Culture, Kids, Geography and a Festival

I arrived in Beppu on Friday July 23rd. This just happened to be around the same time that Beppu has it's annual summer 5 day festival. This festival is filled with daily markets, dancing, singing, fireworks and interesting cultural displays. There are tons of food vendors. It is just like a farmers market. I like it because I get to see some of the food that Beppu has at a farmers market. It is also really interesting walking around and watching people interact.

Here is a little bit of background knowledge to give some context. Japan is made up of 4 main islands (there are many smaller islands). The 4 islands are: Honsho, Kyushu, Shikoku, and Hokkaido. The best comparison I could give to the United States is it is kind of like: The west coast, the east coast, the midwest, etc. Except here the islands are very clearly defined. Honshu is the main island where many of the famous cities are located (Tokyo, Nagoya, Hiroshima, etc). Just like in the states (with the west coast, east coast, midwest, etc) each of these islands has its own culture and personality.




Beppu is in Kyushu. I was shocked when I first got to Kyushu because there was actually trash on the ground. Also, in kyushu I have seeing fat Japanese people(Japanese people are very thin). It feels more laid back in Kyushu and a little bit more western. I notice children wearing baggy clothes with their boxers showing. I did not see this in Honshu at all. It is hard for me to understand if the lifestyle in Beppu is like all of Kyushu or simply Beppu. Beppu kind of has a little bit of a Vegas feel to it but less glamorous. There are many Pachinko Slots in Beppu (this is like Japanese gambling slot machines but uses silver balls. I don't quite understand it). There are also many strip clubs in Beppu (I have gone to none!) There seems to be a laid back vibe among the people and culture here.

Back to the original point, the festival has been really cool. Yesterday there was a fireworks display and a huge line of Japanese dancers all dressed in Yukatas (traditional Japanese summer wear that looks like robes). It was really cool. I love watching little children because this provides me with a door to the culture. Kids do as they please, as if no one is watching. I love watching them because they could just as easily be american. I see kids staring at trees and singing to themselves. I see them playing with each other. I see brothers and sisters annoying each other. I see kids getting excited about little things in their environment. It amazes me how similar yet different we all are.

Some of the dancers from the festival

This is rice wrapped in thin beef

f. Some food I got at the festival. I think it was fried chicken...



Tony (a fellow californian that is travelling around the world), Mathew (a hilarious German who has primarily gotten around Japan by hitchhiking) and I went to the farmers market and explored. One of the funny things is that we went to a convenient store. Mathew grabbed beers for all of us. When we got outside Mathew opened his beer up and started drinking. Tony and I looked at each other and said "you can do that?!" Mathew said "do what?" Tony and I quickly said "we got to take a picture of this!" Mathew started laughing. He said in Germany you can have an open container (just like in Japan) in public. To him it was no big deal. To us it was novelty.

Mathew Tony and I showing off our beers in public


Mathew saw these woman and told them "we must take a picture with you because of your beauty"

Hawks Vs. Lions

Tonight I got to attend a baseball game. It was an awesome experience. The second I got to the game I was pulled in. In some ways it is very similar to the baseball games in the United States. In other ways it is very different. I got a jersey of the home team and cheered for them. I got a couple beers, a hamburger and some fries. How is it similar? There are food booths everywhere. There are lots of beer stands and there are people that walk down the aisles selling food and beer. Just like in America the beer is a popular item at the games. People get excited about their home team just like in the states. There are a variety of food types. There is burgers, pizza, japanese (that could be expected), and even KFC. All of the rules seemed the same as far I noticed.





How are they different? This is where it gets interesting. First off the atmosphere is more positive. This is not to say that the environment isn't positive in the states. It just is more positive here. I paid attention closely and noted that there was no "booing" at all. I tried to hear if there was a Japanese version of "booing" but I heard none. Even when the opposing teams pitcher was removed the fans clapped for him. Also, the cheering was much more structured. Pretty much the entire game there were fans doing the "bump bump" thing with their feet. But it was always done in Unison and always appeared to be orderly. At some point near the end of the top of the 7th the stadium handed out a bunch of balloons. I started to notice that balloons were beingblown up all around the stadium. Before I knew it they were everywhere. I kept thinking to myself "how is it that no one is letting these go? I soon learned why…







The Japanese 7th inning stretch is awesome. First off cheerleaders for the home team go to the first and third baselines. While they are dancing all of the fans are blowing up balloons. The fans are all cheering and excited and then a count off begins. When I was first experiencing this I had no idea what was going on. Then all of a sudden I saw the clock hit zero and all of the fans let their balloons go. It was awesome. Balloon Video here A few other things that stuck out to me is that there were tons of different mascots all around the stadium. Most of these seemed to have no relationship to either team. They simply were entertaining to the children. Some other interesting things: All Japanese teams have American mascot names. I don't know why this is. The names are written in English not Japanese. The games themselves are a mix of Japanese and some English. There are times I looked at the scoreboard and would see the statement in English "Let's Go!" only to be followed by Japanese symbols. At the end of the game the Hawks (which was the hometeam) beat the Lions 2 - 0. What blew me away is that people don't leave at the very end of the game. The key players stayed out and interviewed while nearly all the fans stayed. Then at the end the scoreboard said "are you ready for fireworks?" and then the entire stadium went dark. And then some fireworks went off and it was time to leave. It seemed like a very big celebration for one game.

Acts of Kindness

Yesterday I got back from Miyajima around 10 pm. This meant that some of the trains were no longer running. I had to figure out a route to get back to my hostel that was different from what I had initially planned. I took a look at the subway map and realized rather than taking one train I could do it by taking 2 trains with a transfer. I figured that was easy enough.

I got onto the number 8 train and then shifted over to the number 3 train. After a few stops I realized that I was on the 3 train that was going in the opposite direction of my hostel. At this point it was about 11 pm. I got off at the next stop. As I became aware of the problem I stood up and moved around the train quite a bit. I was looking for maps. It must have been apparent that I was lost because when I got off the train a Japanese woman got off with me and said "are you okay? Are you lost?" I smiled and told her "I'm fine I just have been going in the wrong direction. I just need to take the 3 train going the other way." She said "are you sure?" I said "Yes I'm fine". She went on her way and I went over to check the schedule. It said that a train should show up in the next 15 minutes. A train didn't show up… I then took a look at the schedule again. Next to the time that it was supposed to be there was a blue mark that was written in kanji (japanese characters). I later learned this meant that the 3 train only went one direction at this time (not the direction I was going).

The next train that came I asked the person if the 3 train was supposed to come. He spoke a small amount of english. He said "3 train" then crossed his arms. In Japan crossing ones arms means no. It's like when we shake our head. I said "chuden mae". That was my stop that I needed to get to. He said "come". So I got on. I then went to the back and asked the conductor in the back "does the 3 train hit any of these stops?" He said "no". I then walked away and went to look at the map. As I was looking at the map he came over to me and said "where are you trying to go?" I was relieved because I could tell his english was good. I told him and he said "Oh. Okay, you need to get off here and get on train 0". He then explained to me exactly where we were and the number of stops until I got off. He then also explained to me the number of stops it would take until I reached my Chuden Mae. Then when it came time for my stop he got out of the train and walked me over to the other train. All of this was done out of pure kindness. In case there are some doubters I do want to explain that concept of tipping does not exist here (so he wasn't doing it for that).

Then today when I got into Fukuoka city I was walking and this old man saw me looking at a map. He said "you going hostel?" I said "yeah". He smiled and said "by my house. I walk with you." We talked while we walked. He is a chemist. He walked me right to the corner where my hostel was.

Then when I got to my hostel I asked the person at the counter "Do you know of any Aikido dojos in the area?" He said that he didn't but his friend did Aikido. He then pulled out his friend and called him. He handed me the phone and I spoke with him. His name was Shun. Shun told me that he would come to the hostel tomorrow around 10 and he would take me to his dojo.

These are all examples of some of the kind deeds that have happened to me along the way of this trip. I have just been shocked by some of the kindness I have received from the Japanese people. The thing that continues to impress me is how much people have gone out of their way to help me.

Japanese Dance Club

On Friday we went out for “Taw’s last night out in Japan”. To celebrate we went to a club. There were some major differences between this club and club’s in America. One of the key components Japanese culture is that the sexes are pretty segregated. If you walk into a Japanese classroom (any grade level) the students naturally sit with members of their own sex. If you look at a Japanese playground (any grade level) students generally sit and are grouped by their own sex. It was no different in this club. The males dance with the males. The females dance with the females. There was only one male I saw dancing with a female. This was Tim (a fellow teacher at Taw’s school from Los Angeles) and his girlfriend, Yukari. Just so you understand this is now how all clubs work in Japan. There are clubs that are more sexual. But this type of club where heterosexual men dance with one another and heterosexual women dance with one another are not uncommon.

Initially I was thrown off by this. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to dance but not with a bunch of other dudes. But soon a realization crossed my mind “when in rome…”. I then went to dancing. At one point one of the other males turned my way and started doing the dance where they wave their two fingers (in a peace format) across their eyes. He then pointed at me. I wasn’t exactly sure what to do as he was a little bit close for complete comfort. He clearly wasn’t coming on to me. He was simply having a good time. But I didn’t know what to do. Do I get closer? Do I step back? Do I develop my own move? Do I mimic his move? I opted to mimic his move. This apparently was a good decision as he continued to come back my way for some dance action at various times over the next hour.

Another humorous thing happened while in this situation. There were 5 of us at the club: Myself, Taw, Kana, Tim, and Yukari. Tim and Yukari were dancing together. At some point in the night I wanted to dance with a female. It was clear that kana enjoyed dancing as she was dancing. I wanted to dance with her yet I didn’t know if it was okay. She is Japanese. I didn’t know if it would be offensive to her. I sat there dancing (slightly off rhythm) with this game of tug ‘o’ war happening in my head. Do I ask her? Do I just dance with her? Is that offensive? What if she doesn’t feel comfortable saying no? Am I hungry? Do I feel like dancing? In the end, I opted not to dance with her because I didn’t want to offend her. The next day the whole situation made me smile because of the cultural struggle I went through.

A Japanese Onsen

I will give a little background to this story. While in Nagoya I have been hosted by my good friend Ron Taw. I met Taw 4 years ago. He was my math coach when I began teaching at Los Angeles Academy. For the first year of knowing each other Taw and I kept everything very professional. We had no idea that we could actually like each other. The following year our professional demeanors had been dismissed. My theory is that our friendship developed by a slow series of socially inappropriate “slip ups” by both Taw and myself where we began to realize we found each other funny. Taw and I began to hang out after school. About once a month Taw and I would drive to school together in the morning. We then would head down to Long Beach together. We would head down to another fellow teacher’s place (Jimmy P) and go have “book club”. We would read lots of “books”. In fact, we would read so many “books” that we had difficulty thinking straight. Taw and I would then wake up in Long Beach and would head out to breakfast together. We basically would spend a straight 24 hours together. Yet we never wanted to kill one another.

When I got to Nagoya, Taw asked me “do you want to have a true Japanese experience?” I said “yeah”. He said “are you sure?” I said “yeah” then he said “do you want to go to an Onsen?” I knew what he was asking. Without even thinking I quickly said “yes”.

Japanese Onsen are kind of like very large hot tubs… except everyone in them is naked. The males and females are generally separate (though there are occasionally mixed onsens). You start by taking all your clothes off in the dressing room. You then head out to the onsen. All you take with you is a small hand towel. The hand towel is used to visually block your “special area”. This hand towel is used very liberally by most of the men. The first thing you do when you get to the onsen area is take a shower. You sit on a small chair while you clean yourself with soap and water. This is all done publicly with all the other males. Then after you are cleaned you go to the sauna where you let your body soak in the heat. This is once again done while in the nude. Then after being in the sauna for a short period of time you move on to the large bath house. In some cases these are outside, in other cases they are inside. The bathhouses are like very large hot tubs except the water in them has a lot of natural minerals that makes your body feel very smooth.

A few quick comments, First, I have never in my life been around that many naked men. So if a major catastrophe ever strikes the United States where all clothes disintegrates I will be better prepared to cope then many other Americans. Also, never in my life have Taw and I been naked in front of one another. Both Taw and I decided this brings our relationship to a new level. I have now seeing my former math coach naked (does it sound as weird as it feels to write?). The Japanese onsen felt great. It was so relaxing being there. Without a doubt I will be participating in these many more times before I leave Japan. I really want to do Aikido or take a run then go to an onsen and let my muscles just relax in the heat.

Apparently, in Japanese culture Onsens are often used to break the ice between business associates. This means that often ones very first meeting with their Japanese business associates they are naked. To the Japanese this is normal. To me, it isn’t. I was surprised though because after I got naked I felt pretty comfortable. Another interesting thing that I learned is that many Japanese families take family outings to onsens just like we take an outing to a park. They will bring the entire family and just relax. They then will break to go get lunch and come back and relax in the onsen some more. This creates a culture where they are much more comfortable with their nudity.

As could be assumed I was not able to take any pictures. I imagine no one would want to see them anyways (but stranger things have happened). Also, it is against the rules of the onsen to take any pictures (which makes sense). So for those of you that were wishing for a picture I apologize (in this case the wants of the many are going to have to outweigh the wishes of the few).

Sumo Tournament in Nagoya

Today I went to a sumo tournament with Taw, Tim and Yukari (Yukari is a Tim’s girlfriend). As we walked up the location of the tournament there were a few sumo wrestlers that were walking past us. We took pictures with them. They looked so strong.

When they walk they have this slow gait. They might walk like this because of their weight but I think there is more to it. It just appears like they are in a rush to get nowhere because they know they will get there. They have a calm about them that is relaxing yet a little bit eerie. The tournament itself was fascinating. The actual process before and after the match is extremely ritualistic. The sumo ring itself is considered sacred ground. Therefore the sumo wrestlers throw salt on the ground prior to entering the ring. Also, prior to the beginning of the match they will set up like they are going to begin battling but will go through a series of movements (squatting, slapping their legs and side) and then step back to their corner. This is all part of the ritual. The matches on average probably lasted 8 to 10 seconds. They are as short as 2 seconds and I was told that every once in a while they can last 2 minutes. The longest one I saw was about 30 seconds. In the front rows people sit on “sitting futons”. They don’t have chairs in these areas. The sitting futons are like small mats (maybe 15 by 15 inches). The environment in the stadium is calm yet engaged. The ritualistic behavior is enjoyable and not overdone.



The pacing between matches is excellent. It is a very engaging sport to watch. There were probably 30 or more matches that we saw. There is probably 5 minutes total for each match (ritual time included). I watched it similar to how I watch football. I would engage as soon as the wrestlers began to battle. Between bouts I would talk and observe the stadium.

The food so far

Since I have been in Japan I have tried a variety of different foods. A lot of the time I am still unclear about what I am eating. On my way to Nagoya I got a small bento box from the subway station and it turned out to taste pretty bad. In most cases the writing is in Japanese so I can’t read it and the people that sell the food don’t speak English. So I basically go for what looks good. I also do try to eat foods that look foreign to me. I do this because if I know what a food is it means I can probably get it back in the states. So I try to be a little adventurous. A few of the different foods I have eaten are: beef buns (which are Chinese), Ramen noodles, udon noodles, soba noodles (cold and hot), yakitori, sushi, dumplings, Japanese pizza, rice balls, sweet rice dumplings, and some other things that I don’t know the names of. The pizza is interesting because they put lots of stuff on it that you just wouldn’t see in the states. I tasted a seafood pizza that had all sorts of fish on it. I would name all the fish but I don’t know what they were. I did have to remove a piece of squid though because I couldn’t eat that on the pizza. I really like the noodles. I have had cold noodles and hot noodles. I like them both it just depends on the day. The noodles are a very refreshing food to eat. The interesting thing is that they often put half of a partially boiled egg (the egg white is solid and the yoke is partially solid) in the hot soups. I’m not really a desert person at all but thus far I have been unimpressed by any of the desserts in Japan. There are sweet rice balls that seem to be popular but I don’t think they are good. I have found myself simply going to convenience stores and getting hagen dazz (is that how I spell it?)

A day at a Japanese Highschool

I am in Nagoya and I am staying with my friend Ron Taw. It is always a pleasure being with Taw. He always manages to somehow be incredibly appropriately inappropriate. As I told him today he is the most optimistic negative person I know. I went with Taw to school today. It was extremely interesting seeing the school. First off, students nor staff wear shoes in the school building. They have slippers for visitors. The staff and students bring their own slippers that they wear in the building. The students are really fun. They enjoy speaking English and are really friendly. One of the interesting things about the education system in Japan is that students get accepted to high schools based on their middle school scores. It is kind of like how the College system works in the United States. There are prestigious high schools and “not so prestigious” high schools. At their high schools each students joins a club. The students join one club. No more, no less. They then focus on becoming an expert in this area. There are so many different types of clubs. There is tennis, handball, basketball, dancing, track and field, soccer, baseball, swimming, Jukendo, volleyball, and handball just to name a few. Many of these clubs compete against other schools. We walked around after school and watched the clubs. The most amazing thing to me is that there were no adults that were overseeing these clubs. Now from my understanding the clubs do have coaches that are adults but the majority of the time the students supervise themselves. The students are very structured and organized. They ran drills and pushed themselves. This was unlike anything I have seeing in the United States. I have included a couple videos that show some of the clubs in action. Sidenote: The reason I didn't comment on how the classes are structured is because today was a sports day at the school. The students had all finished their finals so there was not any classes in session. below are some pictures from while I was at the school.

Finding Hombo Dojo

So I woke up this morning around 7 am which is perfect because it gave me about 9 hours of sleep. I got up and organized myself and then went down to the lobby to find out where Hombo Dojo is. Hombo dojo is the most famous Aikido dojo in the world. It is basically the central location of all Aikido. I would Akin it to the White House of the Aikido World.

I had read in my guide how people in Tokyo don't like to say they don't know where something is so it is always best to ask multiple people how to find a location. this definitley was proven true this morning. Last night I had asked the woman at the counter (her name was Marie and was very nice) how to get to hombo dojo. I showed her a map and gave her the address. I then pulled out another map. She very confidentely explained to me how i could do it. She said it would be about 30 to 40 minutes walking maybe 10 to 15 minutes by public transportation. I decided that I was going to walk it because it gives me a better feel for the city. This morning when i woke up i asked the new person at the counter and he gave me way different directions. Marie had me going in a similar direction except approximately 3 times the distance further. I decided I was going to go with this guys decision simply because his distance was shorter. Well after searching for approximately an hour and a half I finally found the dojo. This is the funny part. His directions were perfect! But Tokyo is confusing. Elibear, this place is definitley not on a grid. It is funny because every person here I show the map too has a difficult time finding where we even are on the map.

It gets better. Hombo Dojo is actually super easy to find. Now, that I know where it is I will easily get there in under 10 minutes from hostel which means I will be training atleast today and tomorrow and possibly Sunday if i can wash my gi on Saturday.

I also find it humorous that had I followed Marie's directions to get to Hombo Dojo I would have probably gotten lost along the way and it wasn't anywhere remotely close to the actual dojo location.

I like travelling around and trying to find things.