Rainy season

Several days ago, the Japanese national weather service formally announced that the "tsuyu", or rainy season, had begun. Typically lots of rain falls during June and early July. BUT . . . this is apparently not a typical year. There hasn't really been that much rain, and the long-range forecast doesn't predict a lot in the coming weeks either. I heard that's what happens here in a "La Nina" year, which this is supposed to be. The down side, I'm told, is that when the tsuyu is short or otherwise not strong, it's often followed by an unusually hot summer. If you want more information about tsuyu, check this link at wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiyu

On Saturday, a group from the church performed as a gospel choir at the large train station downtown. I went to watch and took some pictures and videos which I'll post later. They did great!

We have about four more weeks of school before summer vacation. School is going great, but of course it's fun to have a break. I'm looking forward to my guests that are arriving this summer and fall (see you guys soon!)

I can't remember how much I posted about my garden before; I planted vegetables in garden boxes on the deck next to my room. The kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) died recently (GRR! I think it was just too small of a space for pumpkin) but the tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini are doing pretty well. I've already eaten several cucumbers, which seems strange to someone from Oregon where we usually can't harvest much until later in the year.

Recently, I finally got hit with some culture shock. For me, it manifested only as communication frustration. I really don't have problems with cultural norms, food, etc. here, I just became discouraged from not being able to communicate as much as I wanted with people that speak only Japanese. The positive result is that it motivated me to get more serious with my Japanese language study again, so I've resumed my daily studies, and am feeling much more positive about eventually being able to communicate well.

The church is recording an all-original worship CD that will be released shortly. I was involved in the project and I'm excited to hear the final results soon. More details about that later...

My first Japanese movie (well, Hollywood movie subtitled in Japanese)

Today I spent the day with a couple of new friends from church. We went to a multiplex theater at a large shopping mall complex on the southeast edge of Utsunomiya. Because we were going to see "Pirates of the Caribbean" which is still drawing pretty large crowds, we bought tickets a few hours before the show. Here it is apparently very common to be able to buy tickets for specific seats in the theater, just as you would for a concert in the US--surprising to me. (Maybe some movie theaters in the US do that, but none I've ever been to.)

After that we went to lunch and had okonomiyaki, which is often referred to as Japanese pizza, although I would call it a savory pancake. It usually has meat and/or seafood mixed into the batter, and is then topped with mayo and a special kind of sauce. Delicious!

At the theater, because I'm a popcorn-aholic (I made a new word like the ones we were talking about, Shouji!) I had to have some for the movie. Popcorn and soda are common snacks at the theater, as in the States, but here in addition to butter/salt and caramel flavors, you can also get curry, Japanese BBQ and beef consommé! I was in the mood for just "regular" popcorn; maybe I'll try something different next time. After getting our snacks, we found the right row and took our seats.

The movie was good, but is MUCH less kid-friendly than the first two; LOTS of violence and I can't really recommend it for young children. If you haven't seen it yet and plan to, don't leave during the credits because there's a "surprise" final scene after the credits end.

Okay, one last piece of my May Tokyo trip: two more links to videos on YouTube. They are both short clips of riding on the shinkansen (bullet train). One is travelling through the suburbs near Oyama, I believe, and the other is travelling a little further south between Oyama and Tokyo. You can see rice fields and country houses whizzing by-hopefully, even though the videos aren't the greatest quality, you can get a feel for how fast the shinkansen goes-it's very amazing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8Y82e_7jfM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VzgxMMx-0Y

Video links

Here are more links to more videos I posted on YouTube. The first one is from my trip to Nikko a few weeks ago. Mondo starts to explain the meaning of the name of the road that goes up the mountain to Nikko then . . . The following four videos are sequential; there's an elevated train near the bay in Tokyo called the Tokyo Teleport. It's all automatic with no driver, and if you're quick (and lucky) you can sit right up front for a great view. Each video is a minute or two long and shows part of the circuit of the train. If you look carefully, you can see several of the buildings and other objects that I posted pictures of recently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANZVA2h8_OA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aPYgjwr56o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPGg2nT5DoA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6wbBQYYvPo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDzXA7jo5yA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QliPJvYo_c4

Tokyo Trip Part Five

Next, I have pictures of the Tokyo Big Sight building, which is where the annual Design Festa international art show is held. I visited to surprise my friend/former student Toyo (the video from a previous post) who was exhibiting there. The giant saw is an odd work of art in front of the building, and the last picture is Toyo and his friend Yurie.



My final post about my trip will have links to YouTube videos, but that might take a while to get them all uploaded . . . More later.

Tokyo Trip Part Four

More pictures of Ueno Kouen. There is a zoo there which features pandas (giant and red), tigers, gorillas, and a white rhino. I didn't enter, but am excited to visit with future guests! My picture is just of the entrance, mainly taken as a cultural note to see all the touring school children lining up with color coordinated caps.

The other two pictures contain a short American history lesson: did you know that U. S. Grant visited Japan after his presidency? Neither did I! Again, read the picture of the accompanying sign. I have a picture of the memorial, but exactly which trees Grant and his wife planted (explained in the sign), was very difficult to determine!

Tokyo Trip Part Three

These pictures are of Ueno Toshogu. Visitors are allowed to enter the shrine, but no pictures are allowed inside, so I only have these photos of the outside. The interior isn't large, but it's quite amazing to be able to enter a 350-year-old building that's listed as a national cultural asset! I included pictures of the explanatory signs, so click on those to read information.

Tokyo Trip Part Two

On my trip to Tokyo at the end of May, I also visited Ueno Kouen (Ueno Park), a beautiful place where you could spend an entire day and not see everything. These pictures show a surprising discovery: an atomic bomb memorial in the park. I didn't see it listed in any of the information about the park, and most locals here that see the pictures don't know that it exists either. It is directly in front of the Ueno Toshogu Shrine, which I will show pictures of in the next post. It's difficult to see, even in the close-up of the dove, but in the round space there is a small glass case with a flame burning inside. It's an emotionally moving place, and I was glad I found it since Hiroshima and Nagasaki are very far away, and I might not be able to visit either of the memorials there. Click on the picture of the sign for information about the memorial's history.

Recent Tokyo Trip Part One

I spent an hour fighting to get pictures placed
next to the right captions last time, so this time
I re-edited the pix with captions inside. We'll
see how this works . . . As always, click on the
picture for a larger view.

ANOTHER earthquake?! and Disco English Class

Yet another tremor this afternoon! I ran over to the school next door and asked the students and Shinya, "did you feel the earthquake just now?" Their response: "What earthquake?" I guess after a while, you don't even notice anymore!

The textbook for one of the high school level classes I teach featured a cultural note about the '70s in the US, with a reading about . . . DISCO, of course! So to complete the experience, and do some practice following spoken directions, the students learned "The Bus Stop" (aka "The California Hustle"). [Very silly, I know, but it's okay to have fun when you're learning!] Here's the link to the video on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO-wcR-_eN8

I really am going to post pictures of my Tokyo trip soon!

More quakin', more shakin'; and my first U.S. visitor

There was another tremor strong enough to shake the house about three days ago, and then another this afternoon. The one today freaked me out a bit because I was looking out the window at the patio, and it was strong enough that I could see the plants in my box garden shaking.

Well, I'm never going to get caught up on my blogging unless I just start with little posts, so here goes: last week Bryan and Mondo visited. Bryan took about four days in Japan on the way to Shanghai on a business trip. Mondo hosted him for much of the time at his house in Chiba, and they stayed here one night. Wednesday evening we went to karaoke-that was a first for me, and an interesting cultural experience. For those that don't know, karaoke in the US many times is performed in front of strangers in a larger group, that is, in the common area of a restaurant. Here it's more common to rent a private room with your friends so you can just be silly together (well, I suppose some people don't do it to be silly, but WE sure did).

Thursday we went to Nikko, an amazingly beautiful place. We spent much of the time looking at nature, including two waterfalls and the lake. We had planned to visit the temple at the site, but by the time we got there, it was closed. Not TOO much of a disappointment, though, because you can still walk around on the grounds outside the main area and see some wonderful structures. And for those visiting me this summer and fall that want to go to Nikko, don't worry, I will still be MORE than happy to go with you; I think it's one of those places I could go to MANY times and never get tired of it (not to mention that there are many areas there that I still haven't seen).







Before we got up to Nikko, we stopped part way up. There's a sort of rest area and gift shop at the point where the funicular railway used to end. You can see it in my picture of the picture. Also at that point, you can ride a short tram up to a viewpoint that's maybe another kilometer higher on the mountain. We decided not to take the time to do it, but I'd like to with some future visitors-who's interested?
After we got back from Nikko we went out to dinner before Bryan and Mondo headed back to Chiba (suburb of Tokyo). Yeah, it's a silly picture, but it's the only one I got . . .

Next up, the Tokyo trip.

Back to blogdom

Hi all, sorry about the blogless, newless void-I'm trying to get organized, and have LOADS of stuff to add, but will start with a small post. On Saturday I went to Tokyo for the day, partly to surprise a friend/former student. I wasn't sure if he knew I was in Japan; it turns out he thought maybe I was, but he was completely surprised to see me at his art show anyway. Here's a link to the video I took of his reaction when I showed up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPkRzXj-8O4
Hi Toyo! Surprise! I'm in Japan!
I'll add more about my trip in the next post.

Beach Trip, Part Two

Continuing from yesterday: The picture on the right is just a view of the midway area of the park. Fairly crowded, but not "I'm-going-crazy!" crowded. We left well before closing time, but it still took us about 45 minutes to get out of the parking lot. Then, after finally getting onto the road, going in what looked like the opposite direction all the other cars were going....we caught up with everyone going the same direction we were going, and sat in traffic. And sat. And sat. And . . . you get the idea. It took us about two hours to get from the park to the expressway, a distance of about ten kilometers. People were not exaggerating when they told me that Golden Week traffic was bad!

The good thing about the crazy traffic, is that I had plenty of time to look at the scenery, and to take the next two pictures (and the video I'll post a link to at the end). We were driving down the road in the town of Mito when somebody noticed a LARGE figure looming in the distance. As we got closer, as you can see in the last picture, we could see that the figure was taller than the houses surrounding it. Nobody in the car knew exactly what it was, so one of the students used her cell phone to call her mother. It turns out that the figure is a giant statue of a local Shinto god. When I got home, I got on the Internet to do some investigating, and found a good summary of the story.

As you can see in the video I'll post below, most of the people on the freeway were going to Tokyo, so after we passed that exit, the road was clear, and we had a smooth trip home from there.

Here are links to...
the story about the statue:
http://www.pref.ibaraki.jp/bukyoku/seikan/kokuko/e-ibaraki-report/0603daidarabo.html
the Disko ride in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpVIcIjf5nc
a funny children's ride and a panorama of the park:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtA0L-Ywkbo
a view of the statue and the traffic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXmHLQNGiq8
and us passing the exit to Tokyo, followed by a clear road:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0AtZJwAjxI

Looking east at the Pacific Ocean

Well, I've been fighting with YouTube for several days; for some reason my video uploads have all failed recently, so I only have about half of the videos uploaded that I wanted to link to here, but I'll just post those links for now.

I'll summarize my beach trip and post some pix... May 4th I went to Oarai in Ibaraki prefecture with other teachers and a group of the high school students from U.I.C.S. (Utsunomiya International Christian School, where I teach, for anyone who missed that in a previous post). On the map, it's only about 45 miles as the crow flies, but it took about two and a half hours to drive because of the crazy Golden Week traffic. I didn't really mind, though, because it was a beautiful drive through the country in an area I hadn't seen yet. One of the very interesting things for me to see as we were driving was all the farmers planting rice, which I had never seen before (the farmers planting it, not the rice itself!!!).

Our main destination was a small amusement park near the ocean. The park was having some kind of promotion, so it was free to enter; there was a per ride charge for amusements, and of course the usual fairly expensive "we've got a captive audience" price for food. The park grounds were beautiful and the whole complex was unlike any park I've seen in the US; it was part nature park, part giant picnic ground/sports fields, part amusement park. We walked through the park to the opposite side and then along a road that led down to the ocean. There were a few other people on the beach playing or picnicking, but most of the people there were surfers, which I think you can see in the picture.

After walking back up to the park, we looked around a bit and then had lunch, followed by . . . RIDES! As we entered the park, off in the distance I had seen a roller coaster of fairly promising size, which I was very excited to investigate. Because we couldn't stay for the entire day, I had time to go on two rides. Unfortunately, the roller coaster was fairly disappointing; it had a decent size first hill that disappeared into some trees, but the height was completely wasted. The drop on the other side was very small, and went immediately into a long, slow turn. The rest of the ride was basically a large kiddie coaster. BUT, the ride that was very, unexpectedly fun is the next one in the pictures. In case you can't see clearly in the photo, the name of the ride is "Disko". DUH! I should have known that a ride sharing its name with the world's most fun musical genre would be fun! We didn't have time to go on the large ferris wheel in the background of the picture; maybe next time!

Here's a link to one of the videos I took; it's surfers at the beach we visited:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmbIabbUEi0
I'll continue this next time and post more links. I've got to go to bed . . .

Shakin' N' Quakin'

I was in the middle of a tutoring session this evening when I felt the floor rumbling. My first thought was that it was a truck driving by, but it continued and got stronger. When the table started moving a bit I finally realized, "It's an earthquake!" It stopped pretty quickly after that, but the experience definitely got my adrenaline pumping. I'm told that quakes in this area aren't as common as elsewhere in Japan, and usually aren't too strong either.

I'm organizing pictures and videos I took on my trip to the coast, and will post them soon.

Japanese Mexican-American Food?

Last night Eriya, Shinya and I went to Coco's for dinner (yup, the same chain from the southwestern United States). Shinya said he thinks it's one of the only restaurants around here where you can get taco salad. I had to try it! I was kind of craving Mexican food a while back, so I ordered the salad and quesadillas. (And yes, I realize that those are not REAL Mexican food-I actually spent a couple of minutes explaining what "TexMex" meant.) Well, the taco salad had no cheese, which was disappointing to me because I've been wanting cheese a lot lately (a food that has only limited varieties here), but other than that it was pretty good!

Tonight Shinya and I went to Saizeriya, an Italian food chain, for dinner. I had double cheese pizza and salad with cheese on top. Did I happen to mention that I've been missing having lots of cheese? (Sorry to a certain cheese-despising friend at church in Portland!)

Tomorrow I'm going on a school trip with the high school students to a park near the coast. I've heard that it's kind of a small amusement park and kind of a nature park, so I'm not sure what to expect. I heard a rumor that there might be a small roller coaster there . . . We also might have a chance for a quick stop by the ocean, but I was told that the ocean in that area isn't really that scenic. My report and pictures will be coming soon to a blog near you.

Golden Week

This week is called "Golden Week" in Japan. It's a series of holidays that all come close together, usually at the beginning of May, and sometimes including the end of April. April 30th was one of the holidays, so the young adult group from church went on a retreat to a beautiful resort area about an hour and a half away. The first two pictures are probably pretty obvious: the house we stayed in and a group picture with almost everybody in the picture. I mentioned to Eriya and Shinya that it seems so strange to me to see forests with bamboo everywhere as the undergrowth, so that's why I framed the first picture the way I did, if you haven't already figured that out. The theme of the retreat was "following your dream/vision", and it was a very encouraging time. It was also good just to get to know more people I didn't know, and get to know the people I already knew better.

On the way home we stopped at a beautiful park, and as you can see from the third picture, it also had an observation tower. SO . . . of course I had to pay the $2.60 to go up to the top and take pictures and videos. I think I figured out how to post links more efficiently, so I'll try that here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nzol9s3yK74

The second video I'm linking to is just us driving through the countryside right before we reached the park. It shows some of the scenery, and also features a conversation (well, maybe it's more of a "verbal exchange"; I don't know enough vocabulary to have a real conversation) about the fact that we suddenly realized that we were near a dairy. You will hear the Japanese words "kusai" (which means "stink") and "ushi" (which means "cow"). Here's that video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNUQuV2yfSw

More Hachimanyama (say that fast three times!)

Previously I posted panorama pictures of Utsunomiya viewed from the tower. Here is a link to a video I posted at YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSvb2bf0pTo
In the video, I'm walking around the observation deck in a complete circle. And the picture here, if you haven't already guessed, is Utsunomiya Tower. Not tremendously tall, but enough extra height on the top of the hill to give pretty impressive views. The suspension bridge in the picture crosses a small ravine that divides the park in two. I took the picture from the side of the park with the koi flags.

Happy Birthday to . . . . ME! (Join in, you know the tune!)

Today the students all sang to me at lunch time along with another teacher whose birthday is also today (!). I received cards, gifts, and a delicious, personal-size strawberry cake.

Later, Eriya and Shinya took me out to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant. We ordered pizza, which was the first time I had pizza in Japan. It was very good-CHEESE, hurray!!! We also had a great ice cream fruit dessert thing (sorry, it's late and I'm not feeling very verbally expressive).

Mountaintop Experience (okay... hilltop)

Yesterday afternoon I took a bike ride to a park where we had a school picnic the first week of classes. The name of the park is Hachimanyama (Hachiman is the name of a Shinto god, and yama means mountain). The first time I visited, I wasn't able to stay long, so I wanted to return when I had more time to look around (and take pictures). On top of the hill there is a small tower (named, appropriately enough, Utsunomiya Tower) that you can go up for 320 yen (about $2.60). I took quite a few pictures from the observation deck, and then used my picture software to stitch some of them together. So, here a couple of panorama pictures of Utsunomiya. They are pointing approximately NE (picture 1) and SE (picture 2) . . . I THINK. I'm still getting my bearings here. Click on the pictures for larger versions.
I only got lost once on the way there, which doesn't sound too impressive considering it's only about 30 minutes away by bike, but when very few streets have names, and even the ones that do are written in characters that you can't read, well . . . even a map doesn't always help. Anyway, I stopped to ask a parking attendant for directions, and he was very kind and helpful, even drawing a local addendum map to add to the larger one I brought with me. (It was a good thing that I stopped and asked; by that time I had actually gotten turned around and was headed in almost the opposite direction!)

Part of the park has gardens and landscaped areas for walking, and in another area there's a huge playground for children. In that part, there are several koi flags flying. In Japanese culture, they are traditionally flown on Boys Day by families with sons, but sometimes are displayed in other places. One of my students told me that the grouping of three flags together represents father, mother and son.

Provision

I am continually awed and humbled by God's provision for me here, even in the simplest, most surprising ways. I had a small group English tutoring session this evening with some members of the church. A few minutes after the session finished and the students had left, I realized that I didn't have anything for breakfast tomorrow morning and prepared to go to the store to buy some yogurt and fruit. Just as I was about to leave, someone knocked at my door. It was one of the students returning with a bag in his hand. He said his mother asked him to give it to me; inside was a container of yogurt and a jar of freshly-canned strawberries she made yesterday. Amazing. (Thank you!)

Today I made it to the park that I mentioned in my last post. I took several pictures and videos, but I'll save that for the next post...