The Philosopher's Walk

A Visit From Blair

2007-10-23T03:51:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,
Just 3 weeks ago, a good friend of mine, Blair, came to visit me in Japan. Well, to be accurate he came to Japan to stay with his Japanese girlfriend and it was fortunate enough for me that Karumi lives just outside of Osaka on the outskirts of Kobe. Melissa and I got the chance to hang out with Blair and Karumi for a couple of days, and of course when your vacation is so short and you have traveled so far and wide to see a new country... well you make every effort to spend every moment seeing all that you can in that country. We spent one day in Osaka, checking out some major tourist spots... luckily some of them Melissa and I had not yet experienced.
Melissa and I have been wanting to go see Osaka Castle... pretty much since we arrived in Japan back in June. We had often planned, a day in advance, to go. Inevitably we would be so tired that we would sleep in and miss our window of opportunity to go visit the castle (it is across town and closes pretty early in the afternoon). It became a bit of a running joke with us that if we were tired and didn't feel like doing anything that day, we would agree to go see Osaka Castle, laugh, and carry on knowing that neither of us intended to really follow through. One night some friends of Melissa's said they were going to get some beers and they were going to go hang out outside of Osaka castle and drink. She giggled and told them she just couldn't g0... Well, the day had come, and we were stoked to check it out, the two of us, together with Blair and Karumi. It was fantastic! Here are the pictures in and around the castle.
We walked from the near-by train station and were excited about our first look at the castle. What we saw was the foundation and a small building on the corner (which could only have been a guard post of sorts. It was on the other side of a wide moat, and immediately I thought of how many people have died right here where I stand. We were probably within arrow range and had we been soldiers back then we would have had to evade all those lil' arrows before leaping off of an escarpment to dive into the murky waters below and start swimming for our lives. As we left those somber thoughts and made our way to the front gate, we began to hear oldies rock and roll and clapping hands. It sounded like a party. As we got closer we saw crowds of people standing around an inner circle of performers presumably dancing to Chubby Checker's "Let's Twist Again". Blair was out in front of us all with his camera and gear ready to shoot whatever was going on inside that circle. What we all saw was this; Japanese "cats" dressed up like they belonged in the movie Grease... lots of them. They were enjoying the attention they were getting from all of the tourists, and were dancing like crazy fools! After snapping some shots, we went in through the gates and were ready to see some castle. We wandered around the area where the Samurai and Daimyo would have had their homes. Now it is occupied by a few maintenance sheds, a building here and there (maybe offices for staff and researchers), vendor shacks and the odd taco-yaki stand. We had a quick bite to eat there, and then cruised up another walkway leading into the inner court yard. From the ramparts of those inner fortifications we had a nice view of some of the city scape. Just below us there were men working in the dried-up section of the moat. They were checking the foundation and testing the structural integrity of the corner stones. There has been some mystery about the construction of the castle too. Through recent digs they have discovered a buried foundation wall that does not coincide with the way the castle was originally laid out. Since the 90's there has been much debate and research going on because of the discovery. We crossed the last court yard and paused to take in the beauty of the main structure that stood before us. Before going in, I took my last couple of pictures. One of these was a photo of a guy dressed like a soldier. I kind of sneaked up on him to get the picture, but he turned and saw me and immediately struck a pose. Inside most of the castle, photography was prohibited. I admit that occasionally I shut off my flash and snapped a shot or two anyway. I had to get a picture of the old samurai sword they had on display. Also, I took a picture of a miniature model of the castle grounds (large image above). I didn't see any harm in it as long as I wasn't using a flash - which can bleach out colour and otherwise deteriorate old sensitive materials. I also shot a short video of some tourists getting into the spirit of Osaka castle, and having a little fun in an otherwise very serious venue (photographs were allowed in that area though).

At 4:00 in the afternoon, we decided that we had spent too much time there and light was fading, so it was off to the next site-seeing hot-spot: Hep 5 - a shopping mall with the monumental red ferris wheel on its top floor... and then we moved on to the floating gardens on top of the Sky Tower.

Please check in soon for the continuation...

Getting Caught Up

2007-10-23T03:29:00.000-07:00

Hello,
Just wanted to touch base and let everyone know that Melissa and I are doing well. The hot weather has gone and we have been blessed with mild, less humid days and sometimes pretty cold nights. For the most part we can still wear a T-shirt and sometimes we even bust out a pair of shorts. I don't think it is as cold as back home in Canada, but it does feel like the end of summer now. The leaves will start to turn soon, and we should have a colourful landscape in a matter of weeks.
By the way, I hope I haven't lost any readers due to my lack of updates. It seems I am apologizing for not posting new blog entries every time I write, for one reason or another. The truth is it is a lot of work to get it ready, polished and posted... really that is no good excuse at all, so... get ready for a barrage of stories and pictures that should more than make up for it.

Mike

@ Tenoji Temple

2007-09-26T01:33:00.000-07:00

Funny little video clip I thought I would share...

Melissa and I were at a nearby temple - Tennoji temple - for the monthly flee-market (every month on the 21st). It is essentially an outdoor flee market with lots of booths and tents selling everything and anything you would expect to find at a flee market back home - dollar store items, old clothes (of course these are mostly kimonos and Yukatas), coins and old paper money, swords, jewelry, books, trinkets, and old electronics...
We were passing by this one booth, in the food booth section, when someone shouted out "chellengie, challengie". We looked back and there was a short little man waving his fanny left to right while grilling "something" on his mini barbecue, looking up at us between rotations. He waved us over, handed Melissa a raw piece of "something" and said "challengie..." pointed at his baked piece of "something" and directed Melissa to cook hers up on his BBQ... the results are recorded here for your entertainment.

...incidentally the "something" turned out to be what I can only describe as puffed sugar (Imagine cotton candy pressed down into little "fillets" like the one Melissa started off with). It was sweet and kind of granular if you let it melt on your tongue. Kids probably get wired on this stuff. It was quite tasty "oishi", but I wouldn't want more than the half he broke off for me. I tasted Melissa's too... she did a very good job cooking hers, I must say. I suspect only because she finally got the "wiggle" just right :). Good job Babe!

Mike

Kissing the Blarney Stone

2007-09-25T23:28:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd give you a flavour of the bar where I have been working for the past 3 months. It is located in the northern downtown core of Osaka called Umeda. It's name - The Blarney Stone. As the name would suggest, it is an Irish pub (still, it is home to many a non-Irish foreigner). We have many regular customers, as you can well imagine. English speaking Japanese residents often need a night out somewhere that is familiar, comfortable and above all else English friendly. We provide just such an experience and I am convinced that it is this fact alone that makes The Blarney so popular and successful. At t

he moment, there are 5 bartenders, including myself, and 2 cooks. Colin is the head bartender (seen here enjoying a hug from my girlfriend :). He hails from England and found himself in Japan, last year, with a tour group hoping to complete the 88-Temple Pilgrimage. Before finishing the tour, he and his friend Jeff ran out of money and realized they wouldn't make it. Logically the only thing to do was to leave the tour group behind, head for Osaka, find jobs, and stay in Japan for another 6 months... right? Colin found work at the Blarney (and has since made enough money to pay his way) and found he really enjoyed Japan. He has just decided to renew his visa and stay another year. They are also determined to finish the pilgrimage before they leave Japan. Good on them. Yuske is a Japanese bartender. He speak English really well. In this picture he is at the bar on his day off. He doesn't work many shifts and lives pretty far away. I like working with him though. He works hard and is an interesting guy to talk to. Luke, one of our Aussie bartenders, is leaving Japan in three weeks to continue his Asian travels... next destination is Beijing, China (unfortunately I don't have a photo of Luke at the moment). We will be seriously understaffed when he leaves, considering one of our main bartenders also just left late last month. I suspect we will have a new recruit soon, or things will be very busy for the rest of us. I have been enjoying the relaxed pace Japan has offered so far.

Between the bar tending and teaching I can make ends meet and still have time to go sight seeing and traveling as much as I'd like. It's been a great trip so far, and I am constatntly meeting new people and seeing interesting new insights into the Japanese culture. I am excited for the future and all the wonders Japan has to offer an eager explorer like me.

As a side note: I must apologize (mostly to myself) because my camera hasn't been with me on my last three trips. As a result, the blog has been without updates and I have been without pictoral records of these excursions. I am trying to get some photos from some of the other people we went with, but of course it isn't their priority and so I must be patient. Thanks to Facebook, some have already been posted online and I was able to copy them for my own records.

Till we meet again,

Mike

Fuji-San

2007-09-05T21:29:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone.

Melissa here!! I thought I would write an entry seeing as how Mike has not ventured to place of interest recently. I however, have just scaled the highest mountain in Japan, Mt Fuji. I'm not sure where to start the story, but I guess it begins back in Canada when Mike and I were first planning our trip. You see, we had to give the Japanese embassy an outline of what we would be doing if allowed entry into Japan. While Mike and I wrote separate itineraries, I thought climbing Mt. Fuji was on both of our lists of "things to do." Sadly, I was wrong and I didn't find this out until there were only a few weeks left in the official climbing season. It made me really sad that Mike didn't want to come with me. I mean, it's not like we climb mountains all the time, this was the one chance I had. How was I supposed to travel several hours and then climb a mountain by myself? I had this vision of us traveling to Tokyo, seeing the sights, then hiking up Fuji to see the sunrise together. Doesn't that sound romantic? Mike had left me with feelings of anger and sadness, yet, I somehow managed to find some motivation. Whether it was spite or a need to fulfill some bizarre quest, I found an English speaking group traveling to Mt Fuji one week later

Bags packed and up early on Saturday August 18th I headed out to meet the group and hopefully some new friends to climb with. There was assigned seats on the bus and when the women, Heather, arrived who was to sit next to me, she was anything but friendly. I think the first thing she said to me was "Could they make these seats any smaller?" and "I can't believe we have assigned seats, couldn't we just pick our own" Doesn't that sounds like someone you want to spend the next 7 hours next to? I was glad to just close my eyes and sleep. When we neared Mt. Fuji, our guide gave us some last minute instructions, including "make sure you climb in at least groups of two". Heather then turned to me and said "you'll be my climbing buddy right?" What was I supposed to say? In her defense, she did get a little nicer as the bus trip went on. When we arrived the group split up to get last minute things from the store. I had lost my "climbing buddy" already. This is when I met Noah and Jordan. As our guide got us all together again and led us to the climbing route, Heather had found me and the four of us begin our trek upwards at approximately 9pm.

No sooner had I taken out the camera to take a picture of the first climbing sign, did it start to rain. Not a light drizzle either, full-on downpour. The droplets were huge. We all started to joke that climbing a mountain clearly wasn't hard enough on its own, there had to be more challenges. Heather soon fell behind with some other slower people from the group and Jordan was much faster, so it was just Noah and I for the rest of the 12 hour adventure.

At every station Noah and I would stop to take a picture, marking our ascension up the mountain. It wasn't easy as the ground is made up of little lave rocks that slip from under your feet and there are big boulders that you have to climb up. Sometimes there were rough stairs made and it was great gift to see them. Arriving at a station hut would give us some motivation. Seeing the upcoming lights made it seem like the top was near. However, the top was a long hike up. The tradition souvenir from Mt. Fuji is a hiking stick. At all the stations you can have a mark burned into the wood (see picture) to show how far you made it. Noah and I did not get a stick as we didn't know what we we do with them later. However, it would have been nice to have one on the way down (more about that later).

One of the good things about climbing at night was seeing all the stars. As there are no city lights to hide their brightness, everything in the sky seems magnified. I have never seen stars like this. The big dipper was so low in the sky it was as if it was right next to the mountain. Orion's belt was unbelievably clear and if I knew any other constellations, I would have been able to see them for sure. There were even shooting stars. It was amazing. The other cool thing about climbing at night was my flashlight! Notice in the pictures, its a head lamp. I fit right in with the Japanese climbers. There were tons of little Japanese people in super snazzy climbing suits and boots. Some sections of the mountain we had to following in line behind mass amounts of people. It was nice to be able to climb at a slow pace as we were getting tired.

Climbing at night had it's downfalls too. 1: it was hard to see anything but right in front of you and 2: It was cold......really cold. I'm sure the fact that we had climbed up 3000m had something to do with the temperature as well. We stopped near the Fujisan Hotel to have to have some soup and warm up in one of the huts. It was great to rest and be warm for 20 minutes but it seemed much colder when we started up the mountain again. By 4am I was really tired. I think at some points I was climbing with my eyes closed, lucky we were near the top. We stop on a ledge to have a clear view of the sunrise with one body sitting in front of us. I thought the sun would come up from behind the horizon but it appeared through the clouds. People even cheered at the first sight of the sun. I was just glad for the temperature to start rising. Seeing the sun rise was really special and so unique. A small part of me is glad that this was a solo mission because the experience belonged to me. And while there were thousands of other people on the mountain, they didn't really matter, the climb and the sunrise were mine.

After making it to the top it was all I could think of to just get down. It was fun at first, kinda of running down the mountain side. You had to slide as the lava rocks move and roll beneath your feet. But the novelty soon wore off and I'm not sure which was harder, climbing up the mountain or going down. A stick would have help as I lost my balance and would fall more often then i would have liked. This one time my bum really felt the pain of jagged rocks beneath it. I had a good bruise to prove it. Even though we were climbing down the mountain the view was constantly amazing, even at the 5 station were the buses drop people off the view of the surround mountain range is unbelievable.

The climb took us about 12 hours up and down. We did stop along the way so I think it took about 6 hours to climb to the top and about 4 to come down. There is a saying in Japan that says, "You are a fool not to climb Mt. Fuji once, but you are a fool to climb it twice". I agree! I think once was definitely enough. But it was an amazing trip that i will never forget.

A little flavour of August

2007-08-27T01:06:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,
Ok, I realize I have shown poor form in the last few weeks with keeping this site up to date. Some of you have heard from me through Facebook (of which I am now sadly an addicted member) but that may leave the rest of you in the dark. Here, and in colour, is a little refresher for all of you.

Melissa and I now have wireless broad band internet in our home. No more sitting out in the hall of our apartment building, in an effort to get better reception from our neighbor's router. We are cruising at 54Mbps all day long. We have skype so we are able to make calls to other skype members for free. That means long chats to people back home without the huge DoCoMo or SoftBank bill (those are two of the leading phone carriers here).

Melissa went on an expedition to the peak of the highest mountain in Japan. She, without me, climbed Mount Fuji. I had little interest in the 6 hour ascension, especially since it is traditionally done at night. The point there is that when you reach the peak, at approximately 4:00am you are blessed with the most amazing sunrise you will see in your life. Melissa has photographs (which will be posted here in the near future... Melissa is going to add a special blog article for us all) which show the sun coming THROUGH the clouds. She described it as this unearthly orb, rising through the flowing milky dense mist. I know it is physically impossible for that to happen, as the sun is certainly not in our atmosphere and cannot emerge from beneath and among the clouds, but the pictures captured the effect nicely... so stay tuned anyway. What my entry lacks in pictures, her's will more than make up for it.

We had a record breaking peak temperature here in Osaka last week (never before in recorded history, in Japan). The mercury reached a blistering 42.5 degrees celcius. It has been ridiculously hot for the past few weeks and our electricity bill arrived yesterday to show us just how much we've needed the AC unit in our bedroom. The crowd shouts "How much Mike?". 384Kwh resulting in an $85.00 hydro bill. That may not sound too bad at first, but consider that we live in an apartment that is the size of most of your living rooms... only 400sqr ft (give or take 2sqr. inches). It is no surprise why fans are a staple in the Japanese way of life. The yukata and kimono is another not-so-obvious reflection of the temperatures that are reached here in central Japan. The fact is, kimonos and the male version - yukata - are bloody comfortable, and airy, compared to our denim and cotton clothing. We also carry around hankies and small pocket-sized towels to wipe our brow and neck. It is the thing to do, even though it looks silly and old-fashioned. Trust me, you would look and feel so gross after 10 minutes outside if you don't have one. Here is an interesting image... I get out of the shower, and I dry myself off starting with my hair, then my face, shoulders, back and arms, chest...etc... by the time I reach my legs, feet and toes, my brow is dripping again, and perspiration is forming on my shoulders and arms. I could start all over again from the top and not be completely dry while my towel becomes more and more wet. It is laughable.

I have posted some short videos on YouTube (thank you Mr Shiu for the suggestion). Do a search for: Mike In Japan 2007. There are three videos. I will add some more in the near future with the same heading "Mike In Japan 2007..." so that you can find them easily.

I'm sorry this update is a little lame, but we haven't been on any wild excursions lately. We did another sailing trip yesterday, but since that is the topic of my last post, I will spare you the similar details, as enjoyable as it was for us.

Until we meet again,

Mike

Ahoy There!

2007-08-01T01:32:00.000-07:00

On Sunday (July 29th) Melissa and I woke up early - 7:00am - picked up our pre-packed bags, applied a coat of sunscreen and headed off to our local train station. In Umeda (the northern most tip of Osaka's downtown core) we switched train lines and met up with our property manager; Patrick. Pat, his wife Masatoshi, his friend Nick, Melissa and I were on our way to Nishinomiya to be part of a sailing expedition. We would meet Patrick's friend Hiroshi-san and his friends at the Harbor. The sky was a little overcast, but that early in the morning it is hard to tell what the day will bring. We were optimistic. We arrived at the harbor by taxi, which we had hailed once we left the train station in Nishinomiya (This city is located just east of Kobe and about a 35 minute train ride west of Osaka). At the club we had some time to look around, use the facilities and parouse the marine store. In the atrium of the club, there was a shallow basin filled with water and a small sailing craft tied in the center. As you can see in the photos it is quite sm students the points of sail all. Melissa thinks that maybe it is used to teachand sailing theory. I personally think it is some kind of concept boat on display. Regardless, it looks really cool - self contained, solar powered, compact, mechanically simple, and probably quite easy (and forgiving) to control. I only question the merit of it's safety features if it capsizes (or maybe it is designed to right itself if it does). After a while we went outside on the terrace and soon were met by Hiroshi-san and his two crew members... they were never introduced to us, although we did shake hands before heading down the docs to Hiroshi's boat. He owns a 35ft. sailboat named "Andante". Annually he enjoys a pleasure cruise to a nearby fish market, on which Patrick is a regular guest. We climbed aboard, stowed our bags below (reapplied sun screen), and we were off. Hiroshi took us out of the harbor on engine power and once safely beyond the breakers, he handed me the tiller and asked me to "keep her pointing into the wind". I winked "keep her in irons, aye aye sir" (Thanks mom for the sailing lessons!!). Patrick had been boasting about Melissa's and my sailing experience, and Hiroshi-san was wasting no time putting us to the test. The 2 crew members moved to the bow and began to unfrill the jib while Hiroshi loosened the cleats which held the main sail in place. With the jib fluttering, the crew members moved to help their captain with the main sail and soon we were ready to cruise under wind power. Nick was given the task of killing the engine, and I was instructed to "bear off, and hold a course for that boat in the distance". The outskirts of the marina were littered with large cargo ships. Apparently there were in some sort of holding pattern waiting for their turn to enter the channels into the various Osaka shipping harbors. With me still at the helm, we sailed past them and on to our destination. I suspect it was in our honor, and was instead much to our amusement, that Hiroshi-san had selected a Canadian artist to serenade us on our voyage. We sailed all day to the music of Celene Dion. After a few hours of banter, beautiful weather, a sweet breeze, and a few frosty beers, we arrived at a channel leading in to the port where we would find the fish market. On our approach, Hiroshi took over the helm and I sat back and enjoyed the view. We were not afforded any dock space when we pulled into the little harbor, so Hiroshi, without a second thought, pulled up next to, what looked like a sight seeing ferry boat, and his crew hopped off the bow and lashed us to the rails of the ferry. We all climbed down onto it's deck and found a plank on the opposite side to disembark. We followed the dock up into a tiny market area and were greeted by billowing smoke and the smell of crisping and burning sea food. When we entered the tent we saw rows of tables all outfitted with a small round BBQ in the center, around which were huddled groups of men women and children, grilling the fresh fruits of the sea they had just purchased. On the outside perimeter of the market-tents were vending booths, most selling seafood, but others were also selling beer, fruits and vegetables, and still others selling things like dishes, cooking utensils, and related items. Hiroshi's crew went about ordering food and pints of beer for us all. A women, familiar to Hiroshi-san, came over and spoke with him for a short while, before leaving again. She returned periodically, but never brought food, or drink... It turns out she had kept a large table and space available for him in anticipation of his arrival. She also wanted to know if everything was to his liking. He has apparently been visiting this market for a long time and his patronage is surely appreciated. After our meal, and some drinks and light conversation, we were back to the boat with our bellies full of tasty treats. Patrick was given a crash course on sailing, and he took us halfway home. Celene belted out her favorite Christmas carols, and we sailed at a medium pace... andante. We were told about a man made island that will be built (the moorings already in place and stretch at least a km in two directions at a 90 degree angle). Here, industrial garbage will be sunk in barrels and eventually concrete and stone will be built up. This will serve as a dump site for more garbage in the future but may eventually be filled over and used for something else. We were greeted by patrol boats as we passed the site. They make sure nobody sails inside the perimeter. I took the helm again and we sailed leasurly the rest of the way home. Back at the Harbor, we said our goodbyes and thanked Hiroshi for his generosity and hospitality. He excused himself to "do maintenance on the boat" and did not accompany us to the club house. As our taxi arrived at the front gate, the skies opened up and out came a moderate, even pleasant shower... as if to say "see how nice I am to wait for your cruise to end". We went home on the train, feeling very drained and satisfied with our outing. That was our first sailing experience in Japan. We may go again in August weather permitting. Sounds like fun to me.

Below are the pictures of our crew:

-Our Captain - Hiroshi-san (at the top of the page)
-Patrick
-Masatoshi
-Nick
-First mate
-Second mate
-Guest Sk ipper and cabin girl: Mike and Melissa

Festival of Lights

2007-07-31T11:49:00.000-07:00

It was Wednesday (July 25th) afternoon, as Melissa and I ventured into a part of Osaka not yet explored by us. It was north of our familiar downtown core, and it was a Festival of Lights that brought us here. The promise of a fantastic fireworks display, to be viewed at the river's side, was enough to lure us out for a night on the town. The party was said to begin at 4:00pm, much too early for a fire show, so we curiously scoped out the area next to the advertised subway exit. What we found was a shopping arcade lined with carnival-like booths where you could play games of chance, shoot a cork at prizes with a cork gun, buy cotton candy or carmel apples, or...
...hook an eel with a gossamer fishing line that is likely to break if you try to lift the eel out of the water without tiring him out first by dragging him back and forth in the mini swimming pool in which he is otherwise peacefully chillin' in with his buddies. Hmmm, on second thought, some of the games would not be played at a carnival back home. Somebody would have something to say about shooting a cork-gun at a pack of smokes to win cigarettes as a prize, or dangling a piece of bread from a stick, in front of a baby chick, in hopes that it will take a bite and not let go while you lift it out of it's coup/box/pen.
We also followed a group of people along a back road and found a massive crowd flowing in and out of a local temple. Here there were more booths and a stage with percussion performers. There was a hedge that was being laced with wishes and prayers written on bits of paper. I snapped a few shots of little kids "tying one on"... ah ha ha.
There were two adorable kids in their kimono's too - one had won an inflatable light saber and the other a helium balloon. So cute!

The fireworks were impressive, but of course don't translate well onto film/digital image... I will post some videos on my facebook account, because they turned out better than the photos (incidentally, tomorrow is another fireworks show and I will likely film that too). I have included one shot, which also shows one angle of the mass of people who collected on the street, on the big bridge overlooking the river where the fireworks were set off.

Next... a sailing trip with our landlord and his friends... do I get to skipper a yacht? We'll find out soon...

Mike

Trees, rocks and water...falls.

2007-07-31T10:32:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I am a little behind... with so much going on, and so many photos being taken, it is becoming quite a time consuming chore to organize my pictures and events. Below are some rather unorganized pictures, that thankfully require very little commentary. Melissa and I, over a week ago, went on a nature walk at Akame Shiju-hattaki Falls. We hiked for 4 km along a path which followed a winding river (actually we walked uphill against the flow). The park is known for it's multitude of waterfalls and is also home to the giant Salamander (which we only spotted in the museum at the entrance to the park... they were otherwise ghosts in the wild). We walked the whole path, snapping photos all along the way, and recorded our progress on a map with stamps found at each check point. The check points usually had a toilet, and a little eatery/snack bar. I admire the people who hike the path each day, likely with their product strapped to their backs, just to provide people with refgreshments on the way. There were no side roads to transport things into the park. Towards the end of the hilke we realized it was late in the day and we would be missing the last bus anyway... so we took the long route back down the escarpment; travelling along the "high road". It would have been quite a beautiful view except people have disgracefully dumped garbage at every possible open area along the road. I wish I had photographed it, because you wouldn't believe how anyone could bring themselves to contaminate such a magnificent landscape with their rubish (we're talking tires, diapers, coolers, freezers, stoves... and a kitchen sink). It was quite appaling. When we came to the base of the hill/mountain/escarpment we were greated by the view of a quaint traditional Japanese Inn. Inside, we called for a taxi and took the cab back to the train station. It was a long day, and it has been a while since my calves have had a work out like that one.

Next entry is about the festival of lights...

Stay tuned.

Mike

A Little Relief

2007-07-17T21:42:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,
Hooray! We sort of have the internet at home now... I went out yesterday and bought a new external wirless card. It has a higher range than the one I had, and now we can get a weak signal from one of our neighbour's network. He was kind enough to offer to share his network with us and so we got his password and are able to check email at least. As I mentioned, the signal is weak, so we are getting 9Mbps at the best of times within our apartment. It is practically impossible to download things at this rate, but it is fine for email. Right now I am sitting in the hall, where we peak at 36Mbps, which is good enough to do most things.

Some of you may have heard about the earthquake in Japan on Monday. Melissa and I are both fine. The earthquake happened in a nearby city called Nara. The quake was strong enough to knock over a few warehouse buildings and do some severe damage to a few homes. Fortunately Monday was a holiday , and few people were at work or at home. The initial quake wasn't felt in Osaka, however Melissa did feel the ground shake and we were told later that it was from an after-shock. Last week I also felt a small quake, while I was in our living room watching TV. It was like a little foot massage. Apparently Japan has thousands of noticeable earthquakes each year. Let's hope we don't experience anything more than a vibrating floor under our feet.

Melissa and I went to Costco last week. It was surprisingly similar to the ones back home. It was such a relief to find familiar products, with english names, descriptions and ingredients listed. It has been a challenge walking through our grocery store and finding things like salad dressing, juice, canned goods, and alcohol. We are relying on subtle cues like colour, and pictures on the containers. Of course, not everything here is packaged the same as back home, so you may find sake in a jar (or tetra pack), and your salad dressing may look like meat marinade... and vice versa. Here is our Funky "Super Tamaday" Grocery store. They have the most anoying anouncements, constantly and insescently telling
you" Welcome to Super Tamaday , we have the best specials on today". I'm not certain that they actually say they have the best specials, but what else would they boastfully be talking about.
It's funny... If you are kinda' sleepy on your walk to this 24hr grocery store, by the time you are 50 feet from the entrance you will be brigt eyed and bushy tailed. So this is our Pachinko Parlour Grocery store.

I will leave you with a few more fun pictures.

Feel free to click on the word "COMMENTS" at the bottom of this post if you'd like to leave Melissa or me a message about anything.

'Till we meet again,

Mike

Mostly Pics

2007-07-13T06:57:00.000-07:00

So, weve made a few new friends. Last weekend, while I was working, Melissa joined in a game of Bocce Ball (excuse my spelling) with a few random people in the park accross the road. It turns out some of them live in our building, and we have since spent a few nights out with them. Norm and Val live accross the hall from us and Mike lives down one floor directly below them. Last week we all went to a Kiyomizu Temple, in Kyoto, together.

The train station in Kyoto is an architectural marvel. This picture doesnt do it justice at all. It is really impressive when you are standing in the main atrium (where this photo was taken) and you slowly turn 360 degrees. (Val on the left, Melissa, and Norm...Mike is wearing a cap, and is behind the girl with the red backpack).

The Temple had fresh water springs in various locations, and there were wells everywhere for washing your hands ("pleasae wash hand"), face and ...body? The water is clean enough to drink (as you can see in the pictures below)

People write their most pressing wishes, for the year, on a piece of wood, and then hang them on this rack. There are hundreds of them. Most are written in Japanese Kanji, however there are a few in english.

And the visit just wouldnt be complete without a few token rock stars (who, by the way, were kind enough to pose for me).

So, thats it for now. More to come soon. I will just dump a bunch of random pictures, and maybe a few captions the next time I come to the cafe. I get my Gaijin card in 6 days, so I will finally be able to open a bank account and start the internet application process.

(I just heard "Honest" Ed Mirvish died). So sad!

... Hope all (else) is well back home...

‘Till we meet again,

Mike

y th

2007-07-03T05:35:00.000-07:00

Hey Peeps,
Thought I`d give you the scoop on what we`re up to. I know it`s not Friday yet but I thought I`d stop in anyway.
Today Melissa and I took a bit of a train ride outside of Osaka. We replied to an advertisement for a "Sayonara Sale" which is basically what happens when a foreigner decides to move back home and needs to sell all of their stuff. We picked up a pair of bicycles for $10 each and were slightly too late to scoop up a cheep computer printer. We went for a 3 hour leisurly bike ride back home and saw some of the Osaka outskirts. Overe here nobody rides their bike on the street. Pedestrians and bikers share the side walk, which is at best only a meter and a half wide (usually only about 1 meter). These sidewalks are usually lined with shops, schools and the odd park. There is usually a yellow line that bisects the sidewalk, but often it is not adhered to. People ride their bikes on the left right middle, and at varying speeds. We learned very quickly that we should always keep a distance between us and the next cyclist because something in the market may catch their eye, causing them to slam on their squeeky brakes and veer violently to the side you were just trying to pass them on. We decided from that point on to take it slow and be the ones other cyclists needed to pass. It was scorching hot today, and I adopted the Japanese "towel-tied-around-my-forhead" technique of keeping sweat out of my eyes. Yeah, I looked like a complete tool.
On Saturday Melissa and I went to a Canada day party at an Irish bar (Irish, English, Aussie, American... we`re all foreiners) called the Blarney Stone. We were on a mission to make some friends, and ended up being very outspoken and sociable. We met a few cool people (including the one other person in Japan that we already knew... our landlord) and were getting lots of tips on how to set up clients for private English tutoring classes. Towards the end of the night, I had had a few to drink and brazenly asked the bar owner to give me a night job tending bar. To my surprise, without flinching, he offered me a shift for the next night (Sunday). I took the opportunity gladly, and worked 10 hours streight, learning the ropes. There was another party at the bar that night, so it was no small feat memorizing the drink prices, menu items, and stretching my brain to remember if there should be "triple sec" in a Tequila Sunrise (there is not, by the way...Hayes). All in all it went well and I have been given 4 more Saturday night shifts. The pay is bad, and nobody tips in Japan... but I discovered this will be a GREAT way to meet potential clients for tutoring. I gave out my number a couple of times, and there are two regular customers who I`m sure I can convice to work with me.

Anyway, that is just about it for now.

2007-06-27T23:49:00.000-07:00

Melissa and I ate dinner here last night. The sushi chefs make a few pieces, put them on a plate and drop the plate on a conveyor belt. Each plate is $1.20 (120 yen) and, from this side of the counter, you choose whatever plate looks good to you. At the end of the meal the servers count the number of plates and give you the bill. All along the wall of the counter there are self-serve hot water spouts so you can fill up your tea cup. Very handy and quite crafty.

From my living room window we have a view of the neighborhood park. Not sure if you can zoom in enough, but next to the green roof of the little "rest hut" there is a clock, which we used as our only means of telling time for the first week until we bought a cell phone.

Pretty random, I know, but here is an example of how trendy and fashionable men/boys are in Japan...as much, if not more, than the women/girls.

...Pink pants and white shoes though????

To continue on that theme, we constantly see what we have dubbed, "rock star" fashion. Sorry, they are a little dark.

I will post a picture of the Supermarket that looks like a Pachinko parlour next time...

Stay tooned... `Till next time,

Mike

Some pictures for an otherwise visually bare blog site...

2007-06-27T23:34:00.000-07:00

Just a typical little eatery in the market place. Some of the shopping arcades look like you are in the middle of a carnival...

...like in this photo

...There is a store for every kind of shopper... and this one is just for the ladies.

Blogging Success

2007-06-27T01:53:00.000-07:00

Ok... so that post worked. Great! You must excuse me once again. That post is a few days old, and I was frantically trying to put it up on the blog in the last 2 minutes of my internet cafe time allowance the last time I was herre. My whole webpage appeared to me in Japanese Kanji (characters/alphabet) and I couldn`t read a thing. I still can`t read anything but I have spent the last 20minutes pressing every button/link.

Melissa and I bought a telephone yesterday. 　Ｆｏｒ　ａｎｙｏｎｅ　ｉｎｔｅｒｅｓｔｅｄ，　ｔｈｅ　ｎｕｍｂｅｒ　ｉｓ　０９０－８５３０－１３８６． We are having issues with getting internet though. We expect to have internet in our home some time around mid August. The company that provides internet hookup -Yahoo BB- requires our Gai-Jin card (the registration card I spoke about in the last post) and it will take them 4 weeks to schedule us an instalation date.　　I guess we`ｌｌ be using the cafe for a little while longer.

I bought a sweet camera on Monday. For those of you who know what is what, it is a: Casio 10 megapixl, 3X optical and 5X digital zoom, and digital stabalization (I had hoped for optical, but alas I can`t have it all)... the going price, with a 1 Gig SD card... $255 CAD. Anybody who has the latest toｙs here in Japan is rockin` the 12 MegaP cameras, but I am happy with yester-year`s model.

Anyway, we have most of what we need... maybe some less glamorous toys like a rice cooker, are still needed, but we are pretty set.

A word about beverages here. Multi-fruit and vegie drinks are popular. We were hesitant at first, but have since tried a couple of brands and types. If you ever visit Japan, and you need juice... buy the green ones. We haven`t had a green beverage yet that hasn`t blown away the competing red, white (cloudy...but not milk), clear, and bubbly beverages. Put that in the knowledge bank!

`Till next time,

Mike

1st communication

2007-06-27T01:47:00.000-07:00

What`s up Peeps,
Greetings from Osaka! Hope everything is going well back home.
The flight was pretty brutal... I don`t ever want to fly a 10 hr non stop stretch again, if I can help it. Once that was over with, though, the fun began. Mellisa and I are having a blast checking out some sites and getting familiar with our neighborhood. We haven`t started looking for work yet, but there are some little-kids schools very close by, so we are planning to drop in and feel out the possibilities for a job. We just decided on an appartment on Thursday, signed a leese, and are happy with bagging a 400sqr ft. place just outside of downtown Osaka. We can pretty much walk anywhere we need to be, including the subway station (2 minutes door to door) for further destinations. We applied/registered as residents on Friday and now we need to wait a month for our resident cards before we can get a cell phone, open a bank account or get internet at home. Kinda` stranded for a month. For now I have been dropping in on an internet cafe to communicate with people and update my blog. There must be hundreds of them, but everything is Japanese and has flashing lights, so it`s pretty hard to tell a Pachinco Parlour from a grocery store (no kidding...wait for the pic.). The internet cafe we found is a subway ride away, so I have been mostly out of touch. Not that I would spend much time emailing at the moment anyway... There is so much to do and see. It is the rainy season right now so we are getting nice weather one day, and grey, rainy, blah weather the next. Today was gorgeous, and I got a sunburn while walking through the Tenoji Zoo and Botanical gardens (I know it sounds lame, but the park grounds were facinatingly well kept and there were some amazing little picturesque views of ponds, pagotta, and bonsai like pruned trees). Our highlight was feeding turtles and coy with a rice cracker that a stranger gave us (he and his wife were feeding them too).

I still haven`t picked up a camera, but I will in the next day or two, and then I can send/post some cool pics. I know I had originally planned to send emails and update my blog every Friday, but that has been a bit of a challenge with the current internet situation. Please bare with me... I will get into the routine soon.

`Till next time,

Mike

2007-05-26T08:17:00.000-07:00

Just a few things left to do:

- package and store anything that is not coming with us.

- sell my car (2004 Mini Cooper - Pepper White - 80,000 km - $17,000 CAD) any takers?

- party with, and say good bye to all of our friends.

- Exchange some Dollars for Yen.