where cider meets condensed milk: February 2006

where cider meets condensed milk

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Ten thoughts

10 Thoughts From Across Okayama, the Land of Sunshine For Lack of A Better Name:

10) Be glad you don't have his job. Get Get In! Get Get Out! He may have actually been asleep standing up.

9) MIGHTY LORD large-size men's clothes. More of an ego boost than the Big 'n' Tall. Hot.

8) I like to attempt to read signs. Japan uses pictures, and thus should make things crystal-clear for you, unless you try to overthink them.

Social Chair Claire: Hey, that bird has a rifle!
Me: Wonder what the sign is for. I don't understand the kanji.
SCC: Hmm.
Me: Kuu-raaay. Ku-raaay. I don't get it.

(long contemplative pause)

Me: Ku-ree... clay. Pigeon with rifle. Clay pigeon shooting. Aha.
SCC: I think we're idiots.

7) The truth is out... it was never "parfait" flavored and we've known it all along. This is what I do at school in lieu of improving my crap nihongo.

6) Wow! More of my secrets revealed! Don't miss out on the debut of my double life.

5) Play around in the rain and befriend statues!

4) Anger the gods by acting a fool at temples. Vicky/Whiki and I attempt samurai poses... and fail.

3) Becoming Japanese against my better judgment. Two Kitty-chans now, but the year is still young...

2) Beware the Pay Phone/ Jolly Green Giant Demon.

1) Especially beware the lumpy Buddha. Peace with one hand, holding "something" in the other that is, in all likelihood, a joint. Love and peace from the inaka!

posted by Raychaa @ 11:11 PM 2 comments

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Onsen time!

Liza, Tyler, myself, Heyward, and Michael at the famous, mixed onsen on Hakkoda-san on Saturday. I'm starting to think that some baths are only famous because they're mixed, and vice-versa. Tricky logic. This onsen was amazing-- really hot sulfury water in an old traditional building, and a large populace of talkative bathers. Also, a much younger, fitter crowd than grandpa-land in Yubara last month-- hotcha! Who needs Hadaka Matsuri (Naked Man Festival in Okayama) when you've got hadaka Aomori? It was so steamy that you couldn't even see across the main bath, so it was like Gaijin in the Mist looking for friends. The sulfur is supposed to be very good for your skin. (Though, I can't imagine that the eau-de-deviled-eggs scent is good for much of anything.)

Heyward and Liza with the keepers of the Hakkoda Onsen. Not mixed, and thus not famous, but still nice. It was so windy on Friday that they closed the ropeway all day, and the skiing conditions were terrible, so Ashizawa-san took a big group of us here mid-morning. It was -14C outside, and the shower pipes were frozen, so we ended up with another sulfur-water splashdown.

The rotemburo (outdoor pool) was gorgeous but disappointingly lukewarm. We had to dash barefoot through the snow to get there, and Liza and I both had icicles for hair after 10 minutes outside!

On one of the clear days-- that's Aomori bay below, and you can faintly see Hokkaido across the water. I got excited every time I made it all the way to the bottom without dying, and sometimes I even gave off the appearance of properly snowboarding rather than looking like some idiot about to lose her balance.

A bunch of foreigners from Aomori also stayed at the lodge on Saturday night, which livened the scene a bit. The Finnish guy in this picture, wearing the hat, is Santa Claus. His hometown sends people to its sister village in Aomori to work at the main town attraction, "Santa World." (Made me think of Kirk working as an elf in North Pole, Alaska.) He didn't admit that he was the REAL Santa, but it was inferred.

With Tyler, Liza, and Kim-san just before leaving. Kim-san, aka Terry, is working at the lodge for the season to guide Korean tourists, and will go back to work at his business in Seoul next month. He lived in the US as a student, so his English is fantastic, and he was hilarious and really sweet.

Cheers to superstar Tyler-sama for all his hard work organizing the whole Powdertopia trip! The grand Tour de Japan-- 17 prefectures, 10 days, more yen than I care to admit-- was fantastic, and I'm madly in love with this country again. Hope this feeling lasts all the way until sakura-blooming time...

posted by Raychaa @ 3:20 PM 1 comments

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Hakkoda-san with the Tairaa-sama Seven

Here is the lodge where we stayed-- it was very homey, with great staff, amazing food, and cushy futons. I went as part of the Powdertopia trip that is organized through a JET outdoors interest group. This segment of the trip was to Mount Hakkoda, and there were 7 of us, though 3 of them had also been skiing the first part of the week up on Hokkaido.

This is Ashizawa-san, a rockstar ojiisan that runs the lodge and has travelled all over the world climbing mountains. He'd be buzzed on sake every single night, and when he thought that we weren't understanding his slurred Japanese, he'd start yelling "Sensei! Sensei!" to Johnny to make him translate for us.

Here's our group-- the Tairaa-sama Seven, so named because of our daily table placard. (L to R) Hawaiian party animal Keala and his food baby; Aussie Michael; Heyward of the deadpan humor and eclectic iPod library; Dear Liza; our fearless leader Tyler-sama; me; Squid Fisherman Johnny "Big Air" Kirkham. Actually, Johnny isn't really a squid fisherman, but he does play one on TV. He was featured on national television singing an enka song in Japanese called "My Brother's Boat" while decked out in full squidman gear. He was gonged off the stage quickly, but if being 6 feet tall and blond doesn't make him famous enough in this country, I bet that show gave him quite the following in rural Hokkaido. Johnny-- the man, the mystery: loved by shogakusei, worshipped by obaachans, feared by squid.

The boys playing poker in the room.

Tyler-sama tests the "cushy futon" theory by leaping from the loft...

...and he's still alive on impact! Cushy indeed!

At the top of the mountain, all the trees inexplicably look like creatures from outer space. A lot of tourists would ride the ropeway trolley up, take pictures of the snow monsters, and go back down. They look quite cool until you find yourself alone among them and you swear they're about to start charging towards you.

I thought this looked like a lion. Or maybe a duck. Wild and wooley!

posted by Raychaa @ 12:26 AM 1 comments

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Aomori!

Here's my first sighting of Aomori city-- a big blue bridge under light of full moon. I stopped off for an onsen in a little town by the ocean on my way up, and had a soak with a panoramic view of the choppy sea and snow-covered islands rising up out of the water. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Honshu, the main island of Japan. You can see Hokkaido across the bay on a clear day. Aomori city is nice, but small, so I cruised around the snowy sidewalks and did a combini circuit while waiting for Liza to arrive.

Mid life crisis? No! Mid Life Tower!

Another self-shot amidst the remnants of Valentine displays.

This was in a combini: Black Love? The oddest Baby Hemp Projection I've ever found...

Liza, with whom I have traveled to every corner of Japan yet almost never see in Okayama, and I stayed in the Hotel ALASKA before meeting the boys at the ferry terminal early in the morning. We went up the mountain to the ski lodge and had the first of many fabulous meals, complete with the best bread I have yet tasted in Japan.

Liza and I at after our first trip up the gondola ropeway. We were admired and photographed by a group of elderly tourists, one of whom insisted for my signature in English and Japanese, despite the fact that I was wearing mittens at the time. He examined my Japanese autograph (aren reicheru), informed me that I was doing the stroke order wrong, and told me I had better practice more. Thanks, Gramps...

posted by Raychaa @ 10:36 PM 13 comments

Yokohama-- Top 3 Blandest City in Japan!

I went to Yokohama for the non-recontracting JET conference last week, which was mildly useful, but could have been done in 2 days rather than 3. Well, actually, the Okayama posse skipped the 3rd day entirely, so I guess we completed everything in 2 days, but don't tell our BOEs. I also checked myself in as Matt and Simon, who didn't bother coming, at great personal risk to myself, so I'm still waiting for my hush-chuhai and hush-chocolates in order to stay quiet. I kept seeing all sorts of people I had met back in Seattle, or at Tokyo orientation, or at the Kobe conference, or from Thailand, or elsewhere over the past 2 years. A bit like what I imagine the JET afterlife to be. ("Hey, how did you get in here?")

Yokohama boasts a lot of "2nd biggest in the world!" or "Top 3 in Japan!" or "Top 10 in central/eastern Honshu!" sites, like the big Ferris wheel and lots of department stores, but it's so close to Tokyo that everything pales in comparison. As for a nightlife, anyone cool would just hop a train to Shibuya, which left us wandering the streets of Chinatown and going to really pricey foreigner/tourist bars full of other JETs.

We stayed in a hostel that turned out to be part of an urban renewal campaign in the sort-of-slums of Yokohama. Slums for Japan just means shabby and crowded with toothless pensioners hobbling around the streets and alleys. The hostel guy informed Kelly and Stu at check-in that 70% of the residents in the area were on benefits, and we shouldn't take pictures in the neighborhood due to past trouble. Hmm. The rooms were the size of closets, without enough room to quite lay 2 futons flat on the ground, but clean and quiet.

Kelly and I in our closet! Kelly is a lovely 3rd year from NZ, and is also a trusty Prefectural Advisor who gets to deal with our little ALT problems.

Stu and Kelly, "coming out of the closet." Yes, this joke was made every morning.

Here's Chinatown-- allegedly the biggest one in Japan, but there must be no competition for that title, as I think I saw about 5 Chinese people and it only stretches a few blocks. It felt like a Japanese street that happened to contain Chinese restaurants, with plenty of omiyage shops and drunk salarymen. Even when you go into the restaurants, they yell "Irasshaimase!" at you, since, naturally, it's staffed and patronized by mostly Japanese people. I rather wanted to hear the chatter of Chinese around me, like you would in San Francisco or Vancouver's Chinatowns, but no dice.

Lobster Christmas tree?

Get your very delicious lunchbox and hot snuck!

Leaving Yokohama on a bullet train headed north! This is how I look every time I ride the Shinkansen- grinning to myself like a fool-- because the Shinkansen is heaven on train tracks, and don't let anyone else convince you otherwise. Efficient! Fast! Convenient! Gets you there with time to spare! AMBITIOUS JAPAN!

posted by Raychaa @ 1:45 AM 0 comments

Monday, February 20, 2006

Let's go to Fukuyama!

We went to Fukuyama city (in Hiroshima prefecture) a few weeks ago to celebrate Wendy's birthday in style. I drove into Fukuyama, which made it my first trip out of the prefecture in the Guppy! I left the Guppy in a car park where you drive onto a suspended platform, and then it is whisked up to some storage place and it magically descends again at the end of the evening, at which point you back onto a lazy-susan and they spin you streetwards. Very fancy. Dinnner was at a funky izakaya (bar/restaurant), and drinks were at a gaijin bar called Zappa. Zappa had the type of energy and vibe that Red Moon aspires towards, yet never quite reaches.

Birthday girl Wendy, Alex, and myself at Zappa.

This Japanese chick was terrifying. She had a huge faux-fur cape on, and kept tottering into a table that had a lit candle on top. Oh, and she screamed a lot.

Dylan-of-Many-Surnames prepares for a life in the circus by demonstrating his coin-juggling skills for the the confused 7-11 clerk.

With Chris-Yon-Joon, NY Sarah, and Dylan on our 3rd (or 4th?) trip to the combini-- Chris went back for a 2nd Coke-and-Commemorative-Yo-Yo specialty pack, and I continued to feed my new Cider Meets Condensed Milk addiction. The drink that's so wrong it's right... like Japan. It will be out of stock soon with the coming warm weather, so I am stockpiling it along with Shiro Q00. Beware the Safety Driver armed with White Cider...

And if you are looking to play darts in Kurashiki... why not try One Knocker?

posted by Raychaa @ 4:25 PM 0 comments

Friday, February 10, 2006

Combinioke, anyone?

Bae-Yon-Chris Joon and his namesake! Yon-sama loves you...

A "No Smo-o-o-king" sign on your cigarette machine: this is irony, at least to a greater degree than Alanis Morisette could comprehend. My 10th grade english teacher "Winky" Watson always said to refer to something as irony in lieu of actually understanding it. She also forced us to read "The Book of the Dun Cow" and called me Irwin all year, so I'm not that inclined to believe anything she said.

Vicky and Claire T., and Ilana and I, at the Notorious Combinioke of Niimi-shi last week. Fantastic set-up: karaoke upstairs, and you hop downstairs to buy all your drinks from the store downstairs. No waiting around for watered-down cocktails that never arrive! We spent the rest of the evening at a snack bar run by a frighteningly anorexic woman and an old guy that gave us cans of juice on our way out and even opened my car door for me. Niimi is a rundown industrial city way up north, and we arrived en masse to karaoke, hang out in snowy parking lots, cruise by hordes of post-enkai Japanese guys for a 2nd look and a catcall ("Woooooo! Ikura desu ka, baby?"), frighten the other snack bar patrons with loud and terrible singing, and chill in Vicky's gigantic apartment. It took me an hour and half by Guppy-- it took Adam 4 hours by Judy (his trusty bicycle). The nickname that Dylan has given to Adam, Metal, makes more sense with each passing day, because that is surely what he's made of. While Adam's heading out on yet another long bike ride through the cold and getting ready for his marathon (with a "th"... not a marason, which just means "running for a bit" in Japanese), I'm climbing in my taxi to go to school in comfort or guppying around instead of biking like I could/should. If he's made of metal, by analogy I'm something along the lines of tofu. (The nice extra-firm 150 yen stuff, not the about-to-expire 48 yen special pack at the end of the day.)

Social Chair Claire of Champclair and I went to a lovely "European-style" onsen spa near the airport last week to escape the monotony of a Monday night. She strolled off the train with a new urban haircut and grown-up looking jacket, looking gorgeous and business-casual, and I am wearing in this picture what I wore to work at shogakko, and looking for all the world like I'm 14. However, I've still be able to resist the ubiquitous tracksuit, so must be doing okay. The onsen is called RESPARLE, which sounds almost French, so it's the Gerard Depardieu Bath Land from here on out. We had a nice soak indoors and out, did the salt scrub sauna, marvelled at the ladies braving the ice-cold "dieto" pool, chatted with obaachans, had udon, and attempted to climb into lockers. They are about 5 inches wide, and yet the sign above my head reads "Danger! Don't enter!" with a picture of a stick man wedging himself inside.

posted by Raychaa @ 6:12 PM 0 comments

So wrong it's right. And then wrong. And then wrong again... welcome to the inaka.

About Me

Name: Raychaa
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About Me: “No man, not even a doctor, ever gives any other definition of what a nurse should be than this - 'devoted and obedient'. This definition would do just as well for a porter. It might even do for a horse. It would not do for a policeman.” (Florence Nightingale)
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