Road Trip: Animals of Japan

After Hiroshima, we had originally planned to spend a day gallivanting about Miyajima, a small island off the coast. However, we were a little spent from the big city, both literally and figuratively, and decided we'd move on. Miyajima is known as being the 3rd most beautiful place in Japan, but really, from what I'd seen of Japan, the whole country was gorgeous. I wasn't worried about seeing Pretty Things.

We were on the road a while, snaking through small towns as usual, hoping to find cool touristy stuff. For hours, we found naught, and finally, came upon a torii gate path to a shrine.














Two wee deer guarded the entrance.



We couldn't go inside, but it was good enough just standing there, taking it all in.




Back down the road, was a newer shrine. Or at least, that's what we figured it was.









You can tell its definitely a building of religiosity due to the appearance of bright orange cones.




Next, we found our way to a garden! After being in the car for hours, it was great to walk around and stretch.



One of my favorite pictures! Arius saw the bird fly overhead, and lead me to where it landed. It stayed still long enough for me to snap one picture... and then flew away again.



One great thing about Japanese gardens is that they're full with wee little paths. They zig zag and hop across everywhere. Its like the paths themselves are scampering. I took this picture whilst hopping across one set of stepping stones.



The whole trip, I'd been hoping to see more critters. Well, as usual, my wish came true! A couple hours after the garden, I had my wish.

Behold!











In the lot next to the vent creatures, a lady was getting her car fixed. She sweetly offered to take our picture! Mr. Bug looks a little shocked by the flash, I'd say.



The craziest thing about the sculptures is that they were so random-- there was no sign. They were part of no park, no kid's museum. They were just there. Existing. I betcha they just showed up one day.



Mmm. Elephant.







And of course, no Totally Random Vent Sculpture Extravaganza is complete without Father and Son robots. :)



The bridge back to the island Kyushu!




Next up: Peril! Surviving hwy 265.


.

Road Trip: Hiroshima

We stayed in Hiroshima for two days, and this time, got ourselves a place to stay. We parked out bags at the Petite Benefit Hotel, which was an adorable little place with spring colored rooms, and a little jazz lounge. Not only was the hotel within walking distance of everything, but for two nights stay, parking, and breakfast, the cost was less than $200! Definitely not bad for being in the city.





This building is just referred to as "the dome". It was one of the only buildings left standing after the bomb, and instead of repairing it and restoring it to its glory, it stands as it did, as a strong reminder of what happened.



Something I didn't realize were the amount of Koreans living in Japan at the time of the bomb. This monument is for them.




The story of Sadako (as mentioned earlier) was one I read in 5th grade. We had a woman from Japan (Ako Hotehama was her name) come to visit, and she talked to us about the horrors of the bomb, as well as Japanese culture. After we read the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, our class made a thousand of them, and sent them with her to place at the children's monument in Hiroshima.

Sadako's story is similar to that of Anne Frank's, in the way that it puts a human face on history. Sometimes, its hard for me to fully grasp circumstances, even looking at pictures of distruction, or watching a video. I need a story, someone to connect to, and through their eyes, I can understand. Maybe not completely, but it sinks in. It becomes real.

Even writing this, I feel like I'm going to cry. Sadako was two at the time the bomb went off. She lived for ten years longer before she finally died. The war was over. The bomb was done. A chunk of the city was rebuilt. But the horror, and the sickness, lived on. I think that's something that people don't realize-- radiation sticks, and lingers.

When Arius and I decided to go to Hiroshima, I knew I had to make some cranes of my own. In two days, I folded 74 (and made Arius fold one for 75), strung them together, and finally, was able to place them at the children's monument.



Instead of one or two crane houses, the children's monument has over six. My cranes were placed in the house farthest to the left. Here I'm smiling as I rang the bell, but the smile's only there so I don't start crying all over the place.

Below, you can read about the monument.






Houses for the cranes.
As I went around and looked at them, I noticed that behind the crane houses, were pads of paper. If you left cranes, you could write your name, date, country, and a quote. This would then be registered into their databank. So, of course, I filled one out, then took a little yellow tag, filled out my information again, and stuck it to my garland of cranes.



I lingered for a while, soaking the experience in, then moved on to see the rest of the park.



The peace bell. To make it ring, you gently bring the suspended wooden column to the bell's surface. A low, somber note resonates.




Below is the Cenotaph for A-bomb Victims. From the side, it looks slightly more like the top of a covered wagon than an arch. The design is made to simulate the sort of arch that could hug you, and keep you safe from harm. "Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil," a quote says. In the center, a stone chest holds a registry of all the names of people who died from the bomb. In August 2002, there were more than 225,000 names.




Behind the Cenotaph, which you can't really see, is the Flame of Peace-- a flame that never goes out. It was lit in 1964, and sends both condolences for the victims as well as the statement "until the day when all such weapons shall have disappear from the earth."





Above is the fountain, as well as a portion of the museum.





Across the street, were the bluish green arches of peace, each inscribed with that very word in many languages.



This was taken in the museum. At the time of the bombing, a little boy, three or four years old, was outside riding his bike. Hours after the bombing, the little boy died. His parents, however, survived. They did not want to bury him far away, in the cemetary, fearing that he would be lonely. So instead, the father buried his son, and his son's trike in the backyard. 60 years later, when the parents passed away, the little boy's body was exhumed, and moved to be with his parents. The remaining family members then donated the bike, the helmet, and this heartwrenching story to the museum.

The Hiroshima museum, I feel, was much better than the one at Nagasaki. No country wants to admit the terrible things that its done, but several times throughout Hiroshima's museum, plaques talked about how all countries have to own what they've done. It talked about Pearl Harbor. It talked about how poorly Korean bodies were treated after the bombings. It showed a display of history textbooks, and talked about how there too, we must be honest, not just putting the blame on one people. We must tell the whole story.

In the Nagasaki museum, there was a large timeline on one wall, with the heading "events that lead to the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki." Only, it didn't talk about the war at all. Instead, all that was listed, were things like "President of United States decides to bomb Japan" and "council deliberates over which city to bomb" and "it is decided to drop the bomb on the following date." In other words-- it was a political timeline that only covered the chats politicians and scientists had after the decision to drop the thing was already made. Interesting, to be sure, but not exactly an objective look at the events that lead to the bombing.




Another picture of the dome.




After walking around the peace park for several hours (and going to this fantastic little tex mex restaurant called "Otis"), Arius and I went to Hiroshima's castle, known as "Carp Castle."




The temple, with fair maiden's sweeping.



A view from right outside the main building. We were a bit disappointed by the castle. True, the structure itself was pretty impressive, but inside, it was a rather drab museum rather than a recreation of what the interior of such a place would have looked like. Plus, there were two smelly drunk guys in the museum too, and that kind of ruined the experience as well. :)

After all the walking, exploring (and sniffling on my part), we headed back to the hotel, got cleaned up and went to dinner! Once there, a drunken (but not smelly) Japanese chap told Arius I looked Spanish and demanded that the waitress bring us drinks. On him! Now I see why Arius likes Japan so much. :)





Up next: Aso and Beyond

Road Trip: Nagasaki

After the ferry, we drove a couple hours up the coast to Nagasaki. Right away I noticed the land was different. The crops were of different plants, there was far more terracing (as shown in this picture), and the dirt was a vivid rusty color.

Arius, being the lovable chap that he is, kept referring to Nagasaki as "Nagasackers" which made me cringe every time I heard it. I wanted to smack him one. Of course, seeing the scowly expression on my face made him more gleeful. Hmph. He gets such joy from annoying me.

Clearly, it was because of this that our visit to Nagasaki was doomed. Well, not doomed exactly, but it certainly festered under the warm shawl of Severe Frustration. What do I mean? Well, most cities, and even small towns, have signs that say something like "Temple of Awesomeness. 1.7 kilometers --> "

We were banking that Nagasaki would follow suit. True, we had a map, but it didn't do us a lot of good-- a lot of Japanese streets don't have street signs. So, while we could find the touristy places on the map, we had no way of knowing where we were.

But, Nagasaki's a tricksy fellow, and, like Arius, finds glee in irritating others. Therefore.... no sign to the peace park. We drove up and down the main stretch, me pouring over all of my maps like Nancy Drew, him searching for street signs. And after over an hour of circling back and around... we saw it. A wee little sign that said "peace park parking ."

Half hidden by a tree.

And that was it.

So, with agitated faces, we finally pulled into the parking lot, and stomped up to the Peace Park, quite in need of some serenity. It was then, that we were immediately greeted by.......




The Big Blue Dude of Peace!

You can read the actual howdy-do below. (or click on it to make the image bigger!)







On either side of Ol' Blue was a tepee of sorts to house the garlands of cranes people make. The idea of folding cranes caught on when a young girl named Sadako, who was dying of leukemia, believed that if she folded enough, she'd get well. More on that later.... but in any case, the crane became an international sign of peace, and still today, people fold them and leave them at monuments for peace, hope, and health.




Scattered around the peace park were statues contributed by other countries.




This statue, created and donated by an artist from Minnesota, has 7 figures on it, each representing one of the 7 continents.




This sculpture was one of my favorites. It was done by a Cuban artist. When I first glanced at it, all I could see were the faces, but the longer I looked, the more I saw-- people's folded up bodies, and a skull (top of the circle-- you can see the big eye hole). The picture doesn't do it justice.




Not far from Mr. Blue were these rows of what looked like stone and concrete. After investigating, I found out that they were the remnants of a prison. The prison had been the closest building to the epicenter at the time of the bomb, and the small stripes in the grass were all that remained of it. Needless to say, all of the prisoners perished.








After the peace park, we walked down the street to see the epicenter. Here too, were hundreds and hundreds of colorful cranes.





Above you can see the epicenter. It was directly above the black monument (though up a ways) that the bomb went off. It was unsettling to stand there, yet very difficult to comprehend what had happened.


Arius and I went to the museum, and walked around the city for a bit, following signs for other monuments and places of interest (sure. NOW there are signs...). I had wanted to stay an extra day to go to the renowned Glover Garden, but we were both very tired, and didn't feel like spending a ton of money to get a hotel. That combined with our earlier anxiety helped form a decision for us-- we would hit the highway, drive for a bit, sleep in a truckstop (which is actually safe in Japan!), and head to.....


Hiroshima.

Road Trip: The Amakusa Islands

Instead of going straight to Nagasaki, we stayed in the Amakusa Islands for an extra day. I was a little hesitant to stay-- I didn't know if there was much to see and kind of wanted to press onward. But, Arius's instincts were good ones, and the extra day was well spent.

Our first stop was Timioka Castle, which was built in the early 1600s and withstood many fierce battles! One way to get up to the castle was to hike up this path framed by red torii gates.





Timioka Castle. Its easy to see how the location of the castle could ward off attackers-- its located off a small peninsula on a small island, perched on the top of a wee mountain. Not exactly the easiest place to get to. It may not look like much, compared to European castles, but I felt the same feeling of reverence.




A little crablet that had climbed to the top and was sitting by one of the monuments near the castle! Crabs were all OVER the place in the islands. As we walked through the forest paths, there would be a frantic sound of small critters skittering into the underbrush. They ranged from being as small as my thumbnail, to large enough to cover my palm. Bright red, warning yellow, and leafy colors that blended right in.




The entrance to the castle, and to the tourist center of the island-- one of the nicest tourist centers I've ever seen. Not only was there a pamphlet in English (hooray! Literate once again!), but huge displays of shells and flatscreen televisions everywhere that explained the history of the peninsula, as well as the wildlife found there. Last but not least-- an underwater 3D movie!




One view from the top of the castle. You can see the arm of the peninsula and where it connects to the main island.




One wicked Samurai guy in the tourist center.




After that, we rode around the island a bit more, taking in the flower gardens. We drove round and round, trying to find this white monument. Finally, we parked, and after climbing and climbing, faces melting in the sun, we made it past the gardens, onto a small path, and to the monument. Only... it wasn't a monument at all. It was a lighthouse. A tiny, grimy looking lighthouse. How anticlimactic.

Later we looked back on our tourist maps with squinted eyes. By jove... the picture WAS a lighthouse. Shoot.




After that, we left the peninsula and headed to a beach. Before we got there, we took a detour to see the LARGEST WATERWHEEL IN JAPAN!! Oh yeah. Which just goes to show that America isn't the only country that likes to boast random large things. Granted, I never saw something like "Japan's largest skillet" or "Japan's largest plaster donut".... at least a waterwheel does something.

Or rather. They're supposed to. This one, to my dismay, wasn't spinning. Still, the thing WAS ferris wheel size which, admittedly, is quite impressive



Not far from the Wheel of Excitement was this pretty little waterfall. There's Arius, as usual, ahead of me while I snap pictures left and right. :)




A closer view of the waterfall, and the vibrant green water.




After that, we headed back on the road in search of a beach. At one point, I made Arius pull the car over so I could take this picture. Looks like a great place to have a fort, no?

Eventually, we did make it to the beach. It was a long stretch of milky golden sand and viridian water. It was also totally abandoned. Clean, mind you. But no one was there. Once in a while a couple of elderly people on a stroll would slow down and gawk at us. While it was a gorgeous beach, we didn't stay long. The lack of other people swimming made us feel a little strange, as did the wide-eyed stares by the residents.




We got back on the road, and headed to a place that was marked on our maps as a big cross surrounded by flowers. It was in the garden section of our tourist maps. Okay, I thought. I could see another garden. We pulled off, and started to climb the stairs to the cross.




And climbed. And climbed. And climbed. At one point, I turned around and snapped this picture. You can see a little white church on the point of the town.

Meanwhile, in the trees, birds were fighting. I couldn't see them, but the noise was terrible. I'd been telling Arius that I figured that wee dinosaurs definitely still lived in Japan, and these birds made my crazy claims seem almost possible. The birds, screeching and fighting, sounded like a bunch of furious velociraptors, hissing and shreiking. Eerie.




We kept climbing. And climbing. And climbing. And finally, after passing through several torii gates, and climbing a total of 505 stairs (that, mind you, is a lot. It doesn't sound like much, but my legs were becoming gelatinous and were about to start calling mutiny if I didn't stop), we made it to the top!


And to.....





THE CROSS OF ENORMITY! Holy Mother of Hydrangeas. Look at the SIZE of that thing. First a huge waterwheel, now an enormous cross. I guess it was just one of those larger-than-life sorts of days.




More impressive than the cross, I thought, was the view from the top. Climbing up all those stairs was a nuisance, but ahh... what a view!

Eventually, we made it back to the city (through Hondo), found some grub, parked our car in the marina, and fell fast asleep.

The next morning, we drove to the ferry, paid our $23, and headed to Nagasaki!




My last view of the Amakusa Islands from the ferry. Nagasaki, here we come!

7 Things I Now Know...

1. How to use chopsticks.
Never thought the day would come. The first day, I cursed them, fingers fiddling, noodles slipping, splashing back into the soup. "Its just like holding pencils!" various people said to me. "Its easy!" they maintained. I cursed them too. Ruddy smartmouths.
Then, two days ago, I surprised myself by saying "You know, chopsticks really are perfect for eating noodles." I then scooped them up with ease, and slurped them up. I've come a long way in a month.

2. What is real sake, and what isn't.
Here in the states, if its a Japanese drink, we tend to call it sake. True sake, I've learned, is actually a rice wine, and only one of the most popular Japanese brews. Another is shochu, a harder liquor made from distilled sweet potatoes. A third is chu-hai, a fruity, super girly drink made with a base of shochu. Verdict: sake's okay, chu-hai's great, and shochu is the devil. (This coming from a girl who strangely likes the sensation of tequila.)

3. How to use a Japanese toilet.
Japan is a very technologically advanced country. You can robotically park your car, and time your watch to their trains. Yet, in most places, they still have troughs for toilets. Oh yes ma'am! You heard me right. Instead of a "Western toilet" they've got little two-foot long troughs in the ground that you squat over.
(Check it out at: http://users.bestweb.net/~bennetc/JPNLowToilet.jpg)

Now, in some places, the little trough is up on a step. You'd probably think to use them like our kind of toilets but without the luxury of sitting down-- positioning yourself over its top, as normal, facing the opposite wall. But this is not so, you silly foreigner!

The correct way? Face the toilet. Position your pants so you don't pee on them. Put a leg on either side of the bowl. Squat. And let the fun begin.


4. That Calpis is the best beverage ever.
Calpis is a non-carbonated drink with a lemonade -like consistency that tastes a bit like vanilla yogurt, complete with the slightest acidic bite. Mmm delicious. Other frightfully delicious things: fried vegetable patties (aka tempura veggies), octopus (as long as its cut up in bite sized pieces), and .... Mango Calpis. Will the delight never end?


5. The main convenience stores or "conbini" 's of Japan.
They are: Coco!, Family Mart, Everyone, Daily, Lawson's, and my very favorite..... 7 and iHoldings! (Pray tell... What IS an iHolding?)

Gas stations in the States are almost always attached to little store where you can buy snacks and slurpees. Not so in Japan. In Japan, almost all stations are full-service, so you never get out of your car to refuel. And they mean full-service-- they clean your windows, empty your ashtray (if you've got one), give you a cloth to wipe down the inside of your car, and help you get back into the busy street. All with the exuberance and enthusiasm as a fleet of high school cheerleaders.

To get all of those travel necessities, or for a potty break, you've got to visit a conbeni! Luckily, the people there are far friendlier than those who work at similar stores in the states. Also, some of them have little bakeries attached, and sell full sushi meals if you're so inclined.

The Family Mart chain has actually started opening up some of this style of convenience store in the Los Angeles. It's under the name "Famima" (No. That's not a Japanese word. Fami is short for family and ma is short for mart. How very posh of them.) Unfortunately, according to Newsweek, Famima focuses on people whose incomes top $80,000!

6. The locations of Kagoshima, Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Kyoto, the Amaksa Islands, and Fukuoka.
Better yet-- I can pronounce Fukuoka. No kidding!

7. What to wear to an Onsen.
Any guesses? I'll give you a hint. It's the same thing the Scottish wear under their kilts.



Nothing! :)

Japan's Most Dangerous Critter...

Japan has a lot of centipedes. And milipedes. Katydids and butterflies and wood lice and handfulls of spiders. I've seen a weasel, several graceful long-necked birds, and many stubby-tailed cats. Yet, none of these critters are things I would call particularly dangerous. Not even the spiders whose threads seems to cover every surface.

Instead.... there are the wee ones. Oh, yes. They're awfully cute with their little tilting eyes, and their amazingly shiny hair. They sing and dance and smile and scamper. You want to just scoop them up and put them in your pocket. But, beware. Little children are not as they seem.

Most wee ones wrap their mouths and hands around anything they can touch. Filth is no concern. Neither is electric shock.
Japanese urchins make it an extreme sport. Nothing within reach is safe from these sweet-faced little critters.

Imagine, if you will. You're standing in line at the supermarket, all excited because you found yourself a little blue bucket for 100 yen (roughly one dollar). You're getting ready to stand in line, daydreaming of all the treasure shells you will collect when suddenly, you're ambushed!!! A barrage of pats smack your butt with strange light-handed ferocity. You leap, shocked that something is invading your personal bubble.

What the hell is going on?

And standing behind you, still smacking your ass with great delight... is a shrieking little boy. Your posterior is a tom-tom, and he is a the percussionist of a lifetime. A masterful rhythm maker. A prodigy. The color floods from your face, then rushes back in, coloring it first white then red.

Where is this kid's mother?!

You look to your right. There are six women standing in line in the next que. All of them are smiling. None of them will meet your eye. And while they're clearly amused by the boy's antics, none of them are going to claim the little demon spawn as their own.

You turn to your companion, harshly whispering for help, trying to gain sympathy if nothing else. But your companion just smiles as if you said "why look, a kitten has climbed into my bucket," or perhaps "sweet love, shall we play video games all night long?" You are on your own. It is you and that little blue bucket versus the world.

Japan is a gorgeous country, filled with green carpeted mountains and vibrant jade waters. The people smile and bade you welcome, bow incessantly, and often offer tea. But don't let your guard down, my friends. Because just around the corner, little children may be lurking.



.

Road Trip: Beachy Keen

It was a crisp, clear, sunny morning (okay...afternoon) the day that Arius and I took off on our road trip. I have witnessed a good handful of sunny days, but usually there's so much cloud matter in the air, that it looks like you're looking at the world through a piece of gauze. Not that Sunday though-- you could see the peak of the mountaintop, green and clear, and it was lovely.

The day previous, I had mentioned that I thought Japan should have more frogs. "I'd really like to see a frog," I said. "I really like them!" While loading the car, Arius noticed this wee little treefrog that was perched on the railing to the apartment.

"Britt! Come quick! And bring your camera!" he said, and lead me to the frog. I sqealed with delight. This was only the first of a handful of times I reasonably requested something from Japan... and got my wish. But more on that later!




After maybe an hour or two in the car, we pulled off the road and ended up at Fukiage Beach. Once again, I was like a delighted little kid, splashing in the warm water and collecting sea shells and sand dollars. By the time we were done, my pockets were wet and bulging. I decided what I really needed was a little bucket.




We weren't the only ones enjoying such a perfect day-- there were also people digging for Fishy Things to Eat (they had little buckets, I noticed) and.... NAKED CHILDREN! Running around without abandon, little...bits... flopping around.




After the beach, we found a sign that said "Kurokawa Cave" with a little arrow... so we veered off our course and decided to check it out. When we got there, we saw a small dark cave with a shrine built in it. At the back were ropes declaring it unsafe to go farther. We put some change in the offering box and rang the bell to thank the spirit of the cave.



Before the cave were two fearsome guards cut from stone. Little shiny black beetles climbed on them, and at their feet were piles and piles of shells. Not knowing the protocall, we bowed before them. You don't want to mess with badass stone guards. Nope, nope. My only regret: I wished that I still had the shells in my pockets-- I would have left them some.



The path leading up to the dark, dark caves.




Close up of the guard on the left.



On the same wall of rock that the cave was carved from, there was this face. I think, at last, we have found our troll. Look carefully, and you'll see a mighty nose, a round green eye, and a mouth open with astonishment.




After exploring the beach and cave, we continued up the coast. We stopped at another beach along the way and noticed that there were these tiny little creatures that would bury themselves into the sand when the water shrank back into the sea. We tried to catch them, and eventually found them to be terrible little horseshoe-crab looking insect things. Much less cute than my treefrog.

Still, the water was bright green, the sky blue, and the sand gold. Can't really beat that.


The above picture is of a rice paddy, only it doesn't really do it justice. When I had previously thought of rice paddies, I had thought of muddy little troughs; breeding ground for mosquitoes. And that's kind of true. But then the rice grows. And its the most brilliant, shockingly bright green I've ever seen. In the sunlight it glows like its radioactive. Gorgeous.

Eventually, we ended up high in the mountains, pulled the car off the road, and went to sleep.




The second day was more of the same-- driving with the windows open, stopping at beaches, eating cheap conveniance store food. Before tucking in for the night I sighed and said "you know, I'd really like to see some stars. Stars would be great."

Night 3 Japan granted my wish again, and that night, stars shone from the sky like little jewels.

Computer Complications

So, this is how it was supposed to go.

Step 1: Take pictures while on road trip
Step 2: Upload pictures to computer
Step 3: Post pictures on internet

But this is what really happened:
1. Took pictures while on road trip
2. Uploaded pics. Realized that for some reason camera was on Crappy Picture Setting. Images are all of junky quality. Get marginally upset.
3. Decide to post pics on internet anyway. And.... Arius's hard drive crashes. See shades of red. Head explodes.


So, unfortunately, you won't be getting any pictures right away. But I will try and detail some of our adventures for you! So don't fret! I will be back in action shortly! I've just got to reassemble my head.


.

Up, Up and Away!

Hello all! Well, the time has come! Arius and I are going exploring for two weeks, so no regular posts for you! I'll be back in a couple weeks with (hopefully) lots of pictures and stories.

xoxo
Binti

Golden Sun in Chiran

It was a sunny, beautiful day, so we took a ride to Chiran. The city is noted for its green tea production, peace museum, but more than that, for the many many statue dedications to the kamikaze pilots of WWII. They line the streets, one after another. Haunting, yet beautiful. Just like the golden light.

This picture was taken in the park, in the warm light of the setting sun.
If you look carefully, you can see me in the picture! :)









The golden light made everything so colorful and magical looking... hence my pictures of trees and fluffy things. I couldn't help myself.




One of the simple statues dedicated to one pilot. It stands at the entrance to a rock garden.






A little creature sits a top a shrine in the rock garden.




More plant life. (Still couldn't help myself.) I have a feeling that if colors could electrocute you like a bug zapper does... I'd be in big trouble.






Another shot of the rock garden. A couple weeks ago, the bushes were alive and shining with vibrant pink flowers... but I missed it. Probably for the best though. You'd all get sick of looking at seas of pink pretty quickly!




A sunbeam made it through the trees and lit this more ornate dedication. I didn't even have to use my flash.




One last look at the park (the hills of which I happily scampered up and down) in the setting sun.


Arius says we're going back to Chiran-- apparently there's an old samurai village there as well! I'll keep you posted!

My Thoughts on Bugs

Aside from the packs of mosquitoes that keep sucking our blood while we sleep, Arius also has a 7-legged spider living in his apartment. It's name is Pickle. Pickle is supposed to eat the mosquitoes so they don't give us terrible itchy spots. Or malaria. Or whooping cough. Or dysentery. Take your pick.

However, Pickle hasn't been doing his job. Instead of dead, the mosquitoes are fat and happy.
And I've got dysentery. (Okay. That's a lie).

Japan is the land of spiders. They are everywhere. If you leave your laundry out to dry, chances are good that they'll make a web using your drying towel as an anchor.
When I go walking, I often carry a stick with me, which I wave in front of myself, so I don't walk through the webs. I'm sure I look a little bit like a band conductor gone mad.

Anyhow. With that many spiders, there should be much less horrible vampires bugs. I've got a solution though. I think Arius would whine a lot less about his bug bites if he just got himself a pet bat. Bats eat a LOT of bugs. AND most of them are cute. Problem solved!

I'll just have to help him get the right one though. With my luck, he'll get a vampire bat. And then we'll really be in trouble.

Mountain Climb

On Sunday, Arius and I climbed the mountain that's right behind his apartment. On the way up, Arius pointed out this boulder to me. He said it was a troll head, but I thought it was probably a slumbering ogre head instead. Can you see it?


Giant katydid!



At this point, you're about halfway up. This is really where the fun starts--from here, you're pretty much going straight up. The nice thing? There are guide ropes to help you up, so you don't fall on your ass. (I fell on my ass anyhow. But it was a very slow, gentle decline thanks to the ropes).


A shrine to the mountain god.



Walkin' back down, and the sun was starting to set. I took a video with my camera of the top view, but I'm not sure if I can put it up here or not. At the top, you can see all sorts of fun things-- Arius's apt, the school, the grocery store... the crematorium. Woo!







Once back, I stopped behind his apt to admire the garden. There's a little old (cute) lady I see tending it from time to time. There are also a bunch of tailless cats that roam around. I think they're guarding the flowers. :)

More Fantastic Parks!

Japan is filled with endless creepy paths. I like 'em.



Tiny flowers growing alongside the path.



Abandoned mini golf course.



In the middle of the path is a yellow stripe. The yellow path has a different texture than the rest-- it's got raised circles on it, like a Lego block. If, say, the path would end, the yellow path would get a slightly different texture yet. You find these yellow paths everywhere. Not just in parks, but alongside the roads too. Why? They're for the blind.



This building has no roof except for the plants whose tops grow through it.



On Saturday, Arius and I walked around this park for hours. Right outside of Kaseda, I think. If you look closely, you'll see a spot of white in the water. This was a swan. A huge swan. The swan of all swans. It swam right up to the edge of the water, but wasn't close enough to get a good picture of it. Plus, it might have tried to eat me if I did.









Eventually, after battling the Giagantic Swan and making it over the Bridge of Doom... we got to the Playground of Excitement! Japan's got the BEST playgrounds. Hands down.

If you look behind me, in the air, you'll see a bridge. The logs are maybe a foot apart and are held by chains. Terrifying. But delightful.
Behind that is a colorful slide made of many rolling metal tubes that shoot you down at approximately... warp speed.



And... my most favorite thing! It's like a zipcord. Count to three, leap onto the ball, and go whizzing across the playground! Wheeeee! I couldn't get enough of this one.


I even got to ride an elephant. Can't beat that.



Wild roses that grow everywhere.


At the end of the Bridge of Doom, there was this clock. Reminded me of Alice in Wonderland. The neatest thing? The colored tiles make up a maze! There's a little plaque on the side that tells you which colors you may step on, and which are walls. I made it through! No stepping on pink allowed. :)



Down the path from the Alice Clock.



Crazy little building that looked out into the water. The tide was wayyyyy out and you could walk for ages onto the ripply sand. On the walls of this building were little plaques with pictures of animals you might see on them. Mostly birds.



More pretty flooooowers.



A view of the Bridge of Doom. Tide's out.


Awesome bird observatory.


The path we walked on alongside the water. Okay... so it wasn't so much a path as it was a stack of boulders....... but we made it!


The tide started to come back in as we were leaving. The water filled up the ripples, looking like reaching fingers.



And here you can see the tide coming back in!

More adventuring soon to come!

Mmm Mullosks.

Friday night, Arius and I went to a dinner party hosted by one of his schools. The food was great-- the restaurant we went to was a high class fancy shmancy sushi place. Every few minutes the server would bring out these gorgeous little ceramic bowls with a piece of fish arranged artistically. Or soup. Or...as I mentioned before... snails.

I've never eaten snails before. They're kind of like lobster. Who looked at a snail and thought "Hey! I could totally eat that!"?

Other than, say, some sort of bird.

Anyhow. To eat a snail, you first have to remove its mouth-sucker. In other words, you've got to pull its face off before you eat it. Sounds fun, right? Well, to my great joy, this was already done for me. See, I toldja this was a high-class place!
Next, you've got to impale its little slimy body with a toothpick, twist and pull... until it tears out of the shell. Finally... pop the little sucker in your mouth.

I was not terribly excited about this. Any dismantling of creatures reminds me of dissection and the smell of formaldehyde is immediately conjured. But, I was there. In this 5 star place, in Japan. Was I going to be some pansy ass American? Heck no.

So I popped it in. My mind was furiously thinking "chew and swallow...chew and swallow!" I didn't even really taste the first one. But, by then, the scariness had gone away. If I couldn't really taste it, it couldn't have been so bad, right? Right! So, the second and third ones I paid attention to. And it turns out.... that they're delicious! Softer than shrimp, with almost a mushroom like consistency. They were also bathed in some sort of buttery wonderfulness. Mmm.

After that, there was tuna (the best kind of sushi, I think), squid (the worst-- too oily), bits of sea urchin (very nice), seasoned eggplant, and a little entire breaded fish (the dude next to me cut its head of and ate it first with relish. Woah.).

Speaking of people... everyone was really nice. (nice and drunk) But it was a little like playing charades for 3 hours, only you never quite knew if you were talking about the same things at all. Lots of wild gesturing and badly spoken English. Some of them were afraid to talk to me, embarassed because they couldn't remember English... but I was in THEIR country. I didn't know THEIR language! That's not their fault! I'm the moron. So, we tried. I did a lot of smiling.

Even wackier than eating snails-- I got to use my (pretty poor excuse for) Spanish skills!
The guy next to me lived in Ecuador for 3 years, so he knew Spanish fluently, so we were able to get ideas across! At the end of the night he shook my hand and said "Amigos!" For some reason, that cracked me up.

All in all, a good night.

Freak Show on Parade

Today I went with one of Arius's co-workers and played the game of Spot the Funny-Looking Foreigner. All day!

Here's how the game works: I walk around smiling and waving at elementary school children, and they giggle and stare at me incredulously! Wooo! Fun for everyone.

On this island, people don't often see foreigners-- most tourists go to the north to Kyoto, Tokyo (ooh, that's an anagram!) and so on. Because of this, most of them don't have any use for learning English, though the schools still teach it. So, for the kids to see a foreigner, and be able to practice their conversational skills is a very good thing. It makes the world seem smaller, and the possibility of needing to learn English a little more real.

We visited a couple schools and I learned two things about Japanese people.
First thing: the stereotype is true-- they are endlessly polite.
Second thing: it is never inappropriate to have tea. Hot tea. Steaming hot tea.
Nice to meet you! Have some tea. Goodbye now! Have some tea. You've been talking for a couple minutes now, you must be thirsty. I know! Have some tea! Are you tired? Lonely? Depressed? Have a broken leg? Are your your own grampa? Well, I know what'll fix you right up!

(It's an awfully good thing that I like the stuff.)

In your head, imagine a couple of Japanese explorers who have somehow found themselves in a crater of a working volcano. Puffs of ash are rising, and the bottoms of their shoes are starting to melt. The earth below starts to shake, and suddenly one of them pipes up "Oh! We have some tea!" So, they bust out their cups, and enjoy their afternoon. Scalding hot tea in the center of a volcano.

So, today's 85 degree temperature was nothing. They were still sipping hot tea all day. Incredible.

But back to the story-- Me. Freak Show on Parade. Japanese kids are just like other kids-they're rambunctious, full of laughter, and are intensly curious. They were given the opportunity to ask me some questions (which were largely translated by my host). I got all of the usual ones-- favorite color, favorite food, age, and so on. And then one asked me a really spectacular question that I had no answer for....

"What is your favorite famous American battleship?"

Stumped by a 3rd grader.

Later, I was dropped off at Arius's school, and again... the kids (jr. high age this time) literally LINED UP to look at me. THEY LINED UP!! I should be charging admission.
I just put on my movie star smlie (I hope it didn't look like a grimace), waved my movie star wave (which probably looked like I was shooing them away) and drove off into the sunset.

In between schools, I was given a break, and got to experience another facet of Life as a Foreigner-- I was taken to my first Japanese restaurant, so I could practice my Mad Chopsticks Skillz.

First of, let me just say... that using chopsticks comes naturally to me. About as naturally as, say, flight. Or photosynthesis.

Now, luckily, the Japanese make their rice really sticky, so that it clumps together so one can pick it up. That's good. I appreciate that. However, they will create a little bed of rice, say 1" by 1" by 3", and place 4-inch-long piece of raw fish on top of it. All said and done, the finished sushi piece is about 25% bigger than one of those fun-sized Snickers bars you hand out at Halloween.

The good thing: I can pick up the sucker. Even dip it in some soy sauce. I could make it do a little dance if I wanted.
The bad thing: I am expected to put the whole flipping thing in my mouth, because the liklihood of me being able to bite it in half without making a spectacle of myself is akin to me suddenly being able to process sunlight into energy.

All in all, eating takes way more focus than I ever thought imaginable. I think I burn more calories trying to get food in my mouth and chewing big blobby globs of fish than I gain from the food. But I'm not going to start screaming "Just give me a FORK!" like some pathetic American. I am determined to learn how to use these things with grace, and elegance, and ease.

Now, would someone please pass the tea?

.