Happy!

I am so HAPPY!

Why?

Because I went to the `Happiest Place on Earth:` Disneyland Tokyo.

Disneyland Tokyo is actually two parks, Disneyland and Disneysea. (Yes, I will wait as you reread those names.)

Tokyo Disneyland is larger than the original in California, but it is laid out in the same manner and has many of the same rides, usually reproduced exactly. It was funny to be on a couple of the rides and know that only me and a handful of others could understand what was being said. The gravestones at the Haunted Mansion, in English, is a prime example.

Fortunately, on Star Tours, C-3PO was translated into Japanese--he is, after all, fluent `in over six million forms of communication.` R2D2 still spoke in bleeps. Many of the filmed characters such as the ghosts in the Haunted Mansion or the humans in Star Tours were still the original American actors, sometimes dubbed, sometimes not.

I was disappointed by Disneyland, not only was it so similar to every other Disneyland on the planet--and way too crowded--but it was hard to compare after visiting Disneysea the day before.

Disneysea is only six years old. Instead of having areas based on land themes (Adventureland or Tomorrowland) they are all water-based. There was American Waterfront and Mysterious Island. It was the most expensive park ever built and it shows. It is absolutely gorgeous.

Arriving an hour after opening made me sad, but we quickly got into the swing of things. It is more adult-styled--even having alcohol for sale.

The park emptied at dusk and we had a great time enjoying it in the dark. Unfortunately they closed at 10. Or maybe that is good, my feet were really tired from walking.

I would like to show you pictures from Disneysea, but I accidentally deleted them all. Oops.
Disneyland Tokyo is celebrating its 25 Anniversary, but I suppose it would have been crowded anyway! Not only were the lines longer at Disneyland than Disneysea.

One good thing, I never had to compete with adults for silly things...
The adults were constantly amused that I, a gaijin, would try any old silly thing. I even got my friend Mutsumi do a few too. Most Japanese adults seemed to be way to wary of the eyes of others on them to do anything though. Toontown, the place with the best silly places to be, is a place I had never been before. Yes, I have not been to Disneyland since Who Framed Roger Rabbit came out! The rides might be for kids but I am always happy to clamber over any obstacle and play with any toys. And no, no children were harmed in the shooting of these pictures.

It was an exhausting 2 days, but well worth it.

Wish you were here!

Testing

Today, the second Friday of the new school year, is testing and so I have lots of time to write a new blog. Not many pictures though. I did make some diagrams though.

Remember, I am an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) at Mizuma Junior High most days of the week. On Mondays I go to Araki Elementary school, unless there is one of our monthly meetings in Fukuoka. Mizuma JH is about five minutes by bike for me. Araki is further, almost 30 minutes, although I haven`t rode there in months. I drive, even though I am not supposed to. It appears that I am not supposed to because they are afraid my mom would sue them if something happened while I was driving to work. (They must have had a bad experience before because they are not sue-happy like we are in the States. In fact, I would say they have the fewest lawyers of any more developed country.)

Here, elementary school starts at first grade and goes until sixth. Then kids go to junior high. And start over with the numbering system. Here, we have grades 1-3, even though the kids are 12-15.

Many elementary schools have dress codes. The local elementary school that I ride by on my way to the junior high has a dress code where the boys wear shorts and white socks and the girls where blue skirts. In the morning on their way to school, groups walk together (part of the system where the senpai, an older kid(or kids) are responsible for helping the kohai (younger kids) get to school safely). They make me think of little ducks, all walking in a line. The little yellow clothe hats they all wear helps with that image.

Araki Elementary is in Kurume proper. (Remember me talking about how Mizuma is part of Kurume? No? The blog is just from January. You can check it out if you want.) Like most schools in Kurume city, Araki kids do not wear uniforms. I keep getting kids wearing shirts that say Salt Lake City on them, which cracks me up. Anything with English on it is usually cool, no matter what it says. I had one second grade kid at Araki with F*** printed on his shirt. I am the only one who noticed though. I have taken pictures of all of these kids. I am not supposed to publish those pictures on the web without parental permission, so you are out of luck to see them.

Here at Mizuma (where I am writing this as the teachers are all in a whirlwind around me trying to get things ready for the next round of tests), the students wear a pretty standard Japanese school uniform. There is the winter and the summer uniform. We are still on winter, which means the girls wear navy blue sailor`s blouses with blue handkerchiefs over their blue skirts. The summer uniform is a white sailors blouse, still with that dark blue handkerchief. These two pictures are from last October`s English speech competition (remember that?). The girl on the left is wearing the winter and the girl on the right is wearing the summer. They had a few days to change their uniform. I was told they were allowed to wear the summer longer than usual because it was so warm here last year.

I do not have a picture for the boys (and I cannot go take one, they are all taking tests and I do not have parental permission either). The boys wear black pants summer and winter. In the summer they wear a simple button-down, short sleeve, white shirt. In the winter they wear a black jacket with huge buttons and a short, stiff collar called a Nehru jacket (a Nehru jacket`s collar is the one that just sticks up stiffly from the jacket about an inch, no fold over).

At all times, they have name tags sewn onto their tops. It says Mizuma Jr. High with their name underneath. They are even color coded for grade: light blue, dark blue and red. I know I will never mistakenly say `hi` to a student who is wearing a similar uniform because of those name tags.

All the kids wear white athletic shoes. I am not sure if this is required or fashion. The boys wear white socks, while the girls wear black. This is fashion, I know. I have noticed that some of the new first grade girls are wearing white socks. I would bet money that changes soon!
Mizuma Jr. High is in a building that is over 50 years old. There are more classrooms than we need. The population of the area is in decline. In general, Japan has a negative population growth, albeit a very slight one. Many more developed countries have a negative or neutral population growth--the United States just happens to be an anomaly in this area. The main reason, I think, for the population decline in the area is that it is inaka--the countryside. People are moving to the cities. Here you can see lots of rice fields (actually, wheat is growing now, it is almost as high as my waist) and our tallest building is the hospital. I have been told our town is `rice-rich` because of the amount of subsidies the town gets from the government for growing rice. (Fun fact, while Japan imports 2/3 of the food it consumes, the Philippines imports more rice than any other country in the world.)
The south side of the school is where the regular classrooms are. We are only using four of seven for each floor. The first grade only has three home rooms instead of four, like the second and third grades. Fewer students is the reason.
The students stay in their rooms, all together, all day--well, except for gym, science, computers and home economics and even then they go together to that class. Math and Japanese are exceptions at my school, the classes are split into two--Math for two levels of skill and Japanese for the ease of teaching, but it may be for levels too. The teachers share a giant office (I am right in the middle of it, right now) and go to the classroom when scheduled. It was like this in Zimbabwe.

Also, like in Zimbabwe, the schools are very test oriented. We have had 4 sets of school wide tests since September. And today is the first time they only took one day instead of 2 or 3. At the end of junior high, there are lots more exams for the third graders, in and out of school. These exams help the students get into high school, which they are not necessarily obligated to do. Most want to. If the students do not do well on the tests, they may not get into a government school and then their parents have to pay to send them to a private school.

After school study programs at private institutions are very popular here. Sometimes I feel the students who go there view school as a time to relax, sleep and socialize--they get a lot more work done at the study sessions.

All the students are all in the same English class. The students who can talk to me about what they did last weekend are right next to the student who has trouble reading the alphabet.

And nobody fails.

My friends and I have speculated that the main lesson to learn in JH is how to be Japanese. Work together, play together, eat together (the students eat in their classrooms together too, turning their desks together to make tables for six students)--it is all very socially centered.

The students all (well, 99% of them) belong to a club too. Most of the clubs are sports, but there is art and the band too (which only has two boys!). The kids come early, stay late and even come on weekends to practice. Games with other schools are often held on Saturday mornings or holidays. And the teacher who is in charge of the club is usually there for most of it, too.

The teachers spend a lot more time working here than they do in the states. I often thought teachers in the states worked hard--they really deserve and need that summer break--but Americans have nothing on the Japanese. Summer break here is 6 weeks, from mid-July until the beginning of August, but for the teachers that is only just time they are not actually in the classroom; they are still at the school.

I missed something you think I should talk about, or if I was unclear about anything, let me know!

Kyoto

Yes, it is two months later and I a getting around to writing about Kyoto. With a little luck, you will hear about my trip to Thailand shortly...

First, an update on hitting my head on the door frames in my apartment. Since the last report, I have had a few close calls and one square hit. That hit was not as painful as the one where I fell to my knees, but I would call it the second worst. I was even in my stocking feet when it happened. Ouch.


The new school year started last week, with lots of changes. We had some time off between the school years, hence why I went to Thailand.


Ok...

Back in February, there was a 3 day weekend. Monday, February 11, was National Foundation Day. It celebrates the (unproven) foundation of Japan as an empire in 660BC. Sounds good to me.


Kyoto was the capital of Japan for a long time, around 500 years, before Tokyo. It was rarely bombed in World War II, and, for that reason, there are many older buildings there unlike in many other cities. Kyoto was even on the list for the atom bomb. The theory was that because there are so many intellectuals there they would appreciate the bomb. Fortunately, Kyoto was taken of the list.

On Saturday I rode the Shinkansen (the high-speed train) to Kyoto. It was snowing heavily there. This was unusual. Kyoto, which is near Osaka, is like Tokyo in that they do get snow, but rarely does it snow all day like it did that day. It was a heavy wet snow like New York snow, not like Utah`s light powder.
That`s not a snowball in your hand is it...?

After dropping off our bags at the hotel--we were too early to check-in--we took a bus to one of the temples, Kiyomizu-dera. It is Buddhist temple and a World Heritage site. One of the most famous in Kyoto, even. It is on the hills (well, they call them mountains...) in the east part of town.

There is a 3-roof pagoda and balconies built over the edges of ravines. Because of the snow, we could not see the rest of Kyoto from the temple.
That day was fabulous, even with the mobs of tourists (we like to joke that the rude ones are Chinese, but unfortunately there is some truth to this). I really enjoyed my biggest day of snow this year.

That evening we ordered Domino's and watched Lost. Fun, eh?

The next day was sunny and warm. The snow started melting pretty quickly. Our first stop was Nanzen-ji. It is a Zen Buddhist temple that was founded in 1264. It is famous for a few things, including the main gate (sanmon) which was built in 1628. There is also supposed to be beautiful rock gardens, but we skipped them in part due to the snow (couldn`t see them under the snow) and they wanted us to pay a bit for everything at the temple--they were trying to nickle-and-dime us to death!

Most people know about Sakura, the Japanese cherry blossoms. These happen in mid-spring (and just so happen to be the same time the year starts here!). What many people do not know is the plum blossoms that bloom in February. They came early this year because of our mild winter, but the snow storm meant we could not see them. At Nanzen-jin, the trees were covered with small patches of ice where the snow had clung to the blossoms. As we walked around the temple the ice-covered flowers would fall and break on the ground.

In the rear of the temple, we found a beautiful aqueduct.

We took a nice walk to the next temple. Close to the temple, we stopped and had the meal that Kyoto is famous for: Tofu. As there are so many monks, Kyoto is famous for tofu. With the meal we had fresh soy milk and about 7 different tofu dishes (or similar to tofu dishes). I really enjoyed this. I remember reading an article in the New Yorker a few years ago that was a travelogue of the journalist travelling and trying the many different kinds of tofu there are--not just the types you see in the store in the states! It was really interesting to try a few different types and to eat them in a way that I have not eaten it before. Here in Mizuma, I buy tofu at my cheap store (the one without the produce if you remember from the bread blog). It is only 29Yen, about 29 cents now. Super cheap. Generally I freeze it before I use it, letting it defrost in the fridge. This gives it a much firmer texture. I make a lot of curries with it and even burritos now and then. Yum!
After our tofu meal, we hiked up the hill to the `Silver Temple,` Ginkaku-ji. It is actually called Jisho-ji (Temple of Shining Mercy). It was built in 1474 by a guy who was trying to imitate his grandfather`s Golden Temple. Perhaps he was going to cover it in silver, too, although it is only wood. It was a great place, with lots of trees and a few paths up the hills. A small pond was located near the main building. In the picture, to the right, you can see the snow covering the rock garden.
From there we took a bus across town to the Kinkaku-ju, the Golden Temple. Originally built in 1397, it had, sadly, to be restored in the past 50 years. It is covered by real gold.
Here we encountered the most people we had seen yet.

At all the places we visited there were many buildings. The last two were originally retirement homes that were dedicated, on the owners request at their death, to be temples.

I took the Shinkansen home on Monday. The second to last stop, and the only other one in Kyushu besides that last one (which is my stop) is in Kitakyushu. The train stops in the old center of town: Kokura. Kokura was the second choice for the first atom bomb. If Hiroshima was covered with clouds or smoke, they were going to drop the bomb on Kokura. The day was sunny and clear and no cities were burning nearby, so the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Kokura was the first choice for the second bomb. Unluckily for Nagasaki, the second choice, a nearby city was burning and Kokura was obscured. The bombing of Japan by regular bombs is often overlooked by the atom bombs. Technically, the total poundage of destruction on Tokyo was more than either of the atom bombs. Japan suffered through their own Dresden firebombing a few times over.


Japanese are often amazed by our, Americans`, curious desire to visit the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and their war memorials. They recognize we are not gloating but it is hard to describe why we go. Guilt? Pride? Respect? I hope to go to Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Nagasaki is only 3 hours by driving from my place while Hiroshima is hour by Shinkansen.

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).

A quick trip to the Netherlands

Recently, November 24, I had the chance to travel to Huis Ten Bosch. Huis Ten Bosch is Dutch for house in the woods. It is also a famous palace in the Netherlands.

It was a beautiful day, a little bit warm for the season. I went with Jessica (an American), Richard (a Brit) and Shino (a Japanese woman). I forgot to charge my camera so I have been waiting for Shino to send me pictures. She had a super nice digital camera so it was worth the wait.

We arrived at about mid-afternoon and walked about until sunset. We looked at the flowers, windmills and canals. We stopped at a cheese store and I went nuts. The Gouda was sooooo good, as was the smoked Gouda. Jessica and Richard were just as happy with the Gelato they had.

At 5:25, we, like many other people, gathered at the city hall for the tree lighting ceremony. Santa Clause came out along with two young women carrying candles. A woman sang a couple of carols. Then, a young woman professed her love for her beau. He embarrassedly stood there while she did so. Then the two of them used the candles the young women had carried to symbolically light the main tree.

We walked through the Christmas markets, but they had little that I wanted to buy. I had really hoped they would have mulled wine like they do in German Christmas markets. They had some beer, but Dutch beer has never been my favorite and I did not like the idea of transporting it so I didn`t buy any. We walked for a while, past many, many lighted buildings and trees.

Finally, we arrived at Huis Ten Bosch. The actual building (a museum) was closed but we were allowed through the basement into the rear gardens which were beautifully lit up.

Before we left, I bought a bunch of chocolate and some cheese. Yum!