May 2009

It`s been a little while since I posted anything, but a couple of nights ago I saw something on TV here in Japan that I could not pass up posting.. It was a kind of milder version of the American (is it American?) UFC: Ultimate Fighting Championship – you know, the flighting matches where the opponents can use any type of fighting they want to and sometimes people die doing it. This Japanese one, however is kind of a mix between UFC and pro wrestling. I sincerely doubt it`s staged though. Just look at how scared Jose Canseco is!! Who wouldn`t be though if they were in the ring with this guy!! By the way, this is Jose Canseco`s `debut`. HA!! Check it out!

Yesterday morning, I woke up around 7 am and decided to go for a little walk. That little walk ended up being a journey to the next city over from Yuka`s parents town. It felt like it was about 10 miles, but apparently it`s only about 5 km (3 miles?). Anyway, it was a great workout and I really felt great being so free in Japan – I listened to music on my modern walkman (iPhone) and filmed some random stuff for a hopeful music video I`ll be making someday. At the end of my journey, I found myself in Inzai `New Town`. It didn`t look too new, but there were quite a few shopping malls and restaurants, so I decided to hang out for a little while. I sat outside a huge mall/supermarket for 20 minutes or so before it opened at 10 am. It was kind of funny because there were literally about 30 people out there waiting with me. I don`t think I`ve ever seen such a popular supermarket (it`s called Jusco – check it out if you`re ever in Japan). Anyway, after 2 hours of wandering through the shopping mall and buying food at every little corner pastry store, I went and met Yuka at the train station. I`m going to play some music at our friends` wedding here in a couple of weeks and I`ve been needing to locate a guitar (mostly looking to borrow, but..). Many times I`ve thought about buying one just to keep in Japan for the times that we come visit, but have never had enough initiative. This time though, I was able to track down a Yamaha store in the shopping mall, and after playing a few different acoustic guitars, I decided on one. It`s a really nice one and I`m almost sad that I`ll be leaving it here rather than bringing it home, but I think it will be good to have one for when we come back. I thought a lot about doing some street performing with it to see if I can make some Japanese benji`s, but I`m a little hesitant. Especially because I don`t know anything about policies about performing in public in Japan and also if any policeman or worker started talking to me, I probably wouldn`t understand what they were saying. I guess that may not be such a bad thing. Until next time..

We’ve been spending most of our time in Yuka’s parent’s house, so there hasn’t been many exciting adventures to write about. Yesterday, though, we got out for a little while. I’ve been walking a TON – it’s funny because there isn’t enough room in the car for the entire family (including Hannah’s car seat), so Yuka’s dad and I have been walking to a lot of places. Last night we walked probably 2 miles or so to a yakiniku restaurant. It’s Korean style BBQ.. Not really BBQ, but it is amazing! You get platters of thinly sliced raw meat and you cook it on a grill that’s built into your table. I probably ate an entire baby cow (it’s pretty sad when I think of it that way).. Anyway, yesterday afternoon we took a drive out to Yuka’s great-aunt’s farmhouse. I asked Yuka if she had met her before and she said probably when she was really little. She had picked some beans for us – they looked like HUGE edamame. Very nice lady. After that, we went to Narita Temple. It was about 30 minutes away by car. Just Yuka, her mom, Hannah, and I went. It was beautiful, but there were a lot of stairs and we had Hannah in her stroller. Can you guess who did most of the lifting?? Just joking. We all carried her up and down the stairs together – like a little princess. Speaking of my little princess: she seems to really love her Japanese grandparents (and great grandma). She has also been cooing a lot while we’ve been here. She’s almost giggling.. She’s actually on the bed behind me right now wiggling around non-verbally begging for me to take her on a walk. So, until next time..

Yuka, Hannah, and I arrived in Japan yesterday. Right when our plane landed in Tokyo, a team of government officials dressed in full-body suits, face masks, goggles, rubber shoes, and latex gloves boarded our plane (try to picture the last scene in ET). We were told that they were screening all passengers for swine flu, and that it should not take too long. All passengers were also asked to put on face masks during the screening. They quickly collected some questionairres that were handed out during the flight. They had asked for some simple information like: do you have a fever? a cough? where will you be staying in Japan? etc. Everything was going smoothly until they came and grabbed a couple of people that were sitting about 2 seats away from us. They escorted them out of our seating area and about 20 minutes later started excusing the seating area in front of us. After another 15 minutes they told us and about 7 or 8 other people sitting in our area to please remain seated. The government workers and flight attendants kept rushing back and forth through our area. Then they let all of the people behind us leave the plane. At this point, some tension started building in our area: the man next to me kept saying `I wish I could leave – I need a smoke!` while another man was saying `Why are they keeping us here? How long will this take?` Yuka, Hannah, and I were not in a huge rush, so we just sat quietly watching. Finally the stuardess came and told us that someone in our area had `flu-like symptoms` and they were testing that person for swine flu. We waited.. and waited. After another 30 minutes, they finally came and told us that he did not have swine flu and we were free to leave. You can probably imagine the relief we all felt.. We were the last 3 people to leave the plane – the stuardess even carried Hannah out for us. All in all, it was a good flight and our trip thus far has been quite relaxing. Keep checking back because I plan to post stories and pictures almost every day that we`re here.. For now I`ll just leave you with this: