Golden Week 3 Months After The Fact: Featuring: Brett and Ken's Relatives.

On this trip, Brett finally gets to come across Japan and meet my relatives.

First: Yamanashi, the land of fresh fruit and clean air and majestic mountains ringing the city.



Also, the land of electronic recorders. About a month previous to our visit, my Grandpa came down with a case of shingles which crept into his inner ear (screwing up his sense of balance) and his eyes (which screwed up his vision). This led someone to give him this electronic recorder to play with because it didn't require vision or balance. Incidentally, Brett has OK vision and excellent balance, but horrible hearing, which I think is better for playing the electric recorder.
My grandpa has since recovered (pretty much miraculously) very well and is back to his usual out-and-about ways.

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Yokohama with my Dad's youngest sister's family.

This store is in Motomachi, an old upscale shopping area of Yokohama with many clothing boutiques like the Wood & Pecker.

BBQ at my Aunt and Uncle's place. Left to right: cousin Jun, Brett, cousin Hidemi.

This family enjoys their fine alcoholic beverages so I brought them a bottle of my Dad's favourite whiskey, Bush Mills, and it's more expensive sibling, Black Bush pictured above.

Brett and I swinging sweetly in the lovely backyard created by my Aunt Eiko.

Uncle Eisuke grilling steak, chops, and chicken. Great guy. He always has his hands in his pockets (he's always cold) and slouches around in the manner of a powerful man who has no need to impress anybody.

Meatless Like Me.

http://www.slate.com/id/2190872

BURMA --- CHINA ---: How can you help?

www.mcc.org

The best NGO out there!

Mennonite Central Committee is a non-governmental organization (NGO) and personally, one of the best that I've ever come across. I went to Uganda, East Africa for a year after high school with MCC's SALT program, and was very impressed with the way MCC worked in building communities, helping the grass-roots at the most micro level.

You may be aware that the Burmese military government has been appallingly negligent of their own people by basically blocking out foreign aid and letting their own citizens die by the tens of thousands as disease and hunger spreads day by day. Getting aid into Burma has been a tricky logistical thing for major aid providors, but fear not, MCC has partners (local NGOs) that are already established and running in Burma and all donations to MCC will go to these trusted NGOs.

Give a few bucks, please.

OKINAWA Part III: Aquariummmm.

Outside the aquarium: a misty kid-cooler-offer (It cools kids off. It doesn't offer cooler kids).

That monstrous giant of a shark is the whale shark. I was telling my students how awesome this whale shark was - just going on and on about the size of the whale shark whale shark whale shark! At the end of that day as I was about to hop on my bike to go home, what do I find on the seat of my bike, but this anonymous little gift pictured below!

OKINAWA: Part I.

This distant speck of a prefecture, historically and geographically closer to Taiwan and China than Japan, is a strange, sad, wonderful place. To many, Okinawa evokes images of pristine beaches, clear water, and a relaxed island culture that features reggae and hip hop music. This is one face of Okinawa.

Another face of Okinawa proper is, in the words of Robyn, my friend and host during my brief 5 day holiday there, the 'concrete eyesore' (to be fair, nearly all Japanese cities are concrete eyesores). At least Naha is, and everyone says Okinawa City is even more ghetto. But there is, at least in my eyes, a kind of alluring quality to the crumbling storefronts and faded facades. Okinawa has character.

The fact that Naha, Okinawa and other cities in Okinawa appear so old is an interesting paradox inasmuch as no building on the main island is older than 60 years. Over 80 percent of the island was bombed to rubble by the U.S. near the end of World War II and as such, practically every structure you see on Okinawa is relatively new; rebuilt during the post-war period. The crumbling oldness in Okinawa is, in fact, more to do with the fact that Okinawa is Japan's poorest prefecture than the passing of time.

Some very terrible things happened to Okinawa and her people during WWII in which many Okinawans were not only killed in battle, but also sometimes ordered by the Japanese military to commit mass suicides (to avoid capture by the barbarious Americans).

Okinawans are now often seen as a resilient, hardy people who nonetheless, or perhaps because of these hardships, also have a reputation for being much more laid back and carefree than the rest of Japan. Maybe they see more than others how fleeting life can be and thus, are determined not to let their office be their coffin, as is the case for too many mainland Japanese salarymen/women.

Enough of the heavy.
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My visit to Okinawa was really a visit to my friend Robyn, whom I had met at JET orientation in Toronto so many years ago. She basically devoted 3 whole days to me; driving around, showing me beaches, mountain-top restaurants, and all the places you don't get to see on tour.

Some photos:


Robyn on the left, her friend and fellow Canadian Khadija at the tombs of ancient Ryukyuu royalty.

Shuri Castle. Tons of Chinese influences in the design.

The best seat in the house.

Crumbling oldness.

Hello Kitty.

Robyn.

Robyn approaching the best pizza place in Japan. Located on the top of a very green hill, you have to drive through windy tiny roads , weaving your way through vineyards and gardens until you come across this place (which was packed). Great view, great decor (all old dark wooden beams and boards) and great pizza. Two kinds: Meat, or Veggie.

Meat.

Excellent Reading. "Why Bother?" by Michael Pollen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20wwln-lede-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Okinawa Part II: Meet The Ogasawaras.

First, a little bit about my family name, Ogasawara. It's a pretty kick-ass name. Whenever I introduce myself in Japan, people are immediately impressed. I get the impression that it's a prestigious name, a classy name. "Cool". A Japanese girl I met in Uganda, upon hearing my name, exclaimed, "Wow! What a posh name!". The only Ogasawaras I know of can both be seen on TV as either a professional soccer player (Mitsuo Ogasawara), or a professional baseball player (Michihiro Ogasawara). Needless to say, both are all-stars. Also, there is another Ken Ogasawara somewhere who is a big player in the gaming software engineering world.

The point is, Ogasawaras are few and far between and those that do exist are awesome. If you think I'm being exaggerating or just being revoltingly boastful, I ask you: how many do YOU know? And if you want further evidence, look no further than my own family: Morio, Mariko, Hana. They are all awesome. Case closed.

Anyways, I finally met another Ogasawara. And here's the kicker: she's CANADIAN!

Introducing Nancy Ogasawara. She's a second generation Japanese-Canadian 4th-year JET from Vancouver area. I was the only Ogasawara she'd ever met, too! We met at Rehab, a bar owned by (obviously) a Canadian guy named Paul. With her was another Japanese-Canadian with the very Japanese name of Oki Toshio. The three of us hung out for a day and they showed me around the old-skool downtown/market area of Naha. It was awesome.

Chunky sugar for Nancy's coffee. And beautifully crafted saucers and cups in the old pottery district Nancy showed me around.

Toshio!

Entering Makishi market. Tons of food, most of which I did not recognize.

Goya. A vegetable that is popular in Okinawa and probably nowhere else in Japan since it is incredibly bitter.
Okinawans eat a lot of pork and are known for using every bit of the pig, as is evidenced by the fact that the head and feet of this poor creature are actually for sale at the market. All the pigs had sunglasses on; perhaps it's the Okinawan version of laying the coins on the eyes of the dead.

Great little neighbourhood in the old pottery district of Tsuboya.

Shiisa. This mythical lion-like creature is usually seen in pairs: male and female. The male shiisa has his mouth open in a roar to scare away evil, bad luck, etc. The female has her mouth closed to keep in all the good stuff: peace, prosperity, harmony, etc. See one adaptation of the legend at: http://www.kantetsuryukarate.com/pages/shisahistory.html






[Above and below]: A perfect little art display space that Toshio knew (Toshio knows of a lot of neat little places like this in Naha). The artist's name is Miyazaki Kenichi. I told myself I would post pictures of his art only if I also plugged his website. http://tokotontokotoko.com/

Great Taiwanese tea shop that Toshio recommended. It was about $8 for a tea so my expectations were high, but the place delivered. It was just shy of performing actual tea ceremony (which takes approximately 4 hours to complete)... this one involved 4 different cups of different sizes and seven steps from pour to drink. It was delicious, though.