where cider meets condensed milk: June 2007

where cider meets condensed milk

Monday, June 25, 2007

The Emperor's New Castle (Ruins)

There are days when you blame poor decisions on not speaking the language. And then there are days when the bread lady comes to the staffroom (to sell bread, obviously, and not to be confused with the seaweed lady) and you make inexplicable choices. I selected grape-cabbage juice and greenpeas bread. Wrong wrong wrong.

And now to travel photos: what did I see in Hyogo prefecture? My big sister *claims* to be in Norway or Sweden or some other make-believe Viking country, drawing buildings. Please, Liv, if you don't want everyone to know the truth, don't name your cocktail bar after yourself.

Hey, where's the castle? I was warned that Sasayama-jo 'ruins' might be a letdown after the glory of Himeji-jo. As it turns out, there are no ruins. There is this concrete that plausibly could have been the foundation, except that it's all smoothed and paved for wheelchair access. So, there's actually nothing. I was standing looking at the view, trying to force a moment of historical significance, and the family next to me was admiring the primary school just beyond the moat, commenting on the blueness of the pool and width of the playfield. Rather like a child fascinated by ants in the midst of a New Year's parade, except the parade in Sasayama has long been attacked... and lit on fire... by invading samurais. {Insert a better metaphor here.} On a related note, what sadist decides it's a good idea to build a primary school next to a moat? "Don't run away, kids! You'll get in big trouble... unless you're eaten by a crocodile first."

My reason for being in Sasayama-shi "mosquito-ful mountain city" was to see Brandon. And yes, this is the gorgeous boy that I met in an elevator who is already on track to break my heart. Questions answered.

Sunday was spent at the international centre, speaking Japanese and playing balloon-popping games and running 3-legged races and dressin' in drag. As you do. A baseball player, a schoolboy, a yukata girl, and a sword-wielding chugakusei walk into a bar...

posted by Raychaa @ 8:58 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Sayonara orphanage and randomness in the woods...

Went for a final orphanage visit on Sunday with Ludo, Alison, and Tomomi for a runaround with the kids. Somehow Ludo knew a guy who worked at another children's home in Okayama, who showed up on his motorcycle to take us for a quick visit. This other home is a residence/school for kids with behaviour problems, where they "learn how to live" properly. It's in the woods atop a hill, surrounded by hundreds of cemetaries, and the kocho-sensei said it makes the kids feel safe. The teachers invited us for tea, and then the grills came out, and this turned into plate after plate of awesome food. Some old guy that I couldn't understand (old man ben, obviously... I should be better at it by now) had caught some fish that day, so they grilled those up for us. Four hours later... we're still there, eating and drinking and poking at the bones of nearly-still-blinking (and DELICIOUS) fishies in a pottery workshop in the middle of the woods with these tough, hilarious teachers. They wanted us to come back to meet the kids and practice English, but I'm leaving and Alison and Ludo are both taking new jobs in Tokyo. Maybe Tomomi can help take others back. Sayonara Shintenchi and another piece of my heart left in Okayama...

posted by Raychaa @ 7:52 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Sayonara at Jibutei

Rolling out of Okayama with the same party energy we rolled in with: Jibutei! After several foiled attempts, we finally got another party lined up at the best venue you can imagine. Never again can I casually mention that I spent the weekend at a samurai mansion. This is where ancient Japan meets gaijin trash, and we know how to have a good time.

And... the only photo I took of aforementioned good time: Darren comtemplates his jouzu party-planning skills, flanked by sidekicks. The party started by evening, my camera walked away soon after, and I found it in the morning with a few pictures of Britt waking up. The other photo albums I saw posted by friends could be retitled as "Photos of Lash with yukata and beer" or "Rich House closing in on every camera lens in sight" or "Bob-san captures futons and tiles." In lieu of my own photo impressions, words: music and fireworks and cha-han and chu-hai. We were neither accosted by angry old neighbor people nor yelled at in the morning by cleaning ladies. Nothing was broken, no-one was broken, it went nearly all night, and Brian treated everyone to plates of walnut-apple French toast in the morning, which was followed by an onigiri fest. Sayonara (part 1 of 40 million) Okayama...

posted by Raychaa @ 10:11 PM 0 comments

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Chasing the Happy (Mart) Rainbow

Forced mirth: Happy Mart bathed in the glow of a rainbow. I saw a CareBear or two, sliding down to get their Happy groceries.

What's better together than Ritz and peanut butter? Always, anywhere, CRACK.

Huge castle, sugoi chiitchai na gaijin. Saw the best ("top 3") castle in Japan on trip to Himeji with the boy toy. This castle puts Okayama castle to such ridiculous shame that it's like comparing the actual pyramids to a child's Lego statue of such. Then again, Himeji-jo wasn't burned down and rebuilt like our local one. It's 7 stories high, still in its original glory, and amazing. There is an entire courtyard designated for seppuku (samurai ritual suicide), with a well to "wash the beheaded". (Do they wash the head or the body? And why?) I didn't feel any spirits, but that might have been due to a traipsing horde of rambunctious office workers on a field trip. I wonder if they all remembered to bring a signed permission form and a brown-bag lunch.

Reason for loving inaka schools: rice planting day! There is no better way to spend an afternoon than knee-deep in mud. Through my schools, I have now planted and harvested rice, and eaten the products as lunch or mochi, which is more plant work than I've done in my entire life. Many of the families around here have a rice plot at their house, but most of my teachers are from the city, and have to learn what to do. All of my schools have rice plots, and the primary schools also have vegetable gardens, chickens, and rabbits. Last month one of the school rabbits gave birth to stillborns and then ate half the litter. It was disturbing because I was only told "Baby rabbits!" (without the "dead" or "chewed up" modifiers), but the kids were fascinated to learn about death nonetheless.

posted by Raychaa @ 10:11 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Kobe!

Kobe Recontracting Conference, take 3: rumour has it that the JET Programme is losing lots of funding and might collapse. I'm leaving soon anyway so don't care much, but this means I got "paid" (over-reimbursed for traveling) way less to present this year than last year, and didn't even get my own room in the hotel! Jerks. It was fun, though, and I hope I sounded more professional and less nervous. My proposed topic (volunteering, what else?) also wasn't deemed important enough to get its own panel, so I had that as a bonus topic after the real sessions were over, and talked instead about Life As a Second Year JET. I could point out right now that *every single person* at that conference-- by definition--was about to become such a JET. Thus, neither special nor marginalized segment of the society at hand, but at least my rooms filled up.

Our Fuzzy Peach newsletter boys have published some good variations on this patented style: Life as a Punk-Rock JET, Life as An Accident-Prone JET, and so on. If I wanted to focus on something that channelled the bizarre-o energy of my senior year English Lit seminar, it would be Life As a One-Armed African-American Lesbian Blind Poet of the Harlem Renaissance 2nd Year JET. That's like quintuple-marginalized, seriously. All you straight-up 2nd year JETs can't understand such hardship. But I guess that probably wouldn't reach the masses.

Kobe has: subways, trains, lights, restaurants, bars, clubs, fashionable people, and everything else that Okayama lacks. I arrived on Sunday, and stayed in a nice little business hotel like the nice little businesswoman I pretend to be, before switching over to the Portopia. The conference time itself was stressful and overwhelming in regards to sheer numbers of gaijin, but that made going out much more exciting. Stayed out late basking in the bright lights and Redbull/vodka charms of the city, but had to be bright and shiny for morning session. Harborland is the place to go for restaurants at which you can admire the harbor, preferably while eating meat. Couldn't do the latter, so instead celebrated the end of my conference duties on Tuesday with beers and squid legs at Bikkuri Donkey (Surprise! Donkey) chain, which is like TGI Fridays without the annoying waiters, and far less flair. (Also, there's just one small donkey statue, by the cash register. If I ran it, there would be a donkey that actually surprised every patron. BIKKURI! Donkey, my ass.)

Had some fantastic meals, including the ultimate salaryman-sushi joint, which featured a guy who looked just like Jabba The Hutt, except wearing a suit, using chopsticks, and spewing incomprehensible Kansai-ben. Went for a lunch with the other presenters at an organic/vegetarian cafe for soy milk quiche and pecan pie and dandelion coffee. I don't know quite what I was eating, but it was heaven on a (fair-trade hand-carved) table. Shinkansened home on Wednesday, nearly in time for school, and have been swamped since then with classes and plans and things to do. Might be recovered by next week...

posted by Raychaa @ 9:19 PM 2 comments

Friday, June 01, 2007

Judy Run and flying babies

Fastforward from Cambodia to Shizuoka, mostly because I can't remember what I did for 3 weeks. I think I slept and ran and stayed late at school everyday and stressed a lot about the Kobe conference. But then I made it to the big day(s)! And took Shinkansen halfway across the country! I got to see Katie from Baan Unrak and the mythical Judy as well. Judy Run was a blast, and I was so glad I dragged myself out of bed at 4am to get there. I ran a 10K, along the river, in the sun, and it was gorgeous. Wish I'd had more time to explore the Izu peninsula. The event raised $4000 for PEPY, and a big chunk was from the event Sarah put together at her high school. Nice job, Monkey! During the overnight adventure at an awesome onsen, we saw a shemale in the tub, with a baby. Considering you can get kicked out for having a tattoo, it's pretty brave to come in with a 6-pack, Adam's apple, and some serious surgery scars. The onsen also was complete with an English teacup bath. Mmm kocha!

Sarah and I followed her new friend Joe to Numazu, and then we followed him to meet his kyoto-sensei, who then took us to a festival. "A strange festival" was the only description we had. Kyoto took us meet the priest at the temple, who told me that there would be flying babies. Flying babies! I was really excited and worried, but it turns out he meant crying babies. Damn. There was a latin music group (from the exotic country of Ratin) and their fuzzy Disney dancers, some taiko, tea ceremony, and babies everywhere.

A baby who cries well lives well! And a baby who flies well will be on the next episode of "Heroes."

posted by Raychaa @ 12:52 AM 0 comments

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

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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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