Ouch.

Sucks to be you guys. At least out here I have a 660cc engine that makes the $4.50/gallon gas go a long way.

Sunday Night Depression

Well, it's Sunday night at 11:50 pm and we're not in bed. I TOLD YOU SO, GREG. We totally should have watched The Chronicals of Narnia, but you were all "Let's try to get to bed early". Well, where are we now? Where are we now.

Anyway, we had a pretty restful weekend, which means I didn't do any of the things I mean to do. Mostly this involved figuring out what I'm going to do for the new weekly 90 minute English lesson Mrs. Suzuki talked me in to giving her daughter. I have got to learn how to say "No" to people. I'm trying to teach her real, useful English like the varitions of calling someone an ass (such as asshole, ass clown, ass hat, etc). But I don't have a text book or really any sort of plan, and I certainly didn't fix any of those problems this weekend.

So from tomorrow we have work. A full 5 day week at the end of which we will spend Saturday drinking and meating (yes, as in the stuff that comes from animals) and singing for a 3-way birthday party extravaganza... or whatever. Then if we can live through Monday and Tuesday of next week without becoming violent towards our coworkers we are rewarded with the much coveted GOLDEN WEEK 5 DAY WEEKEND. Then of course we don't have another holiday off until the end of June.

Now, I know how much you guys all hate to nag Greg, but he has to get his visa changed and he just refuses to email Saki about it. Basically, he can go to Boston without doing it but it's a huge waste of money for us. So everybody please but the crap out of him. He has learned to ignore me.

Dead tired

Although neither of us are as ill as we were in the days immediately surrounding the beginning of the new school year, both Sam and I have continued to suffer mild colds over the last week or so. That, combined with the fact that last weekend was completely taken up by events (read: drinking parties) with the PTA and union activity, left me utterly exhausted. But now it's noon Saturday, I've just woken up, and all is well. Anyway, this is the time of year when the rice paddies are flooded for planting. Somehow, thousands of years ago, the Chinese figured out that rice is a water-resistant crop. So by planting rice seedlings and then flooding the fields, the rice grows and the weeds drown. Pretty neat, really.

 
  

Iran

I usually try to keep my political ranting segregated to places like bars, but the stories I've been reading over the last week from back home have me scared, quite frankly. Living overseas during the buildup to the Iraq war wasn't fun. If the rumors about US plans to attack Iran have any basis in fact, the protests resulting from such action will be even worse. People overseas are much more predisposed to anti-Americanism now than they were in 2002. And if, god forbid, we were stupid enough to use nukes, well, I shouldn't need to point out that the Japanese have particularly strong feelings about the use of nuclear weapons (so much so that there are ongoing protests about plans to replace the Kitty Hawk with a Nimitz-class nuclear carrier at Yokosuka). It wouldn't be pretty here.

The Union of Concerned Scientists has more about the limited effectiveness of bunker-busters (Flash animation).

And if people can't understand why Iran could possibly be so deadset on aquiring the bomb, maybe this graphic will help. US flags denote countries where we have military basing and/or flyover rights.



There. I apologize for my ranting. We now return you to your regularly scheduled Japan-blogging.

Springtime! (for Hitler)

Springtime in Japanese elementary schools brings two things, reliably: sakura (cherry blossoms) and six year-olds. April 1st brings the beginning of the new fiscal year (and school year) here in J-land, which came this year without fail, as usual. The cherry blossoms, however (at least compared to our experience last year), have all been blown down by high winds, nearly as fast as they've been able to blossom. This time last year, we were treated to trees fully consumed by the pink and white blossoms, this year the trees are nearly bare, with the blossoms decorating our sports fields. Here's the evidence.


Like I said, the blossoms are all on the ground instead of in the trees.


Weather be damned, the new first grade students are still the cutest things on the planet.

Oops!

I thought this might interest recent visitors who have been to Tateyama.

Philippines-registered container ship Eastern Challenger is seen half submerged after collision with Japanese freighter Tsugaru Maru, off Tateyama, east of Tokyo, April 13, 2006. All crew members were rescued and none injured. REUTERS

OK, my update

Blogger hasn't been letting me log in. SERIOUSLY!

So Greg and I have been in an out of the doctors office all week. He's looking and sounding better, and I'm getting there. Somehow in all of the mess (hmm... I wonder how) we didn't sign new contracts. This is great for our position in the union. Health insurance, pension, and unemployment insurance here we come! Of course Greg won't bother Saki about his new visa status, which is making life difficult. C'mon Greg! Just email her.

I saw Mrs. Suzuki on Friday. She just about jumped on me. I'm not sure of the exact details (because she was so excited she could hardly speak any language and she was trying for English), but I believe we are going to be some sort of Goodwill representatives at the re-opening of Narita Airport Terminal 1 this June. So, yeah, that's like exciting. Yay for us? Also she suckered me into tutoring her daughter in English. I'm not happy about that at all because... because. I think Greg and I are the only foreigners in Japan who are perfectly comfortable with our income and work hours and don't want to take extra jobs. I really don't. But it's Mrs. Suzuki and she wants her daughter to be able to go to study abroad in high school or college so obviously the kid needs to level up or whatever.

Whatever. We have a lot of laundry to do so I now have to convince Greg to do it.

back to normal

After a final stop at my favorite ramen shop in the world (a tin shack off route 62), our visitors departed safely this afternoon. They should still be en route to San Francisco, although not for much longer. Now they'll both experience the joy of having two Tuesdays. Flying home from Japan is weird like that.

After seeing my parents off at the airport I took a train to Ichikawa, just this side of Tokyo, where Sam had driven a truck to earlier. Two friends of ours are leaving Japan, and we arranged to take a bunch of their stuff. Navigating Japanese streets in a 2000kg truck seemed daunting to me, but Sam jumped right into the cab and did all the driving. It was impressive. And now we have another dresser, a real bed (as opposed to the Japanese-style futon mattress we've been sleeping on for two years) and a soft bean-bag-like chair that Subaru hasn't left in hours.

And finally, tomorrow is the first day of the new school year, so Sam and I have to bring our suits for the ceremonies. Should be fun.

Notes from Travelers In Japan

Today is Friday, and we are in Kyoto. Today, thanks to Samantha, we covered a lot of ground. The day started with a train ride to Nara where we visited "deer park" and several ancient temples there, including 1 with the largest Buddha in Japan. Mid-afternoon we took a train to Osaka to visit an old "castle"---quite spectacular in its architecture and location.

It is much cooler here than we anticipated. We even had snow flurries last night while we were walking down a narrow hillside street lined with shops. The cherry blossoms will be at their peak here in 2 to 4 weeks; we had been led to believe they were already in full bloom. But we've had beautiful blossoms on some of our touring with Greg and Sam closer to their own place.

...anyway, this is quite a wonderful visit....really couldn't be better. If any of you want to visit Japan in the next 2 years, Greg and Samantha are great guides!

--Maureen

Shanghai, Part 1

We've been too busy to sit down and write about what we've been doing, but suffice it to say that everyone has been having a wonderful time out here. We were in Shanghai over the last weekend through Tuesday, yesterday we drove down the eastern shore of Tokyo Bay, and today we're off to Kyoto on the bullet train. Like I said, busy. Anyway, here's our first batch of pictures from Shanghai. I'm sure there will be more to follow.


A market in the (still quite poor) old town.


Towers and a park near our hotel, in Huangpu.


The smog gives the buildings an otherworldly glow at night.


Pudong, as seen from across the Huangpu river. No, it wasn't foggy, the air quality is just crap.


Part of a very nice park where we sat in the middle of the day to enjoy green tea.


Bikes and rickshaws still account for a large percentage of traffic, although they're sharing the road with BMWs.

La Grande Fromage a Tokyo

Guest Blogger: The Onymous Guy

She, Who Must Be Obeyed, and I went to Ueno Park in eastern Tokyo yesterday. the cherry blossoms are just starting to emerge. We enjoyed walking through the park, and the sight of the boulevard leading up to National Museum was most charming.

We went to the National Museum and spent quite a bit of time in the archeologic section. It was just astonishing to look at inital Jomon period pottery more than 12,000 years old. So much old, old, old beautiful things.

Here are some pictures - no photos allowed in the museum.


Pagoda at Ueno Park


Edo era temple in Ueno Park.


Ueno Park prepares for the cherry blossom festival.


Cast bronze stipu in museum garden.


The garden at the Tokyo National Museum

Some of my cute kids

Today was the last day of the school year, so I snapped some photos of the kids at my school. They're all adorable.


Taketo, a mischievious, but very sweet first grader (as of today, a second grader).


Akane, one of the four girls who made up this last years second grade.


Daiki, now entering the 5th grade, and his little sister Yui, entering the 2nd grade, in front of their house.

More visitors soon

With my parents arriving Thursday, I really should be cleaning the house, but instead I'm wasting time on the computer while sipping a gin and tonic. But at least I felt enriched when I stumbled across an article in The Negi (hint: negi is Japanese for "onion").

Last Square Meter of Japanese Wilderness Found, Paved

Construction Ministry officials expressed excitement last Tuesday as they watched the nation’s last patch of wilderness get covered in concrete. The day also saw the unveiling of architect Daisuke Mori’s nationwide “Let’s Enjoy Wild” project, which uses plastic sheets and lights to “convey the peaceful aura of pure nature.”

“Some people are worried that this event will end the steady flow of irrelevant construction jobs and cash to rural Japan,” said Minister Kenichi Ebisawa; “but much of the concrete that we have already laid has become cracked from plant life desperately trying to push through. A second layer of concrete is obviously required.”

Scientists predict that by 2047, the combined weight of concrete will cause Japan to sink into the ocean. Undersea concrete reinforcing pillars are already being planned.

Pictures

Pictures from the weekend, as promised. Additionally, some photos from the drive Kate and I took down the Chiba coast on Saturday.


Kate admiring the Pacific just south of Kamogawa, on Saturday. 


The village of Kyonan, from Nokogiriyama (a mountain), on the Tokyo Bay side of the peninsula. 


The pile of brush the monks burned on Sunday. It made a big cloud of smoke. 


Spring cleaning for the soul. Our friend Darren preparing to follow others through the coals (photographed by Kate). 


Takeshita Street, in Harajuku. 


Cake-filled crepes. Cheesecake-filled, no less. These confections can only be found in and around Harajuku. 

Fire walker

Along with about 8 billion Japanese people, Kate and I walked on fire yesterday in Tokyo. It was surprisingly not hot, and afterwards the president of the temple (this is possibly a bad translation) prayed for me. The ceremony was kinda neat, and who doesn't like watching a ton of branches burst into flames? Plus, some old guy like burst into tears (of joy) when I had about a zillion of these crazy lotus shaped cards thrown at me by one of the priests. They are pretty sparkly gold so if you touch them it makes your hands look like you just crushed a fairy.

Our feet are blister free. I won't scan the cards.

We finished in Harajuku with cake-filled crepes.

Quiet Week

We all woke up a little early this morning and dropped Kate off at the airport before going to work. From there she took a train to Tokyo, where she got on the bullet train for Kyoto. She'll be staying in Kyoto until Thursday, when she goes to Hiroshima for a night. Friday she'll have a five-hour train ride back up here. In the meantime, it should be a normal work week for us.

A Socialist Sunday

Sunday was the (2nd) annual March-in-March, held by the Foreign Workers Caucus of our union, the National Union of General Workers, Tokyo Nambu (it looks cool in Japanese - 全国一般労働組合東京南部). The union guys were thrilled that Kate took time from her visit to march with us. They were also thrilled when Milli Chennel showed up (Milli and I went to high school together, for non-McMinnville people), since the company she works for isn't currently represented by any union members. Anyway, the rally started at Kashiwagi Park in Shinjuku at about 1:30, and the police showed up quick. Standard operating procedure here. I counted 10 or so officers, some standing by the entrances to the park and others walking through the crowd taking copious notes. It was a little intimidated, but that's just what police are like in Asia. After an hour or so of speaking and music, we marched out of the park and down some of the main streets of Shinjuku. We were a couple hundred strong this year, and it looked pretty impressive. Sam, Kate and I were all near the front of the march carrying big straw mats like the one you see Kate with down below.


Shinjuku, the western part of the "core" of Tokyo. 


Some dancers from Brazil kicked off our afternoon of socialism. 


Meeting of the McMinnvalids. 

Kate's Visit, Day 1

Kate set a fresh-off-the-plane record by staying up until 11:30pm and sleeping until the late hour of 8am. Future visitors, this is the standard to which you will now be held. It being the precious weekend, Sam stayed in bed a few hours longer while I took Kate to Shibayama Park, in the southern end of the town where Sam and I work.


"Is that bamboo?", she asked. 


The local pagoda. 

After the park visit, we met friends in Ikebukuro (NW Tokyo) and caked all we could cake. No pictures from that, unfortunately, but all five of us felt like we were falling into insulin shock within a half hour of sitting down. It was wonderful. Our final activity of the evening was a rather strange dance performance in western Tokyo. The theater we were in only held about 25 people safely, and there were 40 or so in the audience, so it was cramped. I kept thinking to myself, "the fire marshall in Oregon would shut this place down in a second", which somewhat detracted from the experience. The dance itself would be pretty hard to describe. Maybe Sam or Kate can do it justice. Anyway, that was our Saturday.

Kate's here. 

Narita-san Park 『成田山公園』

I took today off from work to run to Tokyo and get our visas for China. They cost us 6000 yen each since we're not Japanese citizens, which made me cranky, but we have them. After that I took the train to Chiba City as fast as I could so I could get my re-entry permit from the immigration bureau (one of the hoops they make resident foreigners jump through every time we leave the country). Both the Chinese Embassy and the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau have reputations for being somewhat slow, but today I miraculously finished all my errands before noon, so I had some time to kill.

After getting back to Narita around 1:30, I walked through Narita-san Park, which I'd actually never bothered to do. It's a lot like the Japanese Gardens in Portland (yeah, imagine that...), but much bigger, and with grave markers strewn here and there along the edges. It was still pretty wintery-looking, drab and grey, with overcast skies, but the first signs of life were starting to appear in some of the plants. Hopefully things will really be starting to bloom in about a month. Anyway, I took pictures.


A waterfall and a tree. 


Neat bridge. 


The cherry and plum grove. Note the buds already appearing. 


A group of pre-schoolers on a field trip, all in uniform. 

Oh, too bad.

I know this will crush Mommy, but it looks like we're going to miss this year's Festival of the Steel Phallus in Kawasaki. The dates for this year's celebration are March 31st and April 1st, when we'll be in western Japan.

Still here, still alive

In case anyone was wondering where we are and what we've been up to, the answer are: at home, and not much.

Sam and I have both been teetering on the edge of illness for the last couple weeks (stuffy heads, sniffles, getting up in the morning being excruciating as opposed to merely unpleasant), so we stayed home and slept all weekend. Seriously, I slept until 2:30 this afternoon. It's almost like being back in high school.

We were also resting up so we'll have energy next weekend, when Kate will be here. I'm not sure how we're going to feed her, since she doesn't eat meat or seafood, but I'm sure we'll have fun nonetheless.

My Fun Japanese Book

One of the teachers at my school has kindly taken it upon herself to teach my Japanese several times a week, during working hours no less. In return I take the occasional lesson to go over some of the finer points of the English language (hers is quite good), and in general try to fulfill expectations that I work hard. But the book she recommended I use ("Understanding Basic Japanese Grammar", it does sound a bit dry), while very useful, is also quite funny from time to time. It was written by a professor at the Foreign Students Center at Osaka University, so perhaps he geared it towards what he thought foreigners would do all the time.

On page 6, we learn how to say "I often drink", "I usually drink beer", "I don't drink wine or whiskey" and "I drank beer yesterday evening."

On page 15, the book teaches us how to say "My younger sister got married with her professor."

I'll just list a few more sequentially.

Page 21: "Shall we drink this evening?"

Page 57: "My father came home late last night. He was a little drunk." And, just for laughs, "My elder brother used to be very slim. Now he is a fatty."

Page 84: "I talked with my friend while drinking until three o'clock this morning. We had a very good time."

Page 157: "My friend visited me yesterday. And my expensive whiskey was drunk by him."

Page 166: "I was forced to drink sake by my father."

Page 194: "While I was drunk and in bed, she went home." (My personal favorite)

Vice President Elmer Fudd

I've resisted commenting so far, but this was too good. I can't take credit for this. It came from here.


A Lego reconstruction of the VP's hunting accident. 

Fun and Games

We had a friend over last night for beer and video games. Somehow, the evening turned into timed trials for St. Patrick's Day.

 

Short weekend

I had to go into school on Saturday to "volunteer" for a community recycling program. I'm still not sure why we were doing what we were doing, but all the other teachers at my school were going, so in order to keep my workplace harmonious I went too. Basically a bunch of parents drove up in small trucks with loads of newspaper, bottles and magazines and we unloaded everything, sorted it, and moved it onto much larger trucks which then drove away. After the recycling thing in the afternoon was the PTA new year drinking party, where I got sloshed with the principal and vice principal (and a good number of my students fathers) and was goaded into singing a bunch of karaoke. They enjoy having a native English speaker around at these things.

Anyway, on Sunday Sam and I had plans to meet up with some friends in Yokohama to observe some of the lunar new year festivities in the Chinatown (中華街, or chūkagai) there. Sam missed a day of work last week, and woke up again Sunday feeling less than 100%, so she stayed home to rest while I went on to meet our friends. We hadn't seen them in awhile and I didn't want them to think we were avoiding them.

Yokohama's a pretty town, which is a nice contrast to Tokyo, which is for the most part pretty hideous.


Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Japan. 

In the Chinatown itself there was a parade to mark the new year, as well as a massive crowd that made moving about exceedingly difficult. It was also quite loud as they were lighting whole packs of sparklers at once.


The parade through Chinatown. 

A Tragic Accident

I noticed this when I was reading the old paper from back home. I knew I had to put it somewhere where you could see it immediately, Daddy. Note the word in bold.

Serbia-Montenegro train crash kills 39

By PREDRAG MILIC
Associated Press Writer

BIOCE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) -- A packed passenger train derailed Monday and plunged into a steep river canyon outside the Montenegrin capital, killing at least 39 people and injuring more than 135, more than half of them children.

full article...

Snow Pictures

Like Sam said, we were snowed on yesterday. It didn't get as warm as the weather forcast said it was supposed to today, so there's still quite a bit on the ground. We'll see what that means about our morning commute.


Our street. No, it doesn't have a name. 


Our backyard (Really our neighbor's field). 

We want snow!

And we got it today. I woke up at the leisurely hour of 1pm to find it had been snow. And it kept snowing well into 10 pm. The result? About 5 inches of snow that is now freezing. Our car is a little white bump outside. Anyway, it's supposed to be sunny and warm tomorrow so I suppose it will all melt and we can't expect a snow day on Monday. Buu.

Greg took some pictures so I am sure they are to follow.

Nikko and Lake Chuzenji

Today was our last non-working day together with Irving, so we all hopped in the car bright and early (too early for Samantha - not even banana pancakes could get her out of bed) for a 3-hour drive to Nikko, about 130km north of Tokyo. It's a quiet city in Tochigi Prefecture, just on the edge of the mountains. The city holds a number of UNESCO world heritage sites, among them the mauseleum for Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川家康), the first of the Tokugawa shoguns (the family ruled from 1603-1868), and the dude who more or less unified Japan.


The area in front of the Tobu train station in Nikko. Nice town. 

About 20km west of the town (and 1500m up) is Lake Chuzenji (中禅寺湖 - chuzenji-ko). About 20,000 years ago an eruption of Mount Nantai, on the lake's north shore, dammed up the steep valley the Daiya River flowed through and created the 163 meter-deep lake.


Lake Chuzenji. The forests on the shores make it a popular tourist destination in the spring and fall.

The outlet for the lake is the Kegon Falls on the eastern side. The falls are huge, and were traditionally a popular place for lovers with no prospects for marriage to throw themselves from.


Kegon Falls, 97m tall. The picture doesn't really convey how huge it is. 

As you can imagine, the shoreline of the lake is crowded with shrines (and hot springs).


Sam and Irving standing under a shrine on the lake shore.