So I typed up this post a few weeks back and I didn't get around to publishing it until now:
The weekend of October 10th through 13th
Last weekend was eventful as far as typical weekends go in Hikone. There was another national holiday this past Monday, a Sports Day, so we had a long weekend. Friday brought about the usual relaxing and lazing about. I roused myself around six in the evening to catch a train with Megan to Minami-Hikone, one stop south, where there are two sushi restaurants. We met Adam, Austin, and Shawn at a mall and got sushi at the cheaper, noisier restaurant. Afterwards we blew some money at the arcade. The arcade games in Japan seem to be geared more to the novice player than seasoned experts. I ended up playing a racing game while Adam improved his score in the Gundam game. For those not familiar with Gundam, it is a giant-robot anime from the 1980s. In the arcade game, you sit in a cockpit and get a card that tracks your score for you. The Gundam game is ¥500, which is a little steep for me.
On Saturday, I went with Katherine to Shiga University, where we have our economics class. The director of JCMU, Dr. Reagan, delivered a lecture on one of the feudal lords of Hikone: Ii Naosuke. We joined about ten of our fellow students there, taking up positions in the back of the old lecture hall built in the late 1890s. Midway through the first half of the lecture, Dr. Reagan was bored with the format and decided to have the Japanese engage the students in conversation about the topic of the arrival of the Americans in Japan in 1853. Before Katherine and I could beat a hasty retreat Dr. Reagan saw us, and with my history background, there was no getting away. I’m thankful that we stayed, because my group of five Japanese pensioners was actually very interested in what I had to say. Luckily, two of them spoke English; unluckily my Japanese is still to poor to communicate the concepts I wanted to. I started with Manifest Destiny, and then went into the Mexican-American War and somewhere in there, I got lost. When Dr. Reagan came by to see how the groups were doing, I was able to get him to explain the whole thing. Right after Dr. Reagan resumed the lecture by answering the questions of the group the second lecturer of the day publicly yelled at Dr. Reagan for using English to talk with the American students. Apparently, Dr. Abe was of a different opinion about Naosuke than Dr. Reagan, and the lectures were intended more as a contest between the two viewpoints. Since Dr. Abe is apparently a staunch nationalist, Dr. Reagan offended him by talking about Naosuke as a great reformer by working with America to modernize Japan.
The whole episode had greatly disturbed Dr. Reagan, who really is quite a passive person. In attendance at the lecture were some friends of Dr. Reagan from around Hikone, amongst them were Dr. Reagan’s dentist, Nakajima-sensei, and his wife Tomiko-san. The couple took seven of us, and Dr. Reagan, out to dinner in order to cheer him up. Our group went to a Chinese restaurant, Ryu Rin, in downtown Hikone. Adam and I arrived late since Dr. Reagan came back to JCMU to collect us; when we arrived, dishes had already been placed on the tables and alcohol had been served. Nakajima-sensei and Tomiko-san ordered us food and beer for a few hours. I had some excellent beef as well as some new spices that suite the Asian palate.
On Sunday, I roused myself early and got to Kyoto at ten in the morning. Adam was still sleeping off the round of drinking we held after the dinner at Ryu Rin. I walked for miles along Kawaramachi Street, which runs north to south parallel to the Kamo River. While I did not find the fencing store I had intended to find, I had a great walk and found more shopping districts. I walked down a shopping arcade full of fishmongers, another for fabrics, and a few more arcades selling typical tourist wares. I found a book at the Random Walk bookstore in the Teramachi Arcade and made my way to a McDonalds to wait for Adam, where I promptly fell asleep next to my book and coffee.
Once Adam found me at McDonalds, we called the ladies (Bethany, Caitlyn, Liz, and Megan) who were at the Heian Shrine. There was a festival that Sunday; the temple precinct was full of small stages where student groups performed synchronized dances and cheers. Each team had their own music, choreography, and cheer making the whole festival a loud, confusing, and thoroughly entertaining. At the shrine, Megan ran into our friend Joram and together the eight of us walked south into Gion where we met up with Eleanor and Ryan. Eleanor, Joram, and Ryan are all English teachers for a private company and they spend their weekends in Kyoto as the surrounding Kansai region is boring compared to the city. We spent the rest of the evening hitting a few ex-patriot bars in the city.
Friday, October 31, 2008
The latest photodump
Katherine, Yuta, Nathan and I at Yuta's apartment.
The JCMU Halloween Party '08
Kevin, Ishihara-san and I at the Halloween Party
Adam, Nathan and I in Kyoto.
Myself, Nathan, Austin and Adam in Nagahama.
Kyoto in the fall of '08.
Adam and I cover 'Journey' at karaoke.
In costume for the 150 anniversary of the first treaty between America and Japan.
At a Shiga University party in the summer of '08.
My summer '08 class.
With the Mekata children Mai-Mai and Ha-Ha and their friends at the JCMU Halloween Party in the fall of '08.
My conversation partner Akio.
Kevin, Yui and I at the Gnome in Kyoto.
With Dr. Reagan and his Japanese friends at the nicest Chinese restaurant in Hikone.
With Shoko at the Toyota Museum at Toyota City in Aichi Prefecture.
Myself, Kevin, Nathan, Adam and Austin drinking in front of a Lawson in Kyoto.
Adam and I on a train to Kyoto.Friday, October 10, 2008
"The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and all time." - George Bernard Shaw
I’d like to write that more is going on here, but I’ve settled into a routine during the week. My diet now consists almost exclusively of curry, pasta and sweet breads from a bakery down the road. Thankfully my friend Katherine has taken it upon herself to attempt to improve my diet by cooking for me on occasion. Most of my time is consumed by studying Japanese, as I have fallen behind. I’m no longer putting in much time in the library, since I don’t have time to spare.
My class at Shiga University has been fun but rather easy. I’m convinced that the class is billed to the Japanese students as an English-language course and not a business course. The Japanese students in the class are friendly and try hard to speak English, but overall contribute little to a subject that would be difficult if taught at a proper collegiate level. Since very few American students have a background in business most of the input from the JCMU students is painfully bad. Apparently coming from America is enough of a qualification for them to speak at length about American businesses. I don’t have the hubris to think that my own experience qualifies me to speak at length about economics, so I’ve been reading the Economist online. However, the professor does not have a background in the American economy so most of the time the lectures simply praise the Japanese economy and work ethic. I’m disgusted that so many of my classmates have jumped on-board with blindly following the lectures. What I have learned outside the class is that Japan has just as many problems as the Western world.
Last weekend I went to Kyoto for the night, eating at a traditional Japanese restaurant with one of our Japanese friends: Megumi. Afterwards we went to a few bars and a club. The bars we went to were imitation British bars and had live English football games on the televisions. I could have spent more time there if Kevin had not wanted to dance as bad as he did. The club was fun again, but I’m still struck by how disheveled and surly most of the locals appear at the clubs. I’ve been told that clubbing is a foreign concept to the Japanese, so the people who go to clubs are not generally mainstream.
At a party thrown by the Shiga University students a few of our acquaintances got ridiculously drunk and vomited in the bathroom and out front. My friends fortunately shared my disgust at them for doing something like that at a party we were invited to. The rest of the party was useful, as I got to speak Japanese to a few friendly Shiga University and Shiga Prefecture University students. I’m still amused at home many Japanese kids who are under the legal drinking age, 20, do not drink even when offered alcohol.
Most of the ‘drama’ amongst the students has fallen away as people have become more honest with each other. Everyone has pretty much fallen into their own camps, and people like the drunkards get ostracized for embarrassing the school. Everyone has gotten tired of apologizing for them to the Japanese. To many of the Japanese we meet we represent America, and in our orientation the staff reminds us to be good cultural ambassadors for America.
My class at Shiga University has been fun but rather easy. I’m convinced that the class is billed to the Japanese students as an English-language course and not a business course. The Japanese students in the class are friendly and try hard to speak English, but overall contribute little to a subject that would be difficult if taught at a proper collegiate level. Since very few American students have a background in business most of the input from the JCMU students is painfully bad. Apparently coming from America is enough of a qualification for them to speak at length about American businesses. I don’t have the hubris to think that my own experience qualifies me to speak at length about economics, so I’ve been reading the Economist online. However, the professor does not have a background in the American economy so most of the time the lectures simply praise the Japanese economy and work ethic. I’m disgusted that so many of my classmates have jumped on-board with blindly following the lectures. What I have learned outside the class is that Japan has just as many problems as the Western world.
Last weekend I went to Kyoto for the night, eating at a traditional Japanese restaurant with one of our Japanese friends: Megumi. Afterwards we went to a few bars and a club. The bars we went to were imitation British bars and had live English football games on the televisions. I could have spent more time there if Kevin had not wanted to dance as bad as he did. The club was fun again, but I’m still struck by how disheveled and surly most of the locals appear at the clubs. I’ve been told that clubbing is a foreign concept to the Japanese, so the people who go to clubs are not generally mainstream.
At a party thrown by the Shiga University students a few of our acquaintances got ridiculously drunk and vomited in the bathroom and out front. My friends fortunately shared my disgust at them for doing something like that at a party we were invited to. The rest of the party was useful, as I got to speak Japanese to a few friendly Shiga University and Shiga Prefecture University students. I’m still amused at home many Japanese kids who are under the legal drinking age, 20, do not drink even when offered alcohol.
Most of the ‘drama’ amongst the students has fallen away as people have become more honest with each other. Everyone has pretty much fallen into their own camps, and people like the drunkards get ostracized for embarrassing the school. Everyone has gotten tired of apologizing for them to the Japanese. To many of the Japanese we meet we represent America, and in our orientation the staff reminds us to be good cultural ambassadors for America.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
September Round-Up
This morning there was a minor tremor while I was in class. My first earthquake experience in Japan was mild and uneventful to be sure, but now I can check that off the list.
The last few weeks have been rather eventful. Two weekends ago I went to Kyoto with a Japanese friend of ours who took us to a cool bar and a mediocre club. We drank some on the banks of the Kamo River beforehand. On Saturday nights on the promenade along the Kamo a troupe of fire-dancers used to perform over the summer; a jazz quartet has taken their place. The jazz music changed the atmosphere, instead of drumming and the sounds of the crowd the area feels more relaxed.
At one we went into the Hub Bar. The Hub caters to the expatriate population of Kyoto by creating a fake English pub atmosphere. I cannot help but be jaded to that sort of experience since most of the foreigners there are simply obnoxious. Since Japan seems to tolerate public intoxication more than America, the foreigners drink with a reckless abandonment of judgment. If I had not found Strongbow Cider and the Arsenal game on the TV I think I would have been much more miserable.
Around two everyone had finished the drinks at the Hub and we left to follow our stumbling guide down the street to a club our Japanese friends knew of. I found myself walking down a small side street populated by intoxicated Japanese shuffling between bars, clubs and love hotels. The club I was escorted to, ‘Sam & Dave’, from the outside looked awful. The line of boisterous, rude and surly Japanese and foreigners out front did little to convince me that this club was going to be worth my time or ¥2000. Once I was convinced we rode an elevator reeking of urine and vomit up to the second floor entrance.
My expectations were lowered still when the bouncer searched me for, I assume, weapons. However, the first floor of the club was actually nice. The first floor has a posh bar serving a good amount of American and European beer, some couches and billiards. The second floor was longer and narrower with some tables but predominately open space for the dancing. Any notions I had about Japanese fashion were thrown out the window. Most of the people were dressed like cheap extras in a music video, and the whole place smelled like sweat. However, it was hard to not enjoy myself with the light show and the music once I found someplace to not bump into sweaty Japanese and seedy foreigners. At about five we left the club, had breakfast at a corner restaurant and then made our way back to Hikone once the trains had started to run.
On Thursday my Japanese Economy and Business class took an eight hour trip to the Toyota headquarters in, of all places, Toyota City. Toyota city is an industrial town lacking the usual charm of small Japanese cities. During the factory tour the docent informed us that there are over a dozen Toyota factories surrounding the city in Aichi Prefecture. Nevertheless, the grounds of the factory and the museum we visited afterwards were meticulously clean, with well manicured landscaping. After visiting the museum designed to impress upon visiting employees the greatness of Toyota, my class went across the street to an office building to have an informal lecture with an American about his experiences with Toyota. The lecture was the high-point of the trip, since I was very interested to listen to what Mr. Ostreicher had to say about making the transition to the Japanese corporate lifestyle.
This past Saturday I went to Nagahama with Kelly, Adam, Austin, Kevin and Nathan. After leading a group of fourteen around Kyoto, the six of us made a much better group. It was a real delight to crack a beer at the train station and just relax. The weather has just turned cold, and on a bright fall day the cities are much more tolerable than the oppressive humidity of the summer. Nagahama is a tourist city, with a much larger shopping district than Hikone. Unlike Hikone, Nagahama is not a castle town. In 1600 the lord of the Nagahama castle was defeated, and the military presence left the town as Hikone became the regional power until the decline of the Ii in the late 1800’s. Therefore, Nagahama has a much more open and cheerful populace. Nagahama is also much more affluent than Hikone. The streets are cleaner, the landscaping more pleasing and the numerous canals are not consumed by green scum as in Hikone.
Overall my experience this semester is going very well. I’m close with less people, but the friends I have are excellent people and very adventurous. I’ve also gotten Kevin and Nathan to appreciate football, and we spent last Saturday at Yabs watching Liverpool and Manchester United games. Rich will be moving out towards the end of the month, and I’ll have the dorm to myself. Rich is a good roommate, and since he studies elsewhere I rarely see Rich until late at night or early in the morning. Otherwise I’m looking forward to getting a chance to return to the fencing stores I found in Kyoto.
The last few weeks have been rather eventful. Two weekends ago I went to Kyoto with a Japanese friend of ours who took us to a cool bar and a mediocre club. We drank some on the banks of the Kamo River beforehand. On Saturday nights on the promenade along the Kamo a troupe of fire-dancers used to perform over the summer; a jazz quartet has taken their place. The jazz music changed the atmosphere, instead of drumming and the sounds of the crowd the area feels more relaxed.
At one we went into the Hub Bar. The Hub caters to the expatriate population of Kyoto by creating a fake English pub atmosphere. I cannot help but be jaded to that sort of experience since most of the foreigners there are simply obnoxious. Since Japan seems to tolerate public intoxication more than America, the foreigners drink with a reckless abandonment of judgment. If I had not found Strongbow Cider and the Arsenal game on the TV I think I would have been much more miserable.
Around two everyone had finished the drinks at the Hub and we left to follow our stumbling guide down the street to a club our Japanese friends knew of. I found myself walking down a small side street populated by intoxicated Japanese shuffling between bars, clubs and love hotels. The club I was escorted to, ‘Sam & Dave’, from the outside looked awful. The line of boisterous, rude and surly Japanese and foreigners out front did little to convince me that this club was going to be worth my time or ¥2000. Once I was convinced we rode an elevator reeking of urine and vomit up to the second floor entrance.
My expectations were lowered still when the bouncer searched me for, I assume, weapons. However, the first floor of the club was actually nice. The first floor has a posh bar serving a good amount of American and European beer, some couches and billiards. The second floor was longer and narrower with some tables but predominately open space for the dancing. Any notions I had about Japanese fashion were thrown out the window. Most of the people were dressed like cheap extras in a music video, and the whole place smelled like sweat. However, it was hard to not enjoy myself with the light show and the music once I found someplace to not bump into sweaty Japanese and seedy foreigners. At about five we left the club, had breakfast at a corner restaurant and then made our way back to Hikone once the trains had started to run.
On Thursday my Japanese Economy and Business class took an eight hour trip to the Toyota headquarters in, of all places, Toyota City. Toyota city is an industrial town lacking the usual charm of small Japanese cities. During the factory tour the docent informed us that there are over a dozen Toyota factories surrounding the city in Aichi Prefecture. Nevertheless, the grounds of the factory and the museum we visited afterwards were meticulously clean, with well manicured landscaping. After visiting the museum designed to impress upon visiting employees the greatness of Toyota, my class went across the street to an office building to have an informal lecture with an American about his experiences with Toyota. The lecture was the high-point of the trip, since I was very interested to listen to what Mr. Ostreicher had to say about making the transition to the Japanese corporate lifestyle.
This past Saturday I went to Nagahama with Kelly, Adam, Austin, Kevin and Nathan. After leading a group of fourteen around Kyoto, the six of us made a much better group. It was a real delight to crack a beer at the train station and just relax. The weather has just turned cold, and on a bright fall day the cities are much more tolerable than the oppressive humidity of the summer. Nagahama is a tourist city, with a much larger shopping district than Hikone. Unlike Hikone, Nagahama is not a castle town. In 1600 the lord of the Nagahama castle was defeated, and the military presence left the town as Hikone became the regional power until the decline of the Ii in the late 1800’s. Therefore, Nagahama has a much more open and cheerful populace. Nagahama is also much more affluent than Hikone. The streets are cleaner, the landscaping more pleasing and the numerous canals are not consumed by green scum as in Hikone.
Overall my experience this semester is going very well. I’m close with less people, but the friends I have are excellent people and very adventurous. I’ve also gotten Kevin and Nathan to appreciate football, and we spent last Saturday at Yabs watching Liverpool and Manchester United games. Rich will be moving out towards the end of the month, and I’ll have the dorm to myself. Rich is a good roommate, and since he studies elsewhere I rarely see Rich until late at night or early in the morning. Otherwise I’m looking forward to getting a chance to return to the fencing stores I found in Kyoto.
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