November is a time for drinking excessive amounts of wine at a local winery. Then in December a Buddy of mine turned 27 so we had a little party, also went hiking with the FHI hiking club and back to the same mountain with Misato. Misato took me to Tokyo Disney sea, but I forgot my camera battery, so I bought a small disposable. Hopefully the pics will come out ok. Christmas eve is for couples in Japan so I made reservations at this steak house all in Japanese. I was so proud of my Japanese skill on the phone. Dinner was delicious, but Misato had to work Christmas day. Having a few people over for Christmas dinner and celebrating Christmas with Misato on the 26th.
Did a few things this month. Went to moto gp with some coworkers their wives and Misato. Pretty awesome watching the races and really loud. Really makes me want to get a new bike though... soon enough if I can get a license. Went on a hike to Mt Shirane but it was windy and wet. This club from FHI goes once a month or so and afterwards we always go to the hot baths which is a nice way to end a cold day. Went to a Halloween party which isnt too big here, but it was still pretty fun. Misato and I were trying to be greek, but we basically wore togas. On the 31st there was a family festival at FHI so I went to set up the tent with the hiking club and help sell some food to raise money. Afterwards we went to Nikko, once a year they light up the shrines at night.
I had an awesome opportunity to go to Brazil and knock out 5 masters degree credits while experiencing South America for the first time, or so I thought. Turned out to be quite the experience. The class was originally supposed to be about bio fuels, but was really more on water quality. Interesting class, and I learned quite a bit on the affects of human activity on the water quality, especially in the more rural areas of Brazil. I should be doing my last assignment for class rather than writing on this blog, but oh well. Apparently it takes 44hrs to get from my apartment in Utsunomiya to a rural city, Cuiaba in Brazil, who knew it was that far. After the travel I was a bit sleepy and ended up passing out around 9 that first night after class. The next day the intense work started we all went out and took water samples along the river, and I had to write an essay and go to a lab class. The third day we got on a bus that was supposed to take about an hour and a half to get to our ranch house or Pousada in Portuguese where we would be staying for the next 4 days, and we were going to stop by a gold mine to see how the run off was affecting the water quality. Conveniently when we got to the gold mine a "lab" truck came to the gates and all of the sudden the mine was undergoing a quality inspection so we couldnt see it. Felt like something right out of a movie where some fake truck went by just to keep up appearances that nothing wrong was going on. we all got back on the bus and eventually got to the ranch house later that afternoon... much more than 1.5 hours. The pousada was really cute and run by a family. There was a nice little area with about 12 hammocks to lay out in when we werent doing school work. The next few days at the pousada were pretty enjoyable. We had to write 2 lab reports and another essay, but by the end of the week we were done with a majority of the school work. Our tour guides took us out to a look out tower, that would definitely not have passed OSHA standards, but had a sweet view of the entire pantanal to watch the sunset. The next few days I went horseback riding, fished for piranha and went on a little row boat excursion. After the pousada we headed back to Cuiaba where we could catch an overnight bus to Campo Grande and then transfer to another bus to Corumba. This turned out to be about 36hrs of travel time, but we did stop at our first Rodizio where they serve the meat on a skewer, the pork was amazing. We got to Corumba on a Monday afternoon and met up with our new tour guides who turned out to be not so qualified. Tuesday we had free time to walk around this small town and didnt really do much, but we did discover this amazing sandwich/burger place where I had my first lanche (burger). Wednesday our tour guides picked us up on these two trucks and a VW bus and off we went to the Pantanal again. We didnt see much on the 12hr ride, but we did cross the Paraguay river by a small ferry. On the way back home we discovered that one of the trucks didnt really have brakes so the driver would just downshift and turn the engine to stop. Not the best when you are going over mountain passes to get to the Pantanal. The VW bus broke down 3 times on the drive and every time we stopped the younger "tour" guide would get out and work on the truck with no breaks. It was all a bit sketchy. Thursday was a bit intense as we had to finish off another lab report and essay, but afterwards Mike and I convinced a bunch of people to go to the rodeo. Corumba was a really small town so the rodeo turned out to be a very small carnival with about 4 rides, and the actual rodeo part was only bull riding. It started to get pretty cold so a few of the girls left before the bull riding finished. For those of us who stayed there was a free concert which was awesome!! Friday turned into a real interesting day, a few people went to Bolivia, but me and a couple guys stayed in town and walked around a little bit and went back to the awesome sandwich place. When we returned to the hostel the federal police were there and had picked up two of our TA's because of the water sampling. The police were pissed that 27 Americans had come to their town and were messing around with their water, and we didnt technically have approval. We all had to give up our passports and the police took our professors to the station for questioning. Our professors came back a few hours later with our passports, but were being investigated for some biological crime. The professors decided to leave Corumba a day early, and we were now fleeing the country very slowly by bus. As to not draw attention to ourselves we decided to walk to the bus station instead of taking cabs... turns out 27 Americans walking to the bus station with their luggage at 7 am is not inconspicuous. We took a long bus ride back to Campo Grande and now all our fun activities that were planned for Bointo (next destination) were cancelled. We stayed overnight in Campo Grande but left at 6:30 the next morning to go to Cascavel. Once in Cascavel everyone seemed to be a bit happier and we were back on track to eating the best burgers ever!!! Also met an Islamic dude who gave us a lecture in Spanish about how the only constitution is Islam and that eventually the whole world will be ruled under the one constitution. We were in Cascavel for almost a second night when all of the sudden our program coordinators told us we had to move to Iguassu Falls immediately because the people who were leaving had their flights at 9:30 am the next morning. Great planning struck once again! I couldnt get my flight changed and after drinking since the announcement that we were going to Iguassu Falls I decided to stay in Brazil. A bunch of us went out to the club that night to celebrate our last night together and had a blast, too bad we had to check out by 9:00 am the next morning. 15 of us were left and headed to Argentina, nervously we crossed the border, but everything was fine. Ended up seeing some amazing stuff in Argentina at the Iguassu Falls, went zip lining and repelled through a water fall. Went to Brazil to see the falls from that side, which again was very nerve wracking going across the boarder, ended up in Paraguay at a crappy open market where I got a few souvenirs. Our hostel in Argentina was awesome and the last four days were definitely the highlight of the trip. Had an awful veal steak and went to a free concert on the Argentina side of the town Iguassu Falls on the last night in Argentina. Made it back to Japan safe and sound after another 44hr journey. Now back to reality with work.
I forced Misato to just get on the train and go somewhere with me today. She is really hesitant about the whole idea because she really loves to plan things out. It was so hot outside, we got off the train at the last stop karasuyama and we walked around for about an hour until we found this nice little waterfall just off the highway at the previous train stop named Taki. Not really a town or anything, just the waterfall a restaurant and an ice cream shop. The next weekend was the annual festival for fireworks in Utsunomiya, so Misato, Satoshi and I rode out to the park which was packed with people and food vendors for the fireworks show. It was a pretty amazing show that lasted a few hours with an intermission to go to the bathroom. Normally there is no music with the fireworks, but for some reason there was music this year. At the very beginning of the festival some kids had designed mini fireworks shows from local schools and the winners were chosen to actually display their show.
Miya Matsuri is the biggest annual festival in Utsunomiya. There is a big parade where teams carry these Mikoshi (mini shrines) on their shoulders. The Mikoshi look pretty heavy and people also stand on them. At the end of the parade the Mikoshi are carried up to the shrine... seems like a lot of hard work. This is a two day festival for Obon holiday. Obon is a celebration bringing family spirits back home. I missed the floating lanterns in the river so I was a little bummed, good thing I will be here for 2 years. Misato and I found a free concert at the Oya stone mine she took me to the first time we hung out. I was very nice with a bunch of beautiful candles in Oya stone sculptures, a few were made by a local kindergarten class.
Misato took me out to this really nice restaurant called Ishi no Kura, basically means house stones which is what the restaurant looked like. We had some delicious traditional Japanese food. I was super jet lagged from my flight back from Seattle, but Misato was super excited to take me out. After dinner she told me I should really go see the bathroom and how nice it was because she didnt want me to be around when she paid. There was a little artist gallery attached to the restaurant where some of Misatos brothers art was for sale. Once we got back to my house Misato surprised me with a cake she had specially made with my name on it. I was so tired we did not eat it, but i still blew out the candles. A few weeks later we went on this hike. It was a total beginners hike where old ladies and strollers could easily navigate. At first I thought all hikes in Japan were going to be like this one, but apparently there are some real hikes out there I have yet to discover. Also had my friend Kudo and Satoshi over for one of the world cup games and Misato bought a special soccer ball shaped bottle of wine.
Misato taught me how to make gyoza and sushi. Gyoza is what Utsunomiya is known for. We surprised our friend Kudo san for his birthday. Apparently that is not common in Japan so he was very happy, and although he doesnt like sweets (which I found out that night) he still ate the cake we got him.
Went down to Tokyo last weekend to get a visa for Brazil. Went to all the major sites saw the busiest intersection in the world in Shibuya, but it wasnt so busy since it was the middle of the day friday. Went to Harajuku, Shinjuku, Roppongi, Okachimachi, Ryogoku, and Asakusa. Roppongi was awesome. Our intention was to go to Roppongi Hills for a view of the Tokyo Tower on the 52nd floor and hang out at the bar and art museum. Great view, odd art museum, and pretty decent wine. Awesome experience seeing all of Tokyo at night like that though. Also randomly went to a german beer festival at the bottom of the tower for dinner, reminded me of Oktoberfest :D. They even played the damn chicken dance like in Leavenworth. Most of Tokyo seems like it is a place to go out on the town or shopping. Misato and I ate at Okachimachi at a small bar where it was kinda yakitori, but everything was deep fried. Also had Motsu (beef intestines) and they were much better this time.
Had a big weekend since it was Misatos birthday, went to a nice dinner where we had Fugu, the poisonous blow fish. It may have some booze type affect where I felt kinda drunk but Im not sure if that was just in my head because I knew it was blowfish or not. Also had a big party for Misato on Saturday night. Then I got to play in an FHI basketball tournament this weekend. Apparently being 5'11" ish and able to jump makes you a center. Our team was doing awesome pre-tournament and won 6 of 7 games, once the tournaments started we were ranked 1st, but lost in the first round. Misato got some good shots of me with my best lay-up/drive to the hoop.
Had a meeting down in Nagoya last week and decided to take the 30 min train down to Kyoto. Lots of stuff to do there and I definitely was not prepared. Saw a few maiko (Geisha in training). Saw about 4 or 5 shrines, and went through the fushima hike where there were thousands of torii gates. Apparently the gates are bought and left normally as a prayer type offering to a specific god, there were also little stores along the 'hike' at each god that had sake to leave for an offering as well. I definitely need to go back and see the golden shrine, we saw the silver shrine but it wasnt so silver, had a nice garden though.
I made some Onegiri for the first time this weekend and took them to the park for a light lunch. This week was golden week where a lot of people have off for 5 days so Misato and I went to Oarai to see the beach and aquarium. I didnt get the whole week off because Im working for a US company here, but I took 2 days vacation instead. This park was really nice and Oarai was very pretty as well. We stayed in a house that was converted into a hotel where dinner and breakfast were included, only 5 rooms if you look at the pics you can see how small our room was, but it was big enough for the 2 of us for 1 night. The other rooms were about double the size of our room but a whole family of 6 stayed there. We took the train down to Oarai which took about and then rented a bicycle for the day. Bike rental was only about 2 bucks, and the train was super cheap too. Not as if I had any doubt, but after seeing the traffic jam in Oarai it was far better, cheaper and faster, to take the train and bicycle around. We biked over to a fish market where I had the biggest and best Oysters I have ever tasted.
Went back to Moshico to pick up the pottery I made a few weeks ago. Also got a few coffee/tea cups. I enjoyed the city much more this time not having unreal expectations of the small I had originally imagined. I also went and looked at motorcycles a few weeks ago so hopefully I can figure out a few more details and get one so I can cruise around Japan and see the countryside doing my favorite hobby. Getting a license is pretty tough here though! Had a house party this month also which turned out pretty good. My coworkers (Boeing) came and so did my new Japanese friends. One Japanese girl had about 2 sips of alcohol and was wasted on the floor. Luckily her boyfriend was here to take care of her. Japanese style normally do not have others over to their houses so coming to the party was a different experience I think. I made some enchiladas... kinda using whatever ingredients I could find. They turned out pretty decent, but definitely not as good as using NM green chili. My new favorite drinks are vodka and grapefruit juice (preferably fresh squeezed) or vodka and ginger beer. The ginger beer doesnt have any alcohol, but tastes slightly different from ginger ale. Link below to pics from Moshico.
Hanami Party is a celebration for the cherry blossoms in Japan. People are cherry blossom crazy here because it only last for 1 week. Work set up a small party just outside the FHI campus and provided food and drinks for only about $35. Afterwards I went out with my Boeing coworker to a bar that put on a little show where the bartenders flipped the bottles and blew fire. I overheard some guys talking about us in Japanese and I looked over and they invited us to sit down with them. We ended up hanging out with them all night and they showed me another sweet bar. For such a small town they sure do have a ton of bars here, and once again I have met some very friendly Japanese people. Misato and I went to the shrine the next night and then a park that had a "family fun center" to view more cherry blossom festivities.
Kinugawa hot spring last weekend. Kinugawa is a small city north of Utsunomiya built around the hot springs. Went on a little hike with Misato saw some monkeys caged and wild. There are a bunch of little statues around called Oni, which is a little demon guy. From what Misato said Kinugawa means something like evil river because a lot of people used to kill themselves there, hence the demon figure guy. Great place for a resort! Click Oni picture below for a link to more pictures.
Went to a town called Moshico, which is supposedly a very artsy town with a lot of pottery. I was a little disappointed though because it seemed a lot more commercial than I was expecting. I did get to sign up for a pottery class and made a flower vase and a big serving bowl. I have to go back in a few weeks to pick them up. In general it was pretty good. I am having computer problems and am now booting my OS off my external hard drive, which is not that great. Hopefully Ill get my new hard drive in the mail and will be back to my normal computer soon. I really need to get my pictures and music off my old hard drive... I am going to an Onsen soon. Check out the pics from Moshico. There are some that are awesome, especially of Tanuki, which you can see in the picture he has huge testicles, yeah those are not his feet!
I got my internet set up in my apartment, so now my phone and internet should be working. I have some pics and a few stories to post in the next few days about the last 4 weeks!
I was crazy busy on Saturday and ran all kinds of errands, even got my hair cut.. which was an experience. Kinda hard to tell them what I want, when I cant speak any Japanese. Also went to the furniture store again and got a coffee table and an entertainment center for my TV. My coworker Josh took me to the homestore where I got a bookshelf and a huge bag of rice as well. Saturday night was sweet though, went to a nomihodie (3 hrs drink all you want for a set price) that Misato had orgainzed. I met some other foreigners who work at a winery to the south of here. They told me about a harvest festival in November that I will have to try. Sounds like you just go down and get drunk at the vineyard. The whole operation is run by people with special needs. Sunday Misato took me to this area called 100 caves at Nagaoka, which is really just 52 caves that are made from volcanic rock. They are each a tumuli and have a bodhisattva Kannon, which is a god of sorts for compassion. Then she made me okonomiyaki. It is a Japanese cross between pizza and a pancake and it has seafood and veggies in it. Pretty yummy. My Japanese is getting a little better, and the more I struggle through it the more fun it is. I have the two alphabets down pretty well Hiragana and Katakana, but Kanji is still really hard.
I bought bike for getting around town on saturday, its a POS, but I think it will work for commuting. Another Boeing coworker, Josh, showed up beginning of February so he rented a car and took his wife, Jessica, and I up to this famous shrine in a town called Nikko. The dragon man is an awesome artist. I will have to go back and get him to create one for me. He does the whole body of the dragon with only 1 brush and 1 continuous stroke. It was pretty amazing. I bought some nice sake that I will have to drink later. Valentines day was pretty awesome my friend Misato took me to the furniture store and I was able to get a couch and dining room table. I went out earlier in the day and bought us a strawberry tart thing for a treat later and bought Misato some flowers. Valentines is really supposed to be where women give men gifts and then there is a womens day in March, but I figured Im American so i can keep it my way. Misato and I went out to dinner then went back to my place for desert and she gave me some home made chocolates. They were delicious! Check out picasa for the pics of Nikko and the dragon man.
I had a crazy night in Tokyo Friday Feb 5th. I went down for a work meeting, and then after about 8 of us all went to dinner... There is this thing they do here called nomihodi, basically two hours at a set price and you drink as much as you can. Everyone of my coworkers headed back to Utsunomiya but I wanted to explore so I went and explored on my own. Needless to say I was already wasted but I got on the subway and went somewhere... not really sure where I ended up, but eventually I just asked some girls to help me and they took me down to the subway and pointed me in the right direction and got my fare all squared away for me, this was after an hour or so of being lost. I made it back to the main tokyo area and I missed the last train back to Utsunomiya so I decided I would just stay out all night until the first train in the morning, so I got into one cab and said take me to where all the fun is, where there are lots of people, and he didnt speak english so i got into another cab and the same thing happened, finally I got into a cab and he knew where to take me. I went to an area called ripongi where there were lots of bars and people hanging out and these hustler type guys took me into a strip club, which wasnt that great but I hung out for about an hour. Then i just walked across the street to go to a bar and asked some people if this was a good bar and told them my name in Japanese so they were very excited and grabbed me and we all went to another bar where we danced for a while, it was like we were all best friends. Only the men dance though, it was very grab ass like. I left that bar to go back to the train station and got lost again. Eventually I got back to the Tokyo station and bought a train ticket back to Utsunomiya. It was snowing at the subway station so I was freezing my ass off, but I got on the subway and found my way back to the train to Utsunomiya. I fell asleep on the train so I ended up way farther north of Utsunomiya and it was snowing like crazy so I got off and then walked around to the other side and got on a train going the other direction. Finally I made it back to Utsunomiya around noon, and then bumped into my building owners daughter, great first impression of me im sure. Japanese people are so friendly, and they love to drink.
Walked around Utsunomiya and took a bunch of pictures when I was still staying in the hotel, trying to work out some settings on my camera, but I think I got a few good ones. This photo was my favorite though. This gyoza restaurant is pretty good, and they use these big steamers outside for the steamed buns like in chinese food restaurants. The picture of the building with big eyes on top is a main department store right outside the train station, I thought that was funny. There is a main shrine here in the city that has a ton of stairs to climb up to it, but the best part is that there is a topless hostess bar about 1 block south. I tried to show that in the pictures, and they are in order so look at the group of shrine stair pictures, the last one with the red donation box, then the next picture is looking down the street away from the shrine and above the blue car there is a sign with 2 girls faces, that is the hostess bar. in picture number ... where the Big Echo is on my right looking towards the shrine again, the hostess bar is just out of the frame on my right. Then there are these huts near the shrine that only seat about 8 people max, but they have awesome food, sushi, gyoza, yakitori, and booze. Click on the picture below and it will take you to the picasa site.
Went all over Utsunomiya today to see some historical sites with my new friend Misato (in the picture). Oya is the site of the big statue. Then we went to a cavern type place where a lot of stones have been mined to use as building material, but the caverns were used to store military artillery and now there are concerts held in there. Went out again this weekend both Friday and Saturday nights. The bar closed down at 3 but they dont kick you out until you want to go home, so we stayed until about 4 I think. I found some new restaurants near my apartment and tried out a few that didnt have pictures on the menu this time. Omakasei means "whatever you suggest" so thats my new saying. Check out picasa or facebook for more pictures. http://picasaweb.google.com/greg.stratton/Oya#
1! No tipping, but great service. this is really number 1 12. Daikko... taxi with two drivers so when you get drunk one drives you home, and the other follows in your car so there is no drunk driving!
1. Drinking is considered a hobby 2. There are chimes at work when you should arrive, exercise, break, lunch, break again, and go home 3. Slurping hot food/tea is perfectly acceptable 4. Heated toilet seats 5. Hole in the ground toilets 6. Not having to listen to conversations I dont want to, ie people on the phone 7. Trying to understand Japanese 8. No need for a car 9. Walking to lunch (similar to 8) 10. Skype with parents 11. Bars dont close...at least I dont think they close before 7 am
Its Suntory time. Typical vending machine that are all over the place. Got my alien registration set up this week, and still going strong in the hotel. All my bags made it, with only minimal damage and my hotel is just about filled to capacity. Friday night I went to a coworkers friends birthday party he turned 61, but he still loves to party. I found out that bars dont close here....I dont think they ever close because I didnt make it home until 8am on Saturday morning, slept all day on Saturday and went out again and met some nice Japanese people at a party Saturday night. The party was for them to practice English so they like to practice with foreigners. I made a few friends that are willing to show me around Utsunomiya. My Japanese is getting a little bit better, I can recognize some more symbols now but still have no idea what it means. The English speaking party happens once a month so I am going to practice my Japanese when they practice their English. Work is ok too.
