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Kobe Conquered

The better side of the Kobe trip: the bureacratic and the social.

The bureacratic?! you cry? How can that be good? Easy- I finally got my reentry visa. Aaaand it was super easy. I got up early the 19th, followed the walking directions provided by the Hyogo AJET, and was at the building 15 minutes before opening. It took all of 5 minutes to get the visa. I also ran into a fave acquaintance Colleen. We went out and celebrated with a pastry-filled breakfeakfast. Hooray for jet-setting!

The social is pretty obvious- since nearly every ALT in Hyogo was there, I got to see a lot of people who live pretty far away. I shacked up with Diana, in a business-style love hotel. I can just imagine what the desk clerk thought of the two gaijin ladies sharing a room. Diana and I met up with Julius and went to a fantastic Italian place for dinner. Great tiramisu. Then we wandered around, found a foot-bath onsen on a side street. Had a lot of fun watching the double-takes as passing people gawped at the foreigners soaking their feet. Also went to an English style pub and had some non-lager beer [lager being the preferred style of Japanese beer].

After the conference, Diana and I met up with Joy and went searching for an import food store. I knew the area, but got us a bit lost. On the way we discovered Kobe's mosque, a Middle Eastern import store, an Indian import store, and the Korean consulate. Very interesting. Then we finally found the import store, so I stocked up on peanut butter.

Yep, I survived Kobe, site of two major disasters [lost keitai and car fiasco], and returned victorious! Hurrah for the weakening of curses!

Conference Conquered

I went to Kobe the 18-20 for the dreaded Mid-Year Conference. Nearly every ALT in Hyogo attended, and a load of JTEs. I was relieved to have one of my preferred JTEs instead of my lazy teacher. I had heard horrible stories about the extreme boredom this conference would consist of. And based on my Tokyo and Yashiro orientations, I figured it had to be dull. Well, it wasn't exactly thrilling, but it wasn't nearly as bad as anticipated. Apparently last year groups were required to get up on stage and do skits about cultural differences and the problems that ensue. Luckily, enough people complained that cultural differences had nothing to do with the intended purpose [better team-teaching], that nothing so blatanly pointless occurred this year. Instead we were put into small teams, given relatively pertinant topics [ex- Is it the JTE's or the ALT's role to discipline the students] to discuss. Outstanding members from each group went up on the dreaded stage to discuss more topics. Not terribly exciting, as evidenced by the mass amounts of sleeping Japanese teachers [the ability to fall sleep anywhere at anytime in a matter of seconds is by far the most impressive Japanese trait. Oh, and this is socially acceptable- apparently principals fall asleep at school meetings. <-- this anecdote was shared with me; I have not seen my principal fall asleep].

The best part of the conference would have been the hectic dash down to Chinatown for great Chinese food. Mmm, siu mai and humbows... Pictures above feature Alicia and Jasmin chillin' with some Tsingtao and Piotr chowin' down on a sausage on a bone [the bone acting as a skewer].

Weiner!

After months of absence from the conveyor belt, the weiner sushi is back.

Heat seeking

After we returned from Tokyo we had a nice, quiet week. Classes hadn't started yet, so school was easy, and we stayed at home, sleeping, eating, and watching movies. Generally, just enjoying the last bit of our winter vacation.

On the weekend we had the fantastic duo of Mike and Colleen over. We spruced up the apartment [ahem, that is, we cleaned it], made a tasty dinner of corn chowder and crab puffs, topped off with dessert from Chateraise [an amazing sweets shop in Wadayama. They have French-style desserts and traditional Japanese sweets- and all on the cheap side!]. We watched back-to-back Scottish horror flicks [Dog Soldiers and The Descent- I can not recommend these movies enough! Everyone should watch them!], and had a nice long sleep.

The day C&M arrived had a crazy amount of snowfall- maybe a foot or two in half a day. So we wanted to head up to Kinosaki to warm up. Kinosaki is a little town, very cute and touristy without being kitschy. And it's crazy blessed with hot springs, so there's something like 7 public onsens and dozens of ryokan onsens [traditional style hotels]. After sampling some of Kinosaki's famous crabs [crabs and onsens, what wonderful things to be famous for!], we went to an onsen that had a cave-like setting. Now, part of the joy of onsen towns is to go onsen-hopping. That means tons of people at each and every onsen. So when Colleen and I walked into the changing room, it took us 5 minutes to find and navigate our way to a free locker. That is a lot of naked people. The pools were nice, but kinda cramped. The inside pool had the hottest water I've yet experienced- I was light-headed after only a few minutes.

Then we wandered the town a bit, had some gelato [gelato is very popular in Japan], and soaked our feet in the foot bath by the train. Then it was back to Wadayama, where we had sushi for dinner and for afters Colleen cut my hair. Yep! I finally got a trim, and didn't have to pay a lot for it or be terrified of receiving the Japanese-layer style. Colleen did a fantastic job, I am incredibly happy to have healthy-looking hair again.

Tokyo Reflections

Overall we had a fantastic time. I had thought that Tokyo would be too much; too crowded, too many people, too expensive, etc. But in general, many of the areas were about as busy as downtown Seattle. We didn't come across any subway-stuffers [the guys in white gloves who pack you in]; I think those are usually for early morning or late night jams. The prices were high, but you could find reasonably-priced things by doing a bit of comparison shopping. People were very friendly, I think a bit more than in Wadayama- probably because they're so used to seeing foreigners.

And best of all- our bad luck didn't come in at all! Sure, the museums were closed, but that's not a big deal- we had a fantastic time exploring the different parts of the city where the museums were located. And we never got really lost. We never missed any important train or bus. I am very hopeful that the curse is dwindling. We'll see.

Tokyo definately warrants another visit- I am giddy with anticipation!

The Last Day (Tokyo Pt 6)

We shelled out for an extra hour at the hotel and slept late. The hotel was willing to hold our baggage while we kicked around our last day in Tokyo. So unburdened, we proceeded to run all over the city.

We wanted to see New Year's Day at a shrine, so we went to Senso-ji Shrine. We got to indulge in street food- Japanese street food is absolutely fantastic! We did yakisoba, kara-age, and a pita-like thing. We browsed the many shops, picked up more souveniers, generally just enjoyed ourselves.

Hit Ginza, but being uber-swanky, most shops decided to close down for the day. So off to Roppongi we went. Nick and Jenny went to TGIFriday for dinner, while Aaron and I had Chinese. At some point during the day we returned to Shibuya to pick up some good beer to take home [Rogue Mocha Porter and Chimay].

We wanted to be sure we could find the Night Bus pick up, so we grabbed our baggage and headed to Tokyo Station around 7:30. Now, the Night Bus is a private company, and while they do have a set loading area, said area is not marked in any way. We wandered a few blocks looking for familiar signs/lights/anything. Then Jenny broke out her digicam to reveal that she had taken a picture when we disembarked the bus! I admit thinking she was camera-crazy at the time, but her photo helped us find the place with no trees, strange windows, and a loading sign! I will never doubt anyone taking set-the-scene pics ever again. We then camped out at the station til it was time to board the bus.

8 hours later, we were in Kyoto, boarding the train to go home. Once we got home, we went to a fantastic onsen nearby [Yakuno- a bit more traditional feeling than the Wadayama onsen] to clean up. Then home for a loooong nap. Aaron and I were thrilled to come home to 2 package notices and several New Year cards. The next day found us with tortillas from Lynn and comics!
Hooray for care packages!

Random Tokyo Pics

Ahh, the two sides of Japan: the freaky hi-tech side [left] and the traditional side [right].

New Year at the Shrine (Tokyo Pt 5)

On our way back to the hotel we passed a tiny neighborhood shrine. We wandered over, and were kindly invited to join in. We clapped and bowed at the shrine, were denied sake by the one snooty person there, but given a traditional New Year's drink by the friendly lady below:

Made from kasu [sake lees], the drink was warm, white, and kinda clumpy. I enjoyed the taste, which was pretty mild, but the curdled texture was a little hard to swallow. The woman was very friendly and we made small talk for about 10 minutes. Then the shrine celebration wrapped up, and we headed off to bed.

Happy New Year's! (Tokyo Pt 4)

We found an (another) English-style pub to hang out at for most of New Year's. The Aldgate has an amazing 15 beers on tap, with decent prices. We left for a bit to track down a Thai place [which had a huge menu and cheap drinks]. We found it, and [no surprise here] it was closed. So back to the Aldgate, where we had lost our seats. After beadily eyeing every rising person, we snagged a table, and settled in for the night.

Despite how way cool the subways are, they don't run very late. So we made sure to be at the Shibuya intersection [right in front of the subway entrance] for the big countdown. Many of you have seen pics of this intersection. It's the busiest intersection in the world, and is framed by three large screens on some buildings. In "Lost in Translation" you get to see giant dinosaurs walking across the screens [now do you remember?]. So we assumed this was the hip place to ber. I mean, there were tons of people there. So we're waiting, looking for some sort of countdown on afore-mentioned screens, when our watch hits midnight. Since there was no giant clock, different parts of the crowd were cheering at different times. No fireworks, either. A bit anti-climactic, but being a part of the huge crowd was a lot of fun.

Then we caught our train, talked to a few people. One guy was on his way to Yasukuni Shrine for his rituals. We turned cartwheels once our car was empty, but despite our best attempts, most of the pictures are only of our ... ahem, derrieres. Then we went to Jonathon's for sundaes, fries, and a BLT.

All Over (Tokyo Pt 3)

Our 3rd day was New Year's Eve. We rose early to go gawk at the famous Tsukiji Fish Market. Bleary-eyed, we get on the subway, and go to Tsukiji. We knew we were in the right area by the insane amount of people milling around [at 7 am on a Saturday] and by the strong fish stench. We walked past the booths, found the wave-repelling shrine, went over the bridge to find... the market was closed. Apparently, it was a "Regular Holiday." Disappointed, we go back to the hotel and sleep for a few more hours.

Then we went to Shibuya, got Jenny's glasses fixed [they replaced the bridge-pad things for only 300 yen!], and ate all-you-can-eat Shakey's Pizza. Ooooh, man, what I wouldn't give to have a Shakey's nearby. Plenty of familiar American toppings, plus plenty of [now-familiar] Japanese toppings like tuna, corn, and one-that-I-won't-eat fried oysters. We then found an amazing liquor store, picked up goods for the night and to take home [our beer selection in Jusco is extensive for Japanese lager, but not much else].

We then headed to Harajuku, on a search to find the kosu-play girls. You've all probably seen these chicks [and some dudes] in photo-essay books [Fruits] or magazines. They dress up to an amazing degree, many looking a lot like anime characters or dolls. Alas, we could not find any extreme cases to take pics of.

It's a Dog's Life

The Prime Minister is at it again:

Koizumi hopes nation will follow example of dogs' fertility to stem falling birthrate

TOKYO — Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi expressed hope Wednesday that Japan will follow the example of dogs' prolificacy to stem the falling birthrate as 2006 is the Year of the Dog in the Chinese zodiac. "Dogs whelp a lot but are said to have an easy labor," Koizumi said.
The prime minister said he will do his best "to create the environment where people can think raising children is delightful and being parents enriches human lives," but did not mention specific measures.

As I am, I say "Whatta maroon!"

If I were a Japanese woman, I would say, "I ain't your bitch!"

Museum Photos

This would be me at the Sword Museum...
... and Aaron at the ukiyo-e.

Footsore (Tokyo, Pt 2)

Our second day, Nick and Jen were off to Tokyo Disneyland. Aaron and I decided to return to the Ueno museums, and check out the Sword Museum and the Ukiyo-e [woodblock print] Museum. Heh. Weeellll, miles upon miles and hours later, it was determined that not 1, not 2, but all 4 museums were shut down for the New Year holiday. I had been warned that Tokyo shuts down at year-end, but desperately didn't want to believe it. Disappointing, yes. But we saw a lot of Tokyo, and we ran over to the Senso-ji Shrine in Asakusa. The way up to the shrine is lined with booths selling souvenirs and traditional crafts. We picked up a lot of gifts, saw a lot of pigeons [you could buy little sweets in the shape of pigeons], and generally had a great time. The pic to the right is a kasto ira [cast-iron] press. You can see the batter being poured near the girl, then a tiny slab of red bean paste is put in, then the mold is sealed, and finally it's all cooked to make yummy, whimsically-shaped treats.

For dinner we attempted to track down the only Greek restuarant owned by a Greek in all of Tokyo. We found it, but after we'd given up and had so-so Mexican instead. The Greek place was ridiculously pricey [28,000 yen for the gyros plate], so we probably wouldn't have shelled out anyway [being the kind of cheapskates that we are].

Random Pic #1

We found these guys in Shibuya [the hip center for the young folks].

Night Bus! (Tokyo Pt 1)

To reach our goal of Tokyo, Nick, Jenny, Aaron and I caught a ride on the Night Bus. For all you Potter fans out there, you know what was going through my brain when I heard "Night Bus." Sadly, this guy wasn't purple or magical, but it did get us to Tokyo in about 8 hours!

Off the bus, we grabbed some coffee, and hopped on the subway. Man, the subway system in Tokyo is soooo cool! It's almost ridiculously fast and efficient, with new trains every few minutes. I really wish every city I will ever visit would have one.

We arrive at our hotel, check our bags [we couldn't check in til 3], then head off to explore the city. We headed to Ueno Park first, so Nick could see the pandas in the zoo, and Aaron and I could see the two museums housed there. Guess we picked a bad day, 'cause the zoo and both museums were closed that day.

But here's a statue of Saigo Takamori. He rates a statue 'cause first he supported the Meiji Restoration, then got fed up and led a rebellion 10 years later. He was "allowed" to commit seppuku, and was pardoned post-humously, and honored with a statue.

After the park, we headed down Ameyoko alley. Very crowded, loads of seafoood for sale, lots of shoes and clothes. We'd heard there were bargains to be found down this alley, but that must just be by Tokyo prices, as everything was really pricey. Did find a great tea shop, though.

Back to the hotel for a good nap, then out to find Mexican for dinner. We found the place, but it was closed for the new year holiday. We set off to Roppongi instead, and ate tuna fish n chips at an English style pub. Pretty tasty, and came with house-made Guinness vinegar! mmmm.

Wandered around a bit more, headed back to the hotel where we got to sleep... in a bed! Now, I actually like futons, and I love how spacious a tatami room looks when the futon's all rolled up in the closet, but let's hear it for sleeping off the floor!
End Day 1