running into the law

Thunder storms, lighting, and rain this is the setting where a rare and bizarre event unfolded tonight. There was some yelling outside the balcony and I look down and some younger looking guys are in the middle of a fight but its unclear if its between them or policemen. So this is taking place right in front of the police department and the fight slash argument slowly meanders into the police parking lot and right in front of the building. All this time officer are playing an extremely passive role just watching the events unfold in their white rain parkas and helmets. Then things get really strange. I had no context or no idea what was going on but it appears the guys were trying to enter the police building. but the police formed a line in front of the front doors where the younger people argued trying to push there way inside. All this time the police are not trying to put any restrain on these kids and it appears as if one of the persons peers is actually trying to stop him from pushing the police. Again I couldn't tell if the police were provoking these people or what had taken place but in my concept of police I can't think of any situation where policemen would be trying to keep angry aggressive people out of the police office. Just imagine a swarm of angry men rushing towards the police department cussing and yelling. You would bet that if the police came to do their job that day those men would be met with some resistance. The level of fear doesn't seem to be anywhere near that of which I have come to associate with police. Then again watching two policemen bow to a person they've just finished questioning on the street lets me know I'm not in America anymore.

Tokyo bits

During the beginning of last month I went to Tokyo for two and a half days in the middle of a holiday. Originally I wanted to do a huge blog entry about it but I decided to cut back and do a little picture post instead.

I should first explain how I got to Tokyo. Their are overnight buses that go to Tokyo from Kobe leaving at around 10 pm and arriving at 6 am. Depending on your luck most of these buses are nearly impossible to sleep in. Imagine siting in a semi-comfortable semi-reclining chair with little foot room being shaken and bumped around and awoken every two hours for a bathroom break. Its defiantly not the most desirable way to travel but its a cheap way for young people to get around.


This was some of the first sights of Tokyo early in the Morning for a majority of the ride through the city we hid behind the shadows of buildings and overpasses. There was a definite change in the atmosphere from the cities and country sides I'd seen previously.

I'll skip through the first day which was a trip to Tokyo Disney Land. I had made a mutual deal with my friend Vivi that if she would help me with last minute planning and accompany me through some of the city I would go with her to Disney Sea Land. It was an interesting experience and there's only one thing I could say is imagine Mickey Mouse same voice but in Japanese.

Youth Hostel

I stayed in a Youth Hostel on the 18th floor of a building in the Shinjuku ward which had an amazing view. The hostel is a relatively cheap way to stay in Tokyo and you get to share a room with random people who have ended up in the big city for one reason or another. The first people were from Germany on an internship and the second group of people was a family from Hokaido on vacation.

Ueno Toshogu Shrine

Second day was first spent at the Ueno Park, the biggest park in Tokyo. Got to see a lot of old old things as well as some shrines.

Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa

Definitely a must when sight seeing in Tokyo, this is one of the most visited Temples in Tokyo with crowds shops and all sorts of distractions. The crowds and shops where as amazing as the temple itself.

Yeaaah!

I couldn't help but feel like that I was getting a heaping helping of tourism done and it felt good. The strange thing was how traditional and stereotypical began to blur the lines as shops were selling ninja key chains, head bands, fans with geisha's painted on them. The signs for these gifts reassured me of their authenticity. Note the picture below in the right hand corner of the sign.

Akihabara

An electronic orgy, this is where you can find anything remotely associated with electronic or entertainment goods. Akihabara gets a reputation for being a town for nerds. It was hard for me to imagine such a thing. How does one classify a town or a part of a city as nerdy? Well visiting the place gave me idea of how this perception came to be. Imagine a 10 story building completely devoted to toy models and video games, and that's only one of several buildings. The feeling of being a little kid and the desire to purchase cheap electronic goods was overwhelming. I did find a store with an amazing selection of movies Japanese and abroad.

Ema under a Tree at Meiji Shrine

This picture was taken on a rainy day at Meiji Shrine near the Harajuku district. This shrine is dedicated to the Emperor Meiji. Ema is a wooden block hung on a string that has wishes and prayers written on them. Its really awe inspiring trying to read them all written in every imaginable language and ranging from the serious to the silly.

Tokyo Tower in front of the Zoojoo Temple

Sight from the tower

As the picture suggests you get the sense of being in a never ending city with skyscrapers fading into the thick, city air. Its a really beautiful sight and it makes you feel very small and lost. Its hard to explain never being to a city this size but its like the buildings are competing to block out the sky. Or the buildings are leaving the people behind (or the people are leaving the buildings behind). A lush jungle of steel and concrete. I just feel kind of funny describing this as if I've never heard of the word skyscraper before. Guess I can't escape my origins.

Statue of Liberty?

Yes there is a replica of the statue of liberty in Japan. When I first saw this I was completely confused and baffled as to what I was looking at. It reminded me of the words I had heard from my professor Setsuko who had said "Japan is like a part of the U.S. now." which I took have jokingly. Well now I don't have to go to New York. The fascinating thing is the statue can be found on a man made Island called Odaiba which was originally created to keep foreigners and attackers from sea at bay.

My first impression of Tokyo

Passing an art display in an underground walkway through Tokyo station this piece of art work caught my eye. If you've ever been in a big city like Tokyo your orientation is something equivalent to this. up, down, up, down, up... like a game of chutes and ladders. There was more that I left out on and more that I should comment on but I'll leave it at that for now. As for this weekend I'll be getting my hands dirty as I get a chance to do some agricultural work.

A story that needs telling

At the moment this story is incomplete and coming from word of mouth and a few pamphlets I've read. I hope to try and flesh it out in the future and coming back to this post as more information becomes available.

So for the first two months of my stay I've been spending the majority of my time going to school, meeting students, professors, and characters of all types. I've tried, like the Japanese exchange students sent to Evergreen to fit in as much as possible. This has proven to be quite difficult and noticeably impossible at times, seeing as I have very little responsibility assigned to me as a student. It has led however, to a growing curiosity to the inner workings of the college, its history, and the state of the exchange program I am currently taking part in.

From what I've heard from others the state of the exchange program is in a state of looming change, or uncertainty and due to certain complications in the past is not on "good terms". All of this has a pretty ominous feeling but it doesn't speak much truth. I still can't speak as to why the exchange program is not on good terms besides a few past incidents which will go unnamed and claims that communication between Evergreen and The Hyogo Economic/Business college has been what it was.

About 4 years ago the college I go to now was reformed with Hyogo prefecture University, bringing into the fold of a multitude of colleges around Hyogo prefecture. Before that it was a general college but it was forced to split its faculty in to two departments, Business and Economics. History, Law, English, Environment, and other professors who were not specialized in Business or Economics were forced to enter one of the two departments. Apparently professors who were well acquainted with each other joined the same department. So the school was not originally set up to be a Business and Economic school! This makes a lot of sense seeing as the curriculim is a bit strange and the type of professors pecuilar seeing as the college is suppose to be about business and economics. The students and faculty also seem to gravitate towards the department they've chosen.

Recently one of the other campuses had some interest in the exchange program but the problem is that this university would lose the opportunity to send two students to Evergreen. Also what about the students coming from Evergreen? There has been the possibility that the other campuses all over Hyogo prefecture would be open to Evergreen students. So instead of coming here other campus such as the nursing, engineering, or science campuses could be open to Evergreen Students. Would that mean students from those campuses would have an opportunity to come to Evergreen? All of it is a little perplexing and hinges on the fact of whether there is interest from the other campuses and the topic is brought up again whether there will be change or not.

So where do I come into all of this? I'm not really sure and I often worry how I am viewed having an affect on the future of the exchange program (thats probably one of the reason I go to school so much) recently I've felt a responsibility to be a spokesman for Evergreen College or somehow get involved into this mess, or improve the relationship between the two colleges but I think there are some things that can't be helped and other things I think I'm just imagining. Time will tell.

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.

Rolling Stone

Yesterday I awoke to the somewhat violent rocking back and forth of my bed. I remember waking up and laughing at the comical nature of the bed hopping around. It wasn't until about 5 minutes later when it had stopped that the thought even occurred to me that was an earthquake. Well luckily it wasn't too bad in that no one noticed until I mentioned it. This happens to be the 2nd earthquake that has occurred while I have been here (3rd if you count another that someone was explaining to me). Mostly mild and sometimes hardly noticeable, earthquakes are capable of occurring quite often. If we just take a look at this chart of Preliminary Determination of Earthquake Epicenters here we'll notice something quite interesting.
Japan seems to be missing on this map, covered by a rather large clump of black dots.

It did remind me of the great earthquake that struck the Kobe area 12 years ago. I remember on my first trip to Japan hearing about the stories of the clean up in Kobe and of the international attention it received. Since then there have been monuments build to commemorate those who died and the lives it affected. This is a piece of the damage kept intact at the earthquake memorial park. The Earthquake created a huge and needed awareness for earthquake safety and how earthquakes need to be handled. You can read about it here



With that I'm off to Tokyo this weekend for a little vacation. Expect pictures and explanations when I get back.

Sannomiya, Sannomiyaです

A half hour away from the nearest subway station is the downtown area of Kobe, Sannomiya. A bustling center and hub for various train lines. Here you can find shops, restaurants, more shops, entertainment, and more! A surprise and shock at first sight, this is the first big city I've ever visited in Japan. With crosswalks that stretch down the entire street and people constantly on the move adding to the barrage of flashing lights, signs and advertisements. After awhile I can't take it all in and it starts to become over stimulating and I start to squint, shaking away any oncoming headaches. My friends laugh and coolly say, "this is nothing compared to Osaka". This was also a first time meeting a homeless person in Japan, something I was sworn by my high school Japanese teacher didn't exists (although I think she meant few in comparison to the states?).

One thing I have yet to understand is how services and restaurants share the same building. There will be a building about 7 stories tall and on the side will be small signs briefly describing what exists on that floor. This adds infinite amount of signs to read something that is impossible for me to do when walking at the same pace as everyone on the street. Something I also find strange is the arrangement of buildings. Obviously there is huge competition for space in such a big city but the way shops and stores are constructed creates weird experiences for me. For example imagine ordering at a McDonald's that's open to the street and then having to go down a spiral stair case into a basement to find seating. Being brought up in the Northwestern part of the USA, I associate building size and shape to different establishments. You see the outside of the building you recognize it not only by its exterior signs but by its physical shape (Wouldn't you be suspicious if you saw a Safeway in a building the size of a flower shop?). Since there's so much damn space, these buildings can be made as big as possible with huge exteriors like some commercialism mecca, beckoning people from a mile away.
So here's where I get to my point, Because of the way buildings are made in the Northwest, the exterior is very important to me. In London and in Japan too, Department stores exist in multi story buildings with different products on different floors. You can't just open your eyes and see the name of the store you have to know where you're going and what floor to go to. Similarly there are many restaurants and shops that have no exterior entrance. You have to walk down a flight of stairs narrow enough for one person or go up an elevator or climb stairs and discover which hole in the wall to go into. For me it creates a kind of duality, with friendly street signs and mysterious, faceless entryways that are somewhat maze like, I really don't know whether to feel welcomed or dared to enter. There must be some truth to this because I ran into another foreigner who decided to ask me if there was anything to do around here when we are surrounded by hundreds upon hundreds of teeming shops and entertainment centers just begging for business. My response was get lost...... What I mean by that is walk around and get lost not the GET LOST! get lost. So yeah exteriors, Important to the US consumers? Ask yourself this the next time you pass a Walmart and you see it all the way from the highway.

A loooooooooooooong path to shopping heaven. (if you enjoy shopping)

Sakura Sigh

Ahhh, Sakura only comes once a year. I could never understand why people would want to sit out in front of trees and look at them (the term 花見 literally means flower watching). It makes a little more sense now. You have these trees with cherry blossoms they bloom once a year for about 2 weeks or so and then there gone. There appearance is self explanatory. It is representative of the idea that life is a fleeting and beautiful thing. Makes me think of the limited amount of time I am here, and the unlimited number of things I want to do. Guess its time to start somewhere. With that I'll let the pictures do the talking.

www.flickr.com

For some reason portrait style photos will not upload properly on Blogger right now so I'm using flickr.