Beautiful Iwate gets hot!

August appears to have thrown its worst at us here in Iwate in terms of weather. Last week there were a couple of rather sticky nights where sleep was difficult to impossible. Although it’s still hot in the days all of a sudden the nights have cooled down which is obviously a mercy. Last week was a very busy week, first back at school.

Beautiful Iwate.

Then on the weekend we visited an onsen on Saturday and then on Sunday went to a concert by my school’s incredibly talented brass band!

I have never been to an onsen before. I was tempted to go to a public bath back in 2004 when I visited Hungary, and there have been many places where hot springs/baths/onsens have been very popular. In the ex-Soviet states hot baths or banyas are widespread and enjoyed by many. When I visited the remote settlement in Kyrgyzstan they had access to hot springs there, and there was bath in a shed fed by the hot springs, but I have to be honest, it never really interested me enough, especially in the cold!

But they say you should try everything once, right? What? Wrong? Nevertheless we hopped in the car and drove out somewhere between 20 to 30 kilometres from Ichinoseki. It’s name? Kurotaki Onsen.  The drive was windy, but beautiful. The greens out in the rice fields are very striking at this time of the year and I was taken by just how beautiful this area which has been my home now for 1.5 years. You only have to get 5 kilometres out of the city and it becomes apparent, especially if you head down the right road.

The onsen well, it’s a big bath. You enter the change rooms connected to the bath. The bath was quite big and around 43-44 degrees celcius or so it claimed. There was a piping hot sauna – only big enough for two, a cold bath and showers and stools around the rest of the walls. A section of the bath was devoted to a ‘pulse bath’, some sort of electric current you can sit in the middle of. And I tried it – it felt very strange!

I couldn’t stay in the bath for more than a few minutes, it was just too hot! I braved the sauna a couple of times – 30 seconds a pop. I’m not sure how hot it was in there, the thermometer said 90 degrees but that couldn’t be right, could it? I would think 60-70 degrees. Probably shouldn’t go in the sauna alone though, with no-one directly outside. I felt close to passing out and I might have woken up cooked!

After that was pretty much done. I used the shower as five or six men entered from nowhere. I had had the facilities to myself for the first thirty minutes. 

Ice Cream stop!

There was a relaxation room too and I took a little nap. We drove back as the sun set around the hills and rice fields which were truly amazing. There’s even a few flowers here and there. We stopped for some nice ice cream too, it has to be done!

Sunday saw us watch the brass band concert in Fujisawa. For a small town they have an excellent culture centre with quite a decent concert hall. Who’d a thunk it? The band really is excellent, they went to the school brass band finals in Morioka not that long ago. The weekend finished with me being one tired boy! But I’d had a good weekend. Pity I didn’t get to the beer festival going on in Ichinoseki!

More Tokyo stuffies!

After Ueno my day was not done, oh no! I made my way to nearby Asakusa by the train to see the famous temple, Senjo-ji. I was pushing time as I had a movie I wanted to see, 'World War Z'. Maybe I should say I wanted to see A movie and this was about the least crap-looking thing that was on anywhere in English.
Anyways.

Ooops. Going to Senjo-ji was a big mistake. Why? Well, simply, I'd been there before! So no really a BIG mistake, but I didn't realise until I got there that I'd visited it last August! It was a mistake because I was going to struggle to get to the movie early enough. Anyways, at least I could take a couple of nice photos.

I also passed this charming house less than 50 metres from the temple which looks old-style at the very least! In amongst the bigger, modern building I thought it was quite charming. Did I mention it is charming?

Then I rushed back to the train station, taking a line that I couldn't find anywhere on any map to Shinjuku station, where I found my cinema, 15 minutes in hand but no tickets left...
So I went to Harajuku, a little area north of Shibuya where apparently cos-players line up for photos, but I must have been too late for that as well :( although there was a little activity, and some sort of music festival going on too. Also passed a packed street which apparently has a lot of children's shops on it I found out later, Takeshita Street.

A school group from Hong Kong in Harajuku

I walked slowly down to Shibuya, and stopped at Tower Records. They have a lovely air conditioned cafe on the third (?) level where I had a beer and waited for my wife to finish a seminar. It had been a hot and sticky day, and I had spent a good portion of it on trains. But you know, at least I was getting around right?

Ueno and the Shitamachi Museum

So late Friday night we arrived in Yokohama. It was darned hot, much hotter than Ichinoseki. Saturday was a recovery day for me, I did very little but sweat in condition approaching forty degrees inside with no air conditioning. I sat near some fans and watched a great win by beloved bulldogs back in Australia.

Ueno.

Sunday however, I braved steamy Tokyo. It was much hotter than last year, most days pushing the 40 mark. I took the ol' JR line to Ueno. It took an hour from where I was but at least I didn't have to change. Taking the metro around Tokyo often involves 17 confusing changes to go anywhere so an hour with no changes is as relaxing as taking the metro/subway/whatever in Tokyo.

I went to Ueno to see a few museums two years ago, there's also a zoo in the area. It's a good place for tourists with lots to do and see. This time I visited the Shitamachi museum. It's a great little museum which shows how Tokyo was around 100 years ago (principally) before the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 which devastated Tokyo.
There are a few examples inside of dwellings back in that era. Everything was made of wood back then so fire ripped through the city destroying so much of it in 1923. Most houses were heated by a fire so it was always going to be the biggest danger resulting from an earthquake.
House were smaller back then with more people living inside. There was even less protecting the dwellers from the winter too. Tatami mats were still the rage. Later, Tokyo would start to grow upwards which I imagine actually created more space. Back at the turn of the century though, it was much flatter. Safer with the earthquakes I guess.
Upstairs are some examples of life in the 1950s and 1960s. I enjoy this style of museum - not a fan of museums full of rocks as you know! There was a home interior and a bar with various types of interesting board games. Very interesting.

Typical room cica 1900 in Tokyo - Shitamachi Museum

View over lake.

Outside the museum is a large lake, covered in lilies. It's divided into sections. To the north is the zoo, to the east is an open lake with those swan-boats you peddle, in the centre is a temple. To the west is the main Ueno park, with a statue to Saigo Takamori near the southern entrance. He was a samuari who according to 'the guide book' originally supported the Meiji Restoration but changed his mind and disemboweled himself in protest when his opposition failed. Oh well, each to their own.

A worthwhile area of Tokyo to visit for the tourist is Ueno. But I should say, I heartily recommend choosing a different season to visit!

The Statue.

Approaching 8000 and expressway madness

Thankyou all so much! I am almost at 8000 page views! I'm sure there are millions of blogs with more, especially over the time frame that this blog has been going - since late 2005, but still, it's an achievement of sorts. After the next couple of posts, I might do a retrospective perhaps!

Last Friday we hopped into the car at around 3.30pm and started the driving down to stay with my wife's family in Yokohama. It's around 500km, so no Sunday arvo dawdle, we hoped to be there not too late. And it went mostly to plan, despite the inordinate amount of trucks on the road. We took the expressways for around 70% of the journey - otherwise we'd probably need two days. Students are often amazed in my classes when I try to give an idea of distances in Australia. I was telling students about a drive to Uluru from Sydney - well I've never done it, but that it would take a cgood 3-4 days minimum. That journey is nearly 3000km by road via South Australia as chosen by google maps.

See, Google Maps knows all! 30 hours driving but good luck doing that in two days. You'd have to be mad. At least the roads move at a good click back home. Non-expressway travel can be tedious, as it was on the journey, at times. To save money we did some stretches on expressways and some not. Turns out that it would have been cheaper to stay mostly on the expressway - I guess you get a charge every time you enter the expressway, because on our way home today we used it all in one long stretch, further than on Friday, and it turned out cheaper.

The expressways get crazy once you hit Tokyo. It had a futuristic feel with so many bridges and roads spinning around in circles, all lifted mightily above the ground. Sometimes there are like four levels of roads held up by pylons it's like the States in that respect. There are plenty of trucks,  just like at home, and just like at home tail-gating is a keen sport here. The limit is supposedly, I believe, 100, and generally cameras and police let you get away with 120 ish. Still there's always the odd car going at 150 km/ph and with the trucks trying to pass each other it get's pretty stressful. Then around Tokyo area the signs get very difficult to read. Thank you to the internet and wikipedia for the following pic:

Good luck figuring that one out! We made it to Yokohama at about 11.15pm I think. So nearly eight hours of driving. On the way home we did it in six and a half but boy is my brain frazzled from the concentration.

SO what did I do in Tokyo? Next time folks! Next time!

PS. don't forget this page - link to my travel book!

Mount Murone

Surrounding mountains near Mt Murone.

Howdy all,
As things hot up here in Japan in terms of the weather and in terms of politics in Australia with an election around the corner, tomorrow sees me take to the roads again as I drive to Yokohama. It's going to be quite a drive! It's been a long time since I've headed out for such a long drive so I need to take a big deep breath and get ready!

The Observatory.

A few days ago I took a drive up a local mountain - not very high, a few metres less than 900 metres, Mount Murone. It was a beautiful little spot - I was there in some pretty nasty weather but still I could take in a bit of beauty amongst the clouds and rain - which thankfully tapered off a bit when I reached the top.

There is an observatory there too, which unfortunately I didn't have time to visit whilst I was there (save that for another day and another blog), but I was able to take some photos to share. Mount Murone is about 40 km from Ichinoseki, between here and the coast. For locals it's a pretty famous place. For outsiders, it's very much a hidden secret. One worth visiting! It was even a couple of degrees cooler there!

The weather is certainly getting up there now, we are into our third day of 32 or more here in a row, I saw in Tokyo it was 37 yesterday - crikey! That's what I am heading into and Tokyo is even more humid than it is here. Take care everyone! See you soon on the blogsphere!

Website up!

Hey folks, how goes the day?
It's a warm and sunny day here in Ichinoseki. Tonight there will be a festival and fireworks in town. Lanterns and flags are out in force, and the nuff-nuffs are out in force on the road! Ahhhh no I shouldn't complain! Sorry sorry sorry!

I have just put up a webpage for my Dhaka to Dakar book. It had been pointed out to me that the Amazon author page is confusing and it's hard to work things out there, so this website, I hope, presents it in a logical way.
Each of the three books have their own pages, with links to the individual chapters as well in order. Please check it out and leave a comment!

Dhaka to Dakar webpage

Cheering BE-SU-BO-RU style!

Yesterday I had a great experience with my school. We travelled by bus from Senmaya to Morioka - ok that was not so great on the winding roads, but we all travelled up to Morioka to watch our school take on the SIchinoseki Gakuien (or a school that sounds like that) in a baseball game. Now I mentioned once before that it's pretty serious, the high school baseball here, so with the news that we had won the first game, the entire school bar office staff and one of the vice principals was bussed two and a half hours away to support the team! Quite a feat. Interesting choice too as the schools are only 35 minutes apart to play all the games in Morioka. The team actually had stayed in Morioka since the knockout tournament began. Perhaps this is the power the prefecture capitals have here in Japan.

The ground was wide and open, and left me wondering why baseball is played on dirt with a grass outfield. Nicer to play on grass all the way, surely?? Anyways, we waited outside the ground for 20 minutes and were finally let in. The cheering is all very organised, and every student knows all the chants and dare I say it? - dance moves!When your school is batting it's your turn to cheer. Our school was very very good at cheering, with lots of songs, many apparently anime songs, and the strange custom of dunking three buckets of water on the three cheer leaders at the start of each batting innings. The leaders, by the way, are all boys and were in full school uniform!
Thankfully it was sunny, around 24 degrees - perfect. The rain, as mentioned, has delayed this tournament big time!

Preparing the playing area.

The game went on, and I was encouraged to dance and cheer and I joined in. I don't want to dob on the other teachers, but they weren't quite so enthusiastic. The brass band and the cheer leaders led everyone, and we had a blast. Half-way through the seventh innings, the game was called off because it wasn't close. we were losing 9-0 at the time! The opposition looked much bigger than our students I must admit, and I was told they ran 10 km a day! That's what I mean by taking it seriously. I was also told our players didn't run so far.
And we piled back into the buses and headed back, another 2.5 hours, to school. At times the cheering overshadowed the game. Actually, it did most of the time. The result didn't matter, a good time was had by all, and in a country where there is so much pressure on students to do well in tests and the like, where they are worked incredibly hard, that's a very good thing!

The Rainy Season

Last year I was warned - 'oh the rainy season is coming' around June. It never really did. There was a day here and a day there of rain, yet I thought 'rainy season' was a bit of an exaggeration. This year, however, It's the reverse, a day here and a day there of sun, but generally rain is the default setting. We've had one day without rain this week, that was Tuesday.
Today I was supposed to be joining the entire high school in going to Morioka by bus to cheer our baseball team on. It didn't happen because the weather gods were not with us. In fact the entire high school tournament - many games of which are televised here in Japan, is four days behind schedule because of the rain!
Still, although it rained all day and last night too, it's not raining right now. The temperature is down too so I should be thankful for that small mercy. As a break approaches, I hopefully will update more for you.

Today I'd like to share some photos around the Morioka castle site. Well, it's more of an old fortress and now a garden with impressive (restored) walls and a very pleasant place to spend some time. I was there three or four weeks ago and the weather was perfect for that day! And then it rained the next!

Sorry muchly for the lack of blog posts for the last month and a bit. Life can get on top of you sometimes and before you know it SNAP! You haven't blogged for ages.
I've been having some severe issues with Kindle - but I finally received a payment (of around 10 bucks!) last week. It was all a matter of matching names correctly for my bank account and my kindle account, but I kept getting bad information. It was rather frustrating.

 At least I was finally able to see something for my work - and if you're interested in my travel writings, don't forget to check out my Amazon Kindle Author page -
Andrew Boland's Kindle Author Page

It's always been a tiny trickle of money, but I use that to validate my whole existence on this Earth.
I hope to blog again soon, maybe Monday or Tuesday! Hopefully the baseball will be on tomorrow, and Sunday there should be more cricket in Morioka! Until then, take care!

Sending a message to Sendai

Hijinx amongst the day trip to Sendai. Yes, that's me!

I was lucky enough to have my sister visiting Japan. Just for a short week, basically staying only in Tokyo, but we managed to work out a meeting - in Sendai. This was great, because I had never been to Sendai before last weekend when I drove down to meet her.

Traffic was ok on the expressway - that's why you pay for it! But near the centre of Sendai it's another matter. Sendai is a big city and the capital of Miyagi prefecture. I had sensibly decided to meet my sister on the east exit of the station, which may actually be on the west side of the station, but is labelled east, and was the one I had known when I had transferred to the bus from the train earlier this year.
At least I knew where to find her, and after the struggle to get from one side of the station to the other by car, I picked her up and we drove back to the other side! HA!

Sendai

Knowing what to do was a bit of a puzzle. So I had my old guidebook out and we headed to the City Museum, where there was free parking! There was also a school tennis tournament going on, and I tried to park in the car park for that initially but wasn't allowed. I am still amazed at the size of the events that sports day are here. Inter-school baseball gets on the TV!

Outside the museum.

The museum itself was actually a bit bleh. I might be permanently off museums I think. Lots of pots and rocks, my FAVOURITE (not). But some interesting paintings and art work about the Date family, who built a castle up on the rock above Sendai, lots of plans of Sendai hundreds of years ago too. Seems Matsumane Date was the main man in history, even if most explanations were in Japanese I could work that out. My sister later read in the book (something I should have done I guess :)) that most of Sendai was destroyed in the Second World War. It was also hit by the tsunami, but that part of the greater city was a little way away from the centre.

We went up the hill to the see the castle, just a fifteen minute uphill walk from the museum. The weather was splendid so it was a pretty good choice. Even from there we couldn't see the ocean, or much of a castle either. Now there are a few shops and restaurants, and soft serve place which hit the spot! The views were good however, if a little blocked by the occasional misty cloud.

The base of the castle, the only thing still 'castlely'

Following that, we parked at a carpark close to the station. We had to wait for cars to leave before the gate in this automated place let us in, parking is a serious issue in any big city in Japan. I guess it stems from being so populated over the years, but on street parking just doesn't exist here, at least not in the cities. There really isn't any here in Ichinoseki.

The falls.

Temple at the falls.

We grabbed some lunch and headed for some waterfalls about 20 km from Sendai, although I took the 'long way' and we drove about 35km to get there! Much faster on the way back. The roads were typically windy but the scenery beautiful. The 55-metre Akiu Otaki (falls) were lovely as it started to cool down. It looked like a perfect place to go hiking too, but time and my wife's shoes did not allow! Back to Sendai, my sister had a train to catch! A great day for a tired old teacher! :)

Cricket. In Japan.

Yes, you read correctly. Last weekend (well, the one 8 days ago now) I went up to Morioka to play cricket! The Morioka cricket club is run by two people, Dean and Jamie I think, who are surprisingly from ... America!
I was glad to get a bit of exercise, and there were plenty of people around keen to give it a go. Some were Japanese, and there were guys from America, Tanazania and Denmark who had never played before in their life either. So it was a bit of a clinic.
There were also a collection of Brits, Australians, one guy from Bangladesh and one from Nepal who had all played cricket before - some could bowl really fast. Luckily we used a plastic ball not a leather one, as there were no pads!
The location was Kitakami Park in Morioka, and the weather turned out to be really nice despite the forecast. The only real downside was the next day at school I was walking like a cripple. I decided this just proves that exercise IS bad for you. Thanks to all involved for a wonderful day. It just goes to show that people have all sorts of interests wherever you are in the world! Now if I can only find the Japanese Doctor Who fan club!

that's mean throwing the ball to the keeper. I think that's what I was doing at least.

The bowler here was a naturally gifted sportswoman. She batted well too stayed in for a long time. First time she'd played the sport.

Haishiwa Jinja

Dear peoples who read my blog,
I don't have much to update you with sadly :(
School has been busy since 'Golden Week', and the weather has been windy and wild, with a couple of decent days thrown in for good measure. Today it just rained most of the day in Ichinoseki. Goodness me! I am blogging about the bloody weather!
Anyways, I did manage a visit to Haishiwa Temples, some very old temples in Ichinoseki. The temples are around 1900 years old, although as they are all wood I presume they have been rebuilt a few times since then!
Although perhaps unremarkable in appearance, they are located, as are all temples it seems in Japan, up a bloody great hill! I went up a whole lot of stairs to get there. The forest was really beautiful too, and I saw a few possibilities for nice day-hikes! Or one-two hour walks!
So I thought I would share some photos with you!

Life in Japan - an update

Howdy folks. I know recent blogs have been about Australia, so a good chance to blog about life in Japan I thought today. Today we are enjoying an extra long weekend. It's called 'Golden Week', a week that us celebrated around the start of May each year. It's a very very busy time in Japan, and exists because of a string of public holidays around this time.
In fact, it's kind of two weekends, rather than an actual week. Last weekend we had Monday off, this weekend it's Fridays and Monday. Yes, four-day weekend is nice.
Here in Ichinoseki it almost coincides with the Cherry Blossoms blooming, but not quite. Last year it was timed perfectly, but this year most of the cherry blossoms have been and gone. The weather has been cold, wet and windy too which doesn't help.

Thursday last week was a special day at my high school. It was a volunteer day. In 2012 I stayed at school all day and used the day to walk around the school chatting with students, as I'd only been at the school two weeks. Half the students, at a guess, spend the day pulling up weeds from the school grounds. Not a great way to spend the day in my opinion! Others head out around the town to pick up rubbish and help out in similar ways. This year I jumped on the coat tails of the brass band, who were playing at a nursing home ten minutes drive from the school.
I was surprised to find brass bands so big in Japan. Most high schools have one I think. Much of the music does seem to have an American influence, but that's brass bands for you. The brass band at my high school is pretty darned good, the girl who did the saxophone solo was brilliant. At the nursing home the cherry blossoms were blooming, and the elderly people there really appreciated the music. The brass band put on a show with some singing as well. It was a great day. And I got to help load and unload the instruments.

After this weekend, we will be in for some solid teaching. No public holidays for two months! Still, we are paid to work! I've uploaded a couple of pictures. Sorry there aren't more but we can't put students pictures on the web, and that's fair enough.

Also, please take the time to visit my Amazon Author page.
Andrew Boland's Amazon Author page.

Over the next four days, I am running a free promotion - on the Romanian chapter of my book, the eighth chapter over all and the second chapter in Europe (second) book.
Dhaka to Dakar. Book Two: Europe. Chapter Eight: Romania

Geeking out at a professional level.

As the sun set on my short trip home to Australia, I geeked out like I have only geeked out once or twice before in my life. I went to the biggest Doctor Who convention in Australian history – ‘Lords of Time’ at Rydge’s Hotel on Exhibition street. What a day and an evening it was!

I feel bad because it all seemed a bit too geeky for me, despite the fact that I happily put my hand up and say ‘I’m a geek!’ Hell, I write and produce my own Doctor Who fan fiction! However, sometimes it is a bit confronting. When there was a costume contest at the event I went to in England back mid-2011, the contestants were children. This time they were, in the majority, adults. As someone said to me ‘nothing wrong with a bit of cosplay’. Hmmmm, living in Japan I’m not sure that I would class a forty-year old woman as participating in cosplay because she dressed up as the TARDIS.

A bevy of Doctors.

A fan made (?) TARDIS console

Anyhoo. There was a stage shared by the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth Doctors – Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann. Other guests included John Leeson, voice of K-9, Nicolas Briggs who does the Dalek voices but more importantly is the man behind the Big Finish productions – a series of audio stories that began back in 1999 when Doctor Who was not on the tele, and my personal favourite the feisty and very funny Janet Fielding who’s time on stage with Peter Davison was incredibly entertaining. Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy also make for a very fun time when they are on stage.

Janet Fielding and Peter Davison

There were autographs, photo-opportunities and much more. Some people were prepared to fork out $650 for a VIP pass that got them a meal and cocktails with the stars and I think their own photo with them. At that price it seemed a bit over the top but if you’re a fanatic then you’d be saving your pennies from way back. Photos with the stars cost $40 each so that on its own is steep and if you want one with each person...

The stars themselves are very well behaved, and extremely friendly towards the fans despite some of the awkward questions they get. I found myself overwhelmed trying to think of something to say to Paul McGann and embarrassingly talked about the weather and daylight savings time. Better, I guess, than asking some continuity-based question about his 17^th Big Finish adventure. By the way, the Big Finish adventures are excellent for any ‘Who’ fan out there reading this and hasn’t listened to a few yet!

Rob Lloyd and Vicki Kyriakakis in the improvised show 'Time Lord'

The second day was wrapped by the incredibly talented Robert Lloyd, a Melbournian (originally from Dubbo) who has his own Doctor Who themed one man show called ‘Who, Me’. It was perhaps the highlight of the entire day and a bit, a very funny show indeed. Rob is now touring it around in different conventions and festivals. In fact, later in the year it has its premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival! Rob was also involved in an improvised Doctor Who show called ‘Time Lord’ on the opening night, where he played the Doctor! 

For more information on the shows and Robert, please visit his website :

Rob Lloyd's Website

The next day was awesome weather. We had a BBQ in the back yard enjoying a cloud-free day, friends and warmth. Before I could say ‘Jack Robinson’ my time home was over, and that evening I was on a plane on my way back to Japan. It had felt like possibly the shortest three weeks of my life...