It's the final countdown

And now an annotated addition of the famous song by Europe where even the footnotes have footnotes.

We're leaving together,                 (me and my ego)
But still it's farewell                       (to reality (in favor of my own), about as persistent as throat cancer really)
And maybe we'll come back,        (Someday, but for they moment I'm enjoying my gumdrop castle while cackling maniacally)
To earth, who can tell ?                (Or earth, whatever)
I guess there is no one to blame    ('cept Nixon)
We're leaving ground                    (More in a metaphorical sense, though I would like point out this is a 100% natural, non-drug induced high, excluding Japan itself)1
Will things ever be the same again? (Yes!)

It's the final countdown...                (As opposed to the not-quite-final countdown and the this-ones-for-practice countdown)

We're heading for Venus                (We mean Venus, Texas known as Gossip prior to it being confirmed that people actually want to live in Texas (those poor, poor bastards). Though it is the opinion of this blogger that if your town "boasts" a population of 910 then one should not call attention to fertility issues. Editor's note: the opinions published herein are those of the author alone and Blogger.com by no means wishes to imply that the citizens of Venus are Texans  infertile.)
and still we stand tall                      (Me, 6'4'' My ego: defined by s^x where s is the maximum size science is capable of measuring (s>1) while x is there to is there to to represent current state of awesome (x>1) and to make me giggle like a school girl when I say the equation out loud (s to the x))
Cause maybe they've seen us         (They, quite an ambiguous term, allow me to explain, no there is no time, let me sum up: Administrative Command, Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet Subordinate Command or ADCOMSUBORDCOMPHIBSPAC)
and welcome us all                         (I will not make a joke here as I have nothing but respect for our sea forces, as I myself have contemplated naval affairs on many occasions)
With so many light years to go        (Light year: a normal year who has been watching it's girlish figure
and things to be found                    (Been playing hide and seek with Jimmy Hoffa. The dude is really good at this)
I'm sure that we'll all miss her so.    (No, Jimmy is not a woman. He did, however, spend a few years in prison which, as you might imagine, led to gender lines blurring)

(Repeat chorus and steep until the proper concentration of awesome is reached)

1: Japan should note be taken in doses exceeding 100 milligrams and never more than twice a day. In case of accidental overdose, please contact physician. Know side effects include: naruto headbands, obsession with children's card games and believing that saying daisuki (love) and kawaii (cute) equates with being Japanese

Friends, Romans, countrymen. Lend me your corvettes. No? No one? Well it was worth a shot. Anyhoo, I'll be leaving land of the rising sun in about 2 days. So here in nostalgic celebration is those pictures I promised you around two months ago (again, blame Nixon). Here I present to you Spring Break 2011 with someone with better hair than Carson Daly (have you looked at me? I'm fabulous).

First, I'd like to thank all the beautiful women in my life.

There's her

And everybody loves a blond

Not everyone can pull off canary yellow, but she makes it work

And who could forget these hot young firecrackers

And lest we judge only on appearance (you chauvinistic pigs, you), remember that each of these fine young damsels are from Tokyo University, the Harvard of Japan. That means they will grow to be tomorrow's respected and dignified leaders.

My team that kicked ass and took names in the competition which you readers have forgotten about and which I won't bother to explain 

An delicious barbecue. You'll not that, as I and the rest of the people around the grill are distracted by the camera, Akio (the craft devil to my left) takes advantage of the situation and heads for the choice morsels.

The guy on the right is Kiba, our director whenever the teacher isn't around. Kiba is a chemistry student who happens to have his own anime alter-ego

Now for those of you who can't read Japanese (Philistines!) the cat is saying "I am Mr. Kiba". What's interesting to note that instead of ending with the tradition -san (mr.) it ends with nyan which includes includes the Japanese cat's onomatopoeic "nya". That is the English equivalent of "meow". To understood the subtleties of this particular linguistic phenomenon one must view it it amongst its contemporaries such as the one here. Apologies on the quality of link, but historical artifacts are rarely properly maintained.

Here are a few more of our illustrious leader's alter ego.

So, yes, the choir is every bit as manly as you imagined it.

In recent news I took a break for two weak due to catching ill. The doctors said it was kimatsu testo syndrome. It has been known to strike young people around this season. This illness is characterized by a number of both physical and psychological symptoms. Examples include: heavy sweating, shaking, the inability to focus, procrastination, the shunning of society and screaming at the sight of the word bug spray spelled out in kanji. If you want to do your own research on this illness you will probably have more luck finding it under its English name of "final exam" syndrome.

I would like to take this time to define the machine "puri kara" or "pretty colors" in relationship with Japanese society. Their American equivalent has been seen at Amusement parks around the states in the form of those little photo booths that girlfriends drag their boyfriends. Once inside, the male of the species may employ several defenses against this emasculating ordeal such as the looking "badass" or at the very least "uninterested". These defenses, however, do not work when applied to puri kara. The machine automatically airbrushes your skin and tints your lips the perfect shade of whipped. Additionally, it artificially enlarges your eyes anime style which only emphasizes the "deer in the headlights" look the males are no doubt sporting. Why do I bring this subject up? No reason. There are absolutely no incriminating pictures of me that will see the light of day. No  sir!

So yes, my days in Japan draw to a close and now I must bid a fond farewell to all the friends I made. This will be the last post on this particular blog so I hope you enjoyed. Maybe I will start another one to due with law school. Maybe.

What a glorious feeling I'm happy again

Another week gone by and scant few left in my stay in Japan. Looking forward to seeing the family and a few friends when I return home, but still like being here. Anyways, here’s the update.

The weekend before last was my choir concert which was well and good in and of itself. That is to say, it was indoors. There seems to be two things in Japan that are out to get me as seen in previous posts: the weather and the curving roads that make it difficult to get a feel for direct. So, yes, the rain fell like no other on that Sunday. This was really sad because Tokyo University was having a festival that day complete with more booths than you could shake a stick at. Luckily, I have acquired an umbrella and use it. The problem being that with my height and the wind, everything from the waste down ends up soaked no matter what I do.

Me and my friends spend the day dodging in and out of building and visiting the booths for whatever victuals we can find. I had a really decent okonomiyaki for only 300 yen. I also sampled their French toast which is really more of a desert here and is served with ice cream. We also got to stop by a stage that was set up for the express purpose of hosting a cappella performances. The day was finished out at a nomikai (drinking party) just like every other Sirobara event.

So what did I actually end up doing this week? Well, not a whole lot to tell the truth. I’ve been trying to catch up on my studies and this means staying indoors and avoiding the above 80 degree heat. I did, however, visit a cold stone creamery today. The employees even sang for the guests while mixing the ice cream. For those of you who remember Columbus’s Cold Stone, they managed to keep up the singing for about one entire day before becoming mute again. Not here in Japan. I am always impressed with how good the customer service here is compared to the states.

So to make amends for not too much happening, I have pictures!!! And more on the way as soon as I get the password for Sirobara’s website (the camping trip pics).

The bus back from camp, we had a wild time

Hmm, if this were a real women I'm not sure I'd take that as a compliment or rush her to the nearest emergency room

Bond, eat your heart out!

Next week: more pictures (fingers crossed)

Papa-ooma-mow-mow

Okay. I`m not seeming to get enough free time to sit down and write this blog in one go this week so we`re going to take a piecemeal approach starting with an amusing anecdote about my walk to school this morning.

As I might have mentioned previously, it takes me about 30-40 by foot everyday to get to the train station. This route takes me through the park so I at least get to enjoy the scenery. I`m am walking around, minding my own business when I feel a sharp pinch on the top of my head. I immediately look up to see a crow flying off, looking slightly abashed for mistaking my nice full head of hair for, I don`t know...a toupee? Crows have always been associated with mischief and perhaps it was this crow`s little prank on an aging society. Speaking of aging, I thought I was too young to worry about crow`s feet. Said crow crow and a companion of his follow me down the street for a little ways, perhaps exchanging in snarky comments about me and my admittedly somewhat poofy hair. Finally, they left me alone after persistent use of my dirtiest looks.

Kick off your sunday shoes

I didn't update last week due to a Japanese midterm I was studying for. Apologies.

As per usual my weeknights have been pretty bleh. So let's skip straight to the juicy weekend material.

Weekend 1: What we have here is a weekend of nigh perfect weather. This my be one of the few ones left as we are getting into the rainy season and it just breached 80 degrees during last week. I was determined to make the most of it. Sirobara dominated my Saturday, but nothing too exciting happened this time. Sunday, however, I went for an outing in the park for a intercultural event my local community center was hosting. The day was themed around a scavenger hunt of local emergency relief locations (actually more fun than it sounds). We were split into teams of around 5 people and given a set of questions and a list of locations. The questions were really easy if you found the location. For example, we had to record the name of a museum we passed by.

The tricky part was twofold: 1, there was a location where we were given any questions to answer. We were just told to memorize it and we would be quizzed later. Due to my cheatin...err..quick thinking, I took photographs of everything for later review. We managed to get 100% on this one. The second difficult part was the time limit of 90 minutes. Every minute over or under was points off our score. Trouble was we weren't told that the time limit was 90 minutes. We were simply told that it existed and not to hurry too much. Long story short (too late) my team took 5th place out of around 16 teams and were rewarded with a flashlight each. I have no idea what the grandprize was as none of the winning team opened their's then. The other prizes were handed out to everyone in the top 5, 7th place (lucky number 7) and second to last place (a sort of well, at least you weren't those guys prize). Sucked to be in 6th place.

After the scavenger hunt people were invited to an all you can drink yakiniku (think bbq chicken shishkabob) restaurant to celebrate another successful year. God I love chicken. Here I ended up having several weird conversations with my drunk hosts including the finer points civil law. It took me about 5 minutes to figure out what we were discussing. One of my limited vocabulary doesn't tend to know the Japanese words for tort and district court of the top of one's head. However, I don't think I embarrassed myself too much once I got the gist of the conversation.

Weekend 2: We (shirobara) again went out drinking. And when I drink, I drink a lot...of orange juice...and tea. Which brings me to the topic of the sexist bathrooms present at our usual dive. The is no boy's room. There's a girl's room and a unisex toilet. This means that not only are us guys jockeying for position with our own sex, but also the opposite one when attempting to relieve ourselves or puke in private. One may argue that girls take longer in the bathroom and thus could use the extra option. Additionally, the male constitution has evolved an ability to "hold it" while those of the female persuasion seemed to have given it a skip. However, my clients (my bladder and those of my fellow members of the unfair sex) will seek to prove that it is for these very reasons that we should be afforded our own private bathroom. Firstly, us men, on average, down more beverage than girls do. Be it a point of pride or a matter of weight ratios (insert Holy Grail reference here), we make sure our livers are put in there places (or, in my case, whatever part of the body absorbs vitamin C). Our famous skill of waiting it out is not a failsafe, but rather the default mode. That is too say, when we gotta go, we gotta go. Just ask Tycho Brahe (a scientist whose bladder exploded while waiting to be excused from the table). Therefore ladies, it is not just a matter of convenieve for us men, our lives are on the line when we are forced to wait.

The next day we went to Sweets Paradise. Imagine, if you will, a typical buffet. Fairly low quality food, but a metric ton of it. There were about 50 different dishes to choose from. There was spaghetti, Japanese curry, some sandwiches. That's 4. The rest were sweets. I'm surprised I got out of the restaurant before having a diabetic attack. I can't even begin to describe have the things I ate. I tried to sample one of everything that looked good, but in the end my strength deserted me (heh).

There was also a drink bar with my favorite Japanese soda, Calpis. This frothy white beverage may leave residue on the upper lip akin to that of a milk mustache. This is colloquially known as being pis faced or pised for short. Along with the drinks there were a number of additives including peach flavoring. Thus, I would like to introduce the world to Peach Pis (working title until I can come up with something ruder).

To top off the weekend I scored…a goal…in soccer. Yeah, after Sweets Paradise we wanted to burn of at least a few of those stubborn calories. Most of the players were amateurs (myself included), but there seemed to be one person there who could juggle the ball with his feet. From this I extrapolated that he had played on a team at some point in his life. With some fancy footwork he could bring down the staunchest opponent. And by that I mean bash them in the head with the ball. He took out one of the female players and nearly myself using the tactic (to be fair they were accidents, I think). The game itself was really fun. It's been forever since I played and getting back into it was very refreshing.

So there you have my two weekends in a nutshell. See you next week.

Feed them on your dreams

            Welcome to this special Mother’s Day edition of Japan Travel Diaries. How is it special? Well for the first time in a while we have pictures (a few). Also it is special because of this: Mom, I love you. There, you don’t get me to publicly announce that and therefore embarrass myself just any day of the week. Chris, Connie go hug your mother or I’ll kick your teeth in. Seeing as my siblings don’t actually read my blog (those ingrates) and myself being in Japan, I must rely on Mom and my extended family to deliver the message and, if necessary, the corporal punishment.

            Additionally I want to send my love out to all the other mothers out there in my family or otherwise. Have a happy mother’s day. Well, technically it was a few days ago (do to technical difficulties) so I hope it was a happy day.

            On a much less important note: me and my magnificent ego (who sucking it up today). I did not update last week so you can be sure I have plenty to talk about. Most interestingly was my Sirobara Choir camp. Last week was Japan’s Golden Week, a entire week of naught to do but get drunk and twiddle our thumbs (surprisingly hard while inebriated, or so I’m told). Japan likes to end its holiday on Friday and celebrate with classes, which is done to ensure we don’t get too comfortable with freedom.

            So, what do we do for camp? Here’s a hint:

            We hoof it up to Nigata, who hasn’t been informed that it’s well into springtime yet and embarrassingly come to the party in its winter’s best. Well, actually it was in fairly crappy winter attire. The kind were the snow is on the ground here and there (hard to tell from the picture), but has solidified into a single icy mass that makes creating a decent snowball an annoyingly difficult task (although, I’m sure those on the receiving end of this solid chunk of ice appreciate the effort).

Our lodge in all its glory

Asked for a room with a view. Should have specified of what...

            We arrived about an hour late so we decided to skip the first practice and go straight to dinner much to none of our dismay. Dinner itself was an outside barbeque which was all well and dandy except Mother Nature (who, unfortunately I cannot profane due to the holiday) decided it was time for a downpour. Luckily, we did have a large tent over our respective grills (eight in total) and simply stayed as far away from the outer rim as possible. The food was absolutely delicious. I told one of the other members that it was the best thing I ate since coming to Japan and I wasn’t just being polite. What it consisted of was various meats and vegetables simmering away while we waited to dunk them in the sauce (slightly different from American BBQ). Akio (a bass section leader) tried to eat most of the meat himself, but there was really plenty to go around. I stuffed myself and, right when I thought we were done, they put soba noodles and various seasonings on the grill and started mixing everything together. I probably should have stopped eating at that point, but it was too good to pass up. My stomach would hate me for the rest of the night.

            When we all were done eating, we had about four hours of practice before hitting the hay. What I really wanted to try was the public bath at the place we were staying (a ski lodge). It might sound odd, but there is nothing more relaxing after a long day than an oversized tub heated to the brink of my level of tolerance. That and, after 4 months of only showers, the change was welcome. However, it was not in the cards as I had roughly 10 minutes to clean myself (which is done before one enters the public bath) before my roommate returned and needed the key.

            The second day we all (mostly) rose bright and early for morning exercises. Breakfast consisted of miso soup and fish, which amounted to the two things I least wanted to eat early in the morning. Must get myself some real American breakfast food, with extra grease.

If you can't tell from the picture this pan of curry is about the size of a small pony and equally delicious

            The next 8 hours (with the exception of an all you can eat curry lunch) was devoted to practice. And so we did. This can be mind-numbingly boring because we mostly review the same three songs we’ve been practicing for a month. I can’t wait for some new material, but it isn’t ready until June.

            After dinner (seafood again), we gather together to play games. All the part leaders put on costumes and put on a skit. The point of the games was to determine the country that the princess, played by a girl named Roki (I had Eye of the Tiger stuck in my head thanks to this), would study abroad in. Each country was a play on the name of the actor/actress. For example, we had Michi be Michi Mouse and Jackie be Micheal Jackie.

This is tenor (my section) leader Mark...frightening, no?

            The first game was a relay which our team managed to fail miserably at. But we pulled out of last place after the trivia section (in which I was no help at all). The next section we had to find all the letters on the back of the opposing five teams backs and rearrange them into words. We had two 3 minute sessions to due this in. This was really fun because you were attempting to hide your letter while looking at others.

           For the final game, we had a skit contest. We had to invent a love story between a guy and a girl on our team. The trick was the guy played the girl’s part and vice versa. This was complete with costumes (a Chinese dress and judo outfit for our team). When all was said and done, our team pulled out in first place.

            To celebrate, we sung songs for the next three hours (which puts us at 3 AM). For those of you doing the math, that puts us at about 15 hours of singing for two days. That, and when we finally got back in Tokyo we had a 3 hour karaoke marathon. Woot!

            Okay, its past midnight here so I’m gonna wrap up. There will be a lot more pictures coming from the camp as soon as my friends upload them (which may take weeks). I will do a review of them when I get a hold of them.

            God help me if the first titular song reference that popped into my head wasn’t Mother’s Little Helper by the Rolling Stones. The one I actually used doesn’t refer to mothers directly, but I think it strikes the proper tone. That and it’s easy enough that my mom should get it.

Technical Difficulties: Will try again tomorrow

But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red

Okay, I promised photos last time, but, do to intrigue and cell phone issues, they are not going to be here this time round. Apologies. And away we go.

What can I say about last week? Busy? Oh, heavens yes. Entertaining. Sometimes, other times mind blowingly dull. They say god looks out for drunks and fools. Apparently this doesn't apply to those who are stubbornly idiotic. My story begins Saturday morning as I awoke to the pitter patter of raindrops on the window pain. Saturday, as you well know, is my Sirobara Chorus practice. It is located near center Tokyo and usually takes about an hour and a half to go to. My conundrum was this: I didn't have an umbrella. I didn't want to buy an umbrella. Why? Because I'm a man and it comes with the territory, that and not asking directions (which we'll get to later).

We haven't hit monsoon here in Japan (technically we never do), but the weather was doing its level best to convince us otherwise. The sheets fell in droves and then would suddenly stop. I can only assume these pauses were to scout my position and allow my hopes to rise for a brief instant before drowning them in the next downpour. I decided to capitalize on their bravado and make a mad dash for the local trainstation. If I could only make it their I would be able to plan the next stage of attack while the clouds, for all their bluster, waited impotently outside. I timed my exit, and with an eye on the sky I wove my way through the sparse Saturday traffic to my destination. Safe again, I thought about giving the sky another bird to occupy its time.

There are two stations I could take to get to Tokyo University. The long way around would practically leave me at its doorstep to skip merrily to class. The shorter trip cost 30 yen less (about 35 cents), but would involve me navigating unfarmiliar roads by foot and would take about 15 minutes under the best of circumstances (I have walked to but never from the station).

If Daniel should try the new route and save some pocket change, turn to paragraph 7

If Daniel should play it safe and caugh up the extra dough, turn to...well I already said I was stubbornly idiotic.

So yeah, Ochanomizu station. Stepping outside, I struggle to place the landmarks. From somewhere above mother nature watched as I picked a roads, travelled a few hundred yards down it only to backtrack. She knew she had to bide her time as I could always take the train to the closer stop. I finally hit upon a route the seemed proper and began down it. Slowly at first, so as not to arouse my suspicion, droplets began to rain down from above. It was only enough to hasten my step and not drive my back to the station. By the time I had caught on to her ploy, I was halfway between the station and what I thought to be Tokyo University (it wasn't). With only a meager understanding of my location and precious time before practice ticking away, I was an easy target for the heavy artillary. I dashed hither and thither, under this overhang and the next doing my level best to keep dry and figure out where to go next. Finally, I had to cede victory to the sky and weathered the storm as I while I found a reliable street map. Dripping wet, but on time, I arrived at practice.

Well, at least I wasn't with the American first term student who were sight seeing in Kamakura this weekend. I believe around this time they were on Enoshima (described in a previous blog as Hyrule), which left them completely open to the elements. (Damn, the Song of Storms is an instrumental so no referencing it)

Dream until your dream comes true

Monday, wish it were Sunday. Cause that's my fun day...sorry drifted off there for a minute. Well another week has past in it was pretty busy. Most of it was of the boring study variety, but Saturday was pretty interesting.

Okay, so we have a choir concert at Tokyo University's branch campus. I show up up at the main campus about two hours before the concert wondering where everyone is. Through a bunch of texts and cell phone calls I come to realize that I have travelled about 10 miles out of my way and need to backtrack like crazy. I make it there about 10 minutes before the concert.

Luckily, for the purposes of the current concert, I'm not an integral part, rather I am am of the derrivative spectator variety (heh, math humor). I don't have a formal outfit so I couldn't participate, which is all well and good because I currently don't have the songs memorized. I missed to many practices flitting back and forth between Kyoto, Tokyo and the United States. Well, next time maybe I can find some sort of outfit that will work.

Well the concert itself was fun. We gathered 9 chorus group from Tokyo University. Considering that Sirobara (white rose) Chorus group have 70 people in itself, I'm surprised that the college could put together so many. Well, we were good. Out of what I saw, we were the most professionally dressed. Another chorus showed up in street clothes, a decision which I firmly support due to lack of anything but. That group ended there show with "Hail Holy Queen". Yeah, I didn't recognise the title either, but its that one "traditional" church song that you heard in "Sister Act", the one that kicks the tempo up a notch mid-song. Something I hadn't expected while I was in Japan.

The last group I heard (left early with the rest of Sirobara) sang opera. There is just something innately interesting about watching a Japanese person, not the most physically imposing, belt out an Italian solo in fortissimo.

And then that night we drank. If I continue to talk about Sirobara, you'll notice this pattern cropping up.

That's it for this time. Hopefully, I can find stuff to take pictures of next time. I have a few on my cell phone that I plan to upload from the cherry blossom viewing. Given the quality of my digital camera, my cell phone probably has better resolution. Anyhoo, see you next time.

And that time over at Johnny's place

I have very little time to write this blog so here goes nothing. Don't mind my stream of conciousness (not that I every wrote in a coherent narrative save the one about the earthquake).

Okay, finally back in Tokyo and its been really busy. I've had back to back choir practice for two days and I still can't get all the lyrics right. That, and the one song in english has no, I repeat, no melody. The other, its just a matter of overcoming the language barrier and coping with the speed. Did I ever mention that I had joined a choir group? For some strange reason most of the members are economics majors. Go figure.

Sunday went to a hanami party (cherry blossom viewing picnic) with fellow choir members. A few thing to know about these events: 1, a cherry tree is in full blossom for only about a weeks worth of time so you usually get one go at it, 2, drinking. Oh, yes the drinking. For those of you farmiliar with the Japanese people, you know they are usually very reserved. Well after they get drunk, they are just like any other college student, loud and incoherent. Very interesting to see. My group played a game called "osama". The only people terrorized are those playing, I promise. Actually, "osama" translates to "king" and is a twist on truth-or-dare. You deal out chopsticks with numbers and 1 "osama" on them. Whoever is "osama" gets to decide something for one or more of the numbers to do. The king doesn't get to know who he's making do it until afterwards. Let's just say the more fun dares I can't talk about without ruining my already dubious creditability (that and I don't thing I could get ahold of those pictures).

Okay, that's about it for this week. Trying my hardest to get my sleep schedule working. I now have morning class, which means I don't get to lie in bed for hours thinking about how much I don't want to go to class (is there a word for morning insomnia?). No, with my 6:30 alarm, I have time to take a shower, eat and go. I think I ought to try a more creative approach to sleeping, perhaps involving head trauma...

(note to those who take this blog seriously (*caugh* mom), I'm getting enough sleep, just would like more)

There's not a fight and I'm not your captive

Disclaimer: the light tone of this post is not meant to downplay the disasters in Japan in any way. I just need to blow off a little steam with sarcasm and wit.

            If you haven’t heard, there was a third explosion at nuclear facility at Fukashima and a good deal of Japan was irradiated.1 Sometimes I wish I remembered my camera. Yesterday, I wished I remembered photosensitive paper. Just place it behind myself a few seconds before the blast and viola, most memorable souvenir ever. Plus I get to skip the doctor's fee. Still waiting on my super powers to develop. Hope it’s nothing dumb like the ability to talk to fishes.

            I didn’t get the chance to update on the event two weeks ago. Though it is now completely overshadowed by the earthquake, I’m not going to let the photos go to waste.  The sun sucks, for which I apologize.

You guys though I was joking about going to Disney World. Well, Disney Sea technically. Luckily, there wasn’t a fire at the sea park.

For those that are wondering (all none of you), Tokyo Disney Sea and Disney Land are not owned by Disney. Whatever company owns them has to pay royalties. This led to Disney Sea being Disney in pretty much name only. Aside from the wondering Disney mascot, the characters pretty much go unrepresented. Oh, and Disney is a marketing whore (oh, he said a bad word). They created a teddy bear (Duffy) just to be sold in Disney Sea. Its paw print is in the shape of Mickey Mouse’s head, which I like to think came from Mickey cheating at poker and the bear curb stomping the unrepentant rodent.

Here’s the scoop: each class had to decide as a whole whether to go to Disney Land or Disney Sea. Mine, obviously, chose Sea. A friend of mine was trying to find somebody to go with, but her class unfortunately chose land. We were talking through text and she got confused as to which I was going to. I replied:

I’m going by sea. That’s two lanterns.

Any day you can fit in a Paul Revere reverence is a good day in my book.

At the start Disney Sea was a pain. I forgot to take out money and had only enough for the train ride there. If I hadn't run into Josh (refered to as friend for this post). I wouldn't have been able to eat or even return to the mainland.

Also, I was snacking earlier on and found a trash can (really rare in Japan). So excite was I that I accidentally threw away my ticket. Had to go digging through the trash for it.

And more pictures:

Tower of Terror. Wish I got a bigger shot. This thing was huge. Its one of the rides that takes you up really high and drops you. Me and a friend got a fast pass (allows you to bypass the line) at nine o'clock. When it became active at 6:45, it still took us half and hour to get through line of other people with fast passes. We passed the time by jearing at those in the regular line who had to wait upwards of two hours. On a side note, most everything inside is written in English. What a waste.

This ship provides a good measure of scale of the attractions here. It is a full sized ocean liner created for the specific purpose of staying docked here for the rest of its life.

My friend made the mistake of asking Max here for directions to a restaurant. After about 10 minutes of pantomime we found the place, but it was expensive and we weren't hungry yet. While Max's back was turned, we hightailed it out of there.

Not that you can tell from the picture, but this is the temple of the crystal skull. So prolific was the suck of the fourth Indiana Jones that it managed not only to sicken its fanbase, but to mount an assualt on the Disney brand from inside the park. Copyright laws be damned!

I present the temple of Firewater. There alcoholism is considered a divine right, not a sickness

Look my readers, Agrabah!

It's only a model

Shh

 Yeah, they went all out on this water show. If you look in the background you can see the Tower of Terror. Bigass, right? Furthermore, I know there has to be some empty space in it because the ride isn't that big. Wonder what they use it for?

A few final notes. The next week, the earthquake cause the transit line to shut down, so a bunch of people were stuck in the park. They must have been bled dry by overpriced food by the end. Somehow I think the Disney Corporation planned this. Also, the parking lot suffered soil liquification. I don't know how those that drove there escaped.

1: Before you start freaking out. The radiation released was less than your average x-ray.

The Saints are Coming

For those of you just joining us, every post's title is a song reference in some way connected with my life. Normally, I leave it up to the reader to determine it's origin, but I feel I need to take special care with this title in light of recent events. It refers to the cover of the Saints are Coming by U2 and Greenday in an effort to raise support for Hurricane Katrina's victims. I find it again applicable to the earthquake and tsunami victims of Japan.

The following is an account of my actual experience in Tokyo, far away from the epicenter in Sendai:

The first quake hit a little after 2:30 Japan time. My class was busy practicing kanji. One classmate in particular was call to the whiteboard to draw the current character. Halfway through the writing, small tremors could be felt. They felt something akin to the subway passing while you wait on the platform. It took about a minute for the entire class to realize that this was indeed an earthquake. Then the bigger quakes began. Our television began to swing back and forth in its ceiling mount.

Our teacher told us to get under our desks and stay there until it passed. The students reacted in various ways. Some were genuinely frightened and did as the teacher told them. Others were less so and moved around as the tremors continued. When the electric pole outside started sparking, a good deal of the class emerged from their desks to watch.

My personal reaction was one of mild bemusement. I had felt smaller tremors throughout my stay in Japan and this one, while larger, didn’t seem to pose much risk. The building I was in felt solid enough to withstand the quake, so I wasn’t particularly worried. Instead I looked around at the other students to see their own reactions.

As the first quakes subsided, my classmates began milling about the room, unsure of what to do. One stubbornly remained under her desk and refused to come out, insisting that another quake would soon follow. The teacher moved to the whiteboard and pointed to the one student’s recently drawn kanji. “だめ” (incorrect) she said. The student in question blamed the mistake on the quake.

I sat down at my desk and looked over at the clock. After a few minutes it would be break and I could go out and get food. I joked that we should continue class for those few minutes.

That’s when the second series of quakes started. It wasn’t as powerful as the first, but it reminded us that it wasn’t over. In total, both lasted around 20 minutes (though eyewitness reporting is often the most unreliable). This being my first large quake, I had no idea anything was out of the ordinary. Japan is famous for it’s quakes, right? I learned from a California resident who was present at the Northridge Quake that two ten minute long tremors are alarming. The Northridge Quake itself only lasted about a minute.

The rest of the classes had evacuated to the street or a nearby park. There were several crying in the streets as others tried to comfort them. I’m sorry to say that I believed that everyone was overreacting.

So what do I do after being allowed to leave? I go to the local convenience store for a snack. The store clerks are busy putting thing back on shelves, but serve me promptly after I make my selection. In our small exchange, I don’t here anything in their voices to tip me off to the size of the quake. Business as usual.

I return to the classroom to find out classes are canceled. I also find out that all the trains are stopped. Those between stations are forced to exit the train and walk the rest of the way to the nearest station. I and about 15 other American students who live outside of walking distance are forced to stay at the school overnight. Given the lack of beds, none of us get really good sleep. We’re not the only ones stranded. There sidewalks are packed with commuters and traffic is at a practical standstill.

At this point there is practically nothing on the internet about the quake except the start of a Wikipedia article. I used email facebook to sarcastically tell everyone that I survived an earthquake.1 It is only after I make these first few posts that information starts coming in regarding the scale of this quake. A big screen TV in a local shop window shows the havoc that the tsunami is causing in Sendai. I finally realize that this is actually a big deal and do my best to apologize for my earlier sarcasm.

The restaurants and convenience stores are packed with customers. By nightfall, almost every readily consumable food is sold out. It is a surreal experience looking at the empty shelves.

The trains gradually come online. The subway sometime after midnight and my own train line at 7 am. The conductors are still taking extreme car in operating the trains and they only move a little bit faster than I can run. It takes me about an hour and a half to cover the 10 miles to my homestay. I collapse in my bed and spend the next four hours sleeping.

Aside from being tired and out of sorts I am fine. I feel like I was a spectator on the sidelines of a large event, close enough to be connected, but far enough away to be complete safe. My heart goes out to those who weren’t so lucky.

1: I have left my original blog post and comments intact no matter how insensitive they may sound. I think it is important to have my feeling at the time captured before I fully understood the impact.

Special Update: Hey Ya

While the Tohoku region suffered a massive 8.9 (7th largest in recorded history) magnitude earthquake, Tokyo only suffered around a 6.1. We were in class at the time and need to hide under the desks for safety. Outside one of the electric poles started sparking as the quake went through. That's about it. No one here was hurt that I know of. There were some frightened students. We actually had a new group of Thai students enter just today. One hell of a first day.

All the trains have stopped running and the streets are packed with vehicles. Some students walked home, but I live ten miles away so it was impossible. I and a few other students are staying over at the school. Shinjuku (where I am) is wicked packed. The convenience stores are practically sold out of everything readily consumable.

Overall, this thing seems to be being blown out of proportion. There were 65 confirmed deaths last I heard and, while tragic, smaller earthquakes in Haiti and China have caused tens of thousands of deaths. The main damage seems to be structural at this point as the Sendai airport seems to be completely trashed. I believe this to be amazingly fortunate. I do, however, hope you join me in sending prayers or whatever your respective religions can in the direction of those at the epicenter of this quake.

Oh, look what you've done to this rock 'n' roll clown

Pictures, pictures and more picture. Let's get started.

Doggy 1

Doggy 2. Interesting fact. If you look closely the first dog's mouth is slightly ajar while the second dog's mouth is closed. In reality they are placed across from each other at the temple gate. The open mouth represents the Japanese あ (a) sound while the closed mouth represents the ん　(n) sound. They are the beginning and ending letters of the Japanese alphabet. Alpha and omega if you will (though not according to OSU's central library)

This temple's central entrance. It is located on Enoshima and is quite large (if you can't tell). Note the long hike to the top. In true ancient samurai fashion, there is an esculator installed for the convenience of all. (forgot to take a pic).

Here is a pond to wash your money in for luck. Tried it, still waiting on the dividends. Wonder if you have to pay taxes on gains from spellcraft.

Cat. Kitty cat, but not dancing. In fact it isn't doing anything. It and a friend are positioned so that you can sit and take a picture between them (due to gradeschoolers, I missed the opportunity). I swear this cat is on drugs. I petted it and absolutely no reaction (there is an joke here somewhere about my personal life).

Doggy 3. The nice lady, who paid us in advance, before she became a dog...

Legend has it this temple (a collection of three shrines) represents three ancient godesses beholden to the royal family (this is the family crest). In ancient times, a fairyless kokori child was called to take up arms to defend the kingdom against a powerful wizard. Well the boy used an powerful magic sword to travel time and defeat this evil despite. He also found a fairy although regretted it due to its constant pestering.

Okay, everything past the first sentence is from Legend of Zelda. But there was an actually family (the Hojo) who used the triforce as their family crest. I knew the game that it would one day trancend cultural barriers to bring peace to our world. Who knew it had already surpassed temporal ones.

Okay, now your not even trying. Seriously, Nintendo should sue you for copyright infringement. The reference is to Lon Lon Ranch for the uninitiated.

In case your wondering, we're staring the second coming. For the record, Jesus needs to use pants instead of a robe. Ain't nobody want to see that.

And you people thought I was in Japan all this time

Praying for inner peace, and the sun to be out of my eyes.

Ha, ha. Very funny Mr. Sun.

That's better. Although this guy seems to have gotten plenty of sun already.

Was present at a buddhist ceremony. With years of training and the clever use of lighting, the monks can move at superhuman speeds.

Jesus Christ! Oh wait...

STATUES ROCK! Ehem, Statue on a rock.

Got to stay at a traditional ryokan (Japanese inn). Also, it had an onsen (group bath). Yeah, about that.

That's right, television. How else were samurai suppose to relax after a long day sucking up to their feudal lords.

Japanese gardening is minimalistic. It emphasizes what does exist so that is may fully be apprecieted. That is to say, one day the owner got tired of mowing and put down some gravel. Can't blame him.

Me, not praying for peace on earth

Me paying respect to Val-Halen (the viking god of rock). If you doubt me, look at my hands.

If you wash the head of this statue, it helps out aborted fetuses. No, I'm not sure how you can help and aborted fetus.

Well you see Jimmy, when a mommy and daddy statue love each other very much...

...a strong animal (the stork outsources) will bring a baby statue. How strong? About as strong as a small pony. That's quite strong, that is.

Me and a statue, chillaxin

Buddha and I reflecting on what's best in life

To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.

Buddha, you've been eating your wheaties

This is inside the Buddha statue. Costs twenty yen to go inside. Appearently, it is an honor to conduct a colonoscopy on the enlighted one.

Well that's it for today.

Daniel, You've taken about a million pictures with statues. What are you going to do next?

I'm going to Disney World.