Hotel Gen Hamamatsu Inter

It's been one day and already 10 hits...I'm flattered. For you anonymous, non-commenting folks, you'll be happy to note that this website has now innovated anonymous commenting.
That means, those who have hitherto been too shy, or too lazy, to get an account and leave their trace-able 2-cents...wait no longer!

Enough of that. The purpose of this blog was to rouse my lazy ass to posting my latest photos. I've got about a month of photos to go through, but I think I will reserve ...

I'm not sure if I've even told my family yet, but I will be on Japanese television.

It all started with expressing my interest in the sport of running, here called "Marason" (somewhere along the line, running a marathon got confusing with the sport of running, and people here simply call running, "marason"). A few people saw me running after my first week in Toyone (kind of hard to miss a foreigner running on the highway in rural Japan), and somehow that got around. Before I knew ...

Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I've been getting my ass kicked consecutively by six to twelve year olds once a week---for a few weeks now.

Karate out here in the Inaka (countryside) is very different from your typical Western Mui-Tai, mat-grueling Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu-style ass-kickin workout. No. Here, it's a matter of being able to handle the mental discipline of allowing people smaller than you to kick your ass. Again...and again ...

So I managed (scold-free) to pay my second visit in an Onsen.
Now the reason why I did not post up my first visit (at least I think I didn't...) was due do a growing fear of being discovered for all my gaijin tendencies, which includes some body art.

For those who are not informed about Japan's general policies on tattoos, let me fill you in. Now I'm no Japan-encyclopedia here, but I'll do my best. Traditionally, the Yakuza (Japanese mafia) were the ...

... by foot. Now, whether or not it was a sport, or whether they claimed bragging rights is a different matter (I'm no historian), but I have to admit that I'm ready for the next one.


But really....doing what I did again today, and then twice that, is something I should at least train for this time. My time was 1 hour and forty minutes. Two 60 and 64 year old men beat my time by about 20 minutes. Now there's motivation.

... deducted for every ball you put in the wrong basket. The thing is, two teams go at the same time on different poles, and at the end, they count out how many you put in yours, and how many you put in the wrong basket (which is a point for the other team). We were really good at scoring for the other team, and, well, they just sucked at giving us points. We liked to think of ourselves as the best team of Givers.

Of course, no Sports Day is complete without ...

... I came across on the middle of this road. I saw one pair of red eyes glint back at me in the darkness reflected by my headlights, glaring at me with pure hatred (as much hatred that is possible in a jackrabbit). "Jackrabbit?" I hear you say. Yes, and how could I tell this? Well, I'm not sure who ran away faster, but I could swear it was the jackrabbit who was on top who ...

... everything they could in their power to determine whose girlfriend Yoshimi was, and whether she was Japanese or not. We kept playing her as the Chinese-American.

We had no idea what was coming when a little 8 or 9 year-old girl came tugging at our sleeves that we had to see something. Running up the hill came about twenty or so totally inebriated young fellows, huffing and puffing a chant to give them the final energy required to carry their shrine (and their yellow-topped ...

... silent-shell all too quickly) 2 year old boy, named Kenta. What a joy it was to toss this kid around on their family living room floor. Their neighbors came by too, and their super-powered four-year old was no match for my armlock--it was only when they teamed up that I ran into some serious trouble.

The next morning, I followed my co-worker to the Undoukai meeting place in Toei-town, where several schools in the district participated: the two I work at, Tomiyama and ...

... some more, drink a nutty green tea and eat some traditional home-made Japanese (mmmm). Cycled to the supermarket to look around the Kanji-inscripted wonderland of unidentifiable packets.. noodles, seaweeds, miso mixes, and a universe of tofu. The next day we took the sleek Shinkansen bullet train to Kyoto, the former capitol of Japan, still known for being the most ancient and traditional of cities. There is a modern ...