Journal 13 - The Quest for the Holy Stick

Hello there everyone. Hope you're all doing well ... I'm doing pretty good. Again sitting under my kotatsu and typing another journal to you. Today is January 20th which means I arrived in Japan 4 months ago. That's pretty crazy! So, I had a little bit of scare a few weeks ago. Before I left Canada I made sure I packed some extra everyday things like toothpaste, shampoo, gel, shaving cream, razor blades, deodorant ... you know, the necessities. I wasn't sure what you could get in Japan or whether I would like it. One of my trainers told me that she gets her toothpaste sent to her because the one's here taste terrible. I was relieved to see you can get those items here and there's even some American name brands including Aquafresh. So, slowly I've been replacing my everyday items like Shampoo, gel, razor blades, etc. Obviously I'm thinking, no problem right? Wellllll .... one of the last things I noticed I was running out was .... the deodorant. The most important item for everyone, because let's face it who wants to be smelly? So, I figured, no problem I'll just go to my local drug store and get some more. How hard can that be, right? Well, my friends, I just found something new about Japanese men. Not only did I not find any, but I went to 2 other places and they were all the same... Nothing! The drug stores here have an entire section for men, but it's all hair care ... hair gel, spray, mousse, dye, there's even hair massage (whatever that is) . You can get things like after shave and cologne, but no deodorant. It's like the men are saying "As long as my hair looks good, who needs to smell good". I have to admit, they do have nice hair, a little 80's for me, but it's nice ... what am I thinking. No one likes a smelly person. I even asked my co-worker about this and she also told me how difficult it is to find. So, for the past 2 weeks I've been on a quest. The quest ... for The Holy Stick. Now, before you all decide to worry about my aroma, I am happy to say that my journey has come to an end last weekend. I went into a small drug store in Shizuoka City and saw the holy lights shining down upon the store shelf ... OK, they were the fluorscent lights, but I had to set the mood. Anyway, in between all the pink, flurry bottles of deodorant was a little box that had two words on the the front "For Men". I snatched that baby so fast and ran, ran like ... like ... a really fast person (k, metaphors aren't my forte). Oh yeah, I paid for it first, then I ran ... ran like ... well, you know. So, I am happy to say that I will no longer be smelly and people will like me again. Oh yeah, and I'll have great hair too.

Moving on ... so two weeks ago, two of my students were nice enough to drive me around Shizuoka prefecture. It was a beautiful, clear day ... perfect for my friend to come out and show himself. Yes, I'm talking about that wonderful Mountain. Now that he knows I won the battle and got his picture, it's like he's saying "Fine, you win ... no more hiding". Actually, because it is winter time and the weather is getting cooler, you'll be able to see Mt. Fuji more often which I'm not complaining about. So, anyway, we drove along the coast into a town called Mochimune (Moe-chee-moo-nay). They took me to a beautiful family park area which is where I managed to get another great picture of Mt. Fuji. The park had a cool play area for kids ... it looked like a ship wreck. Naturally, because I am a kid at heart, I went on it. After the park, they drove me to another temple called Tokugawa (also in Mochimune). This one was on top of a hill over looking the Pacific Ocean. The view was quite spectacular and the temple was beautiful although there was construction going on so I didn't get a chance to see the whole thing. I did take some pictures though, which are posted. After the temple we went out for lunch. Had a famous Japanese dish called rawman (not sure about the spelling). Anyway, it's basically a noodle soup normally with pork and vegetables ... it's very good. The day ended with one last trip to a huge department store ... actually it's considered more of an amusement park here. There's a whole floor full of video arcades and another floor full of movie theatres. There was also a huge store full of toys. Now, these aren't just toys for children, there was also tonnes of things for adults. Some of you probably don't realize, but Anime (Japanese animation) is huge here and some of them are not for children. They tend to be quite graphic. So the figurines they sell are from these Anime movies or TV shows. They also had lots of American figurines ... Star Wars is another huge thing. I wouldn't be surprised if the next Star Wars movie comes out around the same time as it does in North America instead of the usual 6 month wait. Again the kid in me was coming out ... I was ready to buy the whole store. Have to tell you this one last story ... you know how sometimes when you go to a grocery store, there's free samples for new food items. Well, this "family" department store had some taste tests happening that day and it definitely wasn't food items. It was Sake ... yes, all the Sake you can try. Naturally, I was curious. So, I went and tried a few of them of course. Some of them were actually pretty good ... others, not so much. I just thought it was funny seeing alcohol being handed out to everyone at a department store. I'm sure that made shopping a lot more fun or at least relaxing. So, as you can tell I had a great day with my students. It's so much nicer being able to see part of this country with locals especially ones who can drive. There are lots of places that are very difficult to get to just from the train, so sometimes you do have to rely on people who live here. And to be honest Japanese people are so hospitable, they are more then happy to show you their country.

Anyway, folks I'm going to close now so I can get this out to you. Before I close I wanted to tell you about a friend of mine, Mike in Calgary. Mike is 60 years old and he ran his first marathon last July, the same one I ran as well. Anyway, Mike was just accepted to represent the Stroke Association in London, England and is running the London marathon this April. He, like a lot of others, suffered a stroke 20 years ago. It's not very often you get to see a success story like his. So, I have included a link to the Stroke Association. He needs to raise 1500 pounds which will go towards the Association. Take a look and it would be great if we could give him a hand. Good luck, Mike ... I wish I was running it with you.

I hope you're all doing well. I have been getting some great emails from a lot of you. I'm sorry I haven't been able to respond to all of them yet, but I will definitely try. Until next time.

Take care,
Joe

Journal 12 - Even Buddhist Monks can be pimps, hmmmmmm!!!!!!

Well hello everyone ... Happy New Year!!! Let's hope 2005 will be a good one for all of you. Maybe it's a time to try new things. Me? I thought I'd go to another country ... oh wait, already did! Well, it's January and I've been in Japan for over 3 months now. Some days it seems a lot longer and other days it seems like I just got here yesterday and I still have lots to do. Right now I'm sitting in my living room under my Kotatsu trying to stay warm. One thing I found out about Japanese houses; they're not the greatest insulated places. In fact, I don't think they're insulated at all. Is it normal to see your own breath in your apartment? Just curious!! It's all part of the learning experience. Oh, so you're probably wondering what a Kotatsu is. Well, it's the coolest thing I've ever seen. It's actually my coffee table, but with a twist. You take the top part of the table off and lay a blanket over it. Then you put the top back on so you can use it as a regular table. There's a mat that's layed on the floor underneath the table and the table itself has a built in heater, so you plug the table in and out comes the heat. You stick your legs underneath the table to warm up your feet. It is so cool. If it was a little bigger, I would sleep under it.

So, I know a lot of you were concerned about my Christmas. I thank you for your emails and Christmas cards and all. It was my first Christmas in Japan and well, to be honest it felt like a regular day. That part made me pretty sad because I like seeing the Christmas decos and hearing the music and going to Christmas party's and all. But, none of that happened. As you know I ended up working that day, which really wasn't that bad. After work, a couple of us went out for dinner and then some Karaoke. So, it turned out to be a fun night. Even though, yes, I did feel a little homesick ... I won't lie about that. The next day was the start of my 10 day vacation time. I decided to go to Kyoto for 3 days. I left Monday morning and arrived early afternoon. Now, you have to know Japan is a little different when it comes to holiday time. Usually when it's the holidays, tourist places stay open because that's when they get all their business right? Wrong!! Everyone is on holiday ... which means museums, castles any tourist attractions are closed. What does stay open are the shrines and temples. That's because that's usually where people go during the holidays. Especially during New Years. Fortunately, Kyoto is known for it's many and I mean many shrines and temples. So, I still had lots to do. So, when I arrived in Kyoto, of course the first place I went to was the tourist information. I have to admit, if you ever decide to visit this country, the best place to go is the tourist information. They will not only tell you what to see, but they will also help arrange a hotel for you. Right down to calling the hotel and reserving a room for you. They're excellent. And Kyoto was definitely no exception. I was actually quite lucky as well, because there were tonnes of hotels that offered rooms at a special discount for the holiday week. I managed to find this excellent hotel that's normally 10 000 Yen (US $100) a night for half the price. And when I got there, they were out of single rooms, so they bumped me up to a double ... excellent! My first day, I ended up walking around the city, trying to figure out where everything is, work out the public trans and all. I actually ended up doing a lot of walking and only saw 1 shrine, but that's OK. Just to give you an idea, Kyoto is one of Japan's oldest cities. At 1 point, it was Japan's capital up until 1868 as well as the residence of the emperor. It did go through countless number of destructions from fires to wars. Although ironically, during WW 2, it was not one of the targets during the air raids. As I mentioned, Kyoto has many many Temples and Shrines that managed to survive the wars. Just to give you an idea, I managed to visit about 6 or 7 shrines and temples ... that was only a fraction of what can be seen. I won't talk about all the shrines I visited. If you look at the pictures, I'll have information about each of them. I do want to say that one of the most spectacular one's I saw was the Kinkakuji or otherwise known as the Golden Temple. It's actually called that for obvious reasons ... the entire temple is covered in Gold Leaf. Quite amazing looking. What I love about visiting these shrines and temples is not only the architecture, but the landscape around it. The gardens are quite spectacular to see. I think I mentioned it when I was in Tokyo, but it's amazing to be in such a busy city and feel like you're in the peaceful country when you visit a shrine. So, I spent 3 days in Kyoto and unfortunately my trip was cut short due to weather. I was planning on going on to Osaka area after that, but it was so miserable and cold, it wasn't worth the trip. And although I've been raving about the temples and shrines I visited, I actually got kind of sick of seeing them. It's like going to Europe ... for any of you who've gone. You love seeing the castles, but you do get to a point where you say "Oh yay, another castle". So, I headed home. The next day, New Years Eve, I felt like I had to do something. Because, this is an adventure and I'm a spur of the moment kind of person, I thought, hmmmm, what should I do. Why not give Tokyo a try again, maybe go look around some different areas. It's a little closer then Osaka, I can hop on the train, enjoy the scenery, and look around the city, right? Wrong!!! As I'm riding on the train, getting closer to the city, I notice the weather is changing quite drastically. At first I see some snow falling. I'm chuckling to myself thinking I might get a White Christmas after all. Or at least a White New Years. Oh boy, once I got to the city, that snow was coming down. Now, something that I found out (the hard way) about side walks and roads is that they're not exactly concrete. I gave myself a nice welcome to Tokyo by taking 1 step outside and falling on my butt ... luckily I didn't land on my bag as my camera was inside it. I was a little embarassed until I saw other people do the exact same thing. It was crazy!! So, needless to say, I didn't end up staying very long ... I went to visit one park and noticed that everything was closed and there wasn't much to see because of the snow. Also, the weather quickly changed from falling snow to freezing ice ... was I in Montreal? So, my spur of the moment travelling adventure didn't exactly go in my favour. And to top that, I was planning on meeting a friend and that fell through as well. But, I will talk about the Buddhist monk title... I was actually walking along a market street in Tokyo and as you probably don't know, Japan has the most interesting fashion ever. I'm walking trying very hard not slip again, but at the same time watching people because ... well, that's what I do. Anyway, there was this man walking the opposite way and he had the most interesting attire I have ever seen. His pants were dark purple with stripes and he had a bright golden yellow buttoned shirt. Not buttoned all the way of course and flashy jewellery. He had some lightly tinted glasses on with a bright colored hat. To top it all, he had this furry brown and grey over coat that kind of reminded me of Chewbacca. But, what kind of got me was his head was shaved bald and he was quite a portly man and although I said the hat was bright colored, it reminded me of a Gasa. So, I had a little bit of a chuckle and kind of said out loud, "Hey it's a Buddhist Pimp". Luckily, there was no-one around to hear me, that would've been embarassing.

Anyway after I finally had enough with slipping and sliding, I ended up going back on the train and headed home. Oh well, as I've been telling myself a lot since I've been here ... Live and Learn.

The rest of the time I've been hanging around this area, doing a lot of walking, reading, watching movies. Oh yeah, I finally got a TV and DVD player. I don't know if I mentioned that. And yes, all the movies are in english. So, I haven't been entirely going crazy. Today, I woke up to sunshine and decided to hop on a train again and went to Gotemba. I wanted to get that picture of my pal ... and today I finally got it. A nice picture of Mt. Fuji.

So folks that's about all. I hope everyone had a wondeful Christmas and New Years. As I mentioned I have some new pictures for you to look at. And there was a comment from my Aunt Noreen that she wanted to see more pictures of me ... and although Aunt Noreen is just a little over 5' and tiny ... she scares the crap out of me. So, Aunt Noreen, although there's not a lot ... there are some pics with me in it.

Take care everyone,
Joe