Monday, November 22, 2004

Happy

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The past couple weeks have gone by too fast. I've spent countless hours importing music into my computer and iPod and have neglected updating this blog, so I'm just gonna breeze over the highlights of the past couple weeks for posterity's sake.

Last Friday (11/12) I went to Yokkaichi with my friends Toku, Miho, and Shaka to see Kei, the local improvisational guitarist who played at my Halloween party. Kei was playing with a special guest from Argentina named Fernando Kabusacki.

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Kei


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Fernando Kabusacki with red shoes


They played in a really interesting log cabin cafe called Galliver with tables made from sliced tree trunks and the menus were made from old vinyl record sleeves. I think our menu was made from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.

The show itself is impossible to describe, but it was really amazing with heavily distorted guitars, computer effects, and even snippits of the O' Brother soundtrack thrown in for good measure.

That Monday (11/15) I went to Anjo, on the eastern side of Nagoya, to see my friends Big Frog from Tokyo play to a packed house of over 300 people, while Richard J snapped some amazing photos of the event.

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Big Frog


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Smile


This was a full on rock n roll party that saw Big Frog light the club on fire with enough high octane rock to make the members of Led Zepplin scowl. They left me, my friends, and the large rowdy group of Japanese aliens from the 4th dimension partying behind us, in tatters.

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Shimi & Sato


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Maccos in the driver's seat


As an encore, they brought out members A-Funk Syndicate, a local Southern rock band, to play a cover of the Band's The Weight.

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A-Funk Syndicate sitting in


One of the highlights for me was actually when the show ended and the after show music was Pat Boone singing a Sinatra style version of Crazy Train. Classic.

This past Friday (11/19) I went into Nagoya with my friend Shaka because there was a free trance party in the middle of downtown Nagoya.

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Trance Party


Trance is not really my thing, but the location in the middle of the city made for a great setting and atmosphere. It always amazes me the type of people that show up at these kind of parties. I met one really short, old Japanese guy who spoke Spanish to me because he'd traveled in South America at some point in time.

There were other young people there dressed in very outlandish and colorful outfits that seem to break the mold of conservative Japan.

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SpiderMan


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Fire Dancing


Sunday (11/21) I met Crazy Will in Nagoya and went shopping. He wanted to buy an iPod, so we pooted around a computer store for a bit, and he came away with a 40GB device that I'm sure he's gonna love.

Later in the afternoon we went to Kiso San Sen Koen (Three Rivers Park) and met a group of tri-athlon members from my gym. They ran a marathon relay race that morning and were celebrating with a BBQ party by the river.

We had a great time chowing down on lots of food and playing baseball and a knock-down drag out game of dodgeball with everyone. All the kids (big & small) joined the fun.

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SunGarden BBQ


Later that night Will called some American friends living in Ichinomiya to come to my house to hang out.

Steve, Jim, and Cordelia came by about 8pm and brought a few bottles of sake with them. We heated it up, drank, listened to music, and chatted about everything from life in Japan to American politics. Eventually more friends came by to share in the fun and we had a full on party happening.

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Party People


Will had a blast DJing off my iTunes and eventually started wresting with Jim in my living room. Things got a bit unruly when the spilled wine on my beige bean bag chair and knocked my paper doors off the sliding track, but it was all in good fun and nothing was seriously damaged.

Late in the night we decided to walk down the street to a large abandoned Pachinko/Bowling center that's completely bombed out and looks like it belongs in Baghdad rather than Peace Town.

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Bombed-Out Pachinko Parlor


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Steve by candle light


Steve, Jim, and I took a flashlight and a few candles and went exploring with two young Japanese that were scared out of their minds. The girls were so petrified that it kind of hindered us boys having fun, but in the girls defense the place is very creepy.

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Bombed Out


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Baghdad Bowling


After that it was very late and everyone was pretty exhausted, so we called it a night. I'm not sure if anyone had any nightmares, but I know I slept really well.

Sunday, November 21, 2004

Frozen Wooly Mammoth Arrives in Japan

My Way News

expo

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20041119/D86F8BG86.html

TOKYO (AP) - World fairs have typically focused on the wonders of the future, highlighting new technologies from glass and steel construction in the 19th century to satellites and computers today. But next year's fair is different.

The Japanese organizers of the 2005 world's fair have shipped a 18,000-year-old frozen woolly mammoth from Siberia to become the centerpiece attraction.

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Kyoto is up

It took me more than a week to post my Kyoto trip, but it's finally up. Please scroll down to read/see the entry or just click this link:

http://heyheygig.blogspot.com/2004/11/kyoto.html#comments

Basically the arrival of a new computer, trying to learn a new operating system which drastically changes how to make entries to this blog, and spending way too much time loading music into my new iPod are what slowed the Kyoto entry down.

I haven't figured out how to run spell/grammar checks on this thing yet, so if you see something shocking please forgive me. I'm just glad I finally got the thing posted.

Now I gotta get caught up with everything else.

Saturday, November 13, 2004

MoveOn.org: Investigate the Vote

MoveOn.org:
Investigate the Vote
: "Questions are swirling around whether the election was conducted honestly or not. We need to know -- was it or wasn't it?

If people were wrongly prevented from voting, or if legitimate votes were mis-counted or not counted at all, we need to know so the wrongdoers can be held accountable, and to help prevent this from happening again. "

Please sign this petition:
http://www.moveon.org/investigatethevote/

If you're not convinced there is probable cause to investigate the election please read the following articles.

States with electronic voting machines gave Bush mysterious 5% advantage
http://www.newstarget.com/002076.html

Exit polls data: accurate except in counties using electronic voting machines
http://img103.exs.cx/img103/4526/exit_poll.gif

Ohio officials block public from observing vote count
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/11/05/loc_warrenvote05.html

Machine Error Gives Bush Extra Ohio Votes
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041105/ap_on_el_pr/voting_problems

Voting machines in Florida count backward
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/news/epaper/2004/11/05/a29a_BROWVOTE_1105.html

Did Kerry concede too soon?
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/981

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Kyoto

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For the past week the weather has been absolutetly perfect. I had a long weekend, so I decided to join my friends Jason and Haruka on a pilgramage to Kyoto.

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Jason & Haruka


We met Sunday morning just off the highway, not far from my house, around 8am. I left my car in a parking lot and got in the back seat of Jason and Haruka's station wagon. Jason drove while Haruka navigated and I played DJ from the back seat.

We arrived in Kyoto about 11am and went straight to a sprawling complex of temples known as Tofukuji.

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Sub-temple in Tofukuji


Inside this complex there were various sub-temples with beautiful rock gardens made by Mirie Shigemori, a famous garden builder from the 1930s who sought to express the simplicity of Zen through modern art.

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Rock Garden


The largest temple in the Tofukuji complex we visited was Hojo (Abbot's Hall). It consisted of four rock gardens, one on each side of the temple, made by Shigemori.

My two favorites was the southern garden which represented islands (jagged rocks) amongst rough seas with mossy moutains (boulders) at the far side and the northern garden with square stones and moss in a checkered pattern.

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Northern Garden Checkers


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Southern Garden Islands


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Southern Garden Mossy Mountains


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Southern Garden


We also visited another sub-temple which is normally not open to the public and saw an intense rock garden made to represent a dragon flying in and out of the clouds. Unfornuately, cameras were not allowed.

After Tofukuji we walked down the road to a funky little restaraunt with red walls and ate Kamo (wild goose), chicken balls with vegetables, miso soup, and Yuba (a strange by product of tofu).

Haruka wanted to go off alone and do some shopping, so Jason and I drove through town, with me navigating this time, to another temple on the northern side of town called Tanuki Dani Fudo-in.

To reach this temple, we had to climb a myriad of steps. Upon arriving at the bottom of the steps, there were several Tanuki statues. A tanuki is a Japanese badger known for his unusually large scrotem and promiscuous behavior.

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Tanuki


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About halfway up the steps there was a mysterious, shadowy statue of a monk.

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Mysterious Monk


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Mysterious Monk


At the top of the steps was a large wooden temple on stilts with barrells of sake underneath.

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Tanuki Dani Fudo-in


Around the main temple were several shirnes depicting various scenes, like a Buddha with babies crawling on him, and another Buddha behind bars. Jason and I presumed these were places people came to pray for infants or relatives in prison.

Unbeknownest to me, on the deck of the main temple the two most prominent pillars were covered in small wooden tags. It took me a minuet to read the signs in Japanese, but I finally figured out it was in prayer for people suffering from cancer.

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Gan (cancer)


I immediatly went and bought a tag in honor of my uncle Ned, who is battling brain caner.

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Cousin Harris, Uncle Ned, & Cousin Stuart


I incribed his name and age on the tag and circled the appropriate body parts afflicted by the cancer.

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Wooden tags of prayer


Then, I went inside the temple doors, made a small offering and said a long, deep, emotional prayer.

Walking back down the steps, I needed some comic relief, so Jason and I stopped and started taking ridiculous pictures of some of the statues along side the steps.

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Face


We met back up with Haruka at a pension in Higashiyama and then walked down a side street for dinner in a small Jazz cafe. The restaraunt, located next to a canal, had a nice atmosphere with Ella Fitzgerald-esqu jazz playing softly in the background, but they sat us at a table that was too small, so we had to eat fast in order to make room for the next dish.

After dinner we walked around the corner to Shoren-Nin Temple.

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Shoren-Nin


This temple, with sevaral enormous trees along the ouside wall, was spectacularly lit with flood lights all around the temple grounds.

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Shoren-Nin


We entered the temple and passed by a large kanji (Chinese) character that meant dream. Then we went through a large tatami (straw) mat room and casually bumped into one of the temple's monks. He, in very good English, suggested we try and have our fortune read.

In the tatami room was a small alter with instructions to kneel down, repeat a saying in Japanese three times, then shake a cylindrical box until a numbered chopstick comes out a small hole in the box.

Out of maybe a hundred or so chopsticks, mine was number one. Ichi-ban!

I carried it with me while we were checking out the temple, a very large multi-roomed place where the emperor of Japan used to stay while visiting Kyoto.

Just before exiting the temple and entering the temple's garden, we traded in our chopsticks for our fortune. Haruka had to translate for us, but basically Jason's was not so good; Haruka's was okay, and mine shot over the moon. Best fortune ever.

Feeling self assured, we walked through the lit up garden and through a small bamboo forest behind the temple.

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Bamboo Forest


The last part of the garden we visted was the most wonderful. Inside a small room, with the doorway roped off, was a portrait of the 'God of Light'. We were instructed to make a wish in front of the portrait, then turn around and face the garden.

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God of Light


In the garden, there were several lights on 10sec timers going off and on at different intervals. In the center of the lights was a projection of a sanskrit symbol. We were instructed to say the symbol, pronounced BOH-ROH-N, when it appreared amongst the other lights. Very cool experience.

Last but not least, next to the garden exit, was the grand bell of Shoren-Nin Temple. To my knowledge, this is the only temple in Kyoto that let's tourist ring the bell.

To grab the thick rope holding a suspended tree, swing it into a giant brass bell, and stand there as it reverberates all around you with a wah-wah-wah effect; all the while the lights are going off and on around you, was a truely mystical experience.

After that we were ready for bed.

The next morning we woke up, had breakfast at the pension, and went back to Shoren-Nin to see what it looked like in the morning sun.

It was a completely different atmosphere in the morning, just as cool, but totally different. We walked around very slowly and checked everything out for a second time, occasionally relaxing on the tatami or just sitting and taking in the garden.

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Haruka relaxing


Next, we walked just up the road a bit to the San Mon (Third Gate) of Chio-in Temple. Most of the year this gate is off limits for tourists' entry, but we got lucky and were able to climb the steep steps and enter the sacred room on the top of the gate.

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Chio-in San Mon


In all the time I've lived in Japan, I've never seen Japanese archticture quite like the inside of this gate. In sharp contrast to the brown and white exterior, inside it was brightly colored with dragons and winged angels all over the walls, pillars, and ceiling. There was a giant gold buddha seated on a throne in the middle of the room, and he was flanked on both sides by devilish deities.

We listened to a short explanation about the gate from a staff member who told us we could now enter Nirvana because we have seen the winged angel on the ceiling, and then we were escorted back down the steps.

We walked back to the pension and got in the car for a short drive to the northwestern part of town to Myoshin-ji, another sprawling of complex cobble stone streets and short white walls serparating the several different temples.

Before entering Myoshin-ji, we ate a nice light lunch across the street at an organic food restaraunt.

Inside Myoshin-ji, we first went to Dai Hou In where we ate a small Japanese sweet and drank green tea.

Next we went to Taizo-In, which was very nice, but at this point it was kind of the same, same, but different. Plus there was a large group of elder Japanese people being herded around by a tour guide that kind of ruined the atmosphere.

Lastly we went to Hatto (Sermon Hall). It was a place where rituals were performed and sermons given, but it's most famous for the gargantuan dragon, painted by Kano Tanyu, on the ceiling. The dragon is the guardian of Buddhism in Myoshin-ji.

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Haruka & I waiting for the dragon


The dragon was painted so that it's eye always follows visiters around the room, but depending on where you are in the room the dragon looks like it's acending or decending.

After leaving Myoshin-ji we took a short drive up into the hills to Kurama Onsen (hotspring) for a hot bath and dinner in the hotel. We all had a very tasty tempura set.

Before leaving we decided to make one last stop at Kodaiji Temple to see it under the night lights. This was a very impressive temple, but it was also very crowded with tourists and bow-legged Japanese girls walking on high heels along pebbley paths.

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Kodaiji Temple


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Mirror Lake


It was also strange that there was an abstract art display in the main court yard garden and in some of the tatami rooms inside.

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Kodaiji's abstract exhibit


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Abstract Art


I thought the art work was very intersting, but it seemed a bit out of place in an ancient temple. Maybe it was just me.

Afterwards, we were all very tired, so we packed it in and drove home. It was a pleasant drive until we started listening to Don Caballero and Jason lost the highway ticket to pay the toll.

Anyway, we made it home safe and sound.

Until our next adventure...

Monday, November 08, 2004

iBook & iPod

While George W. Bush may be leading America to hell in hand-basket, I'm at least trying to improve the quality of my life abroad.

Saturday afternoon I went into Nagoya, just like a little kid that can't wait until Christmas, and bought an early present for myself.

I picked up a G4 iBook and a brand spanking new iPod Photo.

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iPod Box


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Opening


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Enjoy


It's gonna take me a few days to learn my way around this new computer and post photos from my recent trip to Kyoto, so please be patient. I need some time to play with my new toy.

Thursday, November 04, 2004

Dubya did it...


Faces of the Fallen

Last night I saw an American band called Battles, play in Nagoya. At the show Japanese, French, and British people actually apologized to me over the presidential election.

If there is a silver lining to this dark cloud, I'd say that 115 million voters, ten million more than four years ago, is a step in the right direction at improving our democracy.

It's also reassuring to see European and other world leaders acknowledge Bush's win and agreeing they have to work together to find a peaceful solution to the Middle East.

Let's just hope that peaceful solution doesn't add too many more faces of dead soldiers to the mosaic above.

Hopefully four years from now, I will be proud to be an American instead of embarrassed and ashamed by my country.

Time will tell.