Now For Something Completely Different

Happy Halloween!!!!!

Autumn

The first signs of autumn have appeared outside my office window today. In Ohio, I am sure that many of the trees are shredding the washed out blue skies with their bare limbs. Here, the hills are still green; only the cool evenings belie the changing of the season.
A lone maple, bloody red against a verdant backdrop; the herald of autumn.

Famous Graduates

Last Friday I had a little brush with Japanese fame. (I say Japanese fame because I had never heard of her until that day.) One of YHS's very own had become a famous singer and returned that day for a private concert for the school. Her name is Chiharu Tamaki.

From what I can gather from the English teachers, she was pretty famous a few years back, was married to Hideki Matsui (I think) who plays for the New York Yankees, and her career took a bit of a skid when she got pregnant. She was originally born in Okinawa but grew up in Hiroshima.

The concert, which of course was held during lunch so it would not interfere with the students studies, went off without a hitch despite being a few minutes late. There was no media, just a few teachers snapping pictures (including me) and I thought she was kinda ugly. I thouoght she looked like the Japanese cousin of Gollum.

Her voice wasn't bad. Her music sounds sort of like Jewel or Tori Amos. It was nice but since I couldn't understand a thing she was saying I went back up to the office.

Football

You do not know how incredibly happy it makes me to be able to say, that despite being deep into October, I have completely no idea how Ohio State Football is doing this year.

Its not that I particularly dislike OSU or anything. Its just nice not to have to deal with rabid fans or engage in lengthy discussions about Coach Tressel's decision to do some sort of call in fourth quarter when obviously it should have been this other call. In Ohio, particularly central Ohio, OSU football isn't so much that it is part of the daily discourse as it is forced down your throat.

In Japan, THE sport is Baseball with a capital B. Baseball players enjoy the same status as star football players do in small Midwestern towns. They are thought of as the top jock, the tough of the tough; they are the strongest sport and the others are for those that couldn't hack it in Baseball. Which is kind of funny to me because I've also kind of considered baseball as a sport that was kind of wimpy.

Now, I am not saying baseball is on the same level as say curling but their is very little person to person contact in baseball. This probably explains why baseball enjoys such status here. They can show off their athletic prowess without having to do any sort of rude confrontation with another person.

Climbing Mountains

Yesterday I got up earlier, quietly packed my gear, and went hiking up Ofu Mountain. Only waking my beautiful wife to let her know I was leaving.

The morning air was cool but I expected the day to warm up as it wore on so I only went out in a t-shirt and jeans. The sky was looking ominous over Ofu Mountain but I was determined not to be thwarted.



I'm often asked why I like climbing the mountains around Hiroshima. I get a lot of things out of climbing the mountains. I enjoy the exercise for one. After a long trek of hiking and I am home, exhausted, I can feel the ache in my legs and my hind end and I know that my muscles have been worked hard.

I also like the sense of accomplishment I get from reaching the top of the mountain. It is not just that fleeting moment of accomplishment but I feel a little surge of pride whenever I look out the window of the train or look at the horizon when I am walking the streets and I see those mountains that I have topped. Sometimes you just feel like you are literally sitting on top of the world when you look down on the valleys from the tops of the mountains. Even though these are rather low as mountains go (heck they might not technically be mountains, I'm not sure) it is just amazing how far you can see from their tops.

Another thing I like about hiking the mountains; is the calm and serenity that comes over me as I leave the concrete world of train chimes, barking megaphones, and its other myriad of screeches and squawks. With every step up the mountain trail, the cacophany of city noise slowly drifts away and is replaced by the paean to Mother Nature in wilds around me.

Ofu Mountain

Sake Matsuri

Last weekend we went to the Saijo Sake Matsuri (Festival) and tasted a few of the sake available. I know now that I will never be a sake connoisseur, they all tasted the same to be despite that they each used different brewing methods, water, and came from different regions of the country. I guess the subtleties are lost on us foreigners. On the upside we did get to see quite a few red-faced Japanese. I really don't know why that is an upside. I think Gail is making a full post about it on her blog so I will leave it to her. Here are some of our pictures from the day.

Saijo Sake Matsuri

Cities Outside The CITY

A few weekends ago, Gail and visited the industrial port city of Kure. Kure is the birth place of the Yamato and has a museum dedicated to the giant battleship. The museum was okay, it was mostly in Japanese so I didn't get a whole lot out of it. We did do some exploring.

The interesting thing when you visit coastal cities like Onomichi and Kure and compare them to Hiroshima city there is a very large difference in how the cities are laid out. When you go up into the suburbs around Hiroshima, the mountain grades are much shallower and the roads are set out in grids. In Onomichi and Kure many of the roads turn into winding alleyways and steep staircases with houses perched over cliffs. This is because the Bomb obliterated Hiroshima so when they rebuilt they started out new. Which means they could use modern equipment to care plateaus into the mountain and move the earth to fit their need. The old cities (the one's that didn't get a-bombed) were all built before such modern contraptions so the buildings and roads flow with the landscape and cling to it. I like the charm of the twisting roads and the houses piled on one another. Maybe my opinion would be a little different if I had to live in such a place.

Kure

Hiroshima

I've been in Hiroshima for almost 2 months and have only seen a fraction of the city. In the summer, it bakes in the sun. Women walk under parasols and people stop in the shade of buildings waiting for the crosswalk sign to say go. Everyone walks with a sweat towel to mop their brows. The difference between being in the sun or not feels like ten degrees.

Hiroshima is home to three things: The Peace Memorial Park (epicenter of the atomic blast), Hondori (a covered street with a thousand shops), and the Hiroshima Carps (the local baseball team). Compared to these three, everything else seems like small potatoes.

Here's some random pictures I have taken of Hiroshima for your enjoyment.

Hiroshima 8-2007