Aaron Jones

Hey does anybody know Aaron Jone's email address?

or...

AJ, email me your email address. I will be around when you are in Japan. I"m going snowboarding the weekend of Jan 27/28 but Feb 3/4 I don't have plans.

Hit me up.
-shu

Fuuuunny

Here's a funny clip about eating sushi in Japan. Subtle humor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCpbBVthD7o

If the link doesn't work, search for: "Japan Culture Lab Sushi" on YouTube.

Enjoy

Ake Shin Nen Happy!!

Check out the tallest bldg in the world exploding with new year's festivities.











... tight. Starts off with a bang.

taiwanese update

hey y'all,
i finally found a fast internet connection and will post a quick write-n-run while i have the chance.

JAPAN
So my brother Dan came out to visit for a week in Japan and we had a blast, running through a high-speed tour of Kansai. First we went to Kyoto, had a tea ceremony with a Maiko (young Geisha), which was awesome. Then we went to Kiyomizu Temple and ran into these two old Japanese ladies that were at the tea ceremony, who we ended up having Okonomiyaki with (random, right).

Day two we went to Kinkakuji and Ryoan-ji, the first the famous golden temple of Kyoto, the second the famous Zen garden of Kyoto. After Kyoto, we headed back to Himeji for Okinawan dinner with Ayame (she and her guitar class gave us a special performance of Sha-In, Okinawan traditional folk music guitar), and we met these two guys from the Kinoshita Circus (which is in Himeji until mid-January). It was wild talking to this one guy, he is the wild-animal trainer for the circus and works with tigers, lions, elephants, etc. on a daily basis. He had really big hands! Ayame and I are going to see the circus show on January 8th. It's gonna be cool.

After spending the day in Himeji walking around the castle, eating eel lunch, we headed home where Dan cooked awesome homemade pizza and we lounged around. The day afterwards, we headed out to Osaka to meet Markane for yakiniku and an all night Warcraft session. It was awesome. The morning afterwards we scrambled to get to Kansai Airport, and off we flew to Taiwan.

Taiwan was an awesome time with Dan. We chilled with my Dad a bit, and hung out with an old friend of mine from SF that moved back to Taipei, and even my crazy uncle Da JoJo, who is like the Chinese version of the Marlboro Man. We ate tons of good chinese food - dumplings, noodles, street stalls food - the best was HAO DA JI PA "big huge chicken steak," dim sum, and more dumplings, homemade wontons, and a bunch more that I'm forgetting. We managed to get in a bunch of shopping and hit a couple of night markets, and saw a bunch of new parts of the city that we hadn't explored before.

Anymore that's all I got for now. It's 5am and I've just come back from the NYE fireworks from downtown, they lit up the tallest building in the world - Taipei 101, it was AWESOME... pictures to be posted later.

g'night y'all! happy new year. i sure am looking forward to a kick ass 2007.

love,
-m.

Recently

Sorry for the deliquency in posting, Life has revvvved up to manic pace again. Here's some of the stuff that's been going on:


I went to Universal Studios, Japan (in Osaka) with Kanako and Momo-chan from my school. It suuuuucked! It was cold and rainy, and we had to wait 2 hours for the Spider Man ride (which was cool), so we only rode 1 ride the whole day. Boooo. I could see how USJ would be cool for Japanese people, with it's American-like villages and facades, but it fell on deaf ears (and eyes) with me. I was like, um, "so what, a brownstone, a parking meter, an American flag." Otherwise, it was pretty okay.


Here's the calligraphy club, we're hanging out after the big culture festival, where we had showed off some of our badass penmanship. Calligraphy isn't the most popular club (in fact, I think it's the least) in school, but the kids are cool and we have fun. Most of them are from the special education class, which I don't get to teach, so it's nice to hang out with them once in awhile too.




Kerosene heaters that we use at school. It's soooo cold lately! Ah, the sweet sweet embrace of the Kerosene fumes. Makes my head all swimmy.


Maikeru sensei's desk at school.

Ugh... sick.

I hate being sick... I came down with a cold on Tuesday last week, and came home early from school to sleep it off, but it got even worse on Wednesday so I called in. On Thursday I rallied and went to Kyoto to see the leaves changing and hang out the Janet, her friend Wynne, and my buddy David, who was visiting Kansai for the long weekend vacation.

After talking all day and walking around in the chilly early winter air, I felt like crap when I got home and decided to take it easy on Friday. My voice was getting more and more hoarse, and on Saturday I went to the doctor's office.

(according to the Internet, this is what my throat looks like right now... totally closed and swollen)

Guess what? I've got laryngitis, as well as a mean cold. So I had to skip the trip to Koya-san (buddhist temple overnight stay), and also didn't get to go to Osaka this weekend.

Sucks!!! So I have been unable to do anything for the last week (stayed up all night coughing last night, so I called in today so I can try to beat this cold/get my voice back).

Ugh, I hate being sick, and I'm bummed that I missed out on a good part of David's trip, and that I can't do anything when I'm sick. On the upside, I don't mind missing school though! Okay, back to bed for me.

Kyoto

So last week on Thursday, Janet and I went to Kyoto to meet up with our friends David (visiting from Tokyo) and Wynne (from Wakayama). It was such a cool day. First we went to Fushimi Inari shine, which I had never been to before, and then over to Kiyomizu-dera, to check out the leaves changing.


Here's the explanation sign in front of the main gate. Fushimi Inari is a shinto god of grains, and since in the olden days wealth was measured by rice, the god has associations with wealth and prosperity. Since Kyoto is a world famous tourist destination, most of the stuff is bilingual, which makes it nice for me to understand what's going on.


Janet and David, in lovely sepia tones.


So this shrine is famous because it has thousands and thousands of these "torii" gates along the path. It's actually quite a hike, we were stomping around the woods for nearly two hours, and we didn't get to cover everything. Every inch of the path is covered by these gates, so it's really beautiful to see. According to Janet, the chick from Memoirs of a Geisha was filmed running through the gates (dunno, my bootleg version is unwatchable, as I bought it in Shanghai and it's dubbed in Russian... go figure?!).


Torii upon Torii upon Torii.


Here's us, actin' a fool at the top of the mountain.


Once we started getting into the more heavily wooded parts of the mountain, they had these cute signs for "entertain your dog by putting out a fire," or "wearing funny hats makes my dog laugh at me." Or something...


This is typical at the entrance of shrines and temples in Japan, there will often be a hand wash so that you can "cleanse" your worldly sins and purify yourself before you enter the holy area, through the symbolic hand washing. The red bibs are actually to do with abortion (the god of unborn kids? I dunno), I am a little fuzzy about the exact meaning but I think that because abortion is used as a form of birth control in Japan, you see a lot of statues with these red bibs hanging out.


So the fox is the messenger of Inari, and there are a number of fox statues throughout the grounds. The fox, or "kitsune" in Japanese, is believed to have magical powers and can sometimes assume human form. Foxes are associated with benevolent trickery, which is kind of like Native American folklore too - I wonder how foxes throughout the world have this reputation?


Here's my artsy lantern/shrine shot.


On the way back through downtown Kyoto, there was a company doing some sort of exhibit for their new product, and had hired a Geisha to sit in a tent and get photographed by tourists (yup I'm a sucker too). Geisha in Kyoto proper are called "geiko" in the local dialect, and "maiko" (underage geisha). I'm lucky enough to have seen a few in Kyoto, but to even catch a glimpse is like seeing a shooting star - quick and fleeting.


BUT, the ladies can rent costumes for the day and get their faces painted. I see this quite often and the girls usually get dressed up and walk around Kyoto a bit and snap photos. I snuck my camera in on a photo shoot - I doubt that real Geikos give the peace sign when they are being photographed.


Here's us in front of the famous Kiyomizu-dear ("Pure water temple"). That's Wynne on the right. She can speak Japanese, Cantonese, Mandarin, and English all with equal fluency. Isn't that rad?!


The temple was a mob scene when we got there. I've been there 4 other times (it's one of the most famous sites in Japan, and everybody always wants to visit... with good reason, it's beautiful). The fall "kouyou" season, when the Japanese maple leaves turn colors ("momiji") and it's really pretty. Unfortunately, we picked a national holiday to go, so it was butts to balls at the temple - not exactly the peaceful mountainside setting one hopes for, but entertaining in its own way.


My artsy shot.


Here's a panoramic (ish) of the temple. It's famous because it's such a large wooden structure that is supspended off the side of the Eastern Kyoto mountains. It's got a great view of the city skyline and the maple trees below are nice too. Too bad I was shooting with my crappy old camera, next time I go I'll try to get a better shot.


Here's David and Wynne lookin' silly, bringing luck on themselves by "bathing in incense."


So one of the famous parts of Kiyomizu-dera is this rock. There are actually two of them, in this courtyard area off the side of the main temple grounds, and the are technically called "Love Stones." Japanese lore states that if you can walk from one stone to the other with your eyes closed, you will find true love (or something like that, I wasn't really paying attention). If you need help to get there then you will need help to find your true love (again, or something like that, wasn't paying attention). This place is always mobbed with young people who are bumping into each other in their attempts at finding true love. Is that some kinda metaphor for love I just made?


by planet_janet
(photo credit: Janet)
Here's me, getting ready for the attempt. The place was so super crowded, I ended up trampling a couple of people in my attempt to find true love. I had the right path for a bit, but in the end veered off and ended up waaay off course. Modern day cupid, David, had to steer me back.


The temple is named for the pure mountain water that runs off of it, hence the name. Again, you can bring luck/fortune onto yourself by drinking the water that runs from the mountain. Funny thing is, it was so crowded, I saw a lady whack a kid with the metal pole (on accident... maybe) right after they had both finished drinking. So much for good luck!


The area surrounding Kiyomizu-dera is full of old style Japanese gift shops with all kinds of curious. This one is for mochi-sweet bean snacks. (photo idea credit: Wynne).


Here's a night shot as we are leaving the area. Nice, huh?

...for more pictures, check out Janet's collection at http://community.webshots.com/user/planet_janet.