Ginza

Here we are in the middle of Ginza having a Mary Tyler Moore moment. I'm sure that Alina has never seen the show but she joined in anyway. It is amazing that they close off the street to traffic on holidays, and oh so nice that they do. At least it gives you some place to walk. You can see all the people in the background, just think if they were all scrunched up on the sidewalks. I'm sure we were being stared at as Rach took our picture.

But speaking of causing stares, on our way to the museum that day an older man got on the train and sat on the other side of the train and lucikly for us a ways down. There weren't very many people on the train and all of the sudden the man opened his pants and started fixing his shirt, then he reached down his pant leg and I'm really not sure what he was doing, he seemed oblivious to the fact that there were other people on the train. The funny thing is that this kind of thing doesn't really surprise me anymore. You do see the funniest things some time. So in comparison our little twirling antics are nothing.

Turkey in Edo

Well for those of you who are just now celebrating Thanksgiving, let me give you a recap of my day. Well nothing was really planned and about 11:00am I set off to meet up with Rach and Alina. I had decided to go to the OEdo Museum to see a woodblock exhibit. It was really nice, but of course a lot of people. Afterwards we wanted a cup of coffee but couldn't find a place that wasn't over-run with people, so we set off to Ginza.

There we just had to stop at the Apple store. It is a really fun store with so much cool stuff. We won't talk about the 23 in cinema monitor that was on sale for so cheap, where is santa when you need him. The main street running through Ginza was closed off to traffic and all the Christmas lights were up. Here is the tree infront of Makimoto Pearl.

After boring Rach completely at the Appple Store, we headed off to Zest for our Mexican Thanksgiving dinner. Now Rach has the pictures from the Restaurant so it may be a day or two before I get them. I will put them up as soon as they come in. All in all a delightful day. Maybe not a traditional Thanksgiving but at least we could possible say an Edo style one.

I'm a Christ Follower (Mac vs. PC Parody) Part 01

Ran across this through The Wittenburg Door, and I thought it was pretty good.

Mike vs Makoto

Let me start off by saying I think I'm addicted to this sandwich. It is the Milano A Sandwich at Doutor. And I usually get a Classic Vanilla Latte to go with it.

Now let me continue by saying what is wrong with the staff at Doutor. I popped into the Hiyoshi store this evening to satisfy my craving and I ordered my usual combination. Ok it seems that at whatever store I go to they seem not to be able to understand that I want a Classic Vanilla Latte. I have even resorted to pointing at the picture so there are no mistakes. And it is not like the sound of these 3 words are so much different in Japanese or English, since it is transliterated. So tonight I ordered and I should have realized right away that a mistake was coming when the cashier hesitated just a moment then glanced back at the picture. Then as I saw him making the drink I thought, "Is he doing things backwards the milk that he is foaming looks like it already has coffee added?". And low and behold my suspicions were right he has made a Tiramisu Latte. I wanted to yell, "Are you hard of hearing! My pronunciation can't be that bad!", but I just took my sandwhich and sat down.

Now this brings me to the title of this blog, sometimes I think I'm turning Japanese and there is this little Japanese guy, Makoto, that pops his head up every now and then. This was a prime example, where is that American guy, you know Mike, who would say, "I asked for Classic Vanilla, not Tiramisu. Pleas say it with me, Classic Vanilla, Tiramisu.... Classic Vanilla, Tiramisu. Not even close! Get me the right drink." Well it is all about changing and adapting, learning that sometimes it is better to be Makoto than Mike, or at least pretending that it is ok.

What's in a name?

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 2,179 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Ran accross this and thought it was pretty interesting. I actually used to be friends with a guy that had the same name as I it was quite unusual, we actually shared the same middle inital. Wonder if I will run into any more of me.

Staff Retreat

Here we are in Kobuchsawa, we called this the album cover shot. Now all we need to do is make tha album.

I thought this one should be called Oh!

Alina always the ham!
I hope that nan was as good as it looks.

Teachers

Just thought that I should at least post something this morning. Here is a picture of the teachers from last week's J-Camp, well almost all of us. Amagi is the highest point in Izu or at least that's what I was told. It is a very nice area and not too far out of Tokyo. Even though the Hotel owned by the Japan Baptist Convntion is very nice, it is still a little behind the times. Or maybe I should say they haven't changed much over the years. I guess that is because they cater mostly to Christian groups. and the rates which are something like ¥7,000 are still a bargain in this area where hotels can easily set you back ¥20,000.

J Camp

Just back from J-Camp, it was a nice 3 days away from the city and even though it was work of all the camps that we go to this one is usually fairly laid back and there is usually time to even grab a nap in the afternoons.



The Picture is of Joren waterfalls, the teachers usually hike there it takes about 15 minutes to get there from Amagisanso the place that we stay, it is a nice excursion and refreshing at the same time. On the way back we ate horseradish ice cream, yes it seems that they will make any flavor ice cream in Japan. I will admit that it is not that bad and much better then the corn ice cream that I have had while at tennis camp

和華

It has been a long time since I posted so I thought that I should at least put something up. My drum group, Nagihana, had their annual apperance at the festival in Jiyugaoka. This year I had PTA and wasn't able to preform, so I just went and said hi got a couple of pictures then hurried off to work.

This would have been me. Athough this guy, a high school student that is in one of our teachers other groups, looks better in the uniform than me. Remind me to lose weight and get a tan before I go on again.

Kusatsu Hot Spring

I did mention that my trip was on motorcycle right? Anyway after seeing another rider take a picture of his bike, I thought that I should do the same. I just wish the back ground was a little better.

Over the mountain just 20 kilometers away was Kusatsu. I went with my friend Hitoshi here last year, so I really didn't need to stop, but hey. I had to steal a picture because in my hurry I forgot to take one of the public free bath on the square. I really wanted a picture on the inside but it is so small and it is hard to find the right time to get a picture. The best time to bathe here is when it is freeze your butt off cold. The water is so hot that it is really difficult to get into. There are two baths and one has to be at least 45°C, and the other is probably 44°C. I did manage to get in both but the hotter one for only about a minute. When the Japanese man came out beet red I can just image how red I must have been when I got out. At least the drive had been cool but I would have prefered to have been freezing cold before I got in.

Then I was off and headed back to Tokyo, I promised myself that I would take some pictures of the rice fields that I had seen on the way up. On Friday there were alot of old people putting the rice out to dry. This is very labor intensive work, and most of it done by old people.

Below is how the rice is stacked and left to dry.
I saw some places had but plastic over the top to protect it from rain.

The fields were beautiful, and I passed many, mostly small and probably all run by families that have been doing this for generations.

Manza Hot Spring Pt. 2

This morning I left Manza around 9:00 of course I had to have at least one dip before I left. This is the inside bath, I actually preferred the outdoor bath. The view of the mountain from the outdoor bath was spectacular but there were a couple of other men in the bath so I put off taking any pictures.


From Manza I decided to drive to Kusatsu another famous ski resort and spa. To get there I had to drive over Shirane Mtn. 白根山 there is a large volcanic crater at the top, there was a huge line of people hiking to the top so since I had seen in albeit many years ago I continued the drive and the sights were spectacular.

There was even on place where I could see the snowcapped Japan Alps. Unfortunately it was not at a very good place to stop so I didn't get a picture. This was actually one of the highlights, I really enjoyed the onsen but the beauty of nature on this beautiful day was breath taking. And It was above the tree line so the views were very interesting.

Celebrity Look a-like!

I've seen this a couple of places and it is pretty funny.

Manza Hot Spring

We had Friday off so I decided to take an onsen run. I left the house at around 9 and I didn't think it would take that long but I got to Manza just before the 3:00 check in time. The last time I was here was a little over 10 years ago when I went with Nerima church people and we had a conference at the Manza Onsen Hotel. Above Manza there is a volcano and alot of the area looks alot like picture below.
I stayed at Manza Tei 万座亭 a really nice hotel just across from the Manza Onsen Hotel that I had stayed at before. Many places won't let you stay by yourself on a weekend but they had a special offer for men traveling alone so I stayed here. You can see that I had a great time relaxing in the bath.

I was able to get a number of shots in the bath with out anyone around, since I was eating alone I finished before most people and headed directly to the bath and just as I had guessed it was empty.


The meal, as usual at a hot spring, was wonderful and of course too much although I ate it all. One of the most interesting items was tempura chrysanthemum. It was just normal tempura, the taste wasn't anything unusual, I thought it might be rather aromatic, oh well. I usually take pictures of the meal but silly me I forgot my camera both meals. Anyway the bath was wonderful and they even had a massage room and it worked out that after my first dip in the bath I had enough time before supper to work in a massage, foot and body. The foot massage was nice even though a little painful at times. In all I was in the bath 5 times; before supper, after supper, at 2am, before breakfast, and after breakfast. Have to get the most for my money. Got more to say and will post later on tonight.

Natsukashii

Sunday waiting for the bus to go to the station on my way to church I spotted these morning glories in full bloom, and they reminded me of home. I sure that it was because we often had this flowers planted and growing arond the back porch at home. In Japanese the feeling I had was "Natsukashii" or feeling reminiscent about something. I guess this is not a very often used word in English but the Japanese just seems to fit the feeling.

This week is a very easy week at school, we have parent teacher conferences going on so the homeroom teachers have a lot on there plate, but for me the only thing on the agenda is club and sitting in a room for one hour and giving students advice on how to improve their English. Yesterday only one student came in during the hour I was on duty. I think that most of the teachers see this as really not being very productive, but the school insists that we do it. The best thing is that for our efforts we get Friday off, yeah!! So I'm taking the opportunity to go to Manza Onsen. I have been to this hot spring once before but probably 10 years ago. Hopefully I will get there early and enjoy a couple of the baths in the area before I get to my hotel. I'm looking forward to being totally relaxed by Saturday.

Gator

So what do you see in this gator?

If you see God then I guess saw right. If you want to read the whole story go to the Wittenberg DoorThere are a few other interesting articles you might want to check out while you are there. I always get a kick out of some of the stuff they have there and especially the "God Stuff" videos.

Today was the second day of our school festival and I am exhausted. I played one tennis match and it wore me out. Luckily I won. The typhoon missed us and went to the Japan Sea, so we got really heavy rain just as school started but by 9:00 it had stopped and it didn't rain the rest of the day which was nice, but the humidity was oppresive. Maybe that is one other reason I'm so tired right now.

Old Friends

Got an e-mail from "The Country Parson" today directing me to a newspaper article talking about his barefoot lifestyle. I had to laugh and I can just see Karen rolling her eyes at him. But knowing Brian that has certainly not been a deterent to him. Anyway, give it a read. I'm sure that going barefoot is probably good for us but I'm sure that it would be frowned on big time here in Japan, I mean not having shoes to take off at the door would mean that you bring all the dirt in with you on your feet. This is a country where people wipe there pets feet after taking then for a walk, imagine the horror on peoples faces, I have been scolded for stepping in the entrance way in my bare feet. Anyway Brian if you read this keep on walking!

Matsuri

I'm a little late getting these picures up but on Labor day weekend my drum group spent most of Sunday afternoon playing at a local festival in Jiyugaoa.



This years preformance was well received and we even got to move from this parking lot to the main bus lottery in front of the station. All the ladies have added the spashes of color on the black to reflect the image of Jiyugaoka, a very fashionable area especially for women.

They had the big drum out infront of the station, during this time my teacher had said that after his solo I should join in and do a solo of my own and then we would syncronize at a certain point and finish off together.

Well I didn't hear all of the conversation just the part where I was supposed to join in and finish off together, so as the teacher and our group leader were waiting I just continued to play the base line. Actually I am looking at the leader int this picture and wondering why aren't we doing the ending yet. I found out afterwards they were both waiting for me to jump in with a solo. Oh well it all worked out anyway.

Hottarakashi Onsen

Yesterday I took my second excursion to Hottarakashi Onsen a great hot spring in Yamanashi about 80 miles from my house. It takes about 2 hours to get there just getting out of Tokyo is a good one hour. There were too many people there so I didn't get any pictures this time. There are 2 different baths, kochinoyu and achinoyu, litterally transated the bath here and the bath there. I had been to achinoyu before so I tried kochinoyu this time. It was a little smaller but I think in some ways it was a little nicer. The view of Fuji from here is nicer, although I just saw a faint shadow of it. And the lower bath was surrounded by plume grass and cosmos. The evening draw here is to see the city lights below. It was actually really nice and I was hoping that we would get a glimpse of the full moon but it hadn't shown its face by the time I left. I think this is going to be my stress get away place. I would be nice to go there spend the night and come back in the morning, they are open an hour before sunrise every morning and from pictures I have seen it is really nice then.

Yellow Lines

Today was a rather busy day, not in the fact that I had a lot of work to do but a lot of busy work. Most of my free time today at school was spent getting all the things done to go to a tennis coaches mtg. today after school. I had a bunch of papers to fill out and get ready before I could go and doing that in Japanese of course takes time. Luckily some of it I could do on the computer which was a life saver. Well I made it throught the day and to the mtg. and then on the way home I got pulled over for crossing a yellow line. The first thing they ask me of course is do you speak Japanese, inside I'm yelling no of course not, but of course my answer was a weak grunt saying yes. Now I know that if you are lucky and you feighn ignorance sometimes they will let you go, but I wasn't going to push my luck. So anyway now the trip for the school is putting me back ¥6,000, maybe I should have the school reimburse me. We can all wish can't we. Well I'm off to drums, probably still not fully recoverd from Sunday but at least it is some exercise.

Back to the Grind

I haven't written anything for awhile so I thought I might just do a quick entry and add a few of my favorite pics from the summer. This years Florida program went very well and we all had a good time. Like I mentioned before it was nice to spend time with Masa, this year he went with us to all the attractions so I had someone to hang around with at all the amusement parks. He graduates this year and I'm sure will be greatly missed at Warner Southern.


While Drew was here I spent all my blog time on the page a created for him. Just in case here is Drew's page I will keep it up awhile longer at least untill I know he has gotten his pictures off of it.

One of the places we visited was Kamakura, actually it was a really nice trip. We took a rickshaw ride, something I have wanted to do for quite a while. It was interesting but a little expensive, although I did get a coupon for a discount on a future ride good for 3 years.

In Kamakura we ate lunch at Yoshimoto's, a little coffee shop/bar. They went out of their way to welcome us and were overly concerned for Drew wondering if he would be able to eat what they put out for us so they gave us some extra food. This place has a set lunch menu and when you come in thats what you get no questions asked, they just start bringing it to you. It's just a bit away from Kamakura station but a little out of the way, but worth the find. The master even did some magic for us.


I highly recommend a rickshaw ride if you ever have the time, Ryo our driver really worked up a sweat. He really seemed to enjoy what he was doing and it was an enjoyable afternoon.


So anyway I say all of this to say, I did have an enjoyable and relaxing summer, but now it is back to the grind. I had a busy weekend before classes started on Monday and maybe that is why I'm a little tired. Ok maybe I should say a lot tired, this month is a busy month with School festival, but we do get one extra day off on the 19th. The last week of the month we don't have classes because we have parent teacher mtgs. So those 3 days even though I have to be in for work I really don't have anything to do. Maybe I can rest up.