Saturday evening I went to the fireworks at Ochiai Koen in Kasugai City (thanks to the advice from one of my best students (　広美さん、ありがとうございます。 ) The festival means something like “the people’s enjoying the cool of the evening”, and I’m not exactly sure of the correct reading, so I need a little help on that. Anyways, the weather was perfect - about 29 degrees celsius but not too humid, and no bugs. I have nothing to complain about. I took a lot of pictures, including three movies (warning, these are very long, so be careful if you’re on dialup). I look forward to several more fireworks celebrations this summer.

So today (tomorrow, for many of you readers) is 海の日 (umi no hi), a national holiday which just means, basically beach day. As far as I can understand from speaking with my students, it was a holiday made up because there weren’t any holidays in July. Since I work Monday through Friday (which is very unusual for us English teachers, most of whom work Tuesday through Saturday), I get a three-day weekend! (Don’t worry, those folks get this day back in December). So I decided to take one of these days, Sunday, and go to Takayama, a small city in Gifu prefecture situated up in the mountains. Because I had decided to head up there so late, I wasn’t able to get a hotel or ryokan room, which saved me a little money anyway. So I took the train up and spent about six and a half hours there. Then I can stay up until three am editing the pictures without having to worry about going to work :D.

It was definitely a nice break. Although it rained for a couple of hours at first, for the most part the weather was comfortably cool - about 10C (almost 20F) cooler than a few days ago in Nagoya. It means I could actually spend time outside during the day without it feeling like a sauna. Takayama is a really cool little city. It’s one of the few places in Japan that they are trying to keep as it was in the old days. People can’t paint their houses any old color - it has to be the natural wood color, as you can see. There is also a small part of town that is literally unchanged since, I don’t know, a century ago - maybe more? So I visited the Yatai kaikan, where they display four of the floats that they bring out twice a year during the big festivals here. Also, I got to visit many shrines and temples. People say it’s like old Kyoto, and I imagine so. (Although I’ve been to Kyoto before, my only experience was during a typhoon, so I didn’t really see much of it at that time.) What was most striking for me was how incredibly peaceful it was. Even though it’s a holiday weekend, there was practically no one else walking around the shrines and temples, most likely because of the rain. I came upon this awesome cemetery in the middle of a bunch of really tall cedars. By the way, it’s also one of the best-smelling places I’ve visited, thanks to the aforementioned cedar. There was one shrine where there was a nice loud chorus of cicadas, and I had a really fantastic peaceful moment drinking it all in. Here is close to where that was.

Anyway, I didn’t get a chance to go to the old village, but I will probably go do that next time. I did sample Hida ramen (not especially great - a lot less filling than some of my favorite Nagoya ramen shops, but still interesting) and some of the famous Hida beef in the form of gyuudon. One strange thing I noticed is that neither of the restaurants I went to supplied oshibori - the washcloth to wipe your hands that you always get at every restaurant in Japan. Neither had napkins either (you won’t necessarily find those either, but I’ve never seen a lack of both). So anyway, despite this faux pas, the verdict is I’ll definitely be coming back here again. Next time, hopefully with someone else.

Today, I rode to Kasugai ( 春日井 ), ostensibly to find the Ichiro museum, but really just to go out on an exploration. And it’s not even in Kasugai - it’s in Tomoyama. I have no clue where I got that idea from. Anyway, it’s pretty close. As expected, the Ichiro museum itself was nothing special. Just a bunch of baseballs and gloves and posters and stuff. I think the most interesting part about it was that it had many of the things from his childhood there, and he used to have a giant Ultraman clock, which was pretty cool.

Anyway, on the way there, I got to witness this building getting ripped to shreds by one of those big hydraulic machines. I’m sure it isn’t all that uncommon, but this is the first time I got to watch this closely, and being in Japan, it was a thrill. I just couldn’t help thinking about Gojira and Gamera and all those other kaiju doing this dirty work. And the sound was great! Just metal and brick getting ripped apart. I really enjoyed it. What’s unfortunate is that two of my movies showing the great beast taking bites out of the building didn’t come out. But I hope you get the idea.

Other than that, there was this weird little half-abandoned park by the old Nagoya airport in Tomoyama. I say half-abandoned because, be appearances, it should be abandoned - there was no water in the pools and it was pretty dirty. But as you can see, there were a few people around enjoying the place.

Then there was this car dealership with a bunch of older American cars, and then above that this putt putt golf course to take your bike through the intersection.

Finally, this woman tried to make a bicycle tire out of pieces of old tires and rags. It really didn’t function all that well.

McSweeney’s had a good story about my favorite monster.

Today (the seventh of July), is Tanabata ( 七夕 ), a festival from Obon traditions and originating in China. It celebrates the meeting of two stars, symbolizing lovers, who were separated by the Milky Way and only allowed to meet once a year. Part of the tradition is to write down wishes on pieces of paper and put them on decorated bamboo. I don’t know if I’ll be able to see any evidence of it out today, as I have to work, and I guess it’s more of a children’s holiday. So how did I learn about this? From my best source of information on Japanese culture, of course, my students! Thanks Hiromi and Tomoko!

On another note, last night, I came up with a goal for myself for this year. I had been kind of catching my breath after getting settled in this teaching job, and not really thinking much about the future. But last night, it struck me, and it seems pretty obvious - I should take the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test). Almost all jobs for foreigners here require a level on this test (most say Level 2, but from what I’ve heard they are really looking for Level 1) (1 is the highest level). I know I could do Level 3, but I’m going to try to shoot for Level 2. Next week I start a Japanese class with an older gentleman, one of my students. So, now that I have a goal, I will begin studying in earnest. Now all I have to do is find a nice young woman to talk about Japanese language and culture with. I know from experience that such people exist…

Today I went to a picnic that was in honor of the Fourth Of July. There were some American, Canadian, Australian, and Japanese people there. All in all it was a great time.

Thanks all, for your posts of “Hi”. I appreciate it a lot. I’m sorry I don’t talk to you guys as often as I did before. It’s something I just never do enough of. Out of all the things I miss about America, it’s being with you, all of my friends, of course.

This week was highly stressful for me. I had the guy from Honbu ( 本部 ) (the head office of our region) come over and train me for a few hours, and then he observed three of my lessons in the evening. He was kind of rough on me, although I understand that that’s his job. I’m kind of not used to being evaluated as sub-par for anything, so it does bother me some. I have definitely been showing some improvement, though, so I think I can work up to the level that they are looking for. Also, we’re in the middle of the Self-Study Campaign, which means we need to talk to a lot of students and figure out who is appropriate for these extra materials and sell it to them. I’ve never been much of a salesman, so I’m not doing too well with that, either.

So it’s finally getting a little better now. Here are some random observations:

1. Among the things that are really cheap here is white meat. I bought a whole boneless chicken breast for 79 yen the other night at the 99 yen store at 11pm. (As of right now, 1 dollar = 114.390 yen).

2. Also, barbers. I got a haircut today for 1700 yen. It lasted an hour, and he was meticulous in trimming every single follicle on the surface of my skin above my neck - that is no exaggeration.

3. Last night, Germany won an exciting match against Argentina in the World Cup thing. I expressed my displeasure at the whole shootout thing, but I must say I did enjoy the game. And I am German, so that’s my team now.

4. Yesterday, in one of my speech lessons, I did an example speech about how much I hate Walmart and other box stores, going into the labor issues, the blight upon the landscape, etc. I think most Japanese don’t understand the American disdain for this company. I think I explained it a little, although probably not completely. Here’s the thing, though: I love Daei, and really, it’s probably the same thing as Walmart. There’s one just a ten minute bike ride from my house, and it’s so damn convenient! I can get anything I want from groceries to CoolBiz Shirts until 10:00pm every night. I realize I am prejudiced towards anything if it’s Japanese, but the fact that I like this place really bothers me.

5. The long hot summer has started. During the daytime, going outside is basically just going into a sauna. So, the only time I spend outside during the day is the three-minute walk to the subway station. From the subway stop in Sakae ( 栄 ), where my school is, I can walk underground through the mall all the way to my building without having to go outside. My classroom is still pretty sultry, though, and the fan I have doesn’t really keep it cool. Basically I just go outside at night. And amazingly enough, I actually go out into this heat every darn night and go for a jog. Nighttime, not so bad.

Yesterday I randomly rode up the street until I came to the town of Kasugai, which is maybe 2km from my house. I had no idea I was even outside of Nagoya until I started looking at these signs. Apparently, Kasugai is famous for a few things, including a museum devoted to Ichiro, and the birthplace of the famous calligrapher Ono Tofu, or Ono Michikaze. I will be visiting both of these museums soon on my next time off. Didn’t have too much time this weekend because I had to work on Sunday. Working on Sunday wasn’t too bad, though. I just had to teach one class, and then prepared the rest of the time.

 

Last Sunday, I went to see the Dragons play at the Nagoya Dome, along with a few fellow English teachers. The game itself wasn’t that great, as the Dragons lost 4-1 to the Softbank Hawks, but the fun part, of course, was the atmosphere. Every Dragons player has his own unique chant, which everyone in the crowd knows. People are clapping all game long. The food was pretty good, too - overpriced just like in American parks though. I had a misokatsu burger - just what you would imagine it would be like - a fried pork cutlet with red miso sauce and cabbage on a bun.

Of course, there were also a couple of Hawks fans there, like the guy in the above picture.

It’s World Cup time of course, and in Japan, they are just as into it as anywhere else in the world (the US and Canada excepted, of course). Although I’m still having problems getting into this sport that has scoreless ties and the mystery injury time at the end of the game, I’m a little enthusiastic about my two teams, the Czechs and the Germans. Japan has one more chance against Brazil on Friday morning, but evidently such upsets occur only once in a blue moon, and the Czech Republic already got beat by Ghana last weekend.

One of the videos we use to help our students learn English. It also helps people get into shape.