Land of the Rising Sun

For all of you poor folks living in the Midwest, I thought I would send you a little ray of sunshine. I hear it is cold by you, while this is what it looks like in my neck of the woods:

Here's a shot of the farm/garden that is next to my apartment. Yup, those are pansies that are planted along the curb. They are alive and provide a lovely splash of color. It is still a little disturbing to see plants (especially flowers) living outside at the end of January for this Wisconsin girl, but I am coping. I am continuing to take advantage of my mild winter and run outside a few times a week.

Welcome to Kodaira (the neighboring city and home to my local train station). It seems that every city in Japan has their "own" manhole covers. This one is particularly special, as it has their name and is painted all pretty. The cover below is the regular cover found throughout the area near my station (note the continued flower theme).

Lastly, I was reminded how differently people sometimes see things again last week. I taught a lesson that involved talking about why you prefer the country or the city. At the end, I tried to elicit ideas from students, and I was met with blank stares. When I asked them why they liked living in Hachioji/the city, one of my students innocently said that Hachioji was the country. I was a little shocked by this, as the population of Hachioji is 530,000. I explained that the population of my parent's town (Sherwood) was about 2,500, and that that was what I considered to be country. After a few laughs over this, the ideas started to flow.

Tour of Kokubunji

It is winter, and not much is happening in Japan. It has been cold and rainy here lately, so I am inclined to stay inside waiting out winter. Although I am from Wisconsin and should be used to cold winters, winter here is proving to be much different. It is more damp here, so when the temperatures drop, it feels a lot colder. Also, weather-proofing and central heating seem to be unheard of in these parts. My patio doors and entrance door are drafty, and my air conditioner/heater is kind of inefficient. Yeah for wool clothing and down comforters though!

For those faithful readers, I forced myself to go out and find something interesting for this week. :) These shots were from my walk to the grocery store today.

This is a school by my house. I took this picture to show the architecture over here. For a developed country with a high GDP, their commercial architecture leaves a lot to be desired. Most buildings are simple structures with a cold-war feel to them. There are millions of square meters of EIFS (Dryvit, stucco, whatever you want to call it) here. It makes for a drab urban landscape; maybe this is why they have so many neon signs and electronic billboards? Maybe the Japanese contractors get a deal on EIFS?

On the other hand, they seem to put a little more effort into their homes. This is a picture of a house in my neighborhood. Although it is boring, old EIFS, it has broken roof lines, bay windows, etc. And, it is a fairly large house (so don't believe all of the hype; they have normal-sized houses over here--they are just very close together and with no yards).

Finally, a departing shot form the grocery store today. Yup, their obsession with plastic food seems to have permeated their grocery stores. This display of plastic pasta, complete with levitating fork, was at Gourmet City. There was also a display of Ma Pao Tofu in the Chinese section.

Religious Zealot

Yesterday was beautiful and sunny, so I headed into Tokyo. Since it was so nice, I decided to walk around Harajuku a bit, watching the different people and happenings. After a casual stroll, I ended up back at the main thoroughfare and stopped to send a quick e-mail from my phone. Although I was in my own world, I saw him lurking out of the corner of my eye. Next thing I knew, this overweight, pushy, American, religious zealot was approaching me. He asked if I was having a problem with my "machine" (i.e. my cell phone), and when I kindly replied that I was just sending an e-mail, he proceeded to shove some religious propaganda on me. (Now, I'm not against organized religion, but I'm not really a part of it, and I expect people to respect my choice as I respect their choice to be part of their respective religions) When I asked him to leave me alone, he assumed I was a heathen, quickly flipped to another flier with "666" all over it, and started blabbing about having both Jesus and the devil covered. I again asked him to leave me alone and told him that I do not care for organized religion, but he kept on. Finally, I had to resort to telling him off in order to finish my e-mail in peace.

Am I really in need of salvation? Do my black fleece, khakis, and alien status cry out Devil Worshipper? So far I have had the Jehovah's Witnesses wake me up three different Sundays (even dispatching an "English" speaker) and have been hassled by a few street preachers in Tokyo. I try to be respectful, but I find them pushing my buttons until I am forced to become that pushy/disrespectful American. I despise them for this.

Anyway, so that is my beef of the week. Thanks for listening. Now, onto the fun part: the photos of the week!

Ever wonder how one would transport a drum set on the train? This is how. He was part of one of the bands I stopped to listen to outside Yoyogi. Even the amps are tiny and portable over here!

This one is for you Dad! Thought you would like the old Caddy. There are groups of 1950's greasers that hang out, dancing outside of Yoyogi Park, every Sunday (complete with the ducktail hairdos and black leather jackets). I'm assuming this is one of their cars.

Finally, yet another installment in the Jessica's Favorite Signs series. Just noticed this sign at an intersection on my way home the other night. I love the fact that a lot of the signs here seem to have over dramatic cartoons on them.

Good Gifts

Not much happened this week. Just recovered from my vacation and got back into the swing of things at work. I taught my first regular classes at our new school tonight, and the students seemed to like our new building! Also, I weighed myself tonight while taking the trash out tonight. I haven't weighed myself since I left, but it seems that I have lost around 10-15 pounds on this no car-little cheese Japanese diet. Yeah!

Thanks again to everyone that has sent me cards and gifts. Although I truly appreciate everything everyone has sent me, I got an amazing gift from my parents today. I couldn't help posting a picture of it here. It is a swanky b&W photo bracelet of my family members! (Lynn, please tell Jody that it fits perfectly, and that I love it! Thanks.)

Searching for my Seoul

Happy New Year everyone!! As many of you know, I took a vacation to Seoul, South Korea over my winter break. It was a great to get out of Japan for a bit (even if it was terribly cold for the first few days), and it was great to see another country. I saw a lot while I was there, including the DMZ (the Demilitarized Zone that was established at the border between North and South after the Korean War 50 years ago), Gyeong Buk Gung palace, Jogyesa Temple, and the Icheon pottery village. I also walked around many markets and shops in a few of the different areas of Seoul. Insadong was by far my favorite area (maybe I am prejudice though, as I had my best meal since I left the States there; it was at a restaurant that specialized in vegetarian food to accommodate the Buddhist monks from Jogyesa, and their meals are worth every penny of the US $11).

With that said, here is the weekly dose of pictures:

This is North Korea from the observation deck on the South Korean side of the DMZ. They said that Korea is about 70% mountains, and this is a shot of the other side of the border and a small industrialized area that they are developing to try to bridge and improve relations with North Korea. The tour of this area was definitely interesting. They showed us this slickly produced video that felt a bit like war propaganda, talked about how they are trying to improve relations, and all put on a smiling faces, while surrounded by an area full of landmines and soldiers. It was indescribable.

These are the monkeys that line one of the corner ridges of the roof over the Queen's sleeping quarters at the Gyeong Buk Gung Palace. The monkeys run along each of the corner ridges on this building and many other palace buildings. They are supposed to serve as protection for the Queen.

Finally, this is a picture of the guardian that welcomed us at the gates of the Jogyesa Buddhist Temple in Seoul on New Year's Eve. There were about 10 different paper statues on the temple grounds that we saw during the day, and then we returned to check out their New Year's celebration that night (it was too crowded at Boshingak Bell, which is Seoul's main celebration). At night, all the statues were illuminated, and they also had a ceremony involving the fireworks and the monks to welcome 2007.

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year everyone!!! I just got back from Seoul, so I will try to update this in the next few days. I would like to take a moment to introduce you all to someone though...

... this is Buddha Bruce. I accidentally forgot the original Bruce in Japan (see earlier posts), so I found a replacement in Seoul.

Bruce was the proud recipient of my New Year's kiss this year. And there were even fireworks in the background.