1 Year! : The second half.

March kicked off my spring 'visitors season' with my first guest. My best buddy for ages, Matt, arrived in early March for a two week visit. We had a great time, and for the short time he had he managed a lot of sight-seeing. Nagoya, Kanazawa, Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo. Not bad!



Then in April I took a weekend and went to visit Zach up in Nagano. We celebrated his 25th Birthday and then went to the nearby wasabi farm for a taste of wasabi ice cream. Spring was really creeping up on us, and the weather was great. Of course back home in Ishikawa it spent most of April raining.




Spring brought out the famed Sakura blossoms, sending the whole nation into a frenzy of flower viewing and sake drinking. Good times were had by all, and honestly the cherry trees really are amazingly beautiful. Spring itself was great, the weather got warmer, it stopped raining every day, and life just took a turn for the better. And of course, my next guest arrived!



My next visitor was my mother, who came out for Golden Week. We relaxed and walked (and walked and walked) around Kanazawa. We went to all the interesting museums and touristy spots that I had previously ignored. It was a great time, and the chance to see family again after so many months was simply amazing.





While Mom had no great desire to travel every day and see a lot of Japan, unlike Matt, we did take a daytrip to Kyoto. We saw some of the more famous temples and shrines and of course ate some delicious rotation-sushi at Kyoto Station. Mom really loved her sushi that trip, I don't think I've ever eaten sushi twice in one day before... or since! ;-)






A mere week after Mom left my Sister, Liz, arrived. She had scraped together almost three weeks of vacation time, so we had a lot planned. I took a week off myself and we went way south to Kyushu, taking in cities like Fukaoka and Nagasaki. It was some of the most fun I've had all. The scenery was, unlike say in Tokyo, absolutely breathtaking.



June saw the big Kanazawa festival, with food booths, dancing in the streets, and plenty of Taiko. As Mo would say, it was an overdose of Awsome. It was amazing, unlike anything you would ever have seen in the US.





July was Hot. Hot and Muggy. The first part of July was the rainy season, and while it didn't rain very much at first, it was always a threat. High humidity and high temperatures conspired to keep us all indoors even when it wasn't raining. But all was not lost, it was Lost. Nate, Fiona, Mo and myself all banded together and started watching Marathon sessions of the hit TV show Lost. We all got hooked and it provided a pleasently airconditioned and cheap activity for the muggy months of Summer.



August was Hot, brutally Hot. Luckily the rain had finished in July, but August saw days and days of some pretty intense heat, which made for some great visits to the beach. While Uchinada Beach may not make a list of worldwide beach destinations, for us it was heaven. Sand, waves, beer, burgers, what more do you want on an August evening?

And so we come full circle back to September. Its been a pretty good year, lets home the next 12 months can top it!

1 Year! : The first six months.

Well, this is it. On September 14th 2005 at around 4 in the afternoon I arrived in Japan. It has been a seriously crazy year, and I sometimes can't believe it has all actually happened! To refresh memories, mine and others, we have the Travelingrant 1 Year retrospective!

The Totoro House at Expo 05>

After arriving in sunny Nagoya in September, my first real adventure was the Aichi 2005 World Expo. We went on a Monday Holiday, and suffered from an excess of heat and visitors. It was still a great time, and a good way to kick off life in Japan.



I quickly fell in love with industrial Nagoya. Despite a preference to concrete, I found it an interesting and vital city. In October, I really did a lot of local traveling, visiting Nagoya Castle, Inuyama, Gamagori, and of course Zach up in Nagano.

Gamagori


Kiyomizu-Dera, Kyoto

In November I made a quick Shinkansen excursion to Kyoto to glory in the Fall colors among Kyoto's many temples and shrines. The weather and the trees were glorious. It was mid-November! And the trees were finally at their peak in a riot of orange and red. Of course despite it being a Monday everybody and their second cousin was in Kyoto that day, at least that's what it seemed like. And I thought the Expo crowd was bad!



December saw a visit by Zach, an international Christmas celebration, and the most snow Aichi had seen in 60 years. Of course as I soon learned, heavy snow in Aichi is nothing compared to snow in Ishikawa.



For the New Years break Jared and I went traipsing all over Osaka. Takoyaki (octopus balls), Okonomiyaki (meat pancake thing?) and of course, Spa World! It was a great New Years, even though the initial impression of Osaka was rather negative, as the Hostel was in a pretty dodgy neighborhood. Then again what do you expect for 2,000 yen a night?



January was a time of new beginnings for sure. Okazaki school closed and I moved 3 hours away to the Japan Sea Coast. Kanazawa, Ishikawa. It was a trial by snow, I arrived in a swirling storm that dumped two feet on my new city. Well it could have been worse, the same storm made life pretty difficult farther north. I also first ventured into Kenroku-en, Kanazawa's famous garden.




In late January I ventured forth again, this time back to Osaka and then to the ancient capital of Nara. I have heard it, and concur, that Nara is the best day-trip in all Japan. Its fantastically beautiful and small enough that you can fit in all the sights in a single visit.



February brought more snow, and a few more friends. I visited Fukui and met Nick and Phil, our two closest teachers, and I met Nate as well. Life in Kanazawa was off to a chilly but interesting first couple of months.

Well, there is the first six months. It's already a crazy and fun year, and we still have another half to go! Tune in tomorrow for the rest... Visitors, Surfers, Volcanos, and Raw Horse.

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.