A Week Before Christmas

It was a peculiar situation, probably the first time I've encountered it in my life: I was in a large supermarket where there were virtually no potatoes on sale.  All they had on sale were two bags, with six potatoes each, of locally grown spuds...and they weren't even labelled as "jyagaimo" - the Japanese name for "potato".  I guess I'll have to wander down to the grocery store on the corner tomorrow....

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Expenses spiraled a bit out of control the last few months.  I purchased a used guitar on Halloween.  This year we were advised that our company wasn't going to be holding Christmas parties.  They were to be advertised as "Bonen-kai" - year-end parties.  That was fine.  The next point didn't go over so well with our school - the teachers and staff had to provide some form of entertainment.  We were told that the teachers up in Yamagata city were going to perform some songs accompanied by guitar.  That didn't fly well with the crew at our school.  One fellow has stage fright, another can't play any musical instruments or carry a tune, and yours truly hadn't played a guitar in at least 30 years.  Nonetheless, we had to do something.  Our manager offered to rummage up a loaner guitar from a friend.  "Okay", I said, "I'll give it a go".  "Play Clapton's 'Tears in Heaven'", was the next line from our manager.  I think I said "Maybe" to that.  A couple of weeks later when we reconvened to discuss our bill of entertainment, Mr. Clapton's song was ditched in exchange for much simpler material.  After five weeks of practice we were able to put on credible performances of "Proud Mary", "Diana", and "Country Roads".  Mr. Stage Fright delivered karaoke renditions of U2's "Where the Streets Have No Names" and the Eagle's "Desperado"...after consuming a considerable volume of alcoholic beverages to calm his nerves.

The other big expense came up mid-November.  I took my car in to have the snow tires mounted.  The mechanic started the work and then brought one of the tires into the waiting area of the gas station where I was having a coffee.  There was screw wedged into the tire.  He pulled it out and showed me a 1.5cm long screw.  Through the course of the following conversation I found out that the tires were 8 years old based on a year of manufacture stamped on the tire walls.  Time for a new set....paid for on a credit card.

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In late November I noticed that there was a car occupying the parking spot next to mine in the building parking area.  It had been open since my neighbour moved out about two years ago.  I took heed of that and started to park my car a bit closer to the centre of my slot.

A week or so later there was a knock on my door one evening.  I was a bit puzzled as I wasn't expecting any parcel deliveries.  Once I opened my door I was greeted by a fellow who introduced himself as the owner of the car parked next to mine.  At first I thought he was going to complain about a lack of space between our cars but such wasn't the case.  He wasn't the least bit upset looking and he gave me a small gift which indicated that he was a new resident in the building.  I was a bit surprised as this is the first time I've been on receiving end of this custom since the time I moved into this building.

About that car....

The car in the above photo has sat in that same location for as long as I've been living in Yonezawa.  Essentially it's an abandoned vehicle.  But I couldn't suss out why it hadn't been towed away.  Finally, a month or two ago, I found out.

The story, according to a friend of mine, is that it belongs to a fellow who used to own a very large plot of land on the east side of Yonezawa station.  As time passed he subdivided his land and sold off the parcels piece by piece.  Eventually he was left with a tiny sliver of land occupying a corner next to an intersection.  That's where he parked his car.

The rest of the story is that the fellow no longer lives in Yonezawa.  I've glanced at the licence plates on the car and they're from Nagano prefecture (or city).  So that part of the story sounds like it's true.  I also heard he's e a bit advanced in age and doesn't travel around much either.  So, he probably doesn't have any reason to be back in Yonezawa again.  So his old car has remained in Yonezawa sitting on his last piece of real estate here.  Thus we have the last piece of the puzzle.

A Rude Awakening...Of a Sort.

This morning I was woken up by a chorus of chain saws (I found out from a friend later that there doesn't seem to be Japanese specific name for the tool - it's just a "che-in-sa-uh").  After listening to the racket for a while I got up and opened the shoji slide doors to take a look at what was going on.  The sight wasn't a pleasing one.  Workers were busy cutting down the trees in the lot next door.  After a while the sound of the chain saws and trees being felled became a bit disturbing so I went out for lunch. 

At the cafe I asked about the Japanese name for a chain saw.  That led on to their purpose this morning.  I was told the lot is being cleared so that a new apartment building can be built.  The purpose of the Shinto ceremony which woke me up late last month thus became apparent; the priest was unconsecrating the little shrine in the corner of the lot. 

The buildings which occupied the lot housed a restaurant which had been founded in the 10th year of the Meiji era or 1877.  The buildings were of a much more recent vintage as the original structures would have burned down in the 1910s when a pair of massive fires consumed the centre of the city.  I'd hazard a guess that the business closed down as much as 20 years ago though the buildings were used occasionally as late as this past summer.  My friend's remark was that it's a bit sad to see it being torn down.

Then I asked him what one calls a Shinto priest in Japanese (the answer is "kannushi"/ 神主 ) and that led onto a question of what is the difference between "bokushi" (牧師) and "shinpu" (神父).   I couldn't come up with an authoritative answer to that one.  I pointed out that the kanji for shinpu suggested a relationship to the title of "Father" used by the Catholic Church.  By that time Minako, the woman taking care of the cafe today, had joined the conversation and it went off on tangent: the meaning of "ho-ankan" (保安官) in English and what position of authority that would equate to in Japan.  That prompted me to check online and the word I pulled out of the hat was "sheriff".

Trying to explain "sheriff" was a bit of a handful for me.  I pointed out that sheriffs were public figures responsible for enforcing the law before the days of police forces.  I also pointed out their frequent appearances in westerns and cowboy movies.  That tipped off my friend and he mentioned the title of a millennial western movie, "Young Guns".  So we talked a bit about the rule of the law in the Wild West.  On top of that was talk about various titles used by the public for members of Japanese police officers and whether or not their usage is correct in Japanese language subtitles for American movies. 

Anyways, the conversation was a lot longer than last night's conversation about a vegetable called "takana".  Incidentally, that name is a local version.  I don't remember the proper Japanese name for it.  Though I suspect the vegetable in question is kale.  At which point its name would be "ryoku kanran"...I think.

"Post War Blues" and "What's Going On?"

The above two are titles to songs.  The former is by Dan Magnan.  If I recall correctly the first line is "Let's start a war for the kids...".  The latter probably doesn't need an introduction. But, yes, indeed it is the title of the late Marvin Gaye's 1971 hit song.  The latter was playing on my iPhone when I left the office this evening.  I thought of the other as I walked out to the car.  They seem like such a fitting denouement to the day's main event; the US presidential election.

I only spoke with one person today about the US election.  That was a student who started on the subject when I had mistakenly reached for my iPhone during a break in a lesson.  She guessed correctly that I wanted to check the results.  When she asked me who I thought was going to win the election, I matter of factually replied the winner probably was going to be Trump.  She was genuinely shocked when she heard that.  She wondered out loud in Japanese, "I wonder what will happen".  Without hesitation I stated that the TPP agreement was likely doomed.  Same for the Paris Agreement on the environment.  The only silver lining she could find to the cloud was the value of the US dollar.  I made a sound like a rapidly deflating balloon and agreed it might be a good time to scoop up some US dollars.  She chuckled and said she was probably going to do so.  And that was more or less the end of conversation as we had reached the end of the time slot for her lesson.  I gave her a hint on what tomorrow's lesson was going to be on and that was all....


PS:  I taught a lesson today that focused on the poem "In Flanders Fields".  It was an interesting experience.  I played a bit of a CBC news story about Lt. Col. McCrae.  Portions of the poem were read in the video clip.  They helped him get an idea of how to read the poem.  He did relatively well with that task.  But he was puzzled by the word "ye".  I told him of its less poetic counterpart and all was well. 

Oh, yes, I remembered to pin a poppy on my suit jacket today.....

What to do...what to do....

The powers that be have decided that this year's Christmas party for staff and students will be held at a local hotel.  I presume they'll hire out a room typically used for small wedding receptions.  This is quite a change from a three years ago when we held a pot-luck dinner at a local community centre.

The regional manager also tossed in another request: the teachers and local school manager are to entertain the guests.  In the past we resorted to a Xmas trivia quiz.  Unfortunately the students started to memorize the answers.  So one year we did a shortened version of the Monty Python "Cheese Shop" sketch.  The students were mostly bemused so the following year we were told to put together presentations about Xmas at home using Powerpoint slides.  Now we're being asked to do what the teachers at the Yamagata school are doing: perform a few songs accompanied by some kind of instrument.  Great...none of us down in Yonezawa can really play any musical instruments.  One guy has stage fright.  The other guy can't sing to save his life.  I haven't played a whole song on a guitar since junior high school.

On Tuesday evening our school manager had a sort of serious sounding conversation on the phone with someone.  My interest was piqued when I heard my name a few times.  After she hung up, taken a deep breath, and sighed, she wandered over and asked if I could play the guitar for the Xmas party.  I cautioned her that she had to choose easy songs to play.  "How about that Eric Clapton song about heaven?", she asked.  I checked the chords online...it could be doable. "Or something people could sing along to...like 'Country Roads'?", she continued.  That, I had a bit more confidence in.  She continued on, "...and I'd like to sing 'Diana'.  Can you play that?".  Okay.  That one had me stumped.  How a 26-year old could go about choosing to sing that song was beyond me.  I've seen fellows in their late 50s and 60s tackling that song at karaoke but never anyone really young.  Nonetheless, I said I'd look into it.

At the end of the discussion I think I got saddled with learning three songs; Country Roads, Diana, and that Clapton tune.  I can probably figure out how to play the Clapton tune.  But part of me would rather tackle The Tragically Hip's "Bobcaygeon".  Which raises a small dilemma...while I'd get more satisfaction out of playing and singing "Bobcaygeon", no one in the audience would have a clue what the song is about or why I chose it.  What to do....  Maybe I should just do both tunes.  But first I need to get my hands on a guitar.... 

So Someone Has Tried Their Hand at Brewing Beer

Last weekend I met up with a friend to go over a few e-mails.  She wanted to check with me to see if she had understood the contents of them properly as they were written in English.  After that was done we settled down to having a few drinks.

After we had finished a round at the place we had met, she asked me if I knew about Gokuraku Brewing.  I professed I wasn't aware of the company.  It turns out they are running a brewhouse restaurant and bar not far from her home.  Given the interest I displayed she guided me there to sample their beers.

The place is probably an old workshop or small factory which was converted into a microbrewery and restaurant.  The ceilings are high but the place is not too brightly lit.  So it's a comfortable place to be.

Initially I was going to order a glass of their "ukogi" beer.  "Ukogi" is a name applied to several species of plants in the genus Eleutherococcus.  The species typically grown in Yonezawa is E. sieboldianus.  Its Japanese name is "himé ukogi".   Anyways, I was dissuaded by my server who suggested a flight of beers instead.  In it are the two beers the company brews; ukogi beer, and Tateyama apple beer, and a sample of Sapporo, a commercial brand,

As much as I like to promote local products, I find it a bit difficult to recommend these beers.  They both suffer from a strong acidic aftertaste.  My friend says that they've improved since their initial offerings.  I sense there is some potential here but I believe the brew master might want to refine his skill making a decent pilsener or lager instead of starting off with esoteric flavours.  Nonetheless, I hope he can do well enough catering to the curiosity seekers so that he can afford the time to refine his brewing skills.

Waking up to a Drumbeat

I was awakened by a distinct sound this morning.  It was the sound of a drum being hit.  Soon the sound turned into a steady drumbeat.  Then I start to hear chanting.  I cracked open the shoji and took a look outside.  Some kind of ceremony or ritual was taking place in front of small Shinto shrine on the property next door.  Given that this is the first time I've seen any activity in front of this structure, I grabbed my iPhone and shot the following video.  If you've got a sharp ear and you'll notice the difference between this chanting and that which is done by Buddhist priests....

(You can also listen to it here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/8936205@N02/29835085493/)

A brief update....

I was back in Vancouver in September.  Spent two weeks there and had a wonderful time.  Met up with plenty of friends and enjoyed reconnecting with everyone.  I also was introduced to someone whom a friend had confused me with.  At a reception last year my friend said "I just saw one of your relatives here".   I had no clue what was going on because I was quite sure none of my relatives were in attendance.  Turned out the mistake happened since I share the first name as another fellow my friend was thinking of.

Anyways...I was thinking of writing a post which involved a somewhat grisly subject.  It had stemmed from a conversation in Yonezawa where I was trying to impress upon the locals how bad a road kill skunk smells.  One fellow quickly one upped me; he had witnessed an accident in Tokyo involving a drunk man and an incoming commuter train.  Enough said.  I've decided not to go into further detail.

On that note I'm going to excuse myself....

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Side note: As I logged on to this site today I was shown a blank page with the message that the page wasn't being displayed because my browser doesn't support Javascript.  Actually, I use a script blocker...end of story.

Back in Niigata City...

I went to Niigata city on Sunday and stayed there for two nights. Met up with a friend who lives and works there. I splurged a bit and stayed at a Dormy Inn. Most of the hotels in that chain have nice onsen (hot spring) baths. In this particular one the men's bathing area is on the top floor (10th floor) and the women's is on the 2nd. Thus the men's bathing area has an open air bath but not the women's one.

First night there we had a bite to eat at an izakaya (Japanese tapas bar) which I picked because they had "nodogoro", a local fish specialty, on their menu.  The fish gets its name from its almost black gills.  Following that we went to a craft beer bar. They had one weird one from the Shonan (Kamakura to Enoshima) area down in Kanagawa prefecture. It was a bright emerald blue. Didn't taste like beer at all. It was more like Kool-Aid.  That definitely won't be a beer I'll be look out for in the future.  After that we walked around and popped into a wine bar. I said "Let's pop in here and get a drink so I can use the loo". Three glasses of wine later we were still in the place.  We should've ordered a bottle of wine.  The woman running the place used to work at another pub which my friend used to frequent. They closed up during the winter.  Apparently their landlord had wanted to renovate the building but changed their mind at the last minute.  The pub owner told the landlord he had already sold all his furniture, fixtures, and equipment was there was no way he could stay open. 

The next day I went on a trek in the pouring rain. Visited Hakusan Shrine (build in the 16th century), Gokoku Shrine (built in 1944/45), the old Saito family summer residence (the somewhat large garden was closed because of rain), and the Niigata City Museum (also known as Minato Pia). I think I walked about 18km to cover all that.

Bandai Bridge, Niigata City, on a rainy Monday

We were going to have dinner at a Thai place but it was closed and the place that featured Okinawan food was full. Ended up at a yakitori place. After that we went to a "snack" (karaoke and snacks) bar and finally ended up at Bar 37, which is one of my friend's usual haunts. One of the customers remembered me from my visit to Niigata last year. The next morning I stuck my nose in the Niigata Manga and Anime Museum. Didn't have time for the Evangelion themed Japanese sword collection exhibit.

I travelled to Niigata city this time by train. I didn't want to deal with parking for a two night stay. Took local trains on the way there. Took an express train from Niigata to Sakamachi on the way back. Very comfy. Similar experience to riding a shinkansen train but obviously lower speeds. The train from Sakamachi to Yonezawa was just one car. The line isn't electrified so it was a diesel engine train.

It's what...!

Yes, it's August.  But it doesn't quite feel like a typical August.  It was hot on Monday but yesterday (Tuesday) a big thunderstorm rolled in and just hung about.  It dumped quite a bit of rain on this region.  Mostly in the form of squalls that lasted for about half an hour or so.  The heavy rainfall led to flooding warnings being sent out several times in the day.  At one time an evacuation warning was in place for a hamlet up in the Kuriko Pass area.  That's the pass leading from Yonezawa to Fukushima city.  I presume the danger passed as I didn't see an evacuation order.  Right...in case one is wondering, these warnings are sent out by local authorities to all mobile phone devices in the region.  Of course this means that residents on trips to other areas in Japan will receive the warnings, to the alarm of the locals around them.  Such was the case for a student who was in Saitama when the March 11th earthquake struck: she was on a commuter train and her cell phone was the only one to receive a warning of the earthquake and go off with a loud audible klaxon.

Off on a complete tangent...an acquaintance proudly announced on a social media site that he had received a couple of "two-four"s (my words) of "Space Beer"(sic).  It's beer brewed using barley grown in space.  I don't recall which company made the beer (it's one of the big four - Asahi, Kirin, Suntory, and Sapporo).  Needless to say, the beer is not on sale in stores.  There couldn't possibly be enough of it to permit that.  It's only available by mail order.  While such a product has a high novelty factor, I can't imagine it'll taste all that much different from a usual Japanese pilsner style brew.  Which is a bit of a shame....

Welcome Back, Summer!

The weather through late June and early July was classic Japanese rainy season weather...rainy days with bits of clear sky and mostly overcast conditions.  Temperatures weren't too high and the humidity wasn't too bad.  Then came this past weekend.

Saturday was still a bit on the dull side.  Clear in the morning and overcast in the afternoon.  Sunday was overcast in the morning and it cleared up in the afternoon.  Then "It" went off.  That klaxon sound that announces the arrival of summer.  The cry of a cicada.  The particular individual insect let loose on Sunday afternoon with a high decibel racket that could've raised the dead.  He continued for about a minute and went silent.  The next day, he had a lot more of his kind accompanying him.

For me, the sound of late spring is the sound of frogs coming from flooded rice paddies.  I'm not 100% sure which variety though.  I suspect they're Japanese tree frogs.  Frogs aren't the only creatures to be found around rice paddies.  I've also seen herons standing in flooded rice paddies once the plants have grown a bit.  I thought the birds were likely hunting for frogs.  But it turns out frogs aren't the only occupants of rice paddies.

Another occupant of rice paddies is a fish known as medaka.  It's also known as the Japanese rice fish or Japanese killifish.  I was first made aware of this fish by one of my students.  It was in her first attempt to use the word "cannibal".  She wanted to tell me that she had had two fish but ended up with one because one got eaten by its tank mate.  I asked her what kind of fish she had and she replied "Medaka".  She didn't know if it had an English name.  A quick search on the Internet turned up the names mentioned earlier.

Carrying on with the rice paddy theme, here is a photograph I took of this year's rice paddy art display just on the outskirts of the Onogawa Hot Springs hamlet.  This is the eleventh year they've been doing this in these parts.  The subjects this year are Sanada Nobushige (more popularly known as Yukimura) and Uesugi Kagekatsu.  My understanding is that they were allied, prior to the Battle of Sekigahara, with Ishida Mitsunari.  I can only hazard a guess that their images were concealing frogs and fish at the time I took this photo two weeks ago.

Nothing Much Ado

Apologies for not posting here for a while.  Been bothered by a sore throat for ages.  It blossomed into an all out cold at the start of this month.  Hasn't completely loosened its grip either.

Anyways....  Occasionally I come up with things which I think would make good material for a post here...only to have it escape my memory quickly.  Right now I'm just a bit worn out.  Spent most of today working on a script for a role playing exercise.  The situation it covers is a meeting between some IT department folks and their project client representatives.  Hardly thrilling stuff one supposes.  Yet I've managed to spew out some lively banter.  Not sure if the account manager will be happy with it.  Hopefully it'll go over well.  The humour might not go over well though.  I have one character bravely saying he could write down the requirements for a project on a beer coaster in a matter of minutes.  Another catty character then asks "Is that before or after you've drank the beer that was on the coaster?".  I don't know.  I just wanted to shake things up a bit.  Otherwise the dialogue sounded a bit stiff.  After all, I can't add in all the colourful profanity and other insane expressions I've had the pleasure of listening to in my previous profession.

Actually, the little business situation dialogues I've been busy coming up with for my lessons have been quite fun to write.  It's always a challenge to come up with something realistic sounding in a field one knows little of...or remembers little of!  I suppose I've been relatively successful.  I had one student read a dialogue in class and he remarked "This is so realistic!  It's just like our company.".  Unfortunately, that dialogue took place in a fictional company where one would be inclined to question the competence of the employees.  Hardly the kind of stuff I want to hear a student describe as realistic.

Other than that...can't get the song "Funiculì Funiculà" out of my head tonight.  I tackled it tonight during a drink and karaoke session at one of my regular drinking spots.  The inspiration for doing that...an AMV featuring clips from one of the shows in the "Girls und Panzer" franchise.  I had stumbled across it this past weekend.  Don't go looking for it...trust me....

Lazy Monday Morning

Last week was a typical work week but there was an element of post holiday "blahs".  The previous week was Golden Week, the week where four statutory holidays get crammed into a span five to six days.  This year the holidays were mid week.  At our company that meant that there were work days popping up in the middle of what could have been a continuous 10 day period away from work.  One co-worker was a touch annoyed with that.  But I think we got off better than some of our students.  I asked in one class "How was your Golden Week?" and a student replied "I worked...".

I've been keeping myself somewhat occupied for the past month or so.  Read a number of books, upped the frequency of my visits to the gym, and kept plugging away at assembling model ships.  The latest one to reach completion is the one in the foreground of the photo below.  It's a little more than 10cm in length...if that.  I built it "OOB" - out of the box - in modeller's lingo.  No after market parts were added to the kit.  It was a bit of a challenge to build since the hull was originally sagging at the stern.  After my first round of warming up the hull in hot water and reshaping it, the bow was bent upward.  So the process was repeated.  In the end I managed to get it reasonably flat.

A friend asked me what do I do with these models.  I told him I eventually take them back to Canada.  He asked my why didn't I sell them.  My curt answer was "What's the point of that?".  It more or less meant that I didn't think there would be any buyers and furthermore that's the last thing I would think of doing when I assemble them.  I guess I'll be leaving the question of how to dispose of my collection to someone else....

Alright, who just washed their car?

This past Monday morning was sunny.  I did a load of laundry and hung it out to dry in the early spring light.  The temperature didn't feel too cool but there was a brisk breeze blowing.  I figured my clothes would dry, be it a not as soon as on a calm spring day but eventually.

Following that I hauled the summer tires down from my apartment veranda and into my car.  Drove over to the local service station and asked to have my tires changed.  Also asked them to wash the car.  Seemed like a good idea at the time.

As I was having lunch at Cafe ARB, someone piped up it had been snowing hard a while ago.  Must of been while I was sitting in the service station with my back to the window.  My immediate response was "I can do without that!".  Nonetheless, as I walked back to my apartment I could see snow flakes.  Snow flakes...yes, in April.  Not like on April Fool's Day back in 2013.  No, it was the 11th of April.

By mid afternoon the snow was coming down steadily.  My clothes were getting wetter rather than drier.  So I hauled them in and hung them on the clothes rack in my dining room.

When I went out to get groceries after 6pm the situation hadn't improved.  No, the weather was decidedly like early December.  The air had cooled off significantly and the snow was coming down quite hard.  On my way out from the supermarket I took the following photograph with my iPhone.

The next day I joked in several classes that I had tempted fate too much by having my tires swapped AND getting the car washed.  I think I set up the joke well because all my students got a chuckle out of it....

When Things Go Awry....

A friend of mine came over to Tokyo, daughter and husband in tow, from Canada several weeks ago.  We made arrangements to meet up on Sunday the 20th.  Concurrently, a co-worker was down in Tokyo on vacation.  Before he had departed we made plans to drop in on a mutual acquaintance who is now living in Tokyo.  Since this was all arranged using LINE there was no element of surprise.  Yuko, our mutual acquaintance, was told ahead of time we were planning to go to the cafe/bar where she works.  I took the time to take screenshots from the Apple Map application to show my co-worker where exactly in Shinjuku to wait for me.

So, as I arrived at Tokyo station on Saturday night I sent a LINE message to my co-worker.  His response was "F***, I'm in Chiba.  I forgot what day it is.".  Okay.  That definitely wasn't the response I was expecting.  I sent a query asking if he was going to start heading back to Tokyo.  No response.  I said to myself, "The heck with him" and made my deliberate way to the Burger King in the Kabuki-cho district of Shinjuku.  I sent a LINE message to my co-worker advising him that the Whopper I had just inhaled was good.  "Boy, you're fast" was his response.  Which basically told me that he hadn't budged an inch off the bar stool he was sitting on in Chiba.  After I had checked in at the capsule hotel I had made a reservation at, I headed off to Yotsuya San-cho-me on my own.  I met up with Yuko who was a bit surprised to see me without my co-worker in tow.  Needless to say she was less than impressed with his performance when I told her what he was up to.

I spent about a day and half taking my friend and her daughter around a number of spots in Tokyo.  Her husband came down with a cold so he was mostly bedridden for two days, Sunday the 20th and Monday the 21st.  Sunday afternoon was spent shopping in the area just east of Shinjuku station.  The crowds weren't too bad so it wasn't an exhausting experience.  We checked on her husband around 5pm and then headed out for dinner.  I couldn't find the place I had in mind so we settled on a yakitori restaurant.

We covered a lot more ground the next day: Harajuku (specifically the first few blocks of Takeshita Dori), Meiji Jingu, Roppongi (for the express purpose of going to a Sushizanmai restaurant a friend of mine frequents), and Odaiba.  We purchased day passes to ride the Yurikamome line and used it enough to get our money's worth hopping on and off a couple of Yurikamome line stations..  Didn't do any shopping in Odaiba but we checked out the beach side park, the life size Gundam robot, and the Toyota centre next to Venus Fort.  They have a new program for the Toyota ride simulator so we checked that out.  My friend's daughter, who just turned 12, thought the ride was the highlight of the day....

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Postscript:  One of the shops I checked out on Sunday morning, before my friend arrived in Tokyo from Kawaguchi-ko (next to Mt. Fuji), was Kinokuniya Books.  It goes without saying that my wallet became a touch lighter after my visit there.  I picked up a copy of a somewhat thick magazine whose current issue is focused on manga-ka Eguchi Hisashi.  When I got to the floor where they sell foreign language books and magazines I more or less just wandered around.  Then I got to the section where they have their selection of novels.  I don't know why but I remembered then reading a review of Yann Martel's latest novel.  But I couldn't remember the title of the book.  I found several books by Martel though.  I ended up buying two...but I can't remember their titles right away as I had the store clerk make book covers for my purchases....

Unexpected....

A few weeks ago an acquaintance had called me up to check that I was free on the evening of March 12th.  He said that a friend of his from Vancouver would be in Yonezawa that night and he wanted me to meet his friend.  I said I had no plans that night and it was agreed upon to get together.

Last night I was sitting at home and the fellow gave me a call.  I agreed to meet him at the bar where we had first met, a place called Nishiki which is run by a Chinese lady.  I got there before my acquaintance's party so I just took a seat and nursed my drink.

About 20 minutes later my acquaintance arrived with a party of about 7 people in tow.  I transferred my seat over to an area which could accommodate the larger group.  As I did so I recognized one of the women.  It was Sachiko.  I had met her in January at the annual Yonezawa International Relations Association mochitsuki.  She was a bit surprised to see me.  Next an elder fellow I had never met before addressed me in Chinese.  Sachiko quickly explained to him that I didn't speak Chinese.

As we started to get settled down one fellow looked at me straight and called out me name.  "Is that you!" he exclaimed.  I looked at him.  Didn't immediately recognize him.  Then he mentioned TELUS.  I thought to myself, "Wait a minute, this guy looks familiar!". 

Long story short...yes, he was a former co-worker.  His name is Raymond.  We had worked together on a project back in the late 1990s.  He had left TELUS in 2005.  Presently, he's in Japan to visit his son who works in Tokyo.  The acquaintance of mine knows Raymond through Raymond's brother.

Needless to say this improbable reunion was quite a treat.  I don't think scale of the improbability of it has quite sunk in yet.  I must say this is one of the biggest surprises I've ever had!

Oops!....

So....  I've been absent from here longer than I had planned.  I had thought about writing a quick set of mini-movie reviews but that all got lost in the helter skelter of events which took place in February. 

It started off with our school's move in late January.  It wasn't so much of an organized event as it was a sequence of things which happened simply that's because those sorts of things happen.  In a way it was similar to my packing up the contents of my condominium prior to my move to Japan: things were happening but not at the right pace to meet deadlines.  Same here.  In the end we tossed out half of what was in the school, scrambled to find some things which had long gone MIA, packed, found ourselves in our new location, and then ordered replacements for the items which we had tossed out but shouldn't have.

Other things which I had to work into my already busy work schedule were plans to take on a new company, a couple of re-scheduled meetings to deal with paper work and class observations, and preparations for a training course in the first week of May.  The last point required a fair bit of time to write up documentation to help my substitute plan her lessons...which all went to naught when she got the stomach flu and had to take a day off from work.  So I'll be teaching those missed lessons in lieu later this month...on a Monday which is usually my day off.

But I suppose the one thing which distracted me from posting here was the news that a close relative has been diagnosed with cancer...stage 3 out of 4 at that.  The news hasn't completely distracted me from my daily routine but it's lurking there in the background.  I'm getting regular updates on his treatments from my sister.  The question of when I'll be visiting Canada will be dependent on his prognosis once they get through the first round of radiation treatment.  There's nothing much I can do from this side of the ocean other than to keep my fingers crossed....

Right Place, Right Time

Got super lucky last weekend (Jan 16th).  I went to Sendai (a more or less spur of the moment decision).  I took a bus out of Yonezawa after lunch and arrived in Sendai mid afternoon.  After spending some time shopping I checked in at my hotel around 4:30pm.  After resting for a bit I started checking out club and concert listings.  There were a few that seemed a bit interesting.  The one featuring a "new-half" act was puzzling but didn't get me excited.  Neither did a couple of featuring local bands.  They appeared to be of the emo-melocore variety.  A link to a blues bar got me excited...until I opened the web page and found out they had closed their doors for good back in November last year.  Then I stumbled upon a web page where I thought I saw "Special Others" scroll by.  I waited for it to scroll by again and clicked on the image.  Sure enough, Special Others were playing at Rensa, a "live house" that night.  The time I realized this was 5:15pm.  The concert start time was 6 o'clock.  Needless to say I hurried out to try and find the place. 

I quickly found the nearest subway station and took a subway train to the next stop from my hotel.  Then I  headed topside under the guidance of a map app on my iPhone.  I found myself in a shopping arcade (shotengai).  Spotted a building with a row of signs...one of which said "RENSA" on it.  I headed in and took the elevator up to the top floor.  Yes, tickets were still available.  It was around 5:50pm.  The concert hall had no seats.  It was pretty packed so I found a spot near the back which had a decent view of the stage.  As long as someone taller than me wasn't in front of me then I could see the guitarist, drummer, and bassist.  The keyboard player was visible most of the time though it was kind of hard to see all of his face thanks to long-ish hair..

They played for the better part of 110 minutes.  Had a couple of lengthy chat sessions and came out for one encore tune.  Up to that night I only had one album of theirs and I was impressed with their playing (they're an instrumental rock band whose compositions are more akin to jam sessions that actual songs).  They didn't disappoint me with their live show.  A wee bit of noodling off here and there but that was part of the fun.  Style-wise they're similar to "the band apart" - minus the vocals.  Bosa nova, reggae, jazz, and all sorts of other stuff mixed in.

All in all, I was really happy that I happened to be at the right place at the right time.  :)