So the other day I was waiting for the bus back from Miyahara (hill) to head home after work. I was staring at some steps down an embankment from me that wrapped up to where I stood. They were normal steps that were most likely built in the 50's or 60's (the area I was in is old) and had a a feature that just made me ponder about who made them, or more precisely who modified them. On each step to the right hand side (against the wall it was following up) there was a skinny paver like cinderblock cemented on the actual step. This obviously was built for kids or the elderly, someone who has trouble making it up the normal steps and needs the extra help of having the distance they need to raise their leg each time halved. I was banking on the elderly. This was easy to concive, the part that really had my mind occupied really didn't matter at all. I was wondering who modified them and when. I was pretty sure it was for some geriatric, but did he/she modify the steps themself? If so when? Did they have help, did they do it when they found they were having a problem or did they have to foresight to do it long before they would actually need the assistance, or were they there fromsomeone before them? Either way it was probably only a few afternoons work and maybe sixty bucks tops for all the materials. Right in the middle of my mind racing after this reletively pointless series of questions someone begain to come up the stairs. It was an old man in his late eighties or mid nineties, smartly dressed, carrying some large rolled papers under one arm with a small box in the same hand, and using his other arm to brace against the wall while using the modified steps. He had a slight limp with his left leg. He worked his way to the top and marched his way over to the bulletin board by the bus stop.
I casually glanced at him now that he was facing me and noticed he was missing a part of his lower left jaw... maybe cancer? He begain posting some of his large flyers on the board, but the wind was blowing them around and away and you could tell he was struggling with that and actually pushing in the tacs in to hold them up. I felt compeled to help him, I am a sucker I always try to help anyone even if it makes me late. I walked over and gestured to help while picking up one of the signs that had blown away, he declined yet I insisted so he let me help. We quietly stood there and fastened the remainder of his posters. Afterwards he was a little winded and we sat down on the bus stop bench together. He gave his thanks and asked about whom I was and what I was doing in Kure. Yes, it is obvious you don't belong somewhere when you are a giant white monster hiding in a land of tiny people. I said I was an English teacher at some of the areas schools and working through the sister city relationship program. He looked at me and and said "What sister city?" This is all in Japanese by the way. I said Kure was a sister city to several cities around the globe, but one in the United States named Bremerton shared with it a special bond from WWII of being ship producing and mantaining giants. He then mentioned something about remembering the war. I looked at him puzzled. He went on to say he served as soldier in the Imperial Japanese Army for some time and that it rewarded him with a lame left leg and "missing face"; presumably from shrapnel because he mentioned somethign about big projectiles that I couldn't quite figure out, but the hand jestures made it pretty obvious. He said he wasn't sorry for his time spent and he looked on the USA as a worthy opponent. WOW! He was a nice man, very nice, and had huge frikken hands for a Japanese person. My bus arrived and we said sayonara.
I just thought that was a cool run in, me thinking about something so trivial and then a piece of history walks right up and I get to chat with him with my bad Japanese.
In other news:
Hiroe came up for the weekend with Yuichi and Misaki. We had lots of fun going to Hiroshima and playing tag in several parks. The Sasaki clan came along too so Seina and Saika got to play as well. I am a bit worn out though... lot of playing tag with tiny kids full of energy.
I got smaked in the "jewels" real hard the other day by some kid at Tenno ES. They play that koncho game where they poke you in the butt, but now its escalated to speedbag boxing. I hope that does not happen again.
Fell asleep on the trian the other day and almost missed my stop. Everyone in Japan sleeps on the trians, but they all have like some super human ability to snap awake and fly out the door at there stop.
Japanese food still rocks!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Bullet Trains, Good People, Typhoons!
Sorry for the dealy in writting, I have been just about as busy as a single human being can be for the last couple weeks.
Let us start soon after I had last wrote something. I mentioned that I would be going to see Hiroe and her family in Fukuoka (spelt right this time). I finished work Friday the 18th and then scatttered home to pick up my bag I had packed the night before and change out of my dress cloaths and into some good travel attire. I am wearing a suit and tie all the time, so yes it was necessary for me to get out of it, breath, and not be so hot for a change. Teruyo (my "sister" here) gave me a lift to Kure Eki (station) to save some time. Which I said thanks and just barely managed to get on my train before the doors closed. Yes, they willl leave you, they don't wait for you while you are running down the ramp. Doors close and trian is gone, you miss it, tough luck.
It took about 45 minutes for the local access train I was on to arrive in the main train/transfer hub in Hiroshima. It had arrived with really no time to spare. I had been eyeing my watch the whole trip down... "Shinkansen leaves at 7:16 p.m., you miss it and you are screwed.. and out 18,235 yen." I thought to myself. Once the local train stopped and the doors opened I was running out and up the stairs to catch my next train. I was relieved to find a pack of people around me doing the same thing! "We" got there right as the last call was sounded and sliped on right as the doors closed. Everyone that had been running made it. We all were sweating and breathing heavily in the center area between cars (where you board), a moment or two passed, then we all looked up at eachother and smiled and let out a few chuckles. These were not people I was travelling with, these were random people just in the same time squeeze I was, so it made for a rather funny situation. I then found my seat and plopped down.
Turns out I wasn't on an N700 which I thought were to be the fastest, I was on the N500 model, which is actually the fastest. The N700 is the most comfortable and "green" of the shinkansen while still having great speed. After seeing both, the N500 looks way cooler too! I was in candyland, this thing was soo roomy, I could recline my seat, had tons of leg room (in a normal seat), and lots of arm room too! I watched out the window but started getting sleepy. I had over two hours and it was dark out so I just slept all the way to Hakata Eki.
Once in Hakata Hiroe met me right outside the station. I gave gave her a huge hug and lifted her right off the ground and spun around. We then walked about a block to where Masaki and the kids were waiting in the car. Once in the car, which was a rather nice hybrid lexus, chaos errupted from the children. Not in a bad sense, but more in the "OMG! Jesse is here!!!" freak out kind of sense. In Japan, most kids don't wear seatelts when sitting in the back seats, so they just kinda bounce all over the place giving you hugs and being outright annoying. Was fun though. During this madness, Masaki calmly looks at me and asks in English, "You hungry?". I nod yes. He then asks, "Cow or Squid?". I think to myself, both sound really good, but I reply that whatever they are most hungry for or whats closest will be perfectly fine. Moments later we arrive at a very nice group of buildings by a river (in the middle of the city, big city, third largest in Japan), park, and stroll inside. Needless to say it was a nice place. Masaki gets right to ordering and then shoving beer in my face, which turns into chug races and much laughter by the end of dinner. We had ended up going to the "cow" establishment, which is called yakiniku here in Japan. It's basically a gas grill in your table that you cook strips of nice meat on and eat with different things. It's way cooler and tastier than it initially sounds. After dinner Hiroe drove us to a huge festival that was in its final night. Very cool. Even in the big city, everyone stared. I even bumped in to a navy guy from Gig Harbor who had gone to South Kitsap, so some small world syndrome was present. Later that week we also did the "Squid" option, was delicious and the squids on one of the main platters were still alive, changing colors and stuff. They kept poking them with their chopsticks and laughing... felt a little bad for the guys. They then took thema way, made tempura (kinda like a deep fry) and brought em back. They tasted great. P.S. mom you would love the food here, when are you coming? Was thinking we could go to Fukuoka for a few days and then a couple other places.
The rest of the trip followed the precedent set in the first night. Lots of drinking, very nice and exclusive places, tons of fun, and good times. Masaki in many of the places was hell bent on using me as a conversation starter with everyone and would always try to get all the girls after me. It would have been annoying if it wasn't so funny. The guy is a cartoon. They took me to an active valcano, Mt. Aso, which was pretty awesome. Beautiful rolling green hills and then a ginormous red rock basin with extremely hot blue water pooled in the bottom. They even had shelters all around the rim of the crater which were obviously for refuge if Aso san decided to go boom. Masaki and I just started reffering to them as "Oh S#*%" shelters, because really they are not going to do much for you if a decent erruption occured and you would be yelling that as you ran for one. You probably wouldn't even get to say anything at all, it would be like a nuke going off and turning you and the shelter to dust in short order. We also had famous Fukuoka Ramen, t'was good! We went to some crazy beach side water park, where I played with the kids all day and Masaki slept and drank beer in the sun, great times. We ended up also going to a huge mall and watching some Chinese circus that was really cool. Naturally though I drawing about the same number or spectators just by walking around. They sometimes try to hide the fact that they are staring, but they are bad at it. They also don't think I understand Japanese; once we pass eachother all I hear is "That dude was huuuuge!" and other such remarkes in Japanese. Bowling was also pretty fun!
On one of the last nights (a week long stay) Hiroe and I went to a nice resturant. Usually it was her watching the kiddies while Masaki and I went out to raise hell at night time, durning the day though we were always all together. Was nice, went to a quiet place up on a hill overlooking all of Fukuoka and had some amazing food and drink. We sat on the bar right in front of the kitchen and got to watch everything and talk to the cooks. They took great interest in us and we had lots of conversation and even got a bunch of complementary goddies. After dinner we shuffeled over to the main bar wich had a superb view, low lights, and an extremly compentent bartender. Hiroe loved taking the break, I could see that she doesn't get one very often these days. She said I have to come live in Fukuoka and get a girlfriend so I can take her to this resturant! We just sat there and talked about all sorts of things and planned the next time for me to come over. We also started tossing around thoughts of getting everybody to come back and visit mom and the Seattle area family!
All together Fukuoka was amazing, very new, very clean, and extremely fun. I am sure I left out a ton, but those were some of the highlights.
The typhoon bit: Was windy and wet! We were supposed to get absolutely hammered, but it balked right at the end so we didn't get the worst of it and it was only ugly for about a day. The Japanese think I am a psycho because I like bad weather and watching it.
Also just went to a festival over the weekend. Crazyness, lots of people, lots of awesome food, people staring as usual, and a really cool presentation where the rice was brought to the temple for the gods. Basically guys in blue brining the rice up the hill fighting guys in yellow suits and red deamon masks. They were actually going at it, not quite throwing blows, but tons of shoving and grabbing. Apparently from what I hear that in the November festival there is a ritual fight between sides where injuries often happen... fun! Two of my coworkers, Courtney and Lindsey, were dressed in red and were responsible for helping carry the small shrine (behind the rice) to the temple on top of the hill. They looked like they had a great time.
Other notes of interest: Have begun to take piano lessons, play the harmonica now with friends at the bar sometimes, found some sailboats and I am trying to find the owner so I can sail them, hiked Mount Haigame agian with friends this time and had a drink at the top while overlooking a picturesce night time Kure, found several awesome places in Kure to try and relax, and went to a huge sake festival in Saijo!
Till next time....
Let us start soon after I had last wrote something. I mentioned that I would be going to see Hiroe and her family in Fukuoka (spelt right this time). I finished work Friday the 18th and then scatttered home to pick up my bag I had packed the night before and change out of my dress cloaths and into some good travel attire. I am wearing a suit and tie all the time, so yes it was necessary for me to get out of it, breath, and not be so hot for a change. Teruyo (my "sister" here) gave me a lift to Kure Eki (station) to save some time. Which I said thanks and just barely managed to get on my train before the doors closed. Yes, they willl leave you, they don't wait for you while you are running down the ramp. Doors close and trian is gone, you miss it, tough luck.
It took about 45 minutes for the local access train I was on to arrive in the main train/transfer hub in Hiroshima. It had arrived with really no time to spare. I had been eyeing my watch the whole trip down... "Shinkansen leaves at 7:16 p.m., you miss it and you are screwed.. and out 18,235 yen." I thought to myself. Once the local train stopped and the doors opened I was running out and up the stairs to catch my next train. I was relieved to find a pack of people around me doing the same thing! "We" got there right as the last call was sounded and sliped on right as the doors closed. Everyone that had been running made it. We all were sweating and breathing heavily in the center area between cars (where you board), a moment or two passed, then we all looked up at eachother and smiled and let out a few chuckles. These were not people I was travelling with, these were random people just in the same time squeeze I was, so it made for a rather funny situation. I then found my seat and plopped down.
Turns out I wasn't on an N700 which I thought were to be the fastest, I was on the N500 model, which is actually the fastest. The N700 is the most comfortable and "green" of the shinkansen while still having great speed. After seeing both, the N500 looks way cooler too! I was in candyland, this thing was soo roomy, I could recline my seat, had tons of leg room (in a normal seat), and lots of arm room too! I watched out the window but started getting sleepy. I had over two hours and it was dark out so I just slept all the way to Hakata Eki.
Once in Hakata Hiroe met me right outside the station. I gave gave her a huge hug and lifted her right off the ground and spun around. We then walked about a block to where Masaki and the kids were waiting in the car. Once in the car, which was a rather nice hybrid lexus, chaos errupted from the children. Not in a bad sense, but more in the "OMG! Jesse is here!!!" freak out kind of sense. In Japan, most kids don't wear seatelts when sitting in the back seats, so they just kinda bounce all over the place giving you hugs and being outright annoying. Was fun though. During this madness, Masaki calmly looks at me and asks in English, "You hungry?". I nod yes. He then asks, "Cow or Squid?". I think to myself, both sound really good, but I reply that whatever they are most hungry for or whats closest will be perfectly fine. Moments later we arrive at a very nice group of buildings by a river (in the middle of the city, big city, third largest in Japan), park, and stroll inside. Needless to say it was a nice place. Masaki gets right to ordering and then shoving beer in my face, which turns into chug races and much laughter by the end of dinner. We had ended up going to the "cow" establishment, which is called yakiniku here in Japan. It's basically a gas grill in your table that you cook strips of nice meat on and eat with different things. It's way cooler and tastier than it initially sounds. After dinner Hiroe drove us to a huge festival that was in its final night. Very cool. Even in the big city, everyone stared. I even bumped in to a navy guy from Gig Harbor who had gone to South Kitsap, so some small world syndrome was present. Later that week we also did the "Squid" option, was delicious and the squids on one of the main platters were still alive, changing colors and stuff. They kept poking them with their chopsticks and laughing... felt a little bad for the guys. They then took thema way, made tempura (kinda like a deep fry) and brought em back. They tasted great. P.S. mom you would love the food here, when are you coming? Was thinking we could go to Fukuoka for a few days and then a couple other places.
The rest of the trip followed the precedent set in the first night. Lots of drinking, very nice and exclusive places, tons of fun, and good times. Masaki in many of the places was hell bent on using me as a conversation starter with everyone and would always try to get all the girls after me. It would have been annoying if it wasn't so funny. The guy is a cartoon. They took me to an active valcano, Mt. Aso, which was pretty awesome. Beautiful rolling green hills and then a ginormous red rock basin with extremely hot blue water pooled in the bottom. They even had shelters all around the rim of the crater which were obviously for refuge if Aso san decided to go boom. Masaki and I just started reffering to them as "Oh S#*%" shelters, because really they are not going to do much for you if a decent erruption occured and you would be yelling that as you ran for one. You probably wouldn't even get to say anything at all, it would be like a nuke going off and turning you and the shelter to dust in short order. We also had famous Fukuoka Ramen, t'was good! We went to some crazy beach side water park, where I played with the kids all day and Masaki slept and drank beer in the sun, great times. We ended up also going to a huge mall and watching some Chinese circus that was really cool. Naturally though I drawing about the same number or spectators just by walking around. They sometimes try to hide the fact that they are staring, but they are bad at it. They also don't think I understand Japanese; once we pass eachother all I hear is "That dude was huuuuge!" and other such remarkes in Japanese. Bowling was also pretty fun!
On one of the last nights (a week long stay) Hiroe and I went to a nice resturant. Usually it was her watching the kiddies while Masaki and I went out to raise hell at night time, durning the day though we were always all together. Was nice, went to a quiet place up on a hill overlooking all of Fukuoka and had some amazing food and drink. We sat on the bar right in front of the kitchen and got to watch everything and talk to the cooks. They took great interest in us and we had lots of conversation and even got a bunch of complementary goddies. After dinner we shuffeled over to the main bar wich had a superb view, low lights, and an extremly compentent bartender. Hiroe loved taking the break, I could see that she doesn't get one very often these days. She said I have to come live in Fukuoka and get a girlfriend so I can take her to this resturant! We just sat there and talked about all sorts of things and planned the next time for me to come over. We also started tossing around thoughts of getting everybody to come back and visit mom and the Seattle area family!
All together Fukuoka was amazing, very new, very clean, and extremely fun. I am sure I left out a ton, but those were some of the highlights.
The typhoon bit: Was windy and wet! We were supposed to get absolutely hammered, but it balked right at the end so we didn't get the worst of it and it was only ugly for about a day. The Japanese think I am a psycho because I like bad weather and watching it.
Also just went to a festival over the weekend. Crazyness, lots of people, lots of awesome food, people staring as usual, and a really cool presentation where the rice was brought to the temple for the gods. Basically guys in blue brining the rice up the hill fighting guys in yellow suits and red deamon masks. They were actually going at it, not quite throwing blows, but tons of shoving and grabbing. Apparently from what I hear that in the November festival there is a ritual fight between sides where injuries often happen... fun! Two of my coworkers, Courtney and Lindsey, were dressed in red and were responsible for helping carry the small shrine (behind the rice) to the temple on top of the hill. They looked like they had a great time.
Other notes of interest: Have begun to take piano lessons, play the harmonica now with friends at the bar sometimes, found some sailboats and I am trying to find the owner so I can sail them, hiked Mount Haigame agian with friends this time and had a drink at the top while overlooking a picturesce night time Kure, found several awesome places in Kure to try and relax, and went to a huge sake festival in Saijo!
Till next time....
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