2 Days in NIkko

Summer vacation has come and gone, but in its passing new memories were formed. Vacation started on a Thursday, needless to say we all wanted to cram as much stuff into 1 week as we could and so bright and early I left my house, setting out for a little town called Nikko. Nikko is about 2 1/2 hours from Tokyo and is famous in Japan for its temples and beautiful scenery. The picture of the REALLY big temple (I tried to stand as far back as possible and still couldn't get the whole thing in the photo) is Rinno-ji Temple. It is the largest of the temples in Nikko. Inside the temple is a large statue of Amida Nyorai, the Buddha of the Western Paradise, on its right, Senju Kannon, the goddess of mercy and on the left by Bato-Kannon, who is known as the protector of animals. All three are lacquered in gold and date back to the early part of the 17th century. All of the temples were truly beautiful. At the bottom of the hill, before we got to the temples was the Sacred Bridge, the bridge was cool, though none of us wanted to spend the money to walk across it! Though really, what I like the most was the vivid blue water the flowed underneath it, it almost looked as though someone had been dropping gallons of blue cool-aid into it! While we were going through our first temple of the day, we kept hearing what sounded like fighting going on, turns out there was some sort of practice going on, I took one photo, but didn't want to be disrespectful, so after watching them for a couple of minutes we quietly moved on. There were so many things going on and I took so many pictures it was hard to decide which ones to put up here, so there are kind of a lot! Oh, and anyone who is doing a lot of traveling and is looking for a fairly inexpensive place to stay that has a cool staff and a good vibe should definitely check out the Nikko Park Lodge, its run by some 2 guys, one is a Zen monk and he does a yoga class every morning, they also serve a vegan dinner every night! So we were in Nikko for only two days, and we tried to fit in as much as possible, we went back to the temples on Friday morning and then headed out the Kegon falls. Kegon falls is the country's most famous waterfall and is what attracts many visitors to Nikko every year. The photos I have up here are from a hike we did in the mountains about the waterfall and lake. As usually, it was pretty hazy that day, so the pictures aren't as clear as I like them to be, then again maybe it just adds to the scenery... who knows! I was a little sad to leave on Friday night, while I was really tired and my feet hurt from all of the walking, there was something about that place that was very peaceful... NOT like Tokyo! Coming back to reality on Saturday and all the people was also a nice surprise though, I think it is good to have a little bit of everything in one's experiences.

Chillin' at Onjuko

I feel it neccessary to put a bit of a disclaimer on this one... here it goes, Materials in this blog post may not be suitable for children under the age of thirteen due to the sheer randomness of some of the photos (not inappropriateness, as some may argue), in anycase, reader beware! Lovely Onjuko beach, located approximetely 3 hours away from my house and interestingly enough, right next to Mexico. Giant cactus in Japan? Nope, doesn't surprise me one bit. The man in the speedo who seems to embrace the things other men would be insecure about, that actually surprised me a little bit oh, and the fake boob that washed up during a really high wave, that surprised me a bit too. All in all, a very good day at the beach. Unfortunetely we did not get in as much time in the water as we would have liked. The lifeguards kept coming over the loud speaker telling everyone to get out of the water,apparently there was a giant storm out at see that was causing the big waves that brought in the fake boob, and there were typhoon conditions which made it dangerous for us to go swimming. We stayed at the beach until there was almost no one left, I am seeing more of a trend everytime I go out in Japan, it seems that the people are all on these internal clocks that tell them when they have to leave, no questions asked, and one minute they are there, and the next, poof! The only ones left are the Americans and Canadians sitting on the beach drinking some beers... oh and wait, here they come, the random foreign guys carrying a boombox, I knew we were forgetting something. And we wonder why they stair at us on the train...

What's in a name

I think it is about time that I finally explained the title of the blog. I am always interested in the reasons people have, to decide the name of their blogs, books, even screen names, so today I thought I would explain one or two things about myself to maybe take some of the mystery out of it. If you like mystery, please skip this post and move directly to the next one. In the case I haven't written anything else yet, stop reading and don't start again until I tell you otherwise! It's pretty much no secret that I love music. All types, from jazz to hip hop, classical and oldies, Latin and eastern European, even some techno on occasion can be heard on my iPod. I take that thing with me everywhere I go, when I said goodbye to my parents at DIA, I immediately turned on my music. For the next 18 hours straight, (with a 2 hour charge in Seattle) I listened to my music. I listened to songs that made me cry, songs that made me want to get out of my seat and dance and all the while feeling like I wasn't alone, like an old friend was there with me and always knew what to say. Everyday I wake up in a place I don't even pretend to understand and everyday, as soon as I wake up, I turn on my music and start my day, it puts a smile on my face and these songs become the background music for the memories that occurred in their presence and the potential for those to come. My music is an outline of the stories of my life.

Random Photos

Here are a few photos I have taken that didn't really fit into any story I had, the first couple were taken in and around Tokyo, the last one is of my sick nasty alarm clock which I am sure you all wish you had, I just wish I knew how to change the alarm time, I am over getting up at 8 and not going to work until 2.

At the Imperial Palace... Sort of

Before going to Shinjuku on Sunday to meet some friends, I decided that I needed to do something with my day other that sit around, though that was an extremely enticing option! Instead I hopped on the train and before I knew it it was at Tokyo Station. Designed by Kingo Tatsuno and completed in 1914, Tansuno was one of Japan's first modern architects and had modeled the station after the train station in Amsterdam. I bring this up because I know many of my friends have been there and I can't seem to rememer what it looks like and was hoping you could refresh my memory, so... what do you think? There is a really amazing water structure as you are walking toward the Imperial Palace, I spent quite a bit of time just standing in front of it, admiring its beauty in all of its simplicity. I kept walking and finally reached the moat, oh that moat, never once did I actually see the Palace, but I got a great view of some really high walls and a lot of water. I mean seriously, do they really have a problem with foreign people walking all over their sacred grounds? I just wanted to take a peek! So that was that, don't get me wrong, the parks around the grounds are truly beautiful. Oh, I had to put this picture up too. This really tall, boring building made completely of cement is the police station. First of all, the Japanese police really scare no one, don't get me wrong, they definitely keep things running smoothly, but they kind of seem more like security guards you would see at a mall in the U.S. Anyway, do they really need such a dominating structure... I think not.

The Well Behaved Crowd

This one is really short, I just wanted to amend and perhaps extend an earlier post I had written about fireworks. I went again on Saturday night, after work, to the fireworks in Tachikawa. Yokohama has nothing on Tachikawa when it comes to fireworks, and the people... wow. I had to post this picture, it's of the train station about an hour and a half after the fireworks. The police officers were allowing people into the station in a Very systematic way. One girl actually tried to climb over the barrier and the police man stopped her and said she couldn't do that. When she asked him why, he said, "It's very dangerous, you could get hurt." (In Japanese of course, it was later translated for me!) The thing about it was that they all listened, its like at the end of a festival and the police tell everyone to go home... and they actually do! You would never see that at home.

My Birthday

Last weekend was my birthday, well actually, Monday was my birthday, but you get the idea. On Sunday Mia, Rae and I went to Kasukabe to see out friend Cash and go to a gaijin barbecue in the park. The weather was nice, it only rained for about 10 minutes the whole time we were there. (Sidenote: apparently the rainy season is officially over and while the weekend was clear and blue, it is still cloudy, really cloudy, during the week.) We met a lot of cool people and we played some volleyball, I mean, they played volleyball, somehow I got into a discussion about history and religion, go figure. After the bbq as I am sure we can guess, came the kareoke and then a night cap at this fun little bar near Cash's house. A bar with leather comfy chairs, blankets and interesting stuffed animals, oh, and a dart board too! All and all, not too bad a birthday! I thought it would end there, after all, a birthday comes once a year so logic would suggest to me that it be celebrated hmm, once a year. This year I was lucky enough to keep it going a bit longer! On Wednesday, after work, I went to grab a drink with Mark we met up with some people I knew through the school. After about 2 hours of hanging out and having a good time, the lights went dim and a song, which I couldn't repeat if my life depended on it, were sung and a piece of cake and fruit was brought out. It was a great time, especially because I finally got to see Crazy Bob in full affect. As far as I am concerned, he looks like Asian Jesus but that's neither here nor there. Good times, though I was a little tired the next morning. This Sunday I went to Shinjuku to meet up with some of my friends from training, all I have to say is that I have a blast every time I see them. We drank, we laughed, we talked about our experiences here and made plans to see each other again during out vacation next week. I will be honest that when I got here I figured that I wouldn't know anyone and that my birthday would pass with no more that a blink of an eye on an island so far from home and unfamiliar, instead I had a fantastic time and got to spend time with some great people! Oh, and to all my friends who left me messages on my myspace or facebook, thank you! It was wonderful to here from the people I love on my birthday!