Remcoholic

Usuki

2010-11-08T22:13:00.006+09:00

In between all the crazy busy days, about which I could and should write more often, I was talked into going to Usuki City on saturday. Although maybe that sounds too negative because it was a pleasure even though I could have used a quiet day in Hirado. But there were important visitors so I needed to `work` anyway and they wanted to go to Usuki as well so it worked out nicely.

Last year we went to Usuki on a bike about which I wrote back then. Since then, exchanges between Hirado and Usuki have started to develop and so we were expected to come again on the occasion of their biggest festival: Usuki Takeyoi (Usuki Bamboo Evening). It is a festival where they decorate the old city centre with huge amounts of lanterns made out of bamboo. Over the years the creations have become more and more sophisticated and makes for a spectacular festival. The old Japanese city centre is nice in its own right but on the first weekend of November this is one of the best places to go in Japan in my opinion.

We had the honour to be guided by the mayor of Usuki again this year and met a few people from Usuki that I got to know over the course of one year. The only thing I will do different again next year: Ill go by bike again!

A few pictures:

Summer memories

2010-10-27T23:13:00.002+09:00

Some summer memories from Nishinoshima, where I visited J in July before he left for the big city lights. What a beautiful place!

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Interesting times

2010-10-26T23:45:00.002+09:00

The past few weeks have been very interesting. What I love about my life here is that it is so full of weird and wonderful encounters. Even after 3 years I come acros new challenges, meet new people and find new things to do. In fact, there are are so many things I want to do I never have the time to carry them all out. The hardest thing these days is to find a balance between travel, sports, hobbies, work and just quiet me-time.

Since I bought my bike, I have been trying to use it at much as possible, but since the days are getting shorter, I can only really use it in the weekends as I am a bit weary about racing around in the dark. Ive had a good few tours though. On the other hand, Ive almost completely given up on Kendo. The longer I stay away, the harder it is to come back.

Travelling has taken a back seat as I have hardly had the time to take weekends off of work. Autumn is the busiest season and there are so many events on the weekends that it's hard to find a weekend without anything planned. Okunchi is the main shinto festival in Hirado and I was part of the dragon dance team again this year. They wanted me to do the head as well, and even though I only had one time to practice the head position, it was a big honour to be able to dance in front of the city hall. Only the most experienced people do it, as it is extremely heavy and demanding but somehow I managed so I was pretty stoked about that.

For work I have had lots of requests from third parties asking for my participation at events or meetings. That's always nice since it allows me to get out of the office and do different stuff than normal. One of the things I was asked to do was to translate at a small gathering in the cafe in the harbour. 5 Dutch people were in Hirado as part of a government reconcilliation programme that invites children born from Japanese/Indonesion(or Dutch) parents in the war. Their stories are full of sadness and horrible events. Yet, with them coming to Japan and coming to terms with their childhood or finding out remaining pieces of the puzzle, there is something very meaningful and optimistic about their visit. Most of these stories were told in tears and it was hard for me, as a translator, to not shed a small tear listening to their heart wrenching stories and retelling them to the audience.

Today was another surprise event. A school from England came to our town for a short exchange programme as their city has historical ties with our city. Last year there was a large accident in our city in which a local fishing boat sank, drowning 12 out of the 22 on board. The English school raised money and send it to the families with letters of support. So with their visit here, the families came to say thanks to them. I didn't know about it and I was asked to translate on the spot. The families introduced themselves and each spoke a few words about the difficulties of living without their loved ones. Everyone was crying and some could not finish their words so this time I really couldnt resist a few tears. I somehow managed to keep myself under control pretty well and translate everything but it was another draining experience and a real contrast with the dragon dance festivities of the day before.

However all big happenings were eclipsed by the great news that my brother has asked his lovely girlfriend to marry him! I am so happy for them and excited about my brother getting married! It is strange that after having so many hostfamilies I will now also have real Japanese family! They will be a great husband and wife! Congratulations!

In the coming weeks I have various trips (both work and private), an exchange programme and lots of other work coming up so it looks like the busy times will continue into December. Life is definitely not boring at the moment!

My new superbike

2010-09-19T22:23:00.002+09:00

Golden Week

2010-05-22T02:21:00.002+09:00

Finally having some time to update this weblog. I haven't been doing it much this year.
Quick update: In February/March things were not going so well but since April I am enjoying myself again and Ive had many people over to stay, which is always good!

For Golden Week, S. came over from Holland for a roadtrip around Kyushu. It was a great holiday, with lots of good weather and good hiking. There's too much to tell, so I'll leave that to my pictures. See below for a slideshow. There's quite a lot of pictures (about 280) so hope you will sit through it all!

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Saidaiji Naked Man Festival 2010

2010-02-22T21:54:00.003+09:00

Last friday my weekend started with a nice relaxing evening at the new house of I-san who has spend the last year building his own house right on the seaside, next to the beach. It was already over a year ago since we had our last cheese party so it was long overdue. I took some cheese fondue and 5 other types of cheese, wine and french bread with me and together with the 3 kilos oysters from A-san and home grown veggie stew from I-san it was a rather sumptious dinner. I ended up spending the night at their place and slept like a baby.

The next morning I had to wake up quite early because I had to drive 500 kilometres to Okayama for a rather unusual festival. A good breakfast with strong coffee and a sunny morning drive along the beaches woke me up and set me in the right mood for a long but good day.

I picked up Allen at the station in Sasebo and together we drove to Okayama for the Saidaiji Naked Man Festival. It is a traditional festival held in Okayama City, this year for the 501st time. The idea is that two `lucky` wooden sticks are thrown from the temple and whoever manages to take them out of the temple will gain a year of good luck and hapiness (and a cash prize apparently). According to one theory, this happened without clothes to prevent people coming in with swords. Later people started wearing fundoshi (Japanese traditional underwear) to be a bit more decent, so the name of the festival is not quite accurate I guess.

We arrived just in time, parked the car at the hotel and got on the bus that was chartered by other people on the JET programme. After wondering around the area, checking out the temple, the food stalls and the fireworks, the first `naked` man started to appear and running around the streets, screaming `Washoi!` a Japanese yell. We bought the fundoshi, some tabi (thin footwear) and got changed. An old man put on the fundoshi on for me, which is quite an art in its own right. It was his 30th time participating. I was hoping his red swollen eye, wasnt because of past festivals. Three years ago, someone died at the festival.

First you form a line of 4 or 5 people and run around town and then the temple grounds following a specific route. You also have to run through a pond of cold water (mind you it is around freezing point) and pray at one temple building. After running around a few times people start gathering on the stage where the shingi (sticks) are thrown. At midnight (this year at 10pm) the lights go out and the sticks are thrown into the dark crowd of people. About 9000 people mosh and crush each other trying to get one of the sticks. Falling of the stairs, getting slammed against a pillar, getting trampeled or elbowed in the face are all very realistic dangers. I managed to come out unwounded and without a stick, but with a slight cold and a soar throath from the shouting!

Fortunately their are no pictures available, but to get an impression you can watch this video on youtube:

Catch my disease

2010-02-16T21:56:00.002+09:00

After a 7 month absence I was back at Kendo practice today. The longer I put it off, the harder it was to go back, but once I back realised why I was doing it in the first place! It was really good, had some great practice matches with my teachers who welcomed me back in a very warm way.
I instantly have the kendo bug again and will definitely be back tomorrow!

Time Lapse

2010-02-14T23:36:00.011+09:00

Two months have passed since my last post, but it actually feels like a lot more. So much has happened and I just dont have enough time to sit down, keep my life in order and then blog about it. However, the main thing that has changed is probably the fact that recently I have been busy taking holidays and doing sports, as opposed to working overtime like last year. So I feel pretty good about the fact I am investing more time into myself.

The day after the last event for the 2009 Hirado Holland Year I flew back home for the holidays. It was great to be back, meet my family and friends and spend some relaxing time enjoying the christmas season. It already feels like ages ago, but thats probably because it was way too short. I flew back to Japan for new year since it had been over a year since Ive seen my hospitalised host-mom in Osaka. She had recovered pretty well and was doing fine so it was a good few days enjoying the Japanese festive season, again with too much food!

The new year has been good so far. I made the decision to recontract and stay another year in Japan. It was a long process and it took a lot of thinking but I glad I made a decision. Sometimes I'm doubting if it was the right one, but I still think this a good thing for me. The reason to recontract was basically that I love my lifestyle here and there are still enough challenges in my work and private life that I want to do before I leave.

I'll just drop a few pictures of what Ive been up to in 2010, because it will be too long to go over everything:

I have been skiing several times, with my hostsister, a local journalist, English teachers and on my own.

Was on national radio NHK1 to promote Hirado.

Taught local kids how to make `oliebollen`, `appelbeignets` and `pannenkoeken`.

Ran the 10kilometre road race in a costume to promote the reconstruction of the Dutch trading post.

Ran a half-marathon as a preparation for my goal to run a marathon at least once in my life (though they are all full, so that will have to wait till next running season in Japan)

And made oliebollen for my colleagues to start the new year. So far the start has been an active one!

The Gluttony Season

2009-12-06T12:14:00.003+09:00

In Japan any reason to eat drink and smoke seems to be a good one. So come December, the Bonenkai Season starts. Bonenkai literally translates as Forget-the-year Party. But off course you dont forget the year with one good party, you forget it with many parties! Every club, circle, division, section or group of friends will throw one of these, to be followed by roughly the same amount of New-Year parties in January.

Last Friday we had the party for a work project team, yesterday for the dragon dance group. Friday we started drinking at 6 untill 2am, stayed in bed on saturday till 1 in the afternoon, had a quick dragon dance performance at a festival and started the party at 4.30 in the afternoon that lasted till well past midnight. Its not just drinking, its also a lot of good food, so Im eating well and trying to be slow on the drinks. Two more weeks of this and I can roll to work.

Gotta do some extra work today but before Ill be going on a run along the beach, me thinks!

Everyday Adventures

2009-12-04T00:12:00.004+09:00

For saturday I had signed up for the city employees sports day. Our division managed to scrape a 5 man team together for, what I regard as THE hype under Japanese grannies, Grand Golf. It's kind of like golf but then the more senile version. A bit like the Dutch Farmers Golf really. To make it more fun, there was a trash walk. Meaning we would walk from the city hall to the grass fields in the next town where the tournament was held, picking up rubbish on the way. The joker of our division decided we would all meet up at 8 and show our Green spirit `because we really care`.

I ran out of my house putting my jacket on the way to be not too late only to discover that I was the only one stupid enough to actually really show up... Anyway there were people from other departments so they put a bag and gloves in my hand and off I went. Some random old dude started talking to me and asked me all about Holland. I was kind of joking with him, still half pissed of that my colleagues did a no-show. He turned out to be our newly installed vice-mayor.

This was going to be an awesome day.

So after we arrived nearly two hours later and a full bag of rubbish (because I Really care) we started the tournament and I soon discovered I really suck at this Granny Golf. For lunch we drove to the local conveyer belt sushi restaurant and I had a beer with delicious mercury-filled-blue-tuna sushi, after which I felt things were looking up. We ended up at the 8th place out of the 24 teams which was not too bad at all. Plus I got a ride home.

Sunday I was ordered to go to watch the ikebana flower exhibition in Sasebo by the flower mafia in town and it turned out really nice and now I have loads of granny friends. Maybe I should invite them for a round of Grand Golf sometime. I had a nice pizza dinner with C before going back home for a round of serious cleaning.

On monday evening I needed a break from work at around 10 in the evening and I was called to be an extra in the movie Akunin which they are shooting a scene for here at the moment. A famous actor is playing in it so I expected loads of people to be there but once I had driven to 40 minutes to the little village in the south of the island, I realised it was freezing, and the rain was coming down like crazy which was probably why they needed more Extra's to be walking in the background. They didnt look too happy with a tall foreigner in the background for this scene in a small rural Japanese backwater village, so after I gave a souvenir from my tokyo trip to my friend M who was there, I escaped from the film set and drove back to work, which I finished at around 1.30 am. It turned out they had canceled the recordings at half past midnight. Lucky me.

Tuesday I went to the post office to register for a half-marathon in January which they are organising to celebrate the opening of a highway extension in Sasebo. Typical to celebrate a environment destroying public works project stimulating the use of more cars with a running event to 'promote a healthy city with healty people'. Anyway I want to run a half marathon in preparation for maybe a full marathon later on in the year.

The post office is a strange place. It is filled with employees and hardly any customers. You pick a number to wait to be helped out and discover you are the 4th in line, though you can only count two customers in the whole place. The customers are told to sit down after which they run of to help them with their requests. 15 employees take about 25 minutes to deal with 2 customers. Its almost a bit like being a guest at my own division at the city hall.

Finally my number was up, I picked up my bag, walked to the counter with my registration form, looked up and stared into the face of Tatchan who I dont know but from last week in a karaoke bar when he was doing the marimba dance to my songs and viciously trying to get me to do some odd dance and shout out that 'I rab Tatchan'.
`Thanks for last week' he greeted me. This was rather awkward but now a familiar kind of situation in my town.
'No worries', just came to register for this...
'Sure! and thanks for last week, really'
.... Silence...
Awkward, but I was able to leave the post office sooner than expected. Now Im registered for my first half-marathon. Lets bring on the training!

Tour de Kyushu

2009-11-16T22:34:00.004+09:00

After nearly two weeks I'm back home! Ive done loads of fun stuff so its hard to start writing but I'll start with the beginning; the bike ride.

As written in my last post, the plan was to ride 300 kilometres from my city to Usuki in 3 days. We started on the thursday and I felt pretty good. I had to do the oath together with a colleague; it's a typically Japanese thing to do, but it is mainly to show the good intentions and the promise we will stick to traffic rules and the commitment to promote Hirado on the way. Japanese oaths look a bit like the famous nazi greeting, although most Japanese will probably never have made the association. I did it Dutch style with my hand on my chest.

The newspapers were there and after a few interviews we started at just after 8am. The first two stages were up and down but nothing too major for the bike I was on so it went pretty smoothly. Me and Iron were planning on riding the whole 300 kms and the other 3 bikes would be rotated between 10 other people. The third stage was pretty steep uphill and then downhill, but this first challenge was pretty exciting and because me and Iron Man had left almost 30 minutes behind the others we went up with 30 ks an hour and speeded down with over 50. We passed the others half way and managed to have a bit of a rest before the others arrived.

After that we rode across the plains of Saga prefecture. Fairly easy, just flat like in Holland, yet no cycling roads... and to have huge trucks drive a few inches next to you is quite scary, not to mention we had to cycle like that for over 70 kilometres. It was more exhausting then I thought and when we arrived in Fukuoka prefecture at our destination of the day the first thing I did was to take a warm bath. We all had a great night out as well, yet went to bed early.

The next day started early at 6am with a japanese breakfast in the hotel. When we put some extra air in my tire just before the start, it exploded. Hmm... Not a good start, but Iron Man had brought a few extra tires so we tried the next one. Again it exploded! The other 3 cyclists decided to go ahead and we stayed behind to fix the wheel. We stripped it down and replaced the inner protection layer that covers the iron wheel frame. That helped and when we had everything back in place we put air in the tired, and it stayed fine.

Again we had to race with a 30 minute late start, but as soon as we were out of the city we could gather speed and catch up with the others pretty quickly. After Hita City we really entered the mountain. The road was along the river in the valley, but because of the amount of (logging) trucks they had planned a shortcut. This however was staright over a mountain and the degree of the road was insane! I dont think I have sweated so much the past few years as that, but I managed to cycle up even though my head felt like it was going to explode just like my tire!

This kick-started my inner engine though I think and from that moment everything went really easily! Me and Iron Man zoomed through the valley and up the last big pass of over 800 metres high. I loved it and the scenery with the bright red and yellow autumn trees was stunning!
In Yufuin we celebrated the fact we managed to cross the mountains as this was the highest point! After hotel check in we celebrated with loads of food and drinks and had some more in the hotel. By 9pm I fell asleep only to wake up at 5.30am feeling great. You dont have to know me very well to know that that is not normal...! Went for a early walk down to the lake just as the darkness and fog started to clear. The warm hot spring water made the lake steam on this chilly morning but it was a beautiful sight.

After a great soak in the onsen and breakfast we prepared for our last day. It was mainly downhill and with speeds of up to 68 kilometres an hour on 1.5 cm wide tires we raced down the mountain! So good! The last stage I went all out and cycled my personal best average speed even though we had to cross one more last mountain. In fact I arrived three hours too early so we had to wait before we could do the last kilometre because they had arranged a welcome reception.

In Usuki we got a very warm welcome with lots of people along the street and there was a TV station and some newspapers waiting for us, in addition to the APU University Choir! I didnt really want it to end, but on the other hand it was good to be there and we got to enjoy the beautiful bamboo lantern festival in Usuki which was incredible! A great project, that I hope I can do again sometimes! I am seriously thinking about buying a road bike now, it was just too much fun to leave it at this!

Full speed ahead

2009-11-03T23:28:00.005+09:00

Today was Cultural Day in Japan which means a day off work for civil servants like me. I used to be really busy on this day the last two years because I had to submit things for the cultural festival, but because I missed all deadlines due the heavy workload earlier on, I ended up with an entirely free day.

It was necessary to catch up on things and prepare for the coming two weeks. The day after tomorrow, I will go on a three day bike ride across Kyushu as a local event to promote Hirado and 400 years of Dutch - Japanese trade. We will bike to the place where the first Dutch ship landed in Japan, and my town is the place where the second ship arrived and the first trading post was established. To strengthen the ties between the two cities we decided to take the favourite Dutch mode of transport to get there. It is roughly 300 kilometres in 3 days, crossing Kyushu with 700 metres elevation at the highest point on the route.

On friday I went to practice cycling again since it had been almost 2.5 years since I last sat on a bike. As soon as I left town I was ready to turn around and give up since the town is surrounded by steep hills on all sides, so getting out on bicycle is rather a battle. I managed to get to the centre of the island, about 17 kilometres away in about 45 minutes, crossing the highest pass at 230 metres. I was quite happy with that and the ride back went a bit slower but felt a lot easier so I have been kind of comforted.

Today I went to practive again, this time a shorter route and it felt a bit more natural than before. I got all the proper equipment from friends so I look almost like a proper professional cyclist! It is the first time to ride a road bike and not a mountain-bike so it took a bit of getting used to. Especially going uphill is a struggle as the gears are much heavier than my bike back home. Im not sure if I will manage to finish all the stages of the whole three days without taking a break (everyone else is rotating around for each stage so they can get breaks) but I will try. Its nice to be able to challenge myself for work like this. Im really looking forward to it!

Right after the three days, I will travel on to Tokyo for the midyear seminar for my job where I also have to do a presentation. Again a busy week but also full of fun stuff. I have just sent off my suit and clothes to the hotel in Tokyo so hopefully everything will be ready waiting for me when I get there.

Today I also went to rehearsals for a play that I signed up for. It is a play based on the international history of Hirado and I will be playing the part of William Adams. It is a lot of fun to do, although Im not very good at acting I have found out (mind you my lines are in Japanese with an old English accent!). But getting acting classes is fun and reminds me of 2000 when I took acting classes in the evenings back home in the Netherlands. Well, enough going on and lots of challenges left this year but right now Im enjoying it all!

(Me in my new cycling gear)

Dragon Dance

2009-10-28T21:33:00.006+09:00

Last weekend was the Hirado Kunchi Festival. It is a religious festival at which the protection god is being guided around town so he can see how the town is doing. This goes together with a parade and traditional dances. In the old days, every neighbourhood in town would perform dances and one town would make a huge float that was carried around. But those days are gone and only two neighbourhoods have managed to keep the tradition of dancing their specific dances.

I live in the neighbourhood called Shinmachi (new town) though it is not really that new. Just oposite the little stream I live next to is Tsukiji-cho (reclaimed land town). This all used to be mud flats, more than 200 years ago but now it is the central flat area of the city. The first year I arrived I was invited by the colleague behind me to join the jya-odori, which turned out to be the local dragon dance of Tsukiji-cho.

In 1998, when I first lived in Japan, I happened to go to an international seminar in Nagasaki prefecture. And as a cultural activity I had chosen to try dragon dance. We were then not really allowed to do much but it was fun and thought it looked interesting. Little did I know back then, that almost 9 year later I would be in a local team learning this till perfection.

For the past three years the festival has been one of the highlights of my life in Hirado. During the dance 10 men carry long sticks with a dragon on top, connecting the head in the front with the tail at the back. The trainings are repetitive and hard and you can only improve if the people in front of you and to your back improve. It is truly a team-effort, the dance looks as good as the worst person. Plus it is well over a 120 kilos, so it is not a light one (as they have in Nagasaki city).

(The dragon taking a break in a backstreet)

After two months of practice, the 25th of October arrives. Every year, regardless of the day of the week, the festival is held on this day. Everyone, including the kids who play the music, the moms who cook the food, and the old grandads who order everyone around, gathers at the local shrine of the neighbourhood. Here, the dragon is purified with sake, and so are we. Drinking sake at 7.30 in the morning is not my usual diet but it sets the tone for the day. We then move up to the main shrine in the city, where we are blessed and purified by the head priest. This is the last act before the start of a crazy day.

(Entering the shrine's precinct)

We start with a very long version of various dances at the shrine, after which it is the turn for other groups to dance or do traditional martial arts. But by then, we are on our way through town. The dragon expells evil spirits so we put the head of the dragon through the door of pretty much every house, unless they lock their door. But people seldomly do. In exchange for providing a cleansed house and in appreciation of the good things that will come, people give money to the association. It is almost like the mafia. You give money, we give you protection.

(Making our rounds)

The whole day we carry this thing around in turns and in between we dance. Again and again. It just goes on and on. In the afternoon we get into a big fishtruck, put the dragon in, plus ourselves, after which they lock the truck and we are in pitch dark. We are driven to various locations around town which only reveal themselves after the doors open at the destination. and then we dance again, receive money, and move on to the next place. After more than 10 hours, sore feet, sore arms and ripped hands we do a last dance where we keep on going for about 6 times in a row at our home neighbourhood, Tsukiji-cho. And then we are done. The drinking party afterwards is only a tad shorter but paid for by the generosity of the cleansed population of Hirado.

Here are some pictures of this year and last year:

(The higher in the air the better, but you need good team skills)

(Uchikomi, this part is unique to Hirado Dragon Dance)

(A view from the kids side - This is at a fishing store)

(Making friends)

A weekend in the mountains

2009-10-23T00:23:00.002+09:00

So last weekend I finally had the opportunity to get out to the mountains. On friday I was supposed to do an interview for a TV station, but when they still hadnt turned up after two hours, I decided to just go home, throw my stuff in the car and drive off. I informed them I had another appointed, which was not a lie; I had a long awaited appointment with Mount Okue.

I arrived at 9 in the evening after a long drive. I was able to find the camping site, but there was no one there, so I set up my tent in the lights of my car and spent my first night in my brand new tent. I walked into a deer when I went out in the dark for a toilet break, and I dont know who was more scared but we both jumped two meters into the air!

The next morning I had a quick breakfast and drove to the trailhead nearby. I met some people whom I greeted and it turned out they were going the other way as I was. They were the last people I would see that day. I hiked up the path and had a proper breakfast on a huge boulder in the riverbed. The weather was clearing up and it looked like it was going to be a nice day, much better than they had predicted. Therefore I decided to change my route and go straight for the top.

The trail gave a view of the cliffs towering out above me and it was hard to believe I had to get up there, but slowly I climbed up the mountain. It was probably the hardest hike Ive done in Japan on a technical level. Loads of ladders and ropes and loads of places where you just had to find your own way up through the steep riverbed. Bur once I got out of the forest onto the first cliff... the view was just breathtaking! The weather was great so you could see very far and the cliffs dropped straight down for a few hundred meters!

I kept going up and up on the super beautiful trail. Near the top, the trees were already in their autumn jackets, bringing a red, yellow and brown glow to the forest. After climbing all the rocky outcrops and cliffs I was starting to run late for my way to the place I was planning on staying the night, so after I visited all the beautiful viewpoints I nearly came out at the top and went down the back of the mountain through a valley.

Here, there was no path and I was just following a few coloured strings on trees. I made haste and eventually I got a small horizontal clearing near the river which was big enough to set up my spacious 2person tent. I decided to set up camp there and not the place I was aiming for, which was probably good because I had just enough time to have a nice dinner at the river.

It was pretty cold but nothing too unmanageable and when I woke up the blue skies promised another beautiful day ahead. I took my time for breakfast, cleaning up my tent as I only had a few hours left after the long hike the day before. It turned out I had been really close to my original goal, but my place had been really nice anyway.

I walked back slowly enjoying the scenery and the beautiful river. Close to the end, I had dinner on the river and ate my last food. Here I met another hiker who sat down for a chat. He told me that this mountain is supposed to be the most unspoilt in Kyushu, and I believed him straight away; hardly any people, no over developed trails and signposts and not a single trace of trash anywhere. With a full stomach I walked the last bit to the car dipped into the local onsen in the valley. Such a perfect way to finish this peaceful weekend off. All I had left was a long drive back home but I had the next morning off so it was a truly relaxing weekend, well deserved after a few months of hard work! And as for Mount Okue; it is a new favourite mountain. I'll be back!

Tuesday Rebound

2009-10-13T23:35:00.003+09:00

After taking a few days off last week and spending the whole of the three day weekend at home, I finally recovered from my cold/flew. It took a lot longer then I thought but at least it forced me to stay indoors, cook loads of healthy food and get myself sorted. My apartment has never been so clean and my wasing basket never so empty!

I think I would have gone crazy if it had lasted any longer, but today I was fine again, ready for my school visit. It was great to be out again with the kids, doing a few easy classes that I had done before. It was a perfect autumn day and driving around with the windows open, having really interesting conversations (about politics and philosophy, ha!) with the teachers that drove me was very refreshing.

I finished up most of the work I needed to do and so I've taken another day of tomorrow, my first one to actually enjoy instead of sitting at home! I will go to Fukuoka for some shopping. I've been buying loads of outdoor stuff lately to go camping. I still need a few things so get a complete gear set for a long weekend out in the mountains. With a bit of luck, maybe this weekend?

On thursday and Friday I have two seperate TV show recordings so that should be interesting. Last time it was fun to do, though I think this time it will just be really short items. For now, I've just been relaxing at home, reading a book and listening to music. It's almost like my uni-days again. Missed that so much! I have been re-starting in Alex Kerr's `Dogs and Demons - The Fall Of Modern Japan` that I got from S. last year, which can be quite depressing at times, but it is also a good motivation as to what kind of change I want to bring about here. Even though that might be impossible, it is good to have a goal or a vision.

Well, this is my 100th post, thanks for reading this after so many long absences! Catch you later!

Wind down and Catch Up

2009-10-10T22:16:00.005+09:00

With autumn come the most beautiful sunsets. For the past few weeks I have glanced from the city hall out of the windows towards the west. Autumn also brings typhoons and the last one came pretty close although it all ended with merely strongs winds and a closed bridge.

By this time I was already at home, taking time off from work to tackle my cold/flew. The last Dutch delegation left on monday and on tuesday I fell ill. A typical sign of too much work and stress for too long so now I just have to relax and get back to a more normal work pattern.

This weekend is a three day weekend, because monday is a public holiday in Japan, so I had planned a hiking trip. First alone, but other people joined so I picked a good spot for hiking, bought lots of gear on internet that I have been wanting to buy for a long time and got ready for some de-stress hiking weekend. But the flew got me first so now Im stuck inside looking at the beautiful post-typhoon weather through the windows.

Secretly however, I love sitting at home. Finally I have the time to do all my washing, dishes, cook nice food myself, sorting through my administration and getting back in touch with people. It is nice to finally have time to do all this. Deep down below I'm itching to go on a trip somewhere, but I will leave that for the coming months.

In Dutch we say 'bijkomen'. It means something like to wind down, to relax. But a literal translation means 'to catch up on things'.
So that's what I've been doing both the last and the coming few days; wind down and catch up.

Long overdue update

2009-09-30T00:51:00.004+09:00

Wow! Those were the busiest days Ive ever experienced for any job in my life! But all the main events are over now, the overwork has piled up high and Im ready to relax. I've actually managed to survive these 5 weeks without a single full day for myself in a healthy state. I lost 7 kilo's, not necessarily a good thing, but I feel fine and just ready for holiday! I was asked to compile a foto series about Hirado and how I see and experience the island. I havent managed to write down all the comments that go with the pictures but I thought I post the pictures first anyway. You might have seen a lot of them already but I hope it gives a nice impression of the good things about the island I live on.

After a busy week

2009-08-26T23:54:00.004+09:00

During the Dutch Football exchange programme I hardly had time to sleep, let alone to clean up so when I got back home from the airport I had a good cleaning session. Sometimes I need it to clear my head and create some space for myself.

It's nice to sit on my tatami floor again, doors wide open to let the evening air in, burn some insence to keep the mosquitos out, and listen to the sounds of the island slowly falling asleep.

Goodnight everyone.

Mount Fuji - From Bottom To Top

2009-07-22T22:32:00.008+09:00

We climbed mount Fuji! It was not easy, but we made it to the top and back. It started out with a perfect day, a tough but nice hike, good progress, a great mountain hut with nice food and a gorgeous sunset. The second day started well, we left in the dark at 4am, watched a beautiful sunset for which Fuji is famous and started climbing the top half of the mountain, out of the forest. It got harder and harder. One got altitude sickness and we met R at the last stretch who was also already suffering from altitude sickness. The wind nearly blew us of our feet and we had entered the clouds surrounding the top of the mountain. We hardly advanced and the last stretch took ages but we made it to the top alright!

Luckily we had come prepared and with all our winter gear we descended the freezing mountain with gales that nearly blew us away. It got dark on the way back and we arrived late and tired at the parking lot, halfway down the mountain. All transport to Tokyo had seized to run by this time so we had to search for a place to stay in the village at the bottom of the mountain. We were lucky to find a hotel pretty quickly. I had to buy clean clothes at the convenience store as we had left all our clean clothing in Tokyo, thinking we would make it back in time.

It was quite an adventure but everyone made it and it was a lot of fun. Definitely an experience I wont forget! Here is a log of our progress through the stations up the mountain, from the base till the top:

(Station name, Elevation in metres, Accumulated times including (long) breaks)

Base of pilgramige - Sengen Shrine, 850 m, 0 hours

First station, 1520 m,　3 hours

Second station, 1700 m, 3.5 hours

Third station, 1840 m, 4 hours

Fourth Station, 2100 m, 5 hours

Fifth Station, 2150 m, 5 hours and 15 minutes

(we stayed the night just under the sixth station, but times below are accumulated on top of the time of the first day. We watched the sunset from sixth station)

Sixth Station, 2300 m, 7 hours

Seventh Station, 2700 m, 9 hours

Eight Station, 3100 m, 11.5 hours

Ninth Station, 3600 m, 15 hours
Tenth Station, aka the summit!, 3776 m, 16 hours and 15 minutes

(The way down was long, winding and seemingly without end, so I didnt keep a log anymore, sorry!) Thanks everyone, you did so well! Despite all the sickness, cold and pains we made it!
Next time I will try to upload a few pictures that give a better impression of the climb and the mountain.

Fuji

2009-07-17T09:13:00.001+09:00

Today I will fly to Tokyo to climb mount Fuji with a few friends, from its base! Will report back later!

Yakushima video

2009-07-13T00:13:00.007+09:00

Just felt like being lazy and doing nothing today, so I made a little video of the trip to Yakushima at the beginning of June. Enjoy!

Accross the Milky Way... lies Oshima

2009-07-03T01:53:00.004+09:00

Yesterday I was invited for a softball tournament today. One of the very few free evenings that I had but many good friends were on the team so I decided to give softball a go.

As soon as the bell rang at work everyone from all sorts of divisions rushed to the back of the cultural centre to jump on a chartered boat to Oshima Island, where the tourney was being held. There is something about Oshima that I love and this time it was no different. We whisked accross the silent Genkai Nada sea and took the school bus to the grounds.

Just enough minutes to get explained the rules, since I havent played the game since Junior High School days. I was the catcher, probably the person that can do the least damage on the team. It worked quite well, had few good lucky hits as well and we beat the first team. Second team was harder but we were well ahead and winning until the very last innning. That inning we lost point after point and our opponents beat us by one point in the end. Shame but it was a good opportunity to check out the only izakaya/pub on the island, which has recently reopened. Good company and a few beers later, we took the charter back to Hirado.

It is so quiet in the hills and villages of the island, nothing that blinks or makes a sound but the choir of frogs. But as soon as you come out of the harbour, the horizon opens out in front of you filled with hundreds and hundreds of bright lights, like you have suddenly entered a starry sky. These are the squid catchers that lure there prey with bright lights to their boats. Our speed boat raced between the boats past a few islands and after we crossed that watery milky way we arrived back in Hirado Harbour. After a good bowl of Noodles I got back home, tired but satisfied after a nice evening out!

The first few boats come out after sunset and keep on multiplying. The darker the days, the more boats, the more impressive the sight.

Intercultural consistencies

2009-06-30T00:23:00.004+09:00

After Hong Kong I had a busy week catching up with everything but today I finished the last few large projects I was working on so things should be looking quieter in the next few weeks.

This weekend I experienced my first biggish earthquake here (we normally dont really get many here) including some light aftershocks. It was 4 on the Richter scale. The advise is to hide under tables or beds when a big one hits, but I realised I have no tables or beds in my appartment to hide under! Japanese furniture... I also sleep directly under my lights which would also not be very pleasent in case it comes down.

Now Im at it; my whole apparment is kind of falling apart. So far the inside has been fine, but the outside... The rust flakes shower me gently when I close the door just that bit too hard, the supporting collumn for the balustrade above my doorway is totally rusted away and is hanging in the air (3 more to go until things get really 'flakey'), the side screen of my patio has been blown into the river during heavy winds in february and the thick solid wooden divide at the back of the patio fell over in May, nearly crushing a car that was parked behind it. Not to worry, I have fixed it with ... a string.

I have reported all of this to the landlord off course and he keeps on promosing the handyman will be coming `next month!`. Im not sure if a handyman will do...
A beautiful example of how people, amidst our cultural differences, are all the same in the end. Anywhere you will go, landlords will suck the most!

Pictures

2009-06-23T02:10:00.002+09:00

I put a quick unedited selection of pictures on my flickr account. I hope I will find the time to edit them and add some more. For the time being you can see them here:

Re-charged with Asian Energy

2009-06-21T17:11:00.000+09:00

At the moment Im at Taoyuan Airport in Taiwan. My trip to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan has been great. I left in a bit of a rush because I had so much work to finish before I could leave. The whole holiday was a bit of a last minute thing anyway, which is rather unusual for Japanese standards, but it worked out great in the end. I still havent used up all my days in lieu so I hope I can still take some more days of here and there.

When I arrived in Hong Kong I met up with J and went to his place where I stayed for 2 nights. The next three nights I stayed with S who recently moved to Hong Kong as well with her husband. So I had a real expat in Hong Kong experience. But soon after I arrived I realised I really like the city and its meropolitan and Asian cool. We didnt just eat and shop in the city but we also went hiking. It is surprising that nature is so close by in Hong Kong. Just a short bus drive or walk up the hill and youre out in nature. We did eat a lot however and it was all really nice apart from maybe the turtle shell jelly...

On wednesday I went to Macau which felt like a European city after having been in Asia for such a long time now. The portuguese heritage is now kind of overtaken by the Casino hype which has turned half the city into Las Vegas of the East, but we didnt gambled and stuck to the cobbled streets and beautiful churches amidst the worndown Chinese flats.

Back in Hong Kong we visited the touristy sights, saw the night view from the Peak again but this time I walked up which gives you much nicer views. I saw lots of markets and the expat colony that is Stanley. After so many sights my days in Hong Kong were over before I knew.

Taiwan was next on the schedule where I went together with S and her husband. The first day we took the metro to all sorts of places and even went into the hills to a beautiful tea house where we had dim sum and traditional tea all with a nice view though slightly covered in rain clouds. The next day we went out of the city to the north to see the Yeliu rocks which were beautiful. We hitch-hiked back around the north coast to Danshue, a northern suburb with a great boulavard along the coast and many restaurants and stalls along it. We had Taiwanese dinner on a open deck looking out over the sea and the boulevard and it was basically the end of my holiday. Today I slept in late, cleaned up my bag, had lazy lunch watched a bit of Taiwanese TV and went to the airport which is where I am now. Later on I will put up some of the many many pictures I took. Hopefully I will have time for that because next week is going to be CRAZY busy. But after this holiday, Im looking forward to it with lots of renewed and positive Asian energy!!!

Slices of memories

2009-06-10T22:02:00.005+09:00

So this is a long overdue post...

I meant to write so many things here but never got around to it. Just too many things going on. Plus I havent had time to sort out all the pictures I took and they are still quite a mess slowly filling my laptops harddisk. I basically have been busy with lots and lots of work, and lots and lots of fun with friends in between. The theme the past few months has definitely been meeting old friends. It was so great to see that everyone came all the way to this island to see me. I feel very lucky to have so many good friends! In the little free time I had, I tried to make full use of it and here are some of the things I did:

I dried squid on my little balcony that S.C. caught herself...

... I looked into the eyes of many beautiful creatures such as sea turtles and little deer ...

... and saw hundreds of fireflies fly around me ...

... I had fun using the macro lens I bought for my camera ...

... and welcomed quite a lot of new people to this earth ...

... I even grew my own shiitake in my room ...

... had freshly caught fish with local produced salt on the barbeque after swimming in the fresh spring sea many times ...

... and climbed a few mountains, big ones, little ones, but all with amazing views!

Next week Ive taken a week of holiday and I booked my ticket today to ... Hong Kong!
Hope to update on that later!

What a difference a day made

2009-04-23T01:43:00.002+09:00

Thanks for all the reactions!

Last saturday was a big day for work, the Hirado Holland Year was going to be openened with a big festival! Also, brochures were finished, posters up, flags out in the streets, stickers printed, gift bags made, website uploaded and a dump of a building transformed into a beautiful visitor centre on the relations with Holland.

Then, on tuesday 14th of April, an accident happened on sea just of the coast of Hirado in which 12 people drowned... A huge disaster for such a small community and off course all celebrations of any kind were called off. Over two months of work to waste, though off course it was the only right thing to do.

The day was turned into a somber event with the laying of the foundation stone of the to-built Dutch trading house and a small opening ceremony for the Hirado Holland Year. But no music, no dances, fireworks, balloons etc. A somber event for a somber week. That's life, unfortunately, and it was a hard lesson at that.

The evening of that faithful day I swam in the sea, for the first time this year. With some great friends. Great dinner afterwards, and singing till the morning that brought another goodbye, another friend leaving...
All the fun, expectations, hard work, terrible events, silence and singing; all turned back to a more normal, healthy lifestyle of returning home when the bell rings and cooking my own meals. I cleared the mountains of washing, sorted heaps of administrational stuff and got my mind straightened out again.

...Life feels so much more spacious now...

tired....

2009-04-17T22:49:00.002+09:00

Im totally out of energy. Physically and mentally. Too much work, too much scheduled time. Theres no end to it. Ive had about 6 days off in two months and pretty much every evening spent at work. Work this weekend, next weekend, the one after that and in the longest holiday, Golden week following soon after that.

Changes

2009-03-24T12:39:00.005+09:00

Im sitting at home for lunch break, the sun is shining with a nice spring temperature to go with it. The cherry blossoms have started to come a few days ago and are now in fool bloom. It is the last day of school and lots of groups of cute little japanese children with huge schoolbags are running around in the park on their way home. It should be a nice quiet spring to enjoy, but if only it was.

The last two weeks, everyone in my department has been doing so much overtime. Half the people due to the cash handouts from the government and the other half for the Hirado Holland Year. Yet, however much we work, it looks like we are falling behind schedule and deadlines are hardly ever met. There is simply too much to do, for too few people. Days till 3 in the morning have not been an exception. Everyone is starting to show cracks and this makes for some strange scenes that you would not expect in a normal Japanese workplace.

Today, as the financial year, school year and the administrational year is coming to a close, the rotation of staff for next year (April 1) will be announced. Another hour, then we know whether it is going to get worse, who will be moved out to escape our crazy busy department. I wont move so for me it is just watching who comes and goes and who will be filling the empty seat of my supervisor that left last year. In the meantime everyone will ignore the tension in the air and watch the nations biggest event, Japan in the Baseball Worldcup Finals that happens to fall on the afternoon of this strange, strange day.

Memorable weeks

2009-03-20T23:46:00.002+09:00

Did you ever play that game as a kid where you have to whisper a sentence into the ear of the person sitting next to you, who then has to pass that message on to the next person, to the next, to the next, etc. etc? Well, in Japanese its called Dengon Game and they are very good at it here...

After Christianity was banned in Japan around 1600, missionaries that had converted local people in the area were sent away, tortured or killed. The songs and oratio that they had passed on to the locals were still prayed in secrecy after the ban and continued to be sung over the centuries. Under the oppression Christianity started to lead a life on its own and many buddhist rituals were incorporated in the practices as a cover. These changes eventually became part of the religion and after Japan opened up to the world once again around the 1860's many people refused to open up and return to the Catholic church. Instead they chose to continue their own secret religious practices, even up until this day.

They are called Hidden-Christians, and their number is dwindling every year. On the island next door to me are the largest remaining groups. Without having written down any of the original Latin oratio that were passed on by the Portuguese and Spanish missionaries are incredibly similar to the ones that remain today. If you compare them, you will believe me, the best Dengon Game in the world!

This a long introduction to the work I have been doing these days. Nagasaki prefectures has the most churches in Japan and many were build right after the ban ended. A collection of them has been entered to bid for a nomination for UNESCO World Heritage status. To stick to the theme of games, the have passed a few of the lower levels, and to complete the next stage they have to be inscribed by an international organisation that overseas the preservation of historical buildings.

Two experienced UNESCO raters came to tour the area to visit some of these churches and inspect whether they are special enough. I had travel with them for a while to translate for the specialists that work on this project in our city hall. It meant a very early morning ride to Sasebo from where we got on a little charter boat to whisk out to one of the furthest islands out to the west. The weather was horrible and I felt well sick after 1.5 hours of crazy high speed bumping on huge waves. After local noodles and some more rain I felt better. We drove to another island where we met the two `Investigators`. After a tour of the area, we went by another boat to yet another island, one of my favorite places; the deserted Nozaki island. Another church and another long long high speed boat ride we arrived back at the other end of my island and we visited another church on the way back to the hotel. And the next day....? more travelling around islands!

Just travelling around and talking to these people was fascinating. What makes something World Heritage, what goes on behind the scenes, how are nominations prepared for and how do you value something that is so culturally specific? Not only was it an opportunity to look into the kitchen of World Heritage registration, it was also great to go around with professional translators and to compare my skills with the pro's. It was an enlightning visit as well for the Nagasaki people that are pushing this nomination forward. I dont think we've seen the last of the investigators!

Another great job experience adding to my workload. I'm seriously overloaded with things to do and people keep on coming with more stuff to do, but driving around the ambassador, translating for a Hollywood movie crew, TV performance or interpreting on tour with UNESCO experts are things that I simply cant refuse!

Weekend

2009-03-19T01:25:00.004+09:00

Work is beyond busy so lets not talk about that. Last weekend we had the first event, a kind of pre-event of the 2009 Hirado Holland Year. 3 Dutch guys are walking from Hirado to Tokyo and on saturday they left from Hirado. About 100 people came to attend the ceremony and walk the first 13 ks in Hirado. Weather was quite nice the week before, but just for the one day temperatures dropped to about 4 degrees and it even snowed a bit! Anyway the walk was good and afterwards I soaked in an onsen and had sushi with some friends, which was great!

On sunday I ended up taking it real easy as the weather suddenly turned back to beautiful Spring weather. I walked to a local hilltop with a friend and her family and relaxed by lying in the grass enjoying the birds of prey, the scenery and the silence.

Trains and Television

2009-03-08T22:34:00.005+09:00

Last week I had some fun things lined up for work. The reason that our unit at work is so busy is because of the 400 year celebrations between holland and my town. All the events are slowly taking shape but on wednesday the 2009 Hirado-Holland Year train started running. We had a train painted over with the logo of the year and in bright orange, a reference to Holland of course and the front and back are red, white, blue; after the Dutch flag.

So when the train first arrived in town (the small part on the mainland, the train doesnt go on to the island) we went to welcome it weaponed with a few flags and cameras. The press was invited too, but they had decided to film and photograph it somewhere and not at the station. The result was an almost empty station with just us holding a few flags, a rather sad desolate sight! The old grannies that were waiting for the train looked at us as if we were crazy!

Anyway the train is Petit! But it kind of looked cool anyway and it was a fun little road trip from my desk. The first result in a long list of things to do this year!

The same day, NHK television arrived in town for an item on television on the Dutch connection Hirado has. They wanted to interview and film people that have in some way an everyday thing with the Netherlands. They decided they wanted to film me as well... so on wednesday we started out with the final scene where we wave with our little 2009 Hirado-Holland Year flags, for which I had to wear my Dutch famers outfit (Boerenkiel) and Clogs.

In the evening everyone who was in the programme, including the NHK crew, got together in a restaurant for a few drinks. It turned in to a full blown drinking party and everyone was well up for it. I had way too much to drink and got back home at 2 in the morning... The next morning I had to get up to go to one of the elementary schools, where to were going to film me! Arghh, I had such a hard time even getting in to work and nearly fell asleep on the drive to the school, I was certainly not in the mood for a camera to be shoved in front of my face!

Well, my own fault and no excuses, so I got myself together and managed to a normal class. The kids were all really quiet because of the TV crew filming them and it was real hard to get them motivated to do stuff, but in the end it was kind of OK. Not nearly as fun as a normal school visit though so I wonder what they will keep after the editing.

In the afternoon I had to go to a restaurant where they were going to film me eating a ... pizza. Not very Dutch if you ask me, but the pizza is called Amsterdam and the base made out of potatoes topped with lots of Dutch cheese. I actually think it is cool they have `Dutch inspired` food, even though it is not really something we eat back home. I could go on about stereotypes and stuff but I the people are not promoting it as original Dutch food so I'm totally fine with that. Any cultural puritains can take up the debate if they wish.

They recordings were actually quite fun and got to see how things are set up and filmed to get the desired result. Never realised how close it resembles taking a good photograph. Im kind of curious to see the end result, there should be a few minutes out of the ten about the class and the pizza. It will be aired on tuesday and if I get a copy I will try and put it up here.

A life less ordinary

2009-03-01T22:47:00.006+09:00

This weekend really started on friday afternoon. I always have the afternoon off, but just like the last few weeks I had to work... This time the ambassador came to town and I had to pick him up at the hotel and translate for his visit with the mayor. The mayor however just came back ill from China earlier that day so it was a rather casual conversation with my boss and the vice-mayor.

The ambassador came to the island for a private visit; he was invited by the samurai lord of this region to an evening of special tea ceremonies like they used to organise them hundreds of years ago. This special ceremony is held every year only by invitation for a select few in a temple just out of town. Because he came for this private occasion the tone of the whole visit was just very informal.

Friday evening (tea ceremony was on saturday evening) I was invited for dinner with some of the people in town that have a special relation with the Netherlands and are active for the celebrations of 400 years of trade this year. It was a good evening at one of the posh restaurants out in a forest on a mountain. I sat next to the a lady that is very active in one of the volunteer committees and happens to the owner of an old sake brewery located just a few door from me down the road. She drinks sake out of huge cups and never gets drunk so we got through quite a few delicious warm sake bottles...

The next day I arrived just in time to pick the ambassador and his wife up at the hotel for a tour around town. The head of the Tourism Association guided them around and I was the driver for the day. It felt a bit strange to drive the ambassador around in my own little puke-yellow K-car, they just about fitted in! The ambassador and his wife however were super friendly and very interested in everything and of course super smart but without any arrogance. I was proud to have such a great man as a representative of my country. We had lunch in a local fishing port where the fish comes straight from the ship to the restaurant where the fishermens wives cook up some great dishes. All in all it was a nice day.

Today I got up early as well. As mentioned before, they are making a Hollywood movie about a local novel, so Martin Scorcese came on a top secret mission (I never told you ok?!) to research some of the Christian culture and scenery in Nagasaki prefecture. The movie/book which is called 'Silence' is about two portuguese missionaries in Japan while the country starts to ban christianity and prosecute christians in the 16th century. I was lucky enough to accompany a colleague (who is one of the few practicing hidden christians left in Japan) to the Endo Shusaku Museum (Endo Shusaku being the writer of the book), because Scorcese wanted to meet one of the few surviving hidden-Christians. I wasnt allowed to join the meeting as a translator in the end but it was still interesting to look at him and the crew parading around the place.

Apart from seeing Martin Scorcese, it was a beautiful day and a great drive to the museum, which itself is located on top of a huge cliff overlooking the ocean with small islands scattered around. I got treated to a great sushi lunch for driving so all in all it was another good day of a very interesting weekend, meeting some important people!

Endo Shusaku Literary Museum

My friends car on the scenic coastal road

Small islands off the coast

Crew taking pictures of my colleague 'the hidden christian'.

Atlas

2009-02-25T23:48:00.005+09:00

Today I recovered. Morning started out better and I was way more active at work. Got lots of things done and was much more optimistic.

Last saturday I had to explain about Dutch Food Culture at a Dutch historic cooking course that, through food, teaches people about the local history and the exchanges they used to have here 400 years ago with various European countries. Afterwards I was asked to translate the names of some of the flowers from a 300 year old Dutch botanical encyclopedia that they have at the old samurai clans mansion/museum. Today I went back to finish the last few plants and flowers, and they asked me whether I wanted to look into some of the century old books they hold there.

I've always been fascinated with maps and atlasses so when I spotted a very old atlas, I asked to look into that one. As a kid I used to keep all the old atlasses that my parents had and bought all sorts of globes in different forms and sizes. I always thought that the world looks so simple and peaceful as a globe in your room. And when you look at the maps of various decades you can see the changes in borders, how countries unite and devide, and you can only start to imagine all the stories behind those simples changes in lines and colours that define the countries on the map.

They took the atlas out of the archives for me and I felt like a little kid in a candy store. One of those really old leather cased books that smell of hundreds of years of tobacco smoke, little bacteria that slowly feed on paper or ink left by the comments written in there by some clan leader a few hundreds ago. I'll definitely come back again to observe and touch the world as they knew it over 300 hundreds years ago.

Winter mood

2009-02-23T22:48:00.004+09:00

I'm still on the pills, powders, drinks and what not..., yet faithfully working at the office during the day. I've got so many fun things lined up for work the coming weeks I should be really happy, but motivation is just not kicking in... Waiting for that spark to get me off the medicine and onto a happier groove.

I do eat properly though, I just had the best selfmade keema curry and last week I had Uchiwa-ebi (Japanese Fan Lobster, since it head is shaped like a fan). My friend brought quite a few around unexpectedly and they were still alive and kicking in the bag. Some had loads of eggs attached to them. A bit sad and awkward to put knife into their bodies and cut them in half while they are kicking their tail around! We boiled them in a beautiful broth in a ceramic pot (nabe in Japanese) and had the most luxurious dinner ever! Add some great locally brewed sake heated up in our special machine to finish off a perfect Japanese winter meal!

And then I got ill

2009-02-19T23:53:00.003+09:00

I think all the work and no breaks has caught up me with. Yesterday I felt a bit rough in the evening and after I had gone to sleep I woke up in sweat, and with a fever.
After some medicines I managed to get back to sleep and when I woke I thought I might manage to go to work. That probably wasnt a good idea but managed to struggle my way through the morning and then went back home and slept for the rest of the day.
I think I just need to rest for a few days. They planned a Q&A session on Dutch food culture for me on Saturday so am not sure how long I can take off to stay at home. Also next weekend got planned full of work when I was at work this morning so looks like a free weekend is still a while away...

Workafrolic

2009-02-17T19:29:00.005+09:00

Yesterday I worked till 23:00 hours. We ordered pizzas from the only pizza place in town for dinner and I was happy to actually do something. The whole day during normal working hours was pretty much taken up by meetings, meetings and meetings. It takes so much time to prepare for them, type out the minutes etc, etc. and luckily I dont have to do much of that, yet the amount of them still takes away most of my working time. As a result I end up with a longer list of things to do at the end of most days. If it gets any busier I think some things are just not going to happen. Yet I didnt feel to bad about the overtime (for which Im compansated by time in lieu) because my whole unit was there till late.

Today I had a full day of school visits. As I wrote before, I love schools visits and joking around with the kids, especially since I get to do my own classes. However, time preparing them and being away for almost 2 days a week is a bit too much at the moment. I did however meet my old supervisor who live near one of the schools I went to, and she came by to give me old sorts of freshly cooked and baked foods plus veggies from their little farmland! Ive just finished a great pasta gratin she gave me and Im about to dig in to the oven warm chocolate bread I got as well! There are enough of these nice little things in my daily life to keep me going and make me satisfied with the work I do. If it wasn't for that I would probably go insane!

I'll leave you with a picture from one of the classes I did today; I had the kids draw Dutch houses and made a Dutch Townscape with them:

Still tired but satisfied

2009-02-15T20:33:00.005+09:00

Just how everything seemed to not work out on Friday, everything seemed to go so well on Saturday. The event I was helping/volunteering to organise was on a different island called Oshima. Its very small so having an international event was a lot of fun. Everyone was on time for the 8.30 ferry and the weather was perfect! No wind and blue skies, such a change from the day before.

The event included lots of different things such as games from different countries which we played with the kids, booths with info about the (6) countries that were represented, international lunch with korean food and english dessert, modern dance performance, tradtional dances, presentations of various countries, a small lecture and a band performance. Somehow this all worked out and went really smoothly. Everyone had a really good time and I was so relieved it actually worked out.

After some people went back on the last ferry, the ALTs stayed on and after some tabletennis competitions and free time in the village we went up to the hotel for the after party. There was lots of good food and lots of drinks. After karaoke started everyone was up dancing and it was a great party. Some went up to the onsen after it finished and I went on to the next party at one of the locals houses. The youth group on the island with who we partied all came too as they do most weekends and it was so beuatiful to see how everyone is so close and having a good time even with the mums joining the party till early in the morning!

Next day we took a ride around the island to see the cliffs and and walk around the old village where the old streets are still like in the Edo period. Nothing changed much and the streets always seem empty but because the weather was so nice the kids were out playing in the harbour and in the streets. They recognised us from the day before so we played with the kids and looked around the temples of the village. When I arrived back with the ferry, I met some colleagues at the oyster and lobster festival, but I was too tired to join them for another party. Now Ill go to bed and sleep for a veeeeeery long time!

The old harbour of Ko-no-ura Village

Look fish!

The cutest smile of the village

International Exchange in progress

Thank you everyone that came to help out and make it all work!

Exhausted

2009-02-13T23:08:00.000+09:00

Im exhausted today. Its friday the 13th and everything seems to be going wrong. As if the weather has adopted my mood, it has been storming. My colleague got stuck on an island and my side panel of the little porch at the back has totally been ripped to pieces which are now being blown into the river next to my house.

Wednesday was a free day and I caught up on a lot of sleep. It was nice to rest and also went to work to finish off some things that needed to be done soon. I accompanied my journalist friend to translate for an interview with Dante Ferretti, a two time oscar winner for production design on The Aviator and Sweeney Todd. He had like 7 nominations before as well, so a pretty impressive record. It was interesting to see a glimpse of Hollywood coming to our sleepy island to do research for an upcoming movie called Silence, about the christian history here. Next month Martin Scorsese is coming so I hope I can translate again for the journalist!

Yesterday was a good day. I had a school visit, one of the things that pushes all my work back till late in the evenings, but theres nothing much I can change about that schedule now. However I realised the school visits are also one of the things that keep me sane in this grey desk world. One and a half day of doing my own classes is sometimes annoying for planning the lessons but great when Im actually out there joking with the little elementary kids!

Today was just a total off-day. Tomorrow is busy again with an event I'm co-organising as a volunteer and my body is asking for a break. Maybe next weekend. Oh, I had already plans for another trip.... I might just lock myself in my appartment and clean out my room, my administration, late payments and my head instead.

Skiing

2009-02-11T13:07:00.004+09:00

Last weekend I went skiing with some friends. Maybe for an outsider a bit of an unlikely group of people to go skiing together (me, Australian teacher, Japanese journalist lady and an elementary school kid) but Im sure everyone had a great time! On saturday we drove to Hiroshima prefecture where we arrived in the afternoon, enough time left to ski for about 6 hours. Dai had never skied before so I had to teach him for the first 4 hours. He did really well and after that I had about two hours to go my own pace, which was pretty exhausting but great fun. We stayed in a ryokan nearby so after a nice relaxing soak in the onsen we had some beers before going to bed.

On sunday we went to a bigger ski area in Shimane prefecture and although it was so warm the snow was pretty much reduced to sludge it was nice to ski around the area and do lots of different slopes. We left at about 4 in the afternoon and had a nice dinner on the way back. I arrived back at my place at about 11:30. A busy weekend but definitely worth it!

Here's a little video I made:

Cambodia pictures

2009-02-06T18:53:00.004+09:00

I took way too many pictures in Cambodia and combined with an even busier schedule than last year it took me much longer than I expected to sort all my pictures out and actually enjoy them by looking through them and editing some. I have finally put up a selection of my pictures on the internet today so here's the link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/emailremco

Just going through them is so much fun and I could tell so many stories to go with them but I simply do not have the time to do that all. Just a quick recap of my holidays though:

Phnom Penh took a bit to get used to. It being my first time in South East Asia I had to figure out how to deal with all the tuk-tuk drivers offering rides and people begging or trying to sell you stuff. It was just very annyoing in the beginning and I couldnt really enjoy everything as much because there would always be someone next to you relentlessly talking to you to get you to buy stuff for way more than the actual market price. Being alone did not help because you have no distraction. The palace and the national museum were beautiful and a great contrast to the horror stories in the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.

[The view from my hotelroom in Phnom Penh]

Reiko arrived and we took the boat to Siem Reap, just in time for the new year celebrations. Not before enjoying the sunset at one of the temples of Angkor, at least that was the plan. We had local food at one of the local stalls and when we were done we were too late to enter the temple. This was kind of typical of how we spent the days in Siem Reap; easy paced, relaxing and eating a lot of good food. It is a tourist town and as such it is a nice one. However, the temples of Angkor are not comparable to anything Ive seen before and, especially looking back, really lived up to the expectations that I had since I looked at a Angkor Wat picture book that I read when I was at elementary school. I was glad that it made me choose Cambodia as my destination.

[The most famous temple; Angkor Wat after sunset]

I met Vudthy, a monk in Siem Reap, at Angkor Wat where he was sightseeing too and invited me to come and help him teach English at a local centre for poor kids. Reiko and I met him at his temple and went to the community centre. It was nice to be there and see the positivism of all the Cambodian volunteers trying to lift their community out of poverty. Not just nice to see, but I gained a new good friend too from who I get regular updates about his life as a monk!

[Vudthy exchanging his emailaddress. Thank you Vudthy for inviting me to your temple and community centre!]

After dropping of Reiko at the airport back in Phnom Penh, I traveled up to Kratie, about which I wrote in my last post. The people here were even friendlier than other places and noone trying to sell you crap or bothering you in any bad way. I talked to so many people, monks, street stall vendors, random locals, other tourists, kids, grannies, anyone really. Not that I could speak a common language but with their open minds it was easy to connect.

[Drinking Tea on a floating house we got paddled to by the kids we played with]

I rented a scooter one day with a friendly Canadian lady and we went driving around the countryside to a few temples and to the dolphins. We took it very slow and arrived at the dolphins just as the sun was setting over the Mekong. Just being on the quiet row boat floating on the orange coloured river was so peaceful; you only heard the sounds of the dolphins coming up to the surface to breathe. Incredibly relaxing!

[Floating on the Mekong, taking pictures of the rare Irrawadi Dolphins]

In Kompong Cham I met some interesting people in a pub and went around the countryside on a bicycle one day, and a motorbike the next. I attended a wedding when I cycled past, I had the best spicey papaya salad ever, joined a family for their picknick at the brightest temple I have ever seen, played with some kids in a field and was almost sexually harrased by three countryside girls that needed money. This really is a beautiful but still struggling country.

[The painter at the incredibly bright temple with lots of random statues]

I was sad to leave but I was fully recharged and knew how to appreciate all the frills and conveniences of modern Japanese life again. I think by now, I have use up the energy reserves I built up in Cambodia, but that's another story! Tomorrow I'm going skiing for the weekend. Hurray!

Going Kratie

2009-01-07T20:05:00.004+09:00

Another short update from Cambodia. I hope that everyone has had a great start of the new year. I definitely have so far! Cambodia is a beautiful country. Not only the houses on stilts surrounded by palm trees and banana orchards but also the culture and the people. The people are incredibly friendly and although I cant speak any Khmer people are talking and trying to communicate. Especially in the countryside where Ive been the past few days. There are so many things I could write about, it is simply too much for this update from Cambodia so Ill just take yesterday to pen down here.

I stayed in Kratie, a countryside town that sits on the banks of the Mekong. Everyday the sunsets over the Mekong were so incredible, everything was drenched in a deep red glow.

We took a little boat accross the Mekong to an island where there is a small village where you can cycle around. We stopped at various shops and talked to many of the locals. They didnt speak any English and we didnt speak any Khmer but somehow we managed to communicate. We got some coconuts fresh from the trees to drink and some other fruits that I have never seen before. When we were on the other side of the island we spotted a floating village. We went down to the riverside and played a bit with the kids. We decided to paddle a bit with their makeshift rafts of bamboo and padlled over to one of the houses. We were invited over for tea and sat and tried to talk to them. The people here were of vietnamese origin and so they didnt speak khmer. After we gave them some gifts for their hospitality we were transported back to the coast of the island where we continued out bicycle ride. After a slow day of cycling around we took the little boat back to Kratie for dinner with a view on another great sunset over Mekong river.

(more pics wont upload so will post them once I am back home)

Phnom Penh

2008-12-30T15:36:00.003+09:00

I have arrived in Cambodia today and spend the last remaining part walking around. I went to the Natonal Museum which is beautiful and full of friendly monks that want to practice their english.

This is Cchim, 26 years old and his dream is to travel around Asia to learn more about Buddhism and to show good things to young children so that they will do good things in the future too:

Taipei

2008-12-29T20:15:00.006+09:00

I left Fukuoka on yesterday morning and flew to Taipei for my transfer. I had to stay over one night, so I checked into the central youth hostel and went looking around. I only had the evening really but managed to pack quite a few things in. First I went to Longshang Temple. Totally different from Japanese temples it was really like how id imagine Taiwanese/Chinese temples to look like, and filled with people praying intensely whilst burning incense.

After that I walked around the area including "snake alley" where they sell parts of snakes to eat and blood to drink and various medicines made from snake. Unfortunately most of the shops where still/already(?) closed. I took the underground to the new business district to go up the world tallest building. At least the tallest finished building since they are now building a much higher one in Dubai. It is really towering above any other building in Taipei. The view was not much different from any tall tower in tokyo, I guess after a certain height you dont realise how high up you are. Still it was pretty impressive and the elevator was crazy quick in 35 seconds more than 500 metres up in the sky! The wind damper in the top was also cool to see.

I had to rush to my appointment with a Japanese guy that I met at Taipei airport to go and visit Shilin night market. It was bustling with people, full with little food stands and lots of fashionable shops. They sells all sorts of food you can or can not imagine! We tried something that looked like Japanese "okonomiyaki" but it later turned out to be made of frog eggs. Loads of people were playing at the game stands that had random games from shooting galleries to catching shrimps. I had lots and lots of random food and off course I had to try the chicken feet! (which turns out to be mostly greasy skin) but I feel fine today so no worries! It was a really cool evening and came back really late for a short nap until my bus back to the airport the next morning.

And this one is for the vegetarians!

I arrived safely into Cambodia and am now enjoying Phnom Penh, which is a cool city! Until next update!

Thank you!

2008-12-27T01:17:00.005+09:00

I'm sitting in my room, well past midnight, listening to very loud bells ringing in the background. They might be some ancient Shinto ritual from the shrine up the hill from my street, or maybe just drunk people on their way back home from their End-of-Year party.

The last few weeks have been too busy to post anything. I have chosen to opt for a more humane lifestyle which includes leaving parties before the very end in a Ramen Noodle shop early in the morning and cutting down on internet time such as writing my blog.

I have however been really busy with catching up on work, enjoying the two week-long seminars in Tokyo and Shiga and arranging my winter holiday trip to Cambodia! I am leaving for the big city tomorrow and then fly out on sunday to Taiwan. I'll spend an evening and a night there before flying on to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. I spent time researching Malaria pills, types of Insect Repellent, Appropriate clothing etc etc and ended up not buying anything. I only bought a small and cheap lens for my camera, not sure if I even need it or want to take it with me.

There could have been so many entries on here though in the past month. For example about the two weddings of good friends I went to. It was my first time to attend a Japanese wedding and it is so different from Dutch weddings, I could fill quite a few pages about it. In short it just costs shitloads (for the couple as well as for the guests since large sums of gift money are expected) and it is incredibly elaborate. The food was sumptious, the dresses (4! for the bride) beautiful and the amount of guests staggering (over 200). I also had to participate in the 'entertainment' as about 4 or 5 groups or individuals are asked to prepare something funny for the bride and groom. I had the honour of getting picked for both wedding to do something, so I did the dragon dance with the dragon dance group and I sang a song with changed lyrics in Japanese for the other. Quite nerve racking in front of guests like the vice mayor, head of several city hall departments, kendo teachers, school teachers etc. They were both very impressive ceremonies though, and I even managed to sit in with the (only for family) actual official ritual at the shrine for one wedding!

Christmas was defnintely much better then last year as I spend Eve at a friends kid birthday party and Christmas Day at a Christmas Dinner party with some of the English teachers near here. Great food and even some presents!

So it really feels like the end of 2008 is around the corner and cant wait to fly to a new country and a part of the world Ive never been before. But before I go, I want to thank all of you my friends for everything you did for me! Looking back I had a really good year, definitely better than 2007! And not just because of, what is in the end, a fun job in an interesting country, but most of all because of the great friends I have all over the world! I hope you all had a great Christmas and wish you all the best for the new year. 2009 here we come!

First Snow

2008-12-07T01:37:00.002+09:00

Today the first snow of the year fell gently out of the air. Just very small and fine flakes but enough to remind me of skiing, ice skating and red ears when walking around. I mostly stayed close to the petrol heater though and had a nice 'nabe' dinner with friends. We filled the 'nabe' (big cheramic pot) with a nice miso based soup and filled it with fish heads and local mushrooms that some had caught today. It was the perfect winter day to spend around the gas stove boiling the soup and stuffing ourselves with the cooked meat, fish and veggies from the pot.

It was also a great way to unwind from a crazy busy week with working until 10 in the evenings most days whilst battling a cold. Early tomorrow morning Im off to a translating and interpreting seminar for a week and havent packed at all. But ive been taking things one at a time this week, and so far it has worked out just about ok. Im already on my futon on the floor so I will close my laptop turn over now. Have a good weekend everyone!

Tokyo Nights

2008-12-01T23:23:00.000+09:00

Friday I went up the Mori Tower to take some night pictures of the biggest metropolitan area in the world. Within only 30 minutes the seemingly endless grey cityscape turned into a vibrant sea of lights. This is Tokyo at its best, this is Tokyo at night:

Mount Fuji taking a last peek at Shibuya

Kasumigaseki at dusk

Roppongi; Japan's sincity, and Kasumigaseki; the heart of Japan's Bureaucratic Empire

Modern Mid-town and more

Silver Sky

Tokyo Fever

2008-11-30T23:04:00.002+09:00

After a heavy week in Tokyo I'm back home on the island. I always enjoy the trips to Tokyo because I get to see so many people that I normally can't. I must say the conferene was better than expected as well with some useful classes. I also went to the embassy to discuss the events for next year and of course just went out a lot in between. Tokyo seemed more expensive than ever but maybe it was just the area that we were in this time. I also noticed for the first time the impact of the current economic crisis as I was talking to various people. It seems to hit come businesses pretty hard and I wonder when the first ripples travel all the way to this far away island. I managed to pick up my usual Tokyo-fever/cold when I left on saturday and as I came back to the office today, all drugged up, I had piles of work waiting for me so I'm going to keep this post short. Thanks to everyone I met and sorry to those I didnt even have the time to get in touch with!

Babel

On fire - Your average local Ramen restaurant

Alone - Among millions

Take on the world! - Friend N in front of the bussiest pedestrian crossing in the world

Towering out above everything - Mount Fuji as seen from the plane

Departures to Winter

2008-11-22T13:28:00.004+09:00

On thursday the Dutch artists B and S left as it was the end of the month long exchange programme. It's been busy but I really enjoyed interpreting at their workshops and show them around the island whenever possible. It was sad to see them leave but beautiful how, in one month, people from totally different cultures that have never met before are crying to see each other go.

For me it wasnt so sad as I will be Tokyo the coming week for a conference I will probably meet up with them when I'm there. It will be strange to go to Tokyo as I havent been to a big city in a very long time. But I'm in a spending mood so I think it will be nice to shop around for some things on my wishlist.

One of the things that was also on my wishlist was a visit to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Ive been wanting to go their when I was still a teenager and last week I realised this upcoming Christmas holiday will be a rare chance to go there. So in the spur of the moment I went online, searched searched searched for cheap tickets, and bought one in the end. So Im going to Cambodia!!! I cant wait, it is a nice time to visit the country apparently so Im really excited!

After I swam in the sea here last weekend, the temperatures suddenly dropped to mid-winter levels. Rain, sleat, the whole lot. I got my coats out of the closet, dug up my scarf and made my heater blast on full power. With me leaving to Tokyo for a while, seeing other people go and booking my winter holiday, it really feels everything has changed to winter modus. Another season gone, another one to look forward to!

Peace of mind

2008-11-18T00:05:00.006+09:00

Last weekend was such a change of pace. I kept the weekend free from any appointments and only had two translating duties on saturday and sunday which meant a very relaxed weekend!

Friday alone healed my stress symptoms completely. As I was walking out of the City Hall (I finish at 11.30 every friday) I met R.T. and we decided to go for a nice lunch at the steak restaurant. We ate too much and a bit too long, but it got my blood flow going so I decided to go for the beach. M.A. suggested the beach in front of the small local salt factory. It is a nice quaint beach and the factory looks more like an old style house with a southern beach feel to it.

M-chan brought beers and I-san who runs the factory made some fresh coffee to go with the snacks. The weather was gorgeous and it was actually so hot, I went for a swim at the beach. I dont usually swim at the end of november, but it was so relaxing; no people, no sounds apart from the waves and the birds. I slept a bit on the warm rocks and went for another swim. Some more snacks and coffee from I-san completed the full recovery. I went for a great Kendo practice and that night I felt full of energy and went out for food and karaoke. After that I slept like a baby.

Saturday and sunday were very relaxing too, though I spent most of the time getting things done that I should have done a long time ago such as paying my rent since August and my car hire. I watched some movies too and though I took it all very easy I managed to get a lot of things done. A very satisfying weekend that definitely cleared my head. I spoke to many positive people and got so much energy from that, that my worries about recontracting rapidly dissapeared. I think Ive started to figure how to deal with all the points I wrote about in my last post...

The salt factory and the beach

Peeking in through the window

I-san and me swimming in the background

Aloe Vera at the factory

Onions hanging in the evening sun

And the compulsory corny sunset picture

The negative optimist

2008-11-13T00:22:00.005+09:00

I am so tired that the last thing I should be doing is to write a blog post, but thats what I do best when Im crazy busy; occupying myself with unimportant things. Ive been so tired because I havent had a relaxing day for a long time. Maybe I should have just stayed at home last weekend, but instead I climbed a mountain, took an art workshop, went to a hot spring, had lots of nice food at a few restaurants and sang at karaoke. A fun weekend but tiring nonetheless and now three consecutive crazy (but also fun) weeks of being out from morning till evening are getting to me.

I tried to take today off, but I hadnt finished my work and I was told I should respect deadlines and finish things when they need to be done. Of course they only told me when we were out at a compulsary welcome party for a new colleague so my plan to catch up on sleep feel through at the last minute. I felt tired through and through today and managed to finish up at noon and took the rest of the day off. I was planning on catching up on so many things I need to do, but I was simply too tired. I watched a movie and fell asleep only to wake up at 22:00 hours, probably the worst thing to do.

Tomorrow is another crazy day with work untill 20:00 in the evening and three meetings in between. I have been doubting lately whether recontracting would be a good idea. Well, I already handed in the forms cause rationally it makes sense to recontract because of all the projects that are planned for next year and also it would be good to have something on my CV lasting longer than just hip and a blip. Just the negativity at work has been getting to me. Since my supervisor left, things have gotten increasingly busy, with less people working on it and everyone is stressed and overwork. In addition everyone has been complaining about the proposals for next year.

(Just to blow of some steam; I hate Japanese Complain Culture! Everyone always walks into our office shouting at people, sometimes even screaming at how we suck at our work and then just walk out without offering solutions. Strange thing is that this happens within the City Hall too. Departments complaining over other departments. And then when work is finished I have to listen about general complaints about the city hall, how lazy the people are and how they just use up tax money. The project we organise have always poor attendance and many people are quick to say whats wrong with them.) With planning events for next year I can only see this getting worse, but after a year and a bit the negativity is getting to me. Do I really want another year and 9 months? Maybe also because Im too tired to be counter-positive at the moment.

So I have asked my colleague to hold on to my recontracting form for now. Not sure whether not-recontracting is even a serious option for myself, but for now I want that option to be there. This weekend is mostly free apart from a little work on saturday and Im planning on catching up with everything and everyone then, book my winter holiday (yay!), get organised and above all relax. Go to a beach or something and sleep. That's the great thing about this place, silence and beautiful places are quick to find! You see, hows that for some optimism?!

Kendo Grading (finally!!!) and Cultural Day

2008-11-03T22:30:00.012+09:00

The 3rd of November used to be a national holiday in honour of a descendent of god, the birthday of Emperor Meiji. After the war it was renamed and is now called Culture Day. It is on this day that many cities in Japan throw (cultural) festival and organisations have cultural activities. Here on my island it is traditionally the date of the Cultural Festival exhibiting cultural displays of many art forms, from painting to tea ceremony to dance, music and calligraphy.

This year I decided to put in a few pictures since I had never really printed any out properly. One ended up winning the Cultural Comittee Chairman's Award which was great! I couldnt be at the award ceremony since I had to go to my Kendo examination (see later on) but I will get it tomorrow at the City Hall. This was the picture to win:

Also, Ive been doing Ikebana a few times since I had to translate for an ikebana course last year so I was asked to make something this year's Cultural Festival too. Last week I designed something that I then had to remake again yesterday, the day before the festival, with fresh plants and flowers. When I had said goodbye to my hostmum from Osaka yesterday I went to the Cultural Centre to make it, only to find out that my teacher had already made `my` work. It was totally done and already in place so I just had to take a picture and that was it. It looked totally different from what I had made before, there were two vases instead of one and some of the plants were different as well.
In Holland it would be unthinkable for someone, even your teacher, to make `your` work of art! I had a similar experience last year, but this year it was even worse and although I guess its a valuable `cultural` expererience that befits this day, I was still a bit annoyed. In Japan people tend to repeat literally what the teacher does, again and again, until get to the same skill level and are ready to pass on the skill yourself. In that sense any artwork would always be partially your teachers work too I guess. This was the end product:

One of the Dutch artists of the exchange programme with Holland that is going on at the moment had a performance at the cultural festival for which I had to translate during the rehearsals. Everyone was raving about the dance but unfortunately I arrived back from Kendo grading a few minutes too late to see it. But I saw it yesterday at the final rehearsals so I was still able to take some pictures:

Then for me the main event of the day was the Kendo grading. I took my first Dan grade in England in 2005 and they had asked me to take my second Dan grade for a while here now, so I registered a few months back and today a few weeks of intensive training was coming to an end. Early in the morning I drove to Sasebo with one of my teachers and an older lady that took her first Dan grade. Both of us were pretty nervous and they like to make things go very official here. From registration onwards everyone had to basically sit in line and wait for ones turn until it was finished in the afternoon. No time, space or allowance to go and get a bit of practice in before having to do the examination. Luckily it was quite easy to understand to what was going on. I was just worried I would be really stiff from sitting and waiting on the cold floor the whole morning.
(pic: The Budokan Hall in Sasebo where it was held)

When I had to go up I just kiai-ed a lot and the rest came with it. Everyone had awesome kirikaeshi (set training excersice that is also judged) so mine must have looked a bit sloppy but the two one-minute `matches` went pretty well and I got lots of straight men cuts on my two opponents, which is basically what they want to see. That and lots of kiai and zanshin. It actually felt OK when I was doing the two little matches and I wasnt as nervous as I feared so it worked out pretty nicely. The Kendo no Kata was the last part (in addition to the essay I had to hand in at the beginning too). I was not so nervous for this part, but when we were done, me and my opponent had to redo Kata no.3 and Kata no. 7 as well. And then again, and again... Normally that is very bad news but personally it went OK and it turned out they were looking at the place where my opponent was tsuki-ing (stabbing?) me and some other details about my opponent.

In the end they posted the results and the lady as well as me both passed on all three parts! So now Ive got my second Dan, which means I have to live up to the standard :-)
They say getting graded up until 3rd Dan is pretty easy in Japan, and to be fair I think the level is probably a bit lower than in Holland for second and third dan, although saying that, I saw some great kendo and the difference in level is a lot smaller within each category. And the teachers were not kidding about their comments as many failed on the Kata section as well. Now I have to wait at least two years before I can take the third dan grading so Ive got some time to prepare!
Well, its getting late now so I will crawl onto my futon but I can look back a busy but fun and fulfilling 3-day weekend!

Me, (one of) my sensei and the other lady from my Dojo that took the examination. Thank you!!!

These are the two cool kids of my sensei that came to support us! Cheers!!!

The silence in the eye

2008-11-02T15:26:00.006+09:00

The heater wakes up from its summer sleep. Warm cup of instant coffee mixed with Hershey chocolate sauce. Winter socks warm my feet. I think everyone will have them once in a while. Those melancholic moments.

My hostmum has just left town and I’m back at home after spending a night out in the most expensive hotel in town, in one of their most expensive rooms. In between all the chaos this weekend I have a moment of nothingness. Not in the tea ceremony house, the hidden church in Houki or my friends’ salt making factory on the beach with a beer.
In my own little tatami room I’m thinking about all the people I’ve met over the years. People that have come and gone. Some I will never see again, others I might not be able to avoid. People I really want to meet but I somehow can’t and all those that I never wanted to meet but was luckily enough to cross paths with anyway.

Most of them will remain in my mind, whether I want them to or not. So much to thank for, the positives the negatives, all they've said, done or didn’t do. All of that has taught me a lot. Just going around the island yesterday, seeing all the places with the new fresh eyes of my hostmum has made me think about what I like about a place and its people. I’m not yet in the mood for thinking about goodbyes and thank you. Yet the heater has just started to shed its dust and I’m wondering about how long it will have to accompany me here. The recontracting form for my job is staring at me from my low table and this should not be the time for melancholic moments. Or should it?

Peeking through the stained glass windows of Houki Church

Sugar fix during the tea ceremony

Bring your hammock and beer; the self built salt factory of I-san.

A friday evening

2008-11-01T00:24:00.006+09:00

After I finished work today I went to pick up my hostmum from Osaka when she arrived at Sasebo Station. On the way there, I dropped off Sarah and Brian, the two artists from Holland that are working in town this month (I write a daily report here, so you can read more about my work there as well).

We spent some time at my place catching up, after which we went sightseeing for about an hour and a half in town. It was funny that my hostmum was really nervous to travel alone to Kyushu while she had been to Australia a few times, Thailand, Hawaii etc. before without being in much stress. I guess travelling alone gives you some insecurities. Of course I told her not to worry and that the people here speak Japanese pretty well (apart from the local dialect).

I went to kendo afterwards for my last official training before the examination on monday. It wasnt the best practice but at least that gave me some food for thought. Afterwards me and my hostmum went out to eat, but by this time most places were closed so we ended up in an izakaya (japanese pub with grub) and had a good time. Im sure tomorrow will be good too, hopefully the weather will be better because Ive just got home with soaked feet. Nothing better than a hot shower, so see you later!

The Dragon, the Sword and the Chaos - part 3

2008-10-31T01:29:00.003+09:00

After such a busy week and packed weekend I needed the day off really badly to catch up on so much stuff. Rather than a realxing day it turned out to be a cleaning/administrational day. Without having done shopping and some neccesary essay writing I found myself incredibly busy this week because of all the preparations for the next (3-day) weekend - another killer weekend.

I had to go to Ikebana to prepare for the cultural festival, I had to arrange someone to pick up my price I won (Yay!) for my submission in the photography category of the same cultural festival since I wont be able to be there, I had to arrange some things for my hostmother from Osaka who will be visiting on friday and saturday, plus of course I have my 2nd Kendo Grading coming up on monday (the day of the cultural festival / public holiday). So basically I had kendo practice every evening this week. And after the killer weekend that all together was not good news.

Ive stayed up till 2am every single day while I should be taking it easy for the exam. The weekend will be even more running around, although hopefully I will find some quiet time during the sightseeing my hostmum from Osaka. Its nearly 2am again today and I havent finised my kendo examination essay yet, but I will have to do it at work tomorrow for once, otherwise Im not going to get it done. On a positive note; I managed to clean my room tonight so at least Ive got order in the chaos again. Hopefully that will set the positive tone for another crazy weekend that should be a lot of fun in between the running around!

The Dragon, the Sword and the Chaos - Part 2

2008-10-30T00:25:00.004+09:00

Sunday morning I woke up with a hangover. Or a chronic lack of sleep from the last few days before. Though probably a bit of both. I had however returned home before the hardcore drinking crowd of the dragon dance team did. And I did switch to tea during the night.
Obviously to no avail, though a roughly cooked egg on toast and a shower did a decent job in making me feel OK enough to drive.

I arrived at the kendo tournament slightly late, most of the childrens' tournament had finished, though no-one seemed bothered as there was still plenty of time until the adult part of the competition. I sat down with the kendo teachers for lunch, picking out a bit of tempura and some rice and had to so a runner for the toilet though luckily it was subtle enough not to warn anyone.

I went up to change into my gear unpacked my bogu bag and suddenly realised... I had forgotten my hakama and gi, the clothes you wear under your protective kendo armour. Nice. Being a 40 minute drive away; Tournament gone, reputation gone, and fluffy feeling in the head gone. However, the local kendo godfather turned into my saviour by pulling out a brand new hakama and gi from the back of his car and, although about 4 sizes too small, I could at least enter the tournament.

The whole kendo community in Hirado seemed to be watching the first non-japanese to do kendo. Not true but it did feel like that. Off course I felt bad enough and embarrased enough about everything (incl. the tiny gear!) to be in a winning mood, regardless of the fact that all these guys had been doing kendo before I was even born. 6 kote cuts, 5 minutes and 3 games later I was out and our team had lost all matches. Oh well, it was followed by a long hard practice with all the teachers. Another experience and also 18 brouses richer, I crashed on the sofa of family A. that had come to cheer me on.

I was good to drive back home, but the muscle pain from the dragon and various misplaced bamboo swords was bad enough to put in an emergency call for a day off work. Shame I dont have this much fun every weekend, and Lucky I don't have this kind of fun every weekend!

The Dragon, the Sword and the Chaos - part 1

2008-10-29T01:05:00.015+09:00

Okunchi festival in Hirado is pure beauty. It is not in your face, it is not pure aesthetically pleasing, it not big, it is not a rare discovery, but it is in its own way beautiful. Of course the reason why it is my favourite festival of the year is because of the people.

Enjoying the food in a hundred-something year old sake brewery building, sitting at an improvised table made out of the humongous wooden covers for the sake tanks, sipping the local sake, chatting, laughing, joking, staring in the lanterns and deciphering the old chalked notes on the old wooden doors about the fermenting, dates and status of sake that has been drunken years ago - Beauty.

Walking up the old long staircase to the old samurai resident where ancient Kagura dances are perfomed. Out of their setting and so today without meaning perhaps but it is a touristy taster of the real thing the day after. The priesters dance with real swords in their mouths or play a cheerful game where they throw each other around. Watching the dances in the old gardens, to my back the castle is lit up in the night - Peace

The dragon dance. From 7am till 7pm, carrying over 10ks of a piece of dragon around town, dancing at the shrines, the hotels, the shopping street and old people homes. In between Im struggling to stay on my feet, having to put the head of the dragon into pretty much every house in town to chase out the evil. I get the honour to do it at my own apartment as well so I will be at peace here for a while. The lunch is the best Ive ever had in ages, just simple miso and onigiri with some omelet has never tasted this good. Then we get into the stinky fish truck with one light, a dragon and 30 men, being driven from place to place to perform. Our crew laughs, jokes and the spirit goes up as the strength goes down. The last dance is crazy long, and we're all a bit shacky, but the beer and the meat is great and the day is only starting - Excitment

(Sorry for the quality but these pictures are made with my mobile phone)

Yakushima revisited

2008-10-24T00:17:00.004+09:00

What can I say, the trip to Yakushima two weeks ago was just fantastic! This time I went with my friends and we had a great time, we laughed a lot drank a lot walked a lot and generally enjoyed everything A LOT. We didnt do any very long hikes like I did last time, but the 6 hour hike was still incredible beuatiful, maybe the forest was even more mystic than last time. I get a headache having to pick pictures to put up here, so I threw in a few that I like and the rest I will put on my Flick account.

Ohgo waterfall

The Gajumaru tree in Nakama through which you can drive

A random river

This forest brings you peace and energy

The goal of the hike, a forest view like in the movie Princess Mononoke. This picture does not do justice to grandeur of the place.

A random big Yakusugi tree on the way and the wicked crew of this trip. Thanks!

The medical

2008-10-22T22:25:00.003+09:00

Come fall in our city hall, it is time for the big medical check up. All 500+ people have to undergo a thorough check including blood pressure, a blood test, a urine check, a rontgen photo, hearing and sight test, an electrodiagram of the heart and even an echo! Although I think it is great that they do this and love to hear wether Im all sound or not, I was not looking forward to the actual tests that take about an hour and a half.

When I got to the blood test and the needle lady started taking a bit of my precious blood I felt it coming. After the lovely smiling lady was done with me and pointed her needles at the next bureacrat, I sat down and put my head between my knees. I felt sick, then my head started pounding quickly followed by disorientation. A single long beep replaced all other sounds and my eyesights went black with a lovely flashing starry night just before my hands went numb. Then the sweating began, till it had soaked my crispy ironed shirt and drops of sweat dripping from my nose formed a little puddle on the floor. Upper blood pressure dropped from 124 to 88.

I dont know how long I sat there but once I realised where I was I tried to get up, got across the hallway to my desk and threw myself on my chair. A colleague glanced at me and said in an ironical voice 'you're strange...!' after which it took about 5 seconds before she turned to me and realised I was a little whiter than my shirt, and I wasnt soaked because of the rain outside. I still dont know whether I fainted in the first room but it was much heavier than any of the fainting I used to get when I was anemic. The doctor called it a vaso-vagal reflex and it is apparently not necessarily related to anemia.

So after a quick nap and a bit of resting I was up on my feet again, had good steak meat for lunch and went back to finish the test and all the other work that was waiting for me. Some changes from last year:
I have gained 400 grams in weight
I have also become 0.5 cm taller
I have 0.7% more fat now totalling a whopping 17.6 kilos!
Apart from that my BMI is, with 23.4 identical with last year and even normal blood pressure nearly identical. Next year, that fat percentage is going down, not me!

Drama in the sky

2008-10-10T21:49:00.008+09:00

It's just before 22:00 hours and Im about to drive off down south with a car full of people. This week has been very busy but enjoyable none the less. I was asked to be a speaker for a prefectural seminar that was held in town today so I entertained people from the 11 cities of Nagasaki with some information about the Dutch connection and also about internationalisation in general. It was fun to do but Im not sure wether my critique on some aspect of Japanese internationalisation came accross.

The other day I drove to the south of the island to pick up some of my pictures that a friend framed for me for the cultural festival. I had to stop and take a few pictures of the sky, the colours kept on changing and the clouds looked like they were about to fall down on the island like a glowing red blanket.

My erratic little life at the moment

2008-10-09T01:06:00.003+09:00

Last weekend was nice, I went to Kendo practice on friday, relaxed on saturday and went out in the evening. It was an afterparty to a wedding of a friend and it turned out into one of those really long eventful nights out untill 4.30 in the morning but I had the whole of sunday to recover so it was OK (I had to drive back so I didnt drink either which was probably a good thing!)

On the way I (and all the cars in front of me) got stopped by the police and were fined for turning into a road that apparantly you're not supposed to turn into during rush hour. We are talking countryside rush hour, its a joke! Like Im supposed to know that this rule also applies to a early saturday evening....! grrrr.

Then L managed to leave a lot of money, a bank card and a mobile on top of my car before I drove off onto the highway... Also not good..., but managed to retrieve some of the money about an hour later, which was kind of a miracle, and we spend the sunday at the police and the phone company to get the insurance to pay, which all worked out fine.

Yesterday I went to Dragon Dance practice, which was incredibly hard, and Im worried whether Ill be fit enough for the real festival since we the dragon is very, very heavy and we have to carry it around all day apart from performing at over a 30 places... Anyway I managed last year so Im sure Ill survive this year too.

Now I just got back from Kendo, I hope Im progressing enough to take the 2nd dan examination next month... Anyway, the coming weekend is a 3 day weekend and guess where Im going.... Yakushima again! Yay, this time with company and a bit shorter, but Im already getting excited!

Parties and Schools

2008-10-01T23:02:00.009+09:00

The goodbye party of my supervisor was great. We first had a delicious dinner in a Hotel. The set-up during these first dinner parties is always incredibly formal. My supervisor sat all on her own on the far end of the room while everyone else sat on a long table away from her. It is always like that and I dont really know why they bother because as soon as the speeches are over and the alcohol hits the table everyone starts walking and moving around the place (partially because the seating is arranged by a draw). Anyway the food was great and the conpany good.

The good mood continued into the second party, a snack bar, or a karaoke bar, whatever you like to call it. My supervisor likes to dance so everyone made an effort to get up and have a good time. Id never seen Japanese city employees dance so much, it was pretty funny. Everyone got really drunk with all the stereotypical Japanese salaryman-like drunken behaviour. Ties around the head, stripping other people, making fun of your boss etc. It was one of the best nights Ive had here so far, of not the best. Everyone just seemed to be super-hyped.

Today it was the opposite though at work as everyone was sitting out their hangovers. I was fine actually and had to do more school visits, this time with parents joining my class. I made them do a team time challenge by writing letters of the alphabet in the gym:

Tears

2008-09-29T23:53:00.003+09:00

My supervisor is leaving tomorrow. It was her last whole day today and tomorrow there will be a small goodbye ceremony and a `send-off` where lots of the employees in the city will clap as everyone who is retiring this year leaves the building. I only just found this out and realised I have a school visit tomorrow morning!

I said to her I wanted to be there and whether it would be ok for me to move the visit to next week. She sad no, it is no reason, I should just do my work. Normally she never says no and always tries to accomodate what I suggest, so I was a bit surprised. Then she looked at me and started crying, and crying... It was really sad...

Ill miss her everyday support and giggles!

Oh, I couldnt move the visit so Ill just have to be satisfied with the drinking party tomorrow night. Thats the way life goes.

Pancakes

2008-09-28T23:59:00.006+09:00

First of all, I uploaded the yakushima pictures onto Flickr so you can see them here (most of them I already had on my blog but there some others there too).

This weekend was busy. Friday I did a lot of overtime to prepare for a Dutch Pancake Stall during the 2-day Walk event that had going on here on the island. In the evening I went out to the A. family for dinner at a small local restaurant where I get served by the kids that I sometimes teach in one of the elementary schools.

Saturday I participated and walked 15 kms on Ikitsuki island, which is the next island out and reachable via a bridge. Last year I walked the 30 km course, but 15 was just about right since we walked with two elementary school kids. The course was nice, some good scenery and nice smells coming from the harbour where the old ladies are roasting flying fish.

Today I did the Dutch Pancake Stall. I wanted to promote holland and raise some more awareness about the relationship between Hirado and Holland. We werent sure how much we would be able to sell. But as soon as we made the first pancake people started coming to our stall and there was basically a queue for the whole day! We went crazy, finished all the ingredients and even had to sent someone to the shop twice to keep up with demand. It was cool since I had gone way over budget on the ingredients and preparation utensils so in the end we managed to raise just 3 thousand yen for the charity (rebuilding the Dutch Trading Post in Hirado). But I had a good time doing it! I wore my wooden shoes and my farmers outfit as well, so our stand looked pretty Dutch! The pictures are from when we finished up at the end of the day. Thanks go out to my team of chefs (6 in total)!

Hike 1 - Miyanoura-dake

2008-09-26T00:37:00.007+09:00

I was going through my pictures and realised there were way too many to put them up here, so I will just upload them to Flickr when I have time. These are the pictures of the hike to Miyanoura-dake, the highest mountain on the island. First you walk through dense forest and then you come out on the mountain tops where you find bamboo fields with huge boulders in the most bizarre but rounded of shapes. Beautiful hike and I was lucky the weather cleared up when I hiked back down. so I got some nice shots of the mountains.

I like the way the monkey is holding on to the stone wall, like he can fall off any moment.

This tree was massive and should have a person standing next to it for reference.

Mossy entrance to the national park and world heritage area

Leftovers of what were once massive cedars.

The manager of one of the onsen played some magical music in the silent woods on his ocarina.

Views when the mist opened up near the top.

This little river quite high up in the mountains is a little private paradise.

Let me introduce my new love - Yakushima

2008-09-24T23:27:00.007+09:00

A chance on a four day weekend is too good to not exploit and travel somewhere. One of the places that was on the top of my list of things to do before I leave Japan was a visit to an island in the very south of Japan, even below the most southern tip of Kyushu. Its almost on your way to Okinawa. Yet it has the highest mountains of Kyushu (since it still falls under the Kyushu jurisdiction) towering almost 2000 metres straight out of the pacific ocean. It produces mangos in summer and has lots of snow in winter. It rains most days of the year and is home to one of the oldest trees in the world. Welcome to Yakushima, my new love.

I went for three full days, too short but enough to be totally emerged in the beauty of the nature. Some of the highlights were standing at the bottom of huge Ohko waterfall and being soaked and blown away by the power of the spray, Soaking in a natural onsen that is claimed back by the sea at high tide and perfectly hot at low tide whilst watching the sun set, hugging trees that are thousands of years old, watching the clouds open up for a few seconds to give away one of the most stunning views over the valleys and seas below only to be covered in mist again a few seconds later, sitting in (another) hot spring watching the most clear starry night you can imagine whilst talking to good natured local grandparents, standing in a massive moss overgrown tree trunk that is big enough to be someones house with a little river streaming through and a little shrine in the corner and lastly chilling on a huge boulder and putting my feet in one of the clearest rivers you can imagine after an exhausting hike.

A first introduction:

And this is the tree that it's all about: the Jomon-sugi. Some estimations say it is 7000 years old. If that's true, it is way older than say the great Pyramid of Giza. The most amazing thing though is to walk through the forest and feel everything grow around you. New trees grow on old ones, some trees grow into each other and merge, and all of that wrapped in a soft blanket of green green moss.

Updates on my holland trip

2008-09-17T22:00:00.001+09:00

I've put up the updates on my trip to holland so if you're interested you need to scroll down quite a bit. Sorry for the delay!

Thanks

2008-09-16T22:00:00.000+09:00

The last post about my trip back to Holland should of course be about all the people I met again and those that I didnt manage to see.

Two weeks was more holiday than most of my Japanese colleagues will ever take up in one go in their entire life. Yet it was still too short to see everyone, whether it was due to a lack of time or coordination from my side or whether they were simply not around. The problem with a nomadic lifestyle like mine is that you meet so many intersting people all over the place that you will always be missing someone who is not on your area of the map.

Yet that does not mean I didnt enjoy my time. I was happy to see everyone again, and although I was too tired to be happy clappy hyper active I did enjoy just being around everyone, knowing that somethings in life just dont change. So thank you all for spending time with me, we'll keep in touch and we will meet again somewhere on the map!

Windmills

2008-09-15T22:00:00.006+09:00

Whenever there are people visiting from far away it is time for the ritual visit to Kinderdijk. This place would be a dull boring and ugly little village if it wasn't for the 17 windmills that lie directly behind it in the polder. The watermanagement system is pretty much the same as a few centuries ago, albeit they use pump stations to control the water levels, rather than windmills. So when Gimmy came along for a visit we drove there and it was a beautiful day with lots of winds, blue skies with some dark clouds sailing along. Perfect day for a visit to a windmill to see the power it releases when it works on a good breeze.

Sailing out

2008-09-14T22:00:00.005+09:00

My parents have a sailing boat where they spend most of their time in long weekends and in the holidays. In Japan people always think only millionaires have sailing boats, but in the Netherlands, especially in the north and southwest it is very common to have a boat of some sort. I was lucky we had the chance to go sailing for three days when the wind was good and the weather pretty nice. It was one of those trips where you see so many beautiful things around you, you end of up with way too many pictures to choose from. I will put up a few here, though I would need a whole album really to show most of the bunch. Sometimes the Netherlands can be surprisingly beautiful.

At the end of the second day the wind faded in the evening and silence and peace fell over the lakes and rivers:

The third day there was a great wind and with a fast pace we sailed homewards:

Look at the angle of our sail, it's pretty steep!

Cycling in the Veluwezoon

2008-09-13T22:00:00.000+09:00

As a child my parents always took me and my brother to the forests in the east where we would stay in a remote holiday in the middle of dense woods. My parents went for honeymoon there and my brother and I still like to go there for cycling or walking. I was happy that we found a day to go cycling there again as I have been doing almost every Dutch summer of my life.

And what a better way to finish the day off with real Dutch Pancakes!

Football exchange

2008-09-12T22:00:00.000+09:00

As promised some pictures from Holland. To start of with, the football exchange project that I came to Holland for. There were off course lots of football related events such as a small mixed tournament, a match between the two teams, watching a top amateur league game, visiting the Amsterdam Arena where the Dutch national team was training etc. Some more touristy events took place during the rest of the week such a boat cruise, a walking tour through Leiden, visiting a reconstructed 17th century VOC ship, cycling and boerengolf (dutch/farmer style golf). The students also volunteered in a retirement home and danced a traditional dance with the old ladies and gentlemen and paid a visit to the city hall and to finish it of there was a big barbecue on the final evening!

It was one of the most fun weeks at work so far, if not the best. It was cool to share the excitement of the Japanese and to be back in Holland but as a Japanese employee. I did a lot of translating, from the breakfast table at my hostfamily (where I stayed with my Japanese colleague) to the last speeches in the evening and pretty every conversation in between. I love intercultural exchange projects. Thanks everyone for making it this fun and meaningful!

A special mention - my Dutch host family:

Back into the swing of things ... and straight back out

2008-09-11T00:41:00.005+09:00

So I was going to fill in about my time in Holland, but before I had time to organise my pictures work started and with that, busy life in quiet Hirado. I will put in the updates about my time in Holland in the next week, but first: the last few days.

I started on monday, work that had been lying around waiting for me to come back was not too bad and I managed to sort through it pretty quickly. Lots of event planning is coming up and I'm looking forward to that.

One of the other things I needed to do was to renew the lease of my car. It turned out that Sazzle (the name I gave to my good old car) had to be returned to the factory. No choice. So I was told to come in and pick a new car asap, because Sazzle had to be returned this week. I went in and they showed my choice: 1 single car
So now, with a tear in my eye to see the PEARL white Sazzle go, I am the proud owner of exactly the same model (Daihatsu Mira), but in a lovely cream / light yellow colour... I'm the coolest dude in town!

Yesterday we went for a walk with some people of the department to try out one of the old roads that led from Hirado to Nagasaki city and the rest of Japan. Not much was left of it, but they tried to identify the old road and make it into a walking path. So off we went. It was nice to be out of the office in the afternoon and the weather was perfect. The road however was half on big tarred roads and halfs down slippery slopes down hills. At one point we had to walk miles around because it was too overgrown. I enjoyed the 10ks of sunny weather but I do not see this walk becoming a major thing.

Today I got lots of things done and I was really having a good time when the sub-head of the division called out for a sudden meeting with only the 4 people in my unit. Just as we sat down he cracked the news that my supervisor is leaving (one of the 4 people in my unit) at the end of this month!

I was really surprised and the only in my unit that didnt know yet (my other two colleagues had been told last week when I was in Holland). Wow I didnt see that one coming. I shouted out `What? He? Wow! Congratualtions!` (I knew she wanted to retire but not this soon) which was obviously not a Japanese thing to do, because they looked strange at me and asked whether I wasn't sad! Its one of those moments where we react so differently from the Japanese. But my supervisor was really happy I said it since she didn't dare to tell me personally in the last few days because she thought I might take it bad. I don't take it bad and of course I'm sad though.

In the last year we done so much together and she is one of the most caring and understanding people Ive met in Japan, let alone my city hall. She refuses to treat foreigners differently yet inquires how things are going when its extremely busy or when she feels I might miss people back home (like with christmas). She simply holds away the police by refusing to give them information on me purely because Im a new foreigner in town. That is so rare in a country like Japan where I have to fingerprint when I come back home from abroad. She gives me rice of her land and supplies me with a steady stream of homegrown veggies throughout the year. She throws parties to welcome my family when they visit. She tells me off for putting rice to close to the gas stove in my apartment and comes by when Im ill with fruit and medicines I already have, 'just to be sure'.

In other words, shes a bit like having a mother around. And knowing my own mother, I know how much she wanted that retirement. I'm glad for her, but I'm very sad to see her leave. My job won't be quite the same the coming year.

Sazzle and Kakari-cho, I'll miss you very much!

(I know this post should be about the people Ill miss in Holland, but Ill write about that later)

One summer evening in Hong Kong

2008-08-25T06:43:00.016+09:00

The football exchange was cool. Too many things happened to write about it all here but I'll first write a bit about the trip there. The football exchange between Hirado and VVSB, a football club in Noordwijkerhout, takes place every year but this year it was Hirado's turn to visit the Netherlands. There were 16 football players, all 13 or 14 years old, and 6 staff including me. I had to translate pretty much everything during the whole week but it was fun to do.

We left Hirado early in the morning and went to Fukuoka by bus. We were well in time and everything went smooth apart from my carry-on luggage off which caused a bit of trouble at the check-in since it was too heavy. Anyway, we had a stop over in Hong Kong so thats where we flew first. It was fun since most of the students had not flown before or had at least never been outside Japan. It always great to travel with people like that because you are reminded about the excitement of flying, getting around the airport, and generally the thrills of going somewhere new.

(View on Hong Kong from the Tsing Ma Bridge)

Hong Kong was much bigger, better and impressive than I had imagined. The sheer size of the mansion buildings was pretty overwhelming. Off course you expect that in the city centre, but pretty much everywhere you go, you see wallls of apartment blocks.

(Impression of highrise mansions)

We had dinner in a dull tourist group aimed chinese restaurant downtown but we went to Hong Kong Island for a night view over Victoria harbour, Kowloon and pretty much the whole of central Hong Kong. It was beautiful(!) and the young Japanese guys were all in awe. It was great fun to share the excitement of going somewhere exotic, something I havent experienced since I came back from South Africa. It was definitely a great stop over and everyone was pretty tired for the flight to Amsterdam that left at midnight.

(View from Victoria Peak)

(The group of exchange students)

(Panoramic Nightview from Victoria Peak)

See you next month, Hirado!

2008-08-14T01:50:00.005+09:00

Tomorrow I'll be going to Holland for work! I'm looking forward to go back and see my family and friends again and also to be out of the daily work routine. Actually the last few weeks have been really fun so it's not like I've been dying to leave, yet it is still a welcome break after a year in Japan.

Today I was buying souvenirs in my lunch break. There was a monk in front of a shop I wanted to go into, praying or asking for money, I don't quite know, but it was one of those stange moments where I realised that I was in Japan. A few shops later he was again in front of another shop I also had to go into. I was tempted to give him a bit of money for safe travel, but I'm not sure what the normal way is to treat these guys. Everyone else was ignoring him.

I did all my washing after G and S and my bro left my house on monday. Ive been really relaxed with all the packing and although it is late again, Im surprisingly non-stressed about the whole week of work in Holland. Even the speeches I havent translated yet don't really bother me. I've finished packing and I took way to much, but just my kendo gear and souvenirs took up three quarters of my suitcase.

I will try and post again from the netherlands once I have time. I'm looking forward to meet up with everyone and do fun stuff, like last sunday, when we climbed local Mount Shijiki. Stunning, but for now it will be the plains of the Netherlands that await me!

Rice paddies near Iira on the way to Mount Shijiki

The top of Mount Shijiki sticking out above the surrounding sea (picture by Mark)

Sunbeams and Nozaki Island

On top of the world! (picture by Mark)

Thank you!

Nozaki Times

2008-08-11T22:44:00.006+09:00

On Thursday I picked up long time friend Gimmy in Sasebo. I had been four years since I had last seen her, but it was like old times, and we had a great time. My brother and S were also at my place so it was a full house in my little apartment.

Friday morning we woke up early, met my colleague T and drove all the way to the south of the island. We met up with A family and drove to the the harbour of Haifuku, one of the most remote villages on the island. We boarded a fishermens boat with some other local kids to and went all the way out to Nozaki Island.

Nozaki Island is an uninhabited island, once occupied by a small community but abandoned about 15 years ago. The school is turned into a campsite and the church sits on the slope looking out over the sea, the beach and the former rice paddies that have slowly started to collapse. Once the village was protected by a large fence to keep out the deer that live on the island, but now the people have gone, the fence has collapsed in some places and the deer now roam between the houses that are slowly falling apart. Electricty lines and everything is still in place, so its a very friendly looking ghost town.

We got of the boat, walked to the church, which has been kept in great condition and then we walked the last bit down to the beach. The boat had already thrown its anchor out in the bay and the kids had swom to the beach to tie the boat to some huge rock on the beach. The sea was a beautiful colour. Even more beautiful than I have seen on the island here. It was a perfect beach, it was like being in the carribean, maybe just without the palm trees.

(a stranded blowfish on the beach)

We swam for hours and hours, dived off the boat, looked for shellfish and ate cold japanese summer noodles on the boat. We went back in the afternoon via some beautiful rocky islands which had hidden caves and natural palm trees on the steep cliff sides. When we got back we had a barbecue at As house, and although it suddenly started to thunder it was a nice cool welcome after all the heat that had me burned red like lobster. It will take a while before I get rid of the burned skin, but Im sure the memory of the day will last a lot longer!

The old church on Nozaki Island

Gimmy looking out over the beach

Floating on water

Swimming to and from the boat

Catch of the day on the barbeque

Kitadake hike

2008-08-08T06:49:00.005+09:00

Last Saturday M and I went for a hike up the second highest mountain in Japan, after mount Fuji: 3300 metre high Mount Kitadake. We left the house at 5 in the morning, got to the bus in time for 7.40 and started hiking from the bottom of the valley at 9am.

The hike went really well, the weather was great and the scenery gorgeous. We climbed the whole day, sometimes using ladders up the steep rock slopes. We stayed at a camp, or a hikers hut, with about 120 people on 60 futon or something. Outside the temperature dropped to 5 degrees celsius but inside it was so incredibly hot! After a few hours of sleep, we left at 4am and started hiking just in time to watch the sunrise behind Mount Fuji, which was sitting right in front of us, sticking out of a sea of clouds. It was beautiful as we had a bento breakfast.

The descent from the top to the bottom was gruelling (5 days later I still have aching legs) but it was totally worth it. I made it back in time for my flight back to Nagasaki on that same sunday. Thanks M for taking me up the mountain!

Pictures are on my Flickr account.

Tasuke Hayabushi

2008-08-06T23:41:00.004+09:00

There are good days and bad days at work.
Today started off with a big blurr as I had my goodbye party last night, since I will leave for Holland next week for work. I received my new contract from the mayor, first thing in the morning so I came down in a suit. However I felt so bad I took instant leave with some of the hours of overtime that I got in compensation. I slept a few hours and felt much better.

I was picked up by my supervisor to go one of the Junior High Schools on the island to practice the dance that we will be performing in Holland. It is called Tasuke Hayabushi and is a traditional folk dance. I love it when I get to do stuff like that and still get paid for it. So now I can dance this really cool local folk dance.

After work I went for food with the new ALTs and my colleague and it was nice and relaxing. A quiet ending of the only quiet day of the week. I uploaded the pictures from Tokyo on my computer but I will put up a selection of the 500 pictures on another day.

Happy Encounters

2008-08-04T23:42:00.000+09:00

There's so much to write here. The last week I've met many like-minded people, made a lot of new friends, got to talk with some really interesting figures, revisited some good old friends, went from the concrete depths of Tokyo greyness to Disney's colourful fakeness and saw the crisp blue, red , yellow sunrise behind mount fuji from the top of Japan's second highest mountain. Now I'm back to work and had an easy day, followed by a meeting and the arrival of my brother and S in this far-away town.

Sometimes there's too much write. So I'll leave it at that and look back on it another time. First stop from here: futon.

Tokyo Feeling

2008-07-28T10:55:00.004+09:00

The plane turned left and the blue sky was left behind and a clouded grey view of Tokyo Bay unfolded itself. We flew over the heavily polluted water, crossed over to the industrial areas on reclaimed land where trucks formed long traffic jams and factories exhausted an even darker grey smoke than the smog hanging over the centre of the capital.
One moment I thought of the emerald seas, blue skies and green hills and rice paddies of my island and i suddenly wondered why I was in Tokyo again. And why are all these people here? What makes people come to this place, what makes them want to live here? A job? The excitement? I surely didnt feel to excited about the grey dulness stretched out, seemingly unendlessly in front of me.
Maybe its the status you can gain here, the money you can earn, the power to obtain. There is something that attracts people to people and I wasnt liking it.

Now the conference I'm helping out for is on its second day, and I have enjoyed Indian, Mexican, American and Turkish restaurants which has been nice. I appreciate the massiveness a bit more. But the qeues in front the restaurants, the packed elevators continue to annoy me. Ive become a real countryside boy. But I'm liking it.

Say hello, wave goodbye

2008-07-25T09:29:00.004+09:00

Both the day before yesterday and yesterday I had meetings after work for the international exchange programmes that we're running this year, and on both days I went to say goodbye to some good friends that will be leaving Japan. Having been on exchange in Japan twice it feels all so familiar, but this time I've got a job (at least I feel like it's a proper job) and I'm here to stay (for at least another year). In that sense it's strange to say goodbye because I've become so used to being on exchange, go somewhere for a year and then come back. It almost feels like I need to leave too.

But I'm not and I'm happy with that for once. But maybe that's because I AM actually leaving today, though it's just for Tokyo for a week, not long after that followed by an exchange programme to Holland. I love my travel fix and I think it's probably because I love change. A change of scenery or a change of pace. Getting on that plane marks the whole proccess so well. I was inspired by my friends blog entry yesterday, and I kind of recognised the feeling.

Welcome to the new people arriving, I haven't met you, but we'll get to know each other.
Goodbye my good friends, we'll meet another day, another place in another way.

The 2-day three day weekend

2008-07-22T00:07:00.004+09:00

Friday. A belated early finish, just enough to crash on my tatami mats, get some veggies in the house, attend a meeting, run a short kendo intermezzo before returning to the meeting and the world of unique karaoke style Japanese folks songs that was called the after-party.

Saturday. Slept out my busy week of meetings et all, and the night of too much alcohol. After a 4pm rise and a drive to south I had a great kendo practice in a beautiful disused private training dojo of one of my teachers' teachers. Meal till 1.30 and a near morning chat with the parentel unit and bro.

Sunday. Slightly earlier rise than the day before yet the day was still home bound, cleaning up and ironing. Ironing those things that I havent been ironing for over a month. Went for a swim in the evening at the beach below (pic taken in May though) with some friends. Did some fireworks, jumped of cliffs, drank a warm can of beer in a hippie style timbered salt making factory on another beach and went for a too late dinner in the local pizza bar.

Monday. Bank holiday. I'm working. Wake up call by colleague informing me that the workshop I had to give was pushed forward with two hours. After some quick preparations I teach a bit of Dutch and more about Dutch culture such as smoking marihuana and showing pictures of prostitutes. I love my job. Especially on a bank holiday when I'm in charge. After that I cleaned out the rest of my place finished the washing paid the rent and the lease on the car, did shopping and prepared stuff for tomorrows workday.

I'm well rested and full off energy for my three days before I depart to Tokyo on friday! Thank you weather, thank you friends and thank you futon, this is an ode to you!

Feeling hot hot hot

2008-07-15T23:56:00.005+09:00

Today it was crazy hot. I had a school visit most of the day and the classrooms were so hot! Still the kids wanted to play games and run around... I spend one hour playing kickball out on the scorching hot field in the full sun, while it was already over 35 degrees in the shade with about 85% humidity which makes it even more unbearable. Im pretty sure Dutch school close with this kind of weather, but I guess they would have to close the schools for pretty much the whole summer if they would do that here.

Tonight I went to kendo and had a bash or two and after that I felt like I was going to faint. I sweated so much, it was crazy. Everyone appeared to be fine, but I had to give up because at my third fight I felt really dizzy. Now I'm at home with a sunburned face and trying to go to sleep in this hotness. I promised myself not to use the airco for the environment and my wallet, but I'm now seriously wondering how long I can keep it up...

(Local Junior High School Kendo Tournament last May)

Ready

2008-07-13T23:58:00.002+09:00

Last week I was really tired. I failed to go to sleep in time every single evening so it only got worse during the week. However, friday was nice and relaxing, I had an ikebana lesson at a local teachers house which was actually fun and very zen, just listening to the birds in the garden and the wind going through the pampass grass. I did some shopping for saturday as well, since I tried to organise a goodbye party for the leaving ALTs and a semi-birthday party.

I was good fun; first we had a swim at Neshiko Beach and then a barbecue in the park right behind it. Thanks to everyone for coming, and for the great presents! I think everyone was pretty stuffed from the barbecue and after the night had fallen and the squid catching ships with their bright lights had sailed out we went for another swim. There are plankton in the sea that light up when you move the water with your hands or your legs, so when you're swimming it's like the sea around you shines a magic light, it was really cool. Off course we did some fireworks and after the army of musquitos had aligned their ranks we headed to a karaoke in Hirado to finish of the night with some great (but probably horribly sounding) music.

Today, I cleaned out my house which was still full of mould from the rainy season. I let the sun in, cleaned up, aired it through and did all my washing. I had a relaxing day and I'm ready for the next week, with hopefully a lot more energy then the last!

Start of a new season and a new year

2008-07-07T21:27:00.005+09:00

Yesterday was my birthday and I spend it in a nice relaxing way. A friend, her two young children and another friend went to a BBQ out by a lake. It was also the day that the rainy season ended here so for the first time in over a month we had beautiful blue skies! Me and the kids went out on the lake in a little boat and we came back in time for the delicious Japanese meat on the BBQ. We kicked a ball for a bit and after some good ice cream we went back in the evening to my place where I got a birthday cake. It was a nice relaxing birthday!

Today on the other hand was busy at work and I felt so out of it. I didnt sleep very well last night so I was really tired. To make things worse I had a Japanese language test to qualify for an interpreting and translation course this autumn, but it just went horrible. It's a sure fail and I dont think Ive ever done so bad for translating anything so far this year. By the end I just wanted to quit, I lacked all motivation. Its a real shame becuase it would have been a good course for me, very useful and also including a week out for an intensive interpreting seminar. Anyway, Ill put it out of my head.

After that I still had to do all my school presentations for tomorrow, plus lots more work. I just feel Im drowned in work and Im doing both an ALT (teaching) and CIR (my real) job. I still havent finished a two hour class for 30 8-12 year olds tomorrow. I feel uninspired have no clue what I should as I have used all my lesson plans on them in previous classes. Its nearly 10 pm now so I guess I better get started.

The reason I left it so late is because I had to check out the BBQ place for the end of year party that Im sort of organising for the ALTs here. I wanted to do it on a beach, but thats not allowed aparently so now we have to do it in a park just behind the beach. I was sitting on the beach to take some pictures of the sunset as I was there anyway, and it was really peacuful. Just the sounds of the sea and the birds and a beautful sunset. Didnt make me want to go back to my place to work. At least and at last, summer has started!

Sunset over Hitotsuku Beach

Fishing boats sailing out for the night catch

The moon rises above Neshiko Beach

Local fishing boats on the horizon (catching squid)

Welcome to the mouldy season

2008-06-26T23:06:00.007+09:00

The rainy season in Japan is famous for its humidity, and to be fair so far the temperature has been reasonable. Yet everything, absolutely everything, seems to mould.

The woodwork around my house, the bamboo blinds, my kendo gear and even my shoes! I wanted to put on my different set of shoes today and they had grown beyond recognition full of mould. The last time I had them on was three weeks ago and I didnt think things would mould this fast...
I thought I'd throw them away, but after a good wash they look allright again. Only thanks to my dad, who gave me a lot of polishing loving genes, my shoes have been saved from a mouldy death in a mouldy dirt bag .

For your viewing pleasure: ;-)

Sieve

2008-06-25T21:27:00.003+09:00

The last two weeks I've really been pushing a few things at work to get some things moving for next years 400 anniversary of Dutch-Japanese trade relations. I've been trying to dust of the Japanese bureaucratic system around me (I don't have the illusion to influence more than just a few people around me) to shortcut some of the incredibly long decision making processes by trying to convince people of a quick start and trying to reach a consensus. Yesterday we had a meeting and it didnt go as I hoped at all...

When I was doing the dishes today, I realised it's like trying to wash a sieve. You can rub the dirt and wash all you want, but when you take the damn thing out of the water it filters the dirt right back out.

Happy inbred

2008-06-23T23:47:00.006+09:00

The interesting things you sometimes find out at work... Today I came accross an academic article about a study on inbreeding in Hirado.
I was looking for something totally different but I was too fascinated not to download it and read a bit. Turns out over 10% is inbred here and the effects are minor but include physical and mental capabilities. It always surprised me how many people have the same names or how close families are related but could my collegeaus be... Is that why they are sometimes so... Or why they...

No, they're just super friendly, shiny happy people.
(For some reason that song will sound a bit different from now on!)

;-) / mental note - I hope no one takes this as an insult - couldnt be happier with the smart good hearted people here!

Space-sushi

2008-06-22T23:32:00.000+09:00

After a long wait my positive mindset returned. Unexpectedly I must say.

Friday I took the day off work to drive to Fukuoka to get my re-entry permit, a translation for my Japanese driving licence for which I have to apply and to do some shopping. I went with L&N who both had to get their haircut in Fukuoka. It was a good day; got everything done, did some shopping and saw a movie before going out. I was too tired though and did not manage to really enjoy myself as much I should have. Saturday I saw Indy Jones for the second time, this time in english though. I was impressed with Jones' Japanese, but must say English suits him better. Plus Cate Blanchett is more of a bitch when she speaks in English than when she speaks in Japanese. Same as me perhaps?

Did not manage to go to Costco, the american wholesaler, to get my Dutch cheeses becasue I didnt realise there was no exit at a highway intersection, so we happily drove 50 k's for nothing! It was pouring with rain the whole time but I started to enjoy it for the first time this month. It was such heavy rain you can do nothing but smile and run with your umbrella trying to make it to the next convenience store without wet socks.

Today I did more shopping for underwear and work clothes. Dropped of stuff at C's place and stayed over for a deliciously dark coffee. I got lots of stuff done but actually have the feeling that I relaxed. The turning point was the super cheap take away sushi from the supermarket. They (and the misty steep mountains on the drive) reminded me that I'm in Japan and I should soak it all up more than Ive been doing recently. This week looks like its going to be fun so let's bring it on!

Raining

2008-06-17T19:53:00.005+09:00

It's nearly 20:00 hours and I've just woken up. Outside it rains.

I hate the rainy reason.

Five weeks ago I started my attempt to a healthier lifestyle. I only have two basic principles for this:
No.1 Move my body everyday, which comes down to either going to kendo training on practice days or go for a 5k run everyday there's no training.
No. 2 Eat healthier, typically for me I would not call this dieting since I only intend to: include veggies every meal, eat more fruit, stop eating when I feel full (hey this one actually made sense), do not buy deep-fried food unless when eating out sharing food with friends, eat four or fives times a day instead of three

I actually felt good and very positive for over two weeks after I started with my plan. However since the week before my translating for the minister work has been steadily increasing. Translations started comming in, school visits have been increasing to 5 classes a day, evening meetings were scheduled several days a week, website had to be launched, some interpreting events came up and off course at the city hall we were "asked" to show our faces for support at various projects in town that were launched.

Since then I've been too busy to wash my clothes, clean my room, and even fix my shower that broke down. So I stopped the training (no time in the evenings or just feeling too tired to do anything) and stopped eating healthier since I had hardly find time to shop at the supermarket and resorted to quick fix meals that I vowed to avoid. I made the mistake to not schedule in `Remco`-days, that some of you might know, during the weekends. I spend time with friends and slept in between but it wasnt enough to get relaxed.

The workload last week was just too much with toom many people asking me all the time when I had things done. Working over hours most days, if there weren`t any meetings. I'm not someone who stresses easily over work but yesterday I felt stressed at work for the first time this year. After lots of different things, I sent in a translation just in time, and managed to quickly think and type up a piece in Japanese for my monthly column (should have been in a week ago), went to a meeting till 8pm and then went to eat out with everyone ot that meeting (this does not sound compulsory, but don't forget this Japan where public servant life is scheduled around 'voluntary' activities). Got back, crashed on my futon on which I still haven't put the sheets that are not even washed yet, woke up early at 6 am to go to work early and prepare my 5 classes that I had to teach today. After I came back, I just ate and slept for over an hour to get rid of the worst fatigue.

I feel bad now, because I should be at a great kendo practice in which I can get rid of my stress, but I'm not. Not because I can't but just because I can't get myself to get there. Too tired, too uninspired, no energy at all. It's hot, and it rains outside and I feel absolutely lousy. No, no need to worry, I will be fine and the rest of the week looks quieter at work with only one meeting on thursday evening left, so I am sure I can recuperate. I just need a remco-day and a lot of sunshine.
I hate the rainy season.

A virtue called what?

2008-06-11T01:03:00.012+09:00

Tired. Ive been running around so much the last few days, trying to get things sorted but not really been able to do anything. I hate those weeks where you just want to get things done but just don't seem to get anywhere. I guess I'm going have to wait before I can harvest some of my recent efforts. One thing I got really excited about was the Dutch 3-0 victory over Italy in the Euro 2008, which is kind of sad, but it's just one of those little pleasures in life that come at the right time.

Current mood:

(taken at Miyajima)

The minister and the army of waiters

2008-06-09T23:52:00.004+09:00

Yesterday I went to Nagasaki City for work. It was a special occasion because the mayor was invited for a dinner with the Dutch minister of Economic Affairs. She actually used to be on the board of the College that my mum works at. So there were plenty of important people, or people that look important, but the dinner was centered around the mayor of Nagasaki, the Govenor of Nagasaki prefecture and the mayor of Hirado. The Dutch consul was there and other people from the Economic Affairs department. I was just there to translate for the mayor.

Im not trained at all to do any translations or interpreting but last year I got thrown in at the deep end so Ive become used to it, though I still suck. I just lack time and inspiration to actually study and improve myself. So this was by far my most high profile interpreting experience and I expected to be really nervous, but for some reasons the real nerves never kicked in I felt strangly relaxed.

The setup was kind of weird. I joined the very posh car for the mayor, and had to sit in the front seat so that the mayor had the back for himself. I wasnt really allowed to put the chair back too much, as was subtly but firmly made clear by the driver, so that there would be about two times as big a legspace as needed for the mayor, and I was kind of folded up in the front. Dinner was for guests only, so not for the three interpreters that accompanied the three above mentioned Japanese guests. It was again subtly made clear that eating in the car was out of the question (yeah the famous; sore wa chotto ne... - Meaning; well thats a bit...) Luckly we arrived early so I had just enough time to stuff two onigiri (cheap riceballs from the convenience store) in before the dinner started. It was followed by 2.5 hours watching the most deliciously looking dishes pass right in front of my nose as I was seated directly behind the mayor, away from the table, and trampled over quite a few times by the army of white gloved waiters.

The actual interpreting went fine but I realised my polite language skills absolutely suck so I'm more determent now to get that sorted. The minister was a very nice eloquent lady who has a good vision and I sincerely felt kind of honoured to meat her (sometimes you just feel real dissapointed to meet these `leaders` that are totally crap and lack inspiration and just do whatever is best for them. Yep, Ive met too many of them here so far... But I think there are already enough hints in this post to specifics on this particular subject). So it turned out to be a good not too hard evening that I actually enjoyed, I just returned very late at night with soar knees and a rumbling stomach back at my appartment.

Oh and mum, you are personally greeted by the minister and if you speak to your colleagues and old boss P.V. pass on the greetings there too!

The hike in pictures

2008-06-03T22:58:00.011+09:00

(For story see post yesterday)
From lush green forests...

With waterfalls...

To wide valleys...

Morning dew

God sweeps the mountain clean in the morning

To the valley of doom

Land of toxic gasses

June Sickness

2008-06-02T23:28:00.003+09:00

You know that feeling when you have been away on a long holiday and come back to work and you feel so out of it and you're really wondering why youre working at all? Japanese people call it `May Sickness` as they return to work after the Golden Week holidays. I had my share of June sickness today.

I was staring at my emails glowing from a slight sunburn and thinking about where to start. There were enough people to remind me though, as everyone seemed to be on my case today. In fact I got lots of things done probably due to the lingering remains of the energy boost that I had last weekend.

(Getting started)

The hiking trip we had planned lost one member at the last moment so it was just Michiru, her 10 year old son Daisuke and me who went to face the highest mountain on Kyushu Island.

We drove there on friday evening, arriving in the dark, with a slight drizzle, looking for a place to camp. Luckily we found a nice camping pretty quickly and managed to set up our tents and to fix some simple dinner. During the night it started to poor down and I was wondering whether I would not float away.

(setting up camp in the mountains)

We woke up, still pretty misty, but after a good warm shower and breakfast it started to clear up and as we started our hike up the mountain it was nice and sunny. The hike was pretty tough, especially with 15 kilo's on my back, but by late afternoon we arrived at the camping spot in the middle of the mountains. All though you hike up the mountain all the time, you come out in a valley so it still felt like we didnt really hike at all! But it was too late to go all the way up to the top so we decided to get some food and soak in the onsen that they have there. Its a special atmosphere since you can only get there by a long hike and theres no cell phone reception or anything. Plus the nature was absolutely stunning.

(Good morning sun)

Sunday we climbed higher onto a pass right next to a volcano that sends huge toxic clouds into the air. The landscape is like its from out of this world and it reeks of sulphur. It was too strenious for our little friend to go all the way up so we decided to descend back at the other side of the pass down to the car. After lunch and a very nice white silky onsen we had recharged. We stopped of at the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in Japan and then we headed back home.

(My big buddie Dai and me, pics by Aosaki)

After nearly running out of fuel and a very long drive we arrived back home. I had promised to go to a meeting of volunteers that I badly need for organising events next year so I turned up 3 hours too late to show my face and ended up having yummy spanish food untill midnight.
June Sickness, no wonder.

Eating Out

2008-05-30T00:40:00.005+09:00

Tomorrow I'm going hiking! I'll leave with Chiru and her son Dai in the afternoon, set up camp in the evening and then climb the highest mountain in on Kyushu Island, Mount Kuju, on saturday. Will be staying on the mountain for the evening and then come back on sunday. Should be good!

I went over with a few other people for lots of food and to pick up some of the camping gear. It was a nice evening and I took a few pictures on the 35 minute drive to the south of the island.

Goodnight!

Heading forward

2008-05-28T22:27:00.007+09:00

Yesterday and today were very productive days at work. Got lots of things done and lots of new things started. I have three new appointments with Dutch visitors this month which is always fun. The first one is to translate for the mayor at a select dinner with the Dutch minister of Economic Affairs which will be fun. I've also brainstormed a lot of ideas for the 400 year Japan-Dutch trade relation celebrations. There have been lots of ideas in the past too but most of them didnt work out so I guess Im just going to have to wait and expect them to be shot down somewhere in the bureaucratic food chain. Still I'm positive about it all, otherwise there's no point in even trying to get many things organised. And the english website of my city is going up next week, so I'm excited!

Today was also the start of the raining season. At least that's what the TV says. It's still a little early for it too start and Im planning on going hiking this weekend so I hope the weather turns back to the sunny warm weather we had the last few weeks. Today was just wet, hot and humid: the first warning of the next few horribly hot months to come. Tomorrow is going to be 30 degrees celsius, so that's full on summer heat for this white arsed Dutchie!
Last week was beautiful beach weather though and the water was still delicously cool so we went for a swim. Yes, I live in a beautiful place:

Spring Travels, Part 3

2008-05-26T22:55:00.015+09:00

After a short interlude yesterday about last weekend, Ill go on with my story of the Golden Week Travels with my parents.

On monday we left the house very early to go Koya-san, a temple mountain south of Osaka. H came with us and we took a very early train into Osaka in order to change there for a train southbound. The commuter train into Osaka was your typical Japanese commuter train, hardly any seats and packed, packed, I mean packed full off people. We had a little luggage with us which made it even harder. After a few stops on the way, the `men with the white gloves` appeared on the platforms to push everyone in when the doors close. It was worse than I ever experienced and my knees were bent the wrong way over the suitcase, so I when I rolled out in Osaka I thought I couldnt walk anymore.

After a quick breakfast on the train south, we were on our way out to the countryside and we entered the forests and the train slowly crawled up a small valley railline. At the end we transfered for the cablecar which brought us to the top. Koya-san is the main centre of the Shingon Buddhist Sect. I had booked a place in a temple so we checked in there first and then walked through an ancient cemetary leading to some temples where the founder of the sect is burried. It is not really a cemetary actually but it looks like one and it is in the middle of a forest of huge cedar trees so it feels kind of mysterious.

H had to leave home late in the afternoon after which we checked out the rest of the village and we went back for our dinner in our room which was served by the monks. They have a vegan diet so it consisted of lots of interesting veggies and other Unidentified Eatable Objects. After a soak in the bath, the beds were laid so we went to sleep.

We had to wake up really early for morning prayers. A monk came to fetch us and the other guests and we were taken to the temple. After the prayers we went around to another building were they did a goma kuyo (a holy fire of invocation) typical for the shingon sect. Not surprisingly many of the temples burnt down in the past.

The temple we stayed at:

After a vegan breakfast we went around to a museum and then got our luggage to move on to Hiroshima. After a bus, cable car, local train, express train, underground and a superexpress train we arrived in Himeji to visit the castle of Himeji. It was a national holiday that day, so it was really packed and even had to queue up for a bit in the castle, but it was still impressive as the castle is huge and still original which is very rare in Japan. My dad nearly got locked up in the castle as he was the last person to leave and they already closed the castle doors on him! A maccyD's and a shinkansen bullet train later we dropped on our beds in Hiroshima.

Interesting Encounters

2008-05-25T23:27:00.004+09:00

Friday I was out of it. Work went ok but after that I was just in a daze. I went to an ikebana class for which I was invited and after that I went to the Tsuyoshi Tea Market Festival in the south of the island. I didnt really see any tea, but there was a karaoke tournament in which a few friends took part. It was fun and cheered on the everyone that had the guts to go on stage. Colleagues from the city hall won and I went for yakitori with them on the way back.

Saturday started very early as I had to cheer on my kendo class in the local round of the Junior High School tournament. My kids did really well and one of the guys got first place in the individuals and the team beat the favourites to win the team competition too. It was kind of unexpected which made it even better.
When I came back I jumped into my suit and went to translate at a `gala dinner` ahead of the William Adams memorial service to be held the next day. I met some really interesting people among which a Dutch Canadian gentleman and a university researcher on William Adams. I also met the 41st lord of the Matsura clan, the samurai family that have been running this region for many many many centuries before the whole system was overthrown about 130 years ago. We talked a lot about Hirado and it was really interesting to hear his views on his `hometown` (He lives in Tokyo now). I was surprised by the negative opinions he has of the town and the people that live here. But it must be strange to have no control over the lands that your family has ruled for so long. He didnt agree with the quality of the wine either so I went to the liquor store with him to get some good dry wine! I thought it was funny to walk through the rain with the 41st local samurai lord (ok hes not anymore officially but still) to get some booze.
The Dutch Consul-General was there too, and hes a interesting character too albeit a little more optimistic. More drinks were suggested afterwards so we went to a `sunakku` (or watering hole as referred to by mr. Matsura) with the Consul General and the lord himself, on `unhappy parent street`. We even went on to a third place for some karaoke, much to the disliking of the lord, who `despises` karaoke, because samurai dont sing. Not even under the shower apparently.

Sunday was the memorial ceremony so some translations again although not too much fortunately. First it was the memorial service for William Adams, them for all the English people that died in Hirado, and then for the Dutch people that passed away here (interestingly some Dutch were executed by the English, and the other way around!). The tea ceremony was done by the lord who is the grand master of the tea ceremony style that was started by his ancestors, the chinshin-ryu style of tea-ceremony. It was finished after midday, and the rest of the day was spend cleaning up. Everyone from work who helped out went out for a very unhealthy Pizza Amsterdam in one of the locals. A nice ending of an interesting but tiring weekend.

Spring Travels, Part 2

2008-05-12T22:16:00.006+09:00

On saturday the alarm clock went of a bit too early. Luckily it was for Kenchan, the husband of my hostsister. He left the house at 5am for work and I went back for a second sleep. 4 hours later everyone was up and running. H left for work too and the rest of us prepared for a slow day out in the countryside of Nara prefecture. We decided to escape the crowds and leave the famous temples in Nara Park for what they are. Traffic jams became less and less and late in the morning we arrived at Yakushi-ji Temple, just on the outskirts of Nara.

Kouta the one year baby of my hostsister came with us as well and, for the whole day, took care of my green tea that came from the in dialect speaking vending machine. Yakushi-ji was nice with two big old pagodas. Id never been there before and was much larger than I expected, till the point that we turned around and went for food in the restaurant. You had to smash a ceramic case in which the food was hidden which was rather strange but the pieces were flying around and luckily the food turned out to be packed in little boxes. Fortunately there were no more boxes in the boxes.

Next was Horyu-ji Temple which has the oldest wooden building in the world dating at around 670AD or something, rather amazingly it is a 32 metre tall pagoda that never caught fire through lightning or raging monks (they had quite a few of those in the good old days). So another few temples, halls, alleyways, temples, museums, monastries and temples later, we came back out of the complex, all templed-out. Most of all Kouta who was fast asleep but still holding on to my tea. I owe you one Big Tiger!

An impression in pictures:

Sunday we met with the mother of my brothers girlfriend which was lovely. It was a bit short but everyone managed to get to know each other before we moved on to Osaka. First we went for Economy-Yaki, a cheap but yummy, not yakki, Japanese pancake. Although I still think a pancake is a bit of shit way of describing this ... pancake.

In Osaka we went to the Umeda Sky Building to go up to the `Floating Gardens` which has, logically in Japan, no gardens whatsoever. It has a nice view though and some great architecture. Down again we went shopping in Yodobashi camera, frustratingly (but fortunely in hindsight) without any money in my wallet.

Dinner was in a Tofu restaurant. You can feel it coming but they use the stuff in a million ways and the course we took, obliged us to eat all one million. The incredible view from the 21st floor table kept us going. We rolled out of the elevator, through shinsaibashi shopping arcade all the way to Dotonbori bridge/river. The neon lights just seem to get more and more compared with when I studied in Osaka a few years ago. They redeveloped the canal too, but the crowds were still going strong and I felt the old big city buzz again. I love this place!

Pics of the sunday:

And to finish off, pictures of the posse! Here we are:
(sorry kenchan is missing in action but that means no lawsuits from his employer)

Spring Travels, part 1

2008-05-11T22:36:00.011+09:00

My parents and I left on a thursday morning for Kyoto. I parked the car at long stay in Fukuoka and went with the shinkansen bullet train from there. Three hours at over 200 k/h we arrived in the humongus station hall of Kyoto station. The taxi managed to find the old machiya (traditional Japanese townhouse) of Iori Corporation. We were taken to our home for the night which was a beautifully renovated townhouse that used to be the home of an old tea master (maybe he wasnt old but that would't sound as good). My old Japanese hostsister H arrived as we were shown around. We sat around for a bit, drinking tea and enjoying the nice little garden and the old tea room. Then we went for dinner in pontocho an old alley lined with restaurants and the Geisha school. After our meal we walked around, saw a few maiko (geisha in training), crossed that of our compulsary sightseeing list, and crossed the bridge to Gion. We walked old little backstreets past some little canals and came back late in the evening for a hot bath in the wooden bathtub. The futons were laid out so my light went out as soon as I hit the floor.

Here are some pictures:

The following day we walked around the east side of Kyoto through the famous little streets up to Kiyomizudera. I must have been in this temple over 10 times now, but it is still beautiful, although it was cramped with school trips (Grrr, have to hold back to not go on a rant here). We went down past Yasaka-jinja and Chion-in where we sat down in the middle of a buddhist conference that was being held. After observing a few of the rituals we walked down to the subway and took the underground to the other side of town and then a bus to the Kinkaku-ji or the Golden Pavillion. Another one that I had seen many times before, but my parents wanted to see it so it was good we managed to get there in time. I really dont mind seeing these places again, because they are all very beautiful and I probably took the most time since I was playing around with my new camera. There was no time left for Ryoan-ji, so we took the bus back to the city centre, picked up our luggage and took the train to Hirakata.

I took way too many pictures, so I cant put them all up here, but here's a little selection:

When we got to Hirakata, H was waiting at the train station and when we got home the table was already filled with te-maki sushi, a kind of `DIY` (doe-het-zelf) sushi. It was a good night and my parents and hostparents got along really well, with a little translation help from me and H. After a lot of drinks, food, drinks, more food and a lot of laughing I crashed in a bed. My first bed in a loooong time!