Just some random thoughts, lest the blog become stagnant.
Has anyone else noticed something peculiar about the minty chewing gum industry? Remember back in the day when they were all going nuts about how chewing Trident/Dentyne/whatever would help to PREVENT cavities? Nowadays, if you look carefully, they proudly display the fact that this gum 'Does Not Cause Cavities'. What the heck. Next they'll be selling us with, 'Does Not Cause Dizziness, Headaches, Back-pain, or Diarria' (P.S. Does ANYBODY know how to spell 'Diaghrria properly??)
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The other day after school I was biking towards an intersection when a kid I passed shouted 'Oh! Ken!' So I looked back and waved and when I looked forward again, the flashing green man had turned to a solid red hand and a whole bunch of my students were all there to see me run through a stop-signal. Sigh. This probably made the news at many a dinner table conversation, and I will probably be fired for it.
Japan is a very letter-of-the-law society and most Japanese pedestrians will wait at a deserted crosswalk until the light turns green even if they were the last people on earth. This is in stark contrast to certain people I know in Canada, who shall remain nameless, who will routinely ACCELERATE through familiar stop signs when no cars are coming (ryan baer). What? Who said that?
However, as evidence of the changing times, I am seeing more and more rebellious youth and adult alike darting furtively across an empty street EVEN THOUGH THE LIGHT SAYS STOP.
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I made an extremely delicious meal from scratch. It consisted of stir fried veggies and fried beef strips with some delish spices and melted cheese and ground flax seeds and yoghurt and brown rice. I do this kind of thing all the time.
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Just to show you how awesome my supervisors at the ol' Board of Education (BOE) office are, I was sick this past week with a nagging cold and cough. So Kawamura-san brought me a steaming cup of GINGER & HONEY TEA to my desk, just like my Mom made back home! Wow!
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Thursday, January 18, 2007
NABE. I realized that after writing a great deal about nabe in my last email, I had failed to post a picture of it. To be technical, this is real nabe, where food is already prepared and all cooked at once inside the nabe. The piece-meal method of tossing stuff in to cook and eat instantly is called "Shabu shabu" - a key feature of shabushabu is the thinly sliced raw meat that is dipped for like 2 seconds and eaten post-haste. I think that's all correct.
Giant seafood NABE that Shoko took us to. To eat.
Giant seafood NABE that Shoko took us to. To eat.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Winter Holidays Part III: Yokohama - Eisuke, Eiko, Hidemi, Jun.
From Yamanashi, Anna, Mike and I travelled onwards to Yokohama where my Dad's little sister's family doth dwell. FUN TIMES! The first night we got there, my cousins (Hidemi and Jun) were both there as well as Jun's wife, Rieko who bears a striking resemblence to my mother. Anyways, it was so great to see the whole family there together, I hadn't seen Jun or Hidemi for a long time (Eisuke and Eiko came to visit me in November). Good food, lots of pets, lots of English (they were all quite able when they really put their minds to it) and lots of laughs.
ほんとに たのしかった！ありがとうございました！
My cousin Hidemi and me.
The Yokohama family. Hidemi (holding Harry), Jun (holding Chatta), me, Rieko (Jun's wife, holding their cat, Giovanni), Hidemi's friend Takahashi, Anna and Mike, and Eiko (my dad's youngest sister).
We went for a 2.5 hour hike over a range of hills into the ancient city of Kamakura. GLORIOUS hike through bamboo, spruce, cedar trees... this is a giant graveyard ("hakaishi") that we saw on our way.
My cousin Taiki (from my Mom's side) met up with us for this little walk since he couldn't make it to our grandparent's place. Good guy.
Amazing old temples in abundance at Kamakura. Enormous wooden structures, not a single nail in any of them.
The ceiling of one particular temple.
We took a jaunt into Tokyo for a day. Exhausting. This is a picture Mike took of the train routes at Shibuya (I think) train station in Tokyo. Finding my way around the public transport system was probably the only thing that I had any anxiety about when preparing for my time in Japan, oddly. Turns out it's really not that bad, and really well organized, so all you gotta do is ask someone if you're lost.
From Yamanashi, Anna, Mike and I travelled onwards to Yokohama where my Dad's little sister's family doth dwell. FUN TIMES! The first night we got there, my cousins (Hidemi and Jun) were both there as well as Jun's wife, Rieko who bears a striking resemblence to my mother. Anyways, it was so great to see the whole family there together, I hadn't seen Jun or Hidemi for a long time (Eisuke and Eiko came to visit me in November). Good food, lots of pets, lots of English (they were all quite able when they really put their minds to it) and lots of laughs.
ほんとに たのしかった！ありがとうございました！
My cousin Hidemi and me.
The Yokohama family. Hidemi (holding Harry), Jun (holding Chatta), me, Rieko (Jun's wife, holding their cat, Giovanni), Hidemi's friend Takahashi, Anna and Mike, and Eiko (my dad's youngest sister).
We went for a 2.5 hour hike over a range of hills into the ancient city of Kamakura. GLORIOUS hike through bamboo, spruce, cedar trees... this is a giant graveyard ("hakaishi") that we saw on our way.
My cousin Taiki (from my Mom's side) met up with us for this little walk since he couldn't make it to our grandparent's place. Good guy.
Amazing old temples in abundance at Kamakura. Enormous wooden structures, not a single nail in any of them.
The ceiling of one particular temple.
We took a jaunt into Tokyo for a day. Exhausting. This is a picture Mike took of the train routes at Shibuya (I think) train station in Tokyo. Finding my way around the public transport system was probably the only thing that I had any anxiety about when preparing for my time in Japan, oddly. Turns out it's really not that bad, and really well organized, so all you gotta do is ask someone if you're lost.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Ken's TAIKO!
This is a video of a special performance that I was asked to do for my Aikido club's Christmas party. I got together an elite team of drummers: Chika, Nagisa, Saori & Tao (two leaders of the group). Get this: the night of the performance, I get to the place where I was meeting the others and Tao told me Nagisa had been sick all day - fever and vomiting, poor girl. I felt bad because I know she was really looking forward to doing this. Not only that, her absence threw a wrench into our format because now Saori would have to play both timekeeper AND do Nagisa's part. Turns out this was a blessing in disguise because Saori is SO GOOD. I learned later in the night, she was a professional at one point. She is the one behind me.
Let me just say that this was EXHAUSTING. By the end of the performance, I was half past dead. Very physically strenuous, but very impressive to watch too, if done right (see Saori!).
Special thanks to Brett Plotz for taking this video!
Enjoy!
This is a video of a special performance that I was asked to do for my Aikido club's Christmas party. I got together an elite team of drummers: Chika, Nagisa, Saori & Tao (two leaders of the group). Get this: the night of the performance, I get to the place where I was meeting the others and Tao told me Nagisa had been sick all day - fever and vomiting, poor girl. I felt bad because I know she was really looking forward to doing this. Not only that, her absence threw a wrench into our format because now Saori would have to play both timekeeper AND do Nagisa's part. Turns out this was a blessing in disguise because Saori is SO GOOD. I learned later in the night, she was a professional at one point. She is the one behind me.
Let me just say that this was EXHAUSTING. By the end of the performance, I was half past dead. Very physically strenuous, but very impressive to watch too, if done right (see Saori!).
Special thanks to Brett Plotz for taking this video!
Enjoy!
Friday, January 05, 2007
Winter Holidays Part II: Yamanashi.
I invited Mike and Anna to come along to my grandparents place in Yamanashi and my aunt and uncle's place in Yokohama (later) to experience some real Japanese family environment, especially for New Years. My cousin Wataru came up the day after we did so the new years weekend participants consisted of Mike and Anna, my grandparents, Wataru and me. Good times!
The drive to Yamanashi was beautiful. Some real mountains.
Kampai!
Obaachan playing the keyboard and Ogiichan singing an old song in his gravelly voice. We jammed quite a bit, actually. We had a really nice piano (so Anna told me, I don't know much about those things), a guitar and keyboard. I didn't really know this before, but Obaachan has a really good ear! She'd listen to what Mike was playing on the piano and after one listen would play right along with her keyboard...
Their dog, Ai-chan, though being a female, had a peculiar habit....
Great picture of Ogiichan in his workshop. Their house is just a big clutter of various crafts, artifacts, raw materials and other nicknacks... a lovely home.
This is the driveway to my grandparent's place. We had to park Mike and Anna's car out by the main street because it wouldn't fit in the footpath that is the driveway. Only Ogiichan's skinny van driven expertly by Ogiichan himself can navigate this course.
Fuji-san. Quite possibly the most beautiful mountain in the world. I hear the Table-Top Mountain in South Africa is pretty, too...
Me trying to play a shamisen. I was inspired by two brothers playing on TV - they ROCKED out on these things, I don't know how they did it, but it was amazing. The "pick" is that ice-scraper-like thing in my right hand and you have only three strings on a fretless neck.
I invited Mike and Anna to come along to my grandparents place in Yamanashi and my aunt and uncle's place in Yokohama (later) to experience some real Japanese family environment, especially for New Years. My cousin Wataru came up the day after we did so the new years weekend participants consisted of Mike and Anna, my grandparents, Wataru and me. Good times!
The drive to Yamanashi was beautiful. Some real mountains.
Kampai!
Obaachan playing the keyboard and Ogiichan singing an old song in his gravelly voice. We jammed quite a bit, actually. We had a really nice piano (so Anna told me, I don't know much about those things), a guitar and keyboard. I didn't really know this before, but Obaachan has a really good ear! She'd listen to what Mike was playing on the piano and after one listen would play right along with her keyboard...
Their dog, Ai-chan, though being a female, had a peculiar habit....
Great picture of Ogiichan in his workshop. Their house is just a big clutter of various crafts, artifacts, raw materials and other nicknacks... a lovely home.
This is the driveway to my grandparent's place. We had to park Mike and Anna's car out by the main street because it wouldn't fit in the footpath that is the driveway. Only Ogiichan's skinny van driven expertly by Ogiichan himself can navigate this course.
Fuji-san. Quite possibly the most beautiful mountain in the world. I hear the Table-Top Mountain in South Africa is pretty, too...
Me trying to play a shamisen. I was inspired by two brothers playing on TV - they ROCKED out on these things, I don't know how they did it, but it was amazing. The "pick" is that ice-scraper-like thing in my right hand and you have only three strings on a fretless neck.
WINTER HOLIDAYS Part I.
CHRISTMAS in Kudamatsu! - feat. Mike and Anna.
Nothing like best friends from home to brighten up a foreign and potentially lonely Christmas. Mike and Anna sped from their Japan-home in Gifu where they are teaching English, to my humble abode on the Friday before Christmas. I'd like to say I showed them all the glory of Yamaguchi-ken, but the truth is, we ended up just relaxing in my tatami (bamboo carpet) room for most of the time - it was just what we all needed. Some pictures.
On Saturday (Christmas Eve's eve) we had a Taiko concert at an old-folks home. Mike and Anna's first taiko experience, and even though we were pretty rusty, it was fun times.
The traditional cutting of the best friend's hair which is a ritual long practiced in Japan ever since that day I cut Mike's hair, which was last week, I guess.
SNOW!! Machi, Ken and Anna revelling in the first snowfall of the year, and what a snowfall! Flakes the size of my fist and perfect for chucking at the nearest friend. You can see the flakes are so big they cast a shadow from the flash.
The Tree Festival in neighbouring Tokuyama. Lots of lights, big stage, thumping subwoofers accompanying highflying cheerleading acts, dance groups, and singing performances. And many many food tents. Delish.
The main objective of this photo was to get the guy's hair behind me. So pay no attention to me and please refer to the mane of Japanese style piled behind me.
We bumped into Chika and Suguru (Taiko friends, if you have forgotten) as well as Arisa and her little sister. Arisa, along with Chika, were in my group at the Karyo English camp waaaay back in August! Check out that jacket Chika is wearing! These kids are stylin'.
CHRISTMAS in Kudamatsu! - feat. Mike and Anna.
Nothing like best friends from home to brighten up a foreign and potentially lonely Christmas. Mike and Anna sped from their Japan-home in Gifu where they are teaching English, to my humble abode on the Friday before Christmas. I'd like to say I showed them all the glory of Yamaguchi-ken, but the truth is, we ended up just relaxing in my tatami (bamboo carpet) room for most of the time - it was just what we all needed. Some pictures.
On Saturday (Christmas Eve's eve) we had a Taiko concert at an old-folks home. Mike and Anna's first taiko experience, and even though we were pretty rusty, it was fun times.
The traditional cutting of the best friend's hair which is a ritual long practiced in Japan ever since that day I cut Mike's hair, which was last week, I guess.
SNOW!! Machi, Ken and Anna revelling in the first snowfall of the year, and what a snowfall! Flakes the size of my fist and perfect for chucking at the nearest friend. You can see the flakes are so big they cast a shadow from the flash.
The Tree Festival in neighbouring Tokuyama. Lots of lights, big stage, thumping subwoofers accompanying highflying cheerleading acts, dance groups, and singing performances. And many many food tents. Delish.
The main objective of this photo was to get the guy's hair behind me. So pay no attention to me and please refer to the mane of Japanese style piled behind me.
We bumped into Chika and Suguru (Taiko friends, if you have forgotten) as well as Arisa and her little sister. Arisa, along with Chika, were in my group at the Karyo English camp waaaay back in August! Check out that jacket Chika is wearing! These kids are stylin'.
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