Tuesday, June 08, 2004

Japanese Adventure VI

All right, trying this again . . . (If things are condensed, it is because I am frustrated at having to write this a second time, and I have a lot to put in. If you really want more detail and content, ASK and ye shall receive.)

Saturday 5/29
This was the day we took a trip to a hot spring resort on Mt. Asahidake. Four Americans, five Chinese, two Japanese, and two professors. We showed up at the train station and left by bus. Dan was hung over. He is my argument against heavy drinking. Seriously.

Unfortunately, it was raining. So, instead of ascending to the summit to see the sights, we hiked over to a waterfall. This was very beautiful; you can't see this kind of stuff in Illinois. However, when that was all said and done, we had to wait out our time at a rest stop until cabs picked us up and took us to our lodge. This was fine, but the arcade was weird. Games with cigarettes and beer in them right next to children's games. And, next to traditional children's video games, a video mah jong game that rewarded you with bikini-clad women and girls lifting their skirts. Yikes, Americans would have a heart attack if those ended up in a mall at home.

So, we ended up at the lodge. It smelled funny. The owner explained use to us, but it was in Japanese (surprise), so most of us let our minds wander to far away places. After settling down, we walked up the road to the visitor center to watch a "nature video." Essentially, it was flowers swaying in the breeze and gentle piano music . . . zzzzzz . . . Yeah, everyone slept. What was our professor thinking, scheduling that? After that, we walked up to the cable car station, but instead of going up the mountain like we had originally planned, we just bummed around the gift shop.

We pretty much just bummed until dinner after that. Played UNO with some of the other students. The Chinese students had never seen it before, so that was kinda fun. After a while, we finally started making dinner, and this was a big event. Everyone helped. We made some skillet dish whose name I cannot remember or pronounce properly, but it was good. Sadly, most ingredients for it are unavailable in the US. Alas.

After dinner, the guys were given their turn in the hot spring. It's a public bath, which means nakedness. Generally, naked Hal is very very shy, but I figured I may as well live for once in my life. Thankfully, all of us except for Dan wear glasses, so none of us could really see anything anyhow. This made it easier. And Dan was drunk, so he didn't matter anyhow. Ah, Dan, every charming. He constatly screamed out that he was so $#%&ing drunk. Good for you Dan, good for you.

I played cards with Mike after that. Tried witnessing to him. There's a lot of issues that he just doesn't want to think about. I hope God gives me another opportunity to share with him.

Sunday 5/30
Woke up early, but since there are no churches on the mountain, I walked around in the fog and enjoyed God's creation. It really is beautiful on the mountain. Came back and spent some time in the scriptures. Had breakfast with the others. Cleaned up the lodge. Left it MUCH cleaner than we found it. Took the bus back to Asahikawa.

Spent the afternoon resting. Met Fujiko's parents. They were nice, but didn't know much english, so we didn't have much to talk about. Went to Sugai to bowl with Mike. This was fun, but he's really anti-social, I could barely get him to talk the entire time. Oh well.

Monday 5/31
We were supposed to visit the high school this day, but the administration finally figured out that we aren't education majors. That was cancelled. The system works!

Our experience was replaced with a tour of a computer/mapping company after Japanese class. This was mostly interesting; I say mostly because after a while, one map looks just like another. The giant printers were cool, though, as were the special, 3D maps. And we were given free stuff for visiting. I'd say the school made a good choice on that one.

Tuesday 6/1
Okay, this day was weird. We had double sessions of Japanese lined up, but were given the option of only attending one, as one was indicated as "advanced", and the other "beginner". Which do you think I chose?

After class, we had "Flower Arrangement." This was just so strange. We show up, and there are more students in there than there are exchange students. Okay, fine, they're there to help. Well, they didn't really. None of them had done this before. Ooooookay, so the teacher will explain to us what to do . . . in Japanese. Okay, so now we're supposed to arrange flowers. How? I guess I'll just jam the flowers in, make it look kinda like what the picture on this sheet with all the Japanese writing says. And now everyone is applauding this and taking pictures. Oy.

I even asked the teacher what made a good/bad flower arrangement, and she just said that all of ours were good. Yikes. We finished after, maybe, half an hour. However, instead of leaving, they started the TEA CEREMONY. Yikes, why? This wasn't part of the plan. Then we sit around for a good 45 minutes in awkward, awkward conversation. The students asking us questions, us answering for them as best we could. No one ever said what we were supposed to be doing or what was on the schedule, so this was just bizarre and uncomfortable. To make matters worse, Dan changed one of Mike's answers for him because he didn't think anyone would know what Mike said, and Mike proceeds to call Dan things which I simply cannot repeat. Yeah . . . that helped matters.

I returned crabby and tired. After dinner, I managed to sneak the children out of my room (they just never leave me alone!) and fall asleep at 6:30. Wow. Unfortunately, I woke up at 8:30 and couldn't sleep again until about 10. Oh well.

Wednesday 6/2
We began the day with cooking class. This was interesting. We had four groups, and each made a different dish or two. This resulted, unfortunately, in way too much food. It was an interesting experience, but the end result was mixed. Most of the food wasn't very good (for example, the fish was VERY salty), and the largest part of the meal was tofu, and I really dislike tofu. Gross. At least the Japanese girls think I have good cooking skills.

The afternoon led to another "art history" class. This time, we watched an "artistic" movie. Dan liked it, but I found it to be just too strange. You could never tell what was happening, or when. "Labyrinth in the Field" was the title. Avoid it like the plague. Too strange, and too much gratuitous nudity/sex. I think my eyes must have leaped 3 feet from my head when a girl ripped her entire kimono off in one fell swoop and attempted to have her way with the main character. Yikes.

In the evening, I managed to skip a Hippo meeting to "study". I dodged the bullet on that one.

Thursday 6/3
Well, I forgot about class this morning and ended up there 10 minutes late. Oops. I did get to go bowling with one of the Japanese students in the afternoon. This was pretty fun, although I think she lied to me when she said she wasn't very good. She trounced me with a score of 150. Unfortunately, she wasn't too interested in discussing Christianity, but I guess you can't win them all.

This evening, though, I couldn't escape my fate any longer: I had to go to a Hippo meeting. This was thoroughly boring. Just like every other time. Thankfully, it didn't last forever. Fujiko took us for ice cream afterwards. She totally uses me as an excuse to indulge. Consequently, I shall return a much fatter man than I left.

Friday 6/4
Typical day to start: Morning Japanese class. In the afternoon, we learned to play koto, this traditional Japanese guitar/harp thingy. This was fun, but the little finger picks were too small, and I kept breaking the thumb picks. Mike didn't like it; I don't think music is his thing.

I returned home in the afternoon for a party at the apartment. Or so I thought. See, the building has this "party apartment" for residents to use. This is good; I wondered how the Hirabashis would fit people into their tiny apartment. Anyhow, the party was pretty boring. It was a few Hippo members, and since most only spoke a little english, we didn't have much to say. Mike showed up eventually, so I got to talk to him for a while. One of the Hippo moms did have fun dressing me up. You could say I was a "Kendo-Ken". Viewing of these pictures begins at $10 for negatives, $25 for photos.

Saturday 6/5
This was a full day. The morning was spent at an art museum (small, but worth is; they had a brand new exhibit by an artist who did nothing but nature scenes . . . sweet!). Had to leave early because Yuki wanted ice cream. Oy.

The afternoon was spent watching a marching band competition in the city. This was pretty neat. Most of the schools had no uniforms, though. T-shirts and jeans, mostly.

Okay, I have again run out of time. I would keep writing, but the days would not receive the justice they deserve (they already have been given too little), and I want you to actually understand what I've been up to, not just get the basic sketch. So, I shall update the rest later. Most likely, that will be after I return. So, pray for my safe return and anticipate some good stories and details when I return this weekend!

Hal

Monday, June 07, 2004

Memo

All right, people, here's the deal: I spent about 2 hours this morning writing up a nice, long update, only to be interrupted half-way through by class starting in here. I am very annoyed by the concept of having class in our international lounge/computer lab area, but whatever. I figured I'd post what I had written in those 2 hours and finish the rest later.

However, the gods of the internet are not being merciful today. Something went wrong in within the bowels of the blogger servers, and my post became yet another sacrifice to said net deities, as you can see.

That being said, updates about my recent goings-on are delayed yet again, most likely until tomorrow, because I have class in about 20 minutes and I am spending my evening shopping and visiting the post office.

I apologize for the delays, and I thank you for your continued readership and patience in this matter.

Management
(AKA - Hal)

Japanese Adventure V (Duplicate?)

A thousand lashes to the man who has lazily refused to update this blog . . . wait, that's me? Oops, never mind.

Ahem, er, sorry about the lack of postings. It takes a while to write all of this stuff down and I find myself unable to accomplish it all. Also, I write some things which I would not be comfortable with others seeing me write, so the constant presence of others over my shoulders prevents me from writing at times. However, this should be an epic update, so I hope it works for you. And now I present to you . . .

MEGA UPDATE: HAL IN JAPAN!

Saturday 5/29
Okay, this is the day we all left for our retreat to a hot spring resort on Mt. Asahidake. Fun times, eh? We met at the train station and left by bus. Dan was charming as ever in his hung over state. [Side-track: If you ever need a good reason against heavy drinking, just observe or point out someone who does it. Their state should be reason enough to put that can or bottle down.] So our strange little gathering left for the mountains: two professors, four American students (well, three and a Korean exchange student), five Chinese students, and two Japanese students.

After a long, boring bus ride, we arrived at a rest stop near the mountain. Our original plan was to take a cable car/hike up to the peak of the mountain, but because of a steady rain, any view from the mountain would be compltely obscured. So, instead, we hiked from the rest stop over to a waterfall. This was great fun, because mountain landscapes are beautiful, and so are waterfalls. You can't find this stuff in Illinois. Consequently, having not seen any corn for several weeks has seemed like a dream.

Next, we returned to the rest stop to wait for cabs to take us to our lodge. Nothing much to note here, except the arcade: American arcades are no comparison. We don't put candy or food as rewards in the games, especially beer or cigarettes. Also, we gear this stuff towards children. The Japanese, on the other hand, understand that adults play this stuff too. Thus why there was a mahjong game that rewarded good behavior with girls in bikinis or lifting up their skirts. I think if someone put that in a mall in America, we'd have a heart attack.

So, we ended up at the lodge eventually. This was pretty far up the mountain. It was kinda neat, it had a "log cabin" kind of feel to it, except it smelled pretty rank. Everything smells funny here. Why? Oh well. The owner sat and explained everything to us, but guess what? It was japanese. Most of us sat there and let our minds wander. I imagined what it would be like if I could understand him. Maybe he was just spouting off silly gibberish and my professors were too insane to care. Wouldn't that have been scary? Well, after that, we dropped our stuff off and hiked up the street to the visitor center. One professor decided that we should watch this video about the wildlife and landscape of the mountain (since, again, we couldn't go up the mountain). This was a video of flowers swaying in the breeze with slow, quiet piano music playing in the background. No joke. I think all of us slept for at least part of it. Well, after that, we walked even further up the road to the cable car station and checked out the gift shop, as that was the last thing we could do there. I thought about buying souvenirs, but most of it was junk.

Back at the lodge, we didn't do much. Settled down and played Uno for a while. The Chinese students hadn't seen it before. We did this until dinner time, where we all pitched in on preparation and cooking. We made some skillet dish which I cannot pronounce and was made of ingredients which you cannot find in the US. Sad day. It was good though. After we cleaned up, the men got their turn in the hot spring. This was interesting. First, I'm glad I wear glasses; it meant not having to see the other guys naked in the spa. Otherwise, the spa was relaxing, but VERY hot. Like, "we were in there 20 minutes before we felt like passing out" hot. Very relaxing, but potentially dangerous. Oh, and Dan just kept shouting the entire time about how drunk he was. Lovely. He tried to get me to down beers at dinner, and I was like, "Dan, I'm a Christian . . . I can't do that." He thought I just didn't want to look bad by getting drunk in front of others, that I couldn't let loose and have a good time. Some people just don't understand.

After that, not much happened. I got the chance to play cards with Mike for a while. I tried witnessing to him as much as I could, but I didn't get very far. He doesn't seem interested in learning the truth. For a lot of the questions I asked him, he seemed content to give trite, meaningless answers and let the question slide. I didn't like that, but it seems he doesn't want to confront a lot of those issues. I get the feeling this isn't over, but time will tell where this leads.

I went to be shortly after this, but it was hard; people kept coming in and out (drunkenly) and the walls separating the men's room from the women's was far too thin. Ah well.

Sunday 5/30
Being on top of a mountain, I couldn't go to church this day. So, I got up early and walked around the mountain side for a while. It was really foggy, so I couldn't see much, but everything was quite beautiful, and the sound of the river flowing really gave it some atmosphere. Words can't do justice to the natural beauty of the place. I returned, did some time in the scriptures, and then waited for breakfast.

Well, after cleaning up and everything, we returned to the city. I rested most of the afternoon. I got to meet Fujiko's parents. They were nice, but they didn't speak much english, so it was awkward (it always is).

Mike and I were to try again for StarCraft in the afternoon, but instead I joined him and his host family for bowling at the Sugai. This was pretty fun, but Mike certainly has an anti-social streak to him. He didn't hardly talk at all whilst we were bowling. At least this place had a great arcade.

Monday
Not much to say here. We were supposed to visit a high school, but that was thankfully cancelled. I think they finally figured out that we aren't education majors. Instead, after Japanese class, we visited this computer/mapping company. This was interesting, but minimally.

Okay, update cut short. I thought I had more time, but there is class in here now. Strange, but I shall explain later. Enjoy this for now!

Hal

Japanese Adventure V

A thousand lashes to the man who has lazily refused to update this blog . . . wait, that's me? Oops, never mind.

Ahem, er, sorry about the lack of postings. It takes a while to write all of this stuff down and I find myself unable to accomplish it all. Also, I write some things which I would not be comfortable with others seeing me write, so the constant presence of others over my shoulders prevents me from writing at times. However, this should be an epic update, so I hope it works for you. And now I present to you . . .

MEGA UPDATE: HAL IN JAPAN!

Saturday 5/29
Okay, this is the day we all left for our retreat to a hot spring resort on Mt. Asahidake. Fun times, eh? We met at the train station and left by bus. Dan was charming as ever in his hung over state. [Side-track: If you ever need a good reason against heavy drinking, just observe or point out someone who does it. Their state should be reason enough to put that can or bottle down.] So our strange little gathering left for the mountains: two professors, four American students (well, three and a Korean exchange student), five Chinese students, and two Japanese students.

After a long, boring bus ride, we arrived at a rest stop near the mountain. Our original plan was to take a cable car/hike up to the peak of the mountain, but because of a steady rain, any view from the mountain would be compltely obscured. So, instead, we hiked from the rest stop over to a waterfall. This was great fun, because mountain landscapes are beautiful, and so are waterfalls. You can't find this stuff in Illinois. Consequently, having not seen any corn for several weeks has seemed like a dream.

Next, we returned to the rest stop to wait for cabs to take us to our lodge. Nothing much to note here, except the arcade: American arcades are no comparison. We don't put candy or food as rewards in the games, especially beer or cigarettes. Also, we gear this stuff towards children. The Japanese, on the other hand, understand that adults play this stuff too. Thus why there was a mahjong game that rewarded good behavior with girls in bikinis or lifting up their skirts. I think if someone put that in a mall in America, we'd have a heart attack.

So, we ended up at the lodge eventually. This was pretty far up the mountain. It was kinda neat, it had a "log cabin" kind of feel to it, except it smelled pretty rank. Everything smells funny here. Why? Oh well. The owner sat and explained everything to us, but guess what? It was japanese. Most of us sat there and let our minds wander. I imagined what it would be like if I could understand him. Maybe he was just spouting off silly gibberish and my professors were too insane to care. Wouldn't that have been scary? Well, after that, we dropped our stuff off and hiked up the street to the visitor center. One professor decided that we should watch this video about the wildlife and landscape of the mountain (since, again, we couldn't go up the mountain). This was a video of flowers swaying in the breeze with slow, quiet piano music playing in the background. No joke. I think all of us slept for at least part of it. Well, after that, we walked even further up the road to the cable car station and checked out the gift shop, as that was the last thing we could do there. I thought about buying souvenirs, but most of it was junk.

Back at the lodge, we didn't do much. Settled down and played Uno for a while. The Chinese students hadn't seen it before. We did this until dinner time, where we all pitched in on preparation and cooking. We made some skillet dish which I cannot pronounce and was made of ingredients which you cannot find in the US. Sad day. It was good though. After we cleaned up, the men got their turn in the hot spring. This was interesting. First, I'm glad I wear glasses; it meant not having to see the other guys naked in the spa. Otherwise, the spa was relaxing, but VERY hot. Like, "we were in there 20 minutes before we felt like passing out" hot. Very relaxing, but potentially dangerous. Oh, and Dan just kept shouting the entire time about how drunk he was. Lovely. He tried to get me to down beers at dinner, and I was like, "Dan, I'm a Christian . . . I can't do that." He thought I just didn't want to look bad by getting drunk in front of others, that I couldn't let loose and have a good time. Some people just don't understand.

After that, not much happened. I got the chance to play cards with Mike for a while. I tried witnessing to him as much as I could, but I didn't get very far. He doesn't seem interested in learning the truth. For a lot of the questions I asked him, he seemed content to give trite, meaningless answers and let the question slide. I didn't like that, but it seems he doesn't want to confront a lot of those issues. I get the feeling this isn't over, but time will tell where this leads.

I went to be shortly after this, but it was hard; people kept coming in and out (drunkenly) and the walls separating the men's room from the women's was far too thin. Ah well.

Sunday 5/30
Being on top of a mountain, I couldn't go to church this day. So, I got up early and walked around the mountain side for a while. It was really foggy, so I couldn't see much, but everything was quite beautiful, and the sound of the river flowing really gave it some atmosphere. Words can't do justice to the natural beauty of the place. I returned, did some time in the scriptures, and then waited for breakfast.

Well, after cleaning up and everything, we returned to the city. I rested most of the afternoon. I got to meet Fujiko's parents. They were nice, but they didn't speak much english, so it was awkward (it always is).

Mike and I were to try again for StarCraft in the afternoon, but instead I joined him and his host family for bowling at the Sugai. This was pretty fun, but Mike certainly has an anti-social streak to him. He didn't hardly talk at all whilst we were bowling. At least this place had a great arcade.

Monday
Not much to say here. We were supposed to visit a high school, but that was thankfully cancelled. I think they finally figured out that we aren't education majors. Instead, after Japanese class, we visited this computer/mapping company. This was interesting, but minimally.

Okay, update cut short. I thought I had more time, but there is class in here now. Strange, but I shall explain later. Enjoy this for now!

Hal