The Road to Home begins with Osaka

Onto the closest international airport that has regular-priced fares to America, Kansai International Airport (Kansai Kokusai Kuukou, or kankuu for short). Take an overnight ferry from Toyo Port in Saijo to Osaka's South Port (nankou).

Osaka is one of Japan's biggest cities, with over 17 million people in the metropolitan area. My buddy Takashi picked me up from the ferry port, and we tooled around all day until driving to the airport to catch my flight.


Here is the moat around the Osaka Castle grounds.


This pond is reminiscent of a traditional Japanese 'strolling garden' (kaiyu-shiki). Although in this case its merely thrown in as an extra to Osaka Castle's rustic Sengoku scenery.
Here is a massively old tree, very knobbly after years of being cut short, so that the close branches are quite thick. It is probably cut back every year, with fresh shoots in full Spring bloom giving the effect of a much younger, small tree. Who knows how long this thing has been growing here, there is no plaque, it is just another extra to the castle grounds under the shadow of the castle.
The early period following the Sengoku Period (also called the Warring States Period or the Japanese Civil War), after the unification of all of Japan, is one marked with big, bold, extravagant architecture. This castle had to withstand attack just a few years later, as the Toyotomi Hideoyoshi's son used it for defense in a succession dispute with Tokugawa Ieyasu. The result was not favorable for him, as Tokugawa went on to be the supreme military ruler of Japan, establishing a Shogunate (bakufu) that lasted for the next 260 or so years.
Takashi, eatin some delicious octopus.


The back entrance to the Shrine located on the grounds.

And the front

A statue of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, grand unifier of Japan and pacifier of all other Daimyo (feudal lords). He conquered, allied, and united over 500 territories that had hitherto been controlled by other Sengoku Daimyo. He is basically a giant badass. He also established the four class system which was a hallmark of the following Tokugawa Era, comprised of the Nobility, and the separate hereditary classes of Peasants (mainly farmers), Artisans, Merchants, and Samurai (which were essentially the bureaucrats and civil servants).
A famous Kendo (Japanese Swordfighting) Dojo. How epic would it be to train at the foot of a castle next to a giant statue of one of the most powerful samurai in history?



'Let's open some happy', Merry Christmas Japan, courtesy of Coca Cola.

At Takashi's apartment, he likes to spin drum and bass.

Goin to the airport.

Kansai International Airport, KIX, is actually located in the Sea on reclaimed land. Kind of a wild drive.


The list of departures, one of them being to SFO (which is where I was headed)

Around Shikoku

A cool looking alley beside the many stalls and stands comprising Kochi's Sunday Market.

Choosey, crossing the street, in the general area about Kochi Castle

Covered shopping arcade in Kochi city

A very traditional style Japanese dinner brought to us in some nice lacquer ware. There is seriously one of a million kinds of food in here. Every fish in the sea, along with sweet beans, nuts, seeds, eggs, seaweed, raw-steamed-or-pickled veggies, fried chicken, tempura, and so on and so forth.

In Takamatsu, where I have located some graffiti, a rarer site in the big city than one might imagine.

Around town

Basically every factory or plant has a shrine somewhere for good luck. Here is the one from my Friday factory.
A sunny? It looks like an old mini cooper and a classic el camino had a baby, and it popped out with a racing stripe. Its tininess is only topped by its awesomeness.

A little old (still in use) farming supply shed, situated along the road to our house. It sits between the rise paddy (background) and the vegetable patch, in front of our house.

A skillfully raised Japanese Pine in the graveyard at a Buddhist temple.

Caleb, on the way to play frisbee. This is basically the footpath through the middle of town, where we have a library and what not.

One day, while minding my own business, I come outside to be shocked by my awesome and eccentric landlord. He loves plants, and owns some well stocked gardens, various vegetable patches, and rice paddies all over the place. Japanese gardening, especially in the case of nipponmatsu (Japanese Pine), can be very specific and thus he has come to help me do the yearly autumnal trimming.

In the less crackin parts of the local shopping arcade, there are hosts of long since closed down shops. I wonder what this used to function as, my mind roams to a ticket stand selling seats to god knows what. Probably some kind of food vendor, but whatever, its fun to dream.
I'll just admit, I like the look of decrepit or otherwise rundown things. The nearly abandoned sections of Saijo's shotengai are eerily reminiscent of a quintessential ghost town.

The mountains that form our towns southern barrier. To the north, the sea. The view out from Caleb's window.
@Caleb's

Love Crepe, nom nom nom

Some funny stuff

Watch out for touch devils. This is a sign basically instructing you what to do in case of being fondled or otherwise molested on a crowded train. Hilarious. If you see it, or if it happens to you, call out, notify those around you. Hilarious.

This guy looks straight out of Dragon Ball Z, flying on his cloud while holding his magic scroll. I have no idea who he is, and neither does anyone else.


Please send all requests of advice to this man, because, apparently, he is the best.
Yes, I am an adult. Baffling though it may be, I still find time to make hapless mannequins make rude gestures.


A friend of ours in his halloween costume - a yanki. Basically spot on, from the hair down to the germstoned hello kitty sandals, squatting down like so in parking lots of convenience stores, loitering while smoking cigarettes. A yanki, annoying and funny to watch, these guys will do anything to rebel and they don't seem to notice that their sense of style is hilarious.

A day in the life: To and from work

Some days I work on Islands in the Seto Inland Sea. In particular, Hakatajima and Oshima, which both have several Zosen (Shipyards). In particular, I am going to IS Zosen and Shimanami Zosen. Both are owned under the Imabari Zosen group (Imazo for short, kinda how like Nissan = Nihon Sangyo [Japan Industry], or Nikon = Nihon Kougaku [Japan Optic]. I have to take Ferries to and from them most days, so here are some pictures from the ferry.

A tower that functions as a lighthouse for the port where the ferries take off from. You can see someone walking out on a concrete sea wall, which serve to barrier the harbored ships from waves. It must take at least 15 minutes to walk to where this guy is.

The beginning portions of bridges that island hop from Shikoku to the main island of Honshu, connecting the prefectures of Ehime and Hiroshima.
My port of arrival on Oshima Island.

Day 8

I have nothing to do today until 5 pm.

I have finished most of my paintings for the international flea market, and am excited to try to get rid of them. I tried doing some non-totoro stuff. Cherry blossoms and things...they look okay I guess.

I'm kind of in a grumpy mood today, which was not aided by a conversation I just had with a friend. He told me to stop pretending like I was doing anything in Japan and go back to Seattle re-enroll at UW. Of course this is something I think about, but I feel like -maybe- I finished up undergrad a little early and can afford to take a -couple- of years off and do......whatever it is that I am doing out here.

Sure my life feels pointless sometimes, but my location won't change that. All I can do is find stuff to keep busy, enjoy the yen to dollar exchange rate, and figure out what I want to study when I do go back---which is still a question mark.

One of the things I initially enjoyed about living in Japan was that everyone wasn't so frantic about deciding what they were doing/going to be. There is plenty to do here, rent is cheap, and the island I live on is beautiful and full of clean, free water. that's good enough for right now.

People put stock into different things: having a steady job/career, having an adventure/traveling, having a family, etc. I'm not really invested in anything in particular yet, and that makes me happy. I can do whatever I want at the present and still be okay.

It is SOOOO COLD

So, our bedroom used to be downstairs, but we moved it to the upstairs because the upstairs is more recently built. This worked for a while, but when we woke up today it was 8 degrees celsius on the digital clock/thermometer thing. That was with the space heater on...

We try to stay upbeat about it. It's like camping! Every day!

I have brainstormed some ideas for making it through the next two months:

1) Buy a tent. Put bed in tent. Put space heater in tent.

The extra insulation will keep the temperature up!

Bret's idea:

1) Locate the biggest closet in the house. Put bed and space heater in closet. Sleep in closet.

I like my idea better because I feel the closets have the lowest amount of insulation.

New Years

New Years, I knew, was probably not going to be much fun. I had several offers from students to go to temples and things of that nature, but it's cold here...and I wanted to stay close to home. Close to my heater.

I decided to go to a friend's house for dinner. She had told her parents about me, that I was from America, and they were excited to host a foreigner in the house.

I didn't eat all day, knowing I'd be given more food than I could hope to consume in a week at this dinner. The Japanese take New Years very seriously. It's a big family dinner followed by a visit to a temple or even an onsen (bath house). New Years aside, any time a Japanese family feeds their guest, it's best to come starving. The more you eat, the happier they are.

My friend has a wonderful Japanese style house deep in the countryside of Saijo. The dining area had a kotatsu (table with built in heater/blanket) and lots of comfy cushions to sit on.

The first course was hot soba in a light broth with a tempura shrimp and chopped green onions. Soba is a buckwheat noodle and is sort of greyish in color. I ate about half, knowing tons of sushi and other deliciousness was coming. Also, soba is not my favorite.

Second course was sushi. They had bought a big platter from a specialty shop and it came in a big fancy box. I had some of my favorites, including toro (fatty belly cuts of tuna). My friends dad kept asking me what kinds of sushi I liked. If I named something that wasn't on the tray, he'd shout for someone to get it and they came out with a big plate of it. This is how I ended up with a big plate of incredibly fresh maguro (tuna). I learned quickly when asked what I liked to just point at what I was eating and smile.

Third course was mushroom egg pudding. I forgot what it's called, but it's basically egg mixed with either chicken broth or milk or both and mushrooms and steamed/boiled in a ceramic cup. It's really delicious but I always burn my tongue on it, despite the thorough warnings :-/

The fourth course was salad with daikon, bacon and a creamy dressing.

While we ate, we watched my friend's favorite TV show. The premise is: 5 men are on camera for 24 hours and are led around different places and put in different outrageous situations. They are not allowed to laugh. If they laugh, masked men come out with soft nightstick-looking things and wack whichever of the 5 men that laughed on the bum. Every outlandish situation they get put in is supposed to make them crack up. Lots of cross dressing and general weirdness. It was kind of hard to watch, but some of the humor translated. Kind of a slapstick sort of reality comedy. I kept waiting for one of the guys to snap and turn on his masked oppressors. They kept getting hit on the same general area and after 24 hours I'm sure it wasn't pleasant.

With my stomach achingly full of food and tea, I headed home.

It snowed!

The Pitfalls of Owning an Offbrand Laptop (in Japan)

Tragedy struck today.

My computer, my sole connection to the outside world--was brutally attacked (see "Worst Cat Ever" post for reference). Before I fully registered what had happened, my power/charger cable was mangled beyond repair.

I had a season of a TV show qued up and ready to go, with happy plans of staying in bed all day, but those plans were dashed. I had to go out and find a new cable before the last of my battery power dwindled and I was left cold and alone, with no internet for entertainment and skype for companionship.

The first electronics store I visited was the biggest in my town--Best Denki. I approached the automatic doors with my mangled power cord clenched in my fist. Thankfully they were open, as many places in Japan close for the New Year holiday for up to 3 days after New Years. I looked around. Cameras, big screen TV's, laptops...where were the cables???

I went up to the service counter and raised the cord to eye-level. "Sumimasen, computer charger doku deska?" Instead of answering my question the man at the counter took the charger from me and began trying to decipher the label. I was afraid of this. I was simply going to scan the available selection of chargers for one of similar voltage and input plug size, but now I was stuck with the service man trying to find an identical product. He was puzzled with the three pronged outlet as well as the label, which was in Taiwanese and English. I asked my initial question again, "Where are the computer chargers located?" but he continued to look at the charger with confusion. "We don't have this product" he says. "It's okay if it's a little different," I said in Japanese, "I just need similar voltage and size."

He shook his head in protest. "We don't have this product"

I took my charger back and went to the computer displays. I found a small section of chargers. My friend was just telling me last week how you're not allowed to take things out of the box at electronics stores. I looked at the packages, sealed tight with tape and stickers. Then I looked at the computer displays; a long row of different models--and different chargers.

I started unplugging them and comparing the sizes to my charger. An alarmed man rushed forward. "You have to shut down the computers before you unplug them!" he says. It was odd. The computers shut down instantly after being unplugged. I found a charger that looked the same. "This one," I pointed, "can I have this one?" The man chuckled and shook his head. "No, you can't buy this," he said.

I have never been so confused and frustrated in a consumer situation.

I left and went to the next big store I thought would have computers. I went straight to the service counter, held up my charger cable once more and asked, "Computer cable. This store? Do you have?" The lady said yes and led me over to an isle....filled with TVs and TV cables. She and another gentlemen looked at my cable and furrowed their brows. "Difficult," they said. They were nice, so I thanked them and left.

Store number three: K's Denki. This time, a man led me straight over to the computer cables, but alas, they were sealed up tight in thick plastic and it was difficult to see what the input plug looked like. The man took my cable from me and did some comparisons to the available selection. Hope! Progress! After some time, he scratched his head and said he'd be right back. Maybe they have some more stuff in the back! I thought in desperation, imagining my battery at home getting lower and lower. He came back shaking his head. Another failure.

I didn't know what I was going to do. The cat had eaten both my laptop cables. I have two identical MSI laptops Bret and I purchased two years ago from Newegg.com at overstock prices. I had never heard of MSI before I bought the laptops. I thought wildly of just buying a new laptop. But looking around at the prices, 76,000 yen, 82,000 yen, my stomach sank as I realized this was a ridiculous proposition.

And then, I thought of my neighborhood recycle shop, the Doki Doki. I have always loved the Doki Doki from the first time Courtney took me there and we bought an enormous sectional sofa for 4,000 yen (40 bucks). Since that fateful day I have bought countless kitchen appliances, heaters, 300 yen shirts, tables and other miscellany at unbelievably cheap prices. I knew it was a long shot though. I have spent many hours roaming the isles of the Doki Doki and I know everything that they sell. My mind went to the box of cords I knew was under the display of used laptops--a graveyard of tangled cords and cables. Could it be that I would find my laptop charger there?

Store number four: the Doki Doki. I went inside, straight to the box of cables. A large faded gray extension cord. A camera usb cable for a 100 yen. A TV to dvd connector for 250. I pawed through them. Nothing. After a week without Bret, this was definitely a low moment in my life. I have a cat I hate at home, no laptop, no internet and no Bret.

I went to the clothes section to try and cheer myself up. Retail therapy. Maybe another 400 yen sweater will pull me out of my misery. No, I thought to myself. I'm not giving up!

I went to the sales counter and put the cable on the glass surface. "Computer charger doku deska?" I asked resolutely. The man took the cable in his hands and turned around, heading for the back where they took in and sorted all the used stuff people bring in. "Of course!" I thought desperately, "the back! They must have tons more stuff back there!!!"

After a few minutes, the man returned with a cable in his hands. He showed me my cable input and then the new cord's cable input, they were the same size, but a little different. "Where is your personcom (laptop)?" he asked, "we can try and plug it in to see if it works."

I flew home to collect my laptop and ran back to the doki doki. Here! Here it is! Please try it!

It worked! Only ten bucks and my life was restored back to normal. I was so relieved. I love the Doki Doki.

I hate to say it--but this whole ordeal speaks highly in favor of owning a more generic brand, like Apple. Japanese people love Mac computers, and the chargers are even the same here as they are in America.

So ends another tale of the difficulties I more or less bring upon myself.