the old sapporo brewery, part of the restaurant inside the brewery, kitaichi-san's sister and her husband, the bridge in aomori at night, and the remains of hirosaki-jo.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Shamalama Shashinjutsu
this batch: warehouses in the hakodate harbor, a hakodate street at night, waiting for a streetcar, a view of the fort from the tower, and some warehouses along a canal in an old area of sapporo
Yooooooosh!
just got back from a long, exhausting trip, walking all over sapporo and hakodate on the island of hokkaido, and aomori city on honshu with a couple students. our guide in sapporo was another student home for the spring break.
our first night was spent in hakodate, a port town on the southern edge of hokkaido. the harbor in hakodate is lined with old 19th century, western style warehouses and little canals leading up to the loading dock areas of all the buildings, which have been converted to shops and restaurants. we wandered around and ate at a ramen place, then headed up the side of a mountain out on the edge of the city by way of a ropeway gondola. up there, we had a misty view and a whole bunch of wind, so we rode the creepy, swaying gondola back down the mountainside and went to bed, stopping for some sushi on the way.
the next morning, we got up really early to eat at a few blocks of shops and a covered market area selling really fresh, really pungent seafood (the whole place smelled like a big wet fish), and then rode one of hakodate's streetcars out to the grounds of a 5-point star shaped former fortress from the mid 19th century, i think it was the site of the last standoff between meiji forces and the old shogunate. there's absolutely nothing left of any of the buildings, just the moat area and the space inside it, which is now a public park lined with cherry trees which haven't blossomed yet. there's a tower next to the park, so we rode the elevator up and got a good view of the city and the entire fortress area, then ate lunch at an extremely wierd restaurand which combined circus and 16th century european religious imagery, served burgers, and played '50's american music.
raced for the train, made it just in time, and rode all the way up to sapporo on the other side of the island. up there, we met naho, the student who lives up there, and went out to an old area just outside the city with a long street of old western style warehouses that sold food and produced glassware, jewelry, and music boxes. we had some oysters, giant kamaboko (fish cake) rolls, sushi, and ice cream, and wandered along another harbor area with old warehouses and canals.
that night was our first of two staying in the house of the sister of kitaichi-san, a really friendly, goofy old guy that works in the resident hall office. his sister lives in a suburb of sapporo with her husband and her brother. i was scared shitless i'd say or do something wrong or screw up the bath taking or breakfast customs, but they seemed to like me and kept giving us food and presents the whole time. the second night we were there, they took us out to dinner and fed us two gigantic plates of the best sashimi i've ever eaten, with lobster, shrimp, oysters, salmon, and two kinds of nabe, a japanese hot-pot. the husband told me to "be careful with my big body", and the wife and he refered to eachother as "mother" and "father". i don't really know how to describe something that fulfilling, something i wanted to have the chance to do for so long. they were so warm and enthusiastic the whole time, they made me feel as comfortable as i could possibly have felt.
on our second day in sapporo with naho, we walked all over the city checking out some of the old western style buildings that are still standing, an old kendo school with a clock tower, some kind of city hall building, a few buildings on the campus of hokkaido university, and an old sapporo beer brewery which now has some old restaurants in it. we ate at a mongolian barbecue, stuffing ourselves with little grilled chunks of meat and vegetables, walked through some more shops in the warehouse, then headed back to kitaichi-san's sister's house.
the next morning we got on a train for aomori, back on honshu. aomori's another harbor city with a huge, two-towered cable bridge and a whole bunch of famous apple orchards in the surrounding area. we went out to the site of aomori's main matsuri, somewhere in the woods, and walked around for a while next to a creek, then came back to the area around our hotel for some walking along the harbor and dinner. on day two in aomori, we went to the excavated site of a settlement from the jomon period, people that lived there 5,ooo years ago. there were some reconstructed huts, one of which was a huge hall where the whole community lived in the winter to keep warm, some burial mounds, and a pit where they threw animal bones and miscellaneous garbage. we also saw some of their tools, pottery and jewelry. alot of it was very similar to early native american homes, tools, and designs. it's amazing to me that people who lived thousands of miles away from eachother would arrive at such closely related concepts of design and useage at around the same point in time.
after the jomon huts, we went out to an area called hirosaki, filled with old shrines and temples. we walked along a road of nothing but shrine after shrine for a few miles until we came to an orchard with a playground area and visitor center. we talked to a woman working out in one of the fields, and she gave us apples and a big jar of pure apple cider. after the orchard, we went to the site of hirosaki castle, a big area of gardens, ponds, streams, bridges and the remains of the castle, a large tower on top of a hill overlooking the hirosaki area. we went to the downtown area of hirosaki for some dinner in some wierdly overpriced joint where the operators were also the house shamisen players, who played a song for us because we had to catch our train back to akita before their nightly show started. the shamisen has an amazing, kind of scary but beautiful drone and twang sound, and the song they played was pretty intense. they whacked the shamisens with huge picks, barked and shouted things and stared straight ahead, moving only their arms.
we got on our train, and rode for several hours back to akita, talking and eating one of the 6 or 7 bags of food kitaichi-san's sister and her husband gave us, got back to school, and then i sat around being groggy for a while, for some reason not wanting to go to bed. i felt like i was gone for a long, long time, and akita station really felt like home when we finally got there.
shwew! long post. now a lot of pictures.
our first night was spent in hakodate, a port town on the southern edge of hokkaido. the harbor in hakodate is lined with old 19th century, western style warehouses and little canals leading up to the loading dock areas of all the buildings, which have been converted to shops and restaurants. we wandered around and ate at a ramen place, then headed up the side of a mountain out on the edge of the city by way of a ropeway gondola. up there, we had a misty view and a whole bunch of wind, so we rode the creepy, swaying gondola back down the mountainside and went to bed, stopping for some sushi on the way.
the next morning, we got up really early to eat at a few blocks of shops and a covered market area selling really fresh, really pungent seafood (the whole place smelled like a big wet fish), and then rode one of hakodate's streetcars out to the grounds of a 5-point star shaped former fortress from the mid 19th century, i think it was the site of the last standoff between meiji forces and the old shogunate. there's absolutely nothing left of any of the buildings, just the moat area and the space inside it, which is now a public park lined with cherry trees which haven't blossomed yet. there's a tower next to the park, so we rode the elevator up and got a good view of the city and the entire fortress area, then ate lunch at an extremely wierd restaurand which combined circus and 16th century european religious imagery, served burgers, and played '50's american music.
raced for the train, made it just in time, and rode all the way up to sapporo on the other side of the island. up there, we met naho, the student who lives up there, and went out to an old area just outside the city with a long street of old western style warehouses that sold food and produced glassware, jewelry, and music boxes. we had some oysters, giant kamaboko (fish cake) rolls, sushi, and ice cream, and wandered along another harbor area with old warehouses and canals.
that night was our first of two staying in the house of the sister of kitaichi-san, a really friendly, goofy old guy that works in the resident hall office. his sister lives in a suburb of sapporo with her husband and her brother. i was scared shitless i'd say or do something wrong or screw up the bath taking or breakfast customs, but they seemed to like me and kept giving us food and presents the whole time. the second night we were there, they took us out to dinner and fed us two gigantic plates of the best sashimi i've ever eaten, with lobster, shrimp, oysters, salmon, and two kinds of nabe, a japanese hot-pot. the husband told me to "be careful with my big body", and the wife and he refered to eachother as "mother" and "father". i don't really know how to describe something that fulfilling, something i wanted to have the chance to do for so long. they were so warm and enthusiastic the whole time, they made me feel as comfortable as i could possibly have felt.
on our second day in sapporo with naho, we walked all over the city checking out some of the old western style buildings that are still standing, an old kendo school with a clock tower, some kind of city hall building, a few buildings on the campus of hokkaido university, and an old sapporo beer brewery which now has some old restaurants in it. we ate at a mongolian barbecue, stuffing ourselves with little grilled chunks of meat and vegetables, walked through some more shops in the warehouse, then headed back to kitaichi-san's sister's house.
the next morning we got on a train for aomori, back on honshu. aomori's another harbor city with a huge, two-towered cable bridge and a whole bunch of famous apple orchards in the surrounding area. we went out to the site of aomori's main matsuri, somewhere in the woods, and walked around for a while next to a creek, then came back to the area around our hotel for some walking along the harbor and dinner. on day two in aomori, we went to the excavated site of a settlement from the jomon period, people that lived there 5,ooo years ago. there were some reconstructed huts, one of which was a huge hall where the whole community lived in the winter to keep warm, some burial mounds, and a pit where they threw animal bones and miscellaneous garbage. we also saw some of their tools, pottery and jewelry. alot of it was very similar to early native american homes, tools, and designs. it's amazing to me that people who lived thousands of miles away from eachother would arrive at such closely related concepts of design and useage at around the same point in time.
after the jomon huts, we went out to an area called hirosaki, filled with old shrines and temples. we walked along a road of nothing but shrine after shrine for a few miles until we came to an orchard with a playground area and visitor center. we talked to a woman working out in one of the fields, and she gave us apples and a big jar of pure apple cider. after the orchard, we went to the site of hirosaki castle, a big area of gardens, ponds, streams, bridges and the remains of the castle, a large tower on top of a hill overlooking the hirosaki area. we went to the downtown area of hirosaki for some dinner in some wierdly overpriced joint where the operators were also the house shamisen players, who played a song for us because we had to catch our train back to akita before their nightly show started. the shamisen has an amazing, kind of scary but beautiful drone and twang sound, and the song they played was pretty intense. they whacked the shamisens with huge picks, barked and shouted things and stared straight ahead, moving only their arms.
we got on our train, and rode for several hours back to akita, talking and eating one of the 6 or 7 bags of food kitaichi-san's sister and her husband gave us, got back to school, and then i sat around being groggy for a while, for some reason not wanting to go to bed. i felt like i was gone for a long, long time, and akita station really felt like home when we finally got there.
shwew! long post. now a lot of pictures.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Mo Shashin
the sea of japan, the tofu maker, the view of sendai from the site of sendai castle, cliss road in sendai, and one of the islands of matsushima
Shashin Totta
carls quinn in the cafe, hard hatted fellows waiting around in akita station, the view from senshu park, the tower of kubota castle, and the chilluns what i worked with last weekend.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Shorai ni, Ego no Sensei ni Naru Tsumori Desu
it has been another goodly ammount of time since i last posted, and several occurences have transpired in the meanwhile. CARLS QUINN(!!) visited me last week, and i did the best i could with this little backwater burg - we went to the coolest building in town, a 4 storey job with a gallery, fabric shop, book store and cafe stacked on top of eachother, and stared out from the cafe windows at the river that runs through akita city. we also went to kakunodate, the nearby town with a few old samurai houses, by shinkansen. took a tour of some of the places and met the fellow with the giant beard that i mentioned from my first trip out there. the town was still covered in snow, and the houses were protected by giant wooden pallet things, so we couldn't see much, but it was a damn fine day anyhow. i also introduced her to a few folks here who hadn't yet taken off for their spring break plans. cai-shuan, a Taiwanese friend, was pretty jazzed to meet carls, and cooked up a special meal with everything she had left in her room: a packet of Taiwanese instant noodles, a single potato, a few eggs and 2 or three pieces of bread, and we ate it together. tried to take a walk in the woods, but the snow was still two feet deep out there, so we kind of abandoned those plans quickly and just watched people playing video games in the lobby that night. also saw senshu park, site of the old kubota castle, of which only one guard tower remains, which was of course closed for the winter, and went to the two museums in the park, one with an enormous 40 or 50 foot wide by 10 foot tall panoramic painting of famous Akita sites and happenings. we went to the kanto museum, and i tried hoisting one of the giant kanto poles, which didn't work out so well (them things is heavy), and saw a couple other museums, one in an old mid Meiji era bank, and another in an edo period haberdashery. she left in a taxi for the station early in the mornig last wednesday, and now i miss carls quinn very much.
i really have no idea what inna hell i did for the rest of last week...maybe a trip to the mall to wander around and a trip into town to eat and drink many items, after which we met a guy on the train with a mohawk and a pink tie, who claimed his job was "hole digger" and then gave his tie to one of the girls i was with.
then on sunday i went to sendai with a few people and was guided around by a friend who was home in sendai for the spring break. we saw the former site of sendai castle, which has been converted into a litle park and lookout point, because nothing is left but the enormous foundation. we could see the whole city up there, sendai being the largest city in the tohoku region, and the river that snakes around along the border of the business district. the castle was built by a samurai, date masamune, who wore an eye patch because one of his eyes was poisoned somehow. we wandered through a mile long street of shops covered by a domed roof, a kind of tunnel called cliss road, and bought some breaded kamaboko (fish cakes) on a stick, a sendai specialty. the next day, we went out to the pacific ocean to tour around matsushima, an area of hundreds of tiny islands, each with a name, and most having some kind of legend or poem or history of some sort attached to them, and walked out on a long bridge to a larger island with a view of the bay. the boat was swarmed by seagulls for the entire tour, because people feed them shrimp flavored chips from the observation deck, and one of the birds took a big steaming crap on the arm of one of the people i was with.
after the tour, we ate lunch at a place that serves another sendai specialty, "gyutan", or cow tongue. it took the entirety of the trip to work up the gall to try it, but it wasn't all that bad, maybe just a little rubbery and in need of some horseraddish. we bumped into another student on her way home for the break, and checked out some temples at the top of a whole bunch of stairs, and then headed for the bus that took us back to akita city.
a fine few weeks it's been. next week i head to the island of hokkaido to toole around sapporo and a town called hakodate with a giant star shaped castle, and maybe we'll spend some time in aomori, the prefecture to the north with all the apples in it. mother also makes an appearance the week after that, so there will be more guiding and wandering tied to that event.
oh, hey, i forgot that i also spent a day last week teaching 5 year olds some english, singing songs, reading stories, and playing a fruit name game, after which we went to the house of a guy who makes tofu where everyone on the trip made and ate a little bowl full, and walked along a black volcanic ash beach on the sea of japan.
i really have no idea what inna hell i did for the rest of last week...maybe a trip to the mall to wander around and a trip into town to eat and drink many items, after which we met a guy on the train with a mohawk and a pink tie, who claimed his job was "hole digger" and then gave his tie to one of the girls i was with.
then on sunday i went to sendai with a few people and was guided around by a friend who was home in sendai for the spring break. we saw the former site of sendai castle, which has been converted into a litle park and lookout point, because nothing is left but the enormous foundation. we could see the whole city up there, sendai being the largest city in the tohoku region, and the river that snakes around along the border of the business district. the castle was built by a samurai, date masamune, who wore an eye patch because one of his eyes was poisoned somehow. we wandered through a mile long street of shops covered by a domed roof, a kind of tunnel called cliss road, and bought some breaded kamaboko (fish cakes) on a stick, a sendai specialty. the next day, we went out to the pacific ocean to tour around matsushima, an area of hundreds of tiny islands, each with a name, and most having some kind of legend or poem or history of some sort attached to them, and walked out on a long bridge to a larger island with a view of the bay. the boat was swarmed by seagulls for the entire tour, because people feed them shrimp flavored chips from the observation deck, and one of the birds took a big steaming crap on the arm of one of the people i was with.
after the tour, we ate lunch at a place that serves another sendai specialty, "gyutan", or cow tongue. it took the entirety of the trip to work up the gall to try it, but it wasn't all that bad, maybe just a little rubbery and in need of some horseraddish. we bumped into another student on her way home for the break, and checked out some temples at the top of a whole bunch of stairs, and then headed for the bus that took us back to akita city.
a fine few weeks it's been. next week i head to the island of hokkaido to toole around sapporo and a town called hakodate with a giant star shaped castle, and maybe we'll spend some time in aomori, the prefecture to the north with all the apples in it. mother also makes an appearance the week after that, so there will be more guiding and wandering tied to that event.
oh, hey, i forgot that i also spent a day last week teaching 5 year olds some english, singing songs, reading stories, and playing a fruit name game, after which we went to the house of a guy who makes tofu where everyone on the trip made and ate a little bowl full, and walked along a black volcanic ash beach on the sea of japan.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Metcha Yabai Yo Ne Kore?
feel a little lax in my reportings of late, i've got stuff from a couple weeks that i have yet to mention. the last few days have been another hectic weird semester ending jumble of people leaving, going crazy over finals, and because it's the end of the school year for the first year students, they all have to move out of the dorms and into the independent housing on either end of the campus. so they've been all over the place, charging down hallways pushing carts stacked with boxes and little personal refridgerators. i said goodbye to about seven people over the last two days, a bunch of us mopey mofos waving at the car or bus carrying away someone i felt like i was just getting to know. it's a hard way to have to meet people. yag. so this will be kind of a lonely break, with most people either returning to their country, or the japanese students either off to their hometowns or holed up in their new apartments.
what the hell else has been going on? two weekends ago, there was a school trip to the lake tazawako yuki matsuri, or snow festival, which was actually at a ski resort on a mountain a mile or two away from the lake. we showed up in the middle of some ridiculous cold and wind, a precursor to the blizzard that showed up later that night. the weather was so bad that the festival had to be cancelled. there were supposed to be fireworks and giant paper baloons being released, but there was only a short taiko performance and a little time to wander around eating festival food and looking at the enormous snow sculptures of japanese gods of luck (i think) and one of ultraman. we got back on the bus, and our consolation for the shortened trip was a few rounds of karaoke on the bus' built in system.
i also went out for another night at rakuichi, the nomihoudai place i really like because of the wide open set up allowing for a lot of chances to meet people at surrounding tables. four of us went, and we just had some beverages and talked and farted around for a while, then returned to school. nothing monumental, just a good night.
there was also the all school snowball fight the morning after i returned from the internet cafe. i had just enough time to get myself to temporarily stop stinking with a quick shower, then headed over to the big sporting complex parking lot where the yukigassen (snowball fight) courts were set up. there were about four barricades wedged into the snow on each teams side, all of them about 3 feet high and 3 feet wide. there were about 10 or 12 teams of 7 or 8 people each who had to put on colored vests signifying their team, and matching specialized yukigassen helmets with plastic protective visors over the eyes. it was set up like capture the flag, each team had to try to advance toward the other teams flag without being pelted by a snowball. our team played, i think we may have won, then we watched the other teams play and frigging froze solid. after the fights, some people talked to a local television crew, then we all headed to the dining hall of the sports complex for a huge hot lunch, about 100 students in all.
also went out for a pretty good night of karaoke with one of the higher level japanese language teachers and some of the language students, and invented a beverly hills cop two drinking game. drinks everytime that stupid song plays, once for every time eddy murphy laughs, and a big swig whenever anyone says "we gotta talk".
so that there's my convoluted, half asleep rendering of the last few weeks of my life. tomorrow, i go to akita station to pick up a little special someone called CARLS QUINN who will be here for 4 or 5 days, sleeping on a wafer thin futon in my dorm room. so much crap i want to show her, i caint goddamn wait! this means i have to vacuum the damned floor. yosh! my head don't work, i need to climb up to bed now...
what the hell else has been going on? two weekends ago, there was a school trip to the lake tazawako yuki matsuri, or snow festival, which was actually at a ski resort on a mountain a mile or two away from the lake. we showed up in the middle of some ridiculous cold and wind, a precursor to the blizzard that showed up later that night. the weather was so bad that the festival had to be cancelled. there were supposed to be fireworks and giant paper baloons being released, but there was only a short taiko performance and a little time to wander around eating festival food and looking at the enormous snow sculptures of japanese gods of luck (i think) and one of ultraman. we got back on the bus, and our consolation for the shortened trip was a few rounds of karaoke on the bus' built in system.
i also went out for another night at rakuichi, the nomihoudai place i really like because of the wide open set up allowing for a lot of chances to meet people at surrounding tables. four of us went, and we just had some beverages and talked and farted around for a while, then returned to school. nothing monumental, just a good night.
there was also the all school snowball fight the morning after i returned from the internet cafe. i had just enough time to get myself to temporarily stop stinking with a quick shower, then headed over to the big sporting complex parking lot where the yukigassen (snowball fight) courts were set up. there were about four barricades wedged into the snow on each teams side, all of them about 3 feet high and 3 feet wide. there were about 10 or 12 teams of 7 or 8 people each who had to put on colored vests signifying their team, and matching specialized yukigassen helmets with plastic protective visors over the eyes. it was set up like capture the flag, each team had to try to advance toward the other teams flag without being pelted by a snowball. our team played, i think we may have won, then we watched the other teams play and frigging froze solid. after the fights, some people talked to a local television crew, then we all headed to the dining hall of the sports complex for a huge hot lunch, about 100 students in all.
also went out for a pretty good night of karaoke with one of the higher level japanese language teachers and some of the language students, and invented a beverly hills cop two drinking game. drinks everytime that stupid song plays, once for every time eddy murphy laughs, and a big swig whenever anyone says "we gotta talk".
so that there's my convoluted, half asleep rendering of the last few weeks of my life. tomorrow, i go to akita station to pick up a little special someone called CARLS QUINN who will be here for 4 or 5 days, sleeping on a wafer thin futon in my dorm room. so much crap i want to show her, i caint goddamn wait! this means i have to vacuum the damned floor. yosh! my head don't work, i need to climb up to bed now...
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