Autumn come and gone (pt1)

Ohisashiburi to my blog and readers! (long time no see)

Plenty going on recently, and I'll do my best updating on the highlights! Let's see, my last post was the end of the summer? Well since then...

I went to Sunset Live for the second year. This is where (if you remember from a whole year ago) we go up to Fukuoka prefecture, hang out all day at a huge multi-stage concert on the beach, taking the time to go swimming when it gets too hot. Then we camped out on the beach as it lasts all weekend! As expected, it was blast with great bands, some old favorites and some new to me. Didn't get many pictures this year though.


Then in September, I took a little vacation time to go visit Thailand. An unforgettable adventure, Bangkok and the island of Koh Samui were invigorating, and full of places to explore. I was only there for a week, and could have easily spent a month. The highlights here were the amazing temples and statues, the island beaches, the Full Moon Party in Koh Pangan (where we leaped a flaming jump rope, among other feats), and the AMAZING Thai food. Here's a few pics, and if you want more, check out my Facebook for the full collection.






Upon coming home I took on the Saga Prefectoral Driving Center in order to get a Japanese license since my IDP had expired. Well, I should mention that I actually started this ordeal back in the summer when I was trying to get some documents straightened out. In short, the process was long, painfully tedious, and expensive. Finally, after working on it for several months and countless trips out there (without driving), I took and passed the written and driving exams (4 tries on the latter) in October. So we be legally cruising the streets of Japan yet again in my excellent little Honda.

More updates to come soon...

Summer winds down (all caught up!)

So after all the visitors and traveling, I thought things would slow down and settle a little. Ah, foolish me. It lulled for a just a short while, we had to say goodbye to the JETs who left this year, and then we had a group of new JETs come in just last month. And so we've been full of group events, karaoke, BBQs, parties, etc. to hang out and get to know the new peoples. The highlights (for which I'll put up pictures) have been the Karatsu beach party, the Takeo Space and Science Museum, Fireworks festival in Ureshino, playing taiko at the local Matsuri (festival) in my own town of Fukudomi (followed by a party to celebrate one of my Japanese taiko buddies who proposed to his girlfriend at the festival!), picking the famous Rencon (lotus root) of my town, and cliff diving up at the Ryutosen waterfall.

On the horizon for next month is possibly going to Sunset Live again this year (one of my earlier posts last year as on this music fest) and then a trip to Thailand near the end of Sept.


Takeo Space and Science Museum had a fun gyro swing.

3 Japanese kids in a giant bubble!

Summer in Japan means plenty of fireworks festivals to go to :)

Yep, jumped from this one too.

Playing in the water with Peter and his son Kotaro

Festival time as the kids prepare to carry the shrine.

More Catch up (Summer pt2)

So shortly after the family had to head back to the states, I had yet another visitor. Megan came out to hang for a few weeks, and we did some sightseeing around here in Saga, Nagasaki, and Fukuoka of Japan, as well as Seoul and Busan in Korea for a week. I think I'm getting better at knowing my way around the cool sights to check out in the area, and at the same time I got to see things I've never been to either. So without further ado, here's some pics:
Huistenbosch: Dutch land in Kyushu, Japan

Dejima Island, Nagasaki: The only place foreigners were allowed to set foot on within Japan during the close nation period (for about 200 years).
Peace park memorial in Nagasaki Japan
Busan Station, Korea: a fun light, water, sound show that greeted us when we arrived.
Ericzilla terrorizes the mountains around Seoul
63 Tower in Seoul, Korea: Yes, because it has 63 floors. We went to the gallery on the 61st floor with 360 degree view and some nifty art.
From the 61st floor with our Kiwi buddy Nikola
Royal Palace in Seoul, Korea: this guy don't talk much, but he knows what's up.
Palace in Seoul, Korea: attempting to take a picture myself.
Kids playing in the palace.
Seoul, Korea: I may be a dork, but I fit right in here!

Playing Catch up (summer pt1)

So it's been a while since I've updated, and as you may have guessed that's cus I've been kept busy! I'm going to try out a new post style, where I'll try to keep them shorter and and concise. So they'll be easier to read since you won't get all the ramblings, and hopefully it'll be easier to keep them coming in a timely fashion. So post a comment and let me know what you think about changing the style up.

Rather than jump to what's going on now, I think I'll rewind a little and play some catch up. In May I was super pleased to get a chance to play host to Xander, Jess and my Mom for a full two weeks! We had an amazing time, and packed almost every day with something to do around Saga. We went to an Onsen, made pottery at a famous site, visited local shrines, ate tons of delicious Japanese food, played taiko, threw down in the Gatalympics (mud Olympics), went to the beach, had a couple of BBQs with friends, partied it up at Nuf Nuf (ask my mom about Manabu and his rum) and of course, just spent time catching up. So here's a few pics from when they came and hung out.

As it warms

Just when I thought there was finally a lull in the crazy goings on, and I thought you might get stuck with a boring post on everyday happenings around school and life here, more stuff happened! Well, OK, so in actuality I made stuff happen :) It's never ending adventure just the way I like it.

So as March rolls around, the school year in Japan ends, and the kids graduate from each level of school, then they all head into spring break. Junior high is closer to what we would call high school back home, since the students choose high schools based on desired careers, like agriculture or computer science, and high school isn't mandatory (though most people go). The junior high graduation is regarded as more important, and the tests more rigorous than high school. So the graduation was a pretty big ceremony, and quite touching, even though they're only 15. So now the kids are on break and the teachers are all at our desks. So here's a few pics of the graduation/graduates.

But you know me, was I about to hang around? Of course not. With the warming weather and a three day weekend, I took off rather last minute to the neighboring prefecture of Kumamoto. There I stopped by the rather impressive castle in the city before heading up into the mountains. Just a couple hours drive up away from the city is one of the largest volcanic craters in the world, Mt Aso. It's a huge valley with what looks to be a mountain range surrounding it (which are actually the walls of the volcano which erupted back about 900,000 years ago) and several towns nestled in it. I stayed in one such town for the weekend with nearby good eat spots and plenty of Onsen (your Japanese word of the day, meaning public bath, often fed by hotsprings). I also went into the national park at the very center of the huge crater, where a relatively newer series of mountains has been built by the still active part of the volcano. I got to see the smoking sulfuric-smelling cone and hike the surrounding mountain ranges, which was excellent! I also tasted the natural spring water at the shrine, which is claimed as the purest in Japan. Here's a few pics of the castle, and the scenery around Mt. Aso's crater (the bunkers) and the peak of Takadake which I climbed (the highest point in the park).



Though the weather has been up and down recently, it has warmed up enough to cause the Sakura blossoms to bloom, which is of course a highlight event all over Japan. So this weekend a group of JETs got together and had a picnic under the trees in a nearby park and we had a haiku poetry writing contest in the spirit of the season. People were out in force drinking sake happily under the blossoms. So lastly, I'll leave a few pics of the park we picnicked at with the blossoms.
It's crazy to think that I've been here for 9 months already, and I already have plenty more fun to look forward to in the very near future! First up is Golden Week at the end of April, where I'll be spending a few days off, along with the national holiday time, to travel for a little over a week. Not sure yet where, possibly out of the country (Vietnam? Bali?), or around some places in Japan if that's too expensive to plan last minute. Then, starting that same week after I get back, I'll be hosting a flurry of much missed visitors to my little part of Japan here! This actually has me perhaps even a little more excited than the prospect of my own coming vacation : )

The Last of the Cold

Back in the groove of rolling out the blogs!

It's already getting warmer (this week has been in the mid 60's). Things have been fun and busy with something going on nearly every weekend, so where to begin...

This all bronze Sumo was at the entrance of the art museum in Fukuoka. Though not often one for art, and museums in general, I've taken a liking to them more recently during my travels, and been able to enjoy them more. I think back to how much Uncle Mark enjoyed absorbing information, and how much he shared with me in the Henry Ford Museum. I think that's maybe when I realized this emerging affinity. Anyways, back to Fukuoka: I originally took a trip up there with a few friends to catch the new film Avatar. This does require some explanation as it took a lot of looking only to find that everywhere in Saga only shows the 3D version with a Japanese dubbed audio. So after some more lookin, we took the one-hour train ride up to Fukuoka and hit the museum before hand, only to find it was sold out! We succeeded the following week at last. Japan loves it's shopping, and the mall the theater was in was massive!

The very next morning I had a taiko performance locally in my town of Fukudomi. It was for the local Yasaiya - Veggie/grocer shop (and you thought I had forgotten your Japanese word for the posts). They put on a fun little event with us doing a taiko performance, gave us free soup which was delicious, did mochi pounding (smashing the rice into a cake- first pic) and gave that out free as well, and then the highlight was the mochi throwing which was new for me! (2nd pic) Each mochi cake was wrapped, and some of the bags had pieces of paper in them which correlated to a prize at the booth. So as the old guy on the pallets threw them to the crowd, everyone was scrambling for them. Little did I know but this was just a warm-up for events later in the month...

This leads well into the event which happened just last weekend: Naked Man. This one took place all the way up in Okayama (took about 3.5 hours to get there by train). The short version is that over nine thousand men come to the temple, lose their clothes, and trade in for a fundoushi loincloth. Then you run around the city in groups, often with the company you work for nearly naked, though we ran in a group of ALTs from all over Japan. Keep in mind it's February and about 5 degrees Celsius (41F). Then once you get into the temple they run you around the temple grounds and through the purifying water fountain, which comes up past your waist. Yeah, I was thinking polar bear plunge, but without any hot tubs afterwards. And they ran us trough that thing about 6 times! We also got to ring the big bell at the temple for good luck. Then we ran up onto the platform of the temple itself, where everyone pushed and shoved to the top where we gathered and battled to stay up on our feet for about an hour and half. I've been in my fair share of mosh pits, but this one makes them look like playing pattycakes. There truly was a sense of danger as people were thrown and toppled down the stairs, or squashed flat against the pillars, and the ever present danger of falling and being trampled (in past years death actually has occurred in the crowd). Finally at around 10pm the lights went out, and they threw in the magical Shingi sticks. This is what the event is all about, and if you can get one and get out, there's luck and monetary prizes to be had. There are only two large baton sized ones that are major sticks, each of which is worth a $5000 prize and amazingly good luck/fertility for a year. Then there are a handful of smaller sticks which I believe have some sort of prize or monetary reward that goes with them. The picture of the guy being lifted is one of the smaller ones. It was freezing, and I ended up sore all over, but it was a blast! It really felt like a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be a part of something really crazy and awesome. Even though I didn't get a stick, it was really cool to be a part of this cultural event, and I felt like I really went all out with it. I didn't get hardly any pictures myself (no pockets for a camera in my fundoushi), so the pictures here were mostly borrowed from another JET. I've got a couple pictures on my camera, but it's been acting funny lately, so I'll try to upload them later.

Christmas in Summer

Way too long since my last post, but I'll jump right into it! Of course it's been so long since things have been wicked busy, exciting and fun!

After all my planning, I took off in December on a trip down to Wellington, NZ to meet up with Laura who is living and working there and to do some exploring down south. I actually flew out Christmas Eve, and arrived Christmas Day, though I did manage to get there 6 hours early by smiling nicely at friendly employees in Hongkong.

It was pretty neat being only the 3rd other country outside the U.S. that I'd been to, and also the first trip down to the southern hemisphere for me. It was also great being with someone close around the Holidays and was a wonderful way to spend it.

Overall I had quite a trip, and there's more photos up on Facebook now if you'd like to see more of it. Most of the trip was spent in the capital of Wellington, and the city itself has a nice feel to it I think aside from the weather. There were piers along the bay, small beaches, outdoor malls like Pearl St, lots of good restaurants, and it was all easily walkable from downtown. Highlights that we got to do were:

-The Te Papa museum which had everything from history to art to geothermal activity around NZ. It was a good place to start to get a look at the country. I also discovered a strange affinity I have for the Kiwi bird.
-The shopping malls around Cuba Street/Lambton Quay which were nice open streets with plenty of window shopping and good eat spots.
-A subway shop every few blocks.
-International Unicycle championship parade.
-Fun sculpture art along the many walkways around town.
-Short trips over to days bay and island bay.
-Saw a cute little Penguin in the bay paddling along.
-The Botanical gardens which was a personal highlight for me with some really awesome nature right up above the city. Took so many pictures, and reminded me of the stories my mom tells about the photos from my first Japan trip.

We also took a day trip up to the nearby town of Martinborough which was nice and small, and surrounded by wineries. It was my first time doing wine tastings, and I could see the appeal for becoming a wine connoisseur! We rented bikes and got to try plenty of different wines while learning about the differences of them, from the processes down to the grapes and even the soil.

One of the big highlights of the trip was the Tongariro crossing trek across Tongariro national park. It was said to be a full 6-7 hour hike in itself across like 19km of some gorgeously varied terrain. But that wasn't including allowing time to go up and back down nearby Mt. Ngauruhoe which is the active volcano known as Mt Doom, with no path or poles. But there was simply no question of NOT scaling Mt. Doom after you come all the way to Middle Earth. And even though it added like another 2.5 hours of some of the most grueling hiking I have ever done, it was so worth it! Coming down was like skiing on a rock slide as the volcanic soil and rocks on the slope were soft and you can just slide down as you step on them. Just get in the groove and you're down in no time. The rest of the trek had some sweet lakes, rocky barren slopes, excellent mountain ranges, and a lush forest; gorgeous doesn't describe it. Afterward we biked over to a hotspring since the the area was full of geothermal activity, and washed away the weary of that intense hike.

I also got some down time to do some reading, soak in a little bit of sun (though it wasn't really beach weather ever), got to be in a place where English was the norm (not just linguistically, but in thought and every day process), ate a bunch of really grub western food, and got to relax and hang with Laura for the holidays.

In the end it was just what I needed in a vacation, and I came back feeling pretty refreshed. However, I did have a 16 hour layover in Hongkong on the way back, bleh. Anyways, there's still lots more going on back here in Japan now, so look for another post soon!