Kobe Luminarie

Just under 16 years ago was the Great Hanshin Earthquake. It devastated the city of Kobe and remains (I think) the most costly natural disaster ever, at least in terms of dollars. The Japanese government had a famously poor response to the disaster, with Swedish rescue dogs quarantined for weeks after they would be useful and the Yakuza (Japanese mafia) handing out aid in many areas before the government.

Starting December that same year, Kobe started the Luminarie to commemorate the earthquake. They put lights up on a main walkway downtown and close the roads to traffic for a few hours each night. I went last Sunday with a friend. It was so crowded that people walking on 6 lane roads had to wait 45 minutes to reach the lights from the train station. It was well worth the wait.

Kiyomizu Temple in fall

Sorry I haven't put anything up in a while. I have a Japenese test next Sunday and am busy applying to grad school. Here's a some picture from the fall leaves at Kiyomizu-dera:

Rurikei

On the other side of my town is Rurikei, roughly translated as 'azure cliffs'. Located up in the mountains through narrow, windy roads, Rurikei is locally famous for its onsen, or hot spring. There's also trails and temples along the way. Last Sunday the Kyoto International Society held an event at Rurikei. We went for a hike before stopping at a pavillion to cook lunch. Here's a farm at the start or the trail:


We followed a path along a creek for a mile or two. Along the way were waterfalls and signs describing the plants placed by elementary students from one of my schools. Here's one waterfall:


Towards the end was a retaining wall holding back a reservoir. There was a thin but steady stream of water flowing down the side. At a couple points there were tunnels that led back further through the wall:


At the other end of the wall (and quite a bit further up) was the reservoir. A lot of people were fishing from piers or boats. The area around the dam was roped off to make sure no one strayed too close to the edge:

Early signs of Autumn

Some leaves are starting to change color higher up in the mountains of my town:

Food

A little while ago I went to one of the other teacher's apartment for 'temaki-zushi' or hand made sushi. You basically need seaweed, rice, and whatever else you want to put in sushi (including various fish, cheese, ham, cucumbers, pork, eggs, among other things). She brought me over early to help prepare and most of what's pictured here was cut and arranged by me:


Another great dish from Japan is 'okonomiyaki', a pancake-like dish that could be roughly translated as 'whatever you like grilled'. There's generally a bunch of cabbage or green onions, sometimes soba noodles, and anything else you like. I usually get squid and/or pork, but this giant okonomiyaki was ordered by someone else and includes cheese, potatoes, mochi (rice-cake) and lots of stuff I generally don't like in okonomiyaki. It tasted okay anyway:


One advantage of the apartment I moved to last April is my landlady. She's a sweet old woman who sometimes brings me stuff, like this fruit I got earlier this month. Fruit is comparatively expensive in Japan, with these three things probably costing more than $10. The thing on the right is a 'nashi' or 'snow pear'. Really it tastes like a mix between a pear and an apple with a crispy texture:

Umeda Sky Building

One of the taller buildings in Osaka and located near Osaka Station, the Umeda Sky Building offers a great view of the city with a 'sky garden' and cafe where you can most of the city. It's actually two towers connected at the top by several floors that look at each other from circular windows:


To actually get to the top you have to ride an escalator that spans the gap between both buildings. It's surrounded by glass and you can almost feel the wind blow past as you look some 30 stories below:


The roof is open to the public for a small fee and features a maze of security fences to stop anyone from going where they shouldn't. There's also a great deal of weather measuring equipment visible throughout the tower:


Like I said, the building offers a great view of Osaka:

A View of Osaka

From the Umeda Sky Building near Osaka Station:

Two things that bother me about Japan

First of all, sorry I haven't updated more often. I've been busy with school and haven't thought to put up stuff here. There are a number of things that bother me about Japan, but I'll only write about two tonight that are rather mundane.

1. In Japan, no one says 'Bless you' when you sneeze. I'm not superstitious, I don't think you're soul is leaving you through your nose when you sneeze, but this is something so ingrained in my head during my upbringing that it was really hard to not say it during my first few months here. I still look at teachers who sneeze, but hesitate to say anything. In Japan, sneezing is public is a little taboo. People today understand that you can't control and those in your close friend group don't care, but it is considered rude to sneeze around other people. It's part of a feudal ethic code that goes back several hundred years. I think it's also part of the reason Japanese people cover their mouths when laughing.

Earlier tonight I was hanging out with some teachers and the one who teaches English had a cold. While we were talking she sneezed and I started telling her about 'bless you' and how awkward it was not to say it. The rest of the night she got a kick out of every time I responded to her sneezes.

2. Juice/milk. You can find good juice in Japan, but it costs a lot. At one grocery store in my town they have the Japanese brand juice and Tropicana. Tropicana is, in my opinion, much better tasting, but it's about 220 yen, or more than $2.50 per liter/quart. I could get two quarts of orange juice for $3.30 in the US (I think). At another grocery store Dole juice is for sale at 108 yen per 500 mL, or about a pint. That's actually slightly cheaper than the Tropicana (which is nice because I can get two kinds of juice for less than the price of one).

I have not found anything like skim milk in Japan. There are low fat milks, and some milk that taste significantly better than others. However, being raised on skim milk I require some low fat alternative. I found a low cost brand that I really liked, but it either went out of business or changed labels two or three months after I started drinking it. I now use a secondary brand that I is rather famous and will be around for the foreseeable future, but it's still more fatty than I would like.

Anyway, those are two small complaints I have, but they come up often. I don't expect to change them anytime soon, but I would appreciate some good American juice/milk.

Nara

I'm back at school now, but last week I went to Nara south of Kyoto. Nara was the first permanent capital of Japan, currently celebrating its 1300th year since it was made the capital. During that period, Buddhism had a lot of influence in Japan and Nara remained an important religious and cultural center to this day.

One of the most famous buildings in Nara is Todai-ji. It's the largest wooden building in the world and the original (that burned down 400-500 years ago) was even bigger. Inside is a large statue of Buddha:



Nara is well known for the deer that roam the streets freely. The Shinto religion considers them to be the spirits of local resident's ancestors. It's considered very bad luck if one shows up dead in your lawn, so everyone in Nara wakes up early to look for dead deer and, if found, move them to their neighbor's lawn:


There are biscuits you can give the deer for sale at almost every store in the park. The deer are well aware of this fact as they crowd around the baskets holding them:


You have to be careful though, sometimes the deer get aggressive:

A View From the Top of Seoul

Last week my friends and I climbed up Mt. Baegundae in Seoul. It's supposed to have the best view of the city and it certainly doesn't disappoint. It took a little over two hours to get to the top from the bus we took. It was all very difficult and steep; you had to use your hands a lot, especially towards the top.


Here's my friend Jacob on his way up. It's a lot steeper than it looks; you have to hold on the cables on the side to get up:


The area used to have a fortress near the top to help defend Seoul. Most of it's gone now, but there are still some walls around (some of which have been reconstructed). It's amazing that people could drag such large rocks up so high:


Another view from the top. Well before we got there our shirts were soaked through with sweat:


On the way back down a Korean guy called out to me. We stopped and chatted for a little bit. He could actually speak Japanese better than he could speak English.

North Korea

Currently I'm in South Korea with some friends from college. Yesterday we went to the DMZ, or Demilitarized Zone, with the USO. It was really interesting to see and an experience worth having by anyone.

The first picture shows the site that, in the 1970s, two American soldiers were killed in the line of duty. At the time, the central part of the DMZ was open to anyone, meaning the North Koreans and Chinese would mix with the South Koreans and Americans. There were different watch towers to make neither side was breaking the armistace, but one US/ROK site was surrounded by North Koreans and blocked from view by the other US/ROK towers by large poplar tree. The Americans/South Koreans tried cutting down the tree but the North Koreans protested. Soon they decided to only to cut down some branches, but this was met by violence, where two American soldiers were killed by axes brutally by North Korean soldiers. Soon afterwards, the area was divided into two different zones for safety:



Blue buildings in this picture all straddle border. The South Korea guards stand facing the North with half their body covered by the building in case someone decides to start shooting. We got to go in the room where the armistice is discussed periodically. The larger building behind it is a visitor's house in North Korea. The person pictured is a US soldier and tour guide for our group:


This building is where larger diplomatic talks are held, including the Six Party Talks for nuclear disarmament:


The South Korean guards usually aren't out like this, but stick around when tourists come to make sure nothing bad happens. They stand in a ready Tae Kwon Do stance that I'm told is very threatening and able to respond to any attack quickly. They also wear dark sunglasses so no one can see their eyes. Badass:

Wada Beach in Fukui Prefecture

Last Sunday I went to the beach the next prefecture over. It was really hot and crowded, but still a nice place to go:




Just off the coast were some rocky islands. You could rent boats to take there, which we did, though on the second day half of us swam out there. The water was clear and the fish plentiful. There was a cliff around back where you could jump from over 10 feet up. The guys I was with caught sea urchins to eat later. I managed to cut my legs and hands here while also ruining a pair of shoes:


This was also a small port with several small fishing boats on the side opposite the beach:


The place we had dinner at gave us a small present - sea bream cut up raw with the head and tail still present:



Except for the sunburn, it was a pretty good trip.

One view of Kyoto

From Fushimi Inari:

Laundry

A week or two ago was the end of the rainy season. Over the course of a month and a half there wasn't so much as two full days of sunny weather and most days were overcast and/or raining for at least a little while. I don't have a dryer, so I have to hang my clothes outside on a sunny day to dry them.* Each morning when I got up for work at 6:30 I had to guess whether or not it would be sunny later so I could hang my clothes out to dry. I was about 1 in 6 or 7 in guessing the correct weather.

Anyway, by the time the rainy season ended I had accumulated a large backlog of clothes to launder. I'm on vacation now and it's extremely hot and sunny, so I've gone about clearing this pile gradually. My last load got washed with an unexpected guest:


It's hard to see, but it's in about the middle of the picture, between the white sheet and the light blue towel. Here's a closer look:


This beetle was about 3 inches, not so big by Japanese bug standards. I have no idea how or why it went in the laundry machine, but I made sure to wash everything again. It seemed completely intact when I threw it out and is still lying on the ground where I threw it. Still, it's the largest bug near my apartment so far, though there was a mukade living in one of my tomato plants earlier.

*I could have gone down to a laundromat to dry clothes, but it seemed pretty busy with everyone else's laundry. Plus it costs about 100 yen for 8-10 minutes of drying.

Osaka Beer Festival

Most stores in Japan that sell beer have maybe 10-20 different varieties made by one of the four main drink companies: Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo, or Suntory. Each has one or two 'premium' beers, which is to say actual beer, and a handful of beer hybrids made of rice, corn, and various other fermentables. Most cities will have a limited number of local beers sold in specialty shops and you can usually find foreign beers like Guinness, Heineken, and Budweiser. Bars often have a limited selection on tap and whatever bottles the owner happens to like.

In contrast, the Osaka Beer Festival had over 120 different types of beer. While I know some bars in Minneapolis and Chicago that can say the same thing, I would be hard pressed to find 120 different types of beer in the entire city of Kyoto. Everyone who entered got a small 50 mL glass. It was free with the 4100 yen entrance fee:


Most the beers were Japanese and on tap, but there a few were from other countries and some only came in bottles. Here was some Chimay from Belgium and Anchor from San Francisco:


The event was held in Osaka Dome, which is a baseball stadium that houses the Kintetsu Buffaloes, the only Japanese team to never win the championship. It was at the top of the Dome in an area where you couldn't watch the game. As I walked towards the Dome from the train station I was surprised how many kids were heading that direction. Only a few came up to drink:


Later on some Japanese posed for a picture. Little did they realize my camera was also handy:

Gion Festival

This Saturday was Gion Festival. I'm not sure exactly what it's for, but different groups make giant shrines to pull through the streets of Kyoto. The largest are called yama (I think). These massive carts are pulled by dozens of men (I didn't see any women) and have more people riding it playing flutes, ringing bells, dancing with fans, or holding the top steady on the roof:



The carts have large wooden wheels and are jerked sideways at corners in three or four pulls. Each time they do pull it it seems like the cart will break or someone will fall off.:


Meanwhile, the people on the float itself are playing flutes, ringing bells, or dancing with fans. For three hours: