Back from Japan

I had an awesome vacation in Japan, much needed to get me rested and relaxed before school started.
I have much to thank Kats and Sarah and Bill Bockman for being such awesome gracious hosts during my stay there.
Thanks to the Japan Rail Pass I travelled all over Japan, and I got to see many things. I have lots of pictures posted on Facebook, and I'll put a few on here.


I First went to Tokushima on the island of Shikoku to visit my High School friend Bill, and I came just in time for the Awa Odori Dance festival, which I got to dance in.
We also visited a Sea Turtle Museum while I was there.
The Awa Odori Dance Festival is held every summer in Tokushima and is the city's biggest claim to fame. Many tourists from all over Japan and the World flood the small coastal city for the festival every year, and university, local business and social groups prepare dance groups for weeks to showcase in the festival. Festivals are prime locations for fair food - Octopus balls or Takoyaki - are a festival favorite, and a favorite of mine as well...so delicious.
I was able to dance in the Festival with the Tokushima International Association thanks to my friend Bill, and it was great fun - we even had our photo in the local newspaper!
The Sea Turtle Museum was awesome, unfortunately almost all the information was only in Japanese, but there were lots of tanks of sea Turtles which you don't really need translation for. The Museum is situated right on a beach that the Loggerneck Turtles use for nesting, unfortunately every year fewer and fewer turtles show up, and this is a phenomenon that is going on worldwide at large sea turtle nesting sites.

Then I went to Hokkaido, where I visited Shiretoko National Park and Sapporo briefly. Hokkaido is Beautiful and if you get a chance to go to Japan, Hokkaido is a must.

The Photos here are of the Old Government Building in Sapporo, Hokkaido was one of the areas that Japan opened up for Western Trade after it's period of isolation. This building reflects the Western Influence in its design and function.
Shiretoko National Park is on the far Northeastern Peninsula of Hokkaido, and borders the Sea of Okhotsk, it is mostly wild untamed forest and mountains, with breathtaking views and diverse wildlife.

During the winter months the Sea of Okhotsk is home to many times of seals, and the local populace on both sides of the sea (Russian and Japanese) have traditions of hunting the seals, however due to climate change and species endangerment the hunting has been curtailed.


While I was in Shiretoko, I saw a great many deer, and foxes. I was repeatedly warned against bears, but I didn't see any, even though I went hiking on animal trails. I did see a rare stag which I have a photo of posted on facebook, I hiked a great deal and it was really nice to be out in nature, away from the stench, pollution and noise of the city.
As you can see the wilderness in Shiretoko is relatively untouched, not many people go hiking here because it is so far removed from not just Hokkaido, but all of Japan. Shiretoko-go-ko is a spot with 5 lakes all really close together up on a high valley that gives great vistas of the park and the Sea of Okhotsk, it is well travelled by tour busses, and for the enthusiastic hiker, the trails are easy and congested with tour groups with inappropriate footwear, but it is beautiful.

Next I hit the Japanese Alps, Narai and Matsumoto.
Narai is a small former post town on a road that connected Edo era Tokyo and Kyoto. It is a cultural heritage site and has been preserved well.
In Narai, there were many Temples for the travelers of the old road to rest their tired souls, the main street also still has many inns and guesthouses, the town is busier in the fall season when the leaves change color, then it is a romantic destination for the city folk of nearby Nagoya and Kyoto. But there were relatively few tourists on the hot summer day that I was there, I was the only one staying in the Minshuku(guesthouse) that night, and it looked like I was the only one for quite sometime.
There was a statue of the Virgin Mary in the town that had it's head forcibly removed and the statue was renamed after the god Jizo, protector of children, a ghostly relic of the lives that secret Christians led in Japan for many centuries.

I was planning on staying in Narai two nights, but you can experience it all in one day pretty much. So I left early in the morning for Matsumoto.
Matsumoto was in the midst of their summer festival, most Japanese towns or cities of decent size have a festival of some sort in the summer. Matsumoto's is a music festival, there was a lot of activity in and around the castle grounds while I was there, in fact there was a High School Band festival taking place on the Castle grounds while I was touring the Castle. It is a strange sensation to be in a 400yr old Japanese Castle, and all of a sudden being treated to Stars and Stripes Forever by John Phillips Sousa. I missed 4th of July in America and I guess this was my reward!

The Castle was really interesting and scary to traverse, the stairs were really steep and there a great deal of people crowding them. At risk of sounding non-PC larger people should not go on this tour. The stairs are at a steep 63 degree incline and narrow already, but made narrower, being divided in half for two way traffic.
But the Castle had a great collection of armaments and a museum just outside the castle grounds that elaborated on the history of the area. Much of the water in the area was brought in through a wooden piping system from the nearby mountain streams, diverted to supply the fields and orchards. The Japanese Alps region is known for its vineyards and orchards. The fruit from there is delicious and I'm told the wine exceptional. After my Matsumoto trip I head back to Tokyo, and spend a day lying about, then cook dinner for my lovely friends Kats and Sarah.
On the last day I can use my Japan Rail Pass I go to Kyoto, for one last Shinkansen ride.
I went to Kyoto and soon tired of the Temples and went shopping.

After Kyoto, I kept to Tokyo, and I went to the Parasitological Museum and the Pokemon Center. I really wanted to go to the Ghibli Museum but it was all sold out, and this was a huge disappointment to my trip. The Parasitological Museum was pretty cool, small but cool. I wish that more information was in English, but a lot of it was self-explanatory given the explicit photos that were frequently on display.
After the Parasite Museum I hit Shibuya(Shibuya is the big shopping area and has the famous pedestrian zone that everyone has seen photos and footage of when Tokyo is involved) for some tourism and window shopping.
Only I ended up buying some shoes...and a skirt...
The next day I went to the Pokemon center, and there were a few too many Pikachu dolls for comfort, but it was a fun experience and unfortunately photographing is not allowed there, so I only took a couple clandestine photos.
Then I hit one last Temple, and next to it was this large Eiffelesque Tower...but in the Temple Gardens were all these Shrines that were well adorned with crochet-bonnets and arrayed with plastic flower windmills, hundreds of them. It was really interesting, I don't know what they were for, but they were an appropriate ending to my trip in Japan, the stoic Shrines adorned with colorfully lush plastic accouterments, it really just summed up Japan to me, stubbornly in the past, while giddy in the in future.

I finished off my trip by seeing The Karate Kid with Kats and Sarah, that movie should really be called The Kung Fu Kid, but whatever.
If you want to see more photos of the trip in Japan, please check them out on facebook!

Japan Update

I've been in Japan for 5 whole days now. I've mainly spent my time in Tokushima on the island of Shikoku with my friend Bill from Seattle. I danced in the Awa Odori Dance Festival and visited a sea turtle museum. On the bullet train back to Tokyo today I saw the Cup Noodles factory, for those fans out there, sorry no photo, I was on a bullet train it went by too fast.
I'll have more to update later once I go up Hokkaido and see more things.

silver lining

last night there was a good old tropical thunderstorm.
My Mom and I were waiting for our bus to take us home from the school. After almost 30min our bus still hadn't come, even though it typically runs every 8min. So we are trying to get a taxi and there are no taxis available, finally a nice man in a really nice car stopped to offer us a ride for pay. We negotiated a price and got in, I had quite a mangled and labored conversation with him, but a conversation nonetheless. He was really nice and we were in traffic for a long time so we figure out what each other were saying eventually. The best part was, he put this DVD on about the life of Christ and put it in English so we could watch it. He pointed to himself saying he was a Christian and asked if we were, and I said yes. We watched the video for awhile, and I learned the word for river and baptize. But I managed to take a short video of this experience on my phone, it is sideways however....because I've never used the camcorder on my phone before and I didn't know which way to hold it.

you know, this week I started loving China, it hit me as I was riding the bus to work earlier in the week and even though I still get frustrated at the school and at the gypsy cabs that try to rip me off, this car ride sealed the deal. It was a beautiful sweet 25min, in which three people connected.
The problem with loving China now, is that I don't get mad and frustrated and prejudiced at the Chinese now...I get attached, and sad for them in this awful condescending way instead.

try this on

Today I was in Walmart, purchasing wood screws and tools to help me assemble our Ikea furniture, and I walked by a product demonstration. These happen frequently, we are all familiar with the Vitamix demos at Costco on the weekends. In China there are many product demonstrations in the Walmart and Sam's Club, until today my favorite one was demonstrating how to use a mop and bucket. Today I saw a demo-girl(attractive girls in special uniforms, with head-sets and a speaker on their waist like a fanny pack to amplify their voice) demonstrating how to use the laundry hamper that came as a free gift with the purchase of a large bottle of laundry detergent. That's right. Laundry hampers are few and far between here, and demonstrating what it is used for by crumpling and putting hand-towels and socks in it and that it can be folded and put away when not in use. Oh yeah. Just another reason no one should be afraid of China taking over the world.
Step 1: Soil something.
Step 2: Place in hamper.
Step 3: Move hamper close to washing apparatus.
Step 4: Place soiled articles in washing apparatus.
Step 5: Fold hamper conveniently when not in use.
Then the process begins again.

I never knew there were five steps to using a laundry hamper.

Engrish

So I'm going to post some new photos here, both were taken and western stores in here in Shenzhen.
Everyday I see interesting English, and I should really document it better. But here are two that I had the presence of mind to snap photos of on my phone.
We all shop at Walmart, no matter how "slow food", "local only" and sustainable you are, the truth is we all shop at Walmart, whether it is because they have the stereo we want for $100 cheaper than the local store, or because they are open 24 hours, we go there some people more often than others. The Great Value brand is ubiquitous for the budget conscious and brand savvy alike. Here is a Great Value product that we should really start petitioning for in the States.

We just moved apartments, closer to the water and right across the water from Hong Kong. I'll have photos of that later. But as a result of moving we needed to make some purchases at Ikea. While ordering delivery for all the items that we bought my friend Chrizelle and I were observing the rates for Kitchen installment and were impressed that there were certain allowances on delivery:
I'm so glad our Sikh friends can receive door to door delivery.
China is really becoming quite tolerant.