Tokyo

The first day I arrived at Tokyo, Dec 28, I went to Akihabara. I had just travelled on the all night bus from Osaka and was tired. However, Akihabara is Otaku heaven, so I was happy to go. Otaku is a Japanese pejorative term for geeks--usually anime geeks--but we expats love using it. It is pejorative in Japanese because, I think, it is a name for a group that is outside the norm. In a conformity-based culture that is bad.

Akihabara is full of electronics stores and anime, manga and gaming stores. Blocks and blocks and blocks of it. It was amusing and a definite must when you go to Tokyo.If you did not know, Tokyo is huge. The central city area is like New York City, not all that small in itself and densely packed. Tokyo is the only city whose population is more dense than NYC. From there, the similarities continue: Tokyo is surrounded by other cities and prefectures that have all grown together to form a supercity. People can drive around, but it is often just as easy to take the public transport system which is made up of mostly trains and subways. In the picture above you can see a map for a local area of train routes. The true map of Tokyo transport is huge!
Yes, click on the map and it will expand in your window...

Yes, it really is easier to get around on the trains...

A common belief is that the Japanese drink a lot of tea. This is true. But they also love their coffee. Strong too. Starbucks had over 700 stores in Japan and is aiming for 1000. In 2006, they were the most popular restaurant in Tokyo. I find this a little odd, as Starbucks customers have to smoke outside, while at other chains (including Mr. Donut, Doutour and Tully`s) all have some sort of indoor smoking. The Japanese are like the Europeans when it comes to smoking. Ick. I actually noticed a new brand of cigarettes being advertised yesterday. How often do you notice that in the States?

I have been buying the Starbucks collectible city mugs in my travels. They are all regular size mugs--that is smaller than the other collectible mugs you find in other countries! Smaller, go figure.
Besides tea and coffee, beer is popular. WE went to a ramen shop one night specifically because they were advertising a dark beer. I think beer in Japan is blah. Eating at a counter is a common restaurant spot whether it is at a ramen shop or a sushi shop or a udon shop or even McDonald's (but not Starbucks!). Shopping is a common activity here as it is anywhere but the places that one shop can be very different. One mall that we went to on a island in Tokyo bay was called Venus Fort Mall. It is upscale shopping on the top two levels that were designed as if the place was in Italy, cheap shops on the main floor, an attached amusement area with theatres, bowling and a giant Ferris wheel, and a car museum.The last day in Tokyo, I went to the Ghibli Museum. Ghibli studios is a famous Anime studio. They made Spirited Away and Princess Monoake, along with many others. The mastermind of the operation, Hayao Miyazaki, decided to build this museum for everyone to enjoy. The figure behind the glass is one of his best loved creations, Totoro.

New Years is a huge holiday for the Japanese--but not a party one.  Midnight is usually spent at a Buddhist shrine to ring the bell after midnight and then, the next day, people go to a Shinto temple to pray some more.  An important decoration of the New Year is bamboo poles surrounded evergreens with red winter berries stuck inside.   Bamboo is strong and unyielding and is meant to represent family--or so I was told--in strength and prosperity for the New Year.  This picture was taken outside the museum.

My museum visit was January 3rd. That night I headed back south on the night bus to Osaka where I caught a train to Fukuoka. A week in Tokyo was short! Maybe next time I will get to go to Tokyo Disney!

Life in General

Yes, it has been a long time.

I do have enough for two posts (actually more!) so let me do one on my life and the area. I wish I had more pictures of my trip to the Philippines for x-mas so I could make you jealous but someone (MAC!!!) has only sent a few easy to use pictures.

First off, I have to say, I have finally hit my head on the doorways in my house. Actually, I have done it three times this year. Twice in one week even. Here is the deal. If I stand straight on the threshold, I can feel the top of the door frame tickling my head and hairs.

The first time I hit my head was a day when I remembered some item I wanted in my pocket just as I was leaving. I had already put my boots on (they are my warmest shoes and, as the teachers` office at my school is fairly cool, I wear them out a need to keep my toes functioning--if my toes get cold, that is it: no more Mr. Nice Guy!). Not being Japanese, I just went back into my house to get whatever it was (phone, iPod, who knows). Yes, I almost always do take my shoes off in entryway. It is easy and helps keep the house clean (those floors really collect dust!). However, I do not share the Japanese belief that shoes are unclean (you can think about that in the same way that the Catholic Church would say something is unclean--not just dirty, something stronger!) so even though I was going back in to my apartment, I wasn`t going to take off my shoes just to put them back on again. Passing into the kitchen, I stepped on the threshold and whacked my head into the door frame. It hurt so bad, I ended up on my knees clutching my head.

The next two times I was just walking around in my apartment in my slippers (yay! slippers! keep them toes warm!). I didn`t do any damage like I did the first time, but still.

Toes warm. Yes, a very important issue in this land where houses are built in three or four months and insulation is unheard of. The teachers office has heater/AC units, just like my apartment, but for some reason, the room is never `warm`. At home, I set up my kotatsu in the living room and use a small electric blanket on my bed. What is a kotatsu you ask? Well, let me tell you:

A kotatsu is a small table (think sitting on the floor small) that has a heater attached to the underside. You put a comforter over the top of the table and then stick your legs under the comforter to stay warm. There is supposed to be another slab of wood/plastic to go on the comforter where it is on the table, but I don`t have that (and even if I did, it wouldn`t have saved my comforter from that dark beer I spilled (dark beer, you say? a discussion for another day). I know it sounds funny. But it works! Sometimes it gets too hot. You can adjust the temperature, but being lazy like I am, I usually just stick part of my feet out of the comforter. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotatsu (If you go to this web page, there is a picture there. I do not have a small chair like is shown, but rather a small love seat that sits on the floor. Works well with the kotatsu.)

Small table, small door frames...yes, I am a giant here. I was recently talking with a teacher at another school and he said I must have been really good at sports. I was unsure why until he pointed out my height. It made me laugh (you know how much I like sports) and tried to explain to him that I am just average in the states (and on the bottom of that average, too!)

When you go to some restaurants, they have special areas where you take off your shoes and still traditional style around small tables. Yes, I have difficulty sitting on cross legged on my butt for a long time (sometimes hours!). When you need to use the restroom, or go out and smoke (ick! too many people smoke here!) you merely slip on slippers provided for you by the restaurant. This also happens at many schools when you visit.

The problem is my feet and the size of the shoes. Sometimes they can really be uncomfortable they are so small! If I know I have to go to visit a school, I try and take my own extra pair of shoes and hope they believe they are my `clean` shoes!

As I mentioned, it is cold enough for my toes to be cold. However, here, where I am in Kyushu, it is not cold enough to snow. Well, at least not regularly. It snowed Sunday. I was driving down the road and could not figure out what that stuff was that was falling. It was sunny out and for a minute I thought it was ash... It melted the second it hit the ground. Some mornings there is frost on the new crops that are coming up. If it hit freezing, it only does it right before dawn and then we warm up, often to over 50F. I did some research and found that I am near to Atlanta, GA in latitude (yes, the same as San Diego, but our weather is nothing like San Diego!). Cold air comes down from China/Mongolia/Russia in the winter and up from the Pacific in the summer. My California friends are complaining that this is the worst winter they have ever had, while everyone else (including some Canadians!) are saying this is the nicest!

Japan is a long country, about the size of California. I am on Kyushu, the southernmost large island (Okinawa is further south, but it is small), and so my weather is fairly nice. Hokkaido, is the furthest north and they are having a brutal weather this year. Yes if you look at the map, you will see I am kind of close to the ocean, but the best beaches are north, near Fukuoka City. (I live in Fukuoka prefecture, on the south side from the city.)
I live in Kurume City. It is smaller than Salt Lake`s metro area. This is even after it recently absorbed four small, nearby towns (we cynically believe it was for the money; Kurume is dirt poor but the towns are rice rich). One of those is the town I live in, Mizuma. I teach at Mizuma Jr. High School. Even though we are part of the city, we often view things as if we are separate. This has good and bad effects, as you can guess. Mizuma is famous for strawberries (everywhere in Japan is famous for something!). I have ridden by the greenhouses lately and seen them growing monster strawberries. (A couple of my friends called them mutant, but these are kids who still think that there is only one kind of banana in the world...)

I do not know what Kurume is famous for except a certain type of ramen. Ramen (pronounced more like la-men), like the winter weather and Buddhism, is here after travelling from China. In Kurume, there is a hug

e white statue of a certain Buddha dedicated to children who have died young, Narita-san. While most Buddha appear to be male or androgynous, Narita-san looks decidedly feminine, helped no doubt by the child in her arms. For 500Yen you can climb up the inside of the statue and look over Kurume. After climbing the statue you take a subterranean passage (under the red Indian looking temple in the picture) to another part of the shrine that explains the beginning of Shintoism (the original Japanese religion that currently coexists with Buddhism), valuable minerals found around the world and an explanation of hell, complete with animitronic devils (oni) and suffering souls (I really wish I had had my camera that day!). Shintoism doesn`t have a supreme devil, a la Lucifer, but there are devils dedicated to punishing souls who have failed in a certain area. I am not sure how this part of Shintoism works with the wheel of life (and suffering) in Buddhism, but this is Japan a land of strange juxtapositions (like that Indian-style temple next the very pagoda shrine on the hill).