The Golden Temple

This is Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto, one of the most beautiful temples I've seen in this country. Yep, the walls really are lined with gold. This is a must-see for anybody in Kyoto. Beware the crowds, though. I went on a Tuesday and even then the walkways were packed. 

Memoirs of a Maiko

Here's a picture of me with some maiko in Kyoto. They look happy, don't you think?

That's The Way Of The World

I swear to you I'm not making this up. I get on the train this morning to go to the office. I stand in a space right in front of this salaryman jamming to his headphones. He looks up, takes one glance at me, then looks at his iPod, presses a few buttons, and starts listening to his music at a very high volume. It was so easy to hear the music, and when I did, I noticed he was listening to some Earth Wind and Fire! I guess seeing me in all my blackness put him in the mood for some 70s funk. You never know, man, you never know.

Don't Panic... They're Just Arrows

Another kikuningyo from Hirakata Park (see the previous post). You know what... U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald "You-go-to-war-with-the-armor-you-have" Rumsfeld needs to look into using chrysantheums to protect the troops in Iraq. They worked wonders for this guy. 

Sure Beats Aloha Shirts

This past weekend, I went with my GF's family and her mother's cousin's family to a place just outside Osaka called Hirakata Park, scene of something called kikuningyo (lifesize dolls with clothes made from chrysantheums). The creator of these beautiful dolls passed away recently, so the Park is planning to discontinue the display after 90 or so years. Apparently, the dude didn't train someone to become the master after he passed. Anyway, this year is the last to see something of a tradition here in the Osaka area, so we took advantage.

It turns out we weren't the only ones taking advantage, as the place was packed to see these kikuningyo. We had to wait 40 minutes just to get in the building, and once inside, the corridors were full of people trying to squeeze their way through, pushing and struggling to get that perfect view of each scene. Not exactly a fun time. To give you an idea, the above picture, from the time I said "Hey, this is a good spot for a picture" to pressing the shutter button, took about 5 seconds. That's all we had before the masses would push us to the next set of dolls. A great day out, huh? At least the amusement park rides made up for it. 

Needin' A Fresh Cut

Perhaps all foreign men in Japan have it a bit tough every now and then. But only black men stress about where they can find a barber shop to cut their hair. You see, most foreigners have hair not too much unlike Japanese - in other words, straight. A person used to cutting straight hair just doesn't know how to cut a black man's hair. Yes, they can learn fairly easy. But how many barbers in Japan have had the opportunity to learn how to cut a black man's hair? Right.

Lately, my hair has been a mess. I've been searching on the internet, trying to find a barber shop around Osaka that can cut a black man's hair. The best I could do was find a place in Tokyo and another in Yokohama. But I'm not about to travel 3 hours and pay 40,000 yen ($400) return just to get a haircut.

I do have my own hair clippers, and I can cut my hair well enough so that it looks okay. But lately, I haven't had much time to. Besides, there's nothing quite like the feeling of hopping in that chair and letting a barber do his thing. Ah well... I'll just wait until I'm in Florida in December.

Rumbly Tummy

I love Japanese food. There's hardly a better cuisine in the world. That doesn't mean that there's not any food that I miss from back home. For example:

-non-Korean, big slab-of-meat-style barbeque. You know, ribs, chicken, fat hamburgers, corn-on-the-cob and some baked beans. Speaking of beans...
-pork and beans and wieners
-Taco Bell
-Burger King fries
-jambalaya
-Krispy Kreme
-real apple pie
-Arby's roast-beef sandwiches
-cornbread
-oatmeal
-Chick-Fil-A
-fettucine alfredo
-Honey Smacks

"Practice?!? We talkin' about practice!!!"

Not long after I wrote about how things were about to go bad at my high school, a good thing happened yesterday. After classes, I didn't have anything in particular to do, so I decided to lace up my sneaks and shoot some hoops in the gym. To my surprise, when I walked in, I saw a group of my favorite ichinensei already playing a pickup game of basketball (most of them were girls). Out of all of my ichinensei that actually complete each worksheet and pay attention to me in each class, probably 80% of them were present on the basketball court yesterday. Amazing.

There were 9 of them, so they were eager for a 10th player and they called me over. We played 1 1/2 hours of good, fun ball. They oooohed and aaaaahed my amazing dribbling, passing and defensive skills while laughing at my terrible shooting. The best part was that during the breaks, many of them were actually begging for some English conversation. That's the kind of stuff I've been dreaming about.

Of course, the question is, Why don't they do this in the classroom? These same students are also among the most quiet in my classes, but you wouldn't have known it from their on-court trash talking. Ah well... I'll just wait for more opportunities like this.

Student Strike

It's November, and you know what that means... time for things to start going downhill at the high school. Consider what happened this past Monday. In one of my classes, about 90% of the students (including all the girls) quit on me with 10 minutes to go. There I was, finishing a fun game and starting to explain the last writing exercise, when these students just came up and handed in their unfinished worksheet, went back to their desks and started talking to each other. The main teacher and I tried in vain to get them to get their worksheets and do the last part, but to no avail. They just ignored us. So the last 10 minutes of the class were taught to only 3 students. I've never heard of anything like that happening before.

I mean, these were not just the usual troublemakers I'm talking about here. As a matter of fact, this was usually a well-behaved class. So it's shocking that 90% just quit on me like that. It couldn't have been the lesson, either; I've used that lesson for 2 weeks in other classes, with relative success. I guess it's just time for things to go wrong. I knew the relatively great year I was having here couldn't last that long.