Sprawling smoggy skyline of Eibsu in Tokyo.
8/1/05
Watermelon Squared
Yes, that is a square shaped watermelon going for the retail price of about 120$, just one of the many shockingly high prices for fruit in Japan. I won't miss paying 2$ per apple or peach, even if they are seemingly perfect.
Girl from the Alps
My good old friend Heidi of Kansas origins as well came over from her teaching job in Korea for a bit of business and a bit of fun, she is now a Muji convert, thanks to my slightly evil bidding.
7/13/05
SAYONARA
So the two solid weeks of goodbyes before I leave started with force at a Sayonara party for the leaving and remaining JETs in my prefecture. I thought I'd cast the evening in a reflective light by going black and white with my photos (also because my entire outfit was black and white and I can't stop the urge to continue to coordinate).
It was a great night, in a nice club with good music and all my favorite people. The day started off with a quite afternoon at Claire's who supplied me with the movies to let my inner 80's child out. I've had great times at her place and will miss the family-like vibe we'd create for brunches on Sunday, and everything she owns from Muji. Mecha Arigats Ru!
It was a great night, in a nice club with good music and all my favorite people. The day started off with a quite afternoon at Claire's who supplied me with the movies to let my inner 80's child out. I've had great times at her place and will miss the family-like vibe we'd create for brunches on Sunday, and everything she owns from Muji. Mecha Arigats Ru!
Sappy Sepia
Here's me, Chris, and Natasha, oops, I mean Amy. Both of them are staying another year in Japan and I will miss them but feel comforted by the fact they are adding just that extra little bit of fashion sense to the teacher staffrooms in Japan, who need all the help they can get. Chris leads by example with a stunning 100 yen tie, reflecting brillantly here.
Under the Disco Ball
Folks on the dance floor, Johanna, Chris, and Abby were in top boggie form.*
*Abby not actually pictured here, but more like vividly remembered.
*Abby not actually pictured here, but more like vividly remembered.
Mike and Phil
Can't get much cooler than these two, between the skinny tie and the fauxhawk...kakoii!!!
7/5/05
When in Rome...
I do the peace sign now without thinking anymore, I need to be broken of this shamefully cute habit. But being around Chris doesn't help, he is all to willing to throw himself into the cute of Japan as well...
7/4/05
Steamy Niimi
So this is what most of Japan looked like the day we left for the beach in Tottori. Rainy season finally hit. The not so mighty Takahashi river is flowing at maxium capacity...
On the Road
This was as sunny as it got on our small adventure to the Sea of Japan on the Tottori coast. Philip and I are standing in front of a green devil (oni in Japanese). He was much more menacing in person.
One Summer Night
This was a night spent at a Japanese beer garden, usually found on the roof of a department store. Everyone was having a grand time, and there were enough balloons for everybody.
Sweet Helium
Not many people know about Matt’s brief career as a children’s clown in Korea. His hair was green back then and he went by Chuckles MaHeHeHe.
6/27/05
Things I Find Odd
Typical Japanese bike. You can tell a lot about the owner by the presence of what I can only describe as oven mitts on the handle bars. Oven mitts are popular among older woman who are very sun concious and don't want their hands getting too brown from all the time spent in the sun on their bike. This is a pair of lacey light "summer oven mitts" that breathe in the heat...
Grubby Mitts
Here is a more sinister pair of oven mitts, winter oven mitts, complete with a quilted leather outer coating, just begging for some little hoodlum to fill with shaving cream...
6/6/05
New Viewing
It is officially summer, though school in Japan is still in full swing which has put me into a sort of timeless/seasonless state of mind, but attending BBQ’s is good summer therapy, I think. So this one took place on the roof top of an apartment building in Niimi, a city/town nestled in the valley of lots of modest green mountains.
Roof Top
The BBQ began, unofficially at 5:30 and trailed into the wee early morning hours, and had three grills with meat and chicken on them, lots of beer, about 50 people, including two delightful Brazilians who brought chicken hearts, and two visits from the Japanese police, which is like having your grandpa pop his head in the basement and tell you to keep it down, very menacing...
5/16/05
Turning Japanese
Claire said for us to pull a Japanese face, so here we are at our most Japanese, notice the restraint of our expressions, the exactness in our tea cup holding...
Behold the Glory
Tis the glory of Golden Week and our feverish quest to seek out neon-lit entertainment...
GW ain't just a Bush in Japan
One thing Japan doesn't lack is national holidays. April 29th kicked off the start of Golden Week (aka GW), the longest stretch of holidays during the year. April 29th was Green Day, no relation to the band, it came about from a past Emperor's love of nature, I’m not sure what folks here traditionally do on Green Day, I think I watched a couple movies though. Next comes Constitution Day on May 2nd, with a name that squelches any desire for further investigation, your boring guess is probably right, then May 3rd, which I think is the real jewel of all holiday’s in Japan is unofficially In-Between Day, just a freebie thrown in to connect Constitution Day with Children's Day on May 4th so everyone gets three days off in a row.
Good time for a road trip, so I hopped in my friend Amy's toaster shaped car along with Claire and Jez and we drove five hours to Kyushu, the western island of Japan. The highlight of the car trip was when Claire relented and let me thrown some of her hard boiled eggs out the window at a concrete wall. After one night in a non-descript city called Kokura, we drove down to Beppu a city of about 100,000 known Japan-wide for it's quality hot springs. It hosts two types of hot springs, ones for bathing called onsen and ones purely for watching and unfortunately smelling, called Hells. The Hells emit hellish looking smoke and sulfur smells, but give the city a certain mystical edge when driving into its manicured mountain sides, as if the whole area were resting on top of a bubbling caldron. Beppu is also known for its kitsch tourist value and for a museum devoted solely to sex, which is not listed on any tourist maps in town but in the Lonely Planet for the foreign traveler's amusement. And amused we were by its artifacts from bygone brothels and a down right naughty interpretation of Snow White's stay with the Seven Dwarves. The highlight of Beppu was staying at a traditional Japanese style hotel, called a ryokan, where we had use of a private onsen, and then had a traditional Japanese meal brought to our tatami mat room, to be consumed while wearing mint green and purple yukata (lightweight robes), after which the four of us played various games involving lies, truths, and cards into the wee hours…
Then we headed to Kyushu's largest city, Fukuoka and checked into another ryokan. Philip came to meet us and more drunken card games ensued. After the cards we headed to a dance club called the Happy Cock, whose mascot was a quite sinister looking rooster. There rest of our time spent in Fukuoka was either lazing around the ryokan or traipsing through the mega shopping center called Canal City, which the travel guide described as "verging on the sexy." I think Kyushu is doing its best to try and increase the birthrate in Japan, but it was fraught with sexual innuendos at every turn.
Good time for a road trip, so I hopped in my friend Amy's toaster shaped car along with Claire and Jez and we drove five hours to Kyushu, the western island of Japan. The highlight of the car trip was when Claire relented and let me thrown some of her hard boiled eggs out the window at a concrete wall. After one night in a non-descript city called Kokura, we drove down to Beppu a city of about 100,000 known Japan-wide for it's quality hot springs. It hosts two types of hot springs, ones for bathing called onsen and ones purely for watching and unfortunately smelling, called Hells. The Hells emit hellish looking smoke and sulfur smells, but give the city a certain mystical edge when driving into its manicured mountain sides, as if the whole area were resting on top of a bubbling caldron. Beppu is also known for its kitsch tourist value and for a museum devoted solely to sex, which is not listed on any tourist maps in town but in the Lonely Planet for the foreign traveler's amusement. And amused we were by its artifacts from bygone brothels and a down right naughty interpretation of Snow White's stay with the Seven Dwarves. The highlight of Beppu was staying at a traditional Japanese style hotel, called a ryokan, where we had use of a private onsen, and then had a traditional Japanese meal brought to our tatami mat room, to be consumed while wearing mint green and purple yukata (lightweight robes), after which the four of us played various games involving lies, truths, and cards into the wee hours…
Then we headed to Kyushu's largest city, Fukuoka and checked into another ryokan. Philip came to meet us and more drunken card games ensued. After the cards we headed to a dance club called the Happy Cock, whose mascot was a quite sinister looking rooster. There rest of our time spent in Fukuoka was either lazing around the ryokan or traipsing through the mega shopping center called Canal City, which the travel guide described as "verging on the sexy." I think Kyushu is doing its best to try and increase the birthrate in Japan, but it was fraught with sexual innuendos at every turn.
Cha-Cha Town
Amy's smile is a lie. We all vowed this would be the last time we rode in one of the many lame ferris wheel that every city thats any city seems to have in Japan...
Firey Hell
Here we are in the steamy pits of hell in Beppu... Actually, unless hell is filled with elaborated manicured gardens, clear skys, bright sun, pleasant temperatures and ample amounts of cool refreshing beverage vending machines, then its tough to call this place a hell...
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