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.

Sumo!!!

Honda is a generous company. Since they realize those of us in Japan can't make it to the big Christmas party, they give us some budget to throw our own. This year, we took that money and went to the sumo tournament this weekend. So now I'm inspired to eat a little more.

We all gathered up at the train station, the OAPs, the wives, and the kids, about 24 of us in all. We filled up a train car (the slow kind), and got down there around 2:30, plenty of time to watch the big dogs, but not make the kids sit through the lower ranks. Unfortunately, something about the way the lighting is in the sumo stadium, the action shots don't come out well. But I did get you these nice shots of a big guys rear.

I also got his nice movie of the most psyched up sumo of the day. Too bad for him, it didn't work.

After sumo, we all went to dinner at TGI Friday's, since it was American Christmas party day. the fajitas weren't as good as I remember them but they were fajitas, and that's enough.

The single (or single in Japan) guys went down to Roppongi for the night afterwards. That's a part of Tokyo that's full of bars for foreigners and the women who love them. Not just the ones you pay, although there are plenty of those, but also the kind you just talk into stuff. We drank ourselves silly until around 4 and then called it a night. Good or bad, I lack the memories to really make for any interesting stories, so that's all you get.

I was supposed to meet some guys from my department back home in Roppongi, but there was a communication problem, so we made plans to meet the next day. I got over to their hotel in Shinjuku around 11 and took them over to Akihabara. I think I've covered that place before, so no stories this time. After that, we went to a nice touristy temple, Senso-ji, in Asakusa.

While we were standing at the front gate (Kaminari-mon, "Thunder Gate") taking pictures, and this girl walks up to us and says "Excuse me, do you speak English?". Lucky for her, we do. Suddenly 5 of her friends rush up, and she explains they're the "English Speaking Society" at some college nearby. The club is giving tours of the temple to practice speaking English. So the 3 of us got 6 tour guides. I got to practice my Japanese, they got to speak English, and we got a little different Senso-ji experience than I've had in the past. These girls were all 19, but they seemed 11. I couldn't help behaving myself. I did make them take a picture with us, but stopped there.

Kyoto Day 4 - Last day

On my last day in Kyoto, I had until 6 before I had to catch my train, so there was still enough time to check out a few more things. First, I finally got to check out Nijo-jo, an old (1600) shogun's castle right across the street from my hotel. I would have gone sooner, but they were closed for new years. Still, it was nice passing by this everyday on the way to the subway.

This is just the guardhouse on the corner, but it's the part you can see best from outside. I went in, plunked down 500 yen for the self-guiding audio tour, and I was off. Inside, there was another "World Heritage Site", a palace that was the official Kyoto residence of the Tokugawa shoguns. I walked through the palace, and it was of course full of beautiful paintings, which I didn't realize until later were just reproductions. The originals were in the climate and humidity controlled building on the other side.

The most interesting thing about the palace were the "Nightingale floors". The floors in the palace were designed specifically to creak whenever someone walks on them. The idea was to ninja-proof the floors, keep assassins away.

Next stop was across town to Heian Jingu shrine. Just seemed like a geographically convenient shrine, although there were other more famous places to go. After only a tiny bit of wandering outside of the train station, I found the right way to go. Pretty easy once I spotted this.

Biggest torii I've ever seen. Usually, these are made of wood or stone, but I guess that a wood one this size isn't earthquake proof, so they used steel. I followed the road, and they had the last remnants of the new year party at the temple, so that's where I grabbed some lunch. I tried takoyaki for the first time. It's pretty similar to okonomiyaki, but in balls, with a nice chunk of octopus inside. I took mine across the street to watch some kid playing baseball, on Jan 5, in front of the big ass torii.

After watching an inning and touring the shrine, it was time to go back to the hotel to pick up my stuff and head towards the station. Plan was to shove my stuff in a coin locker and look at the tourist stuff near the station so that I could make a run for my train when the time came.

Last temple I had time to go to in Kyoto was Toji. Famous for having the tallest pagoda in Japan. I really liked it, but all the cool stuff was in "No Picture" zones, so no pictures. It was the first pagoda I saw where you were allowed inside, at least on the first floor. It was really pretty small and crowded with statues. They also don't want too much light to fade the statues, so it was dark, too. There was a temple employee inside who would occasionally shine a flashlight on some of the statues, but you really couldn't see anything.

On my way back to the station, I had just enough time to go into one of the subtemples of Toji. I was glad I made time for it, because it was my favorite temple of the whole trip. It was small and quiet and you could go anywhere you wanted, for the most part. I liked that it was just open and there were no people there. Very peaceful.

Unfortunately, I had to run from there to get to my train. For the first time ever, my shinkansen was delayed. Only 5 minutes, but it was strange. And, over the course of the 2 1/2 hours to Tokyo, somehow they made up the time. Got home around 10 that night, and I was so beat I did nothing all day Sunday.

Well, that's it for Kyoto. Hopefully I painted a pretty picture, because I wouldn't mind going back. If anyone wants to come and check it out, I kind of know my way around now, so it should go more smoothly.