Manju and Penguins

So, I didn't end up going to Himeji today. I woke up early and talked to Jennifer. While I was watching Dragonball Z, I heard some noise outside. I put on my shoes and went to check it out. Turns out there was a baseball game starting soon at Kamigori High School, which is almost literally behind my house. As I stood watching the warm-up, a player from Kamigori High waved and said, "Good morning." I waved back. He then said, "Today baseball game. Please look." I said okay, and went to the nearby vending machine to grab a bottle of green tea. I watched the game for an hour or so, then went home to meet Imaoka-sensei and her family.

They showed up right on time at 11. Which I totally expected. Everyone in Japan is very punctual. I jumped in the car and off we went. First, to pick up Otaro from his grandmother's house. Then lunch. I don't know the name of the place we went, but it was good. This is Imaoka-san and I:



He loves early Americana. He even showed me his oil can collection. American oil cans from the 50's and earlier. It was pretty cool. After lunch, we went to Ako to find me a pair of shoes for school. Slippers are no good for running around with kids all day, and I can't wear my outside shoes inside. We went to a shoe shop, and there were all kinds of awesome shoes. I saw a pair of Onitsuka Tigers (which I wear now) that I really wanted. They are way cheaper here than in the States. The shop did not have any shoes in my size. I have giant feet. Size 12US is a 28.5cm, and that's big for Japan. Maybe I'll find some shoes tomorrow.

We then made our way to Ako Castle. Or rather, the remnants of Ako Castle. The main castle is gone, but the walls are still there. It was pretty.





Ako Castle is home to the legend of the 47 Ronin, or 47 Samurai. An old tale of loyalty that is very famous in Japan. Read about it here.



After leaving the castle, we went across the street to a shop that sells manju. Manju is a Japanese sweet that is made with wheat flour, salt and sugar, wrapped around sweet red bean paste. Ako is famous for their manju. It was delicious. Imaoka-sensei asked if I'd like to try some traditional green tea, but she warned that it is very bitter. I said yes, because I want to try everything here. I found it to be quite tasty and refreshing. We left the manju shop and walked down the street to a Japanese antique shop. Antique toys. It was sweet.





It reminded me of my dad's office, except everything was Japanese. There, I tried a kendama for the first time. And I totally won!



Imaoka-sensei wanted to show me her English school, so we came back to Kamigori. She has a small school near my house. I dig it. Then we went back to the Imaoka house and drank a few beers and ate some delicious food. Imaoka-sensei wanted to see some of my art, so I showed her an old website with some of my spraypaint art and drawings. She saw a picture of penguins that I painted and asked me to paint them on her front step. So I did.



After playing with Otaro a lot, I taught Imaoka-san how to juggle. If he practices he'll be good at it. He's a natural. Then I came home. It was an awesome day.

And the drink of the day is:

Kirin Chu Hai Strong


It's like Sparks, but better. This happens to be grapefruit flavor, but it also comes in lemon. I like both.

Aioi

Today was pretty mellow. I slept in after a late night of sushi and drinking. No hangover, though. I win! I got to talk with Jen, which was awesome. Then I spoke with Mike and Dana, who offered some useful tips for this blog. Then I decided to get out of the house. Which I've been doing a lot.

I didn't want to go to Himeji, because I'm going tomorrow. I definitely considered Osaka, but it's not super close, and I got a late start. So I figured I'd go check out Aioi. Aioi is two stops away on the train, but it's much larger than Kamigori. That being said, there's not a whole lot to look at. I wandered around for a while, then stopped by Lawson's to pick up something to eat for lunch. Lawson's is like 7-11. I ended up down by the river, and it was very nice. Not the river itself, just sitting by it with my tonkatsu sandwich and Chu Hai.





I then made my way back to the station to return to Kamigori. On the way, I stumbled upon Aioi Sky Lanes, the local bowling alley. I had very little interest in bowling, but I happen to know that bowling alleys usually have an arcade. This was no exception. But the arcade here was small. The only real standout was a machine called Densha de Go! 3, or Let's Go by Train! 3. It's a train simulator.



After that I went home and watched Howl's Moving Castle, and an awesome show with a ton of stand-up comedians.

Today's drink of the day is:

Real Gold


Real Gold is an energy drink that tastes like gummy bears. It's delicious. There's nothing super special about this drink. It's just that every time I see it, it instantly reminds me of Jennifer. When we were in Tokyo in October, we found an arcade just so we could smoke a cigarette. We ended up in the back by the vending machines, and we bought a couple cans of Real Gold and played Taiko Drummer. Except the cans we got had an angry looking dude on them.

Valuable Lessons

Things I learned today:

- Being from California, I slur my words. This makes speaking Japanese difficult (for example, kawaii = cute, kowai = scary)

- Despite the above fact, I've been told that my Japanese pronunciation is excellent

- Numerous people have told me that I use chopsticks like a Japanese person



- The eye is the best part of a broiled fish head



- Japanese pre-schoolers learn way more than American pre-schools teach, like piano, Go and Kendo







I also learned a few new useful words, thanks to Ikki. Also, while at sushi tonight, I was introduced to a bunch of people from all over town. Shon-kun, Miyazaki, Nakamura and Ikki are coming over next Friday for a takoyaki party. And tomorrow I may go to Osaka to check it out, as I've never been. I'll let you know how it goes.

Drink of the Day (abridged)

As I had a bit of a rough, uneventful hangover day, I'm going to keep this post short and sweet. Today's drink of the day is:

Lipovitan D


Lipovitan D is not new, if you've heard me talk about Japan. I love this stuff. It's a "nutrient drink" produced by Taisho Pharmaceutical Company. It's basically an energy drink that tastes a little like medicine. Other products by Taisho Pharma include RiUP hair-growth treatment, the hangover remedy Balancer Ichoyaku, and a laxative called Colac. They're big in Japan. You can get Lipovitan in the States, but it is not the same as the Japanese formula. Here are some ingredients from the bottle:



taurine - 1000mg
nicotine acid extract - 20mg
vitamin B1 - 5mg
vitamin B2 - 5mg
vitamin B6 - 5mg
caffeine - 50mg

Yeah. Lipovitan is great. It warns on the side, however, not to consume more that one bottle (100mL) per day. So I haven't. Yet.

On a side note, Rokuda-san told me that he is good friends with the Vice President of Capcom Japan, and that we three should go golfing together. Capcom, for those who are unaware, make some of the best games in the world. Mega Man, Street Fighter, Resident Evil... Awesome.

Suzusho to Sakura e ikimashita

Today was a blast. I got to school and started welcoming the kids. When everyone arrived, we had clean-up time. Then followed basically the same schedule as yesterday. But today there was a bonus! I went with Tachibana-sensei, Ryo-sensei and 19 of the kids to the tulip garden that is down the hill from the school. It was awesome!





That, plus nap time (these are the younger students), took a couple of hours. Then Ryo-sensei drove me to Ukaiya, the local bookstore. I told her that I had to get a Japanese-English dictionary. She asked the clerk, but they did not have an English section. It's Kamigori. I told her that it was no problem, as I have to go to Himeji this weekend for a few things anyway. The list includes a dictionary, a hat (for going on walks with the kids) and inside shoes for Koto School. I told Imaoka-sensei, the volunteer English teacher, that I needed to go to Himeji this weekend, and she invited me to go along with her family. Which is totally rad.

After school I walked down to Suzusho. That's a yakitori shop near the train station. One of the other volunteer teachers, Yamamoto-sensei, and her husband own the shop. She gave me her number and told me to come down, so I did. It was freaking delicious. I got there earlier than I had planned, and saw a parent of one of the Koto School kids outside. We said hello to each other. I didn't know exactly where Suzusho was, as I'd never been before. She showed me. Right before walking in I met Ikki. Ikki is one of the coolest people I've met, so far. He took me inside and directed me to Yamamoto-sensei. She sat me at a table that had a "Reserved" sign. She was expecting me. A few minutes after I sat down, Yamamoto-sensei told me to sit at the bar. Now, this shop seats 25 people *maybe*. It's tiny. But I moved and ended up next to Nakamura. Nakamura owns the local kimono shop. He's awesome, too. Ikki came back from elsewhere and sat down between us, as I had taken his seat. Then the night really started.

I was handed all kinds of Yakitori. Liver, throat muscles and some others. It was all very good. Throughout the meal Ikki and I talked to each other, with Nakamura jumping in occasionally. Ikki speaks pretty good English, and Nakamura speaks a little English. Ikki and I taught each other some words and drank a few beers.



Then it came out that I like karaoke. They thought that was great. And they decided that we should go immediately. We got up to leave, and I asked for the check. Yamamoto-sensei said no, and that I don't need to pay because I am a Koto School volunteer. She's very nice. We left and walked down the street a couple blocks to Sakura. Sakura is a tiny little bar that has karaoke. We drank more beer, sang a bunch of songs, and had a great time.





Nakamura introduced me to the owner of the sushi shop, and gave me his phone number. He said I should call him so we can go out for sushi soon. Then he and Ikki basically kicked me out. "Promise time!" they kept saying. They told Yamamoto-sensei that they would have me home by ten, because she was worried that I'd get too drunk. So I walked home.

The whole night was awesome.

Himeji-yaki and children

So, I went to Himeji on Sunday. But it took way longer than it should have. Let me explain. After wandering around Kamigori, I finally made it to the train station. I approached the attendant at the window to buy a ticket because the machine was not on. "Himeji e ikimasu (I'm going to Himeji)," I said. ¥570 was the ticket price. He directed me to platform two. There's only two in Kamigori Station. The first train that arrived was going to Aioi. Turns out, that is the way I wanted to go. I did not board that train. I got on the next train, bound for Tottori. I had no idea where Tottori was, but I figured it must be going in the right direction.

It was not.

I got off the train in a town called Sayo. Then I waited two hours at the station until the train going the right direction appeared. Keep in mind these are tiny towns in the middle of nowhere. Trains do not frequent these stations. And it was Sunday. I finally got on the correct train, and ended up in Himeji 35 minutes later. Finally. I made my way towards the castle. When I got near the castle grounds, I saw this:



A flea market! Which was pretty cool. I walked around and looked at all of the goodies that people had to offer. A flea market in Japan is a lot like a swap meet in California, except everything is clean, and all of the people selling things are nice and like to bargain. I didn't end up buying anything. I'm going to make it a point to return for the next one, though.

As I walked closer to the castle, I realized what was different about it this time. Last time I saw Himeji was in the middle of winter, on a weekday. This was Sunday. Which is like Japan's national "Go Check Out Famous Stuff" day. It was a zoo. There were so many people there. So, rather than fight my way through the masses, I took some photos from outside the castle and promised myself I'd return soon. Aside from all of the people, it was stunning.





The cherry blossoms were still blooming, and it was absolutely beautiful. I won't post all of the pictures here, but you can check out the others (or bigger versions of these) by clicking on any picture. I ended up coming home not long after that, and went to bed fairly early.

Yesterday, Rokuda-san picked me up and took me up to Pre-School Koto to introduce me to the staff. They were all very nice. Then he took me out for lunch at Nanpuu, the local okonomiyaki shop. I wasn't sure what to order, so he ordered for me. We both had the Himeji-yaki. If you don't know what okonomiyaki is, I am so sorry. It is ridiculously good. Imagine a crepe with cabbage, meat, noodles, egg and spicy mayonnaise piled on top. Now add another crepe, some yaki sauce (almost like barbecue sauce), nori flakes (seaweed) and fish flakes. It's so good. Himeji-yaki was a whole new experience for me. It was just like the above, but remove the noodles. Now add milk, shrimp, octopus, some kind of flavorless clear gelatin cubes, pork and pieces of roast beef. It was amazing.

Today, I started class at Koto. I have to say, I forgot how tiring it is to run around with small children all day. They wore me out. My work day consists, basically, of playing with the kids, reading stories in English, singing and dancing, running around, carrying children, reading stories, helping with snack time, eating lunch, playing with the kids, etc. It's a lot of work, but it's fun and I love it. There are 42 kids at the school, and I think I remember the names of four of them. You'd think that remembering names would be easy. It's not. Remember, these kids have Japanese names. The only ones I remember are Hana, Midori, Yuriko and Oliver. Oh, and Siddartha. He's from India. I have to memorize, at the very least, 22 names. These are the 22 kids that have regular, organized English lessons in the afternoon. They are five and six years old. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

The drink of the day is:

Lifeguard Jungleman Calorie Off


How could I not buy a drink with a name like that? This is an energy drink with a ton of vitamins and a bit of caffeine. ¥100 at the vending machine down the street.

LA to Kamigori takes a long time

I made it! I'm in Japan! I'm so tired!

I arrived with a lot of time at LAX, but it still managed to take an hour to get through security. No surprise, I suppose. Leaving Jennifer was really hard. But we are going to talk a lot, and six months is not a long time. In the whole scheme of things, I mean. Teed stopped by to say hello (goodbye?) once more before I left. She's a TSA agent, so she goes where she wants at that zoo. The flight was fairly unremarkable. There were only a couple of things that really stood out for me. First, sitting to my left was this incredibly cute baby. She must have been six months old. She was awesome. And, you know, when you sit next to someone for twelve hours, you tend to make friends. The two seats to my right were unoccupied. Second, this:



This is the Magic I controller. For JEN - Japan Airlines Entertainment Network. This is a controller with a retractable cord that comes out of the armrest. Look at this thing! It has shoulder buttons! It's like a bad approximation of a Super Nintendo controller. It controlled the films, music and games that were available. The film selection was decent, and I didn't really check out the music much. And the games. Wow. The list included Tetrix (Tetris clone), Alien Blaster (very bad Space Invaders clone), Solitaire (like one-player Chinese Checkers), and Aces (what we call Solitaire in the US). There were a few more, but they were not worth remembering. All of the games I briefly attempted to play were horrible. Each game used exactly one button, and the directional pad. Why so many buttons then, you ask? Just in case, I guess. It was like someone hooked a Nintendo up to a 5-inch monitor, then smashed the Nintendo with a hammer. They almost played that well and looked that good. Never mind. That's not true.

I landed in Narita after the seemingly drunk pilot decided to land by smashing the airplane into the ground as hard as he could. For real. Someone near me almost fell out of their seat. Then I headed though Customs to get my bag. That went fine. Got my bag, checked into my next flight, and got on the plane to Itami in Osaka. That flight was only about an hour and thirty minutes, so it was easy. Rokuda-san picked me up from Itami, then drove me to Kamigori. That was a two hour drive. We hit up the supermarket so he could buy me some supplies for the next few days. I won't get my monthly food allowance until Tuesday. Then he dropped me off at my house. Which is enormous. I'll take some photos tomorrow.

Finally, I was able to sleep. I did not sleep at all during the trip, and I was totally wrecked last night. I went to bed around midnight. That would be 8am on Saturday morning for you Californians. That means I was up for 26 hours, and 15 of them were spent traveling. That's a lot, man.

I woke up early this morning with the intention of exploring the town and checking everything out. There were some flaws in this plan, however. It's Sunday, first of all. In Japan, not much is happening on Sunday. Especially in Kamigori. I wandered around for a while. Then I thought to myself, "Hey, Jonathan. Why don't you take a train to Himeji? it is your favorite place in Japan, and you live just 30 minutes away." Great! I'll do that. Then I realized that I had a wallet full of US Dollars. I didn't have time to exchange my money in Narita. So I happened across the local 7&i Holdings, which is just 7-11 with a different name. And, bonus, they have an ATM that accepts international cards. Minimum withdrawal: ¥10,000. That's about $100. I had no choice. Then I bought coffee and a delicious custard-filled bun for breakfast. Next stop: Himeji.

The Kamigori train station is only about ten minutes from my house, but I was not at my house. I was at 7&i. Took me nearly an hour to get there from the store. To be honest, though, I was not in a rush. And I was wandering off of the main streets quite a bit. This is what Kamigori looks like by the river:





Yes, the cherry blossoms are still out. Which is incredible. I love it. I finally made it to the train station, and Himeji. I'm tired, so I'll tell you about that tomorrow. If you want to cheat and look at the photos before I post about it, hit up my Flickr link over on the side somewhere. I'm having fun already. More to come.