Manga-kissa, we meet once more. More often than not I seem to find myself in one of these while I am travelling around Japan. But, I only dropped in to catch a few winks. What I did was take a highway bus overnight from Yonezawa into Tokyo, but sleeping on the bus was a challenge. So, after catching up a couple hours uninterrupted I finally feel more energized. I am on my way to Miyazaki Prefecture, which is at the southern end of Kyushu. My marathon is at 9am Sunday moring, so I am less than 48 hours from what may be absolute physical torture.
My training has prepared me well, I hope. This week I haven't run at all because I have been dealing with some nagging injuries like shin splints, so I figured getting as healed as possible would do me better than any light running. Three weeks ago I ran 20 miles and felt very good doing so. I was able to maintain my goal pace through most of that run, but the last 6.2 miles of a marathon is the true test. I have no inkling of how my body will react when I push that extra distance because I have never run further than 20 miles. The "wall" is waiting. My hope is that my friend who is doing the half marathon will be able to take my camera and situate herself at the finish line, and record either photographs or video of my finish.
The title of the post has a double meaning, however. I use the word marathon in another sense, describing the length of the weekend itself. I took 2 days off for this, and on Monday as I make my journey back home I will be stopping once more in Tokyo to take the GRE. Mental torture following a day of physical torture. Would it be a stretch to call me the first human being in history to run a marathon and then take the GRE the following day? I don't think any other human being is that stupid. One computerized practice exam I took the other day gave me a verbal score of 590 and a quantatative score of 620. Thus I will cram vocabulary at any free moment I have this weekend. Gotta raise that verbal score.
And since I haven't posted in a while, I came to a decision regarding post-JET life. Should be clear that I am intending to enter grad school, and I am officially applying to the second language studies program at UH Manoa. Columbia University has a similar program (but under a different name) that I will also apply to. If both schools reject me, then I will make an application to the University of Illinois at Chicago, since they have a very late application deadline. But by that point I will have probably committed to another year in Japan. If UH or Columbia accept me though, the chances are very likely that I am a one-year JET. More to come on this, I promise.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
October busyness
I haven't had a totally quiet weekend in quite a while. There is usually something going on and thus October has been quite the busy month for me.
A couple weekends ago we had a three days off here, which was awesome for letting me recharge a bit. However on one of those days I headed down to Yonezawa to volunteer at a festival, where the international relations association had setup a tent. Most of the day was spent playing janken (rock, paper, scissors) in English with Japanese kids. Fortunately for us all we wrapped up the day by going to a free wine and cheese tasting and watched some movies that evening. I did basically nothing the rest of that weekend, which was good.
The weekend after that was the Oshoshina Half Marathon (also in Yonezawa). I didn't have to run this one all by myself since some other ALTs had also entered, and we had some supporters come to cheer us on as well! My pacing strategy was simple: start slow, finish fast. This is hard to do without a watch/GPS to help in your pacing discipline because many people end up passing you in the first half. But the second half of the race is when I hit my afterburners and blew past a ton of people en route to a 1:47:51 finish. So long as my training continues without any problems I just may be able to do the marathon in December in under 4 hours.
This last weekend is one I'm still recovering from. I also planned it very spur of the moment in less than a week. Friday was scheduled as an office day, where I simply show up to the Board of Education office and proceed to do nothing. So, I burned a vacation day and made a trip out to the Kansai region. Thursday night I used the Shinkansen to get to my friend's home in Shiga Prefecture, which was only a half hour away from Kyoto.
Friday afternoon was fairly tame as I took a trip up to Amanohashidate (one of the Three Views of Japan) and fulfilled my touristy desires in one fell swoop. As of now I have seen two of the three views of Japan (I went to Matsushima in August) so all that remains is the famous floating torii at Miyajima in Hiroshima. Friday night I met my friends and we went into Osaka. I had designs on dining at a Hawaiian restaurant, but the logistics were not working in my favor. We ended up going to Kua 'Aina. While not Hawaiian food, it was at least familiar and the best damn burger I've had in a long while. As we were in the Namba/Shinsaibashi area, we simply drank/partied/wandered there throughout the night until the trains started running again, then returned to my friend's place.
Saturday afternoonish we woke up and headed for Kyoto. My friends all decided to head home before the last train, but I was of two minds about staying or going. A simple coin flip decided that I would remain in Kyoto for the night on my own. I hit up an 8-bit themed bar where I played random Nintendo 64 games with random Japanese people, then to kill off the last hour and a half or so until the first train in the morning I went to a bar/dance club. Unusual situation to put myself in but I was so drunk that I didn't care. Besides, Japanese people can't dance for shit either.
By now it's Sunday morning and I made the decision to make my return. The only sleep I got yesterday was on the 2 hour Shinkansen ride to Tokyo. I met a friend from Hawaii who had studied with me at Obirin and had a Kanto-region specialty, monjayaki. After spending some time in a couple arcades I said my farewell and rode the final Shinkansen back home.
Halloween looms this weekend with a decent-looking rager coming up Saturday night with the other ALTs in Yamagata. I will know in a couple days whether or not I think I want to do that. In the meantime, a 16 mile run looms this evening, since I clearly didn't have time for it this past weekend.
A couple weekends ago we had a three days off here, which was awesome for letting me recharge a bit. However on one of those days I headed down to Yonezawa to volunteer at a festival, where the international relations association had setup a tent. Most of the day was spent playing janken (rock, paper, scissors) in English with Japanese kids. Fortunately for us all we wrapped up the day by going to a free wine and cheese tasting and watched some movies that evening. I did basically nothing the rest of that weekend, which was good.
The weekend after that was the Oshoshina Half Marathon (also in Yonezawa). I didn't have to run this one all by myself since some other ALTs had also entered, and we had some supporters come to cheer us on as well! My pacing strategy was simple: start slow, finish fast. This is hard to do without a watch/GPS to help in your pacing discipline because many people end up passing you in the first half. But the second half of the race is when I hit my afterburners and blew past a ton of people en route to a 1:47:51 finish. So long as my training continues without any problems I just may be able to do the marathon in December in under 4 hours.
This last weekend is one I'm still recovering from. I also planned it very spur of the moment in less than a week. Friday was scheduled as an office day, where I simply show up to the Board of Education office and proceed to do nothing. So, I burned a vacation day and made a trip out to the Kansai region. Thursday night I used the Shinkansen to get to my friend's home in Shiga Prefecture, which was only a half hour away from Kyoto.
Friday afternoon was fairly tame as I took a trip up to Amanohashidate (one of the Three Views of Japan) and fulfilled my touristy desires in one fell swoop. As of now I have seen two of the three views of Japan (I went to Matsushima in August) so all that remains is the famous floating torii at Miyajima in Hiroshima. Friday night I met my friends and we went into Osaka. I had designs on dining at a Hawaiian restaurant, but the logistics were not working in my favor. We ended up going to Kua 'Aina. While not Hawaiian food, it was at least familiar and the best damn burger I've had in a long while. As we were in the Namba/Shinsaibashi area, we simply drank/partied/wandered there throughout the night until the trains started running again, then returned to my friend's place.
Saturday afternoonish we woke up and headed for Kyoto. My friends all decided to head home before the last train, but I was of two minds about staying or going. A simple coin flip decided that I would remain in Kyoto for the night on my own. I hit up an 8-bit themed bar where I played random Nintendo 64 games with random Japanese people, then to kill off the last hour and a half or so until the first train in the morning I went to a bar/dance club. Unusual situation to put myself in but I was so drunk that I didn't care. Besides, Japanese people can't dance for shit either.
By now it's Sunday morning and I made the decision to make my return. The only sleep I got yesterday was on the 2 hour Shinkansen ride to Tokyo. I met a friend from Hawaii who had studied with me at Obirin and had a Kanto-region specialty, monjayaki. After spending some time in a couple arcades I said my farewell and rode the final Shinkansen back home.
Halloween looms this weekend with a decent-looking rager coming up Saturday night with the other ALTs in Yamagata. I will know in a couple days whether or not I think I want to do that. In the meantime, a 16 mile run looms this evening, since I clearly didn't have time for it this past weekend.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
(Mostly) Everything since Sendai
So, what exactly have I done since that nice trip to Sendai? I'm mostly going to limit this to non-work related things.
August 24-26: New JET Orientation in Tendo. Just outside the prefectural capital, Tendo is the site of an educational institute. We were brought here for some training seminars and otherwise the chance to get better situated within Yamagata and meet a lot of new people. This was the first chance I had to do an enkai and watch Swing Girls, which was filmed in my particular region of the prefecture. After returning home on the evening of the 26th was the Komatsu Matsuri, which was a very local kine festival in the town where I live. Drank some beer and even went up on their stage and introduced myself to the townsfolk!
August 27: This was my first school visit (ever). Went to one of the junior high schools and was legitimately nervous and scared having to introduce myself in front of the whole school in the morning. Followed by the beginning of a near-endless parade of self-introductions in the individual classes. More on the actual work part of being in Japan later.
August 30: Acquired my mama-chari! This is a specific type of bicycle in Japan and again, a more detailed post on this will follow.
September 4: Was invited to a sukiyaki and sake festival by a teacher in one of my schools. The sukiyaki was the first time I ever had a chance to sample Yonezawa beef, which was as soft and tender as I was expecting it to be. The sake was all locally brewed stuff, and I had to resist the temptation to really knock them back. That didn't stop the teacher who invited me from getting pissed (drunk), and he then invited me back to his home where he wanted me to drink even more sake. I took it as slow as I could, and I eventually met his wife and kids. They couldn't stop remarking at how drunk he was. Japanese dudes have no shame in their drinking, for reals.
September 5: Invited to my first official work enkai. Enkai are essentially work parties held at a Japanese pub or restaurant. There is much drinking and they serve the important social function of allowing the normally reserved and reticent Japanese to open up and express their true feelings about...anything really. What's said at the enkai pretty much stays at the enkai. But one highlight was that when they found out I was unmarried and single, they kept asking me what I thought of one of the younger (single) teachers. No holds barred, seriously.
September 11: Went to the tai'ikusai at one of my schools. This is roughly equivalent to a sports or field day back in the States. But in Japan they're far more competitive and formal events. Following my day of baking in the sun...
Every year the Yamagata JET community rents out some cabins up in the mountains of Nagai City and proceed to drink and party away. This year was no different, and the alcohol eventually led to many guys stripping down to nothing but their underpants. Eventually people started wearing other people's shirts. I don't remember much else about the night.
September 18: Crazy busy day. Started with an imoni-kai in the morning and early afternoon. Basically, a bunch of members of the Yonezawa International Relations Association got together by a riverbank and made imoni, a delicious Japanese stew that is enjoyed in the autumn in the northern part of the country. However, Yamagata is especially famous for it.
This was followed by participating in the Yonezawa Sengoku Matsuri, a festival to celebrate the 450th birthday of Kanetsugu Naoe, a famous samurai of the Uesugi Clan. The gaijin from the area (all 10 of us who showed up) were invited to dress in samurai armor (we were just dressed as regular foot soldiers) and take part in the parade they had through central Yonezawa. On the way back at the end we broke out into our own dance and no doubt the locals thought it awesome, if not at least cute.
September 20: This day was decided upon on a whim the night before. The local ALTs decided to get together and drive out to Niigata Prefecture to the Sea of Japan. This was on a holiday but decidedly out of beach season, so we knew the beach would be almost utterly abandoned once we arrived. Turns out the weather was also overcast and rainy too. However, when we got there, much to my surprise there were a few Japanese dudes surfing in the water! The beach itself was dirty and the water didn't look inviting since there was an oil rig visible off shore and industry a few miles down the shoreline. However, I went in the surprisingly warm water and realized soon why the surf was breaking into rideable waves, as there was a sandbar in the water. Grabbing a body board I was able to ride a couple waves and this was the nicest surprise yet I've had in Japan. However, the quality of the waves suffered as the day went on, as the tide seemed to have an effect. We eventually packed up and left and spent the evening soaking at an onsen.
September 25: Some friends and I drove up to Yamagata City to attend a soccer match. In this case, we went to see Montedio Yamagata take on Shonan Bellmare. Both teams compete in the upper level of the J-League, and the match ended in a 1-1 draw. Montedio needed an equalizer in the second half to salvage the point. Save for the supporters' sections the crowd was remarkably quiet. There were moments when neither team's supporters were in the middle of a song or cheer, and I swear you could hear a pin drop in the stadium. Afterward we went to a fairly legit Indian restaurant and it was nice to break out of the relative blandness of the usual Japanese fare. The night was not over either, as we trekked to a theater to catch the new Resident Evil movie. Can't say I was too terribly impressed with it or the 3D (I really hope this fad dies off, but it seems this one has legs), but it was still better than the damn Nightmare on Elm Street remake.
September 26: I spent the night in Yamagata City, because it was here I was also to do my first-ever half marathon. Even in training I had never run 13.1 miles before, so everything about this was unknown territory for me. 11 miles was my previous longest run and I had suffered through that when I tried it earlier this year while still living in Hawaii. However, as part of my regular marathon training I was more than ready for this. At first I wanted to treat it as a training run and use it as a testbed for pacing and trying the energy gels I had brought. However, once the race got underway I was determined to turn in the best time I could. The course itself looped twice, the first half of which was mostly uphill and the second half mostly downhill. As such I took it relatively easy until halfway through that first lap (about 3 miles or so in), after it turned downhill I turned on the jets and didn't really let up from that point on. The energy gels helped stave off hitting the wall, but I quickly found out after finishing that I did not take in enough fluids during the race. This was even with actually stopping at the aid stations. Anyway, the course was measured a bit short so I only ended up running about 12.88 miles, but I did do it in 1:48:36. Assuming I ran the remaining 0.22 miles, I would have finished around 1:51:00. It doesn't bode well for being able to run my first marathon in under 4 hours, but I also have another half marathon in a couple weeks to see if I can run faster.
August 24-26: New JET Orientation in Tendo. Just outside the prefectural capital, Tendo is the site of an educational institute. We were brought here for some training seminars and otherwise the chance to get better situated within Yamagata and meet a lot of new people. This was the first chance I had to do an enkai and watch Swing Girls, which was filmed in my particular region of the prefecture. After returning home on the evening of the 26th was the Komatsu Matsuri, which was a very local kine festival in the town where I live. Drank some beer and even went up on their stage and introduced myself to the townsfolk!
August 27: This was my first school visit (ever). Went to one of the junior high schools and was legitimately nervous and scared having to introduce myself in front of the whole school in the morning. Followed by the beginning of a near-endless parade of self-introductions in the individual classes. More on the actual work part of being in Japan later.
August 30: Acquired my mama-chari! This is a specific type of bicycle in Japan and again, a more detailed post on this will follow.
September 4: Was invited to a sukiyaki and sake festival by a teacher in one of my schools. The sukiyaki was the first time I ever had a chance to sample Yonezawa beef, which was as soft and tender as I was expecting it to be. The sake was all locally brewed stuff, and I had to resist the temptation to really knock them back. That didn't stop the teacher who invited me from getting pissed (drunk), and he then invited me back to his home where he wanted me to drink even more sake. I took it as slow as I could, and I eventually met his wife and kids. They couldn't stop remarking at how drunk he was. Japanese dudes have no shame in their drinking, for reals.
September 5: Invited to my first official work enkai. Enkai are essentially work parties held at a Japanese pub or restaurant. There is much drinking and they serve the important social function of allowing the normally reserved and reticent Japanese to open up and express their true feelings about...anything really. What's said at the enkai pretty much stays at the enkai. But one highlight was that when they found out I was unmarried and single, they kept asking me what I thought of one of the younger (single) teachers. No holds barred, seriously.
September 11: Went to the tai'ikusai at one of my schools. This is roughly equivalent to a sports or field day back in the States. But in Japan they're far more competitive and formal events. Following my day of baking in the sun...
Every year the Yamagata JET community rents out some cabins up in the mountains of Nagai City and proceed to drink and party away. This year was no different, and the alcohol eventually led to many guys stripping down to nothing but their underpants. Eventually people started wearing other people's shirts. I don't remember much else about the night.
September 18: Crazy busy day. Started with an imoni-kai in the morning and early afternoon. Basically, a bunch of members of the Yonezawa International Relations Association got together by a riverbank and made imoni, a delicious Japanese stew that is enjoyed in the autumn in the northern part of the country. However, Yamagata is especially famous for it.
This was followed by participating in the Yonezawa Sengoku Matsuri, a festival to celebrate the 450th birthday of Kanetsugu Naoe, a famous samurai of the Uesugi Clan. The gaijin from the area (all 10 of us who showed up) were invited to dress in samurai armor (we were just dressed as regular foot soldiers) and take part in the parade they had through central Yonezawa. On the way back at the end we broke out into our own dance and no doubt the locals thought it awesome, if not at least cute.
September 20: This day was decided upon on a whim the night before. The local ALTs decided to get together and drive out to Niigata Prefecture to the Sea of Japan. This was on a holiday but decidedly out of beach season, so we knew the beach would be almost utterly abandoned once we arrived. Turns out the weather was also overcast and rainy too. However, when we got there, much to my surprise there were a few Japanese dudes surfing in the water! The beach itself was dirty and the water didn't look inviting since there was an oil rig visible off shore and industry a few miles down the shoreline. However, I went in the surprisingly warm water and realized soon why the surf was breaking into rideable waves, as there was a sandbar in the water. Grabbing a body board I was able to ride a couple waves and this was the nicest surprise yet I've had in Japan. However, the quality of the waves suffered as the day went on, as the tide seemed to have an effect. We eventually packed up and left and spent the evening soaking at an onsen.
September 25: Some friends and I drove up to Yamagata City to attend a soccer match. In this case, we went to see Montedio Yamagata take on Shonan Bellmare. Both teams compete in the upper level of the J-League, and the match ended in a 1-1 draw. Montedio needed an equalizer in the second half to salvage the point. Save for the supporters' sections the crowd was remarkably quiet. There were moments when neither team's supporters were in the middle of a song or cheer, and I swear you could hear a pin drop in the stadium. Afterward we went to a fairly legit Indian restaurant and it was nice to break out of the relative blandness of the usual Japanese fare. The night was not over either, as we trekked to a theater to catch the new Resident Evil movie. Can't say I was too terribly impressed with it or the 3D (I really hope this fad dies off, but it seems this one has legs), but it was still better than the damn Nightmare on Elm Street remake.
September 26: I spent the night in Yamagata City, because it was here I was also to do my first-ever half marathon. Even in training I had never run 13.1 miles before, so everything about this was unknown territory for me. 11 miles was my previous longest run and I had suffered through that when I tried it earlier this year while still living in Hawaii. However, as part of my regular marathon training I was more than ready for this. At first I wanted to treat it as a training run and use it as a testbed for pacing and trying the energy gels I had brought. However, once the race got underway I was determined to turn in the best time I could. The course itself looped twice, the first half of which was mostly uphill and the second half mostly downhill. As such I took it relatively easy until halfway through that first lap (about 3 miles or so in), after it turned downhill I turned on the jets and didn't really let up from that point on. The energy gels helped stave off hitting the wall, but I quickly found out after finishing that I did not take in enough fluids during the race. This was even with actually stopping at the aid stations. Anyway, the course was measured a bit short so I only ended up running about 12.88 miles, but I did do it in 1:48:36. Assuming I ran the remaining 0.22 miles, I would have finished around 1:51:00. It doesn't bode well for being able to run my first marathon in under 4 hours, but I also have another half marathon in a couple weeks to see if I can run faster.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
仙台
I have let quite a bit of time slip since the last post! As such I can only break down the highlights of what has been going on with my life here. Lazy as always with pictures, but I did at the very least manage to get pics of my Sendai trip uploaded a while back. In fact, my Sendai trip is going to require its own post here.
I really like the place. All of the pictures, by the way can be found here, and I really suggest looking at them all. I figure I would have enjoyed it even more if I had given a little more thought to planning. My first day was spent getting my multiple re-entry permit (so I can enjoy travel outside of Japan in the future) and then travelling to Matsushima, about a half hour or so away from Sendai. Matsushima is one of the most beautiful natural sites in Japan, with hundreds of islands much like this one.
The bay itself offers views like these.
I saw and did way too much to list, but I did make sure to walk around and take in some views of Matsushima, even if the place is a bit touristy. Fortunately on a Wednesday it wasn't too crazy there. I can say that I wrapped up my evening in Matsushima by having a delicious teishoku with fried shrimp and oyster.
I returned to Sendai at night and found a nice bar owned by a guy from England. After engaging in some light drinking and random chit-chat with some foreigners and Japanese alike, I left without a place to stay for the night. My plans to stay at a youth hostel fell through, but fortunately I found a capsule hotel to stay at! My impression? Much, much nicer than I was expecting. Yeah, it feels like the equivalent of being a mouse in a shoebox, but at least it was comfortable and I get a full night's rest.
My second day in the region was a little more ambitious, and ultimately the most disappointing of the three. Not to say I didn't have a great time, but again better planning would have made it so much better. My plan was to visit the island of Kinkasan, which is truly quite a ways away from Sendai when you factor in the boat trip required to get there. I went in hoping to be able to view the main shrine on the island and all of the tame deer that live in its environs (I did), but the shuttle boat unfortunately had to depart early that day. So, my plan to hike to the top of the island and maybe see some monkeys along the way was foiled. I had maybe an hour to spend there, and I really underestimated the transit time require to get to just the town where the boats originated. But for what it's worth, here's a picture of me with a deer in the frame.
It wasn't all disappointment though because upon returning to Sendai that night I took in the local delicacy known as gyutan, which is grilled cow tounge. Absolutely delicious and I went in knowing exactly what it was too. See for yourself. Not so bad eh?
For my second and final night in Sendai I decided to do it old school like my trip to Kyoto a couple years back and crash at a manga cafe. In reality that was a poor idea, because the sleep (if you can call it that) came in bursts of about an hour each. Sleeping in a chair is not advised. An extra $10 would have bought me another night in the capsule hotel and a much more restorative sleep. As such I felt like a zombie much of my third day, which was spent entirely within Sendai.
I took the "Loople" tourist bus that hit all the major sites of importance within the city, but the highlight was definitely visiting the site of the now-destroyed Aoba Castle. The Date (dah-tay) clan made their base here and there is a great statue here of Date Masamune, the fellow who basically founded the city of Sendai. The former castle is built upon a hill in a well-defended location, but even it couldn't survive the reforms of the Meiji Restoration. Many castles in Japan were unfortunately lost during this period, and Aoba Castle is no exception. What's left still offers a stunning view of the city of Sendai though.
And don't forget Masamune himself! Obviously a statue increases his stature quite a bit, but the real guy was quite a shortie. I viewed his armor on a mannequin in a museum, and I was quite shocked that such a samurai badass could be so small.
In the early afternoon feeling very tired I made sure to get some goods from the foreign food store at Sendai Station and then proceeded to make my way back to Yamagata. All in all a very satisfying trip in spite of the haphazard planning. Next time I go back though, I will probably opt for a business hotel so I can better enjoy the nightlife side of Sendai. I only got a taste of this.
I really like the place. All of the pictures, by the way can be found here, and I really suggest looking at them all. I figure I would have enjoyed it even more if I had given a little more thought to planning. My first day was spent getting my multiple re-entry permit (so I can enjoy travel outside of Japan in the future) and then travelling to Matsushima, about a half hour or so away from Sendai. Matsushima is one of the most beautiful natural sites in Japan, with hundreds of islands much like this one.
The bay itself offers views like these.
I saw and did way too much to list, but I did make sure to walk around and take in some views of Matsushima, even if the place is a bit touristy. Fortunately on a Wednesday it wasn't too crazy there. I can say that I wrapped up my evening in Matsushima by having a delicious teishoku with fried shrimp and oyster.
I returned to Sendai at night and found a nice bar owned by a guy from England. After engaging in some light drinking and random chit-chat with some foreigners and Japanese alike, I left without a place to stay for the night. My plans to stay at a youth hostel fell through, but fortunately I found a capsule hotel to stay at! My impression? Much, much nicer than I was expecting. Yeah, it feels like the equivalent of being a mouse in a shoebox, but at least it was comfortable and I get a full night's rest.
My second day in the region was a little more ambitious, and ultimately the most disappointing of the three. Not to say I didn't have a great time, but again better planning would have made it so much better. My plan was to visit the island of Kinkasan, which is truly quite a ways away from Sendai when you factor in the boat trip required to get there. I went in hoping to be able to view the main shrine on the island and all of the tame deer that live in its environs (I did), but the shuttle boat unfortunately had to depart early that day. So, my plan to hike to the top of the island and maybe see some monkeys along the way was foiled. I had maybe an hour to spend there, and I really underestimated the transit time require to get to just the town where the boats originated. But for what it's worth, here's a picture of me with a deer in the frame.
It wasn't all disappointment though because upon returning to Sendai that night I took in the local delicacy known as gyutan, which is grilled cow tounge. Absolutely delicious and I went in knowing exactly what it was too. See for yourself. Not so bad eh?
For my second and final night in Sendai I decided to do it old school like my trip to Kyoto a couple years back and crash at a manga cafe. In reality that was a poor idea, because the sleep (if you can call it that) came in bursts of about an hour each. Sleeping in a chair is not advised. An extra $10 would have bought me another night in the capsule hotel and a much more restorative sleep. As such I felt like a zombie much of my third day, which was spent entirely within Sendai.
I took the "Loople" tourist bus that hit all the major sites of importance within the city, but the highlight was definitely visiting the site of the now-destroyed Aoba Castle. The Date (dah-tay) clan made their base here and there is a great statue here of Date Masamune, the fellow who basically founded the city of Sendai. The former castle is built upon a hill in a well-defended location, but even it couldn't survive the reforms of the Meiji Restoration. Many castles in Japan were unfortunately lost during this period, and Aoba Castle is no exception. What's left still offers a stunning view of the city of Sendai though.
And don't forget Masamune himself! Obviously a statue increases his stature quite a bit, but the real guy was quite a shortie. I viewed his armor on a mannequin in a museum, and I was quite shocked that such a samurai badass could be so small.
In the early afternoon feeling very tired I made sure to get some goods from the foreign food store at Sendai Station and then proceeded to make my way back to Yamagata. All in all a very satisfying trip in spite of the haphazard planning. Next time I go back though, I will probably opt for a business hotel so I can better enjoy the nightlife side of Sendai. I only got a taste of this.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
到着
The title of this entry says 'touchaku' which means arrival. It's a bit misleading because I've been in Japan for over two weeks already, but I only just yesterday got my Internet access at home so I can finally make posts on my own computers!
Unfortunately I have to be brief with this one but I will try to hit all the major points. Tokyo Orientation went from 8/1 to 8/4, with that first night in Japan spent going to Kabukicho, since we were staying in Shinjuku. Sadly I have very, very few pictures of my time in Tokyo in general, maybe because I had a bit of a "been there, done that" attitude. At any rate, the orientation went well though it was a bit bittersweet because the other Hawaii folks are all very far away. A few budding friendships are going to be tough to maintain with the physical distance.
Fortunately the ALTs here in Yamagata seems pretty tight-knit. I arrived here on 8/4 and met my supervisor and the rest of the Kawanishi Board of Education staff. In the interim I've mostly been adjusting to life here and getting things squared away, as well as hanging out with the other ALTs in the area. We went to a fireworks festival last weekend and witnessed some Bon-related activities this past weekend. So far though I haven't really done much in my own town since everyone else lives in other towns/cities. Hopefully I'm not missing out on opportunities to weave myself into Kawanishi, but I also feel obligated to get to know the other foreigners in the region as well.
I can't prattle on much longer because I need to go for a run (more on that stuff later) and prepare for a 3-day trip to Sendai (definitely more on that later).
Unfortunately I have to be brief with this one but I will try to hit all the major points. Tokyo Orientation went from 8/1 to 8/4, with that first night in Japan spent going to Kabukicho, since we were staying in Shinjuku. Sadly I have very, very few pictures of my time in Tokyo in general, maybe because I had a bit of a "been there, done that" attitude. At any rate, the orientation went well though it was a bit bittersweet because the other Hawaii folks are all very far away. A few budding friendships are going to be tough to maintain with the physical distance.
Fortunately the ALTs here in Yamagata seems pretty tight-knit. I arrived here on 8/4 and met my supervisor and the rest of the Kawanishi Board of Education staff. In the interim I've mostly been adjusting to life here and getting things squared away, as well as hanging out with the other ALTs in the area. We went to a fireworks festival last weekend and witnessed some Bon-related activities this past weekend. So far though I haven't really done much in my own town since everyone else lives in other towns/cities. Hopefully I'm not missing out on opportunities to weave myself into Kawanishi, but I also feel obligated to get to know the other foreigners in the region as well.
I can't prattle on much longer because I need to go for a run (more on that stuff later) and prepare for a 3-day trip to Sendai (definitely more on that later).
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