Various Updates

Cockroach update: You may remember that I caught a cockroach in the kitchen back in early July. He didn't check in to the roach motel that I so kindly left for him, but I did nab him nonetheless. I wasn't surprised that the roach motel didn't lure the sucker, because I remember seeing several of the exact same motels placed in various spots around the apartment that I first lived in, and, even though the cockroaches there were out in force, all of the motels were vacant.

So what a surprise it was to find that a customer had checked in a few days later! Holy cow! The motels work! Either that, or I just caught the dumbest cockroach in Japan. And guess what? Ever since that second bug bit the dust, I haven't spotted or caught any more. So I hope that's the end of them. But who knows? Maybe they have avoided detection. Or maybe I just jinxed myself by writing about their demise. Stay tuned.

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Weather update: The rainy season supposedly ended in early July, but it's still raining quite a bit. I think the Japanese need to re-define what they consider the rainy season. Oh, and when I got back from my recent trip, all of a sudden the humidity in Gokase had all but disappeared. Amazing! So I'm back to walking to work, and I'm barely sweating when I arrive. How nice. And instead of the temperature hovering around 30 degrees C (86 F) in the morning, it's now usually around 20 C (68 F)! What a difference that makes! The temperature in Gokase had dropped so much, I feared that summer was over. Heck, one night when several of us teachers were drinking at the beer garden, we were actually a bit cold sitting there in our shorts and T-shirts. But, alas, all it took was a trip back to the lowlands to realize that summer was still here. I tell you, down along the coast, it's much hotter and much more humid. I certainly wish I could live near the beaches so I could go swimming or surfing more often, but I like the trade-off of the cooler weather.

And on a related note: It's getting closer and closer to rice harvesting time. It's probably just my imagination, but it seems like the rice has spurted in the past few weeks. Time sure flies.

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Mini-triathlon update: It turns out I was right, that I did finish in third place. So I got the (non-existent) bronze medal. Amazingly, the first- and second-place finishers crossed the finish line only one second apart! I was approximately 1:29 behind them. Even though my time is unofficial and based on my watch, the fourth-place finisher came in a good 45 seconds after me, so I'm sure I got third place. As far as I know, the results have yet to be officially announced, and I have no idea if they ever will be. But what will probably happen is the that maybe in another month or two the top finishers will receive some sort of certificate or award in front of the other students. You see, at school they are often in no hurry to pass out certificates. It's a shame, because by now, everyone has forgotten about the race, anyway. By the way, I know how the students fared because I got the times from a P.E. teacher, upon my request. (The first marked column has the swim times, the second one the bike times, the third one the run times, and the last one has the total times.)

Sightseeing: Hiroshima

I rested in Nagoya for about a day after hiking and then took the shinkansen to Hiroshima.

In the past, I've ridden two other famous high-speed trains: France's TGV and Germany's ICE. The two best things that I remember about the TGV are that it was relatively inexpensive and extremely quiet. The worst thing that I remember about the TGV was that the legroom was rather limited.

The ICE also brings back good as well as bad memories. The good: The ICE is comfortable, roomy, and fast, and there is a handy display showing the train's speed. The bad: The ICE is expensive, often runs behind schedule or even breaks down, and travels over certain routes barely faster than the cheaper trains.

My shinkansen experience was a completely different story. The train was fast and on-time, and I had plenty of legroom, there were lots of seats, since the rows were in a 3-2 format, rather than the usual 2-2, and the aisle down the middle was wider than the aisle on most trains I've been on. The most impressive thing about the shinkansen, however, is that there seems to be a train every 10-15 minutes. Incredible!

Of course, Japan's high-speed train is a little pricey: I paid 14,030 yen for the roughly 420 km ride, although I easily could have saved a few hundred yen if I hadn't taken the nozomi superfast shinkansen plus another 1,100 yen or so by not reserving a seat (live and learn!). But you can't beat the comfort and the speed: 2:20! The nod clearly goes to the shinkansen!

I arrived in Hiroshima at about 1:30 p.m. on August 6, the day of the anniversary of the A-bomb.

Unfortunately, I missed out on the remembrance ceremony, since that was held early in the morning. But I did get to see the lantern festival at night. Hundreds of lanterns were decorated and then floated down the river, making for a lovely sight. And there was music, too, that added a nice touch to the celebration of peace.

The next day I spent a lot of time at and near the Peace Memorial Park. There were lots of memorials and monuments, as well as a museum.

One of the most impressive sights in the peace park area was the thousands and thousands of origami cranes that people had made and donated to the Children's Peace Monument. As a matter of fact, while I was looking around and taking pictures, several people showed up with their "vines" of folded cranes and added them to the exhibit, something that the public is encouraged to do.

Of course, I also saw the so-called A-Bomb Dome that is one of the symbols of Hiroshima. Like practically everyone else who was there, I took tons of pictures of the destroyed building. And I did a lot of thinking, trying to imagine what it must have been like to have been present when the bomb went off.

Sometimes, when I see something famous with my own eyes, I'm not overly impressed and I think to myself, "Well, at least now I can say I've seen it." But the A-Bomb Dome had a greater effect on me. The people who decided not to tear it down knew what they were doing.

Another really cool place in Hiroshima is Miyajima, an island off the southwest coast of the city that takes only 15 minutes to reach by ferry (but it took about 45 minutes to reach the ferry terminal by streetcar!).

The most famous site on the island is undoubtedly the Itsukushima shrine and its fantastic red torii, both of which are surrounded by water(!) at high tide. When I happened to visit, the tide was out. Perhaps the view wasn't quite as spectacular as it could have been, but I at least had an opportunity to get a really good look at the torii. I'll have to go back someday to see the place during high tide to see what is more impressive.

Just like in Nara, there are also wild deer roaming about. I saw them from the moment I stepped off of the ferry. One deer was especially brave and came right up to me and started sniffing at my shorts, clearly in search of food.

My first night in Hiroshima, I stayed in a capsule hotel. That was quite an experience. I knew the place would probably only be of the 1 or 2 star variety, but "Spend a night at a capsule hotel" was one of the things on my "To Do While Living In Japan" list.

So I showed up a little after 4 p.m., when check-in starts. I paid my 2300 yen (those are some pretty cheap accommodations) and the strange man behind the counter handed me a couple of keys, one for my shoe locker and the other for my clothes locker. Then he asked me if I wanted a yukata-like robe. I had seen a guy already wearing one, but I didn't see the point of that, so I declined. (I guess in some capsule hotels, you are supposed to wear the robe.) Once I was all set, I took a tour of the place. It was about what I expected: Not very clean, but not very dirty. I guess you could say it reminded me a little of my college days living in a dormitory.

Downstairs, that is on the first floor, there was a small communal area with vending machines and a television set. Just next to that, there was a locker room, which included some sinks, a bathroom, and a shower room/mini-onsen.

The capsules were upstairs. Mine was on the second floor. The capsules were pretty much just that: fairly small sleeping compartments, stacked two high. I tried mine out and found it to be roomier than I expected and actually relatively comfortable. There was even a tiny air-conditioning unit inside, so I wasn't worried about sweating to death at night, as well as a tiny light, a 12-inch television set (you had to put coins in a slot to use the TV), a small clock that probably had an alarm setting, and a little radio, all seemingly from the 1970's. And the area was so quiet that I barely noticed several guys resting or even sleeping in their capsules.

There were also luggage lockers, but I didn't bother schlepping my bags with me to the hotel. Instead, I left them at the train station.

The one thing that struck me the most about the capsules was that they didn't have a door, per se, but more of a sliding panel. Since I couldn't figure out how to lock mine and was actually worried that I might lock myself in, when I went to bed all I did was slide the thing shut. Even though the place was male-only, I wasn't worried in the least that some freak would try to open my compartment while I was sleeping. The place was a bit shady, but not that shady.

I guess there are some nicer capsule hotels around Japan, so maybe I'll try one out again someday. Heck, it was cheap and conveniently-located, and I slept much better than I expected.

One more thing I did while I was in Hiroshima was take a tour of the baseball stadium where the Hiroshima Carp play. The Carp weren't in town, but there happened to be a college tournament going on, so I was fortunate enough to have gotten a chance to go inside the stadium. I'm not sure if the place is going to be torn down after this season, but the Carp are moving into a new stadium next season, so I cherished the opportunity to get a close look at the old stadium.

Oddly enough, the new stadium is being built far from downtown, whereas the old stadium that the Carp currently play in is located smack-dab in the middle of town, right across the street from the A-Bomb Dome. It's hard to believe that the team thinks it's a good idea to move away from the city, when most teams, at least in the United States, do their best to build their new stadiums as close to downtown as possible.

And finally, what trip to Hiroshima would be complete without okonomiyake? Okonomiyake is kind of a cross between a deluxe pancake and a deluxe omelet. And the two places in Japan that are famous for the dish are Osaka and Hiroshima. I'm not exactly sure what the main difference between the two styles of okonomiyake is, but I think it's this: In Osaka, the ingredients are all mixed together before the okonomiyake is fried up and in Hiroshima, the okonomiyake is made one layer at a time. In any case, that's as much as I understood when I asked the young lady who served me to explain the difference. I may be sick of some Japanese food, but I still find okonomiyake to be rather delicious, especially since you can have just about anything you want on it. Besides (as I believe I mentioned in an earlier blog), okonomiyake was the first meal I had in Miyazaki, so it holds a special place in my heart.

I didn't experience all of what Hiroshima has to offer, but I had a great time there and I wanted to save something for another time.

Thanks, Hiroshima!

What a Waste!

A few minutes ago, I tried to finally watch one of Michael Phelps' races, the 200-meter butterfly, live, so I could see this amazing swimmer compete.

I mean, this guy must be the story of the Olympics, at least so far. But when I turned on the television set, guess what I saw: Women's gymnastics.

Women's gymnastics? Yes, women's gymnastics.

But we're not talking just any women's gymnastics, mind you. No, we're talking the Japanese National Team women's gymnastics.

Ugh!

I waited patiently, hoping that the broadcast would switch to swimming.

The race was supposed to start at 11:21 local time.

11:20 rolled along.

Nothing.

11:21.

Still nothing.

11:22.

Still nothing.

No swimming.

And then, a news flash appeared on the screen.

The first thing I deciphered was: 200-meter butterfly.

Could this mean they are about to switch to the race? Please, please, please, switch to the damn race before it's too late!

But then I saw the word "medal." Oh, no. The race is over. Crap!

What's with this damn Japanese television station!? Sure, Michael Phelps isn't Japanese. But who cares? He's maybe the best athlete at the Olympic Games and I want to see him. Come on! Don't the Japanese want to see this guy in action?

And then I saw a Japanese swimmer's name: Matsuda.

And something about him winning the bronze medal.

Oh, hooray for Japan! Your guy won the stinkin' bronze medal.

What about Phelps???

I waited a couple more minutes to see if they would announce the winner of the race.

No such luck.

Maybe they planned to show the race after all, perhaps a few minutes later.

But I didn't care.

I wanted to see the race live. I wanted to see history in the making, not on tape-delay.

So I switched off the TV.

And pulled up ESPN.com on my laptop.

Gold medal #4 for Phelps. And I missed it.

Thank you NHK. You suck!

Take a Hike! Part 2

After we admired Mt. Fuji for a while, we finally packed up our tent, had some breakfast, and started on our next hike.

Whereas the hike on Day 1 was mostly up, up, up, the hike on Day 2 was mostly flat.

The first peak we stopped at was Ai-no-dake, Japan's fourth-highest mountain, just a few meters lower than Kita-dake at 3189 meters. We took our time getting to the summit, arriving at around 10:45 a.m. We had great views of Mt. Fuji most of the way over to her and also from the top, so we paused quite a bit to admire Japan's highest mountain.

After we relaxed at the summit for a while, Akinori continued on to our next campsite, whereas Eric and I took a side trip to hit up two more peaks.

It turns out that just as we passed the first peak, the very nondescript Nishi-Notori-dake (3051 meters and #16 on the list of Japan's highest mountains), Eric decided he didn't want to go on. So he turned around, hiked back to where we had left our backpacks at the last lodge that we had passed, and waited for me there.

In the meantime, I continued on by myself to the second peak, Notori-dake (3026 meters and #21 on the list), which was only about 30 minutes farther along the ridge.

Eventually, I made it back down to the lodge, bought two drinks, and found Eric. Unfortunately for Eric, he was sleeping in the sunshine, which was a big mistake, as that led to him getting a bad case of sunburn.

By the way, the lodges have a great supply of food and drinks, provided via helicopter delivery. Of course, you have to pay an arm and a leg for the supplies (e.g., a 500 ml bottle of water or a sports drink costs about 400 or 500 yen instead of the 150 that one normally pays if one's not on a mountain), but you can't beat the convenience!

I didn't realize how fatigued I was at that point until I was pouring the two 500 ml drinks I had just bought into my 1000 ml drink bottle. You see, I started with about 200 ml and ended up with about 900 ml instead of 1200 ml. How is that possible? Well, just after I poured about 300 ml worth of one of the drinks into my big bottle, I dumped it back out reaching down for the other half-liter bottle. Nice job, Yama!

We both laughed off my mistake and then took off on a kind of shortcut back to the main trail that Akinori had hiked along. And we eventually made our way to the lodge/campsite where Akinori was waiting for us.

That's where we met Toshiro, the manager of the place.

Toshiro was a riot. For example, when we asked him where he was from, this was his answer: "I'm Korean... I mean, I'm Chinese... I'm actually Vietnamese."

And the guy was so nice! He tried to repair my hiking boots, which were coming apart at the back of the soles. And he gave us some free food and drinks that night and the next morning before we took off on Day 3.

We got along so well from the moment we met Toshiro, it was as if he was our long-lost friend. I really enjoyed hanging out with him and hope to see him again some day up at his lodge.

Day 3 was the big trudge to the end.

I was fairly eager to continue down the Southern Alps chain for at least another day, but my boots probably weren't going to last much longer and Eric's sunburn was pretty bad. So we decided to stick with the plan we had made before we started the hike on Saturday morning: Two nights, three days. (Both nights, before going to bed, my legs were so tired, I wasn't sure what kind of shape I'd be in the next day. But when I woke up the next day, I felt completely refreshed and was raring to go.)

So this was our last day, and it was going to be a long one. We had to cover about 20 km! Ugh! (Had we decided to keep hiking, we would have stopped at a campsite after 15 km.)

There were two highlights that day: The first was when Eric and I saw a bunch of wild monkeys! (Akinori left the campsite at 5 a.m., whereas Eric and I left at 7 a.m., so Akinori wasn't with us at the time.)

We had driven quickly past two monkeys on the way to the bus stop on Saturday, but this time we were just sitting on the trail, taking a break, when Eric spotted a monkey up ahead, relaxing in the sunshine and having a snack. Soon, we saw some more monkeys. They kept their distance, and we weren't about to interfere with them, so I didn't get any great pictures of them, unfortunately. But it was still exciting to see them.

The second highlight was making it to the top of Shiomi-dake (3047 m or 3052 m, and #17 or #16 on the list, depending on the source). And even though the weather was so overcast that the mountain didn't live up to it's name, which means something like "Mt. See-the-Salt," i.e., "Mt. See-the-Ocean" (the only salt that I saw was the salt that I rubbed off of my forehead), I was still happy to have climbed her!

And it was also good to see Akinori again! I found him resting next to the peak's western summit. (Eric caught up to us about 20 minutes later.)

From there, it was all down, down, down. We did encounter our first bit of bad weather of the trip, not counting the gusting wind on Kita-dake and Ai-no-dake, as it started to rain in the afternoon. But all of us were prepared for that situation and kept dry for the most part. And at 7 p.m., we made it back down to about 1000 meters and the parking lot where, thankfully, Akinori's dad was waiting for us!

And thus ended my first hike in the Japanese Alps.

Take A Hike! Part 1

My recent vacation started off well.

I arrived at the airport on the right day (that's another story) and with plenty of time to spare, my flight from Kumamoto-Aso Airport took off and arrived at Chubu Airport in Nagoya more-or-less on time, and my one piece of checked baggage didn't take a detour to some foreign country.

And then, once I found the train station, I was able to catch an express train to downtown Nagoya right away. Score!

On a side note: Lucky for me, a young lady who worked for the train company was standing in front of the ticket machines as I entered the station. She helped me quickly buy a ticket and catch the express train that was waiting to depart from Platform 1. What I especially liked about her was that she spoke Japanese to me, at least initially, instead of switching to English right away as many people in the tourist industry do when I speak Japanese to them. Also, when she noticed that I was a little confused, she really caught me off guard by asking me, in Japanese no less, if I spoke English! It took me a few seconds to realize that she hadn't said, "I'm sorry, I don't speak English." I tell you, that lady was cool!

Anyway, once I arrived downtown, the next step was to catch a bus to Iida, a city located two hours (by bus) to the northwest, in order to meet Eric, the JET that I was supposed to go hiking with. The only problem with that plan was that the last bus departed 20 minutes before I got there! Ugh!

Note to self: The next time someone tells you, "Buses leave every hour," make sure you ask, "Every hour until when?"

So much for my trip starting off well. And so much for spending/wasting the extra 350 yen on the express train. (At least I had the 350 yen covered in my budget under "Such is Life.")

The irony of my situation was that I had originally booked a hotel room for that night, but had then canceled the reservation when Eric told me I'd be able to get to his place in Iida that night. Lovely.

Good thing for me I remembered that the phone number for the hotel was saved on my cellphone. And good thing for me I've gotten past the stage of being chicken when it comes to picking up a phone and making a call and dealing with the person on the other end speaking in a language that I barely understand. (Even though English usually works pretty well, at least with hotels.)

So I called the hotel and found out they had no rooms available. But before I hung up, I had them give me the number of another hotel in the chain and tried my luck with them. No go.

Repeat process about three times.

Finally, the woman on the other end said "arimasu yo" instead of "arimasen" and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Another side note: Even though I don't exactly enjoy having to call around to find a hotel room or having to ask for directions to some place, for example, I realize that such situations can do wonders for my Japanese. One of the unexpected side aspects of traveling around Japan that can actually be quite nice, at least in the long run, is being put into situations that I almost never deal with, especially since I live in such a tiny town.

The next day I finally made it to Iida.

When my bus pulled into the station, Eric was waiting for me. My first impression of him was that he was an easy-going guy. I was right. For a couple of hours, we drove around town, ran some errands, and chilled at a park next to a river.

Late in the afternoon, we drove to a nearby town to meet up with the third piece of the puzzle, Akinori-kun.

When I first saw Akinori, he had a terrible case of bedhead and I thought to myself, "Oh, my God. This guy is such a goofball, I can't believe I'm going to be hiking with him." I'm glad I was wrong. It turns out Akinori is a great guy who laughs a lot, has a big heart, and is true to himself and others. (And check out his footwear for the hike! Unbelievable!)

Anyway, the next day, August 2, at 5:40 a.m. our adventure began.

Akinori's dad drove us (what a nice guy, eh?) to a bus stop located about an hour and forty minutes away. Two buses and another three hours later (half of the time was spent just waiting for the buses!), we were ready to start hiking.

We started out at about 1600 meters and climbed up to about 3000 meters, to the foot of Kita-dake, in about 5 1/2 hours, with a good 1-hour break for lunch.

After we pitched our tents (I shared a two-person tent with Eric while Akinori had a two-person tent all to himself), I climbed the last 200 meters up to the summit. Visibility was practically zero since clouds were everywhere, so I had no idea what was in store for me in the morning.

The three of us went to bed at around 7:30 p.m.

Akinori, being a farmer and therefore used to getting up early, headed to the summit around 4:30 a.m. to catch the sunrise. Eric and I slept in (ha ha!) until about 5:00 a.m.

When Eric unzipped the tent a few minutes later, I saw a beautiful horizon of clouds topped by a clear blue sky. But then Eric said, "You think that's nice? Look over here."

And there she was, Fuji-san, poking her head through the clouds! Wow! What an awesome greeting in the morning! That was day 365 in Japan for me, and I finally caught my first glimpse of the symbol of the country.