Extreme Close-Up!!!

Me and my girlfriend (now my wife) at the ski slopes of Akakura Onsen, Niigata, February 2007. Okay, so you can't see her face clearly. You better be lucky she let me even put this picture up. That's about all you're going to get, so live with it.

Akakura Onsen

The snowy main street of the ski resort of Akakura Onsen, Niigata Prefecture, February 2007. It was only my third time to go skiing. The first two times were in Shiga Prefecture. (You can read about my first trip here.) We had fun at Akakura, and I think I'm getting better at skiing. But we were dead tired after the weekend.

A view from the top of one of the ski slopes.

Some Pics from Ishigaki Island

Me at the northernmost point of Ishigaki Island, Okinawa, December 2006. It looks so beautiful, don't you agree?

This is chanpuru, an Okinawan dish made of noodles called soumen, vegetables, and some kind of meat I can't remember at this time. Anyway, I recommend it.

Another food I recommend if you ever go to Ishigaki is sa-ta-andagii, which looks and tastes like a donut hole. By far the best place to eat it is a shop called Sayoko, about one kilometer or so upland from the harbor. We couldn't get enough of it.

More From Iriomote

Having fun on Yufu Island, just off of the coast of Iriomote Island, Okinawa, December 2006. Yufu Island is a small island with a few beaches, a lot of plants, and a souvenir shop (what place in Japan doesn't have one?).

The best way to get to Yufu Island is by carriages pulled by water buffalo, which don't mind crossing the kilometer or so of shallow water. Quite scenic. Of course, you could walk, too, if you don't mind getting your feet wet.

Another sign telling us to watch out for the endangered Iriomote wild cat.

Pictures from Iriomote Island

A few cows on Iriomote Island, a sparsely-populated island just west of Ishigaki Island, Okinawa, Japan, December 2006.

A sign warning me to watch out for Iriomote wild cats, called Iriomote yamaneko in Japanese.

A model of an Iriomote wild cat. Looks like a regular house cat to me, but I guess there are differences.

Quick Sports Takes - 20 August 2007

• I'll admit it: I'm a soccer fan. The first sport I remember playing with friends as a kid in Birmingham, Alabama, was, believe it or not, soccer. I've liked the sport for a long time. So I am a little biased. But with all the hoopla surrounding David Beckham's arrival in the United States and Major League Soccer (MLS), I'm getting tired of all of these sports talk, newspaper, and TV people attacking the sport of soccer. If they want to say that the MLS is terrible, that's fine with me. The MLS is not up to the standard of the English Premier League, the Bundesliga, and those other European leagues. If they want to say that the MLS will never be on the same level as the NFL, NBA or Major League Baseball, that's okay, too. Those sports have a long tradition, and soccer is not going to sweep them away. But these people are attacking the sport itself, saying that it is boring. ESPN's Colin Cowherd said on his podcast, "One of the problems with soccer is that the clock starts from 0:00. America is a 'wind-down' country, not a 'wind-up' country." Are you kidding me? So, soccer is bad because it is different. Ridiculous. From this point on, I'm not subscribing to the Cowherd podcast, or anyone else with ridiculous comments like that.
• Another thing I'm thinking about giving up is college sports. (I can't believe I'm saying this, considering I grew up in Alabama and went to the University of Alabama.) I'm beginning to dislike the concept of kids getting full scholarships to universities to play sports and not doing their part as students. I think it's better for someone to skip college and go straight to the pros than to go to a university and graduate on classes like table tennis and The Beatles, which makes a mockery of the university they go to. The NFL should start a minor league for these kids. (Baseball obviously already has such a system, and the NBA is on its way.)
• One thing I'm not going to give up on, though, is being an Atlanta Falcons fan, even though they're in for a bad season after all the Vick trouble. I've been a Falcons fan since living in Atlanta in the early 1990s; I'm used to bad seasons. :)

More from Taketomi Island

More pictures from Taketomi Island near Ishigaki, Japan, December 2006.

Me standing near a shii-saa statue at someone's house.

A water buffalo cart on Taketomi. They're not free; you have to pay to ride them.

My Fan Club 3

The last of the uchiwa.

My Fan Club 2

More uchiwa for your perusal.

My Fan Club

The other day, my wife noted the many free fans (called uchiwa in Japanese) that I have amassed over the past couple of years. In the summer, there are many people promoting their companies' products on street corners by handing out fans adorned with the company logo, or product information. The way I see it, though, is that it's a free way to cool off a little in hot and sticky Osaka. So whenever I come across a free uchiwa, I take advantage and grab it. I know you guys are interested in knowing what kind of fans I have collected, right? So here they are. (Actually, the one above wasn't really a promotional giveaway; I got it at an udon restaurant in Kagawa Prefecture. Udon is a thick noodle served in broth; Kagawa is famous for it.)

Is This a Karate Kid Set?

I have a lot of pictures I need to catch up on, and this is the first one, taken during our trip to Ishigaki Island, Okinawa, in December 2006. This is actually on a little island to the west of Ishigaki called Taketomi, a beautiful little island with just one small village. I'm surprised that they even had electricity. There are no street lights or street signs on the whole island. Amazing!

Short Getaway

Tired of the heat and humidity of Osaka, my wife and I decided to take a little road trip on Wednesday. We drove about six hours south to the town of Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture for a little R&R as well as some swimming at the beach. (In actuality, it should take only about four hours, but the summer vacation traffic was treacherous.) My mother, when I mentioned it on the phone, said, "Oh, it's a little honeymoon, huh?" It was about a week or so after we got married, but we have bigger plans for our honeymoon. (I'll keep it a secret until it happens. :) )

Even though there was a lot of traffic, once we got far enough, the scenery on the road was beautiful. The Pacific Ocean on one side, and mountains and rock formations on the other. On the way, we stopped at a little town called Susami to swim at the beach there for two hours. It was nice: not crowded, the water was not too cold, and the scenery was good. After that, we stayed at a small ryokan on the outskirts of Kushimoto called Ebisu. The best thing about the place was the food.

The next morning, we went to a beach in Kushimoto called Hashigui. It wasn't as good as Susami; for starters, the ocean floor was covered in seaweed. The wind made the waters a bit choppy as well. Plus, we were exhausted from the swimming we did the day before. Nevertheless, we spent about an hour and a half there, then drove back to Osaka.

It seems like we got out of there at the right time. Yesterday, there was a big earthquake off the coast of Peru, and the quake caused a tsunami that traveled all the way across the Pacific Ocean to Japan. The waves at Kushimoto were choppier than we experienced.

For some reason, we ended up not taking any pictures of our little trip; I apologize for that.

Beautiful vs Cute

A while back, while looking at Mainichi Daily News' web page (my favorite English source of Japan news), I came across two interesting articles that perhaps demonstrate what many Japanese men look for, and don't look for, in a woman.


The first one is about Riyo Mori, the Japanese woman who won Miss Universe this year. According to the article, the media is portraying her as "arrogant and dumb." Apparently, the arrogance comes from her putting her hands on her hips often, saying that Miss Universe is not a beauty contest (wrong, yes, but arrogant?), and wearing makeup to accentuate her Oriental features (what, they want her to not be Asian?). The dumb part is not really explained in that article.

From other articles that I've read and interviews of her I've seen on TV, Mori certainly plays the part of a beauty queen. But it seems that she is using it as a means to acheive some good things, like starting a dance school to inspire young girls. She made comments about "empowering other Japanese women." She doesn't sound dumb to me. And it seems that the media doesn't like her because she shows confidence and shows a mature beauty.



The next article I looked at was a poll about what Japanese celebrity people wanted to marry the most. More men chose Masami Nagasawa as the woman they would most like to marry, and that amazed me. Nagasawa, who at 20 years old is one of the most popular people in Japan today, basically makes her money by acting like someone half her age. You see her on many commercials and on TV shows, smiling, giggling, knees turned in and arms turned out. I've seen her on interviews, and she has no personality, no sense of humor. Once my wife and I were watching this show that Nagasawa was on. It was a type of game show with celebrities. Each person had to stand in front of his/her group, sing a famous pop song using only cat noises, and the group had to guess what song it was. Many of the celebrities really played the role, making it funny. When it was Nagasawa's turn, however, she just stood up there and sung, a bit off key, and without any personality. But she was smiling, and when she was done, the studio audience was amazed, with the girls shouting "KAWAII!!!" ("cute" in Japanese). That is how she makes her money. Men want to marry that?

Anyway, just an interesting point about how Japanese men, in general, view their women.

Time To Catch Up

This year, I've definitely neglected regular posting to this blog. As I reflect on things during my summer vacation, this is something that I want to try yet again to fix. There have been some trips and events that have happened in the past year that I have yet to post about; I'll try to get to that in the next few weeks. I also realize that some of my experiences in Japan may be helpful to some people who live here or want to live here, so I'll try to post about those things as well.

If there's something you want me to talk about on this blog, or if you have any suggestions for improvement, please leave a comment and let me know. I can't promise anything, but I'll read your comments and see what I can do.