Golden Week II - Giant Buddha

Not just giant, but, according to Guinness, the world's tallest. That's not the beer, it's the book, so you know it's official.

I finally took off my snow tires this morning, and to celebrate, I drove the 2 hours and 100 or so kilometers down to Ushiku to see the famous Ushiku Daibutsu. It's a 120 meter tall statue of the Buddha Amida. I couldn't really picture 120 meter tall statue going in, but when I saw it over the trees coming in, I was surprised how big it is. FYI, the statue of liberty, with pedestal, is 93 meters. I parked and walked in and managed to not trip over anything while staring up at the Buddha.

After buying a ticket for the full show, including a ride up to chest level, I walked into the park around the Buddha. First thing I noticed was this smaller statue out front.

I think it was a Buddha poo, but who knows? Once I recovered from that shock, I moved around back, where there's a small animal park. They have squirrels and chipmunks that kids can feed, but I think the star attraction was the monkey show. Awwww, aren't they cute?

The ride up the Buddha was really trippy. They herd everyone (in this case, 6 of us) into a huge elevator for the first stage of the ride. When the doors close, the lights go out, and you're standing in this pitch black box listening to something that might have been a description of the statue. A minute later, you step out on the 1st floor, or as the pamphlet says "The World of Infinite Light and Life". It was like some 70's nightclub, with little clear plastic Buddhas with colored lights shining through them. Then it's stairs to the next floor, where they have a bunch of pictures of the construction and stuff, before taking the elevator to chest-high. The windows were too small, and the day too cloudy, to really see much, but it was high up. Of course, there was a gift shop up there.

There's not enough pictures of me on here, and I'm pretty vain, so here's a picture I took of myself in front of the Buddha. The one I got someone else to take didn't come out good enough.

On the way home, I stopped at Toys R Us. Here's a special, election-year version of the Game of Life that probably won't be sold in the U.S. Funny, but I didn't think it was $35 funny, so all I got was a picture.

Golden Week I

It's officially Golden Week, or as I like to think of it, spring break. I've got a whole week off to bounce around Japan. I've got plans to go south at the end of the week to catch a couple of baseball games, so I thought I'd start the break with baseball, too. I caught the end of a high school game a couple of weeks ago, and headed back to the park yesterday to see the whole thing. First off, the park is huge. It's nicer than some minor league parks I've seen, and more crowded. And, at 600 yen to get in, more expensive than some AA parks.
Now, since I didn't have a schedule (even if I did, I couldn't read it), I caught the end of one game and the beginning of another. Then it got a little cold, so I left. For the sake of a coherent narrative, I'm going to combine it together into one whole game.

After the most organized and intense pre-game I've ever seen, the teams headed to the dugout. Then they lined up and rushed at each other. I thought they were going to settle by ramming into each other, but instead they just lined up and bowed.

The cheering section got going early. It was louder than I remember high school football games, and they don't have band. Just some noisemakers, 1 big drum, and a lot of yelling. And pink jackets.

The pink coats weren't the only ones in the cheering section. There was also bunch of what I assume were underclassmen, in full uniform, leading cheers and holding up signs. What I liked the best about that was they were evenly distributed around the section. I think they probably had practices just for cheer leading, probably after the baseball practice.

I got some decent shots of the game(s). This is my favorite. Apparently, they teach that Japanese baseball swing early.

On a side note, I saw a few kids kit hit by pitches and not take a base. I think they take making an effort to get out of the way much more seriously than US baseball does.

The games were really well played and really evenly matched. It was 0 - 0 after 5, when the grounds crew came out.

This was, I think, more underclassmen. They raked the entire infield by hand, then laid down new lines. Looked really nice, but took about 20 minutes. Really slows the game down.

The game (the one I saw the end of) went to the bottom of the 10th tied 1 - 1. Kid hit a nice solid single to left-center and the guy on 2nd made it home to end the game. But that wasn't the end of the "show".

Both teams lined back up at home plate, and it the Japan version of the traditional "good game, good game, ..." bowed to each other and the umpires. By the way, there were 4 umps for a high school game. I don't ever remember having more than 2.

After the bowing, the losers went to the dugout and the winners lined up again facing the outfield scoreboard. They took off their hats while the played what I think must have been the school's song and raised what I assume was the school flag.

Finally, after the song, each team ran over and thanked their cheering section.

It was really interesting to compare the Japanese high school game and the American game. There were so many little things that I couldn't possibly remember them all. Every few minutes, something would happen and my jaw would drop. I'm glad I kicked off a week of Japanese baseball by checking out how it gets started.

Hachimanyama Park Hanami

This weekend, the flowers were blooming here in Utsunomiya. Time to do some Hanami closer to home. I learned some things from last week, so I went and bought a cooler and a blanket and a case of beer so I could do it right this time. The people I know were having their party on Sunday, which worked out since I drank way too much on Friday night.

Other people were saving a spot, so I didn't get there until around 1. Loaded up my cooler and blanket and walked to the station, took a cab from there. Somehow, I left my sunglasses in the cab, but they were the cheap ones, so now big deal.

The weather was perfect, about 60 and sunny. Ueno was crazier, but I think Hachimanyama park here in Utsunomiya was more beautiful.

I opened my cooler around 1:30, and there was no looking back from there. I had a little too much to drink. At some point I decided to go for it and try the cuttlefish on a stick. I don't recommend it. It tasted OK, but it was kind of sticky and almost impossible to chew. This picture is after the head fell off.
After the sun went down our party was in full swing, but the park was clearing out. A bunch of us Western folks decided to head out for the after party around 10:30. It had gotten cold, so I had taken off my shirt and put on a sweatshirt instead. As far as I know, the shirt is still in the park. Along with a nice flask of whiskey. I wasn't doing a good job remembering things that night.

We went to the normal place, Ice Man's, but they were closed. After all, it was Sunday night. So we went on to plan B. Near Ice Man's, there's a tiny, tiny little street that's just packed with tiny restaurants. With the cherry blossoms blooming and the lamps lit, it looked like the perfect movie image of an old fashioned Japanese street. After our midnight snack, we went to another bar. It was completely empty, but it was open and it had the greatest name in the history of bar names.
After an hour or two of beers and karaoke, I decided I had to call it a night. Some of us have jobs. I finally got home around 1:30, and didn't make it to work until almost 10 today. So, the final tally:

• 1 cooler: $20
• 1 blanket: $20
• 1 pair of sunglasses: $15
• 1 flask of whiskey, mostly empty: $40
• 1 shirt: $20
• 1 case of beer at Japan prices: $42
• 1 cuttlefish-on-a-stick: $5
• 1 beer at the Delightful Triceratops: $7
• Needing pictures to piece together the best weekend in Japan so far: Priceless

Ueno Park Hanami

This weekend I honestly wanted to go down to Ueno to the museum. I felt like I needed to get out of Utsunomiya for a day or so, and I'm more cultural than this blog may imply. Also, the cherry blossoms are blooming in Tokyo, so I wanted to take a look at the scenery and the big party that it causes.

I got on the train, a little later than I planned, and 2 hours of slow train later, I got to Ueno station. Obviously, my first stop was the bathroom. As I walked out, I ran into a guy I know and his wife. They were apparently on the same train and had come to have a little hanami (flower-looking tailgate) party. I said maybe I'd run into them later. I walked another 20 yards and saw another guy I know and his girlfriend. The party had reached critical mass, so I got pulled in.

We walked into the park to look for somewhere to set up base camp. It really was very pretty, but I think there were more people than flowers. The crowd was crazy. I hear that people show up at least the night before for a decent spot, if not days before.
We walked past these guys, I knew I was in the right place. We'll get back to them later.

We found a tiny spot to set up. It looked like you aren't allowed to walk there, but we weren't first, plus, hey, I can't read the sign. We hunkered down behind a horse statue and under a tree that had a few too many birds for my comfort. To my left were some drunk businessmen in suits, to the right was a nice little homeless village. I drank my beers and watched to people for a while. One of the suits got pooped on. A little while later, another guy showed up, and we set out to brave the crowd and find a better place to sit. We didn't find one, but we got this nice, absolutely straight picture.

After we got back to base camp, and I at some yakisoba and meat-on-a-stick, I was ready to do some drunk wandering. I saw a guy in a panda suit in the distance and went to track him down for a picture. Before I got to him, I was distracted by the guys with the beer from earlier:

OK, so they don't want to upload my video. I'll try YouTube: Nope, Google video. Ok, 4th try.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6353692882071418879

I couldn't understand what they were saying, but this went on for at least half an hour while I watched. We decided they were some fraternity playing every one's favorite game, Drink and Puke.

Not long after that, everyone else decided to head back to Utsunomiya, but I still had the drunk wanderlust. I said goodbye and set off to make new friends. After walking along for a little while, I saw a guy in a Pikachu suit and a girl in a something else suit and decided to follow them for a little while. While they were posing for pictures, I spotted a couple of cute girls and asked them what the girl was supposed to be.

I talked to these girls for a while, focusing on girl A for what seemed like a good reason. Find out they're both nurses, 24 years old, etc. General small talk. After about 20 minutes, though, I found out she's engaged, so I suavely (I think) segued over to girl B. Turns out she's got a boyfriend, too. Sorry, I forgot their names. While I'm talking to these girls, this old guy joins in. He wants to be my friend. I had some camera problems (probably changed some setting without realizing it) so this is the only picture (and memory) I have of the last 2 hours before I went home. It's displays my state pretty well. Don't worry, I got my hat back.I'm about 100km North of Tokyo, and if my calculations are right, we should get the cherry blossoms this weekend or so. That means I'll get to re-do it all closer to home.

Better Friday Revisited; or, Inside the Temple of Doom

It's been a long time since we've celebrated "Better Friday", and with good reason. We're all grown up, and my parents don't go to Florida for spring break anymore. Although, this year they did, but that's not what made a somewhat "Better Friday" possible. My manager, who I interviewed with in Ohio and has been back in Japan for a few years now, is leaving Honda to be a bigger dog at supplier. Friday night was his going away party.

When a peon like myself leaves, they have a party at a bar. When a big dog like Yoshino-san leaves, they go all out. They had the party at the giant wedding reception place next to my apartment. You know the one, there's a picture of it somewhere on here. The place is a crazy, one stop wedding shop. They sell you the clothes, host the service (Western or Shinto), host the party, have a bus to pick up guests at the station. They may even sell rings or have a travel agent. Here's the website.

http://www.bellevie-u.com/

I've been dying to know what was inside that place, but I didn't think I'd ever step foot in there. I even considered trying to crash a wedding, but I think I might be spotted before I get very far. I went in and I was directed to the 5th floor before I really had time to look around. I knew going in that it would be a big party, but I had no idea. I did the math, tables were arrange 4 X 4, with 10 at a table, so there were about 160 people there. And we were only 1 of the party rooms.

They did the traditional "Kampai" to kick things off, and then went through a little "this is you life" thing. No engineer party is complete without a PowerPoint presentation. Once they started feeding people, nobody paid any attention to what was going on . Yoshino-san got up to say his goodbyes and only the people sitting at his table were really listening.

I realize I haven't had any good stories lately, so I figured after the party, I would go with the flow to the 2nd party that seemed like it might be wildest. Next thing I know I'm in car with 3 guys I don't know and 1 guy I barely know, headed god knows where. I got a phone call from Suzuki-san, and since I had no idea what was going on, I handed off the phone. Next thing I know, we're picking up Suzuki and 2 other guys, putting us a little beyond the advertised seating capacity of the Honda Elysian.

Went to the hostess bar, but on the other side of the station. I didn't even know there were hostess bars on the other side of the station. Anyway, after the normal "Hey Dan-san, say this to her", we called it a night.

In other news, it's definitely springtime here, which is great, because baseball is on TV. Even if I don't care about the teams, at least I can understand it. This weekend was the start of the springtime high school tournament and a couple of pre-season exhibition games between Japanese teams (Giants and Tigers) and the Red Sox and A's, so it's been non stop baseball on TV. I'd like to go to the bar Monday and watch the Sox-A's game, but I haven't found a legitimate sports bar here yet.

They also do a fine job of covering any Japanese players in the majors, so I'll be able to follow the Indians, at least when Kobayashi is pitching. I caught this on the TV, it says the Indians lost to the Yankees 7-6, and I assume the bottom says Kobayashi pitched 1 inning, no K's or hits, but that just an educated guess.

One interesting thing I'm noticing, watching all these high school games, is it seems like all the teams wear white uniforms. Maybe some colored trim (usually blue), but always white or off-white. Makes it hard to tell the teams apart if you can't read the name on the front.

Work, Sleep, Drink, Repeat

Sorry I haven't updated this for a while, but I've had neither the time to write or anything to write about. I've settled into a nice, comfortable routine. What routine, you ask?

Monday:
Get up, jump in my Life Turbo and drive to work. Get there about 7:30, study/drink coffee for half an hour before clocking in. Work until 2, drive home, jump on my bike and ride to school. Learn Japanese for 3 hours, home at 6, make dinner, clean, do some of the stuff I didn't do on the weekend.

Tuesday:
Get up, walk about 15 minutes to the bus stop, ride the bus for an hour or so to go 5 miles, get to work around 8:30. Work until 9, get on the bus, home around 10, go to bed.

Wednesday:
Observe the "union rules" and only work for 8 hours. Do some more of the stuff I put off on the weekend.

Thursday:
See Tuesday.

Friday:
See Monday. After class, eat dinner, head to the bar, drink to much, sleep too little.

Saturday:
Suffer through a hangover. Eat dinner, head back to the bar. Go to the dance club down the street from the bar. Drink too much, sleep too little.

Sunday:
Suffer through a hangover, maybe cook a nice American style breakfast.

So, life hasn't changed too much.

Now, some pictures. I was going to post a picture from the bar, but my computer doesn't like to talk to my Japanese cell phone, so I can't get the pictures off. Here's a picture of another bar, that seems to be closed now.

The other day, my computer told me to back some stuff up, so I went to buy some blank DVDs. I bought these ones, figure I could put the spares around the apartment to throw dodgeballs at.

I saw this sign outside a pachinko parlor as I rode past and thought it was funny. Looks menacing.

First 100 Days (about)

OK, maybe more, maybe less, but I think I'm at about 100 days now and I thought I should post something, so here's some random babbling. We got some snow here for the first time last weekend. Here's my view of the wedding cathedral in the snow.They don't seem to have shovels here, much less plows. Basically you're on your own. Luckily, I have a supreme off-road ready driving machine at my disposal. I actually got to use my 13" snow tires when I went to buy curtains for my living room to keep the glare out and the heat in.

Utsunomiya is famous for chinese dumplings called gyoza. I never heard of them until I came to Japan for the first time, now they're famous worldwide. Guess what I had for dinner.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080205/hl_nm/dumpling_poisoning_dc_1

I thought my Japanese was getting pretty decent until I was talking to these girls at the bar last weekend. For once, I spoke better Japanese than they did English, and I was doing OK, making idiotic small talk. But I didn't know how to say anything better than "what is you hobby?", so kind of got stopped there. I was a little too hammered to make a sensible move in Japanese.

Haven't gotten any calls from most of you, so I thought I would remind you of my Skype screen name: dcroasmu. 'Cause I'm creative. Download Skype and give me a call and hope to catch me or send an email and we'll find a time.

I'm working on my "golden week" plans. That's a group of holidays close together that get me a week off at the end of April. I got this idea that I should try to go to every home stadium in Nippon Professional Baseball (not in 1 week, while I'm here). I say home stadium, because teams tend to have at least one alternate place where they play home games, and sometimes they'll play games in other cities just to bring the game to the fans. In fact, the Yomiuri Giants are playing in Utsuomiya this year.

Anyway, there's only 12 teams, so I think it's doable. Especially since 5 of them are in Tokyo. There's also 3 teams in the Osaka/Kyoto/Kobe area, so that's 8. That leaves Hiroshima and Fukuoka, way to the South, and Hokkaido and Sendai way North. I made up a nice little map and everything.

I'm going to try to do the southern loop during golden week and get one of the Osaka teams on the way. Let me know if you want to come along.