International Festival this past weekend

Hey everyone! Just a quick post for a couple of pics today - not much time. By the way, here is a link to the blog of another guy who went to Osaka with us - he got some really good nighttime pics. The Osaka entry is right down at the bottom of his page today - I don't really know where it will be tomorrow. If you reach the bottom of the page and it isn't there, try looking in his archives. Anyway, here it is.

http://makeitsuntorytime.blogspot.com/

That's Chris's blog. He has a great shot of Akira and I doing the Taiko on stage - check it out.

This past Sunday, I was privileged enough to attend the international festival in Maebashi - it was pretty cool, there were a lot of ALT's there from all over Gunma. We got there a little late, didn't get to experience everything, but we did see some cool Brazilian dancing. What I really loved, though, was the booth that let everyone dress up in traditional costumes from all nations and take photos. I tried on a yoroi (traditional suit of Japanese armor) - see what you think.

So you all can just call me 'Shogun' now, that would be okay. Here's some more photos -

Hisami Matsumura, a girl I really like

Hisami in her costume, and me in mine

With Hisami's sister Izumi (left) and a family friend Mariko (Right)

Gotta go, it's getting late. I'll finish the Osaka chronicle later. I miss you all! Take care, everyone.

Osaka, cont'd

Hello again all!

Okay, to continue from where we left off. The ferris wheel outside the Aquarium. Here's a pic:

And a photo of the aquarium from inside the ferris wheel.

I have to say, it was pretty spacious inside the cab of the ferris wheel. It was a big tourist attraction, and they did it up right. Admission was only 700 yen, too. That's about $6.00. One of they guys, Jason (the guy in the green shirt from the hangover photo) was a bit afraid of heights as well as being hung over. He still went up, though. I was impressed, these guys were all soldiers.

Inside the aquarium, the whale shark was definitely the most incredible thing, but a lot of the exhibits were pretty wild. I had never seen dolphins like they had there - the whitesided dolphins from the Tasman sea were really different from the bottlenose dolphins we get around Florida. They acted about the same, though. I guess when you are as aerodynamic as a lear jet and you spend all your time swimming in water that's kept at exactly the right temperature and waiting to be fed your next gourmet meal and be tended to by an army of highly-trained professionals who have all studied your habits since they were in high school, there's only so stressed you can be. The otters were also pretty cool, even if they did smell like the bottom of a gerbil cage. The giant spider crabs were definitely way up there on my all-time creepy things list. Some of them were about four feet tall when they extended their legs! The website I gave you yesterday has some good photos of the star attractions on it - it was dark inside, and again, my flash didn't work. I got some good video, but you can't post that here. You'll just have to imagine.

After the aquarium visit, we went back to the capsule hotel and crashed for about two hours before heading to the international beer festival. It's amazing how much difference an hour and a half of sleep can make when you only got three hours the night before. Having the cameras charged was also definitely a plus. After some adventures on the Osaka subway, we got to the festival about 6:30. It had been going on since noon, but we discussed it and decided that after partying the previous night, it would be dumb to start drinking at noon, peak about 2:30, and be ready for bed by 6:00. Sightseeing killed some time nicely, plus I mean hey, we got to do some sightseeing.

The international beer festival was held in the courtyard of the Umeda Sky building, one of the primary landmarks of Osaka. Here is a link to a page which shows some good photos and a bit of info.

http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/travel/osaka_umeda_sky_building.htm

It should say something for our states of mind at that point that we were unable to find the stinking building for a good half an hour. In our defense, the train station we came out of was pretty big and blocked about half the skyline, and the building wasn't lit up either.

The international beer festival was overall a great time. There were lots of pavilions surrounding a courtyard about the size of a football field, and they all sold international cuisine. The reason Akira had heard about the festival was because it was a JET function in a prefecture near Osaka (I forget which one) and there were several groups there that we had seen the previous night in America-mura and staying at the same capsule hotel. There was a LOT of foreigners there, a bigger concentration than I have ever seen in Japan before or since. They were from all over the world, and they all spoke English. It was great to get into the crowd and just mingle. I talked with a girl at one point who spoke fluent English and Spanish, and conversational Japanese. She was listening to Spanish rock on a computer she had set up outside the pavilion she was working at. It turned out she listened to some of the same music as my old roommate in Florida, Juan Carlos. JC, if you're reading this, a girl in Osaka knew the Hermanitos Verdes. Apparently, it's a small world. I love Osaka. The beer was also excellent - we had the option of paying 3000 Yen for some little glasses and going around sampling a little bit of various things, but all the guys I was with just said 'forget that' and bought bottles. I think that was a better approach. We tried some Japanese microbrews, which I hadn't had before, and some raspberry wheat ale from Germany, and after that, just whatever the guy recommended at the tent I was at. It was all good, but I don't remember names. There was too much going on.

The centerpoint of the festival was a stage that was set up to one side of the football field-sized courtyard. It's worth mentioning that the courtyard was between the two towers of the Umeda Sky Building, so we were kind of being straddled by one of the biggest icons in Osaka the entire time we were there. It was really cool. Anyway, the stage show started at about 7:30, and it consisted of dance from Spain, America and Thailand. Some of the costumes were incredible, and they played a good variety of music. They had elegant Jazz dancing, a couple that did a latin dance, a few ladies dancing to some American pop (Skater Boy by Avril Lavigne - pretty surreal), a few ladies dancing to a show tune (the theme from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - extremely surreal), and many examples of Thai dancing. I thought the Thai dancing was incredible, because it ranged from the energetic to the extremely elegant, with the dancers moving in perfect synch with each other. Small motions are hard to get exactly right - it takes a high degree of timing to make small motions mesh when there are several dancers on stage. These women were impressive. Here are some photos. Once again, flash broken, photos stink, be patient, may be able to get more:

Thai Dancers

Showtune Dancers

The dancers were just from local clubs, I think - they weren't professional quality, but they were having fun and they were elegant and they were entertaining, and the crowd was loving it.

After the show, we went up in the Umeda Sky building to the observation level, and checked out the nighttime skyline of Osaka. It was pretty amazing - the observation level is open to the sky, and it's a bit cold and windy, but the unspoiled view is incredible. They were playing some, like, Kenny G music up there, and there were a lot of couples. I could see it being an incredible date spot. Here's a pic:

Going back down to street level, we saw the last show of the night, a Taiko show (Japanese Drumming, with those huge drums). After the show, the group took some people from the audience up to do the taiko with them - I got to go up! It was sweet! One of the guys got a photo of that, I really hope I can get it. After that, we hung out in the Johnsonville Bratwurst tent (no kidding - it was surreal, a Wal-Mart brand being a big international attraction in Osaka) for a little while, and then went bar-hopping the rest of the evening. Awesome time.

Sorry, but it's late and I have to go. Soon, I'll post about the next day and our day trip to Kyoto, and the midnight rave on the Osaka castle grounds. No shit, for real. I love Osaka. Best weekend ever. Ja!

More about Osaka

Okay, picking up where we left off. By the way, forgive me for not having many night photos at clubs and stuff to share - the flash on my camera was broken during the weekend, and I could really only take good photos during the day. Suck. Maybe when everyone shares photos, I'll have some better ones to share. Anyway. We woke up at 9:00 AM at the capsule hotel, and again, the best way to describe this hotel is Functional. It's not a place you'd want to spend a significant amount of time. It worked as a landing pad, though, and that's what we needed. A couple of the guys were significantly hung over (i.e. still drunk), but they didn't let that stop them from going sightseeing that day. I have to respect that.

Can you feel the pain?

The first thing we did was hit the Subway for breakfast. Yes, that's Subway, as in sub sandwiches. I didn't know they had Sub shops over here, but it was cool that they did. It was nice to have a little bit of pseudo-healthy American food to help the hangovers. After that, we proceeded to the planned destination for that day: Osaka Suiyokukan (aquarium). The aquarium is about 7 stories tall, replicates roughly a dozen different habitat types, and houses the largest fish in the world - the pacific whale shark. Check this link for a better description of the aquarium: http://www.kaiyukan.com/eng/index.htm

Before hitting the aquarium, though, there was a huge Ferris wheel that we saw dominating the landscape, so we went up in that to check out the Osaka skyline. The first pic in the previous post is us in the ferris wheel cab. Another pic:

Osaka is a harbor town, and the Ferris wheel and aquarium are right on the harbor. Thus, the boats.

Sorry, but it's getting late. I have to go. I'll try to post more tomorrow, and complete the chronicle of Osaka. Ja!

Continuation after a long dry spell

Hey all! I want to apologize about the long absence, it's been pretty insane over here. I haven't been blogging nearly as much as I wanted to. On the positive side, I do have an excellent answer for Question number 4 now. The coolest thing I have done so far in Japan, by far, was go to Osaka for the International Beer Festival!

It was unbelieveable. The amount of stuff we packed into a three-day weekend was really like trying to get 10 gallons of oil into a 5 gallon drum, but we pulled it off somehow. We all partied like rock stars every evening, and woke up by 9AM every morning to check out of our capsule hotel and go sightseeing all day. The guys I went with were awesome, too. I knew one guy from Shibukawa who went, named Akira, but he was meeting with some friends from high school in Osaka, so the other 5 guys all knew each other. They all ended up as ALT's, four in Japan and one going on to Thailand. I was basically just along for the ride, but I got to know them a little bit through our experiences on the trip, and they all seemed really cool. Basically, fun times all around. I will attempt to chronicle them a little bit:

When we were talking about the trip the previous week, we were discussing taking a midnight bus from Gunma to Osaka, but we shook off that idea as being stupid in the extreme. As it turns out, Friday night turned out to be a memorable night for me, too, so I'm glad we didn't try to rough it. So we took the Shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo to Osaka, riding in luxury for about half the way and standing packed in like sardines for the other half. For future reference, don't try to travel by train with suitcases in Japan at commuting time on a Friday. But from the moment we arrived, we were beset on all sides with stimulus. Meeting Akira's friends in the station, we went out into Osaka and the first thing we saw trying to find the hotel was a group of Japanese rappers freestyling it on the corner of a busy intersection. Being too good an opportunity to pass up, the guy Ryan jumped in and showed them how freestyle rap battles are done in New Jersey. I think the Japanese guys might have put up a bit of a fight, but none of us could understand, so we just laughed and got directions to our hotel from them and went on our merry way. Just wandering around Osaka is incredible, the amount of beautiful women and street performers and just general life in the city is enough to give you a contact high. After checking into our capsule hotel (which was kind of rugged, but better than the other capsule hotel I'd been to - this one had a little spa on the sixth floor), we set out to explore the night life in Dotonbori and America-mura (little America). We hit a bar called the Pig and Whistle, which catered to British foreigners, and proceeded to play darts for about an hour with a Japanese salaryman named Tokita (or Tokiiiiiiii!!!, as we called him), who would moon us when provoked. This kind of behavior was totally unexpected, and therefore everyone was buying him drinks, and he'd moon us again when he was dry. Kind of a 'lather, rinse, repeat' cycle, except with mooning and beer. I love Osaka. After that, we wandered around America-mura a little bit, admiring the scenery and commenting on the Yakuza driving down the middle of pedestrian streets in a white Ferrari. I think the guy Austin may have high-fived him on the way by. We chatted with bouncers outside strip clubs and passed around a bottle of alcohol and some orange juice with them. They were actually really funny guys. I forget what the alcohol was called, but I believe it's Korean and it's fairly common in Japan. Japanese guys seem to love it, for reasons I can't comprehend. It physically cleaned the snot from my nostrils, like as unto Dran-o to a clogged pipe. Regardless, we spent the rest of the evening in a bar called Pure, where I had a very wonderful time with a Japanese girl and a girl from Norway and a girl from Kentucky (for real, no shit) on the dance floor. I love Osaka. We split into two or three groups, the group I was with stayed out until about 4:30 AM. We were not the last ones in.

I will post this entry to avoid losing it, and post more a little later.

More photos

Hey guys. Real quick, here's some more photos I've accumulated.

Some of the ALT's from Shibukawa and the surrounding area at the Stone Steps of Ikaho

Me and my friend Eri Hirakata at the Waterfall at Kiwari (Kiwari no Taki)

A giant Tengu mask that is paraded around in the summer festival in Minakami, a town even smaller than Shibukawa. Those giant block-looking things on either side of it are the sandals of the god that wears the mask.

Gotta go, I'm at school. I'll post more next week! Ato de.

-Jeff

More more

Hey guys! Yeah, Wednesday didn't happen, one of my coworkers took me out for Yakuniku that evening. Yakuniku is absolutely my new favorite food. I now know a good place, if anyone ever comes to Shibukawa. So for future reference, blogging the experiences I've had comes second to actually having new experiences. I hope you don't mind. Hopefully it will be easier to blog once I get internet at my place.

So, to continue with my previous thread. Question number 3: what are the people like around where you are? In a word, polite. In three words, polite, helpful, standoffish. In general, the Japanese people are really cool and patient with me IF I am the one who approaches them. However, because of the language barrier, most people don't really go out of their way to engage in conversation with me - I generally don't end up understanding anyway. The people who aren't comfortable with their English really don't even try. But there are exceptions to this rule, and some of the teachers I work with are really cool and friendly, even if we can't understand each other very well. There are always communication aids - there is a program that Yahoo! has called Honyaku that I use all the time - it's basically a free, real-time automatic translator from English to Japanese and vice-versa. Exceptionally useful, but you have to be at a computer and both of you have to have the time and patience to type out a dialog. Eh, better than nothing. So the average Joe on the street will generally avoid eye contact, but will say hello if I do. The teachers I work with are really cool, but hard to talk to - there are office politics at my schools, just like any other office around the world, but it's incomprehensible to me because it's all in Japanese. Since I have to make the effort of conversation, this is another polarizing factor - when you are an ALT, introversion is an extremely slippery slope. But it's easy to talk to people, because when I do, they're all smiles, even if they're not feeling at their best. That's another thing about Japan, at least so far that I've seen - it's very important to appear cheerful and energetic (genki) even if your world is crashing down around you. It makes things more pleasant for everyone. What I like about that is that it's kind of self-perpetuating. If you run into people all day who are friendly and cheerful, it increases your morale, and it's easier to be friendly and cheerful to other people, increasing their morale... Cool strategy.

That's really all I have time for this evening - more posting next week. This is a 3-day weekend for me, so I'm taking the opportunity to go to a beer festival in Osaka with some other ALT's. We're taking the Shinkansen out of this town at 6:00 tomorrow evening, so no time to blog beforehand. We'll do some sightseeing in Kyoto, too. I'll let you know how it was when I get some time next week. More photos, too, I promise. Maybe I'll even be IN these.
v (^_^) v Ja, ato de.

More

Hey guys! Thanks for your comments. Charles, it's good to hear from you, buddy. Yeah, whenever I crack open a CC Lemon I think of you, and how envious you must be, and it just makes it taste all that much sweeter. Seriously, though, I need to look into how to ship things overseas - I'm shipping my sister a birthday present this week, I'll gauge how much it is and let you know privately. Shoot me your e-mail again, please, in a private e-mail. Mine is jeff.caffery@gmail.com. And I look forward to your visit, hopefully I'll have a car by that time and be a little bit more familiar with the surrounding area. I'll show you guys the sights.

So. Sorry, not much time to post today, but I'll put up a couple more photos. Here are some views around Shibukawa, for your viewing pleasure.

The view from one of the better vistas in town that I've seen - looking down on the city center, mountains in the distance

Average Shibukawa street

And that's all I have time for. More interesting stuff by Wednesday, I promise.