Kyoto (Dec 16-18)

As my last sight-seeing trip here in Japan, I went to the city of Kyoto. I had to force myself to go, despite the fact that I'm currently "travelled out" and am ready to go home and see family and friends again. But not going to Kyoto when coming to Japan, is like not going to Paris when you visit France. Kyoto is the city in Japan with the most famous temples and shrines. And a bunch of them are considered UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

So the day after I arrived in Tottori to drop off my luggage, I took a bus to Kyoto. It's only about 3 hours away and it only cost me about 3000 yen which is approximately $30 US one way. I stayed at the J-Hoppers Travellers Hostel next to the infamous Kytoto station. It only costs abou 2500 yen a night and the conditions were amazing. And most importantly the rooms were warm and comfortable. It was suprisingly clean and quiet. I defintely recommend this hostel to whomever goes to Kyoto in the future.

I was quite happy to go to Kyoto to get away from the Tottori snow storm for a few days. The weather in Kyoto was cold, but yet it was sunny so it was perfect. And some of the reminants of the fall colours were still present so it really emphasized the beauty of everything. And to top it off the day I left on the 18th it started to lightly snow. So to top off the gorgeous fall colours, the sprinkle of snow added a glow to the fantastic landscape. So heres where I went. I covered a lot of stuff that I wanted to see.

The interesting thing was during the night of the 17th, I bumped into a friend of mine from Tokyo, Chris, whom I went to the Hokusai art exibition with, and who I didnt get time to meet before I left. It was such a coincidence to get to see him. So we went to Toji temple together in the morning.

Dec 16th
- Arrived at Kyoto station
- Kyoto Imperial Palace (Kyoto was previously the capital city of Japan)
- Kyoto Lighting Festival in the Arayshiyama area

Dec 17th
- Ginkakuji temple
- Path of Philosophy
- Kiyomizu temple

- Giro area (the central area in Kyoto with all the ancient streets and famous for the geishas)
- Shijo area (the heart of the city with all the clubs, restaurants and shopping centres)

Dec 18th
- Toji temple



- Kinkakuji temple (the temple made of pure gold)

- Ryounji temple
- Nanzenji temple

Overall I thought Kyoto was an amazing city. For sight-seeing that is. The landcsape is super gorgeous and relaxing. So I would say its made more for the old folks. I dont think I would want to live there if I were to move to Japan. After living in Tokyo, nothing can compare. Sigh... I miss Tokyo sooo much. As they say in Japanese... natsukashii (good memories)!!!!

Fuji Mountain

Today, the last Sunday I have in Tokyo, Teresa, Richard, Teresa's boyfriend Kenney, and I went to the Fuji Five Lakes area in the prefecture west of Tokyo. Our main motive was to go see Fuji mountain. I really wanted to hike up the mountain, but we were out of climbing season.

A view of Fuji mountain just outside Kawaguchiko station

It took more than 3 hours commuting each way (from Tokyo station to Kawaguchiko station) but it was worth it. We left Tokyo at around 7 am and arrived at Kawaguchiko station at 10 am. I got off the train and was blown away. We stayed around Kawaguchi lake (one of the "five lakes" next to the mountain). When we arrived we went up these liftcars that took us to the top of a hill to have a better look at Fuji mountain and took tons of pictures. Even though that was mostly what we did, it was totally worth it. Its like nothing I've ever seen before. This was the last place I wanted to see before leaving Tokyo. It was a good thing we went early because at around 2 pm the mountain disappears into the clouds.

But there wasn't much to do in the area other than enjoy the view of the mountain. Nearby there were tons of tiny museums and even a place dedicated to put on a show performed by actual monkies. We found a lot of stuff quite expensive for what it was worth so we didnt go in. So ended up going to a blueberry farm and we learned how to make blueberry jam. mmmmmmm peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.. i miss those.. hehehe

Us going up the lift-car

Yummy lunch: famous local food of the Fuji area called "Hotto"

Us making blueberry jam

Last Weekend in Tokyo and Mixed Feelings

It's my last weekend here in Tokyo and my last two weeks in Japan. I've had so much fun here the time just flew by. I'm having mix feelings. Part of me really really wants to go home and see all my friends and family. But part me is going really miss Japan. It's been my home for the past 9 months. No matter how much I complain about the difference and the conservatism of the culture, I have seriously gotten used to it. I found out that I'm a person that likes "settling down", as in when I move somewhere I like staying there and adapting to the life instead moving around everywhere. I have definitely formed a bond with Japan.

I watched the movie "Lost in Translation" starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson last night. It quite enjoyed it because I could relate to it very much. It's about the two characters arriving in Tokyo and getting somewhat frustrated at the culture but in the end didn't want to leave, but yet wanted to go home. There was much more to the story but I still could relate to it.

I'm also dreading packing. So much junk has built up the past four months here in Tokyo. And I hate throwing out stuff so moving back to Tottori is going to be an adventure.

Shinjuku, one of my favourite places in Tokyo to hang out. I will miss it

Visiting the Host Parents in Ishikawa, Japan (Dec 1 - 4, 2005)

During the Japan Tent conference in early August, I promised one of the host families to visit them after I move to Tokyo. So I finally did it. They were the sweet old couple that lived in Noto city of Ishikawa prefecture: Sadatoshi and Teiko Gyoda. They're both in their mid-70's and are as active as ever. They're both very active senior citizens and are in great health.

It was kinda weird for me to go from such an urban and crowded environment like Tokyo to a REALLY rural area like Noto. I found out that I'm definitely a city boy and enjoy the city lights, noise and crowdedness.


So I took a plane from Tokyo Haneda airport to Noto. Seeing them again was very nice. They treated me like I was their own grandson. So when I arrived they told me that we were going on an onsen (hot spring). So I was like okay sure, thinking it was somewhere local.. that sounds good. They ended up driving over 2 hours from Noto down south past metropolitan Kanazawa (the capital city of Ishikawa prefecture)to some southern city. I was so amazed at my host mom for driving for so long without getting tired. And shes over 75 years old. She told me shes been driving since 1950 so it was no problem for her and that she enjoys driving. We arrived at a traditional Japanese style hotel. The hotel room was like my dorm room in Yokohama but of course much larger, with a living room, shower, the works. Then we headed to dinner at the hotel. It was this gigantic buffet with all-you-can-eat crabs. It was mucho yummy. And boy do they both LOOOOVE drinking. My host father had 3 glasses of beer and a half a bottle of Japanese liquor. My host mom drank orange juice because she drank too much the night before. hahahaha. Afterwards my host father and I went to the hot spring in the hotel and enjoyed the steaming hot pool of water. I was more careful this time to prevent myself from getting a big headache.

Me and my host grandparents at the hotel in Ishikawa prefectureYummay dinnerI'm getting fat from all the eating... I'll lose it once school starts again

Supposedly it snowed the night before but it seemed to have melted. The street snow/ice-melting sprinklers were on in the roads. The next day after breakfast, we headed to Kanazawa city and went to the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of History. It was very interesting and thank goodness there were English audio guides available. I even got to dress up in ancient samurai armour. The both of them are very into art, culture and history so we ended up spending over 2 hours in the museum. By the time we left and headed back to their house in Noto it was already 7 pm. So we had dinner and chatted about our lives, Japanese politics and current events. Their house was freeezing cold. In Japan there's no such thing as central heating. And being out in the boonies, they needed to place portable heaters all ove the house. The last time I came here, it was the complete opposite: it was steaming hot. Why wont the Japanese get with the times and build their houses with central heat and air conditioning?! I couldnt take a shower that night because the house was too cold so my host mom recommended me to take one later.

Road snow/ice melting sprinklers

The next day we headed off to somewhere local. Well it ended up being over an hour away so I dont know how "local" it was. hahahaha. It was actually snowing an area on the way to where we were going. This is the very first time I've seen snow in Japan. It's nothign compared to the level of snow we get in Canada though. We ended up at the Ishikawa Nanao Art Museum. They had paintings and drawings from famous artists. The art was very gorgeous and it took me a while to fully appreciate it. My host parents absolutely loved it. We ended watching this hour long video about the paintings in the museum after we finished browsing. The drive home was nice because the snow was gone and there was a goregous rainbow in the sky. After returning to their house and had a gigantic dinner: Japanese hot-pot, my host father set up a hot bath. The water was scalding hot so I had to release some water and put more cold water in. My host father told me that in Japanese culture, what I should have done instead was, without releasing any water, let the water up to the tip of the tub when I get in some water spills out. This helps get rid of the grime of the previous person that took the bath. In Japan they use the same bath water for everybody, unlike western countries. So the next day after breakfast we headed off to the airport and said goodbye to them. Even though it wasnt the most exciting weekend, I had a great time with them. They are after all senior citizens so I can't expect too much out of them. And after all, the purpose of this trip was not to come sight seeing but to spend time with my host family. I will definitely keep in touch wih them through letters and phone calls after returning to Canada. They are absolutely an amazing couple. I consider them my Japanese grandparents.

End of the Year Office Party

So our ITS team at the office had a party to celebrate the end of the working year. And also to have a goodbye party for Matsuzaki. She's taking time off until next year. It was a great night getting to hang out with everybody. Once again, Ishikawa fell asleep and everybody, notably Hamanaka and Matsuzaki, starting playing pranks on him by drawing all over his face, like darkening his eyebrows with a permanent marker. It was quite humerous.

At one point they asked me how I communicate with my friends and family back home in Canada. So I told them I use a webcamera and a MSN messenger (the concept of chatting). This was a complete shock to them. It was like they heard about webcams and chatting for the very first time. The Japanese are not internet savvy at all. Their form of communication is all based on the mobile phone. All foreigners think that Japanese has all this amazing technology. There is a lot of neat technology, but the general Japanese public still falls behind in how to use the available technology. So overall I feel its just a partially false and over-exaggerated stereotype. Like how all foreigners think Canadians eat maple syrup all the time.

It was a great time. Free food, lots of alcohol and a chance to further bond with my co-workers.

The ITS team: (Left side of table, back to front): Me, Suzuki, Tsuji (used to be in the ITS), and Aoki. (Right side of table, back to front): Takaishi, Fujitaka, Kuroda, Ishikawa, and Matsuzaki

Hamanaka and Matsuzaki pulling a prank on Ishikawa

Japanese Tea Ceremony Class with Rotary Club

Today, the Tokyo Rotary Club organized a class to teach students how to perform the tradition Japanese Tea Ceremony. My friend Hiro is the Vice-President so he was kind enough to invite me to experience it.

I had done it many times, once in 1993 when my Grade 5 class took a field trip to the Japanese Canadian Culture Centre in Toronto, the second time was in July of this year at the Japan Tent conference, and last month, I went with Hiro and the rotary club to an unofficial public tea ceremony. BUT, this time it was extra special cause it was an official class with a professional sensei (teacher). So they taught us how to properly fold the napkins, how to properly wipe the bowls,how to walk, bow, move properly around the tearoom, and how to properly drink the tea. There are soooo many rules. It was quite an interesting experience.

The class took place in the famous Konnichi-An teahouse (Today's Teahouse). The teahouse is over 400 years old and is used by many high Japanese dignitaries like Prime Minister Junchiro Koizumi. The name "today's" teahouse was inspired by a poem telling everybody to live life to the fullest. Make good use of your day, don't delve too much about the future or the past. I completely agree with this philosophy.

I can now say I took an official class on the Japanese tea ceremony in Japan's most famous teahouse.

The sensei

My friend Hiro (right). One of the vice-presidents of the Tokyo Rotary club

Life's Many Conumdrums

Ever since I moved to Tokyo to start my work term, I've had more time to myself to read novels and think. I've read almost 7 novels since September. I mostly do it on the subway to and from work.

So I just finished "Elenor Rigby" by Douglas Coupland, who happens a Canadian author. The story was very light-hearted, whimsical, humerous, and yet it was very thought-provoking. The main character, Liz Dunn went through life, as we all do, with problems. Yet throughout these problems, she manages to stay above the frey and brush off these problems without the slightest thought. By the end, she learned a lot about herself and vowed to change. I'm not going to go into detail but I do recommend everyone to read it.

After the amazing and emotional ending, I had to take deep breath. I was on my way home from work today. Having so much time to yourself isn't always the best thing cause it means you have more time to think about your life problems, your faults and your failures. The thought-provoking story didn't help much either.

Sometimes I feel that I'm the only person in the world with serious emotional and life problems. And I ask myself why does life have to be so complicated. But then as I looked around me on the Tokyo subway train and I realized that everybody has their own problems and obstacles to deal with. Everybody has their happy times and their sad and complicated times. I realized I am not alone in this world. Life is not easy, we have to work hard and make difficult life-changing decisions.

I guess being in a foreign country has really made me realize my own strengths and weaknesses. I'm really thinking too deep into this. But I think self-actualization is important. Learn to know yourself better and life's many conumdrums won't seem as bad as you think they are... well at least I think they wont be.

Hokusai exibition

Today, my friend Chris and I went to the Tokyo National Museum for Hokusai exibition.

Hokusai (1760 - 1849) is Japan's most famous and most well known artist. He lived during the Tokugawa period (1600 to 1867) in a Japan of traditional Confucian values and feudal regimentation. His most famous work, which Im sure everybody has seen before some time or other, is the "Great Wave".


They had shipped from famous museums from all over the world, orginal works of Hokusai. The exibition was spectacular. Though I pictured the original paintings to be much larger than they turned out to be. But Hokusai's artwork had soo much detail and was so elegant, that it blew me away.

I wasn't allowed to take any pictures. So I bought some postcards and I took pictures of them.. hee hee.

"The Great Wave off the Coast of Kanagawa". Hokusai's most famous painting

"A Mild Breeze on a Fine Day ". Another famous Hokusai painting
"Dish Ghost (Sara Yashiki) "
"Beauty Being Inebriated"

Afterwards, I visited the Tokyo National Science Museum. They had a special exibition called Pearls - A Natural History, which was partly organized by the world famous Mikimoto company that produces pearl jewelery. It discussed the different types of pearls, and how pearls are formed, and displayed famous examples of pearls from all over the world. From the hat of the King of Nepal to Marylin Monroe's necklace. The one that stood out to me was the Miss Universe tiara.

Miss Universe tiara

Yokohama Int'l Triennale of Contemporary Art & Ramen Museum

Every morning when I'm commuting to work, I see these ads advertising the Yokohama 2005 Triennale of Contemporary Art. I've been tempted to go for the past few weeks, but have been to lazy to get off my ass. But finally I went to today. It was really really interesting. It was located in the stunning harbour front of Yokohama. Suitably, the triennale was held in warehouses near the port.

The entire exibition was titled "Art Circus (Jumping from the Ordinary)". Its goal is to reconsider and revaluate the function of art and the power of art in modern society. It featured contemporary works by artists from all over the world. There were very few paintings, mostly just random creations. Photos weren't allowed for most of the exibition, so I took where I can.

Sculpture beforing entering the front gates

Front gate

Path which takes me to the front entrance of the exibition

Bar in the shape of an anus. I couldnt stop laughing. It was erotic, disturbing, humerous and artistic all at once.
This picture is dedicated to Gary.. hahahahahahahaha

After the Triennale, I decided to go to the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum. Basically its like a little theme park where they have restaurants and a tiny museum on ramen noodles. The entire place is decorated such that it looks like the 50's and 60's. They had approximately 8 different restaurants each offering different styles of ramen noodles from all over Japan. I had three GIANT bowls. I was soooo full. It was a really neat experience. I'm defintely gonna come back to chow down on more ramen before I leave.

Random Japanese Festival

So I went to buy gifts for my family and friends at the market in Sensoji shrine in the Asakusa area of Tokyo. Suprisingly, out of ALL of Tokyo, Asakusa is the only place where you can find Japanese souvenirs. Tokyo is more of the modern clothing shopping type of city. So.. as I was browsing stuff a parade or a festival of some sort suddenly starts. A whole bunch of old ladies dressed in Japanese traditional wear start dancing in two lines. I was really impressed with their moves considering their age. This is so typical of the Japanese. They really enjoy their festivals. I think its a really nice part of the culture. We should have more random things like this in Canada.

(Click here for a video of the parade)

Imperial Palace

Since I'm living in the capital city, I vowed to make a trip to the Imperial Palace here in Tokyo. The Imperial Palace is the official residence of the Emperor, the Empress, and the rest of the Japanese royal family. The tours were only offered during weekdays, so I had to take a morning off work.

The tour was okay interseting. The architecture was nothing really special compared to other stuff Ive seen elsewhere in Japan. But I guess the whole purpose of this is just to say that I've been to the Imperial Palace. And I got to see the famous stretch of windows that the royal family usually greets the public from.

Sakashita-mon GateThe former Privy CouncilFujimi-yagura (watch tower)Kunaicho Chosha (head office of the Imperial Household)Kyuden Totei Plaza

Me lookin like a secret service agent

The window which from the royal family greets the public (like in the photo, which I didnt take, below)
One of the royal gardens behind the building

A sea of dried lotus flowers in the castle moat, which usually would be in full blossom during the summer

Tokyo Motor Show

So on October 28th I went to this extremely boring ITS Japan conference/seminar for work (Since I belong to the ITS - Intelligent Transpot Systems- dept at Nippon Koei). Basically all it was was people making presentations and talking non stop for 3 hours. I went with Ishikawa from work. And to top it off, it was all in Japanese, so I was only able to catch a bit of it. Both of us ended up sleeping/napping for most of it. hahahahaha. We were joking aftertwards that that was one good thing that came out of that boring conference. BUT, we got free tickets to the Tokyo Motor Show.

So today, a Thursday and a Japanese national holiday (Japan has shit loads of national holidays.. today was "Culture Day"... hahahaha everyday is Culture Day in Japan for me), so we didnt have to work. So Ishikawa, Tsuji, Matsuzaki, and I went to the Tokyo Motor Show which was held in Chiba prefecture. Ishikawa picked Tsuji and I up from our dormitory and we met Matsuzaki there at the car show.

Overall it was very interesting. I found it to be somewhat similar to the Toronto Car Show but of course it was bigger and with female models posing with the vehicles. Most prominently, there were much much much more concept vehicles. It was really neat. You didn't need to know a lot about cars to enjoy yourself. They also had tons of simulators and 3D ride type things. I got to try the Honda simulator. It was the first time I had gotten behind a steering wheel in 8 months. Kinda scary ay? hahahahaha. At certain pavillions there was dancing and Japanese girls speaking with an overly-enthusiastic tone (so perky you want to throw up). But overall, i had a great time. It was also nice being able to bond with these guys from work.

Ishikawa and Tsuji

Perky Japanese dancing

I thought these handicap aided cars were the neatest. I was especially inspired because of my Aunt Winnie. Shes an amazing driver, so this gives me hope that she can continue to drive and go places when she gets older.

Nissan Pivo.. isn't it adorable.. or in Japanese... KAWAI!More perky dancingBad boys bad boys, what cha gonna do when they come for you

Nippon Koei Research Centre in Tsukuba

According to my boss, Fujitaka, every newbie at Nippon Koei must make a trip to their Research Centre in Tsukuba (west of Tokyo... also called Tsukuba Science City). So yesterday, Fujitaka
and I made a trip by train down to the centre. Supposedly, Nippon-Koei is the only civil engineering consulting in Japan that has such a large research centre.

It was this GIGANTIC building with a HUMONOUS testing site around it. Basically the building where I work at is just the office/client consulting area in downtown Tokyo. But here, in the research centre, is where all the technical stuff takes place. They do stuff such as water dam scale modelling and testing , sewage system modelling and testing, water resources/soil quality engineering testing, etc... It was quite neat. So I spent the day listening to presentations and taking a tour of the facilities. I was really impressed.

I would go into the technical details about my trip but that would just bore everyone reading this.

Scale model of a dam to be built in Kagawa prefectureSewage system modelling
Model of a River "Fish-way". To be built to guide fish traffic
Soil mechanics laboratory

Giant centrifuge (like the one astronauts use) used here to model the forces that would be present on a slope. Overall its used for landslide prevention engineering.

Unofficial Japanese Tea Ceremony with Rotary

When I went to Nagoya in June for the Aichi World Expo, I had met the Vice-President of one of the many Tokyo Rotary clubs, Hiro Sakamaki. He is also the president of his own Environmental Engineering consulting firm. We chatted quite extensively so he gave me his card and told me to contact him when I arrive in Tokyo.

So a couple of weeks ago (day of Oktoberfest) I went out to lunch with him and his fiancee. They were extremely kind. I had thought it would be some type of formal/business oriented type thing so I dressed up fairly decently. Then when I arrived at the restaurant, him and his financee were dressed in casual clothes. He was in a baseball cap, with torn jeans and stuff so I was so overdressed hahahahaa. But it was quite a delicious lunch. Nepalese and Indian food..mmmmm... Then we went back to his place to have coffee. His toilet... get this... when you sit down on it, it starts playing music (Destiny's Child - Bootylicious... very suitable) and in the bowl are spinning disco lights... I was so surprised... it was quite humerous.

So yesterday he invited me out again, this time with his Rotary club, to a Japanese tea ceremony. So I also got to meet the other Vice-President and the President. Supposedly every season or so, in Japanees culture they are suppose to go through the tea ceremony. And its very very orchestrated with strict rules. The ladies serving the tea have to walk a certain way and are suppose to enter and exit a certain way. I experienced it when I went to the Japan Tent conference, but this was more formal. Quite an educational experience indeed.

Akikawa Valley - Nippon Koei Social Outting

So my entire department, not just my ITS team, went out for a company social outting in Akikawa Valley, located east of Tokyo. It was a lot of fun.

At first when we arrived, Tsushima and Hamada, the two freshman who live in the dormitory with me, organized a scavenger hunt. Lucky me, I was put on a team with my supervisor Fujitaka, the big boss of the department Ishibashi, and some other dude I don't know the name of. Basically what we had to do was to hike around Akikawa and take pictures of specific landmarks. Along the way we also got to stop to eat a Japanese delicacy called "Konyaku" a type of sea jelly. It was super yummy.

My boss/supervisor, Fujitaka, and I

Me, the other dude, and Ishibashi enjoying our konyaku

Me being silly with my Konyaku

Me, Fujitaka, and Ishibashi enjoying our Konyaku

Hamanaka, the other ITS manager, taking a picture of his scavenger hunt team

The fall colours in the leaves were starting to come in so it was absolutely gorgeous. After the scavenger hunt, all the teams ended up near the shore of a river where Matsuzaki and Ishikawa, both from my ITS team at work, were preparing a HUGE BBQ for everyone. I aboslutely love Japanese barbeques. Unlike the boring hamburger and hotdog bbqs we have at home in Canada, Japanese BBQs have EVERYTHING. They dump everything on the grill and its super yummy. I always over eat at Japanese BBQs.

mmmm Japanese BBQ

After the BBQ, I went into a car with Hamada and Tsushima back to the dormitory.
I enjoyed myself. I got to know a lot of my coworkers better.

"24" Marathon

So my friend James introduced me to the American TV show "24" (on FOX) starring Kiefer Sutherland. We watched season 4 of the show. I watched the first 4 episodes at his place the first time (we had to rent from Tsutaya - Japan's Blockbuster). I was immediately hooked. Its such an exciting and suspenceful show. Its TOTALLY addictive. For those of you who are not familiar the show, each season of 24 takes place in a day and the each of the twenty-four episodes in each season represents an hour.

I went to rent the next 6 episodes myself because we were both busy. But for the rest of the 14, my friend Hiro kindly lent me his DVD set he had bought over the internet. I went back to James' place and we watched 14 hours of 24 spread out in two days. The DVD's ended up being in PAL format (UK format) so it was in black and white on James' Japanese DVD player. But we were so addicted we didnt really care. We ate KFC while watching.. I havent had KFC in ages... It was finger lickin good.

EARTHQUAKE!!!

So I was just working at my desk diligently when all of a suddent the room started shaking. I was like holy shit. Its an EARTHQUAKE!!!! I ve always joked with people ever since I arrived here in Japan that I want to experience at least one earthquake before I leave. And that wish came true. It was like a Disneyland ride. It was nuts. The hanging lamp in my room started swaying back and forth back and forth. While it was happening, I had to message someone on MSN and Emily Johnston and Laura from my class happened to be online so I was chatting with them about it.

I'm very impressed with Japanese infrastructure cause the power didnt go out, the internet didnt go out and the phone lines were all working perfectly. I guess they experience them enough here that its kinda like a snow blizzard is to us.

Even though it wasn't a heavy one, I was quite shaken up afterwards. Like having the entire building shake back and forth on you is quite frightening, especially if you havent experienced before. I grew up in Toronto, where NOTHING happens other than snow storms.

I checked online earthquake reports afterwards and it was a 6.4 magnitude at the hypocenter near the coast of Honshu, Japan. And we felt the earthquake here in the greater Tokyo area at a magnitude of 3. A 3 was already that crazy, I could only imagine what a 6.4 feels like since the severity grows exponentially as the magnitude increases.

I have attached a picture of the earthquake report below

Mommy and Daddy comes to Japan

So my parents decided to take a vacation to Hong Kong and come visit me in Japan along the way (October 13- 16). So I took Friday off work and met them at their hotel in the Ikebukuro area of Tokyo. I haven't seen them for almost 7 months. So it was very very nice to see them again.

And knowing the stress monkey that I am, I was super stressed out in planning their visit here. Basically I had to plan all the sightseeing. I wanted to give them the best visit of Tokyo but considering they only had two full days in the city I had to cram a lot in. And since I haven't done much sightseeing myself in the city, I was kinda learning in the process myself. Thank goodness for my friend James who has lived in the city for almost two years to give me some sightseeing suggestions.

There's a lot of photos of places I dont have cause theyre on my parent's camera. So heres where we went in the four days.

Day 1- October 13th (after meeting them at their hotel)

• Shibuya - Dinner and browsing

• Roppongi Hills (giant skyscraper with a 360 degree view of Tokyo and a contemporary art museum)

Day 2 - October 14th

• Sensoji Temple (Asakusa Kannon Temple)

• Boat Cruise along the river running

• Hama Rikyu Gardens

• Odaiba area (with a stunning view of the Tokyo skyline)
• My Dormitory

• Yokohama Harbour front

Day 3 - October 15th

• Nikko (in a city about 1.5 hours away from Tokyo with gorgeous temples)

• Akihabara Electric Town (with all the Japanese electronics)
• Ginza

• Shinjuku
• Dinner at a traditional rotating sushi bar restaurant in Shinjuku

Day 4 - October 16th

• Tsukiji-Shijo Fish Market
• Yasakuni Shrine (the controversial Japanese soldier shrine)

Most of the trip was taken up by transportation. The tourist attractions are all located at points far away from each other. But that's all part of living in Tokyo: the commuting. So my parents got to experience the different forms of transportation here and the complete madness of pulic transit in the densest city in the world. But one amazing that came out of the commuting was that we got to have a lot of wonderful conversations about what's happening at home and what I have been up to. It was defintely, as my father puts it, a family reunion.

My dad sitting next to old ladies on the JR train

________

The Yasakuni Effect
A special part of the trip I would like to talk about is the trip to the infamous Yasakuni Shrine. For those of you who don't know, Yasakuni Shrine is the shrine that commemorates the Japanese war dead (all the wars, not just WWII) and happens to contain a few war criminals from WWII. And this is the controversial shrine that upsets China and South Korea everytime Prime Minister Koizumi visits it. My dad is a very knowledgeable and educated individual and is extremely interested, like myself, in history and politics. So he really enjoyed this part of the trip.
So I want to talk about something that I experienced during our visit to Yasakuni Shrine I call the Yasakuni Effect. Being from Chinese origin, this was the very first time I had felt awkward being in Japan. It started when we first entered the shrine and my mom commented on how she felt slightly uncomfortable being there due to the war crimes against our ancestors. My dad, on the other hand took this visit more as an educational experience and decided to look past the controversial history. Parts of me agreed with both their stances. I unexpectedly felt offended being in the shrine. I never thought I would actually feel this way since I've been living and educated in Canada for most of my life and being the third generation in my family since World War II ended. It was a feeling that hit me by surprise. I studied all this stuff in high school, and I usually just took it as an event in history, and like my dad, looked past the controversy. But I couldn't help but feel angry at what the Japanese did to my ancestors. For the first time I felt sympathetic toward the remarks made by the Chinese and Korean governments. The shrine also contained a really extensive museum that took the visitor throughout the history of the wars that Japan has engaged in. So me and my dad went in and thank goodness the displays contained English. I actually learned A LOT from the museum. And my dad, being Chinese and our family's history (mostly my grandfather) with Japan, my dad finally got to see what "the other side" had to say and how the "other side" interpreted history. I didn't really blame my mom for not wanting to go in cause I completely understood her feelings. But my curiosity and extreme interest in history and politics kind of overpassed my anger and discomfort.
The interesting thing was that the very next day after our visit, on October 17th, Prime Minister Koizumi made a trip to the shrine. And as expected, China and Korea made a lot of noise in international news.

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Overall, I could have organized their vacation better. I was really upset at myself as there were a lot of places I wanted to take them to ended up being closed. They kept telling me that the purpose of their trip was to come visit me. But I was still really disappointed at myself. Considering that they payed so much just to fly here and that it was my dad's first time in Japan, I wanted to give them the best experience possible.

I can't wait to see them, the rest of my family, and my friends again when I return to Canada in late December. Japan has definitely become part of my life, but I miss Canada!!!

Oktoberfest in Japan

So I went out with Richard and Ana on Sunday in Yokohama. I took them on the same route I took along the habour front a few weeks ago. They were really impressed as I was when I first went to Yokohama.

So near the end, we stumbled up this festival going on in a big white tent. It was OKTOBERFEST in Yokohama. We couldn't believe our eyes. Waterloo has the second largest Oktoberfest in the world second to the ones in Germany. So we were really surprised to see that there are actually festivities going on in Japan. I didn't bring my camera, so Richard took all of the photos. It was crazy. The Japanese go wild when there is alcohol. Ana got this really tall glass of beer and I bought some sausages. It was quite impressive considering that its Japan. They had a German band and they even altered one of the traditional German Oktoberfest drinking songs to suit the Japanese crowd more. It was quite humerous. The last time I went to Oktoberfest was in Waterloo two years ago with Rob, Sara, and Rob's friend Kim.

I'd like to give special shout outs to all our classmates who are doing their exchange in Germany and wish them a happy and mucho drunken Oktoberfest. Of course our imitation Ok-fest is nothing compared to yours.

(photos courtesy of Richard)

Myself, Richard, and Ana at Oktoberfest Yokohama

Its soooo Japanese to do something so corny as a train during Ok-fest. But it was fun nevertheless

mmmmm weiners in a bento box

Breaking into the Tokyo Social Scene

So I have finally broken into the Tokyo social scene. My friend James, from Canada who happens to be teaching English in Tokyo, took me out clubbing the other day in Shinjuku. Shinjuku, like Shibuya, is a huge shopping/night life district here in Tokyo. The stupid thing about partying at night in Tokyo is that if you miss the last train, you are forced to stay out until 5 am the next day. It completely kills your weekend cause of fatigue. I completely dont understand why the trains here in Tokyo don't run 24 hours a day like they do in New York considering that it is the most dense city in the world.

So I ended up meeting other cool people. Jed, Chris, and Ryan are all from the USA. They're a fun bunch to hang out with. They introduced me to a few other people. So we all go out drinking, clubbing, karaoke, and partying the past two weekends. I have never partied so much before in my life.

Jed at Moss BurgerChris at Moss Burger

Chris and Ryan on the JR trainJed and I on the JR train

My parents are coming to visit me next week! YAY! I havent seen them in like 7 months. And I get to do my Tokyo sightseeing all in one weekend!! Considering I have been avoiding it for the past two months this would be a great chance to get it all done.

Global Festival Japan 2005

A bunch of Tottori University students along with Professor Kip Cates, the professor who helped organized the Hunger Banquet, came down to Tokyo today to attend the "Global Festival Japan 2005". And knowing that I was in Tokyo, he invited me to join them. Professor Cates introduced me to a Tottori student named Tetsuda so we ended up hanging out with each other throughout the conference.

The Global Festival is basically an International Development related conference/festival with a huge set up located in Hibiya Park. EVERY Japanese NGO (Non-Governmental Organizations) and developing nations with embassies in Japan had booths set up. And the food was amazing. Developing nations from all over the world had different food stands set up as well. Mondo yummy. Considering my deep interest and passion toward international development this was right up my alley. I got the opportunity to gather tons of literature from many different NGO's. The festival also had this stamp collecting thing where we had to go these specified booths and do some activity or answer some quiz questions. We had to get 13 stamps in order to get a prize at the front gate. I received this really nice Fair Trade necklace and this really awesome African painting.

Me standing in front of the "UN High Commissioner for Refugees" booth

The "World Bank Group" booth

Bangladesh embassy booth doing an activity about water sanitation Me trying on a pregnant suit in a booth that talks about the health and wellness of pregnant women in developing nationsI was browsing a gallery filled with photographs. This jumped out at me. This little African girl wearing a white band made out of cloth to display her hope that the world would be free of poverty some day. The White Band Project is a global campaign for "Make Poverty History"
Me with my White Band

Me and the students from Tottori University. Tetsuda is standing to my right

This conference definitely rejuvenated my passion toward international development. I have so much career paths I can take after graduation so I'm kinda lost in terms of what to do. But it will definitely be something related to do international/human development.

First Pass at Tokyo

Since I just got back from a long week vacation filled with temples and shrines, I wasnt ready to start sight seeing of traditional Japanese stuff just yet. But I decided to start tackling Tokyo's major city spots.

I started with Shibuya. Shibuya is this one of the many GIANT shopping/nightlife areas that contains tons of department stores, restaurants and the world's busiest Starbucks. It also contains one of Tokyo's busiest nightlifes. It remains busy until the last train at midnight everyday. It was actually kinda difficult to shop for men's clothing. In all the department stores Ive been to, there are like 6 floors of women's wear and 1 of men's. I'm not complaining cause I'm not a big fan of shopping and I cant afford the department store stuff anyways. It also has a huge HMV with different floors devoted to different genres of music. There were actually a classical music floor and a jazz music floor. It was quite exciting to find a floor devoted to my all time fav music genre. I spent almost an hour there just sampling and listening to Japanese-made jazz music.

Shibuya

Festival passing by the streets in Shibuya
A shot of the Shibuya main intersection from the worlds busiest Starbucks

So during Ana's birthday, I took Ana out to a restaurant in Shibuya called Alcatraz (named after the famous high-security prison in San Francisco) located in some basement. The elevator down was uniquely designed like the Tower of Terror in Disney World. It was a very Halloweenish restaurant. Its basically this jail and evil/mad/psycho-doctor themed restaurant where when you enter, the hostess and the waitresses, dressed as nurses, handcuffs you and leads you to your jailcell. Throughout our meal they put on many acts, like mad doctors running around, sirens, speakers broadcasting creepy messages, etc... At one point this mad doctor with a clownmask came running toward our table with two dildos in his hands. It startled Ana.. hahahaha. The food was kinda questionable.. warm caesar salad made of cabbage??? hmmmm... yeah... In reality, only the Japanese could do such perky restaurants like this.

Alcatraz theme restaurant for Ana's birthday

During the last weekend I went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art where there was an Egyptian exibition that was brought over from the L'ouvre in Paris. The exibition was in French and Japanese so I had to rely on my French to actually understand stuff. hahahaha. But overall it wasnt too exciting cause we see a lot of this stuff in museums in Canada so it doesnt wow me at all.. The Japanese seemed to be wowed and amaze with it... well they get wowed by a lot of things.. hahahaah. I went to other parts of the museum with neat paintings and sculptures. I really enjoyed it. But sadly I got sick by the time I left. I felt a cold coming on.

Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art

Exploring Yokohama

Since I actually live in Yokohama, I decided to explore it first before Tokyo. The day after the Radwimps concert, Tsuji took me to the area around Yokohama station. The Yokohama area is absolutely GORGEOUS. Yokohama has one of the largest ports in Japan, so it has a stunning harbour front. So Tsuji and I went up the Yokohama Landmark Tower (a skyscraper). It has the fastest elevator in Japan (750 m/min) with an amazing 360 degree view of the city from up top. On a good day you can even see Fuji mountain from afar. Of course its not as tall as the CN Tower, but the Japanese landscape is much nicer to look at.

Yokohama Landmark Tower

View of Yokohama city from The Yokohama Landmark Tower (taken with my horrible cellphone camera)


Yokohama station shopping centre

So a week later, I decided to go explore Yokohama on my own. I really didnt know what to do so I just randomly explored. Then I found the Motomachi shopping street. It was quite amazing. A ton of name brand stores. And of course my fav, the Gap and the Japanese version of the Gap, UNI-QLO. But I didnt spend too much time shopping. I had two goals, buy new running shoes and replace my earring that finally broke after so much travelling. Afterward, I stumbled onto Yamashita Park. It had an absolutely breathtaking and romanting boardwalk along the Yokohama port waterfront. The buildings had a European taste to them so it gave this part of town a bit of a flare. Considering it is a historical port city, Im not surprised at its European influence. At the end of this breath taking walk takes you to Yokohama Chinatown, the biggest Chinatown in Japan. All my Japanese collegues tell me how Chinatown is sooo cool. I went and I was like meh... whatever... basically it was filled with overpriced food and stuff I can get back at home in Toronto or Taiwan for like a tenth of the price. For example a small dish of noodles costs 1200 yen ($12 US). I can get the same thing in Toronto for $5 Canadian. So I spent like a total of 10 minutes in Chinatown. hahahaha.

Yokohama Chinatown

Motomachi shopping street
Harbour front Yokohama

Red Brick Warehouses now transformed into cool little shops and cafes

Chinatown after dark

Overall Yokohama is a stunning city. Has a lot of character. If I were to move to Japan, I would defintely live here in Yokohama. There arent much more interesting areas of Yokohama other than here, so basically I'm done exploring Yokohama. But I will defintely come back to enjoy the relaxing atmosphere.

Federal Election... Japanese style

So today was the infamous Japanese federal elections. Coincentally its held on the same day as the 9/11 anniversary. Well, for those of you who don't already know, this election was called because the lower house in the Japanese legislature rejected Prime Minister Junchiro Koizumi's proposal to privatize the postal system here in Japan. Since he had a majority government, some members of his own party had to rebel and dissent and vote against it in order for it to have failed. Koizumi said screw all of you and called an election. He and his Liberal-Democratic party (the right of center party here in Japan) coalition with a few other parties ended up winning an even larger majority taking almost 3/4 of the lower house eating away at some seats of the main opposition party the Social Democratic party (the left of center party). So he basically can do whatever he wants now. This election victory gave Koizumi sweet revengean and an excuse to tell his dissenters and opposition "I told you so.. dont mess with me". HAHAHAHA.

And the political junky that I am, I stayed up almost all night watching the election coverage. It was quite exciting.

Liberal-Democratic Party campaign poster featuring Prime Minister Junchiro Koizumi

Election coverage early on in the night with the two major party leaders on LCD screens. you can see the Liberal Democrats are already kicking ass.

Social Democratic Party Leader, Shakai Minshuto (the main opposition leader)

Some third party leader who was in a coalition with Koizumis LDP

Koizumi marking down at party headquarters the winner of a certain riding

Radwimps Concert

On September 3rd, during the first weekend in Tokyo/Yokohama, Hamada (one of the two company freshman who lives with me at the dorm), Matsuzaki (one of the two females on the ITS team with me) and Tsuji (another co-worker from Nippon-Koei but different department) took me to a concert of a punk-rock band called The Radwimps in downtown Yokohama. The name at first sounded really corny but it grew on me.

The Radwimps (www.radwimps.jp)

Their new album: "Radwimps 2"

Before going to the concert Hamada lent me his Radwimps CD "Radwimps 2" their latest album. I was totally expecting something really cheesy but it ended up being really awesome. And when we actually went and saw them live at the concert, they were even more awesome. They sounded soooo good live. Rarely do bands or singers sound better live than they do on recordings. All the girls in the crowd were yelling "AKIRA!!!" (Akira is the lead singer of the Radwimps).

Hamada and I at the Radwimps concert

The mood of the crowd in the concert was extremely calm considering it was a hit punk rock band. There was a balcony where people were actually seated. Matsuzaki and Tsuji were seated up in the balcony. They had VIP passes of some sort. The bottom level were might as well have been sitting. They were all standing without any movement whatsoever even during the hit songs. Then you had the front of the bottom level where people were bobbing their heads and bouncing up down. There was only a tiny tiny mosh pit near centre stage (consisted of like 5 people hahahahaha). The craziness of rock concerts don't compare to the ones in Canada at all. I almost got my head knocked off two summers ago during the Finger Eleven concert in Waterloo with Shruthi. Then we all went for dinner. They treated me again cause they knew I was a poor student who cant afford extremely expensive meals.