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.
