So Lost...

Color

2011-08-12T08:51:00.000-07:00

I recently went to Tokyo and ended up with the most absurd firework viewing seats at one of Tokyo's largest displays. Most people have to reserve the seats at least a year in advance and pay a pretty yen-penny for them. So why was I sitting there? Can't really say, but I'll give you a hint, it has to do with a 5million yen diamond. Anyway, I hope you like the pictures, the Buddha is at Kamakura in Tokyo and the jellies are from the Nagoyako aquarium, which I was recently persuaded to buy a year pass to.

2011-07-06T21:12:00.000-07:00

So, it turns out that I'm really bad at blogging. Sorry.

My job in Japan has had an extra one year and one month length than what I had expected when I first came. Since my boss asked me to stick around for an extra month, I was able to take a long vacation at the end of that month. On June 26th I had one of the greatest adventures of my life. After about 2 months of planing, new lenses, a new camera, and a large backpack full of new camping supplies I was both broke and on my way to one of the Worlds most fertile islands that is home to (possibly) the oldest living tree.
There are several ways to get to Yakushima. A direct flight is the quickest, leaving from Osaka, Fukuoka or Tokyo, but it is also the most expensive. Yakushima has a tiny airport that can only support small jets and propeller planes so space is limited. The second is taking the train to Kagoshima, then hopping on a jet-foil to the island. Round trip on the jet-foil is about $180 alone, and a train to Kagoshima costs about $600 and takes 11 hours from Nagoya. I opted for the least expensive, most time consuming option. I took a 3 hour bus ride to Osaka, boarded a 15 hour ferry to Kagoshima and took the slower 2 and a half hour ferry from Kagoshima to Yakushima. Saving money takes time. Being alone and not having a solid plan worked out much better than it should have. If you look lost and approachable in Japan, you're bound to meet some of the friendliest kindest people in your life. The first was an elderly couple who seemed to fear for my life. The man approached me with a bento and a beer at the Yakushima port and said "Eat." He later came to me on the ferry and told me their plan for the day. "We go here and here. Waterfall." "Nice," I thought, "but why is he telling me this?" Then in one word "Come." After getting off the ferry he walked up to the first taxi driver he saw, slipped him $300 and asked for a tour. I had a new grandfather and grandmother. After a multiple hour taxi ride around half the island, they dropped me off on the southern side at a youth hostel and campsite where I set up my tent for the night. "Thank you!" I said as I left, really having no clue how to thank them. This was the last opportunity for me to speak English the rest of the trip. I woke up the next day at 4:00 to start on a small trail near Onoaida (尾之間). This one one of the worst outdoor experiences of my life. The first 2 hours were great, watching monkeys climb vines with their babies tightly gripping their backs, a small detour to an amazing waterfall, crystal clear steams with rocks covered in moss. The next 10 hours were hell. After the waterfall, the trail became poorly marked, I would often mistake a deer trail or an empty river bed (which are everywhere, since the locals say it rains 36 days a month) for the path and take 15-20 minutes to find the bright pink trail markers again. After an hour of constantly losing the trail, I felt it was time to take off my 20kg pack and have a rest. I felt something on my leg. Slowly reaching down to pull up my new hiking pants, I noticed a strange worm on my boot. I knew what I was feeling under my pant legs. Pulling off leeches isn't a fun experience. The holes in your legs continue to bleed after ripping them off your skin. I had to patch them up with most of the band-aids I brought with me. For rest of the day I had to constantly check my legs even though I didn't come in contact with them many more times. 7 hours had past and I was starting to feel uneasy about my adventure. I heard something in the bushes ahead. It was a human. I huge wave of relief came over me as I got my 5th or 6th wind (I was way past my second by this time). Nearly running, I approached him and had to ask. He was coming down. "How long have you been hiking?" (in broke ass Japanese) "6 hours." (anger/rage) "You?" "7." (feeling of another's anger/rage). We both went our separate was with our heads hung in defeat. About 30 minutes later I could hear a large river, which was good because I was about out of water for the 10th time that day. As I got closer, the larger the river seemed. I finally reached it. With a bit of happiness, I filled up my bottle, but I was soon overcome with another feeling of anger. Looking across, I could see the pink ribbon that marked the other piece of the trail. No bridge, no convenient line of stones to walk across. Just rapids. Bushwhacking up the riverbank, I came to a reasonably distanced set of boulders to hop across, missing a middle boulder. Jumping from mossy stone to wet stone then leaping to another boulder was the only option. I can't jump 2 inches off the ground on a normal day but something helped me in a leap of faith across the gap. Continuing further on the trail was the same story, more leeches, more deer trails, no people. One of the deer trails brought me to a beautiful spot, which I now know was 1400m summit. I could see both sides of the island, and Tanegashima (another island) in the distance, but no pink trail markers. 4:00 rolled around and I decided to give up, almost at the point of breaking down, set up my tent, force myself to eat (after realizing I hadn't eaten all day), drink the remainder of my water, and pull off a few more leeches that I somehow missed after habitually checking every 3 minutes on the trail. I crawled into my sleeping bag and fell asleep almost instantly. I was woken up once at night because Yakushima deer scream for some reason. 6:00 came, and with a new feeling of strength after my long sleep I started again, having no clue how long I would be walking to get to the parking lot that most of the sane hikers start at. 6:05, parking lot. Have you ever felt defeated and accomplished at the same time? The exit of the trail had a sign posted for people entering from the parking lot: "This trail takes approximately 9 hours..." (if you can find it) "Do not attempt this trail if there has been significant rainfall in the last few days. The water level at the river crossing will be too high to cross. Take an alternative route." Being the end of the rainy season, it had rained every day in the last week, would have been nice to know at the beginning of the tail instead of the end.
I studied the sign at the entrance of the next trail-head carefully. Nothing worth noting, but I stood there for quite a while studying it. It was 2km to the first of the mountain huts and I had decided the night before that it would be best to have a recoup day. I easily made it to the hut on a trail that seemed like a superhighway without any cars. I immediately striped off my wet, sweaty clothes and hung them up to dry. I felt like I had rented a cabin to myself. I sat outside and studied Japanese in the sun next to a crystal clear river of the most delicious water I've ever tasted. Throughout the day I talked to several people on their way to different places of the park. One of them gave me an extra bento he had brought to lessen his pack weight. I talked to several park guides who told me that no one goes on the trail I had taken before and that the next one would feel like a breeze (even though it goes over the highest mountain in southern Japan). I woke up the next morning at 4 to get an early start just in case it was me and not the trail two days prior that was out of shape. After snapping a few pictures of the sunrise, I continued on a trail that was amazingly well maintained with rope ladders and stairs and old hollowed out logs for bridges. It felt a bit like the trails on Yakushima were designed by a kid and at any turn would be a secret fort or treehouse. I met up with another hiker that was doing the same route as me. He was 56 and had 3 kids my age but after retiring the week before he was ready for an adventure. He became a great friend and I ended up spending 24 hours a day for the next 3 days with him. Our hike to the top of the mountain went smoothly, slowly watching the landscape change with every 100 meters in elevation, spotting many miniature Yakushima deer along the way. When we reached the top, a small batch of clouds came and covered us in an eerie fog, blocking the best view on the island. As we walked down, the fog cleared and showed us an immense forest with low clouds quickly moving over the canopy. We made it to the next hut in an hour less than what was posted on the sign at the entrance to the trail. My partner contemplated finishing the trail (another 12k) since the weather was so nice, but gave up after deciding it was a good idea to rest. We spent the day trying to get a decent picture of a 5 point buck that decided to make his home around the hut. Didn't get a good shot after hours of attempts. When it got dark there was nothing to do but sleep, so we did. 3:30 a.m. I was woken up by thunder and lightning. We stated the trail that had turned into a river at 6 in some of the hardest rain I've ever experienced. My boots filled with water and, since they are water proof, stayed full of water the rest of the 6 hour hike down. On the way out was one of the most popular areas of Yakushima. There's about a 1km stretch of the tail that is populated with more than ten trees that are anywhere from 1,000 to 7,000 years old. It was raining so had that I didn't even attempt to get out my camera and we nearly missed Jomon sugi, the oldest tree of them all. Scientists can't tell how old it is since it became hollow in its core hundreds of years ago. It's estimated to be 3,000-7,500 years old. After about a minute of looking at it in the blowing rain we were on our way. We saw more than 100 people entering the forest to make their pilgrimage to Jomon sugi. This was quite surprising, since I had only seen 8 people in the last 3 days. Since my boots were filled with water, I ended up with several blisters on my toes and bottoms of my feet. The bottom half of my legs, including my feet, looked like someone had taken a knife to them with all the leech holes and popped blisters.

Fukushima Disaster

2011-03-17T03:40:00.000-07:00

I understand your fears and I have been thinking a lot about my situation here. I really appreciate your input and care for me, but I have decided to stay for now. I will keep a close eye on what's happening here and I have no fears that the US government won't be able to get me out of here in case of a real crisis. The radiation levels are extremely low right now and they have a long way to travel to Nagoya. Some minor amounts have gotten to Tokyo but we are still far away from there. I don't want you to be afraid, but I want you to keep Japan in your hearts. I'm sorry if my decision upsets you, but I will keep you informed of my plans.

Below is a letter my sister received from here former employer, a professor and specialist on chemical weapons and toxins

Hi Corina:

Nagoya is pretty far from Fukushima so I would not worry too much. The First Fukushima Atomic Power Station is right on the beach so any radioactive heavy metals floating in the air tend to blown to the Pacific. The most of wind is from the west to the east. Of course due to local geography some wind blow from the east to the west or to the west or to the south west. Kaz's relative in Kochi asked me today what they should do. Well there is not much can do for the radioactive materials as they flow in the air and keep emitting alpha and gamma rays. I think beta ray is weak so will not worry too much. One should not inhale the radioactive contaminated air because these heavy metals tend to stay in the lung when you inhale. The radioactive iodine is dangerous because will bind to thyroid gland. You can prevent that by taking nonradioactive potassium iodide.When the nonradioactive iodine occupies the thyroid gland then the radioactive iodine is hard to go to the thyroid gland.Another dangerous radioactive floating in the air is strontium that is similar to calcium so it will go to your bones and teeth.

You brother should monitor the radioactivity of the in Nagoya often.If it becomes high then he should leave.I don't think it is to the stage yet.

It is obvious uranium 235 rod is melt already because of lack of cooling water. But the reaction vessel is made very strong and walled by stainless steel. If the reaction chamber's wall does not melt then it is slightly better. Of course the failed atomic chamber are spewing radioactive metals. But if the chamber's steel wall is melt then it will become like Chernobyl that is total disaster. At the moment the Fukushima's reaction chamber is melt within the chamber's wall so it is partial melt and not a total melting yet. It is somewhat similar to Three mile US atomic disaster. In this case the chamber's wall did not melt so the radioactive spill out was not too disastrous.

Tokyo Kagakudoji asked me to write the article about the atomic power station and the danger of radioactivity so I sent it today. It will appear in the May issue of Chemistry Today. The May issue will come out on April 15.I am interested in almost anything about poison and toxic substances. Tokyo Kgakudopujin's editor said there are only 2 persons in Japan who can answer anything about poisons immediately. He said one is me. So they always asked me at the last moment when some poison case happened.

BLOG TIME!!

2009-08-16T23:33:00.000-07:00

I really hate blog, but I really like adding my pictures to the interweb. Alas, there is no middle ground, so I will blog only in picture comment form.

This is Sho. He decided to take Melissa and I on on an adventure. We called it "The Search For Chun Li".

It started here, in the heart of Nagoya, called Sakai. A huge anime convention was taking place. It was free and there were bound to be loads of Japanese girls dressed in next to nothing. We all took wagers on how many Chun Li's there would be. I said 5, Melissa said 3 and Sho said not nearly enough. He was going to find himself a Chun Li girlfriend.

We started off a bit shy but quickly realized that these peoplewanted their pictures taken with us as much as we did with them. I started safe and posed with a female Japanese Kaiser Willhelm and some other nice looking ladies of the Reich.

Melissa went hardcore and posed with some evil looking ninjas.

Not too sure about this sone. That girl was actualy using that pole o keep herself from snapping in half.

I was Gohan.

Mmmm fruit!

No Cun Li's yet. Sho did fall in love with this girl though. He was about to ask her out until he realized that he was at an anime convention.
Then there was a show. It was neat. I guess.

I got less interested and started looking at all the people. There must have been at least 1,000. Then I saw her! Chun Li!

It all worked out and Sho and I both took her out for ramen. I tried to cop a feel but she resisted and did that kick that she can do if you press low punch and low kick at the same time in the air. It hurt a bit.

This girl was the best part. Not pecause of her near nakedness but...

Because of the HUGE line of perverts waiting to get their picture taken with her.

And...

Her sad, not as hot friend in the fore ground.

The next week, Corina came to Japan so we decided to do some traveln'. First stop was Himeji castle. Amazing and such.

Artsy

Nice

Pretty

It also had a nice pond with a garden and stuff.

And some mushrooms

And some fish. I don't know why my text is now underlined in blue. Blogging is stupid.
The best part of the castle was this young couple Corina and I followed around. The guy kept telling his girlfriend what the names of things were in English. They also sad that it was hot out about 1,000 times. Atsui=hot in Japanese. I think the most common word in their language.

Yep, nice castle.

We got to stay with some of the coolest people ever in Osaka. Ren and Will are Australian English teachers at local schools in Osaka. They have a band that makes noise music and find most of the stuff they own in the alley. I like them.

They took me to a bar that could only hold 5 people. The owner plays in a band that is similar to Ren and Will's. It's called oooozzoozozooozozoz or something. It's gothic style noise ambient electro and some other music adjectives. He was rad. We drank strange things I have never heard of. I will be back.

This is Ren exiting dream land. It is 2 levels of used videogames from the NES, Genesis, and Atari. They had game music playing from the speakers and loads of TVs with game previews on them. All pre 1995.

Games

I almost bought this car. It must have taken ages with a Bedazzler.

ok...

Huge classic toy store. They even had a Wokie head. The top floor was all anime porn. Will and I found ourselves in the gay boy section some how. I didn't buy anything...

Someone gave this boy a cig.

She already had one.

I would live in Osaka for sure.

Later that night, Will tried to show me how to play the jaw harp

I think I got it!

Then we played with toys, ate sushi and watched a monster movie. I felt like I was 7.

The next day we left Osaka and went to Kyoto to visit a Japanese teacher that we housed 7 years ago. It was rough finding her in the station because my Japanese is non-existant and her English didn't include directions. After 2 hours of calling and looking for her we found her. It also didn't help that she was short and Japanese. Her and another teacher that came to Colorado 7 years ago took us around Kyoto where we saw the real shit. Japan is amazing.

Japan

Japan

Japan

Fountain of youth, knowledge and health. You were supposed to chose one. We did all of them.

Japan

Japan

China...

Japan

Hi. The next day more teachers that had visited colorado showed up and we all went for a boat ride. It was in a boat that they have used for like 800 years. Japan is crazy.

That was our tour guide. He was funny I guess. I didn't understand any of his jokes though. They were in Japanese. I still laughted, just to blend in.

At the end of the boat trip another boat came along and tried to sell us stuff. I was too smart for that though.

Although...it did look very squidy.

There goes our boat.

Following the boat ride was more of Japan.

Two of the Japanese teachers were really interested in the only historical thing i know about Japan. He took us on this sweet tour that you would only know about if you were Japanese. It was about these Samurai called the Shinsengumi. They were a group of people who fought against the use of guns in the Meji era. They all died real quick, but they were badass. This is one of their main posts in Osaka.

Just had to.

After we toured this old house where the Shinsengumi held their meetings we drank green tea out of bowls. As you do. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the house, but there was a spot on the celing that had been cut out because one of the guy's swords was too long. He had it raised to kill their evil leader while he wasn't looking. They had to replace the floors and part of the celing because the blood wouldnt come out. Word.

This is the grave site of one of the Shinsengumi. It was a cool grave. When you put a 100 yen coin in it would play some old recording of a guy sighing.

On our way to another Shinsengumi shrine.

This is where they had one of their largest battles. But it was only this rock on the side of the road.

Because it was there...

We then drank and ate so much. Japanese people can put it away. This woman and I had about 25 beers between the two of us. We also each had 7 plates of food. All you can drink places are common here. I love Japan.

Again...it had to be done.

Nice.

This place looks soso, but I really think it is the best place I have been in Japan. I could not believe how peaceful it was even with a million tourists. I'll be back there too.

Some odd trees.

Japanese green tea is the best drink in the world. If only it didn't cost $7 a glass. You need 4 glasses to prepair one cup sometimes too. It is strange but I'd do it anay time for some macha.

It comes with a free alien egg.

After Kyoto, Corina and I went down to Ise to visit one of the 3 most important shrines in Japan.

Ise-jingu is supposed to have some mirror that the gods gave to some guy a long time ago. You can't see it, but whatever.

Ghost bridge.

I saw these guys on the street. What badasses. (bottom left)

We ended our vacay with a trip to the Nagoya Poke Center to recharge our Pokemon.

I'm an ass

2009-07-12T10:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I haven't put up shit on my blog for a month. That is bad I guess. I don't even know where to start as far as what I'm experiencing here. I finished up in Tokyo after a few more days without finding any panty vending machines. I was very disappointed to say the least. I only found cigarette, beer, and simi-normal vending machines that always contained no less than 8 different kinds of green tea. On the tenth of June, Junji hooked me up with this girl named Chika while he was at work. She also went to DU and now helps her parents out with a new pachinko chain in Tokyo. Her grandfather was the pachinko king but left all of his companies to his oldest son. He just happened to be Chika's mother's father (does that make sense?). Anyway, I guess that would make her some kind of pachinko princess. Since her mom knew the business, they have started their own company. Pachinko places are normally owned by the Yak (yakuza=Japanese mafia) but Junji told me they had no association (bs). Anyway, she showed me around Yokohama, a port city now connected to Tokyo. If they didn't consider Tokyo and Yokohama separate cities, it would be the largest city in the world. Yokohama was having its 150th anniversary of the first docking of the first ship to ever dock first or something. It was rad. There were a lot of people and a giant spider machine that we didn't pay to see. The coolest part of Yokohama was its China town. So many free samples of what appeared to be food, but I'm sure was not actually. We had to pick up a duck for her mom. Chika told me I had to try it. Not bad, I think it was the best duck I've ever had, which isn't saying much because the last time I had eaten duck was in a China Star restaurant in Windsor which I'm sure didn't even have a Chinese dishwasher, unless it was made in China. That night, Junji's uncle took us out for sushi. This guy designs golf courses around the world for a living. It was the best sushi my money couldn't buy. The restaurant was in some back alley with no name on the building. Junji and his uncle both swore that it is the best sushi place in Tokyo if not in all of Japan. We got to try tuna chin (which is really rare I guess), whitebait (which was 15 tiny whole fish on one piece of sushi), and some other crazy stuff that I will never be able to afford. Junji spotted a famous Japanese singer in the bar and his uncle (who had his fair share of sake) went and thanked this guy for all of his hard work. The place wasn't full at all, it was just us, another couple, and this singer who had his own private sushi room with a back entrance. I told his uncle that this place was like a dream to me. He said that I can die happy now. I didn't agree. I got really sick the next day and didn't get out of bed until the day I left Tokyo (6 days). It was rough. I thought I was going to die. I didn't. So on the 16th I rode the bullet train (shinkansen) to Naoya. I nearly missed it though. Everything in Japan runs perfectly on time. The train showed up as the minute on the clock changed. I almost shit. It was crazy. When I got to Nagoya I couldn't find the people that were supposed to be picking me up for like 45 minutes. I drug my bags back and fourth on the platform with a sore throat the entire time. They were on a different platform. I met up with them, went to a noodle shop, and passed out.
All the teachers are really nice here. There are 8 including me. It's really a shame that the one I replaced became one of my best friends in the three weeks we got to spend together. Training went smoothly, except the fact that I was still a bit sick. There was one class that I coughed and didn't think anything of it until Jamie (they guy that was training me) looked at me with wide eyes and taped his tie. I looked down and I guess when I coughed a bit of sickness had come out of my throat and landed on my black tie. I found it funny. I don't think the students noticed though. I really like a lot of my students. There are a few that are little shits. I teach mostly 7 year olds. The youngest class I have has 5 year olds and the oldest is this university professor who is working on some kind of electro-glove to search the Internet with. Kind of like the power glove for the NES, but he wants his glove to actually serve a purpose. After my first two weeks there was a going away party for Jamie. A lot of his older students showed up and we went to an Izikaya (Japanese pub, but way more bad ass than a pub). A few of the students ended up paying for all of us. It was a good thing too because I drank $40 worth of beer. I met one of my favorite younger students fathers there. His English was not so great but we had a really sweet conversation about 80s music. He and his wife and two kids ended up taking me to Inuyama (a small town near Nagoya) the next week to see Japan's oldest castle, Mejimura park, and they fed me some of the most delicious food I've ever had. But the rest of Jamie's going away ended up lasting until 7:30 a.m. and involved some shameful non-website worthy activities. That next week was our week off (work two weeks get a week off, I like this job). Jamie and I went to a Ninja town and watched lots of movies. I was too poor to do anything else. Jamie left at the end of last week to go on a two month trip around Asia with his mother and sister, so this week was my first week of full teaching. It went really well. It included but was not limited to; teaching blackjack to 10 year olds, teaching 40 year olds how to tell and listen to dirty jokes, an entire lesson on honky-tonk bars, tickling the shit out of some kids, and a few real English lessons. I like it here

China town, Yokohama

Chika and the best rummy chocolate thing I've ever had

Chunichi Dragons v. the Orics. It didn't mean anything to me either.

This is Lloyd, he is a British teacher. The night I came to Nagoya he was out with Jamie and punched him in the eye. Jamie thinks it was just a love punch. I never want a love punch. Jamie had a black eye the rest of training.

Japan

The girls were sad that Jamie was leaving, so they put their feet on his face. That seemed to make sense at the time.

Best karaoke singer ever.

A trip to Japan isn't complete without a visit to the Gaza strip. It was much nicer than I expected.

Green Buddha in Nagoya

Japan

The craw will fuck you up.

Tiger style?

Cute ninja princess

Bog of mud that had some kind of historical value. It was in Japanese.

The helmet in this picture was actually worn in a battle to screw with the opposing side. It was bad ass.

Bad ass

This castle was right next to the ninja den. Jamie and I thought that they must have raided it every night. I found out from one of my older students that the lord moved away one year after the ninjas moved in because he couldn't protect anything he owned.

This dude got a bulls eye during the ninja throwing star Olympics.

Jamie didn't hit the target.

Despite how gay I look in this picture, I did quite well. Better than the European dude after us who had a ponytail. His stars didn't even make it to the target. It was very sad.

The oldest castle in Japan

DERRR!

My students Ren and Rei. I think I'm going to keep them.

Yes. I am going to keep them.

Mejimura park. It's 2k long and there are 63 buildings from the Meji era all imported from around Japan. Crazy.

Rei wrote a Haiku about me.

Peewee Herman was a stowaway in my bag.

He is still a perv though.

PEEWEE! NOOOOOOO!

I saw the fattest baby today.

2009-06-09T03:33:00.000-07:00

I have now been in Tokyo for 2 days, staying with my friend Junji until my job starts in Nagoya on the 16th. Times are looking rough financially so I have been trying to do the freest things possible; people watching, walking through the fish market, trying to find the illusive "panties vending machines (more on that one in a bit). The only problem is that in Tokyo, all of it costs a bit. It was too easy to burn through my first ¥10,000 on just food and transportation. Looks like I'll be eating some sort of noodles in a Styrofoam cup for the next three weeks. Anyway, enough belly aching, I'm having a great time.
Since Junji has to work about 11 hours a day, I have spent a lot of time walking the city and taking pictures of the wonders of Japan. The sad part of that is the best things I have seen, I didn't have the right opportunity to take a picture (aka fat baby/girls in the most obscure clothing/old woman slurping up a huge raw oyster), but this is what I have gotten so far (today).

Some purple things in a bag at the fish market

More unidentifiable items at the fish market. Almost all were still moving

Omelet bar?

Ok, so I spent all my money here, can you blame me?

Half of this meal disappeared before I could get a picture

Forever 21 was a madhouse!

The least I could do was get a picture of the store where odd clothes are purchased. So weird...

200 acre park in the middle of Tokyo. I ended up here on accident. Quite the thing to find on accident.

I think this speaks for itself.

I also found this sweet toy shop on accident. All the toys were from either Nightmare Before Christmas or Gremlins. I was searching for vending machines with panties and I found toys... sad day.

Best Bonsai Ever!