Ohisashiburi Desu.

Longtime since i've updated this puppy. Much has gone on in the last week. I went out a bunch of times with my friends here (seeing as how I'm back in Sendai finally and all). Ate some foie-gras and caviar in small portions with Mayu--- and Hina last weekend and then did some karaoke which was a good time. Had a nomikai with the seniors in Kamoike Sensei's zemi. Had lunch on this horrible day that had this freezing rain that I thought would kill me with these two guys whose names I had forgotten until I checked my cell phone's phonebook. Then yesterday I ate gyuu-tan (that's cow tongue for the uninformed, which is what Sendai is famous for, and yes it is delicious) for the first time in a longtime with Taiga. Afterward, we checked out this new department store that just opened up around these parts with stores like the Gap and Tommy Hilfiger and FCUK (oh if only they had picked cooler stores). But the best part is the fifth and sixth floors have these really nice restaurants - Sendai needs more places like this. As Taiga pointed out, Tokyo has like way too many. Really, almost every building in Tokyo is like this place. Tokyo needs less, Sendai needs more. So in any case, this one tonkatsu joint called Kimu-katsu (which sounds a lot like Kimu-Taku now that I think about it) that has its main shop down in Ebisu in Tokyo had a huge line and the most number of oiwai wreaths out front (when stores open in Japan, people send these wreaths to wish the store well). Almost all the wreaths were from celebrities, including Guts Ishimatsu. Guts was a famous pro-wrestler back in the day and now is kind of the Yogi Berra of Japan because he says silly malapropisms all the time. A few too many blows to the head. Anyway, the place had a ridiculous line out front whereas the other restaurants were only kind of crowded. So I decided it must be checked out again with an empty stomach. So today I headed back with Doi yet again and sure enough, even until like 9:30 PM, there was a huge line for the tonkatsu. Once we made it in, I realized why there is such a line. The pamphlet for the place had this ridiculous line about like surpassing Tonkatsu and being a new level of delicious, which I scoffed at at first for its brash confidence. But then, just the shredded cabbage came and it was pretty much the best cabbage on the planet. Granted, (1) it's just cabbage and (2) I'm used to eating the shredded tax-statements they serve in the cafeteria and call cabbage, but it was still silly that just the cabbage was so fresh and good. The rice came, which was so high quality and perfect it looked like it was fake. It was like an ad for rice (you have to admit rice definitely has a broad range of qualities). Then the tonkatsu came. The portion and shape and thickness looked strange at first - it was thicker and way smaller than normal tonkatsu. It kind of looked like an example of the FDA's recommendation for daily allowance of meat intake. But then I realized it was actually the filet mignon of the Tonkatsu world. This thing could not have possibly been pork. It basically just melted in your mouth upon eating. Absolutely delicious. They were right - they had surpassed tonkatsu. They had created Kimu-katsu. El Fin.

This week I've also started a new life. How new? I exercise and study like crazy every day. Part of the reason I haven't written here on Fistful is because I've been trying to limit the amount of English I use in strict ways. I even eat natto and rice every morning for breakfast. Natto is fermented soybeans and stinks to high hell and one of those "tests of whether you are really Japanese kind of things". Well, to my surprise, I bought natto (which in the past I wasn't able to eat because of the stink) this week and when I opened it and braced myself to vomit all over my dining table, it didn't smell bad at all. It smelled kinda good. You know you've been in Japan a long time when natto suddenly smells normal to you.

In keeping with the exercising everyday thing, I went jogging today because the torture chamber they call the physical education building was closed. I wore shorts. It was below freezing. Now, I've done this before and usually running heats me up so I'm okay after about 5 minutes. I did this last weekend actually just fine. People look at me funny, but it's alright. Today, however, I felt like I was going to freeze to death. My teeth were chattering while I was running. It got a little better after awhile, but it was still pretty bad, so I cut my run short. Strangely, however, I decided to wander around my neighborhood a bit instead of going home. See, the other day I noticed this temple up behind my apartment that I had forgotten existed before ever checking it out. So I went over there in my running clothes. Really, there are few things like the silence around a temple, especially one built on the side of a mountain like this, with just the sound of the gravel crunching beneath your feet. Very tranquil and calming. This place has like several hundred steps up this steep, steep, dangerous stone staircase. Some of the stairs are like falling off so you have a hard time getting your footing, and it's also exhuasting to walk up in general. Oh, and the little well where you are supposed to wash your hand before entering was frozen solid which was interesting to see. In anycase, when walking up the stairs, I came upon this old man slowly working his way up the stairs. He'd take a few steps and then rest. When I came up behind him, he turned around, took one look at me and then like ... fell (I know, this sounds like a mukashibanashi now, but he didn't fall into a hole or something). Just like took a step back and fell off the staircase and into the plants lining it. Hoping he wouldn't die, I went over and helped him stand up and he seemed okay so I went on my way. Very strange. At the top, some couple was having some ritual performed for them at the temple itself, so I quietly snuck around and walked through the neighborhood nearby. I took the road back down the mountain, not really sure where I was going but figuring I'd get back near my house if I just walked down. Not the best decision making when wearing shorts in freezing weather with the sun sinking quickly. But I did make it home after exploring a bit more (did you know there is a church like a 10 minute walk from my apartment?? Who knew that stuff was up there. Huh.), I did make it home.

It took about 45 minutes for my extremities to return to normal body temperature. My left hand was particularly cold. Not really the skin, so it wasn't like it felt like I was going to get frostbite (which I did feel a couple times this week in my hands while riding my bike).. it just felt like my blood was frozen. That's all.

Oh and I saw the news the other day about Michael Jackson's trial. He might have Kobe Bryant, Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Ross, and Stevie Wonder as character witnesses? Now I realize that every comedian in the U.S. has probably already mined this comedic vein for all its worth, but I'm not in the U.S and this is too idiotic to not say something. Okay, I mean, granted, this is Michael Jackson so you kind of half-expect like Dandelion the llama to be a surprise witness, but still, Kobe Bryant, Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Ross, and Stevie Wonder? An accused rapist, drugged-out nutso former actress, drugged-out nutso former diva, and a blind guy are going to be judging his character? I think we can pretty easily judge his character just from taking a look at his character witnesses. I'm guessing that if Stevie could see, he'd want no part of this.

Slicing Up Eyeballs

My eyeballs have been having some problems. First, the last few days I was in Fukuoka, my right eyeball was aching and I woke up the last morning I was there to a red, swollen eyelid. Some kind of infection. I've been taking some anti-biotics and its clearing up, though it's still red and achy. Then yesterday, my left contact was stinging all day, and in the evening when I took it off, my vision was all cloudy. I looked in the mirror and it looked like a piece of dust was on my cornea, but it wouldn't wash off. So I called Dad who said it might be a corneal infection and I need to see a doctor right away. I checked out clinics in Sendai online and went to sleep with my eyeball still stinging. Then when I woke up, it had cleared up. I guess it was just something stuck to my eye after all - and at least I can see again. I guess it's time to start a new set of contacts.

34th Street Neutral and the Bejazzlers

Time to get pretentious about music again.

Last night, Sean Kramar and I were discussing possible band names. He insisted the band have both thug appeal and a large indie following. I came up with The 34th Street Neutral because it has the word street in it, which gives it street cred, and the word Neutral which sounds disinterested and like Neutral Milk Hotel - both undeniably indie. Sean wanted bling for our torn-jean jacket pins, and I OK'd it as long as it wouldn't look like a Bedazzler project for a girl's jazz dance team. So Sean came up with the dance team name The Bejazzlers and so was born our back-up dance team/side-project. Just thought I'd share that.

I woke up this morning, or rather was repeatedly woken up, by a chain of mail delivery. Being gone 16 days and not putting a stop order on your mail means your mail backs up apparently, not least of all indicated by the fan of ads and bills my mailbox was throwing up when I got home yesterday. I got my Vday present from Hyunjoo - which was very sweet, thank you very much - and my Vday present from my mom. I then stayed in all day while the city was getting pounded with snow. I went out late tonight to check out downtown, and it was the most deserted I've ever seen it. And kids at school were building snowmen and snowforts.

The burgeoning Montreal indie scene has been heavy in my apartment the last 24 hours. The Unicorns broke up - which seems strange since they just got together. Two members strangely will be forming a hiphop outfit called Th' Cornn Gang - or so they claim. The Arcade Fire album 'Funeral' has basically been playing on repeat in my iPod - I think I've heard it about twelve times in the last day. I know - that album is old news. But it hasn't been released in Japan yet, and was released a month after I left the states. I had a few of the tracks floating in my iPod - all of the neighborhood tracks except Laika and the songs Crown of Love and Haiti - and I had been pretty much listening to Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) and Neighborhood #3 (The Powerout) in an endless loop of three songs that included "Sentimental Journey" by Japanese weirdo/popstar Yuki towards the end of my trip. The Arcade Fire originally sounded a bit like Broken Social Scene (also of that Canadian indie scene!) to me because of the ethereal, layered orchestration and reverb on the vocals, which made me suspicious, but I discovered this band is much, much better. The album, with all emo-charged teenage hyperbole intended, has saved my life and brain this week. With the passing of Micheline, ruminations on my family heavy on my mind, and the thick snow in Japan (including the 8-odd inches that fell on Sendai today), the album's themes and discussions of life/death/parenthood/childhood/snow/cities/towns/escape/return/etc. are exactly what is floating around in my head. I have been lucky in the last month to hear two of the best albums of the last 14 months in terms of listenability - this album and "I'm Wide Awake It's Morning" by Bright Eyes. Is it too late to add "Funeral" to best albums of last year?

Beppu and Back

Another day, another day-trip. We crawled out of bed late today and ran down to the station in time to catch a 2 PM train out to Beppu, an onsen town on Kyushu two hours from Fukuoka. Our first stop was a place called Takegawara Onsen, a huge wooden building of Japanese-style architecture set oddly on a small street otherwise populated by the cheesy neon of gentlemen's clubs. This particular onsen is not your normal, run-of-the-mill hot bath. This was my first "sunaburo", or sand bath. You put on a yukata (kind of a bathrobe) and lie down on this coffee colored sand that is heated presumably by hot springs bubbling up underneath it. This old woman then started shoveling heavy mounds of sand on me, an experience akin to crossing a day at the beach with your own funeral. The sound of the shovel digging into the soil was particularly ominous. Once I was buried up to my neck, she looked down over my face and said I could un-bury myself in 10-15 minutes. At first it was just pleasant warmness all over, and it was sort of soothing to have the sand pressing so tightly up against my body. Then I became really conscious of my own circulatory system because I could feel each heartbeat reverberate simultaneously through my chest, neck, arms, and legs. Which wasn't so bad, just sort of strange. But then it started getting uncomfortably hot. And I'm a little claustrophobic. I started to imagine I was a pig roasting underneath the sands of some polynesian beach. Then the sweating started - and it was trickling right into my ears, making them incredibly itchy. I tried moving my head around, but it didn't help. I considered calling out for help, but then I realized I was just buried underneath three inches of sand at a place that was supposed to be pleasurable, so I sucked it up. After what seemed like an eternity of concentrating on not itching and twitching my toes a lot uncomfortably, the old guy (who may or may not be the old woman's husband) finally came over and said we could get up.

Despite being a place where people are covered with sand, the sand onsen was the only one I've been to where there is no soap or shampoo in the showers, so we decided to head on to another onsen called Tanayu at a huge spa hotel on the hills around Beppu called Suginoi Palace to wash the sand out of our hair and, uh, body crevices. That onsen was fabulous. There were enough baths to keep you entertained for an hour, and a view of the city and bay that was pretty spectular. I personally liked the bath with the little wooden pillow that you could lie supine in and just take in the view from. After dinner, we had a nice sukiyaki dinner and caught the last train (a really fancy train called Sonic that is kind of like a spaceship in design and decor) back to Fukuoka.

Tomorrow, it's back home to Sendai after over two weeks away. I can relax there for a couple weeks before heading to Tokyo at the beginning of March for the Fulbright Mid-year Conference since I cancelled my trip to China with Dave and Katie. I already have a bunch of stuff planned for the next week, so I'm anxious to get home.

These last couple weeks have been absolutely incredible in terms of experience and absolutely exhausting in every other sense. I have to thank John Kim and Jen Schwartz, who were both gracious and wondereful hosts while I was traveling. I went from one end of Japan proper to the other, and saw and did so much. Skiing, festivals, onsens, temples, food, friends, shopping. I rode boats, buses, planes, cars, trains, subways, taxis. It's been one expensive tour, but I think well worth it. I'm starting to get close to completing my list of "must-see" places in Japan. If I'm lucky, I'll be done with the list before June 17.

Happy Valentine's Day

For Deng:

This is the first day of my life
I swear I was born right in the doorway.
I went out in the rain suddenly everything changed
There spreading blankets on the beach.

Yours is the first face that I saw;
I think I was blind before I met you.
Now I don’t know where I am
I don’t know where I’ve been
But I know where I want to go.

And so I thought I’d let you know:
Yeah, these things take forever
I especially am slow.
But I realize that I need you
And I wondered if I could come home.

Remember the time you drove all night
Just to meet me in the morning?
And I thought it was strange you said everything changed
You felt as if you had just woke up.
And you said, “This is the first day of my life.
I’m glad I didn’t die before I met you.
But now I don’t care I could go anywhere with you
And I’d probably be happy.”

So if you want to be with me
With these things there’s no telling -
We just have to wait and see.
But I’d rather be working for a paycheck
Then waiting to win the lottery.
Besides maybe this time is different
I mean I really think you like me.

-Bright Eyes

Fuk U Oka

On our last night in Sapporo, we checked out more Yuki-matsuri, some of which was incredibly impressive, and almost froze to death. We then had a birthday dinner for Jen who turned 23, and ate nabe (soup/stew thing in a pot) that had that blowfish called fugu that will kill you if cut improperly. Fulbrighter Laura thought she was going to die at first when she ate it, but it was a false alarm. It wasn't that good too, though it wins the award for scariest thing I've ever eaten. The restaurant then gave us free orange juice, slices of chocolate cake, and chicken (!!). Afterward, we grabbed some drinks at a gaijin bar called Rad Brothers II (the sequel to Rad Brothers I down the street). After everyone went home, Dave, Katie, John, and I grabbed one last bowl of Sapporo ramen (if anyone is interested, all in all, I was unimpressed with the ramen in Sapporo). John and I stayed out after Dave and Katie went home, but most places were closed already, so we dragged our heels home through the snow and ice. Kind of a sad end to our last night in Sapporo.

The next day, we woke up and started packing. My trip to Hokkaido ended the way most trips end around here - like the last episode of Road Rules, with everyone wandering off in their own direction dragging their luggage off to catch a train or plane. But rather than a slow denouement it suddenly changed abruptly when my mom called while I was eating with John and Anna at Sapporo Station to let me know my dad's oldest sister Michilene had passed away. In a strange twist, I was wearing the new t-shirt she had had my Aunt Maureen deliver to me in Sapporo only two days before. She is the second of my dad's three sisters to pass away in the last three years, and was only in her mid-50s. Her death was sudden and came with no explanation or cause. My family has now convened in San Francisco for the services and I am once again not around for it. I sent a letter to be read in my absence, but I still feel pretty guilty about not being able to attend another memorial service for a member of my own family. I did stop off in a Catholic church here in Fukuoka to say a prayer for Auntie Michie.

In the meantime, I've been just hanging out and soaking up Fukuoka, where Fulbrighter Jen is placed, spending short days shopping around the downtown Tenjin district and spending late nights out running around the same downtown Tenjin district with her friends. That in itself has been a fairly goofy experience. That's all I can call it really. Goofy. But Fukuoka itself is a really nice city (it's on Japan's southern island of Kyuushuu). Across the street from Jen's apartment is a really nice park, and we checked out a nice temple down here in Dazaifu that is supposed to make you smarter and where the little shops lining the road going up to the temple sell a little fire-cooked mochi that is apparently only available there, but doesn't seem terribly different from other mochi everywhere else. There is a lot of good shopping around here too - the aforementioned Tenjin-district, an outlet by the sea called Marinoa with apparently the largest ferris wheel in Asia (and another slightly smaller and entirely unnecessary ferris wheel), and another set of pretty classy shopping areas on a river bank complex called Canal City.

Today, we went down to Nagasaki (a two-hour train ride from Fukuoka) to check out the atomic bomb musuem and the Chinese Lantern Festival going on right now for Chinese New Year. Like Hiroshima, Nagasaki is a city whose public transportation is largely by street cars that stop about every 100-200 meters. So we hopped on a car (the fare for which is ridiculously cheap) and road northeast to the musuem. The atomic bomb museum wasn't as horrifying or affecting as the Hiroshima museum, but it was still enough to silence us for awhile after exiting. Nagasaki has a really nice park with memorial statues leading down from the museum to the bomb's point of impact. Again, it's not as massive or impressive as the Gembaku do-mu and peace park in Hiroshima, but was very nicely done. I'm glad we could see it. Subsequently, after deliberately damaging ourselves emotionally at the museum, we hopped on the cable car to go downtown for lantern action in Chinatown. The streets are impressively packed with lanterns (literally thousands of them) and light-up fabric figures of animals and gods and various other Chinese imagery. My favorite sites were probably (1) the dragon and rooster (it's the year of the rooster in Chinese Zodiac) made entirely from those plates, cups, and spoons you use at a Chinese restaurant and (2) this grotesque display with candles lit around a table with a cooked full pig as the centerpiece and about twenty severed, roasted pig's heads on plates with their tails threaded through their forehead. I kid you not.

Tomorrow another day trip to Beppu to soak in hot pools of sulphuric water again at some onsens.

The day after, it is back to Sendai and home sweet home.

Yuki Matsuri

I've now been in Sapporo for the last four days and I'm fairly tired of walking through snow and ice constantly. Yesterday the Yuki Matsuri (snow festival) started, so there are huge ice and snow sculptures located in three separate locations around Sapporo. I saw my aunt Maureen yesterday, who is here on vacation from Hawaii (yeah - left a warm, tropical vacation destination to go to a frigid, icy snowscape. go figure) and saw some of those sculptures, some of which are extremely impressive. I particularly like the ice sculptures, which somehow seem like they take more skill or artistry to make. The fulbrighters also decided to go ice skating, which has for long been one of the things I'm worst at (reference numerous junior high birthday parties at glacial gardens for the proof), but I surprisingly did a little better than usual yesterday. I was able to skate around with a little bit of speed and I didn't fall. It was an accomplishment. Last night the Fulbrighters went out for some decent but expensive sushi and then hit karaoke for a three-hour songfest. It was a good time. The night before, the meat eaters (there are two vegetarians among us) went to the Sapporo Bier Garten (or, beer garden for you non-germans out there) for all-you-can-drink beer and all-you-can-eat grilled 'Genghis Kahn', which is really just mutton you barbecue at the table. We filled ourselves with meat and beer like Mongolian invaders until there was no one else left at the restaurant, and then got into a drunken snowball fight with Japanese kids outside the restaurant. We then drunkenly wandered home, fighting with snow the whole way. It was excellent - I feel like I'm getting pretty close to the Fulbright kids through this too-long vacation in Hokkaido, especially the guys. It's weird that the midyear conference in a few weeks will be the last time I see this group of people together.

Right now I'm taking a break from trying to decide if I'm going to China. See, I've been having problems getting my visa, and now I'm having coldfeet about going at all. There is a rather roundabout way I can get my visa for sure today (don't worry, it's all very legal and official) but I'm not sure if I want to go now. Blah.

Heebie Skibies

Back in Tomakomai (at John's research station again). Spent the last 4 days at a ski resort called Niseko skiing with the Fulbrighters - and I made it out without any injuries. The snow in Niseko was downright amazing - fresh, dry powder everywhere everyday to ski on. People kept saying it was as good or better than anything they had skiied on in Canada. Too bad my form was poor and my legs were tired - I could only half enjoy it while half-praying my muscles wouldn't give out from under me.

We stayed at a little bed and breakfast called 'Cisco Moon' and it was really cute and the owners were really nice. The food they served us was delicious and we had plenty of space to spread out and be messy in our rooms. The guy's room had a little loft above it, kind of like an attic, where we played cards together one night. Every evening after skiing, we all went to an onsen across the street to take a shower and sit naked in a steaming pool of hot spring water (yes, guys and girls are separate). It smelled slightly of sulfur, and after the bath you had to take another shower to wash the yellow off. But it was nice to sit out in a hot rotenburo (outdoor bath) with the snowdrifts on the wall and snow falling.

It's nice to get to spend time with some of the Fulbrighters I haven't had the chance to get to know better. I feel like we're all getting closer - and not just because we've seen each other naked.

Tomorrow we're off to Sapporo, and then five days later I'm down in Fukuoka. Gotta go eat dinner.