Your Japanese word of the week is...

"nan ja sore!!". Ok, it's not a word. It's not even what I'd call "normal". It actually means something along the lines of " 'the hell is that!!" and the more incredulous of a tone you say it with, the more emphatic it becomes.

Yes, what you see above is what I came home to the other day. In case you can't see it clearly due to the ridiculous amount of light it's throwing off, it's a vending machine. "What the~?!?", I said. I've been meaning to write something about the myriad vending machines in this country so this would be a good time to do so.

Vending machines, I think, are the most accurate symbol of this country's obsession with choice and consumption. There are hundreds of different kinds of coffee and twice that when you consider you can get the some coffees both hot or cold. You can get various kinds of vitamin drinks or sports drinks or teas. You can even, on certain machines, adjust how strong of a coffee you want and how much cream and sugar you want in it.

That's the thing with this country- you can never have enough choice and there are enough people to consume it all. Take the cars for instance: Toyota can build two or three essentially identical cars and people still buy enough of them to make the business plan viable. The difference may be visual or, like, one or two seats, but people here are specific about what they want and nothing beats having something exactly the way you want it.

Sure lots of Canadians are also picky about what their Starbucks is like, but I find the scale of superfluous selection to be a bit over the top here.

What's more, people are constantly consuming. New TV's, new phones, new cars, new clothes, new, new, new. Perfectly good microwaves are lying in back alleys all over Japan simply because they're a few years old. And so, because people are constantly buying coffees or cars, it's not a problem to offer lots of choices.

As for the vending machine right next to my door........ I have no idea why it's there, but I actually don't mind. I mean, it is convenient to basically have an eternal supply of drinks for some spare change.

What does take a bit of getting used to is how bright it is. That picture's not a joke; when I walk past it, it's bright enough that it takes my eyes a few seconds to readjust to the darkness to find my keys. And it also lights up my room in a pale blue that makes me think I'm constantly being abducted by aliens...............

And, ironically, the drink choice is awful. It's all coffees, teas, and overpriced "glacier water" that I don't drink. About the only interesting drink there is a D1 coffee, which I believe has, at some point, sponsored the D1 Grand Prix drift series.

The only problem is I don't have a car. Soooo............

Perhaps I can chug a D1 coffee and drift...... my bike....... to the train station.......

Perhaps............. =P

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"kimeta", which is the past tense form of "kimeru", which means to decide. And, as I try to make all my "words of the week" relevant, there was a big decision made last week.

But before that, a certain Alan came to Tokyo for a week! We met up a couple of times, first when he came back to my town, another time when we met his friends in Ikebukuro for dinner, and on the last day when we went shopping around Harajuku.

The last day was particularly fun because we weren't in a rush (as I am, sorry to say, quite often in) and we got to wander around a slightly drizzly fashion district. We just had fast (read: cheap) food and chatted and watched a Harajuku girl get her picture taken with Snoopy....... by the way, if you're searching for SnoopyTown, they've moved from their great location directly across from Harajuku station to some rather nondescript location about 5-10min walk. Why I don't know....... it's not like they lacked business......

But, on to the big news which is............. I'm going to be competing in the upcoming Wadokai World Championships this Aug 21-23 in Vancouver.

The event I'm competing in is called team kata. Kata, for lack of better description, is forms- a preset series of moves designed to train the body for combat, provide examples of body dynamics and applications, and all the while be aesthetically pleasing (some have said to me that aesthetics is not the point of kata, but I still find good kata starts to take on a artful presence).

Team kata, along with kata standards of speed and power, require the team to be fully synchronized in their movements and, in the case of the tournament this August, requires "bunkai", or a demonstration of the application of the moves, for the final round.

My team consists of Richard Sensei and Peter Sensei, the latter who is from Vancouver and I have known for a few years now. We decided this last week when Peter arrived in Tokyo. He'll be staying for nearly a month and we'll be using that time to get our training up to snuff.

L to R: Richard, Me, Peter.

The other thing I've decided (finally, according to many) is to join Facebook. See, Peter's not going to be in Japan all the way til August but he's kindly offered to post videos of his training on his Facebook page so we can watch and learn it. Well, that involves me joining Facebook and so I did....... either way, my face has been book'd......... or....... whatever...........

As an example, this was the Japan's female kata team at the World Karate Federation's World Championships in 2006, including bunkai. The commentary is very....... umm...... excessive =P........ but the performance is incredible.

Compared to what we have so far..........

................... just kidding heh....... but come out to the tournament in August to see what we've REALLY put together =P.....

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"metabo". It's actually the shortened form of "metabolic syndrome" which, you might be able to guess from the phrase itself, was created by the Japanese though the actual problem it describes is a worldwide one.

This awful "symptom of having metabolism" is a relatively recent word applied to, basically, people who are fat. To have "metabo" is to be overweight and under-exercising though it seems apparent to few that calling it a "metabolic syndrome" makes little sense. It's not like the healthy people lack metabolism or something........ But hey, I am in Japan so I might as well roll with the punches.

And so, in an effort to combat the evils of metabolism, many companies now conduct fitness tests and my school is no exception. In fact, the government has threatened to fine companies that don't reduce their number of overweight workers.

So next Tuesday, I get to do things like sit-ups, ride the stationary bike, get my measurements taken, and all that jazz. And after a few weeks, I get a score which includes, apparently, a number indicating what age my fitness level is comparable to. So if I manage only 3 sit-ups I might end up with a score of 65, meaning I have the physical fitness of a 65 year old............. 20 is the lowest, and hence best, score.

Other changes around the school?? Summer dress code. By June 1st, all staff and students will need to change over to summer attire and, for male staff, it means short sleeve dress shirts. I'd much rather have long sleeved shirts that I just keep rolled up but really, it's not that huge a problem and I went shopping over the weekend and picked a few up.

What is a problem is that we're still required to wear ties.............. with short sleeve shirts?!? As my friend put it so descriptively, it's the "Mormon minister" look...........

Which leads to most teachers waiting til they're at their desk before putting their tie on and taking it off the instant they leave the grounds.

I'd almost rather have metabo.................... well........ maybe not heh =P.....

Also, Alan's here to visit for a week! Stay tuned to see what trouble we get ourselves into heh...

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"ariene~"......... the tilde means to drag out the syllable heh..... but really, it's supposed to be "arienai" but often people will change the last two syllables into an "-e~" for emphasis. So "sugoi" might become "suge~". It doesn't mean anything particular, but it's sort of like how people might add "friggin'" to give a word some extra oomph. "Arienai" itself means "impossible/inconceivable". Or you could go as far as to use it as "unbelievable" although, technically speaking, that would be "shinjirarenai".

Anyway, it's pretty unbelievable that this past May 8th was my 300th day here in Japan. To be honest, in some ways it has felt like a long time and it other ways it hasn't. I won't go as far as to say I struggled to adjust when I first got here but I have felt, especially recently having started a "real" job, that I sort of get it now. I can converse with people; I'm at a point where I pick specific train cars to ride because those are the ones closest to the platform exits; I bowed in the karate class last night.

And, as probably everyone else says, there's still a lot I don't know and it makes me wonder how much time a person really needs to feel like they understand a culture. But then again, the "feeling" of understand is really subjective so I suppose it's more rhetoric than anything to ask that.......

Aside from that, something else rather unbelievable happened today.......... and old lady sent me stumbling.........

See, Tokyo is busy and now that I work like all the other "salarymen", I'm on the train like all of them. And I'm standing like all of them. So when the train comes to a stop, I'm tossed around like all of them.

But today, this little old lady, who was barely my shoulder height and must've been closing in on 60 years old, shouldered me (rather gently) as she edged her way to the train door. However, her nudged was timed impeccably with the stopping of the train and that sent me stumbling a few steps sideways.

It's funny that one of the aims of sparring in karate is to time your movements to catch your opponent off-guard, yet even an old lady managed to demonstrate that to me when I least expected.............. ariene~.......... =P

Other stuff that's a big hard to believe??....... I was told that from July onwards, it'll be illegal to ride a bike while holding an umbrella.

And this, the Cocaine Cowboys, a documentary on the cocaine war in Miami during the 1980's. It's particularly good because the majority of it was told from some of the most involved people in the trade, from traffickers to hitmen, who all happen to be rather articulate as well. Definitely worth a watch....... and what goes on is definitely unbelievable.......

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"otsukaresama". While I'm not sure of it's direct translation, the kanji for it is the same as the one for "tired", but in this particular form, it's the equivalent of a day's end "Job well done/good work". It's often heard when someone finishes a day of work or can be said to someone who's just finished something particularly strenuous (we say it lots after training, for example). A more polite version is "otsukaresamadeshita".

People rarely congratulate themselves after a big event, but I'm abstaining from the humble pie for a second to recall just how I managed to get past my 4-day Golden Week which went from an easy "take my time doing stuff" weekend to a non-stop thrash that essentially had me stay out for 4 days straight........

I'd like to note I posted this in parts because I think it makes it slightly easier to read or comment on. If you lose track, just follow the "Golden Week" label on the right to organize them all.

Day 1-

It started on Saturday with a 9am bus ride from Tokyo to Japanese Kelowna (also known as Aizu Wakamatsu in the Fukushima Prefecture). The bus was a real mistake since everyone else was heading out of town for the holidays too, so my 4hr bus ride ended up being 6hrs. Turns out I could've taken the train from my station to Aizu in the same 4hrs and at the same cost. But no matter! Aizu is one of those towns that, because it's sort of out there by itself, ends up being big enough to have some of everything but small enough that there isn't a lot of everything. They do have some rather historic sights though, and Peter took me to see the 3 main ones.

Arriving nice and late, I met with Peter and we headed off to the first sight, which is Iimoriyama Mountain (hill...), where 20 teenage boys of the Byakkotai (White Tiger) group in 1868 all committed seppuku. It was during this time that the city of Aizu was embroiled in a larger civil war and these boys, having mistaken a burning building for that of their castle, committed suicide. That their castle wasn't in fact burning marks the site as one of deep tragedy. Beyond that, one of the boys survived and lived on to tell the tale.

Also at Iimoriyama is a statue of a fascist eagle, the inscription looking distinctly Italian and the Roman numbers dating it at 1928. To the right of it is a much smaller stone slab with a Nazi iron cross on it. Apparently a gift by a German diplomat in recognition of the aforementioned Byakkotai boys, American soldiers eventually noticed the swastika on the stone and had it erased. Regardless, there it stands stoicly brandishing the iron cross.

Down the other side of the mountain is some quaint natural scenery and a house which seems to only contain two ramps arranged in a double helix. Why?? I don't know......... but the rest of the area was quite nice and pleasantly accented with the small streams of water that flow from a nearby cave.




After Iimoriyama, we headed to the Tsuruga Castle, the same one that those unforunate Byakkotai boys thought was burning. Though interior tours were closed for the day, we did walk the grounds and take in the disctintly Japanese approach to gardens- the intriguing mix of making the plants look like they grew there naturally but actively altering them so they don't look natural.

At night, we met one of Peter's friends and headed to a bar/lounge to play some darts (electronic darts, being Japan) and meet his friend's friends. Nearly all of them went home at 11pm............. guess it's not gonna be a long night out...........

Day 2 -

After getting up mid-morning and having some brunch, we headed to the last of the 3 big sights in Aizu- the Aizu Bukeya-shiki, a reconstruction of a samurai residence. As the "reconstructed" part implies, it was rebuilt and designed as a display and the main tour path leads around the house with outside walls of certain rooms taken down, essentially turning them into dioramas of different household scenes.

The two places that really caught my interest were the rice cleaning mill and the archery stall. Admittedly the archery is quite a gimmick but I also admit everyone looks cooler when drawing an arrow. As for the rice cleaning mill, it was cool cuz it was water powered. A huge water wheel turns logs that lift other pieces of wood that pound the rice.

I've attached a video because that's just easier than explaining haha.......

And, of course, no self-respecting tourist attraction would find itself without souvenir shops every 10 steps. Even though I do find it ruins the experience a bit to peer into a room filled with period correct samurai armour only to find the next one is selling keychains.

Only REAL ninja are clever enough to question the efficacy of plush toy knives......

At 2:30, I hopped back on the bus for yet another traffic-stunted trip back to Tokyo. Arriving 1.5 hrs behind schedule, I rushed off to meet Andrew and Yu in Tokyo station.

Our first stop was Akihabara and one of the many oft-discussed maid cafes. If you haven't heard about one, it's essentially like any other cafe but everything is just a touch more expensive because the waitresses wear French-maid outfits. It's particularly intriguing because most people tend to think these places "sell companionship" and that's not entirely true. The waitresses aren't significantly different from any other (friendly) cafe/bar waitresses aside from attire; it's like going to Hooters. Oh, and there's an option to pay 500yen to have your polaroid taken with the maid of your choosing. And, in our mini-lounge area, 1000yen to play games on a personal Wii.........

After that, we wandered to Kanda, between Akihabara and Tokyo, where Andrew's hotel was. Having resigned ourselves to staying out all night, we went off in search of an izakaya which, despite the rather trendy image it seems to have in Vancouver, are really quite down to earth, usually run by one or two people in food stained aprons bringing the food out directly to you.

After eating, we somehow decided we needed to eat again and walked to a nearby Yoshinoya which sells, at it's most basic, beef on rice. Yoshinoya (or any of the other *-ya fast food chains) is known for selling ridiculously cheap food for the crowd on the move, particularly Japanese salary-men. But they are open 24hrs..........

Anyways, after eating (twice), we headed back to Andrew's hotel and crashed for the night......

Day 3 -

I'm up at 6am because after a month of doing so, I'm wired to. Seeing that Andrew and Yu weren't awake and we had plans for the last afternoon that Andrew was in Japan for, I took the time to go home, drop off all the stuff I had brought with me to Aizu, shower, change, and then train back.

We had breakfast at the hotel and, what's this, we're going to go to Tokyo Disney?? Uhhh...... sure, why not.......

Yu left because she had to plan a work function, so me and Andrew and his two friends (who came with him to Tokyo) headed off to Tokyo Disney in Chiba.

We originally were going to go to DisneySea, which is apparently geared for adults (you can, they tell me, order alcohol at the stands), but we saw the Disneyland entrance gates were rather empty so we tried our luck there (DisneySea and Disneyland are seperate parks in the same Disney lot).


Really, the best way to describe Tokyo Disneyland is that it's a direct recreation of the original Disneyland except with Japanese. I really think that because the Japanese love the foreign aspect of Disney so much, they strived to bring it to Japan as accurately as possible. So you end up walking around in this constant haze of deja vu.....


We rode Space Mountain, the Haunted Mansion, Space Tours............ it's all like I remembered it to be even back when I was a little kid and going on them for the first time...... They're still great fun but....... it seems like Disneyland was designed for Japanese who want the Disney experience without travelling overseas. DisneySea, on the other hand, seems like it would offer something original.

3... 2... 1... Be Fantasmic!

Deciding we were going to make a night of it (again), I headed home to change (again) and then back into Tokyo (again) where I met Andrew and Nao, a friend of his he knew from karate. We met in Shinjuku and Nao took us to the Inoki Samba, a pro-wrestling themed restaurant honouring a famous wrestler in the Japanese pro-wrestling circuit, Antonio Inoki (I have no idea who he is.......).

But it's pretty cool in there. The bar in the middle of the restaurant, for instance, has ring ropes around the sides, they ring a bell to announce when you're being seated, and it was finished in lots of bright reds and yellows like many a wrestler's garb. Even better was when we ordered a salad and the waiter ceremoniously made us cheer for the salad (which was brought in a tube) and then proceeded to slam the tube on the plate, thus delivering our salad. Best was everyone around us cheered for the salad too............. yeah roughage!!

Finishing around 11, we headed off to find Yu, who's business function (also in Shinjuku) had by then finished and people went off to "ni ji kai"s, or "second meetings" although "after party" makes more sense. Note there are such things are "san ji kai" and "yo ji kai" so...... after after after party??

Anyways, we met with Yu and her friend and the 5 of us hung out in the bar just chatting.

The night ended around 2am with me and Andrew cabbing back to his hotel (the other three live in Tokyo) and, again catching a few hours of sleep, I woke up and decided I really should go home haha........

Day 4-

I spent the morning and afternoon cleaning my room (my original goal for Golden Week) and then taught some English classes in the evening.

Honestly, I don't really know how I made it but on Tuesday, I wasn't much worse for wear. Either way though, I can't think of a more memorable way to have spent Golden Week =P.......

A Stitch ride?!?! I'm sooo going back for that when it's finished!!