Sunday, October 21, 2012

The Streets of Ichinoseki - is Japan a Nanny State?

Time for a reflective piece of blogging I think. :)

I have nearly been in Japan working and living for seven months. It's been a hectic crazy time and I never feel there are enough hours in the day for what I want to do. Work is busy usually, with sudden short periods of quietness.
The Japanese workplace is not one that can be highly recommended. At my school most teachers have so many responsibilities for things outside class that one remarked to me the other day she had no time to prepare lessons. I see them working so very I hard I really could never complain about my workload!
Schools in Japan have a high importance placed on activities outside class. Not only do the teachers show the signs of being over-worked, over stressed and the rest, but so do the students. It's not uncommon to find students asleep when I arrive to class, especially in the afternoon. Coming to school on the weekends and staying until 7pm at night is also considered normal here for students.
I remember being very curious last year when in Japan as to why I saw so many children in school uniforms on Sundays. Now I know why, it's the norm here. One student told me he gets up at 4.30am to get to school on time as well. It's all a bit insane, but it's a cultural thing, the company, the employer is king. It's fair to say that Karl Marx isn't so well known in Japan.

Driving is interesting and frustrating at times. You have to be so careful around the place. I was told recently that in direct opposition to a place like India where might is right, Japanese law sticks up for the little guy. No matter how many rules a pedestrian or cyclist is breaking, if they are hit by a car then it's the car's fault. Bikes are everywhere here and mostly students ride them.
They go from footpath to road and back ad nauseum, they don't obey lights and signs, they never ever signal and naturally no-one wears helmets. In fact, they often ride on the right hand side of the road, into the traffic who drives on the left. The other day I nearly witnessed a collision between two cyclists as one was on the left and the on the right. As they were going in opposite directions they were on the same side of the road and were lucky not to end up on the ground cut and bruised!
Cyclists haven't cottoned on to being seen at night either. The few bikes that do have lights have lights so weak you can hardly see them. Very dangerous in my book, but from what I understand it seems Japanese law doesn't encourage people to take responsibility. I would call it a bit of a 'nanny state' to be fair.
For example earlier today there were vans going around with loud speakers telling people to be careful with their fires. It's common to see vans running around with warning messages to residents.They seem to feel the need to warn the public about things you'd think they know about.

Sorry - not meant to be a whinge, more an observation. When there is roadworks happening they deploy far more men than are needed. They get a couple if not more to wave people through with flags. They have flashing lights on the side of roads in places that are flood lit. And then other parts are complete darkness! It's all very confusing.
Anyways, enough of that! It's also a wonderful, beautiful country with amazing people! Don't be fool by my rantings!

As for the book - well I am please to announce it is now possible to follow me all the way from Bangladesh to Senegal! The final chapter, Senegal, is available for Kindle and Kindle devices such as the FREE Kindle for PC. The African chapters in particular are full of photographs. It's been an amazing ride getting it ready and up, and now all I have to do is compile the Europe and Africa chapters into complete books.


I present to you the chapter on Niger today. It's a truly wild and out there place, in the middle of the desert. It was difficult going, but in my mind a positive experience. I was taken in by a very kind guy who lives in Niamey, visited the Sahara and was faced with some of the most abject poverty I could imagine. One of the poorest countries on Earth, Niger presented challenges, hospitality and as always, adventure.

http://www.amazon.com/Dhaka-Dakar-Across-Chapter-ebook/dp/B009MZ911I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350738113&sr=8-1&keywords=dhaka+to+dakar+niger

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Soup and Iwate's hidden gem.

When family is in town, it's a good chance to go somewhere and see something, and that has been my day. But last night we went out to a restaurant and had a very nice dinner indeed! Below is a picture of my soup - Hattozen, something of an Iwate favourite, simmering away. It is one of those places where your cook your own dinner.
Hattozen, bubbling away on the table.
In the soup is all manner of vegetables from cabbage to mushrooms, and a little meat as well. We threw in bits of dough, like the sort that makes noodles, and that boils along too. It was a meal enjoyed by all.

Today was an absolutely wonderful day weather-wise. The sun was shining and it was around twenty degrees. There are two famous gorges in these parts, and readers may recall I posted previously on 'Genbi Gorge'. Today we headed to the other gorge, down the picturesque route 19, Geibi Gorge. Yes the name IS very similar and causes quite a bit of confusion from time to time!

one of the boats

Geibi Gorge is a bigger tourist attraction. Ask you can see in the photos we all piled into a boat that took us on a tour of the gorge. It's about a 90-minute tour, and at one end of the ride we got out and walked five minutes to this special shot where I received a congratulatory card for managing to land a rock in a hole.



The ride was lovely and the gorge was, well, ummm, gorgeous. Sorry! We were in the shade most of the ride and although it wasn't very comfortable, it was enjoyable. Possibly the best thing to see around Ichnoseki, where I am living these days. All the way the water was never very deep (so I imagine it freezes in Winter) and when we looked into we could see so many fish of various sizes.

Fish at Geibi Gorge
Some of the girls on the boat got very surprised when the fish came along. Ducks were happy to come up to the boat too and one big fish kept it's mouth above the water and kept motioning to be fed! The fish must see a lot of tourists because there were many boats on the river today. The website said they left hourly but it seemed like there was a departure every fifteen minutes or so.
One rock looked a lot like a face, and our boat-master general, the man in charge of punting us along the river, talked the whole journey not doubt informing everyone on the boat who spoke Japanese of the most fascinating of facts. That was, by the way, everyone but me! On the way back he sang to us. It was some interesting and unique warbling indeed, not sure I could call it singing! And he kept singing for like 15 minutes without stopping. Somewhere between Austrian yodelling and Chine opera!


It seems there is a long proud tradition of being a boat punter. That is your job is punting the boat up and down the river. Right? For starters they not only pilot the boats but build them too! Wowsers? Yes indeed! Very impressed was I! Above is a photo of their photo viewed as you wait for the boat. In typical Japanese fashion most make sure they looked very serious for the photo. Proudly brought to you by.... these scary guys!

And thus was a great day retold to views of the blogsphere.

Work on the book is going very well, now I just need someone to buy it!
Actually I have sold a massive 3 chapters so far in October which equals a whole dollar in sales! Anyways Chapter 16 is now up - Togo and Benin. Please, if your interested - you will find it with the others on Amazon!

http://www.amazon.com/Dhaka-Dakar-Across-Chapter-ebook/dp/B009MJXBO2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350210903&sr=8-1&keywords=dhaka+to+dakar+togo

and again, my author page!

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008BD3O56

thanks everyone! Til next time!

Sunday, October 07, 2012

Car parks, Speeches and hair cuts.

I checked the date of my last post. September the 8th? Can that be right? I mean really, that is a LONG time ago!
Driving home from my holiday is where I left you good people. I took the famed route four nearly all the way home, I avoided paying to use expressways. I overnighted in a place called Utsonomiya. I stayed in the Toyoko Inn, well one of them. This is a chain of hotels found all over Japan. It's small and basic but clean and modern enough, and about as cheap as I could find in Utsonomiya.
They have these amazing parking... well 'machines' here in Japan, and at this hotel it was my first use of one. I drove the car into a tall but narrow building, onto a metal ledge. I got out as the ledge turns around 90 degrees and starts to rise with the car on it, going straight up and then to one side. This way they can stack many cars on top of each other. In the morning I swiped my keycard, waited a couple of minutes and the car was returned to me. It's like putting it in a safe deposit box I guess!
The drive home wasn't too bad except that I decided to bypass Sendai and got completely lost/ Probably cost an hour but before too long I was home in Ichinoseki, my road trip over and my schools days started again.

Early in September I got to judge a recitation contest. Many Junior High School students read a prepared passage and I was one of two judges in the room in charge of giving a mark. It was quite a serious event actually! There was an opening and closing ceremony in a lecture theatre and we were given treats. I got a day off school so I was pretty happy all-in-all! The students did very well as I can't imagine many of my High School students doing as well, or being as enthusiastic!

The weather changed two and a bit weeks ago. One day hot, the next day not!Today is nice weather though! Sunny and warm, but I believe that this area sees snow sometime in November so I am expecting more of a drop in the coming weeks.

My hair had gotten quite long too so I had to get a cut. luckily I have found a place in town where I can get it done for a mere 1000 yen, around $13.00. This place is curiously called '3Q'. They have three 'q' words that relate directly to their hairdressing. 1. Quality. Yes you do want quality. 2. Quick. not so important in my book but you don't want to be there all day. and 3. Quest.      Huh?
No I dd not make that up. What on Earth they mean by it is for them to know and for customers to muse about. The quest for the perfect hair cut? Who can say - but that is Japan for you. They frequently use English words on signs and in shops with little idea about what they mean. Here's a prime example!

As for other things I have been doing, I am now editing the final volume of my book, Dhaka to Dakar - Across Africa. I have been reliving the highlights, and indeed lowlights of my time in Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal. It's been a journey just reading through and editing them all. My time with malaria in Burkina Faso was especially confronting to read again.
For those who are interested, the first two chapters - Ghana / Togo and Benin   are now available on Amazon for less than a buck. That's chapters 15 and 16 over all. That means that indeed I have already uploaded the entire Europe Volume as well. I've had to do a front cover for each chapter which I admit is rather annoying and perhaps I should have chose a more professional font...
The chapters all include many photos, memories and experiences. Please support my travel writing!
Goodbye for now, below is a link for Chapter 15: Ghana.

Dhaka to Dakar: Volume 3 - Across Africa. Chapter 15, Ghana