New School Year, "Hanami" and Soccer Game

The past month has been nice as the season is changing. I’ve been constantly active but not too busy. First off April has been the start of a brand new school year. My JHS saw 10 teachers leave and obviously, 10 new teachers arrive. In Japan, the education system forces teachers to change schools ever few years, as opposed to Canada where a teacher can stay at a school for 20 years. In Japan the max in 5 to 6 years and then a teacher will get sent to a new school by the board of education.

The biggest adjustment was seeing two of my English teachers leave the school. Ms. Asatani went two towns over and Ms.Murayama went on pregnancy leave. The new English teachers have been an adjustment seeing that they haven’t really let me teach a whole lot. The biggest change has been lesson planning, as the new teachers haven’t allowed me to run a lesson yet. The new part-time teacher Yanoshita sensei has been particularly difficult, as her English level isn’t as advanced as Murayama sensei, who is pretty much fluent. So a long story short, I was having some communication problems with her that I seem to have worked out. I think I have conveyed to her that I want more control and hopefully after May break, I will be able to plan more of my lessons.

So school has been an adjustment, as it’s always tough when new teachers come and the relationships and comfort levels you had need to be re-started again. I’m sure that in time when we get to know each other better and our teaching styles, then school life will be much smoother.

As for the past few weeks I’ve kept busy by heading to Hiroshima and seeing the Sakura- or Cheery blossoms in full bloom. It was a shame Joel and I weren’t able to see them in Kyoto, but Asuka and I went to Hiroshima Castle and the Peace Park and saw all the Cherry Blossoms in full bloom. The Cheery blossoms usually last a little over a week, but during the week it was really gorgeous to see. I was lucky enough to take pictures right after I picked up the new digital camera I had mentioned I wanted. Asuka picked it up as a present and it’s definitely my new favorite toy. I haven’t dunked it in water yet, but I am tempted to try.

Last weekend, Asuka, Kazuya, Aki and I went to Hirohsima and saw the local soccer team, the Hiroshima San Frecce Vs. the pro team from Osaka. It was my first “professional” soccer game and I had a lot of fun. Mike and I wanted to see a game when we were in Italy, but never got the chance to. The Hiroshima team isn’t quite Italian caliber, and they are also winless this year with 5 losses and 4 ties. However, just when the game started, right after the kickoff- the Hiroshima team rushed and scored a goal. It was seriously like 10 seconds into the game. We thought they were going to pull out a victory, but they let the Osaka team score a goal late in the game and they ended up tying again. Overall, it was a fun day even though it was pissing rain, we had to buy rain ponchos to stay dry. But I enjoyed the atmosphere and had fun drinking hot sake at the game.

As for this upcoming weekend, I’m pretty pumpedbecause there is a hockey tournament in Hyogo-Ken (close to Osaka) and I’ll be spending the weekend there with my hockey team. It’s been awhile that I have played competitive hockey, so I’m looking forward to it. This upcoming week is called Golden Week in Japan- sort of like Easter Break back home. I’ll have pretty much all of next week off and also Rich is coming to visit for a week. Asuka is in Taiwan for Golden Week so I’m sure Rich and I will be able to get in even more trouble. It should be a fun week and I’m looking forward to the break and just relaxing with Rich.

Japanese Factoid #21- As mentioned I went flower viewing or “Hanami” a few weekends ago with Asuka. Hanami is a big event in Japan, especially Cherry Blossoming viewing as Japanese people in some places even camp out at prime locations at certain parks to have a flower viewing party. Families and friends usually get together at a park and bring tons of food and alcohol and just socialize and watch the flowers. Typically, large amounts of alcohol get consumed and it’s a pretty rambunctious time. Asuka and I brought some snacks and I had a beer while we sat beside Hiroshima castle and spent about an hour enjoying the view. So if you ever get a chance to come to Japan during the blooming of Cheery Blossoms, you will see lots of people enjoying “Hanami.”

Joel's visit to Japan Part II - Kyoto and Nara

The next day we made our way into Kyoto for our final 4 days. I don’t think I can mention everything I saw, just because of the sheer number of sights Kyoto has. You can visit a temple everyday of the year and still not see them all. Every street corner has a temple or Shrine and its virtually impossible to visit everything, nor would you want to, as after awhile everything just blends into one and starts to look the same. I did find out that I like temples, which are Buddhist places of worship more the Shrines, which are Shinto places of worship because there is just more things to see. I’ll just list the major places that Joel and I managed to see.

Nijo Castle which was built as the former residence for the Tokugawa Shogunate. It’s pretty amazing that everything is almost it its original form, which also means its really old and coats of paint and the fine details on the walls have all been lost due to age. The coolest thing about the castle was the floors. The flooring is called nightingale floors, as the wood squeaks as you walk by-quite loudly actually. This was used as a safety measure, as the floors would squeak when anyone walked by, preventing eavesdropping or surprise attacks. Picture below: The outside gate of Nijo-jinya

Nijo-jinya, is a house for visiting feudal lords. I had to make reservations beforehand and the whole tour was conducted in Japanese. I managed to catch most of the explanations and luckily there were a few translators in our group. The house was built as a residence for visiting feudal lords. Unknown to the lords was that the entire house was built with trapdoors, secret hideouts and numerous escape routes. Basically it was a ninja house and had a secret compartment for a ninja to spy on the guests of the house. It was definitely cool to see how the house was designed and to see secret stairways come down and see the hidden rooms.

Kiyomizudera or the "Pure Water Temple" has a great view over the city through its famous wooden terrace. The Cherry blossoms hadn’t bloomed yet, so the trees where sill brown, so our pictures didn’t turn out as nice. Nevertheless, the temple was really nice to visit and it had a large pagoda too.

Kinkakuji or the Golden Pavilion is a Zen temple covered in gold leaf. It dates back to 1397, but the present building was rebuilt as a fanatic monk burnt the orginal down in 1950. The gold is really striking and it really surprises you when you first see it.

Ginkakuji, also known as the Silver Pavilion is not really covered in silver, though it was suppose to be. It is a Zen temple built in 1482 and was modeled after the Golden Pavilion. The surrouding garden and walkways of the pavillion is gorgeous and defintely worth the visit.

Fushimi Inari Shrine is most famous of several thousands of shrines dedicated to Inari across Japan. Inari is the Shinto god of rice. The Fushimi Inari Shrine is also known for the countless torii gates, offerings by worshippers, that cover the hiking trails of Inarisan, the wooded mountain behind the shrine's main buildings. Joel and I spent about two hours hiking along the trail and seeing the endless number of gates.

Gion is Kyoto’s most famous geisha district. This part of Kyoto was lined with beautiful old buildings, teahouses and restaurants. It is a real fun place to walk around at night, as there is lots of neat shops to visit and the area just has a great atmosphere. Joel and I were able to capture 3 geisha walking along the streets and spent the night working our way around the streets.

Sanjusangendo is a temple founded in the year 1164 and is one of my favourite temples that Joel and I visited. We went the last day we were in Kyoto. Sanjusangendo means a hall with 33 bays. The number 33 is sacred in Buddhism for it is believed that Buddha saves mankind by disguising himself in 33 different forms. This temple is famous for its 1001 statues of Kannon, the goddess of mercy. The main hall has one large Kannon, flanked on each side by 500 smaller statues, standing in neat rows side by side, each as tall as a human being. It also had another 32 statues in front of the Kannon statues.. It was really impressive seeing all the statues and it really wrap up our trip nicely.

We also took a day trip to Nara, the first capital of Japan. We first saw Horyuji temple, which is one of Japan's oldest temples. Its main hall has a five storied pagoda and big central gate. The temple dates to the 7th century and is the world's oldest surviving wooden structures. Inside the temple is had some gorgeous Buddhists statues and the grounds are also convered with deer.

The highlight in Nara is Todai-ji temple which houses the largest Buddha statue in Japan and the world's largest wooden building, even though the present reconstruction of 1692 it is only two thirds of the original temple's size. The Buddha was huge and both Joel and I managed to snap lots of pictures. I also tried to fit through this hole in one of the pillars, that is the exact size of the Buddha’s nostril. Supposedly, anyone that can fit through can achieve enlightenment. I tried, albeit the laughs from Joel- but my shoulders were too wide. No enlightenment for me i guess.

There are a lot more temples and Shrines we visited but it is just impossible to name them all. As mentioned, it was unfortunate that both Joel and I were sick for the trip, so we ended up sleeping in a bit too late on certain days. The hostel in Kyoto wasn’t as good as the first one we stayed in, as it felt more like an army barrack. The shower was in the dark and damp concrete room that looked like a Nazi- war bunker. The weather really didn’t cooperate, as we had lots of rain, a constant gust of wind and even a minor snow storm. Nevertheless we managed to trek our way around the sites. Kyoto also has one of the worst transportations systems in Japan, as a lot of places are only accessible by a bus that takes forever. There is a tram, two subways and a train system that runs in the city, which just makes transportation that much more confusing. The most disappointing thing was that the cherry blossoms didn’t bloom when we were there, so a lot of sites had brown trees, the cherry blossom buds were just opening and a few trees managed to start blooming.

What was also a downer was that my camera started malfunctioning part way through the trip. The zoom wouldn’t focus and the camera made some weird noises and would then just shut down. So the last night, Joel and I spent like 3 hours taking apart the camera trying to fix it. I managed to cause all the important parts of the camera to fall out, somehow we reassemble it- even though the internal battery shocked us like 5 times- then finally had it working for about 3 pictures before it finally died. So I’m looking for a new camera now. I really have my heart set on the Olympus 720. It has 7.1 mega pixels and get this, it can be “dropped” from up to 5 feet and can be taken underwater for up to 10 feet. It’s completely waterproof and its probably the best option for me, seeing that it’s as Brandon-proof as it can get. http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1225

Overall, it was a fun trip despite the few difficulties we had in the way. Joel spent another night in Osaka on Saturday, then took a flight from Kansai International Airport the next morning. It was fun traveling with Joel and seeing a friend from back home. Kyoto is really an amazing city, but you also have to pick your sites, just because there is just so much to see. I’ll like to go back during the fall with the leaves change colour, as there should be a longer period of change, unlike Cherry blossoms that just have a week or two of bloom. There are still a few places I didn’t’ mange to make my way to and I plan on visiting it sometime later I’m luckily knocking down all the major sites I want to see in Japan. Still to do on my list, is Okinawa, Hokkaido and its Snow festival, a lantern festival in Aomori and a dance festival in Tokushima.

Japanese factoid # 20: In Japan there is fortune telling system called Omikuji. Omikuji are random fortunes written on strips of paper at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan. Literally it’s called a "sacred lottery", you usually receive them by pulling out a wooden stick with a number randomly from a box that one shakes, hoping for the resulting fortune to be good. Unrolling the piece of paper reveals the fortune written on it, which can be any one of the following: Great blessing (dai-kichi, 大吉), Middle blessing (chū-kichi, 中吉), Small blessing (shō-kichi, 小吉), Blessing (kichi, 吉), Half-blessing (han-kichi, 半吉), Near-blessing (sue-kichi, 末吉), Near-small-blessing (sue-shō-kichi, 末小吉), Curse (kyō, 凶), Small curse (shō-kyō, 小凶), Half-curse (han-kyō, 半凶), Near-curse (sue-kyō, 末凶), Great curse (dai-kyō, 大凶).

I have done this a few times in Japan and everytime I have gotten a bad fortune, like me dying a horrible death with nothing going right. Since April is the new school year, I decided to test my luck again. I first got one written in Japanese, lucky number 12. I saved the fortune to have Asuka read it later on. Joel and I then found a shrine that gave out fortunes written in English. So once again, I shook the box and got, number 12 again. Two times in a row is pretty rare- so I got my fortune expecting the worst…but I was rewarded with Great Blessing. The fortune was really good, saying I will advance in the world, gain success and prosperity-Score! So I kept my good fortune. When the prediction is bad, you tie the strip of paper to a pine tree in the temple grounds. A purported reason for this custom is a pun on the word for pine tree (松 matsu) and the verb 'to wait' (待つ matsu), the idea being that the bad luck will wait by the tree rather than attach itself to the bearer. That is why when you visit shrines you will see white pieces of paper tied to trees.

Joel's visit to Japan Part I - Hiroshima and Osaka

Just got back from traveling around the Kansai area, visiting Osaka, Kyoto and Nara this past week. Joel arrived on the 18^th of July and the first week we chilled around my town and Hiroshima city. The first few days I brought him around Hiroshima and we visited the main sights around the city. We saw the A-bomb dome and its museum, and then also spent a day going to Miyajima. I also brought him to my favorite game center and we easily wasted 3 hours of our lives there. We also managed to tackle the huge sundae in Kure again, with only Joel and I eating it too.

We had a pretty busy week as Joel even spent a day at school with me. We taught three second grade classes and one grade first grade class. It was our final lesson of the school year, so I had an English quiz with questions about me and also started the class with a question period about Joel- where most kids guessed that he was older then me- which is true of course. I think my kids really enjoyed seeing a "real" foreigner and it was a fun day at school. (Picture below: Joel and I at the top of Mt. Noro)

The Friday before he left we managed to climb the local mountain in Kawajiri again and luckily, it was a gorgeous day and we had a great view from the top. We had a good climb up and then back down from Mt. Noro. Joel managed to snap lots of pictures of the local scenery, including a few waterfalls. (Picture below: Osaka is famous for these large mechanical crabs)

Last Saturday we left in the morning for our 7 day drip out to the Kansai region (Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Kobe). We packed in a lot of sights and really prayed that the cheery blossoms would bloom during our visit. Unfortunately, we had the worst weather, full of wind, rain and even snow storms. To compound that, for most of the time he was here I was fighting a cold that he managed to catch as well. So we were both a bit sick for our trip around Kansai.

Our first 3 days in Osaka, the weather was actually pretty good and was just a bit overcast. We saw Sumo on our first day in Osaka. I had watched a lot of the matches on TV, but this was my first time seeing it live. It was a great experience as we sat in our seats for a good 4 hours watching huge men slam into each other. If you understand the rules and learn the wrestlers, it gets really interesting and it's a thing of beauty to watch. Joel didn’t know anything about Sumo, but once he learned the rules, he really enjoyed the experience. Joel and I even alternated betting on who would win. Luckily, I pulled out the victory and got a free dinner out of it.

The Yokozuna or grand champion right now is Asashoryu, a Mongolian who has dominated the past year winning all 6 tournaments in 2005. He lost the first won this year but ended up pulling out a playoff victory for this tournament in Osaka. There are a lot of foreign wrestlers and one of my favorites is Kotooshu, a Bulgarian who has the Ozeki ranking (just below Yokozuna). Unfortunately, he injured his leg earlier in the week, so when he faced off against the grand champion; he didn’t really push himself and lost without much struggle. Thus, the final match of that day was tad anti-climatic. Nevertheless, we had a great time and even saw this one wrestler get smoked in the face and splash blood all over himself and his opponent. After Sumo, we walked around Namba, a lively area of Osaka and then called it a night.

The following day we made our way back west and saw the largest original castle in Japan, called Himeji-jo. I had wanted to see this castle for awhile, as it’s the most complete extensive castle left in Japan. We walked along the compounds and then made our way up the very top of Himeji castle. The castle was gorgeous and definitely the best of the castles I have seen so far.

After Himeji, we visited the Osaka Aquarium. Not sure if its because I like seafood, or that I just cause I worked in a harbour for 6 years, but I really like Aquariums. The Osaka Aquarium was really good as they have some species of fish that I had never seen before. The aquarium also had a huge whale shark, four different types of penguins and all different kinds of marine life.

That night we made our way back to Osaka and went to Osaka castle at night. Osaka castle is a complete re-creation of the original. The re-created castles usually lack the history and aesthetic appeal of the originals, as they are made out of concrete and the insides are always museums. But the exterior looks always look gorgeous and Osaka castle at night looked stunning. We didn’t make our way inside, but took lots of night pictures and walked all along the castle.

On Monday we decided to go to Universal Studios Japan. I had decided to go on Monday thinking that since it was a weekday, it wouldn’t be all that busy. However, I forgot that it was also spring vacation, so the placed was packed and the lineups were really long. We ended up only going on only three rides, Jurassic Park, T2 and Spiderman. The Spiderman ride was really good and so was Jurassic Park- which I faintly remember from LA. Overall, it was a really tiring day because of the lines and, as expected, everything was overpriced. In the end, we couldn’t really decide if we really had fun or not. One of the problems was that the rides are so outdated. The Universal Studios in Japan is pretty much a carbon copy of the one in LA. But, the rides are all movies that played over 10 to 15 years ago, like Jaws, E.T, T2, Backdraft and Waterworld. It would be much better if they created something new for Japan.

Monday was our last day in Osaka and we ended up sleeping pretty early once we got back to the hostel, as we could barely stand after the long lineups. We had a really nice hostel that was small, had a lot of character and was in a great central location. The only problem was our bunks. Joel’s bed dipped down the middle, probably cause a whale of a person slept there before him. My bunk, for some reason had a slope. So if I slept to close to the edge, I would almost roll off the bed, I had to make sure I slept on the top of the slope, and thankfully the momentum never rolled me onto the floor. (Picture below: Our Hostel)