No pictures, no links, I just want to talk about the sports I’m following these days. First, my Red Wings have firmly entrenched themselves as the Atlanta Braves of the NHL. They win their division every year and then make an early exit in the playoffs, despite an expensive roster that, on paper, should win it all. Oh yeah, there’s also another baseball team that has been doing that since 2001, but I don’t want to equate a team I like with something that is the epitome of evil. So, Senators, this is your year. It is imperative that you bring the Cup back to a cold weather city, and more importantly, to Canada. The Senators have been my second favorite team ever since they re-formed back in 1992. (You see, Ottawa is actually the first city I can remember living in, back in the early 1970’s). It’s a beautiful city, and deserves the Cup two orders of magnitude more than the Ducks. I mean “Ducks”, come on!

The Dragons are back in first place again, thanks to an interleague win against the chewing gum (Lotte) Marines. Looks like they have a good chance again this year. All right!

The Detroit Tigers are in 2nd place, but seem to be doing pretty well, considering every team in the AL has them in their sights. I remain optimistic with them, too.

Go Pistons!

Finally, I don’t know what to say about Barry’s inevitable march towards Hank Aaron’s record. When he was chasing McGuire in 2001 and 600 a few years later, I couldn’t have been more excited, as I was admittedly in denial about his steroid use during those times. Now, I’m neither thrilled nor angered about this one. I’m just wondering what his legacy will look like, say, in 20 years.

    I put up a bunch more pictures from Matsushima (松島) and Sendai (仙台). Some cool looking boats, and I got some surprisingly good photos of blossoms (I’m not sure exactly what kind they are). I also went to the public library, which is called the Media Center, and it’s a really cool public space. That’s the one with the big inflatable sleeping baby thing. They planted a bunch of trees all over the city, so it’s a very pleasant city to walk around in, even if there isn’t that much to do. I took a bus called the Loople, which was 600 yen to ride all day, and takes you to places like the Botanical Garden and the site of the former castle at Sendai, which overlooks the city. I think Sendai is more of a nice city to live in than it is a place to visit. I like the weather there for sure!

sendai

Here are some of my photos from Sendai - I’ll post more later. Sendai is famous for gyuutan (cow tongue), and for nearby Matsushima, which is one of the three best sights in Japan. I took a boat right out among the islands, and of course there are many pictures of islands. But most of the folks on the boat were more excited about the seagulls following us. The weather was changing constantly, and so was the sea, so I got lots of different colors and some good shots of the seagulls. There isn’t much to do around Sendai, but I definitely recommend Matsushima for a day. More to follow…   

aomori

“Apples are grown in Aomori” is a line from one of our textbooks from a unit on the passive voice. I couldn’t get that out of my head all week.

This week is Golden Week, so we have all week off. I took a few days and went up to Aomori to visit my friend Daniel and his family. It was great to see them again and meet his sons Rin and Take for the first time. The weather up there is cooler, of course, and the sakura were in full bloom this week. We went to the Jomon Jiyukan, which had some recreated buildings from the Jomon period(around three to five thousand years ago). (One amazing thing about this place is that admission was free. It’s the first thing of its kind in Japan that I have ever seen that you didn’t have to pay to get into.)

After Aomori I went to Sendai, and I’ll post photos from there a little later. As you can see, during the trip up, I saw Mt. Fuji (from the ground) for the first time.   

むかし屋

Last Thursday, one of my students, Tetsuya, who is going to UNC next month for some graduate study, took me out to dinner at Mukashiya. They serve Kouchin, which seems to be a special brand of chicken raised only here in Aichi. Of course it was in fantastic. In America, eating raw chicken is undreamed of, but when you do things as well as the Japanese, it’s no problem here! And of course it tastes amazing.

味千ラーメン

Earlier this week, my friend Candice inadvertently sent me on a mission to try Ajisen Ramen this weekend, because I guess there’s one in Fremont, is that correct? Ajisen is a chain of ramen places all over Japan and Asia, with even a few stores in North America. Anyway, I was very lucky that this was the weekend, because usually they’re closed on Sundays, but they happen to be open on the 22nd of every month for something I would interpret as customer appreciation day. And on this day, a bowl of noodles is just 300 yen (Today, that was about $2.52). I like the feeling of the place; it definitely has a better feel than, say, the Sugakiya chain, which seems to appeal to high school kids who just want to eat ramen and ice cream for as cheaply as possible. This place is definitely for adults. Although there was no beer, so that did put a little damper on things, because I usually like a beer to enjoy with my ramen. I didn’t spend a long time there, but I’d probably give it an eight. Nowhere near the stuff I had in Fukuoka, but definitely worth going back for - especially next 22nd!

By the way, my bowl took approximately a minute and a half from when I ordered it to arrive, and so I was reminded of why there might be some naysayers about Santa Ramen (in San Mateo). In Japan, I can rarely recall a bowl of ramen taking more than five minutes to get to my seat after I ordered. (Actually, there was one time, but it was when the proprietor was really busy with like ten other customers, and he gave me a free dish of tofu for my troubles). Once you get to your seat, you should never wait more than five minutes for your ramen. That’s what I expect now, anyway.

2007お花見

In the interests of letting Google take over every single aspect of my life, I’m trying out Picasa. So here’s a link to my photo album of cherry blossom pictures I took at Meijo Koen and near Nagoya Castle.

The slideshow is kind of nice, and the image editor is pretty decent, too. We’ll see how this goes.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., my favorite author by far, has died. I am, of course, saddened by this. But at the same time, I feel happy for him. He had a full life, he had written all that he was going to write. Everyone has to go at some time, you know. He still inspires me, and I would feel great to live to his age and contribute even one hundredth of what he has to the world. He was a great example of what a human can accomplish. May there be more Kurt Vonneguts to come on this earth.

Yesterday, a few of us tried to go and do ohanami (looking at cherry blossoms, drinking and eating and singing under the trees), but the weather was totally uncooperative. I did get a couple of interesting shots, but overall it was a wash (pun intended).

  

But, actually, the evening wasn’t a wash at all, because I got to try another food Nagoya is famous for, あんかけスパ (ankake supa, or spaghetti), a thick spaghetti with a nice spicy sauce that they’ll put almost anything on. This was a real treat, and I had some very pleasant company to go along with it.

Spiderman is hanging out on the Nagoya TV Tower for ten days this month.