Ibuki-yama

Well we hiked the mountain, and it was glorious. The top was definitely worth all the pain and lack of sleep that we incurred from hiking throughout the previous night. Apparently Ibuki is the tallest mountain in my prefecture, Shiga.

As mentioned in the last post, we went hiking with a local troop of Boy Scouts. It was really great of their troop leader/ Yuri's co-worker Yamamoto-san to invite us along. Johnny is also an eagle scout so it was really enjoyable for him to be partaking in scout activities. I'm sure that the scouts felt likewise.

In total there were about 20 something people who went. We were warned of the temperatures at the top of the mountain as being like winter, so we packed accordingly. I was really grateful of this warning, because the summit was almost too unbearable. It was incredibly windy and early morning the entire time we were up there. There was a Buddhist hut that people could take refuge from the cold in, and tiny shops littered the summit as well.

We had cup ramen for breakfast, and were constantly at odds with the environment. The summit was more like a big field with buildings, paths, and monuments, and I ran around in the cold taking pictures the whole time.

The mountains were rolling and beautiful, and there was a nice view of Biwa-ko's most northern point. It was an experience like none I've had before, and something that pushed all of us to the limit.

The Troops.

Rolling.

Morning Thunder.

Triumph!

Tokyo Trip

So last weekend I made it out to Tokyo with Johnny & Yuri. The city was not quite how I expected it to be considering it being one of the more densely populated places of this planet. The city was not as claustrophobic or devoid of plant life as I had imagined either. Parks, shrines, and full sized trees are scattered throughout the city and provide a nice break from the concrete jungle of modern architecture. I honestly was expecting something closer to NYC but encountered something like Kyoto and Osaka mixed and added together. These were just my first impressions though. I can't truly say what this city is actually like based on my weekend of tourism, all I can convey is last weekend's vision of Tokyo as seen through my eyes.

So I did take the night bus on Thursday night. I went to Kyoto early before leaving, and wound up seeing 'Resident Evil 4' in 3D to kill some time. I honestly enjoyed it. The opening scene took place in biggest crosswalk of Tokyo, and subsequently the entire city was destroyed by a self destruct mechanism activated in the base underneath the crosswalk. This is the first scene of the movie on the eve of my visiting the city for the first time.

As for the night buss, it was actually a great time. I had an assigned seat in the bus, and apparently whoever made the list decided to pair the only two foreigners together. Upon realizing this I introduced myself in English to someone I completely assumed spoke English. My assumption was correct, but it was clearly not his first language. His name is Timur, and we talked for awhile getting to know each other. He is from Azerbaijan, he is half Russian, and speaks collectively five languages. He is a really great guy, is an actual architect/graphic artist, and is studying Japanese in Kyoto. Timur wound up travelling with us Friday night and all of Saturday till he returned to Kansai. We actually accommodated him in our lodgings at the Tokyo Cozy House in Ichikawa. On Friday I spent the hours of 7:30AM to 4:30PM seeing the sights around Tokyo station on foot. It was peaceful and fun. I even managed to squeeze in an hour of pool at a billiards hall. (People only say Billiards here. Pool makes no sense.) Then at four I was off to check in.

The Cozy House was legitimately as cozy as the name entails. It was an old apartment building turned into a house for foreigners. Two of those foreigners were actually some fellow UMASS students, Gavin and Bumi (Burumi). I was surprised to find out that Johnny and I had actually been assigned the room next to theirs, since I was under the impression that Gavin was living somewhere else. It was a pleasant surprise, and made perfect sense. Gavin did suggest our lodgings after all. We got a great deal from Shichi-san the landlord. and stayed two nights. It was the perfect place for us to stay given our budget.

So, Gavin, Bumi, Yuri, Johnny, Timur and myself spent the better part of the weekend together. We went out to an izakaya and wound up missing the final train of the night. We were faced with hours of waiting, so we did Karaoke till 5AM and spent the time wisely. Mind you, Timur and I had been awake nearing 24hours at this point, but somehow I managed to make it through to the first train at 6:30AM on which I then passed out in the squatting position that is so very popular in this country.

Saturday we got up about 2pm, and it had been raining all day. It later rained very hard. We all hit up Akihabara (Akiba) and spent a while shopping around and visiting various establishments including a couple of erotic shops. For dinner we wound up going to a Maid Cafe, all of us first timers. It was interesting because we had to sing at our food with the maid before eating it, and periodically there would be cafe wide singing between the maids. Personal photos of the maids inside the cafe is strictly prohibited, but getting a picture with a maid was possible if included with your set meal. Timur had to catch a bus at Tokyo station while we were there so we all said farewell.

Sunday we went to Ueno and walked about a famous park that was littered with shrines, vendors, a zoo, and Japan's highest concentration of homeless in the country. It was beautiful. There was a street performer with a large crowd that everyone got caught up in watching. Johnny and I decided to split a Mango ice cream from a spectating vendor, and by the time we had finished that off, Gavin and I were volunteers for 'The Human Art Museum'. We apparently were depicting Picasso's Guerninca. I was the horse. It was a fun and interesting experience for all of us.

We then checked out the Ameyoko shopping arcade of Ueno that had some of the best shops I've ever seen in Japan. I definitely want to go here again someday. After some curry lunch we headed off to Harajuku, famous for it's shocking fashion scene. We split up, took it all in, and then headed to Tokyo dome area to ride the 'Thunder Dolphin' roller coaster. When we arrived at the area there were more than a hundred people cosplaying in the area around its beautiful fountain doing photo shoots. This was quite the stereotypical scene to be witnessing in Japan. We rode the coaster and it blew all of our minds! Seriously, an experience/feeling I will never forget. This roller coaster is like a giant middle finger directed explicitly at human basic instinct. What a triumph (there is a picture of it below). This was essentially the last great stop of for our trip. Yuri caught the shinkansen home thanks to her business travel expenses, and after dining with Gavin an Bumi at Akihabara, Johnny and I parted from them to face the long Journey home on the night bus. Though not before we each chugged a tall and strong chu-hi to mellow out enough for the bus.

The ride was smooth, we made it to the apartment by 7:30 am, and visited an Onsen later that day. The rest of this week I mostly spent recovering from our intense traveling and working on my Halloween mask. I plan to paint it soon, and there is an up to date picture of it at the bottom of this post. Also I managed to score an abandoned bike from the sports park in town. Apparently it's been sitting dilapidated there for a while, so I have a bike to fix up as a new project. Yay!

Anyway, Yuri, Johnny, and I ate at this burger restaurant called #23 JB cafe last night. Very American style. Apparently the 23 is for Michael Jordan. I ordered the special burger, and it was a bit bigger than my two fists. It had double patties with an over-easy egg and ham slapped into the middle. It was a 'really good burger'.

Today (sat. the 16th) JB and I attempted to get a court to play tennis on at the same sports park in town, but apparently a reservation is needed in order to play. So we essentially failed. Tonight though we will be hiking along with a boy scout troop led by one of Yuri's co-workers to Ibukiyama. We start hiking at night (around 11 or 12) so as to watch the stars and sunrise. I am relatively excited for this, and I'm sure Johnny is even more stoked since he is an Eagle Scout. Ok, thats is mostly what's been going on in my life this past week and a half, and I'm of to pack for our outing with the scouts. BAI. BAI.

Thunder Dolphin going through the Ferris wheel

A true justification at the Jump Shop for my personal recreation of this mask.

An awesome display at Harajuku.

Did not enter here. Just needed a memento of Harajuku.

The Human Art museum.

My favorite photo that I took on this trip at a Memorial for Peace and protest to atomic warfare in a shrine at Ueno park.

Shrine with lotus all around it at Ueno.

This is myself and Timur in Akihabara.

DIY Moe.

Shinjuku.

War museum entrance (it was free).

The controversial Yasukuni-jinja.

Yasukuni.

Outside moat of Japan's Imperial palace. (They were freaking closed on Fridays did not get to got in)

Current progress on my mask.

Finally going to Tokyo.

Hey everybody, I'm heading off to Tokyo tonight, so I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and see a lot of sights. Yuri is going to be there for work so Johnny and I are tagging along. Were all taking different transportation there, so I have to catch the Night buss from Kyoto tonight @ 10:30 pm and get to Tokyo @ 7AM. YIKES!
Despite this, I am fairly excited since I will be meeting up with Gavin Galloway from HBHS and UMASS in Tokyo, he even recommended this place where I'll be stating for Friday night. If I post these links a lot I will hopefully get a good discount on my room on Friday night.

• http://www.tokyocozyhouse.com/
• http://www.cozyhouse.net/
• http://www.lang-friend.com/
• http://www.kabugoldeneye.com/
• http://www.freesianet.co.jp/
  

On saturday I hopefully want to make it to the Ghibli museum and just be a tourist. That night We will be staying in a 24hour spa park that is cheaper to do than a hotel, so we'll see how things work out in the end.

Maija's Stay

Maija's came and went, hence my absence. We did a lot more than I anticipated and I did post most of the photos on to facebook, but that was about all I had the will to do. I'll try to get them uploaded through the blog at some point soon. We spent the first weekend touring some of the ancient Kyoto sights together. Our first stop was Shōsei-en, a garden built in the late ninth century by a Heian Prince. The place had a really old feel to it, despite the buildings on site being re-built in 1865-1912 since the originals were destroyed by fire. (can you tell I read the info pamphlet?) Right after that, we hit up Kiyomizu-dera and arrived just in time for the last Dragon Performance of the year.
The next day we returned to meet up at a British style pub called the 'Pig and Whistle' with some of Johnny's English teaching buddies. After many gin on the rocks and Maija's gracious gift of tequila shots, we wound up at a club since the last train had long since gone. We all celebrated a bit too hard, and spent all Sunday recovering. Quite the welcome weekend for Maija.
Other things we did include: visiting the Botanical Garden on lake Biwa, ate at a Shabu-Shabu restaurant called the golden pig in japanese, went to Osaka's den-den town, went bowling in town, saw monkeys at Arashi-yama, visited our friend Mizuho's club "Giraffe" for her birthday party there, had nabe at Yuri +Johnny's apartment, and just relaxed in between all these events. It was really great to see Maija again since she operates in a completely different part of the globe, and we had a lot of fun. I think that she had a pretty good holiday.
Since Maija left on thursday, I've mostly been recovering from sharing her travels. Johnny, Yuri, and I went to climb a mountain yesterday in Omihachiman, it was called Hachimanyama. There were the remains of an old castle at the top, and it was beautiful weather. We went shopping afterwards, had delicious home made Gyu-don (thin meat cooked with onion and mushrooms put over rice with a raw egg cracked into the bowl and mixed around) with gyoza on the side, and watched "The Life Aquatic". It was a great dinner and a great movie. I still cant get over Bill Murray in that movie, watch it if you've never seen it.

I'm back!

Hello, It's been a busy two year gap.

I finally graduated from UMASS, and have subsequently come back to Japan with hopes of finding some work. I have three months to do so and it is illegal to work while on my tourist visa, so I am kind of on a job search holiday.

Today is my fifth day here in Moriyama City, Shiga Prefecture! A city that shares its border

with lake Biwa (Biwa-ko is what they say here) the largest lake in Japan. I am living together with Yuri and Johnny in their apartment, and I am so grateful for their hospitality! They both

work full-time here, so i'll be doing a lot of traveling alone. Maija is coming to stay with us for two weeks on Friday though, so we'll most likely travel together for that time. It will be a true Japan room-mate reunion! It's crazy how the timing of all this worked out.

Anyway, I'll hopefully update more often than my last stay here since I have no obligations other than my own so far. This time around I want to try to use more photos than text, to keep my posting shorter and eye candy sweeter.

Here are the highlights thus far:

JB and CG's Japan Reunion.

Awesome BBQ hosted by Yuri's Co-worker's family. It was all you could drink and eat!

I really like this picture, kudos to Yuri.

This is Kyoto Station, It is massive! I was in shock and awe. Can't believe I never went here before.

Something seriously wrong is happening in this picture, other than the apparent hemorrhaging happening to these children.

This was even more demented than the other mutilated children. A scarecrow so scary, that it makes you want to call the police!

Here we have the "BP OIL SPILLERS CLUB" seriously that's what I thought it said at first glance. They will never live that down.

The End is Near! Update...

Hello! I'm back, but only for a brief moment today. I am getting my self into the writing mode for a ten page paper that's looming over my head. Other than that I have only one final exam to do on Wednesday. I'm almost completely done with school, and then off to Okinawa! Anyways, I wanted to let everyone know that I updated my blog (photos and posts), as well as had an awesome weekend in Totori prefecture. I saw: sand dunes, camels, the Sea of Japan, a port full of concrete jumping jacks, famous rock formations, the sunset from a bathhouse, Kobe port, and almost too much of Japan's road/countryside. It was excellent, but I'll let the pictures do the talking this time. Note the new header photo, where Maija and I are being stalked by a Japanese tourist. That is a funny story because there ended up being several camera wielding tourists in our faces. It was hilarious.
I really need to do this paper tonight though. Some strings must be pulled in order to get a mediocre grade in this class. Honestly, I can't wait for summer, it will be something else! Ok, check out the pictures, and read the rest of my "ketchup" post. Peace.

Let's Play Ketchup.

Ok, so it's been a month, oops. This comes with the territory of being abroad, I get busy, I get lazy. Today being the 13th of May, I will be home in less than a month. Wow; I have many mixed feelings about this. I feel like the past four months have just been a dream that I'm slowly waking from as my departure draws nearer. Slowly I am forgetting the details, the people, and the places of this dream in order to reintegrate with real life. It is only fair though, and I think I'll manage; but for the record it has been worth every second. As wonderful as it all is though, I feel my girlfriend, family, and friends are even more wonderful. Being away has helped me appreciate that which I hold dear to me all the more. Less than a month to go and I'm already biding my time.

It took until my last post for Japan to lose its appeal for me. Three months kept me sufficiently entertained, but now I have reached my limit. Gaidai got to me, not Japan but school. I feel trapped there, not just Gaidai, but academia too. I think I'm being played by the system and I don't like it one bit. I'm starting to think that it's not me who needs the system, it's the system that needs me. I have come to learn recently that I am a selective learner, not a information sponge. Even while learning Japanese if my mood about the material is not just right, nothing will enter my brain. Lately I've been reading and writing quite a bit, and it has distracted me from my studies somewhat. I have a million ideas floating in my head at all times. Every time one of them sounds good, I want to drop everything that I'm doing for the moment and pursue my thoughts. I think it is some latent form of ADD. Stress seems to affect its intensity too. Now that I know this though, I think I'll be ok. It's finals time and whether I like it or not, it will all soon be over.

Besides all this depressing jabber (I assure you I am not depressed though, just having a small crisis), I have done many things within the past month. I believe I left off somewhere between being rather pissed at Maija and happy about Osaka. Now I'm not quite so pissed at Maija (time does heal most things), and I still love Osaka. 4/20 surprised me with an awesome school festival in which Johnny and I helped our tennis club "Chupa Chups" recruit new members. The weather was beautiful, I saw some local bands play, and the Gaidai cheerleaders did some crazy back flipping stuff. The next two weeks were taken up by birthdays, Johnny's parents, laundry, a music festival, school (obviously), and GOLDEN WEEK.

Now that I am back on the Internet (how long I don't know), I think I'm ready to disclose a few details about said events. Post festival week included Maija (Tuesday) and Yuri's (Friday) birthday parties. Both equally entertaining and delicious. For Maija's party , myself and about twenty friends/aqqaintences rolled out to an izakaya near Hirakata station. Frankly it was the best food I've ever had the pleasure of eating at an izakaya. I was stuffed and filled to perfection that night, and thankfully not too drunk (it was a school night afterall). I can't say as much for the b-day girl though; old habits die hard (much like Bruce Willis). At least when 4AM rolled around there were no after parties in our apartment. Next there was Yuri's B-day to bring about a close to the week of birthdays, and it was great. We had makizushi, where you get to make your own sushi rolls. It was great, and we didn't even have to leave the apartment.

Birthday week done with, there was supposed to be time to enjoy traveling with Johnny's parents, but plans can fall through and so often they do. I ended up either not having the funds, or previous engagements got in the way. I missed my chance to see Hiroshima, the Umeharas, and Nara. It's okay though, because I was able to go to an amazing music festival in Osaka. The festival was called Nagisa music festival, and I went to it with my friends, Andrew, Kiara, and Cory. (Yes, there were two Cory's at this festival). It was awesome, many Japanese hippies, and a ton of good music. There was an awesome band I saw called 8OTTO, the drummer was also the lead singer. I respect any band that can pull that off; they had a great stage presence. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

Next came Golden Week(end), and I had a wonderful 4 day, weekend. I went to a flee market with Johnny and Yuri, got some laundry done, and saw one of Japan's most famous sites: Kinkakuji, the golden pavilion. It was great, golden, and full of humongous fishes. I went alone, and it was perfect weather. I looked around Kyoto's shotengai for a little while afterwards, and had an awesome okonomiyaki/yakisoba/onigiri dinner at a restaurant called "Mr. Young Man". I had the "Youngu Man Ranchi" which I thought was called unchi(shit) instead of ranchi(lunch). I had a good laugh with the waitress when my mistake was clarified. I really just thought the name was a funny pun on food.

The next two weeks marked the end of classes, and beginning of finals preparations. I had four tests, two written, and two oral. The tests went a variety of ways, some good and some bad. Anyways, I would like to give a shout out to Steve Longland, the Bundschuhs, and my MOM. Thank you for reading, I'm almost home!