It's been a busy past year
| February 24, 2003 |
Waterfall Training
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Hey Everyone!
It's been a busy past year of exploring, meeting new friends, and experiencing new things here in Japan. In the early spring, while most of the country was vacationing in the warm, sunny south, I went mountain climbing on the snow covered peaks of Japan's northern island, Hokkaido. It was such a rush to break new foot steps in the fresh snow and an even greater rush to to find a hot spring and delicious food after three days of being on the mountain!
The only way to beat the humidity of the city in the summer, was to head for the coast to catch the cool breeze and even... an octopus for dinner! My best friend Yazz, who partied with the Wheat Kings during his visit to Canada, also decided it was time to tie the knot with his girlfriend Yuki last summer!
The autumn colors were at their peak both here in the countryside and in Kyoto against the backdrop of historic temples and shrines!
And finally, while some of you were enjoying the Wheat Kings New Year's show in a hot and steamy bar, my brave (and slightly crazy) friends, brought in the New Year Japanese style: by standing almost naked under an ice cold waterfall in the mountains until we could no longer stand. Something to do with purifying the spirit I remember being told as I emmerged numb and blue cold from under the water! I'm not going to fall for that line next time!
Later,
Andy
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Andy
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ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE TO YOU MY GOOD FRIEND MR. YUKI TSURUMOTO.
| March 22, 2002 |
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I met Yuki two years ago at the dojo where I study karate. Yuki is quite an eccentric man even by Japanese standards. Last winter, for example, he showed up at my outdoor birthday party sporting a full length fluorescent orange colored parka, 3-piece green suit and tie. Aside from his eccentricity, Yuki is a professional chef who loves to cook for his friends. He recently treated my girlfriend and I to a homemade dinner at his family's house in the country. For dinner, Yuki prepared for us a signature meal he calls HANA TO (ten flowers) - a ten course meal with alternating hot and cold dishes. As for Yuki's humble abode, it was built in the late 1800's and boasts an ISHIKAWA BURO (stone bath) - a large caldron bath carved from stone and heated from underneath by a wood burning fire. Yuki's life philosophy is: mi casa et su casa. And as we all know, nothing makes you feel more at home than your host telling you to get naked with your girlfriend while he stokes the fire. When we got into the bath, we had to submerge a cedar plank to sit on to protect our bottoms from the heat of the wood burning fire underneath. Unfortunately, GOEMOM ISHIKAWA, the famous thief who lived sometime during the Edo period (1603-1867) didn't have a plank. He was sentenced to death for thievery and was boiled alive in such a caldron - hence the name ISHIKAWA BURO. Always concerned for our comfort, Yuki even set out a sexy pair of men's boxers for me and a pair of old lady underwear for my girlfriend to change into after our bath. We just put the underwear in our pockets, smiled politely, and told Yuki how well they (didn't) fit.
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Andy
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Camping, snorkeling, and chillin' out this summer.
| Aug 30, 2001 |
The B-Team
SOKE CUP International Chito-Ryu Karate tournament
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Hi everyone! I'm just catching my breath after a long month of travelling around Kyushu Island. Things have been really busy since mid-July when the SOKE CUP International Chito-Ryu Karate tournament took place here in Kumamoto City. I played host for my good friends from back home, Scotland, and Hungary, and I'm happy to say that my team placed 4th in the team kumite (sparring) event! Following the tournament, I took off to Amakusa Island (just west of Kumamoto) for a week of camping, snorkeling, and chillin' out. This summer, I'm doing all of the things that I wanted to do last summer but couldn't because I didn't have the knowledge or the wheels! I just got back from a week long road trip to the eastern and southern coasts of the Island where I found some really cool spots for camping and no shortage of shellfish and hermit crabs which I collected and bbq'ed up for a snack. As for the weather, it's still hot (35C) and humid. Typhoon season is well underway. Because Japan gets hit by so many typhoons, they don't bother naming each one like North Americans do with hurricanes, they just number
them. We're up to 11 so far this year and this number will double by the end of October. The typhoons move up from the South Pacific and bring strong winds and heavy rain (over 50 cm). Kumamoto is fortunate to be sheltered by mountain ranges on all sides, so it doesn't get battered as bad as some of the coastal areas.
School starts in early September and I'm pretty well rested for a three-month stretch of teaching before it's time to head home for Christmas, and maybe even catch a WHEAT KINGS concert. Later!
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Andy
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OHI SASHI BURI DESU NE! In Kumamoto dialect, this means: 'It's been a while, hasn't it?'
| July 17, 2001 |
SHIRAITO FALLS
A great place to beat the summer heat!
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Hi everyone! Here are some pictures of what I've been up to so far this year:
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Andy
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New Year in Japan
| January 22, 2001 |
My picture in the Kumamoto Newspaper
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On New Year's Eve, I was on the other side of the world partying with friends along the Danube River in Budapest. After I returned to Japan, the festivities continued in earnest. Here's a sample of what I did to celebrate the New Year with my friends in Japan:
MATTO BAKAI (translated into English means 'to get the target') is a New Year's celebration which has an 800-year history in the coastal village of Nagasu (Kumamoto Prefecture). In mid-January, people came from all over Japan to join this village's celebration of prosperity with the sea. The day began with a prayer service at a Shinto Shrine during which the priest handed over a sacred straw wreath, known as a SHIMENAWA, to two strong men. These men had to hold onto and protect the wreath from the hands of about 130 men whose sole objective it was to take a piece of the wreath from them. The acquisition of a piece of wreath is said to bring good luck in the New Year. The tightly packed crowd of men, each wearing the traditional 'FUNDOSHI' wrapping, slowly pushed its way down the 2 km road to the sea, chanting 'MATO! MATO!' (TARGET! TARGET!), while on-lookers cheered, took photos, threw buckets of cold water on the crowd, or even handed-off their young children to be lifted over the crowd (this is also said to bring good luck to the child, but usually brings nothing else but tears and crying!). While the procession ended when the crowd reached the sea, the party continued afterwards in the local hot-spring and bar!
Andy
Photographs of the celebration:
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Volunteers preparing my 'Fundoshi'. |
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Being 'tightly' fitted. |
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Pre-event Social. |
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Riding the Crowd. |
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Lending some muscle. |
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End of the festival in the sea. |
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King of the Mountain
| December 1, 2000 |
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I first saw this unusually shaped mountain during my short visit to Kumamoto last year and thought it was so cool. Well, twice this month I've trekked out to the Aso Region and camped out overnight on top of Komezuka.
"Komezuka" literally means "rice mound" in Japanese. Legend has it that this mountain was formed when the God of Aso made a mound of harvested rice and that the bowl-shaped indentation at the top is where the God scooped rice to provide to the poor. Mt. Komezuka rises 954 m and sits in the middle of Mt. Aso - the largest volcanic crater on earth. The Aso crater is enormous, measuring up to 32 km by 16 km and is over 100 km in circumference! The original crater is over 30 million years old and contains five younger volcanoes, plus Komezuka, which date back to about one million years ago.
The view from the top of the mountain was breathtaking. With a 360 degree spin of my head, I could see edges of the original Aso crater towering almost 500 m above recently harvested grass fields. In the air I could faintly smell sulfur from nearby Mt. Nakadake which is the only active volcano in the world where you can stare right down into the crater! After a spectacular sunset, stars began to slowly appear in the sky, not one at a time, but hundreds at a time. I must have counted at least twenty shooting stars which were like the ones that I'm used to seeing in Georgian Bay, except that these were more intense and lingered longer in the black sky after passing. I felt like the luckiest person on earth camping on the same spot where the volcano was once erupting. When the sun came up, I saw a blanket of fog that had settled overnight in the valley below. I felt as if I could walk across this fog to the other side of crater. As I left the mountain later in the day, I was already planning my next visit.
Well, I hope that you enjoy viewing these pictures. I will soon be traveling to Austria and Hungary for the winter holidays, but will try to squeeze in another camp out on Komezuka before I leave.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all !!
Andy
Photographs of the trip:
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Morning fog and hot air ballon in the Aso Crater. |
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On top of Mt. Komezuka with Mt. Kijimadake in the background. |
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Sunset view through autumn grass. |
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My tent at the edge of Komezuka's mouth. |
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Settling down in Kumamoto City!
Sept 11, 2000
Dear friends,
I hope that this letter finds you in good health and in happy spirits! I am slowly settling into my new life here in Kumamoto City following my arrivalin late July. I have just started my tenure as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) for the Kumamoto City Board of Education at Toryo Senior HighSchool.
My small apartment is about a 15-minute bike ride away from school and is located in the residential neighborhood of Kengun. The selling feature of my apartment is its proximity to the main karaoke bar strip. Sleep has been a premium for me since party goers flock to this neighborhood in the evening and usually carry on until four in the morning! As for food, there is always a grand selection of fresh seafood and local fruits and vegetables to choose from at the local markets. The local delicacies in Kumamoto City are basashi (raw horsemeat sliced paper thin) and karashi-renkon (lotus root stuffed with hot mustard and bean paste).
During my time away from school in August, I traveled to many interesting areas around Kyushu Island: I visited a spectacular sand sculpture festival in Fukiage (further south along the coast in Kagoshima-province); I climbed Mt. Nakadake in Aso National Park (just outside of Kumamoto City) and watched this active volcano discharge sulfuric gasses; I attended a spectacular fireworks display near Mt. Sakurajima at the very south of Kyushu Island and got a light dusting of ash from this active volcano; I also hitchhiked and camped along the northern beaches of Amakusa Island (due west of Kumamoto) and took in the breathtaking view of the many near-shore volcanic rock islands and the expanse of the East China Sea.
I have started to work out regularly at the head dojo for my style of karate. It takes me about 30-minutes to ride my bike to the dojo from my apartment. I work out fours times a week. Workouts are exhausting since my body is still getting used to the extreme heat and humidity! I feel extremely honored to train with the head Sensei (teacher) and other senior instructors of my style!
Well, that's it for now. I must go and get ready for my enkai (welcome party). My colleagues from the English Department are taking me to a famous eel restaurant for eats and drinks. At least I know that I'll end up back in my neighborhood for karaoke before sunrise tomorrow!
Regards,
Andy
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The Eagle has landed
July 28, 2000
hi all,
im settled into my new place in lovely, lush, subtropical kumamoto on the southern japanese island of kyushu! great job on the indy page. i am really glad to hear that you are all doing so well at your gigs! once i get a little more grounded on my end, i will send some correspondence and maybe some .jpgs for your site. miss you all.
andy
ps. is it just me, or does mark kinda look like that stockwell day politician? |
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