Lyle Nisenholz

Hawaii Big Island

2011-04-14T15:54:00.001-07:00

Wherein Lyle and Yoshiko and Lyle's Parents spend a week on the Kona side of big island in a vacation rental.

Man made images over the lava rock from a long time ago. Volcano National Park.
Having dinner on the deck of the home we rented. This idyllic eating spot brought us back to our rental vacation house every late afternoon to start another feast.
Important native site. This protection house was where one could escape if they broke the kings law.
Took so many pictures of lava fields it was hard to pick one for the blog. I like how this one has that frozen mud look.
We stayed one night at Volcano Village near the National Park. A really different climate from the area of the vacation rental. This bed and breakfast that is a property with several cabins in a lovely garden.
This is one of many blowholes I explored near the ocean.
Volcano National Park
Walking the floor of the previous picture. Many of the cracks in the ground had steam venting from them.
Yoshiko in black on a black sand beach. Hawaiian goth.
No photo manipulation required. This sunset from the dinner deck was one most spectacular in my lifetime.

Dream drawing March 2nd

2011-03-02T12:35:00.000-08:00

Dream drawing February 14

2011-02-13T19:34:00.000-08:00

Dream drawing February 8

2011-02-08T00:05:00.000-08:00

New dream drawing February 2

2011-02-01T22:20:00.000-08:00

Yoshiko and the apes in the stone zoo.

Dream video part 1: THE SAMURAI

2011-01-22T23:20:00.000-08:00

This video is an actual documentation of a dream that occurred and was transcribed in reality.

The film was shot by famed Japanese director Yoshiko Kurosawa.

Enjoy!

2011

2011-01-03T11:58:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year Friends

Cambodia

2011-01-03T00:36:00.000-08:00

Angkor Wat. We took a ton of nice photos inside but then I lost the digital camera. Sorry, these are all cell phone camera pics.Angkor Thom gate

Villagers living entirely on the lake.Dried fish products at old market Siem Reap

Japanese postal service bike nicely recycled

French style tourist cafe.

Cambodian bar b q featuring alligator and snake meat.

new dream drawing Nov 30

2010-11-29T13:48:00.001-08:00

Adam and Indonesian scrolling clock

Dream sketches part 6

2010-11-08T13:28:00.000-08:00

The first three drawings are from one dream. The others are from separate dreams.

When you first arrive in Tokyo you need two flash lights.

Dream sketches part 5

2010-10-07T03:19:00.000-07:00

Here are my four newest dream drawings.

Group of close friends fighting

Street brawl

Let cars run over one

Guy who needs love becomes wild man

To spy on girl he likes

He had taken my advice to go out and find love

So he can get his heart broken

Micheal Jackson wants to kill

A couple of street fighters

By driving a car

He offers me and another guy

Orange juice

We walk away (escape)

In the end

We’re tired,

Need potato chips,

Know where some potato chips are hidden.

Running down flights of stairs.

Sliding along the wall while going down quickly.

Out the bottom and to the outside,

Where the art club is having a picnic.

6 foot 6 inches tall guy is making grilled bar b q

I’m immediately handed a beer.

Parking lot

Nice cars parked close together

Creates dispute that results in death with sword attack stab

Sword throughout time, used to stab people

Going back in time the sword gets harder and harder to withdraw

And use quickly

Children kept as slaves

Maybe for sex movies

Going through tiny wooden exhibitions

Couldn’t fit through one.

The exhibitions were models of vehicles

Painted wood

Dream Sketches part 4

2010-09-16T01:42:00.001-07:00

Family of brothers and sisters involved with us

Everyone older is sick

I seem to be viewing from helpless viewpoint

Marv, Dad, some other guy

They are consoling each other

Marv is talking about how he should just get care at home

We need to do some kind of special rescue

One of the family is a boy, very skilled and useful

He comes back later and he has to re-assemble himself

Starts as a head on the end of a log on wheels

Then goes to a house where his real self answers the door and he assembles as human

Then he had a clandestine meeting around the back of the house

He comes back and there’s wrestling matches in front of the house

One little guy approaches me and I put him down easily/ gently

Someone hands me a tandori mustard bottle without the lid

Started a revolution

It started out as a sort of defiant joke but became more serious

Escaped out the back of a dump with wood and insects

Followed people lined up to see a famous singer

Mahalia Jackson(?)

Singing, “Study war no more”

Woke up afraid to die

I worked at a hotel

I serve two ladies a special course with cake and beer

Later they were very drunk by the beer

Help one of the other employees put back stuff from a hard area to clean

He finds a coin that gives him free airfare to East Germany

Some cat in the rabbit cage

Looks like an orange muppet

Yoshiko is feeding it

It eats slowly

I make up a song like the “meow mix” song

We laugh very hard

Dream Sketches part 3

2010-08-29T16:29:00.000-07:00

Here's another installment of dream sketches. I'm open to drawing other's dreams. So please send me your dream if you want to see my take on it.

Special cars from a bygone era have sport convertible

coup look with pop-top camper compartment by the passenger seat.

Yoshiko and I are looking for more of the classic cars.

We are driving by a series of wooden homes in San Francisco.

The last home in this series has a sloping front green with a beautiful tall wooden shed and a

covered bench perched behind a huge redwood log section.

We continued to the end of this home’s property.

We stopped because there is a gift shop.

We are hoping to gain insight about this interesting home by investigating the gift shop.

During my dream I have a lucid dream.

I’m aware, flying, letting go and soaring into space.

I return to the dream.

Sitting across from me on the floor is the Thompson twins.

It the same pop music band, the Thompson twins, from the 1980’s

However now they are actual twins.

Two girls who are Gothic style

Their music is very experimental now.

Lrl makes

Thondoment

Chair for

Mom with

Scraps from

Childhood

Making my

Way around

Oaks Mall w/

Sean lots of

Panty shots

Using a special thin elevator

Girls who are dolls

One is sick

Maybe get raped and

Anally fisted later

Porn?

Canadian Farmer demands I replace cheap plastic cup

I had used the cup but it belonged to the farmer

It had been damaged before I used it.

It was unfair to ask for a replacement.

Path on a ridge that surrounds a valley

The ridge path will take me where I wish to go

However I take a path down into the valley that connects to other paths that may work as an alternative route

Beautiful Canada

Going past the pigs.

To Hokkaido in Summer

2010-08-26T19:41:00.000-07:00

We went to Hokkaido to get away from the heat.

It's the northern island of Japan that has vast wilderness areas and stays relatively cool in the Summer. We choose the area of Kushiro to retreat from the crushing humidity stew of Tokyo.

Kushiro has a huge wetland area where we saw lots of wildlife including Northern Fox and the large Japanese crane called a Toncho. The culture up there is primarily farming and fishing as well as making sea weed to eat. The train rides were lovely through vast stretches of forest. We traveled north to an area that looked like the Marin headlands with a cool fog blowing through. We treated ourselves to outdoor bar b q with all sorts of goodies from the sea. After five days of cooling down we got back on the plane and flew back to Tokyo where I promptly got heat rash.

Photos of Chichibu

2010-08-15T20:55:00.000-07:00

From August 12th

Hiking with Yoshiko on our fourteenth wedding anniversary.

We started under warm humid cloudy skies.

The stairway descending from the train station looked like an optical illusion.

We walked up through a small beautiful neighborhood. I clicked some photos.

Then we entered a dense green forest with a stream.

We went up a steep difficult hill, then it started to rain.

We were walking under a thick woods so the rain did not penetrate.

But then we were detoured and the course became very difficult.

We reached 840 meters. It was raining too hard to take photographs.

We continued down the mountain but we didn't see another course re-routing.

The downhill was so hard and took a very long time. We miserably ate our rice balls and tea under a tree with flies buzzing about. Nice anniversary bonding experience.

We finally made it back to a highway.

We used the highway to return to a useable part of the trail.

We returned to the station wet but relieved.

Dream Sketches part 2

2010-08-09T16:01:00.000-07:00

Letting go

Roller coaster

Great feeling

We travel in dad’s car.

It’s snowing, but yesterday so hot.

Slush on the road.

We come to old Japanese wooden home.

We used to live in this home, not anymore.

However, furniture is still there.

View of outside is orange sky with old smokestacks/ factories.

I photograph it.

Uncle Elliot is sleeping in there.

His two friends who are gay lovers are having sex and sleeping on a couch in another room.

They wake up and apologetically leave.

Elliot asks about, “Ichigaya”(a neighborhood in Tokyo).

He just says, “Ichigaya, Ichigaya, Ichigaya.”

He is wearing a futuristic super hero like uniform.

We don’t live in Ichigaya anymore either, we moved.

Andy Shleck

Cheap saddle

To steal

Riding motor cycle down Meiji Dori (road in Tokyo)

It is nighttime.

Listening to “Doom Town” by the Wipers

Feeling exhilarated and frightened

Potential letting go to full speed

Dream Sketches

2010-07-26T20:46:00.000-07:00

My face in the mirror with natural smile from my soul.

Most happiest with my “college age” class.

Bicycle ride around roads near work.

Return ride on huge freeway against traffic.

Stop at mall. Get big latte drink at trendy café.

Read magazine story about American involvement in some small countries.

Flying fish- “don’t go”, he won’t let me leave

D. Christensen

Being a bad guy on the bad side

Making raps in a car

Had to kill the cat to fulfill my love destiny, otherwise my lover would die.

Strangulation takes forever.

Finally lover stops me.

Cat turns into monster with stab-claws.

Finally kill it with gun.

“And that’s how I got my love.”

Photos from Here@Cherir

2010-06-06T00:06:00.001-07:00

New drawing April

2010-04-20T18:55:00.001-07:00

It's constructed of 20 a4 size boards with many business cards pasted to them. The cards are only from restaurants we visited and/or sometimes ate at. The boards are attached with velcro and can be taken apart for easy transport. The top boards have holes for hooks. The business cards make a sort of map of places we actually visited through walking in the city. Instead of creating a static map that shows directions its a sort of map that emerges through time and is marked out by using business cards. The drawing is created through color pencil. I also noticed the fragmented nature of applying the various business cards makes the drawing distort and flash such as when you look at the city in the reflection of skyscraper windows. This drawing will be exhibited at my next show in June.

NEWONE

2010-01-22T00:36:00.000-08:00

So this is my new drawing. The idea launching point is based on my environmental requirements. I wanted to make a drawing that was large but I could produce from using a sketchbook on my lap with fountain pens thus allowing for convenience, compactness and mobility. So here's the result. Basically it's 152 by 94 (5feet by 3 feet) and is constructed from 21 slightly larger than A4 sheets of paper. The paper has been acrylic coated and backed with foamcore. Then the work is attached using velcro. It is very light and easy to assemble. It tried my patients to the very end and can't say I'm sad to be finished. Perhaps that's why I forgot to sign it. It will be showing in Tokyo for my June exhibition.

Nagasaki

2010-01-05T01:11:00.000-08:00

For this winter holiday Yoshiko and I went to Nagasaki. I'm just going to show photos and try to explain them. Hope you find these interesting.

Nagasaki is not only beautiful but it's also a fantastic city if your interest is Japanese history or culture.

This is the Alt house located at Glover gardens. Mr. Alt was part of a small European group that helped initiate the Meiji Restoration (overthrowing the shogun and bringing the emperor to power in the 1860's) and Japanese internationalism.
The streets of Nagasaki are criss crossed with stairs and walking courses that allow access to the small neighborhoods sprinkled along the hill sides. Many homes can only be accessed by stair case or walking paths.
This building is a part of a completely recreated Dutch settlement called Degima. The Dutch East India company set up shop in the 1600's in Nagasaki as an international port. Since the Shogun did not permit foreigners into the country the Dutch were forced to stay in Degima and trade from there. However the impact of this small settlement on Japanese history is great.
Meganebashi (Eyeglasses bridge) is part of series of one small stone Chinese style bridge after another, one for each street. Each street ends at a separate hillside Temple.

Visiting Shimabara, an ancient castle town about 80km from Nagasaki. The town is near a volatile volcanic area. There is a constant supply of spring water due to this fact. In 1993 there a was a tremendous eruption that destroyed some of the outlying areas of the city and killed 40 people. This same eruption also created a lava dome that reached an elevation of 1400 meters, making it the tallest mountain in the region.
A village walkway that dates back to the 16oo's features a public watercourse. This part of Shimabara was where the Samurai and other workers for the castle lord resided.
Some water ways in Shimabara 's neighborhoods featured fish ponds that came right up to the home.Back in Nagasaki; Part of the four kilometer radius of the Nuclear Bomb blast of 1945. A stone gate to a temple was cleaved in half, leaving half standing. The remains were left nearby.

View from an observation tower .
We visited an old temple in Nagasaki that was constructed during the 1700's. Some of the roof tiles and demons were left over so became part of a unique wall.
The styles of temple building in Nagasaki represented the strong Chin Dynasty Chinese influence due to the Chinese community there. Since the Chinese quarter of the city was forbidden to Japanese the only chance for meeting was at Temples.

The final day in Nagasaki Yoshiko and I took a boat trip to the unique and stunning tourist attraction of Gunkan Island. This tiny island became inhabited in the early 1890's due to the discovery of coal.
As Japan industrialized the island population grew. Mitsubishi controlled the operation and created a complete city on the island. Some of the first concrete buildings were produced as family apartments in 1916. At it's peak operation the population density was four times that of Tokyo. The residents lived in tight quarters under a dark sky and blackened ocean.

The island had a movie theater, underground shopping street, k through 9 grade school, a swimming pool and many other amenities. The workers families lived rent free. The island was shut down in 1975 due to lack of efficiency.

The truth about babes in Tokyo

2009-09-17T03:44:00.000-07:00

I guess I'm supposed to compose my Summer holiday pictures or something but I'm moving right ahead with this long overdue post. It's something that I've hesitated to write about publicly due to my natural shyness that you are all well aware of.
So yes. There are wall to wall babes in Tokyo that make the loosest boxers cinch up around the crotch like a hot wrung towel formed into a sumo belt. There's no escape at home either as I married one of these lovelies. Basically I'm barraged with gorgeousness.
There is no peace of mind to find in art either. The push to create public art during the gogo seventies and bubble burst eighties brought a wealth of salivating perverted types to slide under the family friendly radar and create their fantasy sculptures for all to see. The sculptures are disguised thinly as tributes to European statuary with such topics as athleticism, culture or other matters of importance. But is is clear it's just some dude getting his nut. If you don't believe me check this photo collection, it's a small sample of whats out there.

Oh dear how did I get here, and I'm naked...at a train station.
A threesome in front of a train station.
This was part of a whole street of such statuary. Great motivation to keep walking.
From the same street.
I guess a good a place as any to do up your hair.
This ones near the imperial palace. Since it's one of the most important traditional sites in the whole country it's good to see important culturally relevant art exhibited nearby.
Waiting in the lobby of an office building for her salary-man boyfriend.
Bath time.
In front of the national hall of justice.
Shall I hold up this pot or keep my robe from falling?
Getting sensual at the silk museum in Yokohama.
Trying some new positions.
I think it's safe to change behind this bush, no one is looking.

ME IN MISHUKU

2009-05-21T13:52:00.000-07:00

So last October I was doodling in my sketchbook at a restaurant that caught my eye. Two large fiberglass horses were placed in front of this restaurant and some ambient music wafting about. A large open entrance and interior space brightness seemed attractive on a cool clear day. So I came in, seated myself and ordered a sandwich set. My doodling caught the attention of the waiter, who called over the manager. I gave them my business card and web site address. The went off to their in store computer and immediately had a look. The manager came back and asked me if I'd like to have a show. Within twenty minutes I had my largest solo art show in nine years.

My show was scheduled for middle of May and I got to work in January. In an attempt to fill a large space in the back I began work on a complex drawing that I thought of during new year holiday. I wanted something that represented the accumulation of experience. I have this interest about how to communicate my experience with the environment. I had an image of drinking from a volcano. I decided on using thousands of small line drawings of various ink colors (primarily green and red) that vary from darker to lighter depending of the modeling of the overall shape. For necessity I had to use myself as a model. Then enlarge the image exponentially to a size of nearly 6.5 feet high. Again by necessity without a studio and a car for transport the drawing had to be made in sections to be linked together at the time of hanging.

Another part of the exhibition is the live update section. For each week of the show I update the hanging files with new work that I hopefully had created during that week. The previous hanging files go below and are a document of what I am/was working on in my drawing book during the month. The first week was more difficult than I expected as my drawing hand is tired and my mind not as focused as I wished. But week one was completed and I'm now working on week two.

Yoshiko organized an opening party with our friends and the cafe hit us up with some great food and open bar. It was a night I felt deeply appreciative and tired. The show will be hanging until June 15th, come and see it. Here's a short and incomplete tour:
Some favorites from my web site are hanging as well as some old classics in my personal collection.
From the black and white animal drawings a Whale.
Ah monkey... all these years together and your finally get to be exhibited. A pencil and chalk drawing in orange red and black.
This is the very large involved piece I call Volcano Juice. I had to create holes in the top sections to facilitate hanging. The piece is holding up well by just using tape despite it's size of two meters by one and half meters. Made with fountain pens and colored inks.
Another one that was never shown in public before. You can see in the background a large public park that borders the cafe. Also a reflection of the fiberglass horse. Like Volcano Juice, this drawing was assembled in sections and is nearly two meters tall, though much thinner. Done in fountain pen.
From the live update section a couple of recent drawings from week one. Week two is already up. I'll post some of these drawings to my web site soon. Thank you Joe and cafe Cherir staff who are amazing people and thanks Yoshiko San always.

Back to Okinawa

2009-01-06T19:21:00.001-08:00

We wanted to go to Australia for Winter holiday. However the 620 dollar gasoline surcharge cost almost as much as the flight its self. Ironically the tickets were sold out any ways as frenzied Japanese shoppers looked to exorcise the power of the Yen over the Australian dollar and overrun Sidney's shopping malls. We opted for another trip to Okinawa.
We took the flight out of Tokyo on New Years Eve. Planes to Sapporo were canceled due to snow, other flights to a far away island were canceled due to volcanic gas, but our flight was on schedule unlike last year and I was able to hunker down with my book for a few hours and sure enough, we arrived at the warm climes of Ishigaki island.
We dropped off our luggage at the hotel and then went to another hotel, The ANA resort hotel where Yoshiko's Sister's family were on there annual New Years holiday. We feasted at an excessive buffet sponsored by husband Taku. Next we sat around and waited for fireworks. My nephew and niece introduced me to their insane Pokeman collection. Next we ate Toshi Koshi Soba, a New Years Noodle treat, and watched fireworks close up.

The next day we woke up early, watched the sunrise, and went back to sleep. We took a stroll around town, did gift shopping and were basically lazy. We saw a cute shrine and took some photos.

The next day we re-visited Takitomi Island. It's a very short boat ride from Ishigaki and a cute town as well as nature preserve. We rented bicycles and quickly found out it's the best way to go as we were able to get outside the center and around the island, explore hidden areas and quiet beaches returning to town for snacks and lunch. Of note were Banyan trees, lonely cows, coral beaches, gentle rain wetting the dirt roads. The rental was so indicative of the island culture. No papers to sign, no down payment, no safety lectures. Just pay when you return.

The next day afternoon we were to meet my fellow teacher Mr. Yusa who was staying with his family at Club Med Ishigaki. However the morning was free so we decided to go north to the nature preserve near Kabila bay, which in fact was close to the same Club Med resort. However it rained hard so we had to improvise. Our first move was to take a glass bottom boat ride. We figured that fish don't really care about the rain above since they already live in the shit and the boats were covered so we were free to view the undersea world. We had the ride to ourselves and the guide took us to his favorite areas. It was a sensual candy shop for my artist eyes. After the ride we went back south to Yae Ama village, a prefectural park that features old buildings, and animal park, a mangrove forest and traditional cultural entertainment. For some reason we kept missing the brunt of the rain; either we were eating lunch, watching some traditional dance or just under some trees, we somehow managed to stay dry.
Just when we had finished up sightseeing Yusa called and picked us up in his car. Next indoor destination was a cave with some finely articulated stalagmites soaked like some ancient skin. We further retreated to a cafe and then parted ways just as the rain let up. After an evening walk to an adjacent island we had a fine meal and chalked it up to another good day on the island.

The next day we went to the nature preserve island of Iriomote to take a mini eco tour. We took a long speed commuter boat ride from the harbor. I started to feel a tad sick. I took out my I-pod and played some surf music (Mermen). Now I know why surf music is so popular with surfers. It worked and I instantly felt quite happy. We came to the dock on the far side of the island and our guide picked us up. Again we had the guide all to ourselves and he set us up with a kayak. After a quick lesson we packed our stuff and paddled away toward a lagoon from where we spotted a waterfall. The lagoon turned to a river that went very slowly along a Mangrove forest. Besides other boat tourists it was very peaceful. We pulled up to an area were we could see a sort of trail. The guide parked us and we continued in our water booties along a muddy path in a jungle. The guide was carrying a huge day pack while wearing beach sandals. We walked along muddy flats until we got to some roots. We began to climb the roots upward. This was in fact our mountain path. This guide led us up rocks and roots at astonishing angles. I was reminded of the crazy hiking my brother and I used to do with our friends back in Thousand Oaks about twenty years ago. But this was as adults with a qualified guide. At one point it was necessary to use a rope to pull up a series of steep rocks but we finally made it. We walked a small trail and then went down using strong roots as hand holds to the top of the waterfall we had seen from the lagoon. This was where our guide opened his day pack, took out a cooking stove and made noodle soup for us. After taking a zillion photos and eating we went back. Miraculously despite using water booties we made it back in one piece. The guide then showed us the bottom of the waterfall that was almost as difficult a trek. We returned to our kayaks and paddled out of the Mangroves to the ocean and to shore. Back to the commuter ship and to Ishigaki. A great mini-adventure.

So the following day it was very nice and warm but we had to go. We took an easy flight to change over at Naha airport and looked around for a place to eat. We took our first bites into Okinawa Soba and beer when Yoshiko realized she had made a time error and we were to fly in five minutes. We left our soup and charged for the gate. I grabbed Yoshiko's ticket, Yoshiko grabbed her beer. I got through the gate first and Yoshiko didn't have her ticket. I was accidentally holding it and we quickly settled things and boarded in time. We returned with no further mistakes.

Spring summer sampling

2008-10-08T02:14:00.001-07:00

Great example of ENGRISH

The outdoor Sumo tournament under the cherry blossoms at Yasukuni shrine

Taro Okamoto's home was turned into a museum after the great artists death

At Yasukuni again. This time workers are preparing a huge lantern display for the Summer festival

Decorating the side of a shrine in Okatama, the mountainous area west of Tokyo

Too tired to care on the commuter train

Some unique incongruent archetecture tucked into a small neighborhood in Ichigaya Tokyo

Wave crashing up the stairs in Pacifica California

Friend Geo meets San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome to unvail Geo's eco globe that he won a commision to create for the cool globe nation wide exhibition

And there it is

Potrero Hill in SF view

Dave at Ventura beach

Kevin and Dale at Bottle Village Simi Valley

There has been a long running effort to preserve whats left of Grandma Prisby's creation Bottle village. This is the best preserved room.

Janice Wilson was the principal care taker of Bottle Village for many years. She went so far as to stay in Grandma Prisby's tiny trailer in order to protect the property. She was an instigator in the lives of many young Suburban artists in the area. She got us out and envolved in living our ideas.

Rest in peace, Janice

Checking out Sea Lions with the Lovejoy family sailboating in Santa Barbara
Congrats on the new baby girl

Brother Adam and Nefiew Conrad going ballistic at a childrens play center in Agoura CA. for Conrads birthday party

Nezu shrine Tokyo. The evening of the Summer festival (actually it's fall festival if you use the Chinese calendar). Traditional dance is provided on an ancient open air stage. Intoxicated blurry cell phone photo provided by me.

View of Ochanomizu Station from the Kanda river. The boat ride was provided ecology group that worked with the Chiyoda District of Tokyo. The river was constructed about four hundred years ago to provide water to central tokyo from outlying areas. Some of the original work remains as the river is a patchwork of development up to the present day.

Window washer at about two hundred feet up looking out our Condominium

Sculpture telling time, moving and speaking... thinking... Shibuya Tokyo

SendaiSpring

2008-05-06T16:54:00.000-07:00

Another Golden Week came to Japan
On the strength of a online travel article we decided to vacation in Sendai
The article
We left by Shinkansen going north toward the Miyagi Prefecture. As we preceeded north we caught glimpses of spectacular mountain ranges and lush green farming plains.
We arrived the in afternoon and it was a nice mild day. We dropped our bags off at the hotel and started to walk around.
We went to the train station to check out the Loople Bus that takes tourists around the nice places in the city. Not only was there a huge Golden Week line for the bus it was also near the end of the day and there was no way to take advantage of the 600yen cost for the all day pass. So we took a pass and decided to do our own exploring on foot.
About ten minutes later we were leaving the main part of the city! Then we saw hills a forests and nature! It was rather shocking that a city that proudly asserts "we are a city of over a million people", on its travel guide would be so easy to escape from... ah, memories of San Francisco.
We continued through a park and found a nice treelined street. We found a modern looking city events center and popped in for some coffee. There was some kind of giant cardboard sumo wrestler event going on which was very entertaining. We went back to the hotel afterward and dipped into the baths before heading out for dinner.

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The next day we took a train out to Matsushima. These islands were all over a bay that is inhabited by great number of shell fish creature things and the folk spend long hours along the sea shore with rakes digging up clams. Oysters are harvested on wooden poles. There were huge (manmade?) islands of oyster shells that actually were sticking prominently out of the water during low tide. There were Golden week toursits everywhere.

The other noteworthy aspect of Matsushima are the old shrines, mausoleums, and cremation sites dug in to the rocks from caves already carved by the ocean.

Steamed oysters could be purchased on the street.

We escaped further north to a few more station stops in order to soak in the local farming villages. It was very tranquil as these farmers led lives that are a 180 degree difference from Tokyo. The strategy to go further north paid off as we were able to easily get seats for the return trip. When the train returned to Matsushima southbound the Golden Week tourists packed in. Sleepy tourists leaned like dominos against each other. I ususually sleep tilted forward so my weight is centered and I don't lean. But the weight of several drowsy folks were weighing into me. I leaned further forward and the lady next to me almost fell completely to the left before realizing her predicament. She apologized and then promply returned to using me as her pillow.
When we returned to Sendai the San Francisco theme continued as there was a sheen of drizzle and fog over the city. We had an excellent dinner that included my introduction to sauteed wasabi leaves.

The final day in Sendai we decided to take the loople bus. The theme of too many tourists continued as the bus was packed. We were lucky to get early and get seats. The bus slowly went towards the same nature area we had seen the first day. It went up a long hill and arrived at the ruins of Sendai castle. Date Masamune, the Samurai who founded Sendai around the same time Tokyo was founded, built this castle on a hill overlooking the city. It was rebuilt several times until American bombers "B San" took it out during WW2. Though the view was nice the castle grounds were swarming with tourists and in fact wasn't so interesting so we got on the next loople bus and continued to Tohoku University botanical garden.

The ancient forest was protected in the old days due to it's proximity to the castle. As it was a barrier between the castle and the outer areas the trees were allowed to grow freely. The property remained undisturbed and was then donated the Tohoku university after the war. It's called a botanical garden but in fact is a lush dense forest with beautifully made trails. We marched up and down the course.

We returned to downtown Sendai. In an outdoor mall we had descovered a small movie house that is owned by a local pharmacy. They were showing the Henry Darger movie that I hadn't seen yet so we checked it out. For once we were away from the Golden Week tourists. In this mall there is also a shrine. Suppose the store doesn't have an item you want. Just step into the local shrine and pray for the item! What a good forturne.

After the movie we took in some local flavor and had a solid meal. We collected our bags from the hotel and got the Shinkansen. The ride was fast and wonderfully convenient. We were back in Tokyo before we knew it.
Thanks for reading.

Holiday in Okinawa

2008-01-05T03:21:00.000-08:00

Yoshiko and I made plans for our winter vacation in Okinawa. Okinawa are the string of southern islands of Japan, close to Taiwaan. Okinawa was an independant kingdom up to about 150 years ago. Then after world war two they were the property of the United States until 1973. Despite these facts Okinawa has a strong cultural identity. It is an extremely popular destination in the winter due to its warm climate, about 70 degrees, and beautiful outdoor environment.

Day one:
We left for Haneada airport via the Monorail; a very fun ride with lots of up and down track going through the neighborhoods of Shinigawa until eventually arriving at the landfill island of Haneada airport. Everything was running smoothly for our noon flight. However at check-in we were told that our flight would be forty five minutes late. We were not so unhappy and continued to check in and go through the security check. Strangely I was never checked for ID of any kind. Though the new standards for international flight security for residents has reached absurd levels with fingerprinting and photographs there seems to be no need to even see a ID photo for domestic flights.
When we got to the waiting room we were informed that the flight would be another ten minutes late. Then after fifteen minutes we were told it would be another ten minutes for them to decide if we can fly the plane at all. At this point many folks went ballistic. Yoshiko noted one man in particular yelling at the counter lady in western (Kansai) dailect something like, AHOKA OMAIRA (you idiot) Remeber to say AHOKA OMAIRA the next time you get mad at someone.
Eventually we were switched to another plane that departed over two hours late. Then we finally arrived at the main Okinawa airport, Naha. We missed our connecting flight, so again we had to wait two and a half hours. We got to our final destination, Ishigaki airport, about five hours late. We got in line for the Taxi cab to take us to our hotel. And wouldn't you know it, the last cab was taken right before our turn. We were starting to loose it but at that moment one last cab showed up. We jumped in while the folks behind us reached for their katai to call for more cabs. We got to our hotel and day one was finished.

Day two:
The weather report was saying cool and cloudy. Not exactly what we were hoping for but at least not rain. We took a boat Iriomote island.

Iriomote island is the most fertile and mountainous of all Okinawa's islands. It has sustained it own unique ecosystem for millions of years since it became separated from the Chinese mainland. The most famous resident of the island is the Iriomote Mountain Cat. The reason I didn't provide any photos of it is because it looks like a cat. You can look out your window or go to a pet shop and see something that looks exactly the same. I am suspicous that this Iriomote Mountain cat is not the product of isolated evolution a la Galapagos, but in fact is the decendents of feral cats left by fisherman.
We took a bus from the Iriomote boat dock towards a river boat. The bus driver was a sweet funny man who could play Okinawan folk music on a Shamisen, a sort of banjo. The river boat trip was beautiful. It went through mangroves and arrived at a trail head.

Sadly, this being a group tour, we were kind of rushed up the trial with the other tourists. However, eventually we turned back on our own and got to enjoy the jungle walk in this unique island. After we returned to the bus we were rushed off to lunch and more sight seeing. Our final destination was Yubu island, a little side island of Iriomote. In the old days Iromote was used by other islanders for agriculture. However, because of the fear of jungle borne deseases the farmers would camp out at the non-jungle Yubu island during their harvesting. Yubu and Iriomote are seperated by a very shallow band of water. It is so shallow in fact, you could walk accross it. But why walk accross it when you can get a ride from a BRAMA BULL.

Yubu island was inhabited until a hurricane came and whiped out the houses. Now its used as a BRAMA BULL park for tourists. The bull ride was very pleasant even though they stop to crap sometimes. The bull drivers were sweet funny men and one of them played Okinawan folk music on a Shamisen, a sort of banjo. We got back on the bus and returned to Ishigaki island via boat.

Day three:
We woke up to cool breezy weather, quite overcast and threatening rain. Most of the rest of Japan was getting snow storms so I suppose we couldn't complain. We took a boat to Takitome island. This island is quite different than Iriomote. It's flat and not really a Jungle.

The town in the center of the island is impressive. We felt it was a fully functioning community with it's own unique look and organization. The white roads made of coral lined by walls of volcanic boulders was the signature look of the whole area. There were more BRAMA BULL carts driven by kind elderly men playing Okinawan Folk music on a Shamisen, a sort of banjo.

We went for a long walk and got lost. We saw the quiet beach and reflected on how far an escape we had made from Tokyo. We sent a New Years post card to my folks wich will most likely not have arrived yet. We took some nice photos and felt really relaxed.

Our fun day was not over. After returning to Ishigaki island we were to visit Tomoko, Yoshiko's Sister, and her family at the All Nippon Airways (ANA) resort hotel. First they treated us to a fine Chinese dinner.

Yoshiko's Brother in law, Taku, is a respected medical doctor in Osaka, and works hard all year long. However his yearly winter trip to Okinawa is a fine escape and he splurges and spoils the kids like crazy. After the dinner they gave us free drink tickets to the cocktail bar while they treated the kids to Cake. Yoshiko sampled the AWAMORI liquor. AWAMORI is popular vodka related liquor that many Japanese drink, like SHO CHU. Actually, AWAMORI is Okinawa's version of SHO CHU. It is made from rice like Sake but has a different fermenting process that makes it a stronger drink. I had a rediculously sweet cocktail with a name I can't recall now.
Next we had Toshi Koshi soba with Tomoko's family. It is traditional for Japanese to have soba on the night of New Years Eve. Next we went out on the Hotel grounds and saw a music group. They played Shamisen, a sort of banjo, and Taiko drums and electric bass. Good sounding music brought us to the countdown for 2008.

Then we had a most excellent fireworks display. It was short but beautiful. The explosions were practically right over our heads. It was fantastic and a great way to end the evening.
We caught a cab back to the hotel and the driver was even happy. He didn't even charge the extra change as a "service".

Day four:
We rented bicycles for the day. It was another cool and dissapointing overcast day. However it was new years day so the roads were quite empty. We cruised out towards the west side of ishigaki island. After a few sightseeing stops we turned inland towards farming area. It was quite hilly and we had to walk our bikes up many of the grades.

Once we were inland. Yoshiko suggeted visiting some caves. These caves are located right behind a automobile wrecking yard. We entered a strange park and paid our addmission. First we saw some small grotto like caves and then we saw a little petting zoo. I was starting to feel like this was some tourist trap rip-off. However, the caves became more spectacular as we went along.

Eventually we got to a huge cave that was what I would picture Carsbad Cavern to be. We walked quite a distance underground and then a sign posted that the cave went on for another five kilometers, but was not lighted, so turn back.
We rode back into town, ate some lunch and did our gift shopping. The shopping arcade was old and had some cute relics lying around.

Around the town were signs that once this island belonged to America.

We returned our bicycles and went to dinner then took an early sleep.

Day five:
We had the day before we had to fly back to Tokyo at six pm. Yoshiko suggested going to Kuro island. We got on a boat around ten am. Again the day was overcast and quite windy as well as cool. We were to miss the fine Okinawan weather famous for it's sunny skys and 70 degree tempuratures by one day.

Kuro is mostly cow ranchland inside. Along the edge of the island there is much forest and greenery. The ocean there is famous for scuba diving. The beaches desolate and covered with millons of corals.

We saw a scuba diving camp and next to this camp was a Sea Turtle preservation center and museum called Kuroshima Institution. We saw many cute rare sea turtles and other strange sea life in a small sort of run down center. We then went for a very long walk in the wind and explored the nearly empty island.

After a long tiring windy walk we returned to our boat that quickly brought us back to Ishigaki. Now we were quite hungry and had promised eachother the day before to eat at Eifuku Shokudo; a funky looking Soba restaurant that had a cool hand drawn poster of TONY on the outside. Yoshiko did some research on-line and found out that the owner is a complete character that is obsessed with a well known television actor named Akagi. This Akagi guy was famous from the 60's and 70's for playing a cool dude named TONY. Also this restaurant owner puts goat meat in his soba. I had never tasted goat I just had to find out what it tastes like.

We were warmly greeted by the proprietor who was curious to know where everyone was from that came to his place. So exited that he had several note books available and asked everyone who came in to sign in and mention where they came from. To one customer he asked, "Where are you from?", "Kawasaki", "Where in Kawasaki?", "Um, excuse me, but do you know about the areas in Kawasaki? Would you know my area?", "No!" He wanted to know where I was from. He had a blow up globe hanging from his ceiling. "Where in America is you husband from?" He was pointing at Africa on the globe. Yoshiko replied, "Your pointing at Africa." We eventually helped him locate California. Frankly the meal was a bit bland. Yohsiko got the TONY SOBA that was his basic soba plus two little peices of Tofu. Does that really do TONY justice?
We returned to the hotel to pack up. There were cabs available to return to the airport nearby our place. One cab driver was strumming away on his Shamisen, a sort of banjo. We caught a cab from a friendly sweet cab driver. We got our flight on time and returned safely in one peice.
Thanks for reading

letter to derrek

2007-12-09T00:58:00.000-08:00

Hey Derrek
Great to hear from you
November 19th I was riding to work
I had been riding to work for the last few months. I was gaining confidence because I was not getting frustrated. However on November 19th, I CRACKED. I think you'll understand my feeling
I just got out from the toilet at the Imperial Palace and mounting my bike on the sidewalk to continue to work. Another cyclist came around and cut me off. Before I could think about my safety I decided to seek revenge. In a fit of bike rage no longer contained I became more stupid to punish the other persons stupidity. It was maybe the 100th time it had happened to me and it I wasn't the first time I had done this but I paid the price this time. I came up and tried to cut him off. He must have panicked and swerved into me. Because the next thing I knew I was standing besides my crashed MTN bike wondering where I was. I went from loosing control of my feelings to loosing consciousness. I couldn’t believe what I had just done and I felt like I was in dream. I knew I had to get to work so I apologized and told him I would send an apology email. That satisfied him and the policeman at the scene. I rode to work. I was in pain in my right shoulder. My helmet was smashed. I did my classes then I went to a nearby hospital. It was a military hospital and I didn't have my insurance card with me any way so I rode home. I took a hot bath, drank a beer and popped some ibuprofen, slapped on an ice pack and I began to feel better. I went to work the following days but not with bicycle as I realized I lacked the temperment to bike commute at least for the time being. I had time off during the week to see a doctor, however I saw no need since I just saw some contusions and I just kept up the painkillers and ice packs for a week. I did write an apology email to the guy but I didn't take responsibility for the accident, instead I simply put that I "regretted the incident" and left it at that. The following weekend Yoshiko and I went hiking in beautiful Yamanashi prefecture for red leaf watching and an overnight stay.

My arm was in a makeshift sling but I was feeling better, strangely the bump on my right shoulder was still not fading. The Sunday morning after our return I went cycling and felt okay. We went shopping on our bikes later that day and my backpack felt strange on my back. Finally we noticed that my right scapula was drooping. We decided to see a doctor the following evening to figure out what was going on. The doctor saw my shoulder and said I had a contusion. I pointed out my scapula and he said let's do an x-ray. That’s when we learned the truth of my injury. I had a completely separated clavicle. It was just hanging out there. The doc said it was too late to reset it and I'd have to go to the hospital and see what they could do for me.
I went to the hospital and they took new x-rays and completely reviewed my injuries. They came to the conclusion I had two choices. Either do nothing and have the separation for the rest of my life or do surgery. I figured that this was the time to do the surgery, as I believed that it would be a hellish problem in my life especially when I get older. I opted for the surgery, which would be placing a metal piece in my shoulder to hold the clavicle down while the ligaments will be stitched back together and healed. So I went to the hospital for surgery on December 5th.
Keep in mind that because of the location and involvement of the procedure I would have to be put under completely, totally knocked out for a couple hours. I had to come a day before. They didn't let me leave and I just had to hang out and eat skimpy meals. I couldn't sleep and the snoring of the other patients was intolerable. In the morning I couldn't take a crap and I couldn't have my morning coffee or in fact any food. They asked me to try a self-induced enema. I put the tube in and squeezed the liquid up my ass. I pulled the tube out and the applicator tip stuck in my rectum. I had to push it out and it came out with a bunch of stinky water. No stools... They finally gave up on me taking a crap and prepared my surgery. They injected me and brought me to the operating room. The doctor looked like he was in his element, the anesthesiologist put a mask over my face and told me in English, “take deep breaths”… I woke up and was being returned to my bed. The doctor said it was a success. My shoulder was fucking killing me. They put me on the bed and I think they believed I would just lie there with the painkillers coursing through my veins in a deep sleep. In order to facilitate this sleep they put some weird circulation leg warmers on my shins and a heavy heat blanket over me. There was a tube in my penis. I was having nothing of it. My shoulder was fucking killing me. I was whimpering and crying in pain, kicking off the blanket and leg warmers and demanding to be re-positioned on the bed for I was sure that was the primary reason the pain was so outstanding. However it was very hard to convey these concerns because my throat was totally dried out from having a tube thrust in it during the surgery not to mention the oxygen mask on my face. So the nurse put some super strong painkiller with a liquid anti neurotic and it kept me asleep for a little while. But again I woke up and still felt really bad. I finally reached over with my trusty left hand and drew my right elbow in toward my body. For some reason the surgery team had rested my elbow pointing out which twisted the shoulder and the moment I brought my elbow in toward my body 80% of the pain vanished. I could finally rest. But again in a few hours I woke up because of the snoring from the other patients in the room and my hunger. I called the night nurse and asked if she would remove the penis tube. She brought out a syringe, which attached to the tube and pulled water right out of my dick, which hurt, then she removed the tube which HURT MORE THAN ANYTHING. She was a very nice nurse and I felt kind of sorry but I was just in hell. Next I tried to pee and it felt like burning pain from hell and only a trickle came out. The nurse told me it would go away soon. Finally the morning came and the nurse said I could drink water. I drank a half-liter and peed again. The pee felt better and I was relieved. Next they brought breakfast. I ate and it burned my mouth. I had not eaten in 36 hours. I ate more slowly and it was all right. Then I began to feel the painkillers working. I was really relaxed. I went down to the hospital shop and bought a pack of donuts. I ate all of them and felt great. I went back up to my bed and ordered and ice pack. The patients in the room were much more quiet awake then asleep. I relaxed well and napped all day while switching ice packs. My cycling buddy Kishi san visited me and then Yoshiko came and we were able to check out of the hospital. My bill was around 1400 dollars for the three days and two nights. We had a real meal for dinner at a Bar/ Restaurant. I came home and had my first evening sleep in three days. In the morning I took a real crap. I'm at home now and recovering well enough to write this email to you. I got to go to work tomorrow. I have my stationary trainer set up to ride with one hand. The metal shoulder piece has to stay in for about two or three months then I have to do surgery AGAIN.
I have to decide if I really have the temperament to bike to work any more in Tokyo. It's something I've been doing for the last fifteen years, but it's no longer a need. I do get to pocket my commutation fee when I cycle to work, but 1400 bucks is a lot more than any commutation fee for years to come. I like my job here and we have a nice condominium, life is good here but what are my limitations? Can still ride in the mornings, Sundays, or on my stationary trainer if I choose never to commute again?
Lyle

Pics from summer

2007-09-26T23:23:00.000-07:00

Here's some pics that bookend my Summer Break in the USA. The first few pics are from Yasukuni shrines festival on a a suprisingly cool drizzly July Evening. The next group of pics were from early September, a hot day drove us inside to explore an underground farm in Central Tokyo.

What Happened?

2007-06-04T01:49:00.000-07:00

Well my kind readers
Spring was something else
Especially May was very hectic
Here's the scoop on what happened
1. Moved to a new condominium
2. Had my first art show in Tokyo
3. Lost one job and started two

(photo from an early spring trip to central Chiba, beautiful countryside)

The first week of May was thankfully Golden Week, one week off of almost no work. The sensational weather we have been having since January had simply kept up (if this is Global Warming, bring it on!) I went out on my early morning ride and there was another white skinned dude out there. Not that unusual so I kept pedaling and minding my own business. Then a voice came from behind, "where are you from". I hesitated, "how do you know I speak English?" He introduced himself as William and we rode bikes around the Imperial Palace for a few laps. I discovered that he is a travelling chiropractor and that he is in Tokyo with his client, a famous pianist. Over the next few days I showed William around some of the very exclusive cycling spots near his hotel. He was greatful and so was I because he was a great work out partner. In fact William is New Jerseys top Time Trialists and one of the best road racers. He pushed me and we rode hard together. Coming back from one particularly hard ride I asked him the name of his boss; "it's Keith, um.., Keith Jarret". Wow cool; Keith Jarret, the great Jazz pianist. I was brought up with jazz thanks to a Father who is a Jazz enthusiast. Very cool... so William comped me tickets.
These rides with William was my early mornings.

(another Chiba photo, there once stood a house there in the middle of no where, about 100 years ago)

The afternoon was dedicated to packing. In my inimitable fasion I start out packing the most fragile items over wrapping them so they could be dropped off a ten story building. After wasting a day and a half doing such activity I get around to packing the easiest stuff, books. Again I spend way too much time trying to figure out how to make all the different sizes of books interconnect so that they can fit as a cozy block inside the box. This is followed by papers and files. At this point I am beginning to realize the immense nature of my chore and begin cutting corners. However by this point it is too late because next is the kitchen. Packing the kitchen takes forever and is difficult even with cutting corners. By this time I am about four days into packing. Still much to go...

(a view from the new pad)

But OH!! What of my art show? I have to set up for an art show the following week and I haven't even sized up my pieces or decided how to present them. I got to work on that at night, labeling the work and putting them into pocket protectors. Yoshiko and I figured since they are sketches it was the best presentation approach. So pocket protectors and a few binders on the floor. Things came together quickly thanks to having previous experience setting up shows and I was feeling confident.

(another view from the new place... big windows)

IN the MEANTIME I had been contacted by a new work prospect. You see I work for several different English teaching jobs. One Job is doing conversation tutoring with students one on one. Another job is an after shcool program on the east side of the city. Then I work in the mornings for the Tokyo Metropolitan School District. The job is as an English Teacher for learning disabled high school students. I like the job a great deal. I'm really respected and supported; I think I have a knack for the work; it's a unique job that few English speaking foreigners are qualified for and fewer do (I was told two others including me in Tokyo). We (myself and my excellent associate Matsuo Sensei) constructed a program that focuses on the fundimentals of communication with learning English as the tool not particularly the goal. So last March I was approached by another special education school. I was very happy and had no problems fitting it into my schedule. However I was approached by even another school after the Spring break, the beginning of the new school year in Japan. This school is a brand new special education school that looks to have a great future for me. I jumped on it right away and signed the contract well aware that it conflicted with my after school program job.

(preists prepairing the procession for the new sumo grand champion, Hakou)

But the after school program job had become hard and bothersome. Though being an important source of income my salary was in fact cut by 1/3 and I was not offered a contract. Basically my position for the after school job was made into an on call teacher job. Looking at the future growth potential for a job that I really cared about and a job that paid (some) of the bills it was a no brainer. So I'm no longer working in the afternoons.

(doing some kind of purity water thing)

However there was a time period during May when I was doing all my jobs and running ragged. My art show was so well assembled that I was able to fit all the work into a suitcase to take to the gallery. I rode the train to the station and began walking to the gallery location; it took me a full ten minutes to realize I had completely forgotten the suitcase on the train.
Upon calling Yoshiko and babbling my situation she instantly realized that the train had most likely come to it's end point and was just turning around to go back. I quickly returned to the station. Yoshiko was there as she had taken a later train. We charged up the platform and shure enough there was my train pulling up. We got in and I went right, Yoshiko left. Yoshiko found my suitcase totally untouched. I returned to the gallery and set up the show with no further interruptions.
Not so strangely I also found myself becoming sick around this time, some sort of bronchial and throat thing. I was losing my voice and my energy. Somehow during this I managed to go with Yoshiko to the Keith Jarret concert. His show as beatifully played standards which I normally appreciate but don't gush over. However by the time they were into they're second song of the first set the tears were just flowing down my face until intermission.

(hakou's the dude in the black, the guy behind him has to carry his special belt. it's so damn heavy he's almost falling backward carring it)

The weekends were dedicated mostly to going to our old condominium and cleaning it up. Rubbing the floor on my hands and knees, scrubbing unknown areas that had never been attended to. Moving old things that we never got around to throwing out/ recycling. After a cleaning session a trip to the art gallery to meet friends and celebrate. The work week was hectic but enjoyable in the mornings and a challenge to muscle through during the afternoons, until I finally was let go to my great relief. The time to take my art show down was approaching quickly, but there was one last function I needed to attend. My friend Alan, who introduced me to the gallery owner and basically got the show for me was going to perform with his accordian in the upstairs cafe. He was really supportive and encouraged all the audience to go downstairs and check out the work, even dedicated a song to my art, very cool. Unfortuantely I completely forgot to take pictures of the show.
As the month was winding down things were starting to clear up. I found myself taking very long naps in the afternoon. However things were coming together with our new condo and my stress level was subsiding. The last Friday of May I got the afternoon off and went to Meiji Jingu shrine for a special event. There was a new sumo grand master who would be crowned, Hokuo. Hokou will join current grand master Asashoryu at the pinnicale ranking of the sport. Being the sport is a couple thousand years old it's not so surprising to see a ceremony at an important shrine to commemorate the event.
Thanks for reading.

Real fast real nice

2007-03-06T20:12:00.000-08:00

Weekend of March third and fourth. The weather forcast was not to be believed for this time of year. Just perfect. I was participating in a competition with my bike club in California. Who could ride the most miles in one month. I had been taking advandage of the most mild winter I've experienced in Japan, and along with riding my brains out it was possible for me to achieve 1000 miles, a month goal I never thought possible especially living here. My weekend schedule was set in my mind. Saturday a nice long ride, come home for lunch and see my student, Kida San for a lesson. After coming home and napping Yoshiko and I would go out for a pristine city walk and dinner in some area of Tokyo we had yet to explore. Sunday another long ride in the morning, followed by perhaps escaping town with Yoshiko for another town walk and exploration. But Yoshiko had bigger plans that she in fact had mentioned to me; we could go to see a very interesting religious ceremony in Nara, if IF I didn't have to work on Saturday. Well, my student cancelled. Yoshiko was on it right away and told me this was a great chance to see this ceremony and the weather was all thumbs up for a great overnight trip. My ego balked; but what of my MILES, my precious sweet 1000 miles? This was unacceptable. Yoshiko was willing to compromise. Okay, you can have Saturday morning until about ten AM, then WE ARE GOING. I was completely shut out. But instead of merely panicking, I panicked and then decided to give my mileage a second look. Yes, it was possible, if IF I got up very VERY early and rode a lot I could complete my goal. I only needed to do seventy miles all in one morning. Wait... I took the long way to work on Friday, so now I only need sixty miles. Saturday, I got up at 3:45 am, did my typical coffee and musuli thing and put away ten miles on the trainer. Now I only needed fifty miles and it was still only 4:30 am. Next I took to the streets and rode well. After visiting all my usual haunts and riding harder and faster then usual I in fact completed my miles with time to spare. I felt wipped and went home to take a shower and nap. Now the real weekend adventure would begin.

(Perfect day in Nara park)
We were out of the condo by eleven and on the shinkansen platform at 1150. A brand new Nozomi pulled up looking like a refugee from Matrix. The ride was fast and smooth as usual. At Kyoto station Yoshiko worked her magic again and had our arrival timed perfectly to the departure of the Kintetsu express bound for Nara. We were at our hotel next to Nara Park by three thirty and ready to explore. Well sorta, I was tired but I hung in like a trooper and it was worth it. Very nice quiet neighboorhoods that I want to live in. Historical looking houses, wooded parkland and quiet streets surrounded us as we walked up hill. After a snack of soba we headed into the park to see Kasuga shrine. It was closed after four so we continued to our true destination; Todaiji Temple. No not the big one with the huge Buddah in it, the other one up the hill with the huge overhang outdoor stage where they light fires and let the sparks drop on your head. This is in fact what we had come to see, since this fire ceremony has been held at the beginning of spring for about fifteen hundred years the odds were in our favour it would be held that weekend, and sure enough it would be. One problem arose however; everyone else must have also got the idea about coming that weekend because the area was completely and utterly packed, like rock concert packed, really really packed. We stood in one place for one hour. It started to rain. We stood our ground and eventually the show began. Priests were carrying poles about ten feet long with a ball of twigs on the end. These bunches of branches were on fire, a big fire showering sparks. The priest would spin the stick while walking over the audience and as the sparks would touch the folk below and bring them good luck for the year.

("Shower fire on my baby, Priest!" Yells the man in white holding up his little girl.)

(After about fifteen hundred years of doing this they're beggining to burn out)

(Cool evening shot of the five tiered pagoda by Yoshiko)
The next day we went for a nice morning walk. We walked through the woods in pristine weather and eventually made our way down to the field to see the man call the the deer. The deer of Nara park are literally god and cannot be touched and are in fact pampered and fed. These deer roam the park freely and fear no human. In the morning at ten oclock a designated park employee blows a french horn which brings the deer charging out of the woods into the field. Then the deer caller tosses goodies to the critters and they go into a feeding frenzy.

(WE ARE GOD. FEED US DEER CALLER.)

(Humans; have wars, famines and struggle with inequality. Turtles; have mass orgies on logs in public ponds. Who's smarter...)
On the way back to Kyoto we stopped for lunch with Yoshikos parents, who live in Nara. We parted ways and continued to Kyoto. We had a few hours to explore the ancient capital so we took a subway into the central part of town to get lost somewhere.
We discovered a small private railway called Eidan, that took us up into the forest to an area called Kurama. It was just perfect and smelled non-polluted and I wanted to live there. We got back in town in time to catch the Nozomi back home. Thanks for reading.

Short trip

2007-01-07T04:32:00.000-08:00

We went to a place called Tateyama. It would be a boring place by most standards but I was so relieved to be out of that rats nest that it was quite calm. An incredibly overpriced sandwich awaited me at the station cafe while we waited for the shuttle bus to take us to our hotel. It came promptly and we were carried off to a Sushi restaurant first. The restaurant was average but the prices said it wasn't. Yoshiko thought the chef may had been a former "Yankee". The sort of dudes that wear those ugly shiny bomber jackets with tigers stitched on them and slick their hair back and ride customized scooters. According to Yoshiko, upon guaduation from High School this Yankee had to find some legitimate work so he became a sushi chef in the middle of nowhere in Chiba.

The hotel was fine and so was the weather. They had a wonderful gimmick called a "wine bath". They actually put wine powder in the water so it turns red. We went for a walk looking for a temple in the hills on a nice hiking course. We got messed up with the map and never found the trail we wanted. We strolled along the beach and checked out the giant concrete jacks that are scattered all along the Japanese coastline. Obstructing waves where they don't need to be obstructed and lining the pockets of the concrete industry, Japan's being the worlds largest. These jacks are more a product of the seventies and go go eighties. Unnecessary construction is akin to unnecessary surgery but done on the earth, basically for the same objective. There is still plenty going to even today.

The next day it was an absolute squall. The rain was trouncing down hard. We got the hotel shuttle back to Tateyama. We had to wait twenty minutes for the next train. Upon exploring the station, I found a whale meat lunch box shop. Whale to go! Make mine rare or endangered at least.

We caught a train to our next destination, Chickura. It was another small town in the Chiba countryside. It was pouring down and we had to have lunch. Yoshiko led the way down the nearly abandon main street as we were getting soaked. After ten minutes that seemed more like an hour we came to our destination... and Italian Restaurant. My first reaction was we can eat Italian food anytime we want in Tokyo and we practically swam to get to this place. Inside the theme was Hawaiian, the roof was high and made out of aluminum; the restaurant may have been a storage shed at one time. The noise from the rain was thunderous and I could barely hear the waitress over the din. We downed some whale sashimi and had some rissotto and coffee. The rain was coming down really hard now.

(I'm in the restaurant and the noise is drilling my brain. By the way, they don't serve anchor steam beer, it's just decor.)
Fortunately the chef offered us a lift to the hotel and we accepted without hesitation.
The place was a nice bed and breakfast in a popular surfing resort area. Being that is was winter and a total wash out there was nothing to do but get my butt kicked in Othello and work on my drawings. Eventually the clouds lifted and I did a spooky walk in the dark. The dinner was sort of half assed and he had the temerity to serve ice cream for dessert in forty degree weather. The next morning he pulled one on us again not serving coffee or tea. Then we saw he has a "special coffee", for 400 yen. The coffee struck out and so did we. The day featured extemely blustery winds. They were just ripping across the thin tip of the Chiba peninsula. The train we rode on stopped because of the danger caused by the wind. Our schedule got screwed up but we finally made it to our next destination.

At Ohara station we caught the Isumi train. It's the cutest darned thing you've ever seen. It's just one car diesel that puts along the countryside, through fields and woods, to tiny near desolate stations in the Chiba countryside. We made our way to Otaki; a small town with an interesting history.

Otaki is the location of Otaki castle. The warlord of Otaki castle, Lord Honda, was a subordinate of the infamous Iasu Tokogawa. Tokogawa would become the first Shogun of Edo era. The overlord that brought all Japans regions under his fists. The Tokogawas went on to rule Japan for the next two hundred and fifty years, with many generations of Shoguns. During Honda's time, Iasu had not quite achieved total power, but he was a major player. In 1603 a strange occurrence happened in Honda's neck of the woods. A Spanish gallian seeking Mexico stopped off the waters near Ohara. The Spaniards were brought before Honda. Normally the edict would be to Kill the gajin Christians. However Honda spared their lives, he even found their company quite favorable. He then sent the Spaniards to Iasu Tokogawa in Edo Castle(the city that later becomes Tokyo), and they party there as well before being sent on their merry way.

To celebrate this moment of international harmony, the city of Otaki created MEXICO STREET. A full 300 meters of tiled sidewalk, featuring the amazing STATUE OF INTERNATIONAL HARMONY.

Standing a full four meters in height. This amazing assembleage features; a corroding sphere with both the flags of Japan and Mexico rotting away, a medallion dripping brown corrosion off the gleaming white paint job. Perhaps the most remarkable image was the three silver eagle statues whose wings had fallen off and had been re-attached as bundles with wire. Mexico Street became the big joke of the day as Yoshiko re enacted the possible scenarios of the city council proposing the project. One of the points we kept hitting on was how there were more direct routes to the castle, but you MUST WALK UP MEXICO STREET to actually arrive at the castle entrance... slick!

The castle turned out the be a museum and we checked out some of the nice costumes. The town of Otaki itself is not bad either. Though sadly a lot of the nice downtown area is built near the train station, with very light tourism. Most of the action happens near the roads as the countryside is dominated by car culture. The Honda family ancestors actually still live in the town in an old quaint Edo period home.

An old sake factory.

We caught some good luck as we arrived back in Ohara. The super express train to Shinjuku pulled up ten minutes later and we were on our way home. Thanks for reading.

Another weak

2006-11-05T00:46:00.000-08:00

Sunday October 29th
It was raining in the morning. I was set for a long raining day, but it went away. I was trying to go ride my bike. I had to be home in time to go to a friends house on the other side of the city for a BBQ. As my fall riding plans revolved around "having fun" and "riding when I felt like it", I thought it would be fun to do a MTN bike race. The race to be held at the nearby Tama Hills recreation center in a week seemed to be very fun. It was short and my junker single speed MTN bike with no suspension would be a crazy blast to enter.

There would be t-shirts and bbq to follow and I had already made arrangements with my Saturday language student to move the lesson time later in the day to allow me to return home and shower. I just needed to get my application that I was assured by email I would receive. So I went out to the local park on my MTN bike and rode around. I was getting worried though because the application hadn't arrived yet for some reason. The park was packed and the trails were way to slick from the morning rain to get any exercise so I went home with only forty five minutes of riding. I felt down. Cycling is like my freedom and it's always frustrated, it takes a lot of energy for me to develop the positive hopeful attitude sometimes. I was so frustrated by cycling I considered taking a hammer to my bike and destroying it. There just was no possible way to get a decent ride. I felt down and depressed. I cancelled the BBQ and took a nap, cleaned the condominium.
To top it off I have a sinus problem, and I have a gum problem (mom, I know what your thinking, it's being attended to). The gum problem was solved with antibiotics, though still a mystery how it happened. However the sinus problem is horrible and sometimes it feels like someone filled my nose with cement. My nose spray helps when used with rest but when I need to do things that especially require my sinuses like talking, which is my job, my nose just ceases up. I think the gum and sinus may be related, I will see this week when I meet my dentist.
Wednesday November 1st
I got up very early, still in hope that I would receive my application for the bike race, and rode out the door. I went towards Tama hills on my MTN bike though I couldn't get into the recreation center without a permit, I could ride around the area that has an extensive trail network. I eventually got to the Tama river and it was a beautiful day and still only six thirty in the morning. I climbed up past Tama rec center and on to some trails. They were fun and I was amazed at the network of dirt roads and muddy large trails out there. I got out to an area of slippery farming trails and rice fields that seemed one hundred miles from Tokyo. I sloughed up a steep hill and ahead was a cat that arched it's back and prepared for attack, until it saw me closer and realized "man, this things big, screw it". Then hoofing it up another hill I ran right into a huge spider web with a huge yellow and black spider. I had this experience last month and I had to get the spider off my bike with a large branch. This time I tried to duck and almost strained my neck. I decided that further adventures would have to wait until December when the weather is colder and spiders die. I returned on the train hefting my twenty seven pound beast of a bike back home and in time for my dentist appointment. My teeth were sterile clean perfect according to my hygenist which leaves the question, why did I get a gum infection? My breathing was still labored and it was friken annoying. I have my main dentist checking out my teeth and sinus this Friday.
Thursday November 2nd

I went to Kokyo, the Imperial Palace where the cyclist go for morning training. However I was spent from the previous days madness. I didn't have motivation and felt sore. My nose cleared up with the effort though. I had my Thursday morning lesson with Matsumoto San. Work went smoothly and I was able to talk without sinus hell. Tomorrow will be a day off.
Friday November 3rd. A national holiday called "culture day".

Yoshiko (Jesus I'm typing this now with a sinus ache) and I went out of town, not really sure where, just some attractive place to take a walk. We headed out towards Yamanashi Prefecture and after an hour and a half we stopped in Otsuki. We ate some interesting local cuisine; these huge fat noodles, like chow fun in a stew broth. Afterward we started following a hiking course that was laid out on a tourist map. The course was directly along Koshu Kaido highway, so it was like walking down a busy road, with no sidewalk of course. Finally it turned off and we walked under the freeway, again not too glamorous but at least we got to walk on a path away from traffic. We saw another guy ahead taking the same route and followed him. He started going up a hill and we followed. We passed over the freeway and he stopped to look a the cars and we kept walking. The hill kept going up. We here hesitant because we didn't know where it was going. We stopped at a convenience store and Yoshiko asked the owner about the road. He said it ends up at the highest point in the area and it takes cars one hour to reach it. We decided to keep walking and see how far we could get since there was a bus and we could always take it to get back. We were walking ever upward past small neighborhoods of older houses with properties that were clean and stored their garbage correctly. Everyone had a little farm or even a bigger farm and were tilling or picking on the beautiful fall day.

Leaves turning color is usually a sign to Tokyo people to get out of town and crowd the roadsides to take pictures. The red leaf viewing time of year can cause countryside roads endless lines of cars with folks peering our with their cameras. But not our road. It was virtually empty and quiet. As the homes thinned out I caught the site of a real wild monkey trying to get something from a farm. He ran when he saw us and darted through the trees, wow. Then we saw a family of pheasants, very beautiful colors. As the road kicked up you could see the gorge below held a river that cascades down rocks through the yellow and red leaf trees. Eventually all the homes went away and it became a park road. We continued to scale upward, there was no let up in the grade. It was beautiful and almost all to ourselves. We really lucked out and had made a great discovery. We caught the bus back down the road and all the way back to the station. We took the super express that was only an hour from Shinjuku. Home safe. We treated ourselves to a huge dinner, ironically for culture day we went to El Torrito, the only Mexican restaurant available.

Saturday, November 4th.
This was to be the day I would race my MTN bike, but the guy who initiated my interest by inviting me never came through... psyche! I couldn't attend the race without an invitation from an enlisted member of the Air Force and the guy flaked. I guess this particular virulent form of flakiness is new to me; people who actually initiate the event and then don't come through, very befuddling. Flakiness is one of the themes that life has laid down for me. Sometimes I think there's someone who gets endless joy in watching how I handle flakes. I guess I need to realize that most people won't help me with even the most casual of undertakings, even if the say they will. So this morning I knew that I needed to "have fun", but I wasn't willing to put the energy into packing up my MTN bike, taking the train and doing what I had done on Wednesday, I had such good outdoor experiences Wednesday and Friday I didn't want to push my luck. So I was left with the old option of going to Kokyo. I didn't deserve such good luck but Conneco San showed up. He's a great cyclist who is in his top form for the year as he is readying himself for the tour of Okinawa. 200 Kilometers of hanging on to the pros and hoping the Sag Wagon doesn't sweep you up. Last year he petered out on the endless leg breaking rollers in the rain. This year he's in even better form and has dropped more weight, looking lean and mean on his new Time VRX. When he rides Kokyo he stops at all the lights, which kind of sucks, but I found someone to play bikes with and I wasn't about to ride away from him. So I played his game of sprinting until we hit a red light, then sprinting again. For all of Conneco san's fitness I still have a bigger turn of speed and knew there was no where on the course he could get away from me. All the little intervals hurt my legs, however I easily outsprinted him on the last hill.

(Staying low and off the front at the Oi Futo race last spring)
As we were waiting for the other riders to get in, Conneco san asked my advice on positioning and posture on the bike. I consider Conneco San the superior rider and was surprised he would ask me anything. But maybe that's why he's better; he's always looking to improve and when he sees something done a certain way he wants to know how. I do have a good aerodynamic posture on the bike that I developed since coming to Tokyo. I'm good a keeping my upper body still and low while peddling. I've made vast improvements on reducing straining my back or neck since riding the roads in Japan. Strangely I've almost completely stopped stretching or doing push ups and sit ups, which was a morning ritual for me in California. I probably wasn't doing it right so not doing it at all has proven to be better. After coming home I did chores and went to see my student, Mister Kida. We always do our lesson at Excelsior Cafe in Shinjuku in the basement, non smoking floor. Almost all cafes in Tokyo are smoking except Starbucks, which has become wildly popular in due part to it's non smoking policy. Other cafes have followed suit and some like excelsior have a complete non smoking floor. Quite often we get a seat at the bottom of the staircase. Due to many clientele sporting the newest, shortest mini skirts an interesting distraction is revealed. I would say a good one third of the time you can tell if it's Dior, Calvin Cline or some budget panty brand. Kida San has noticed my wandering gaze but doesn't seem to know why. Strangely it is Kida san who chooses where we sit. After our lesson I met with Yoshiko and we went to Shinagawa to the Hara Museum of modern art.

The building for the museum is an Old Modernist mansion and really cool looking. The exhibits are usually quite good and Yoshiko decided to become a member so we can also enjoy the openings and special events. Basically if you go five times a year the membership pays for it self. The exhibition was pretty bad this time. The weather was nice though so we did a city walk and got lost in Shinagawa among the wealthy homes. Eventually we found our way to Meguro and had sushi for dinner. My legs were hurting for sure now but at least my nose behaved.
Sunday, November 5th
Yoshiko was planning another escape out of town for a walk. I figured I didn't have much time to ride my bike and I almost didn't ride anyway. I really didn't want to do the same thing again. I had to be back home in a couple hours so I decided to join some group that I've seen going around Tokyo on Sunday mornings though I knew I could kick their collective butts I thought of the motivation as being social and fun ride so as to ignore the fact I train on the same roads almost every day, around and around. I got to the Meiji oval course and sure enough a small group was coming and starting to go around. They were doing 33 kph. Okay for a warm up lap on the flat road. I was behind a rider who seemed about 15 years old with pencil thin legs and wearing track pants over his tights. There was another dude, a big guy riding a De Rosa white carbon fiber frame with Campagolo Bora wheels, I estimated at around 10,000 bucks of rolling hardware. As the speed stayed steady riders rolled off the paceline and I finally took my turn. I did 36 kph then 37 and looked back to see that there was a rider hanging on. I was content to do my speed so when he came around at over 40 I was a bit surprised, then he burned out and couldn't even stay on my wheel. I slowed down and he caught up. We spoke in English and he wanted me to join his group. I figured why not, I wasn't getting exercise but at least I was being useful socially. I met his group. The teenager is not a teenager but a very small guy. The De Rosa guy is a Buddhist Monk. The two other guys were only a bit less interesting. They were going to ride Kokyo and asked me if I'd ever rode there. Hah, funny. So we went, and then I got distracted by another group of riders I knew and tried to follow them. They were going even slower so I went back to Kokyo to look for my new friends but they were not even there. Perhaps they only did one lap and left but in any case they were gone. I saw one rider working hard but then I noticed the time and broke off and headed home.

(Yoshiko getting directions at a arty cafe)
When I got home Yoshiko had a change of plans so my morning ride could have been much better. Flaked on again, by my own wife? But Yoshiko had a good new plan. We would go to Yanaka to check out the art galleries. Yanaka... Why the f@$% don't I live in Yanaka. It's easily the best part of the city of Tokyo. Yanaka is in Taito city nestled in next to Ueno and it's historical museum sector and huge public park and Bunkyo with it's traditional neighborhoods. Because of it's closeness to the Tokyo college of art and it's plethora of ancient graveyards, shrines and traditional homes Yanaka is the closest thing to San Francisco in Tokyo. There are art galleries, lots of traditional and NICE modern architecture, strange museums and interesting cafes. Instead of tearing down old commercial properties they are converted into art spaces and public points of interest. They actually make things to encourage culture and art... I mean wow WOW, is this the same Tokyo that seems run by Mafioso? Ripping down old neighborhoods and propping up towering office buildings that are half filled but since they are government owned the revenue is negligible. I've been living in Shinjuku too long.

(Home of a once active local artist now used for installation work by local college art students)
We went for a very long walk and visited our favorite gallery that is a converted warehouse space. The art wasn't too brilliant this time but it's a spacious and interesting place to go any time. Yoshiko started talking to one of the proprietors of the gallery in Japanese. After we left she told me that there are slots for next year. A two week show costs about a 1000 bucks but you get the whole space. Yoshiko who is the closest thing to an agent for me thinks I should have a show there. What to show? All I've been doing is sketches for the last three years. I have some larger pieces but not enough to compliment the large white walls of the space. I've been thinking of expanding my riding the train drawings to large size by using a projector, but I don't know. It would be good to have something to work towards.

I haven't really cared about my art as a product for about a year or so. For the last seven months I've been into this "experience" concept. It's kind of about how we experience our environment through habituating over certain memory/ emotion triggers; so we sort of see something that is in reference to some other experience. To see our environment without these references I think is part of these train drawings. I actually got to the point where I would only draw what I see, when he/ she moved or got off the train I simply drew that different angle or picked up where I left off with a different body. I stopped caring about what it looked like. Though I was pretty happy with some results I guess it's not dramatically powerful imagination work that I have done before. I didn't really care because I just wanted that trigger-less experience. So here I am with a pile of stuff I kind of like, and have been posting to my web site, and little else to show for the last year and a half. My friends are always approving and encouraging me, people seem respectful of what I do, so it's cool. But there's a lot of artists out there and I like my teaching work enough to not do design or stupid illustration jobs just to tell everyone, "I'm an artist". No, but I would love to be a pro artist and make enough money so Yoshiko could do whatever she wanted, even if it was having a baby. So if Yoshiko can help me be successful it's the least I can do to try, so I'll do the show and pay the outrageous fee. At least it's a nice space.

Yanaka was a great experience as many old homes were tranformed into public art installation spaces for the weekend. Then a walk to nearby Ueno through some old graveyards. We stopped for drinks at attractive children's library. A large roman revival building from the 1930's that withstood the attack of "B-san", (B-52 bomber). I even dealt with the screaming children and relaxed in the pristine fall weather, the best we've had all year. Okay... What's the deal with kids? Yeah, they're my job, but what do I know? If I have one of my own then I'll see, right? I've been working with kids for twelve years, I can't stand the discomfort of helplessly watching their discomfort, the feeling I get when playing with them that at any moment an uncomfortable situation will occur. When they cry like they just seen their parents get shot because they couldn't stay up late, man... Yeah, I'm sure I did it too, so what, But if Yoshiko wants a kid, that's cool. One thing I've noticed is that Japanese kids are more independent and civil than American kids.

(This wins for longest institution name in Tokyo)
We walked out of Ueno towards Ochanomizu over the bridge that spans the river and the train and the road and the lush green embankment with one of the best views of Tokyo/ Akihabra you can get. We went home and had a great teppan dinner in Ookubo. The Korean pancake was to die for.
Thanks for reading.

yougottagotonagano

2006-07-17T01:09:00.000-07:00

Summer in Tokyo
Still air and the sour hot stench of humidity, pollution and poorly handled garbage. Evenings rarely provide relief and are often even hotter than the day. Multiple showers and frequent changes of clothes; how long can you deal without the air conditioner? Fortunately, the beginning of August ushers in my one month stay in California. However, Yoshiko cannot come, so we arranged for some special time together.
Japan has all sorts of ridiculous holidays that I am so thankful for like Boys day, Half and Half day and Gymnastics day, but maybe Ocean Day weekend is the best. Ocean Day comes during the abysmal Summer and offers three days of escape to the mountains. Yoshiko and I booked a hot spring hotel and Shinkansen tickets to Nagano, nestled in the Japanese alps and sight of the 1998 winter Olympics. It is common knowledge that the alps provide cooler temperatures and less humidity during the summer, so we were enthusiastic about our upcoming journey.
Early Saturday morning we boarded the bullet train and took off in a north west direction through Saitama and up through the foothills stopping occasionally at increasingly beautiful locations. Of note would be the popular resort town of Karuizawa, initially founded by a Scottish resident of Tokyo about 100 years ago; it is still frequented today by city folk looking for a little relief from the endless stew bog.
We arrived at Nagano station as some drizzle was subsiding. It was in fact cooler and less humid, so after a quick breakfast and throwing our bags in a locker we got down to some siteseeing. Our first destination was Zenkuji Temple.

Here's a turtle pond near the temple, turtles are cute and are good luck. Don't eat turtles, unless there's no other option.

Nice place, but Yoshiko being from Nara was not overly impressed. The really interesting part was a ceremony inside with the chanting and the gong ringing and all that neat atmospheric stuff. Also interesting was the old town around the temple. It has the same historical flavor as Kyoto, but much less crowded. Unlike Kyoto not every quaint little street of old homes have been converted into restaurant row. It's still a working class neighborhood of old houses.
Next we boarded a cute three car train called Naga-den. The costly ticket would take us to Youdanaka, a historic resort town. I took a photo of the cute train, but somehow it's lost to the digital waste in my memory card of my cell phone. However here's a link to see the train.

Nagaden

After a ten minute walk we settled into our room and took showers. We had about an hour before dinner so we took a walk around the town. Youdanaka's glory days began during the bubble economy of the 1980's as an escape for Salary Men, there was even a cute little red light district. Then in the 1990's the Olympics came and brought a tad more prosperity and infrastructure development (read; a lot of unnecessary construction). However recently the town has settled into a steady manageable tourist trade that features beautiful natural landscape, lots of hot springs (including the famous hot spring monkeys that I will explain later) and cool weather in the Summer. There is another side to Youdanaka however, as the verdant slopes tapering out to the mountain sides are littered with small family farms. Yoshiko and I strolled through the quiet green orchards and vegetable fields soaking in silence and cool breezes.

pretty house with wooden boxes makes nice arty photo

We ate well slept and got up early for more walking around the farms. This time it started raining. But it was so much nicer than being in Tokyo we really didn't care because it was so cool clean and quiet. After breakfast we dropped off our bags at the station and the hotel manager drove up to the prefecture park that features the hot spring monkeys.

Steamy stinky sulfuric geyser in pretty forest

So, it's still raining but we solger on up a long steep road while lazy drivers overtake us to the parking lot entrance. We trudge up stair steps and into a pretty forest away from those bothersome cars. After a nice climb we come to the monkey park entrance. There's a fair amount of tourist there but not really annoying, as everyone is equally fascinated by the site of monkeys everywhere.

Tourists fascinated by monkeys. There's one on the right sitting and a couple of babies playing in the hot spring.

This cute feller thinks he's people folk by the way he swims.

We surmised from the information we were given that the monkeys have been here long before people arrived. They stay because the caretakers of the park feed them. Only the caretakers feed them so the monkeys don't bother other people, however they are also unafraid, so they don't mind if you are close.

Mommy monkey sheltering her baby from the rain sits on the food box.

We left the park down a different trail that was almost empty of tourists. It was muddy and slippery but we managed. Then we came out on a road littered with resort bed and breakfasts. We got out of the rain and dried out while sipping coffee in an old Swiss chalet looking mansion. Our spirits were high and we chatted with caffeine energy while the rain subsided. We continued our trek down the road until we got to a bus stop. We lucked out and caught a bus back to the station just in time to get the express back to Nagano.
We spent the afternoon strolling around Nagano city, exploring the old town and gift shopping as the rain came and went. After a nice meal featuring locally grown goodies we caught the evening train back to Tokyo
Thanks for reading.

Vulcan Wedding

2006-03-21T19:45:00.000-08:00

Last week I returned to Kyoto for important family business. Yoshiko's brother Kazuki would have a wedding. Immediate family had to attend including me. Once again I took the Bullet train, Shinkansen, southwest to the ancient capital.
It was Saturday morning when Yoshiko met me at a very crowded Kyoto train station. It was in between school years and the equinox holiday weekend brought droves for a short vacation.
Since there was time before we had to check in at the hotel we took a side trip to a famous temple that is featured on the back of the Japanese 10yen piece. It was spitting rain on and off but basically a nice place. My problem was that I still hadn't recovered from the nausea of the poorly ventilated train and we had only a quick lunch. I'm a real wimp about lack of oxygen, whatever that's about, seems like most people can get by on less air. Anyhow, I felt kinda anxious and crappy, typical, fortunately Yoshiko is used to it. Hey, what's being married for anyway.

Okay, on to business. We get to stay at the Westin Miyako Kyoto Hotel. I'm really stoked except that because of family arrangements I must spend one night in the same room as Yoshiko's father Kazune, one of the great snorers of the modern era. Yoshiko's mother gives me "special ear plugs" that are actually just your typical airline ear-plugs, but maybe a little wish fulfillment wouldn't hurt. Yoshiko's sister Tomoko gives me some advice; if he's raising the roof two firm whumps on the back will quiet him down.
But first there's dinner; fish shabu shabu. Shabu shabu is thinly sliced pieces of raw meat on your plate. You dip the meat in a boiling hot pot in front of you for a few short swishes (shabu shabu), then dip in sauce and in mouth. I thought it tasty and now that my pleasures had been satiated it was time for my confrontation with the human leaf blower. In fact the moment Kazune hit the sack he fell asleep and started ripping into some most excellent snores. I decided to lie in bed and write a log of my experience in order not to go crazy. By the second entry I was all ready to do the "two whumps" as suggested by Tomoko. After whumping Kazune woke up like there was an earthquake, rolled over and started up the noise again. I eventually went to sleep with ear-plugs and a pillow on each side of my head.

Kazune and I went to breakfast and then scurried off to a Japanese style room where Chieko san and Kazuki, Yoshiko's brother, were getting prepared to do the greatest extreme sport of all, marriage. However, instead of suiting up with pads they were costumed in ancient traditional garb by two assistants hired for just such a thing. Meanwhile Yoshiko, her mother and her aunt were already at the Heian shrine where the wedding would take place. They were also suiting up in some kimonos from Yoshiko's mothers family collection.

In front of the Heian shrine Chieko's father and Kazune got together for a few garden photos, it was about 40f with spitting rain and wind, but when it's a pricey once in a lifetime thing photos are going to happen everywhere. After the photo session we went into a waiting room where only Yoshiko's relatives were sitting. I had never met these people before except Tomoko's family so I kept ticking over in my mind "these people are Yoshiko's close relatives", then I would look at Yoshiko to try to make a connection...nope. Just couldn't accept it.

After still more photos out in the bitter cold courtyard we were taken back into the waiting room one last time. A priest or attendant of the shrine came in and showed Kazuki and Kazune how they must take a branch attached with zigzag cut paper and turn it around in a certain manner during the ceremony.

After that the time had come. We marched off into a special room where the two families were seated opposite of each other. There were three musicians playing a flute, a drum and something I couldn't discern. They were seated on one side of the slightly raised stage. There were two women attendants with gold crowns on the other side of the stage. Also there was a priest with his Shinto quail hat in the middle. There were also tables, decanters and all sorts of artifacts on the stage. Sorry there are not photos of this but it's not allowed.

So this is so Vulcan. Absolutely something out of Star Trek. The attendants with quick steps, erect bodies scurrying about pouring sake from one decanter to another. The musicians with dissonant shrill music with no melody. Tomoko's screaming three year old girl... All very Vulcan. The Sake eventually made it's way to little dishes placed in front of each of us. The priest, mumuring Shinto chants waved a stick that had a wig of zig zagging papers glued to it. Rings were exchanged, branches with zig zagging papers on them were turned, sake was drank and then it was over.

Next a taxi whizzed us to the post wedding banquet. We were ushered to a waiting room once more. Shortly we were brought to the banquet room. Kazuki and Chieko came in to rounds of applause. They broke a cask containing sake. The immediate family served sake to everyone. We gave speeches, mine was very short. We ate a meal that would take another complete blog entry to explain.

Sake from each newlyweds home town was mixed together and drank. We drank beer too. Yoshiko MC'ed the event on the fly beautifully. Chieko's mom was too choked up to speak. The kids were spazzing out. The families served sake and beer to each other, I had some. I didn't understand a word anyone was saying. Everyone drank. Gifts were given and we were out of there by five pm.

That night we went to Chieko's mom's bar in the Gion district. Gion is most famous for the historical district with old bars and restaurants and of course the Maiko (Geisha). However, Chieko's mom's place was in a area with new buildings and her bar had a real 1980's Kenny thing going on; it was western glitzy Reno like Rogers and I would have been comfortable there with Loggins haircut. We drank for free and got a chance to congratulate the couple in more casual surroundings. The Japanese got more and more garbled until I didn't understand a word, and that's without alcohol. We returned to our hotel.

The next day we got a cab to the station from one of the many great cabbies of Kyoto. This guy took us on lots of pretty short cuts and showed us his personal hidden treasures of Kyoto along the way. He topped it off at the end by pointing out that you can see an ugly pseudo space needle building's reflection in the big glass paneled windows of modern Kyoto station. He had Yoshiko in stitches.

We took a train to northern Kyoto as it eventually heads towards the Japan sea to the rural Tango region. We changed trains in the once glamorous tourist town of Amanohashidate (a word that screams VISIT ME) to a small cute diesel train. The ride was smooth with great ventilation. The nature view was great, I kept looking at the roads winding through the woods thinking "I want to ride my bike on that road! Oh, but that road is even better!". At one stop some high school kids got on with their school clothes tugged down to hip hop standards. They sat near Yoshiko and me. I was their white skinned hero and they said "hello". I feared they may faint with excitement if I replied. I told them in Japanese I don't speak English.

We arrived at the pretty seaside town of Kumihama. Yoshiko's Grandmothers house is located there. Grandmother was from a famous family that was so respected in the region that Yoshiko's uncle was able to sell the house to the government to be turned into a museum. Recently the most famous ancestor was the Great Grandfather who was a powerful merchant and congressman. He built the first railroad through the area and was immortalized with a statue. Yes folks, my wife's family.

We got a great train ride back to Amanohashidate. The town still had some life in it, there was some tourism. The old local goods gift shops featured dried octopus and squid products. Of particular interest was a beer mug made of dried squid carcass, a fine rewarding chew after a satisfying chug a lug. We booked a ryokan for the night and were looking forward to a pleasant stay. We were not disappointed; the baths were comfortable, the Asian Fusion dinner was very good and the wooded room was spacious with enough modern amenities to ensure a cozy evening. Yoshiko treated herself to locally made wine which was not bad at all. I relaxed in the den that had nice art books, fancy design furniture and shitty coffee.

The next morning we took a walk around the town. There is a famous forested bar of land creating a lagoon and is used as a walking path from one side of town to the other. When we arrived at the other side we got to a park that had a lift that went up to an observation point. After putting down some yen for the ride we got to the top and found some viewing platforms that looked down over the bar of land and out to the ocean. There is a way of looking that involves assuming the position. While you have your head between your legs you are to get an upside down view. It is supposed to provide some sort of beautiful image like the finger of land shooting off into the sky and the sea is the sky, or something like that. Anyways, it took me about three seconds of trying this before realizing that the overlord of tourist traps was laughing down at me from his gift shop in the sky.

That same afternoon we caught the train back to Kyoto then to Tokyo. We were back in our urban home by nine pm that evening.
Thanks for reading.

Another Japan

2005-12-31T23:14:00.000-08:00

On the morning of December 28th Yoshiko and I went to the Shinkansen station in order to go to Western Japan. We were to visit Nara and Kyoto and surrounding places, as well as visit Yoshiko's relatives, including her brother and soon to be wife. I had not ridden the Sinkansen for about nine years and was looking forward to taking the fastest one, known as Nozomi, it is said to approach speeds of 270kph, around 170mph and only stops twice on it's trip from Tokyo to Kyoto, the same distance as San Francisco to LA. After an annoying 30minutes of hesitation it got up to speed and were flying through the countryside; rice paddies with snow icing and old farmhouses whizzed by with the ever present mountain scenery in the background. Fuji san was especially ominous in it's new winter coat.
Soon we arrived at Kyoto station, however it was not our final stop. After a sumptuous bento box lunch we changed lines out to Nara, the ancient capital of Japan as well as Yoshiko's home town. We were to see two Temples, Toshodaiji and Yakushiji. These two UNESCO world heritage sights were located close to an uneventful train station in a small neighborhood littered with traditional houses and tiny roads. Just four hours earlier we were in Tokyo, that as the ancient capital Edo hit it's stride in the 1700's. Now we were touring temples built a 1000 years earlier. Toshodaiji (not to be confused with Todaiji, home to the largest wooden building on earth and a fifty foot tall brass Buddha, also resides in Nara but I have seen before.) was especially interesting. The facility was founded by a blind Chinese priest named Ganjin who initiated Buddhist education and religious practices in Japan. In the far corner of the property was his shrine, tucked away in a still chilled pond among a moss coated forest.

Old pagoda at Yakushuji Temple. Built about 1300 years ago it survives to this day.

In the waning light, cold and tired we went to a local cafe and warmed ourselves with coffee brewed the traditional Japanese way in glass vials that look like a chemistry set. Afterward we went to our hotel in Downtown.

The Nara Royal Hotel is a blast from the bubble burst era. Glaring anything goes style furnishings preserved beautifully, even the see through piano. Glamorous landscaping included a realistic waterfall directly next to the bar. Yoshiko used to work at the very same hotel as a college student and was notorious for an event in which she worked at the banquet hall. There was a womens investors seminar, and as an example they asked Yoshiko how much she earned. She grabbed the mike and yelled "give me more money!!" Now we were at the hotel as guests and we used our free drink tickets to soak up that little touch of Reno in the Japanese heartland. I had just re-read the Long Goodbye and thus wanted a Gimlet, just like Philip Marlowe. Then we went downstairs to the public baths. I don't really like getting all heated up so I was just planning on showering and dipping. However I met a couple of retired school teachers who lived nearby; I chatted in the tub with them for almost twenty minutes. Then I got out to go meet Yoshiko in the Lobby. I got a head rush, but dismissed it since it is not unusual for me to get head rushes just standing up around at home (low blood pressure), however it didn't go away and I began to feel dizzy and tense. By the time I got to the locker I felt my muscles tensing and my blood curdling. I began to panic. Just a year ago to almost the day a friend in his early fifties had simply died of a sudden heart attack. Like me he was physically fit and showed no signs of ill health. Since his death I had thought about it often, especially in light of the fact that cyclists were far from exempt from massive heart failure, on the contrary it seemed strangely to favor cyclist, as just a month ago a popular cyclist of the Bay Area had also died of heart failure at a young age. I was dizzy, sweating and in full panic mode, my muscles were tensing and I was certain death was approaching. I wheeled over to a stuffed chair and fell into it. I felt like if this swirling tension increased one more notch I would loose consciousness. I started to hold down my panic and prepare for the possible end. I thought about how I shouldn't be scared, I've had a good life and I should be ashamed of my cowardice. I thought about trying to get up and seek out Yoshiko and how selfish I was not to consider her in my last moments. Then the tension slowly began to wind away. I was so weak I could barely get to the lobby and get to Yoshiko. Finally we got my shoes on and back to the hotel room. I recovered in about twenty minutes and it felt like nothing happened.
The next day we got up early and went to another prestigious world heritage sight. Horyuji is really the place to see an amazing complex of Temples, Pagodas and Ancient meeting halls.

Not only is the main hall one of the oldest wooden structures in the world, it's got bitchen looking Chinese dragons running up it's eaves.

The roof tiles end with demon heads. Each demon had a different symbol on it's forehead. This one had a pentagram on it...dude. Truly demonic.

It is the home of the worlds oldest surviving wooden structures dating somewhere from 6th to 8th century. The town had a wanna be tourist trap feel that we didn't get from the day before, also the streets dating back to horse and carriage days were difficult to navigate. However the trip was worth it. My personal favorite was an octagon building from 739 called the Hall of Visions. Inside a statue of Prince Shotoku, who along with Ganjin brought the cultural and religious practices from China to Japan and issued a change in Japanese culture. Another impressive artifact was a statue called Hanka Shiyui. It's the Buddha, but he's sitting crossed legged and kind of chilling out with a hand to his face. Kind of a real pose of contemplation, not those stiff confrontational poses that look truly uncomfortable. Next stop was the town of Asuka. This town was absolutely dedicated to preserving a historical look that I've truly never seen before in Japan. The houses have to follow a very specific building code and construction is almost at a complete stand still. One thing was certain; Tokyo was 600 miles and 600 years away from my present reality.

one of Atsuka's many ancient burial sights.

local homes in Asuka follow strict codes to maintain tradition.
We took an express train back and got to the tubs quickly (no sitting for 20minutes for me anymore!!) before heading off to Yoshiko's parents. Kazune and Fukiko live in Nara city near another ancient sight of an early emperor. All that's left was the foundations. There is a rebuilding attempt but most likely they will have to quit before even 1/10th is completed, just way too expensive. We were warmly invited by the parents and treated to sukiyaki, a hot pot of meats and vegetables that we just ate a ton of. Throw in some dessert and drinks and we mine as well been rolled out the house at the end of the evening. Funny thing though with this Japanese food, it's so healthy and low fat, the next morning you get up feeling great even if you ate the equivalent of a Roman orgy the night before.
We had breakfast and made the greatly anticipated trip to Kyoto. It was a clear and sunny day in the ancient city and we hustled to get our stuff checked in at the hotel and get on with the sight seeing. Kyoto is a town that can rival cities like Boston and San Fran for historical neighborhoods, closeness to natural areas and great art and dining. Throw in temples dating back to the 14th century and you have a city of extrodinary class and beauty. I had read that after the war if there was a true preservation effort for Kyoto, it would be a city rivaling Venice and Milan for living history and art. Unfortunately a desperate grab to modernize that seized the nation following the war eventually took much of Kyoto's lovely neighborhoods away in place of gaudy thoughtless urbanism (still going on in Tokyo). However the residents of the city took a stand and eventually the tide has turned as strict building codes and no growth are the call of the day. Tourism has taken it's rightful place as a major revenue and throngs of visitors use eco buses to take them from one sightseeing area to another.

a view of Ginkokuji temple from above. A zen garden made of sand patterns perfectly formed in the center. A little boy slipped under the guard rail to play with it. His father caught him at the last minute.

The philosophers path was very empty and we had a romantic stroll all to ourselves.

One of the many shrines departing from the philosophers path in quaint forest settings. This one featured mice as a spiritual embodiment of "Kami", or god. In the belief system of Shinto, god is present in nature and ancestors.
Yoshiko and I beat the crowds and took a stroll on the Philosophers Path. We soaked up peaceful old communities and shrines. That night we dined with Yoshiko's Brother and Fiancee, Chieko San. Chieko took us trough a maze of stone walking paths through a quiet cluster of homes dating back over 300 years. We got lost in the maze as Chieko eventually took us through the doors of an old house converted to a dining bar. We ate and drank in our own private banquet room for hours. Then we went to the historical Gion district, known for it's Maiko population (Maiko is the Kyoto word for Geisha; btw I will not see Memoirs of a Geisha, I read the book and it stunk, the movies bound to be worse) we found a cozy bar overlooking and ancient tree lined road overlooking a brick canal. I got wasted and couldn't follow the conversation to save my life. I totally lost focus as my mind drifted on the lights reflection in the water. I found myself falling into moroseness and requested to leave.
The next morning we visited several more temple complexes. A couple of them so large the looked more like an Edo period town than a religious center. In fact many Edo era movies, like samurai and Historical dramas are shot on location at these very same temples. In order to facilitate the production a sort of Edo period Universal Studios was created, called Uzumasa Movie Village. It was closed when we were visiting but we plan on seeing it when we come back for Yoshiko's brothers wedding.
It got really cold, and after visiting a row of old brick buildings we retreated to another food bar for a lengthy dining drinking bout. We caught a sleeper bus back to Tokyo which in fact worked well. Though one restless dream featured the sound of the bus turning into a hundred voices saying "Lyle, Lyle, LYLE, LYLE..." Then a bunch of little trolls in the seats in front of me turned to face me while chanting all the time. I wasn't fooled, I knew it was a dream, like the whole wonderful vacation.
Happy new year.

Helplessness in Tokyo and Jazz everywhere.

2005-09-08T20:15:00.001-07:00

I had a most long and excellent vacation in the US. The only thing I may have done more of than riding my bicycle on beautiful open roads is eating. I ate huge portions of sumptuous American style meals. Totally satisfied, I think it's the first time I actually put on weight during my month of cycle adventures. The weight has been shed quickly upon my return and consuming portions appropriate to mortals. Another thing that happened often was seeing live Jazz. Though I like all sorts of music, especially rock; when it comes to live music Jazz is the best. Fortunately I was born into a Jazz family as my father is an enthusiast of the music, my mother too, so it's something I can get turned on to. Since coming to Japan I have noticed that all sorts of restaurants will play jazz over the loudspeakers while dining. Recently, during a horribly humid day, still suffering from jetlag and a headache, I stumbled in to a Mosburger. Mosburger is a sort of fast food joint that makes interesting burgers using buns made out of rice. I ordered a Kimpera burger, made of rice patties and marinated vegetables in between, also a Mustard Chicken burger and a cup of coffee. The meal, especially the coffee, relieved my headache and lethargy. Then I noticed they were playing classic jazz. Not like Muzak stuff, mind you, but the real thing, like; Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins, Theloneous Monk, etc.. I had some time before my Japanese class next door and sure as heck didn't want to go out and wait in the heat, so I sat in the restaurant and listened to Night in Tunisia, the original Dizzy Gillespie version. I was oblivious to folks chatting on there cellulars and children carrying on. All I heard was the master's trumpet puncturing space. There's a good chance that any restaurant you go into in our neighborhood and outlying vicinities will provide a similar soundtrack to your dining, be it burgers or beluga.
Sunday morning I got up to see my buddies Dirk and Matt at our favorite regular cycling spot, Oi Futo in Shinagawa. It was Matt's last ride before leaving Tokyo and returning to Australia. I sure as heck wasn't going to miss the chance to say goodbye, but I wasn't too enthusiastic to confront the heat and humidity that I had avoided for over a month of my vacation. I opened the balcony window to get a preview of what I was to come, that's when I heard the screams of a child from several blocks away,"Okasan...Matay MATAY!!!!!!!!!!", mother wait, wait. The screaming continued for over several minutes, it was not even six in the morning, this was a big deal, an emergency. Maybe someone died, maybe an accident, but where was it coming from, somewhere below me in the maze of houses... But where? Then I saw several streets down a woman carrying a handbag walking and about twenty meters behind two girls still in their bed clothes running after and screaming non stop OKASAN MATTAY!!!!!!!! Was she running away from home? Maybe a fight with her husband? I don't know and will never know, it was totally beyond my reach to help or even understand what was happening. After the guilt fled, I suited up and went out the door. As I was cruising near the Skyscraper district. I saw a man lying on the ground his had frailly waving in the air. Okay, this time no mucking about. I u-turned and rolled over to see an old man who seemed semi-conscious. I asked him in Japanese if he was okay, if he needed help. Just as I was trying to evaluate the seriousness of the situation a jogger came by. I gave him my cell phone and he called the police. I helped him explain his location and direction to the police, but more than that I was useless. The jogger thanked me and told me the police would arrive soon. The jogger knelt over and cradled the old mans head and comforted him. He thanked me again, and I got the clue... I did my job, I was real useful.
Thanks for reading.

All Hail Natto

2005-06-14T07:30:00.000-07:00

What is this thing we call Natto...
A fermented soy bean. Check
A stringy mucus like film. Check
Stench of ammonia. Check
Smells of locker room cheese like body oder. Check
You've got Natto; the wonder food of our generation.

Mixing in only a small package of mustard and soy sauce contained with
the natto in the styrofoam package, the chopsticks goes round and round
until the mucus film makes bubbles. Then wolf down with indifference.
Ah, natto... how you saved my stomach. About a year into my time here
in Japan I began to get stomach problems. Mainly a burning esophagus
and a rotting gut. Not good people, what to do? I then began to get
this sort of quake like feeling around my diaphragm... what's going
on!!

I asked around and my bud Ian suggested that it is something called,
"gaijin sickness". Basically the enzymes in my stomach don't like the
enzymes in my food, my foreign Japanese food. Is this true? I don't
know, but it didn't totally solve my problem... what to do? I consulted
my friend Matt..."Mate",(he's Australian), "Mate, try having milk or
yogurt or ice cream after dinner", it really calms down the life form
party in your stomach. So it seemed to work for a while, but not total
satisfaction. I was still quaking and burning. Matt got turned on to
natto and suggested it to me... but no way, no way man! The clear
gossamer threads glistening with the promise of eternal stench,
encasing hard brown pebbly nuggets. I've even had natto stick to my
bicycle after a ride. It took about fifteen minutes to wipe the goo off
my stinky frame. I HATE natto. I know what you're thinking, go see a
doctor, right? Get real people, I'm trying to write a story here.

The misery continued despite stomach powders diet changes and the like.
Then my "green eggs and ham" moment came. During a meal at an
Isakaya, a Japanese style of restaurant that serves small dishes and
drinks; Yoshiko introduced to an omelette with Natto in it. Not being
aware of the fermented bean presence I chomped down. Ohh, that
stench... hey this omelette has Natto in it! Then instantly... almost
instantaneously and immediately not to mention right away there was a
feeling of overwhelming contentment in my stomach. What a phenomenal
relief! It was like sending Mr. T into my stomach telling my bad
enzymes to "cut your jibber jabba foo!". I LOVE natto!

Natto became my indigestion medicine. I ate it now and then to put out
the fire. But then in February I went to the Keio cycling camp and
Namuta San, an excellent athlete and cyclist, reveled in his post ride
natto. Was natto more than a stomach friend? Why yes. Natto is a
fabulous source of protein. So easy to digest and a buffer for all the
crud cyclists love to snack on. So now natto is my secret weapon, my
performance enhancing drug. After a hard ride a protein shake and
natto (not mixed together) gives me a great feeling of satisfaction
and recovery.

So don't ask me "do you really like to eat Natto?", because I'm not in
it for the taste.

Some natto links for the curious:
NATTO1
NATTO2
NATTO3
NATTO4
NATTO5

And, yes you can make natto at home!!
MAKE NATTO AT HOME!

Design Festa

2005-05-16T18:00:00.000-07:00

I really didn't have much motivation to participate in a "design
festa". Especially when you consider how much cash I would have to
drop for a 1.8 by 1.8 meter piece of cement somewhere on the floor of
the Tokyo Big sight exhibition center built on an island of garbage.
I was turned off, and as usual loathe to part with my money to exhibit
my artwork.
That being said, I needed some kind of motivation to do something
before I chose some other scary options, like "more work", or "ride my
bike more" or "watch more TV". Since design festa offered the
possibility to create your own space and exhibit whatever pleased you,
it seemed like the best option to alleviate impending feelings of
uselessness. Plus, I got a tax refund check that was the same amount
as the exhibit price... so, the answer would be yes, be prepared to
festa.
After two months of semi intensive preparation the date of the show
arrived. My friend Ian came over and spent the night. We got up early
the next day to take the train out to Daiva, the island constructed of
garbage, where the exhibition center is. Despite Ian's warnings about
Daiva having a cockroach infestation; we trudged my odd sized
materials on to the train and twenty five minutes later we were
marching towards our destination. When we got in we set up quickly.
This gave me an opportunity to walk around the center and see the other
exhibitors setting up. I saw right away that my efforts of preparing
over the last couple of months paled in comparison to others. Not only
were some booths constructed with incredible care and effort, many
showed great imagination and ability. Puppet theaters, music studios,
performance installation spaces, massage lounges, food booths and every
imaginable kind of cheezy unnecessary cutesy impulse buy shwaggy junk
was on display. My humble booth featured a large "partition", marker
drawing on a former refrigerator box that really served more as an
impact image to draw the public over. Also on display was a collection
of baseball caps that I made using fabric markers, scissors and
matches. To top it off a place to examine my portfolios, write down
adulations of my greatness and take a business card. To the left of me
a couple had purchased two spaces to show their painting and
drawings... they were really, really good and I was really happy to
have them next to me. However, they would leave their space unattended
for hours, and when present would spend all their time creating more
artwork. The guy was painting a psychedelic masterpiece and the person
I assume to be his wife compulsively drawing on one paper plate after
another, no prices were mentioned and no attempts were made to sell
anything. On the other side of me, in contrast, a couple of
Anglophiles had set up something that looked more like a swap meet
booth. They were totally disorganized and came late, set up well over
the boundaries and bickered with each other often. One of the
"artists" was particularly annoying. He would call people over, even
when they were looking at the work in my booth, and offer to write
their names in English with a paint brush, then he would ask for
payment. I maintained my smugness, well aware that at 800 yen a pop,
there was no way he could re-coup his expenses. Never the less it
would have given me greater pleasure to have the Sepaku robot in the
booth down the way take a chop at this dork before taking it's own
life. Across the way from my booth was a calligrapher dressed in light
samurai garb. She was advertising her services as a calligraphy
teacher while offering to write your name for you. Yoshiko told me
despite her efforts and ambitions, there is no way to become a master
calligrapher until your reach the age of 65... then you retire?
The two days were filled with folks shuffling in and out of displays,
macking at the international food court and getting wowed at the
fashion show and outdoor live music stage. There was really no
particular age or style that seemed turned on by my work, though I
tried to maintain the delusion that only people of discriminating
taste would discover true artistic greatness upon entering. People
seemed primarily interested in the partition and the burned hats, it
seemed that the novelty of an "idea", was a big issue. I was warned by
more than one person that my burned hat idea may be stolen...egad, how
do I know I thought of it first?

Chiba is Cheaper

2005-02-25T18:00:00.000-08:00

It started on a cold January morning in a dry snow flurry at the Oi Futo warf.
Derrek rolled up to me... I was freezing into a headwind, hands aching and numb,
nose snot water flowing, just trying to keep a 32kph pace. "Lets go", says Derrek in
knee warmers and vest. Soon we were attacking everyone in sight around and around
the 10k course. Now I was warm...but who is this dude we can't shell?
After taking hard turns he proved to hang tough. Eventually he rolled up to me and asked
"do you race?". I was about to snap back,"what do you think we were just doing?"
But thought better and a we began chatting going back in forth with English and Japanese.
He turned out to be a serious racer on a small team. I suggested we train together,
we shared emails and went our separate way. Luckly I did get an email from him, Numata San,
suggesting I come join him at the Keio University training camp out in the sticks of Chiba
for only 2000 yen (apprx 20.00bucks) a day. Being an odd jobs dude who often has weekdays
off I agreed. I prepaired myself for a couple of days of speaking Japanese and going for
epic rides with students of the most prestigious private college in Japan. I took the train out after work
on Tuesday night with the specter of Wendnesday rain approaching. I arrived at a
countryside stop in an area that reminded me of Gaviota along the 101 north of Santa Barbara.
It was so slow the station master wasn't in and instead a box to drop off the ticket.
Numata San came up as I was unpacking my bike and shortly escorted me back to a beautiful youth center
overlooking the beach. I met the group of colligate riders over a cafeteria meal that tasted
as cheap as it cost. I was introduced to Smooki san, a track guy who got second in the
collegate keirin (oval track) championships last year and Kitagawa san who was
looking to win the under 23 age road race championship. Numata san had already graduated and
is now racing the domestic pro calendar in Japan. He trains over 600k's a week and
has asperations to race in Spain for a division three squad, which begs the question...who
should have been kicking who's butt on that fridgid day in Oi? More on that later.
I got set up in a room straight out of Gomer Pile, with six of us bunking together in a room
for ten which should be for four. After a quiet evening sure enough we awoke to rain.
Kitagawa, Numata and I were ready for some crazy hours of wet riding.
But this camp had many young beginning riders who would get frazzled, so we cancelled.
For Japanese, it means everyone cancels together. So we settled for a boring morning
on the trainers and an amusing afternoon of indoor soccer and volleyball in the gym.
With an hour of Sunlight left; Kitagawa, Namuta and I snuck off in the dying
storm for a hilly ride in which we no holds barred attacked the heck out of each other,
all the pent up energy flushed out and left us in high spirits crusing back to center.
At night Smooki San couldn't go to sleep. He kept everyone awake chatting endlessly about equipment,
especially carbon wheels. I didn't think I liked this guy and It started to get to me,
so I tried to join the conversation. More uptight than I realized, I blurted that they
think of bikes like women, I thought after that comment that I would be sleeping outside that night.
But instead they broke out in laughter and agreed whole heartedly, then continued
their conversation. The next morning there was unexpected rain. We had a long ride
planned and went out at nine am. The rain stopped at almost the exact same time we left.
We headed up the highway through small towns and beachfront. Whenever Smooki hit the
front the speed would jump at least six kph. I matched his speed and after about
fifty kilometers there was moaning and swearing coming from behind. We managed
to get to our first rest stop and I few of the riders waited for a slower group behind
as we continued on to an inland hilly area. After 70k we got to a place that looped
around every 25k with 1to2k climbs, twisty decents and NO STOP LIGHTS. We were to do five
laps, but I was starting to get worried about the return trip and how much time we had.
Putting that out of my mind, Kitagawa, Namuta and I played king of the mountain over and over.
I started to get riled up because these sub 60 kilo dudes would keep gapping me by
about three meters at the top. I would keep going after the crest and hammer my way
down and along the flat roads, they would get dropped and I have to wait for them.
That's why I am now known among the Keio riders as the flat road race guy.
I had a bigger frustration which was getting back. I figured we had at least seventy
kilometer return trip in store to get back to the youth center and it was mid afternoon.
They kept trying to explain something to me but couldn't understand. I had heard from
Derrek that some Japanese racing club captains just can't get enough making their team
become totally fatigued, I was starting to panic. But Namuta San, who was just ripping on
everyone up the hills asked me to hang in there for one more lap since by this point I was
the only one who could match his pace. Then I saw that Smooki San had had enough and was
returning. I saw a great opportunity for a smooth two up back to the
center and joined him. We were riding along great and I was starting to think I really
like this guy. Smooki mentioned something about 3k. I thought, 3k to a convenience store?
I found out that actually we had done a complete loop and were right behind the Center!
Still I finished the day with 150k and sore satisfied legs. That night Smooki was at it
again until almost midnight, he must have said the word "Carbon Clincher", at least 100 times,
I didn't think I liked this guy. The last day, we went on a morning tear for about two hours.
Smooki was again the hero and we broke away into a tail wind trading pulls that topped out at
close to 60kph, I think I like this guy. In conclusion, I made some new friends and got
some real time Japanese practice in. I have genuine concerns over Namuta sans desire to race
pro in Spain. However, he's really motivated and has already learned a fair bit of Spanish;
I think he just has to go there and learn for himself. Maybe he can do it. Smooki san said he
could get me on the track if I join his club, which is a serious consideration with all the difficulties
trying to train road in Tokyo. Kitagawa san insists he must win the u23 this year, so I hope he gets in
the right move and pulls it off. By the way, my final bill for three days came out to sixty bucks.
Thanks for reading.

Namuta San's Diary of his racing in Spain. Mostly Japanese words written in English alphabet.
Namuta San's Diary

Stories from the Far Yeast

2004-09-15T18:00:00.000-07:00

Stories from the Far Yeast
The unexpected rise of Japanese Bagels

Part one, how to make a Japanese Bagel:
• Get one supermarket quality white bread hamburger bun.
• Stick index finger in center, creating hole.
• Place in sun on sidewalk, preferably on hot day.
• Let sit for two hours or when outside is getting stale.
• Enjoy.

Part two, bread:
What’s up with Japanese bread? After coming here I found that the bread in Japan is different than real bread. We all know what real bread is; it’s what we ate before we went somewhere else. What’s authentic, what’s real, we know. And we know that Japanese bread is well…just not right.
The main problem revolves around softness; a sort of dense mushy softness, like a Twinkie. Sure, this softness is great with a certain kinds of bread, and pastry. Oh, and Japanese do make delicious pastries. This kind of refined flour softness seems to be the only sort of dough that Japanese bakers understand. To San Franciscans reading this, beware; if you come to Japan prepare to say goodbye to hardy sourdoughs, homey wheat and wholesome ryes and say hello to starchy heartburn paste-bread.

Part three, bagel overview:
So, where does that leave us with Japanese bagels? First we need to acknowledge that the bagel is a complex thing; at best it’s warm and inviting, a firm but giving shiny crust and soft (not too dense) flavorful inside. It’s not easy to make a bagel. My father, perhaps the foremost bagel expert on the American west coast; views the advantages of the superior bagel to be as subtle as the water mineral content and the air quality of the environment. A true bagel production facility requires many deft hands and a focus on consistency. The equipment involved and the temperatures can be surprisingly elaborate and difficult to operate. Because of these numerous factors, it has been only recently that bagels have established a beachhead in Japan. In the mid nineties one would be hard pressed to find a bagel monger. In an act of 1990’s cultural defiance, my friend Joseph actually tried to make bagels at home. Needless to say after burnt fingers and a mind boggling gas bill, he never ventured back to bagel production. He and many other foreigners awaited the coming beat of the bagel drum from over seas.
And depending on who you speak to, we’re still waiting. As we will examine in my unprecedented attempt at rating the bagels of Tokyo, none of them meet my demanding standards.

Part four, rating the bagels.
All bagels were eaten raw, in their pristine, uninhibited form. Unless otherwise mentioned all bagels sampled were in plain style in order to evaluate more fairly.
1. Bagel and Bagel, New York Style Bagel. 147 yen. Sampled in Shinjuku train station, south exit: A bagel stand that is situated throughout Tokyo serves individually plastic wrapped bagels in a variety of flavors. Straight from the play-do fun factory for the unexpecting consumer. Bagel and Bagel tops my list as #1 looser bagel. As one web sight mentioned, “As authentic to New York as it would be to Papua New Guinea.
2. Afternoon Tea, bakery. 75 yen. Sampled in Sendagaya near Nalishima bike shop. This pretentious bakery/ café are usually seen in designer showrooms and boutique centers They got the outside right! I think they basically got the idea. For a space saving measure the softness inside caused the bagel to flatten down and fit in your pocket. Good try.
3. Vie De France, Nakano Sakaue Train Station. 125 yen. A popular bakery/ café that is everywhere in Tokyo. Vie De France serves edible breads and decent sandwiches as well pastries. There was no plain bagel so I ordered the Wheat Germ bagel. This was good as bread, and would not be surprised to see it featured in their ham and cheese sandwich special (with mayonnaise).
4. Junoesque Bagels; Sampled in the Takashimia food court. 137 yen. My quest for ranking the bagels took me to one of the notorious food courts located in the basement of almost all the big department stores in Tokyo. So bad that I laughed out loud upon my first bite when I realized all the fun I would have criticizing it. Junoesque bagels were pleasantly reminiscent of unbaked pizza dough. The producer of these flavorless bread nuggets has the audacity to stamp their name on each one with a sort of branding embossment.
5. Anderson bakery; Isetan food court. 105 yen. In a strange way this was my least favorite bagel to taste because it hinted at a true bagel taste, but didn’t really deliver. Despite feeling betrayed and teased by this dry and over-baked slightly rubbery pseudo-bagel, I decided to make a note of the place. Just in case I got desperate.
6. Hokou bakery, Shinjuku Nishijuchi exit of Shinjuku train station near Kaio department store. 126 yen. This bagel sucked! As those who have ventured to Japan know, the bakeries always have a tray and tongs to self serve the pastries. When my tong clasped the Hokou bagel there was no resistance, just soft and spongy, bready bouncy bagel. Basically it tasted like a bad version of Junoesque Bagels. So bad! Dang, where’s the Tums!
7. Meidiya grocery store bakery, Hero-o. 125yen. I realized if I was to complete my Bagel review I would have to head down town to the “foreigner”, section. Hero-o is a place of European and American ex-pats living on company subsidized rents. Stores here cater to the needs of the wealthy Japanese and Westerners. My first stop was at the very prestigious grocery store, Meidiya. Their bakery (which spells bagel, bagle) sent industrial spies next store to a conveniently located Bagel and Bagel, creating a similar bagel (bagle).
8. National Azabu grocery store, Hero-o. 307yen for three bagels. National Azabu market is a great place to walk around a pretend your back in the USA. All sorts of American products and produce, even English radio wafting about. They had Tribeca bagels, three per bag. I was about to discard this believing they were imported from the states frozen, like H and H bagels. However, Yoshiko read the bag and assured me they were made in Chofu, about ten miles west of Tokyo. They were edible bagels and the best I’ve tasted in Japan. Boring.
9. Pan-ya (pan means bread in Japanese) Z bakery, Ebisu. 120yen. The weirdest bagel ever. This tiny organic bakery serves up straw baskets of really nice looking rolls, but I was there to dare, and I snatched up one of their tiny soft-as-cake bagels (spelled bagle). Here’s the kicker, it tasted pretty good. But it was like someone peeled the outside of the Bagel off and left a quality inside. Maybe they should meet Afternoon Tea.

Well there it is; the most comprehensive Tokyo Bagel guide ever. Please enjoy the attached drawing of a bagel trapped in a plastic bag, yearning for freedom from its pre-packaged nightmare. Thanks for reading!

Sumo

2004-03-15T18:30:00.000-08:00

Sumo
It was inevitable; I am a sports fan, I’ve got a TV and I live in Japan. I am now into Sumo and watch it at any given opportunity.
The appeal of Sumo lies in tradition and simplicity; two naked dudes trying to push each other out of the ring or make any part of their opponent’s body besides the soles of their feet touch the ground. It has been like that for over a thousand years, the same way. Tradition bound Japanese in the Sumo association work to make the sport as authentic as possible. In the ring where the action is, truly it is the same, but things are changing outside the “dojo”.
The big change over the last fifteen years is the foreign invasion. It started in the 1970’s with Hawaiians. The looming behemoth known as Akebono is actually a home boy from the island whose real name is Chad (Akebono is his wrestling name). He was the first foreigner to have taken the title of Yokuzuna, grand master. At the time there were also Japanese grand masters so perhaps there was a somewhat harmonious feeling with these new bloated imports. But with the recent retirement of Takanohana, there are no Japanese grand masters, in fact there is only one grand master. Asashoryu, the Blue Dragon, from Mongolia.
This Sumo bad boy had proven to be a nightmare for the Sumo association. At a mere 130kilos Asahoryu is lean, mean, fast, vicious, arrogant and nearly unbeatable. His antics on and off the ring have brought unwanted controversy to the sport. When he pulled on the top knot in the hair of a fellow Mongolian wrester he was known to dislike, Asashoryu shocked traditionalists who feel the Yokuzuna should be the embodiment of the restraint and stoicism in Sumo. There where calls to strip him of his rank. Most recently Asashoryu failed to show up to the traditional Sumo event on New Years day because he was in Mongolia visiting family. Then a photographer caught him wearing a business suit, when he should only be seen in public in his Kimono. The Sumo association was outraged and once again threatened to strip Asashoryu of his rank. In response Asashoryu came to the tournament and trashed the competition. In a display of fast and furious wrestling the Yokuzuna took out every competitor within seconds, throwing men 100 pounds heavier like sacks of potatoes (see drawing). Slapping, pushing and thrusting to a rare “Sensho Usho”, meaning an unbeaten 15 and 0 tournament winner.
I love Sumo, it is really violent and brutal. When the fighters fly off the raised wrestling mat into the audience or when the sound of the initial impact picks up on the TV like two coconuts smashing together, I feel I am watching one of the most intense and real sports in the world. I appreciate Asashoryu not only because he is a great Sumo wrester, but because he’s the outsider. I really relate to him because he is dedicated to excellence in the ring, but he’s his own man. I feel the same way. I want to dedicate to excellence in what I do; my drawing, teaching, cycling, but I don’t want anyone to dictate to me how to live my life. Just respect the results.

Tokyo Crow

2004-01-15T18:00:00.000-08:00

Tokyo Crow

Enough already, you think were soft here in Sushi-ville? Oh, New York, so tough. And Chicago, chi town, don’t mess. No, you folks are way off. There is one thing every so called “tough” city in this ever loving globe of ours lacks that makes Tokyo just that much tougher. The Tokyo Crow.

Oh, you say, oh Lyle, you silly. We have crows right here in California, they’re noisy little pack animals on wings.

The animal you call a crow is a laughable, mere Karen Carpenter like version of the crows of Tokyo. This animal first came to my attention as a baleful cry on a deserted early October morning in my first days here. I thought it was a cat fight, and though it is true that Tokyo streets are swarming with the feral spawn of un-neutered felines this echo from the streets above caused me to inquire to Yoshiko what it could be. She was surprised that I had no afore knowledge of the Crow, and though it would be days later before I would truly behold the winged beast, it’s haunting cry in our early jet lagged wanderings would leave me curious.

In the days coming up to my first sighting I found more disturbing information on the Crows. They invaded the streets ripping apart trash cans and tearing plastic bags with ease, strewing garbage across the normally tidy Japanese roads. Some objects that were taken from garbage cans were frighteningly large, leading me to believe I was dealing with a sort of uber-crow. Yoshiko informed me to take caution on trouncing through the local parks as it has been reported that Crows attack people from above, drawing blood and inciting fear in the hearts of early morning joggers.

Finally, it was my turn to witness the beasts. It was when I first moved in to my apartment on garbage day. The crows gather in teams and call out where the good morsels are easiest to render and plunder. These crows are about the size of a hawk, with large squared heads and beaks a raven would be envious of; big and scimitar like. The calls of the crow can range from the cry of an infant to the sound of an ambulance call horn. Because there are no rivals to the winged menace, they walk the street like sinister pigeons, unafraid of you coming within feet of them.

Though I had heard stories of the crow’s viciousness, I took the risk of riding my mountain bike through the trails carved into the slopes by the homeless folk, who camp out in Yoyogi park. The tree tops and leaf covered embankments were filled with crows calling at me and each other upon my appearance. They were loath to move and bobbed around or hovered close as I passed. But though I was intimidated, I found that crows save their most vicious nature for each other. What I believe to be alpha male struggles are to put most other animal species to shame. The crows rip and rend each other while grabbing with their claws causing feathers to fly and total loss of control while the other crows gather around and squawk their approval and place their bets. The most dramatic battle pitted to especially big fellas who tumbled down the slope of a hill in a death grip. The slope ended with a ten foot brick wall which the two tumbled off of and fell to the sidewalk below, neither yielding as blood feathers and shreaking caught the attention of even the most self absorbed salary man walking by.
Then the two flew off still nipping at each other, neither giving ground.
Attached is a drawing, as the crow is one of the inspirations that I have found in my time here so far.
Enjoy and happy new year.

Great crow photos (notice how wisely the folks of Tokyo secure their garbage in order to deter the beasts).
crow photos

Anti Semie

2003-09-15T18:30:00.002-07:00

After a dreamy time in California I returned to Tokyo and predictable conditions. The 747 hit the Narita runway flawlessly, thankful to the other predictable condition of excellent Thai airline pilots, in a full rain storm. The dreary conditions did not let up during the following days through the weekend. The only let up was predictably during Sunday morning, the only real opportunity to get a serious bike ride in, when I balked and lost my chance to get out in fear of rain soaked cycling. The short reprieve of rain brought a new dynamic. A sound like a hundred radio controlled cars slowly winding down like on a spring. The sound was coming across the street in the temple property. Yoshiko explained calmly they are a sort of insect called Semie. I did not solicit more information, but I simply took from Yoshiko’s calmness that it was diejoboo, okay. What a strange curiosity and reminder of my foreign experience.
Frustrated with jet lag, sitting around and boredom, I vowed to get out for the rest of the week on my bike. This required rising at the crack of dawn and taking to some local oversize roads around famous sights in the city. The first two mornings brought characteristic drizzle, which made its appearance simultaneously to leaving the apartment. Later in the day the rain would subside, bringing the return of the Semie sound. On a walk to the subway I saw one… oh, they are big, looks kind of like a very big moth.
Then Wednesday came, finally some relief for my training. I rode with all my heart to make up for Sunday. I stormed all of my local haunts in the largest gear and fastest speed I could muster. Turning the corner on Ome Kaido street to my home, I saw a golf ball size blur fly towards my left arm, then there is something on my leg. Without looking down I attempt to brush it off with my hand… is it a leaf? Oh god, it’s a Semie, it’s one of those Semies! Looking back on it, I am relieved I didn’t look down while I frantically swiped my leg, my hand brushing over something that felt like a stiff plastic box stuck to my leg. Ouch, it bit me as it fell off. When I got home, I treated a faint red bite mark while Yoshiko assured me that there was no poison or infection.
Two days of dryness later, I woke up pre dawn. My bike fully assembled to go out once again, I prepared to set forth. Oh, I forgot my pump, it’s out on the balcony. Upon opening the sliding glass door in flew a huge plump Semie. A churning fear and hopelessness seized me as I got my true first up close look of the humming bird sized form of insecthood. It immediately slammed into our ceiling light. I charged out of the room crying. I had a Scrub Jay in my apartment before in San Mateo, but after the initial shock I was humored and amazed by the winged intruder. However the Semie brought waves of fear and nausea. Was it because of the extreme alien nature of a being that can show no expression, no fear, no sign as to any intentions. Or perhaps I feel cowed as I sense deep inside that the insect world is the dominant life form of our earth, despite the vast achievements of my species.
If you can remember Woody Allen in Anne Hall when he attempted to expel the spider from her bathroom, you basically got me pegged as to how I behaved. The babblings of fear naturally awakened Yoshiko and I quickly explained my situation. The sporadically buzzing Semie had now taken a shining to the fire detector and we peeked at it behind our sliding door separating our living room. Yes, I wasn’t hallucinating; it really is as big as a humming bird; transparent wings and a black bulbous hairy frame with six claws. Yoshiko bemoaned our lack of bug spay as if it could take out this mammoth. The dawn was coming and we could hear the Semies across the street. Maybe it would attract our friend into leaving. Nothing doing, instead it decided it was nap time and we heard it drop to some mystery spot on our living room floor. It was time to take action. Armed with a long handled broom and dust pan as sword and shield as well as a can of deodorant supplied by Yoshiko as make shift bug spray, I edged around the sliding door into the living room. Yes, of course it had to be me, I am the man, the protector, I must expel the threat to our territory. Where is it? How the hell could something so big go missing? I started poking around, behind a shopping bag there came a buzz, oh god. Oh god, I have to keep poking until it starts to fly; it moved on to Yoshiko’s backpack. The glass window to the balcony was open and I was ready. I swatted the behemoth and it took to the sky. “Shut off, shut off the light!” I squeaked to Yoshiko, realizing that the Semie may return to its initial interest. The light goes off, and the bug cruises out of the apartment.
We sat on the bed afterward and retold the story to each other before Yoshiko returned to sleep and I got on with my ride; powering along and feeling strangely more masculine.
I thought this story was over, but there was yet another Semi incident the following week. While cycling in the early morning once again a giant humming semi on a reckless course tempted a path trough my front wheel. Needless to say, a Cuisinart couldn’t have fared much better in dismembering as parts of the poor beast scattered across the road and the front of my bicycle as well as my shoes and legs. Thoroughly disgusted with my Semie experience, I was glad when the dryer cooler fall weather came and the sound of wind-up cars went away for another year.

Japan's true National Treasure

2003-09-10T10:19:00.000-07:00

You see them everywhere. These men in retirement years that find wonderful things to do with their time; gamble, wander the streets, checking the race reports, smoking, going to the track, going to the powerboat races, going to the bike races, gambling, smoking, drinking and urinating on the street. Yes, they are family men. They sacrificed their best years to make Japan a world economic powerhouse. And now they spend their time wearing their wife’s clothes.
What? Yes it is true. I first learned of this trend when in conversation with my riding friend Derrek, who lives near a popular sports center for horse racing and power boat racing. We were musing on the behaviors of our late middle aged friends; the look of disorientation, the aimless wanderings in their pajamas and such. Then Derrek mentioned one aspect I was unaware of; ladies clothes. Not the whole transvestite shebang, mind you, just a guy wearing women’s clothes.
My first sighting came on the subway. A sensible pants suit with a fringy blouse overlay; moderate heels and a broad summer hat: perfect for that long afternoon at the track. The kind subway passengers paid him no heed. He caught my curious eye with a look that said, “I see you are looking at me, I am looking at you as well”. You may be surprised to find out that it was me who felt like the outsider for showing interest and not our crossgender challenged friend.
The special treasure came yet again on one of my early morning cycle adventures (no longer referred to as training rides due to the flawlessly improbable nature of these sunrise forays into Tokyo’s bad streets). I am riding by Yoyogi park when I spot a jogger in a classic Olivia Newton John “let’s get physical” era work- out suit. It was a fine uniform of a purple thong leotard over lavender stockings, topped off with a sash purple headband. I looked at him as if to say, “I am disinterested, however I am looking”.