Fun with Google Earth

The Higashiura Aeon Shopping Mall - 34.979191906,136.974286395

(This is where I've worked since the beginning of July. There's a Nova branch in the back of the mall, facing the parking lot.)


Nova in Handa City - 34.894603303,136.926120953

(This is where I worked for the first 5 months. Some of the students were cool but the location was terrible. The only things nearby were the grocery store and the McDonald's IN the grocery store. Moving to Higashiura made my commute a lot shorter and on days when I work 'til 9, unlike at Handa, I don't get home at 10:30pm.)


The Ryokan in Takayama - 36.1432208994.137.25315458

(I wrote about a trip that Yuka and I took to Takayama recently. This was the hotel that we stayed at. It was here that we took hot baths and I almost fainted. The dinner that we were served was awesome.)


The Red Torii Gate on Miyajima -

34.2972570461,132.31902329

(This is where I was standing when I took these shots of the red torii gate on Miyajima. This island has quite a large deer population and as a consequence, an impressive amount of deer shit. The mountain that I climbed, Mizen, is at 34.2799290933,132.320390953)




The Pier at Takahama Beach - 35.4928704519,135.570146174

(I took a video of myself from the end of this pier back in August. I pitched my tent in the campground not too far from this spot.)

Takahama hip-hop

I hung out with this cool student of mine named Tetsumasa on Saturday. He picked me up after work at Nova and drove me to some small bar in Takahama that a buddy of his owns. He's a DJ so he brought his crates and tables along and he just played all of his favorite shit for me and we lounged. The place got busy by 11 or 12, but it felt more like a private club house than a bar. I had a couple of whiskeys (which Tetsumasa insisted on paying for) and he put me onto some great Japanese hip-hop. I only really caught artist names, but if you're in the mood to listen to some good Japanese hip-hop, try Nujabes (the MC's name is Shingo2) and DJ Mitsu. He played a lot of stuff from the States, including Madlib remixes of Lootpack and Time Machine (I've never heard of them). I'm downloading a bunch of stuff on LimeWire now, so I'll give you all better direction when I get it.

Talkmate School

Today was the first day that I've had an opportunity to work at a school other than a Nova branch. I had mentioned earlier that I interviewed with this weirdo named Yasuyo. In that interview he told me that I wouldn't be using a textbook (lie), I wouldn't need a lesson plan (lie), and that his school doesn't have a 'serious' atmosphere (lie). He told me that I would be expected to just talk with students and offer a little advice. Awesome if it had been true. 30 bucks an hour to do that!? No sweat. I got a phone call from him on Christmas Day (thanks by the way) and said something about coming in early so we could discuss the lesson plan. I had been drinking with Yuka and I was high on cake so I didn't want to be argumentative. I find it extra ridiculous that he asked me to do something like show up early since that's not time I'm being paid for... hello?!

So I showed up 20 minutes before I was supposed to teach and he has a STACK of things for me to get through. No one-on-one either, I'm teaching six people (five of whom have a pretty good command of English and one who can't speak a word of it) for two hours straight. I felt physically weak. There was no time to prepare, I had no idea what he was trying to tell me to do in his broken English and students began to show up early. I actually thought about turning around and leaving him without a teacher (what the fuck do I care, anyway?), but i tried to look at the thing as a challenge and I'm glad I did (money aside). The first hour was spent practicing talking on the phone and I was clearly not prepared. To help me out, Yasuyo kept hovering around me and would occassionally interrupt to tell me to do things differently. It was fucking awful. At one point I had the students work in pairs and the thing they were supposed to do didn't make any fucking sense (everything was from some textbook that Yasuyo bought) and I couldn't explain it, because, like I said, it didn't make any fucking sense. Each pair had a copy of the SAME schedule. They were supposed to talk to each other and fill in the blanks in their schedules by asking each other what their plans are. That would make sense if we had TWO schedules. We didn't. We had ONE schedule. It doesn't make any sense. Later, when I asked the students to work in pairs again, this old woman freaked out and then started talking angrily in Japanese to Yasuyo. She quickly sucked every other student into the discussion (except for me of course who was completely lost) and it went on interminably. The only thing I could catch is that it was about me and she was PISSED.

The second hour went better. When we took a 5 minute break I was able to look over what we were going to do next and get something together. We practiced giving presentations and it was cute in like an elementary school kind of way. They all had to read out loud some Helen Keller speech and then I critiqued them on it (I just winged it but they all thought it was genius). I had a 3 hour break between my first two hours and my last one. Another teacher came in while I was out and taught something completely different. At 3 I returned to finish my lesson thing, and the Japanese lady who freaked out gave me an eclair. In that last hour everyone had to write up their own presentation and then deliver it to the class. The topic could be about anything that they found interesting. Because everyone's English was so basic and because they didn't have like a lot of time to prepare or anything, they gave the cutest presentations that you could imagine. This one girl gave a talk about New York City (she lived there) and it was something like: New York is located in the East coast of America. There are five boroughs that are Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx, the Brooklyn, and Staten Island. There are 8,000,000 people there... blah blah blah. One guy who was a geologist gave a talk about dinosaurs.

I sat in my teacher's chair with my scrap paper and just wrote ADORABLE! on it.

The highlight of my day was getting paid in cash. They handed me an envelope with 9000 yen in it while I was headed for the door. I thought I could get to Nova from downtown within an hour and it turns out, no, no I cannot (which will cost me 3200 yen in late penalties...). For three hours of awkward teaching and quick thinking I think it was worth it. After all, the day is behind me and I still have a wad of bills in my wallet.

Blah

Man. I know I'm terrible about keeping in touch, but I don't get emails anymore. Its been like 10 days and I've gotten 1 email. Ouch guys.

I handed in all my resignation forms two days ago. I'm gonna get my last paycheck electronically deposited in my Citizens account, but Nova is gouging me on the fees. Its gonna cost me over $70 for the transfer and I'm sure I'm also gonna get ripped off on the rate. I don't see how else to do it though since my last paycheck will come on the 15th of February and by that time I will have been out of the country for over 2 weeks. Assholes. I need to send at least one big bag home which I'm sure won't be cheap and then I'll also need to change all of my cash into traveler's checks or just send it home.

I had an interview with this guy named Yasuyo who runs a little English school in downtown Nagoya. I'm gonna pick up some extra cash working for him before I leave Japan, but I don't trust this guy AT ALL. He's gonna pay me $30 an hour to just talk to his students (no textbooks or lesson plans at all) and he scheduled me to come in for 3 hours on Tuesday. He gave me some other guy's schedule because, according to him, this other guy complains a lot, and I 'smile good.'

Tentative plan

January 26th 11:00am: Get on board of the ferry at Kobe

January 28th 12:00pm: Arrive in Tanngu, China. Get on a bus to Beijing, passing through Tianjin. Arrive in Beijing by 3 or 4pm. Check into the hotel and get dinner.

January 29th - Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City

January 30th - Outside the city to see the Great Wall

January 31st - Summer Palace, old and new. Get on an overnight sleeper train bound for Qingdao.

That's all I've got. I need to talk to Starr and find out what she wants to see. I finally put some more money on my phone card today.

Takahama show

I chatted up a student up today who DJs (hip-hop, R&B & reggae) and he's picking me up tomorrow at 8 so I can see his show. The place he's playing at is small but it should be fun. I invited Pat and David but they're busy so I guess I'm going alone. I'll let you all know how it goes.

He gave me his CD but its only a mix and mostly R&B. I'd prefer something a little more Madlib and a little less Craig David, but its not bad.

December 20, 2006

My first earthquake. I was at the Nova branch in the Higashiura Mall and teaching a Voice class. When I got home David said that they had something on TV about it and some parts of Aichi (including ours) were at a 3 on the Richter Scale. I always thought earthquakes had like, a clearly defined center, but I guess not. The 3's were separated by some distance. Anyway, so I was in Voice with three other people, Minori, a girl who lived in Toronto for a year and desperately wants to go back, a Vice President at a Pfizer reasearch facility, and this woman in her 40's, Youko, who gave me a gift of tea from Kyoto a little while back. So, it wasn't really a big deal, the room shook, I could see the walls moving, and I was rocked back and forth a little bit. At first I thought a really big truck was going by but then I realized we were in a frickin' mall and no truck is that big. They all realized what was happening and looked around for a second or two and then went back to talking like it was nothing. I tried to be funny about it but it was my first earthquake and I was genuinely a little excited:

"Holy Crap! Was that an earthquake?!"
"Yeah. Feels like a 2 or 3."
"Oh. This is my first earthquake. But its just a little one."

It lasted for only a few seconds but the shocks got smaller and smaller until I was trying to convince myself that I could feel something after it stopped. I can check 'survive an earthquake' off my list of things to do. It helps me to visualize how fucking crazy the Kobe earthquake in 1995 must have been. Not the destruction obviously, but it must have been like: 'oh, hey, we should go get some Spaghetti-Os for lunch,' and then the whole city is destroyed in a matter of seconds. Well, it wasn't destroyed in a few seconds, the fires and everything immediately afterwards did a lot, but you know what I mean.

Hida no Sato and Takayama

This past weekend Yuka and I went up to Takayama in Gifu. Its a three-hour bus ride through the mountains and when you arrive: fucking cold. We spent Wednesday walking around Takayama, crashed at a Japanese-style hotel, and saw the surrounding area (Hida no Sato) on the following day. We made it home by 10pm on Thursday night and went into Nagoya for the Christmas lights and crappy artwork.

We made reservations at a Takayama Ryokan (Japanese inn) a week earlier and Yuka got us some books on what to see. On Wednesday we saw the Takayama-jinya, which is an old government building from the Edo era. Taxes were collected there and asses were beaten. They had some torture equipment on display and while its not quite up to Braveheart levels of awesomeness, it did make my balls tremble a bit. In addition to the biting cold, it started to rain while we were in the government building, which forced us to splurge on a fabulous-looking yellow umbrella from a sidewalk vendor. We had some Matcha (thick and bitter green tea) and Japanese sweets, raw beef sushi (its fucking awesome), and then saw some house that's an architectural masterpiece (for some stupid reason). We headed to our hotel around 5 o'clock.


Staying at the Ryokan was a cool experience. Some Ryokan are built around Onsen (volcanic hot springs) and are the most popular. Our place had hot tubs but thanks to the lack of a volcano, wasn't technically an Onsen. I took a dip (naked and on the guy-only side of the hotel) and found another scale with which to measure my physical decline. I now weigh 71kg., which (as I just looked it up online) is 156 pounds. I'm wasting away. That's about 30 pounds lighter than when I arrived. I might now be underweight for my age and height. Anywho, I stayed in the water too long, and thanks to not having had much to eat that day, almost fainted in the hallway. I got really dizzy when I got out of the water and had to lean on stuff to get back to my room. Yuka said that when she first went to an Onsen when she was little the same thing happened, so she was able to take care of me. This included fanning me with a magazine and trying not to laugh.

We changed into yukatas (light kimonos) and had our dinner served to us in the room. We bought a bottle of fancy-pants sake earlier in the day, so we had that with the meal as well. After dinner, the woman who had served it came back to clean up our mess and make our beds. Yadda yadda yadda, it was an awesome night. We watched some late night TV and I was totally able to follow this comedy show. My Japanese is shit but getting better.

The next day we had breakfast on the first floor, Yuka took another dip in the hot tubs, and then we checked out. She insisted on paying for everything and I've been unable to get her to take some money from me since. I guess my plan is to treat her to a stay at a Ryokan in Tokyo for New Year's (if that's even possible on such short notice).


The next day we went to Hida no Sato (Hida's village) which is a well-preserved village cum museum. All of the houses were open and you could walk around inside them but as they all had tatami, we had to keep taking our shoes off. In the biting cold of northern Gifu, this was a problem. We skipped several of the houses because we couldn't stand the thought of letting our feet get any colder. We got some good pictures of the village and after a few hours of that, we got Japanese sweets again, took a scenic hike in the mountains near Takayama, and got more raw beef sushi. Dinner was ramen noodles (Takayama is known for its ramen it turns out) and we killed the rest of our sake on the bus ride home. We got drunk and loud and then found out later that almost every single person on the bus with us could speak perfect English. I can't remember what we were talking about but it wasn't very Japaneesy. I kept getting in everyone's way as they tried to get off the bus and everyone kept saying things like 'Oh, excuse me, can I get by you?' I was shocked. No one here can speak English that well. Where did those people come from?

Short story: I didn't apologize

I teach at the Nova in Anjo on Saturdays and I have for what feels like FOREVER. I hate going there. The same people always come on Saturdays so I never see any new faces there. The type of student that Anjo seems to attract (with a few notable exceptions) are smug businessmen and engineers who don't like to be silly or creative and don't like to actually speak English. They like to just nod and act like this is all so damned easy that its almost funny.

So, I was given a group of junior students (7 and 8 year-olds) because there's one girl in the class who is a handful and the staff thinks she might listen to a male teacher. I go down to the lobby to get the kids (there are three girls and a boy) and one of the girls calls me a monkey right off the bat. That's fine. I get called lots of stuff by kids and I know how to handle it. 'I'm not a monkey, YOU'RE THE MONKEY!' She then calls me monkey teacher and I call her monkey student and everyone's laughing so its fun. I do the lesson and everyone waves goodbye and I feel like I did a bang-up job. Less than 15 minutes goes by and one of the Japanese staff comes up to the teacher's room to talk to me. 'We just got a call from one of the girl's parents. Did you call her monkey in the class?' 'Hells motherfucking yeah I called her a monkey. She IS a monkey.' 'Ok, that girl's mom is really upset. She wants you to apologize to the girl.' The staff tells me that the little girl's mom understands what happened and that it was all a game or whatever, but she doesn't care because I'm an adult and I should know better. Calling me a monkey can be forgiven because she's only a kid but I'm at fault because I'm a mature and responsible grown-up. I refuse to apologize. Being the mature grownup, I tell the Japanese staff that I'll quit before I apologize to the kid. It's not that I think I'm too good to apologize to a little girl, but I don't feel like I did anything wrong. I call students names all the time, and some of those names stick for weeks. Hello Eri, hello Shouta, hello Yuuki, hello Poop. Its just how it works.

So a week went by and I had to go back to Anjo. I figured that after what I said the staff would just switch the class to someone else and the mom would get over it. Well, the mom got over it and no longer wanted an apology but the staff wasn't bright enough to switch me out of the class. After all the fuss that girl's mom made (including phone calls to the other parents to see if their kids liked me as a teacher or not) the kids just couldn't be comfortable around me. They were all quiet and wouldn't really look at me. I tried my best to get it back to how it was but that trust (or whatever) was completely fucked. It was terrible. I felt guilty and so did they. Ugh. If that mom hadn't freaked out no one would have cared and everything would have been fine.

The other teachers and I came up with some theories on why the mom got so heated. One is that in Japan there have been some recent high-profile cases where teachers bully students and the kids go off and kill themselves over it. Maybe the mom just freaked out because her head was elsewhere when her daugher told her what happened. Another one, that Alex (from New Zealand) came up with, is that the word monkey has special significance in Japan. I guess thats what occupying forces called the Japanese and its a racial slur on par with the N-word in the US. The only other thing that we came up with was that she didn't really understand what happened in the classroom because if she had, she wouldn't have freaked out.

Anyway, its all over and nothing has changed except now those kids and I can't have fun anymore.

my car is in the hose-pee-tall

Every weekend I go to the Tsurumai Public Library and to the Nagoya International Center and swap out the books I've finished for some fresh ones. This past weekend, with a stack of books under my arm and the sweaty look of someone who hasn't showered, I was approached by a camera crew who wanted to interview me. Approached is the wrong word since I was actually grabbed from behind and then quickly surrounded by four people. I was waiting to cross the street and there were maybe another 8 or 9 Japanese businessmen standing with me. They all looked quite amused when they realized what was happening. 'Do you speak Japanese or English?' Apparently when I said 'English' they heard 'you may start the interview now.' The guy holding the camera hoisted it up on his shoulder and a really bright light came on. The woman reporter's face completely changed to like, her show-time expression and she put the microphone in my face. The other two guys stood up straight but I put my hand in front of the camera and asked her WHY she was asking me what language I spoke. Her exact words were 'Ok ok ok ok ok ok. I want to know how your local travel experience is different from what you expected.' Nothing clever came to me and right as she finished her question the light turned green, so I told her I was sorry but I didn't want to talk about my 'local travel experience.' I guess I just wasn't ready to be THAT famous yet, you know? I mean, signing autographs I can handle, but the tabloids, the rumors, the paparrazi... its just not worth it in the end. At least, not before I speak to my lawyers and iron out the details of the merchandizing rights. The money is an issue but you have to consider overexposure.

Chuugokugo (=Chinese language)

I borrowed a CD of Taiwanese and Mandarin phrases from the Okazaki public library and I'm putting it onto my iPod right now. I can say hello, how are you, what's your name, and a few other things in Chinese now, but my pronounciation is terrible. Yuka and I came up with the brilliant idea of going to ECC (a school that competes with Nova) and a Nova branch outside of our own area to take demo lessons in Chinese next weekend. Both of those schools offer free 20-min. trial lessons (you can get a trial English lesson from a teacher at the branch but any other language that the schools offer is done with a computer and networking software. For Nova, all languages other than English [Italian, Chinese, French, German, and Spanish] are taught by teachers in Tokyo and Osaka), so we think its a good plan. Maybe we'll go to two different branches and try German lessons after that. Whatever we need to kill time before the bars open.

This weekend Yuka and I are heading up to Takayama. Its in northern Gifu (the prefecture bordering Aichi to the north) and high in the mountains. We booked a night at a Ryokan (Japanese-style hotel) and transportation there for about $130 each. It'll take about 3 hours on a bus to reach Takayama but its supposed to be worth it. My Lonely Planet suggests visiting Takayama and Kanazawa in central Japan if you're a tourist just passing through, which means that according to Lonely Planet there are more worthwhile things to do and see in this tiny mountain village than a modern city the size of Chicago. Either this place is amazing or Nagoya really, really, really sucks. The town escaped the destruction of World War II and Japan's own turbulent history so its a preserved community from like, not just hundreds, but thousands of years ago. Its also known for its sweet unrefined sake. There are tons of breweries that offer tours according to my guide. And by guide I mean imagination since I didn't actually look that up. It just seems like there should be, you know?

Post-Japan plans

I can take a ferry from Kobe that goes directly to Beijing (actually Tanggu but it doesn't matter) for about $200 (I might be able to get a student discount---thank you Brandeis for not printing expiration dates on the students IDs). I don't know the details of the ride yet, but its a much better option than the Osaka-Shanghai plan I originally had. From Shanghai, I would have had to take a train north to Beijing (a 14-hour trip) and then take the same train back south to continue on towards Vietnam. I'm jazzed.

At the moment, the plan is to travel around Japan in mid-January, then take the ferry to Beijing, see the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, the Mao-soleum, the old and new Summer Palaces, etc;, then head south to Nanjing, Shanghai and Sichuan, (or first head to Chengdu and Tibet), and then head through Hong Kong and Guangzhou before crossing the border into Vietnam. From Vietnam its onto Cambodia and Thailand. That's as far as I've gotten.

The no-look pass

I've been receiving texts and phone calls from some of you back home, but thanks to the assholes at Softbank I can't respond to any of them. My old service provider, Vodafone, was recently bought out by Softbank. I paid my October bill to Vodafone (I didn't know my provider officially became Softbank on the first and Vodafone sent me the October bill first, so that's the one I paid) but Softbank shut off my service because they never saw that money.

In Japan, you can pay all of your utility bills at convenience stores. I always pay my phone bill at the FamilyMart near my house, but I never keep the receipt because until now, I had never had a problem like this. So, I have to go and talk to someone at one of the now Softbank stores and see if I can get my service turned back on. I was supposed to go to Kyoto today and see some temples but without a cell phone, it would have been impossible to meet up with Yuka on Thursday, so I'm stuck in Nagoya for the day.

Basically, all telecommunications companies suck. Verizon was run by a bunch of assholes, Softbank is clearly run by assholes, and Vodafone was run by assholes. Its just how it works. I've never heard anyone say a good thing about their cell phone company. Ever.

Horyuji and Thanksgiving

Yuka and I went to Horyuji in Nara-ken for Thanksgiving. Nara is roughly a three-hour train ride from where I am. We planned ahead and only traveled at peak hours though, so no one bothered us and we were able to get to Nara and back for about six bucks. I love the train system in Japan. It's comfy, you can drink on it, it goes everywhere, its reliable, and its easy to avoid paying for it. I wish they had something like this in America. Only if you could cheat it though. I wonder how you could take planes for free..

We had plans to see these three temples outside of Nara but spent the entire day at the first one. I didn't think it was going to be so big or so interesting. There was an art museum there (taking pictures was forbidden inside... and so was sketching for some reason), and a group of lovely Korean tourists shared the space with us.

The week before we went hiking in Toyota (the company is named for the town) with some of Yuka's friends. We went to an Indian restaurant afterwards and some Nepalese guy working there struck up conversation with me. I thought Nepalese people spoke English but I guess not. I couldn't tell if he was speaking Japanese or English to me when he tried to say something. The Japanese people I was with said the same thing. Completely incomprehensible.

It was a good Thanksgiving even if it was the first one I've spent away from home. I think if I had spent it alone and without Yuka I would gotten pretty bummed out, but we stayed pretty busy and I was in the mood for curry anyway. On the ride home we got tipsy on Chuhi (the wise traveler always packs some) and ate Green Tea Kit Kits which have just become available again. On the train back to Nagoya I had to listen to these Australians having an intellectual debate. They came to the conclusion that personality is more important than looks when dating someone. Brilliant. Coincidentally, they were all ugly.

Yuka the planner

Not that I'm complaining. I've always been fine with other people deciding where I go and what I do. I mean that too. This weekend we're headed to Kyoto (my second time) to see the Kinkakuji (pictured). We both just finished reading Mishima Yukio's novel by the same name so we're in the mood. Her days off are kind of strange, in that she has Thursdays and every other Monday, so she can only spend a day with me. I'm going to head down this Wednesday and see some things by my lonesome. I'll crash in an internet cafe (probably Popeye's) and try to ignore the fact that I'll be completely alone on my birthday. By the way, my number is 090 6095 1895 and my phone's email address is bennegan@c.vodafone.ne.jp if you want to call or text me. Just throwing it out there.

So Yuka has planned something for almost everday right up until I leave (I picked up my passport today and now I need to get the ball rolling on Cambodia and Vietnam), with this weekend being spent in Kyoto, the weekend of the 15th in Takayama, and New Year's in Tokyo. Her mom has friends or a boyfriend that lives in Chiba so we'll be able to crash at their/his place. The agenda for our Kanto trip is going to be Nikko (the tomb of Tokugawa Ieyasu... I think), Tokyo, Yokohama (maybe... all I know about Yokohama is their Chinatown is famous. But I'll be going to China soon anyway, so who cares?), Kamakura (one of the shogunates was based there and it has a giant reclining Buddha), and Chiba (maybe).

...

I'm such a dirtbag. I have a giant pile of teabags in front of me that I just stole from the free drink area. I'm gonna fill the front pocket of my sweatshirt before I leave here tonight. What can I say? I hate spending money.

Himeji sucks

Brucie, tell you're friend that I can say with confidence, as someone who has never been there, that Himeji is the asshole of the world. I would rather mop-up at the peep shows in hell than stop there for a night. People from there are not only the ugliest and dumbest human beings I've ever met, but they have all the charm and culture of 16th-century Chinese public restroooms.

I would like to see their castle before I leave though.

I got the paperwork started today for my Chinese Visa. I couldn't even believe how easy it was. When I was planning my trip back in August the guy at No. 1 Travel told me that I had to show the Chinese officials my flight reservations as well as everything else to prove when I was entering and leaving. Totally unnecessary. I showed up dressed for success, but other than that I didn't have much to show them. I hadn't even filled out the paperwork properly (I could't quite decide on my purpose in China, was I there to: 'THOULS88DKJ' or to 'OTIYU$HIOU'?). The woman behind the counter had spoken in Chinese and Japanese before I got to the window and I was positive that I was walking into a liguistic disaster before she busted out her well-pronounced English as well. It was a snap and I can pick up my passport again in a week as long as I pay them 6000 yen. Which, thanks to the rapidly- plummeting yen, is now about $0.40 US.

I celebrated my accidental success with pancakes and coffee at McDonalds and an International Herald. I've been having logistical problems with how to get out of Pakistan (if I actually go) since I'll be fenced in by Afghanistan and Iran. The solution might be a short flight or boat-trip to the UAE before heading towards Egypt or Israel via Saudi Arabia. That sounds extra sexy to me because of the potential violence factor. I got the idea from Wu, who went there and said it was a blast, and from the newspaper today because there was an article about how the US State Department is now using the UAE as their base of operations in learning all they can about Iran. So maybe I can meet actual spies and CIA workers trying to overthrow the Iranian government while I'm there! ... I hope I see lions!

I guess thats it. I'm in a great mood so hopefully my postings in the future will have less morbid self-loathing and more humor. I noticed people admitting in emails to me that they're not reading this crap anymore. I guess details about what I ate in Hiroshima doesn't attract the interest that a funny story about climbing Mt. Fuji does. Oh well.

I failed

The Chinese embassy in Nagoya closes at noon. I failed.

I have to think of something else to do with my day. I just got lunch. That's out. Almost everyone I know is working. So hanging out is out too. It's too early to go sit in a bar. That's out. I only have an hour on this terminal so I can't download music or write emails or watch clips of the Colbert Report. Damn man. I have plans to go hiking with Yuka tomorrow so I can't really get out of the area either. I guess I can find a museum or something to sit around in...

I think speaking English to people who work in services is the way to go. I just saw some young kid with a Japanese girlfriend speak lightning fast to some McDonald's worker and she was frantic in trying to keep up with him. He acted cocky and slightly annoyed even after he gave her a really complicated order. "Hold this, hold this, this is ok, this is ok, and can I get some extra (something) on the side? Thanks." But even if he was being incosiderate he came out of the thing looking sort-of cool and she looked like an idiot. That's way better than when I go to McDonald's and try to order in Japanese and I can tell the worker behind the counter just wants to laugh at me. I try like crazy but they still correct my grammar in a subtle way. I hate it man. I feel like a loser. I'd rather make them feel like crap because they can't understand me than the other way around.

Japan skipped fall. It went directly from summer to winter. I remember just two weeks ago sweating in my shirt and tie on the way to work and now today I have on three layers.

I have no idea what to write about. I update this thing because I've made a commitment to it, but not since Mt. Fuji have I felt like I had something to say.

For a good time, download 'Take Five' by the Dave Brubeck Quartet. It rocks. It jazzes? No. Its jazzy. There you go.

A while back (I don't think I've mentioned this yet), Pat asked some student what his hobbies were are and the guy responded: 'I like... ham.' Ham? He was looking for 'tennis' I think. I get those confused sometimes too.

I grew some sideburns and I think I'm gonna let the rest of my hair grow out to complete this new 'I don't have a job' look. Maybe mohawk it for China, but I'll go tighter on top so it looks more distinguished.

Hey Lou, I looked at that sight you sent me a link for. Brilliant. I've included it as a link. Vice Mag. I wish this blog read like their site.

Student recommendations

I had this cool guy in a lesson the other day who recommended a Japanese punk band to me. I don't know much about punk, but one of the first (the first?) British punk bands was The Damned. They released an album called 'Machine Gun Etiquette' which made waves in Japan. The band this guy recommended, Thee Machine Gun Elephant, was named for the way one of the members pronounced The Damned's export. If you like early punk and don't mind the Japanese, then I guess I would recommend it. I like The Clash better, but its listenable.

Racially profiled

Not much to report

Three students are going to come over on Sunday for a Nabe party. Nabe is some kind of Japanese dish with like... an arrangement of meat and vegetables.... actually I have no idea what Nabe is, and I can't be bothered to look it up. But they're gonna come over and we're gonna eat it.

I heard from Starr for the first time in a few weeks and we're ironing out the details of our trip together. Nothing is set in stone yet, so expect details as we figure them out.

I have tomorrow and Thursday off so I'm gonna go to the Chinese embassy and get my Visa paperwork started.

I'm scheduled to work at 5 today so I came to Nagoya for McDonald's pancakes and a copy of The Economist. I went out front of the JR Station to read the tourist map and got stopped by a cop. He wanted to see my passport and foreign registration card and to ask me where I was headed. I was outraged. He was just a little guy, so when he started talking to me and I got the gist of what he wanted, I stood up as straight as I could to tower over him. It would have been awesome to be like, Luke's height then. He acted like he was concerned that I was lost but then threw in little comments like, 'OH, a Nova teacher' and crap like that. Yup, that's me. I only support racial profiling when its done to other people.

Pat has had that happen a few times to him　so far, but it was a first for me. I don't like it. I dont like it much at all.

Hiroshima, Mt. Mizen, and the Midterms

I finished uploading my Hiroshima pictures.

I've been telling this story backwards, but a week ago I went to Hiroshima, Miyajima and Okayama. I spent most of the 30th in Osaka, waiting for the overnight bus to Hiroshima (a 7 hour trip). I got to Osaka by 1:30pm and... wait, did I already tell this story? Ok, I just checked. Nope. I tried to see a few things in Osaka but was a horrible failure. Tennoji park was closed for some reason and when I got to the Osaka Museum of History it only had an hour left to closing time. I passed on it and just wandered around getting drunk on Chuhi. The bus was scheduled to leave at 11:50pm and it was only 5pm when all of the touristy stuff closed. So I had about 7 hours to kill and no one to hang out with. I just sat down on the side of a flower box and waved at Japanese people. Most of the people who walked by me felt it necessary to stare (despite this being the busy downtown area of Japan's second largest city... don't they have foreigners here?) so I just smiled and waved at them until they got embarassed and hurried on their way. A big group of girls were checking me out and they giggled like crazy when I waved to them but I wasn't drunk enough to follow them around and bother them. Plus my Japanese really isn't that good and I wouldn't even know where to start.

I ate a whole bunch of weird Osaka food in an effort to kill time. I got some takoyaki (octopus balls), which most of the other teachers can't stand. I think its awesome but as I didn't let it cool it was a little too doughy. I went to the bus station in Nanba when everything else got boring. There's this group of entertainers in Japan called SMAP, which I would compare to the Backstreet Boys or N'Sync or something, and they all sing together and release albums and whatever, but they also have TV shows and a bunch of other projects. Probably a clothing line. So I was watching their cooking show (they break into two teams and they also host it) and falling asleep in my chair waiting on the bus. It finally showed up and it was just me, a few Japanese people, and a whole Indian family. I think they were Indian but only the youngest son spoke any English which confused me. I thought everyone in India spoke English...

I woke up probably once an hour when the bus took a turn or when I heard a horn or something, but was able to sleep for most of the trip. I got off the bus at Hiroshima station and got breakfast at Mastuya before sunrise. I checked my guide and found a park that I could walk around before everything else opened up. On my way I found a little Shinto shrine so I prayed and then hiked up the side of this big hill to the park. The Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art is housed in the park, but as it was still only 7am or something I had to settle with peaking in the windows.

I started towards the A-Bomb Dome and got there right before it opened at 8am. I checked out all of the museums and walked around the park that was created out of the rubble near ground zero. I took the same pictures that every tourist takes of the Dome and you can see them all on Flickr.

I hate traveling alone though. I don't get to be in any of these pictures unless I want to set my camera down on something and look like a complete idiot standing in front of it waiting for it to go off. I also don't like making stupid faces or taking weird pictures alone. It's only fun and spontaneous with someone else. Alone its just lame.

So I saw the museums and they're great. Lots of information, lots of media (videos, pictures, models of the city, blah blah blah), and its gripping. I would recommend to any and everyone to see the museum here because unfortunately I'm not going to do it justice with my poor writing and lack of visuals. Pictures of the city where people's shadows are burned into the concrete, a gigantic searchable database of all the surviors' stories (with great English translations), and an honest retelling of the causes behind World War II and the reasons for dropping the bomb.

Also, everytime a new bomb is tested somewhere in the world the mayor of Hiroshima writes a letter pleading for an end to atomic weapons and invites the politicans of whatever country to visit the museum and see what this is leading us all towards. Copies of all the letters that have been written since 1960 are on display. Attention USA, attention Soviet Union, attention France, attention India, etc;

After the museum I went to Miyajima. There's this famous red torii gate there which is the most photographed spot in Japan. I got my obligatory shots as well. I also took these videos climbing and descending the mountain there. Climbing up Mt. Mizen and taking the ropeway back down the mountain. I thought I would only use one of these and delete the other one, but wound up keeping them both. So I wished you all a Happy Halloween twice.

Trip was good. Shit I'm about to run out of time at this cafe. I don't even have time to go back and check my grammar... Hopefully that doesn't sound too dumb...

Okayama and waking up at 5am

For me, who likes to travel and doesn't like to spend money, sleeping in internet cafes is the way to go. It cost me about 15 bucks to sleep for 6 hours in a private booth with a bed. That was enough rest for me once it was combined with some coffee from McDonald's. I would like to thank McDonald's by the way for opening at 6am in Okayama, exactly when I needed them to. I would also like to thank their staff for keeping the bathroom meticulously clean so that I could brush my teeth and wash my face and make a giant mess in the process without feeling too much like a homeless person.

I left Miyajima island (close to Hiroshima) around 5pm on the 31st, with the intention of going as far as possible before the trains stopped running. I paid 180 yen just to get on the train and as, thankfully, no one asked to see my ticket, I didn't spend a ton of money like I would have if I was a more honest person. I got as far as Okayama before 9pm and decided I didn't want to get stranded in Himeji or somewhere where I might have difficulty in finding a hotel or an internet cafe. I kept an eye on the stations we passed through so that I could lie convincingly at Okayama about where I had got on. As long as the station looked closed down or I couldn't see a ticket agent, then I had a good reason why I was getting off the train without a ticket to prove where I came from. It cost me 1110 yen to get off the train over 3 hours after I got on. Its dishonest but it rocks.

I got some curry from CoCoIchibanya (think the McDonald's of curry), and then wandered up and down the center of the city looking for inspiration. I started just asking random people where an internet cafe was and got three cute middle-aged women to tell me where I could find one. I crashed (after updating this blog briefly) and then woke up the next day at 5am. I was a minute or two late in checking out of the cafe so they charged me an extra 84 yen. Bastards.

I walked down to the castle and the city's impressive garden, Korakuen, but both were closed until 8am. I walked back towards the cafe hoping to find somewhere warm and quiet where I could read and kill some time. I got all the way back to the train station just as McDonald's was opening. I got coffee and their pancake breakfast thing. I know everyone has had it once but probably not for years, right? I've had a jones for it before but I never seem to make it on time. Anyway, I ate and had some coffee and read the book I brought. I left just before 8 and watched everyone waking up and heading off to work. That sucks. I was all smelly and unshaven and homeless looking, but that's so much better than getting up at that hour and heading off to work. I got to the garden and was one of the only people there when it opened. I took a ton of pictures but don't have my camera on me right now. I'll upload them when I get around to it, alright? I passed on the castle as its one of the ferro-concrete ones and probably incredibly boring inside. I mean, all the castles I've seen so far are pretty boring but at least I can pretend to be really interested in the architecture and history if the castle is an original. I got some curry at Matsuya (a Japanese chain restaurant that is found on every corner in every city in Japan) and then hopped on the train again.

I had much worse luck on the train ride home but it was because I made the rookie mistake of traveling in the afternoon after rush hour ended. I got asked not once, but twice for my ticket. Son of a bitch! I was able to lie convincingly both times so the damage wasn't as bad as it should have been, but I still had to cough up 30 bucks to the train conductors.

I got home yesterday at 5 or 6, and just spent the rest of the day eating junk food and reading. Today was more of the same and I'm gonna meet Yuka tonight for dinner and maybe a movie.

La la la...

Books

Tried, unsuccessfully, to get through Catch-22 for a second time. It's not difficult or boring to read through, it just isn't good enough to finish. I said it.

I picked up Yukio Mishima's 'Kinkakuji' and 'The Poetical Works of Milton.' While traveling in western Japan I read through the first 200 pages of 'Swann's Way' so I'll finish that before starting anything new.

No one cares.

Jaden's First Halloween

Isn't he adorable? My sister has only sent me this photo so I don't know how my nephew's first halloween went. I think he was a chicken. I doubt he had any say in the affair as he can't speak yet.

On a related note, Britney Spears is having another kid and according to my source is planning to name this one Jaden. And my source has never been wrong about anything before in her entire life. And makes awesome birthday cakes. And eats entirely too many strawberries.

Hiroshima and Miyajima

This post has nothing to do wtih either of those places. I went to Osaka, Hiroshima, and Miyajima this weekend and now I'm in an internet cafe in Okayama City. I paid an extra three bucks and instead of a chair, I'm writing this from a bed. Sweet cakes. I have 6 hours to sleep a little bit and then I'm off again to see this city's fancy-pants garden and maybe its castle. I hope to be back home by tomorrow night so I can get some real sleep, shave, and take a shower.

I'll post all of my pictures in the next few days.

I found a bookstore with a great English section in Osaka while I was waiting for my bus to leave. I picked up Pascal's Pensees only because its mentioned in this other book I'm reading and I found a quote that has been bothering me ever since (I'm paraphrasing): 'Curiosity is vanity. We only do things so that we'll be to talk about them later and if we didn't have friends to tell about our adventures we would never cross the sea.'

Ouch man, ouch. Especially since I have this blog that I like to use to just ramble on about what I'm up to. I suddenly feel so lame about everything I've done in the past 9 months. Maybe about everything I've ever done.

Fucked up Pictures

Yuka and I went to Hikone in Shiga Prefecture on October 19th and she just emailed me all of her pictures (I forgot my camera)............

your love it feels so good AND THAT WHAT TAKES ME HIGH

HIGHER THAN A (something something)

AND YOUR LOVE IT KEEPS ME ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

... sorry but the music in this internet cafe is BUMPIN'


Some of Yuka's pictures got all fucked up for some reason...

Hikone has a castle and some good restaurants but thats it. When we got out of the train station and looked at a map provided for tourists, it showed us how to get from the station to the castle and everything else was just erased off the map. I like the honesty. Dont waste your time guys: just see our castle and go home.

On our walk to the casle we passed a shoe store selling cheap bags of potatoes.

I've now seen two of Japan's four national treasure castles, so I guess I'll see the other two and check that off my to do list. We went to the castle's museum, got tea in the garden, and then saw the Donjon. We got dinner near the castle and went home. I guess that sounds boring, but we're both incredibly interesting and funny so it was a blast.

We stopped in a gift shop and they had a display of these good luck bears (I dont know what kind of animal its supposed to be, and Yuka didn't know the English word for what it is) that I've seen a million times but for some reason I had never noticed before how large the balls of the statues are. Its a smiling bear with one of those Vietnamese farmer hats on, but its got a huge cock and enormous balls. Its sack is larger than it's feet and maybe that's why its supposed to bring good luck...

So North Korea successfully tested its bomb. Congratulations, Korea. Talk has already started in this country about getting a bomb, but I dont think its serious yet. In addition to the bomb question, Japan's new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, made changing the constitution's language a cornerstone of his platform. The 9th Amendment prevents Japan from using its military for anything other than self-defense. The constitutional debate was recently renewed when the US told Japan that it would play an important role in its own efforts in Iraq, despite Japan's constitutional restrictions. So Japan's role in Iraq was the first time that Japanese troops have been deployed outside of Japan since World War II (so says SOMETHING I read), and now with North Korea in possession of a nuke and throwing missles towards Japan, China growing as fast and aggressively as it is (see oil drilling in the Sea of Japan), and Japan now playing a leadership role in international politics (Japanese polticians wrote the language adopted by the UN in response to North Korea's nuke test) I guess things may be changing in Japan as well as the rest of Asia. None of this means anything to me because on a day-to-day basis nothing has changed. I still have to go to my boring job and I still drink Chuhi on the weekends.

Miss you all.

More boring information

Going to Taiwan around New Year's is going to cost $1,000. I'm astounded. Its like flying to Florida from Boston or something. That grand includes hotels but still.

I looked into traveling around Vietnam after I leave Japan and I got intimidated. There were 3 to 4 pages in the Vietnamese Lonely Planet on diseases to be careful of, it advised travelers to not drink any water or use any ice, it said that scams and robberies are on the rise, and the underage sex industry is BOOMING. Apparently something like a third of all sex trade workers are under 16-years-old too, which makes the whole thing that much more appealing.

I want to travel but man. This sounds hard.

Strange Conversations

I saw a student on the train the other day, this cute girl that I don't frequently speak with but who I recognized easily. She seemed absolutely astonished to see me outside of Nova and actually let her mouth fall open when I sat down next to her. Off to a good start. The first thing out of her mouth when I sat down was 'What are you doing?' That kind of a statement doesn't surprise me anymore as she just isn't sure how to be polite or start a conversation in English. The second and fourth questions however were both 'where do you live?' I thought that sort of question could be answered once but I guess there were some details she wasn't clear on.

Her: What are you doing?
Me: Heading into Obu for dinner, you?
Her: Was with friends. Where do you live?
Me: In Kyowa.
Her: Oh KYOWA. Where are you going?
Me: I'm not sure, maybe this izakaya near the station.
Her: Ooh. Where do you live?
Me: In... ... In Kyowa? (Pointing back to where the train had just come from)
Her: Oh. I heard you have a girlfriend.
Me: ... who the hell did you hear that from?
Her: I'm not sure.

She clearly understood what I said the first time because she repeated it. I swear she repeated it. And since I haven't told anyone about having a girlfriend here (other than you all), how the hell did this student know about that as well? Man. The students must all talk to each other because I didn't tell her shit.

The other night I got dinner with Yuka and she told me a little bit about what her job is like. Since she speaks Japanese all day and we're in different parts of the building, I have no idea what goes on between the staff and the students. The students are a lot more strange than I was led to believe. I guess students telling the staff that they have feelings for teachers happens all the time and we just never hear about it. I knew that this high school Sophomore had a crush on a 26 or 27-year-old teacher at my branch. What I didn't know is that she had competition for him and the two of them even spoke about it. The second girl requested that the Sophomore inform her when she planned on talking to him, so she could be present and not miss anything.

Also, apparently some student who left to work in Canada admitted to something simliar about me. I can't remember who this girl was and I didn't ask for details, but where was she when I was lonely and looking for a girlfriend? She should have spoken up man. She could have gotten her ass ticked with a feather and her taint massaged with mayonnaise as one of my good friends from back home recently offered to do for me. You know who you are.

My name

So a long time ago I wrote that my name means poop in Japanes. That was sort of inaccurate. It can mean poop but only when combined with other syllables. One of the kanji with the 'ben' sound means something like poop, but not until you say 'benpi' or something like that does anyone find my name funny.

So I asked Yuka to write my name out in kanji a while back and she came up with 'Crown Snake People' for Benjamin and 'Food Rock' for Egan.

Tonight I asked her if 'Egan' was a word in Japanese. The sounds in my name have equivalent sounds in Japanese, so I figured there might be a word 'I-GA-N' and surprise, surprise, there is. It means stomach cancer.

Shit stomach cancer. Thats my name. Or Crown Snake People Food Rock. Whichever is funnier.

The future

I'm heading to Hikone-jo with Yuka tomorrow. Its about an hour and a half from Nagoya towards Osaka. Its one of the four national treasure castles and it should be alright. The castle itself doesn't really interest me but spending the afternoon with her should be a lot of fun.

I'm going to a Japanese wedding next week. Well, not an actual wedding but the after-party. This staff member, Aiko, has been dating the same guy for 12 years and they're finally gonna tie the knot (by the way, she's only like 25 or 26. She must have met this guy when she was about 14, and they've been together since... damn).

I'll have four days off in a row at the end of the month thanks to shift-swaps so I'm gonna head south. I can get to Osaka again pretty cheap (about $4 if I just lie about where I got on) and from there take a bus either to Hiroshima or even further to somewhere in Kyushu. I don't know what I'm gonna do in Kyushu but leaving the main island for the first time since I arrived has a certain appeal.

With Daniela's new job it looks like she's not going to be able to visit me around Christmas time. If that's the case, then I think I'm going to head to Taiwan with Yuka. We talked about it as a possibility tonight and she seemed really excited about the idea. We'll be able to discuss it tomorrow because she said she's gonna do her research tonight.

Updates

Now that I'm back in Kyowa and sober I'll fill everyone in about the trip that Tom and I took to Osaka. We basically just drank the entire time we were there with the Human Rights Museum and the Shin Umeda building used to waste daylight. I've posted all the pictures I took along with four videos. Osaka is a great city to wander around in and get drunk but I'm not sure how much else there is to do. Not really a sightseeing city in my opinion. There are two busy areas: the Northern (Kita in Japanese) area, and the Southern (Minami) part of the city. The northern part consists of Osaka Station and Umeda and the southern part is centered around Dotonbori and Nanba. We arrived at Osaka Station and after seeing the Human Rights Museum, spent the night in Dotonbori. We drank our weight in Chuhi for about $1.80 a can at convenience stores. I would compare Chuhi to things that I would be too embarassed to drink back home like Smirnoff Ice or Mike's Hard Lemonade. If you get the chance, drink the Freeze Orange variety. Kirin Lemon tastes like windshield washer fluid. We went to Amerika-mura and hung around with the cool kids in Triangle Park. We met this Indian guy named Umesh who works in a factory because he won't cut his hair to get a better job. His Japanese buddy had a tattoo of La Petit Prince on his forearm but seemed much cooler than that sounds. These girls who were also hanging around were too cool to talk to me. I was also pretty drunk and not as charming as I usually am.

We stopped in a lot of random places to piss and drink so we saw quite a bit of the nightlife but I remember only bits and pieces of it. I was vehement about going to this sushi place near the Dotobori Hotel where I stayed during my first night in Japan. After that we met some breakdancers on the sidewalk so I gave them some cookies I was eating and tried to speak Japanese to them. One of them spoke pretty good English so he helped us to find an internet cafe to sleep in. I updated this blog from that cafe (see the previous post) and the next day we headed back towards Osaka Station. Tom wanted to get out of Osaka as quickly as possible because he didn't really get any sleep and he was exhausted. I said that we should stop at the Shin Umeda Tower on the way out just to see one more thing and he thought it was a good idea. It turns out the Floating Observatory didn't open until 11 and we got there just after 8:30 or 9. We weren't going to wait so I got some shots from the 39th floor but nothing higher. The trip back was spent sleeping and smelling.

For two videos from an arcade, one from the sushi shop I love, and one from outsie of the internet cafe, click on the following links:

Arcade Video One
Arcade Video Two
No more sushi
Sawing Logs? Ha?

From Osaka... again

Ok I'm in Osaka and I'm really drunk. Tom and I were deciding between staying in a capsule hotel and paying for internet access so we can sleep in the chairs. Since I'm in an internet cafe, I guess we're sleeping in the chairs. This is more Tom's decision than mine, but its not the worst thing that could have happened. He also proposed sleeping in the train station. This guy is seriously trying to limit his expenses. I hope to pass out but I have a lot of shit to do, so we'll see.

We left for Osaka today at around 10:40am but didn't get here until 1:30. These internet booths have TV as well as　netto and there's like, the pole-dancing championships on so I don't think I'll be turning off the TV.

We saw a lot of random shit here but we also went to the place where I got my first sushi roll in japan. The place was across the street from the Dotonbori Hotel where Nova put me up and it was incredible all over again. The staff took our picture and posted it on the wall so i guess anyone who comes through Osaka will see me and Tom if they look hard enough.

We got lunch, drank a shitload of chuhi, hung out at the arcades, went to the human rights museum, and saw amerika-mura (American town).

...

Wow, ok, the plan was to sleep in this intenet cafe and I thought that was just about the worst idea ever... BUT, I just woke up and I must have slept for the past 5 hours. Hmmm. I just woke up to see this screen in front of me with its terrible grammar, most of which I just went back and corrected.

I wrote the 'human rights museum' sentence at midnight and the 'wow, ok' sentence at 5:47am.

Yeah, so Tom and I saw quite a bit today. And I found the internet cafe's porn stash on my way to the bathroom, so there's that too.

Tom and Osaka

Tom had his last day of work yesterday (Sunday the 8th). He decided to add insult to injury and not shave for his last week either. Way back in February I got talked to by Cathryn because I forgot to shave one morning. She really chewed me out for it, so I think quite a few people noticed when he started showing up for work looking homeless. On his next to last day our quasi-boss Alan called him on the phone to make sure he would be clean-shaven for his last day (a student complained that he looked 'dirty'). Nothing happened and he wasn't sent home, so I guess it was a victory.

Amy's boyfriend is still visiting and she's called out sick for the past 4 days in a row. Apparently she caught something in Tokyo because she's actually sick and not just calling out to spend time with her boyfriend. The fact that Handa has to do without her is probably why nobody did anything about Tom's appearance.

I'm going to Osaka for the weekend with Tom because I told him that I would a while back. I don't know where we're going to stay yet, but I'm sure it will work itself out. Tom also wanted to go to Tokyo on the following weekend but I'm so confident that he's going to be broke by then that I've double-booked that weekend. Yuka and I are going to Hikone Castle on Lake Biwa. Hikone is one of the four national treasure castles, so it should be interesting, and pretty and... and... ... well, almost identical to Matsumoto I imagine.

I agreed to do a shift swap with Shannon for the end of the month so if I can get rid of a half-day on a Tuesday, I'll have a four-day weekend. I've been playing with the idea of going to South Korea or Taiwan since its so cheap to fly right now.

Lastly, with Tom leaving and the three girls on the other side of the tracks all disappearing, there's going to be a changing of the guard again in Kyowa. Carmen is moving into Freebell, Amy might leave the country at Christmas time, and The Mudge is moving to Tokyo but no one is going to miss her. The five of us (Tom, David, Carmen, Amy and me) agree on little, but we all hate The Mudge. That'll leave just me and David as the foreign population of Kyowa (not counting all the Brazilians) so hopefully we'll get some quality people to replace them.

Oh yeah, and we found a student's blog. This high school girl named Mamiko told one of the Japanese staff about it, so we were able to get part of it translated. I was especially interested in her entry talking about each teacher individually. She said that I'm polite, but distracted by something. Pat and Jerod think they're awesome and David seems older and more like an adult. She also has a psycho stalker crush on our quasi-boss Alan. His entry was the only one in English and it said 'I want to be your #1.'

Takeshima, Gamagori, and Okazaki

Yuka and I went out again last Thursday. We went to Red Rock on Wednesday night and crashed at a friend's place. We went to a small restaurant in her hometown of Okazaki at around 1pm the next day. Okazaki isn't so far from Nagoya or Obu. Its towards Toyohashi and Shizuoka (or Tokyo) on the JR. In Okazaki we went to this old temple that Ieyasu used to worship at (one of the three warlords from our area that, together, unified Japan). We got Japanese-style sweets as well, which has become something of a tradition.

After that Yuka and I drove out to Gamagori (it might have been 45 minutes from Okazaki) to walk out to Takeshima (shima = island) in the rain. We hiked to the top of the mountain and prayed at the shrines. Then we made our way in a loop around the island trying not to step on the hordes of bugs that were on the walkways. It looked like something out of the Temple of Doom. We got down by the water on the far side of the island and saw a crane or something in the water. Yuka got a picture, but I wanted to catch and eat it. She said we should wait until it caught a fish so we could eat them both. Then she said after I ate my share of the catch, she would eat me. I pointed out that she didn't have any fire to cook me with, but she said eating things raw is ok because she's Japanese.

Tsushimamire on the iPod. Trying to find mp3s of Ketchup Mania.

20 lbs.

I finally got a chance to weigh myself this past weekend. To clarify: whenever I say weekend I mean Wednesday and Thursday, my days off. I slept at Yuka's friend Danni's house and she has a scale. I've lost 8.6 kg (or something like that), and when we did the conversion we came up with 20 lbs. I now weigh around 165 lbs, down from 185 when I boarded a plane in February, and down from 197ish at graduation.

Not a few people have commented that I look like I'm not eating anything, so there are some numbers to help you out.

Another Video

Matsumoto-Jo. Do I really sound this nasally?

My Tiger with Yuka

Yuka and I caught the 7:40 shuttle to Matsumoto from the Meitetsu Bus Station. It was a 3 and a half hour ride but nice because its through the Japanese Alps and there are a lot of beautiful blah blah blah. We were thinking about renting bikes for the day but as the area we were going to explore was pretty small it seemed unnecessary.

Immediately after we arrived we found out that the local specialty is soba noodles, so we got a girl in the tourist office to recommend a place. The restaurant had aquariums at every table, filled with large stinking black bugs. Appetizing. We found one of the only tables in the place where you couldn't see or smell the bugs. I was the only person in the entire restaurant (it was a pretty small place) who ordered hot soba noodles. Everyone else, including Yuka, was eating them cold. I guess I have no idea how to order food here. To add to the delightful atmosphere, this androgenous-looking little kid would NOT stop staring at me from the time we arrived to the time we walked out the door. Its mom was nice enough to keep jabbing it with her elbow, but it wouldn't take the hint. Apparently Deliverance-country Japan doesn't get many foreigners. This is a part of Japan known for its horse meat. By the way, they (like the late, great ODB) like it raw.


After lunch we headed over to Matsumoto-Jo and checked it out. We took somewhere in the neighborhood of a billion pictures, but I managed to whittle it down to a manageable 120. These are all in Flickr now, so enjoy. The castle was cool. Its the oldest of the 5-tiered castles, and only Inuyama-Jo is older (I think). The only thing that seems worth mentioning about the design of the castle is that all the stairways are ridiculously steep. They were set up that way to make the castle easier to defend against invading armies and elderly Japanese tourists.

While Yuka and I were walking around I told her about one of my first blind-dates in Japan. This girl asked me if it was ok to call our meeting a 'date' and I told her she could call it anything she wanted to. I can't remember if it was her or I that decided to call our trip to Matsumoto a 'tiger' but it stuck because we both thought it was really funny. We've planned a puppy together for this Thursday and a giraffe at some point in the near future. She wanted to have a giraffe next but I told her that its customary in the States to wait a little while before giraffing with a girl. Not that I don't want to giraffe with her, its just kinda fast, thats all. I told her that I would panda her brains out though whenever she wants me to.

Not too far from the castle is the first Western-style school in Japan. I didn't think it was that impressive though because the curriculum at the school was still Japanese, just the architecture was Western. We were able to sit down at the tiny antique desks and play around with everything which was cool. The Japanese guy who was watching over the room encouraged me to get up to the front of the class and slam the teaching-stick down on the desk. Each desk had its own chalk and blackboard which we were allowed to play with too. In the above photo, my board says 'advertisement' and 'demon' because those were the first kanji that came to me.

After that we got some Japanese sweets at a cafe. The waitress/hostess brought us out a little box with 5 kinds of sweets inside and we were served black tea and matcha (thick and bitter green tea) with our selection. Matcha rocks because it hella cleanses the palette. It wasn't cheap especially considering Japanese sweets aren't much larger than my thumbnail.

We had exhausted Matsumoto's sights after the school and the castle, so we wandered around a little bit. There was a street lined with touristy shops by the river, so we hung out there for a little while. We found this awesome statue of samurai frogs killing a toad. The plaque on the front said (according to Yuka's translation) 'dirty frog samurai.' She thought it was an ugly statue but I think the lady doth protest too much.

We got curry for dinner and bought some alcohol for the ride home. The bus came at 7:10pm and because we hadn't had much to eat we both got blasted on single cans of chuhi. We counted up all the things that I had done for the first time and got to 10. We're going to Okazaki on Thursday and to Hikone on Biwa-ko at some point in the immediate future. I'll post pictures as I take them. Miss you all.

Matsumoto-Jo

Matsumoto-Jo is about 400 years old. Thats about all I know about the castle and the town. Hopefully Yuka will want to get drunk early and that will make everything a little bit more fun.

I have plans to meet a student of mine next weekend for a few beers (he's close to 50 I think and a dentist, but he's funny and he has one of the highest English abilities at our branch). Either that same weekend or the following one, I have plans to go to Osaka with Tom. When Pat and I went down we didn't get to see any of the sights, so I guess that's the focus of this trip. The weekend after that, Tom and I will go to Tokyo to take in the nightlife. Tom gave his notice less than a week ago and his last day is the 18th of next month I believe. He hasn't really seen anything in Japan yet so this is his attempt to see everything at the last minute. I'm happy to tag along. And by tag along I mean lead him to all these spots since he doesn't know anyone in either area and doesn't want to spend any money. I'm gonna miss him a little bit I think. Mmmm.... maybe.

More updates about nothing

I'm going to Matsumoto-Jo in Nagano prefecture tomorrow. Its about a 3 and a half hour bus ride from Nagoya but hopefully its worth it. There are 12 original castles (feel free to correct me here Sahil) in Japan and of those, four are considered national treasures. Two castles near Nagoya, Inuyama and Hikone, one past Osaka at Himeji, and the one we're going to in Nagano. I visited the Nagoya Castle and it was ok but the interior seemed very museum-like and modern. The stairwells had neon exit signs and every room was wired with electricity. People who have seen the originals have said they're incomparably better. Also, I'm going with one of the Japanese staff at the Higashiura branch, Yuuka (on the left). This is one of the few pictures I have of her and its obviously not very good. She's cute though. You have my assurances.

Today I had an interview with some hippie from Toronto who runs his own school (although its not really a school) in Gifu and Nagoya. He had three kids classes (on Wednesdays from 4:00 to 7:15pm) that were about to become teacherless. It would have been an extra $120 a week, which would have been nice, but the job no longer exists. The teacher decided to stay in the country at the 11th hour, so I got a text last night from this guy telling me that we should still meet in case anything else comes up, but its now an interview for nothing. It seemed more like an opportunity for him to tell me how awesome his 'business' is. He asked me a few questions that could have been easily answered by just looking at the resume I sent him, and he seemed disinterested for the most part. He charges students 5000 yen per lesson and pays the teachers 4000 yen. He meets potential students and directs them where to meet the teachers. Thats it. I'm not even sure where I would have been teaching to be honest. I would have showed up at Obu station on Wednesdays to be picked up (by who exactly?) and driven somewhere to teach the kids. There are no lesson plans and he doesn't even have any input into what I should be teaching them either. It sounded pretty sweet (I would have been making twice what I make at Nova, per lesson) and I could have even stolen the students away from him and kept the full 5000 yen myself. Ah well. I'll keep looking.

To answer Bruce's question, it looks like nothing is going to happen between Amy and I. Her boyfriend is visiting right and she seems really happy with him. He's also a really nice guy and I think its probably where she should be. I don't want a long-term relationship with this girl, I just want some ass right now and so he's probably the better choice for her.
When she first mentioned that she had a boyfriend I thought it was like, one of things that girls think is cute to say but doesn't really mean anything. She is 7,000 miles away or whatever, right? She's still pretty cool and we'll keep hanging out but I'd be surprised if it turned into anything and I'm not gonna force it, so there you go.

We're scared little girls

I took a stupid video of the Praying Mantis that somehow got into our apartment. Its completely lame but I've never seen one before so I got my camrea. Don't watch it.

Stupid Government Warnings

I have this fantasy of traveling from Japan to France or Ireland, stopping in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece and some European countries along the way. So I was looking into Visa requirements and fees, and the US government has put a travel warning on some of those countries, namely Pakistan and Iran. Is that the kind of thing that should deter me from going? It would totally ruin my backpack across Asia and Europe thing I got going, so my question is: Should we take government travel warnings seriously? Thoughts? Or is that just the government covering its ass and being overly cautious?

Barbecue pictures

Not the most successful barbecue in the history of barbecues, but fun nonetheless. These pictures create the illusion that food was cooked that night when in fact it was consumed pretty close to raw. All the beer helped to kill the germs.

I had a student ask me what 'pretty' meant in the sentence 'its pretty big.' I never really thought about it, but it could mean either 'very' or 'kind of' in that context, depending on the intonation. Usually I give whatever answer is easiest but I was determined to explain this one as accurately as I could. I think they understood the concept but intonation is lost on most Japanese, whose language lacks it completely.

Pictures

Yes, you're reading that correctly. This statue outside of an electronics shop in one of the busiest parts of Nagoya is wearing a shirt that says 'Looking 4 Poonanie.'

Osaka

I've signed myself up for a bunch of overtime this month. I figured if I'm not traveling or doing something constructive, I might as well be at Nova earning money for my future trip through Asia. I had gotten a half-day of overtime for tomorrow, Wednesday, approved a week ago but it never got reported to my branch, so I didn't get it after all. This is actually quite convenient for me because yesterday Pat invited me to go to Osaka with him for the weekend to visit a friend of his. We're taking a train tomorrow at 3pm to meet his buddy and go out drinking. This will be my second time to Osaka if you count my first night in Japan. I've been told Nagoya and Osaka are very similar cities, with the distinction being people from Osaka are a lot friendlier and more cosmopolitan, and the food kicks the ever-loving shit out of Nagoya's.

Listening to Gogol Bordello. Its different, but I recommend giving it a listen. Enjoying The Killers a lot more.

Two weeks later

I spent last Wednesday reading about the Adolf Eichmann trial and studying Japanese before going to Red Rock with Amy. We got pretty drunk and then crashed at a friend's place in Kanayama. Amy has been on a kick lately about Carmen, her, and I moving into a place in Kanayama and getting out of Kyowa. It's easy to be enthusiastic about the idea because I don't think its actually going to happen.

We spent all of Thursday together and it was just a perfect day. I am unable to sleep in after a night of hard-drinking and apparently neither can she. We went back to Kyowa on the 9:30 train and hit up Royal Host (see crappy American-style family restaurant) for pancakes. You could just tell by looking at the picture that they were gonna be outrageously small so I outsmarted the menu and got a shrimp sandwich. This guy named Brett called Amy while we were eating and reminded her that they had made plans to meet at Kanayama station in 10 minutes. She flaked on him, but we had just enough time to run home, brush our teeth, and then show up at Kanayama station only an hour and 20 minutes late.

Brett is a cool guy. He works for Nova but he's in another area so I never come into contact with him. His roommate Jeremy works in Okazaki (my area) so I had at least heard of him. Brett is from California and he taught history back in the States before coming to Japan. We borrowed Jeremy's and Jeremy's ex-girlfriend's bikes and went riding. The three of us took a basketball and headed to a half-court near Yaba-cho. We split an extra tall 6-pack and shot around for a little while. I was able to hear Brett's theories on Japan and teaching English. Everyone has their own opinion about Japan and Japanese people and its interesting to hear about it. After that we went to Osu and poked around the trendy used clothing shops. When we got back to his place in Kanayama the sumo matches for the day were starting on NHK so we drank some more and he explained in detail the inner workings of sumo. It was quite educational.

We had a few more beers and then decided to barbecue in the park near his apartment. We went to the grocery store in a giant mall near his place to buy lighter fluid, meat, beer, and chips. The barbecue was a dismal failure. Japanese charcoal is really thick and its hollow. Theres obviously some special way to light it, but I didnt know what that was. I wasn't worried though because Brett assured us that he's a master barbecuer. It turns out: not so much. Despite using an entire can of lighter fluid and plenty of newspaper we couldnt get the damned thing going. Some of the coals got hot but not enough to really cook anything. He put two burger patties on the grill, so Amy and I left him to it and played on the swings. When we got back to check up on the 'master barbecuer' the burger meat was all mushed up and spread out, not to mention barely warm. Close enough. Brett and I ate that and then we wisely gave up before even putting the chicken on the grill. We did manage to eat a lot of chips and drink beer though, so it went pretty well as far as I'm concerned. We cooked the chicken back in his apartment and watched his And 1 tapes before some girl he was interested in showed up. He was clearly entertaining her and we were getting tired and bored anyway. Home together on the train. Probably one of the best days in Japan so far.

Cultural odds and ends

Normally the Japanzine is crap but this month's issue, about weird Japanese fetishes, was interesting. The artist Hokusai (1760-1849), most famous for his woodblock prints of Mt. Fuji and for every piece of Japanese art that you can identify, was also (maybe) the first artist to depict tentacle porn. As far as I know tentacle porn is endemic to Japan, but I find it extremely interesting that the first example of this is found in The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife (third picture down), which is almost 200 years old. I've seen enough anime and manga to know that interest in monsters and creatures with tentacles having sex with, and often raping, women is alive and well.

What's up with that?

Alcohol

I went out last Saturday with all of the teachers from Handa for a Sayonara party. This cool Canadian guy named Matt is leaving. We went to some Japanese restaurant/bar in Kanayama and for a mere 2500 yen, it was all-you-can-eat and drink. The Japanese staff at Handa had made reservations and I think there were about 15 people in our party. The food (outside of the yakitori which was delicous) wasn't great but we drank more than enough booze to compensate for that. We put down so much beer that there was hardly any table space available for the empty beer mugs (I'm not bragging; its important to the story). Amy, Carmen, their new roommate Corey Mudge (nobody likes her and we call her Mudge behind her back), and I arrived at around 8:30pm and we were cut off at 10pm. In that hour and a half I managed to get absolutely blasted. There was a karoke set in the room with us so we turned it on and started to belt out the classics.

Anyway, at some point someone threw some noodles across the room (it may have been me) and we all got into a food fight. In the confusion, someone (maybe me again) jumped onto one of our two tables and caused the whole thing to come crashing down. I broke so many damned glasses in the fall that the Japanese waiters and most of my coworkers spent the next 15 minutes working together to clean it all up. The restaurant charged everyone in our party an extra 500 yen for all the damage I caused. I don't remember cutting myself then, but I woke up the next day with a giant chunk of my thumb missing. I'm going to have a nasty scar. I guess it happens.

At some point in the night my roommate Tom left the restaurant and went swimming in the Nagoya River. Picture the Charles River in Boston but with all of the water gone and motor oil in its place. Not the cleanest place to take a dip. He also neglected to take his shoes with him when he left the restaurant, lost his glasses and digital camera, and ruined everything in his backpack when he went for a swim. I found him the next day in Kyowa with two black and completely worn-out socks, stinking like I couldn't even begin to describe. He couldn't get rid of the smell even after multiple showers.

I slept that night in Matt's Kanayama apartment with Amy and the next day went to work completely drunk. I thought I could sober up in the two hours I had before work but my first lesson was a mess. I couldn't sit still for a minute without readjusting myself, I was wobbly, and I had to keep closing my eyes but the girl I had in the lesson has a crush on me and didn't notice. She probably just thought I was flirting with her. This same girl admitted that her dream was to marry a foreigner. She then blushed like crazy and peeked at me from behind her hands. That's so cute that I want to run and hide.

Eikando

You would have had to have been there, but visiting the Eikando temple was a special experience. Drinking green tea from one of the porches and watching the garden was as close as I got a spiritual feeling in Kyoto. I would recommend seeing it to anyone who is going to be in Japan and who isn't bothered by fire-breathing dragons. Cause they got one. And it hates foreigners. But it loooooooves taffy.

Shout out

Conor, Kevin, Andre, Wu, Mark, Bruce, Ari, and Jeff got back from Ireland recently. Thanks for the Egan shout-out guys. I bought a T-shirt and a permanent marker today to let you all know how much I miss you. 'Rosenthal North 401 and Bruce and Ari' was too long, but its implied.

Nara, Kyoto, Takahama and back

My 9-day holiday began August 23rd and lasts until tomorrow, the 31st. I spent the first day of the trip looking for a giant backpack in Nagoya. I found one for 11,000 yen but I had to let an old salesman feel me up to get it. Bargain in my opinion.

I left for Nara on Thursday. I saw the stupid temples there and a bunch of good-for-nothing tourists. The only things that would make me want to return was the Daibutsu (big Buddha) and the deer. The deer are believed to be messengers of the gods and they're free to roam the city and eat anything that isn't tied down. A lot of tourists get their maps eaten and if you're lucky you'll get to see a little kid crying because a deer is eating something out of her hand that wasn't being offered. I saw a deer hold up traffic, shit, and then a tourist fed it some senbei (Japanese crackers). Where's the Nara deer application? I have excellent qualifications.

I was able to pet almost every deer I walked by and I named the cutest one Daniela.

The big Buddha is housed in the largest wooden building in the world but the last structure built around it was even larger. The last time it burned down the Japanese decided to scale it back to the bare essentials. Lazy asses.

So I left Nara the same day for my buddy Irvin's place in Uji-shi (halfway between Nara and Kyoto). He called me, thinking this whole time that a different Ben was coming to visit him, while some Japanese guy was telling me I looked like a martial artist and that I should grow my hair out. Funny guy. He teaches English to middle schoolers and started writing down everything I said about where I work and where I'm from. He was on his way to some conference and I think I was quickly becoming an anecdote. He said that while a lot of people want to learn from native-speakers, its just as good or better to learn from Japanese. I needed clarification. He said that native-speakers clutter their phrases with expressions that confuse Japanese students. Instead of saying 'Well, in order to comprehend what I'm saying consider this' you could say 'for example' and its better understood. I completely agree. So now I'm now learning Japanese from a deer.

I spent the night at Irvin's and we went out to an Uji bar. The bartender, Katsunari, was a cool guy and on the second night he played a ton of Common. He did watch me piss near his car though to make sure I wasn't fucking with it. It was awkward.

I was in Kyoto for the following two days and I got to see the Imperial Palace, Ginkaku-ji, the Heian shrine, Okazaki shrine, the Eikando (my favorite), Kiyomizu dera (click here to see some people drinking from its spring), and something else I forgot the name of. Most of the temples run together and I don't suggest anyone look at all the pictures I took. The exception was the Eikando. Architecturally it looked similar to the others but you got to walk around the place, go into most of the rooms, pray to their Buddha, and drink free Green tea while you sat near the gardens. It was much nicer than say, Heian shrine, which has landmines, or Kinkaku-ji, which everyone who visits gets Hepatitis C from. By the Kamo River I saw this guy selling cats but I don't know how to cook cat so I passed.

On Saturday night, Irvin and I went ambitiously into Kyoto to drink all night long. Kyoto's subways stop running around Midnight so its either drink all night and skip sleeping, or go back early like some kind of loser. I met him after a day of sightseeing at the Nijo subway station and we went to an Irish pub. It made me think about all of my friends from college (in Ireland at the time) and bummed me out a little bit. By the way, here in Japan we're paying 850 yen per pint of Guinness. Whats the cost in Ireland? We met some random foreigners, Russell from Melbourne, Australia and Cybelle (sp?) Egan from Wisconsin. He was quiet and weird and she was loud and weird. She freaked out because we have the same last name. I tried to downplay it because she was so dumb and annoying. She opened right up though and said she has family in Massachusetts (before I mentioned where I was from). I asked a few questions, mildly interested, and she said she had a grandfather or great-grandfather named Michael Frederick Egan. Well, I happen to have a grandfather who was named Frederick Michael Egan. This caused her to get even louder. So we decided that we are probably distant relatives and she agreed to shut up after that. She was so god-damned lame. Russell was flirting with her all night (maybe even buying her drinks) and right before she up and leaves she mentions she has a fiance. Ugh. I guess jackass distant relatives are better than hot ones you want to see naked. That would have been worse. Maybe.　We are probably pretty distant.

We went to some little bar near the Kamo River (Kamo River in Japanese is Kamogawa, and all the tourist maps write it as Kamogawa River, which is Kamo River River) after that and Russell and Irvin wanted to sit in this bar that charged 1000 yen to sit down, per hour. I didn't feel like it after we just paid 8 bucks per pint of Guinness. I took the last beer that we had stashed away in Irvin's bag and told him I would go sit near the river and try to talk to some girls. We parted and I wasn't to see Irvin again until 7am. Russell could be dead for all I know or care. He was pretty lame. Anyway, so I took the beer and went down by the river. I walked up and down the beach a bit, looking for a group of cute Japanese girls with which to flirt. I came up empty. It turns out not a lot of really cute Japanese girls like to sit by the Kamo river for no damned reason at 2am. So I sat down and drank my beer and fell asleep. I woke up an hour and a half later and realized I had totally fucked up. I went back to the bar only to discover that I had no idea where the bar was. I wandered around for the next 45 minutes unable to do anything but wobble on my feet and look tired. I made my way back to the river thinking that maybe they would return to find me. Not so much. I went back and sat down but couldn't get comfortable. Nothing like being drunk at 3am, sitting in wet sand, far away from everyone you know to get completely lonely and depressed. I would have given anything to get home except the cost of a taxi. It actually never occurred to me to take a taxi home since I thought I might still bump into Irvin. I started to search bike racks for unlocked bikes and by God I found one. I stood near it and mentally debated the morality of stealing a bike to peddle home. On one hand, its wrong. On the other hand, I really want to. It came down to a complete lack of direction. I had no clue where I could find Uji. So I went back to the river and fell asleep with my head on my knees and arms wrapped around my legs. I hopped on the subway after the sun came up but took it in the wrong direction for quite a while. I eventually figured it out, corrected myself, and got back to Uji after 7am. Irvin was already there and had been since 4ish since he bargained with a cab driver to take him home. Behold genius: 'Excuse me, this is all the money I have. Can you take me home please?'

I slept until about noon and then got up to continue my adventures. I was on trains for the rest of the day and got to Takahama beach by 4:30pm. I met these three Filipino guys who are living in Japan to learn woodworking and they told me that I could camp out anywhere. I walked to the far end of the beach and saw an actual campground, so I stayed there. I didn't get to swim that day because I was starving and had to hunt/gather on the beach. Sleeping in my tent at Takahama beach was the worst night of sleep I've had in a long time. Even dozing off by the river was better. The only thing that topped that night of sleep was the FOLLOWING night when I did the same thing all over again, in the pouring rain. I did get a video of myself on the day after the rainstorm, which you can see here. I was able to swim and read my Hemingway short stories all day Monday and part of Tuesday. It was awesome and yes, of course, I got burnt.

I packed up my things on Tuesday when storm clouds started to gather in the distance. After just a couple hours of sleep the night before, the prospect of sitting in that god-damned tent all day in the rain was enough to get my ass moving. I was carrying my pack towards the train station when it started to rain and I felt like a genius for not getting caught in it. I quickly lost that feeling when I found out that the next train out of Takahama-Wakasa station wasn't for two hours. So I took out my Lonely Planet and tried to figure out where I was going. There was nothing back towards Kyoto I wanted to see and my original plans were to go to Kanazawa, on the water, and then on to Takayama in the mountains. The prospect of sleeping in my tent again in the rain made Kanazawa an inferior choice. So I thought I would just press on to Takayama and get a hotel room for the night, a much needed reward for my perseverence. So I caught the train to Tsuruga station and a nice old lady helped me read the train board. It turns out that it used to be possible to catch a bus to Takayama from Fukui (not too far away) but a bridge collapsed or something and there was no longer service. The fastest way to get to Takayama was to either take a train up north to Toyama or south through Nagoya and both ways were going to take a long damned time. If I went south, I could sleep at home that very night and as long as no one bothered me on the train, I could get the whole ride home for free (thank you Japanese train pass system). So I looked in my guide book and there wasn't shit to do in Toyama as far as I could see, so home it was. I got here last night at 7 or 8 and the ride didn't cost me a single yen. I was jazzed. I slept in my bed last night and just couldn't move this morning. I guess my trip is over. I studied Japanese and read some Roddy Doyle at the Gasto in Kyowa. Now I'm uploading my photos and trying to get deer shit off of my sandals. I feel pretty good but the week could have been planned better I think. Takahama was way the fuck out in the middle of nowhere so it left me with few options.