のんびりする時 Carefree times

Max, Jillian, and Kaori; me taking pictures of picture takers

Its nice to have a break every once in awhile isn't it? Just last week I decided to go back to Miyazaki for a few days to clear the cobwebs from my head and get a chance to relax. Like last time I took the Car Ferry from Osaka to Miyazaki. And again like last time, I met another nice person who I got to know on the way there. This time his name was Kenji and he was just getting back from a Linkin Park concert in Osaka. He lives a little north of Miyazaki and works at a butcher shop. We talked about music and movies and such and its always interesting to know whats popular and whats not for Japanese youths. There was another school festival I went to that had a concert with just cover bands. The offspring seem to be quite popular still as well as Green Day and Sum41. I can't put together whether it is some kind of time delay in there importing, or the image these bands produce fitting with the mood/intrest of the youth. I use to think it had something to do with what people think is hip in the states but not so much anymore. What's disappointing is there is a lot of good Japanese music and films that nobody seems to know about that's within Japan.

Back to the adventure at hand: I was about to go to bed when I was asked by Kenji if I wanted a ride from the Ferry terminal to the station tomorrow when we got off the boat. I was kindly reminded of what I love so much about Miyazaki; the people. I'm always blown away by the genuine kindness that comes from people in this area and the friendly greetings you hear from strangers passing you by. I was taken to the station where we parted ways and exchanged phone numbers. He actually called me a few times to check how I was doing and invited me to his shop if there was time. I had made it back to the palm trees and calming blanket that envelops the atmosphere surrounding Miyazaki.

Well I guess there is one thing that can never be quite relaxing is the transportation. Miyazaki is an interesting place in that having a car a bike or some form of your own transportation is crucial if you want to get around without having to plan everything in advance. I scratch that, you just can't really get around Miyazaki unless you have a car. The trains come about once every hour and depending what station you're at the buses will come about 3 to 4 times a day. With that kind of time delay its pretty important not to miss your ride. Which is what I almost experienced by twenty seconds as I had to transfer trains in the morning. Arriving at the foreign yet familiar Kibana station west of the Miyazaki Campus I made the short trek inland at a snails pace to better enjoy the wide open spaces. Its interesting to think how much of an effect your visual surroundings can have on your way of thinking and how you react to things in general. The sky seemed to open up along with my mind.

After arriving, I met with Hirase Sensei, the professor in charge of the exchange program between Miyazaki and Evergreen on this end. I had lunch with him and the two new exchange students Jillian and Max Countryman and Kaori a good friend and exchange student at Evergreen last year. The atmosphere is always a party when you come to his office. We chatted and looked through some of Hirase's photo albums: his trademark possessions.

The Udo Shinto Shrine off and to the left under the rocks

Then Kaori, Jillian, Max and I took a trip down to the Udo Shinto Shrine, a famous shrine built into the cliff side off the beach. The weather was kind of stormy so the waves crashing against the rocks was a nice site to see. The place seemed to have a lot of history and stories to tell but unfortunately I couldn't read all of the signs and information provided. There seemed to be a lot of separate articles from the main shrine in which you could pray for specific blessings. It was really fascinating and I wanted to know more but we ran out of time. I bought a charm for my friend for safe travels who had just passed his driving test. The charms or お守り (omamori) are sold at shrines and can serve for various specific situations. A few that you can usually find are for success on entrance exams, safe travel, safety for a healthy birth, for finding a lover, fortune, general good luck and so on. It is actually a part of the culture I have often times overlooked but it always seems to come back to me whenever I'm driving in someones car and see an omamori hanging from the dashboard.

A big part of my trip this time was buying gifts or おみやげ (omiyage) for the people back in Kobe. Miyazaki is a great place to get these local souvenirs because of the various famous things it has. One of those things being the mayor of Miyazaki. Hideo Higashiokubaru (quite a mouthful) use to be a famous comedian and now is the humble mayor of Miyazaki prefecture. What's comical is that his fame has created his namesake and his face to be profitable gift items and boosted tourism to Kyushu. Just imagine if you saw Arnold Schwarzenegger's face plastered on the side of a laundromat or on gift wrapped chocolates or on bottles of California wine. That's how famous this guy has been made.

A Souvenir with multiple mayors in different costumes for just this one product he's got his face on here 4 times (15 times if you count the sides and the back)

Not having to cook for a few days was nice too. We went out to several restaurants and in replace of Thanksgiving dinner, Jillian cooked french toast to which people in the dorms where commenting on the delicious smell. I think it really brought me back home for a second, back to my elementary school days. It was a little over a year ago where I first really met Jillian through the three week exchange program to the small town of Toyooka in Japan. It was really nice to see her again and talk openly about each others experiences and catch up on things. That and meeting the cat(s) she provides for was great. I just kept thinking that her kindness for these animals will inevitably attract more.

Jillian and Kaori

Speaking of kindness, Kaori as I mentioned earlier was the one who provided wheels throughout my stay and again, like I said earlier we made it to places that would have been impossible to get to without her. It was nice seeing her even though she was very busy and concentrated on graduating. I felt a little guilty because of the bad timing. On a lighter note we got to visit one of her friends who had just had a baby. We got to hold him which blew my mind that this lady would just hand her several month old baby over for complete strangers to hold. She seemed to be very proud of him.

Causally talking and eating and spending time with friends was I think just what I needed. There were a few people I didn't get a chance to see while I was there but I still got in contact with them. In the idle moments I had a chance to clear my head a little and think about where I've been so far this year and what will happen in the next three months and beyond. I honestly don't know that clearly what the future holds but just like the last time I visited Miyazaki I'm feeling positive and upbeat. For some reason the trip seemed to reinvigorate my wonder and amazement of all that I'm wrapped up in at the moment. I have my doubts and my ups and downs but when I see things clearly there's so much I have to be thankful for and many thanks to say towards a lot of good friends. Best of luck to all of you out in Miyazaki.

学園祭 School Festival

Been pretty busy lately. Last weekend was the fall school festival that is held annually at the Shodai Campus. Schools from around the area and locals come to sell fair goods. Families were selling used goods at the front of the school kind of like a flea market or a massive garage sale. From there you had vendors selling food and prize booths. These tents were run by school clubs or groups to raise money for club treasuries. For the most part it seemed like not a whole lot of money was made but all in all it was a good time for everyone. They had live bands (mostly student bands), what appeared to be a popularity contest, photo galleries, and a booth where you could have 15 minute Chinese lessons. I've been to a few festivals since I came to Japan but this was the first one I got the chance to participate.

A view of the campus during the fair

I was working two booths The English club and the mountain climbing club that were both selling various foods. My job was to stand in front of the booth and try and get wandering eyed customers to come and buy the food. Holding signs and shouting politely if customers would be interested in the various delicious hand made products actually began to get tiring after awhile. I began to feel like the annoying people who stand in the busy streets of Sannomiya shouting at everyone if they'd like to go and sing karaoke. I actually began to pity them because its extremely hard to get anyone to take the sale. The use of polite form makes everything you say so much longer too so you have to speak really fast to get it all out before someone walks by.

making takoyaki!

On the last day there were very few people who came. I don't know who's thought it was a good idea but to have a festival for three days and the last day its on is a regular working Monday doesn't make a lot of sense. Besides some retired folks and wandering children, the majority of the day was slow. That's when things began getting interesting. Since there were was no one to sell to the vendors began trying to sell to other vendors. Promises were made, "if you buy our food we'll come buy yours" and deals were carried out, "Here's some free ____ now promote our booth!". An interesting problem we had over at the mountain climbing club was the confusion of the food being a little different from the usual festival fare. At the festival you usually can get what is called takoyaki Its a dish made from a flour based batter fried into little balls that you put octopus in them and cover it with a sauce and other ingredients. Well in replacement of octopus we used squid; ikayaki. Before the festival I asked what we were making and I was told takoyaki, it wasn't until the day that I found out it wasn't octopus but squid. Which made for a little confusion when we were making the banner.

my drawing of an Octopus. At the top of the banner they wrote: "octopus is not added in"
to which I added "actually it is added in" to which they crossed it out and wrote "its not added in!!!"

Rain...

Unfortunately on the last day we got rained out and things began to get a little crazy. In desperation to sell something a lot of the booths dropped their prices. The foreign exchange group had all you could eat Chinese food for 100 yen (less then a dollar). People started giving away food out of shear kindness. It was insane and I wish more people knew about it or had a minute to stop by and eat practically for free. I ate pretty well this weekend (even if it wasn't exactly healthy) while making some new friends.

Convience or how my curiosity caved into candy

85 steps, an elevator trip, and 30 stairs away from the door of my apartment is a convenience store. Now there is convenience you can measure. Sometimes though I think that maybe its a little too convenient.

To explain a little better to the uninformed, Japan is covered in a sea of convenience stores. These stores bare a resemblance to 7/11 but then again they are a little different. Well actually no, since when I say the word convenience store I include 7/11 and there are 7/11's here in Japan. So maybe what I meant to say is the products sold inside are a bit of a treat for the curious foreigner. Put plain and simply I've gotten a sweet tooth since I came here.

So not only are the convenience stores plentiful but the vending machines too. Now vending machines only come in the variety of drinks (hot and cold), ice cream, cigarettes, alcohol, porn, vegetables, eggs, instant food and video games, (these last five are a little harder to come by, with vegetables and egg vending machines I've only seen in rural towns, the instant food in dining halls, and porn and video games? well I haven't seen them yet but I know they exist). Yet there are no snack vending machines. I would imagine unless you are without a pocket full of change and a working limb you would never go thirsty in Japan. Its interesting to note too that a lot of other services in Japan take on vending machine forms. For example high traffic fast food restaurants get rid of the ridiculous cashier job and instead have there entire menu displayed on a vending machine. Put in some money. Push a button. Out drops a ticket which you then hand to the person in the kitchen who makes your food. Makes me wonder, if every service, store, and interaction was just a massive wall of shiny buttons to press and choose what would life be like? Would there be any reason to speak at all? In fact I'm doing it right now, just pressing buttons.

Anyways back to the vending machines, here is one of the more interesting products that can be found in the drink vending machines.

Flan in a Can! Well on the label its called pudding but its the same texture as flan and just look at the picture.

Heres another interesting product, Calpis

If you've ever encountered Japanese junk food are been hit in the head with any form of modern Japanese culture, then you are probably aware of the famous candy called Pocky: Chocolate covered pretzel sticks buts whats this???

Men's Pockey??? So why is there a need to make gender targeted candy?

Despite searching high and low I couldn't not find any clues or the original story I heard that I guess can only be considered a rumor: Glico the Company that makes Pocky had trouble selling Pocky to Men, who saw it as a frilly snack not to be trifled with. Thus Men's Pocky was created. As far as gender targeted products go this is one that seems to confuse. Candy is candy, how did it become masculine or feminine in the first place?

Then theres one of my favorites,

Koala Match!!!!!
Chocolate filled crackers with pictures of Kola bears on the front.

Well that concludes a peek into Junk food in Japan, and the super convenience that surrounds me. If I really wanted to I could eat every meal of the day from the convenient store, they have all sorts of meals and boxed lunches precooked and ready to eat. After one meal however I can instantly feel my insides telling me if you eat here again theres a chance you won't live to see 40. The problem with this super convenience is people can work themselves to the bone, never learn how to cook, and eat instant food from convenient stores. If you'll excuse me I think I need to go eat a salad or something.