creepin while ya sleepin

Season's greetings one and all. I am presently still in Japan. Just about every other foreigner has taken off for exotic locales but not I. I will leave Christmas morning and fly north 2 hours to Nagano. There, I will spend 6 days snowboarding on the beautiful slopes that were the setting for the 1998 Winter Olympics. It's been a pretty mild winter so far, hope it dumps when I get up there. Also, I have a year end party with a group of my teachers which promises to be a wild night. We have Thursday off for the Emporer's Birthday. Thanks, Emp.

Check out GOOGLETHINK from Adam's site. Pretty amazing stuff. Thanks for the link, Adam. (I can't figure out teh trackback thingy.)

Anatomy of an Affair

So yesterday I had the TV on when I glanced over and noticed a few familiar faces from my Board of Education on the local news. The cameras panned the audience and I noticed the room was filled with local principals from my schools and other guys I recognize. I didn't catch what the story was but it looked as if it was a important meeting. The head honchos of the city board of education were bowing in an apologetic way. So today I had to go into the office to take care of some stuff. As I was getting ready to leave, I casually mentioned to my supervisor Yuji, that I saw my principals on TV yesterday. I proceeded to ask him what the meeting was about. He sat me down and brought today's newspaper. He told me at one of the city high schools, a teacher was found to be having an affair with one of the students. So of course I had to ask him a bunch of questions. I talked with Yuji for about 20 minutes about the incident and about attitudes about this kind of stuff in Japan.

Apparently, a 30 year old teacher had been having a consensual relationship with a 3rd year student (17) for a few weeks. He said an anonymous e-mail had been sent to someone at the BOE. The course of action after this: the director of the Teaching Personnel Section, Mr. Kawakami, met with the teacher in question and got all the lurid details of the entire relationship. He then called the media and explained the situation who then interviewed Mr. Kawakami at length. Soon after this, a meeting was held (the one I saw on TV) with every prinicipal from every school in Kumamoto (Elementary, Junior and Senior High). I think the point was to let them know what happened and to stress what a severe issue this is. (My principal talked for about 10 minutes about it in the morning meeting at my school). The superintendant, along with Mr. Kawakami and some other higher ups decided to fire the teacher, therefore revoking his teacher's license. One thing that is truly Japanese: Yuji told me that the principal and vice principal of the high school where the man worked will be penalized, as in foregoing perhaps 10% of their salary! Unreal. Yuji also said there were people calling the BOE and the high school all day today. He said all the sports clubs at the school have been cancelled for the next few days because of increased media presence at the school.

If only this guy could have waited until this girl was 18 (whenever that is) or at least unitl April when she graduates. Now he'll be riding a bike around town with massive bags of aluminum cans hanging all over it. The moral: keep it in your pants at school, man.

Gaijin Traps

I spent the weekend in Aso. Jamie, Brad and I climbed the jagged peak next to Aso called Nekodake. I was the first to reach the top. I looked over the edge and it was a good 100m drop straight down. The ridge at the top was no wider than a footpath. Really cool though. We barley made it down before dark. That's what a 2:30 start time will get you. Then we spent the evening at various restaurants and bars in Jamie's small village of Uchinomaki. The night ended with me beating Jamie in three straight games of Othello on his PS2.

There are so many stories of things that have happened in Japan. Driving around the mountain roads today made me think of one story in particular. Two guys, Jason and Joe, were driving around on the rural roads. Many roads in Japan have drainage ditches running next to the roads. The are often referred to as gaijin traps, because it is very easy for unsuspecting foreigners to dip a wheel of their car into one of these ditches. One afternoon, Jason was driving with Joe the passenger and did just that. The car was jammed in the ditch and they couldn't budge it. At this point Jason had been in Japan quite a while and Joe, not so long. Jason had better Japanese. He asked a nearby farmer for some help. Right in front of Joe, in Japanese of course, Jason said his friend was driving and stupidly got his car stuck in a ditch. Joe realized what he said a few days later. (The farmer dragged their car out with the help of a tractor, but that's not important) Good stuff.

Pancake Breakfast

Pancake Breakfast
Originally uploaded by KumamotoMark.

This picture is from August 2003. It is the morning after a big party in honor of myself and sending me off for my second year in Japan. I am enjoying a nice drunken breakfast with Chip and Rebecca (and Biscan behind the camera). I would board a plane back to Japan in a few hours. It's the last photo I took of Chip. I said farewell to him that August morning. 11 months later, he was gone.

Sleeping Buddha

Aso
Originally uploaded by KumamotoMark.

This is Mt. Aso, a massive volcano about an hour from my house. I took this picture on the way to Kurokawa. It was in June when the grass is the greenest. The spot where I was standing is on the lip of the caldera. It's a massive bowl, hundreds of square kilos, the biggest in the world, so I've heard. I have many friends who have lived in the area, just a beautiful place. If you use a bit of imagination, you can picture the figure of a sleeping Buddha. The face is the jagged set of peaks to the left, which is Nekkodake. The belly button is Mt. Aso itself, where the active crater is. You can see a bit of smoke rising from the sulfur pit. Check Adam's Higo Blog for more gorgeous photos of Aso (Link to the right).

Billiken in Osaka

Billiken in Osaka
Originally uploaded by KumamotoMark.

Apparently the mascot of both my high school and college, the Billiken, has its origin in Japan. During my trip to Osaka in October this year, I found its roots. There is a district in Osaka City called Shinsekai (New World). There were Billikens all over signs, in front of restaurants and in gift shops. I picked up a few collectibles as you can clearly see in the picture. In addition to a ton of sightseeing in Osaka and historic Kyoto, I purchased a video camera in the technology rich area of the city. I had fun recording, then editing a video about my trip there. It will be available for public viewing when I return to St. Louis in January.

I am taking the Level 3 Japanese Proficiency Test this coming Sunday. I have been spending a little time recently just reviewing stuff I have already learned. I feel pretty confident about the test. The test has 4 levels, 4 being the easiest and 1 is pretty much complete fluency. My brother's friend Ed (seen in some of the wedding pictures) is taking level 1. Pretty impressive. Best of luck, Chu-hi.

Cutting the Cake

DSC00519
Originally uploaded by KumamotoMark.

November 20, 2004 - Kumamoto City. Joe and Michiyo got married. It was an excellent ceremony. There were about 50-60 people to witness the historic event. It was in Japanese style, they started the ceremony wearing Japanese style and changed about halfway through into western style. Click here for the photos from the Wedding. (You can view the pics individually or as a slideshow.) I would have taken more but I was video taping much of the ceremony as well. Congratulations to Joe and the newest version of the Fingerhut, Michiyo. We get to do it all again in January, this time in St. Louis, American Style, sho nuff.

Little busy

Sorry to those who have been checking back lately, I have been pretty busy. Joey got married yesterday and I have tons of pictures and video from that, so I'll be editing and putting it all together in a DVD. I'm shooting for a New Year's release. Also, I have lots of planning for an upcoming mid-year seminar for JETs. Then I got my trip home in January. On top of all that, I am trying to go snowboarding in Nagano over Christmas. But check back once in a while and keep in touch. Oh, and I just got a copy of the Pistons/Pacers brawl. Some pretty amazing stuff, very scary.

Penrose Park Velodrome

I was happy to see this article on the Post-Dispatch site. I remember seeing this thing on the way to school everyday in high school. I always thought it was a remote-control car racing track. Shows what I know. I hope they can raise the money to restore it. What they need to do is ask Nelly if he wants to chip in a couple hundred thousand for improvements in his old 'hood.

Slowly turning the globe red

We had an amazing Hash this Saturday in the city. There were 26 people there and 17 hash virgins. Quite exciting. The weather was gorgeous and religion was one of the best ever.

I found this web site on fark.com . You enter all the countries you have been to and it creates your own personalized world map. So here is mine. My visitation of a country only means that i've set foot on land there, including airports only. It's a little intimidating. I consider myself fairly well-travelled and yet look at all the places I haven't been. Something to shoot for.

Tabuse-san denasai

Tabuse-san haetenasai.
Originally uploaded by KumamotoMark.

Tonight was the second night of the regular season in the NBA. Just another opening night to most people, but no, not tonight. To your right, you see the very first Japanese player in the NBA checking into his very first NBA game for the Phoenix Suns. It was a historic night indeed. Not only did Tabuse record his first minutes, he knocked down his first 3 pointer and went on to score 7 in 10 minutes trash time against the woeful Hawks. Tabuse caused a stir a year ago when he joined the Denver Nuggets training camp, yet he was cut just before the season started. This man is only 24 years old, about 5'8. I've seen him a few times on the highlights, and he is tremendously fast. Nike has a commercial on TV here in Japan right now showcasing him, if I get a chance, I want to record it. Once Nash goes out with spasms this year, we can look forward to Tabuse lighting it up every night.

A feast fit for Kyushu Danji...

Basashi!
Originally uploaded by KumamotoMark.

Here it is, the finest delicacy of Kumamoto. This is the infamous basashi. It is a fine quality cut of horse. Enjoy as is, no need to cook. This was served at the ryokan me and Manami stayed at in Kurokawa, the famous hot bath resort town in northern Kumamoto.

My own quake

Coming from Middle America, one thing I haven't had to spend 2 seconds thinking about all my life is...earthquakes. There was that guy who predicted a massive tremor in Missouri on December 2 that one year, but that's it. It was always somewhere far away, like out in California or on TV when I'm tryin to watch the World Series. When I came to Japan, I heard people saying, "Yeah, they have a lot of earthquakes out there." In a way, I was a little excited to experience one. I never felt one before and I had no way of knowing what it felt like for the whole structure of the Earth to be trembling. Of course I stood by the train tracks as the train rumbled by, but was that really what it felt like? Would I soon have an answer to this question? Well, yeah, sort of. Japan is indeed a country that experiences its fair share of quakes. The biggest one in the past generation was the Hanshin earthquake in '95 that killed over 6000 people. October 23, there was a pretty big one in the area of Niigata, 2 hours form Tokyo, 38 people died. I was sitting on my brother's couch back in spring 2003 and there was a slight tremor, could not have been more that a 2. True it was a quake, but very minor. Then came last night. I don't recall what time it was. I was sleeping, of course, when all of a sudden I woke up to my bed shaking. In the confused state of awakening, I just held on tight. In my semiconscious state (and due to the recent publicity), I immediately thought earthquake. It sooned stopped and as I lay there, I heard the heavy machinery continuing work on the main road near my house. I was back to sleep fast. When I woke this morning, I didn't even remember it. Well, I won't say that, it only registered as one jumbled image in the entirety of my dreams during the night. When I got to school, someone mentioned it and I had to think. Oh yeah, that did happen last night. I suddenly became slightly panicked. Wow, what if... Turns out, it was a quake of magnitude 3-4. That's a pretty significant shake, though there was no damage. My supervisor Yuji told me it was the biggest one in about 4 years. I spent a lot of time watching coverage of the Niigata quakes recently, and I can't imagine experiencing a big one like that. This is a land of natural disasters, and last night made me rimind me that anything can happen anywhere.

What's Tuesday again?

Kahoku plunge
Originally uploaded by KumamotoMark.

It is the night before the big erection day in America and there's one thing on my mind. You guessed it, jumping off waterfalls. Shortly after I arrived in Japan in August 2002, I discovered a new hobby and something I have pursued with persistent passion during my time here. My brother and I have driven thousands of km's in search of new conquests, gushing torrents that are created as water rushes from the central highlands of Japan towards the ocean. There has got to be a way to check this, but I would venture to say that Japan has the most waterfalls per square km than well, a lot of places. And Kumamoto has some gorgeous ones. Too many to mention. The picture here is the first one I jumped off (and will be the last) in Japan. It is located in Kahoku, about 1.5 hours away from our city. It is about a 10m drop, i'd say. Then there is the Amakusa Waterwheel, which is not only a nice waterfall, but a suspension bridge over the falls make the jump a very intense and body-jarring 15-20m drop, likely the highest jump you can safely attempt in Kumamoto. Another one that ranks near the top is the freshwater-saltwater falls that Joey and I discovered out on Yakushima. The frigid mountain stream falls away into the temperate sea with about a 10m drop. Last spring, my thirst for more waterfall action took me to the 100yen shop (everything about a dollar). I found a detailed map of Kumamoto with waterfalls marked. I spent a few days early this summer driving around and locating some of the best-kept secrets around. Japanese people tend not to be huge river-swimming fans, preferring a nice safe pool or hot-spring bath. Since my brother left in August, the one I have been going to regularly (in the heat of summer) is Nanataki. It is only about a 45 minute drive away. And although you can't attempt a jump from the top of the falls, the swimming hole is second to none and jumps can be made from nearby boulders. The summers can be pretty hot here, but this has been one way I've found relief and the adrenaline rush I crave. I even named a photo collection I put together for my brother's 27th birthday, "Jumping Off Waterfalls: The Fingerhut Brothers in Asia 2002-2004" Check it out on Amazon.

Halloween in Kumamoto

ハロイン
Originally uploaded by KumamotoMark.

Happy Halloween. It's a holidy not much celebrated in Japan outside of foriegners. However, I went to my host family's house. There were about 20 kids when I got there, and they loved the horse face, what can I say? After an awesome dinner, we went out trick or treating at about 10 houses in the neighborhood. My host mother Kinuko organized the whole thing. It was a great time, and I actually got to get some candy. I was going to hit up an adult halloween party afterwards, but I was out to 8am the previous evening so I was a little kicked. The horse face, well let me tell you. I picked that up in Osaka when I was there a few weeks ago. What is interesting was that for dinner, I ate some basashi, which is Kumamoto's local delicacy. It of couse, is uncooked horse meat dipped in soy sauce with ginger or wasabi. Very tasty, but a little difficult to get through the mouth of the horse mask...

The scariest pat of my costume, which you can't really see in the picture, is my Vancouver, Canada T-shirt. Now that is horrific. AHHH~!

Al Jazeera Documentary

Tonight I just watched a pretty good Documentary called Control Room. Basically, it is a documentary about Al Jazeera's coverage of the first stages of the war in Iraq. It is really interesting because they do a great job of presenting both sides of the media's coverage and each side's bias. It is really interesting to hear some of the discussions between the extremely intelligent Al Jazeera reporters and the US Military's finely tuned media relations gurus. The thing that most struck me from the movie was the well-publicized removal of the Saddam statue in the square in Baghdad. Like many people I presume, I didn't know much about that other than the images I saw on TV, but according to the movie, it was likely all staged. Of course that statue was located in a media heavy area. No reporters at the scene recall any local people emerging from their houses to join the crowd. One Iraqi reporter said the people present at the statue's destruction weren't even Iraqis. Many people, including myself, might not have even realized that this event was put on just to further America's mission of liberation from a brutal dictator. If the Iraqis were this intense in removing a statue of Saddam, then US Troops would easily have their way in Iraq. We were there doing the right thing weren't we? A year and a half and thousands of lives later, Iraq is on the brink of civil war and there's no end in sight. The Al Jazeera home page is pretty good, it's a great alternative for people tuned in only to American or Western news sources. Usually their top stories are things that barely even make it onto CNN.

Game 7 Crew

Game 7 Crew
Originally uploaded by KumamotoMark.

Biscan, Ben and Ebel enjoy the fine October weather in the bleachers during Game 7 of the NLCS. I wanna see that cup empty, Biscan.

Through the looking glass

Through the looking glass
Originally uploaded by KumamotoMark.

Here is Mr. So Taguchi celebrating in top of the dugout. It is exactly the opposite of the previous picture I posted, the screenshot from the NHK broadcast. He had just handed his champagne bottle to the grateful 9-year-old. (I have the footage to prove it)

joe & taguchi

joe & taguchi
Originally uploaded by KumamotoMark.

This image flickered on the screen after Game 7 of the Cards/Astros series. I am pretty sure that is my brother Joe, I'll need him to confirm of course. If it is you dogg, first congrats on being perhaps the first Fingerhut to be broadcast internationally, then I want to know that you were yelling some foul Japanese at Taguchi. Something like "Chimpo dashite kudasai!" Good job.

A Very Shaky Game 1

I was able to get the satellite dish you need to watch the premium sports channel here in Japan so I just finished watching Game 1. What a game. If every game in this series is like this, we are in for some fun. But I am sad now because that is the last one I will probably get to watch, they other games are on while I have to be at school.

You may have heard about the recent earthquakes over here. They happened up in northern Japan, very far from me. It's pretty sad because a lot of the areas hit by the quake are the same areas that got nailed by the biggest typhoon in 20 years last Wednesday. Japan can be a very dangerous place. Since the quake has happened, 1 TV channel has only been showing messages from people. They call the station and give the name of someone they are trying ot contact and they put the messages on repeat. I think the death toll is now at 17, but it will probably rise. One of my friends Amy works in Toyama, not too far from the quakezone, she said her area was not damaged and only felt about a 3-4 level shake. A classic quote from her, "They are saying there might be tsunamis. I wanna go to the beach and look for waves." One of the bullet trains had a minor derailment, and you can see on TV that tons of roads are fractured and impassible. Many houses collapsed and power was out pretty much everywhere in the areas.

Another thing I am pretty excited about--If you saw the picture from the Cards game I just posted, then you can see I can now transmit videos and TV onto my computer where I can then manipulate it and edit in any number of ways. I can do this with the help of my new video camera, a Sony Handycam DCR-HC40. I picked it up in Osaka, it's pretty nice. Stay tuned for more technology in action. Go Cards!

Cardinals in 6

Wow, I cannot believe this. I am ambivalent about this whole world series thing. I am stuck here in Japan checking the very slow internet between classes while my brothers and sisters in St. Louis get to GO TO THE GAMES! Is that fair? Of course it is because the Cardinals are in the World F ing Series. I have to figure out how I can creatively watch or at least follow the games live next week. Go Cards, bring home the ring and lift the infamous Frank Viola curse.

The Tokage Disappointment

You can probably see in the news that this latest typhoon, Tokage, was pretty bad. The death count now is over 60. I woke up Wednesday morning and saw that the typhoon was making a right turn (east) before hitting southern Kyushu, thus avoiding the Kumamoto area, located on Kyushu's west side. Our neighbors in Miyazaki got it pretty well. We got a little wind and it was pretty rainy, all day, but overall not the most exciting typhoon of the year. Lots of people were buried in mudslides, some fell into swollen rivers and some were swept away in high waves.

Other than that I have been spending my time the last few days following the League Championship Series' in the states. I hadn't really cared too much about the American League but I was happy to see Boston make their amazing comeback to beat the Yankees. I saw a picture on some site of Curt Schilling at a hocley game a while back and at first, it looked like he was wearing a Yankees hat. I looked closer and saw that it was a YH - Yankees Hater. That was the first time I'd seen that, pretty hilarious. That guy is a warrior, huh. But most importantly, it's all about the Cardinals. Game 7 starts in a few hours. I will be at school while the game is going on, and I have 4 classes in the morning so I'll only get to check between classes. I'll have the game taped. I know it would be best to wait until I can watch the game to learn the result, but come on, is that realistic? Time to see what those 105 wins this year meant...

All the talk about Japanese geography above convinced me to throw a map up of where I live. Kyushu is the southern-most of the 4 main islands of Japan. There are 5 Kens, or state-like areas. I live in Kumamoto in the capital of the Ken, Kumamoto City. There are about 700,000 people in the city, 2nd biggest to Fukuoka on Kyushu.

Just seeing if this actually works

Typhoon #23

Tomorrow morning, typhoon #23 of the year is going to roll through Japan. You can see it's projected path here: http://typhoon.yahoo.co.jp/weather/jp/typhoon/typha.html

Looks pretty strong but it also looks like it might swing right and miss us. In any case, school lunch has been cancelled for the entire city so there is no school. It is rather strange, teachers have to go to school. If the weather is so bad that they have to stay home, then they must take a vacation day. I told my vice principal that if the weather improves, I will go down to the board of education. Don't know if I'll do that. Instead I'll hole up here with Manami, watch some movies, maybe get some good footage of some typhoon destruction if I can, and learn a new game called Othello. One of these days I'll start studying for my level 3 Japanese test coming up in December. This year has brought the most typhoons to mainland Japan on record. I think this is the 4th day off school kids have gotten this year because of them. My previous 2 years here, we only had 1 day off and no significant typhoonage.

By the way, a typhoon is usually less powerful than hurricane and tends to move through the area faster. Usually, most of the injuries it causes are pretty preventable like 81 year olds going on their roof to clear a tree during the typhoon and falling or something similarly asinine.

One last thing, the name of this typhoon is Tokage. It is Japanese for Lizard, but I prefer to pronounce it in an alternate way if you know what I mean. 　　　　　　　台風トカゲ　お楽しみに

Kyushu Danji

Kyushu Danshi
Originally uploaded by KumamotoMark.

My friend Adam and I flash the international sign for peace. We met up in Osaka last weekend, good reunion for 2 old school Kumamoto heads. He is the one who told me to get into the blog game - check out his own site: http://cosmicbuddha.com/adam and the one he does with his brother: http://cosmicbuddha.com/rice

Both those sites have some great stuff about Japan and Kumamoto in them. Also another great Japan blog I always check out is http://www.octopusdropkick.com

Strange Days

I was all set to post something when I got home from school today. Well here it is, except I got home about 8 hours earlier than expected. I showed up as usual at about 8:15am and noticed that there was no one at school. The doors were locked, there were 2 girls filling up water jugs for sports practice who told me there was no school today because there is a Culture Festival next Saturday. Thanks for telling me, guys! Similarly, last Thursday I showed up to the same school and they were a little too surprised to see me. Apparently, I was suppose to go to elementary school that day. Seems to be a lack of communication somewhere. But who am I to complain, I got a day off today. I gotta find out when the Cardinals are playin and what channel.

I spent yesterday evening having awesome yakiniku and enjoying the company of my brother's future in-laws, the Ishizukas. I haven't spoke solid Japanese like that in a long time, good to know it's still in me.

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

MtRyugatake.JPG

DSC00904.JPG
Originally uploaded by KumamotoMark.

Here is a photo I took from the top of Mt. Rygatake in the southern area of Amakusa in Kumamoto. Amakusa consists fo hundreds of islands and is gorgeous as you can see.

Welcome to Mark's Kumamoto Experience

Hey everyone, thanks for checking out my little site. Perhaps you've heard of the blog phenomenon. Basically, instead of sending massive amounts of e-mails to keep in touch with people, I have opted to go the blgo route. Hopefully, I'll be able to update this often from what I am doing, what I have been doing, and maybe even a few pictures. Check back when you can, I'll try to keep some interesting stuff up on it. Let's enjoy...