Kakogawa Marathon

Just before Christmas I ran my first race in Japan. It turned out to be a little bit of a project trying to find races to run, since most of them only have information in Japanese, and my ability to read Japanese is extremely limited. I did finally manage to decipher a couple of races, including this one on the Emperor's birthday. With the help of some teachers at Chelsey's school, I even managed to enter them.
There were several distances at this race, including a full marathon, but I entered the 10km. I came down with a cold the weekend before the race, so I wasn't sure how it would go. It turned out much better than I thought; I ran a chip time of 39:43. This was in line with my expectations before I got sick, especially after considering my first kilometre was very slow because I started quite far back in the pack and had many people to get around before I could get up to my pace.
It also took me a bit to really get going, apparently, because my last four kilometres were my four fastest, with each one being faster than the previous one. That probably looked good at the finish as I came storming by people, but I'm not sure it was the optimal way to run. It may also be a bad sign for my next race, a 5km in Himeji ... I really can't afford to take 6km to get going!
-Jason

It was a cold day with occasional rain, so my parents and I were all bundled up. My mom got cold just looking at Jason in his race outfit. It was an out-and-back race, so we couldn't see Jason except for the start and finish. While he was running we looked at the vendors' booths and I found some truly colorful running shoes -- I can see Jason or Dr. Ryan wearing them.

Tokyo

We made our first trip to Tokyo, the biggest city in the world, last weekend. We took an overnight bus up so we could meet Chelsey's parents, who flew into Tokyo to spend Christmas with us. We only spent a couple of days there, but we packed in a little bit of sightseeing. We went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building, firstly for the tourist information center with good subway maps, but there was also a free observation deck on the 45th floor. Since many of the towers in Tokyo charge you to go up to their observation areas, we decided to try the free one and were rewarded with a great view of Mt. Fuji as well as of Tokyo itself. It was so nice we went back the next day to show Chelsey's parents.
(You can see snow-capped Fuji in the background of the picture.) We spent a lot of time just wandering around different neighbourhoods looking at various shops. Chelsey and I went through the booksellers district, which had dozens and dozens of little second-hand bookshops, along with some bigger stores. We also strolled through the sporting goods area, which seemed to mostly consist of ski/snowboard/skate shops. Once Chelsey's parents arrived, we journeyed to the electronics district, which was a busy place with a lot of big electronics stores. We could find just about anything we wanted to buy there. We even went through the company showcases at the Sony and Panasonic buildings (Sony's was more impressive).
Our last morning there we got up early to go the famous Tsukiji fish market, the largest fish market in the world. We actually probably got there a bit early; the pre-dawn start is mostly for the tuna auction, which is supposed to be quite something but was off-limits to tourists for the Christmas season. But we could wander through the wholesale fish market itself and marvel at the rows and rows of all kinds of fish and other seafood available for purchase. There were mountains of styrofoam coolers, all filled with fish. We even saw some guys killing the fish in preparation for the sales later in the morning. It was quite the place. We even stopped off and most of us tried a little sushi for breakfast on our way out.
We departed Tokyo for Himeji on the Shinkansen, or bullet train. It was one of the best travelling experiences I've ever had. The seats were large and comfortable, with lots of leg room. The train ran smoothly, quietly and on-time. We even got some great views of Mt. Fuji as we zoomed by it - so I would recommend anyone leaving Tokyo on the Shinkansen to try to leave in daylight, because that was really neat.
-Jason
I am still working on the photos -- I hope I will have some time later this week to get them all edited and posted. -Chelsey

visitors!

My mom and dad made it safely to Tokyo on Saturday. We took the overnight bus and met them there. We spent the weekend in Tokyo and enjoyed seeing the sights. We all took the bullet train back to Himeji. I will post more details and some pictures tomorrow.

Osaka German Christmas Market

Friday we went to a German Christmas Market. Yes, we're in Japan, but we read in the English-language newspaper Chelsey gets from a teacher at school about a German market in Osaka (it's put on by the German consulate there). Going to the Christmas market in Nuremberg was one of our favourite things from our time in Prague, so we decided we should go to Osaka, and invited some of the people in our building to go with us.
We found the market thanks to some help. I was a little turned around coming out of the train station, so one of our friends stopped someone on the street. She was a fashion student who had decent English, and our friend eventually convinced her she should just come to the market with us instead of just telling us directions. Anyway, we got there, and while it was predictably much smaller than Nuremberg, it had most of the main items we were looking for - chiefly German sausage and hot wine, as well as hot chocolate, wooden toys and crafts, gingerbread cookies, other food creations, and European candy. It was a good time.
As it turned out, the market was at the foot of a well-known skyscraper, the Umeda Sky Tower and Floating Garden. When we were approaching the building, it didn't look like much, but when we got to the side, we saw it was really two towers joined at the top. Where it joined was a circular observatory, with escalators connecting the sides across open space. One of our building mates arrived before us and went upstairs, then convinced us we needed to check it out, so we did. There was quite a spectacular view from the top. This was really our first trip to Osaka, aside from passing through, so it was quite interesting to get an idea of just how big of a city it is.
-Jason
There are more pictures on the picasa site.

Kobe Luminarie

We had been told that they have some really beautiful Christmas lights in Kobe. So we decided to go check them out on Monday night (it was actually Jason's second trip to Kobe that day -- the full story of that to come soon).
Directly from the train station you are funneled into these corrals that lead on a zig-zag journey through the streets of Kobe leading up to the street where the lights start. It wasn't too busy on Monday night, but I have been told that at times the corrals are packed solid all the way back to the station. I told Jason as we were walking that the zig-zag lines felt a lot like Disneyland, where they try to always make it seem like you've just got to get around one more bend.
You walk under a corridor of lights and then you end in a nice park where they've got a gigantic "light city" constructed. It was really very beautiful, and we learned that the theme of the lights changes every year. The event had sort of a solemn feel, and Jason said that it was partly a memorial to the big 1995 earthquake.
All around the park there are vendors selling food and other wares. Jason tried some sort of egg on a biscuit concoction, partly for the appeal to see how they made it.
There are more pictures on the picasa site.

take a bow

As the low man on the totem pole, my desk in the teachers' room is the closest to the telephone. Answering the phone and redirecting the call/taking a message is the low man's (actually, low woman -- men don't answer the phone very often) job. I don't bother, since I'd likely have no idea what they were saying anyway.
But, I can't help but laugh as I watch my fellow teachers talk on the phone because they all bow!! I know that it is so deeply ingrained in their culture that they probably don't even realize they're doing it. Plus, it's not like they just bow once, they are constantly bobbing up and down in agreement with every sentence. I'm tempted to try to sneak a video, but I just don't think I could do it without them noticing.

Joken Christmas Party

We were involved in a Christmas party at a local elementary school last weekend. Some members of the community wanted an "authentic" Christmas party, so they got us to help. The event seemed to snowball and it just kept getting bigger and bigger.
We had crafts where the kids could make their own ornaments, Christmas cards or other decorations. We decorated three trees and had an official tree lighting. The school band played. The PTA sang carols. We taught a short lesson about Christmas in America and then sang more carols. Santa visited and brought each of the kids a present. There was a potluck lunch, which both the teachers and the parents contributed to.
It was such an event that we made the newspaper. We think that the community (and the kids) really enjoyed it. Maybe even so much so that they're going to want us to do it again next year.
There are more pictures on the picasa page.

Australian going-away party

The residents of the building where we live are (almost) all foreign teachers. We mostly come from Phoenix or Adelaide (Himeji's sister city in Australia). The Phoenix teachers are on September-to-August contracts and the Australian teachers are on January-to-December contracts. So, the Australians are getting ready to leave.
We had a going-away party for them last week. There was a big potluck party in the meeting room in our building, and then many of us headed out for karaoke (even Jason!!). It was our first Japanese karaoke experience.
The karaoke bars here are very different than karaoke back home. Instead of a big room where everybody can see and hear you, the karaoke bars here are a series of small rooms. So, you are in a private room and the only other people who can see/hear you are the people in your party. We had about 25 people in our group.
There is a small computer console that you pass around. You can select and "order" a song. A screen at the front of the room keeps track of what songs have been ordered and shows what's coming up next. It's a pretty slick system.
I had a great time, and I think that Jason tolerated it very well. He even sang two songs. We sang a trio with another teacher, and then we sang "Living on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi together. This is a great song to pick for karaoke because everybody else always sings along so people can't really hear you.

Thanksgiving

I know I'm a bit late with this one ---

We had a really nice Thanksgiving. Almost all of the teachers in our building had Thanksgiving dinner together at a restaurant downtown. It's a western restaurant, and they had an American overseeing things that night, so it was a proper Thanksgiving meal with all of the essentials: turkey**, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy and some items that weren't quite so traditional (refried beans?). But, it was delicious, and it was all-you-can-eat.

**Japanese people don't really eat turkey -- when I asked my students, not a single one had ever tasted turkey and they seemed pretty grossed out that I ate it. This from the people who eat mystery tentacled items on sticks!

I working on a whole string of blog posts that I hope to get up in the next few days. Plus, I have dozens of pictures to upload. Picasa and I weren't getting along, but I think I've worked it out now, so I should have those pictures posted soon.