Hello and welcome to my photo journal from Japan. I hope to document interesting outings and mundane activities of my time in Japan. I do this to look back on in the future (the journal is backed up on my computer) as well as to share my experience with anyone who has an interest in reading it. I specifically made it for my friend and family back in America, but it is open to all. In fact I gave the url to my students and this summer plan on offering a brief summary of all entries in Japanese, while at the same time keeping the majority of the information in English for the dual purpose of encouraging them to read... and more importantly to minimize my labor (I'm lazy).
Since I've been in Japan about eight months there has been a lot I've already done that I haven't written about here. I'll make new entries for these activities and back-date the post so that it corresponds to when I actually did it. Each time I make a new back-dated post I'll update this entry to inform you. Please check back often and comment on the journal entries. I am interested in your questions are comments about the journal as well as looking for feedback on the photographs themselves. Also, please sign your name at the end of your comments so I know who they are from.
-Kevin
Journal Entry addtions: June 1, 2007 added an entry for October 19, 2006 May 1, 2007 added an entry for May 6, 2006 April 30, 2007 added an entry for May 5, 2006 April 28, 2007 added an entry for May 2, 2006 April 28, 2007 added an entry for May 3, 2006 April 28, 2007 added an entry for May 4, 2006 April 26, 2007 added an entry for November 3, 2005 April 24, 2007 added an entry for March 17, 2007 April 24, 2007 added an entry for March 18, 2007 April 24, 2007 added an entry for march 19, 2007
March 20, 2005 added an entry for September 17, 2005
Hey everyone, I wanted to share a little info with you. As of November 2nd, Japan has reestablished a policy of fingerprinting and photographing all foreigners who enter the country or foreigners who leave and return to the country. This was passed by the Prime Minister despite a 90% public opinion poll against the initiative. Prime Minister Hatoyama literally said, "A friend of a friend" was an operative in Al-Qaeda and that he entered Japan disguising himself with mustaches and beards... which of course couldn't fool an electronic fingerprinting machine! Furthermore, he said that the Al-Qaeda 'friend of a friend' had given warnings about Bali bombings in 2002... Erm... excuse me... so a 'friend of a friend' warned about the bombings in Bali... and you didn't act on them... and what is the Prime Minister of Japan doing with a friend who is a friend of an Al-Qaeda operative? Honestly, that seems to be the stupidest cover story to defend a piece of entirely unnecessary legislation I've ever heard of. Does he not realize that in addition to being entirely unbelievable, that story also makes him look HORRIBLE in the process? I'd also like to note that Japan has not had a SINGLE act of terrorism committed by foreigners since World War II... and what happened in World War II were acts of war, not acts of terrorism.
The above bothered me... but not enough to act until the Nara JET midyear seminar last Thursday when I learned that the Japanese government was cutting subsidies to the JET Program. Starting next year prefectures will no longer receive subsidies for the hiring of JETs. So far seven of Japan's forty-five prefectures have announced they are leaving the JET Program due to its high cost. In a few years cities and other municipalities will also lose their subsidies. Once I learned that the JET Program was losing funding at the exact same time the Japanese government will be spending gross amounts of money on this biometric data collection program, I really have become outraged. There is an online petition asking for the repeal of the biometric data collection law, which I urge you to sign here: "Abolition of Non Japanese fingerprinting program"
This is what I wrote:
I am an American citizen living in Japan. I am offended that the Japanese government would consider funding such a project at a time when they are cutting funding to the JET Program (as well as to education in general), which provides children in schools and entire communities with international cultural exchanges that would otherwise be impossible. Japan has not suffered a single terrorist attack from foreigners since World War II. The public policy of cutting funding to educational intercultural exchange, while at the same time spending vast sums of money to implement a biometric data collection scheme seems highly xenophobic. Japan needs to teach its children to cooperate and interact with the international world, not fear it!
Hi everyone, sorry to have worried some of you by being out of touch. I've been both busier with work (Including commute, I now work 11.5 hours a day) and social life. ^o^ Which is good. I'm making a lot of friends, a very large percentage of which are Japanese, so after almost two years of laziness, my Japanese language skills are finally beginning to grow quickly. However, it isn't good news that got me to post today.
Dad's cancer has returned. Or rather a cancer has returned. For the first year after having the radiation procedure his tumor was shrinking. It was supposedly a dead mass in his brain. While a dead mass of tissue anywhere else in your body would be removed very quickly, things don't work the same in your brain and it takes years to disperse. So the slow shrinking was to be expected...
However when he went to have his 15 month MRI done, it had grown from .3 inches to 1 inch in size. So tripling in size in only three months. Hearing that was incredibly shocking and scary for me and the rest of my family. Then the next news was also scary. If radiation treatment fails once, it isn't repeated. So this time real brain surgery will have to be done. They will cut into his skull and excise the tumor.
Now for a little, much needed, good news. The tumor is near the surface of the brain so they will not need to cut deeply into it. Also it is directly behind his right eyebrow. The surgeon told him that most of the body's functions are controlled by the left lobe and that the right lobe takes over if the left is damaged, which means that it isn't as dangerous to operate on the right lobe. Furthermore, he said that it was the best place in the brain to have a tumor (I pointed out to dad that the statement was truly bizarre since its 'best' not to have one in the first place). He did say there is a chance that dad will lose some of his memories from the surgery.
There is also some further good news. The surgeon also told dad that he has seen many cases where, between one year and 1.5 years after radiation treatment, the radiation successfully killed all the malignant cells, but also damaged some adjacent healthy tissue causing it to eventually grow, very quickly, into a benign tumor. That exactly matches dad's scenario. He is at 15 months and the growth happened very quickly over three months. So there is a good chance that they will be removing a benign tumor rather than a malignant one. There is still a chance that he is now cured of melanoma. That would be wonderful news!
...
Still...
I'm really afraid. The idea of someone cutting into my dad's brain scares the hell out of me. So, for those of you who read my journal and have faith, please keep my father in your prayers. I'll update with news after the surgery later this week.
Well, my blog has been dead for entirely too long. I finally decided to update it with my recent (I’d only been back in Nara 8 hours when I began typing this, and I'm finally finished five days later) trip to Tokyo. It was a very eventful (good and bad) weekend. My new Brazilian-Japanese friend, Ayra, invited me to join her for the Festival Brasil 2007 in Yoyogi Park in Tokyo. She was very excited about it and talked me into joining her and her friends in Tokyo, but we traveled separately.
On Sunday morning I got up at 8:45, got my camera battery and laptop out of their hiding places and took another shower before packing up and leaving the capsule hotel. I knew there were coin lockers near the stage in Yoyogi Park, so I decided to roll my bag all the way there so I wouldn’t have to double back for it later. I stopped in McDonalds for 3 cheeseburgers which left me a whopping 80yen. Honestly though, I wasn’t worried. I could borrow some money from Ayra later, or, failing that, find an international ATM and take some money from my US bank account. ( Homelessness, Street Performers, Harajuku Fashion, Meiji Shrine, More Dancers, and New Friends )
My trip began on Friday night. I was to take a highway bus leaving Nara at 10:10 and arriving in Tokyo early the next morning. ^o^;;; Everything worked out... but just barely. Read on to see the stressful roller coaster ride which was my Friday night.
Sorry for the delay in updating with pictures from India. I ran into a small problem when I got back from Japan. I had no disk space to transfer the pictures to my laptop. The gigabytes quickly disappear when shooting in RAW format I gigabyte is only about 75 to 80 pictures with my camera. So until I get into Namba to pick up a new external hard drive, I'm a bit limited in what I can do. Until I do get the new hard drive I can connect my ipod to my computer and copy a few files over to be edited and posted to the journal. I also decided to change from my normal daily journal format to record pictures in sets. For example today I'll have a set called "Faces of India" and the much smaller "Feet of India." Other sets will follow. For example a set called "Habitat for Humanity," one called, "Village Life," and "Indentured Servitude," based on the situation of the Bangalore quarry workers, and then some based on my vacation travels that followed. I think this format will work a bit better for my India trip than the daily format I usually use. Within the sets, I still present all pictures (unless otherwise noted) in chronological order.
This first set will focus primarily on individual people I photographed while in India. There are some pictures with pairs of people and one of a group of school children, but generally I avoided group pictures for this set. I took a lot of group pictures and those will show up in other sets (particularly “Village Life”). As humans aren’t the only ones to have faces, I’ve also included animal pictures in this set... and even stretched the category far enough to include a statue... So here are (at the very least the majority of) my 50 best ‘face’ pictures from India! ( enjoy! )
9:49 pm - Do the (Naked) Tussle - by Kevin, The Human Domino, Jemison
NOTE: This is your chance read about my participation in Japan's "Naked Man" Festival without pictures of me in loin cloth! If the thought horrifies you... as it probably should... then read it now!
Over a few frigid (and by that I mean it was the same temperature, or colder, than the inside of my fridge) hours this past Saturday night, I was the sole representative of Nara-ken in Okayama’s annual Hadaka Matsuri… that’s “Naked Man Festival” for the uninitiated. By being the only man from Nara to don the sacred fundoshi (loincloth) I demonstrated that I seem to have the least intelligence, but most balls (shrunken as they were from frequent, purifying plunges in the icy water…) of any ALT in the prefecture (Lucas is, of course, not included in this jab as I’m sure he’d have come if they allowed people hobbled by crutches.). What follows is the story of my most… unique… night thus far in Japan. For those that are reading this on my webpage, you can choose to stop now and avoid seeing me sporting a loincloth… for those reading this in the Yamato, I’m sorry you weren’t given that choice before turning to this page.
On Saturday, February 17th I set out from JR Nara along with Josie, Kendra, Irena, Emily, Leah (A nonJET Nara-shi ALT from Canberra), and Rob, Kuma-chan, Menefee. In Okayama, we learned that fare adjustment machines don’t exist and the rail cards purchased from the JR Nara ticket machine aren’t valid. Fortunately, after an annoying half hour of waiting they took pity on the foreigners and let us through before we had to resort to GAIJIN SMASH. Here we met up with Kendra’s friend, Yuki, along with fellow Nara ALTs Curtis and Justin who was kind enough to book the hotel rooms for the guys. It was one thing to know that I was to be the only man from Nara to run naked through the streets and waters of Okayama (Despite the fact that there were 3 more male Nara ALTs on the trip)… it was quite another thing to know I would be doing it in front of so many of Nara’s lovely ladies, and one of Kendra’s friends. I steeled myself with the knowledge that I was preserving Nara’s consecutive attendance streak (pun intended), now six-years strong. With that knowledge I bid farewell to my fellow Nara friends and climbed aboard a bus along with 63 other ALTs from across much of Japan to attempt to bring honor… or was it shame… to all foreign residents of Japan.
Around 8:30 we arrived at Saidaji Temple where we purchased the sacred fundoshi and tabi before paying some old matsuri pros for the honor of wrapping us up in a few meters of cloth… don’t expect them to be gentle… even if it is your first time. This is a well documented event as there were at least half a dozen different photographers and cameramen present. Most of the film crews made a token attempt to keep the cameras off until the dressing began, and enjoyed interviewing the foreigners. On the other hand I watched one of the photographers drop to his knees and carefully focus the telephoto lens of his high res digital camera at another ALT’s ‘package’. Oh, here is my first of many bits of advice to any future ALTs that hope to gain knowledge before their own naked tussle in the years to come. Put on the tabi (and tape them to your legs or you’ll be running barefoot before the night ends) on before having the old man slap you around in circles and tie the fundoshi because once that cloth is yanked up your ass crack, bending over ceases to be an option.
Being the brave… and inebriated… soul I was, I was first out of the tent about fifteen minutes before 9. I felt it would be wise to acclimate to the cold and rain (yep, it wasn’t just 2°C… it was 2°C and raining) before dashing through the water. Less than a minute out of the tent I saw a couple of cute young ladies approaching. Upon seeing me, one of them turned to alert her friend so quickly that she sloshed her entire cup of tea over her friend. I smiled and greeted them with a friendly, konbanwa to let her know I’d witnessed everything. The two stumbled down the street laughing at the sight of their first naked gaijin. It wouldn’t be the last. At this point I noticed the Okayama ALTs were still outside the tent fully clothed. I asked when they were changing. They casually answered, “Later.” Little did I know that they routinely get the ALTs to the temple more than an hour before the other teams arrived to create something of a naked foreign man exhibition for the audience. So my second bit of advice for future runners is to wait until the Okayama ALTs change before doing so yourself… at least if it’s under 2°C.
Once a few more ALTs were out of the tent we threw our arms over each other’s shoulders and ran down the street to the temple court yard shouting the ritual, “Washoi! Washoi!” Once we arrived at the temple entrance a man with a light stick ran ahead and pointed the way for us. ‘The way’ led through a gate and into a fountain which gradually sloped down to waist depth. Being the drunken fool I was I decided to dive forward and submerge. You know the expression “take your breath away”, well that literally happens when your chest hits the cold water and your muscles contract to try and resist the cold… but that didn’t stop me from doing it two more times that night. I found that it was fun to shake my wet hair whenever I passed cute girls to make them squeal. =D Other ways to ensure the ladies have nice memories include giving them high fives, blowing kisses, and running, soaking up to them and embracing. The last option is particularly memorable, I’m sure.
The initial enthusiasm got me through a few laps around the temple and grounds before I found myself preoccupied with the idea that… ITS REALLY FUCKING COLD! At this point, like a Navy grunt in Hell Week trying to become a SEAL, I learned to appreciate the close touch of another man. The arm around your shoulder is a ribbon of warmth that hand at your back when you stumble, a few square inches of heat. About this time I asked, yet another cute girl what time it was and learned it was only 9:45. We had been running around for an hour and hardly another team had appeared. We retreated to the tent where we had changed to try and warm up a little (5-6°C feels fantastic compared to 1-2°C). It was pretty difficult to keep track of time, but after awhile I decided to leave the tent and try to track down the Nara ALTs to borrow some money from someone (no place in fundoshi for a wallet) so I could buy something warm and more alcohol to give me the illusion of warmth.
Instead I stumbled into the more formal opening of the festival. Earlier small groups of the fundoshi-clad had run around the temple with mingling spectators milling around. We could stop here and there for photo ops with them (As I’m writing this, I’ve yet to see the pictures my Nara-ken entourage took, but I’ll include some once I receive them). Now the spectators had been cleared from the courtyard and were seated around the temple in stands. Seeing this I wasn’t allowed to turn around. I was pulled into one of the Japanese teams and forced to make the three circuits around the temple. First running through the fountain, then up the stairs of a side temple to offer prayers, and finally through a passageway with, I’m guessing, sacred ropes over our heads. Three is a very important number in a lot of religions, and so I added three more cold dips through the purifying water to the three I’d done before.
After the three circuits of the temple I was swept out of the temple and down the streets once again. At the end of this run I saw people with trashcans filled with water sloshing it on the runners. I approached with dread to discover the ecstasy of warm water pouring down on me. I had no idea, and only those who have been half frozen can truly understand how good warm water can feel. The only problem is that the cold is even more acute after you go back into it. Oh! This reminds of another crude, but important discovery of the evening. I have another bit of trivia for the Yamato, and it isn’t even in my profile. You can be too cold to pee! After consuming a substantial amount of alcohol throughout the course of the evening, I found I desperately needed to wee (as opposed to Wii), but after my first pass through that fountain… I found it impossible to relieve that desperation, try as I might. The warm water solved this problem.
*Ahem* Moving on, I managed to make my way back to our tent and meet up with the other ALTs for our formal 3 laps around the temple. So I ended up going through that water 9 times (That makes three, 'three's. I should be pretty darn ritually pure!). I think I ended up in that water more times than any other person there. After the third lap we ran up the stairs of the temple and pressed in as close to the center as possible. It occurs to me now that at no point in the first three pages did I say what the point of the Hadaka Matsuri actually is… now allow me to remedy that fact before moving onto the culmination of the festival.
The Hadaka Matsuri has been held on the third Saturday night of February for about 500 years, dating back to the Eisho era. It began when word that the paper amulets distributed by the priests at Saidaiji were very effective caused crowds to appear for them. The priests had to climb into the rafters and toss the paper charms down to the crowd. Over the years the paper was replaced with wooden sticks and the festival’s presentation has been more formalized. Now, after purifying themselves by making the three circuits described above, the participants run up the stairs of the main temple building and wait until Midnight. At the stroke of midnight (Sunday) the lights are doused and the head priest throws down a pair of sacred Shingi (The Characters translate to "Treasure" and "Tree") sticks as well as several pairs of other sticks. The Shingi sticks are supposed to bring the man that retrieves them incredible luck through the coming year… anyone who knows me will recognize how much I could use that. The other sticks are supposed to bestow increased fertility on the man who gets them… something I don’t see a particular need for. Though it might be interesting to start a quest to seed Japan with red-haired babies, I’ll leave that pursuit to another man. That is the short story of the festival… the reality is that it’s a brutal and extremely dangerous event, as I’ll explain below.
I ran up the steps to the left of the temple from the perspective of the audience facing it. At the top of the stairs I managed to get within 10 meters of the center fairly quickly. However, that was before the thousands of other men started pressing in from all sides (The website says there are up to 10,000 participants each year. The paper said there were about 9,000 including the audience this year. I'd say that at least a third of the people there were participants so that means at least 3,000 men). At first the press of people was uncomfortable, but not painful. As more and more people began to press in, it became painful, and finally it became dangerous. To have a chance at catching the sticks as they dropped you had to hold your hands up. However, if you haven’t had your hands up the entire time, you will eventually find that they are pinned at your sides and you are entirely helpless. This happened to my left arm at one point, but by pushing off the back of the man in front of me with my right arm and knee I was able to free my left hand. The press of people was not constant. It oscillated right, left, right, left. As the crowd pushed one way people fell down the steps at one side of the temple, then compensated and pushed people down the other side of the temple. I’m fortunate to be quite broad chested and have a fair amount of upper body strength. I never reached a point where I couldn’t breath, though I’ve heard that this is the case with some taller, thinner people. I’ve been told that for them, they had to breathe between the right, left oscillations, because that was the only time they could. I actually withdraw my statement that there was never a time I couldn’t breath. There were two times when my back was pressed against one of the thick round support pillars of the temple. It was a scary experience.
I have no idea what time it was when I ran up to the stairs and began trying to press in towards the head priest who stood on a platform on the second floor, but it seemed like hours before the sticks were dropped. You know that appreciation for the warmth of another man I mentioned discovering earlier? Well, it dissolved pretty damned quickly. The cold was infinitely better than the press of their bodies. Oh well, easy come, easy go! It probably won’t come as any surprise that the cold stopped being a problem once everyone was pressed together. In fact a cloud of steam began to rise off us almost at once. It became harder and harder to see the priest above as the cloud grew thicker and thicker. Throughout the build up to midnight I was gradually pressed from the left side of the temple towards the middle. At first I thought my chances of grasping the Shingi were improving, but as I reached the center I started being forced outward, towards the granite front stairs (the stairs around the rest of the temple were thick, squared timbers). I began to worry about the steps looming closer and closer behind me. Finally I had my back to them, and here is where the author’s name above comes into play.
I was trying to think of a cool name to use, maybe Ginja Ninja (For those reading this in America, in the UK a redhead is called a ginja [ginger])… or Ninjin Ninja (Which is “Carrot Ninja”. I’ve been called carrot top all my life and hated it, but thought that this would be a fun play on that). However the moment the man in front of me began flying backwards, stepped on my foot and sent me flying backward behind him… and I sent the guy behind me flying in turn… I became Kevin, The Human Domino, Jemison.
If getting pressed against a pillar unable to breath was scary, falling backward towards steep granite stairs with my foot pinned so that I couldn’t even check my fall made my heart miss a beat. Fortunately (for me) I landed on the guy behind me, as the guy in front of me landed on me. So during the initial fall, I wasn’t injured. However, then we each slid down a couple of stairs scraping our legs and asses impressively. As most people don’t have a set of strangers and a granite staircase to duplicate this sensation, might I suggest you load up an electric sander with a very fine sand paper and ever so gently tap your ass with it. Voila! You have granite stair ass!
After I made sure the others were uninjured I abandoned my pursuit of luck and fertility and began helping a group of men who were trying to spot the people on the top of the stairs. We braced ourselves and pushed them away as well as we could with wet feet on a slick surface. I’m glad to say that for the rest of the evening after I began working there, not a single other serious fall occurred on the stairs. That isn’t to say that there were no injuries. There are many injuries every year… and occasionally deaths. This year was no exception. Coming from America, where traditions and festivals such as Texas A&M’s annual bonfire are quashed as soon as a fatality happens, it is interesting to be in a country that sees the numerous annual deaths and countless annual injuries from festivals throughout the nation as a natural and traditional aspect of the festivals. In fact the official website of Saidaiji’s Hadaka Matsuri ends with this message, “Excessively fierce actions can cause injuries, but even this can be viewed as another charm of the Hadaka Matsuri.”
There is some effort towards safety made. Outside the group of men who were participating was a circle of men and women in rain gear who I believe were police and paramedics. Along with the priest on the second floor platform were other men who monitored the crowd for people that were injured or in danger. Each time they saw someone who needed help whistles were blown and the men were told to make way for the rescue squad. Sounds like a good safety plan, except for the fact that thousands of tightly packed men cannot step aside. The four times I noticed the rescue squad called in it took them 5 to 10 minutes to get to the injured person. Later in the evening I saw a man carried away in a stretcher, his eyes closed, his head hanging to the side. I honestly don’t know if he was unconscious or dead, but I hope he is okay now. NOTE: I have since learned that there was a fatality last night, and from the age of the man who died and the lack of urgency I recall the paramedics showing... I think it was the man I saw. It is strange that I don't find myself reacting to that as much as I always imagined I would if I saw someone who had just died. I think a lot of it is that I didn't realize he was dead at the time, and now it is too late to move me significantly.
Even though I didn’t try to get the Shingi I’ll explain a bit about what happened at midnight. Once the lights turned off, the already packed men surged even closer to try and grope in the dark for the sticks. From my place on the stairs it looked like a feeding frenzy. Once the sticks were thrown whoever caught them was mobbed by others trying to pry them away. The various groups fighting for sticks splintered away from the main temple and started fighting around the court yard. One group came rapidly towards the stairs. I and the rest of the men on the stairs kept anyone from suffering a serious fall, but in doing so I had my elbow bent the wrong way and decided I’d had enough of playing Good Samaritan and dived into the middle to try and get the stick. The best I managed was to touch it before getting smashed against another pillar.
My efforts for the evening finished I made my way back over to the fountain and made a tenth and final circuit of the cold waters to wash off some of the blood and mud and then went back up the temple steps for a last look around before heading back to the tent to pull my pants over my fundoshi (I left it on in case I decided to go to the bar that was giving 50% discounts to men in fundoshi, but I had decided I didn’t have the energy for that pretty quickly). I bought a couple of things to eat, and made my way back to the bus. It was a hell of a night and I’m glad I did it, but doubt I’ll make a reappearance as a participant though I really do urge ALTs to try and participate in some of the craziest and most unique Japanese festivals they can find… and they don’t get much crazier than Naked Man. That ends my story, but I hope that Josy or another of the ladies share their story as a spectator. They had to jostle with Yakuza for their seats! If one of them publish their story in the Yamato I'll add it to my journal with their permission.
I just heard Paul Stookey (of Peter, Paul & Mary fame) sing his new piece, "Song for Megumi" on NHK. It is about a girl named Yokota Megumi who was abducted by the North Koreans in 1977 (She was 13 at the time). He watched a documentary about the event last year and asked Megumi's mother and father if he could write a song about their daughter. They grew up listening to Peter, Paul & Mary and were touched by his offer. It is a very simple and beautiful little song. It doesn't condemn or even directly mention North Korea, but it paints a very moving picture of what it would be like to be taken away without so much as a chance to say goodbye. A tear ran down each cheek as I listened to it. Peter hopes that the song will raise awareness of the abduction issue outside of Japan. It hasn't been released yet, but all proceeds from the album will go towards the Megumi Yokota fund to try and raise awareness of the abduction issue with the hope of her return (North Korea claims she committed suicide, but the bones they returned to Japan did not match Megumi's DNA) along with all the other surviving abductees.
It is a little sad and interesting that on the same day that this is released... the Japanese parliament denounced a US resolution asking them to take responsibility for forcing women to become sex slaves during World War II. The resolution calls on Japan's prime minister to "formally acknowledge, apologise and accept historical responsibility" for the comfort women.
I watched this and had to share it with my journal readers. It is an instructional video that is supposed to teach Japanese women the English needed to get through a mugging. It simultaneously seems to be a a calisthenics video. I wonder, are you supposed to perform the dance moves as you deliver the phrases? It might get the robber to run away in confusion... or it might get you stabbed. Now, for your viewing pleasure, "Take anything you want!"
Oh, the bandanna tied under the nose is a stereotypical image of a robber in Japan. It seems rather uncomfortable to me.
...in favor of much more satisfying holiday activities. Last year’s Thanksgiving was my loneliest day in Japan as you may recall.. I missed my family and the traditional trappings of the holiday. This year I decided to change that. =D So in similar fashion to my Independence Day cookout, I decided to throw a dinner party. So please come in and take a look at Kevin’s bedroom Cafe! ( ”irashaimasu!” )
So I now begin my second attempt to journal about my PUFFY concert experience. I wrote about 90 percent of my journal entry about seven months ago while I was riding the bus from Tsukigase back to Kintestsu-Nara station. However the battery was about to die so I saved it and planned to finish it soon. Unfortunately I somehow managed to lose the file when I transferred all the data from my old computer to my new PC. I lost a few things. A folder of photos from a trip to an amusement park, a couple of journal entries I hadn’t finished writing... and possibly some other things I have yet to notice. Fortunately the pictures weren’t amongst my favorite, but it was still sad to lose them. I also regret losing the journal entry drafts because when I wrote about PUFFY before it was much fresher in my mind and I wrote with a lot more enthusiasm and detail. Now I’ll be limited to my somewhat faded memory and the pictures I planned to use. I hope you still enjoy reading about my first concert in Japan and the best concert I’ve so far attended. ( Anything is possible! )
^o^ Today I decided to try something I'd never done before... squid tempura. Here is a photolog of the process of cleaning and cooking the squid. I showed the pictures to one of my friends and he said, "Kevin... it looks like you've just ritually saqcrificed Cthulu in your sink.... but it ended up looking yummy." Take that as a warning before moving ( onto the squid disection. =D )
Okay, that is it for tonight. I had a pretty productive day as far as my journal goes. I hope tomorrow will be one as well. I'll try and finally post descriptions for all of those potential calendar pictures and reply to the comments there. I also uploaded a lot of Basara Matsuri photos today. I'd like to write a journal about that tomorrow too. However, I have to leave around 6 to go to a planning meeting for a habitat for humanity trip to India I'm going to take next spring break. I'll have more news about that soon as well.
This one took me about 3 hours. Though from what I learned, I could probably cut 45 minutes off doing it again. This is for an adult evening class tomorrow night. I'm doing a presentation on Halloween. I'll carve one jack-o-lantern for a student at my base school that wins a design contast... and I might do a massively ambitious one for the JET Halloween party coming up. ^^ Pumpkin carving is my favorite (non-eating) holiday activity of the year.
Here are the 52 pictures I mailed in to try and get a picture in one of next year's JET Calendars. This year they printed two calendars, a normal sized wall calendar and a smaller desk calendar. If they do the same next year I have 24 slots to hope for. I think it would be wonderful to get one of my pictures into something with thousands of prints and which would be seen by tens of thousands of people. Going through my pictures I found that most of my favorites were vertically oriented, but since calendars are generally horizontal I limited my subissions to them. I've gone back through now and added descriptions to all the pictures. All 52 pictures are a little over five megs, but I don't think any of my friends are stuck with dial-up anymore so it shouldn't be a problem. I'd really appreciate it if you'd tell me your favorite and what month you associate it with. I plan on making my own calendar as a Christmas gift for people (and possibly a charity fund-raiser) so I'd really like feedback!
In Nara Prefecture, we have a JET newsletter called "The Yamato" that manages to make it out almost every month. In each paper a few ALTs write a profile. They then nominate another ALT to do the profile for the next month. ^^ The lovely Chen nominated me (and drew the little caracature of me that serves as icon for this post) for the July paper. I didn't manage to get my profile in until the August edition though. So please click on the link to see my profile. ( Learn more about Kevin in Japan! )
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