Been awhile i know, sorry. turns out that not every post that i send from my phone gets to the blog for some reason. hmmm. i dont get it. so if three quick "message from skymails" pop up, you know why. they were actually typed several days ago.
so this week. Smo. yes, its true. if you call it sumo here you get strange looks from people, so you better pronounce it correctly. well i went with my friends chrissy and audrey to the new years sumo grand tournament. sumo is only held three times a year in tokyo and three other times around the country and each for two weeks, so i needed to see it now. the next time it will be around is at the end of may.
.....short break.... Thanks to laura for sending me a kick ars care package! full of chocolate, DEODORANT, and a rolling stone magazine (that thing is gold by the way) it was such a nice treat to read things in english and eat real candy. you rule! thanks also to rhiannon for stopping in. welcome to the party and i hope you stop in and post more often.
ok back to smo. we got there at 1130, it started at 9 but runs all day until 6, so we saw plenty (and too much of some, ekk!). turns out that if you buy the general admission ticket you can sit anywhere in the arena until you get kicked out. i sat in the front row for about an hour, then retreated back about 6 rows after almost getting steamrolled by a near naked 400 pound japanese man. gross. but honestly it was awesome! of all the traditional japanese things i have done up to this point, it has ben the best. loud cheering in japanese, a lot of beer, many manmy many bouts between smo wrestlers and friends. each bout really only lasts about 3-20 seconds, but its amazing to watch, and interesting to see the routine that must be followed before the match. i also got my picture taken with one of the wrestlers. wow. fat.
Photos will follow soon.
i found out last night that my messy slob of a roommate is moving out, which means i will be the head resident in about a month. maybe then the place willl stay clean. we shall see.
i also traveled to kamakura again last week. i love that place. this time i rented a bike for 15 bucks all day. i toured many of the temples that i had not seen, most of which were so so, but still very beautiful. i also visited the daibutsu again, the big budha. but this time i dug down deep in my pockets and paid the 20 yen to go inside. unimpressive, but worth the 20 cents. i also visited a bamboo forest in the area.
speaking of bikes, i think that friday is the day. i work on both of my days off this week due to shift swaps, but i have friday to 'enjoy' the area.
"Enjoy". i have not yet mentioned this but that word is overused here. it is one english word that ALL japanese understand, so they use it all the time. 'enjoy japan'. 'will you enjoy your trip?' 'do you enjoy?' 'i want to enjoy vacation in okinawa' UURRGGHHH!!!! stop using the word! as a joke, my cooworkers and i use it to fill out our requests for time off. "I want to enjoy time off when my friend comes to visit from america" heh. they dont get it.
did i mention that japanese people cant pronounce the TH sound either? I said 'theory' in a class today and i got three different spellings: silly, sheery, and shiori. hmmm. no. these were high level students also.
my hong kong adventure with my friend kiyoe will be february 15-17. airfare and 2 nights hotel: 400 bones. not bad. and i cant wait!
i dont know what else to say, im definitely settled in now. i eat the food, spend my hard earned cash at an alarming rate, travel all the time, miss homebut enjoy this place so much, which brings me to a harsh reality: The next time I see my family could very well be the last time i see my friends here. its different from my days in new york. those were in the states, and the workers traveled throughout the country constantly. but now its different. crap. we'll see how it goes.
take care
scotto
Monday, January 24, 2005
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Short Snippets
I'm not really in the mood to post today, and i have very little money so i dont want to do my usual day off three hour internet time. I have also noticed that due to the latitude of Japan, the winter days are very short. by the time i woke up today (11:00) i only had about 5 or 6 hours of daylight left, so... i didnt want to spend them all here in the cafe.
-I have a prediction. in about five years the people of japan are going to self destruct. either that or the suicide rate will skyrocket (its already one of the highest in the world). my reasoning is that very few people ever reveal their true emotions. maybe they are very good at getting over things here, but i just dont see it, no one smiles OR talks on the trains in the morning or evening and if you do, you get many angry stares. a good example: the other day on the train a business man was reading the paper. at one of the stops he stood up, walked to the boy two seats down at asked him to turn down his radio (which was playing in his earphones) even though i was just a few more feet away, i couldnt hear the music. the business man then sat beack down. At the next stop the man stood up again, this time GRABBING THE BOY BY THE NECK, and yelled at him to turn his music down (once again, inaudible just a few more feet away). Turns out the boys player was turned off. IT WAS THE GIRL RIGHT NEXT TO THE BUSINESSMAN! her hair was long enough that you couldnt see the headphones. The man then yelled at her, sat back down and read his paper. He got off at the next stop. In the states this could have been a rumble, but for now, here in japan, it was just a small confrontation. just watch. in five years this could change.
-I am planning a trip to hong kong in february, for about three days.
-Dan is coming March 8-14. Why isnt anyone else coming.
-I once again have no money
- I am seriously considering buying a bike when i get paid next. It would help me explore more of the country then i have been able to see as of yet. should cost me about 90 bucks.
-i walked WEST this week. after two hours i arrived at Yokohama international stadium, the home of the 2002 FIFA world Cup. it was cold, so then i turned around and walked home. total walking time: 4 hours. if i had a bike i could have gone much much further.
-On jan 27th i will be getting another roommate, this time from australia. welcome to the dump pal.
-My bachelor pad status should be over in about two days.
i finally signed up for a Tsutaya card (blockbuster). I rented the newest harry potter movie, and to get my moneys worth i have already watched it three times.
-thats it for today. im tired, and i need to watch harry potter again.
scott
-I have a prediction. in about five years the people of japan are going to self destruct. either that or the suicide rate will skyrocket (its already one of the highest in the world). my reasoning is that very few people ever reveal their true emotions. maybe they are very good at getting over things here, but i just dont see it, no one smiles OR talks on the trains in the morning or evening and if you do, you get many angry stares. a good example: the other day on the train a business man was reading the paper. at one of the stops he stood up, walked to the boy two seats down at asked him to turn down his radio (which was playing in his earphones) even though i was just a few more feet away, i couldnt hear the music. the business man then sat beack down. At the next stop the man stood up again, this time GRABBING THE BOY BY THE NECK, and yelled at him to turn his music down (once again, inaudible just a few more feet away). Turns out the boys player was turned off. IT WAS THE GIRL RIGHT NEXT TO THE BUSINESSMAN! her hair was long enough that you couldnt see the headphones. The man then yelled at her, sat back down and read his paper. He got off at the next stop. In the states this could have been a rumble, but for now, here in japan, it was just a small confrontation. just watch. in five years this could change.
-I am planning a trip to hong kong in february, for about three days.
-Dan is coming March 8-14. Why isnt anyone else coming.
-I once again have no money
- I am seriously considering buying a bike when i get paid next. It would help me explore more of the country then i have been able to see as of yet. should cost me about 90 bucks.
-i walked WEST this week. after two hours i arrived at Yokohama international stadium, the home of the 2002 FIFA world Cup. it was cold, so then i turned around and walked home. total walking time: 4 hours. if i had a bike i could have gone much much further.
-On jan 27th i will be getting another roommate, this time from australia. welcome to the dump pal.
-My bachelor pad status should be over in about two days.
i finally signed up for a Tsutaya card (blockbuster). I rented the newest harry potter movie, and to get my moneys worth i have already watched it three times.
-thats it for today. im tired, and i need to watch harry potter again.
scott
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Hiatus
its been awhile, but nothing exciting has happened in the last two weeks. japan is terrible, im bored, and i want mommy.
sniff sniff.
HA! the truth is that so many things have happened in the last two weeks, i'm most likely to forget half of them, but i'll give it a shot:
In this edition:
1.Christmas
2.Osaka
3.New Years Eve
4.Japanese TV
5.Hiroshima
6.Miyajima
7.Etc.
Christmas. Honestly, the one time ive been 'homesick' since I've been here. This christmas eve was the first time i have ever been away from my family and i cant tell you how much i missed the food, the pine smells and the homemade pumpkin pie. So to counter my feelings of homesickness I decided to cook up a feast at my vacant apartment for some friends(if you recall, i have the place to myself for at least another week). on the menu: a whole roast chicken (cold because i dont have an oven or microwave), garlic mashed potatoes, cranberry salad, edamame(boiled soybeans in the pod which are sprikled with salt and eaten much like a pistacio or peanut. YUM!), broccoli, cheese and crackers, coconut rind dessert, and, drum roll, nachos.
all together it was a very filling meal, and all present, my japanese friend Kiyoe, my bostonian friend Niamh (pronounced like Kiev), and myself were bloated by the end of it. Gifts were given, and i gave out the 100 yen christmas pack that included rice cakes, chips, a small piece of chocolate and a model tank! no kidding. it wasnt home, but it really made me appreciate what i have and my family.
Osaka: on december 30 i traveled via Shinkansen (bullet train) to the third largest city in japan, osaka to tour the west and to visit fellow nova employee kristy. sidenote: the bullet train was fast, but way too expensive. a nice experience but i probably wont do it again. osaka is considered the boston to tokyo's newyork. Its actually much like a smaller tokyo but with a lot of foreigners. the company i work for, nova, was established in osaka. So truth be told, there isnt a huge amount to see. there are some cities close by(nara, kyoto,kobe) , which i didnt go to, that can make it a good base for travelers. The sites that i did see included osaka castle (a nice castle in the middle of town, destroyed and rebuilt many times, so now its made of ferro concrete), the minami shopping area (if you have some crazy neon views of japan,this area is one of them), the osaka aquarium (which houses a real whale shark, AWESOME!)and the most prominent shrine in osaka Sumiyoshi Taisha. for more info, go here: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2157.html
osaka is also famous for takoyaki, those octopus balls, which were great!
When in rome do as the romans do. when in japan on new years eve, do as the japanese do, which is go to a shrine and pray. Somehow, even though there was a large party with about 30 people going on, i convinced about 20 of them to go to the shrine with me (mainly because i didnt know how to get there). So onward we traveled to the sumiyoshi taisha shrine, and met with thousands of japanese. it was fun. at midnight all the people throw coins to the temple, so since we were in the middle of the crowd, we were pelted by dozens of 1 yen pieces (very light, so i'm ok). afterward we all got lost, my friend kristy dropped her phone in a toilet, so no one could contact her, i walked around for two hours with becky(kristy's flatmate) looking for the exit playing carnival type games along the way, talked to many japanese people and ate. alot. (maybe i drank some too, sake flowed freely) A good new years experience, one i surely wont forget.
Phew, only halfway done. sorry everyone, these stories only include about 15% of the story, i just cant type a novel in this short internet cafe time.
Japanese TV. this one will be short, but hopefully you can visualize, which will be funnier than a full explanation. new years day everything is closed, so japanese people sit at home, eat, relax and watch tv. Tv snipets (not a show, just about a 5-20 minute clip highlighting weird ars stuff) included: large breasted women in a contest to see who could fit the most UNDERNEATH their boobs (items included cans of beer, hotdogs and apples), a man who was forced to eat seaweed for two weeks and taunted frequently by his friends, kids driving their parents cars while the parents sat in the passenger seat hancuffed so they couldnt steer, little kids from nigeria nd northern canada (think eskimo) training to compete against each other in sumo competition, and countless others. this kind of crap is on all the time, ill tape it sometime and send it home.
hiroshima: humbling. after the new year kristy and i traveled to hiroshima (now a thriving city with over a million people)i couldnt beleieve that i was standing just a few meters from where the first atomic bomb was dropped. i didnt know how to feel, because less than 60 years before this place was literally on fire, killing over 150,000 in a few seconds. despite the massive destruction and loss of human life, the actual range of the destruction was much less than i had envisioned. hiroshima was chosen in part because the entire city center was within a 3 km area, the bomb hit almost in the middle of this area (exploding 600 meters above the ground) yet SOME people just 850 meters away survived (they did have radiation sickness but they lived for a while after the bombing). I cant really describe it. only a few (literally like 3)buildings in the city area survived, one of them is the a-bomb dome which is a shell(no one inside survived as it was just a few meters from the nomocenter). overall, while humbling and horrific, hiroshima is a good destination to see the efects of war. (two sidenotes: the people of hiroshima are now known throughout the country as some of the most peaceful in the world, writing countless letters every year to countries that have nuclear weapons to dismantle them. and two, while the devestation in hiroshima was terrible, today's bombs are over 100 times more powerful. think about it.
Miyajima: i cant write enough to give this small island about 30 minutes from hiroshima the credit it is due. Its beautiful (voted as one of the three most beautiful places in japan), sacred, quiet, and great for a long day trip. The island has mountains, monkeys, tame deer (which reach into pockets and eat things. where the heck did my map go?), and an awesome shrine. see: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3401.html
the Itsukushima shrine is built over the water, so when the tide comes in it looks like its floating. the Torii gate is also several meters off the shore, making it an amazing site. we spent the day on the island, shopped, went to the top of the mountain which offered panoramic views of the area, and fled the killer deer.
Etc...
-Is it a fashion faux pas to wear a faux leopard fur hat while wearing a faux zebra skin jacket? do the hat and jacket ever fight?
-sumo starts in a few days. YES!
-work is ok, but i havent worked much in the last week and a half.
-the youth 18 pass in japan is awesome! for 11500 yen you get 5 tickets, each worth one full day of unlimited rides on a JR line. the catch: you can only buy them three times a year
-im broke again
-no weird foods this week.
-i bought bull durham last week, ive now watched it 4 times. good considering that ive only been home two days since i bought it.
-why bull durham? it was better than the postman.
-i actually dont mind naato.
-it is the year of the cock by the chinese calendar
-im tired
take care.
scotto san
sniff sniff.
HA! the truth is that so many things have happened in the last two weeks, i'm most likely to forget half of them, but i'll give it a shot:
In this edition:
1.Christmas
2.Osaka
3.New Years Eve
4.Japanese TV
5.Hiroshima
6.Miyajima
7.Etc.
Christmas. Honestly, the one time ive been 'homesick' since I've been here. This christmas eve was the first time i have ever been away from my family and i cant tell you how much i missed the food, the pine smells and the homemade pumpkin pie. So to counter my feelings of homesickness I decided to cook up a feast at my vacant apartment for some friends(if you recall, i have the place to myself for at least another week). on the menu: a whole roast chicken (cold because i dont have an oven or microwave), garlic mashed potatoes, cranberry salad, edamame(boiled soybeans in the pod which are sprikled with salt and eaten much like a pistacio or peanut. YUM!), broccoli, cheese and crackers, coconut rind dessert, and, drum roll, nachos.
all together it was a very filling meal, and all present, my japanese friend Kiyoe, my bostonian friend Niamh (pronounced like Kiev), and myself were bloated by the end of it. Gifts were given, and i gave out the 100 yen christmas pack that included rice cakes, chips, a small piece of chocolate and a model tank! no kidding. it wasnt home, but it really made me appreciate what i have and my family.
Osaka: on december 30 i traveled via Shinkansen (bullet train) to the third largest city in japan, osaka to tour the west and to visit fellow nova employee kristy. sidenote: the bullet train was fast, but way too expensive. a nice experience but i probably wont do it again. osaka is considered the boston to tokyo's newyork. Its actually much like a smaller tokyo but with a lot of foreigners. the company i work for, nova, was established in osaka. So truth be told, there isnt a huge amount to see. there are some cities close by(nara, kyoto,kobe) , which i didnt go to, that can make it a good base for travelers. The sites that i did see included osaka castle (a nice castle in the middle of town, destroyed and rebuilt many times, so now its made of ferro concrete), the minami shopping area (if you have some crazy neon views of japan,this area is one of them), the osaka aquarium (which houses a real whale shark, AWESOME!)and the most prominent shrine in osaka Sumiyoshi Taisha. for more info, go here: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2157.html
osaka is also famous for takoyaki, those octopus balls, which were great!
When in rome do as the romans do. when in japan on new years eve, do as the japanese do, which is go to a shrine and pray. Somehow, even though there was a large party with about 30 people going on, i convinced about 20 of them to go to the shrine with me (mainly because i didnt know how to get there). So onward we traveled to the sumiyoshi taisha shrine, and met with thousands of japanese. it was fun. at midnight all the people throw coins to the temple, so since we were in the middle of the crowd, we were pelted by dozens of 1 yen pieces (very light, so i'm ok). afterward we all got lost, my friend kristy dropped her phone in a toilet, so no one could contact her, i walked around for two hours with becky(kristy's flatmate) looking for the exit playing carnival type games along the way, talked to many japanese people and ate. alot. (maybe i drank some too, sake flowed freely) A good new years experience, one i surely wont forget.
Phew, only halfway done. sorry everyone, these stories only include about 15% of the story, i just cant type a novel in this short internet cafe time.
Japanese TV. this one will be short, but hopefully you can visualize, which will be funnier than a full explanation. new years day everything is closed, so japanese people sit at home, eat, relax and watch tv. Tv snipets (not a show, just about a 5-20 minute clip highlighting weird ars stuff) included: large breasted women in a contest to see who could fit the most UNDERNEATH their boobs (items included cans of beer, hotdogs and apples), a man who was forced to eat seaweed for two weeks and taunted frequently by his friends, kids driving their parents cars while the parents sat in the passenger seat hancuffed so they couldnt steer, little kids from nigeria nd northern canada (think eskimo) training to compete against each other in sumo competition, and countless others. this kind of crap is on all the time, ill tape it sometime and send it home.
hiroshima: humbling. after the new year kristy and i traveled to hiroshima (now a thriving city with over a million people)i couldnt beleieve that i was standing just a few meters from where the first atomic bomb was dropped. i didnt know how to feel, because less than 60 years before this place was literally on fire, killing over 150,000 in a few seconds. despite the massive destruction and loss of human life, the actual range of the destruction was much less than i had envisioned. hiroshima was chosen in part because the entire city center was within a 3 km area, the bomb hit almost in the middle of this area (exploding 600 meters above the ground) yet SOME people just 850 meters away survived (they did have radiation sickness but they lived for a while after the bombing). I cant really describe it. only a few (literally like 3)buildings in the city area survived, one of them is the a-bomb dome which is a shell(no one inside survived as it was just a few meters from the nomocenter). overall, while humbling and horrific, hiroshima is a good destination to see the efects of war. (two sidenotes: the people of hiroshima are now known throughout the country as some of the most peaceful in the world, writing countless letters every year to countries that have nuclear weapons to dismantle them. and two, while the devestation in hiroshima was terrible, today's bombs are over 100 times more powerful. think about it.
Miyajima: i cant write enough to give this small island about 30 minutes from hiroshima the credit it is due. Its beautiful (voted as one of the three most beautiful places in japan), sacred, quiet, and great for a long day trip. The island has mountains, monkeys, tame deer (which reach into pockets and eat things. where the heck did my map go?), and an awesome shrine. see: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3401.html
the Itsukushima shrine is built over the water, so when the tide comes in it looks like its floating. the Torii gate is also several meters off the shore, making it an amazing site. we spent the day on the island, shopped, went to the top of the mountain which offered panoramic views of the area, and fled the killer deer.
Etc...
-Is it a fashion faux pas to wear a faux leopard fur hat while wearing a faux zebra skin jacket? do the hat and jacket ever fight?
-sumo starts in a few days. YES!
-work is ok, but i havent worked much in the last week and a half.
-the youth 18 pass in japan is awesome! for 11500 yen you get 5 tickets, each worth one full day of unlimited rides on a JR line. the catch: you can only buy them three times a year
-im broke again
-no weird foods this week.
-i bought bull durham last week, ive now watched it 4 times. good considering that ive only been home two days since i bought it.
-why bull durham? it was better than the postman.
-i actually dont mind naato.
-it is the year of the cock by the chinese calendar
-im tired
take care.
scotto san
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