Shikoku, day 4

We got up early, said our goodbyes and thank yous to Jason, and went to MOS burger. MOS is Mountain Ocean Sky, and somehow it all comes together to make a fantastic burger. So much better than the crap we have in Wadayama [McDonald's, Lotteria, and Joyfull]. MOS rules! And they're open 24, which is never a bad thing.

Then it was off to the Sunday Market. Pretty much a farmer's market with some flea market thrown in. So cool! I love these kind of things. Up in Wadayama, the kids are really into giant beetles ala Mushi King. Down in Kochi, it's sand hermit crabs. Pretty cool! For some reason, the crabs all wanted to be at the top of the stick, so got to watch some cool fights.

And instead of being bored for hours on a train, we got smart and took the bus. Yes, this is something we should've looked into long ago, but in our area, long distance buses don't run too frequently.... that's our excuse! Anyhow, the bus to Tokushima was half the train time and less than half the price. Damn! From Tokushima we caught a local train to Naruto, site of the Naruto Whirlpool.

Shikoku, day 3

After landing in Kochi, we went off to see the castle. Kochi-jo is a nice castle, not one of those ferro-concrete recreations that predominat Japan. The view from the top is supposed to be great, but it started pouring as soon as we entered the castle.

After the castle we met up with my friend Jason from Seattle. A fellow linguistics major, he's obviously a cool dude. Shoring up his coolness cred, he showed us a great time. Took us to the local hang out-- a hanger-like food court with huge wooden tables and benches. This sounds sketchy, but the atmosphere was great! There were tasty food stalls all around, including a great tataki place where we watched a kid sear the tuna over a hay fire. An Indian vendor provided the first good chai I've had in Japan, as well as great curry. There was even a whale stand [more on this in a later post]. Jason invited some friends and we all ate, drank, and hung out for a few hours. Kochi people are big drinkers, as you could see immediately when we walked in [um, at 5 in the evening]. Food, friends, and drinks-- that's our kind of night.

After a few hours, we headed back to Jason's for more relaxing. Met a new ALT, and Jason introduced us to an interesting J-Pop singer. I would like to get into J-Pop, but you have to wade through so much crap before finding something good. Now I have a lead.

Shikoku Eats

5 hours from Uwajima to Kochi. Found an amazing lunch along the way, though. Udon is a Shikoku speciality. Usually when we're told that a particular town/area has a speciality we're a bit suspicious. Honestly, I really can't tell the difference between Wadayama rice crackers and Himeji rice crackers. Down in Shikoku, though, I can tell you their udon is freakin' fantastic! Thicker, nuttier, just better.

Kochi, in the south of Shikoku is famous for Katsuo Tataki. That's seared tuna [skipjack tuna, I believe] served with salt, garlic, and onions. Our cheap sushi place serves a decent version, but hot damn! Kochi Katsuo Tataki is glorious!!!

Yuzu, a type of citrus, is also big in Kochi. Hooray for yuzu sake and yuzu tea. mmmmm!

Shikoku, day 2

Our 2nd day was a short ride day. An hour and a half to Ozu, which the guidebook touted as keeping traditional Japanese life alive. Y'know, with silk and rice as the basis for the economy, and with cormorant fishing providing eel for the local restuarants. Ha! Ozu looks exactly like Wadayama. That is, a fair amount of tiled houses, some rusted shacks, and such traditional things as McDonalds. Cormorant fishing is big there, but only at night.

Our next stop was Uwajima, famous to foreigners for 2 things: bull sumo and a fertility shrine.

The bull fighting only occurs a few times a year, and we'd just missed it. That is fine, as it would've made travelling and lodging exceptionally crowded and stressful.

The fertility shrine was kinda fun, and there's a 3 story sex museum on the grounds. The museum houses sculptures and art showcasing human lovin' from various cultures. Interesting to note- all cultures like to exaggerate the length, but only the Japanese art showed significant "girthiness." Sorry we don't have pictures to show you, the museum requires a $200 fee to take pics.

We'd booked a hostel for our night and found that most of the 2 K to reach it were uphill. Very isolated, but clean and the staff were friendly. Up bright and early the next day for a traditional style breakfast. This might be a surprise, but this was the first Japanese style breakfast I've had here. At home we usually have cereal or eggs, and at conferences we're served a selection of Western foods. Miso soup, rice, tamago, pickles, and fish paste make fora pretty tasty breakfast.

Vacations = Exhaustion

Using the Seishun 18 ticket, Aaron and I headed for Shikoku waaaay back on the 17th. This ticket is a great deal, but you hafta stick to the non-reserved trains. Which means once we hit Shikoku, our travelling time was slow going. Let's just say that our first day was some 8 hours on the train. But spending a fair amount of time in and around stations led us to this glorious poster! Yep, this is the movie Aaron was an extra for. We found Aaron's hat, but his face was hidden by the guy in front of him. Damn gaijin extras are too tall!

Our first day took us over the Seto Bridge. This isn't the longest suspension bridge, but it is massive. Massive enough to support a train. The views were fantastic-- the Inland Sea is studded with small islands that beckon with picnic day possibilities.

We ended up in Matsuyama and went to the Dogo Onsen. Dogo is the oldest onsen in Japan, and accordingly, is pretty simple and crazy packed. I had to wait 5 minutes for a shower before I could get into the pool. Our onsen in Wadayama is really new and has multiple bathing choices, so Dogo seems a bit tame by comparison. Still, we have bragging rights!

Then we asked around for a cheap business hotel or love hotel. I might've scandalized a desk lady, but I'm just giving her fodder for her girlfriend chats! We found a place and crashed.

Kancho

I was hoping never to do an entry on this.

Ahem.

Japanese children love to play a fun game called Kancho. The game consists of kids running up and poking adults up the butt. Yes, they go straight for the gold-- not on the side, not slapping; they try to poke their fingers up your bum hole. This lovely game translates as "enema."

Not surprisingly, foreignors really don't enjoy this game, which makes it even more fun for the kids to kancho foreignors. I doubt Japanese adults love the game, but they don't seem to mind too much.

And yes, the other night Aaron and I both got kancho-ed. Not fun.

Ice Magic

I've been using more than my fair share of ice at the school. Not wanting to be a complete jerk, I wanted to refill the ice trays, but... there are only 2 trays. And they pop out huge cubes considerably bigger than most of the trays in the icecube box. The picture in the freezer showed there was another tray that the freezer used, but the picture didn't show how to refill the tray or even empty. Confusing? I thought so... it wasn't a standard automatic ice maker, so I enlisted some help.

To my relief, my teacher was also completely confused by the ice machine. Luckily, another teacher was nearby to rescue us. Seems you fill up a container in the refridgerator. At its discretion, the freezer will suck up the water and bless us with ice. Basically, it's technology-driven magic.

Movie!!

Aha! After a long wait, here is the link to the trailor to "Baruto no Gakuen," the movie Aaron did extra work in. We're not sure if the movie itself has been released yet...

Enjoy the BBC style! There's a shot where you can see the back of Aaron's head; have fun searching for it!

http://www.eastudies.org/news/?p=59

Doctors at school

Last week I arrived at school to find 2 big vans parked out front. Assuming they were the blood donating vans, I asked my Kyoto-sensei if I could sign up. Turns out the vans were for the health checks.

Health checks? See, since teachers in Japan are expected to pull such long hours, all sorts of things come to them. Bank boys, bento deliveries, and even doctors! Ok, nurses, but still.

So without any warning, I got to pee in a cup early in the morning, have my height and weight measured, and answer fun health questions. And a standard part of a Japanese check up is an x-ray. Yes, they give everyone x-rays every year. Not something I was thrilled about. My teacher told me that pregnant women don't have to be x-rayed, so if I wanted to feed the rumor mill with a possible pregancy, I could get out of it.... tempting as that was, I took the x-ray.

I also had my eyes checked. In Japan, instead of reading letters or numbers, you look at small circles with depressions opening on a side. You call out "up" "down" "left" "right" for the check. Kinda fun.

Kadoh

Awhile back I joined the Kadoh club. Kadoh essentially means "Way of the flower/s" and is better known in the states as Ikebana.

I admit that one of my reasons for joining was that it only meets twice a month instead of everyday. I want to be involved at school, but 2+ hours of a sport everyday sounds a bit rough. I know, many ALTs don't go everyday, but I feel that if I join a club, I should do as much as the kids. So, Kadoh it is.

It wasn't quite what I expected. I expected diagrams and demonstrations, but a fair amount of the time, the Flower Lady would already be finished by the time the students [and I] would arrive. Then we muddle through as best we can, while the Flower Lady essentially redoes everyone's arrangement.

From the first class, the Flower Lady would "tsk" at my attempts and tell Matsuda-sensei [the teacher acting as the coach] that as a foreigner, this art form must be really hard for me and that I'll probably never properly appreciate it. Obviously I found this frustrating. But the thing is, the aesthetic is pretty hard for me. The desired balance often looks unbalanced to me. But that must just be my Western eyes.

Anyhow, I'm still going and I'm having a good time with the students. The Flower Lady intimidates me a bit, but I will tough it out. And when I return to the states, I can wow you all with my amazing floral aesthetique.

The beach is secure

Not the best picture, but I couldn't bring myself to ask for a photo while he was in the tower.

This, my friends, would be what makes Japan so safe. This here is the life guard for the Takeno beach. Sure, he might spend his time chastising hooligans instead of scanning the waters, but believe me-- this guy is the official life guard.

Poor guy doesn't even get to wear the true badge of life guard-dom-- the beautiful deep tan with a painted nose. Poor guy.