So it snowed...

you lucky bastards! It hasn't come down yet in town. Whether (weather?) or not you love it or hate is, enjoy a taste of the winter as it is for me.

Build a snowman or ten for me...or a Kamakura, aka snowfort...well really more of an igloo. Also enjoy semi-unreasonably priced christmas lights...as compared to the insanely unreasonably priced ones here. $80 for 3 metres. ugh. I'll stay dark for now.

Speaking of what's his name's (Santa right?) birthday, I'll be home for Christmas. Not as long as I was in summer, but back never the less. I'll have to make sure to buy cheep-ass boxing day lights to bring back to Japan. I can also enjoy not having to explain Boxing Day to anyone either...neither the Japanese nor the Americans really get it...but then again to any Canadians really understand it either? I should probably spend my time brushing up on my own culture, too eh?


Well for more deep thoughts from the shallow end tune in sometime in the future.

It's long, and long awaited

Well hello everyone who still checks this site from time to time. I know it has been a horribly long time since I have updated this. I have given you pretty much nothing new since I came back to Japan. Well hopefully some people still check because there’s a lot to tell. I mean a lot. You might want to read this in installments. And I refuse to write a table of contents, although I probably should.

My second year has been surprisingly different from my first year. As was to be expected there was not so much adjustment as with my initial arrival in Japan. That being said, there have been some marked changes that have changed the routine of my life here.

First off is the big one, the reason I am even here: work. This year the city cut back from four AETs (Assistant English Teachers) to three. That doesn’t seem too ground shaking, but when you consider that there are four junior high schools, it makes a big difference. This year we are on a two month routine. Of every eight weeks, we each spend six at our base school (Kosha for me) and the other two weeks are at Nakano Daira JHS. The loss of Devin has also meant that there are more elementary schools to visit. So now I have four elementary schools. This indeed makes for a lot of running around, and even more time spent doing preparations for various classes. It’s enough to make me feel a little lost sometimes.

Besides the musical schools routine, school life has been really good this year. At Kosha I am starting to feel like a real teacher, not just the foreigner on a working holiday. I was asked to coach a student on an English speech, I helped train a class for a group skip rope competition at the school festival (my area of expertise don’t you know), and I have given the go ahead to start implementing some of my own ideas on marking and running class. It really feels wonderful. I think the teachers all look at me a little differently now. The English teachers have always liked me, but now I feel like I get respect from all the other teachers.

Outside of school things have not been anymore hectic. That isn’t to say I haven’t had plenty of free time, it’s just that it has been less abundant this fall. The main reason for this is that on top of the Tuesday night class Brandon and I teach, I am also teaching a Thursday beginner class at a different community centre. This class has been both a source of frustration and joy.

To start, I wanted a night class for ‘Beginner Conversation’ not ‘Beginner English.’ The purpose of the course is Eikaiwa (or English conversation). When asked to start the course I firmly stated that everyone must have a basic grasp of English, something I feel is a necessity for conversation. Well something was lost in that world called translation, and it was marketed as a beginner basics class. To compound the problems, half of the students are or have been regulars at the other night class. They speak wonderful English, and I could really help them excel. The others are pretty much beginners. I had one old bastard complain 3 times to the community hall that the class was too hard. I was teaching ‘I am’ and ‘You are’…I can see how very confusing that can be. Ha! So in the end is was just a matter of getting into a routine and making a curriculum that is fun review for the advanced speakers and not over the top difficult for the beginners. To my joy, the old fart dropped out, but didn’t tell anyone so I continued to teach really basic stuff for three more weeks until I gave up on him. Good riddance to…well you get the picture.

When I am not going half mad trying to find and create activities for a night class or elementary school, I have been making a real effort to go to the gym. A year ago a big new fitness centre went up right near my house. It is beautiful. There is a weight room with machines, free weights, and a thwack of cardio gear. There’s an aerobics studio, and here’s the kicker: there is a pool! I have been trying to get in 2 or 3 days a week and I have been pretty good about it. It is hard to procrastinate about going when the monthly fee is upwards of $80 CDN. Yeah you read that right. Thank whatever deity you believe in that my job pays well. I have lost a few kilos, namely the ones I put on last year, and I feel less like a…tatami potato.

There have been some changes in my social life this year as well. Brandon and Rich both have girlfriends now. Riches gal lives close by, but Brandon’s is from Chiba (out past Tokyo). That should say she was from Chiba. She now lives next door with Brandon. All this has lead to me seeing my friends less, so I have started hanging out with my Japanese friends more. Now the main dudes are Jun, Ken, and Tatsubon. They are the coolest Japanese people ever. They run a back country snowboarding company, they are friends with all the Japanese pro boarders, and they all met in Gastown while they were living in Canada a number of years back. They all have a good command over English. They tell me that they learned in Canada by hanging out with Canadians, so it’s mostly Japanese when we hangout. And damn, my Japanese is improving. That being said, they are all from Kansai (the region near Osaka and Kyoto) and they speak a regional dialect known as Kansai-ben or Osaka-ben. This is by far the coolest sounding Japanese. Everyone in Japan knows it, and save the Tokyo folks, they all think it’s super cool. Needless to say I am now the weird Gaijin who drops Kansai-ben whenever he can.

My knee. It’s still there, between my ankle and hip. Thankfully my hip doesn’t hurt, but I can’t say the same of my ankle and knee. My ankle is tight and sore often. I try to stretch it out and keep it warm, but winter is just around the corner and the days are too cold to keep it loose. My knees is good most of the time, but I still notice some weakness and pain from time to time. I have been to a third hospital, had another MRI, about 25 more Xrays, and started physio.

This is all lead up for spring break. March is the month, and my knee is the focus. That’s when I make my move into the hospital for a month. That’s right, I’m going under the knife to get a new ACL. It will be made of a piece of my hamstring. If you want the full details ask me, or google it. It’s a little too gory for everyone to hear. After the knife is a week of nothing…not even standing. Hell. I don’t know exactly how I’ll go to the bathroom then, but I am pretty sure I can’t actually go to the bathroom which leaves only one very uncomfortable option. The rest of my stay will be the road to recovery. Daily rehab and strengthening exercises will be my life for a month. And the worst part is this: the hospital is an hour and a half drive from home, and my operation is in the spring stages of the snowboard season. In other words I am pretty sure I am going to have a very lonely month.

Now it’s time for the best news of all. For those of you who stuck it our and read all the way to here, congrats. For those who skipped and skimmed, you are people after my own heart. For those of you who stopped reading a while ago…well I guess it doesn’t matter if I say anything to you or not. Drum roll please…

I got a cat, a kitten actually. She is the most adorable little thing. She is all black, Makuro (jet black) is what my Japanese friends call the colour. She is a native species of Japan…we’re pretty sure…well the Vet is pretty sure. See when I adopted her it was a bit of a strange situation so I don’t really know what bread she is. I had been searching for kittens for a while, but I hadn’t found anything. I tired the humane society (run around) and the newspapers (dogs dogs dogs) but nothing came up. In the end I mentioned it at school, and within a week a student had found a kitten.

She was tiny, and pretty scared. He had found her in a park between the school and his house. Her mom had been living there, but she died shortly after birthing. So I became the proud parent of a little sharp black ball of fur. I mentioned that we think she is a Japanese breed, which is due to the fact that her tail is curly like a pig tail. That being said it is not sensitive, so the Vet thinks it is natural. There is a species of Japanese cat with a strange tail like that, so that’s our best guess.

I called her Taisho SentoNeko Kunoichi. That means General Kunoichi Battlecat. She is the Japanese cousin of Kenan and Sam’s cats, the Canadian Battlecat family. I call her Kuno or Kunoichi, which was the name for female ninjas. Fitting for an all black Japanese female cat, eh? She lives up to the name for sure. She has terrorized my house. The rice paper Shoji doors were shredded, plants have been eaten or beaten, and my bed was the site of a few little box training issues. Well that’s not really fair. She was fully litter trained (kinda) when she came to my house (at like 6 week of age). She just decided to tell me when she felt her litter box was in need of cleaning. She did this by pissing on my bed. Needless to say, she is banished from my bedroom. Sucks for her, but if I have to go to the Laundromat with my comforters again I am going to lose it.

Kuno has made my evenings very exciting. I hang out and play with her. She is psychotic, and one hell of a hunter. She is going to be a great stalker when she can finally go outside in 3 weeks. Although I am not sure she’ll want to be out when the snow starts coming down. She is vaccinated and just needs one last shot and she will be ready for the great big world, and also good to go for a life in Canada. I am making sure to get her all she needs to immigrate when I do. All those Canadian cats better watch out; when Kuno comes to town it is all over!

Well that’s the update. I am sure I have left something out; although I am also sure everyone will be happy if I stop writing soon…or a few paragraphs ago. I apologize for not updating this sooner, and for not staying in touch with people who have been emailing. I will endeavour to be better at updating this site and also replying to emails. Thanks for the email, the parcels, or just the thoughts. Hope all is well back in Once-Again-Did-You-Ever-Doubt-It-Rainy-Vancouver. Boil your water…or something.

kilometre stones (everything must go metric at some point)

Well it has been some time since I sat down and started writing. This summer has flown past, which I should have expected since this past year also seemed to fly as well. I can hardly believe that I am in the second year of my life in Japan. It was a dream that I managed to realize, and it still feels sureal from time to time. This seems like a fitting time to write some thing deep...but isn't going to happen, I'm just gonna write my usual entertainment magazine quality crap. Hey, at least it free.

Well it has been a year. As I sit here staring at that sentance, I realize that when I read it my mind goes to a million places and memories, but for the life of me there are no word to describe them all. I will attempt to open up that vault and share it with you, but I am unsure if that is even possible.

I think back to a little over a year ago. Last summer, July. That was my last month in Canada, and I was not only trying to prepare to move across an ocean but I was trying to absorb as much of home as I could before setting off on my journey. I felt like the Boy in Paullo Coelho's The Alchemist after he had sold flock to pay for a boat ride across the sea to Africa. He was leaving behind his whole life up to that point, all for one dream. I too felt torn between the life I had created for myself and the dream that I had been holding for so long. On one hand, I was granted an amazing opportunity to not only see Japan, but to live it. On the other hand, I couldn't stop thinking about my family, friends, and all the other parts of life in Vancouver that I love so much. Like the Boy, I had to make that sacrifice. I gave up many things I held very dear, in order to find what was out there, and inside me.

A year later, I cannot help but be amazed at what I have experienced. I would be a big liar if I said that I haven't and don't miss Vancouver. Vancouver is like my model railway. It took me many years to get the little pieces in the right spots, in order to have my life be what I wanted. What really amazes me is that in just one year I have started to arrange another life for myself. In one year, I went from being a fresh-off-the-plane Gaijin with a place to go, but no idea how to get there, or what to do when I did. Now, a little more than one year after first setting foot in Japan, I touched down again. This time was entirely different. I pulled out my phone, called a buncha friends, emailed others, took a train to Tokyo, lockered my luggage, met a friend, headed to his place in Chiba, and drank. The next day I took a bullet train home to Nagano, and got a ride into Nakano from Brandon. Basically it there was nothing out of the ordinary at all.

I also can't help but look at other things in my life, and feel very lucky. I have made some very good friends in Japan. The first few were other ex-pats, but some of the best friends I have made are Japanese people. 3 of my Japanese buddies are sponsored professional snowboarders. They introduced me to the "grandfather of snowboarding in Japan." Moreover, I have thrown two big parties this summer. Now other people in town have had other parties, but none of them has had the amount of mixing and mingling of Japanese and Gaijin. None of them has had so many neighbourhood irritating fireworks. None of them have been so close to my house. I digress.

The point is this: I have been here for one year. A long time by some standards (like compared to the 24 stomach flu), and a short time by other standards (say the geological time scale). When I look back at the year and all the amazing memories I have, I can’t help but feel that whether 1 year is a long or short time, that I have accomplished a hell of a lot. I can't wait to see where I get to this year.

A big thank you goes out to everyone who reads this site, emails, or calls me. You are my support. You are my Vancouver life, and you will probably never know how much it means to me to know that you are all there, and rooting for me. Leaving Vancouver was one of the hardest things I have ever done, but I don't at all feel as if I have lost anything. Thank you for being here with me through the ups and downs. From Binzuru, to the Fire Festival. From Hokkaido, to my big blue cast, I have had you to share my adventures with. Here is to you, and to more adventures for you to read about (and me to live)!

Arrivals

Well, July is finally here. The one year mark of my arrival in Japan is fast approaching. I should take this opportunity to write a thoughtful reflection on the events of the past year…but that isn’t going to happen, and besides my entries are too long as is.

Summer has arrived. Really it came a few weeks ago. I didn’t mark it by the distance from the sun, but rather from the bloody temperature here. A few weeks ago was the first time we had a 30+ degree day. Since then there have been many…but it’s not the heat that gets you, it’s the humidity. Some days have been so humid and hazy that I couldn’t see the mountains (and trust me the valley I live in is not THAT big). Luckily for me I get to miss 3 weeks of the nasty weather here…but the other side of the coin is that I get to return just in time for the nastiest of it all, August. Yokoso Summer (Welcome summer).

Typhoon 3 is on its way. It seems that Japan is the land of natural disasters. There was a small earthquake near Nagano a few weeks ago. About a month ago, Okinawa and the southern islands were hit by the average monthly rainfall (and this is the rainy season) in just over 2 days. There were landslides, and some people were washed away in swollen rivers. And now for Typhoon 3. It appears to be a decent sized Typhoon. It’s been moving nice and slow, aiming straight for Honshu. That means it will be nice and strong. The prediction is that it will be here on the weekend or early next week. They usually stick to the Pacific coast, which means the waves on the Sea of Japan side, are bigger, but not dangerous. I might strap my board to the roof and head out to the surf. Yokoso Typhoon 3.

Canada Day has come and gone. While some of you were out partying, and others just kicking back, I was recovering. You see, Canada Day came for me roughly 16 hours before it came for you. Being a proud Canuck in exile, I did what any other poutine loving SOB would do. I threw a party. And not just any party a kick ass party. There were over 20 people in my backyard. I bought a pop-up tent, and we BBQed and lit of fireworks, and caused general mayhem. The party was great…it was a good mix of my Gaijin friends and my Japanese friends. Most conversations were taking place in a mix of both English and Japanese. The coolest part (other than the flag on a hockey stick) was that most of the Japanese people who were here had been to Canada for Working Holidays. The second best part, was that since Canada Day was a weekend, and the 4^th of July was a Tuesday, the Americans had to come to a Canada Day party! In the end there was a big bag of cans and two bags of glass bottles. Two of the red wine bottles were mine. Surprisingly I wasn’t sick, and I wasn’t even hungover the next day. I just sweat it all out as I cleaned the yard. I have to say, I was really hoping to be home in Canada by Canada Day, but I am actually really happy that I wasn’t; the party was a true success! Yokoso internationalization.

July has arrived. That means that in a little over a week, I will be setting foot on Canadian soil again (not just in my living room, which I have unofficially deemed Canadian soil, or was that soiled by a Canadian…). I am pretty excited to get to see everyone again, and to kick back and relax Vancouver style. Oh, and how can I forget, good dark beer. Japanese beer is a nice treat when you live in Canada, but if that is the only stuff you can get your hands on then the fruity taste starts to get really crappy really quick. Anyway, I am really pumped for my trip home. I have a fair amount of prep to do for my trip, and even more to prepare for when I am back here in Japan. The biggest one was scheduling my appointment to get a Japanese Drivers Licence. I won’t bore you with any of the details though.

Well that’s the update for now. I hope everyone is well, and for those readers of you in Vancouver, I am looking forward to seeing you all real soon. Take care and enjoy summer time.

Drops

Recently there have been some very powerful drops in Japan. One sort is making National news, the other sort made local news.

The National news is reporting very heavy rains in South Japan. From Okinawa to Kyoto, there have been daily rain falls of 350ml in some areas. Today the heaviest rains were around 40ml an hour. The sheer number of rain drops has started some catastrophic events. There have been land slides and flooding, and people have been washed away in swollen rivers. This is all just the beginning of the rain season, but Okinawa has received over half of its annual rainfall in the past month.

The have been so heavy due to the warm tropical westerly (from the west) winds that are blowing from South East Asia. This flow of air is occluding (when one front catches up to another…the reason it rains a lot in Vancouver too) with flows of southerly flows coming up off the Pacific Ocean. This mixture of warm moist air causes rain drop coalescence and strong winds. That has been your backyard meteorology lesson for today.

The other drops are of a much more solemn nature. I suggest if you don’t want to feel a little sad not to read on.

As I mentioned these drops are much more local. These drops are the tears of families in Nakano. Right here in my neighbourhood, Nangu. On Tuesday evening, around 5 o’clock, a second year student from Nangu Junior High School was on his bike. He was either headed to or from the tennis courts right near my house. He didn’t have his helmet on, and he apparently blew through a stop sign. He came out of a blind side street and was hit by a car. They did everything they could, but his injuries were too serious. He passed away within the hour.

Needless to say the people in my neighbourhood, and the staff and students at Nangu JHS are all pretty shaken up. Nangu is the school at which Brandon teaches. He knew the kid, and says he was a pretty good guy. Maybe not have been the best student, but he was still a good hearted little guy. Second grade JHS students are usually 13 or 14 years old.

We found out on Wednesday morning at Kousha JHS. The teachers were all pretty shocked, but they relayed that there have been a number of traffic accidents in Nagano recently. Apparently in another city a boy was hurt pretty badly in another traffic accident. I was pretty shocked. As I wandered around the school looking at the kids, I couldn’t help but think that they are just that, kids. I couldn’t imagine how I would react if that had happened to one of them. Brandon seems to be taking it ok, but I wonder how I would take it. My school is a third of the size, and it is such a tight knit community that I think something like that would be very traumatic for everyone.

I guess it is just another reminder that part of the beauty of life is how wonderful it can be, while being so fragile.

Info and Pictures

Yet again it has been a while since I sat down to write for my blog. It is neither that I have not sat nor written, I simply have not gotten around to writing for this. He is a bit of a catch up on things, before I get to the fun stuff…photos included.

The catch up:

My leg. Everyone asks, so I guess people wanna know. It’s doing ok, still gets sore when I push it, but it is getting better. There is still no set time on when it will be better. It’s an injury, and unique to it’s own characteristics and to my body and life. I really wish I knew that in Japanese, and could politely say it to the people who ask me the same question “How is your leg” every time they see me.

School Work Stuff. It’s been busy as usual ever since the school year kicked off. I have been doing many elementary school visits, and a more consistent class schedule at Kousha. Things are good. I had to go to a conference in Tokyo last week. It was for JETs that have singed up for a second year. I really wish I could have just stayed and taught. The small group meetings led by senior JETs were for the most part well done. That’s more than I can say about the ones put on by CLAIR (one of JETs governing bodies) and MEXT (the Japanese Ministry of A Million and One F*#$ing Things…seriously, it’s like sports, culture, education, science, and technology). When they were not simply patting us all on the bums for having the ‘noble job of ALT,’ they were completely insulting our intelligences by offering irrelevant presentations and by appearing to answer genuine concerns of JETs while simply spewing political crap at us. So yeah, that’s how I feel about that. I just saw it as a huge expense for our BOE to send 2 of us all the way to Tokyo, put us up in a 4 star hotel downtown Shinjuku, pay of the conference fees, and have half of the material be completely irrelevant and insulting. Especially since they don’t have enough money to keep 4 JETs after July. Just wasteful in my opinion.

Coming Home. I have a visit planed to Lotusland…or is it Yogawearland yet? Either way, I am going to be in Vancouver for the better part of 3 weeks. I arrive on July 15^th, sometime well before I actually left Japan. I have a return ticket for the 4^th or 5^th of August, which puts me back into Japan an entire day after I took off. Ah, the International Date Line…doesn’t it make international air travel so much fun?

Technology. I will now be sharing more photos as I finally chose the digital camera I want. I also got the hack for my DVD player, so it is now region free and will play all my Canadian and Japanese DVDs!

And now a story, with the promised pictures.

So this weekend in Nakano was the バラまつり (Rose Festival). The city rose garden is know around these parts to be pretty spectacular when its in bloom. This leads itself to large crowds of Japanese people packed will all sorts of digital recording devices. Be it a simple cell phone, to a professional quality camera, everyone save the kids are toting something.

My part in the Festival was a little different. Miyuki and Yoshiko, two gals from the English Conversation class we teach at the community centre, asked Devin and I to help them with a contest. The way it works is that 10 teams receive buckets upon buckets of roses, and a metre squared box full of Oasis (that green flower spongy stuff). We were all given 3 hours to create an image for a contest. The public wandering through the park for the weekend would vote on the images.

Devin with our roses

The other teams were off at the word go. Our team was a little tired and dragging our feet a little. The other teams seemed super organized. Groups started pulling out all sorts of prepared materials. One group had a stencil, a group of Baachans (Grannies) had some scale prints of impressionist paintings. We stood around deciding what we were going to make. We had a few small images printed, and decided on a large wave. There is a famous Japanese block print that has s big wave and a buncha dudes in a boat. We took the wave and put a sunset instead of the dudes in the boat.

Devin started on the sun. I got going on the wave. Yoshiko and Miyuki worked on the ocean and the reflection of the sun. We were still the slowest moving team, as Miyuki’s husband (one of the organizers) was eager to point out. Still we plodded.

Devin and Yoshiko hunched over the sun.

Same thing from the proper angle.

Our picture started to take shape, and we all got really excited. We worked hard for a few hours, and saw some of the other groups finishing up. A class from a local elementary school was one of the first done. Some Highschoolers were quickly putting the finishing thouches on their work. Even the Baachans were onto the fine detail of their impressionist work.

Finally after most groups were gone, and the rest seemed to be cleaning up, we stood up to take a look at our finished work. This is it in all its splendour. We called it “Beach in Bloom” in Japanese, and for ourselves we went with the cheesy name of Rosebuddies.

"Beach in Bloom"

You can only kind of see it in the picture, but the wave actually grows three dimensionally as it rises and crests. It was really sweet.

In an epilogue to the creation, we went back today for the announcement of the winners. We had looked around at them the day before. We were confident that the elementary schoolers would take first, what they lacked in creative capacity they more than made up for with their cuteness in the logo of their school. The others were good, but lacked a lot of thematic creativity. The other nicely themed one was the Baachans. That being said, you really couldn’t tell what it was when you were looking at it.

Well we ended up winning something. We got the Special Achievement Award or some other sweet sounding consolation prize that really means 5^th place. The elementary school kids and the higschoolers beat us, which was nice to see…even though ours was superior. The real kick in the teeth though was that the Baachans took the gold. We are positive that what they lacked in clarity of image, they made up for with sheer voting numbers…I mean can a half foreign team really compete with a team of aged locals?

We still got a beautiful framed enlargement of our team around the finished work. Devin and I went onstage to receive our award and prize. I am sure we will be in the local rag again. And on top of it all, I got more roses than I could ever dream of having use for. They are in vases and hanging up sidedown all over my house. I have stripped the petals of other, and given a bunch to my sweet old neighbour. And that is the end.

Spring has sprung

***sorry for the delay, life has been busy. I wrote this a week ago but I haven't had time to post it. All time refrences are as of a week ago. I know this is a little long, but trust me this is the shortened version**

It’s an amazing transformation that wakes the world. The blankets of snow have been gone for some time, but lately the temperature has started to be consistently warmer. The energy of spring is radiating through everything here. Change is in the air, at the schools, in the trees and plants, and in the life.

A little over a week ago I had a very strange moment upon entering my house. In the winter my house smells…cold. The kitchen usually smells like food, and the living room like incense. But that night, I walked in my house and smelled something that I hadn’t even noticed had been missing. The smell of tatami. In the warm months it’s the prevalent smell in the house. In summer it is crisp, but in fall it was a musty scent. Spring has the musty tones to it, but it also smells fresh. It was a neat moment to realize that I had been missing that smell. That was one of the fist indications of spring in Nakano.

Unlike most North American schools, Japanese schools begin their school year in April. There is a short break between the end of the previous year and the new one. Once the new year starts there are many changes around the school. Two of the English teachers left, and we have a new one. Kawamura-sensei is a pretty cool guy. He’s 23, this is his first full on teaching gig, and he plays in a band. He’s all about playing guitar and singing in class. The other day I caught the kids singing one of the songs by themselves.

Speaking of the students, there is an entire new group of students. It’s strange though. Each grade has a different coloured track suit, but apparently they keep the same colour as they progress in grades. It’s just quite strange to see what had been the old 3^rd grade colour on the new 1^st year students. We have a lot of really good new and returning kids at Kousha, so it should be a good year.

The school yard at Kousha is changing too. The metres of snow have melted and the school grounds have re-emerged. The grass is getting greener with every rain fall. Perhaps the most beautiful thing is the Cherry Blossom trees.

Cherry Blossoms are called Sakura in Japan, and both their beauty and the fleetingness there of, are celebrated by all. The trees at my school were in full bloom the other day. It was a spectacular sight to behold these giant Sakura trees, a swaying sea of white and pink. Even more spectacular was when they started to fall. The school grounds were blanketed in white once again, but this time with a tint of pink. The air was also full of petals, caught on the breeze and swirling around the schools garden. Perhaps the most beautiful time of all is now, as the petals are being washed away. The Sakura burst into life, the first splotch of colour on the spring canvas. Then they scatter and disappear. The first herald of life awakening.

My yard is changing as well. As my garden emerged from the weight of the snow, I regretfully found that most of my plants didn’t fare very well. I should have copied my neighbours and build wooden tee-pees around them before the snows came. On a brighter note, the growing sea of weeds (that passes for my lawn) was the stage for a beautiful sight. Red and yellow tulips popped out of nowhere and have brought a beautiful look to my yard. Both Brandon and I were shocked to see them. I never knew they were there, and Brandon swears he never saw them last year. I am sure he just never noticed. Either way, their arrival is a welcome bit of new life to my yard.

The air itself is beginning to transform as well. When the skies cleared up in winter, the air was clear and crisp. Lately there has been haze in the air. Not quite a fog, just a haze. I think it’s being caused by moisture from the wet earth starting to evaporate. That combined with all the plants starting to kick into gear. I termed it the “breath of the land.” Then again, it could be more of that damn sand from China.

And then I guess there’s my leg. My cast came off quite quickly. I have been free of it for a month. The crutches went away a little more slowly, as I wasn’t supposed to put much weight on my leg. I still had two for most of the time that my mom and sister were here. I had one for a week. Then it was time to go with out them (which to be honest I was already doing around my house a bit.) Now it has been about two weeks with out them. My leg is surprisingly well. I can walk around without my brace on, and I am even supposed to be running lightly with the brace on. All in all it’s going pretty smoothly.

Another change with my leg is the treatment. One of my English night class students got me an in with this hospital one town over. The building was renovated four months ago, but what the real draw is the joint specialist doctor guy. The lady from my class had her wrist operated on by him and said he did a fabulous job. He is also supposedly quite renowned, and he even has some foreign doctor training under him. On the up and up, they both speak English. They pulled…well sucked, 12cc of ‘joint fluid’ out of my knee the other day. Then they shot in some medicine. It was kinda cool, but it hurt a lot. That being said, the swelling has gone down considerably.

Best thing of all: new joint specialist doctor guy did some tests of my knee stability, and he says I don’t need surgery. He says we’ll take a conservative approach in the rehab and that it should be fine. Sweet.

Walking? What's that?

I felt like asking the doctor that today. My cast is now fully removed, a week ahead of the initial schedule. I was supposed to wear the rear half of the cast until next week, but after another 4 x-rays today (man I think my doctor just loves looking at new ones) it turns out that my Fibula has healed quite quickly.

Apparently the bone has repaired enough for me to start putting some weight on in. I credit the calcium pills I have been taking every morning, and the yougurt that I have been trying to have daily. (Now on the same note, I am sure that not drinking milk contributed to my leg breaking...that and the tree I hit.) The doc looked at my leg and said she was pleased that the bone has done so well. So, yay! Fixed bone, and no more cast (just my leg brace 24/7).

That being said, the hard part is really starting. The doctor measured how much pressure I could put on my leg today, and I was able to get almost all my weight on it before it started hurting. At least my leg is still that strong...it really looks like a piece of spaghetti beside the other one...sad really. So I still have a fair ammount of strength in my leg. However, the range of motion is the killer.

The doctor says that if I am to get ACL surgery that I need to have full range of motion first...which for Japanese people is 150 degrees. Now I can sit "seiza" (sitting on your knees with your feet tucked flat, sole up) for a little while, but due to the size of my legs I am not able to really sink into it like most Japanese people can. I don't think my leg has ever been able to go 150 degrees, simply because my calf is kinda meaty. Anyways, there is no way my leg can go anywhere near that right now anyways. We did a range of motion test, and I pushed as hard as I could and I barely got to 70 degrees. Let me tell you, it hurt a lot. I pushed (or rather pulled) as hard as I could until it felt like I was going to tear things in my knee. It is probably just swelling, but still it felt like things were going to pop and tear (funny since my MCL is already torn and that's where the pain was.)

So, my homework for the week is to work on my range of motion. She wants me to try for 90 degrees for next week. I soalked my leg for a long time in a super hot bath tonight and started to work it out a little. I think I pushed a little farther than this afternoon, but I am now starting to realize exactly how laborious this rehab is going to be. I will make slow progress, but I am determined to get through it. This afternoon 20 degrees seemed like...if not a walk in the park, then just an easy little hike. This evening 20 degrees seems like a little more. I wouldn't call it Mt. Everest, maybe more like the Grouse Grind...possible, but not without effort.

All that being said, I can walk again. I still use the crutches, but really just for a little support. I am probably going to have them for a few weeks, but for the first time in a few weeks, I have actually used my leg. I have to keep looking at the path ahead and preparing for the rigours that it will bring, but I have to remember to look back and to be proud of getting to where I am.

The Japanese have a wonderful and horrible word all rolled into one. "Gambare" or sometimes "gambatte." Either way, it means "do you best" or "try as hard as you can." Those are direct translations though. They use it in many situations. I get told "gambare" when they see me struggling to put on my shoe, or when I am hoofing down the hall at work, or sometimes when people just see my crutches. I say it is both wonderful and horrible because of how often it is used. Sometimes I just think "of course I am trying my hardest, aren't you watching" but other times I really feel the support of the words. Gamabre is one of those words that even a description like this can't make clear. Ask someone who has lived in Japan what they think of Gambare, see how they take it.

Another phrase that brings both postitve and negative feelings is "kawaisoo." It translates to "pitty" or "poor." It's kinda like saying "poor you" or "what a shame." Most of the time people use it to show sympathy. I get it a lot when I tell people about my leg, or about difficulties in daily life. I even get it when people just see my leg. I don't know why, but "Kawaisoo" is really irritating at times. I just get sick of people saying "poor you." I know it is something that is lost in translation, both lingual and cultural. I appreciate the gesture that people are making when they say it, but I relly don't want their pitty.

Maybe the previous 2 paragraphs have sounded harsh. They are not designed to be. It's really just a little cultural insight I want to share, and at the sametime vent a little. Bless all the people here that are making things easy for me, and offering their support and sympathy. I really appreciate their comments, even when they irritate me






On another completely unrealated note: everything here is gritty. A fine layer of sand has been dusting most of Japan. I have been told the ski hill is turning a little yellow; I know that the skies in Kyoto are taking on a yellow tint; even my windshield has a little dusting of sand. The sand is being picked up by strong winds that are sweeping over China and then it is carried over the sea and starts to settle on Japan. It very strange. It is making the news daily, but so far it seems to be causing no more than minor difficulties. I don't know if anyone at home had seen this on TV or in the paper, but do a search on the internet for it...it's kinda interesting.

Well that's it for tonight. I feel like a cuppa joe and a good sit with my book. Even though I can walk around a bit, I have come to appreciate a good sit. Hope your all well, and please feel free to comment here or email me at aj22@shaw.ca! I love hearing from everyone, and thanks to those of you who have been keeping in touch, it has really helped keep me positive during this stressful time. And please pardon any spelling or other mistakes in this post, I haven't re-installed Office yet...

What a month...

Well I can finally update my website again. It's been a while, but I left everyone with a good read didn't I? There is a reason for why I haven't been able to update sooner. You see, my luck in the first half of this month has been absolutely awful. Let's recap:

March 1st:
My car won't start. I take it to the mechanic. The starter motor is fired. About $400 for a new starter motor. Mechanic says that the model of my car is a "torabaru oii kuruma" or lotsa trouble car...read lemon. But hey, $400 later it starts and runs, and feels better than ever.

March 4th:
Got up close and personal with a tree. If you want more info on this read my previous post.

March 6th:
Appointment with Orthopedics. They do a bunch more x-rays (read more $$ out of pocket for now, insurance will pay be back, but not for a bit). The doc drains 3 vials of blood off my knee, and says she thinks I tore some ligaments. Schedule an MRI, and get a cast all the way up to my thigh.

March 11th:
Sleeping in since I can't go snowboarding. Get a call from my firend Rich. Since my newly fixed car is manual, I can't drive it with my cast. Rich, Joyce, and I did a 3 way car trade. Rich has my car. He asks what the problem was last week, and if it had something to do with the clutch or gears. I tell him that no it was the starter motor, and that it just wouldn't start. He says "Oh, cause something else is wrong now." The gears are slipping when he takes his foot of the clutch. He take it into a mechaninc, and speaking almsot no Japanese gets the point that whatever it is requires the whole engine taken out to fix. The estimate is about $1200. I say screw it, my mechanic told me the resale value of my car, and with the $400 before and $1200 now, I really should just buy a new car. Rich brings the car to my house and takes Joyce's car. Now I am completely stranded at my house.

March 12th:
Computer starts to go. It's acting like it has either a virus or some software is not agreeing with other system operations. Try as I might, windows is slow and sluggish...if it does what I want it to do at all. Between the second breakdown of my car and this, I don't know what to do...but thankfully I still had a working TV and hockey games on tape (Liz you are a lifesaver...or at least sanity)

March 14th:
MRI. It went really well. I zoned out and relaxed. It only took around 20 to 30 min. The best part, since it was my knee they were scanning I didn't have to put my head into that tiny little tube.

March 15th: -The Ides of March-
Results. What a day to recieve results. I was half laughing and half frightened about the date of my meeting with the doc, but hey that's just bad luck for Ceaser, right? Well not fully. I got the MRI results, and it looks like I have a torn ACL and MCL, and there is a good chance I tore something in my Ankle. The doc isn't willing to say surgery is needed, but it is definately an option. She feels that if I want to do the high strain sports I enjoy that surgery is probably the best route...but she wants to wait and see.

That was the first half of the month...let's take a little peek at what the second half has held so far...

March 18th:
First day of spring break. Formerly known as two weeks of solid snowboarding, now known as two weeks of trying to figure out what to do with myself. That being said, my new Playstation 2 is keeping me entertained for a fair ammount of time.

March 20th:
Finally decide to screw the computer that is still giving me a hard time. Full format and reinstall. Trash it all, and start fresh. Luckily I was able to back up all my important files before this point. Now my computer works beautifully again. Maybe my luck is improving...

March 22nd:
Meeting with the Doc. Getting the front half of my cast cut off. I will be able to remove this half cast and then I can take a shower...yay, sponge baths are very cold. The cast frees my ankle too, and I am supposed to start some rehab on that. I am to have this cast till the 5th of April, but that's the first day of school. I ask the doc if we can re-schedule. She says how about next week. So there we go, I get my cast off fully a week early. I still cant walk on my leg and I have to wear my knee brace all the time, but I can deal with that.

And that brings us to today. I can finally respond to emails on a regular basis, and I can update my website. Thanks to everyone who has commented recently on my site, and to those who have sent me emails. It's really nice to have some contact with home, and it helps pass the time while all my friends are up snowboarding. I will try to respond more regularly now that my computer isn't on the fritz. Drop me a line!

Close Encounters of the Coniferous Kind

That’s what I had last Saturday. Now being a nature lover, I usually savour the chance to get close with various trees…however this was never what I had in mind.

Last weekend at Nozawaonsen was very lovely. There had been a little bit of fresh snow on top of a base that had been soaked with rain for a little over a week. The fresh snow was wonderful and light, unfortunately it was on top of a hard icy base. That gives the fresh snow a tendency to slip off of the ice and leave bare spots. I managed to find one of those spots. I lost my edge and started to bounce off the snow. The smooth icy surface offered no friction to slow me down as I bounced along the ground. My board edge wouldn’t dig in no matter how hard I tired…and trying ended up causing me to bounce, and bounce, and finally do a bit of a 180 in the air. As I came around in the air, I realized I would stop soon. I knew that because I was about 3 feet from two 30cm circumference trees. My left leg went straight into one of them (or maybe both…my memory of that exact moment is fuzzy to say the least) and spun me around to a stop. The stars in my vision and the pain in my leg led me to believe that I had either broken my leg or I was one luck bastard.

Lady luck was not on my side, as an x-ray at the hospital proved that yes indeed I broke my leg: my Fibula to be exact, about 3 cm below the knee. I was in good spirits the whole way to the hospital (mostly on a snowmobile, the worst way to get off a mountain) and while I was there. I was in some serious pain, but I have been hurt before and I was dealing with it. They cast my leg, but they did it below the knee, which made no sense to me. They also made an appointment at the large regional hospital, which just happens to be a few blocks from my house. I couldn’t get crutches at the hospital I was at, but they assured me I could get some when I went for my appointment at Hokushin Hospital.

Well Monday rolled around, and after hobbling around my house with a walking stick and a rolling chair I was glad to sit down in a real wheel chair and make my way around the hospital. Now I would have thought that the Nozawaonsen Hospital would have forwarded the 4 x-rays they took, but apparently not. So wheel over to the x-ray room, take 2 more. Go back to the desk and hurry up and wait. But apparently the low cast confused the x-ray technician and he took the shots too low down my leg. Back to the x-ray room and 2 more of the right place. Hurry up and wait again.

Finally they call my number and I get to see and orthopaedic doctor. She says yup its broken, and that the cast needs to be redone since it didn’t even cover the break (what gives eh?). She also feels around my knee a little while it is accessible. She had some concerns about my ligaments. She figures I tore my MCL, but says that that shouldn’t require surgery. She is also concerned about my PCL and my ankle, so she has scheduled an MRI to take place next week. Also, it seems that I had a lot of blood pooling in my knee, so she drained off 3 vials. It was kinda gross, but I watched the whole thing. After that it was off to the casting room. The nurse cutting off the old cast was funny, but she nicked my ankle bone with the bloody saw…it didn’t break skin, but left me with a little burn. Then it was casting time. I was glad because the bigger hospital also had more selection. Nozawa had a whole selection of white and white casts. Hokushin had white, pink, and blue. So needless to say, I now have a big blue stiff leg. My cast goes from the ball of my foot to mid thigh.

This being my first broken bone, it is also my first cast. They are cumbersome, but it isn’t bad. Its way better for my knee than the first low cast they put on. The itch is there, and I am sure I will sing a different tune at the end of the month, but for now I can deal with the itch. And heck, I have a buncha metal clothes hangers that are just waiting to be straightened out into leg scratchers.

Well I now have crutches so I can get around. I traded cars with a friend so I have an automatic and I can drive. I have been at work since Tuesday. I am trying hard to say in good spirits, and to figure out how to do the daily things that have become so difficult. From putting on underwear, to going to the bathroom in my closet of a toilet, to staying clean with out taking a shower or a bath, it’s all new. But I love to create new and easy ways of doing things, so at least my mind is stimulated while my body is gimped.

Well I will update this after I get the results from my MRI. I go for the test on Tuesday and the results on Wednesday. If you have any to spare, please send me some positive energy. I am staying positive, but a little help will never hurt.

With that I am off to hobble and roll to the kitchen to make some dinner. I hope everyone is having a good time, and staying safe…watch out for those rascally trees.

Adam the Tripod…or is that triped???

What a trip...

About two weeks ago the guys from town and I took a bit of a vacation. We planned a trip up to Hokkaido. It was a multi purpose trip. Hokkaido has some of the most famous snowboarding in Japan, and in Sapporo there is also the famous “Yuki Matsuri” or Snow Festival. Let me start the tale with the trip there…

Saturday morning. Rise and shine bright and early. Our flight out is around 1pm, but we have to trek it down to the airport. The airport in Nagano Prefecture is in Matsumoto City. It’s 2 trains and a bus ride away from my house. All said and done, it takes about 2.5 to 3 hours to get there. The cost of the trains one way is close to $40 as well.

So there we were riding along the rails down to Matsumoto on the second of two trains, and Brandon get a phone call on his cell phone. It’s the airport. Apparently there is a blizzard sweeping across Hokkaido. Good for snowboarding, bad for airplanes. Our flight has been cancelled and there is only one flight a day from Matsumoto to Hokkaido. After sitting in disbelief for a little bit, we get a call back with some decent news. There is space for the three of us on the flight out the next day. So getting to Hokkaido is taken care of, but we are on a train that costs the better part of $30 that doesn’t stop until Matsumoto. We get some advice on hotels, but after some frantic calling we get no where. We are now totally screwed for the night, as we either have to take the train all the way home and then back out the next day, or we have to find somewhere to stay.

We end up calling a friend of Brandon’s who lives in a suburb of Matsumoto. He not only offers to put us up in his little apartment for the night, but he says he will pick us up from the train station. So we cram 4 dudes, and 3 large snowboard bags into his car (well half in his car) and make our way to his house. We ended up having a good time, as we went to a good restaurant and also to an arcade. The next day we are off to the airport again, and thankfully we didn’t get any unexpected calls. However this started the real day from hell.

We show up at the airport, flight is on, but not on schedule. It’s and hour late. Ok we can deal with that as long is it gets us there. Now Brandon had planned out all the transfers and trains to get us to the hotel we are staying at. We take a look at it all, and even with an hour delay we should make them all. So a little bit later we are boarding the plane. Now there are 2 airports that service Sapporo…but none of us knew that until we got on the plane. Our flight is going to New Chitose Airport…however Brandon’s schedules are planned from Sapporo Airport. Ok, we do some math, 1 hr flight delay plus about 1 hr from the new airport to Sapporo station. We should still be able to make it, just barely, but we should make it. Touch down and bust off the plane. Get the bags and run to the train platform, we should just make the train out to Sapporo. We made it there in time, however the train didn’t. Apparently the snow is causing trouble with trains too. The train finally shows up over 20 min. late. These delays are starting to get serious now, we are right on the borderline of making it to our final train transfer. We pack ourselves onto the train and find a corner by a vending machine to cram into, as all the seats are full. The train ride goes smoothly…until we get between North Sapporo and Sapporo station (our terminus). The conductor comes over the speakers and announces a brief delay for snow clearing on the track ahead of us. Brief means 15 min. and that’s enough to screw things up big time.

We finally arrive in Sapporo, almost 3 hours (and a day) behind schedule. We are all tired and worn out, and I am the only one keeping my humour at this point. Most of you know me, and know that sometimes when stuff is so horrible wrong you just have to laugh at it. Apparently some people don't like that when stuff is going wrong, cause I was getting the rough side of some attitude issues that evening. Brandon went in to find out if we could still get a train to where we were planning on going. The people in the railway office said that there wasn’t a train like that one until the morning. So we thought about a hotel or a bus. In our search we go to the station office (as opposed to the railway office). They tell us that the train we missed is really late and it is at the platform right now. We run through the gate and burn up the stairs, and just as Rich reaches the platform the train leaves. Would you really have expected anything else?

So there we are no direct train (now let me include this here, there was a train, but we would have had to transferred, but since everyone was pissy, no one really wanted to hear that logic, so we followed this route…) and we are stuck in Sapporo. We think about a hotel, but after discussion we decide to see how much a cab will be. Now cabs in Japan are much more expensive than Canada, and this is gonna be a few hour cab ride. Well we ask a cabbie how much, he calls it in and gives us a ball park of $250. We decide that that is a better deal than a hotel, since we would still have to pay for the train in the morning. The problem is this: we all have snowboards and board bags, and he only had ski racks. Well we pull the boards out of the bags; throw the bags in the trunk. We then proceed to put all the snowboards into the cab of the car, and the three of us, plus the cabbie pile in. Brandon was sitting in the front eating his knees, and rich and I were getting cozy in the back seat. The cabbie was a super cool dude, and he stopped so we could get some food at a 7-11. The roads were snowy, and the whole trek took about 2.5 hours. He only almost slid out once…he came with in inches of the snow bank. In the end it was about a $250 cab ride, but since he was a cool cabbie, and we were just happy to be at the hotel, we gave him a $50 tip.

Well that is the adventure of getting there. The rest is pretty much snowboarding and seeing the snow festival. I will put some pictures of the snow festival at the end of this post, so I won’t talk about that too much. As far as the snowboarding: Hokkaido is everything it is cracked up to be. We were at Niseko resort. It doesn’t have the vertical drop that Whistler has, but the terrain is comparable, and the powder is so light and fluffy. The tree runs there are simply to die for. Wonderfully spaced out white birch trees with tonnes of powder between them, it really is a world class resort. Two days the winds were high and the visibility low. It made for less than desirable conditions, but still the snow was so soft and light, that I found it hard to complain.

Well the real adventure was getting there, so now I will leave you with the pictures I took on my cell phone at the snow festival.

The Benz display

Malaysia's sculpture in the country competition.

Canada's sculpture. They won last year.

A 4 foot temple.

A huge temple.

A famous Australian train station.

Mmm, beer.

A close up of the huge temple.

A Narnia display by Honda. This is massive...about 10m high by 35m wide.

A cool display.

Some deer made from ice.

JAL's display featuring famous Japanese golfer Ai-chan. Zoom in on her eyes to see the amazing detail that was put into this one.

Some funky octopus thing.

on the rolling waves

Friday January 13th to Friday January 20th

Well it has been one hell of a week. Read it as positive, read it as negative. Either way you are right. The Wheel of Fortune (and no I am not talking about Pat Sajak and Vanna White here people) has been spinning and stopping constantly, it has doled out its fair share of ups and downs. Strange that it seems to have come out that way, but that is how it worked.

Weather:

Upside: The street in front of my house has finally been ploughed. It is quite narrow (really only 1 car wide, and it has those open gutters on either side, gaijin traps for the enlightened, that are about a foot wide and a good 18 inches deep. The only part with out the gaijin traps is the part where the road drops off a good 10 feet and then you’re on the railway tracks. This treacherous road has not been ploughed, let a lone being clear of snow, for a good month. I’m talking the better part of a foot here people.
The weather warmed up last weekend, and they sent the ploughs out in full force, and on Monday night our road was finally done. Yay! I was also able to clear a lot of over hanging snow of the roof. So I in actual fact sleep better now know that there isn’t at least a hundred kilograms of ice and snow hanging over my front door and walk way.

Downside: Remember the warm weather that enabled them to finally clear the road on Monday. That weather started Friday? It wasn’t warm and sunny though, and there’s the rub. It was what I would describe as a torrential rain fall. This was as awful as some of the worst rainy days in Vancouver. Well that pretty much started Friday. Thankfully I cleared my roof off about two hours before it started coming down. So there was a silver lining in those damn dark clouds.
So much for a powder day, eh? We hit the hill anyways and started to get a ride in. Apparently one of the gondolas, and all the charis that service the top of the mountain were closed to high wind…although most of the windsocks were no where near unfurled. Ok then, ride the groomers with the masses. It was interesting to do two things I like at the same time: snowboard and shower. But it was more like a cold shower in heavy clothes…which didn’t equal a whole lotta fun. So we call it a day early and head for home. Once I got to the little back roads that access my neighbourhood and off of the major routes I was driving on some pretty thick, pretty slushy snow. It was still snow at that point. I can’t say the same for when Brandon and I went to meet some snowboarding friends I know in Chiba prefecture.
The guys were crashing at my house for a night and I had to go meet them at the Gusto (a cheep restaurant chain). I pull my car out of my drive way and started to navigate my way around the corner. I am now pulling up to the part of the road that still has a barrier before the drop off to the train tracks, and my car starts becoming really unresponsive in the slush that has developed. I manage to control it before I bump the barrier. I straighten out and start to go again. I clear where the barrier is, and my car starts to move pretty much sideways. Now I’ve got a 4 wheel drive car with new snow tires on it, but it just starts sliding to the right (which is the side I sit on) and its getting close to the gaijin trap. I get it stopped, and under control, then I start to work the gas again. Really to no avail, since the road is about ten inch deep slush and there are still icy chunks and old frozen tire tracks in it. Even with the greatest care my tires are spinning, each revolution pulling the back end of the car closer to the gaijin trap.
B and I get out and start to dig out a little. We dig a lot. We push and rock and try to get it unstuck. We actually do get it out a few times…a few feet. Each stop another spot to dig out. Each time a little closer to the gutter. Finally we enlist the help of our buddy Devin. We joke around and call him “Devin from Heaven,” because of his dreamy blue eyes (he, he, he), but he was a god sent. All three of us dug and dug, then they rocked the car and I gave it gas. With a big push from them I was finally sliding and slipping my way through the brutal slush towards the bare pavement…a few hundred metres down the road. Sweet, sweet freedom.
We finally made it to Gusto. We meet the dudes, ate, and headed back here for a few cold ones. The roads were pretty good most of the way home…that is until we reach my neighbourhood. We pull around this corner about to do the last home stretch. Not the same rout as the way out. This is a straight shot 200m of deep as slush with gaijin traps lining either side. That was the plan at least. But what do we see? An old Japanese man (oh come on were you really expecting big foot or aliens). It’s one of the neighbourhood regulars, and he’s got his snow scoop out. Old man just doing trips from the middle of the road to the gutter. Side the snow, dump the snow, pick more up and repeat. There are three of them all doing this right in the middle of the home stretch.
Good they have some bare spots made; my car should be able to make it through no problem. We will never know. The jerk had the audacity to ignore us for about a full minute, and when he finally looked up he waved us around the block (to the route where I got stuck before), and just went back to work. Brandon explained in Japanese that our house was that way and the dude just completely ignored him. We waited and waited, and finally his stubborn old bones won over my impatience. I took the other route, and low and behold I get stuck in pretty much the same spot I did before.
This time there are six of us and two cars. We start trying to tackle the issue with the full arsenal of shovels that Brandon and I have. That gave us 5 men working and one on a rotating break. We worked for a good 15 min and got about 15 centimetres down the road. This was chunky riveted ice under slushy crap. Our irritated voices attracted our neighbour (one who had been out shovelling, but not the rude guy). He brings some kind of a garden hoe and starts hacking off huge pieces of ice, and we all start to clear. We finagled the hoe from him and he leaves us alone for a bit. When he came back he had a pick axe as well. So we tear through the ice, clear it all and get the cars parked. Time for beer…
…and some cross cultural banter. Four dudes in all came up from Chiba. Including Brandon and I, the official score sheet was 1 Canuck, 2 Yanks, 2 Brits, and a Kiwi. It was a nice change, as I am very often the lone Canadian in a group of Americans. This time there was even more cross cultural banter than before. While I was still the lone man defending the leaf, there were pot shots getting tossed at everyone as opposed to me being the sole target. The best part was that there was a big Common Wealth posse, and we could stick it to the Yanks a little more than I can on my own. All in all a good time was had.

Nozawaonsen Fire Festival:

Upside: I am privileged to say that I have not only attended, but also participated in one of the coolest festivals in Japan. Nozawaonsen is the Ski hill we attend. It is named after the village at its base, that up until recently was owned buy this small few thousand person village. Annually on January 15th the town hosts its traditional festival. Around this time in Northern Nagano many areas have some sort of festival that incorporates fire. In most there is a burning of lucky charms, many in the form of these red heads called DARUMA. From what I gather most deal with luck both good and bad. The Nozawaonsen Fire Festival isn’t a stack of hay with Daruma on it, no; it is a freaking shrine made of big ass trees and branches. Oh yeah, and it has real live people on it.
You see apparently age 42 and 25 are unlucky and Nozawaonsen has a special way of helping expel the bad luck. The 42 year olds sit on top of this giant beautiful wooden structure, the 25 year old are at the bottom holding these ropes tied to the structure. Now I know you are hoping I don't say that they pull the ropes and the shrine starts to fall. Of course not. You see those 25 year olds are actually defending the shrine and the 42 year olds. They are holding big boughs from fir trees. What on earth are they protecting the shrine from? Well the rest of the village of course! Everyone else in the village has sparked up a huge bonfire built earlier that day. Using wood that the 42 year olds toss down to them, they start to rush the 25 year olds. At first it starts nice and easy. Guys rushing to burn the shrine, 25 year olds batting away their burning staves using the boughs. A good little flow gets going, but soon people are getting whacked with branches and others whacked with burning bundles. It all sounds kinda crazy right? Well would it make more sense if everyone was drunk?
Well either way, that is the case. See the other kick ass upside to this festival is that everyone is completely liquored up on free sake. Everyone including the 42 year olds, the 25 year olds, the villagers with fire, and the audience. That’s right, there is so much free sake there that they even have guys walking around with bottles and cups tied to them…you know, just to make sure nobody needs go longer than 10 minutes with out another. This is no cheep sake either. This stuff is quality.
Free sake, fire, being a guy. It was a pretty good combo, that is until the drunk, English speaking Japanese lady (that incidentally been calling the ‘Sake-man’ back in our direction) told us that we could participate. My friend Kris convinced me to go…it didn’t really take a lot. We set off. Head for the wood being tossed off from the top and before we had even made it that far some random Japanese handed us bundles of wood. I ended up with two. We ducked into the area where the bonfire was, and loaded up for our attack wave. There were lost of other gaijin we knew in there. It was a riot. We make it a short way in and my sticks get snuffed. I was on my way back to the bonfire when I was pulled to the side. It was a reporter with a mic and a dude with a camera. Japanese guys, but asking me in English where I am from and what I think of the festival. I got out a few answers before one of the gaijin came over pulled my arm and said we have to go make another offensive. I explained that to the reporter and then ran off. Pretty cool.

Downside: I had no idea that I would be participating in the fray, and I wasn’t really dressed appropriately. I was smart enough to take off my fleece (that would have been really dumb) and I though the rest of what I was wearing was ok. I guess I should have thought again in this day and age of cotton synthetic mixes.
During our second wave I managed to tuck in behind some of those 25 years olds getting nasty with the boughs. I was in a beautiful position. I held my blazing torch high and started to get some of the prayer papers and rope going a bit. It was at about that point that I was discovered. A few quick whacks with the branches and my fire was turned to ashes. Unfortunately a lot of those ashes ended up on me, in the hood of my hoodie, and even down it. I walked away at that point. I figured I had some fun, better go before I get burnt.
I have only one tiny little burn on my hand, and I am now the owner of a beautiful hoodie with some nice burn holes and scorch marks on it. I also have a sweet t-shirt and a long underwear shirt that have holes in them as well. Still I don't regret going in and getting dirty. Next year I’m getting fire retardant clothes and I’m bringing that sucker down.
In the end no one succeeded in burning down the shrine before the wood torches ran out. That signalled the time for the 42 year olds to evacuate. The bonfire had been slowly shifted towards the shrine. Now it was right below it. Apparently no one ever succeeds in burning it with the little sticks, so they put the big bonfire under the thing. In about 10 minutes it was smoking. In 15 it was engulfed in flame. After about 25 minutes the top of the sucker just fell in. This wave of heat rolled over the crowd. After that it was just a matter of tossing on some giant good luck charms for the babies born last year.
Man do the people in Nozawaonsen know how to do it. What a killer time. I will take my losses and still call this one a win. If anyone is considering visiting Japan in the winter, may I recommend you try to make it coincide with the fire festival?


Back to the weather:

Upside: I’m at a loss here people.

Downside: It got cold again after the roads were rained on and ploughed. Cold wet roads = all out black ice. My “Ice Guard” tires lived up to their name in the ice…they just apparently suck in slush. The rest of the week brought a few small snow flurries, but mostly sunshine.


January 23, 2006

More weather:

Upside: It snowed a lot again. Last night and this morning brought probably around 15 cm of snow. Yeah, after 2 weeks of now real powder boarding it looks as if we will finally get to shred it up again.

Downside: Did someone say shovelling?