Many apologies...

I've been trying to find the time to put some posts up, but I've just been blitzed with everything lately. I don't think ill be able to put a post up for at least a week. On the bright side, I've piled up dozens of potential posts, and many more to come. This next week ill be traveling like a freak, here's a quick summarized itinerary.

4.2.2011 (Saturday) - Fukuoka and Dazaifu

4.3.2011 (Sunday) - Hiroshima and Iwakuni

4.4.2011 (Monday) - Work

4.5.2011 (Tuesday) - Okayama and Tsuyama

4.6.2011 (Wednesday) - Kyoto

4.7.2011 (Thursday) - Nagoya

4.8.2011 (Friday) - Work

4.9.2011 (Saturday) - Kyoto / Osaka

4.10.2011 (Sunday) - Kyoto / Osaka

4.11.2011 (Monday) - Work

As you can see, its going to be madness. I'll be taking a ton of overnight buses from one place to the next to maximize my time. By the end, ill be a zombie, but I think it'll all be worth it. Its perhaps my one and only chance to see Japan's famous Cherry Blossoms, and I intend and making the most of my time.

In the meantime, check out this funny video I took in a department store. Feel free to comment!

I'll post as soon as I can! And a final shout out for the UM Ballroom Dance Team and their competition this weekend. Best of luck everyone, enjoy Valentin and his performance - some of the best dancing you'll ever see.

Lets start from the finish...

After a long, eventful weekend getaway in Kyoto...we ended up here:

A smoky, nasty, internet cafe...

Our train from Kyoto was delayed because an "accident". Which, here in Japan, almost always means someone who decides to jump out in front of a train. Many people I know here who commute everyday on trains have experienced these "jumpers". Its horrible to listen to the stories...

Because of the delay, we missed the last train to Ibara and had to find emergency crash space for the evening. Its 1am, and we're scheduled to hop on a 5:28am train to head back home so I can get to work on time. Certainly an action packed weekend straight to the finish. Not all the action we had hoped for, unfortunately...

Anyways, ill tell the tale of this weekend from end to beginning in the upcoming days. In the meantime... I need to get some shut-eye before I run off to work.

Much Needed Relief

As Japan picks itself up from the recent earthquake/tsunami disaster, many who suffered here will be searching for inspiration to rebuild their lives. Despite loved ones being lost and homes and lives being washed away, life will continue. That's certainly a daunting reality to face, and perhaps not everyone is willing or capable of confronting such a reality. But for many of those affected, their search for a new, meaningful life beings in the coming days.

Surely, there is never an opportune time for something like this to happen. An optimist may find inspiration in the coming spring. Warm weather, more sun, but perhaps most importantly, a symbol of life unique to Japan is born.

The plum and cherry blossoms of Japan.

Their transience and fragility are a reminder of how precious life is. More importantly, their smell and beauty are an inspiration to all who experience them here. As many wait for the government's plan to rebuild the country, the cherry blossoms come at a much needed time.

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Without a doubt, they will refresh the spirits of many who have suffered from the recent events.

The Land of Opportunity

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I'm in Japan. Perhaps what you don't know is where I live and how close I was to the earthquake. So, this photo should explain it all.

I live near Okayama city, nestled comfortably a few hours east of Hiroshima and a good ways west of Osaka/Kyoto. As you can see, I live a pretty far distance from Tokyo, and even further away from the Epicenter area. Most importantly, as indicated in big bold grey letters... I live in what i'm now labling, the "Land of Opportunity".


The earthquake, while not immediately and directly affecting life here in Okayama, has devastated a greater part of Japan. Prime Minister Kan has called upon the people of Japan to unite in order to overcome this travesty. So many people have been affected. And while the casualties continue to grow, the rebuilding of Japan will take place one community at a time for the next handful of generations. Surely the news will turn its attention to something new and novel once they've exhausted this interest. But here in Japan, this earthquake will continue to directly and/or indirectly affect the lives of all citizens for countless years to come.


So what is the experience like here as this disaster unfolds? Well, as a foreigner it's a bit different. Knowing that if a natural disaster happened near me and washed away my possessions, community, and job here, I could always return home. The reality is that for all of these people who are not visiting foreigners like myself, this is their home. Therefore, no matter how close I get to ground-zero, I'll never really experience how painful this is. I can't imagine what life would be like if the great lakes swallowed my mitten state...


At the same time, as a foreigner I take my role of life here quite seriously. I realize I am presented with a tremendous opportunity. I came to Japan to be a cultural ambassador, a civil servant, and to facilitate cultural exchange with the hope of making a difference in peoples lives. How often have we heard the old saying, 'in every suffering and difficulty lies an opportunity for growth', or something like that. Well, this situation is certainly no exception.


As a foreigner living in Japan, I have the same potential to make a difference in the lives of those who have suffered as any native citizen. And by doing so I represent and support something extremely meaningful; the idea of what it means to be an international citizen. Isn't that what exchange programs are all about? Isn't that global citizenship in its most meaningful sense? For those of us who came to Japan with the hopes of making a difference in peoples lives, here exists our opportunity. I think the roles we adopt now in this time of crisis, albeit active or apathetic, will impress upon our Japanese neighbors.. This is our opportunity. Better yet, this is my opportunity.

For those of you who would like to join me in this endeavor of making a difference, stay tuned... I've got planning to do.

A quick flick

Walkin to a car one night with my camera in hand...I thought this night shot might be a cool flick. I thought it turned out ok. No tripod, just handheld. Pretty slow shutter speed still turned out. Whadya think?

Rotating Sushi Bar! (Kaiten Zushi)

I’m sure everyone’s a bit curious what sushi is like here in the motherland, well here’s my sushi assessment!

DERICIOUS!

Check it out:

9.4/10

9.3/10

9.5/10

9.6/10

9.8/10

I'm a huge fan of Americanized sushi - Spider rolls, spicy California rolls, shrimp tempura rolls, you name it, I like it. But, I'm here to say that American sushi just can't compete with this perfection. The freshness, the presentation, the taste, Japanese sushi has got it all. Complimented with all-you-can-drink green tea, authentic wasabi, and a restaurant full of professional sushi chefs, you just can't find a better grub than this. If you ever come to the Land of the Rising Sun, expect nothing but the best.

What’s for Dinner?

Whale. That’s right! Whale! To be honest, I had never even really been offered whale back in the U.S. but I stumpled upon it in the grocery store one night and decided to try it out. The meat was a dark, dark red. By far the darkest red meat that’s touched my pallet.

Anyways, how the heck are we gonna cook this stuff? It didn’t have much fat in it, so I was afraid it would get a bit tough. So, we decided to marinade it a bit and fry it up. We threw it in some seasoning and egg.

We finished it off with some breadcrumbs and the final product came out lookin' like this.

My impression? Well, it tasted a bit like liver to me, and I’m not much of a liver fan. So, guess I’m not much of a whale fan either. A whale of a time? No thanks...

…When in Rome, I suppose…

A Quick Afternoon Hike

When I was riding the local train line one day I spotted a pretty large torii gate up on a mountain. For months now I’ve been looking at that same torii every time I pass the mountain riding the train. Despite not being able to see a trail of any sort, I figured one was up there because torii gates are meant to be walked though. So, one day my inquisitiveness and a pair of hiking boots took me up that mountain to meet that torii gate.

It wasn’t a very big mountain at all, and perhaps it’d be better to categorize it as a hill. Nevertheless, this little tori gate led to a beautiful little summit viewing of my hometown, Ibara City. You can see the (overpriced) Ibara train line here, too.

Ibara is home to roughly 40,000 residents. And like nearly every town in Japan, the town nestles itself within the beautiful Japanese countryside. The rear view from the mountain gives a pretty good perspective.

Anastasia wasn’t too keen on hiking, but she seemed to enjoy herself sitting on every big rock we could find.

As always, a nice snap from the top…

After we made our way down, we stopped by a little joint and bought a big, fat, sweet potato. No brown sugar, no cinnamon, no marshmallows… just one, big grilled potato. I admit it was rather delicious after a nice little hike.

9001 Naked Men, anyone?

The title says it all. 9001 Naked Men. Don't believe me, here's a photo of a few participant's asses.

"Naked" men on their way to the holy temple grounds.

So now let me explain what this was all about. Every year the city of Okayama holds a festival called "Hadaka Matsuri", or "Naked Festival". The goal is simple. Tightly strap (but more like jam) a white loincloth around your genitalia, get absolutely piss-faced drunk (so you can't feel the February winter), run in and out of ICE water for a few hours to purify your drunk naked ass, and then when the clock strikes midnight, every man fights over a single good-luck stick and all carnage breaks loose.

Moments before the holy stick was thrown

The little white stick promises tremendous sexual fortune for the year ahead. That's right! Risk being trampled, your teeth getting knocked out, bones broken, and your manhood being crushed all for a little white stick. I wonder what happens to the man who claims the stick of victory and still needs his monthly subscription of Viagra?

Anyways, back to the story. I went to the festival with a Japanese friend to spectate. Little did I know this friend was one of 12 government workers in charge of...hold your horses...HERDING the 9001 Naked men around the temple from one holy bathing spot to the next. So what happened? Well, I became the 13th Sheppard. Except, unlike Antonio Bandares in The 13th Warrior, I was no savior. In fact, I was the absolutely clueless foreigner who had NO idea what I was supposed to be doing. My instructions were as follows,

"Bring Nakeds from one holy place to another. They will do circles. Maybe 1, maybe 3, maybe 5. Many Nakeds will come. Good luck."

.......WHAT?!? What the hell are you talking about? I came here to snap a few photos. I have absolutely no clue what I'm supposed to be doing. Oh look here come mobs of drunk loinclothed men, wonderful!

What made matters worse is that there were literally thousands of firefighters and police officers elbow to elbow throughout the entire perimeter of the temple to A) provide damage control if drunk Japanese men lost it, and B) Keep the spectators out of the way. That meant several thousand Japanese spectators, police officers, and firefighters were all watching my clueless ass herd drunk Japanese men. Seriously, how the hell do I get myself into these sorts of things?

After a couple hours I think I got the hang of it (but my idiocy had long been cemented in the minds of all onlookers). I slipped my Iphone out of my pocket, and took a quick little video. I'm proud to say that no one, including the press, could take a video face to face like I did. Then again, I'm not sure that's something to be proud of...

When all herding was complete, Anastasia and I got to stand on the field (along with the other government volunteers and firefighters) and enjoy the show. I had one lens with me, so all the shots are pretty much the same. No worries, it was a prime spot to be. Here's one last video I snapped on my Iphone.

When all was said it done, it was a tremendously fun (but at times humiliating) event. Dear lord, I nearly forgot a crucial point, food vendors! The festival had every delicious food imaginable. Before we became entrenched in the festivities, we walked down a path and found grub like this;

The Heavenly Path of Food-Vendors

Squid on a Stick

Okonomiyaki!

Chocolate Bananas (with faces...?)

As if there weren't enough Banana's at Hadaka Matsuri already...

So that's the Naked Man Festival folks. They take place all over Japan, but Okayama boasts the best of em all. If you ever find yourself in the vicinity of a Naked Man Festival in Japan, be sure to bring your camera.

Just Clownin Around

If any of you have wondered what the hell I've been doing for the past 4 months (and hardly posted any blogs), this post should sum it up... Just Clownin' Around.

Life here in Japan is a roller coaster. Posts in the future will describe in detail what this experience has been like, but for the sake of the JET Program, confidentiality, and my job, I won't reveal them just yet. Instead, I'll talk about some of the brighter spots of this experience.

Now I know that few people have been waiting for a post or anything, but I certainly wanted to come out of hibernation with a good one. I think this post should do the trick.

Anastasia and I have been preparing for MONTHS to perform at elementary schools and showcase ballroom dancing for young kids. It was entirely necessary to get rid of the makeup, fancy costumes, and heavy ballroom culture in order to create something the kids could relate to and actually enjoy.

The result, these wonderful videos: You must email me for their YouTube links, these videos cannot be distributed publicly. Only photos without students are posted here.

Tryin to get a date with balloon animals

Toy Story, Jive

We knew these kids were gonna be a handful to entertain. They're used to sitting silently, an arms length away, disallowed to sneeze or look sideways...ceremony style. Personal expression hardly exists and kids are used to conforming to exactly what the kid next to them is doing; nothing. I imagine there's few things worse than 500 people (kids or adults) staring at you, unresponsive, when you're trying to entertain them. So this is what we needed to prepare for.

I tried to use Japan's conforming nature to our advantage. If I got one kid to clap, 500 would. If I got one kid to scream, 500 would. If one kid had fun, most likely all of them would. So, with that in mind... we created our dancing routines. Here's a couple more photos yanked from the video.

Dancing as a clown was way more fun than I anticipated

The Woody "Flop"

We've danced at 2 elementary schools, the larger of which being over 500 kids. The show was amazing. We had a great time. More importantly, the kids had a great time. I'm sure we'll bring back this goofy performances to the U.S. one day. Why not? Anastasia hand made the costumes, and I spent countless hours brainstorming music, stories, and routines. These dances are a part of us forever.

I only hope that this small fun taste of ballroom dancing has a lasting impression on Japanese kids as well.

Vending MmMachines

Japan is known through the world for the interesting things that come out of it's vending machines. Once upon a time i heard stories of used womens panties in Tokyo, and even illicit mushrooms. (For the record, after countless surveys of Japanese natives panties (used or new) have yet to be verified. Mushrooms, however, have been purchased by a friend of my several years back. They're now illegal in Japan.)

Anyways, I'm quite satisfied with my own vending machine experience despite its absence of panties and stuff. Coming to Japan I somehow developed a small addiction to coca cola. I think it happened for of 2 reasons. 1) Raw sugar cane is exponentially tastier than fructose syrup, 2) Japan is an is hotter than Hell itself in the summer. So when you find a cold can packed with liquid happiness, it sure is hard to turn down...lemme tell ya.

Painfully, in the asshole of winter an ice cold coca cola just isn't what you want to find in a vending machine. Luckily, Japans vending machines are seasonal, and just when the weather turns every machine across the country is filled with warm delicious liquids. A variety of coffees, teas, warm lemonade, you name it. My favorite? Royal Milk Tea.

This jizz is just absolutely delicious. Countless times has it warmed my belly and spirits as i waited on a train platform for the next ride to arrive.

One day, however, I noticed something strange out of the corner of eye. That's not... corn soup is it?

I was advised NOT to buy a strange looking can of thick yellow liquid out of a machine, but my curiosity was just too strong. $1.20 was worth the experience one way or another. The result? Standing in the bitter cold with a cozy can of creamy corn, I chuckled to my myself in contentment. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY SCRUMPTIOUS!!

So the next time YOUR in Japan, take a leap of faith and buy something ridiculous out a vending machine. You may certainly come to regret it, but I haven't. One way or another, you'll have a good story to tell.

An epidemic!!

Japanese are pretty risk aversive folks, so when a school sickness spreads, so does an excessive frenzy of paranoia. Walking into school one day, I was immediately instructed to strap one of these freaky things on my face!

Was it the flu? Some contagious disease? No, they said, just a mandatory precautionary measure... Everyone in the school (all 500 of us) walked around like we were in a leopard ward. They were absolutely flabbergasted when I told them it was my first time wearing a mask, as if the only way to not get sick. I told them "In America, if we don't want to get sick we wash our hands often, cover our mouths if we sneeze or cough, and try not to go around making out with sick people." They were silent. I was silently laughing.

In the end, I was lucky I wore the mask. 10 students died within a week, and another 12 were stuck in a hospital for weeks. Kidding of course, the "school bug" vanished in a matter of days (thanks to all that mask wearing) :)

Food Frenzy, Part 2 - School lunch (kyuushoku)

Oden, 8.6/10

School lunch in Japan is quite different than America. Setting the actual food content aside, the idea of "choice" and having options for lunch is perhaps the greatest difference. In America (public schools at least) ,students have options for lunch: a) bring your own sack lunch, b) eat what crap the school provides c) don't eat at all. I usually chose a combination of a and b. I would trade the lunch I brought from home for a much unhealthier, more desirable school food (like pizza and chocolate milk!) or cash for vending machine candy and pop (thanks and sorry mom!). Here in Japan, there are no options. Everyone eats a mirrored meal, and everyone eats it whether they like it or not. When it comes to school lunch, Japanese students have no "choice" in the matter of what they eat for lunch.

Luckily, Japanese schools don't provide communist crumbs. All students get a balanced, healthy and (most the time) delicious meal. I've snapped a handful of photos, check 'em!

Ground salmon, eggs, soup, white rice - 8.0 / 10

Some really asian food, white rice - 7.8 / 10

Tofu / pumpkin mix, pickled veggies, white rice - 8.4 / 10

Tofu / beef, miso soup, white rice - 8.5 / 10

A huge bowl of white sloppy tasteless rice, with a small side of veggies - 3.0 / 10

For obvious reasons, these meals are nearly always steered towards Japanese tastes. I, for the most part enjoy them. What I don't like is that 50% of every meal is a big fat bowl of white rice. I just dont understand how they can love something so tasteless and empty so much? It's like blank filling in your belly. I suppose it's not so far off from a bowl of noodles or a big chunk a bread. I guess I've never been one for tasteless carbs.

At the end of the day, even an elementary schools lunch leaves a grown foreigner full and satisfied.

And at 240 Yen per meal (less than 3 bucks a grub), its a pretty great system if you ask me.

Mackeral, creamy soup, veggies, white rice - 8.8 / 10

Definitely more school lunches to come.

Food Frenzy, Part 1 - Okonomiyaki

Let me start this off by saying that there is just way too much delicious food in Japan to blog about. However, a central source of my joy here (and what keeps the marbles in my head sometimes) is the cuisine consistently put on my pallette. Food in Japan is nothing less that deliciously awesome. So, without further ado, I present to you the grub that most frequently passes through my digestive track:

Okonomiyaki

Perhaps you recall this from a previous post. Well, it's officially my favorite Japanese food. I average about one face full a week. There's a few different styles. My favorite? Kansai style baby!

Jam packed with everything edible; udon noodles, egg, kimchi, bacon, cabbage, cheese, cheese, and more cheese (by special request), along with lots of other fun foods I've forgotten.. Its topped with fish flakes and a healthy smothering of the tastiest sauce known to Japan, this pancake takes the... cake.

In a close second is Hiroshima style okonomiyaki. It's by far the most popular amongst the masses. Easy to understand why, it's simply delicious!

Starts off looking like this...

Then a double yolked egg gets slopped on top!

The restaurant I go to serves a killer variation called yakyudo, resembling something between an omlette and a football!

I seem to have forgotten how delicious it looks everytime I've ordered it, so I have a somewhat small library of photos. Regrettably, these quick snaps taken on an IPhone hardly do it justice. Anyways, here's a few!

Some restaurants let you even fry one up yourself. This was my first adventure flippin' my own.

This reads (Okaeri, おかえり), or "welcome back", when I hadn't been to the restaurant for 3 weeks, rofl.

Last but not least, one of my favorite my okonomiyaki photos my Iphone has snapped.