For the record...

I've been thinking about home a lot lately. I was going to do something rash and come back early. But I decided against it. I can use this time (and who know when it will come again). Though, I am anxious to get back to my life and start things up in L.A.

But, oh, I haven't exercised in just about two weeks. I feel horrible. And I know it's going to take a while to get back to the place I was before.
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Pusan, Korea Sunday Nov. 29th

Somewhere along the way I decided inside that no matter how good my life was it was never going to measure up to some other life. Since I've noticed this about myself I've been trying to deprogram this pattern in my mind. I'm sure it comes from the low self-esteem I've suffered from growing up.

I have a good life. No one can take away my accomplishments and the hopes and dreams I have. No one can live my life for me either. Imagining isn't living and my life is not a movie I can simply watch happen. My life has meaning and significance but no one can give these things to me.

A whole lotta Kyoto

I was going to spend only one day in Kyoto but Aika thought it would be better to spend three. And thus the legend of the "Three days in Kyoto" was born.

And lots of pictures were taken.


This was outside our hostel. Rub him, rub him for a safe journey.

They didn't have any real beggers in the old days of Japan. So they made these stone representations to throw spare change at.

Men wear hats to the bathroom in Japan.

A gold plated shrine. Those Japanese are so gaudy.



I kept a pamphlet with the names of all the shrines I visited. I'll find it eventually and tell you...in person...whoever you are.

I don't remember...

I don't remember who these people are, but they're a lot of fun.





















Sometimes I drink a lot.

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarium!

While I was in Osaka Aika took me to the giant aquarium they have there. It was very impressive if you're into aquariums. If not, then it was only slightly less impressive than the street performer outside. If you're not into street performers then I don't know what to tell you. There wasn't much else outside the aquarium beside the recycled trash art.

You have no idea how hard it was to get this whale shark to pose with us. And don't even get me started about getting him to put on that hat. "Oh, that hat doesn't go with my fins". GOD! Shut up, stupid prima-donna whale shark!


stupid whale shark!

I forget the names of these furry creatures. I think they're called Steve.

This unfortunate girl was raised by sea otters.

Nara

Nara is a city north east of Osaka and it's home to free roaming deer and the biggest Buddha statue I've ever seen!

The deer were great. You can walk right up to them and even buy packs of deer biscuits and feed them. Some of them are pretty aggresive, though. So watch out who you feed. And stay away from the babies. The mommies don't like strangers talking to their kids.


The boy deer have their horns ground down to lower the human death rate (I assume). That's kinda sad to me. Having a certain part of your anatomy ground down to a nub to make you less dangerous. But maybe that's not such a bad idea for some.


I'm not a Buddhist but I can still appreciate the presence given off by the huge Buddha. They even have a window in the shrine so you can see his head from the outside.
I'm often confused but the different Buddha statues. Certain ones are skinny and others are fat. Maybe it's that the skinny ones represent his younger self and the fat ones are from his later days.

Like Elvis.

Or maybe I'm thinking of two different figures from two different religions.


Then in the resting area there was this guy who started talking to us. He gave us some sweet bean paste sandwiches and apples. His name was Jun Saito. I generally got a good impression from the people of Japan. There's an underlying polite demeanor most people have. I never felt awkward asking for help there.

Osaka and Aika (that second name is a person, not a place)

Osaka.




The hostel I stayed in was really nice. I had my own private room with a toilet and shower for about 40bucks a night and no curfew to boot. It was located in what I was told was a bad part of town but I never notice these kinds of things, or maybe I just don't care.

Yeah, I just don't care.

Spent about a week in the Osaka area.

The first night I decided to take a walk down the avenue just to take in the city. On the way there were some young people passing out flyers for an original play production. I saw that it was playing in about a half hour so I decided to go.

I liked it. Of course I don't speak Japanese nearly well enough to understand an artistic piece like the one I saw. But Understood the relationships and what was happening on stage. I got impressions of what the story was and what lessons the actors were trying to convey. All on a basic level. But still, very entertaining. This ended up being one of the highlights of my trip. I like sight seeing but I love interacting with people. I regret not keeping up with my Japanese. It would have made for a more fulfilling experience (though it was still a grand old time).

When I got out of the play I got a call from Aika. She was waiting for me at the train station near my hotel!

Aika is a friend from my college days at UNC. We met my freshman year. I remember we were both at the student services building. I was enthralled with Japan so of course I wanted to meet a real Japanese person. It turned out that we lived in student halls right across from each other. We ended up speeding a fair amount of time together that year. She was an exchange student from Osaka so she left at the end of that school year. But we kept in touch thru e-mail.

Now, 10 years later, we finally got to hang out again. Aika made all the difference for my trip. We spent the whole week together. She took me around Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto, let me stay at her home and meet her family, and finally accompanied me to Tokyo.

Japan-ness for days and days

Somewhere along the way I lost count of the days in which I stayed in various locations. So to recap, here are some random pics of my (about a) week in Takayama. My heartfelt thanks to Jason, Angela, Jenn, Kyle, Kyle, Carl, Annie, Tom, Josh, dirty Sally from the northern country, Brandon, all those fun loving guys outside the club on Halloween night, ("Squid?...Lock it down!"), Reiko, who picked me up at the bus stop and ate a hamburger with me, and all the good people of Takayama. May Sarubobo continue to be a red monkey baby in all our hearts.


Here are some random pics from my week in Takayama.





The farm-like farm-i-ness just outside Angela's place.


Jen's Taiko Drum team practice.


Center 4 Hamburgers. 'Cause you gotta have at least one. The Hamburgler's gotta hideout somewhere.

This guy kept staring at me...I guess it's 'cause he's a statue.

That was some good CORN!

OH man, does this picture bring back some memories. This shot was taken right before that thing happened.

Behold...the guy with two faces!(He lives in Nyukawa)

Japan Day 4

I eventually came back around to Angela's place and stay a night there. We reminisced about our time in Colorado, at Doherty and with the old "Hooligans" crew. Angela showed me more of Takyama, Old town, which is a popular tourist site. It was lucky, in a way, that we went that day. The local cult was having it's 50th anniversary parade. Apparently it's an international cult because we saw groups from Brazil, The U.K. and the U.S.A. They pulled out all the stops with high school bands and dance teams. Pretty neat, in a creepy cult sorta way.

No trip to Japan would be complete without a trip to the Arcade and the "puri-cura", an abbreviation for "Pretty-Club". Angela and I went to the local Sega Super Arcade and did it up right. The Pretty-club is a booth that takes a series of pics of you and your friends with a green screen in the back. After your picture is taken you can customize the background and add an almost infinite amount of hearts, happy faces, music notes drawings and anything else you might be able to imagine. Then the finished product is printed out for you to keep. Japanese teenagers and American English teachers living in Japan are REALLY into this stuff.

Japan Day 3

November is National Novel writing month. If you aspire to write a book you go to the website and sign up. You're supposed to write a certain number of words a day and at the end of the month you have yourself a first draft of a novel. I thought about signing up but I guess it's just as well that I didn't. I do plan on writing about my experiences in the Army because I think that's a pretty interesting story. But this trip is turning out to be very active for me.

Woke up late from the Halloween festivities of the night before and went out to eat with some of my new english teacher friend types. I like Japanese food alright. But I'm definitely used to the variety offered in the States. Apparently fruit is a high priced commodity here and I just can't get by without it. Food is definitely my biggest expense here.

Found out about a little get together outside of Takayama in a small village. another relaxing night with the English teacher group. It gets cold real quick in the mountain areas and with that came some snow during the night. It frosted the upper part of the hills and made a beautiful vista to wake up to. A few of us took a hike in the morning to check it out. Later that day I went with Jen and Josh to another village festival. We met one of Josh's fellow teachers, an older Japanese woman who lived in a 100 year old traditional Japanese home. Her Husband was out back chopping wood (like ya do). Being the helpful American that I was I wanted to help split some logs. He gave me a sledge hammer and a splitter. I gave the splitter a few wacks and on one I miss the splitter with the head of the hammer and instead hit it with the neck, breaking it clean off. I felt so bad and, of course, they were very polite and said that it was okay. I'm sure it wasn't but what are you gonna do.

The festival was in the town of Nyukawa and reminded me of a farmers market. Lots of locally grown vegetables and hand made crafty things. They had a stage show with some power ranger looking guys battling it out for the kids. Lots of fried food and corn on a stick. They also had a huge bowl that I think they use for mass soup cooking. But it wasn't in use at that time.

I was feeling a little run down so Jen and I parted ways with Josh and went to her place to take naps.

I guess we missed some good downhill grass sledding that Josh participated in but you can't win them all. Jen took me that night to a cafe on a hill overlooking Takayama. A couple of her fellow English teachers were there and I eventually found myself in a political discussion. I guess it's inevitable no matter where you go.

Japan Day 2 Halloween

During the day, Jason and I met up with Angela, who took us to "Hido-no-sato". It's a collection of old Japanese houses filled with memorabilia from days long past. There were even older Japanese craftsmen working some old trades like the weaving loom and handmade woven sandals.

I feel fortunate to have meet all of Jason's friends in the JET program. It's because of them that I've been having such an unforgettable time these first few days. I definitely wouldn't have had such a crazy Halloween night without their company, and a generous helping of a mysterious drink called "chu-hai".


We ended up going to a dance club and somehow I won a prize for my costume. I can't imagine why. There were a few girls there that were much prettier than me. My prize was a water bottle of all things. No trip to Japan would be complete without a trip to the Karaoke bar. Unfortunately no one told me that it was miles away. Even more unfortunate was the fact that the boots I wore were two sizes too small. I ended up foregoing footwear and walking almost the whole way barefoot.

The Queens Court is the main Karaoke establishment here. I must say there are some pretty talented people living in Takayama.

And thanks to the generosity of my new favorite Canadian, Carl, I had a warm futon to sleep on that night. And, boy did I sleep.

Japan Day 1

I arrived at around 2 in the afternoon at Nagoya Airport, which is roughly central japan. I was still reeling from the buzz of actually being in Japan. The train station attendants were really helpful and most spoke a little English. I called Angela and she told me which tickets to buy. I had to get to the main Nagoya station from the airport to pick up my JR (Japan Rail) pass. the main terminal was huge! I was a little lost. Being a foreigner is weird. I felt like I could just walk up and ask anybody where to go. But the JR rail offices are everywhere. I found a map of the station and knew enough to ask where something was. One office attendant drew me a map and pointed me in the right direction(I better do a lot of train traveling to get my moneys worth out of that JR pass). I hopped on a train and got into Takayama after dark around 7. To my surprise Jason was there to meet me. I was even more surprised to see him driving. They drive on the opposite side in Japan and Jason had only been in country for the JET program 3 months. It was really good seeing Jason again. It's so funny how life works out. Friends and family are so spread out and yet you find ways of coming together. Jason took me to a Korean BBQ and introduced me to his fellow English teachers Carl, Kyle, Annie, (British) Josh, and Tom. I was reminded of when I tried to apply for the JET program. I think I filled out the application wrong and they sent it back. I was lazy back then and didn't even try to send it back. I should have.
Maybe I can again.

I got to stay the night at Jason's apartment south of Takayama. We stayed up until 3 am reminiscing and looking at Jason's 3000 digital cat posters. good times.

I can't believe how beautiful it is here. I'm so glad I decided to come here in the fall. The leaves are changing colors and Takayama is in the country so there's lots of older looking traditional houses about and the mountains surround everything.