Winter Has Come

As my life is now controlled by the wild cluster@*%# that is Ishikawa weather, its time to divulge the latest madness. Winter has come to my region with a fury. I have seen weather conditions in the past three days that I never even thought existed. (And when a Minnesotan is shocked and appalled by the weather you know something is wildly wrong with this picture). The first startling aspect of the winter in Ishikawa is that snow here does not fall like normal snow should. Instead, it behaves rather like its summer-time cousin, hail, and pelts you with big pachinko-shaped balls of ice and slush (the slush ones kind of explode on impact). The second bizarre surprise Ishikawa winter throws at you is lightning snow. No that wasn't a typo, I'm dead serious, lightning, freakin, snow. Evidently, apocalyptic atmospheric conditions (something sciency about the Siberian winds crossing with the flow of the Sea of Japan) dictate that the seemingly incompatible phenomenons of lightning and snow can happen at the same time over here.

Thus far, the quantity of the snow has been ridiculous, which given the rainpocalypse in November, I was at least able to see coming. In the span of only one night, my world went from no snow at all to this:

The snow begins

One day later

This was a a pain in the butt to scope off. The snow here is very thick and slushy.

Ok it is all a bit pretty though

Compounding the limitless lightning snow is my sworn enemy, cold. Although Minnesota winters are definitely colder in terms of temperature, one can at least escape the booger freezing weather by seeking shelter indoors. This is not the case in Japan. A rather amusing article posted on cracked.com recently mused on how despite Japan`s popular perception as a technological wonderland, the heating systems here are rather abysmal. The article really hit the nail on the head especially at many of my schools. As evidence, may I present the pinnacle of heating technology, the lastest device in the war against cold, a tea kettle on gas stove.

Tadah!

To be fair, its not like people here just like being colder than Americans. One of the reason I really enjoy studying geography is that it plays such an an enormous role on the lives we live. Indeed, I believe that my being colder here than in that it has more to do with geography of Japan rather than the people. With the exception of shale, Japan has very few domestic energy resources and according to the United States Energy Information Administration, is only 16 percent energy self-sufficient (compare this to America which is around 70%). This lack of domestic energy sources, compounded with Japan being the third largest oil consumer in the world has made the pricey importation of foreign oil very important to Japan’s modern economy. The March 11 Tohoku Earthquake, Tsunami, and subsequent meltdown at Fukushima has exacerbated this energy dilemma. After the Fukushima disaster, many Japanese are demanding that all nuclear power be abolished (which due to Japan's geographic location on the Pacific fault line and chronic earthquakes and natural disasters that follow raise a rather fair point). The problem, however, is that it has been estimated that this reduction in nuclear power will mean that Japan ‘s oil and gas consumption will and have skyrocketed along with the cost of energy. As I am aware that schools don't have magical budgets that can create money out of nowhere, I guess that means I will have to just put up with more or less always being cold for the time being. 

Anyway, wintertime is also Christmas time and it has been a rather interesting observing the Christmas season here. As Japan is mostly a non-christian nation, most people here are only aware of Christmas on the most superficial of levels. In fact, from what I've heard thus far, most people here are hardly even aware that there is a religious component behind it. (Some Christmas traditions here include buying a christmas themed cake and going out to buy KFC.) Thus, schools here have no compunctions about asking me to teach Christmas lessons. One of the most amusing things to observe in my Christmas lessons is the portion where I demonstrate how to make a paper snowflake and then let the kids make their own. Whether they are 1st or 9th graders, all of the students really really really like this activity and take it really really really seriously. Whereas I recall being content to cut a triangle or three in mine and call it a day, there are many students every class who spend around 20 minutes constructing the best damn snowflake they can make. I've even had one guy who spent the whole class secretly working on his snowflake so that it would pop-out 3-D. 

Unfortunately, one of my Japanese teachers insisted that I play Christmas music during one of my lessons. Call me the grinch, but I can't stand the stuff ever since I worked at a grocery store that played the stuff on loop for weeks on end. I'm sorry, but once I heard "Silver Bells" for the twelfth time in one day, I forsake Christmas music forever and being relatively isolated from it has been a great great blessing. That being said, I can't pretend that I miss other parts of Christmas, mostly being with friends and family (and eating delicious cookies). At least I'll be getting my fix when my dad and my brother come to visit me in a few weeks! We will be hanging out in eastern Japan for about a week or so and I am very very excited to see them and to tour Tokyo. Any who, that's all for now folks I'm not sure I'll be having too many exciting adventures until winter break unfortunately as I am trying to save money for the epic trip but I'll post if anything exciting comes up.

Rainpocolypse and Thanksgiving

Whew! After a long absence I'm back! I'll just jump right in to what I've been up these past weeks. Being very much afflicted by the weather these past few weeks, I'll start there. Japan is well known for having a rainy season that pops up roughly around June every year. The exception to this rule seems to be my region which has been perpetually bombarded by rain for the last 2-3 weeks almost nonstop. I've never seen rain go on for this long and it we even had thunder and lightning for about 3-4 days in a row! As much as I love rain and storms, I can't pretend that this is a little much and I am desperately hankering for some solar power soon. 

On the plus side, since all the crappy weather has also made it impossible to do my regular runs and bike rides, I have been forced to get acquainted with Sean T. and have been slowly getting my butt kicked by insanity less and less.

Despite the relentless torrent of rain, the nature and fall scenery in Ishikawa continues to be sublime. Two weekends ago, I got a chance to head down to Kanazawa to do what they call in Japan "Autumn Leaf Hunting." As I coming to realize, Japan really values seasonal activities and foods.  In a conversation with one of my Japanese English teacher, I was told that there are certain times when one should go to certain places and certain foods that should only be eaten during a specific season.

Kenrokuen Garden at Autumn

Kanazawa Road

Train I took to get Kanazawa oh Japan:)

After I finished my fall leaf hunting excursion, some fellow JETs and I went out to eat in Kanazawa and had Japan's version of "Chinese" food. Japanese Chinese food differs significantly from American Chinese food in that they are a lot less meat focused and usually feature ramen, potstickers, and tofu related dishes. It's really interesting how Chinese menus seem to change and adapt to the respective cultures' tastes that they are surrounded by. (Although they all remain pretty greasy and delicious).

Japanese/Chinese Meal

Fried Gyoza

Spicy Tofu Dish

To combat homesickness and to bring a little bit of home to Japan, several JETs and I had a Thanksgiving feast yesterday where we all contributed our own side dishes. I brought a little Norwegian/Minnesota pride by making some lefse by scratch. Although they turned out pretty well in the end, I daresay I shan't be making them again in the near future. The reason is that these suckers evidently need about a metric ton of flour in order to make them less adhesive to one's rolling pin. Flour is also pretty darn expensive in Japan so I ended up having to throw down more than 10 dollars on flour just to make one batch.

Ya sure you betcha it's some lefse doncha know!

 Other goodies that JETs made included some usual staples;  potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, etc. However, we did get some entries that were new to my thanksgiving experience. Some Japanese friends of one of the JETs brought over a bowl of chopped cow tongue, another person made some vietnamese spring rolls. My favorite entry, however, was made by a guy named Jiri, a guy from the Czech Republic who brews beer in a local restaurant made some fabulous Czech beer! As most of the beer in Japan tastes like keystone in my opinion, having a good brew made for a most jovial Thanksgiving indeed.

Jiri

Of course, no Thanksgiving celebration is complete without Turkey and thankfully, one of the JETs was able to deliver! As there are virtually no turkeys in Japan, I'm quite happy they were able to acquire this delectable specimen. 

Turkey!

Overall a very fun night.

All in all, a very fun night that helped fight some of the homesickness. (Still can't make up for the many wonderful friends and family back in the states though).

In other exciting news, I have booked a flight to see my friend of colossal proportions, Colleen O'Connor, in China at the beginning of January! I will be visting her in the city of Kunming, which is in the Yunnan Province in Southern China near the borders of Tibet and Vietnam. It will be weird going to China and not seeing Beijing, the Great Wall or any other famous spots, but I nevertheless expect the adventure of a lifetime.

I am also very glad I was able to book the trip because the process of it was an enormous ordeal! For starters, I had to send money back home in order to put money on my American credit card so I could purchase a ticket (Japan really isn't big on credit cards and almost all financial transactions are done in cash). The process of sending money home was about as pleasant as a rectal exam. For starters, After completing the very very detailed form to send money home, I was told by the post office worker that I had to do the whole thing over because I hadn't put my address in Japanese characters. After meticulously rewriting the whole, much to my horror, I discovered that I had accidentally switched the numbers of my American and Japanese bank accounts and had to start over yet again. So, after two hours of hell, I finally was able to turn in my form.

The next major challenge to my upcoming trip has come in the form of obtaining a Chinese tourist visa. As the Chinese embassy infuriatingly won't accept applications by mail and the closest one to me is 8 hours away in Tokyo, I had to dig in the recesses of the internet to find a Japanese company that could apply for the visa by proxy. After searching the internet high and low, I came across a very badly translated site that says it can do such a thing. As I found the link on A JET forum I really really hope this company will prove able to process my application...I also had to give them my passport as well so I am praying to whatever the patron god of bureaucracy is here that my application and visa will find there way through the system at the moment.   

Anyway, here's hoping it will all work out in the end.

The Way of the Sword and Ancient Ruins

Since I began living in Japan, I have been itching to try my hand at some form of martial art. After mentioning this at my Board of Education, I am now officially taking kendo lessons at a nearby dojo every Wednesday and Saturday evening! 

For those that are unfamiliar, kendo, which roughly translates as "the way of the sword," is a Japanese martial art that concerns itself with swordsmanship (albiet with bamboo replicas called shinai and not the real deal) and cultivating a focused mind.

The shinai

Kendo is similar to western fencing in that competitions are about gaining points by being the first to strike against ones opponent in certain areas of the body. In kendo, there are four basic pieces of equipment that one wears and is allowed to strike. The first is the men that covers the face and shoulders. 

The men

The next is the do (pronounced like Homer Simpson's iconic d'oh) that covers the chest. 

The do

Next is the tare ( pronounced like a Canadian saying "tar" then "eh") that covers the waist. 

The tare

The last pieces are the kote (pronounced like a Candian saying "coat" then "eh") which cover the hands.    

The kote

Yet, kendo slightly differs from western fencing in that it not only encourages physical self-cultivation, but mental discipline as well. This concern with ones mental state can largely be attributed to kendo's history. Kendo's origin's can be traced to two key points in Japanese history, the development of Buddism and the origins of the Samurai warrior class. Back in the day (around 1000-1600 A.D.) Japan had yet to become a unified country and thus suffered from chronic civil war. This period of warfare and instability lead to the proliferation of an increasingly influential militaristic aristocratic class. These warriors would later developed in to the renowned Samurai we all love today. Developing at roughly the same time as the Samurai class were new sects of Buddhism in Japan. One of the most influential Buddhist teachings to emerge during this period was Zen (heavily influenced by Buddhism in China), which emphasized awareness with ones surroundings and the ephemeral nature of life. Since warfare and battle were constants in the nasty, brutish and often short life of the Samurai, it was only natural that Zen had a lot of appeal. Thus, swordplay in the Samurai way of life emphasized not only physical training, but training ones mental state of being as well. Although the Samurai are long gone, many of the ideals of the warrior code survive in modern kendo. Indeed, the point of kendo, as I am often told by my sensei, is more concerned with calming and preparing ones mind and spirit rather than on winning a match. 

Having never done kendo in my life, I am currently practicing with elementary-age kids (many are my students) and so far, practices have consisted of the following:

We start by doing a series of taiso or exercises and warm ups.

Next, all the students line up and sit in the proper seika poistion (where one sits on their feet, which I daresay is quite painful on the hardwood floor we practice on at the moment) followed by chanting the names of the various pieces of armor, the men, the do, tare, and the kote (why this is I have yet to figure out). After that, we place our hands on the floor and do a low bow towards the sensei to show respect and humility.

Since I am a novice I usually get a private lesson from the second in command while the sensei leads the rest of the class. Thus far, I have learned how to hold the shinai properly, how to step properly, how to yell properly, how to bow properly, and how to sit properly as it seems there is a right way to do virtually everything in kendo (part of the mental discipline I assume). So far, everything I have done has been greeted with a coy smile from my instructor followed by a it`s difficult isn`t it so I can only assume I am blundering my way through at the moment. Nothing to do but practice, practice, practice I guess. Also, as the whole class is conducted in Japanese, I will naturally be a bit of slow learner, seeing as I can only understand about 50% of what my instructor says at any given moment.

We then end the class the same way as we began, by doing exercises and bowing again to the sensei. Anyway, here's hoping my warrior spirit will increase in the coming days.

As I had a whole day to myself and the weather was gorgeous (around 65 degrees!) last Sunday, I decided to do some self-exploration around my town. My first stop was the Makaki Ruins, which are about a 20 minute drive from my house. This site boasts one of the few archaelogical ruins of the Jomon culture, which thrived in Japan around 6,000 years ago.  Although the museum itself turned out to be closed for the day, I nevertheless got to see the excavation site and a few reconstructions of some the remains found around the surrounding area.

Beautiful autumn day at the Makaki Ruins

Reconstruction of a Jomon era Monument at Makaki Ruins

The wood circle

Excavation Site

After my excursion at the ruins, I stopped by the grocery store for lunch and to my pleasant surprise, someone was carving up a fresh tuna right at the entrance. Since there was a huge crowd of locals clamoring to get some tuna, I decided to do as the romans do and buy some myself (it was quite delicous).

Giant tuna at the grocery store (there was a stampede of people behind me)

After returning home and storing my precious tuna, I decided to take a little hike around my village. My first excursion was the area behind my apartment, which until 2005 was a railroad. Evidently, the railway became defunct as the population in my town became too low to merit continued service.

Old railroad by my apartment

Tunnel of doom! Kind of reminded of Miyazaki`s Spirited Away

My next path lead me along the ocean and some of the country roads Noto has to offer.

Mountains across the sea

Country road by the ocean

All in all a beautiful day

On a final note, I will definitely be keeping my eye on the election tomorrow. Thus far, none of my coworkers have even acknowledged that there is an election happening in 'murica so I might be the only one looking/caring at the office.

Autumn in Ishikawa

So due to my iphone meeting a watery grave, I don't have as many pictures to contribute to this post. I don't have my camera on me as often as I did my beloved iphone. Thus, I'll do the best I can to describe and you, the viewer, must use the power of imagination.

Anyway, its been pretty much a roller coaster these past two weeks of events both good and bad. On the down side, I was immobily ill last weekend and didn't get a chance to do too much. (Ah the joys of working at the germ distribution center that is an elementary school.) I did, however, have to go to a mandatory team-teaching conference put on for all the JETs. Thus, exceedingly groggy and still rocking a wicked cold did I attend said conference. One of the highlights from the conference was listening to the main speaker who added quite a bit of humor to the proceedings. One amusing story was his experience going to Whitney Houston concert in Japan many years ago. Evidently, when Whitney asked the Japanese audience the traditional "How's everyone doing tonight", the whole crowd responded in unison, "I'm fine thank you and you?" (The stock phrase that we, the ALTs, teach at the beginning of every lesson).

One a brighter note, Autumn is now in full stride in the Noto as the leaves are finally starting to turn into really spectacular colors. Coupled with this firework display of nature is the arrival of my favorite holiday, Halloween! Although Halloween isn't really celebrated in Japan to the extent that is in America, many of my students are familiar with it nevertheless and love doing halloween lessons. My lessons consist of halloween bingo, making paper pumpkins (actual pumpkins would cause me to go bankrupt due to the number of students I have and how expensive pumpkins are), and doing a trick or treat game I made up where the student have to a ridiculous task (such as dancing with me in front of the whole class) in order to win the coveted prize of candy. It never ceases to amuse me when one the students picks the "do a dance with Sam-sensei" card as they will usually stand there in stunned silence and in horror at the impending task for about 20 seconds before they decide that candy is a worthy price for their dignity. (I suppose free candy sounds like a pretty good concept to anyone). For my costume, I chose to be Monkey D. Luffy from the manga/anime One Piece (which is insanely popular over here) and all of the students seem to get a good kick out of it.

Luffy!

Recently, one of my schools had several classes canceled and there were a large string of meetings held in their place. When I asked why, it turns out that one of the students had actually punched a teacher! This certainly blew the lid off of my preconceptions that all Japanese students were nice and polite. It was further revealed to me that this was such a huge deal for the school as this was the first time it happened in twenty years. Still, keeping in mind the chaos of student life in Hopkins and how well behaved the rest of my students are, I still believe that there is no comparison between American and Japanese students in terms of bad behavior. My students generally win by a longshot.

In terms of weather, it's starting to get a bit chilly at night and inside some of my schools as many Japanese buildings are somewhat notorious for their lack of insulation. Coupled with gas heating costing an arm and an ear, this predicament makes for some creative ways to beat the weather. Thus far, I`ve been wrapping up in layers at night and firing up my trusty kotatsu, which is a table that you can turn on and heat up to warm your blankets and your butt if need be. I`ve also joined a gym which has a small pool and exercise equipment, but more importantly, also has a hot tub by the pool and an onsen in the locker room. I daresay this place will become a regular haunt for me as the weather becomes steadily colder. A definite plus of this change in the weather, however, is the truly beautiful scenery Noto has to offer while the leaves are changing.

My partner in warmness the kotatsu

Leaves by my house

Gym/Onsen anti-winter fortress

In other news, I've also booked a ski trip for Hokkaido this coming February. For once, I'll actually be looking forward to that abomination of a month.

りんご、運動会、千枚田 Apples, Undokai, and Senmaida

I keep telling myself to update more frequently but alas, I am often too tired after work to update. I have recently become an old man as I usually only have the energy to stay up until 10:30ish on the weekdays now. Suffice to say college Sam is very displeased.

Anyway, a few weekends ago, I kicked off my break by going apple picking with some of my fellow JETs. Fruit over here is ridiculously expensive over here (for example some watermelons over here can be up to 50$ depending on how well they’re wrapped!) thus, I really enjoyed the chance to pick some delicious fruits at a more reasonable price for once. The orchard was a small farm owned a family and the apples we picked there were quite tasty.

Delicious apples!

The rest of the day was followed by lunch at a delicious udon restaurant and then some epic Mario Party gaming over at one of the JETs apartment.

An udon feast afterwards

The next day was my towns’ undokai (or exercise gathering). This event turned out to be very similar to my school’s sports festival except for adults representing their respective villages (my “town” is technically more a collection of villages rather than one cohesive unit). The event occurred took place in Kiriko park, which was a rather cool park with a giant monument of a kiriko not too far away.

Kiriko Park

I got to participate along with several other adults from my village of Ukawa.  A few of the events that I personally did included: a game where all members stood in a line and passed a bunch of balls bucket to bucket in order to throw the balls at a cardboard fire, a relay, tug o’ war, and of course, a janken race.

Some of my teammates and I

Again, each of these games emphasized teamwork and group cooperation in a similar vein to my school’s sports festival. One highlight from the undokai was catching a glimpse of the increasingly ubiquitous Spiderman, who is becoming rather like the Where’s Waldo of events over here. Being the only “foreign” looking person at the undokai, again I attracted a lot of curiosity but my favorite moment was sitting down and having two kids (not my students) come up to me, barrage me with questions and then commence a grass throwing battle with me. They were too cute! 

Silly kids sitting next to me

A glimpse of the omnipresent Spiderman

There he is again!

Some food we were served at the Undokai. I think these were either pickled cucumbers or eggplants. They were ridiculously salty.

Our main dish at the Undokai proved much more palatable then the pickled  mystery veggies however.

After the undokai, I went to yet another Enkai, this time hosted by my board of education (thankfully however, they covered all the charges so I didn`t have to empty my wallet.) The delicious menagerie of food consisted of sushi, sashimi, veggies and meat. I was later informed that one of the fish I consumed was the infamous fugu, a fish equally known for its delicacy in Japanese cuisine and for its potential lethality if prepared incorrectly. Thankfully, it seems that our chef knew what s/he was doing as I am currently blogging to you fine folks today.

One of the dishes at the enkai (the white fish in the back are fugu).

The next day, my landlord stopped by my house and asked if I wanted some squid. Always jumping on the chance to acquire free-food, \i accepted and recived the following. Thus, I began my first time gutting a squid. Gutting it was disgusting...yet oddly satisfying. I was quite unprepared for the level of ink hidden in that little cephalopod and my cutting board is now stained a permanent black. I@d say the end result was pretty satisfactory as the stir fry I made with the squid turned out pretty well.

This last weekend, several JETs and I volunteered to set up and light candles at the Senmaida rice paddies for their annual festival. The scenery at the event and the surrounding ambiance was really quite spectacular.

Walking down the rice paddies

Fellow JETs setting up the candles

Pumped up!

There was quite a significant amount of critters roaming around the rice paddies such as this snake.

Lighting the candles

Very scenic and relaxing

The end result was truly quite beautiful.

This light up was followed by all the volunteers waving torches in the dark. I had more pictures of the event but alas, my faithful iphone met a watery grave in a puddle before I could upload the pictures. Living without it really really stinks as it was a dictionary, music player and map to me. I also found out that getting a new ipod will be exceedingly frustrating as I either have to do a 3hour drive back and forth to Kanazawa (the only place that carries them according to an electronics store employee in my area) or I have to wait 1 to 4 weeks for a new one to arrive via Japan amazon :( Part of the package of living in a rural area I suppose.