Catching up part 15: September 2008

Yup. Well in to 2009 and am still "catching up". Hopefully the brand new iPhoto 09 software I bought the other day will help me sort out all my pictures and catch up to "now". Karuizawa Bicycling

September in Japan is usually quite warm but also marks the end of summer and thus last chance for doing something like...say, a bicycling trip in Karuizawa?

Karuizawa, a mountainous region located north of Tokyo in Gunma prefecture, is known as being a great area for bicycling, thanks to its beautiful open countryside setting, hilly landscape, and lack of cars!

Going up and down the many mountains was certainly a lot of fun (the latter more so than the former...) and my newly acquired iPhone came in surprisingly handy as we relied on its GPS capabilities for navigation! (wow, two Apple plugs in one post...I should enroll in some kind of affiliate program). Here is a rough map of the trip:

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=116784441307494107165.000456a9aadd0a40dcfe7&ll=36.42326,138.550601&spn=0.161437,0.169516&t=k&output=embed&s=AARTsJr-4HGcNeR8b2U0Fwc7TMdgSRsZzQ&w=425&h=350]

The rest of the pictures can be found here!

Catching up part 14: August 2008

Since everyone in Japan has their week (at best) of summer vacation at more or less the exact same time, the prices of plane tickets skyrocket during this period, and so one can either choose to pay exorbitant amounts of money for a trip overseas or just lay low and chill out for a while in Japan. This year my vacation was spent doing the latter in Kofu, Yamanashi.

The days in Kofu basically consisted of eating, drinking, playing darts, driving/bicycling around the Japanese countryside, and sleeping. Can't think of a much better way to spend way to spend a much need vacation! The action-packed pictures to document all this excitement can as usual be found on flickr. Oh, also snuck a couple of Tamagawa barbecue pics in there, taken in "my backyard" on the first day of summer vacation.

Catching up part 13: July 2008 (Okinawa Diving)

The first test of my newly acquired knowledge in the-art-of-not-drowning was to come only a week after having received lessons in Izu. Armed with only a photocopied "temporary license", the course was set for Okinawa - a large group of tropical islands found several hundreds of kilometers south of mainland Japan. Specifically we were headed for "Miyakojima", which is basically a tiny island inhabited exclusively by people passionate about diving and the sea in general. Even the taxi driver who drove us from the airport said he had moved there just to be able to go scuba diving every day!

Having started my diving career in the muddy waters off the coast of Izu, the Okinawan diving experience turned out to be a completely different one. The warm, tropical water was filled with fish and coral gardens, and had an incredibly transparency that almost gave me vertigo upon descending into the ocean for the first time, as you could clearly see all the way to the bottom, 20 meters below.

Some of the dives took us through labyrinthine cave systems which boasted spectacular "laser light" shows, as sunlight penetrated through the cracks in the ceiling and refracted on surrounding rock walls.

One of the tunnels surprisingly led us to an inland lake that I imagine must be more or less concealed if you approach it from land. Not that anyone would be around to actually try that, since apparently the island was being used by Japan Airlines pilots to practice take off and landing, a fact that was made evident when a large passenger jet passed right over our heads as we were getting ready to return to the boat.

In addition to all the underwater action, some of the most memorable moments from Okinawa actually took place on the surface, eating freshly prepared noodles for lunch on the open sea or having a relaxing float in the warm water while waiting for the other divers to return.

All in all I must say it was a great experience and seeing the pictures from the trip again makes me sure that this won't be my last diving trip, nor my last time to visit Okinawa!

Catching up part 9: March 2008

I spent the first couple of days of March trying to kill my self snowboarding in Tomamu, Hokkaido. At the time of writing, even while planning another trip this December, I have no clue as to how the intricacies of getting safely down a mountain strapped to a thin, hourglass-shaped board work. Suffice to say I was even more clueless half a year ago and it ended up being three painful but fun days.

Tomamu is a popular snow resort, particularly recognizable for its strangely out-of-place tower-shaped hotels, aptly named "The Towers". The area also boasts an entire village made from ice (including an ice-bar, ice-hotel room and ice-church!) and a giant pool/onsen complex for recovering from a hard day on the pistes.

Oh, not exactly Hokkaido-related but I took this picture on the way there and I thought it was neat. A tender moment between a police officer and a random bald dude:

The rest of the pictures can be seen on flickr as usual!

Catching up part 6: September-October 2007

Came back from Denmark late August but although technically autumn was knocking on the door there was still enough summer left to go on two trips to Osaka/Kobe and Izu respectively. The trip to Osaka was once again partly work-related while the trip to Izu was pure relaxation spent at a ocean-side hotel with a large pool and complimentary hula-dancing (!)

In Yamanashi

Summer vacation. Yey!

Season change

Well, it doesn't actually look much like the shot above here anymore and I guess it is a bit late to upload these pictures taken about a month ago at a park in Tokyo, but here they are nevertheless. Although Japanese winter does bring blue skies and fresh air I still prefer sweaty, muggy Tokyo summer with its 30+ temperatures and beer gardens (although I will probably start saying the opposite sometime around July next year).

I remember when all this used to be...dry??

It is typhoon season in Japan again and although being cyclone-slapped is a yearly occurence that you kind of get used to, the last one to hit Japan did do some damage to my neighbourhood, as nearby Tamagawa river flooded and swelled up to nearly twice its usual size. What is shown in the picture above used to be a playground that was usually a hub of activity as families and friends gathered on weekends to barbecue. This particular part of the riverbed ended up being completely submerged in water and is now more or less deserted as residents wait for the area to be reconstructed.

Sakura, sakura, sakura

Cherry blossom season is here...and has pretty much passed already, as the beloved pink flowers of Japan have a frightenly short life span and are often used as a metaphor for the life of samurais - blooming for a brief period and then falling at the very height of their beauty. Whether the tough and hardened samurais of medieval Japan were happy being compared to something as frail and pink as the sakura flower I do not know. Anyway, I have added this year's batch of sakura shots to my cherry blossom photo album so have a look!

It's all a big scam!

Don't believe everything you hear... :P

Beatmania

Here is a video clip I took in Yokohama a couple of weeks ago. Although I think this sort of clip is already widely available elsewhere on the Internet, it was the first time for me to actually see one of these people in real life.The guy in the video is playing a so-called "beatmania"-game where the goal is to push the right buttons at the right time in sync with music. Some people (like this one) go really overboard and develop their own dance moves as well. Makes me wonder what they could achieve if they actually practiced on a real instrument instead of spending hours at the arcade every day.

Hanabi (again)

Yesterday I went to a fireworks display in Atsugi, the same event I went to last year, and took a picture from pretty much the exact same spot as the previous time (it came out better this time though, yey).

Here's a small videoclip as well. This will probably be the only fireworks display I will go to this summer before leaving for Denmark. Less than 2 weeks now!

Here we go again...

Typhoon "Banyan" is on it's way and will apparently hit Kanagawa this evening. Time to re-evaluate today's plans...On a completely unrelated subject, I just got a mail from Yamada, a guy I used to work at the same school with. He's now working at a hotel in Tokyo and tells me that the Danish soccer player Thomas Gravesen is staying there with Real Madrid these days. :P

Club Park

Went on another outing to Yoyogi park this weekend. Yoyogi park is quite an interesting place since many people go there to practice or perform various activities that aren't possible in the tiny apartments most Japanese live in this. Thus apart from the usual dog walkers and people doing sports you'll see jugglers, percussion ensembles, actors practicing for plays, people dressed up in weird costumes, martial arts experts practicing with Japanese swords, etc. Some people had even set up a couple of speakers and DJ system and were having their own little "rave" where people gathered and danced (see picture). I want to see if I can't become part of this somehow!

Sakura

The thing to do in Kanto last week was to go to "hanami" (rough translation: "let's use looking at flowers as an excuse for a huge picnic") and spend a day in the open with friends while enjoying the beloved "sakura" cherry blossoms while they're here. Apparently it's going to rain most of this week so the famously fragile sakura are probably going to be gone by next week, but I managed to do a bit of flower watching in Odawara and around Tokai campus, and finished it off with a picnic in Yoyogi park in Tokyo on Sunday. I've put up a small photo album with some pictures I took, although they don't really do the sakura flowers justice, as the weaknesses of the camera in my cellphone become quite apparent when trying to capture the details of Japans favorite pink/white flower.

Antquarium

The "Antquarium". A plastic box filled with a strange blue gel that serves as the ants' food as well as their home. Ew. Supposedly you have to catch the ants yourself or you can buy them in small containers, although most of the ants on sale at Tokyu Hands seemed to be...erm...sleeping...while upside down.

Goldfish catcher

Here's an interesting twist on the typical "UFO catcher"-game that usually gives you the chance to waste large amounts of money on trying to grab some fluffy animal that's too heavy for the grappling arm in the first place. This thing works on the same principle except for the fact that you're not trying to catch Snoopy or the Nova Bunny, but real, live goldfish.

Hatsumode

Whereas people in Denmark spend the days following New Year's eve recovering from hangovers and cleaning up detonated fireworks, people in Japan make good use of their precious few days of vacation preparing and eating special New Year's food and, perhaps more importantly, going to "Hatsumode".

Hatsumode is another one of those Japanese words that requires a full sentence when translated into English, and means something like "first temple visit of the New Year". Since my friend from Hong Kong was visiting Japan and I for once didn't have to work, taking part in this seemed like a good way to spend a Sunday evening. During hatsumode, Japanese crowd together at the many temples scattered across Japan to pray for good luck and draw "o-mikuji", which is sort of like a lottery that tells you what kind of fortune the new year will bring you. This is hugely popular and people were forming long lines to get a premature glimpse of the coming 12 months. However, having your future decided by picking a random piece of paper from a big box reminded me too much of the Danish army's draft, so I decided not to participate. I guess I will find out how everything turns out in due time anyway.

The temple we went to is located in the part of Tokyo called Asakusa and is one of the bigger and more famous temples in Japan. Since we arrived a bit late and it was already the 2nd day of the New Year it was not as crowded as we had feared, and we had no trouble reaching the main building. Once we got there we realized that none of us could really remember what we had to do, but eventually resorted to just copying whatever "the natives" were doing (bowing, clapping etc).

I may be a little late with my New Year's greeting, but anyway I hope there's an o-mikuji with good fortune for 2005 written upon it waiting for you all, Happy New Year!

Snow!

Just to dispel any illusions anyone might have about Japan being one of those exotic asian countries that have tropical summer weather all year round...

Blood types

"What's your blood type?" is a question I've been asked over and over again since coming to Japan. In Japan, sort of like Zodiac signs in the West, it is widely believed that your blood type has great influence on your personality, and is also used to determine horoscopes and so on. Apparently, around 100 years ago, a doctor researched the relationship between blood type and personality and came to believe that you could determine what kind of personality a person has, or will have, from their blood type alone. Even though it's been proven to have no scientific basis whatsoever, it seems many Japanese people still believe in these distinctions to a certain degree. Therefore, when I to the question above reply that I have absolutely no idea, I'm often met with shock and disbelief, usually followed by the question: "But what if you're in a traffic accident, and suddenly find yourself in a hospital needing a transfusion??" I guess it seems reasonable that just before I fall into an unconscious state, I'll be able to mumble to the ER staff this important information of my human makeup. Anyway, the reason I'm writing about this is that I recently took a health check (needed for a scholarship application) and thus finally got an oppurtunity to find out which one of the four blood types, A, B, AB or O, is actually running through my veins. The most common blood type in Japan being Type A, this would also serve as a test as to whether I had actually turned Japanese or not. Erm, anyhow, the results came yesterday, and I present to you, in all its glory, my blood type certificate:



Wow. So I'm Type O then. Which incidentally is one of the most common blood types found in Europe and America, so not too surprising I guess. So what does that say about my personality? Here's a definition of Type O-personalities I found on the internet, judge for yourselves:

"Type O Blood people are said to set the mood for a group and to take on the role of creating harmony among its members. Their image is one of taking it easy, of being peaceful and carefree. They are also thought to be big-hearted and benevolent, and they tend to spend money on others generously. O Types are generally "loved by all." But, they also, surprisingly, have a stubborn and strong-willed side, as well, and tend to secretly have their own opinions on things. On the other hand, they have the flexible, adaptable side of readily accepting new things. They are easily influenced by other people or by what they see on TV. They seem to appear level-headed and trustworthy, but they often slip and make big blunders inadvertently. But that is also the point that makes O Types lovable."