A day at the races

What I did today-

Kamikaze Girls

My new favorite movie-

random graffiti

Saw this on a bike ride a few months ago.
This is the equivalent of "penis."

For the record

The mountain I hiked is over 6 times the height of Mohawk Mountain. Woa!

Hiking Oyama

With the good weather disappearing along with the Autumn leaves I decided it was now or never to go hike up Oyama which I had previously explored on my then-new motorbike.

After a late start (noon) I headed to the mountain. Luckily, it was a clear day or I would not have wasted my time.

The mountain:
I believe its twice the size of anything Connecticut offers.

Being a nice day it was ppaaaacckkeed. Traffic up the wazoo. But, riding alone on a small motorcycle allowed to me to skirt past in the drains or on the other side of the road. Even the traffic workers waved me on down the wrong side of the road.

Having missed the "secret" road I had found before that goes further up I parked near the entrance of the souvenir alley leading to the bottom of the mountain cable car. After seeing the hour long line for the cable car I decide to rough up to the main temple.

I thought it would be a nice stroll in the woods but turned out to be about an hour of scaling rocks and logs. The following picture what I would call stage 1-


And this was the easy part of it.

Half way up the cable car laden section was the shrine I visited before-

Finally, at the most destination for most visitors-

The view from here was incredible-

Now, having gotten this far, I was determined to go the extra hour to the top.
The start of the trail right after the temple started as this-
and deceived you by go to this in a matter of 10 seconds, stage 2.5 -

After an hour of this I wanted to die. I didn't even take a picture of what I would call stage 4 but damn, it makes sense how I saw only 3% of the people from before going this far. But, it was worth it-


Had I climbed earlier in the day I would have been able to see Tokyo some 60km away.

By then it was getting dark and getting down to the cable car was everyone's main priority. I was apart of a small train of 15 people scrambling down the rocks in very very little light. It was a little scary honestly. People were sliding and falling all over the place and I was no exception. And, I knew once I got to the cable car checkpoint I had a nice long line to wait in because hiking down another hour was not an option.

So it was a very long day and my legs are killing me a day later. But, it was worth it. See flickr for more photos.

おやすみなさい　o-ya-su-mi-na-sai goodnight

Japanese "uneasy" about increasing foreign visitors

Jiji Press has a short report (Japanese) on a recent opinion poll. Asked about the increasing numbers of foreign visitors to Japan, around 80% said they were aware of there being more foreigners around while over half of the respondents said this made them "uneasy" (不安). Over 60% said that they had not heard of the establishment of the new Tourism Agency and did not know that the government was explicitly planning to promote Japan as a tourist destination. A small majority felt that more measures to preserve public order should accompany any such initiative.
-f**ckedgaijin.com

Also, many new pictures added to my flickr

$134,000 cell phone

Amid the great economic problems encountered here and abroad, Japanese giant cell phone company, Softbank, sold all eight of its $134,000 Tiffany diamond studded cell phones in three days.

Tama the stationmaster cat

A small town named a cat the official station master of its train station to boost the publicity/economy of the area.

Well, it worked. The town has generated an extra 1.1 billion yen (11 million dollars)!
Two other towns have named animals official stationmaster in hopes to boost their local economy as well.

Maron, the cuter of the two new stationmasters-

When I grow up...

Lately, my second graders have been doing "when I grow up" speeches in class.

Answers:
Own a cake shop and sell cakes. A boy said this and when translated into Japanese got quite a few laughs.
Be an entertainer to make money. He couldn't tell me in what area he was entertaining in though. He kept saying "variety show."
Be rich
Be a pilot. I could have sworn he kept saying pirate which fit well in his speech.
Be a carpenter so he could fix his old crappy house
Fireman. He hates fire. And demonstrated putting out a fire.
Lawyer
Work in a flower shop. A LOT of girls want to do this.
Own a company to employ poor people. My favorite.

A lot of their dreams involved learning English so they could talk to foreigners and learn about other cultures.

Be a professional soccer player, learn English, talk to other players.
Be a fireman, learn English, talk to foreigners after putting out a fire.
Etc.

Vending stat

According to the Vending Machine Manufacturers Association, Japan has one vending machine for every 23 people.

Sick and Holidays

I am now sick for the 4th time in Japan. I used to be sick for a week out of the year in the US. Ah, the joys of working with kids.

I realize my costume doesn't look that impressive in the pictures but trust me. When I was rocking it with my bare, Italian food and beer infused stomach under exposed it was quite a sight.

Nothing fun to report on. My gym is closed for the whole month and that pisses me off. The cold brings my exercise spirit considerably down and by the time I usually get home I only have a little over an hour of sunlight.

I have been walking to Fujisawa in the evening and its really quite nice. All bundled up in my pea coat, scarf and hat, I go window shopping and get some coffee and read my book.

The day OF Halloween, Christmas decorations were being put up. Now, its in full effect and all the cutesy, trendy, Christmas spirit makes me want to puke santa claus hello kitties. Trendy. That's all it here except maybe for the 1-2 million Christians (1% of the population). Usually, it is a holiday for young couples to go out to a nice dinner followed by a nice love hotel.

I am surprised Thanksgiving hasn't caught on but then again that is probably due to it not being a consumer holiday.

Actually, Japan does have a Thanksgiving Day. For Labor. Kinro Kansha no Hi- Thanksgiving Day for Labor. On this day, the Japanese express thanksgiving to one another for work done throughout the year. It is held on November 24th this year and is a National holiday so at least I get the day off work.

More pictures

I put a good amount of pictures up on flickr.
I am still too lazy to make a proper blog post.
Maybe this weekend.

Tess was woman enough to...

Right now I am reading Tess of the D'Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy.
Was this a movie? It has the making of a chick movie being that it's certainly a chick book.
Dad, send me some more manly books please.

Still no

I was able to get my internet working for one night and thennn back to broken :(

Halloween weekend is over.
Short recap.
Thursday, I went to my school chorus contest where I sang some Japanese song with the other teachers.
Thursday night was a Halloween party in Tokyo.
Friday night was a company Halloween party and I WON FIRST PLACE in the costume contest! AHHA!
After that I got lost in Yokohama and ended up going to karaoke with a more than 20 Japanese college students I met on the street.
Saturday night was friends Halloween party.
Super action packed.

Now, I am at my friend's friend's apartment outside the Yokota US Air Force base. I am now carrying 20lbs of Taco Bell inside of me and have a ton of US candy to eat for the next month.

Till next time, Sayonara