Matsumoto and Hakuba

Winter trip
Originally uploaded by KumamotoMark.

From December 25 to Jan 1, I travelled to Nagano Prefecture. I flew into Matsumoto Ciy (on a sweet propeller plane) then trained it up to the village of Hakuba where the olympics were held in 1998. For 5 days, I snowboarded at 3 different resorts: Hakuba 47/Goryu, Happo and Tsugaike. It was pretty cloudy most of the time (if not dumping snow) so I wasn't able to get any shots from the slopes. Plus I was too busy tearin' it up. Nevertheless, here is a selection of shots from the trip. A few shots of the aforementioned aircraft, Matsumoto Castle and downtown area, and a snow sculpture of some kind...

I will return to St. Louis, MO in 4 days. Jf and Michiyo's wedding is the 15th. I am looking forward to it and also helping Michiyo's family feel comfortable in the Midwest. Sort of a real life test for my Japanese/translation skills. Then from around the 21st, I will spend another week snowboarding, this time in Colorado, graciously hosted by the former Kyokushi ALT and legend, Professor Quintana. Promises to be a busy few weeks.

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.