Action!

You know, when I started this blog, I thought I would have more to write about adventures, and fun things. I thought that coming to Japan would be a great opportunity to explore, travel, et cetera. However, I find myself falling into predictable patterns. Five days of work, two off. What do I really do with my time?

Then, I visit the Ukyio-e print museum in Osaka, and I really see again. My mother's uncle, Paul, visited Japan about sixty years ago, collecting some beautiful prints and so as he did. As I drank in the beauty of the prints made here in O-town, I thought of those. I am more determined than ever to be as knowledgeable about the subject of Japanese woodblock prints as possible. I may even start to sell them, if I can.

My advice to all of you is: find your beauty. Invest in it. Let it tell you a tale that only you can hear. And find those who have the same tastes, share.
Hokusai gave Japan perspective; he gives it to me, too.

V-D

Valentine's Day in Japan has a curious tradition: that women give their beloved gifties and sweets, and that the men are objects of affection.


To answer the obvious question, I only got chocolate from my fellow student, which in Japan, was obligation, and my Japanese school, which thought it was fun.
However, most of us poor suckers will have to shell out about three, to four times as much on March 14, "white day" , for social obligations. My rallying cry is, however: "Dollar store, here I come!"

Monkey Business

Last Thursday, a bunch of us went to Mino Koen (Park) to do some nature walking, and to see monkeys. D-Boy had gone there a few weeks before, and to kind of give another one of our group a send-off, we decided to go and get some fresh air, and see the sights. It was magnificent. Going to that park really changes your attitude, and you can see a beautiful waterfall, which really brought home for me many of the paintings in the Japanese and Chinese art section of the Walters Art Museum. It took about 45 minutes or so to walk up the mountain, but there are many temples there and also an insect museum! It was closed at the time, but I will return, just to see that.
But, the real joy was to meet, up close and personal, a monkey. This mountain has many wild monkeys in it, and one of them graced our presence. We were standing on the observatory area, throwing sticks at our friend napping below, when, out of nowhere, a cute, friendly looking simian ambled his way toward us. Hello, Mr Monkey, how do you do?

Signs posted all over the mountain read: do not feed the monkeys. Do not tempt the monkeys with food. DO NOT FEED OR TEMPT THE MONKEYS WITH FOOD, IDIOTS! (well, it doesn't say that last part, but the tone is there.) Now, at first I thought I could not read it, but, because I am progressing in my Japanese studies, I took a longer look and realized I could actually get the gist! But, guess what the guys decide to do. Yup, Here Monkey! Here are some of the figs we bought at the base of the mountain for a snack! Want some? Which, the monkey did, of course. He must have gotten a bad one, because he dropped some down on the ground, and stopped eating them. Very un-monkey like behaviour not to eat food, let alone fruit. Then, it happened: the nice monkey turned into MEAN MONKEY, MAD MONKEY--- quite literally, in seconds. He had had a happy, friendly face one moment, and the next, a look of death. You can tell monkeys are intelligent, because if you look in their eyes, you can see there is something going on behind them in their head, that same look you get from people. Same emotions, same thought patterns, really. And the look on that beast was: "if only I had a weapon, I would beat all of your asses!"

He did not, but that still did not stop him from charging at D-Boy, with murderous intent. D-Boy did the only prudent thing, and that was to shriek and scatter. The monkey then ambled away. I learned that wild animals should be treated with care and respect, and that next time I am taking a stick to that mountain. But I will go again, because of the bucolic nature of the mountain, and it is a really peaceful place. We all came away from it more relaxed, and better able to handle Whack DJ leaving us for Scotland.


So, in summary:
Riding the trains to get there: 520yen.
Package of dried figs: 600yen.
Watching D-Boy run and scream like a little girl: Priceless.

Ok, not so fast, uppity women of Japan!

No female royal heads of state for you! Guess who is pregnant? Yes, Kiko, and it is hoped it will be a boy. All of Japan is happy now, and the planned burning of the Danish Embassy is now on hold, for another day.

The last line is my favourite:
"Baby goods stocks jumped following the reports of Kiko's pregnancy, although the benchmark Nikkei was slightly down."

Setsubun!

Hey sports fans*,
Sorry that I have not posted in a while, but my life has been study and work, work and study, and some crappy luck in between. I dropped my mobile and smashed it to small pieces, so if you had my number before, it no longer is me. If you try to call it, my guess is that you will either get nothing, or some angry Japanese trying to tell you, no they are not the crazy foreigner you are trying to call. When I went to get a new one, I was hoping to get the same model, because I both like it and understand the functions. Now, I only got my phone three months ago. They don't even make the model any more, and it was one of the latest ones at the time. That is the power of Marketing here in Nihon. So, I got a newer one, and it is fine, it was also free, which is all I care. I may even memorize the new number more quickly than the old.

On a cheerier note, today, February 3 is Setsubun. Each year at this time, you throw dried soy beans at people wearing demon masks, saying: "Oni ga soto, fuku wa uchi!"
"Devil get out! Good luck come in!" This festival is celebrated in a lot of places, but, once again, it falls on a day where I have class. Never fear! My teachers were cool, and bought both of us students beans, and masks, which they had us both wear. As soon as I figure out how to send email on my phone, I will put the picture of me wearing the mask on the blog. And, I guess I did have good luck, because after class I went in search of this awesome Chinese megastore, where they have all sorts of things for the Chinese community. There is a buffet, which even has a lucky price: 888** yen. Along the way, I went down the wrong way, but found myself actually in terra cognita. From the train station, which is on my line, it is only a five minute walk to my favourite bar, Murphy's. No replacement for One World Cafe, but it will have to do. I turned around, and started walking in the correct direction. As I walked down, I found some seriously great shops, where I bought some gifts,and there is a shop selling Japanese prints, so now I have three sources for my Ukiyo-e needs.
And, then there was the buffet, which was great, and open late enough to go to with my friends after our shift, if we scurry. After all the setbacks last week, I am glad that my demon has left me, for at least a while.

*this line is from the Great Santini, as portrayed by the Magnificent Robert Duvall.
Charlie don't surf.
**The number 8, Chinese, is a homophone for the word luck, and three is lucky number too. So, three luck, really lucky.