Dispatches from Japan

And no, it's not the CBC, though I do love them.

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First off, apologies for being a bit behind on the video this week.

It's Tuesday morning and I had a great time at the Beck show in Osaka last night. It was quite something to see him in such a small venue - Zepp Osaka is comparable to the Opera House in Toronto or Barrymore's in Ottawa. The show opened with a puppet show version of the band "performing" Loser, and the band came out half-way through. The puppet show was a key feature of the show - puppeteers were situated right behind the band mimicking their performance and this was projected up in "Puppetron" behind the stage. Devil's Haircut and New Pollution followed, setting a good tone for the night. Though Japanese audiences have a bit of reputation for static viewership, this group was pretty energetic and the band seemed to respond to it. "Clap Hands", near the end of the set, was another highlight, with only Beck on acoustic and the rest of the band seated at a dinner table playing dishes and cutlery. They had just eaten a small sushi dinner while Beck played a quieter acoustic set, mixing in "Wave of Mutilation" and the Velvets' "Sunday Morning".

The show ended early enough - it was barely 9pm - for us to have dinner and catch the last shinkansen back to Okayama at 11pm. I drove the cow van back to Yakage and was happy to be home by 115am.

This morning is the school's opening ceremony for the new school year, and a welcome for the new Grade 7s.

Congratulations to Nigel on getting into Teacher's College, to All Caps for a year of bring music to the kids, and if you're in Toronto, check out Lauren's No Shame show on Wednesday night, featuring Amber and Jon! (See ad below)

Hey there,

I went to Kyoto this past weekend. I'll post about it next weekend, but here's this week's video - it's part 2 of the tour of Yakage. I'm afraid I can't get the links to embed properly yet, but just click the link below.

Hope you're all well and congratulations to Nigel on getting into Teacher's College!

It sounds like winter's hanging on in Canada, but spring's definitely hit Japan. I was out in a t-shirt on Sunday.

Speaking of Sunday, that night in Toronto, Lauren put on her first show under the banner of Shameless Promotions, and it was very successful. "No Shame" Night No.1 at Tiger Bar sold out twice over, and featured Woodhands and Republic of Safety - one of my favourites - as well as Bocce and The Miles. Sorry to those out there that went and couldn't get in, and congratulations, Laur, for the success. It was Eye's Pick of the Week. I wish I could have been there.

Next month's show will feature my ex-roommate and friend Amber's band, so if you're in Toronto, do check it out! The Boat in Kensington Market, Wednesday April 11, 9pm, $5. Sarah Mingle, An Eastern Wind, Isla Craig and Story Lane Road (Amber and Jon).

The cherry blossoms are starting to come out, and I'm going to Kyoto for the first time this weekend to see them. I'll be sure to post some pictures.

Also, if you have iTunes, you can go to my Twango site and subscribe to my channel, so if I post any audio or video, your computer can download it automatically.

There are pictures posted there as well.

Hope you're all sleeping well on Wednesday night...

Kindly yours,

Kevin

Hi everyone.

Here is a short tour video that I shot riding around on my bike with my cell phone before winter set in. I'm trying to piece together a picture of my town, Yakage. I meant to do this a long time ago, but was wrestling with different editing software and technical difficulties. Perhaps they're ironed out and you'll be able to find video clips here from time to time. I'm going to try to post photos and smaller clips at my Twango site.

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<a href="http://www.twango.com/media/kevinsasaki.public/kevinsasaki.10031"><img src="http://media.twango.com/m1/roundedthumbnail/0047/ee5ecd40cdb44df0ab0ba00f135603af.jpg" border="0" title="Earthquake Drill - Twango" alt="Earthquake Drill - Twango" width="100" height="100" /></a>

If you're just checking out the blog for the first time, thanks for stopping by.

It's Monday morning and sunny. Today looks to be a bit of a slow one.

In Japan, the school year begins in April and ends in March with a two-week Spring break in between. The kids do get a longer break in summer between first and second term, which is when I arrived and when I will leave as well.
I'm teaching at a Junior High School, Grades 7 to 9. They are called "first, second and third year students (ichi-, ni-, and san-nensei)" respectively. I work most closely with the second years, and their English teacher, Mr. Kazunori Harada. In the office, my desk is with the other second year teachers, and when I have free periods, I join second year classes. There are three other English teachers - Aota, Saito and Okubo - that I also work with.

Anyway, last week was really quiet. A lot of the first years have been sick with the flu, so their classes were half-full.* And the third years were out all week visiting their future high schools, so I had very few classes.

Last Friday was Graduation Day for the third years. Nice ceremony, a lot of formality, some tearful speeches. In the evening, I went out for dinner and drinks in Kurashiki with the second year teachers. We had a private room in a sukiyaki restaurant. The food was great, and since neither of the English teachers came, I had a good Japanese workout.

Saturday I went into Okayama City in the afternoon, and a farewell party for some English teachers who were returning to the States. I've only met Anne and Ben a few times, but it was good to hang out with them and meet their replacements. They work at a small private school run by a ex-pat Torontonian, and their replacements are also Canadians - Adam and Estella.

Last weekend I was talked into joining up with the Touch Rugby team, and we had our second practice Sunday afternoon. It's a lot of fun, and all the Kiwis seem happy to be showing us the game. There's a tournament in April in Shikoku.

Bye for now.

* About a month ago, our prefecture was in the news for having Japan's fifth outbreak of bird flu. They were culling birds in Takahashi, just north of here, where some of my school's teachers are from, as well as my friends Ana and Rene. It was the talk of the staff room for a while, but it's simmered down.

Ah yes... cigarette smoke. Honestly, it was getting a little ripe in there. I caught a whiff of burning plastic and found that someone had left a plastic bag on one of the heaters. Half an hour later, it was nearing eleven o'clock and the tent is as densely packed as... well, Japan. Except everyone's male and in diapers. The blue tarp on the roof is bloating with rainwater and slipping down the cracks between the tents, dragging with it the wires and exposed bulbs, and contributing to the feeling of claustrophobia. I get the word from Vasco that they're heading out, and I've almost forgotten about the cold.

I'm reminded as I step outside, my feet now tightly wrapped in tape. I catch a group and find that we're all linking arms now, still yelling. Wa shoi! Inside a running group, it's warmer but we disperse as we run through the pool again. This time, we go all the way in, around the fountain at the back which showers us, then run back out. My taped feet make it through, and we continue along the course.

Now, the temple is covered with people. An Irish friend, Wayne, and I make our way up the stairs. It is warmer up there, and sheltered from the rain, but the crowd is pitching violently. I am reminded of the mosh pits of the 90s. There is no crowd surfing, I am relieved to see. Wayne is shouting that his feet are being trampled, and I'm trying to stay upright as waves of human force crush us together. I keep an eye out for escape routes and make sure I can still get out. I spend a while up there. My feet are punished and I have a moment of being stretched, my foot stuck on the ground and my body being carried away with someone's elbow in my chest.  Around 1130pm I decide that it's getting too violent and I make my way to the edge, rolling around people and trying to squeeze my way out. The men at the outside are tightly packed to keep the crowd from spilling off this platform and down the stone stairs. In a moment I go from feeling trapped to very, very exposed, as I look out over the gathered mass of people below.

Outside the rain is still falling and the men are mostly standing, huddled together and waiting for midnight. I take up a spot underneath the temple eaves at the bottom of the stairs and watch the action above.

Every few minutes, a long and penetrating line of poncho-ed police insinuated their way through the crowd and up the stairs, apparently pulling out people in danger, and then retreating. The men applaud every time, and it's a welcome intervention. I'm amazed that they manage to make it in there, and wonder if maybe this whole thing isn't just a training activity for riot police.

Then the white lights go out, replaced by red spots and strobes, and I know the sticks have been dropped because the storm on the temple platform has broken loose and now men are running in the dark, chasing each other and for a minute it feels like total chaos. I'm confused and don't see any sticks so I follow a running group for a minute. I run into my friend Ludo. He tells me that we should head for the gate because anyone who gets a stick has to go through there. I follow him but he disappears in the crowd.

As I arrive at the gate, the lights come up... the game is over and I can see the energy dissipating. I head to the tent and arrive before the crowd, pull my jeans on over my fundoshi and savour the warmth, grab my bag and slip outside into the departing crowd of spectators.

The only sign that I was a participant are the tabi socks that I still have on my feet as I walk through the town in the rain.

Dear Reader,

If you're just tuning in now, please go down to the previous post (below) to read the beginning.

Before I launch back into this.... I'd like to send out some birthday wishes:

Happy birthday to the Patrick twins, Kylie and Ben in Ottawa and to the "Triple Birthday Action" triumvirate in Toronto: Nirmala, Emily and Wendy. They all celebrated birthdays this past weekend.

Also, it was nice to hear from you N. and S.*

And a public service announcement: I lost a big chunk of my address book and most of my birthdays. While I remember many, it would help me a lot if you send me an a) updated mailing address, b) your preferred email and phone contact, c) your birthday and d) the details of any songs you've had stuck in your head lately. Particularly if you can't remember the song. Please send them to kevinsasaki@hotmail.com and put Address Update in the subject line. Who knows... there may be a pretty Japanese postcard in it for you!

From my end, let's see...

a) Kevin Sasaki
102-39 Obayashi
Yakage-cho, Oda-gun
Okayama-ken
714-1202
JAPAN

b)
Email: kevinsasaki@hotmail.com
Phone (International): 011-81-[(0)866]-83-0714
[Note: All or part of the [(0)866] may be unnecessary...]
(9am EST = 11pm JST)
* My Skype name is Kevin Sasaki, if you want to try that.
I've also been sucked into My Space (http://www.myspace.com/kevinsasaki)
and Facebook (Kevin Sasaki), though I'm not that active with them.

c)
DOB: August 7, 1974

d)
I've got the Inspector Clouseau (cartoon) theme stuck in my head right now. (Na. Na... Na... Na... Nananana Na. Nana Nananana Na... .. etc.)

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *  

As I write this, I've just plunged my tea ball like a diving bell into a hot cup of water, sending up plumes of earthy brown. It is a warm and comforting sight, unlike the night in question...

... We're back in the long tent now and I've just been secured into fundoshi. Even with the kerosene heaters, it's chilly waiting for the others to get ready. I step outside for a minute, nearly freeze and see the bizarre sight of men - presumably dads - with little boys on their shoulders in fundoshis doing the miniature version of the festival. They are running a circuit and will probably have a stick thrown to them in a little while. Like the Harvest Festival a few months ago, there always seems to be a Junior Training version at these things. Unlike the Harvest Festival, where the older men had their own version as well, there are many senior-looking men arriving now, looking frail but gearing up to run with the rest of us.

One of my companions is Dave Hakaraia. He's a big boy. A Kiwi with Maori roots, he will stand out in the mob of Japanese men. He's tied his dreaded hair back, and covered his large family tattoos on his arms in skin-coloured tape because tattoos are not allowed in the temple. Rene De Joux is another large Kiwi, a former boxer, who will stand out with his big shaven head. He offered to watch my back tonight and I take some comfort in this, though I don't know how many of his wits he left in a beer can on the bus. Then there's Vasco, who's already caught the attention of a camera crew and is being followed around for interviews.

Like paratroopers,  the large group of mostly non-Japanese men suddenly empty out of the tent, and I hang in doubt a minute before throwing myself out too. The crowd is lined up along the road and kids are high-fiving us and cheering. Security in long white and blue ponchos and head gear are lined up as well, imposing and incredibly numerous. I'm shivering already and catch up with the group just as it enters the main gate, feeling very naked indeed.

We are yelling something that sounds like: "Wa shoi [step] [step] Wa shoi [step] [step]".  The ground is hard and wet and gravelly. I feel like I'm in nudist boot camp. I am in a group of about twenty and there are a few other similar-sized groups at different stages of this circuit. I see the giant ancient-looking Kannonji Temple in the harsh glare of  sodium lights. Bleachers are set up and the audience is sitting under umbrellas. I later learn that they paid $50 for those seats and wonder if I'm going to get a cut. Others are down on the ground level with us, snapping pictures and yelling encouragement. They look wet and cold too.

Then we turn a corner and run up an incline from which very soggy and cold people are emerging. The fountain. I recall thinking... maybe it's warm... for just a second, knowing it wasn't so. Wa shoi! Wa shoi! Our voices rising and mixing with curses as we plunge into the icy pool of swirling water. I try to splash water on myself but I can't bring myself to submerge completely. I break out quickly, still yelling and realize that I've lost a tabi sock. As my team presses on, I turn back and run back into the pool, search a little desperately for my lost footwear. There's no white in that cold brownish murk so I give up and chase after my group. My foot is already numb but I worry that I'm not going to be able to be like this all night.

We run up some temple stairs to a small shrine area, clap our hands and take a moment for blessing, then head back down. Some ropes have been suspended above our heads and it appears we're supposed to jump and try to reach them, so I do.

Finally we come around to the temple proper. I run up the stairs and have a look around. There is large covered rectangular area surrounded on three sides by pillars and long stairs, and on the fourth by the temple itself. On the temple side, about fifteen feet up, is a long opening where it appears that monks and other guests - including some kids - are waiting and doing mysterious things. I figure that that is where the stick will be thrown later, but there are few people here yet. I follow the crowd down and out, and to my relief, find that we're going back into the tent to warm up.

I drop a few bucks on a second pair of socks, borrow some electrical tape and see to it that my feet don't go bare again. The tent that was mostly foreigners (us) before, is filling up with locals now. It's then that I realize that we may have been a little premature on our first tour of duty. Soon, I can feel my fingers and toes again, and after a half an hour it's packed with people. It's warm, humid, and full of cigarette smoke.

But now I must get to bed... Good night. Tune in next time.

Kevin

************

* (Not the opp. sds. of the Am. Civ. War. However... I'm not sure if the latter is "Toronto with twins" or "Ottawa with precocious daughter"... or maybe I'm totally off.)

* The following post contains scenes of public nudity and mature subject matter. And meat and meat by-products. Reader discretion is advised. *

Last weekend was a busy one. There was a staff party on Friday night after work. Before I came I was made to expect that Japanese school staff go out drinking all the time as a way of blowing off steam, but it hasn't happened much in Yakage. So when I got the invitation last week, I wanted to make sure I went. Although I'm getting more comfortable with many teachers, I still feel a bit like the odd one out in the staff room, and these casual nights out are supposed to build camaraderie among teachers and administration.

At 5pm, after all the kids filed out on their identical bicycles, we headed off to Kurashiki City and gathered at a yakiniku place near the station. We had a private room with tatami mats on the floor and a long low table. We sat on the floor and ate and drank. There was a burst of applause when the principal and vice-principal arrived, and they led us in a toast. Before long the air was thick with cigarette smoke, the smell of grilling meat and conversation. It's very common to see plates of sliced organs and glands of beef brought out as well, and some are eaten raw. This is not light eating. Danger cow indeed.

Anyway, I got to know a few teachers a bit better and work on my Japanese chops, particularly with the senior teachers, Mrs Tanino (Grade 8 Math) and Mr Yamamuro (Grade 8 Japanese). As the evening wore on, a few teachers who I used to think completely inscrutable, were cutting loose a bit. The Judo teacher, Mr Ikeda, was getting a bit glassy-eyed and appeared to have difficulty focusing as he questioned me about my life. Some teachers are still a mystery though. Anyway, it was a good time, and I extracted myself in time to make the last train home. Tomorrow was going to be a big day.

I woke early Saturday morning and with a heavy head, wondering if I really needed to go to Art Class. But I dragged myself out of bed, surveyed the gathering clouds outside and collected everything I'd need for the big day. Tonight was "Hadaka Matsuri", a traditional winter festival in Eastern Okayama, which I had signed up to participate in. And I was a bit scared.

You see, Hadaka Matsuri is also known colloquially among foreigners here as "The Naked Man Festival". 3000 men dressed only in loincloths running around in the cold of winter around a Buddhist temple waiting for midnight when "fragrant sticks" would be thrown into the chaos and fought over to win prizes. Cash prizes. I was particularly reticent about the "cleansing pool" that we were going to have to run through.

Polar bears, pampers, Pamplona...

I have a bit of a thing about being cold. To say nothing of being nearly naked in front of large audiences.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. It was still morning, and I resolved to go through with the day as planned.

I barely caught the 9am train and rode with Rachel into Okayama. We had some coffee and headed for Herb's Art class. Today was charcoal, and I was way out of practice. I got pretty frustrated trying to draw Herb's smirking cat statuette. Afterward, we went for lunch and then I took off on my own to work on Japanese for a while. At 3pm, I had Japanese class and spent and hour and a half with Kurita-sensei reviewing how to count things. One small animal, "ip-piki". One sheet of paper, "ichi-mae". One bolt of lightning, ha ha ha ha ha ha!**

I walked in the light rain to Herb and Amy's apartment, where Rachel and Dave and friends were having dinner and enjoying a few before meeting the bus for the Festival. I became soggy and cold in the process, but my doubts about participating in the Matsuri were parried off by reassurances that it would be fun and that I'd be ok.

The bus-load of football hooligans that trundled off to Saidaiji made me feel a little out of place. The Okayama JETs had chartered this bus to ferry us and visiting JETs from other prefectures to the event. It was a drunken, testosterone-rich melee of 60 ex-pats who hurled (mostly good-natured) nationalist insults at one another and sang the drinking songs of their home and native lands. Certainly there were a few quiet ones but it was hard to tell.

In the small town of Saidaiji, we walked through the streets to the Kannonji Temple. The streets were lined with vendors and the sound of fireworks was in the air. We purchased our "fundoshi" (loincloths) and tabi socks - our outfits for the night - and went into the long, low-ceilinged changing tent. I tossed my clothes into the white garbage bag that I bought for $10 and tied it to a tentpole. Then I lined up with the others and an old man "wrapped me up" professionally, literally lifting me off the floor to make sure it was nice and tight. (Curiously, a fundoshi is about enough cloth to make curtains for a small condominium, yet the coverage was as you might expect.)

... To be continued



* Yakiniku is grilled meat, where you have a hibachi on your table and they bring out plates of raw beef and vegetables to cook yourself. I believe it's the same as Korean BBQ, but I'm not sure. It's really popular, especially for the "drinking party".
** That's supposed to sound like The Count from Sesame Street.

One of my intentions for this blog is to show some of the details of Japan. From time to time I'll leave this thing on while I'm at work, and try to give you a look at what it's like here at Yakage Chugako. I'll try to remember to call it something appropriate. Like "At work".

***

Just finished lunch. I'm heading to a 2nd year class in a minute. We're doing comparatives still - "I like lions better than rabbits", etc. Tomorrow there are elementary school teachers coming to watch our class, so Harada and I have been putting material together.

Lunch clean up:
There are no janitors in the school. Students clean the school themselves. Every day after lunch, there's a ten minute cleaning time when classes are divided into their cleaning teams and they tidy up. Not all students are enthusiastic about this activity, but it keeps the place clean.

Shoes and footwear:
Everyone leaves their shoes outside in cubbyholes and has separate "school shoes". Guests to the school can wear "guest slippers" that are by the door. The school is pretty open to the elements, but there's a clear distinction between where one wears the "indoor shoe" and  the "outdoor shoe". The gym requires different shoes as well. This is consistent with nearly everywhere else in Japan. This makes clean-up a lot easier, too.






****
Glossary:
*  Chugako: Chu means middle and gako is school. It's Junior High School.
* 1st, 2nd, 3rd year: Grade 7,8 and 9.

Hello everyone,

First, I just want to share a picture of me and Lauren and the crazy cow van. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure, this is Lauren. She is wonderful. And this is the crazy cow van. It is merely good. We've been together since October 2005,  (Well, minus the van.) and she's stuck with me through a lot, including this latest year in Japan and a month in El Salvador.


The van belongs to my friend Dave Hakaraia*. He was home in New Zealand for the holidays, so he lent it to us. The writing on the side (kanji) reads "abunai ushi", which means "Danger Cow". We drove around in this for the better part of two weeks. We got some looks.

[*Footnote: Dave is the latest addition to my short list of "Dave friends with crazy vans", including "Dave-Trautrimas-and-his-crazy- back-to-the-future-'marty! the libyans!'-van". ]
 
In short, to continue the story from last episode, Lauren and I had a great three weeks together. After lunch with Takeharu I picked Lauren up at Narita airport, which is an hour train-ride outside of Tokyo. We had a late dinner at kaitenzushi, and stayed in a quaint place in Asakusa. The next day we explored Tokyo and the following day was Christmas. Shoichi came to visit us and took us to lunch at Tsukiji Market, reputed to have the freshest sushi in the world. (!) I believe it was. Then we went to see some kabuki and walked the grounds of the Imperial Palace. (to be continued)

***

Last week, after celebrating Vasco's birthday, I went with couple of friends to see Iron & Wine and Calexico. It's kind of rare for North American bands to make it this far west (in Japan), so I was excited to see some live music. It was a very cool show. I missed the Iron & Wine set, but Calexico was a lot of fun, and they invited Sam and Sarah back up to play about 5 songs at the end.


My friend Mandy and me with Sam Beam (Iron & Wine).



Also, bird flu has hit Japan for the third time, and yes... it's Okayama. A poultry farm in Takahashi is culling birds suspected of carrying the H5N1 strain. It's been the talk of the lunchroom around here, but more as an embarassment than a major worry, as far as I can tell. My friends Ana and Rene live in Takahashi, as do some of my teachers here and it's a nice town just to the north. Though the actual site is apparently in Kawakami, a very small village where my friend Dimple lives. Here's a picture I took back in August at Kawakami's manga festival. (Big floats with anime characters...)





Tune in next time...

Hi everyone, and welcome back.

After I posted last, the school closed down for the holidays. On Friday night, I bailed out early on my staff party to catch my overnight bus to Tokyo and spent from 8pm that night until 7am the next morning trying to sleep. While I'll grant that Japan buses are pretty comfortable - there were curtains around each seat, slippers, free coffee and tea, and so on - it was still a bus, and when I arrived in Tokyo the next morning, I was pretty haggard, apprehensive and overwhelmed.

Thankfully, I was spared the crush of rush hour traffic, trundling clumsily along with my suitcase and guidebook. It was Saturday morning, so the subway actually felt tame. Though I'd been to this city back in August, I really felt like I was experiencing Tokyo for the first time.

After months with Okayama and Hiroshima as my standard for Japanese cities, I felt like a bumpkin. At first I thought that my limited, but countrified, Japanese tipped me off as I ordered coffee in a station basement. I probably just looked like a tourist.

The Tokyo subway is a maze, but an extremely efficient one, and I made my way to Asakusa, where Lauren and I would be staying. I checked into our hotel, then discovered Asakusa market. Asakusa, in the north end of Tokyo, is a more old-fashioned area surrounding a large temple. As the market was waking up, I felt like I was in a much smaller city.



Afterwards, I met up with my cousin (great-aunt's grandson?) Takeharu, who's studying self-assembling molecules at Tokyo University. We went for ramen (not instant ramen... the real thing which is really good) in crowded Ueno and walked around the park before he directed me to the train to Narita International Airport.




I took the hour-long train out there and met up with Lauren when she arrived at 5pm.



Happy New Year!

Hello everyone out there...

I'm heading off to Tokyo this weekend to meet Lauren, so my irregular posts will be even more so, at least until I get back to Yakage around the 29th. But I am promising myself to eat lots of cyber-fiber in the new year and ... um... maybe I shouldn't belabor that metaphor.

I hope you all have a great holiday, wherever you are.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Sincerely,

Kevin

PS Does anyone know what happened to "Promo Girl"? The last promo I heard from her was about some show about Italy, in which she ended with "I wish I had his job..." Maybe that was a challenge the mothercorp couldn't handle and they shipped her of to CBC Siberia.

Speaking of Lauren... I understand Lauren (Danielle?) Belanger was born! I bet I'm about a month and a half late on that, by my calculations... Sorry. Congratulations, Holly and Danny, Kevin and Darren. Two and one is a nice ratio. (Eh Mom?)

Congratulations to my friends Gustavo and Montse in San Salvador, who just brought their first daughter into the world: Martha Paola. Felicidades, Pavo y la Montse! (y Tio Alex!)

Congratulations to Lauren, who just secured an internship at Toronto label Paper Bag Records!

Belated but related congratulations to Nirmala for recently stepping down as the singer of Controller.Controller, whose label is Paper Bag Records.

Good luck to both of you!

Busy times at school right now. People from the Ministry of Education in Tokyo are visiting my school today.

Getting ready for Lauren's visit - she arrives on the 23rd and we'll spend Christmas in Tokyo.

It will be strange not being home for Christmas, and I wish you all the best for the holidays.

Kevin

Ok, so in response to the desire for more pictures, I am going to try to begin to make up for lost time.

Babies. Sumo wrestling.



Coughing sushi. (It's difficult to see, but this was a sign at a 'conveyor belt sushi' restaurant asking folks not to smoke.)



Mount Daisen - the second highest mountain in Japan. It's the far one. A bunch of us climbed it later that day. More to come.



Last week on the train: the kid's pyjama pants have frogs on them. We were in a tunnel.

Earthquake. Drill.

Last weekend: "Daimyo Gyoretsu" in Yakage. Yakage is a little town, but back in the day it was the spot where the big lord would stay the night on his way to the capital. The big roadhouse where he and his entourage would stay is on the main street, and every year the town recreates the event when he'd arrive.

As visiting employees of the town, Vasco, Kitsie and I were invited to participate.

So on Sunday morning, the population doubled with tourists coming to see the spectacle, and the costume rental place made a fortune. A long procession of samurai, spearmen, riflemen, baggage carriers, ladies in kimonos, a jester guy, and finally the lord and princess made their way slowly through the streets while a voice called out for the villagers to come and bow to him.



And then there was us: the window cleaners... At least that's what we looked like: I carried long pole with a wig on the end.


That's Vasco behind me. Every four steps, I'd stop, thrust the wig up in the air and twirl it, then toss it to him. Lather, rinse, repeat.



By the end of two hours we were pretty good at it. The streets were packed

Tomorrow I'm heading off to a conference in Okayama city. It's the JET Mid-year Conference, a chance for all of us in Okayama to get together, share ideas and socialize. It's also timed to coincide with the three month slump we're predicted to experience, according to "culture shock" theory.

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to take a second for a station identification and thank you all for tuning in.

If you're reading silently, you are welcome here and thank you for doing so. But why keep silent?? I'd love to hear from you!

Thank you to those of you who wrote to me privately: your secret is safe with me.

And to those who posted comments, thank you very much:

Claudette and Kwesi,
Kylie
Lauren, for breaking the ice...
Raj, congratulations on the show again! (Raj is Associate Producer of "Rent-A-Goalie" on Showcase! Check it out...)
Sara, I'm waiting for pictures of the samurai! And thanks for your breed hint... (Worst ... zoologist... ever...)
SBP and his wrestling chairs (Check http://olsbp.blogspot.com folks!)
"I don't know who posted the pants..."
Shanon

And of course, Lauren.

Congratulations to all of the new parents:
Christie and Andrew
Alex and Kerrie
Sally and Andrew
Jason and Gen
and welcome to the world, small people!