It was either this or doing laundry

Time for some random rapid-fire posting. I can always upload pictures from the same month-old set a few at a time later to make it look like a legit update..

Had a good conversation the other night with many of the interns. Yea, I don't mention them too often, but normally we talk about trivial matters like international politics. This time, though it was about food! Instead of elaborating on the details, it will be much more fun to just leave simple bullet-points and plant seeds of stereotyping. Plus Blogger has the cool "list-button" icon I haven't clicked yet.

In China, they are willing to eat a surprising variety of animals. The south much more so than the north. Examples include snakes, turtles, rabbits, and monkey brains. Dining on turtles "of course" increases your longevity. However, the French are less prone to eat the turtles because they are much more useful as garden additions - think "living rocks." The French can also go for snake (apparently with garlic and around Christmas-time) and rabbit, but are a bit shy on the monkey-brains.

Anyhow, you have to be a high-roller to enjoy the ape. Apparently the gimmick is that the monkey is served alive. Indeed, the animal is kept concealed under the table save the cranium which will be prepped for you. (Honestly, would a guest be expected to break through its skull? How barbaric.) So you've got a live animal with half of its head missing exiled beneath the tablecloth, but the brains on display and awaiting you to put it out of its misery. The method? Hot oil. Yes, you pour hot oil directly onto the monkey's brain and snack away.

Hopefully, this should probably be the most absurd thing you've ever read in regards to upscale dining. I have a vivid imagination, so the sights and sounds of this scene brought me to a tearful fit of laughter (naturally, we were all eating at the time). Also, you'd have to hang around the French to know their contempt and disgust at such a description.

Completely unrelated but a bit of rare culture shock: I was going into the convenience store near the apartment and was served by a guy I swear was from India! Never in my wildest would I have expected to see a foreign face behind a counter in Japan... even if his Japanese was proper. Also a new first for me - communicating with people from other countries using Japanese as a common language. Usually wherever you go on this planet, English is going to be the second language that two foreign parties can use. But Shinjuku has a nice all-you-can-eat Indian curry restaurant and the folks there addressed me in Japanese as well.

Another tidbit: while Halloween isn't popular in Japan (at least I don't know of any trick-or-treating plans) there is a semi-planned, public party next weekend. It will take place on the Yamanote train line that circles the major districts of Tokyo. It's similar to a flash mob (look it up - very entertaining) but with more drinking and less police intervention. The basic idea is to get a costume, get some booze, and get to the train platform. The clips I've seen on YouTube from parties past have shown a shocking 70-30 gaijin-to-nihonjin ratio. It is hard to gauge however, as the Japanese are typically shorter and their numbers harder to properly count.

Naturally I had to find a costume. After some soul-searching (and wandering around various variety stores in Machida), I settled with something that was agreeably both American-funny and not Japan-creepy. I won't spoil the surprise now, but if there is photographic evidence from the event that is presentable, I'll be sure to... present it.

Since I'm about to go to bed, I must lastly add that I am happy to have received my new mattress. Ideally this will nullify the back pains I occasionally wake up with. If not, it makes a good temporary couch for guests. My pillow is still a bag of beans, but that's how I like it.

Take care of yourselves, and each other.

Find the feline!

Perry Road.

View of the entire city and harbor from the open park atop a hill.

Kurofune ferry and small island with a shrine.

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Taking a break, I'll post s'more later.

I hope you can read this. I happened upon it while walking around, although it wasn't specially noted on the tourist map I picked up at the station. The whole story is so absurdly Japanese.

The graveyard the 16 were moved to.

Their grave seems recently touched up.

Nearby templegrounds with a lot of good elements present: bell, Jizou statue, some others hiding in a cave.

And here we are in Shimoda, Japan. The end of the tracks as far as the peninsula is concerned. Shimoda has a rich history, especially in connection with the United States, and I'd suggest reading a bit about it on Wikipedia, but the article there is quite lacking - try this instead. Pictured is one of the famous kurofune (lit. "black ship") that showed up under Perry's command in the bay (pictured below).

What was most comical to me about the majority of Shimoda's history-telling on placards and in guidebooks is how the Americans and the affairs are described as friendly and good-willed. Of course, the Japanese didn't really seem that interested in opening up the port the first time around. Only after dropping in again (but this time with more ships and firepower), was Perry met with open arms. Nothing screams mutual respect more than staring down the barrel of a gun.

This cat is ready to negotiate a treaty.

Something about these pillars of rock standing alone against the waves... it's a phenomenal sight to behold. The medium of photography was sadly unable to capture the fear of the people around me as I climbed up the slick stone and leaned arms outward near the edge. Chuckling about it doesn't make you appear any more sane, either.

Some pictures of the bridge over the rocky coast. Apparently a popular place to jump from, according to locals.

What you see on the way down if you do.

This bridge leads into a hiking trail along the coast, but I didn't realize from reading about it online that it was more thick brush and tree roots than trail. The idea to walk toward the other train station was quickly cancelled.

Better later than never

My trip to the Izu peninsula began with a stop in Atami. The main attraction there was the MOA Museum of Art - 25,000 square meters of floorspace carved out of a mountain overlooking the city and its blue bay. The image below looks to be more of a bunker entrance; after walking in, it takes a good five minutes to ride the escalator up to the exhibit floors. The fee was a cool 600yen for a card-carrying student combined with a discount available at the station.


Most of the works on display there are Edo-era Japanese paintings, calligraphy, or crafts. This includes 3 national treasures and many "important cultural properties" as well. An English guidebook was available, but unfortunately not much of the calligraphy was translated to English. However, one can certainly appreciate the writing style and age of the works without needing to know. My favorite of these would be the screens with softly painted deer dancing with wispy haiku lettering.

At the time I went, there also happened to be a great deal of (late 18th to early 19th) French art; some of the artists being Japanese nationals who learned the form while studying abroad. Some of the more surprising pieces to happen upon: Claude Monet's "Water Lilies" and a debatedly-Rembrandt-but-still-as-real-as-life "Self-portrait in a cap". Shocking to me because they weren't even advertised on the pamphlet! Oil on wood is just incredible when done well.

That was really all I was hoping for from Atami, so I got back on the train and followed the East coast to Jogasaki Kaigan and its oddly cute log cabin-styled station. The short walk to the coast wasn't as short as intended, but as usual, getting lost turned out to be well worth the trouble. I stopped by what appeared to be an outdoor cafe (and the only sign of life along the winding road) named "Candy". As I approached, I was invited by one of the patrons to have a seat with him if I liked. I had originally meant only to ask for some directions, but I was fatigued from being on my feet for much of the day. I asked for the iced cafe latte.

The middle-aged man had a pair of dogs accompanying him, one of which was significantly more energetic than the other. They kept on playing with one another, leaving us to talk. The guy worked as a wine commentator and had lived in France as well as Ireland and Oregon. He was able to travel around and work from his laptop, or simply from home. Soon, the owner came out with the drink and began to share with us tales of his travels to China, Tibet, and the US (best: Mississippi - worst: New York). Unlike my beret-sporting companion who had now turned back to his dogs, the owner was previously running the rat race in Tokyo as a salaryman. He and his half-Canadian wife decided to flee while they were still young and came to the Jogasaki coast to begin living their modest dream. Even if sales are "so-so", they don't regret the decision. They would ideally like to move to the US so they could have a big yard for their dogs to run around in.

Their shared affinity for pets wasn't coincidence. The entire purpose of the cafe was to have a place to walk your pets to and let them enjoy themselves while doing the same with a drink. The cafe turned out to be named after the owner's dog. As for the two belonging to the connoisseur, he explained that one of them was born with a bone problem and that it wasn't able to walk. I hadn't realized at first, but it indeed was dragging itself along to catch up with the other. The man said the original owner would have killed it had he not taken it, and that every night he would help it to grow stronger by fixing a life vest and letting it swim around in the bathtub.

It had already grown late and the retreating sun was causing the sky to dim. I told them I had to take off, but when asked where to, they didn't seem convinced that I would make it back to the train station in time if I were first going to visit the bridge on the coast. Sensing my internal struggle, the owner volunteered to drive and drop me off in the parking lot near it. I'm always pleasantly surprised at how often the Japanese - even ones you've just met - will act as if you were all part of a common team and help you out accordingly. I thanked the guy many times over and was soon gazing off into the Pacific.
More to come as time and energy permit..

Why updates have come to a sudden stop

I see with its newer release of Picasa, Google has worked overtime to upgrade the level of suck beyond anyone's expectations. Something as seemingly simple as posting pictures to a blog has never been such a headache... It turns out in the past I used a closely-related program named "Hello" (yes, try searching for it) which could rapid-fire pictures along with quickly typed descriptions to Blogger with no problem. Apparently that process is now dead (and has been for a while).

This sums it up quite well, but I want to reiterate the important excerpts about how Picasa (with BlogThis) differs from Hello (with Bloggerbot):

• The "BlogThis!" window takes up the whole screen, which make it difficult to produce the blog post, which often requires you to consult other windows to collect or check on information as you write.
• Bloggerbot does not limit the number of photos in a blog post, whereas BlogThis! can only cope with 4
• The BlogThis! window is very slow to appear, so you have to sit around and wait for many seconds before you can start your blog post.

From reading it, you may not get the full impression of how inefficient the process actually is. Think of it like the difference between typing and hitting enter to Instant-Message someone as opposed to starting your email client, filling in the relevant info, and sending a message of equal length to the same person. Now multiply that annoyance by every message you wish to send... the horror.

What the hell kind of arbitrary limitation is 4 pictures, anyhow?
I'll be looking for a better solution to this.

After getting back from the hiking, I was hurting for something filling. I found some cheap meat, potatoes and onions at the 99yen store (yes it was safe ;) and made myself some "nikujaga" - literally "meat & potatoes" except it's usually made sweet with mirin. I fumbled around with the flavor - adding and adding new stuff - until I could no longer hold back my hunger. Good stuff.

And I will leave you with my kitchen for the moment. Yumm~