giant ugly concrete blocks behind, and tons of trash before, but in the end you still have that broad swath of water and sand, and that is what matters.

I even went swimming! In the ocean! It has been at least 10 years since I last took a salty dip in the sea. It was quite nice, the water was warm after a typically roasting Kanazawa day in August.



Back from the water a ways there are several bars and restaurants with indoor and outdoor seating, showers, a skate park and a DJ! Its sad that the time window is so short, and that the beach is so far, I could see myself spending a lot of time down there otherwise. I mean heck, they even had a guy doing one of those torch dances like you might see on an actual nice beach in say Hawaii or Thailand. How cool is that? Yes I tried to get a picture of him. No I didn't have my tripod. ;-).

Well, I'm hoping that the poisonus little jellys won't have arrived next weekend, as we do have a work party scheduled for Uchinada on Sunday and I'd like to go for another dip.

A Nagoya Farewell

Last sunday I made the trek to Nagoya for Jared's farwell party. It was a very strange trip in some ways, as I suddenly found my role completely reversed.


I met Jared, and a few other people, at Melissa's goodbye party/ Johanna's welcome party back in late September last year. I'd been in Japan for about two weeks at that point. Even though Jared had only been in country for a bout a month more than I, at that point he was still the old hand, and others like Bruce or David who where there had been in Japan for years. I felt very much the newbie, out of my depth and unsure of what exactly was going on.

Andy goes Samurai

Well, almost a year later and now both Jared and Johanna have left Sakae school, though to be fair Johanna *is* still in Japan. In the group of teachers on Sunday, I was one of the 'old hands', we had one guy, Nick from Wales, who had been in Japan for a little over a month.


We actually really hit it off, and he may bring his girlfriend up to visit Kanazawa when she comes to Japan in October. I do love guests. Though I suppose I'll have to clean my apt sometime before then.

As far as the actual party goes though, the reservations were made at an Okonomiyaki restaurant located between Fushimi station and Nagoya station. This put it at about a 35 minute walk from Sakae. It was an excellent restaurant, but consider that Sakae is THE center of Nagoya dining and entertainment. Why we had to get 20 people to walk over half an hour to a restaurant is a question that was left unanswered.

The darts players, Behvin and I

After a fine meal of okonomiyaki, yakisoba, and other delicious offerings it was time to head to a bar for continued merriment. Luckily for us there was one nearby, so we didn't have to go tramping all the way BACK to Sakae! That was really a good thing, as I think many people were starting to feel the nomihodai (all you can drink).



The place we ended up at is fairly unique in Japan, if ubiquitous in the rest of the world. It was a real karaoke bar. Yes, when you sing, you sing for everybody in the place. The people at the bar hear you. The darts players hear you. The slots players hear you. Everybody! The whole thing suddenly got even more embarassing than it already was. And to be honest the whole thing was already pretty damn embarassing.

But we had a great time there, and decamped to Joy Joy for a little more Karaoke, but by that time it was really rather late, and Jared was really rather drunk so He, Autumn (another newish teacher) and I took a cab back to their neighborhood. A few short hours of sleep and then I was on my way back to Kanazawa on the Shirasagi #1, the first train, a mere 7:52 in the morning. Ugh.

Well it was a great party, and it was nice to see Jared one last time before he decamps to the states. It was also nice to meet the new Nagoya Guard, and ensure that my legacy will continue!

Also, there will soon be another Hello in the offer, Zach should be back in Japan next week. For those keeping track that was all of June and July, and most of August, a nice solid two and a half months on the road. Phew.

New Faces, Old Places

Last weekend kicked off with another fireworks show at the exact same time and the exact same place as the weekend before. Mo, Fiona, James and myself all met up with the first three replacement ALT's for another night of Fireworks and Thai food.

The new ALT's certainly had a slightly shell-shocked air to them, but they seem more on top of things than *I* was less than a week after arrival. In that wave we got two Americans (Chris and Amanda) and an English girl (whose name escapes me at the moment).

We walked a few kilometers down the Saigawa and found a perfect spot, much closer and less obstructed than last week. I didn't bring my camera though, I had decided I wanted to really enjoy the show and the conversation and not spend my time bent over the tripod. I don't regret that decision..much. I must admit that a shot of the Osaka bound Thunderbird Express under a sky of fireworks would have been pretty cool. Alas!

The show was actually a better display as well. Lots of very artistic explosions, including flowers, fountains, and a smiley face. And of course a grand finale that sent every dog in the prefecture running for the hills. I love fireworks.

After that we met up with Anna and one of her friends and hit up the same Thai restaurant that we went to last Saturday. I'm certainly not complaining though, its a really awsome place. The Green Curry is just as delightfully spicy and delicous as you would expect, and the Pad-Thai I had last weekend was almost as good as my sister's version.

In a fit of generosity we then took them to the coolest bar in town, Forum, a magical roof-top bar. It offers a cool respite from the heat of the summer, and amazing views of downtown Kanazawa. It also offers an aging long haired dachshund who runs around on the bar greeting customers. Any drinking establishment with the guts to stick a weiner dog on the bar gets my vote. Add in the roof and its a no brainer place to kick back and relax with a draft Asahi.

I'd like to think we rolled out the carpet o' Kanazawa hospitality. Everybody seemed happy enough, and all are plenty cool and should fit right in.

Next: A Nagoya Farewell.

Hello Goodbye

August is going to be a difficult month as a total of four good friends will leave Japan before the end. Included in that number is perhaps the coolest person I have met in Japan yet...



This being Nate, the insane American ALT. He has, in fact, already left and as I write this should be arriving home to be with his wife and kids. While they have a better claim on his free time than we do, the Kanazawa community mourns the loss of one heck of a drinking partner.

We hung out almost all weekend, and on Saturday ended up at the 21st Century Museum of Art where he found a T-Shirt called Hara-kiri Schoolgirls. Which is pretty much what you would expect, a bunch of schoolgirls disembowling themselves. Really it pretty much says everything about Japan that can be said, and it is so very Nate.



I went over early to help him pack Sunday, but for me to help somebody pack is really a case of the blinder leading the blind. Luckily Mo soon joined us and added her orginizational talents to the fray. Once we had things whipped mostly into shape we met up with Fiona for one last night out with the four of us. We went to a wonderful Yaki-niku place nearby and grilled up beef and pork all night long. The fat filled almost bacon like slabs of pork kept catching on fire while the beef grilled up rather nicely. The food was excellent, and the restaurant was busy and great fun, it just felt friendly, and that was a nice atmosphere to say farewell in.

Of course we weren't done there. We headed on in to Katamachi and, at my geeky insistence, went to the puri-kura photo booths! For those who have never heard of them, they are large j-pop themed photo booths where you can not only take your picture, but can modify them with clip art and text when you are done. Add a bow-tie, sunglasses, hearts, puppies, anything! It is horribly cheesy and yet can be a ton of fun.



Afterwords there was time for one last Karaoke session. All the old favorites were sung, and despite my pounding headache I had a great time. And then that was it. The End. Well, maybe not The End but more the end for now. For there will certainly be visits and vacations and lots of e-mail!

And there is the hope of the new arrivals, 3 of whom show up today. What new friends will be made? Who knows! But in the meantime...

Goodbye Nate! and Good luck.

Summer is Here

The endless drone of cicadas. The swealtering heat. Yukata. The dull thumps of fireworks. The Japanese summer has arrived at last.

The rainy season is over, finally, and now the heat is rising steadily and the true summer months of August and September unveil themselves.



Despite the hordes of sweating salarymen in their suits, I am looking forward to an actual summer. The endless rain of July got me down a bit, and kept us all indoors far more than I would have liked. The lack of many major blog post recently has reflected that! It is hard to do many cool things when it pours rain all weekend.



Well, thats over, and now its time for parties on the beach and glorious fireworks displays. The first of those was held last saturday, to celebrate the start of summer. Well over an hour solid of amazing fireworks. I of course took along my trusty Nikon and took over 200 photos of the display. I learned a lot about framing fireworks and the timing required to get a good shot. I also learned that my tripod is kind of unstable and that I really need a wire release for my camera. I got a lot of shake, so the pictures look fine to great when they are small, but whatever you do don't enlarge them!

Weekend ride to Yuwaku Onsen

I hereby apologize for the distinct lack of photographic content lately. Honestly between the pouring rain and the damp heat, I haven't been doing much that merit's bringing along my camera. Afterall, weekend Lost Marathons do not an epic blog post make!

How cool is that name?

Well we had a three day weekend last weekend (Thanks Marine Day) and Nate and I had planned to take the time to ride up into the wilds of the Noto Peninsula, North of Kanazawa. We soon realized that our ambition outstripped our bikes, and certainly our legs. Riding some 100 or more km in three days just wasn't in the cards.

The Onsen Building

Plus, the weather forcast for the late weekend called for drenching rain, and who wants to ride and camp in that? Not I! So we set our sights a little lower, and decided to ride into the mountains to Yuwaku Onsen. Just in case you have forgotton, an onsen is a naturally fed hotsprings bath. Bathing suits need not apply. They are perhaps the most relaxing form of bathing ever invented, and most people around here are addicted. Since Nate is going home in a litte over a week now, this was his last chance at an onsen dip.



Despite the rather epic heat and humidity, we gamely set off from the Katamachi Starbucks. Going up the hill by Kenrokuen had me convinced that this was a Baaad Idea! Despite the impulse to turn around and head for the beach, or at least some air conditioning, we pressed on out of the city and into the hills.

Nate!

It was great. Simply great. It was so nice to get out of the city. Obviously Kanazawa is no Tokyo, but it's still a sizable city, and the constant press of people can get tiresome. Riding along a twisty little mountain road gazing at forests and rice fields was just what the doctor ordered.

The thatched snow storage shed of Yuwaku

I must admit that with the exercise and the heat and humidity, I have never sweat so much in my life. The phrase "drenched in sweat" holds all new meaning for me now. It was cascading off my forehead into my eyes and across my glasses. It was horrid. As long as we were moving the self created breeze helped, but as soon as we stopped, for a break or photos, the full impact of the heat whalloped us over the head.

Me!

The bath itself was great, but honestly a hot bath after a hot ride is not exactly the most refreshing thing one can do. Luckily they do have the cold showers, and I found that after soaking for a while dumping a ton of icy water on my head was akin to a religious experience. It felt amazing, absolutly amazing. Like running and jumping into a mountain waterfall on a hot day in the Rockies. Only better.



Up above the onsen we found a small shrine complex. One part was a shrine to Inari, the god of the harvest. As you may remember, Inari is my favorite Shinto deity for his fox followers and the awsome lanes of torii that line the shrines. On the other side of the shrine was a small thatched building that is used for storing snow.

Nate examines the wildlife

For ages there has been a festival where in the depths of winter a large amount of snow is tucked away. Then in the summer there is another festival where the snow is brought out, though I'll admit I am unsure what it is used for now. That second festival has already happened, so by the time we got there the building was mostly empty, but there was a small layer of filthy snow in the bottom of the pit. I almost jumped in!



On our way home we detoured into a rice field and found the times square of Japanese bugs. This slope of dense vegetation was alive with insects. It was actually kind of scary. You'd see leaves shift and move and rather than say a nice fat frog, it was a nice fat cricket. Spiders almost the size of your hand, giant dragonflies and super grasshoppers.



Japan grows their insects big, and being the 10 year old boys we are, Nate and I just had to stop and check out all the activity. I fetched my zoom lense and we had a great time for 20 mintues or so, sneaking about and checking out the wildlife. We were careful never to venture too far into the shrubbery as some of those spiders looked rather mean.



Arriving back in Kanazawa after our 26 km round trip was fantastic. The airconditioning and fragrent curry of Coco Ichi Curry House lured us in for 1500 calories of katus and melted cheese on rice with curry sauce. And the exercise was negated! The heat had sapped us of all energy so we speedily abandoned our plans to ride to Uchinada Beach, and instead rode to my place to watch the greatest movie of all time, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

At Last

People who have visited me know that while I love Japan, I miss some of the wonderous foods that I grew accustomed to at home. While a list of what I miss eating would fill a copy of War and Peace, one of the top items is certainly Pizza.

Now let me clear up any misunderstanding. Pizza is alive and well in Japan, in fact it is an import success story. Pizza is a fixture on menu's here and there are several home grown delivery chains. But all of that obscures that sad fact that Japanese pizza is atrocious.

The reason for its success is Pizza's simple adaptability, and here, rather than those sweet little grease cups called Pepperoni you are just as likely to find squid, shrimp, corn, mayo, mochi, or any number of other odd ingredients. Even Dominoes has fallen to the dark side.. or so I had thought.

Yesterday Nate and I were in a very lazy frame of mind, and decided that rather than cook, we would order Pizza. But in Japan that does offer up a great many issues, chief of which is who is going to call and actually talk, in Japanese, on the the PHONE. Oh the horror. But before all was lost I remembered that Dominos gives a discount for carryout, so we walked on down. And there, on the menu was salvation. The American Special, tomato sasu, peporoni, and onion (katakana style). Well drop the onion (who east onion on pizza anyway?) and we had a standard, every day, honest to god.. Pepperoni Pizza. Even thinking about it now, I want to cry tears of greasy joy.

Needless to say, that wonderous large pizza and two bottles of coke and we had a fantasticlly American dinner. At last!

A Trip to the Hospital

I noticed over the past few weeks that my right ear was becoming increasingly deaf, which had me slightly worried. Eventually the fact that I could hardly hear at all had me more worried than the thought of a trip to a Japanese Hospital, so I bit the bullet and rode my bike to the Kanazawa Municipal Hospital.

I don't know about you, but I've always found Hospitals a little bit intimidating. Yeah, sure they just want to help you, I know. It's just those wide open halls, that flourscent lighting and of course the faint smell of disinfectent in the air, it all adds up to a nice intimidation factor.

So take all that, and add in a healthy dose of Kanji in all the signs and the fact that English is an endangered species. Now, I'm not saying that I expect everybody to cater to my horrible Japanese skills, but for crying out loud the Karaoke places have forms in Japanese and English, but the Hospital doesn't?!?! Don't forget the fact that none of the reception staff spoke a lick of English, not a single word. Which I find strange because aside form the dozens of conversation schools around, everybody, EVERYBODY takes several years of the subject in Middle School and High School. Heck, they didn't even say "Hello how are you? I'm fine. Thank you." and I've had 5 year olds stop me in public to say that!

Well with my rudimentary skills, a phrase book, gestures and a LOT of patience I managed to get in to see the Ear Doctor. He was a very nice man, with excellent English. He cleared out my ear and then stuck one of those mini-video cameras in to look about. I got to watch on the monitor, which I actually found pretty neat. "Hey look, thats my EAR! Coool."

He found a minor infection, nothing too worry about too much. Some antibiotic ear drops are all that are required. Of course he gave me a rundown on how/when to take them, and good thing too because when the pharmacist tried to do it she kept bursting out laughing as she realized that I couldn't understand a thing she was saying. That didn't deter her high-spirited and rather loud attempts to explain just what I needed to do. Of course its not like applying ear drops is really all *that* hard.

A Journey into the Heart of Darkness...

Fiona invited a group of people over to her apartment to watch the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line. As a fan of Mr. Phoenix and as someone who has been getting more interested in Cash's music, I jumped at the chance. Little did I know what I was in for...

Anna and I met up with Nate near my house, as he has been to Fiona's place before and so could guide us. Guide us to our doom. The three of us swung by the rental place, picked up the DVD, and then Nate called Fiona to get a quick update on directions to her place. We started off again, but fatally, in completely the wrong direction. The clarification had instead been an obfuscation. As we rode, and rode, and rode, the buildings grew fewer and the rice fields more numerous. We soon realized that we had gone wrong, and tried to head in a more correct direction, but we kept running into twisty, curvy streets and dead ends. The inadequate signage did not help our cause.

After wandering lost in the not-quite desert for not-quite 40 years, we sighted in the distance a landmark, the Nonoichi cinema. Note I said Nonoichi, and not Kanazawa, you see we had actually left Kanazawa and circled around one of the suburbs. Luckily Nonoichi isn't all that far from Fiona's so she came out to meet us and guide us in. All together it took almost two hours to make it there. It should take less than 30 minutes. Well at least it was a really beautiful ride, and we didn't get too wet when it rained on us.

As far as Walk the Line, it was a pretty good movie. The performances were excellent but what really blew us all away is the fact that neither Joaquin Phoenix nor Reese Witherspoon lip synched to the original songs, all the vocals are on the spot by the actors themselves. It is positively scary how much Joaquin sounds like Cash.

Other than that, in the misc category.. A student brought a firefly into class last week. I was particularly fascinated as I had never seen one before, as its much to dry in Colorado to support fireflies.

The Ninja Have Left the Building

So on Sunday after I met up with Jared, Andy and Anna, we tromped through the minor misting drizzle that is Kanazawa's weather to Myoryuji, the fabled Ninja-Dera. Andy is a big fan of all things Ninja (but really, who isn't?) and so really wanted to check out the Ninja Temple.

I had been there with mom back during Golden Week, but one can go in by tour only and it was really really jammed so we skipped it. Really its one of those tourist attractions that you live right next to, it is literally only about 4 blocks from my apartment, but never go to until you have guests.

Well on a random rainy afternoon, we got in without any problems. We stashed our stuff, including cameras, unfortunatly, and joined the Japanese-language only guided tour.

The reason for Myoryuji's Ninja nickname is the plethora of secret rooms, traps and hidden escape routes. In feudal times the temple was actually outside of the city walls, and was the place of worship of the Maeda lords. There was even a carefully hidden room that would allow the lord to attend the temple without any of the public knowing he was there.

The secret rooms were all built as ways of protecting the Lord. Some were little hidden closets that samurai could crouch in, peering out into the main room and ready to leap into the action if their services were required.

There was also a hidden trap door in the floor that lead to a rather dank looking escape tunnel. Of course being Japan, if escape proved impossible then there was a special 4 tatami mat room (4 being Shi which is also death in Japanese) that was reserved an an inner sanctum for the lord to commit seppuku.

The coolest little contraption was was a sliding door that when slid one way went upstairs, when slid the other went outside. Ingenious!

Sadly, all these hidden surprises had absolutly nothing to do with Ninja, it was all just regular Samurai Secret Service types, protecting the big cheese. The Ninja-Dera name is all just a misnomer.

I must admit, that while it was an interesting tour, it was not *that* interesting. They did have handy English guidebooks that explained everything, but the fact that one had to trail around a Japanese language tour with a tour guide that took forever to explain things combined with the fact that many of the cooler things (like the deep dark dank escape passage) were off limits did lower the appeal somewhat.

Overall a solid 6/10 points. Fun, and good if you have some time to kill, but certainly not the killer thing to see while in Kanazawa.

My Birthday (Observed)

We had the Kanazawa combination Grants Birthday/ Independence Day BBQ Bash on Sunday. Since Tuesday is unfortunatly not a holiday here in Japan, for the first time EVER I actually have to work on my birthday.

Mo concerned that the grill is going to torch her apt.

While July 4th may be Summer in the states, here it is smack in the middle of 'The Rainy Season' which made things difficult when planing to have a big outdoor bbq. Luckily Mo offered her centrally located and largish apartment in case of rain. So we set up the grill on the balcony, opened some beers and started the flow of delicious bratwurst. Nate also donated some delicious homemade potato salad and marinated steak skewers.

The Grill, after it stopped burning

Well we did have to deal with the paint on the grill catching fire first. It blazed up in a rather impressive display of flame, but luckily didn't spread and soon died down to a more managable level. I guess thats what you get for buying a 3000 yen grill.



Overall everybody involved had a great time. Nick came down from Kaga, and Jared and Andy came all the way from Nagoya for the weekend.

Andy and Nick

After dinner we had a few fireworks, some roman candles, bottle rockets and firecrackers available at the local supermarket! That was soon followed by, of course, karaoke. Jared still does a mean TLC, and Fiona and I did a credible but still needs a bit of work version of Linkin Park's In The End.

The Scottish are coming! Andy and Mo hang out and discuss Glasgow

It was interesting being so far from Home and everything that usually defines my birthday, but I must say that it was an awsome party. It felt great to have so many of my friends hanging out and just enjoying themselves. And the Bratwurst really did taste pretty good. A big thank you for everybody who came, and an Independence Day greeting to all my friends and family, scattered throughout the globe.