ALICEEEEEEE

Sorry for the several weeks of silence. I've been busy showing my sister all the reasons I love Japan. For those who many not know - I have a sister (from other parents), her name is Alice. Our paths crossed in college, we worked together at Kingsley Pines (the happiest place on Earth), and have kept in touch speaking at least once a week for two years of mutual international work experience (me in Japan and her in Zambia for a year and now in South Africa). Sometimes she writes about her adventures and work at this blog.

At any rate she came to Japan on Dec. 22 after something like 38 hours of traveling. I kept a bare bones diary of what we did day to day because for 12 days we were running full throttle to make the most of our time together. So much happened while Alice was here I am actually unsure what the best way to approach writing about and sharing it all. I think I will start with just the bare bones of the trip for today and follow that up with a more reflective post after I have some time to really workout everything that was taken in. So without further hesitation here's the nuts and bolts of what happened: 

Dec 22: Alice arrived in Susaki on a bus at 7:08 in the morning after a ten hour bus ride, two 8 or 9 hour flights, and an 18 hour layover in Doha, Qatar. She championed through a little drowsiness and spent the day meeting my students and coworkers. That night was also the bon enkai for my school so she cleaned all up and came out for the big end of the year party. 

Dec 23: Alice slept till 1:30 (just over 13 hours). We cooked together, and adventured down to the large local market to look for what we wanted to eat later in the week. We ate at one of my favorite noodle shops, and spent the rest of the evening relaxing and remembering those we both miss from Wooster. 

Dec 24: Went to Aki city to meet up with the usual crowd of Kochi's best and brightest for a huge Christmas party. There was feasting, drinking, festivities, a gift exchange, and even a bicycling santa appeared. 

Dec 25: Aki is right on a stunning stone beach. Christmas morning was spent throwing stones into the ocean, sun bathing, and cooking yet again. Came home to Susaki to make eggnog, skype with family and friends, and watch It's a Wonderful Life (it just isn't Christmas without George Bailey). 

Dec 26: Alice and another friend of mine went for a day hike along a beautiful mountainous stretch of the 88 temple trek that runs near Susaki, and returned to Susaki for another bon enkai (this time with the Susaki Broken English Club). Way too much good food, they dressed Alice up in kimono, and took us to karaoke after. 

Dec 27: Spent the day in Kochi City. Took Alice to Kochi castle, and then met up with the lovely Mia who helped us adventure around for the rest of the day. She spirited us up to Godaisan (a mountain overlook of the city that has a beautiful example of what the 88 temple temples typically look like). The three of us then went to Hirome for beers, more great food, and even better conversations. 

Dec 28th: This was a long day of travel. Susaki to Osaka and Osaka to Koyasan. Took all day, but Koyasan, even in the dark, was beautiful. We checked into our temple (yep we stayed in a temple), and prepared to wake up the next day super early for morning prayers with the monks. 

Dec 29th: Up at 5:45 for morning ceremonies and meditation. Delicious vegan (monk's standard diet) breakfast, and out early into the snow and cold. Walked through the huge and beautiful Buddhist graveyard. Spent most of the day going from temple to temple and reading about why Koyasan is so important to Buddhism and the 88 temple trek I am doing. In mid afternoon we returned to Osaka where we spent the rest of the day vigorously hopping from bar to bar sampling the many different classic snacks and treats the Japanese frequently dine on while enjoying a beer or three. Temples one night to neon uber city the next. 

Dec 30th: Spent the night in a capsule hotel and woke up to find out most of the museums we had planned on going to were closed for the new year. Spent the day in an Onsen (Japanese hot springs spa) instead, and worked our way to Nara (Japan's first capital). 

Dec 31st: Nara is infested with tiny deer! They are thought to be the messengers of the gods . . . spent the day going to temples and museums. Saw the largest wooden structure in the world, and one of the biggest Buddha statues I have ever seen. Issued in the new year in a huge crowd of people waiting to pray at the temple of this huge Buddha, and sipped on a bottle of bubbly while walking through the street fair that mysteriously popped up all over the temple grounds. 

Jan 1st: Coffee and doughnuts to start the new year, and a day spent hitting  the last few temples we missed in Nara. Enjoying a big final feast together and reflecting on the trip we had. 

Jan 2nd: Alice leaves Japan. . . . 

WELLLL there you have it. After Alice left I spent a few days in Osaka with some Japanese friends of mine. You can see all the photos of Alice's grand adventure on my lovely Flickr page, but for now I think this post has gone on long enough. It is safe to say I have had an incredible past few weeks, and I can't thank Alice enough for coming all the way here to spend sometime with her Brother Bear. I hope all my family and friends back home had equally wonderful holidays, and may your Year of the Dragon (yep that's right) be everything you want it to be! 

More to come. 

Total RECALL

25 Person Potluck Party in the Bear Den (two months ago)

The lingering gray of the summer's typhoon season decided to work its way out of mother nature's system on Friday. The morning started with that kind of mist that wasn't quite enough to make you put up your umbrella, but would undoubtedly swell as the day wore on into a constant and dreary drip. It's been a busier than busy, but I have reached a little lull allowing me to reflect on all the stories that I have accumulated and their relative importance.

What truly makes the cut for being worth reporting?

The truth is that much of my life isn't so different than any one else's life. Many, many weekends are spent having meals, drinks, or coffees with friends. Sharing on this blog has become a bit of a strange thing for me. I think I fell behind on posting partially because I was really busy, but more so because I have truly settled in after well over a year of being in Susaki. I think when I returned from home, after noticing so many differences and feeling really quite alien in my own country, I wanted to bask in the amazing familiarity of Japan. I take such comfort in the fact that I can contact friends to either side of my town and within an hour I can be certain I will be having a fantastic conversation that could (and always does) evolve into a grand night of fun. It is really easy to become so immersed in that immediate gratification that I tend to forget that I have ties just as strong (all be they flung far and wide) all over America.

Best beach find of my life. 

It's a bit like juggling two lives, but for some (those back in America) our life together is in a kind of suspended animation. We maintain all the vital signs and begin the auto defrost cycles on our cryogenic stasis pods to keep from developing freezer burn, but everything is slowed due to distance and the lack of shared experience. So, I guess it's my job to share more vigorously to prevent stasis lock.





In my past months I have:

• Oriented a group of 36 new JETs from all over the world to life in Kochi. That was a huge production and took a lot of planning with my fellow PA's. It went better than I could have hoped. 
• I floated down the Shimanto River numerous times with those friends I hold most dear whilst sipping on beers. 
• I hiked about 20 miles in seven hours for my first solo Henro excursion, which was beautiful, peaceful, and so dramatically different and vastly more gratifying than I expected solo hiking to be. 
• I sustained my first sorts related injury, due to the above mentioned solo hike, in the form of horribly shin splints on my right leg. (I am better now.)
• I returned to Tokyo, just two weeks ago on Wednesday, for another PA training session. 

Mike's surprise, Italian Mafia themed, dinner party. 

Amid all of this there were many dinner parties, cooking adventures (if you have never gone to this inter-web interest YOU MUST! She never leads me wrong in the recipe department), and other new and fantastic times with Colin, Marie, Mia, Jamie H, Jamie E, and the whole cast of favorite characters you may or may not know by name from the past year of posts.

Granted this isn't much, but it should at least paint a blurry picture of the past months for me. I will be making a bigger and better effort at keeping up with this whole writing thing. I like the idea of having a blog to look back on whenever I decided to return States side, and, after all, you've gotta keep those stasis pods at the right levels . . .


otherwise your friendships might go cold.
(too cheesy? That joke was made with my father in mind.)



As always
MORE TO COME.

Colin and Miss Mia (two of my very favorite people). 

A Bear in the Big City. April 6, 2011.

(DEAR SWEET LORD THIS IS LONG, LONG OVER DUE! I must, MUST DO BETTER) So first a not on the passing of time:

" It is already well into May. . . wait, WHAT! My time here is flying by at warp eleven. My weekends are typically supercharged with friends, food, sights, hiking swimming (well not yet but oh so soon!), cooking, and planning for the week that will inevitably follow the joyous ruckus that was miraculously crammed into two days. In summation, over a month has passed in what felt like the blink of an eye. I have many, many stories worthy of telling, but this post isalready written from oh so long ago and will be an adequate sacrifice to the mildly ignored interweb gods that be. I will try to catch up in the next two weeks with my chronicling of my time here. One of my new goals is to write more, so perhaps that will be the fire that gets me off my ass, and back to typing and thinking on writing. (One can only hope ne?"

The ceilings are low, and in an all too typical way I have to duck my head as I walk about (else risk a lump). Every table, booth, or bench is full to the brim with young Japanese people eating, drinking, and laughing. Two huge grill stations send out plumes of sweet smelling wood smoke, as the grill masters use dramatically long tongs to snatch various glistening fresh cuts of sea life from baskets lined with ice just in front of the fire pits. Glasses clink and you hear the words oishi and umai (both forms of delicious, or wonderful) coming from mouths full of flakey white fish. I work my way to the back corner table, behind the kegs, with its tiny un-backed chairs. We, the only two foreigners in here, were lucky to have Corey’s friend Ryo with us to get us the reservation. He orders a sampling of sea creatures and when asked what he ordered he doesn’t really reply – he just smiles knowingly. The small plates of food begin to roll in: grilled whole squid in ginger and shoyu (perfectly cooked). Corey, “That is so damn good! We gotta get another of those.” And we do. Everything: the squid, scallops, flat fish, three different types of small river fish, octopus, even the pregnant fish filled with their own babies then grilled in onions and garlic – it’s all just delicious. When asked what something is, Ryo responds in the way I now would expect most younger Osakan’s to reply. “Fuck the what is it man! Just eat it! It’s delicious.” Over the course of the meal we did squeeze in one plate of grill asparagus, and to round out the missing starches of the night we each had a few beers to wash down our banter and sea born feast. It was the best meal I’ve had in Japan; the presence of excellent company (which it seems I am never lacking these days) added to the night, but oh the food. I could not find the place again if I had to. I can tell you it is in Umeda (the centerish of Osaka, business skyscrapers and neon lights). It was a part of my weekend of being directed through a maze. Guided by friends and strangers I’d like to count as friends now through a noisy clustered mass of cars and streets, city like subways, and the biggest public transportation station I have ever had the pleasure of getting lost in. I am still recovering from my weekend in earnest, but man was it worth it.

So on to the rest of the story I suppose, or rather the filling in of the gaps. I went on a little mini spring vacation to the second biggest city in Japan, Osaka. Now, traditionally Osaka was the merchant city, and it’s always had this little rivalry with Tokyo. Osakan people think people who speak Tokyo influenced Japanese sound stiff and overly mannered, while to a Tokyo native Osakans come off as gruff and crude. Osaka is also the self-proclaimed food capital of Japan. I took a high way bus up on Friday, and spent my first two hours wandering Umeda Station (which in my defense is connected two subways, the JR Railways, JR commuter lines, the Airport Shuttles, and the Bus Station not to mention the snaking network of shops that course through that busy mini city) attempting to find the bathroom. I will also excuse my utter lack of direction with the fact that I awoke Thursday with a slight fever, a cough that set lightning a crackling through my lungs, and virtually no voice. I found my way to the Osaka Aquarium (BUT ANDREW YOU”VE BEEN THERE BEFORE! I love aquariums, and being that I had my fancy lovely new camera it seemed the perfect way to waist time in a relaxed space). After two hours and 153 pictures of jelly fish I headed to Shinsaibashi (famous restaurant district to meet up with my roommate from Tokyo Orientation, Carter (you may also remember him from such exciting posts as Naked Man).

Carter and I met up, and immediately went for grub. He is in Osaka almost every weekend, and being a fellow foody knows some damn fine eateries. Classically trained Mexican was on the menu for tonight. The place had charm and enough character to go around for years. Friendly staff, really really good food (the highlights for me were the slow cooked pork tongue tacos), and the margarita on the rocks made it quite the lovely dining experience. The lime and tequila helped my throat feel that false kind of better that you hope will last all night because you know when it goes away it’ll probably hurt worse. Then we met up with Carter’s friends and hand a long night of meeting new people. We slept in a capsule hotel (If you don’t know what this is, it is a rented bed and that is it. You rent a bed that is enclosed in a pod that you crawl into to sleep. Just enough space to sit up. No extra. Very cheap accommodations for frequent city commuters.)

The next day we went to an onsen (Japanese bath house) to wash away the smell of cigarettes and tortillas from the night before. Carter went off to meet a friend, and I met up with Corey (insert story about best food in Japan yet here). After I returned to a bar from the night before where there had been a fairly healthy crowd of English speakers. Carter and I wound up spending time with these Japanese chefs who spoke English very well, and seemed to think our food fascinations were endearing to say the least. They were fun beyond reckoning and kept us out till 8 in the A.M. talking and listening to live Brazilian music. After a night of no sleep, Carter departed for Wakayama and I was graciously entertained and fed well by my new Japanese friends who stayed with me until my bus left for Kochi at 1:30 that afternoon. The bus ride home was. . . well. . . filled with soar throats, uncontrollable coughing, and lots of napping. Traveling while sick, it seems makes, you sicker. Spent the rest of the week getting the green gunk outtalk my lungs, and terrorizing my office. My JTE’s all went a scattering at the mere sound of my raspy cough, and to this day they have not been seen near me (joking). I'm all well and fine now. More, more, more updates long over due to come. But now . . . . bed! but first Jelly fish and a turtle! for more go to my flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bearsartorius/sets/72157626574318548/

Return to Business as Usual

Never thought I would be so excited to see Japan fall from the headlines and demonic scrutinizes of the international media. The triple-header tragedy of the quake, tsunami, and power plant melt down (these rumors were more exaggerated than anything I could ever have dreamed of) really put Japan in a bad emotional hole. To have so many things happen in such a short time put many people on edge, but what made that edge infinitely scarier was the flood of highly overly sensationalized news which read (from the point of view of this person living in Japan looking out) like the reporters were writing for ratings rather than to report honestly. HOWEVER, tragedy and sorry have flared elsewhere and the world has turned it’s eyes to other, fresher smelling, disasters in need of publication. The relief effort continues in the north. It greaves me to say that today they officially found the first American English teacher to perish in the tsunami. She was here with her family from Virginia (specifically Richmond I believe). My heart goes out to all those who have suffered losses.

Yesterday was a national holiday, and my friends Michelle and Kavita took the long weekend to really buckle down and get some ground covered on our 88-temple hike. Due to bad weather (and the fact that Michelle is a 5^th year jet leaving in 4 months, I can’t tell you how that saddens me!) we decided to drive various portions of the trek this time. Driving the longest parts gave us a very different experience of the temples. For one, it allowed me to take more time to photograph all the various nooks and crannies of the various sacred spaces we found. It was a wonderful trip filled with beautiful temple grounds, quite wild life preserves, and crowds of bus tour Buddhists praying for the victims of the recent disaster. We went to a total of 11 temples this weekend, and finished Tokushima Prefecture and are now well into Kochi. Kochi is the longest stretch of hiking with the fewest temples. I am really looking forward to it! Most of the hikes in Kochi are along the coast (and oh what a beautiful coast it is!)

The mood of Sakemura sensei (the man mentioned in my last post) has improved steadily as the power plant in Fukoshima begins to look more and more under reasonable control. Thursday of last week he surprised me by asking me to take a half-day and spend the afternoon with him in a professional potter’s studio who lives just a 50 minute walk or so from my apartment in a very scenic bay used to cultivate oysters. This potter has been in Kochi for 30 years, and was a professor of ceramics at the Tokyo institute for fine arts and crafts (it has a full Japanese name, that I am sorry to say I don’t remember, and the interweb lists three potentials.) His house, his work, his studio, and everything about that afternoon was just magical! After the tour we sat in his studio and sipped green tea while talking (all be it brokenly) about the difference between creating traditional forms and just doing open sculptural work. He told me he felt so connected to Japan’s tradition in ceramics that he had a very difficult time deviating from traditional functional forms. It was a wonderful talk. His wife speaks very good English, and is just a charmer. They then took us into their home for coffee, and many questions about America and how I was liking Japan. They also enjoyed telling me stories about their two gay cats. The day ended with her giving me recipes (I told her of my interest in cooking) for traditional Japanese pickled radish greens) and he even gifted me a bowl of his (which is ridiculously exquisite. I hope to make it back to their home to watch him work one day. Two weeks of no students to go. . . . in my battle for sanity I am still winning.

My love to all of you, and my thanks to any who worried over me (please do not mistake my scolding of the international media as anger with you all for caring for my safety). Be assured that I am safe, and very well. Things continue to move ever forward, and tomorrow the sun will still rise. Be kind!

More to come.

The Promised Garden!

Hello interweb minions, all . . . five of you? Maybe? I’m coming to you from the rainiest week we’ve had in a long LONG time. Grey skies, hard rains all day, and if I’m being honest the hardest week I’ve had in Japan (for reasons I shall not elaborate on). That being said, I’ve always felt blogs are not the place to rant, rave, vent, or talk overly about one’s sorrows and hard times. No one wants to read that. So, I will simply say that I’m so grateful for the joys in my life here in Japan, and quote Mr. Bruce Cockburn (can’t do it without winking in mom’s general direction), “I bin through the ringer but I’m ok.”

So! With that cheery precaution out of the way. It’s finally time for some garden pictures! For those of you who do actually read this blog, last summer I started to learn about gardening with my dad. We bought seeds, made cold frames, and did the whole 9 yards. It was an absolute blast. Watching it grow each day, spending quality time with the parental units, and also I may be a tad bit addicted to the sensation of pride taken when one can say, “Oh, all this food – I grew it!” Long ago I walked the fifteen minutes to the hardware/ home store and bought a small green house, some soil, pots, and winterish seeds: kale, spinach, radishes, and broccoli.

The broccoli has only just sprouted, the kale (which I am not sure is really kale despite what I’m 90% sure the seeds said) and spinach are fantastic, and the radishes are now huge sprouts (which I may have been eating on salads because I don’t really love radishes).

This tiny box of greens will hopefully expand come spring. I plan on adding a few tomato plants and some herbs. What with travel I can’t get too genki with the garden dreams, but to do nothing would cause me a far greater loss.

In other news, went skiing for the first time with Colin, Kei, Jamie E., Marie, Gabriella, and Jayka. We all stayed at a big riokan (Japanese style hotel) in Ehime and went to the Kuma (bear ha ha fitting) Skie Land. After a whole day of attempting each, snowboarding and skiing I was left batter and feeling much like I did after attempting to ride the JET community bike cold turkey through Kochi City last summer. Just imagine a real bear trying to ski. . . not a pretty sight – but pretty funny when he falls down laughing hysterically every 4.5 seconds. It snowed heavily, and the sight of snow really helped lift up my opinion of Japan winters. As stated winter without snow is no fun.

So all in all things are on the up I believe. I’ll pick back up, and continue to have a great time here with the family I’m getting ever closer to here in Japan. As one door closes new ones open. Forever beginning there is an end, and for every ending a beginning. The end is where we start from. Love with all your heart folks. More to come.

Frisbee Camp and Drinking With the Dragon King

Well it’s been a while since I’ve last written (gomen, I’m sorry). I’ve been surprisingly busy, and for a time I was without internet due to lightning strikes. Thankfully I’m now reconnected. My apartment continues to feel more and more like a home. I love the process of nesting in a new space. Converting someone else’s clutter into your organization and the slow but steady patch work filling of once empty wall space is more rewarding that expected.

Two weekends ago I went to a very flat farming area of Kochi (that was rather unremarkable as Japan standards go) to attend the Ultimate Frisbee Training Camp. There were perhaps 25 other JETs and Japanese Ultimate players from our team there. Knowing quite a bit about the game (thank you Robert Olson, David Wigger, and the Wooster Ultimate team) from my time in college I was asked to help train up the new comers in the ways of frisbee force. So forehand throws were attempted, field positioning was explained, and in total 7 games were played in the span of two days. It was fantastic! The frisbee team has a lot of really great folks on it. The newbies really picked up the game quickly, and everyone seemed to have a great time, although it was very sweaty unrelenting weather both days.

My classes continue to go well, even though most of my students are still quite shy. The typical response to a question from me is to remain still as though I was the T-Rex in Jurassic Park and they are doctor Allen Grant. “If you stay still he can’t see us! Don’t move Ian, DON’T MOVE!” Luckily there are a handful of outgoing “crazy kids” (this is their description of themselves not my words) who laugh, speak frequently, and also are a great help in class. Some even go so far as to translate difficult directions for the other students. I have a small amount of frustration with the class sizes. I have one class of 7 and one of 3 or 4, and then four classes of 30 plus. The small classes go fantastically. They all remain engaged the entire 50 minutes of class. The 30 plus classes are difficult, and it’s a bit like herding cats to get 100% participation. Hopefully that will come soon. My JTE’s remain fantastic resources and are quickly becoming good friends. Sakamoto Sensei is my main JTE and she and I have developed a very light-hearted and humorous relationship that is quite refreshing to see in a Japanese friend. There are some issues with her and I both being new teachers. Many of the students are used to her predecessors team teaching methods of translating most of what Rachel or the other older JETs in Susaki said. We have been trying to force the students to depend less on translation and practice English listening more, however . . . it remains to be seen if that is working. There is a frustrating habit for most Japanese students of saying they understand when they really don’t. I typically explain a lesson then ask if they understand, and am met by smiles and affirmative nods . . . only to find out later that the students are running to other teachers saying they don’t understand me. Will be working on that.

Last weekend I hiked Kajigamori near Kochi City. It was beyond gorgeous! The hike begins with a waterfall whose name translates to “Waterfall of the Dragon King”. It’s customary to drink from the various streams and waterfalls for good luck as you climb the mountains. The water was sweet, the air cool, and the cedar forests were verdant. The climb begins with a steep scramble straight up over loose stones covered in moss. After a good bit, the mountain opens up and the views begin. Once atop (though slightly hazy when we climb) the view is astonishing. I know not why Buddha’s always seem to find homes atop the mountains of Japan, but they inherently add a level of reverence and respect for the effort you just put into scaling the summit (no matter the size). Unfortunately, the American Army decided to place some large antenna arrays atop Kajigamori. In a sense they are equally impressive and simultaneously offensive. The angular, cold, and obtrusive steel of man made towers surrounded by red and white signs and barbed wire dropped atop the rolling green everything sprawled before you. Makes you think at least.

We descended via the 1000 step course. This was fast in comparison to the vertical climb up, and ran us past many waterfalls. All in all it was a fantastic weekend. I must apologize for the time it has taken to finally get this post edited and up. I’m quite behind on my blogings, but hopefully this will satiate those of you frustrated by my relative Internet silence. More to come as always.


Hope everyone at home is doing well. ALSO, should any of you have any burning questions about daily life in Japan, questions on Japan in general, or interests you think I should pursue please post them as comments! I will do my best to answer, or do any of your questions and suggestions.

Thunder in the hills, flying discs, and terror on two wheels

Greetings fervent readers (I know you’re out there somewhere). Yet another busy weekend in Japan has blown bye. Saturday kicked off with a bang of laundry, house cleaning, and the terrifying discovery that my couch (given to me by my predecessor, and to her from hers, and so on down the line into antiquity) had been completely assaulted and corroded by a wholly unnatural neon red and green stinky mold. Upon moving it from my wall its cushions crumbled into dust leaving a powdery stench strewn across my tatami floors. Needless to say frantic cleaning and the vigorous spewing of foul language followed. After exiling the corrupt sofa to a huge trash bag in the guest room (because I still don’t know when I can throw large items away) I set out to the Home Store to look for a suitable replacement. I carried the thing atop my head all the way back to my apartment. Success in both “grown up” purchasing and the systematic irradiation of filth made the final product especially gratifying. My apartment however, still doesn’t feel completely like my own place. It’s getting better though, and hopefully soon It will be 100% nested.
Post lunch I hopped one town over from Onago (my neighborhoods name) to Aso where I had been told there was a very nice mountain to climb called Sodayama. I weaved my way through snaking streets, stopping to ask directions occasionally, and eventually found a very nice man who handed me a map of the two trail options. He attempted to explain to me that one trail was very dangerous right now and that I should not take it (due largely to venomous snakes and the fabled deadly Japanese Giant Hornet, 2 stings can kill you). The climb took me through terraced hillside hamlets made up of rice fields and lemon trees. The views became increasingly better as I climbed and by about 2 hours I had reached the top (which wasn’t really the top, but it was a nice view and the end of the trail). Unfortunately, the humidity played havoc on my camera, and resulted in many blurry and hardly tolerable photos. On my way down a drizzle set in, which quickly turned into a down pour. No big deal, I packed rain gear! Then with a clap of thunder that would have rattled the walls of any home the sky birthed lightning in great white-hot streaks. Luckily I happened to find an old abandoned shrine and hid beneath the fading and cracking timber roof, watching as the weed choked stone steps acted as tributaries for the amassing torrents of runoff water flowing down hill. In all it was a pleasant way to spend an hour, watching the storm pass with the handful of spiders hiding beneath those forgotten rafters. The rain passed, and so I continued my decent with the woods of bamboo and red barked evergreens (maybe seeders?) all a chorus of chattering insects and dripplets of water.
Sunday I took the hour train into Kochi city where I was met by Michelle a.k.a.: Wiggles. I met Wiggles at Tokyo orientation she’s a 3rd year JET and my fixer for Kochi city travels. She’s also my foot in the door for the Kochi Ultimate frisbee team. We threw for a while and after everyone showed up played some really fun ultimate. It was perhaps the hottest day I have experience yet in Japan. Any movement what so ever resulted in the most profuse and extreme sweating one could imagine, so naturally playing frisbee and springing around a field with no shade was the best course of action imaginable! It was a very cleansing day. Lots of physical activity, BUILDS CHARACTER. All in all the team was great fun, and the new faces, and handful of familiar faces from Tokyo Orientation, were great fun to see and get to know better. We went out for grilled meat after practice, and after an hour train ride I was home again home again.
Now. . . this next part I’m not particularly proud of, but it has it’s place and was a definite fixture of my weekend. To get from Kochi Station to the Frisbee fields one must barrow the Kochi JET community bike (a mustard yellow clunker big for Japan, but small for me) that lives in the public bike house next to the station locked up with a secret JET only code. For those of you that don’t know me that well. . . I haven’t really ridden a bike sense I was. . . . eleven, maybe? Even then I was never really a big bike rider. Things with wheels and I – we don’t get along so much. Well the 30 to 45 minute ride from the station to the fields was a hysterical effort on my part to not crash and burn. With my lengthy knees scrapping the handlebars of the bike’s fully extended seat I still, according to my friends, looked like a grizzly bear attempting to ride a child’s unicycle. Actually the bear would have probably appeared more graceful and at home than I looked. I wobbled, weaved, and walked my bike sketchily to our various destinations and apologized profusely for my relative lack of experience. However like a pimpled preteen’s first kiss, I hope that things can only get less embarrassing and awkward with more experience. All prepubescent voice cracks aside it was yet another highly enjoyable weekend. Sorry there will not be many pictures for this one, but I’m sure you’ll understand. As always more to come!