運動に熱心じゃないだけど、僕がジョギングすることに楽しみものはあれば、いいですよね。サンフランシスコに住んだときに、ノィヴァリーとキャスツロの間の丘から一番目の写真のような眺めがあった。

現在、名古屋城の周りを走って、他の写真のような霊感を受ける。僕が二枚の写真をほんの２分の差で撮った。三脚はいいものだね。

I’m not all that enthusiastic about exercising, but if I have something to look forward to on my jog, it certainly does help out a lot. Back when I was in San Francisco, I used to have really nice views from the top of the hill between Noe Valley and the Castro, such as in the first picture there.

Nowadays, I’m running around Nagoya Castle, and the other two pictures show you what inspires me. Note that I took these pictures just two minutes apart, just before and after they turned off the lights. Tripods are a nice thing.

  

今日は豊山へ自転車で行って、空は美しくて、写真はたくさんを取りました.

I took a little bike ride up to Toyoyama again today, near the old Nagoya Airport. The sky had some very stunning colors, and although I didn’t really get the full effect of how amazing it was, some of the pictures turned out ok.

今日の午後はドラゴンズの試合をテレビで見た。山本選手（４１歳）が史上最年長でのノーヒットノーランをした！それから、中日のマジックナンバーが１５になった。

Today, I watched the Dragons game on TV, and their pitcher, Masahiro Yamamoto, who’s 41, became the oldest Japanese player to throw a no-hitter! It was pretty cool, and it was against the Hanshin Tigers, who are in second place, so the Dragons’ magic number is now just 15.

 

先週末、韓国の最新怪獣の｢グエムル」という映画を見ました。もちろん、日本のより面白くなかったです。でも少し楽しかったです。怪物はゴジラなどよりとても小さくて醜いです。動物がたくさんの人を踏みつけ、食べる最初のシーンはスリルがありました。でもそれから、見ているうちに、ちょっと退屈になってきました。 映画が韓国語で、会話を読めなかったので、ちょっと難しくて、わかりませんでした。漢字の半分はわかったと思いますけど、とても速くて、よく読めませんでした。 日本語を読む勉強をするために、この映画をまた見たいですが、次は日本の怪獣の映画も楽しみにしていますよ。 （下手な日本語ですみません。まちがったところがあれば、お手伝うしてくれませんか。）

  

I haven’t posted in a while, so that’s the only reason I’m posting now. Here’s the story: Back in the states, I used to be sort of a connoisseur of energy drinks. There, you could get 50 different brands of the stuff, mostly from America, but even from, like Latvia. When I visited Japan for the second time a couple of years ago, I came upon a beverage which called itself “Energy Gym”. I found this beverage kind of special. It seemed that it would give me its energy drink boost within, like 10 seconds of drinking it. This, I’m sure, has to be psychosomatic, because I can’t imagine it’s possible for a beverage to have this kind of effect. Anyway, when I had been visiting then, it had seemed like this stuff was all over the place, and that’s one of the things I was looking forward to when returning this time. To my dismay, however, I couldn’t find it anywhere. Gosh, perhaps it was just a Kanto thing. Well, it turns out that this wonder drink is indeed available in a few places here in the Tokai area. Those of you who are extremely observant might have noticed that I took a photo of Energy Gym during my Takayama trip. I was excited. I thought, “Wow, I can spend just a hundred bucks round trip and only an hour away is my favorite energy drink!” But, it turned out the situation was a lot better. About a month ago, while exploring random alleys with my bicycle, I found a vending machine only five minutes away from my home with Energy Gym!! I had found the motherlode. It was awesome. I went there, like, 2 or 3 times a week and picked up one of these magnificent drinks for just 120 yen. Just as suddenly as it occured, though, last weekend, I coasted down to the trusty vending machine adjacent to this Chinese restaurant (which I haven’t tried yet, by the way), and discovered that they had removed the vending machine! I was completely distraught! Now, as far as I knew, Takayama was my closest source of this magnificent elixir. As luck would have it, I happened to be riding by Meieki (aka Nagoya Station) that day. Randomly down some stupid alley, only because the pedestrian traffic around that place is godawful, and I came upon a Dydo machine with Energy Gym!! What a stroke of luck. And not only that, the next day, near one of my fellow foreign teachers’ house I found a second Nagoya jidouhanbaiki with Energy Gym. So everything is ok for now. Thanks for listening to my Energy Gym story. The above pictures are all from my keitai and are of: an Energy Gym from my local vending machine (which no longer exists), the vending machine by Meieki, and the vending machine by Steve’s house.

Just a short little rant about teaching. This week was the last week of a cycle of about half of our classes, and so next week I basically lose about half of my students to the schedule. It’s really kind of frustrating, because we’re supposed to get to know our students well as part of our job, and just like that, I lose half of them. I’m kind of depressed about this because my best students are part of those who won’t be in my classes anymore. Through all the different things I’ve done in my life, I guess I’m kind of used to having to say goodbye to people all the time, but you know what, it’s still not easy.

 

This week was Obon in Japan, when many people have a week or so off. Aeon gave us the week off, so I spent four of these days in Tokyo. Among other things, I went to Shibuya, Meguro, Asakusa, and Yokohama. You know how there’s the big controversy about Prime Minister Koizumi going to the Yasukuni shrine? Well, I went there just two days before he did.

The museum was the most interesting part. Especially the version of the history of World War II that’s written there. Some highlights, to paraphrase - the only choice that FDR had to spur on America’s economy was to force Japan into the war. And another part that implies that countries in Asia were able to fight for their independence _even though_ Japan lost the war. It really reminded me of the rhetoric that a certain world power is using right now about “bringing democracy” to the Middle East. Anyway, after speaking to some other folks about this subject, I do understand that all Japanese differ on their opinions of this subject. It’s still interesting, nevertheless.

Other than that, I saw lots of great views and had a lot of great food, like monjayaki, which is said to be a pancake like okonomiyaki, but it’s more like a stew. It’s darn delicious, though:

and I had some nice tantanmen in Yokohama:

In that Chinatown, I found me some Lychee Black Tea!

 

Did a little karaoke last night. Tried to sing some Japanese songs, but it was a very poor showing. I think I might need to practice by myself during my time off during the week some time. Anyway, a couple of other teachers and I did take some purikura photos, and I thought the one on the left, in particular, turned out pretty good.

Oh, and I guess you might have noticed I changed the look of this blog. I thought it was time for a change, you know. The title at the top is pronounced “Shinmeicho burogu” which means “Shinmeicho blog”. Shinmeicho is the name of my little neighborhood here. Literally, shinmei means “god”. So I guess I live in god-town.

Just making a post for the hell of it. Although there isn’t very much that annoys me about Japan, I need to get it out somewhere I suppose. So here’s a list of what annoys me so far.

1. The sun rises far too early here. Seriously, who’s up at 4:30am to see the sun? They need to adjust the time zone an hour or two, and give Okinawa its own time zone.
2. Everything in Japan is open all the time, except for the trains, which close at midnight. Why?
3. On TV, anytime there’s a beverage commercial, no matter what it’s for - beer, energy drink, green tea, fruit juice, whatever - they always have the annoying “gulp” sound as the person drinks it. I think it sounds disgusting, and it really turns me off that particular product. But every drink uses it, so I have to try to avoid commercials.
4. Anytime there’s a show that’s taped in front of an audience, like a variety show or something, and they show a clip of something else, there’s always a little box showing someone on the show watching the clip. I’ve seen this before in the states, but here they do it every single time and I just don’t get it.

OK, so I guess that isn’t that much to complain about, for the most part. And here are a couple of things that maybe I should be annoyed by, given my character, but I’m not:

1. Cicadas: They’re loud, and they remind you of the heat, and many people don’t like them. I have no problem though. Bring on the cute little semi!
2. The heat. It is like a sauna, but as long as I have my AC, I have a reasonable refuge. I can deal
3. The NHK guys: Simple solution: I just don’t answer the door.

OK, I just wanted to put up this post to prove that I did eat eel on July 23rd, Doyou ushi no hi, the day everyone is supposed to eat eel to combat the effects of the heat and humidity this time of year. This is a picture of the unagidon I ate at my favorite little unagidon place.