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!

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

Tokyo - where dreams come true!

Joined by my wife, I was in steamy Yokohama. Not as steamy as last August where the heat was unbearable. Not much different this time around, but those two or three degrees were noticeable. Suddenly I was catching trains and waiting for people at Yokohama station as I had less than twelve months ago. It was a very strange déjà vu.

Tokyo from the tower.

 Saturday the 11^th and it was into Tokyo for lunch and shenanigans with some of my wife’s friends. Tokyo, how crazy does it get in August? Anser: Pretty bloody crazy. So many people wherever I went, the familiar-ish area if Shibuya where the Haichi dog lives is where we met. Haichi is a dog who used to come to the Shibuya station every day to meet his owner. When his owner died for years the dogs used to come and wait on him regardless. They made a statue to the dog  which is now a very popular meeting place in the area.

Lunch went well. The next day I returned to Tokyo and visited Akihabara again where the street was cordoned off to traffic and people could walk where they liked. I also went to the Tokyo tower. It’s the tallest tower in Japan, a telecommunications type deal with a great observation deck. Hot though it was, the day was pretty clear for Tokyo standards and I could see well across most of the giant, sprawling city.

 On the last day my wife and I went to a place so many Japanese people believe is heaven on Earth – Tokyo Disneyland. We bought a ticket for around half the normal price which only allowed entry frim five pm to close (ten) and I thought that sounded extremely reasonable.

Yokohama at night. Not bad at all!

Welcome to Tokyo Disneyland!

 Not wanting to be overly critical I have to say that Tokyo Disneyland is just one big grab for your money. Don’t mind how much entry was, the car park alone was $25. Then you have to pay to take the train from the car park to the entrance. The queues were already banked up a long way. Japan sometimes is nothing more than a big wait! They open the gates at 5pm, not before, and everyone piles in. Slowly, because every ticket must be checked. Once we were in we headed to the famous splash mountain. Wait time for the ride? 160 minutes! What the?

In fairness I was warned the wait times would be very long. I just presumed that meant 45-60 minutes. I hadn’t envisaged 160 minutes! But we were lucky, there was a fast lane for those who didn’t have to go together, that was 30 minutes or so. We decided to take that lane, and the ride was the best one I took. The wait was indeed only about 30 minutes. The queue went up into the mountain and around inside it, but the end was outside. I couldn’t believe it was so long. Really, who would wait 3 hours for a ride? That’s what the wait was at Space Mountain, so I had to pass on hat one,

Tokyo Disneyland is pretty much what you’d expect a Japanese Disneyland to be. They have the castle and so forth. The food wasn’t too expensive which is a bonus. Must have been 200,000 people there or so, but I’m only guessing. I tried Thunder Mountain, Peter Pan, a steam train ride and finally the Haunted House, which managed ti break down when we were on it.

We left at around 10.15pm. Train back to the car, then, as if the waiting hadn’t been long enough, we had to get out of the car park. This took nearly an hour. No-one around to direct traffic, just a non-moving free for all,. Ended up (following a woman’s lead) picking up a witches hat to allow cars to cross from the non-moving left lane to the right which was at least slowly moving.  We had gone 20 metres in 45 minutes. Well, they recaptured what it was like to be in Tokyo Disneyland in the carpark.

At lest they could have had a man directing traffic. The I had a three hour drive to Utsunomiya  Once we were clear of heavy traffic it was actually good going, and we were glad to be able to rest for the night....

Splash Mountain

Driving to Yokohama is not fun.

Gracious forgiveness is begged for the lateness of this blog post! I’m so sorry it’s been so long. It’s been three weeks since I arrived back in Ichinoseki and since then it’s been back to school and lesson planning and correcting like crazy.  Also, I lost the SD card with the photos from Tokyo and Yokohama on it and I didn’t want to post without them.

However, memory card found! Where? Ummm.... oh.... under some papers on my desk. Whoops! So here is the rest of the story of my August sojourn  - Part One.

If you recall I was in Hakuba. I left on the morning of the 10^th of August to drive, via Fuji-Yoshida, to Yokohama. Well, that was a task and a half of full cream dairy milk let me tell you! The first part, however, wasn’t too bad. Lots of tunnels as I headed eastward and downward where the air wasn’t so cool. The traffic was okay though, so that was good.

Fuji-Yoshida is in the shadows of Mount Fuji, the closest I have got to this mythical mountain. However, again clouds and mist prevented a great view, although I did get the best pictures of it thus far. After that the traffic slowed right down for an hour or so. I drive past a lake and many holidayers. It was the season.

Finally it sped up again and I was moving along one of the better routes that isn’t an expressway in Japan. Double-laned at times, I felt confident of getting to Yokohama by 6pm. Then, as I approached and was within 50km or less, things got slow again. I decided to hop onto the expressway, not too far too go shouldn’t make a huge dint in my pocket, and would move me very quickly to my destination.

Wrong. After five kilometres I suddenly was in non-moving traffic. Just sitting there. Every five minutes we moved 50 metres. Surely not! What’s the point of paying to go on an expressway if it’s just as slow, if not slower than the normal road. I was on for forty-five minutes before I got to the next exit. Off I hopped and back to the normal roads. Sure, I would get lost and not move fast but at least I wouldn’t be paying for the privilege.

Lost I got. But I wasn’t far from my destination when I got lost. I had to guess at points, got on to route one to find it was just as bad as the expressway. Got off and just tried to head in the right general direction. When I got near to the end, my google map became pretty pointless and I didn’t know what road I was on, their aren’t a lot of street names in the Yokohama suburbs such as Sugita. I had to meet my in-laws at the Shin Sugita station.

I went too far along one road and turned back. Maybe this way? That way? The map was useless and I was lost, stressed and over it. I had been driving for ten hours by this point. I tried to sense my way to the right place. I followed signs to suburbs marked on the map in the right direction. Somehow I made it. I found places I recognised and I was there. Driving in Japan can clearly be a nightmare. I have learnt my lesson. I won’t do that again.

Hakuba - a man's gots to know his limitations!

Well, sorry for the delay but I have spent a good portion of the last week behind the wheel of my Suzuki pushing up hills and waiting at traffic lights.

The drive from Tsuruoka took me along the west coast of Japan down to Nagano-ken. I was heading for a place called Hakuba, very popular in the Winter for skiing and snow sports, and a refreshingly cool place in Summer.

The drive wasn't too bad, but an all-day affair. I found myself on a very slow route at one point, and decided I'd swap over to the expressway for a time. They are not cheap, but the expressways will get you where you want to go probably three to four times faster than the normal roads. So I sped down the expressway and cut a couple of hours out of the day. By the time I was on a normal road again it was the last 40km to Hakuba, on a road winding through mountains and tunnels. Behind a long row of trucks, I rarely did more than 30km an hour. Such are the roads in Japan.

I arrived at around 7pm at my hostel. It was clean, with a good kitchen, I had a cheap single room with proper beds and ensuite. I didn't realise how much I was missing a real, comfortable bed!

Ski jumps, Hakuba

Hakuba is in Nagano-ken, which played host to the 1998 Winter Olympics. Whilst the Summer games were going on in London, I stepped back 14 years to see some of the old places used for the Olympics in Nagano-ken, such as these ski jumps. Mad sport really, every bone could quite easily be broken. And they don't get nearly as much stopping space as I expected!

 The second day at Hakuba was time for more hiking, and I chose the popular Karamatsu-dake (mountain). First I took this 'gondola lift' pictured above. It rattled and speak and jolted for 15 minutes and left me a little shaky, I must admit! After that two sets of ski lifts were easy going, mainly because my feet could touch the foliage!

The boarded track

 After that it was about a 45 minute walk (although they advised 65-80) to the first point of interest, Happo-ike, a big pond. The clouds rolled in and out all the time I was up there. The track was mostly boardwalked to the pond, and naturally basically straight up.

Happo-ike

 It was a nice view, but I was hoping for better things, like the full ascent to Katamatsu! I was feeling much better than the previous walks, so I didn't even stop, I pushed on! Up and up and up. Within 15 minutes it was getting really hard for me. I was at over 2000 metres but altitude shouldn't have affected me, so I put it down to the incredible decline in my fitness. I was feeling in and could barely move. It was all pretty much uphill, steeper than before, no board walks. I passed people and thought maybe I could make it to the intermediate peak, Maru-yama. I got to my limit though, stopped just about a section of snow. The temperature would have been around 16 degrees, but the snow hadn't completely melted.

A peak through the clouds, from the pond.

A man's got to know his limitations and I started back down. It had taken 45 minutes from the pond to that point, less than half of that to return to the pond where the clouds broke briefly and allowed me to see a few surrounding peaks. Beautiful area. I would naturally discover that I was possibly very close to that peak and if I'd persisted another ten or so minutes, maybe less, I would have made it. Such is life.
Hakuba was a very pleasant, cool, green place to visit. A great choice in the middle of August. But two days was not enough. The following day would see me drive all the way to Yokohama.
But that will be another blog post....

Temple, beach, mountain, mountain.

Hello friends, it's been a long two days but before I sleep I must blog, I guess. LOL. Today I drove a long long way to find myself in Nagano-ken, in a town called Hakuba. However today's blog is about yesterday's adventure, which left me tired with two of the sorest calves I could imagine. That's the sort that are part of my legs, not baby cows!

At Zenpo-ji.

 First, as the rain gently fell, I drove out to Zenpo-ji, a temple a few kilometres from Tsuruoka. It was a very nice temple, there was only one other person visiting, worth a look for sure. It had a five-storied pagoda like all good temples complexes must have in Japan! Lovely little garden (above). The temple dates from the 10th century. Opposite is an interesting long abandoned train station with an old engine inside, not going anywhere. Totally overgrown with so many trees, I expect it's been at least 20 years since it's been in use. After seeing so many temples, I must admit to finding that more interesting...

 I drove along the coast. Not a hot day, mid-twenties, a bit of rain about, I stopped at the beach to take a couple of photos, the first time I have seen the Sea of Japan and the West Coast. Quite a violent looking sea, but the opposite side to the Tohoku coast of just a couple of posts again.

 I also noticed these big concrete things. You can see them in the ocean they seem to form some sort of wave blocks. Not sure if they are meant as tsunami blocks - they would have little effect I think on a serious Tsunami, however, the waves seem to always be crashing heavily all the time so I presume they prove rather effective.

Torii Gate, Yudono-san.

 Then it was time to head back up to the mountains. I headed to the third of the three holy peaks, Mt Yudono. This one is the mountain of rebirth, and at around 1500 metres is the second biggest of the mountains. I took a wrong turn and went half-way up a different mountain. Yes, the lots of wrong turns on this journey, navigating Japan is not easy. However, eventually I found my way up this toll road for a few kilometres. Considering we pay to use it, they could occasionally repair the road...
I arrived at the Torii gate where it was bus or foot power from then on in up the mountain. I new I wasn't going to get to the peak, but I looked at the map and saw there is a section where people climb ladders attached to the rocks. I wanted to see that, about three quarters of the way up.

 Up! Yes up and up and up! I went up the road. Then up some steps, down some steps to a little temple where people were getting blessed. From there it was a small, rocky path. I kept on, I had been climbing for over an hour. I finally reached the waterfall above. Amazing. A damn up the mountain, letting the water pour through a gap in the middle. Amazing because the path was only good for one walking person, but this stone wall was two metres thick. How the hell had they made it?
From there the path got worse, it was basically a creek. I had sneakers on and was worried about coming down, too easy to re-injure my ankle. Not good footwear for serious hiking. The previous day I had been warned by the man at the information centre that there would be snow here. Well it seemed unlikely, it all seemed dry - apart from the rover and creek of course. When I returned to the bottom I looked at the map to find I must have only been a couple of hundred metres away from those ladders! But in fairness I was climbing over steep wet rocks. Probably the right choice. No-one else on that part of the trail if I did hurt myself.

 I picked up an American guy at the car park who had run out of money and needed a ride into Tsuruoka. He'd hiked across the three mountains. He said it was very difficult. We stopped at this nice lake on the drive down.

Gas-san.

 It was getting late, but I made a push for the second (and third for me) Mountain, Gas-san. At over 1900 metres it's the tallest if the three, and it represents Death. Maybe not the one to finish on. The drive up was hairy to say the least. Winding road for about 20 kilometres I was thinking about turning back. But finally I arrived at 'Station Eight' where there's toilets, a building and a few vending machines where drinks are three times the normal cost.
The hitchhiker I had picked up said there was a boardwalk circuit there that would take about an hour, so I decided to the do that. Plenty of vegetation, but only at waist height, and there was snow there much to my surprise. It felt about 18 degrees up there. It was the most pleasant of the three mountains, I wished I had the time to climb to the peak, but it was over two hours from Station Eight. The weather switched and changed about six times in the one hour I'd been there, and I was warned not to go by the lady at my Guesthouse as it would be raining,

Gate at Zenpo-ji

The drive down was much easier than up. Poor car sounded far more healthy too. Hardly any traffic on the road, none at all on the way down. Another day of adventure! Boy were my calves in pain! So that was that, a night of sleep would take me to... today....

road trip!

I sit here in my little Ryokan room in a town on the west coast of Japan called Tsuruoka. It's been a long, hot, tiring but rewarding day. 

Road trip! I left my little apartment in Ichinoseki just before 10am and was on the road navigating thanks to google maps -  not too bad but not great - my way through to Yamagata Prefecture. The mercury at one point in the mid to high thirties, my little car may struggle to get up hills but I was thankful for the quality air conditioning! The route across the country was simple enough, and after the first 30km or so the roads cleared up and despite only being one lane I was able to move at a decent, if not lightning-quick pace.

lake near where the car was parked.

I traveled on the smaller roads, but made good time. It was a pretty journey and interesting.The roads mostly sat in valleys next to rivers. The quality of the free roads here though is a bit poor to be honest. Lots of make-shift repair jobs and thus many roads were like patchwork quilts, and not so smooth. Naturally very windy, I could really appreciate that I was on one of the world's youngest countries. Extremely mountainous because everything had been pushed up from below without the time to flatten out. The roads had snow barriers alongside, far from needed in August, but essential in 6 months I'm sure. Every little bit of flat land is used for rice or corn. Or maybe wheat. I am still yet to see a farm animal like a cow or sheep in Japan. They are hiding somewhere.

Museum

It was time for a stop. One of the main plans for this trip was to see a couple (at least) of the three sacred peaks in Yamagata Prefecture known as 'Dewa Sanzan'. Today I thought I would get in the smallest - Harugo-san, at 414 metres. I came to a camping ground at its base, and then a sort of information centre. The signage was poor, but I followed a small sign at the rear of the camping ground (which I'd walked back to up and down a steep hill) and through the forest I went.

It's dense, almost jungle-like in these parts. Alive with insects of all types, the path was pretty average. I read about the path, there were supposed to be loads of people on it. Not a one. Oh Andrew, you did something wrong! Well, the sign said Mt Harugo.

And indeed I ended up in the right place. Seems I didn't START from the right place. I crossed a toll road and followed another path. I was hot and sweaty and it had been over an hour, but I was there. An interesting small museum, many temples, a functioning monastery,  souvenir shops and quite a few people. Very interesting place. Beautiful buildings. I found the correct path and decided to take it back down.

Shrines at Harugo-san

 It was darned steep, and still quite a few coming up. Well patronised, completely made out of stone - no good for the ol' legs. It went on and on and I soon realised - it must have gone down further than I hiked up! Near the end of the path was a beautiful bridge and a five-pillared pagoda - never go out of fashion those. I walked up a hill at the end, but it took a long time to get down, and I feared it was no where near I parked my car.

Main temple at Harugo-san

 I was right! Harugo village is where I found myself! That's where I should have started from. In fact I was told at the information centre I was now 10km from where I had parked my car! What? How was that possible? I thought I had walked 4-5km max. If I'd started there I could have got a decent map with English, but no I had to take the hard route!
Luckily, I was told by the very kind man at the information centre, there was a bus that went past the camping ground. I waited. The bus turned up but said 'end of the line'. Only in winter does it do that route in the afternoon! Woah! But instantly the INCREDIBLY kind man offered me a lift.

The path down (and up to) Harugo-san. 

 Wherever you go you will find kindness, that's one thing I've learnt from my travels. Back to the car, and onto Tsuruoka. This was a great day. Adventure, friendliness, a bit of exercise! Harugo is a bit of a pilgrimage. The three peaks each have their importance - Harugo represents birth, but most pilgrims only make it to Harugo, the other two are much harder to get to and can only be reached in the Summer months. Many pilgrims dress in white. It was a very interesting day. Tomorrow - well you can find out more about tomorrow, tomorrow!

another pagoda to the power of five

Olympic Soapbox

Ahhh Japan. What a country it is. Beautiful mountains everywhere you go, a land that's constantly shifting and moving. Open to the elements, resolute as well. And it needs to be at times! Think of what this country has survived in the past 70 years. It's darned impressive!
Then the curiosities. Last week I saw a man pedalling around on his bike in his dressing gown with a cigarette in his mouth. Bikes cross the roads, use the footpaths and often can be found riding on the right-hand side of the road too. They're a law unto themselves. BUT try to organise something like a money transfer and every little thing has to be perfect! Cross you i's and dot your t's. Hmmm wait no..... Anything involving a form generally also involves a team of people looking at it and working out exactly what should be done. It's paperwork galore here. I'm trying to hire a room. It doesn't have a dvd but it does have a video player. Yet go shopping for electronics and you can ONLY find the absolute latest models. Contradictions galore!
On Sunday I head off to Yamagata-ken, starting a slow, west coast journey before swinging back to Yokohama. It hopefully will make for some good blogs. But today I thought I would depart from standard blogging and get all opinionated!

The Olympics. I'm not a huge fan to be honest. I really like the idea of all nations getting together - I think that's fantastic. But this year especially I think in Australia we are seeing what I don't like about the games.
Last I looked Australia, after four days, had won 13 medals, but only one gold. The media and public are going nuts about it. It's not good enough apparently! I read an article about how the athletes were only concerned about partying, having a good time. FOR SHAME! If we don't win enough gold medals the country will dissolve I expect. The British press were on the back of their team even more after a very bad start for the first three days, it has since improved.
After kicking up such a fuss, The Age (a Melbourne newspaper) also printed an article about how the sportsmen were bad losers. Huh? That's the pot calling the kettle black ain't it? Who's at fault for these 'not quite as good as we hoped' results? For pete's sake.....
This is a world celebration. Let's remember this. We can all get together for two weeks and in that time blow no-one's heads off. Speaking of which things are very bad in Syria right now, but that's hardly as important as Emily Seebolm only getting silver is it?

What is swimming anyway? I went swimming four times this week. No-one gave me a medal. Is it a personal validation for being able to go .001 of a second faster over 100 metres? Are you a worthwhile human being now? Don't get me wrong, people like Michael Phelps are amazing athletes. Of course they are. I just don't understand the obsession with being faster than other people. And then one person in the whole bloody world is faster than you and you are a failure? What? It makes no sense to me at all.

Then you have the fact of such an uneven playing field. If we can learn anything from the cold war it's that money makes all the difference when it comes to taking a good athlete and making them the best. For decades the USSR and USA spent fortunes so that as countries they could feel validated that they took the most gold medals home. What sort of priority is this? Are the populations so secretly insecure. Now China is in on the act. This time the UK is too, but they are hosting and maybe next time it will be less so.

Who remembers Eric the Eel? Eric the Eel was a swimmer from the small country of Equatorial Guinea in West Africa at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. He had to swim his heat on his own because the other two swimmers in it were disqualified after false starts. Eric swam and swam and swam. He'd never even been in a pool until he arrived in Sydney! He broke the Equatorial Guinea record. The crowd went wild cheering this guy going a lot slower than most other swimmers, on his own, from a country I doubt they could find on a map. Now THAT was a fine Olympic moment in my mind. Not the US dreamteam winning the basketball.

There are so many athletes there with probably amazing stories but if they don't come from Australia, the USA or the UK we won't hear about them. Especially if they don't win anything. People from every country on Earth in one place, and every country's broadcast is only concerned with their country's performance. It's only natural you say. Well then what is the Olympics about? People coming together in celebration, or a whole bunch of athletes just wanting to win? And if it is the later, maybe that's okay. I don't know. But it seems countries - like Australia - throw money at any athlete with a chance to medal.
Then ask yourself. Is that a good way to spend your money? The world ain't in the best economic shape right now. Governments get criticised for spending too much money on international aid. I know the Australian opposition would cut it back if in power. Never heard it suggest cutting back money for sports training.
I'm not anti-sport, every so called 'developed' country does it. Look at China today. Didn't win a huge amount prior to the Beijing Games, now they lead the table because the government decided to put the money there. It makes a huge difference.


So that's the world today. That's how we rate achievements. Winning an Olympic medal is something to be very proud of. Not just for the athlete, but for the patriot in his arm chair.
Wouldn't it be nice to be proud of saying 'my country sent money to Bangladesh and helped out a village destroyed by floods rebuild. Gave it water to drink, built homes, repaired the road so they could get medical supplies.

Why do we feel more proud about an athlete, given an almighty leg-up to win a gold medal, than THAT?


sorry for the soapbox thing. Normal service will be resumed as of next blog.

Not far from where I live...

So blog time again. Hopefully you'll see a few more next week as I will be heading off for around 10 days. It's school holidays here so I get a bit of a break too. Will I escape the heat though? That's the real question!

School kids parade at the Senmaya Festival

I had a few thoughts I want to share with my devoted readers, but I will save that for the next blog post. Last weekend I headed to a place called Senmaya, where I teach, as it was festival time! In Japan every small town seems to have its own festival. It seems almost mandatory in fact! Ichinoseki has its festival this coming Friday, and many other places in the area have been getting into the festival spirit. In Senmaya's case it seemed to be for the elderly people, put on by the school children. Poor kids, it was around 34 degrees with 90% humidity and they found themselves dancing in these thick traditional costumes. No wonder none of them were smiling!

Still, it was interesting if a little under-patronised. Lots of drums but I had missed the majority of it, only deciding whether to go or not at the last minute. Good to get out there and see some of my community.

A factory in Kesenumma, The tsunami punched a hole right in the wall.

 After that I drove to the coast. It's about 50km away from where I live, a place called Kesennuma. It's a place that felt the force of the March 11th Tsunami last year in a devastating way.

The shells of destroyed buildings punctuate a wasteland at Kesenumma.

 When I was first told I was headed to Iwate, I was a little hesitant. We are talking about one of the most affected regions by one of the deadliest natural disasters on this planet in my lifetime. In fact, perhaps only the Boxing Day Tsunami was more devastating. Here in Japan, over 20,000 people dead or missing after March 2011. I was hesitant, but realised full well that Ichinoseki was not that close to the coast. In fact, Kesenumma is in Miyagi prefecture. I felt safe enough going to Ichinoseki. Would I have been brave enough to head to Kesenumma? I don't know. These days I'm not just thinking about myself too.

The stunning wasteland

Other English teaching folks around these parts said they visited Kesenumma, and I decided I wanted to too. For one thing, I wanted to just see the coast, the other was no doubt some sort of morbid curiosity. Living in the area though, I also wanted to get a handle on what exactly happened here 16 months earlier. We drove slowly into town. Things seemed normal...

This is the second floor of a building. The ground floor has been swept away. Somehow the second floor survived.

Then we noticed a bit of damage. It seemed to be on the ground floor of buildings. Some had perfectly intact second floors or higher, but the ground floor was just the supports and little else. Maybe a solid brick wall. Some of the more stable buildings had sort of open air shops inside the ground floor. One place was selling what looked like kites and other festival decorations.

Drove around and found this sort of wasteland area. We were now down at sea level, in what appeared to be an old industrial / port area. Kesenumma was a busy port town before, with a now defunct and sad looking 'Shark Museum'. It was hot and haunting. This wasteland area had a few strong factories still standing, and people working hard clearing debris everywhere. Shells of buildings here and there. One factory was notable as it stood three or four stories high, and had damage and missing walls on the top and bottom floors. I have heard the wave was up to thirty metres high. I saw damage up to at least half that. 

The old piers now sink into the water, but boats still enter the harbour.

The thing is, I didn't see the coast. Kesenumma is not on the coast. It's a harbour, a secluded bay area. It's somewhat protected. It's hilly, at the top of the hill sits houses seemingly untouched. Imagine the horror of watching from there. Boats shift in and out of the harbour, they seemed to be leisure boats of some kind. A small bus of Japanese people got off and took photos. Is this it? I was doing the same. Devastation tourism.

On the 11th of July I was at my other school. We had a minute's silence in remembrance. That was in Ichinoseki. I've been told there was no power for two weeks here and man hole covers burst up from the roads. I've seen one building the earthquake made 'unsafe', but generally, if you weren't looking closely, you mightn't know Ichinoseki was affected. But Kesenumma is another, horrifying story which is hard to comprehend. I saw the videos, the footage of the wave that took cars up and deposited them kilometres away. But now I have a little more of an idea how real it was.

I hope I never get to understand what it was like to experience first hand.

Morioka, Poets and Festivals

Last weekend I was out and about around this great prefecture of Iwate. I had a day in Morioka, although the afternoon was taken by training for my job and an ALT here, and on Sunday I visited the nearby town of Mizasawa where there was a bit of a festival going on that a friend was involved in.

Ladies are bemused by my attempts to photograph a statue in Mizasawa.

 Mizasawa is around 35 minutes drive from my present home in Ichinoseki. The visit was to catch up with a friend who went through training with me, but well, suddenly their were more gaijin folk around, none of whom we knew, and it turned into a 2 hour chat session, with ice cream. The festival had wound down by the time I arrived, so not so much happening although still a fair bit of food on offer.

 What you see above this writing is some sort of photo-booth where they use a really bright flash and turn girls' faces white. Apparently that's rather in and especially the young girls in Japan seem to often get photos of themselves taken in these booths, often with friends. I'm not sure exactly what the photo on the outside of the machine says about the modern-day Japanese Teenage Girl, but I think we can safely assume that she is pretty girly. This is a common promoted sort of image across this country, and let's be honest she looks very cute, right? But am I the only one thinking that this is a little too sexualised? I mean she's a bloody doll!
Just a thought... don't want to get political or nothing!

 On to Morioka. I remember being surprised that Iran was so big on its poets - by the way lovely sculptured tree above, hey? - but so is Japan. And Iwate is the prefecture with a huge history of poets and... well I guess poetry. In Morioka, the capital of Iwate, you can visit a few homes that used to belong to now deceased poets. As for poets these days, well they may be popular but J-pop groups AKB48 and Arashi may just have the edge in popularity.

 This house is where the poet Takuboku used to live. The tatami mats you see are still popular features in Japanese homes. I have some in the bedroom, for example. Most Japanese homes have them in the bedroom still today, although this house had them throughout the 'open to the public' section. The little fire place is less common today.
I should comment on shoes in Japan. I have two pairs of black shoes to wear to work, then at school I change into my 'inside shoes'. Then at home people wear slippers BUT not the same ones for the balcony, or the toilet. Then on tatami mats no shoes is the usual go. All I know is, I am changing my footwear a LOT. Sigh. If there's one thing I miss about Australia it's using the same shoes all day. That and the earth being relatively stable.

 Hey ho! Yes festival time in Morioka too. Please don't ask me what the festival was for... oh wait no I know this one! The start of the Summer. Yes, there is some serious irony in the fact that it rained most of the day.

 There were drums and dancing and horses and people turned out to see it all too! Right down the main shopping strip of Morioka! What a buzz!

Earlier I visited this house, now a sort of gallery. The former home of Kenji Miyasawa. He wrote poetry and children's books and died in 1933. His house was nice, the gardens were very nice. All in all, nice! Worth a stop if you're wandering around Morioka at any rate.

In other news I have been getting my act into gear with the book and some new chapters are available. I also have my own author's page now so please visit it at

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

And as always I am grateful for all support. Will let you know about the chapters I have uploaded recently in my next post!

Cheers!

Around Ichinoseki - Genbi Gorge and Hiraizumi

Hey folks. So long since I last blogged. I should be shot, I know. People manage to blog every day, what's wrong with me?? Well I'm blogging today! So... yay me!

Well I wanted to talk about two places near Ichinoseki that I visited recently. Firstly we have the stunning Genbi Gorge just up the road a little. About 20 minutes from town centre I think the water is a beautiful green-blue as you can see and rages down the river in fine style.

Lucky to go in May before the throngs arrive I suspect. Well, not really sure about the throngs BUT it's an idyllic little place for a picnic, with a suspension bridge and a restaurant that sends things over the river by basket if you so desire. Lots of touristy shops there and a few places for a nice ice cream - a must when you go site-seeing in Japan.

A similar distance from Ichinoseki in a slightly different direction is the town of Hiraizumi, probably the most interesting of towns in the whole of the Iwate Prefecture. An ancient capital and seat of power around the 11th century, Hiraizumi is a very significant place not just in Iwate, but Japan.

The main drawcard is the temples. I visited the Chosun-ji temple complex, up a hill and into the forest. It's surprising because the land around is flat and not so attractive, and in the middle rises these hills which are stunning. Just going for a drive around these hills after seeing the temples was magical. Chosun-ji is a world heritage site, the centre-piece a gold painted temple now housed inside a wooden building. There are bell houses, a small museum and some great views as well. Not to mention other temples sitting above small lakes and some stunning tall trees. It's highly recommended!

As for school life, it certainly has its ups and downs. Class size varies from 8 to 42 students (very different) and some of the bigger classes are all boys - definitely a challenge! Yesterday I went to a sports day held by the special school I teach at (sorry not allowed to post photos). It was a great day, the kids all felt involved and that they contributed, which is great. It was odd at times, there was a cheering competition and also a couple of events that were reminiscent of 'It's a knockout', but the main thing was that the students were able to participate and enjoy it, and they did. And I was in the winning side for the PTA tug-of-war!

So it's been a steep learning curve here, but lucky to be in a nice location. Until the next blog!!!! (not too far away!)