Nikko and Sumo

Nikko is one of the most popular places in Japan for nature and outdoorsy stuff. Nikko is Nippon. Very traditional, lots of history, a mountain town. It's about an hour and a half away from Koga. Lots of hiking and scenery. It's really cold and snowed a bit while I was up there this time. Took a bus from the train station up to the area where the waterfall is. When we got up there six Japanese Santa Clauses greeted us and passed out presents. It was just before Christmas. They didn't know the words to Jingle Bells, but they knew the tune, so they "La La'd" their way through it.

Shrine in Utsunomiya - a city on the way to Nikko.

Same shrine in Utsunomiya.

Nikko - Kegon Waterfall

Nikko - Lake Chuzenji

Went to a Sumo match this past week. They're only held about every other month and the location moves around Japan each time, so I figured I should seize this opportunity while it's in Tokyo in January. I went because I know I won't be in Japan very long and it's probably the only time in my life I'd be able to go. After going, I know that if I lived the rest of my life in Japan, I would feel no urge to go again. The tickets are expensive, the individual matches last on average less than 10 seconds and the entire show is over in about two hours. They have some freshman and JV matches throughout the day, but the real heavyweights go from 4 - 6pm. It's a somewhat enthusiastic crowd towards the end, but not as exciting as the baseball crowds. They explained a lot of the tradition and the customs observed during the matches - kind of interesting - not noteworthy. I'd rather go to a bullfight or a Suns game.

Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo

The athletes

Warming up

Ready position

Battle

Pride and shame

Celebration

A visit from my brother

Elliot arrived on Friday night, 12/28, much thinner than the last time I saw him. Sleek. I've used that word only two other times in my life to describe men. The first instance was referring to Iceman in Top Gun (can you blame me?), and the other was uttered after a 1994 matchup between the Suns and the Pistons in which this then 12 year old was very impressed by a certain #33's ability to get to the rack. Yes my friends, I speak of the 1993 Henry Iba Corinthian Award Winner, the 1993-94 ACC Men's Basketball Player of the Year, the 1994-95 NBA Co-Rookie of the Year, the 2004-05 NBA Sportsmanship Award Winner, an Olympic Gold Medal Winner and current #33 on your Phoenix Suns - Grant Hill. So Elliot, keep doing the Crossfit thing - you're in good company.

Saturday we went to the two parks that we have in Koga and then out for dinner and karaoke with Akira, Kazumi and Asuka, my best boozing buddies and subsequently my best buddies. Most notable karaoke selections of late include, but are not limited to: Elton John - The Circle of Life; Backstreet Boyzzz - I want it that way; Aerosmith - I don't wanna miss a thing; Weezer - Say it aint so; and a newcomer to the rotation, your favorite - DeAndre Cortez Way - better known as Soulja Boy - Crankdat. There was also a solo performance by Elliot of Queen's - Don't Stop Me Now. I have some footage of this performance, but am holding onto it should I need it some day in the future for incentive/collateral/blackmail.

On Sunday, the 30th, we went to my friend Toshio's house for a mochi party. I know Toshio from the gym, and it started out as one of those gym acquaintanceships where you see the same person there every time you go and say hi or in this case "thank you for working with me." Then it grew into one of those gym friendships where actual conversations occurred. This is the stage where most gym produced relationships plateau, but not in this case. I told him my brother was coming to Japan for the winter break and he invited us to his house for this party - which, in my book, makes the jump from gym friendship to the oh-so-sought-after: friendship. Real nice guy. I had no idea what to expect.

Mochi is a sticky, mostly tasteless food that is made by putting a big ball of hot rice in a bowl carved into an old tree stump, then smashing said ball of rice with a wooden club, into the pasty product known as mochi. It is then doctored up slightly and served with complimentary foods such as bacon or anko. Anko is a bean paste that is common in many Japanese pastries and represented on the big screen and in comic books as Anpanman - one of the country's most revered heroes.

We were at his house from 9:30am to 9:30pm. Four generations of his family lived in there - and it was the definition of a Japanese farm house: Lots of animals, farming equipent, clutter, kids and activity. There were probably 20 - 30 people there throughout the day. All really nice: The sober alcoholic uncle who smoked and wouldn't stop feeding us - Bathroom breaks and trips to examine the rest of the property were extended and strategic time-outs for our digestive tracts. The big cousin who loves Jackass and the Jonny Knoxville crew - Pain, stupidity and humor - the holy trinity transcends cultures and breaks down language barriers. The grandpa who got us hammered off the house sake. The little niece who knocked over my full glass of sake soaking the table, carpet and my pants - I tried to play it off, but once the people of the house noticed and reacted to the spill, the little girl went nuts, wouldn't stop crying, I buried my face in my hands as she was escorted out of the room to calm down. This happened (by some coincidence) about 30 minutes before we were driven home. Terror and unrest to remember us by.
Japanese people don't often open themselves up to strangers, much less foreigners, but when they do, they go all in. 100% submersion on Elliot's second day.

New Year's is celebrated a bit differently here. It's more of a family holiday than the huge party it is back in the states. The family that I went on the hiking trip to Oze with invited us to their house for a new year's eve sleepover. I'd been to their house once before and knew what to expect. It'd be nothing like the marathon we ran the day before at the farm house. This would be much more relaxed, but not without some suffering. It wouldn't be Japan without some suffering. We ate a good full dinner and went to a temple at midnight, as did a lot of other people in the town, to ring a bell and make a prayer. Nothing very remarkable or spectacular, but very Japanese. We got back home around 1am and it was time for bed. This is when the suffering comes in to play. The suffering I speak of is the temperature of the guest bedroom at their house. It's a newer, but fairly traditional Japanese house. The bedroom we slept in was adjacent to the front garden. The walls of this bedroom are constructed of literally thin wood and thinner paper. They're those sliding door/walls that you may have seen in movies. It was the same temperature inside this room as it was outside. It was freezing outside. Fortunately I knew what the conditions would be going in, packed accordingly and we made it through the night.

The next day we drove to Mt. Fuji. We had a crappy folding map of Japan and a few instructions from Wikipedia on how to get there from Tokyo and hit the road at about 11. A word for the wise: don't drive anywhere on a Japanese holiday. It took us 6 hours to get there when it would have taken 3 by train. We heard the same AP news reports on the Armed Forces Network all day. Fortunately P. Harvey Sr. had the day off and we were only somewhat bludgeoned with the rest of the story by Gill Gross and P. Harvey Jr. Since we left so late, we just barely got down there before the sun set and this picture is what we got to show. The guy who took our picture asked if we wanted him to get Mt. Fuji in the background.

We went to Kamakura the day after - one of my favorite places in Japan. Saw the sights, ate curry, missed the sunset on the beach and went back to Koga. There's supposed to be a very famous train that you can take in Kamakura that gives you a nice view of the ocean and other attractions. I've been there twice and have yet to take it or even inquire about it. I think I'm subconsciously waiting for Carlos, my step-dad who's somewhat of a train nut.

The ladies of Kamakura.

The Buddha of Kamakura.

The boardwalk at the beach in Kamakura. Be careful if you decide to stop and eat. The hawks are bullies and will swoop down and snatch whatever you're eating out of your hand. They almost got Elliot's hot pockett-type lunch. Ruined the guy in the picture's day. He sat down with his girlfriend and a nice little picnic pack and they swarmed on him. He left five minutes later - poured out his beer.



We had a date to pong it out on Friday afternoon with the table tennis club at Sowa JHS. Our standard matches are the first one of us to win 6 games wins. This time it was a little different. Instead of mom coming out and messing up one of Elliot's "comebacks" it was Ebihara-sensei coming over to talk to us in between points. Instead of having to stop play to wait for Rusty (R.I.P.) to get out from under the table, we had to wait for one of the kids to clear the way. I was up 5 games to 3 when we had to clean up and help put all the tables away. So in the books it's a draw, but between the lines my empire still reigns supreme.

Class 1-1 at SOWA Junior High School.

Sowa JHS table tennis club - the boys.

The all to rare sucker serve stance.

After our visit at Sowa JHS, we went down to Tokyo for the night and the next day, Saturday.

Capsule hotel in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. $30 gets you a locker, a kimono and the space you see here. The cheapest and easiest hotel I've stayed at in Japan. No curfew and very few questions asked. Also, no girls allowed - it's kind of like a fort I built in 6th grade.

Aahhnfahhnzel.
Elephants making out at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo.

We caught the sunset from the Tokyo Government Towers in Shinjuku. If you squint you can see the top of Mt. Fuji to the right of the sun.

Sunday, Akira, Kazumi and Asuka drove us to the airport. On the way we stopped to see the world's largest statue (Guinness approved) - the Buddha in Ushiku. Yeah, it was pretty big. We got to the airport early and killed time eating in the airport restaurants, watching other planes take off and land, drudging through broken Japanenglish conversations and sweating out those minutes before saying goodbye to someone you really don't want to go.

Dang doo. Love you.