Whew!

I survived another week of madness, and the charity show is tomorrow. Thank GOD! After 9am tomorrow its all downhill. My supervisor informed me today that this is the beginning of our "break." That means the kids have no more serious classes. Good thing I arranged for a music/fun lesson next week. My kids would probably kill me if I gave them something they didn't want to pay attention to.

I love my kids. I love them more everyday. I know I sound like a sap, but seriously... I could be having the shittiest day in the history of feces-smothered days, and my kids can snap me out of it. I leave my house every morning and bike to school. I inevitably meet up with the same kids at the stoplight, and we chat a little.

Me - "Your bike tire is flat! Kiotsukete!" random-kun - "I know!" Or the usual, "RORA!?! Ohayo Gozaimasu!"

No matter how many times I run into them in the grocery store, on the train, outside of the conbini while I breeze by on my bike, they still have the same reaction. COMPLETE AND UTTER SHOCK. They have to be somewhat accustomed to me at this point. I live in their town, I do townish things, I am rather boring really. I often get, "hana!? EEeee!?" Yes, my nose is pierced. I cannot wear it in school. Secret. Secret! They like to touch it, and lately sticking pencils and (for the kindergarteners) paper ken (swords) through my 00 gauges is all the rage. Also, there is the "Oh hello! I love you!" from my baseball boys. The past few weeks I have ridden by them daily on my way home from eikaiwa, charity show practice, yoga, and or Japanese class. They are always passing me on their way to the station. I approach and notice that they are mine (Dalenna's school has nearly identical uniforms, so its hard to tell from far away), as I get closer one of them bellows, "OOOOOhhhh! Rora-sensei!" The rest follow suit. I have ridden blocks away before still able to hear their whoooping.

I don't know where I was going with this. I just wanted to talk about my kids. If some of them show up at the Charity Show tomorrow, I would be ecstatic!

Charity Show

is ruling my life. That is ok, its for the kids, and the blind dogs, and whatnot. I promise updating will occur (if anyone cares) after this Saturday happens, and perhaps after a nap.

Till then, I will leave you with this...


click here for toyama charity show tv spot



I have never been so excited about one of your balls!

Minor things and Shakespeare



These past couple weeks have hijacked all my spare time. I finally got over the evil disease that had been plaguing me for weeks on end.

I went to see a Japanese interpretation of Shakespeare's Titus Adronicus the next afternoon. It was superb! Eri, the Pope, and I went... alas I had to leave early for Charity Show practice, and thus missed my favorite part of the play. Overwhelming sadness. The only thing lacking from this version of the play was definitely my favorite heathen Goth, Jonathan Rhys Meyers.


Yesterday, J and I took a trip to Kanazawa to go shopping for his sensei's sayonara presents. It was a really nice day, and getting out of Toyama is always good. Don't get me wrong, I love my ken, but the sunshine is missed. We were both off school, which I was tricked into thinking was a lovely holiday. Nay, I have to work tomorrow (Saturday). Balls.

Other things that happened these past 2 weeks.

Charity Show practice - make it stop. I enjoy it, but want to just do the show already!

Got schooled by Yamashita-sensei - started my new Japanese class and was basically informed that I am a moron and need to work double extra special hard. sigh... ego bruised.

Watched Colin get humped on his bike by a random Russian dude - scary

Tulamben's Nyepi Festival



Laurac and I ventured to the stunning island of Bali at the end of March and stayed there for about 5 days. While there, we stayed at the Scuba Seraya Resort and took the PADI diving course with our kick ass instructor Renaud and his wife Marielle. The owner of the resort is Patrick, a really sweet Swiss man. He is very laid back and took care of us as if we were family. The bungalows were in Tulamben, which was about a 2-3 hour drive from Denpasar, the main airport.

As I mentioned, Bali is gorgeous. It's is the first place I have ever visited with black sand, and such deeply dark volcanic soil. Because the vegetation is so lush, and the backdrop is so deep, the green on black color of the whole island is beyond amazing. I loved it, even though it was raining the whole time we were there. And, I managed to get food poisoning from my very first meal! hurrah! We arrived on the 28th and two glorious days later was Nyepi, the day of silence.

The night before Nyepi was the best part.

Tawur Kesanga (the day before Nyepi)
Exactly one day before Nyepi, all villages in Bali hold a large exorcism ceremony at the main village cross road, the meeting place of demons. They usually make Ogoh-ogoh (the fantastic monsters or evil spirits or the Butha Kala made of bamboo) for carnival purposes. The Ogoh-ogoh monsters symbolize the evil spirits surrounding our environment which have to be got rid of from our lives . The carnivals themselves are held all over Bali following sunset. Bleganjur, a Balinese gamelan music accompanies the procession. Some are giants taken from classical Balinese lore. All have fangs, bulging eyes and scary hair and are illuminated by torches.The procession is usually organised by the Seka Teruna, the youth organisation of Banjar. When Ogoh-ogoh is being played by the Seka Teruna, everyone enjoys the carnival. In order to make a harmonic relation between human being and God, human and human, and human and their environments, Tawur Kesanga is performed in every level of society, from the people's house. In the evening, the Hindus celebrating Ngerupuk, start making noises and light burning torches and set fire to the Ogoh-ogoh in order to get the Bhuta Kala, evil spirits, out of our lives.


I was lying in the back of the resort van for a good portion of the celebrations, but when we were wandering the streets, what we saw was amazing. The young men of the village would lift a brightly painted demon effigy over their heads on a bamboo float of sorts, and run around in circles. They fell into the gutters a few times, and looked like they were going to get dizzy and keel over. The little boys of the village all had torches and walked on the sides of the road illuminating the madness. After they parade through the streets for a few hours, they take the effigies, set them on fire, and hurl them off a cliff into the sea. We saw some remains the next morning when we were diving near the cliff.

The next day was actually Nyepi, and we finished all our book work for the license, since we couldn't dive. The 31st was three dives and completion. In our four dives, we saw lionfish, sea turtles, parrotfish, garden eels, scorpion fish, sea cucumber, spotted rays, etc. The diving is supposed to be phenomenal, I can't wait to compare it with other dive sites.

Bali and Western Honshu... check!

I left for Bali 2 weeks ago today (I think). Laurac and I got our PADI diving certification and saw numerous pretty fishies. More on that later. Less than 24 hours upon my return, J and I set off on a 5 day roadtrip. We saw nearly all of Western Honshu, and hit 13 ken. If you look at the lovely map I have provided, you can see we started just north of Fukui and hit the following:

Miyazu (Amanohashidate, one of the 3 great views of Japan)
Tottori (Tottori-sakyu, famous sand dunes)
Izumo (Izumo Taisha, the oldest Shinto shrine in Japan)
Tsuwano (Taiko-Inari-jinja, fox shrine on top a hill on which you have to walk through 1100 red torii (gates))
Fukuoka (Tocho-ji where the biggest wooden buddha presides, and Shofuku-ji the oldest Zen temple in Japan)
Iwakuni (Kintai-kyo the 5 arched Brocade Sash Bridge, and happened to be having a festival when we came)
Kurashiki (old black-tiled district that serves as a craft centre and lies along a stretch of moat, and where we finally found birthday presents for each other)
Okayama (U-jo (crow castle) we got to see it at night and in the daytime, and Kouraku-en, one of Japan's 3 finest gardens)
Bizen/Imeda (town known for its distinct pottery)
Himeji (white egret castle, most famous in Japan (I had seen it before, but Josh never had, so we took a quick detour), and wicked falafel at an Iranian restaurant I found last time I was there)
Eihei-ji (one of the two head temples of the Soto sect of Zen Buddhism founded in 1244 the surrounding town was also having a festival when we came, mmm... chocolate dipped banana!)
Tojinbo and Ojima (rock formations similar to Giant’s Causeway in N. Ireland, and a grilled squid on a stick!)

I crashed in Toyama on Sunday because I am a lazy bastard and J is a saint. More details and pictures when I get my camera back from the blackhole of Sunshine 88.

Coming to school on Monday was like walking out of the calm eye of the hurricane into the chaotic debris flinging madness.

Today I issue you all a challenge.

These are places that are supposed to be some of the greatest architectural, artistic, religious, and historical contributions of mankind, as well as the world's finest known natural wonders. Some of them are in your frigin backyard and I bet you never knew it. Hell, I had been to one twice on school field trips as a child, and just found out it was listed. Who knew!? This is along the lines of the dream list I made for myself with Pat Garrett and Lou Jobst (you guys are amazing) back in PSD at MSA 1997. Damn I am old. Use it to spur yourself to get off your lazy duffs and move around the big planet we live on. See the world!

I am writing this today because of some sad news I received yesterday. My nana has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. She may have as little as 6 weeks to live, and has this precious time to accomplish anything she still wishes to, before she leaves us. She always told me that my wanderlust was like hers, and she urged me to travel and never regret. I know that by being here now, I am doing what she wants me to do, and she is proud of me. She wishes she had the chance to see more of the world when she was able. So, do it now, people! Don't put your life on hold till you think the timing might be right. Buy a ticket, hop a plane, a boat... GO!

Anyways... World Heritage Site List


Cambodia
Cambodia: Angkor

Czech Republic
Czech Republic: Historic Centre of Prague


France
France: Chartes Cathedral
France: Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay
France: Palace and Park of Versailles
France: Amiens Cathedral
France: Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay
France: Cathedral of Notre-Dame
France: Paris, Banks of the Seine

Italy
Italy: Historic Centre of Rome
Italy: Vatican City
Italy: Historic Centre of Florence
Italy: Venice and its Lagoon
Italy: City of Verona

Japan
Japan: Himeji-jo
Japan: Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto
Japan: Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama

Morocco
Morocco: Medina of Marrakesh
Morocco: Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddiou

Poland
Poland: Historic City Centre of Warsaw

Switzerland
Switzerland: Junfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn

United Kingdom
United Kingdom: Frontiers of the Roman Empire
United Kingdom: Westminster Palace, Abbey, and Saint Margaret's Church
United Kingdom: Tower of London
United Kingdom: Old and New Towns of Edinburgh
United Kingdom: Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City

United States of America
United States: Everglades National Park
United States: Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
United States: Statue of Liberty

Woot! 29! Let's Challenge!

Sento + Yuki = Wow



I know I am not the first to experience the wonder, but I had to jot it down anyways. Eri and I hit up the huge Takaoka sento (apparently part of the Supa Sento chain) after my Toide eikaiwa last night. It had all of the same baths as the one in Tonami, but was a little different in design.

Upon walking in, we passed a sign that refused admittance to tattooed heathens. Some sento and onsen have a no tattoo policy because of organized crime (yakuza) membership being displayed via tats. As we bought our tickets, I was specifically singled out and asked if I had a tattoo. I understand that my piercings might lead you to think I had more hiding under my coat, but seriously... I am gaijin. What is the point of keeping a gaijin with a tattoo, who is OBVIOUSLY not yakuza affiliated out of the sento? I said no and happily trotted inside.

The outdoor baths were great as usual, and was also a utatane, or nap space, where you submerge yourself in 42 degree (celsius) water and rest your head on a rock. Its true, I could have fallen asleep in there easily. I learned a song using old style Japanese counting about frogs jumping, and utilized my magical gaijin abilities. My particular superpower is nudey forcefield. Basically, whilst bathing, I have a magical barrier around myself, so any bath I approach is immediately evacuated by all Nihonjin. Eri is immune to my power. I think she built up a tolerance living in the UK.

The entire point of this post was to describe the snow. As we emerged from the utatane area, we noticed it was snowing. We ran to the open-air section of the bath and sat in individual tubs while the snow fell on us. Oh! Beautiful!

Other important news. My san-nensei graduated yesterday. Many of the girls were teary, and the boys actually threw each other in the air a few times. Awww... high school. I will miss you little bastards. And you good kids too!

fish heads, fish heads, rolly polly fish heads...

This weekend was utterly fabulous. Robyn, my Canadian friend who I met when we lived in Lancaster, was visiting from Seoul, where she teaches English as well. Her aunt and uncle live just outside of Kobe in a little town called Obayashi. They had a great little place, and live on the campus of a private Catholic girls school. They were great and made me feel like family.

Saturday afternoon, Robs and I headed for Osaka. We needed to expose her to Japan, and I think we were pretty thorough. First, there was general wandering. We located a few restaurants we we intrigued by, and of course, a British pub! I taught Robs about the true heart of no public drinking regulations, and we drank our conbini Asahi whilst walking the streets. We went to a great little temple that had beautiful lanterns, and a very unique stamp for my shuin book.

After that, we trotted back to the English pub and threw back a couple happy hour cocktails. Then it was off to the rotating sushi bar. This place had the best wasabi I have had so far in Japan. The texture of it was soft, and it was STRONG. There was no maguro, but we still managed to gorge ourselves. Next, introduction to pocky and chu-hi.

We sat and people-watched. Very relaxing. We fumbled around in a purikura booth and managed to get some good shots. I wanted to hit up Pachinko, but wasn’t sure about etiquette etc, in there, so I figured I better not embarrass both of us. After a lot more wandering and photos near the river, we headed back to Obayashi.

Sunday morning, we headed to Himeji.


Himeji is known primarily for its castle, Dai-tenshu. It was built in the early 17th century, and represents the highest achievement in Japanese castle architecture. The white heron castle (named so because it is covered in white plaster, and its eaves resemble a white heron in flight) is the most famous in all of Japan. It was enormous, and the interior was all wood and gorgeous. It was simple, with some glass cases with armor, scrolls, sculptures, etc on display. There was a small indoor shrine located at the very top of the castle, and a wacky old dude screaming out the window to his friends on the bottom level. Very serene, dude.




Here is a shot of the pathway made up partly of old tiles from the castle roof.



We got a joint ticket to the Himeji Castle Nishioyashikiato Garden Koken. It was built on the site where the Himeji Lord and his men's samurai houses existed in the Edo Period. There are 9 gardens, but we didn’t have enough time to walk through more than 3. We were appreciating beautiful nature as quickly as possible (sadly ironic, I know!).

There was time to stop in the Soju-an (teahouse) so Robyn could have some macha and sweets. The ladies inside were ridiculously attentive and adorable. The head mistress tried to explain something about kocha (which apparently means black tea, and therefore makes NO sense in the following context) to me for about 10 minutes. I offer you this poorl translated version, (iow) what I got out of it...

"You eat the sweet first, then drink the tea. do you speak much Japanese? Where are you from? Missouri? Misery? giggle. Oh, a teacher in Toyama-ken. Kocha... Oh, you do not understand kocha... oh you can read hiragana! please wait a moment. (at this point she goes to get a paper for me to read, which is half kanji, half hiragana.) oh, you cannot read kanji (she goes away again and gets her reading glasses, she proceeds to read me the entire paper, as I sit in confusion). Kocha, kocha...Japan has 4 seasons that you can appreciate in this garden. Green, green... nani nani... how did you hurt your arm? Oh, that is unfortunate. Anyways, (counts seasons on her fingers) spring, summer, autumn, winter. Different plants and flowers bloom in different seasons. green... beautiful... castle...."

That's about it. But damned if she wasn't convinced I could understand her. Then she went into the backroom and I heard a little girl asking how to say, “does it hurt?” in English, so she could ask about my arm (awww!). She brought out her two little apprentices. They were about 6 or 7 years old, and were so cute! They asked if we would like more tea, and brought it out, bowed, the whole 9 yards. We took this photo with them.


I also give you my second drained macha cup. I will keep track of these on here, for my own amusement.



After a great weekend of drinking, catching up, and tanuki hunting, Robs and I parted ways in Sannonomiya, and I managed to return to Takaoka in one piece. I will end this by settling a dispute between J and myself...

this is trout!

Kanazawa 21st Century Museum

The trees reflected in the stream and pebbles at Kenrokuen Gardens




Yesterday, I was graced with daikyuu, or as I like to say, "screwed out of having a 3 day weekend." Anyways, it was a beautiful day and Ellie and Angelo joined me on my art mission. I have been to the museum once before, for the infamous Matthew Barney "Drawing Restraint" show.




I love the museum, the space is inviting, some of the works are interactive, some structural aspects are simulaneously permanent pieces in the collection, and they have a good sized area of the gallery devoted to touring shows and/or collections, as opposed to throwing the same pieces that they paid an exorbantant amount of money on in your face again and again like other museums. This show was entitled, "Alternative Paradise."


Upon walking in, I was greeted by Hiroto Kitagawa's study of "futuristic human beings." They looked like giant clay manga characters, but painted with acrylic paint to add depth and the artist's touch. I like ultramarine as much as the next painter, but I think these were a bit glorified. Beautiful, yes, overrated, in my opinion... also yes. Sorry, no picture. Moving on.

Here we have Tetsuya Nakamura.


He apparently does fascinating things with fiberglass, etc. The "fast" objects were very shiny and sleek. I felt dismay upon walking into this gallery, because it looked like a 4 year old's dreamland. Life-sized race cars straight out of a video game. The museum explained that Nakamura paints and molds these vehicles using "new" techniques, but doesn't elaborate beyond that. The concept was very perplexing. Something about making speed visible. Perhaps it was just translated badly on the museum wall.


Canan Dagdelen's work (similar to, but not the one displayed above) left me feeling like a part of my soul had been sucked out. The space was horribly underutilized (perhaps the gallery's fault) and the work was very recently re-appropriated. I have seen this method of hanging multiple objects to create a new form dangling below, done over and over. I didn't find it particularly engaging.

Some aspects of the show were great. The T-room, a 4 artist collaboration futuristically interpreting the Japanese tea ceremony, was beautiful. The concept was well thought out, and the giant bubble room enveloped you and instilled a real sense of calm.




I know I am not supposed to take photos in the museum, but it was covered in silicone! I have a weakness for silicone. I also liked the hair/thread works from Anne Wilson (the 100 days one, not so much the video, although it gave me a good idea about milk...), and the plastic organisms created by Sofi Zezmer.

We also spent time at the beautiful Kenrokuen gardens, and had some tea at the garden teahouse. Below is our mochi.


a view of the tea room


My empty chawan.


The overall best part of the day was when we visited the oldest shrine in Ishikawa and were treated like royalty. I was getting my shuin written by the resident calligrapher/hanko mistress, and the caretakers of the shrine came out and chatted with us for a bit. They told us about the temple and gave us arrows as we were leaving. Awww... so sweet. Now I just want to know where I can get one of those awesome shrine maiden uniforms!

My pencil is all good.

This week is officially my favorite week in school so far. I did a superlatives vote with my ichi-nensei classes and they were so cute about it. Here are some highlights of the week:

1. Obviously, cooking on Monday

2. My 3-8 girls coming into school on their day off and giving all their teachers nut muffins.

3. My ichis writing letters to me apologizing for using their keitai in class, and telling me that English class is their favorite and they love me. Even if they were lying, it was nice.

4. All the kids saying good morning on their way to school, as opposed to the terrified silence I have gotten the whole rest of the year. (even the boys!)

5. Being able to read the graffiti I pass every day and realizing it says, "bakayaro," or stupid bastard if you will.

6. One of my 1-2 girls talking to me yesterday on my way to the eki. She was telling me about the boy she likes and how he plays basketball in gym with her, sits next to her, texts her every night at midnight, is on the volleyball team, and is SO cool! She gave him chocolate on Valentine's day and hopes that he likes her. But she is worried that she is not pretty, because she asked who he thinks is pretty and he said Laura-sensei. Uh oh! I hugged her and said that she is beautiful, and we are both sexy ladies! She giggled unstoppably and went away with a big smile. I hope that was appropriate. Oh well, if not, I am fired!

I will leave you with Yoshida-kun's favorite thing:

"My foverite thing is my pencil. Because my pencil is red and that is get used to my red pencil. and that my pencil is all good."

Cookies!

A few weeks ago, I had promised my 18 Canada homestay kids and my English club girls that we would make cookies. Then I broke my arm. Well played. So, this Monday, I finally made it up to them, and we spent 2 glorious hours baking away. I managed the convert the English recipe to metric via the power of technology, figuring it would be difficult enough for the little buggers to translate the recipe as it was. They separated into groups and began the daunting process of creaming butter and sugar together. Keep in mind, most of these kids have NEVER assisted their mothers in the kitchen before, so the home-ec room is like a foreign land. My English club girls rock, because we made sugar cookies back in December. Theirs were by far the prettiest, and most cookie-like of all the varieties we ended up with.


The four boys provided the most entertainment, however. They mixed the batter alright, but that's where the fun started!



The cookies were sporatically placed on a "greased" cookie sheet (note: the recipe did not call for a greased sheet!) and were so huge that they all melded together to create the infamous GIANT COOKIE. To be fair, nearly all of the groups, unless they were blessed with an English club girl, had entire sheet cookie action for the first tray.


After the second mess, I went over to help the poor boys, to cheers of "Sugei" at my spatulaing abilities. I am a domestic goddess, who knew?! After their 4th sheet came out resembling cookies, they chose the prettiest one and presented it to me. They were not satisfied till I ate it and proclaimed, "Oishiiii!" I love my kids!

My spirits were bolstered by my kiddies, once again. During class, I asked them to write a V-day message to someone they love. One of my boys wrote,


"Happy Valentine's Day Yeah!
Give me chocolate!
Be yours."

Kaiwo Maru and so much fish






Saturday morning, my supervisor Nishibuchi sensei and I took a trip on the tram. My Kyoto sensei gave me a pack of tickets for the Manyosen (fun red tram thingie) that goes from the Takaoka eki to the sea at Shiminato. We had talked about doing it doing it a few months ago, but finally managed to get around to it. The tram took about 1/2 an hour to get all the way to Kaiwo Maru park where we explored a cutter built in 1930.





Nishibuchi cracked me up pushing all the buttons, trying to open all the locked doors, and knocking the compass and radar systems around. She has the curiosity of a little kid, which is really refreshing to see, since the majority of Japanese I have run into are so straight-laced and conformist about such things.


After a few Titanic reenactments, we headed to a little market to pick up some omiyage for our co-worker who's house we were invited to for lunch.




They had some great metallic fish decorating the ceiling, and a whole case full of random medicines.





Sorry for the excessive photos of the medicine, but they reminded me of the seed packets you could buy for your gardens back home, at the flowershops. Behind the counter, they also had a bag of dried rattlesnake, which I was told is very healthy for us. ???!?!?!?!


Lunch was good, rice, soy sauce, sashimi, sprouts, seaweed, and mystery Japanese herb (that's their name, not mine), with miso. After the main course, they busted out mad sushi. It was trout flavored, which Toyama is apparently famous for... it was ok. And another mystery herb wrapped silvery looking fish. I preferred the trout. We watched a friendly Japan vs. USA soccer match on tv, and her husband (who is a JTE in Toyama-shi) and I found out that we both play the same position, yeah new friend! She pulled out photobooks of their family's recent trip to New York, DC, and Florida, and we talked about what Japanese and Americans thought of one another. All in all, it was a great afternoon and I am really glad we went. Oh, nearly forgot. When we left, our host generously gave us each a huge plate of kani and trout sushi to take home! So much food!

I fought Iwatake, and Iwatake won



So this is what happens when you try a heel to toe turn on your second run on your third day of snowbarding... but you miss the toe dig, and you backflip landing on your arm.

Snowboarding 101


You are gonna fall all day, and come home in a lot of pain. But it will be so much fun that you will want to do it again and again.


Saturday morning, I drug my ass out of bed (albeit later than Josh) and met up with Cronk and Sara in Tateyama. We drove up to Raichou and the madness began. Bless their hearts, especially Cronk for being so patient. I was a mess the first time down, and I swear, I really WAS trying to put my weight on my left foot! The weather was stunning, and I had nothing to complain about all day, aside from the pain of being a complete newbie. Adam, Jacquie (sp?), Dan, Jake, Joshie, and I were all out there for the first time, and it was hilarious. We were easy to spot from the lifts, as we were the ones falling spectacularly time and time again. Most of the falls were broken by either my ass, or my right knee. There was that one time I fell on my chest and snapped my neck around at a strange angle, but the monkey balm healed that all up. I believe the delicious onsen we went to afterwards also made me feel a lot better.


Next weekend we will be hitting Hakuba, which I have to admit terrifies me slightly. I know that I will be with other new boarders, but I am not sure what to expect. I am also really excited, so weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!


So, for the record… I can ride heel and toe, I can turn toe to heel, and I suck miserably at turning heel to toe. I know it is because I am not as good at toe, so I don’t trust my body to keep me there. I am sure I will get it by the end of Saturday, and if not, I have all day Sunday to whine about how sore I am and figure it out.

Sento is for naked people...

Last night, after my Toide eikaiwa, my friend Eri and I drove to Tonami and hit up the most wondrous of Japanese wonders, the sento. I have been quite curious about the sento/onsen phenomenon here in Japan (especially amongst the JET population). I had never been to one, so it was rather difficult to envision. I figured, naked people - check, hot water - check, bubbles of varying frequency - check, more naked people - check. What I got was a great deal more. Eri took me to the new ゆらら (super sento) ! For a mere 700yen we could take as long as we wished popping in and out of an array of different baths. The water was naturally pumped in from a mountain hot spring, and it was beautiful and smelled great!


First was a rinse, then her favorite, the electric wave pool. I thought my hips were going to explode, but she convinced me that it was supposed to be good for them, so I sat there for a while and wondered about my sanity.


We then crossed over to a super-bubble pool with about 5 different sets of jets. One would hit your lowerback, then another your neck, etc etc.


Next were little individual tubs outside. Keeping with Japanese standards, there was a big tv showing a cooking program for all the older women that were enjoying sento.


We tried the individuals then went into the group baths. Its a great feeling with the cold nipping at you while you are soaking away all of your stress in 42.8 degree water! (celcius for those of you who are freaking out right now)


We did a bit of sauna till I couldn’t breathe anymore and moved to a sweet little bath I had never seen before, and the air tasted sweet.


The hot water is pumped in just a few inches deep and you lie flat on these heated (by the water) rocks as the water rinses over what parts of you which are not exposed to the wind. It was deliciously warm and relaxing.


For any of you who have not gone to sento yet, I highly recommend it. For those of you who have, I am already planning a weekly Thurs. night session with Eri, but could easily be convinced to check out what is available in Tak!

My favorite part of the sento, the various sauna rooms.

create your own visited countries map



I need to work on this a bit. I did have a layover in China, but I am not gonna count it, cause we never left the airport and I am cool like that.

Things that made me sad today

1. The cyclops kitten.
My evil friend was mocking its depth perception, and said, "at least it had no problems with its death perception! har har har. That is sad. I am now more sad









2. The cycloptic kitten reminding me of
the painting of the cyclops by Odilon.

3. I still don't get to snowboard tomorrow
and everyone is making plans to go.


Then there is the fact that all the snow is melting outside. I know it is frigid and slushy and getting dirtier by the day, but it was so pretty before. I really enjoy staring out the window as the snow falls down. What is up with the lack of precipitation in Toyama this week? I suppose it did rain on Tuesday... but we should have rain at least every other day. Madness I tell you! Madness!











Things that make me happy today

1. I made an art quiz for the boards and it sucked up a goodlyish portion of my afternoon boredom, granted I should have been studying!

2. I actually feel like I learned something in college.

3. I have no definite plans for this evening, therefore I get to chill and have a few beers in my futon den of warmth.

4. Sara thinks we might go boarding next weekend in Raichou!!!

5. Classes were only 45 minutes because the kids have to stay an extra hour and clean, mwaa ha ha ha! I also have to stay a bit late, but oh well.

I am glad that the happy outweighs the sad for today!

La la la! I love snow!

It has been coming down all day, and I am so excited! It is like my childhood dream come true!

This weekend was a never ending mess. I had a lot of fun, mind you, but it was a bit hectic. Tuesday night, eikaiwa in Toide. Wednesday night, yoga at Daiwa. Then I prepared myself to go to Emma's for a sleepover and we were to head to Toyama together in the morning for the English camp. The English camp was a blast. Emma and Carl's kids are wonderful, and they treated us like we were rock stars for the whole weekend. Our room was GORGEOUS, just me Emma and Renee... fun fun! We got back Saturday night and I went to the JET x-mas dinner at Jacasse. Eh... it was ok. I was really wiped and kinda feeling anti-social. No offense to anyone, its my fault for running on empty genki tanks. But I had a good time, and planned boarding getaways.

Sunday was the International Festival in Tak. Oh my. I found the place around 12:30 and began my 3 hour yoga fest. Keep in mind, I taught about about 10 yoga classes in the past three days alone. I was immediately attacked by a 30 year old Japanese woman who could not speak any English, but was convinced that screaming Japanese in my face would help me to understand her. She had a 2 year old and a 3 year old with her that she and her husband had no control over. I actually thought she was *special for the first 10 minutes I spent with them. Her children loved me, but also loved my coffee and my laptop a little too much. I tried to show her some asanas, but it was hard with the little ones underfoot. After they finally left, I had a great time showing 75 year olds to 5 year olds different asanas. Good times. Plus, Saucypants and I got to samba. The badness happened at the end. My left arm dislocated, and I was writhing on the ground. Ouchie. It is still smarting. Stupid hypermobile body. Sucks sometimes.

Had a great, lazy weekend.

I got to cook a lot, watch movies, lounge around, and share the glory and wonder of nothingness (in the finest sense of the word) with J. We made a dent in the interesting selection of films available at the local Tsutaya (Japanese version of Blockbuster) with a bit of a Pierce Brosnan theme: The Crown Affair, Orgazmo (second time for me... ha ha), and The Tailor of Panama. I would have to say the TCA was my fave, but I am a sucker for art thievery, even if you can't bend a priceless oil painting in half, no matter HOW expensive and fancy your briefcase is!

Deserving of notice, is some random Japanese program we watched last night, whilst admittedly intoxicated, thus increasing its amusement value exponentially... the text sent to aid my memory reads as follows "moshi turtle game. like simon with zappers" It was two men dressed in turtle costumes that challenged these random men from another tv show that was being filmed in the studio next to theirs. They had to play a game where they put their hand or fist in the middle of a table, in turn, to wacky music. Whoever fucked up the rhythm/rules first loses. And to make things more interesting, the turtle dude, and one of the guys challenging them wore electric zapper packs around their waists. After the turtle lost the game, they started zapping the shit out of each other, and screaming in pain. It was hilarious, and I swear, I nearly spit my beer out about 12 times! Quality programming. Quality. I looked for photos, but came up short. So sad.

Mt. Fuji

I was easily up at 5:30am, not having anyone to go to the station with, and not wanting to miss the train, cause I am stupid and it happens. So I was the first to arrive, nearly an hour early at the north exit of Toyama train station. I just had a bit of extra time to read my book.

The bus ride was good fun. 7 hours of watching stupid movies and playing GHOST ( a word game that my sister and I used to play all the time when we were little). I was pretty jazzed about the climb, so I didn’t sleep at all. The bus took us the the middle of the mountain, otherwise known as station 5. We started climbing in a group of ten, a bit after 6pm. The sun was already starting to go down, and we figured we had a bit of light before we had to bust out our head-torches.

Sometime after the 6th station, we started losing members. I think it was around the time that Laura C. and Warren decided to go off the path and avoid a big group ahead of us. We didn’t really see much of them till the top. The 10 kept dwindling, till there were 4 of us. Bryan (aka Wisconsin), (old man) Dan, Richard, and me. We stayed together for the long hall, only breaking up once we finally made it to the summit. But I am getting ahead of myself here... A great part of the climb was more of a strenuous hike. It gradually got steeper, and right before the stations they made these god-awful steps that I had to throw my leg up and practically pole-vault on top of using my stick. I love my stick.

Obviously the temp kept dropping, and we were getting too close to the top too soon. We made it up there (dilly dallying as much as possible) around 2am, and had to wait over 3 hours for the sun to come up. There weren’t places for us to go to get warm, just a few cafes on the way up. They were strict though, you order your cocoa, and you have 10 minutes to drink it, then we kick you out. “Dude! I just paid 400yen for cocoa, cut me a break here”... NO! We went up a bit further and Geoff was nice enough to lay on our laps to keep us a bit warmer. We were, ironically, sitting right outside of a nice warm cafe, that was non-gaijin. Grrr... foreigners get cold too! So, instead, we decided to climb for about 15 minutes to warm ourselves up, then find a niche and huddle. We were worried about encountering a line around sunrise, however, so we kept truckin to the top.

We were crouching next to a picnic table, and behind the climbers who had made it up about 20 minutes prior to us. I slept intermittently. After a while, we noticed that people were getting up and not coming back. We jumped up and made a dash for the restaurant that was opening up. Joshie, Richard, and I huddled together on a long bench and watched as everyone packed in like sardines. Josh was translating the frantic angry Japanese into, “this is a restaurant, order or leave!” After they finished their steaming ramen, we pretended like one of us was ill and we had no idea what was going on, till they kicked us out. Oh well, can’t win ‘em all. Plan B was to go to the bathroom and then head-torch it up to the crater to warm ourselves up. When we came upon the bathroom, all plans in progress were halted. It was full of US marines. I mean full. They were sleeping on the floor, blocking the sink, huddling with our fellow JETs in the corner above the boxes of toilet paper. It was hilarious, yet very very warm. We ended up staying there and hanging with them till the sun came up. One from Alabama lent me his gloves, and the boys managed to get a hand-warmer packet. Yeah for US marines! We ran outside into the awful wind around sunrise and snapped a few shots before linking arms and running back to the safety of the loo. This pattern continued till the sun came all the way up, at which point we became the “screw the crater, let’s start the descent” group. We snagged Geoff, Tim, Bryan, Kate, and we thought Joshie, but somehow we lost him, and started heading down. Bless the sun, it was so nice!