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