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!