I don't have a real job

This week, the students are taking their midterm examinations, so I don't have any classes at all. I have essentially nothing to do this week. I have to be physically present at school, but being mentally present is totally optional. This leaves me with a lot of free time to bring my daydreaming and time-wasting techniques back up to their pre-college-graduation levels.

Katie has Mondays off, so she had planned on going to Kyoto to see some sort of festival of some sort. Kyoto's the "cultural capital of Japan", and as such it has more than its fair share of festivals. I've never actually attended a festival before, but I've had them described to me and I've seen pictures, and it seems (to the uninitiated observer, at least) to be a lot of guys yelling and parading through the streets in an effort to appease _____________ (insert minor deity here) or to celebrate _____________ (insert seemingly insignificant event or random season here). My tone may strike you as somewhat dismissive, but rest assured that until I attend a festival and see for myself what it's all about, I can only do the responsible thing and resort to sweeping generalizations and offensive stereotypes.

Anyway, since I have no classes today, it hardly seems fair that I'm expected to be at school while Katie gets to galavant around Kyoto. It would seem unfair, at least, had I not learned early on in my professional career that where you are is frequently as important as what you do when you're there. Someone once said, "90% of life is just showing up". I don't remember who said it, but boy were they smart. So it follows that even though I have nothing to do, my mere presence at the school helps to establish my identity as one of the team.

This weekend went by really quickly. Katie's friend Hiroko visited from Shiga for Katie's birthday celebration on Saturday at our local bar, Half Moon. We met up with some of our fellow ex-pats from around the area: Anna and Erin from Seattle, Dave from Wisconsin, and Jeff from London. We bought a chocolate butter cake from a local bakery and brought it to the bar for mass consumption (they let you bring in outside food, which is awesome). On top of the cake were these little animals fashioned out of gumdrops and icing: there was a chicken, a dog, and a raccoon. We decided to make up a story about these animals, and Jeff took some pictures to accompany the story. I'll be posting those to my Flickr account later on (www.flickr.com/photos/wahoobob312 for those of you who haven't been there yet). Needless to say, it was very dramatic and we all had a good laugh about the pictures.

Sunday Katie and I went to the Kyocera Dome in Osaka to check out the Ryukyu Festival. It was a really interesting event: you could walk around on the lower level and buy snacks from the various vendors that had set up inside the arena while watching the live performances broadcast on the giant monitors that hung from the top of the stage. At one point Katie and I ventured up to our actual seats in the nosebleed section, but we found that it was a lot more fun to go down to the lower level and lounge around on the big tarp with everyone else (many of whom, by the end of the evening, were drunk and dancing around). We were able to taste several Okinawan dishes: Okinawan curry, Okinawa style soba and yakisoba (noodles and fried noodles), goya champloo (goya is bitter melon, and champloo is the Ryukyu term for stir-fry). We also got a curly fry and root beer set (random). Oh, and everything contained Spam. It may strike you as odd, but I think Spam is really big in the islands. For example, it's really popular in Hawaii. And since Okinawa is to Japan as Hawaii is to the US, it's only natural that they would share a mutual love of Spam, I suppose.

Happy Birthday to Katie!

Yesterday was Katie's birthday. She's 22. We celebrated by going to a nice Italian restaurant called "Da Vinci's" that's somewhere between our house and the closest train station (about a 5 minute bike ride or so). I had veal marsala and Katie had lasagna; it was pretty good! Not the best meal I've ever eaten, but for being in Japan where a lot of ethnic food is watered down for Japanese tastes, it was damn impressive. This weekend we'll celebrate some more by attending the Ryukyu Festival in Osaka. Katie is really into Okinawa (the clothes, the music, the culture, etc.) and the Ryukyu Festival is all about the various aspects of life in the Ryukyu Islands (of which Okinawa is a part). The focus is mainly on the music, though. It's basically a big concert with various acts performing throughout the day.

The Ryukyu Islands, a long time ago, comprised a kingdom entirely separate from Japan. Over the years, Japan came to dominate these islands, and in the process suppressed their language and regional customs in an effort to "Japanisize" them. Flash forward to World War II, when the battle of Okinawa proved to be one of the bloodiest in the Pacific Theater: almost 2/3 of those Japanese killed during that battle were civilians (a little fewer than 150,000 people). After World War II, Okinawa became the location of the United States Forces Japan (USFJ) and was fully under American control for the first 27 years, at which point it was ceded to the Japanese government. The US still maintains bases on the island; many US troops are stationed there.

In spite of such hardship, the Ryukyu Islands never fully lost their identity. In fact, Ryukyu culture and music is currently enjoying a resurgence in popularity among the mainland Japanese; walk around any large Japanese town and you're likely to find Okinawan cuisine right alongside more "traditional" fare. Okinawan born artists are among the most popular musicians out there today; hopefully Katie and I will get to see some of the more famous ones at the Festival (I haven't yet seen a lineup).

-Bob

I'm lazy

So I have a nasty habit of letting things go...

Recently I bought a plane ticket to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, because that's where I'll be spending the winter holidays. Well, there and Singapore to be specific. Anyway, I'm expecting my plane tickets to arrive by post, forgetting that, of course, the post will come when I'm still at work and no one will be home to sign for any packages. So to my surprise, one day I come home from work and there's a little slip of paper in the mailbox (in Japanese) telling me that the postal service attempted to deliver a package from ANA (All Nippon Airways), the company from which I had bought my ticket. It then has instructions detailing how I can go about contacting them - they even have an English help line - to arrange a more convenient delivery time. Being the responsible adult that I am, I contacted them immediately to arrange delivery for that evening, and now I have my tickets in hand, ready to go.

I'm lying, of course. What actually happened is that I promptly misplaced the notice and forgot all about it for about a week, at which point I saw it lying on the table and thought to myself, "Self, I really should get that taken care of." So I called the post office's English help line, and they informed me that, naturally, it's one day past the last day that the post office can hold it before sending it back to ANA, so I have to call the airline and have them re-send the tickets. I don't know if I'm going to get charged for this, but it's the least I deserve.

-Bob

Visit to Nagoya

Last weekend, Bob and I went to Nagoya to see my old roommate, Kayoko. Kayoko and I were roommates back from January to March 2006 at the Japan Center for Michigan Universities. She lives in Saitama-ken, in the suburbs of Tokyo, but happened to be in Nagoya on business. By express train (not bullet train) Nagoya is only 2.5 or 3 hours away from Amagasaki, so we went to visit for a day and a half. We had lunch at her cousin's okonomiyaki restaurant. Her aunt is a waitress there, so we got to meet her as well. They were very sweet to us, and gave us free ice cream. Okonomiyaki is cooked like a pancake, on a griddle, except the batter is filled with cabbage, onion, meat, seafood, etc. It's topped with a sweet sauce, mayonnaise, and dried fish flakes. Bob's okonomiyaki was shaped like a heart. As we were leaving, her cousin recommended we go see the Nagoya Daibutsu (statue of Great Buddha) at a temple nearby. The temple itself looked like it had come from South Asia, not Japan-- there were statues of elephants all around, and the altar was gilded and very ornate. Japanese temples tend to go more for the simplicity-is-beauty aesthetic. We walked around the inside of the temple, where there were many framed documents on the wall proving the temple's connection to Sri Lanka. I'm not sure why there was a Sri Lankan-style temple in the middle of Nagoya, but it was really neat to see. It was so different from the other temples I've seen. And the Great Buddha himself was quite impressive.


Then we went to a park in the city center, with a large viewing platform, several stories high, from which we watched the sunset. We had dinner reservations for 7:30, so we had some time to kill. First we found a hotel for the night, and then Kayoko took us to a huge 100-yen store, where we happily wandered around for quite some time. For dinner, we went to a Moroccan restaurant called Casablanca. It's been such a long time since I had Middle Eastern or Mediterranean food! I read in my Japan guidebook that there was a Moroccan restaurant in Nagoya with belly-dancing shows on the weekends, and I immediately asked Kayoko if she wanted to go. I don't think she had eaten that type of food before, but I think she liked it. We all ordered a set meal, so we were in there for at least 2 hours, watching the show and finishing all the food they brought us.


The next day, Bob and I headed out to the Tokugawa Art Museum. The Tokugawa clan was from Nagoya, and the museum is a display of Edo-period life. The best part was that most of the items were displayed in context-- for instance, there was a reconstructed teahouse inside the museum, in which the tea wares were all set up. The next room had a real Noh stage, around which were displayed costumes, props, and masks. It made it easy to see how everything was used. They also had an impressive collection of swords, samurai armor, scrolls, and books. Some of the scrolls dated from the Heian period (794- 1185 AD) but most objects were a bit newer, usually from the 17th century. Afterwards, we met up with Kayoko and her uncle for lunch. One of the local specialties of Nagoya is kishimen-somen, a type of wide, flat noodle. You can't really go anywhere in Japan without hearing about all the local specialties, and Kayoko insisted we had to try kishimen-somen. It was quite tasty-- apparently you can't get these noodles anywhere else in Japan. Although Kansai is definitely my favorite region in Japan, the Nagoya/ central Japan region also has a lot to offer. I hope I get to go back sometime- I really want to visit Nagano and the Japanese Alps.

I got a memo today

Today, my supervisor left a memo on my desk. Here it is, in its entirety:

"To all participants of the JET Programme,

Every year during a weekend at the end of October, a large number of costume-wearing foreigners take over several cars on the Osaka Loop Line and hold a Halloween party. The party attendees engage in a number of activities that disturb other passengers, including drinking alcohol inside the train cars, attacking others, damaging the cars, and leaving a large amount of garbage throughout the train. In addition, every time the train stops at a station the attendees all yell and run out onto the platform, then run into a different car to ride again, causing delays not only on the loop line, but also on other lines that are connected to the loop line. As a result of this party, a large number of complaints are filed with JR West and the police every year. Unfortunately, we have also been informed that some JET Programme participants attend this party.

This year, the Osaka Prefectural Police Department is planning to place a number of police officers at the stations and inside the cars of the Osaka Loop Line and arrest people on the spot if they observe any illegal activity. We strongly request that none of the members of the JET Programme participate in this party, as it causes a great amount of trouble for others.

In addition, participants caught engaging in any of the following conduct will be arrested on the spot by the Osaka Prefectural Police.

Causing the train to be delayed (Forcible Obstruction of Business)
Ripping the advertisements in the train (Destruction of Property)
Spitting in the train (Destruction of Property)
Vomiting in the train (Destruction of Property)
Standing on the seats without removing ones shoes (Destruction of Property)
Attacking others (Assault and Battery)"

I added the bold for emphasis. The implication here is that it's perfectly acceptable to stand on train seats, just so long as you remember to remove your shoes beforehand!

The memo also conveniently omits mention of the fact that many Japanese people participate in this activity as well - not just foreigners. I guess perhaps the innocent Japanese were manipulated into fiendish behavior by the wide-eyed gaijin devils and are therefore absolved of their responsibility. *Sigh* When you're a minority, you stick out, and so people are a lot more likely to notice when you slip up and do something stupid and will naturally apply it to the entire group of which you are just a representative sample. Every time I fumble with my chopsticks, or fail to produce adequate Japanese, or fall off my bike (don't ask), I inwardly cringe, because I know that every Japanese person watching is thinking to themselves "I knew it! Typical foreigner!" It goes way beyond the typical embarrassment of being caught in an awkward situation - now your entire race/gender/nationality/etc is on the line! You have to maintain dignity for the sake of foreigners everywhere! It's a lot of pressure to deal with, let me tell you.

New Joint Blog

This will primarily be a place to keep our friends and families up-to-date on our goings on in Japan and elsewhere. Please check back regularly for updates; both Katie and I will be posting here periodically and independently of each other.

-Robert