Let’s start from the top!

This is my aforementioned blue box, as viewed from the nearby park I went to this weekend to view the blooming cherry blossoms. In addition to the flower viewing, I was able to hike up into the nearby mountains. It was great to be in the mountains again. It reminded me of a great time I spent last February in the Mountains surrounding Kyoto. Anyway, by “start from the top” I mean the top of the mountain. This is the tower which overlooks Kasai and the surrounding area:

I believe the symbol is for the “flower princess”, which is (maybe) like a local beauty pageant, but I’m not yet completely certain. Either way, this tower looks amazingly sci-fi (excuse me, SF).

and Here is the view from the top:

The trails leading up to the top were serene.

Onto the cherry blossoms

That’s it for my Hanami (flower viewing). School is taking off, and my life is falling into place. I’ll try to make the time to write about it this weekend. Cheers!

I want to post pictures, but I’ve unfortunately not taken many since I’ve arrived. Weather permitting, I’ll be hitting up Kasai’s best hanami (sakura viewing) spots tomorrow, and intend to take some photo’s of that, but for the time being I’m going to have to use the ol’ rusty brain-meats to arrange words into ideas, and then take those ideas and, through miracles of human capability, “make sense”. Once sense is made, I will cease writing. I hope you feel informed.

I live in a blue and white box. It is named Leo Palace: el port casa (or in Japanese: eru poruto kasa). It is among the fanciest dog kennels I’ve ever lived in, mostly due to this classy name. I’m only (mostly) kidding, it’s actually very clean and new, and has all the creature comforts I need: a deep bathtub, a refrigerator, and a toilet in a closet. What it didn’t have, I’ve come to acquire: namely a guitar and a rice cooker (it’s the little things, innit?)

From my window, I can see Kasai city hospital which sits on top of a nearby hill that overlooks the whole city. Maybe it’s a little morose, but that’s my kind of thing, and actually—to the contrary, there is currently a grove of sakura blooming underneath it, so it’s very pretty. though maybe it’s more in a flowers on the grave sort of way, so still a little bleak, I guess. Anyway, what i’m trying to say is “I like it”. 

I don’t want to go into describing Kasai yet, because I really haven’t figured it out myself. There’s a lot of hiking spots which I hope to explore, a renowned flower garden, and the guiness-world-record-holding globe clock (whatever that means). But so far, all I’ve really “discovered” is where I can achieve my mundane day-to-day goals, where I can get a good bowl of ramen, and where I can hitch a ride out of here.

That’s all I have time to describe for now. I’ve just completed my first week as an ALT, and I will get to describing that next!

NP: M83 - “My Tears Are Becoming A Sea”

I’ve been back in Japan for about a month. But most of my time back feels like a disjointed dream because the majority of the month was spent in limbo preparing me for my new home: Kasai city, in Hyogo prefecture, from where I now write you.

I spent my first week back with my girlfriend and her home-stay parents Sam and Kako in Otsu city, which lies on the southern shore of the amazing lake Biwa. This was absolutely the perfect first step in my return to this country. I spent that week eating real home-cooked Japanese food, clumsily reclaiming my poor Japanese around the dinner table with beer and deeply warm, kind-hearted people, and celebrating the hard-earned end to a 7 month long distance relationship, and the second beginning to a real, skype-free, flesh-and-blood one. 

The week wasn’t all care-free celebration though, because I also needed to prepare for my training in Tokyo the following week. I spent the days trying to scrape together a 45 minute demo lesson with absolutely no teaching experience. This proved both unfruitful, and in return discouraging. Though I was enjoying being back, I was also getting more and more nervous about my ability to perform the tasks required by the very job that had allowed me to so swiftly return! But steeled myself with the hope that necessity would be a mother to my teaching skills and boarded a night bus to Tokyo at the end of that week. 

The night bus ran from midnight on Sunday to 7am Monday. I learned that if you close your eyes for long enough, it kind of feels like a really terrible night’s sleep, as opposed to the reality of an entirely sleepless night. 

So I blearily made my way, squinting through the bright morning, into the labyrinth of train lines at Tokyo-eki, and from there to Narita airport. 

I was ushered by some representatives to a shuttle bus, which I took to my second temporary home: the Toyoko Inn. I went through some brief orientation, and met many friendly people, including the members of my branch in Osaka, and finally had the chance to lie down and sleep around 9. 

Thus began my week of training. It’s hard to say succinctly how the week’s training made me confident in my ability to perform the job’s tasks, but it did. There was quite an inner-drama to the experience. I’m not sure how detailed i’m actually permitted to be in describing the training process, but I’ll say that it wasn’t just someone demonstrating teaching techniques in a room. The most startling aspects were the inspirational passion of those involved, but also the fear that was sometimes used as motivation to change the trainees and instill the professed skills and ideas. Though I’m not going to be any clearer, I’ll say that by the end of the week, I felt an enormous change in myself, and felt the massive amount of information imparted to me slowly trying to weasel its way into my hardening brain. I can’t say i’ve ever had a more intense training experience in my life.

After the week in a hotel, eating bento every night, I couldn’t wait to head to Osaka and eat some real food again! We took a plane to Kobe, which flew directly over Mt. fuji

From Kobe, we took a train into Osaka, and moved into my 3rd temporary home: City Plaza Osaka. When the elevator up to your hotel room has an arm-chair in it, life ain’t bad. Not to mention the Onsen on the roof! I spent the next couple of days eating my favorite foods, soaking in the bath, and making a small detour to Shinsaibashi. I didn’t get a picture of myself there, but here’s one from just before I returned to the U.S. in August:

After one more day of training in Osaka, I was finally prepared to to head to my new home: Kasai-shi, Hyogo-ken. I’ll pause there. O, cliffhanger!

I’ve been severely slacking on this blog! Time to roll up my sleeves and make this happen!

First off, I went to an incredible temple complex called Ryouanji a couple weeks ago. It contains a very famous zen rock garden that you’ve probably seen a picture of at some point in your life, whether you know it or not. I posted a video of it in the post before this. I don’t really find the video to be very impressive, but you decide! Though pictures can’t do this awesome complex justice, I think they’ll do a better job than words. So here we go:

This is the first gate into the complex. Eric is getting his zen on.

A lovely map. My camera strap is only a temporary addition to the complex.

They have gone through great lengths to keep this dead tree from falling into the pond. Ropes have been tied around it’s trunk, and you can sort of see the large wooden support structure holding it up.

and now the rock garden:

They were cutting down these incredibly sculpted trees. I’m guessing the wood is used for religious purposes.

That’s the Ryouanji story. I don’t know how well it translates, but it was my favorite temple experience yet. 

As a final thought for this post, here is a liquor store chain in Japan:

That’s right, Liquor Mountain. 

NP: Bohren & Der Club Of Gore - Dolores, Chris Clark - Empty The Bones Of You, Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas

Tuesday: House 50, Slumber

As I’ve mentioned, my apartment complex is great. After filling out an eternity’s worth of paperwork, I moved in around noon on Tuesday. After that, Eric and I walked with Neko and Ivy, two fellow house 50-ites, down to the Ritsumeikan co-op to buy a LAN cable. After that, we stopped at a restaurant for lunch where I had a delicious bowl of Curry Udon. By this time, I was nearly delusional with exhaustion and have nearly forgotten what happened in between this and my “afternoon nap”. 

 Since I only slept about three hours on Monday night, I went to sleep around four p.m.. I figured I’d wake up at midnight and be on a truly awful sleep schedule, but I was apparently exhausted enough to make it to 5am on Wednesday (with an hour or two of tossing and turning). Did I Rip-Van-Winkle my way past Jet-lag in one fell sleep? Not quite, but I got pretty close.

Endless Wednesday

In the morning I walked with Eric down to Daitokuji, a temple complex just a few blocks away from our Apartments. It was, to say the least, a great start to the day.

As we were hiking through the complex, a line of three monks came walking down the street, chanting. We saw another passerby offer them a coin, so Eric stopped to do the same. Two of the three monks paused, and one of the monks pushed the other out of the way so he could receive the offering. It happened so quickly, it took us a minute to register what had actually transpired, but it was definitely a charming highlight to our trip there.

We then hiked a bit further down kita-oji dori to look for a bike shop. The shop wasn’t open yet, so we solemnly strolled through a nearby graveyard, and then down the street, just taking it all in. When the bike shop opened, we went in and purchased a used bike each. Mine is a lovely pine green with brown handles and seat :) all bikes have a wheel lock, a basket and a light. And yes, we had to fill out paperwork to get our bikes as well. 

after this, we biked to the Restaurant we ate at the previous day. this time we both ate curry tonkatsu (pork cutlet) which was fantastic. It came with a delicious salad that I wish I knew the name for, a bowl of rice, and a cup of miso soup. 

Next, we headed back to Ritsumeikan to apply for our alien registration cards. We filled out a boatload of paperwork at the school, then rode our bikes to the ward office and, with great help from our SKP buddies, filled out some more paperwork, eventually receiving a green slip which we could now use to get our cell phones! So from there we headed to the softbank branch near House 50 to try our hand at getting said cell phones. 

To our luck, Lena and Ivy, two skp students were also there for cell phones. Since the employees spoke almost no English, Lena was our impromptu translator. Had she not been there, I have no idea how long the two hour process would have escalated to, or if it would have even been possible. But anywho, we all got our cell phones! and it was only about 3 or 4 o’clock.

It turned out Ivy and Lena planned to head to the department store Izumiya next, which was also our next stop, so we headed there together. I bought some pots and pans, a pillow, and (after first stepping outside to a massive downpour) a very handsome umbrella. 

Then we walked through the rain to a ramen shop for dinner. Eric and I had kimchi ramen, though I have been informed by Eric that it was not actual kimchi. But still, it was great! see:

After that, we made the trip back to our respective housing, and I crashed at what was probably around 8:30 or 9:00.

Thursday

I started Thursday by going to the coffee shop located right next our apartment complex. Every item was 500yen or above, which was shocking, but I ordered a Storeetu moka (straight mocha) and soon discovered why the prices were so great. 

I can’t give a purpose behind the actual process the barista used to make our drinks, but it looked more like a science experiment than a culinary process, complete with Bunsen burner and glass tubes, and when the drinks finally reached our table they came in very elegant china. I know I won’t be able to frequent that place. But I am definitely a guy who can find the value in a five dollar cup of coffee.

Next, Eric, Ivy and I met Lena and Laura at Izumiya. Since it wasn’t open yet, we strolled down a few blocks and visited a nearby temple (seeing a trend here?). Pictures speak louder than words on such matters:

After that, we headed to Izumiya, were i bought a better pillow for less money, but hey, you can’t win ‘em all. Then we took the Trolley down to a 100yen shop by I-house. I bought plates and utensils and other useful stuff. Then we stopped at a fast foodie joint called sukiya. 

After lunch, Eric, Ivy and I boarded the Trolley back to Izumiya, and then walked back to our apartments. I spent the rest of the day studying, with one small break for my favorite japanese biiru (thus far):

kinyoubi ni kinkakuji de

On Friday, Eric and I went to Kinkakuji, or The Golden Pavilion. Once again, I think Picture will do better justice than words here:

Post Kinkakuji: Friday’s remainder, Saturday + Sunday

On friday night, Eric and I were treated to nikujaga and ochazuke courtesy of Lena and Ivy. It was very delicious, and the home-cooked nature of it was nourishing to more than my stomach. So, after such a gracious treat, Eric and I agreed to return the favor by cooking a meal for them on Sunday. I basically just Studied myself silly all Saturday, and Sunday too. For the aforementioned dinner, Eric and I rode down Nishi-oji dori to a supermarket and picked of the ingredients for gyudon, a yummy rice dish. I ended up not having much of a role in preparation, so I’ve agreed to cook a meal in the future. Here’s a picture of our (mostly Eric’s) creation:

That’s about all I can recollect. It’s been a crazy week. I plan to just continue my studying today, with breaks for food, and perhaps coffee. Then Tomorrow I start orientation! I’ll let you know how it goes. My parents will be mailing me the camera charger I forgot to bring soon, but I’ll be unable to take any more pictures for a couple weeks. I could use some practice at writing descriptively, so that will be good. Jaa mata!

It’s 7:00am here. I’m sitting in my incredible apartment now, having a lovely iced coffee and trying to recollect all the events of the past two days. 

The 13-and-a-half hour plane flight wasn’t nearly as grueling as I had anticipated. My biggest concern was not adjusting to the change of pressure and suffering a 13 hour earache, but that fear was quickly put to rest (though the jump from Narita to Itami is a different story, but I’ll get to that). The food on the plane was fantastic, and every seat had a television screen on the back, with a remote that allowed you to choose from a selection of films (both from Hollywood, Japan and elsewhere), television, games, and my favorite: the view from a camera on the belly of the plane. I had it on this for nearly the whole flight (flying over Alaska was incredible!). The other main use I got from the television was a screen of flight information. It rotated through a map, showing where the plane was, information regarding altitude, temperature, speed, and time to destination. The Airline attendants were really nice, and most importantly, the coffee was outstanding. Well, that’s enough gushing over ANA. 

As I alluded to earlier, the flight from Narita to Itami was less pleasant. The plane itself was much nicer. The seats were fantastic, with enough foot-room to stretch out completely. The problem was, my skull was being crushed by the pressure which was so painful, I was concerned my ears would burst. I was half-deaf for the rest of the night, and was a bit shocked that, when my ears finally did pop, blood didn’t start pouring out.

Next, we took a shuttle from Itami to our Hotel in Kyoto, Hotel Chrysantheme. It contained two other people on their way to Ritsumeikan, which was awesome. One of them, a really nice guy named Chris too, actually stayed at our hotel as well. It was his 6th(!) time in Japan, and so he helped us communicate with the hotel attendant. 

The next day I moved into my apartment. It is really fantastic. I have Mt. Daimon-ji right out my window, a grocery store to one side of the apartment and a coffee shop to the other. I will post pictures soon.