I Went to Climb a Rock

As you know, I haven't been writing very much lately. Sorry about that. Lately, I've been spending a lot of my free time planning a trip to the Southern Japanese Alps, so I haven't taken the time to write. That's a shame, since I really have a lot to say. But heck, this blogging thing takes a lot of effort. So you'll just have to put up with my not always writing as much as you or I would like.

Anyway, later today I'm flying from Kumamoto to Nagoya. Then I'll be catching a bus to Iida to meet a guy named Eric. He's another JET like me and he's also an avid hiker. He and I, along with a Japanese friend of his, will be hiking for anywhere between 4 and 6 days in the Alps, beginning this Saturday, August 2.

We'll be hiking from north to south, and our starting point will be near Kita-dake, the second-highest peak in Japan, at 3193 meters. If we end up hiking for the entire 6 days (or so), we'll have a good chance of hitting up 10 of Japan's 23 mountains that rise above 3000 meters. (Some of those peaks are a little off of the beaten path and will require a bit of a detour, but I plan on bagging them all!)

Believe it or not, this will be my first major hike since I was a kid. Back when I was about 12 or 13, when I was attending a summer camp, I went on a 7-day 49-mile hike (if my memory serves me correctly) in Yosemite, from somewhere (must have been Tuolumne Meadows) to Mt. Lyell, the highest peak in Yosemite at just under 4000 meters (3997 meters)! But since then, I believe the longest hike I've been on is just an overnighter in Switzerland about 3 years ago. Crazy, huh?

We'll be tenting it most days, because the lodges are ridiculously expensive (about $75 a night). So we'll have pretty heavy packs, considering we need to carry a lot of food, our tents, our sleeping bags, water, clothing, and other essentials.

I'm really curious how the long hike will go, since I'm basically a day-hiker. Hopefully, this hike will make me even more eager to experience more of the outdoors. I guess a lot depends on the weather, right?

If you want more details regarding the route and such, go to your nearest bookstore and look for a copy of Lonely Planet's Hiking in Japan.

We should be done hiking around August 7. After that, I'll either stay in the area and do some sightseeing (or more hiking?) or go almost immediately to Nagasaki. See, I want to be in Nagasaki on August 9, to experience the moment of silence that they hold every year to mark the anniversary of the A-Bomb. But if I'm having too much fun out east, I'll put the trip to Nagasaki on hold. So I'm really not sure when I'll be back home.

Well, I have to finish packing now, so I'll catch you later!

Rest In Peace, Tokuda-san

Tokuda-san passed away sometime yesterday.

I finally visited Tokuda-san in the hospital on Friday evening. I was actually surprised that I got to see him, because I heard that other people from school, including the principal, one of the vice-principals, and the second-highest-ranking office staff member (after Tokuda-san) had been turned away on earlier occasions.

As expected, Tokuda-san was in really bad shape. He was unconscious and on a respirator.

His wife said something about his condition having gotten much worse that day, so I was extremely worried about his situation. And then, when she said, "Tomorrow" and pointed to the sky, well, I started to cry a little.

I guess Mrs. Tokuda knew what she was talking about.

When I left the hospital, I wondered why I was fortunate enough to get to see Tokuda-san (for the last time, as it turns out). I suspect Tokuda-san's wife knew that the end was near and was therefore willing to let visitors see him in his condition.

I'm still in shock. I don't even clearly remember the last time I talked to Tokuda-san, but it must have been Friday, July 11, a couple hours after the mini-triathlon.

From what I understand, Tokuda-san must have had a heart attack, seizure, or other major complications the very next day and wasn't the same after that.

I clearly remember coming to school the following Monday and not seeing Tokuda-san at his desk. At first, I thought perhaps he was elsewhere in the building. But as the day went on and I still didn't see him, I figured he must have been on a business trip.

The same thing happened on Tuesday. No Tokuda-san.

And Wednesday. Still no Tokuda-san.

That's when I started to get worried about him.

Finally, after school on Wednesday, I asked the office staff where he was and was told he was in the hospital. But no one told me how bad the situation was. And, as far as I know, there was no announcement regarding Tokuda-san's condition until perhaps Thursday, when I finally heard from my supervisor that Tokuda-san was in the hospital and in bad shape. Why was there no announcement?

Anyway, as I said in my previous post, Tokuda-san was a great guy. He had a great sense of humor and he was very kind to me. I will miss him dearly.

I always knew I'd have to say goodbye to him some day, because he would probably be reassigned to another school before my time in Japan was over. That thought alone made me sad when I started to think about that, as far back as, oh, December probably.

I just never thought I'd be saying goodbye to Tokuda-san like this.

Hey, Tokuda-san, "I geh haom."

"I geh haom."

Get Well, Tokuda-San

There's probably a good chance that you've read a story or two about Japanese people who have worked themselves to death. Perhaps you even noticed this article on that particular subject matter that popped up in the New York Times the other day.

Well, I'm sad to report that a colleague of mine is in the hospital right now, most likely because he is such a workaholic. Granted, I'm no doctor and I don't have much information as to Tokuda-san's exact condition, but I can only imagine the cause of his illness has something to do with the fact that he works so much.

Tokuda-san is my school's office manager, which means he's basically the fourth-highest ranking person here at school, after the principal and the two vice-principals.

Tokuda-san works really long hours and sort of prides himself on the fact that he only gets a few hours of sleep some nights. He is almost always in the office until 9 at night (or later!) and probably gets to work around 6 in the morning (if not earlier)! And Tokuda-san works on most weekends!

Whenever I ask him why he works so much, he almost always gives me the same humorous answer: Monday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Friday (in Japanese: Getsu, getsu, ka, sui, moku, kin, kin). I guess that's some sort of old Japanese Navy song that essentially means, "One's work is never done."

Until recently, when he started complaining about some stomach pain, I was under the impression that Tokuda-san was in pretty good physical shape, despite all the hours he puts in at the office. After all, months ago he was doing quite a bit of running, I've witnessed him doing push-ups (with his feet propped up on a table), and he's often told me about all the squats he does regularly.

But perhaps his addiction to work has finally caught up with him. Again, I'm assuming he's in the hospital because of overwork, but maybe there's something more serious wrong with him, or maybe he just got hit by a bad bug.

In any case, Tokuda-san is in the hospital and I simply want to wish him a speedy recovery. He's extremely kind and a very witty character and I miss him very much!

Get well, Tokuda-san!

Who Won the Mini-Triathlon? Wait and See.

Yesterday, I participated in my first ever triathlon, or rather, mini-triathlon. As I mentioned in a previous blog, my goal was to complete the challenge in 42 minutes. Well, I made it: I finished in about 41:15. I'm not sure of my official time yet, however, because the results have still not been made public.

Why? Well, in Japan, you often hear that participation in an event, whether it be a meeting, a party, or a race, for example, is more important than any other aspect of the event. So when yesterday's triathlon was over, there was no announcement as to who won the race. Instead, everyone was thanked for their hard efforts, drinks and snacks were passed out, pictures were taken, and everyone milled about for a while talking about the race.

I suspect the results will be announced soon, perhaps as early as Monday. There might even be an awards ceremony at some point during the next week or two before school lets out for the summer break. So I won't have to wait too long to find out how I did compared to everyone else. But as a competitive sort, I find it pretty disheartening to have to wait. You know what I mean? I busted my butt competing, so the least you could do is tell me what place I finished in.

In any case, one thing is for sure: I didn't win. I figured that out as soon as one of my pre-race favorites passed me during the run.

Until then, as far as I can remember, I had passed countless people throughout the race, some maybe even more than once, but no one had passed me. So I knew I still had a decent chance to come in first. But near the end of my fourth lap (out of six), I saw this guy catching up to me, and I didn't have the energy to kick into a higher gear and not let him pass. I was still hoping that maybe he was on his third lap or so and that I could hold him off for the rest of the race.

But just after he passed me, he turned left to detour off the main course and toward the finish line. I was the next-to-last swimmer to start the race, so the guy probably started about 2 minutes ahead of me, 3 minutes at the most. I knew that my two remaining laps were going to take me about 4 minutes, so that's when it hit me that there was no way for me to win the race.

Another one of my pre-race favorites passed me, too, right around the same time. I think. I honestly don't remember. Maybe I made it past the detour point just before he turned left. But I have a vague memory of him catching up. And there's a telling picture of him catching up to both me and the other guy.

In any case, from what I understand, those two guys finished 1-2, with perhaps only one second(!) separating them. So I'm really hoping for third place. But with the staggered start (swimmers got going in 10-second intervals), there was really no way for me to keep track of who was in what place. I mean, I remember passing about 7-10 guys in the water, so I'd certainly be willing to bet I finished in the top 10. But were the bikers and runners I passed later on the course ahead of me or behind me?

As for my individual times, well, I more-or-less achieved my goals for each discipline. I swam the 400 meters in 9 minutes flat, I biked the 8 km(?) in 19:22, and I ran the 3 km(?) in about 11:42. Add in about 1:10 for transition time from swimming to biking and you come up with about 41:14.

What could I have improved on? A lot!

For instance, I swam the first 200 meters in 4 minutes, which was my goal. But the final 200 meters took me 5 minutes. Why? Exhaustion must be the answer. Or inexperience? A little of each? It's hard to say. I probably just didn't push myself hard enough, especially over the last 200 meters.

And even though I passed many other bikers and no one passed me, there was one guy I just couldn't catch up to. So again, perhaps I didn't push myself hard enough. Unfortunately, I was so caught up in the race, I didn't remember (or bother?) to record my split times after each bike lap (and run lap, for that matter), so I have no way of looking back and seeing where I might have gone too slow. (Unless the official timers recorded that information.) But again, I'm happy overall with my bike ride.

And, yeah, well, as for the run, again, "exhaustion" is the operative word. I'll just have to push myself next time.

One more area of improvement is certainly the transition phase. I got out of the pool quickly and got my shorts, socks, and shoes on as fast as I could have hoped. But then I struggled with my shirt. I probably stood still for five seconds trying to get that sucker on before a little voice in my head finally said, "Run, you idiot, run!"

So off I ran, over to where my bike was. But while I was running, I was still trying to put the damn shirt on, with no luck. And when I finally got to my bike, I continued the pursuit. Luckily, that little voice took over again and said, "Idiot! Enough with the shirt! Just drop it and get on the damn bike already!"

So I'd say I lost a good 15 seconds or so wasting time with the shirt. Next time, I'm not even going to mess with that!

And hopefully, next time I get started on the bike, I'll be able to make a cleaner getaway. I swear, if you had seen me trying to get started, you would have sworn I was drunk: My hat wasn't on straight, one of my feet came off of the pedals right away, I nearly crashed into a parked bike, and I couldn't go in a straight line for the first 5 seconds or so.

So yeah, overall, I probably could have saved 30 seconds on the transition phase. That still wouldn't have been enough to bring home the gold, but would have made me even happier than I am!

The most difficult part of the whole race was probably the swimming.

One problem I had during the swim was that there were 20 other guys with me in the pool, splishing and splashing their way through the water in every possible direction. So the water was rather choppy.

Another problem was that I couldn't just concentrate on swimming back and forth in "my" lane. You see, the biggest surprise of all was that the pool was divided into four "double" lanes. (I expected all the lane dividers to be stored away for the race, but they weren't!) Since I was sharing each "double" lane with several other swimmers, I constantly had to be on the lookout for traffic in both directions.

And I spent several valuable seconds fighting for position as I passed other swimmers, especially when it came time to switch from double lane to double lane. (I wasn't exactly the nicest guy in those situations, but heck, a race is a race, right?)

That's right, we actually had to go under the dividers and then make our way up and down the next double lane! Over and over. Which meant I could only make a flip-turn at the end of every other lap. What a pain in the butt!

Anyway, besides the 30-second foot cramp I got while starting on my second 200-meters of swimming, I am happy to say I came out completely unscathed. And I'm feeling pretty good right now, as I write this, about 24 hours after the event. So I don't think I'll need very long to recover. (I guess I'll know more when I go swimming later today!)

And I'm already looking forward to next year's triathlon. Now that I have one under my belt, I think I can do even better next year. Heck, I'm a fighter. There's no way I won't beat this year's time next year!

And screw what some of the teachers and administrators said to me: "Yama-san, one of the students has to win the race, understand? This race is for the students. It's their race." (If so, why was I invited to participate, along with several other teachers?)

Look out, yonensei (the current fourth-graders who will be participating in the 2009 mini-triathlon). Next year, I'm out to win the damn thing!

Party Time, Extermination, Kanji

On Tuesday evening, I attended a casual "party" (that was more like a gathering) for the baseball team that was held at Kijia. Kijia is a small hotel with a restaurant and an "onsen" (that is actually more like a luxury bath tub) at the top of the hill across the street from school. For about two months, from about mid-June to mid-August, the place has a "beer garden." Some beer garden.

The beer garden was set up in the parking lot. There was certainly plenty of beer to go around, but none of it was German (or Austrian!). And there were no decorations to speak of, there was no tent, there were no benches to sit on (just chairs), and there was no oom-pah-pah music. And a lot of the fare was typical Japanese food, such as yakisoba, takoyaki, and grilled squid. And they even had an "Italian" salad on the menu. At least I saw some sausages, but they were really small! Like I said, some beer garden.

Last Saturday, July 5, I attended another party, a yukata party. Naturally, most people in attendance wore a yukata, which is a light-weight summer kimono. Luckily, you don't have to own a yukata to attend such a party, since you are able to borrow one on the premises. And if you don't know how to put it on, there is someone on hand to help you out. What a deal! (Putting the yukata on is the easy part. It's tying the obi that is complicated!)

Since the party was right around tanabata, which falls every year on July 7*, I also got to write a wish on paper and hang it from a piece of bamboo, since that's what the Japanese do for tanabata. The funny thing about that is that since I'm a rookie in these parts, I had no idea what the significance of the "wish-tied-to-bamboo" thing was until a couple of days after the party when I heard people talking about tanabata.

*The Japanese like these "double dates": 3/3 is Girl's Day and 5/5 is Children's Day, for example.

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For whatever reason (could it be the heat?) I had a rough time sleeping on Tuesday night. So around 1 a.m., I went to the kitchen to grab a snack in hopes that eating something would help me fall asleep. And guess who I saw crawling around the kitchen floor? Yup, ol' Mr. Cockroach. I guess he decided to skip the motel and stick to sightseeing. Well, luckily, I was able to trap him and dispose of him.

"Dispose of him? What do you mean, Yama-san?"

"Well, I took him outside and let him fly away."

"Fly away? Why didn't you kill him, Yama-san?"

"Well, one of my neighbors told me he found a cockroach in his apartment a couple of weeks ago. He said he just picked it up with a piece of tissue paper and sent it on it's way. He said, 'Cockroaches aren't dangerous. Why should you kill them?' He practically laughed at me when I said I would have killed it. So I guess the Japanese are more used to dealing with cockroaches than I am. So I tried to adopt my neighbor's attitude."

"Geez, Yama-san, what's gotten into you?"

"I don't know, man. I don't know. I must be turning Japanese."

By the way, the cockroach flew away from my apartment when I let him go, just down the street. He must be one smart cockroach, if there is such a thing. Before I let him go, I told him he won't be so lucky next time!

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Now that I've been trying hard to learn kanji for a couple months, reading Japanese is slowly getting easier for me. I just picked up a book in the library about recycling or something like that, for instance, and sort of got the gist of the couple sentences I read. And yesterday, I picked up a novel and was also able to understand roughly what was going on. So there's hope that I'll learn this language eventually. But consider this: I probably need to know about 2000 kanji to be able to read and understand most books, newspapers, magazines, and documents, for instance. Right now, I "only" know about 600. So I have a long way to go! (By the way: Check out number 100. That's the kanji for mountain, which is yama in Japanese. So that's my personal kanji.)

Today on WSN: Weather, Sports, Nutrition

Weather: I never thought I'd say this, but I want the rainy season to come back. Why? Because the rain kept the temperatures down to a bearable degree. Now that the rain is gone, the temperatures have climbed into the 80's and the humidity is nearing triple digits. The days are getting more and more miserable and the worst is yet to come. I'm already yearning for mid-September, when the humidity will finally subside! Until then, don't be surprised to see me wearing a towel (a.k.a. "sweat rag") around my head at all times! And I'm thinking about hitching a ride to work for the next month or so, since I'm now arriving at school dripping in sweat! And that's no fun!

Another gross part of the summer: Cockroaches! I spotted one in the kitchen last night. A big one at that. Ugh! I hate cockroaches. The guy who lived in the apartment before me told me he'd never seen a cockroach in the place in the three years he spent there. But last year I killed two and now I've seen number three. Do I do something to attract cockroaches? I hope the bastard takes up my offer of free accommodation in the roach motel I left for it.

Naturally, there are also plenty of other bugs, such as moths and mosquitoes, flying around. And I know the cicadas will soon be out in full force, making a ton of noise. But the beetles seem to be most people's favorite. My supervisor caught two beetles a couple of days ago and another one this morning. What does he do with the beetles? He gives them to his son! Kids absolutely love the suckers!

Oh, by the way: According to the two thermometers I have set up, the temperature outside my apartment this morning at 7:30 was 27.5 Celsius (about 82 Fahrenheit) while the temperature inside my apartment was 30.5 C (about 87 F). And to think that in the heart of winter, the temperature inside my apartment dipped to about 8 C (46 F). There must be a more energy-efficient way to construct buildings.

I also just checked the temperature inside the teachers' office: 29 C (84 F). From what I remember reading, I'm pretty sure someone is supposed to turn the air conditioning on if the indoor temperature reaches 28. But those machines are still in hibernation. Actually, today doesn't seem as bad as yesterday, humidity-wise. So I'm okay with the air conditioners being off. For now. But if the situation gets out of hand, which it inevitably will, I sure hope we can turn those puppies on! At least there's a fan blowing cool air my way!

Don't forget the mantra in these parts, however: Suffer, suffer, suffer!

One good thing about the rising temperatures is that we can finally use the swimming pool at school. Yes, that's right, the swimming pool at school! I have a feeling most schools in Japan, even some elementary schools, have a swimming pool, and lucky for me, my school does, too. So after a boiling hot day, it's nice to take a refreshing dip in the pool.

It's too bad, though, that the Japanese don't have Freibäder (public outdoor pools) like you find all over Germany and Austria, for instance. But the Japanese are pretty darn conservative, so I can't really imagine seeing a bunch of them in bathing suits in a large, public area. And the bathing suits that most Japanese wear are invariably anything but revealing.

And now the sports headlines: The mini-triathlon that I mentioned recently is coming up this Friday. I can't exactly say I've been training for it, but I have been practicing. And I've done some scouting and research, because I'm trying to figure out what it'll take to win the darn thing. Heck, I'm a competitive guy! So I have the winning times from last year, and I've sized up the competition while they've practiced.

The mini-triathlon is actually for the fifth-graders, who are the high-school juniors. But three teachers and I are also participating. I'm confident that I'll beat the other teachers, and I'm pretty sure I can beat most of the 17- and 18-year-olds, too. So my goal is to finish among the top 5 overall.

Of course, I'd love to win the race, but I don't want to get my hopes up competing against kids! They are so much younger and have so much energy! Besides, I've actually been told by some of the higher-ups that I'm not allowed to win. True story! They said something about it not looking good or not being appropriate or whatever. Come on, people! What would be wrong if an old fart like me beat a bunch of kids? As far as I'm concerned, I'm out to win the race. And if I do, well, they can manipulate my time to have me finish second for all I care.

Some more notes about the mini-triathlon:

The boys will be swimming 400 meters. We have to zigzag back and forth across the 25-meter pool from lane 1 to lane 8, climb out, run back over to lane 1, and do it again. (I wish we could swim the 400 meters without exiting the pool.) Then we climb out of the pool, put on our shoes and shirts, and run over to the bikes.

We bike for 8 laps around the school grounds, which makes for a total of about 8 km. I'm going to use the same exact type of mountain bike that the kids are using, meaning it's a bit too small for me. I moved the seat about as high as it goes and it's still about 6-8 inches too low! But I don't have much of a choice, since I don't own a bike. But maybe I can borrow a bigger bike from someone. The other teachers have their own bikes, which must be an advantage. But that's life.

And after we finish with the biking, we have to run 6 laps around a soccer field, for a total of about 3 km.

I'm hoping to finish the race in about 42 minutes, including the transition time. Breaking that down, it comes to about 9 minutes for swimming, 21 minutes for biking, and 12 minutes for running. Based on my practice times, I think 42 minutes is a realistic goal. But with all the traffic, especially in the pool and on the bike course, I anticipate being held up here and there.

And now for our nutritional news: Check out the lunch we had on Friday (see the first picture), and the lunch we had yesterday (see the second picture). Notice how the two meals are rather similar, except for the fact that the entree is missing from Friday's meal. What's up with that? What is the lunch lady thinking? And today's lunch (the entree was some sort of konnyaku/quail egg/potato/daikon/tofu/mystery food concoction) wasn't good, either (see the last picture), to say the least, especially since I gave up practically my entire entree as well as the mochi that took up half of my bowl of soup. So if you've been wondering why I'm always bringing snacks with me to school, now you know!